"Well, indeed, Mr. Eevans," she said, appeasingly, "I'd say he was a
nice child enough, and the very dead spit of the poor Colonel. I dunno
what harm he could do the children at all?"

The Prophet Samuel could scarcely have regarded Saul, when he offered
those ill-fated apologies relative to King Agag, with a more sinister
disfavour than did Evans view Mrs. Dixon.

"I'll say one thing to you, Mrs. Dixon," he said, moving to the door
with that laborious shuffle that had inspired one of the hunted and
suffering tribe of his pantry-boys to the ejaculation: "I thank God,
there's more in his boots than what's there room for!"--"and I'll say
it once, and that's enough! As sure as God made little apples, trouble
and disgrace will follow jumpers!"

Mrs. Dixon, no less than Evans, disapproved of those who changed their
religion, but this denunciation did not seem to her to apply.

"That poor child's no jumper!" she called after her antagonist;
"'twasn't his fault he was born the way he was!"

Evans slammed the door.

Mrs. Dixon dismissed the controversy from her easy mind, looked at the
clock, and laid down her knitting.

"Miss Christian'll be looking for her birthday cake!" she said to
herself, hoisting her large person from her chair. Even as she did so,
there came a rapping, quick and urgent, at the window. "Look at that