sperit of the Lord."

"The spirit of the Lord had nothing to do with it," interrupted the
other fiercely. "If there is any such influence at work in this world
as the preachers tell of, why has it not prevented me from being a
thief? Why did it not prevent me from doing what I did and being what
I was in my youth,--me, whose mother was an angel and whose father was
a patriarch? No, it was nothing under God's heavens, old man, but your
invitation scrawled with a coal on a bit of birch bark inviting anyone
in these woods who needed victuals and clothes and a right spirit to
come to your cabin on Christmas day; and had you written nothing else
I would not have cared a cuss for it or for you, but you did write
something else, and it was this: 'Vagabonds included in this invite.'

"When I read that, old man, my breath left me and I stood and stared
at the letters on that bark as a devil might gaze at a pardon signed
with the seal manual of the Almighty, for in my hand was a trap that
bore the stamp 'J. N.' and the skin of an otter I had taken from the
trap. And there I stood, a thief and a scoundrel, with your property
in my hands and read your invitation to all the needy in the woods to
come to your cabin on Christmas day and that vagabonds were
included."

"That meant you, by thunder!" exclaimed Wild Bill.

"Yes, it did mean me," returned Shanty Jim, "and I knew it. Standing
there in the snow with the stolen skin and trap in my hand, I realized
what I was and what John Norton was and the difference between him and
myself and most of the world. I went to the tree to which the bark
that bore the blessed letters was nailed; I took it down from the
tree; I placed it next my bosom and buttoned my coat above it and,
thus resting upon my heart, I bore it to my shanty."

"It was as good as a Bible to you," said Wild Bill.

"A Bible!" rejoined the man with emphasis. "Better than all Bibles.
Better than churches and preachers, better than formal texts and
utterances, for that bit of bark told me of a man here in the woods
good enough and big enough to forgive and forget. All that night I sat
and gazed at that piece of bark and the writing on it, and as I gazed
my heart melted within me. For there it was ever before my
eyes--'Vagabonds included in this invite.' 'Vagabonds included in this
invite.' And finally the words passed into the air, and wherever I
looked I saw, 'Vagabonds included in this invite.'"

"Yis, them be the v