"You did love Dickie, father?"
"And I do," flashed the man angrily; "howsoever cruel I've been, I do love the little 'un."
"And Dickie loves Jesus," pursued Cherry, soothingly; "and if you was to ask Dickie which he'd rather you'd love, he'd say as he'd like you to love Jesus. I know he would."
"It ain't no good now," said her father hopelessly.
"Why ain't it, dear father?"
"'Cause I've sinned till—it ain't no good now."
"But Jesus is sorry, and He'll forgive if you'll ask Him. Father—I know He will. He says somethin' about 'Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.'"
"Ah! that's them as can be washed."
And then Jem said earnestly—
"'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.'"