behind me. I jumped back as if I had been accused,
and stood quaking while a worshiper entered and
passed up the aisle.

I was there a year trying to steal that money;
that is, it seemed a year, though, of course, it must
have been much less. The worshipers went and
came; there were hardly ever three in the church at
once, but there was always one or more. Every
time I tried to commit my crime somebody came in
or somebody started out, and I was prevented; but
at last my opportunity came; for one moment there
was nobody in the church but the two beggar-women
and me. I whipped the gold piece out of the poor
old pauper's palm and dropped my Turkish penny
in its place. Poor old thing, she murmured her
thanks--they smote me to the heart. Then I sped
away in a guilty hurry, and even when I was a mile
from the church I was still glancing back, every
moment, to see if I was being pursued.

That experience has been of priceless value and
benefit to me; for I resolved then, that as long as I
lived I would never again rob a blind beggar-woman
in a church; and I have always kept my word. The
most permanent lessons in morals are those which
come, not of booky teaching, but of experience.

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