d be a sin for us to sleep under
the same roof. Mother did not object, either. She was glad to see him
go. Our preacher preached a sermon on it and said my father did right.
I'm sorry you believe as you do, but won't you promise me not to say
anything about it while you are here?"

"I'll promise you anything on earth you ask." John sat up straight. Her
little hand was still on his knee. He yearned to take it into his
calloused grasp and fondle into it his assurances of compliance with her
desires. "I don't object to any man's religion unless it rubs against my
rights as a man," he went on. "These church folks here may be better
than any I've run across, but down home the breed doesn't suit me. Why,
when I was a little fellow in the public school I've had them--women and
men--invite other boys to go to Christmas-tree parties, Sunday-school
festivals, or picnics, and leave me out. They would do it right before
my face, as if I was the very dirt under their feet. A thing like that
would be noticed by a little boy who wonders why he can't go along with
the rest."

"I didn't know there were such church members as that anywhere," Tilly
said, thoughtfully. "Oh, I see. I wonder if your folks are Catholics?"

"No. My father is dead. My mother doesn't go to any church."

"Oh, that's odd. Not any at all?"

"No. I guess she is like me. She doesn't know any of the members or care
a hill of beans about them. Why did you ask if we were Catholics?"

"Because Catholics are looked down on so much around here. If you had
said you were one, I was going to ask you not to mention that to my
father, either. The greatest trouble my family ever had came through the
Catholics. You see, I had a brother. He died five years ago. He was a
professing member of our church, and father was awfully proud of him
because he was a fine exhorter at revivals. When he wasn't more than
sixteen my brother actually preached in public, though he wasn't
ordained. They called him 'the boy wonder' and many people were
converted under him."

"I've seen his sort," John said, reflectively. "They had one down our
way, a sissy of a chap, that women fairly went crazy over, but you say
your brother died."

"Yes, but not before he caused us that great trouble," Tilly went on.
"It was this way. Father's chief ambition was to have him preach, and
when he was about twenty, and after father had saved and stinted to put
him through the Methodist seminary, an Irish family