Miles away, Miss Elizabeth one day said to herself, "I don't believe
we can ever use that squash I brought home from those Portuguese!
But anyhow the squash made that Portuguese woman feel that she paid
for the Bible! I hope she reads it, poor soul!"

But Miss Elizabeth did not know the whole story of the squash of the
Esvidos, or of the message that the Biblia had brought to Delpha's
heart.




THE VERSE MARTIN READ.


Martin put his bare feet down through the thick dust of the country
road. It was warm summer, and he was used to going barefoot, even to
Sunday-school, from which he was now returning. Over the hot, dry
grass of the fields there swayed at frequent intervals the heads of
California wild oats. One such stem grew near the road, and Martin,
with a quick sweep of his hand, pulled off the wild oat heads and
went on through the dusty road, scattering the oats as he walked.
Martin was thinking.

"Teacher doesn't know how 'tis," he said. "I have to carry 'round
milk mornings and nights, and I have to go down to the barn to hunt
eggs, and I have to help pa about the stage horses, and sometimes I
have to ride the horses back to be shod, and I have to walk a mile
to day-school and back, and learn my lessons, and I'd like to know
how teacher thinks I've got much time to read the Bible some every