"It's all for the best. You couldn't have understood the preacher Sunday when he took the text: 'The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.' You learned it for yourself the only way we really learn anything. God's in the wind and rain, the sun, the storm. All nature works with him. You can easily fool your mother. It's not what you seem to others; it's what you are that counts. God sees and knows. You see and know in your little heart. I want you to be a great man--only a good man can ever be great." And so for an hour she poured into his heart her faith in God and His glory until He became the one power fixed forever in the child's imagination. VII The Boy lost his skin but grew another and incidentally absorbed some ideas he never forgot. On the day he was able to put on his clothes, it poured down rain and work in the fields was impossible. A sense of delicious joy filled him. He worked because he had to, not because he liked it. He was too proud to shirk, too brave to cry when every nerve and muscle of his little body ached with mortal weariness, but he hated it. The sun rose bright and warm and shone clear in the Southern sky next morning before he was called. He climbed down the ladder from his loft wondering what marvellous thing had happened that he should be sleeping with the sun already high in the heavens. "What's the matter, Ma?" he asked anxiously. "Why didn't you call me?" "It's too wet to plow. Your father's going to chop wood in the clearing. He wanted you to pile brush after him, but I asked him to let you off to go fishing for me." He ate breakfast with his heart beating a tattoo, rushed into the garden, dug a gourd full of worms, drew his long cane rod from the eaves of the cabin, and with old Boney trotting at his heels was soon on his way to a deep pool in the bend of the creek. Fishing for _her_! His mother understood. He wondered why he had ever been fool enough to disobey her that Sunday. He could die for her without a moment's hesitation. It was glorious to have this marvellous day of spring all his own. The birds were singing on every field and hedge. The trees flashed their polished new leaves. The sweet languor of the South was in the air and he drew it in with deep breaths that sent the joy of life tingling through every vein. Four joyous hours flew on tireless wings. He had caught five catfish and a big eel--more than enough for a good meal for the whole family. He held them up proudly. How his mother's eyes would sparkle! He could see Sarah's admiring gaze and hear his father's good-natured approval. He had just struck the path for home when the forlorn figure of a rough bearded man came limping to meet him. He stepped aside in the grass to let him pass. But the man stopped and gazed at the fish. "My, my, Sonny, but you've got a fine string there!" he exclaimed. "Pretty good for one day," the Boy proudly answered. "An' just ter think I ain't had nothin' ter eat in 'most two days."