Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

344 RHYS LEWIS.
face to face with the vagabond that night, and was inviting me
to throw myself into its arms. I resolved to do so, and go to
college, come what may. Although I could not help my
family connections, I felt thankful at the thought that, associ-
ated with the rest of the scholars, none of them would know my
history. And possibly, I argued, even some of them may have
a history which they would not like everybody else to know.
Having made up my mind, I felt happy and in my element.
Indeed my bliss was such that I could enjoy the altered look
on "Duke" as I went by. My old friend had eaten to satiety,
and was nodding where he stood, one leg resting limply, and
his head bent low and still, as if he had long since carried the
point in discussion. "Duke," I fancied, had, like myself, his
story, if he could only tell it, and could preface others— a more
interesting one than mine, it may be. I walked rapidly on, and
let myself into the house as softly as I could. When Hit the gas,
one of the first things I saw was my purse upon the edge of the
table. I took it up ; it was empty ! Alas ! I had given every
farthing I possessed to the "Irishman," as I used to call him
when a lad. I grasped the situation with grief. Having made
up my mind to go to college, here was I, without as much as a
penny to pay my fare thither. Stupified and sorrowful, I stood
on the middle of the kitchen floor, where Abel Hughes had
many a time exhorted me to put my trust in God. Verily, He
was trying me sore. I sat down, laid my head between my
hands upon the table, and cried my eyes out, nearly.
CHAPTER XXXYI.
A WELL-KNOWN CHABACTEB.
I LOOK upon the night I have attempted to describe in the last
chapter as one of the great nights of my little life. Friendless
and lonely, I felt as if all things had conspired to deprive me
of the object on which I had set my heart. I feared I was out
of favour with God, and that all my convictions and dealings
with religion were but hypocrisy and pretence. Without
flattery, I knew that as a preacher I was tolerably acceptable