I tarried long in the great city, an' every
evening we were together in the little room. I bought him a kit o'
tools an' some brass, an' we would shatter the clockworks an' build
them up again until he had skill, sor, to make or mend.
"'Me good friend,' said he, one evening after we had been a long
time at work, 'I wish thou could'st teach me how to mend a broken
life. For God's sake, help me! I am fainting under a great
burden.'
"'What can I do?' said I to him.
"Then, sor, he went over his story with me from beginning to end.
It was an impressive, a sacred confidence. Ah, boy, it would be
dishonour to tell thee his name, but his story, that I may tell
thee, changing the detail, so it may never add a straw to his
burden. I shall quote him in substance only, an' follow the long
habit o' me own tongue.
"'Well, ye remember how me son was taken,' said he. 'I could not
raise the ransom, try as I would. Now, large sums were in me
keeping an' I fell. I remember that day. Ah! man, the devil
seemed to whisper to me. But, God forgive! it was for love that I
fell. Little by little I began to take the money I must have an'
cover its absence. I said to meself, some time I'll pay it
back--that ancient sophistry o' the devil.
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