r at Bruceton. He had silenced, if not conquered, all the other religious controversialists of the town, and found the wea

a family so entirely satisfied with itself that it never desired any aid from other people, to say nothing of higher powers. Sometimes the Ba

ious lawyer, he had endeavored to make his way easier by prepossessing the girl's parents in his favor; but when he began to pass the lines of pleasing civility, within which he had long known the judge and his wife, he was surprised to find an und

cles which he always had regarded as trifling, yet which he was unable to overcome, and to be told that religion was a reality because it had changed Sam Kimper, one of the most insignificant

deep thought. He had started upon a love-making enterprise, and he objected to a complication of interests. If the Prencys chose to talk theology in the privacy of their family l

wards? It was all a matter of birth and training, argued Bartram to himself: the feeblest and most excitable intellects, the world over, were the first to be impressed by whatever seemed supernatural, whether it were called religion, spiritualism, mesmerism, or anything else. It was merely a matter of mental excitement: the stronger the attack, the sooner the relapse. Sam Kimper would lose faith in his fancies sooner or late

to the cobbler's shop and worry the ex-convict into a discussion, but n

ieves, and won't argue or go to the botto

last visi

rk such a change as you think He has done in you, He ought

aid the cobble

as power to any e

ht again, M

think he love

-for-nothin' feller like me. But what else can I think, Mr. Bart

much for you, I suppose He brings you more work an

this at once, but a

I ever knowed how to do before. That brings me more money

rge family, I believe. Does He do as muc

for me is done for al

what you're making enables you to do

er's countenance. A little time passed; the discussion was becoming sport,-such sport as the angler fee

n about it, Sam," the

own like that I don't know what he may be doin' for the wife an' children. God knows they need it; an',

t. You're so sure about your own affairs, you

, though," sa

oes and stockings and warm clothes

haven't," Sam s

t the change of tone, an

only in order to learn how much foundation there was to you

with a savage dash of his awl which

se trade slackens, or Larry t

rather than ha

folks wo

ks'll have t

your Saviour? If He's all you take Him to be,

n' somethin' wrong, for instance, an' was hauled into court, an' had you for my lawyer,-though of course I couldn't exp

d the lawyer, with his customary

ell me all you meant to do an' how you'd do it, I couldn't take it in. If I

ly improbable that the lawyer

e more than any man ever could,-somebody that's smarter

the Bartrams was not pleasing to the lawyer, when suggested so abruptly, but

goin' to do somethin' else, or whether He's goin' to do it at all. If I was as smart as a lawyer, I wouldn't need one;

od and Saviour, eh? Some wiser

up to it told me not to try to believe everythin' that everybody else did, but to bel

distinct idea-as to whom you're believing

estion. I know He was once in the world, an' didn't do anybody any harm, an' done a good deal

's safe to ad

' learn of Him. I'm believin' in Him ju

that

u're a good deal smarter than I be, si

buried his face in his hands. The lawyer, chancing to look in the window,