Just
before he died he explained things to me. He said:
"'Son, I came out of the West to bring a message to the East. You go
back to the West with a message from the Orient. Tell them back home
there that hearts are all alike the world over. And that we all, white
men, black men, yellow men and brown men, are playing the very same
game for the very same stakes and that somehow, through ways devious
and incomprehensible, through honesty and faith, failure and
perseverance, we find at last the great content, the peace that passeth
understanding.'
"So I have come home to preach that. But I haven't had time as yet to
do much. I've been getting up a Sunday-school class and getting Seth
Curtis interested in the church finances and getting acquainted with
Hank Lolly and Mrs. Rosenwinkle and--atheists."
"Yes--and among other things you've put Jim into the choir."
"Oh, that was easy--just common sense. It's going to be ever so much
harder though to get at Jim Tumley's generous friends and convince them
that Jim's stomach won't stand their friendly donations.
"I don't know how I'm going to show them that if they love him they
must protect him from themselves. It's going to be hard work. But
he's worth saving, that little man with the lark's voice and the gentle
heart.
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