believed, the best? Should the cobbler's fall be hastened, Bartram
would make it right; indeed, he would volunteer in his defense the
first time he should again be arrested for fighting or stealing.

But his plan did not work. Day after day he had made excuses to drop
into the cobbler's shop and worry the ex-convict into a discussion, but
not once did he depart without a sense of defeat. As he said to
himself,--

"What can be done with a man who only believes, and won't argue or go
to the bottom of things? It's confoundedly ridiculous."

During his last visit, he said,--

"Sam, if the power you profess to believe in can really work such a
change as you think He has done in you, He ought to be able to do
almost anything else. Don't you think so?"

"That I do," said the cobbler, working away.

"You believe He has power to any extent, I suppose?"

"You're right again, Mr. Bartram."

"Of course you think he loves you dearly?"

"I'm ashamed to think it,--that any such bein' should love a
good-for-nothin' feller like me. But what else can I think, Mr.
Bartram, after all that's gone on in me, an' what He's said Himself?"