on the hillocks, ready to flee away in a moment
at their approach. Both Miss Anne and Stephen felt a crowd of thoughts,
sorrowful and happy, come thronging to their minds.

'Stephen,' said Miss Anne solemnly, 'our Lord says, "When ye shall have
done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable
servants: we have done that which was our duty to do."'

'Yes, Miss Anne,' said Stephen, looking up inquiringly into his
teacher's face.

'My dear boy,' she continued, 'are you taking care to say to yourself,
"I am an unprofitable servant"?'

'I have not done all those things which are commanded me,' he said
simply and earnestly; 'I've done nothing of myself yet. It's you that
have taught me, Miss Anne; and God has helped me to learn. I'm afeared
partly of going away to Netley; but if you're not there to keep me
right, God is everywhere.'

'Stephen,' Miss Anne said, 'you have forgiven all your enemies: Tim, who
is now your friend, and the gamekeeper, Black Thompson, and my poor
uncle; when you are saying the Lord's Prayer, do you feel as if you
should be satisfied for our Father to forgive you your trespasses in the
same measure and in the same manner as you have forgiven their
trespasses against you?'

'Oh no!' cried Stephen, in a tone of some alarm.

'Tell me why not.'

'It was a rather hard thing for me,' he said; 'it was very hard at
first, and I had to be persuaded to it; and every now and then I felt as
if I'd take the forgiveness back. I shouldn't like to feel as if our
Father found it a hard thing, or repented of it afterwards.'

'No,' answered Miss Anne. 'He is a God "ready to pardon;" and when He
has bestowed forgiveness, His "gifts and calling are without
repentance." But there is something more, Stephen. Do you not seem in
your own mind to know them, and remember them most, by their unkindness
and sins towards you? When you think of Black Thompson, is it not more
as one who has been your enemy than one whom you love without any
remembrance of his faults? And you recollect my uncle as him who drove
you away from your own home, and was the cause of little Nan's death.
Their offences are forgiven fully, but not forgotten.'

'Can I forget?' murmured Stephen.

'No,' she replied; 'but do you not see that we clothe our enemies with
their faults against us? Should our Father do so, should we stand before
Him bearing in His sight all our sins, would that forgiveness content
us, Stephen?'

'