mercy and kindness is to be shown. Some poor little
outcast, no doubt, with no one to take care of it, and
so this grand woman brings it home to nurse and
educate. I wish there were more Jane Cobdens in
my parish. Many of you talk good deeds, and justice,
and Christian spirit; here is a woman who puts
them into practice."

This statement having been made during the dispersal
of a Wednesday night meeting, and in the hearing
of half the congregation, furnished the key to the
mystery, and so for a time the child and its new-
found mother ceased to be an active subject of discussion.

Ann Gossaway, however, was not satisfied. The
more she thought of the pastor's explanation the
more she resented it as an affront to her intelligence.

"If folks wants to pick up stray babies," she
shouted to her old mother on her return home one
night, "and bring 'em home to nuss, they oughter
label 'em with some sort o' pedigree, and not keep
the village a-guessin' as to who they is and where
they come from. I don't believe a word of this outcast
yarn. Guess Miss Lucy is all right, and she
knows enough to stay away when all this tomfoolery's
goin' on. She doesn't want to come back to a child's
nussery." To all of which her mother nodded her
head, keeping it going like a toy mandarin long
after the subject of discussion had been changed.