This possessed sound points and as the stars were coming out and the frogs were piping shrilly in the boglands, we arrived by back roads and streets at the Forge cottage. “Pa and Ma are at it again!” groaned Nat in a sick whisper. “Probably old Gridley’s been here and told’ em. Listen!” I heard epithets applied to a woman which made my mother’s face whiten when I suggested them at bedtime. “Nat and I heard ’em through the kitchen window,” I declared. “We was lyin’ underneath it, listenin.” “Well, sonny, don’t you ever remember those words or think of them again. They mean horrible, vile, foul, wicked things. That’s all I can tell you that you can understand—now!” “But Nathan’s father said ’em!” “Then Nathan’s father is a wicked man, even if he does get up in prayer meeting and tell how precious the Lord is to his soul. And did Nathan get into the house?” “Yeah, he sneaked up to bed the front way. The door was open.” “Well, you see, dear, your prayer was answered, wasn’t it?” “It looks so, Ma!” “Always remember it, laddie. You’re going to get in tighter situations than you got into to-night. Don’t ever be ashamed to pray, laddie. It never harms and always helps.” “Do you think God really heard it, Ma?” “Your prayer was answered, wasn’t it, laddie?” “Yeah, Ma!” “Then isn’t that answer enough? What more need mother say?” It developed that Mr. Gridley had not recognized the identity of his daughter’s demonstrative friend. In fact, he had forgotten the incident within ten seconds after Nathan had taken unto himself wings and flown. He was far more interested in finding a short ladder to fix that bell-rope. Thus for the first time in a great vicissitude Nathan and I learned that the worst enemy a man can have is often his own imagination. VIII The battle royal between Nathan’s father and mother had been caused by something of graver import to my friend than any mere family adjustment between Forge and Gridley over osculatory assault upon a little girl. It had been caused by a decision voiced earlier that Sunday evening by Johnathan that he was determined to take Nat from school and put him to work. Nathan was now past fourteen and legally entitled to his “papers” and educational “freedom.” John had been compelled to work ten hours a day at fourteen, turning his money over to his father. Nathan should do the same. And Mrs. Forge had objected, not so much for Nathan’s sake, as because it was Johnathan’s proposition. Old Caleb Gridley, although holding a seventy-dollar court judgment over Johnathan, had never been able to collect his money. He had made John’s life a burden. So John had it in mind to suggest that Nathan be given a job in the tannery and work out his father’s debt.