can never forget the look in his eyes as I put him in
the water and held him to put down the bucket. There are things a person
goes through that make perfect happiness forever impossible. There are
hours that stay."

The face of the soldier's daughter was wet. "I love you for it, Ann," she
whispered. "I love you for it. It was strong, Ann. It was fine."

"I wasn't very strong and fine the minute it was over," sobbed Ann.
"I fainted. They found me there. And then I screamed and laughed and
said I was going to kill all the dogs in the world. I said--oh,
dreadful things."

"They should have understood," murmured Kate.

"They didn't. They said I was wicked. They said the Evil One had entered
into me. They said I must pray God to forgive me for having killed one of
his creatures! Me--!

"Of course it ended in Bible verses. Is it so strange I _loathed_ the
Bible? And every morning I had to hear myself prayed for as a wicked girl
who would harm one of God's creatures. The Almighty was implored not to
send me to Hell. 'Send me there if you want to,' I'd say to myself on my
knees, 'Tono's not in Hell, anyway.'"

Ann laughed bitterly. "So that's why I'm a sacrilegious, blasphemous
person who doesn't care much about hearing about God. I associate Him
with thin lips that shut together tight-and people who make long
prayers and break little dogs' hearts--and with boots--and souls--that
squeak. I can't think of one single thing I ever heard about Him that
made me like Him."

"Oh, Ann dear!" protested Katie shudderingly.

"Try not to think such things. Try not to feel that way. You haven't
heard everything there is to hear about God. You haven't heard any of it
in the right way."

"Perhaps not. I only know what I have heard." And Ann's face was too
white and hard for Katie to say more.

"And your mother, dear? Where was she all this time? Didn't she love
you--and help?"

"She died when I was twelve. She'd like to have loved me. She did some on
the sly--in a scared kind of way."

Katie sat there contemplating the picture of Ann's father and mother and
Ann--_Ann_, as child of that union.

"I think she died because life frightened her so. In a year my father
married again. _She_ isn't afraid of anything. She's a God-fearing,
exemplary woman. And she always looks to see if you have any mud on
your shoes."

After a moment Ann said quietly: "I hate her."

"So would I," said Katie, and it brought the ghost of a smile to