od principles which he so much wanted. He did not
think that he had done any good to James by all he had said, but in
truth the words had sunk farther into the young man's heart than he
supposed; and often and often, as James walked the deck of the ship at
night, or camped out with his comrades on many a hard-fought
battle-field in India, those words came to his mind, and helped to keep
him on a right course,--not that the words alone did so; for James, who
had been taught to pray when he was young, became a man of prayer. Yes;
the dark, sun-burnt, fierce-looking soldier prayed every day, morning
and night, lying down or marching, and often in the midst of battle,
while bullets were flying about, shells were bursting, and round-shot
were whistling through the air. He read the Bible, too, and spoke of it
to others, and guided his own steps by what it taught. Was he less
thought of because he did these things? Was he looked on as a coward?
No; there was no man in the regiment more liked, and there were few
soldiers braver than he was.

Had his uncle and Mary known how changed a man he had become, their
hearts would have been saved many a pang. We should not think that
because our words do not seem to be listened to, that therefore they are
doing no good; more particularly if they are spoken in a prayerful
spirit and with an earnest desire to do good.

"Well, Mary, I must try and find out what has become of this poor nephew
of mine," said Farmer Grey, kindly getting up and taking her hand. "We
will hope that he will come back some day. Do not let it be known that
he came here to see you this morning; indeed, it will be better if you
say nothing about his being absent from home. Only my old housekeeper,
Dame Dobbs, knows that he left home this morning, and she is able to say
that he slept in his bed last night."

These words made poor Mary more unhappy still, for she began to think
that James must have done some act which had made him fly for his life,
and that he might, perhaps, be taken and punished--she dared not think
how. Oh, how much sorrow and pain do those who act ill, cause their
friends and those they love best on earth! Nothing that day was heard
of James or Ben. On the next day, rumours of the affray between a body
of poachers and the gamekeepers reached the mill, but neither Ben's nor
James Grey's name was mentioned. Still Mary could not but feel sure
that they had had something to do with the ma