," he said, "to direct my prosecutor to
come a little nearer, so that I can look at him and your honors at the
same time?"

Mr. Carman was directed to come forward to where the boy stood. James
looked at him steadily for a few moments, and turned to the judges.

"What I have to say to your honors is this [he spoke calmly and
distinctly], and it may in a degree extenuate, though it cannot
excuse, my crime. I went into that man's store an innocent boy, and if
he had been an honest man I would not have stood before you to-day as
a criminal!"

Mr. Carman appealed to the court for protection against an allegation
of such an outrageous character; but he was peremptorily ordered to be
silent. James went on in a firm voice,--

"Only a few weeks after I went into his employment I examined a bill
by his direction, and discovered an error of twenty dollars."

The face of Mr. Carman crimsoned.

"You remember it, I see," remarked James, "and I shall have cause to
remember it as long as I live. The error was in favor of Mr. Carman. I
asked if I should correct the figures, and he answered 'No; let them
correct their own mistakes. We don't examine bills for other people's
benefit.' It was my first lesson in dishonesty. I saw the bill
settled, and Mr. Carman take twenty dollars that was not his own. I
felt shocked at first; it seemed such a wrong thing. But soon after he
called me a simpleton for handing back a fifty-dollar bill to the
teller of a bank, which he had overpaid me on a check, and then--"

"May I ask the protection of the court," said Mr. Carman.

"Is it true what the lad says?" asked the presiding judge.

Mr. Carman hesitated and looked confused. All eyes were on his face;
and judges and jury, lawyers and spectators, felt certain that he was
guilty of leading the unhappy young man astray.

"Not long afterward," resumed Lewis, "in receiving my wages I found
that Mr. Carman had paid me fifty cents too much. I was about to give
it back to him, when I remembered his remark about letting people
correct their own mistakes, and said to myself, 'Let him correct his
own errors,' and dishonestly kept the money. Again the same thing
happened, and I kept the money that did not of right belong to me.
This was the beginning of evil, and here I am. If he had shown any
mercy, I might have kept silent and made no defense."

The young man covered his face with his hands, and sat down
overpowered with his feelings. His mother wh