rough her illness, whose
cheering words did me a wonderful lot of good. One thing she said was,
"Trust." God bless her!

A TESTING TIME

My old friend the Devil was in evidence during this hard time in all his
pomp and glory. I could hear him say, "You see how God treats you! He
don't care much or He wouldn't have taken Mary away. What did He do it
for? Why, He don't know you even a little bit. Come, Dan, I'll be your
friend; didn't we always have a good time together on the Bowery? Go get
a 'ball'; it'll do you good and make you forget your troubles. You have
a good excuse even if any one sees you." I was tempted, but I said, "Not
this time, you old Devil: get behind my back!" People said, "Keep your
eye on Ranney; he's up against it; now he will start to drink and go
down and out."

I'm going to tell you how God came and helped me in my hour of need. It
was the day of the funeral, the 17th of March, 1902. The people who were
helping had gone home to get ready to attend the service, and my boy and
I were left all alone with the dead. We were feeling pretty bad. My boy
had lost the best friend he ever had or would have in this world. Some
fathers are all right and love their children, but it isn't like a
mother's love. No wonder he was weeping and feeling badly.

We were walking about the room saying nothing, just thinking, and
wondering what would happen next. We happened to meet just at the head
of the casket (God's doing), and stood there as though held by some
unseen power, when my boy opens up like this: "Pop, you don't want me to
smoke any cigarettes, do you?" I looked at him, astonished at such a
question at this time, but I said, "No, Willie, I don't want you to
smoke and hope you never will." Then he said, "Father, you don't want
me to drink, do you?" I wondered at these questions, and looked at him
with tears in my eyes. I said, "No, Bill, my poor boy, I would rather
see you dead and in your coffin beside your poor mother, and know you
were going to be buried to-day, than to know you would ever drink or be
like your father was. Bill, don't you ever take the first glass of beer
or whiskey! Ask God to keep you from it."

I wondered what was coming next, but I didn't have to wait long. The boy
said, "The people are watching you and say you won't come back from the
grave without having a drink, and that you won't be sober a week from
now. Pop, trust in the God that saved you ten years ago, won't you? You
k