less man before her
and the haggard, broken convict whom she had befriended that night was
greater by far than Phil even could have imagined.

Fortunately for his peace of mind, a sudden cry from the stable burst
in on the momentary quietness.

Eileen turned her head quickly, then she ran over to her father
anxiously and held his arms.

"Dad,--what is that?"

"Hush, dearie!--it's Hanson."

"But--but where is he?" she asked.

"In the barn, tied up good and tight,--quite safe."

"But it isn't right, daddy, to tie a man up like that. He's not a
beast, and he's a kind-hearted decent fellow when he is well."

"When he is well, Eilie,--yes! But he isn't well. Better for him that
we tie him up for a day every once in a while, than confine him in a
lunatic asylum for the term of his natural life. That is what would
have to be otherwise."

"Don't you think he might be better now, daddie?" she pleaded.

"Yes!--I guess he is getting pretty nearly wised up now. He has
stopped his swearing and yelling. That's a good sign. That last cry of
his was the first for half an hour. You run along home, girlie, and
Phil and I will go in and see how he is."

"You won't keep him tied up there all night, dad?"

"Not unless I can't help it, Eilie."

She pouted and stamped her foot impatiently.

"I just won't go home till you tell me for sure. I couldn't sleep if
I thought a man was roped up all night like he is now."

Her father smiled indulgently.

"Foolish little woman! You sleep other nights, yet every minute of the
days and nights you live there are men all over the world who, both
literally and metaphorically, are chained, and roped, and lashed, and
dungeoned; men whose lives are a racking agony, to whom day and night
are alike--all night--men who have no prospect of relief to-morrow,
whose only release is death, and the release they long and pray for
seems never to come. And many of them are men who have done no wrong,
unless it be wrong to offend a potentate, to have an opinion of your
own, to have the courage to express it; to object to laws and customs
which should have been scrapped a thousand years ago.

"Hanson there knows his weakness. He has asked and begged us, in his
sober moments, to be sure to do this very thing to him as a personal
kindness. To-morrow his heart will be flooding with gratitude to know
that he has got through with it without doing anyone any harm."

"Yes, daddie, yes! But won't you go to se