Gerhardt came away, hurt by the shadow of disgrace in which he felt himself involved, but satisfied that he had done his duty. Now he would take the child and have it baptized, and when that was over his present responsibility would cease. When it came to the hour of the baptism, however, he found that another influence was working to guide him into greater interest and responsibility. The stern religion with which he was enraptured, its insistence upon a higher law, was there, and he heard again the precepts which had helped to bind him to his own children. “Is it your intention to educate this child in the knowledge and love of the gospel?” asked the black-gowned minister, as they stood before him in the silent little church whither they had brought the infant; he was reading from the form provided for such occasions. Gerhardt answered “Yes,” and Mrs. Gerhardt added her affirmative. “Do you engage to use all necessary care and diligence, by prayerful instruction, admonition, example, and discipline that this child may renounce and avoid everything that is evil and that she may keep God’s will and commandments as declared in His sacred word?” A thought flashed through Gerhardt’s mind as the words were uttered of how it had fared with his own children. They, too, had been thus sponsored. They too, had heard his solemn pledge to care for their spiritual welfare. He was silent. “We do,” prompted the minister. “We do,” repeated Gerhardt and his wife weakly. “Do you now dedicate this child by the rite of baptism unto the Lord, who brought it?” “We do.” “And, finally, if you can conscientiously declare before God that the faith to which you have assented is your faith, and that the solemn promises you have made are the serious resolutions of your heart, please to announce the same in the presence of God, by saying ‘Yes.’” “Yes,” they replied. “I baptize thee, Wilhelmina Vesta,” concluded the minister, stretching out his hand over her, “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Let us pray.” Gerhardt bent his gray head and followed with humble reverence the beautiful invocation which followed: