it in the garden behind your house. You were _seen_ to
bury it; you had better make a clean breast of it."

"Oh, spare him, Maggie Chanter!" poor infatuated Mrs. Skinner said.
"Joe! Joe!"

Then, with a white face and an expression on it none who saw it will
ever forget, Mr. Skinner, with a wave of his long thin hand, left the
house.

Nothing more was ever heard of him. The crooked paths of deceit and
dishonesty can have but one end, unless by God's grace those paths are
forsaken, and the strait and narrow way chosen in their place. Poor
Aunt Amelia had indeed reason to rue the day when she had listened to
the flattering words of the wily man. He left her with an empty purse,
a ruined custom, and a sore heart. But she was now delivered from one
who in her folly she had trusted, and there were many who, hearing her
story, pitied her, and gave back the custom they had withdrawn.

* * * * *

Another year passed away, and it brought more peaceful times.

Perhaps Patience Paterson's life could not be called sunny or bright;
but it is calm and peaceful, and she is the happy wife of a good and
noble-hearted man, who had loved her faithfully for many years.

George Paterson was conscious that the deep respect he now felt for his
wife would scarcely have been the same had she yielded to his wishes,
and, taking it for granted that her husband was dead, had married him
while his end was undecided. Patience may well set an example to
others in this matter, and her evening-tide light will be clouded by no
misgivings and no self reproaches.

She had asked for some token, and it was given. Through the trial of
her boy's absence came the blessing of the long-looked-for tidings; and
in this, as in many another step of her pilgrimage, she could feel the
truth of the words, "To the upright there ariseth light in the
darkness."

They took a pretty house near Gorlestone, and George became a
prosperous man. Jack was taught his business as ship's carpenter, and
the control exercised by his step-father was most salutary. He is
likely to grow up a good and useful man.

The two houses, called by Uncle Bobo "The Home, Number One and Number
Two," became popular as lodgings for single ladies and their maids, and
were said to be amongst the best and most comfortable in or near
Yarmouth.

Old Colley and his children were not forgotten, and were often invited
to tea in the garden behind the two houses,