d all is light, warmth and happiness, while outside with his
face pressed close to the window stands little Ned. His flaxen hair is
blown by the wind, his blue eyes open to their widest extent as he looks
at the gay scene, of which he forms no part. Inside, all is happiness,
outside is the gloom of night, and the desolate figure of little Ned. He
turns away with a sigh, turns away from the happiness he has never
known, into the darkness with which he is so familiar. He has grown
very hungry, having eaten nothing since noon. Seeing a woman before a
handsome carriage, he tells his story, but it falls on stony ground, the
woman has nothing to give, and leaves him standing there, while she
dries away. "O, the rarity of Christian charity!" Such are the women
whose names very often head the list of subscriptions for Christian
missions, but who turn a deaf ear to the sorrows of people at their own
door; but if they give to the poor in secret no one will know it, while
if they head a list with a large sum, they will be called good Christian
women.

Little Ned starts again, trudging bravely on, foot-sore and hungry, and
now he is in a strange part of the city, a place entirely new to him. A
large building attracts his attention, and the sounds of voices reach
his ear. Going to the door he sees a clergyman--a young man--talking
earnestly to a group of rough looking men, evidently working men. The
speaker does not stand aloof from them as though afraid to come in
contact with them, but is talking freely, and has succeeded in getting
their undivided attention, has won their hearts by his sympathy with
them, has shown them that he is like themselves--subject to human errors
and weakness, and these rough men are listening attentively, as they
would never do to lengthy discourses about things of which they knew
nothing. Here was a Christian--thank heaven there are such--who has not
placed himself on a lofty pedestal, while the hearers feel that he is
far from them both in heart and sympathy, but they feel that he is a
man like themselves; he has touched the human part of their natures, and
the rest will be easy. Little Ned listened, for the minister was
speaking of things with which the listeners were familiar; of sin, of
sorrow, of temptations, speaking cheerful words of comfort, leading them
step by step to something higher and holier than they had ever dreamed
of. At last, in language they could all understand, he told them of
anot