s going to corner me up
and catch me in something--just that gentle, indifferent way that fools
a person so, and leads him into the trap, he never noticing which way he
is traveling until he is in and the door shut on him. He enjoyed that.
I knew he was going to drop corn along in front of Joan now. Joan
answered:

"Yes, father."

"Did you hang them on the tree?"

"No, father."

"Didn't hang them there?"

"No."

"Why didn't you?"

"I--well, I didn't wish to."

"Didn't wish to?"

"No, father."

"What did you do with them?"

"I hung them in the church."

"Why didn't you want to hang them in the tree?"

"Because it was said that the fairies were of kin to the Fiend, and that
it was sinful to show them honor."

"Did you believe it was wrong to honor them so?"

"Yes. I thought it must be wrong."

"Then if it was wrong to honor them in that way, and if they were of
kin to the Fiend, they could be dangerous company for you and the other
children, couldn't they?"

"I suppose so--yes, I think so."

He studied a minute, and I judged he was going to spring his trap, and
he did. He said:

"Then the matter stands like this. They were banned creatures, of
fearful origin; they could be dangerous company for the children. Now
give me a rational reason, dear, if you can think of any, why you call
it a wrong to drive them into banishment, and why you would have saved
them from it. In a word, what loss have you suffered by it?"

How stupid of him to go and throw his case away like that! I could have
boxed his ears for vexation if he had been a boy. He was going along all
right until he ruined everything by winding up in that foolish and fatal
way. What had she lost by it! Was he never going to find out what kind
of a child Joan of Arc was? Was he never going to learn that things
which merely concerned her own gain or loss she cared nothing about?
Could he never get the simple fact into his head that the sure way and
the only way to rouse her up and set her on fire was to show her where
some other person was going to suffer wrong or hurt or loss? Why, he had
gone and set a trap for himself--that was all he had accomplished.

The minute those words were out of his mouth her temper was up, the
indignant tears rose in her eyes, and she burst out on him with an
energy and passion which astonished him, but didn't astonish me, for I
knew he had fired a mine when he touched off his ill-chosen climax.

"Oh, father,