She tried hard to be brave, but somehow the tears
would come--and she had to cry!
"There, there, daughter," said the major consolingly. "I did not want to
tell you just yet, but perhaps it is as well now as at any other time. I
knew you would be grieved."
"Of course--I am sorry--" sighed Dorothy, "but wasn't it splendid that
he had reformed!"
"Yes, and I must confess I was proud to hear a dying man bless your
name. He declared that you, a mere child, had saved him from a death of
shame. I never knew Dorothy, until Ralph told me there at his bedside,
that you had worked so hard to help in the crusade work, even speaking
to men like Burlock, when they might not have known how to answer you."
"Oh indeed, father," she hurried to say, "I am sure Mr. Burlock was not
intoxicated half the time others thought he was. He seemed so sad always
and would sit on a bench, just thinking of his child perhaps, when
people called him 'drunk'!" and the girl's eyes flashed indignantly at
the thought.
"Well, well, daughter; you were right in showing charity. Yes, charity
is the love of God and our neighbor, and it was that love that led you
to take the hand of that sick and discouraged man. Ralph told me how you
brought him into the Bugle office that afternoon, and how that was the
beginning of a new life to Burlock for he never tasted strong drink
after that day.
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