Charles replied, “I trust thou dost not intend to jest with me, after all the trouble thou hast caused me?”

“No, indeed I do not,” answered the stranger.  “I hope to repay you, some time or other.”

“Very well,” rejoined the Friend, “if thou ever hast anything for me, thou canst leave it with Isaac T. Hopper, at the corner of Walnut and Dock-streets.”  Thus they parted, and never met again.

About a year after, Friend Hopper found a letter on his desk, addressed to Charles Carey.  When it was delivered to him, he was surprised to find that it came from the man who had stolen the horse, and contained twenty dollars.  A few months later, another letter containing the same sum, was left in the same way.  Not long after, a third letter arrived, enclosing twenty dollars; the whole forming a sum sufficient to repay both principal and interest of the money which the kind-hearted Quaker had lost by his dishonesty.

This last letter stated that the writer had no thoughts of stealing the horse ten minutes before he did it.  After he had sold him, he was so haunted by remorse and fear of detection, that life became a burthen to him, and he cared not what became of him.  But when he was arrested, and so unexpectedly set at liberty, the crushing weight was taken from him.  He felt inspired by fresh courage, and sustained by the hope of making some atonement for what he had done.  He made strenuous efforts to improve his condition, and succeeded.  He was then teaching school, was assessor of the township where he resided, and no one suspected that he had ever committed a dishonest action.

The good man, to whom this epistle was addressed, read it with moistened eyes, and felt that the reward of righteousness is peace.

For many years after Isaac T. Hopper joined the Society of Friends, a spirit of peace and of kindly communion prevailed among them.  No sect has ever arisen which so nearly approached the character of primitive christianity, in all relations with each other and with their fellow men.  But as soon as the early christians were relieved from persecution, they began to persecute each other; and so it was with the Quakers.  Having become established and respected by the world, the humble and self-denying spirit which at the outset renounced and contended with the world gradually departed.  Many of them were rich, and not unfrequently their fortunes were acquired by trading with slave-holders.  Such men were well satisfied to have the testimonies of their spiritual forefathers against slavery read over among themselves, at stated seasons; but they felt little sympathy with those of their cotemporaries, who considered it a duty to remonstrate publicly and freely with all who were connected with the iniquitous system.