wn stream, and so it is with us--things is movin' that way. Now,
Bud, them's wrong thoughts you're havin' about not bein' any good.
You can see, hear and talk, and sense things--that's all anybody can
do. You're big and strong, and most likely will live fifty years.
Here, now, God has set you up with a whole outfit--what are you goin'
to do with it?"

"That's what I don't know, Pearl," he said. "What can I do? Where can
I go where I'll be any real use?"

"You don't need to leave home, Bud," Pearl said; "you don't need to
be et up by cannibals to be a Christian. Stay right at home and go on
and work and do your work better than ever; just do it as if God
Himself was lookin' over your shoulder; and be that kind and gentle
that even the barn cats'll know who you're tryin' to be like. Earn
all the money you can, too, Bud. Do you know what I'm goin' to do
with my first money I earn? I'll be seventeen before I can teach, and
with the first money I get I'll send some to support a little girl in
India. She'll be called Pearl and I'll bring her up a Bible-woman."

"I'm all discouraged," Bud said.

Pearl leaned over the fence and said earnestly: "Bud, when I get
discouraged I take it as a sign that I haven't been keepin' prayed
up, and I go right at it and pray till I get feelin' fine. I'm goin'
to pray now."

She knelt down on her side of the fence. He did the same.

"Oh, God!" she said, "here's Bud all balled up in his mind, wantin'
to do right, but not knowin' how to go at it. I guess you've often
seen people like that, and know better how to go about strengthenin'
them up than I can tell You. Bud's all right of a boy, too, dear
Lord, when he gets a real grip on things. You should have seen him
wallop the daylight out of young Tom Steadman when he hit Lib Cavers.
I wasn't there; but they tell me is was something grand. Bless him
now, dear Lord, and never, never let go of Bud. Even if he lets go of
You, keep your grip on him. For the dear Saviour's sake, Amen."

They rose from their knees and shook hands silently through the
barbed wire.

"I wish I could believe as easy as you, Pearl," Bud said.

"Look over there, Bud," she cried, pointing to the little house
beside the bluff. The setting sun had caught the western windows and
lit them into flame. "It's just like that with any of us, Bud. That
old windy is all cracked and patched, but look how it shines when the
sun gets a full blaze on it. That's like us, Bud. We're