myself putting it in pawn, so I said I'd take it. But "there's many a
slip 'twixt the cup and lip," and there was a strange slip in my case.

The young fellow said, "Don't you think you had better have a bath?"
Well, I did need a bath for fair. A man sleeping in one bed one night
and a different one the next, walking the streets and sitting around on
park benches, gets things on him, and they are grandparents in a couple
of nights. Of course I needed a bath! I was a walking menagerie! He gave
me some money, and I went out and had a bath and came back with the
change. He showed me where I could change my clothes, and there was a
whole outfit laid out for me, underwear and all.

I thought the man was crazy. I could not understand. At last I got into
the clothes, and I felt fine. I got a look at myself in the glass, and I
looked like a full-fledged Bowery politician. I said as I looked, "Is
this me or some other fellow?" I weighed one hundred and ninety pounds
and was five feet ten inches tall.

I went into the young man's study and sat down. I did not know what was
coming next, perhaps money. I was ready for anything, for I took him for
a millionaire's son.

Up to this time he had said nothing to me about God. Finally he opened
up and asked my name. I told him Dave Ranney, but I had a few others to
use in a pinch. And I told him the truth; kindness had won.

He said, "Dave, why are you leading such a life? Don't you know you were
cut out for a far better one?" I was no fool; I knew all about that. I
had learned it in Sunday-school, and how often mother had told me the
same thing. I knew I was put into the world to get the best, and glorify