does it make for eternity? Then, he knew his own high temper and he
would not let himself go, for fear he should commit a sin - and he
hated sin with all his soul.

And then he recalled what our Lord had suffered for him, and he
said:

"If you will give me the courage to stand it, I'll be glad, Lord, to
suffer this much for You."

And that last was the reason why, in the midst of this real
persecution, he never lost his cheerfulness. More than that, he
never missed a chance to do Paul and his friends a good turn. He said:

"When men were treating our Lord worst, even killing Him, that was
when He was opening heaven for them. And I'm sure He would like me
to be kind as He was kind to those who treated Him meanly."

He did what he could to avoid annoying Paul. He kept out of
everybody's way when he wanted to pray. He used to wait at night
till the others were asleep, for they all slept in one great room
together, and then slip out of bed and on to his knees. Sometimes
his cousins, thinking it a great joke, would pretend to stumble over
him in the half-dark, and kick him as hard as they could.

And this went on for two years. He could have stopped the whole
matter with no trouble at all, by simply writing to his father. But
he never so much as hinted to any one at home of the way Paul and
Bilinski and his cousins treated him. He was as plucky as he was
gentle and forgiving. Although, for good reasons, he would not