 up an
aching but very loose and hollow tooth. It is the loss of those whom we are not
required to give up for Christ's sake which is really painful to us. Then there
is a wrench in earnest. Happily, no matter how light the task that is demanded
from us, it is enough if we do it; we reap our reward as much as though it were
a Herculean labour.
    But to return. The conclusion Ernest came to was that he would be a tailor.
He talked the matter over with the chaplain, who told him there was no reason
why he should not be able to earn his six or seven shillings a day by the time
he came out of prison, if he chose to learn the trade during the remainder of
his term - now not quite three months; the doctor said he was strong enough for
this, and that it was about the only thing he was as yet fit for; so he left the
infirmary sooner than he would otherwise have done and entered the tailor's
shop, overjoyed at the thoughts of seeing his way again, and confident of rising
some day if he could only get a firm foothold to start from.
    Everyone whom he had to do with saw that he did not belong to what are
called the criminal classes, and finding him eager to learn and to save trouble,
he was always kindly, and almost respectfully treated. He did not find the work
irksome; it was far more pleasant than making Latin and Greek verses at
Roughborough; he felt that he would rather be here in prison than at
Roughborough again - yes, or even at Cambridge itself. The only trouble he was
ever in danger of getting into was through exchanging words or looks with the
more decent-looking of his fellow prisoners. This was forbidden, but he never
missed a chance of breaking the rules in this respect.
    A man of his ability who was at the same time anxious to learn would of
course make very rapid progress, and before he left prison the warder said he
was as good a tailor with his three-months' apprenticeship as many a man was
with twelve. Ernest had never before been so much praised by any of his
teachers. Each day as he grew stronger in health and more accustomed to his
surroundings he saw some fresh advantage in his position - an advantage which he
had not aimed at, but which had come almost in spite of himself, and he
marvelled at his own good fortune, which had ordered things so greatly better
for him than he could have ordered them for himself.
    His having lived
