Edward opening the fatal box.
"Mr. Rowe tore open his clothes and tried to stanch the blood, while the almost distracted mother flew down stairs to send for a physician. For weeks Edward lay in bed after the ball had been extracted, suffering the most acute pain, and tortured by bitter remorse for his conduct. The physician at length told his mother that he feared her poor boy would never again be perfectly well.
"After two months, he was able to sit bolstered up in a large chair, when his uncle came to visit him. Upon talking with him for an hour, the gentleman went to the attic and brought from thence the box which had occasioned his young nephew so much trouble. He told him that while he was in India, a young man assisted him in packing his goods for his return home. He had a quantity of gold which he wished to bring, and this young man begged his acceptance of this box with the pistol, which he thought would betray any robbers who might approach it. He, then, without loading the fire-arms, explained to the boy how it had been arranged; after which, he took out a false bottom to the box, and displayed to the gaze of the astonished youth a greater number of gold pieces than he had ever seen together.
"'Perhaps,' added the gentleman, addressing his sister, 'it would have been better for me to have told Edward what consequences would certainly follow if he disobeyed my orders, and persisted in gratifying his curiosity. I intended to make him a present, and thought it would be a pleasant and profitable lesson to him. But I calculated too much upon the strength of his moral principle.'"
"But, father," cried Walter eagerly, "didn't his uncle give him any of the gold?"
Mr. Dermott smiled as he replied, "You know, my boy, I told you that this was not a true story, but a parable."
"O, I'm glad," said Anna, with a sigh of relief. "I thought Edward would have to be sick all his life."
"'Tis fearful building upon any sin;
One mischief entered, brings another in;
The second pulls a third, the third draws more,
And they for all the rest set ope the door:
Till custom take away the judging sense,
That to offend we think it no offence."
[CHAPTER XIV.]
THE NATURE OF SIN; OR, THE CONVICT.