He said we could all be Lionhearts, and that God
wouldn't like to go into them places with me. And he says again here
that God does answer when we pray. Maybe if I went round to Dick's
teacher and signed the pledge the Almighty would help me to keep it,
and then I could save a bit of money and go to Ironboro' too."
Paddy had been sitting by his little fire after tea when the letter
came, and he sat on for a long while, staring into the bright coals and
seeing in fancy Dick's pleading face again. Suddenly he got down
awkwardly upon his knees, and with the letter in his hand prayed his
first real prayer.
And that night he signed the pledge and hung up the card over his
mantelpiece where all might see it, and the sight of his own name, put
to such a promise, was a continual help to him in the fight that lay
before him.
CHAPTER VIII.
LIONHEART'S BRAVE STAND.
Paddy's courage and determination were soon put to the test. He had
been a bar favourite so long that his absence was soon noticed, and the
men he had so often entertained and treated were loud in their
complaints and jeers. The ridicule was hard enough to bear, but the
sneers at his stingy ways hurt him most.
For Paddy's warm Irish heart loved to give, and to make pleasure for
others, and many a time he had spent his last coin in treating a
comrade.
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