e gave them a basket to
put the weeds in, and showed them how to rake the borders smooth.

Just as they had finished the job, and Charles was saying to Giles, 'How
neat our work looks!' a little boy, dressed very fine, came into the
garden, and, as he passed them, said: 'I am glad I am a gentleman's son,
and not obliged to work like these dirty boys.'

When Charles thought the little boy was out of hearing, he said to
Giles: 'That little boy is as wicked as I used to be, and I doubt not
but that God will punish him in the same way if he does not mend his
manners.'

The little boy, who had overheard what Charles said, was very angry, and
made ugly faces, and ran into the newly-raked beds, and covered them
with footmarks. Then Charles said: 'I am sorry for you, young gentleman,
for I see you are not good.'

'How dare you say I am not good?' said this naughty child. 'I am a
great deal better than you, for I am a gentleman, and you are only a
poor boy.'

'Yes,' said Charles, his eyes filling with tears as he spoke, 'I am,
indeed, only a poor boy _now_, but I was once rich like you, and lived
in this very house, and wore fine clothes, and had plenty of toys and
money, and was just as proud and naughty as you are, but God, to punish
me, took away my parents and all those things that I had been so proud
of, and that I had made such a bad use of, and reduced me to a poor boy,
as you see.'

When the little boy heard this he looked very serious, and said: 'I have
been very naughty, but I will do so no more,' and he went into the
house, and never teased Charles or Giles again.

A few months after this, when Charles and Giles were working as usual in
the garden, they saw a gentleman come down one of the walks, leading by
the hand a little girl dressed in a black silk frock and bonnet trimmed
with crape.

'Ah, Giles,' said Charles, 'how like that young lady is to my sister
Clara. I wonder whether I shall ever see my dear sister Clara again.'

'Brother Charles, dear brother Charles, you have not then quite
forgotten your sister Clara,' said the little girl, throwing her arms
round his neck as she spoke.

When Charles saw that it was, indeed, his own dear sister Clara, he
kissed her and cried with joy.

Then he told Clara all that had happened to him since the day they had
parted, and how sorry he had been for all his past conduct, and he asked
her who the gentleman was that had brought her into the garden.

'It is our