"I'll earn 'em," said the cobbler, with a savage dash of his awl which
one of his fingers barely escaped.

"But suppose you can't; suppose trade slackens, or Larry takes a notion
to a new helper."

"Then I'll beg, rather than have 'em suffer."

"And if folks won't give?"

"Then my folks'll have to go without."

"In spite of your new, loving, strong friend,--your Saviour? If He's
all you take Him to be, aren't you sure He'll look out for your
family?"

"Mr. Bartram," said the cobbler, resting for a moment, and
straightening his weary back, "if I was in trouble,--been doin'
somethin' wrong, for instance, an' was hauled into court, an' had you
for my lawyer,--though of course I couldn't expect to have so smart a
man,--I'd ort to believe that you'd do everythin' that could be done
an' ort to be done, ortn't I?"

"Certainly, Sam, certainly," said the lawyer, with his customary
professional look of assurance.

"But I wouldn't know all about it in advance, would I? Even if you was
to tell me all you meant to do an' how you'd do it, I couldn't take it
in. If I could, I'd be just as smart as you,--the idee!--an' wouldn't
need you at all."

Both suppositions were so wildly improbable that the lawyer indulged in
a sarcastic smile.

"Well, then," continued Sam, "here's somebody helpin' me more than any
man ever could,--somebody that's smarter than any lawyer livin'. I
s'pose you'll own up to that?"

The idea that any being, natural or supernatural, could be wiser than
one of the Bartrams was not pleasing to the lawyer, when suggested so
abruptly, but it was conceded, after a moment of thought, by a
condescending nod of the head.

"Then," Sam continued, "how am I goin' to be supposed to know all that
He's doin' an' not doin' for me, an' when He's goin' to do somethin'
else, or whether He's goin' to do it at all. If I was as smart as a
lawyer, I wouldn't need one; if I was as smart an' good as Him that's
lookin' after me, there wouldn't need to be any God or Saviour, would
there?"

"Then you are satisfied He is God and Saviour, eh? Some wiser men have
believed differently."

"I only know what I was told an' what I've read for myself, sir. The
man that put me up to it told me not to try to believe everythin' that
everybody else did, but to believe as much as I could an' live up to
it, bein' extra particular about the livin' up."

"But you ought to know something--have some distinct idea--as to whom
you're belie