strangers. Would little Sue, grown to big Sue, say some time or other,
"My mother renounced the world for herself, but what right had she to
renounce it for me? Why did she rob me of the dreams of girlhood and the
natural hopes of women, when I was too young to give consent?" These and
other unanswerable questions continually drifted through Susanna's mind,
disturbing its balance and leaving her like a shuttlecock bandied to and
fro between conflicting blows.

"Mardie," came a soft little voice from across the room; "Mardie, what
is a backslider?"

"Where did you hear that long word, Sue?" asked Susanna, rousing herself
from her dream.

"'Tisn't so long as 'regenerating' and more easier."

"Regenerating means 'making over,' you know."

"There'd ought to be children's words and grown-up words,--that's what
_I_ think," said Sue, decisively; "but what does 'backslider' mean?"

"A backslider is one who has been climbing up a hill and suddenly begins
to slip back."

"Doesn't his feet take hold right, or why does he slip?"

"Perhaps he can't manage his feet; perhaps they just won't climb."

"Yes, or p'raps he just doesn't want to climb any more; but it must be
frightensome, sliding backwards."

"I suppose it is."

"Is it wicked?"

"Why, yes, it is, generally; perhaps always."

"Brother Nathan and Sister Hetty were backsliders; Sister Tabitha said
so. She told Jane never to speak their names again any more than if they
was dead."

"Then you had better not speak of them, either."

"There's so many things better not to speak of in the world, sometimes I
think 'twould be nicer to be an angel."

"Nicer, perhaps, but one has to be very good to be an angel."

"Backsliders couldn't be angels, I s'pose?"

"Not while they were backsliders; but perhaps they'd begin to climb
again, and then in time they might grow to be angels."

"I shouldn't think likely," remarked Sue, decisively, clicking her
needles as one who could settle most spiritual problems in a jiffy. "I
think the sliding kind is diff'rent from the climbing kind, and they
don't make easy angels."

A long pause followed this expression of opinion, this simple division
of the human race, at the start, into sheep and goats. Then presently
the untiring voice broke the stillness again.

"Nathan and Hetty slid back when they went away from here. Did we
backslide when we left Fardie and Jack?"

"I'm not sure but that we did," said poor Susanna.

"There'