se, and then, taking the food that was
offered him, ate it in a ravenous manner, without saying a word.

"He might just have thanked me," thought Ned to himself; but he forbore
to tell Tom so.

Ned always read a chapter in the Bible to his grandmother every night
when he came home from work. It happened that this evening the chapter
fixed on was the twelfth of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. He was
much struck by one of the verses in it: "Therefore if thine enemy
hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou
shalt heap coals of fire upon his head."

"Grandmother," said Ned, when he had concluded the chapter, "I
understand the first part of this verse very well, it is plain enough;
but what is meant by the words, 'for in so doing thou shalt heap coals
of fire upon his head?'"

His grandmother replied, that this passage had once puzzled her; but
that an old lady with whom she had lived when she was a girl, and who
kindly took great pains in explaining different parts of the Bible that
were hard to be understood, had made this quite clear to her.

"She told me," continued his grandmother, "that the Apostle alludes to
the custom of melting gold and other metals by fire; and his meaning is,
that as coals of fire melt and soften the metals on which they are
heaped, so by kindness and gentleness we may melt and soften our enemy,
and make him love, instead of hating us."

Ned thanked his grandmother for this explanation, and then was silent
for some little time.

"Perhaps," he said to himself, "if I go on being kind to Tom Andrews, I
shall at last make him love me, and leave off teasing me and saying
ill-natured things."

He would not tell his grandmother that he had given Tom part of his
dinner, for fear she should another day give him more; and he knew she
could not do this without robbing herself.

Tom's father remained out of work for several weeks; and Tom would have
been obliged to go without a dinner most days, if Ned had not regularly
given him half his.

For some time Tom received his companion's kindness sulkily, and without
appearing at all grateful; but at last Ned's good-natured conduct
appeared to touch him, and he said--

"How kind you are to me, Ned! though I am sure I have done nothing to
deserve kindness from you. Father often says he wishes I was more like
you; and I do think I should be happier if I was, for you always seem
cheerful and contented, though you work harder