The approving words of the grocer encouraged Gordon very much. On the next day he went as he had agreed and worked for Mr. Blake. When he was about leaving the store at night, Blake called to him and said—
"Here, Gordon; stop a moment. I want you to put up a pound of this white crushed sugar; and a quarter of young hyson tea."
Gordon did as he was directed. Blake took the two packages from the counter, and handing them to Gordon, said—
"Take them to your wife with my compliments, and tell her that I wish her joy of an honest husband."
Gordon took the unexpected favor, and without speaking, turned hastily from the grocer and walked away.
"Behind that frowning Providence
He hid a smiling face,"
said Mrs. Gordon, with tearful eyes, when her husband presented her the sugar and tea, and repeated what the grocer had said.
"Yes. It was a blessing sent to us in disguise," returned Gordon. "How little do we know of the good or ill that lies in our immediate future!"
"Do not say ill, dear husband—only seeming ill; if we think right and do right. When God makes our future, all is good; the ill is of our own procuring."
"Right, Mary. I see that truth as clear as if a sunbeam shone upon it."