Frank Hardy's choice, and what came of it

by Charlotte Grace O'Brien

"Nay, mother, nothing short of the deed itself will content me, as you shall see, if God only gives me health and strength."

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The next morning the village was in a state of the greatest excitement in consequence of the news that there had been a desperate affray with the poachers at Oak Glen during the night, and that the gamekeepers had pursued them through the wood, and had captured three of the gang, besides wounding several others. Thus much Walter heard on his way to work; and his worst fears about Frank were realised when he found that his companion did not make his appearance at the yard that morning.

When Mr. King came, he learned the whole truth. The gamekeepers had chased the poachers down to the banks of the stream, and, after a severe struggle, during which several shots were fired, they succeeded in capturing three of the party,—namely, Bill Turner, who was known to be one of the chief ringleaders, and Tom Haines and Frank Hardy, the latter being taken in the act of receiving a bag of game from one of the poachers. The whole party had been marched off to the nearest town, there to be locked up until their trial.

Walter felt very sad all day. It seemed so dreadful to think that he who had for so long worked at the same bench with him, and been his daily companion, should now be a prisoner, awaiting his trial and sentence for breaking the laws of his country! And yet amid all Walter's grief, there arose a deep feeling of thankfulness to God, who had kept him from yielding to a like temptation; for he knew that it is by grace alone that we are able to stand upright, and that to God alone belongs the praise.

An anecdote is related of Bishop Fisher, that, seeing a prisoner one day being led handcuffed through the streets, he said to the friend with whom he was walking,—

"There goes Bishop Fisher, but for the grace of God;" by which he meant that it was through God's grace alone, acting upon his sinful nature, that he was enabled to do right.

Walter was glad, too, when he thought that he had let no opportunity pass by of endeavouring to turn Frank from his downward course. Had it been otherwise, how bitterly would he have reproached himself!

When he went home to dinner, he heard that another great sorrow had fallen upon the family at the Mill Cottage. John Hardy had broken his leg that morning, having been caught by some of the machinery of the mill-wheel. The neighbours did not scruple to say that he was scarcely sober at the time of the accident; but be that as it might, he was now laid up with a fractured limb, incapable of doing any work for some time to come, and thus adding to the sorrow and anxiety of his wretched wife.

There was an excellent club in Springcliffe, to which all provident people belonged, and from which fund a good allowance was paid to any member during the time of sickness or accident; but John Hardy had spent all his spare money, and far more than he could or ought to have spared, in the tap-room of "The Plough;" and now, in the hour of his trouble, he had nothing whatever to fall back upon. Had it not been for Farmer Giles, the whole family must have either starved or gone to the workhouse during the long, long time of John Hardy's confinement to the house with his broken leg.