hey amounted to any more
than presiding elders at home. He said he had always been a Baptist, and
they didn't have any popes in his church, and he didn't believe in 'em,
but some other Americans were going to see the pope, and dad consented
to go, under protest, it being understood that he didn't care two
whoops, anyway.

Well, sir, we went, and it was the grandest thing you ever saw. There
were guards by the thousand, beautiful gardens that would make Central
Park look like a hay marsh, hundreds of people in church vestments, and
an air of sanctity that we never dreamed; jewels that are never seen
outside the pope's residence, and we lined up to see the holy father
pass.

Gee, but dad trembled like a dog tied out in the snow, and the
perspiration stood out on his face, and he looked sorry for himself.
Then came the procession, all nobles and great people, and then there
was a party of pious men carrying the most beautiful man we ever saw on
a platform above us, and it was the pope, and he smiled at me, and the
tears came to my eyes, and I couldn't swallow something which I s'pose
was my sins, and then he looked at dad, and held up one hand, and dad
was pale, and there was no funny business about dad any more, and then
they set the platform down and the pope sat in a chair, and those who
wanted to went up to him, and he blessed them.

[Illustration: For awhile dad dassent go up 241]

Say, for awhile dad dassent go up, 'cause he thought the pope could see
right through him, and would know he was a Baptist, but the rest of the
Americans were going up, and dad didn't want to be eccentric, so he and
I went up. The pope put out his hand to dad, and instead of shaking it,
as he would the hand of any other man on earth, and asking how his folks
were, dad bent over and kissed the pope's hand, and the pope blessed
him. Dad looked like a new man, a good man, and when the pope put his
hand on my head, and blessed me, my heart came up in my throat, 'cause
I thought he must know of all the mean things I had ever done, but I can
feel his soft, beautiful hand on my head now, and from this out I would
fight any boy twice my size that ever said a word against the pope and
his religion. When we got outside dad says to me: "Hennery, don't you
ever let me hear of your doing a thing that would make the good man
sorry if he was to hear about it." And we went to our hotel and stayed
all the afternoon, and all night, and just thought of th