se from the rounded white throat and
the girl threw herself bootless upon the floor, and screamed in
passionate childish sorrow, the wealth of disheveled hair mantling the
dirty jacket, and covering the woful face.

Neither the professor nor Tessibel heard the hurrying footsteps upon the
stone floor in the prison corridor, but Tess, still in the frenzy of her
new grief, heard her name spoken through a maze:

"Tessibel Skinner!" And then again: "Tessibel Skinner!"

The squatter raised a pale, tear-streaked face to Frederick Graves. She
sat up with a painful flush, drawing the bare legs closely under the wet
skirt. The student spoke again:

"Tessibel Skinner has forgotten that God rules and is just. Have your
prayers proven nothing to you?"

Tessibel gazed scarlet and embarrassed, into Frederick's face, her under
lip quivering. The red head sank slowly down, and the exhausted child
wept as only a hurt child can weep.

"I were a-goin' with him," she cried between her sobs, "I could have
washed dishes in the prison--to be near Daddy. I air such a lonely Tess
'out him in the hut."

The student lifted her gently in his arms and seated her in the wooden
chair. With the tenderness of a brother, he placed the great boots once
more upon the girl's feet, and Tessibel was ready to start again upon
her long tramp through the row of huts to her shanty home.

The tears had ceased to flow, and with bowed head she was hanging upon
every word the student uttered. Professor Young went quietly out,
unheeded by either girl or boy.

"No one blames you for your grief, child, at being obliged to leave your
father," Frederick said huskily. "But are you going to take off the
'Armor of God' and forget all that He has promised you?"

Tessibel blinked ignorantly at the long words, "Armor of God," "Armor of
God." It was something she had not heard before--perhaps it meant that
the student's Christ would not help her now. It all came back in a flood
of light--her utter faithlessness in the prayers of the student, in the
pine-tree God who had waved her so many assurances. She had not dared to
look into the noble face above her, but when they stepped from the jail
into the street, she raised her eyes to Frederick's and murmured:

"I air sorry cause I were so cussed ... I only wanted to go with Daddy."

"I realize that," replied Frederick, making preparations to walk with
her by drawing his coat collar tightly about his neck, "but it was
i