pped these roads before."

"And no such girl ever travelled them," said my mother, folding her
hands one over the other on top of a post of the hitching rack. "I
must say I don't know how this is coming out, and it troubles me."

"Why, what's up?" asked Laddie, covering her hands with his and looking
her in the eyes.

"Just this," said my mother. "She's more beautiful of face and form
than God ought to allow any woman to be, in mercy to the men who will
be forced to meet her. Her speech is highly cultured. Her manners are
perfect, and that is a big and unusual thing in a girl of her age.
Every word she said, every move she made to-day, was exactly as I would
have been proud to hear, and to see a daughter of mine speak and move.
If I had only myself to consider, I would make her my friend, because
I'm seasoned in the ways of the world, and she could influence me only
as I chose to allow her. With you youngsters it is different. You'll
find her captivating, and you may let her ways sway you without even
knowing it. All these outward things are not essential; they are
pleasing, I grant, but they have nothing to do with the one big,
elemental fact that a Godless life is not even half a life. I never
yet have known any man or woman who attempted it who did not waste
life's grandest opportunities, and then come crawling and defeated to
the foot of the cross in the end, asking God's mercy where none was
deserved or earned. It seems to me a craven way. I know all about the
forgiveness on the cross! I know God is big enough and merciful enough
to accept even death-bed repentance, but what is that to compare with
laying out your course and running it a lifetime without swerving? I
detest and distrust this infidel business. I want no child of mine
under its influence, or in contact with it."

"But when your time comes, if you said just those things to hers and
won her, what a triumph, little mother!"

"'If!'" answered mother. "That's always the trouble! One can't be
sure! 'If' I knew I could accomplish that, I would get on my knees and
wrestle with the Lord for the salvation of the soul of a girl like
that, not to mention her poor, housebound mother, and that man with the
unhappiest face I ever have seen, her father. It's worth trying, but
suppose I try and fail, and at the same time find that in bringing her
among us she has influenced some of mine to the loss of their immortal
souls then, what will I have d