en utterly disgusted with the result,
and gone away with her pretty nose very high.

The boy turned his dirty face toward her and said, calmly:

"What a whopper!"

The experience of a lifetime could not have answered more deftly:

"You come and see. I am almost certain she will tell us about some of
them."

Still he stared, and Flossy waited with her pretty face very near to
his, and her pretty hand held coaxingly out.

"Come," she said again. And it could not have been more to the boy's
surprise than it was to hers that he presently said:

"Well, go ahead. I can send if I don't like it. I'll follow."

And he did.

CHAPTER XXIX.

WAITING.

It required Flossy's eyes and heart both to keep watch of her boy during
the progress of that meeting. The novelty of the scene, the strangeness
of seeing ladies occupying the speaker's stand, kept him quiet and
alert, until Mrs. Partridge, that woman with wonderful power over the
forgotten, neglected portion of the world, arrested all his bewildering
thoughts and centered them on the strange stories she had to tell.

Did you ever hear her tell that remarkable story of her first attempt at
controlling that remarkable class which came under her care, many years
ago, in St. Louis? It is full of wonder and pathos and terror and
fascination, even to those who are somewhat familiar with such
experiences. But Flossy and her boy had never heard, or dreamed of its
like. No, I am wrong; the boy had dreamed of scenes just so wild and
daring, but even he had not fancied that such people ever found their
way to Sunday-schools.

Peanuts, cigars, a pack of cards, and a bowie-knife! Imagine yourself,
teacher, to be seated before your orderly and courteous class of boys
next Sunday morning and find them transformed into beings represented by
such surroundings as these! It was Mrs. Partridge's experience. How
fascinating that story is! That one incorrigible boy, the one with the
bowie-knife, the one who would make no answer to her questions, show no
interest in her stories, ignore her very presence and go on with his
horrible mischief, until it even came to a stabbing affray right there
in the class-room!

Imagine her meeting that boy ten years afterward, when he was not only a
man, but a gentleman; not only that, but a Christian and not only that,
but a working Christian, superintending a mission Sunday-school, giving
his best energies and his best time to work like that! Th