"Two! Why, father, they are nearly all preachers. All but one, and I expect that he will be. There's Arthur Knapp away in Colorado, and if his life is at all what his letters indicate (and he is no hypocrite), he is preaching Christ most effectively. I insist that every Christian man and woman ought by their daily living to hold up Christ as the one perfect pattern and the only Saviour. Then there's Henry Trafton, his pictures are lessons of truth and purity. The one the judge bought last winter is as good as a sermon to me whenever I look at it, which is pretty often. And Duncan is growing more like his father every year."
"It is a fact, those boys have turned out well. I thought one while that Perry Morse would go to ruin sure, but his father tells me he is doing well. As for that matter, I believe they were rather a hard set. How did you manage them, Mabel?"
"In the first place, they were not a 'hard set' at all. They were just like any other half dozen boys, and I never managed at all. I had faith in them and faith in God's promises. I tried to teach them what it was to follow Christ, and to show them how much easier and better to follow closely than afar off."
"But," continued Mrs. McNair, rising, "I really must not stop. Mother, do you think you will be able to come over this evening?"
"Oh, yes," Mr. Wynn answered for her. "We will look in at your 'ministers' meeting.'"
Upon her way home, Mabel took a letter from the office. Here it is:
"MY DEAR FRIEND:—I have very pleasant things to write. In those dark days just before I left Westville, I never expected to see such good times as these. God has dealt very mercifully with me. In my time of disgrace and despair, he raised up kind friends for me, and in those years since, he has followed me with loving-kindness, and yet I have not been mindful of him. If I have led a different life since I came here, it was not from love to Christ. If I have outwardly kept pretty near the white line, it was because it seemed the better way in a worldly point of view. But for several months I have been dissatisfied with my life and its motives. I seemed to need something higher.
"At last the long, weary struggle over, I yield to Christ a loving service, and accept the joy and peace which fills my need. Yesterday I joined with his own people in the holy communion. I mean to be earnest and true. I trust that I shall still be one for whom you pray.
"You will doubtless be interested in hearing of some of the new business arrangements. Your good brother-in-law has taken me into partnership. He reckons my youth and business capacity as an offset to his money capital. He proposes to retire from active life (so far as the store is concerned) and leave the business in my care. You will see how he trusts me. Once I should have been very vain of such a trust, now I look to Christ for grace to sustain it. I should like to be in Westville while Herbert and Lewie are there, but I think I cannot leave at present. May God go with them and bless them in their work.
"As ever, your old pupil,
"PERRY MORSE."
"At last! Oh, I knew God would not fail me. He never has!"
With this thought, Mrs. McNair slipped her letter back into its envelope, smoothed her hair and went down to dinner.
And so they were all following at last. As they were far from perfection as boys, so they are far from being perfect men. It takes years of Christian living and learning before we reach that higher plane where grace so abounds that sin has no foothold. But for fine specimens of noble Christian manhood, you need not go outside the little circle of "Those Boys," who have found that their chosen motto, while it is narrow as regards being of the world, is yet broad in all Christian aims.