o was near him sobbed
aloud, and bending over, laid her hands on his head, saying:--

"My poor boy! my poor boy!"

There were few eyes in the court-room undimmed. In the silence that
followed Mr. Carman spoke out:--

"Is my character to be thus blasted on the word of a criminal, your
honors? Is this right?"

"Your solemn oath that this charge is untrue," said the judge, "will
place you in the right." It was the unhappy boy's only opportunity,
and the court felt bound in humanity to hear him.

James Lewis stood up again instantly, and turned his white face and
dark, piercing eyes upon Mr. Carman.

"Let him take his oath if he dare!" he exclaimed.

Mr. Carman consulted with his counsel, and withdrew.

After a brief conference with his associates, the presiding judge
said, addressing the criminal:--

"In consideration of your youth, and the temptation to which in tender
years you were unhappily subject, the court gives you the slightest
sentence, one year's imprisonment. But let me solemnly warn you
against any further steps in the way you have taken. Crime can have no
valid excuse. It is evil in the sight of God and man, and leads only
to suffering. When you come forth again after your brief
incarceration, may it be with the resolution to die rather than commit
crime!"

And the curtain fell on that sad scene in the boy's life. When it was
lifted again, and he came forth from prison a year afterwards, his
mother was dead. From the day her pale face faded from his vision as
he passed from the court-room, he never looked upon her again.

Ten years afterward a man was reading a newspaper in a far western
town. He had a calm, serious face, and looked like one who had known
suffering and trial.

"Brought to justice at last!" he said to himself, as the blood came to
his face; "convicted on the charge of open insolvency, and sent to
State prison. So much for the man who gave me in tender years the
first lessons in ill-doing. But, thank God! the other lessons have
been remembered. 'When you come forth again,' said the judge, 'may it
be with the resolution to die rather than commit a crime!' and I have
kept this injunction in my heart when there seemed no way of escape
except through crime; and God helping me, I will keep it to the end."

YOUR CALL.

The world is dark, but you are called to brighten
Some little corner, some secluded glen;
Somewhere a burden rests that you may lighten,
A