nt you to
be glad and proud to know me. And you shall be; you shall be; 'gad you
sha'n't be able to help it. And you'll find as you know me better that
while you won't know any great good of me, you won't know any great
harm."

Billy contemplated Mr. Wrangler for a few moments more, and then amiably
replied: "Well, that's all right. What more could a man ask?"

"Precisely so," answered Mr. Wrangler, dusting off the anvil and sitting
down upon it. "That, I take it, is quite enough. I have not broken in
upon your privacy, Warlock, old fellow, without serious occasion. In
fact, I'm troubled--sorely troubled."

"I'm sorry for that," said Billy.

"Of course you are, dear boy, and well you may be. The trouble I'm in is
a sad one--sad and novel. Not that trouble in itself is a strange
experience to me, for I've had my ups and downs. My life hasn't been one
of unmixed gayety, I assure you, not by a long shot. But, you see, I
have a habit of bowing to the inscrutable will of Providence. Some
people experience a great deal of difficulty finding out what the
inscrutable will of Providence is. That doesn't bother me in the least.
Having ascertained what my own will is, I know the chances are ten to
one that the Providential will is exactly the reverse. That is simple
and direct enough, isn't it?"

Billy was very much interested in this glib but melancholy stranger, and
he resolved, if it came in his way, that he would do the man a favor. So
he turned his hammer with the handle to the ground, sat himself upon the
head of it, and remarked: "It's right enough, Mr. Wrangler, to make the
Lord's will yours. I try to do my best in that line too. But still,
there is a point, you know, where it comes hard."

"True, dear boy, very true; and how much harder it is to find yourself
in a situation which you did nothing to bring about, for which you are
in no sense responsible, which is wholly in conflict with your own
will, and to the best of your belief with the will of Providence also!
This is my unparalleled situation at this particular moment, and it all
comes of being the uncle of a little girl baby."

"No?" said Billy inquiringly, "you don't mean it?"

"I knew you'd be surprised," said Mr. Wrangler, edging up to the forge,
which Billy had kept going at a gentle heat to warm their hands now and
then. "It ought to be an occasion of unalloyed happiness to be the uncle
of a little girl baby. But I was not intended for such a position.