Her prayer was answered. During the many weeks he was confined to the house, John Hardy learned to love his little blind daughter dearly; and, better still, he learned to know and trust the God whose commandments he had for so long a time set at naught. And so, when the end came, and Gracie's ransomed spirit returned to the God who gave it, the child died calmly and happily, feeling that, through God's grace, her father would be a better and a happier man for the time to come.
[CHAPTER VIII.]
THE TWO ENDINGS.
THE trial came on very soon, and the evidence was quite clear against all the prisoners. Turner, who had wounded one of the gamekeepers, and had been committed on a previous occasion, was sentenced to twenty years' transportation. Tom Haines, who was not proved to have used violence, was condemned to five years' penal servitude; and Frank Hardy, as the receiver of property known to have been stolen, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, with hard labour.
"I am going over to Forley to-morrow," said Mr. King to Walter, "and shall try and get permission to see Frank before he is removed. You can come with me if you like."
Walter gratefully accepted his master's offer. The prisoners were to be removed to a distant part of England on the following day; but a letter from the clergyman at Springcliffe to the governor of Forley Gaol procured Mr. King's permission to see Frank.
The meeting was a very painful one on both sides. Short as the time had been, Walter was shocked to see the change which had taken place in Frank's appearance. His cheeks were haggard; his hair was cut quite close to his head; and he wore a felon's dress.
He burst into tears at the sight of his old master and Walter.
"How good of you to come!" he sobbed. "Oh, what disgrace I have brought upon myself and my family! You were right, Walter, and I was wrong; yours was the right path after all, and mine has been my ruin. I didn't deserve that you should come and see me, sir," he cried, seizing Mr. King's hand. "I shall never forget your kindness; if I had only taken your advice, if I had only kept from bad company, I should never have been in this dreadful place."
"My poor boy," said Mr. King, who was deeply affected, "you are not the first who has found out, alas! when too late, the folly and wickedness of which they had been guilty. I am not come, however, to add to your present suffering by any reproaches of mine; but rather to entreat you to let this fearful lesson be a warning to you. If God spares your life, a future will still be yours; during which, through His grace strengthening you, you will have opportunity of proving the genuineness of your present sorrow. Meantime, resolve to bear patiently and meekly the punishment to which you are sentenced, and determine, should you be permitted to begin life afresh, to shun bad companions, and to fled from idleness as from the mother of all mischief."