t thing? God _can't_ refuse _you_.
But if you think t'other place is best for me, all right."

The fright, the sense of strangeness, were slowly departing from Mabel,
and as she recovered herself her heart seemed to come into her face and
eyes.

"Ev'rybody about here is rough, or dirty, or mean, or rich, or proud, or
somethin'," continued the dying man, in a thin yet earnest voice. "It's
all as good as I deserve; but my heart's ached sometimes to look at
somebody that would keep me from b'leevin' that ev'rything was black an'
awful. And I've seen her. Can I just touch my finger to your dress? I've
heard mother read how that somebody in the Old Country was once made all
right by just touchin' the clothes Christ had on."

In his earnestness, the wretched man had raised himself upon one elbow,
and out of his face had departed every expression but one of pitiful
pleading. Still Mabel could not speak; but, bending slightly forward,
she extended one of her slender, dainty hands toward the one which Baggs
had raised in his appeal.

"White--shining--good--all right," he murmured. Then all of Baggs which
fell back upon the floor was clay.

* * * * *

With the prudence of a conqueror, who knows when the full extent of his
powers has been reached, Mabel Fewne married within six months. The
happy man was not a new conquest, but an old victim, who was willfully
pardoned with such skill, that he never doubted that his acceptance to
favor was the result of the renewal of his homage.

[Illustration]

MARKSON'S HOUSE.

Raines is my name--Joseph Raines. I am a house-builder by profession,
and as I do not often see my writings in print, except as prepaid
advertisements, I consider this a good opportunity to say to the public
in general that I can build as good a house for a given sum of money as
any other builder, and that I am a square man to deal with. I am aware
of the fact that both of these assertions have been made by many other
persons about themselves; but to prove their trustworthiness when
uttered by me, the public needs only to give me a trial. (In justice to
other builders, I must admit they can use even this last statement of
mine with perfect safety for the present, and with prospective profit if
they get a contract to build a house.)

I suppose it will be considered very presumptuous in me to attempt to
write a story, for, while some professions seem relatives of literature