Year: 1873

by The misappropriation of my en-
pIoyers' money, and still haunted,
however, by the relief it could OBJ
tain for me- would not quite give
way 70 the feeling of repentance
whlcn was knocking for admission
at m breast had half decided to
turn away and drive these better
thoughts from my mind, when l OBJ
served something moving in a small
crib that was placed at the side and
toward the foot of their bed. Its
occupant, a grand-child, whose pa
rents they had informed me, were
dead, awakened probably by its
grand-father's voice, rose up, looked
around, and settled down upon its
knees, and clasping its little hands
as its grand-father's were clasped,
and hooking upward out through
the window at the moon, whose
bright light fell upon its darling
face, began moving its lips as if try
ing to repeat the words Nothing
SO like an angel ever met my sight.
The grandfather began tho Lords
prayer. The little fellow seemed to
have this by heart he repeated it
word for word, his tiny, silVeFy
voice sounding in sweet accord. l
could not turn away, nor any longer
resist the better emotions which l
had hitherto kept down. y rush of
repentant feeling passed through me
with an effect that shook every
FIBRE l fell upon my knees, and
with tears streaming from my eyes,
Joined in the concluding words Of
the lsrzEer.


=
with regard 10 the money. l passed
a quiet night, and rose early, hast
ened away toward my journeys end
so as to give myself the least posi-
BILE time or opportunity for chang
ing my new formed resolution. In
handing the package to the agent /
said to him, that as there was money
in il, it might as we'll be opened in
my presence, to see that all was cor
rect, &c. He of course discovered
the error, and handed me back the
amount that was over, with which
l returned home and delivered it up
to the proper owners in due time.


It was fortunate for me in every
way that pursued the course 1 had
adopted. Ii appeared that the
money had been obtained from the
bank after bank hours, in the abb
sence of the teller, from one of the
officers. There were no loose notes
on hand of the larger denominations,
but there were sheets of thousands
and five hundreds signed by the
president and cashier. Either two
sheets were picked up in mistake
for one, or the wrong batch of
sheets were selected from-that is,
thousands were taken instead of five
hundreds. The notes were hurried
ly clipped, strapped and endorsed
"$5, ,000," without recounting, and
so enVeloped and handed over to me.
The bank had discovered the error,
and no doubt was entertained but
that the missing money was with
me. Whether should have had the
face to Withstand the imputation,
even with the apparently undisturb
ed condition of the envelope in my
favor, is more than | can say, but l
doubt it.


But the notes, in pursuance of a
precaution still in use in some banks,
were payable to the order of one of
the clerks, and had not been en-
dorsed by him, 1 could not, there
fore, have used them, or if so they
could have been traced back to me.
| found, also, that the numbers had
been carefully ascertained of all 1
had taken with me, and thus anoth-
er chance of detection existed
What an escaped


Upon returning and entering the
counting room handed the surplus
back to my senior, with a feeling
somewhat of pride, but mixed up
with other feelings not easily de-
sCribed.


My precaution of having the
money opened by the agent in my
presence was highly commended,
and the possibility of his misappro-
priating the undue amount--as very
little personal knowledge of him
was possessed by the firm was duly
discussed What was said on this
point brought bushes to my cheeks.


In course of time my senior ac-
countant was taken into the firm. 1
was put in his position, and with
his salary. l saved money, finally
got into business on my own ac-
count, and am now, rich. i never
forgot my farmer host or his grand
child; but at the death of the for
mer took charge of the boy. He is
now my partner and the husband of
my daughter.