And Margaret did get a place. Carter, the butcher, engaged her the next day. “Say nothing against her to me,” he cried. “I know the girl; she would sooner touch red-hot iron than money that was not hers. And as for truth, I’d take her word against the oaths of a dozen!”
Once, as Margaret was cleaning out the parlour, not perceiving her master’s new watch, which lay on the table concealed by a newspaper, she threw it by accident down to the ground. Startled and alarmed, she raised it and put it to her ear, longing to hear the regular beat, which might show that it was unhurt. Alas! all was quite still—what mischief she had done! Margaret dreaded her master, who was a passionate man; she dreaded, perhaps, losing her place. She might have replaced the watch on the table, and said nothing; its stopping might be thought accidental. But Margaret would not stoop to hide the truth any more than to tell a lie. With a beating heart and a trembling hand she carried the watch to her master, and confessed the whole truth. Was she dismissed or struck, as she had feared that she might be? No; Carter, vexed as he was, could not but admire her honesty and candour.
“Well, Margaret,” he cried, “were your life to depend on it, I don’t believe you would buy life itself with a lie.”
Can this be said of you, reader? If not, oh, pray for forgiveness of your sin, and for grace from this hour to forsake it. May God enable you to speak the truth from your heart, and to learn upon earth the language of heaven!
THE HAND OF THE DILIGENT MAKETH RICH
XII.
DO YOU LOVE GOD?
