When I found out about
the man on the cross, I told it right out loud to 'em all. ... You're
one of 'em. You're a Gentile, Jinnie."

"I'm sorry," said the girl sadly.

"Oh, you needn't be. Peg's one, too, but she's got God's mark on her
soul as big as any of them women belongin' to Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob----I ain't sure but it's a mite bigger."

The speaker worked a while, bringing the nails from his lips in rapid,
even succession. Peg was the one bright spot that shone out of his
wonderful yesterdays. She was the one link that fastened him securely
to a useful to-morrow.

Virginia counted the nails mechanically as they were driven into the
leather, and as the last one disappeared, she said:

"Are you always happy, Lafe, when you're smiling? Why, you
smile--when--even when--" she stammered, caught her breath, and
finished, "even when Mrs. Peggy barks."

An amused laugh came from the cobbler's lips.

"That's 'cause I know her, lass," said he. "Why, when I first found
out about the good God takin' charge of Jews an' Gentiles alike, I
told it to Peg, an', my, how she did hop up an' down, right in the
middle of the floor. She said I was meddlin' into things that had took
men of brains a million years to fix up.

"But I knew it as well as anything," he continued. "God's love is
right in your heart, right there----" He bent over and gently touched
the girl.

She looked up surprised.

"I heard He was setting on a great high throne up in Heaven," she
whispered, glancing up, "and he scowled dead mad when folks were
wicked."

Lafe smiled, shook his head, and picked up his hammer.

"No," said he. "No, no! He's right around me, an' He's right around
you, an' everything a feller does or has comes from Him."

Virginia's thoughts went back to an episode of the country.

"Does He help a kid knock hell out of another kid when that kid is
beating a littler kid?"

Her eyes were so earnest, so deep in question, that the cobbler
lowered his head. Not for the world would he have smiled at Virginia's
original question. He scarcely knew how to answer, but presently
said:

"Well, I guess it's all right to help them who ain't as big as
yourself, but it ain't the best thing in the world to gad any one."

"Oh, I never licked any of 'em," Jinnie assured him. "I just wanted to
find out, that's all."

"What'd you do when other kids beat the littler ones?" demanded the
cobbler.

"Just shoved 'em down on the ground and set