had in them the elements of decency, order and religion. Those elements
only needed proper opportunities for development. He purposed giving
Nickie the opportunities. He needed a handy man about the house; Nickie
was to have the job. He would be expected to bathe every day, to shave
every day, and observe the decencies of the well-ordered home.

"And you are prepared to believe you can reform me?" said Nickie the Kid.

"I am not only prepared to believe it--I am determined to believe it,"
said the young clergyman, thumping the table.

Nickie smiled again. "I submit myself to the experiment" he said, "but
promise nothing. I don't think you will succeed. Your intentions are
good, but mine are not, and it takes two to make a bargain."

Nickie entered his new duties at once. After lunch he took a shovel into
the garden and toyed with the earth a while, and then he went to sleep
under a tree. The Rev. Nippit awakened him and talked with him in a firm
but kindly spirit on the virtues of honest dealings with one's employer,
and the necessity of industry to keep the world wagging, Nickie'
graciously admitted that it was all very true. But when set to clean out
the fowl-house he sat on a stone and held converse with an educated
cockatoo next door.

That evening, clean-shaven, freshly-bathed, dressed in a cast-off suit of
James Nippit's, whole if slightly rusty, and robbed of its clerical
significance, Nickie the Kid attended a religions function with his
reverend employer. Nickie was orderly, wakeful and fairly attentive. When
the plate came round he put threepence in, but he took a shilling out. It
was a useful trick, taught him by an expert in the art of rigging the