ve those who have wronged
you, you ought to see how ready God is to forgive."

He fairly started to his feet so vividly the truth came home to him,
illumined, as it was, by a recent and personal experience. After a
moment, he slowly sat down again and said, with a long breath, "That
was a close shot, Alida."

"I only wish you to have the trust and comfort which this truth should
bring you," she said. "It seems a pity you should do yourself needless
injustice when you are willing to do what is right and kind by others."

"It's all a terrible muddle, Alida. If God is so ready to forgive, how
do you account for all the evil and suffering in the world?"

"I don't account for it and can't. I'm only one of his little
children; often an erring one, too. You've been able to forgive grown
people, your equals, and strangers in a sense. Suppose you had a
little boy that had done wrong, but said he was sorry, would you hold a
grudge against him?"

"The idea! I'd be a brute."

She laughed softly as she asked again, "don't you see?"

He sat looking thoughtfully away across the fields for a long time, and
finally asked, "Is your idea of becoming a Christian just being
forgiven like a child and then trying to do right?"

"Yes. Why not?"

"Well," he remarked, with a grim laugh. "I didn't expect to be cornered
in this way."

"You who are truthful should face the truth. It would make you
happier. A good deal that was unexpected has happened. When I look
out on a scene like this and think that I am safe and at home, I feel
that God has been very good to me and that you have, too. I can't bear
to think that you have that old trouble on your mind--the feeling that
you had been a Christian once, but was not one now. Being sure that
there is no need of your continuing to feel so, what sort of return
would I be making for all your kindness if I did not try to show you
what is as clear to me as this sunshine?"

"You are a good woman, Alida. Believing as you do, you have done right
to speak to me, and I never believed mortal lips could speak so to the
purpose. I shall think of what you have said, for you have put things
in a new light. But say, Alida, what on earth possesses you to call me
'Mr.'? You don't need to be scared half to death every time to call me
by my first name, do you?"

"Scared? Oh, no!" She was a trifle confused, he thought, but then her
tone was completely reassuring.

The day was one long remem