has taught me very much about them."

"Of course not, sir; that I might know. Of course I didn't mean
anything of that kind. But I sometimes wonder whether gentlemen like
you, that was born respectable an' always was decent, an' has had the
best of company all your lives, an' never had any bad habits, can know
what an awful hole some of us poor common fellows sometimes get down
into, an' don't seem to know how to get out of. I s'pose, sir, there
must have been lots of folks of that kind when Jesus was around on the
world alive: don't you think so?"

"No doubt, no doubt," said the minister, looking into his hat as if
with his eyes he was trying to make some notes for remarks on the
succeeding Sunday.

"You know, sir, that in what's written about Him they have a good deal
to say about the lots of attention that He gave to the poor. I s'pose,
if poor folks was then like they are now, most of them was that way
through some faults of their own; because every body in this town that
behaves himself an' always behaved himself manages to get along well
enough. It does seem to me, sir, that He must have gone about among
folks a good deal like me."

"That view of the matter never occurred to me," said the reverend
gentleman, "and yet possibly there is a great deal to it. You know, Mr.
Kimper, that was a long time ago. There was very little education in
those times, and the people among whom He moved were captives of a
stronger nation, and they seem to have been in a destitute and troubled
condition."