Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-26

a gentleman-just as though you had as
ISOLATED all your life with rascals and
thieves"
Ransom blinked, but Parker's eyes held
him with a kind of fascination.
Now, like any other ordinary criminal.
you are preparing to sneak away, and
you say that you are going to take your
daughter with you, which is a far man
lier thing than 1 should expect you 20 do.
But I don't intend that YOU shall go;
and I'll tell you why. The fall of a man
in your position, who has always stood as
model of propriety and virtue, does a
woeful injury to every good cause in the
world. 1 know what the men in the cheap
lodging houses say when such a thing
happens and they read of 1t at the free
reading rooms-every line they can find.
and gloat over It. Men like you maintain
the lodging houses and the reading rooms.
and when You fall you block the path of
the poor devils under you. who have got
to stay behind or crawl over You. So I'm
going to save you, just as would save a
boy In the sums who had tumbled off a
dock where l could fish him out with a
boat hook. Now, you're not going to run
and you're not going to jail. but you're
going down to Chicago tomorrow 10
square yourself. I want you to be man.
It's good deal easier to be a Christian
as you have understood 1t than to be a
man.. but maybe you can be both. and
I'm going to give you the chance"
He drew the oilskin packet from his
pocket and opened It with fingers that
were perfectly steady. while the old man
followed him In stupid wonder. Parker
sat down at a little tablet was Mary s
table, and her pen lay where she had
dropped 1t an hour before in the midst of
a letter to friend. He scratched and
blotted the forged names of the indors-
ers on the notes so that they were unde-
cipherab BILE, and underneath he wrote on
all Of them his own name. Then he made
n n
on a piece of paper which he thrust into
his pocket. He was wiping out his whole
fortune: he was ceasing to be the wealthy
young clergyman that the papers had
talked so much about He had planned
other uses for his money: a scheme for
building model tenement had been near
to his heart; but he turned to Ransom
kindly-even with the difference of youth
to age.
II have put my name here in place of
the Others" he said. holding up The notes
for Ransom to see. Il shall arrange for
the Gardeners for any extension you want.
The Gardeners are old friends of yours.
You can talk to them yourself. Good
night!'
He took the old mans limp hand in his
own and smiled at him in the CHEEKY way
that was Bentley Parker's. 1t was the
Parker smile. which had taken away the
sting of his severity as a coach at the
university: and the boys in the slums
knew and loved II.
"
Two years had passed and the Rev.
Bentley Parker was in Chicago for the
first time since his departure. under cir
cumstances that were not clear to his
friends. for work as a missionary in the
far west. He was promptly drafted for
duty by clergyman of his acquaintance.
I'm not a preacher. That's not my
business" said Parker to the old min
lister. I've been trying to help the sort
that sermons don't reac.I.''
Then tell us about that. Bentley"
And Bentley told them, looking very
large in his surplice as he described to a
rich and fashionable congregation a life
that was as alien to them as Afghanls-
tan. He told his story well. with a flash