"Read, read," whispered Aggie the nurse; "he is pointing to your Bible,—he wants you to read; and read quickly, Leonard, for he soon won't be able to hear."
And Leonard, opening his Bible at the well-known place, read aloud, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
"All, all," whispered the dying boy.
"All, all," responded the old man.
"All, all," faintly echoed the dying boy, and in a few moments no sound was heard in the sick-room—James Courtenay had departed to realize the truth of the words, that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin."
Next to the chief mourners at the funeral walked old Leonard Dobbin; and close by the poor crippled Jacob's grave they buried James Courtenay—so close that the two graves seemed almost one. And when a little time had elapsed, the squire had a handsome tomb placed over his son, which covered in the remains of poor Jacob too, and at the head of it was planted the moss-rose tree. And he put up a tablet to poor Jacob's memory in the church, and a broken rose was sculptured in a little round ornament at the bottom of it.
And now the old Hall is without an heir, and the squire without a son. But there is good hope that the squire thinks of a better world, and that he would rather have his boy safe in heaven than here amid the temptations of riches again.
Oh, what a wonder that there is mercy for the greatest sinners! but oh, what misery comes of sin! "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
