run away in
his best clothes, you know; he left them behind. So they're quite ready
for him. The only thing Mrs. Maxwell hasn't got is the ring."

"The what?" inquired Sir Edward, amused.

"The ring," Milly repeated earnestly. "Maxwell will have to say, '_Put a
ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet_.' Mrs. Maxwell has got a pair
of carpet slippers. I couldn't bear her not having any shoes ready for
him, so we looked about and found a pair that are just too small for
Maxwell, and I put them in the drawer my own self. Mrs. Maxwell says he
won't want a ring, and that she thinks the Bible people dressed
differently, and she said Tommy was a poor man's son: it wasn't as if he
was rich. But I don't know; I don't like to think we have no ring for
him. I suppose you haven't one, uncle, that you would like to give him?"

Sir Edward put his head back on his cushions and laughed aloud. Then,
noting Milly's troubled face, he said:

"Wait till Tommy comes back, little woman, and then it will be time
enough to see about his ring, though I quite agree with his mother that
it would be most unfitting."

"You have had the picture I gave you taken away, uncle," said Milly
presently, her quick eyes roving round the room. "Ah! you've had it hung
up on the wall. That's nice there. You can see it from your bed. Don't
you like looking at it? Doesn't it make you feel happy?"

"I can't say it does," replied Sir Edward, glancing at the picture in
question. "Why ought it to make me feel happy?"

"Oh, it's so nice to think he is just getting home after being away so
long. I wonder if he was a great time walking back. How long do you
think it takes one of God's prodigal sons to get back to Him, uncle?"

"I should say a very long time, indeed," said Sir Edward, slowly.

"But how long? Two days, or six hours, or a week?"

"It would depend perhaps on how long they had been away from Him."

"It's rather hard to understand," said Milly, wrinkling her little brow
perplexedly, "because God is everywhere, isn't He? and I should have
thought He would have been close by them all the time. I was asking
nurse about it, and she said that God was near them, only they wouldn't
have anything to say to Him, and did bad things and shut the Lord Jesus
out of their heart, and let Satan in, and then God had to leave them
till they said they said they were sorry. I suppose directly they say:
'_Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in Thy sight, and am no