The teacher had listened with deepening interest. John Harding had set her a task,--the greatest task, nay, the greatest pleasure man or woman can know, of leading a human soul out of bondage into freedom. One of the cowboys, Jimmie Smith by name, nudged Mike Maloney, and whispered: "Ask her to learn us, too." Mike readily assented. "Would yez be willin' ter bother wid us too?" "It would be no bother. I'd be glad to help you." There was no doubting her sincerity. In a few moments, the men were seated around the dining table, each with pencil and paper, and a lesson in penmanship had begun. "Gosh!" said Jimmie. "Ef that don't look like the rail fences back in Indianny!" As he said this, he held up to view the very best he could do after repeated efforts. He laughed uproariously at himself, the others joining from pure sympathy, for Jimmie's laugh was contagious. But Mike worked as though entered for a race. He seemed to need an astonishing amount of the teacher's attention, especially after she commended his work. "Schoolma'am," he called out, beckoning to her with his dirty hand, "would yez be showin' me the nixt?" She bent over him, naming principles, explaining slant and spacing, as she made a group of letters. "Stim letthers, did yez say? Stim? Stim?" He held up his work and looked at it critically. "Manin' no disrespict to yez, schoolma'am, I'll jist call 'em, not stim letthers, but fince posts." After the laughs and gibes had ceased, he listened to her a moment, and then remarked, "The stims should all be sthandin' the same way, did yez say?" He grinned as he viewed his writing o'er. It was clear to him, even at that early stage of the work, that he was not cut out for an expert penman. Yet his last effort that evening he seemed to regard with special pride and satisfaction, and this is what the teacher found on his paper when she returned to observe his work: klass jimme Smith mike maloney john harding bill weeks teecher the angle of the gila Night after night, these cowboys gathered for an hour or more at the Clayton home for study with Esther Bright. Reading, and arithmetic, and talks on physical geography followed. The cowboys did not suspect it, but she was fighting the degrading influences of the saloon. Days came and went. The interest in the night school increased; so did the interest in the Bible school. But for some indefinable reason, John Harding had not visited it. One Saturday morning, when Esther sought the schoolhouse to do some work there, he joined her, entered the building, and built a fire for her. While observing the decorations of the room, he saw on the walls the words, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."