"This is Sam Kimper's," explained the cobbler.

"Just where I was told to come," said the farmer, tossing out the last
sticks and stretching his arms to rest upon them.

"Who was it told you to bring it?" asked the resident.

The farmer stooped and took a large package from the front of the wagon
and threw it on the ground; then he threw another.

"Won't you tell me who sent it?" Sam asked again.

The farmer turned his head and shouted,--

"God Almighty, if you must know; and He told me to bring that bag of
flour and shoulder of bacon, too."

Then the farmer drove off, at a gait quite unusual in farm-teams.

The cobbler burst into tears and fell upon his knees. When he arose he
looked in the direction from which came the rattle of the retreating
wheels, and said to himself,--

"I wonder if that man was converted in the penitentiary?"

The story, when Sam told it in the house, amazed the family, though
little Mary giggled long on hearing the name of the supposed giver. No
sooner was supper ended than the child slipped out of the house and
hurried to the hotel to tell her sister Jane all about it. Within half
an hour the story had passed, through the usual channels, to all