The second paper, which the old man now held long before him, was partly
printed and partly written with a lead-pencil, whose mark was now faint
and now heavy, as having gone at intervals to the writer's lips. As the
old man read, his face lost not a little of its grimness.

"BEARS

"It teaches the lord thy God is baldheaded. I ask my deer father what it
teeches he said it teeches who ever wrot that storry was baldheaded. He
says a man with thik long hair like my deer father would of said o let the
kids have their fun with old Elisha so I ask my deer mother who wrot this
lesson she said God wrot the holy word so that is how we know God is
baldheaded. It was a lot of children for only two 2 bears. I liked to of
ben there if the bears wold of known that I was a good child. mabe I cold
of ben on a high fense or up a tree. I climd the sor aple tree in our back
yard esy.

"By Bernal Linford, aged neerly 8 yrs."

Carefully he put back both papers with the mother's letter, his dark face
showing all its intricate net-work of lines in a tension that was both
pained and humorous.

Two fresh souls were given to his care to be made, please God, the means
of grace by which thousands of other souls might be washed clean of the
stain of original sin. Yet, if revolt was there--revolt like his
daughter's and like his own? Would he forgive as his own father had
forgiven, who had called him back after many years to live out a tranquil
old age on the fortune that father's father had founded? He mused long on
this. The age was lax--true, but God's law was never lax. If one would