d me clean o'er. I never knowed till
now as it were real."

"As a little child!" said Father Thomas to himself, as he went back to
Lincoln. "The road into the kingdom will be far smoother for him than
her. Yet the good Lord can lead them both there."

The very next visit that Dan paid to Avice and Bertha showed them
plainly that a change of some sort had come over him, and as time went
on they saw it still more plainly. His heart had opened to the love of
Christ like a flower to the sunlight. The moment that he really saw
Him, he accepted Him. With how many is it not the case that they do not
love Christ because they do not know Him, and they do not know Him
because no one of those who do puts Him plainly before them?

It was much longer before Father Thomas and Avice saw any fruit of their
prayers for Filomena. There was so much more to undo in her case than
in her husband's, that the growth was a great deal slower and less
apparent. Avice discovered that Dan's complaints were fewer, but she
set it down entirely to the change in himself, long before she noticed
that Filomena's voice was less sharp, and her fats of fury less
frequent. But at length the day came when Filomena, having been
betrayed into a very mild copy of one of her old storms of temper, would
suddenly catch herself up and walk determinately out of the back door
till she grew cool: and when she came back would lay her hand upon her
husband's shoulder, and say--

"Dan, old man, I'm sorry I was bad to thee. Forgive me!"

And Dan, at first astounded beyond measure, grew to accept this
conclusion as a matter of course, and to say--

"Let her alone, and she'll come round."

And then Avice's eyes were opened.

One day, when she was unusually softened by the death of Susanna's baby,
Filomena opened her heart to her niece.

"Eh, Avice, it's hard work! Nobody knows how hard, that hasn't had a
temper as mastered 'em. I've pretty nigh to bite my tongue through,
many a time a day. I wish I'd begun sooner--I do! It'd ha' come easier
a deal then. But I'm trying hard, and I hope our Lord'll help me. Thou
does think He'll help me, doesn't thou, Avice? I'm not too bad, am I?"

"Father Thomas says, Aunt," replied Avice, "that God helps all those who
want His help: and the worse we are, the more we want of His mercy."

"That's true!" said Filomena.

"And Father Thomas says," continued Avice, "that we must all go to our
Lord just like little c