face showed that he had spoken truly when he said that
he was glad, even though he did work on the hard, alkali clods.

"I wish I were like Neil," thought Claude.

The wish grew. It changed into an earnest prayer, not that he might
be like Neil, but a prayer for the same blessing that Neil had--a
new heart. No earnest prayer for that gift is ever met by a refusal.
Neil watched Claude anxiously, as they worked day by day.

"We can't change ourselves, any more than this alkali plot can
change itself," said Neil, "but we can yield ourselves and our life
to the blessed Jesus and love him, for he is love."

One day, Claude said softly, "I've done it, Neil. I've given myself
to Jesus."

The face of the hired man glowed with added happiness through the
toiling days that followed. When the alkali clods were broken and
plowed, gypsum was scattered on the land and harrowed in. Then water
was turned on and allowed to stand several inches deep over the
alkali plot. The water stood for several weeks. Gradually it soaked
through the soil and passed out into the drainage pit. After several
soakings, alternating with breaking of clods and treatment with
gypsum, the former alkali patch was given some seed. How the men
watched the land day after day, and how the first green sprouts of
corn were hailed! The alkali patch was changed. Cousin Harriet was
rejoiced.

"There's so much land saved," she said. "It's a great change."

Neil listened to the words as in a parable. He was thinking of a
greater change. He was rejoicing over the boy of the household.

Months had gone by. One day there was a joyful outcry at the
farm-house. The little girls rushed out to meet their father. With him
was their mother's sister, Aunt Jennie, with her husband and little
boy.

Claude was on the ranch at work, and did not hear the joyful outcry
at first.

He was not aware of the new-comers, till his father and the two
little girls rushed where Claude was working, and the boy's father
caught him in a close embrace.

"Come and see Aunt Jennie," his father said to Claude.

"She-she looks like, mamma," whispered Rose tremulously, and Claude
came somewhat bashfully into the house.

There he saw a woman whose face did indeed look, like his mother's,
and he felt mother-arms put around him. He heard a voice like his
mother's say, "Is this my boy?" He felt a warm teardrop on his
cheek, and he knew that Aunt Jennie understood and cared for boys,
and that