"Elmer, why did you steal my stones last night? I want them back."
"I haven't got anything that belongs to you, and I didn't steal your stones," Elmer almost shouted; and, running to Mrs. Fischer, he said excitedly, "Ed called me a thief and said I stole those stones out of his pocket last night."
"I'll teach him to call you a thief!" the woman exclaimed in an exasperated tone and ran toward her son with a club and began using it freely upon him, saying as she did so: "Ed, you wretched child! Is that all you've learned at the poorhouse? What are those little old stones good for, anyway? And to think you'd dare to accuse Elmer of stealing them!"
The beating that Edwin received was far worse than the one given him the day before, and in the evening when he laid his little tired and aching body upon the bed beside his cousin, he wondered why he was forced to suffer and bear the punishment that rightfully belonged to some one else, but he did not complain or feel unkindly toward those who justly deserved the blame.
When at last he fell asleep, God sent angels to minister to the needs of the little forlorn child, and they cared for him tenderly while he slept.
"When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up"
(Psa. 27: 10).
"But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer" (1 Pet. 4: 15).
CHAPTER VI
THE STRANGE VISITOR
How shall I ever go through this rough world!
How find me older every setting sun!
How merge my boyish heart in manliness!