"We won't speak of it further now. Go home and ask your mother to rub the bruises with liniment. When you feel inclined I would like to have you come to see Jack and me."
"I ain't goin' 'round to be preached at," Bill replied in his old defiant tone. "There was enough of that at camp meetin' to last a feller a month."
"I did not see you at the services."
"Once I had to go when mother caught me jest as the bell was ringin', an' its the last time I'll get in the same box."
Aunt Nancy shook her head sadly.
She was discouraged, but not so much as to give up the struggle, for it was her intention to renew it again at a more "convenient season."
"We had best go back, Jack dear, and William will come to-morrow to tell us how he feels.
"I ain't so sure 'bout that, if you're goin' to stuff a feller with a lot of sabbath-school talk," Bill said sulkily, as he picked up the axe and started across the fields without further thanks to his kind friends.
"He doesn't seem like a very good boy at heart," Aunt Nancy said sadly, as she raised Louis in her arms; "but we must not judge by outward appearances. I almost feel condemned for saying anything when my own sin has not been atoned for. My mind would be much easier if I had seen Mr. Pratt at the meeting."
"It won't take long to fix that," Jack replied, noting with sorrow the look of pain which had come over the little woman's face. "It will do jest as well if I go there an' tell him what you wanted to say."