“Let me feel of your hands, Julia.” She took them in hers and touched the child's cheeks and forehead as well. “You seem to feel all right, do you?” “Yes'm.” “No soreness or pain anywhere?” “No'm. Good-night, Mrs. Forbes.” The housekeeper stooped from her height and accepted the offered kiss. “Do you prefer to go alone, Jewel? Isn't it lonely for you?” asked Mr. Evringham. “No--o, grandpa! Anna Belle is up there.” “You're not afraid of the dark then?” Jewel looked at the speaker, uncertain of his seriousness. He seemed in earnest, however. “The dark is easy to drive away in this house,” she replied. “It is so interesting, just like a treatment. The room seems full of darkness, error, and I just turn the switch,” she illustrated with thumb and finger in the air, “and suddenly--there isn't any darkness! It's all bright and happy, just like me to-day!” “Indeed!” returned Mr. Evringham, standing with his feet apart and his arms folded. “Is that what the lady in Chicago did for you to-day?” “Yes, grandpa,” Jewel nodded eagerly. She was so glad to have him understand. “She just turned the light, Truth, right into me.” “She prayed to the Creator to cure you, you mean.” Jewel looked off. “No, not that,” she answered slowly, searching for words to make her meaning plain. “God doesn't have to be begged to do anything, because He can't change, He is always the same, and always perfect, and always giving us everything good, and it's only for us--not to believe--in the things that seem to get in the way. I was believing there was something in the way, and that lady knew there wasn't, and she knew it so _well_ that the old dark fever couldn't stay. Nothing can stay that God doesn't make--not any longer than we let it cheat us.” “And she was a thousand miles away,” remarked Mr. Evringham. “Why, grandpa,” returned Jewel, “there isn't any space in Spirit.” She gave a little sigh. “I'm real sorry you're too big to be let into the Christian Science Sunday-School.” Mrs. Forbes lips fell apart. “One moment more, Jewel,” said Mr. Evringham. “Mrs. Forbes was telling me of the gentleman who spoke to you on the trolley car yesterday.” “Oh yes,” returned the child, smiling at the pleasing memory. “The Christian Scientist!” “What makes you think he is a Christian Scientist?” asked Mr. Evringham. “I know he was. He had on the pin.” Jewel showed the one she wore, and her grandfather examined the little cross and crown curiously. “I wonder if it's possible,” he soliloquized aloud. “Oh yes, grandpa, he is one, and if he's a friend of yours he can explain to you so much better than a little girl can.” After the child had left the room Mr. Evringham and his housekeeper stood regarding one another. His usually unsmiling countenance was relaxed. Mrs. Forbes observed his novel expression, but did not suspect that the light twinkling in his deep-set eyes was partly due to the sight of her own pent-up emotion.