They were disappointed again and again. One woman, who had been helped and who had seemed grateful, relapsed into drunkenness, and was quite candid. “I have been a fool,” she said, “to sign the pledge and pretend that I want to be goody. But never again! A short life and a merry one for me!” The way was too narrow, the fight too strenuous, for them. They needed a Helper stronger than the human, and until they sought Him, the immoral could not become moral, or the evil good. “We must pray more! Let us give an hour a day to intercessory wrestling with God, that He will save the people, for they cannot save themselves; neither can we save them; but we are sure that, if it be God’s will, they must be saved,” said one. “And I am sure,” replied Mr. Harris, “that it is most certainly God’s will that they should be saved.” But he prayed with the rest, for, although he did not even now attend the ordinary religious service at church or chapel, he was always present at the united meetings that were public. The whole church, indeed, gave itself up to prayer, both private and united; and, as is always the case, there were some remarkable incidents proving that prayers were heard and answers abundant; one man, Benham, declaring that after what he had seen he would never doubt again. “Since that woman is changed,” he added, “I am sure that any one can be. There is an alteration in this place, sure enough.” “There is,” said Nelson, who was the recipient of Benham’s confidences; “but it is because good people mean it all much more than they used.” “Yes; and things will never be the same again, for now they know how to look after the boys and girls. And this is the most promising thing of all.” And indeed it was. The Darentdale Committee of Helpfulness set a very high value on every young person living in the village. If he or she should show vicious tendencies the best and ablest person among them undertook the case. All the ingenuity and watchful love of wise parents were brought to bear, and at present there had been no case that proved invulnerable to these benign powers and influences. It soon became an extraordinary thing to the Darentdale people that there could ever have been a time when a child was of small account in the place. “We shall make _men_ out of these,” was a consideration never overlooked now in regard to the children.