"I thought you'd be tired and glad to rest this morning, my dear," said Mrs. Cheesman, as Esther sat down to breakfast, “but I am hoping, when you get used to us, that you will be up first and get things forward a bit for me.” “Yes, aunt, that is what I always did at home. Mother used to be tired in the mornings very often."

"She'll miss you, Esther," said Mr. Cheesman, and then he was sorry he had said it, for the girl's eyes filled with tears and she did not answer; she was a warm-hearted, affectionate child, and missed her home and home companions in the midst of all the novelty; but the little home sickness soon passed away in the busy, active life before her, so different from her monotonous occupation in the dryingroom of the salt-works.

In the early part of the day she helped her aunt in the house, and as she was quick and handy she got on famously; then she would go into the shop, and whenever her uncle had time he would show her where the different articles were kept, and explain the marks on them so that she might know the prices; as she grew accustomed to the work her aunt and uncle were often glad to have her in the shop, helping them on busy days, and the customers liked her, she was quick and obliging, and so interested in all their little purchases. Esther was never tired of the shop, she loved tidying the drawers full of bright ribbons, and measuring out yards of fresh crisp materials, and changed her mind a dozen times a day as to which she liked best, and what she would wear when she had more money. But she did not altogether forget her little talk with Helen Nixon, and she kept Mr. Nixon's Bible beside her bed and read it every day, though I am afraid sometimes her reading was hurried, and at others her thoughts would wander from the words before her to the shop and its attractive contents. But she did her work well, and pleased her aunt and uncle more and more as the days went on, with her bright helpful ways, and by the time Esther had been a month in the house, they had grown to treat her almost like a daughter, and she

was eagerly looking forward to the time when she would be able to send some money home, for her uncle had promised her a little commission on all she sold in the shop. It was a very small one, of course, but it seemed very grand to Esther, and gave her great interest in making out her bills for the customers she served, and in trying to please them and get them exactly what they wanted.

It was about the middle of September, when Esther had been nearly two months with her aunt, that Mr. and Mrs. Cheesman went out together one afternoon and left her in charge of the shop, saying they would be back to tea at five. There were scarcely any customers that afternoon, and for the first time since she left home Esther found the time hang heavily on her hands, and began to examine the things around her. She slipped on an ulster, and put her hands into the pockets and thought she should soon be able to buy one, and look stylish, like the girls she saw walking past; then she tried on some pretty caps, intended for maid-servants, but though they were very becoming they did not please her; Esther's ambition was to be "like a lady," she did not care at all for the neat, trim things that suited her position. Placing the despised cap back in the window, Esther spied what attracted her much morebows of bright scarlet velvet, through which a gilt arrow was stuck. She took them down with trembling fingers; as she did so the thought of Miss Nixon, and their last talk, flashed through her mind.

-some

"Oh, well, I am only amusing myself alone here, I am not going to waste my money on them," she said aloud to herself, and she went into the little parlour and fastened them into her hair before the glass over the chimney-piece.

"How nice they look on my dark hair!" thought Esther; "why, I should be as pretty as Miss Helen if I could wear such lovely things as these," and with a sigh she took them off and put them back in the window. How much she would like to have them for the concert at Christmas that Miss Nixon talked about. But she had not enough money

to buy them, and she knew, besides, that her aunt would never let her spend her money in such things. Just then a customer came in who was rather difficult to please, and Esther was fully occupied in reaching down different dress materials for her to choose from; but she departed at last, carrying her new dress with her, and when Esther had replaced all the rejected stuffs in their proper places her thoughts went back again to the fascinating subject of the Christmas concert and the scarlet bows.

"I could easily make some," she thought, and she drew out a drawer of velvets, and taking up a roll of bright scarlet she smoothed its soft surface gently with her hand.

"What a lot there is of it, I'm sure uncle would never begrudge me a yard or two, and he so well off," and taking up a pair of scissors she clipped off a long piece, and hurriedly replacing the roll in the drawer, flew upstairs with her prize and locked it in her box. She repeated to herself that she was sure her uncle would never begrudge her a little bit of velvet, but in the depths of her heart she knew there was a great difference between openly asking her uncle for it, and stealing it when he was out of the way: however willing he might be for her to have it, that did not justify her in taking it unknown to him. It was stealing, by whatever other name she might try to call it; but the passion of vanity had seized upon Esther with redoubled power, and she would not listen to her conscience, and even persuaded herself when she went to bed that she was too tired to read her Bible and would put it off for that night, for she knew it would speak reproachfully to her. But as the days passed on she grew used to the thought of what she had done, and one night she took out her piece of velvet and admired it again, and that made her want to make it up into bows, and the next day when she was in the shop, she slipped a reel of scarlet silk into her pocket to sew them with, and after that she got quite hardened and was constantly taking some little thing or other; always scraps of finery, an artificial flower, a bit of gay ribbon,

anything that would make her look smart when she went home, and that she thought would not be missed by her uncle. All the things she had taken she kept locked in the box and always carried the key with her. But Esther forgot that though her aunt and uncle knew nothing, and suspected nothing, God knew her most secret thoughts, knowing that as she sowed so must she reap.

One bright morning in October, Mrs. Cheesman asked. Esther if she would carry a note out to a customer who lived about two miles from the town. The young girl was delighted at the prospect of the long country walk, and quickly changed her morning dress and started off; her aunt calling out that she would keep some dinner for her if she was detained beyond dinner time. It was a soft, mild day, and Esther felt inclined to dance across the fields in the autumn sunshine, as she heard the larks singing high up in the clear blue sky. Her thoughts went back to her home, and the walks through the fields after school, when they used to go long rambles hunting for nuts and blackberries. What a long time it seemed since she had seen them all, nearly three months. Her mother would be hard

at work now in the salt-room in her cotton dress, and coarse apron, whilst she was walking in a nice dress, almost like a young lady's, over the fields; this made her think of the many bits of finery she had taken, and her face grew hot with shame. The sinfulness of what she had done seemed to come home to her heart much more strongly out there in the sunshine, where everything looked so pure and happy, than it had done in the busy town; how wicked and deceitful she had been, and yet her aunt and uncle had shown her nothing but kindness; what would Miss Nixon say if she knew how she had failed to resist temptation, and sitting down on a stile Esther cried bitterly. She grew calmer by degrees and began to think whether she should confess everything to her aunt, but she could not quite make up her mind to do that; she determined, however, never to take anything more from the shop, and sitting