ant voice all the time. Julia
Cloud sat apparently reading, watching the little byplay, and praying
that God would strengthen the young heart.

"Dear Moses!" she murmured with a smile on her lips as the front door
banged behind the children and she was left reading alone.

Two hours later the two returned full of enthusiasm. Leslie was
brimming over.

"O Cloudy, we're going to give this sleepy old town the surprise of a
lifetime! We're going to have a grand time to-morrow night, just
getting all the members together and doping it out what to do. And you
ought to hear Allison talk! He's just like a man! He made a wonderful
speech telling them how they ought to get together, and everybody do
teamwork and all that, like they do in football; and they asked him to
make it over again to-morrow night, and he's going to!"

Leslie's eyes were shining with pride, and she looked at her brother
lovingly. He flushed embarrassedly.

"Well, what could you do, Cloudy? There they were sitting like a lot
of boobs, and nobody knowing what to do except that Jane Bristol.
She's the only sensible one of the bunch, and they don't listen to
her. They made me mad, ignoring her suggestions the way they did; so I
had to speak up and say she was right; and I guess I talked a lot more
when I got started, because she really had the right dope, all right,
and they ought to have had sense enough to know it. She's been in this
work before, and been to big State conventions and things. Say,
Cloudy, that Christian Endeavor stuff must be a pretty big thing. It
seems to have members all over the world, and it's really a kind of
international fraternity. I rather like their line. It's stiff all
right, but that's the only way if you're going into a thing like
that."

"And how did the praying go?" asked Julia Cloud, watching her boy's
handsome, eager face as he talked.

"All right," he evaded reticently.

"_He_ prayed, Cloudy!" announced Leslie proudly. "It was _regular_!"

"Well, what could a fellow do?" said Allison apologetically, as if he
had done something he was half ashamed of. "That poor girl prayed
something wonderful, and then they all sat and sat like a parcel of
boobs until you could feel her cheeks getting red, and nobody opening
their mouths; so I started in. I didn't know what to say, but I
thought somebody ought to say something. I did the best I knew how."

"It was regular, Cloudy!" repeated Leslie with shining eyes.

"Well, it