opper. "I was born dat way."

"And you expect to go down here and by some means, which I must confess
is quite beyond my ability to grasp, be cured in a miraculous
manner!"--Thornton smiled tolerantly.

"Sure, I do!" asserted the Flopper doggedly. "If he's done it fer de
crowd dere, why can't he do it fer me? Didn't de postmaster say all yer
gotter have is faith? Well, I got de faith--an' I got it hard enough to
stake all I got on it. Dis time to-morrow--say, dis time to-morrow I
wouldn't change places wid any man in de United States."

Thornton's tolerant smile deepened.

"I guess you're sincere enough," he said; "and I'm not trying to cut the
ground of hope out from under your feet, as you put it out on the
platform--but it seems to me that it is only the kindly thing to do to
warn you that the more faith you put in a thing like this the worse you
are making it for yourself--you are laying up a bitter disappointment in
store that can only make your present misfortune the more unbearable."

The Flopper shook his head.

"If he's done it fer others, he can do it fer me," he repeated, with
unshaken conviction. "An' dat goes--I can't lose."

Thornton tilted his chair back again, and stared at the Flopper with
pitying incredulity.

There was silence for a moment; then Mrs. Thornton spoke.

"Robert," she said slowly, "I want to stop at Needley."

The front legs of Thornton's chair came down on the heavy carpet with a
dull thud, and he whirled around in his seat to stare at his wife.

"You don't mean to say, Naida," he gasped, "that you've got faith in
this thing, too!"

"No; not faith," she answered pathetically. "I hardly dare to _hope_. I
have hoped so much in the last year, and--"

"But this is sheer nonsense!" Thornton broke in with irritable
impatience. "I can understand this man here, in a way--he has the
superstition, if you like to call it that, due to lack of education, if
he'll pardon my saying so in his presence; but you, Naida, surely you
can't take any stock in it!"

She smiled at him a little wanly.

"I have told you that I didn't even dare to hope," she said. "But I want
to see--I want to see. I have tried sanatoriums and consulted
specialists until it has all become a nightmare to me and I am no
better--I sometimes think I never shall be any better."

"But," exploded Thornton, rising from his chair, "that's nothing to do
with this--this is rank foolishness! Nurse, you--"

Miss Harvey, too