y. But truly Amos was
staggered when he entered the room where sat, in the midst of gloom and
filth, the man who had been the cause of so much distress to him and
his. The atmosphere was oppressive with the concentrated foulness of
numberless evil odours. A bed there was in the darkest corner of the
room on the floor. It looked as though composed of the refuse raked
from a pig-sty, and thrust into a sack which had been used for the
conveyance of dust and bones. Bolster or pillow it had none, but
against the wall, where the bed's head was supposed to be, were three or
four logs of rough wood piled together, over which was laid a faded
cloak crumpled into a heap. Such was the only couch which the unhappy
sufferer had to lay him down upon at night, or when weary of sitting in
the high-backed, creaking armchair. Uncleanness met the eye on every
side--in the one greasy plate, on which lay a lump of repulsive-looking
food; in the broken-mouthed jug, which reeked with the smell of stale
beer; in the window, whose bemired and cobwebbed panes kept out more
light than they admitted; in the ceiling, between whose smoke-grimed
rafters large rents allowed many an abomination to drop down from the
crowded room above; in the three-legged table, which, being loose in all
its decaying joints, reeled to and fro at every touch; in the spiders,
beetles, and other self-invited specimens of the insect tribe, which had
long found a congenial home in these dismal quarters. And there--worn,
haggard, hungry, suffering, helpless--in the midst of all this
desolation, sat the broken-down, shattered stroller, coughing every now
and then as though the spasm would rend him in pieces.

The heart of Amos was touched at the terrible sight with a feeling of
the profoundest pity, as he approached the chair occupied by the wreck
of what might have been a man noble and good, loving and loved.
Anything like resentment was entirely lost in his desire to alleviate if
he could the misery he saw before him.

"I have brought a friend to see you," said Mr Harris, stepping forward.
The sick man raised his head slowly, and, as his eyes fell on Amos, he
trembled violently, and clutched his chair with a convulsive grasp.
Then a fit of coughing came on, and all were silent. "I will leave you
together, if you please," said the Scripture reader after a pause to
Amos. "You know where to find me if I am wanted," and he retired.

Long was it before the unhappy ma