afire."

"I wouldn't," replied Harry, warmly, and much pleased to find he had
re-established the confidence of his friend.

"But it is a bad case. The fact of your being with Ben Smart is almost
enough to convict you."

"I shouldn't have been with him, if I had known he set the barn
afire."

"I don't know as I can do anything for you, Harry; but I will try."

"Thank you."

Mr. Nason left him, and Harry had an opportunity to consider the
desperate circumstances of his position. It looked just as though he
should be sent to the house of correction. But he was innocent. He
felt his innocence; as he expressed it to the keeper afterwards, he
"felt it in his bones." It did not, on further consideration, seem
probable that he would be punished for doing what he had not done,
either as principal or accessory. A vague idea of an all-pervading
justice consoled him; and he soon reasoned himself into a firm
assurance that he should escape unharmed.

He was in the mood for reasoning just then--perhaps because he had
nothing better to do, or perhaps because the added experience of the
last twenty-four hours enabled him to reason better than before. His
fine scheme of getting to Boston, and there making a rich and great
man of himself, had signally failed. He did not give it up, however.

"I have failed once, but I will try again," said he to himself, as the
conclusion of the whole matter; and he picked up an old school book
which lay on the table.

The book contained a story, which he had often read, about a man who
had met with a long list of misfortunes, as he deemed them when they
occurred, but which proved to be blessings in disguise.

"Oft from apparent ills our blessings rise,
Act well your part; there all the honor lies."

This couplet from the school books came to his aid, also; and he
proceeded to make an application of this wisdom to his own mishaps.

"Suppose I had gone on with Ben. He is a miserable fellow," thought
Harry; "he would have led me into all manner of wickedness. I ought
not to have gone with him, or had anything to do with him. He might
have made a thief and a robber of me. I know I ain't any better than I
should be; but I don't believe I'm as bad as he is. At any rate, I
wouldn't set a barn afire. It is all for the best, just as the parson
says when anybody dies. By this scrape I have got clear of Ben, and
learned a lesson that I won't forget in a hurry."

Harry was satisfied with