ved in its value; and my
Sunday-School class soon learned the graces of fair play, how to take
defeat and to be generous in victory. They began at once bringing
"pals" whom my exegesis on Scripture would never have lured within my
reach. We ourselves began to look forward to Saturday night and Sunday
afternoon with an entirely new joy. We all learned to respect and so
to love one another more--indeed, lifelong friendships were developed
and that irrespective of our hereditary credal affiliations. The
well-meaning clergyman, however, could not see the situation in that
light, and declining all invitations to come and sample an evening's
fun instead of condemning it unheard, or I should say, unseen, he
delivered an ultimatum which I accepted--and resigned from his school.

My Australian friend was at that time wrestling with a real ragged
school on the Highway on Sunday afternoons. The poor children there
were street waifs and as wild as untamed animals. So, being
temporarily out of a Sunday job, I consented to join him.

Our school-room this time owed no allegiance to any one but
ourselves, and the work certainly proved a real labour of love. If the
boys were allowed in a minute before there was a force to cope with
them, the room would be wrecked. Everything movable was stolen
immediately opportunity arose. Boys turned out or locked out during
session would climb to the windows, and triumphantly wave stolen
articles. On one occasion when I had "chucked out" a specially
obstreperous youth, I was met with a shower of mud and stones as I
passed through a narrow alley on my return home. The police were
always at war with the boys, who annoyed them in similar and many
other ways. I remember two scholars whose eyes were blacked and badly
beaten by a "cop" who happened to catch them in our doorway, as they
declared, "only waiting for Sunday School to open." Old scores were
paid off by both parties whenever possible. My own boys did not stay
in the old school long after I left, but came and asked me to keep a
class on Sunday in our dining-room--an arrangement in which I gladly
acquiesced, though it involved my eventually abandoning the ragged
school, which was at least two miles distant.

With the night work at the lodging-houses, we used to combine a very
aggressive total abstinence campaign. The saloon-keepers as a rule
looked upon us as harmless cranks, and I have no doubt were grateful
for the leaflets we used to distrib