The Torn Bible; Or, Hubert's Best Friend

								

strangers he will do better than with us; but I would sooner have buried
him--sooner, by far, have laid him in the churchyard--than he should
have taken this course. What is the use of trying to make children good?
Tears, prayers, self-denials, what is the use of them all, if the result
is like this?" So he murmured, and then bowed his head and wept, and his
wife, instead of receiving comfort from him, became the comforter; for,
putting her arm round his neck, she replied,
"Oh, yes, dear, our prayers and tears have brought us many blessings;
see the other children, how good they are; don't murmur. God may yet
bless us in Hubert; it is terrible to part with him in this way; but it
may yet be a blessing to us all: God knows." Then she sat down and wept
with her husband over this first great sorrow; and they did weep; they
and God alone knew the depth of the woe that had come upon them; the
first-born pride of their home and hearts going from them, perhaps for
ever, without one religious impression, or care for the future, was a
sorrow that none around could lighten, and they knelt down and prayed
fervently for that reckless son, and tried to feel a deeper trust in Him
who, though depriving them of one blessing, gave them many.

CHAPTER II.
TOO LATE FOR THE POST-BAG.



    Be wise to-day; 'tis madness to defer;

    Next day the fatal precedent will plead;

    Thus on, till wisdom is pushed out of life.

                       YOUNG.

Meantime, Hubert went on his way, and a feeling of sadness came over him
after he lost sight of his home amongst the trees; for the thought had
come into his mind that perhaps he might never see it again. For a
moment his heart beat quickly, and he gave a deep sigh; then, putting
his hand into the leather bag, he was just going to take out his
mother's present to him, when a man, who sat opposite, said, "I suppose,
young soldier, you are off to join your regiment?"
"Yes," replied Hubert, with a smile; and as he drew his hand from the
bag, he continued, "we are ordered to the East Indies."
"East Indies, eh? you'll soon see a little life, then; they tell me
there's plenty of fighting going on out yonder, though we don't get
much of it in the newspaper. But you are very young?"
"Yes, I'm the youngest cadet in the regiment; I'm just turned fifteen;
but I shall be as brave as any of the others, I dare say: and I mean to
make as good a soldier."
"No doubt of it," replied more than one of the passengers, and the
coachman, who had heard the conversation, cracked his whip, as he chimed
in, "Hear! hear! well done!" Then, as the coach rolled along over many a
mile, they talked of nothing but Hubert and the sphere of his future
existence. It feasted the boy's pride; and every other thought fled
away, and he forgot all about his home and his Bible.
It was the morning of the third day since Hubert started, when, after
many changes and delays, the journey was almost ended, and in less than