"'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants, even the lowest place in thy kingdom is far more than I deserve.'"
For a few moments they sat in profound silence, then Ellen, without a word, undressed herself and retired to her couch, while her cousin, checking a sigh of disappointment, went quietly from the room.
[CHAPTER IV.]
TROUBLE FROM LYING.
NOTWITHSTANDING, Ellen's sorrow at the commission of so grave a fault, which she vainly tried to convince herself was a very trifling one, the temptation a few days after proved too much for her, and she added to her bill at the store by the purchase of twenty-five cents' worth of candy and lozenges. This way of gratifying her sickly appetite for sweets proved so easy, that she resorted to it again and again, until the clerk informed her she owed nearly five dollars.
"Five dollars!" was the poor child's frightened exclamation. "The story of five dollars,—it can't be true! You have not counted it right."
The clerk laughed, though he blushed too.
"See," he said, "how often you have had twenty-five cents' worth, and it only takes four times that to make one dollar. If you don't like large bills, you had better pay this before it comes to be larger. Mrs. Collins never allows anything for herself to be charged."
"I will write a letter to my father to-day," exclaimed the distressed girl. "He gives me as much spending money as I want."
"Very well," answered the young man, "I dare say it will be all right; you don't look like a young miss who would run up a bill without the means of paying it."