e answer, almost in disgust. "I may be pretty bad, but
I've not got so low as that."

"Then your only motive was hunger?"

"That was all. Enough, ain't it?"

"We can't discuss the matter here," said Philip. He hesitated, rose, and
stood there looking at the man who sat now with his head resting on his
arms, which were folded across his knees. Two or three persons came out
of a street near by and walked past. Philip knew them and said
good-evening. They thought he was helping some drunken man, a thing he
had often done, and they went along without stopping. Again the street
was deserted.

"What will you do now? Where will you go?"

"God knows. I am an outcast on His earth!"

"Have you no home?"

"Home! Yes; the gutter, the street, the bottom of the river."

"My brother!" Philip laid his hand on the man's shoulder, "come home
with me, have something to eat, and stay with me for a while."

The man looked up and stared at Philip through the semi-darkness.

"What, go home with you! That would be a good one after trying to hold
you up! I'll tell you what you ought to do. Take me to the police
station and have me arrested for attempt at highway robbery. Then I'd
get lodgings and victuals for nothing."

Philip smiled slightly. "That would not help matters any. And if you
know me at all, you know I would never do any such thing. Come home with
me. No one, except you and myself and my wife need ever know what has
happened to-night. I have food at my home, and you are hungry. We both
belong to the same Father-God. Why should I not help you if I want to?"

It was all said so calmly, so lovingly, so honestly, that the man
softened under it. A tear rolled over his cheek. He brushed his hand
over his eyes. It had been a long time since any one had called him
"brother."

"Come!" Philip reached out his hand and helped him to rise. The man
staggered, and might have fallen if Philip had not supported him. "I am
faint and dizzy," he said.

"Courage, man! My home is not far off; we shall soon be there." His
companion was silent. As they came up to the door Philip said: "I
haven't asked your name, but it might save a little awkwardness if I
knew it."

"William----" Philip did not hear the last name, it was spoken in such a
low voice.

"Never mind; I'll call you William if it's all the same to you." And he
went into the house with the man, and at once made him feel at home by
means of that simple and yet powerful spirit o