"

"Yes, Jesus sent us," replied Matty, thoroughly meaning what she said.

At that moment Death raised his hand and laid it gently on the old man's
brow. The hoary head bowed to the summons, and, with a soft sigh, the
glad spirit fled to that region where suffering cannot enter.

Oh, it was sad to witness the child-grief when Martha at last came to
understand that gran'father was really gone. And it required no little
persuasion to induce her to leave the lowly sordid room that she had
known as "home."

While his sister comforted the child, Tom went to the "authorities" to
inform them that an old pauper had gone the way of all flesh.

When at last Martha permitted her new friends to remove her, she was led
by Miss Westlake to the not far distant house of a lady friend, whose
sympathies with the suffering, the sorrowful, and the fallen were so
keen that she had given up all and gone to dwell in the midst of them,
in the sanguine hope of rescuing some. To this lady's care Martha was
in the meantime committed, and then Tom and his sister went their way.

Their way led them to a very different scene not far from the same
region.

"We're rather late," remarked Tom, consulting his watch as they turned
into a narrow street.

"Not too late, I think," said his sister.

"I hope not, for I should be sorry to go in upon them at dinner-time."

They were not too late. David Butts, whom they were about to visit, was
a dock-labourer. In early youth he had been a footman, in which
capacity he had made the acquaintance of the Westlakes' nursery-maid,
and, having captivated her heart, had carried her off in triumph and
married her.

David had not been quite as steady as might have been desired. He had
acquired, while in service, a liking for beer, which had degenerated
into a decided craving for brandy, so that he naturally came down in the
world, until, having lost one situation after another, he finally, with
his poor wife and numerous children, was reduced to a state bordering on
beggary. But God, who never forgets His fallen creatures, came to this
man's help when the tide with him was at its lowest ebb. A
humble-minded city missionary was sent to him. He was the means of
bringing him to Jesus. The Saviour, using one of the man's companions
as an instrument, brought him to a temperance meeting, and there an
eloquent, though uneducated, speaker flung out a rope to the struggling
man in the shape of a blue ribbon.