Three People | Page 5

in
the dreary eyes, and she spoke with eagerness.
"Do you say he can do everything?"
"Everything. 'Whatever ye ask in my name, believing, ye shall receive.'
These are his own words."
"Does he believe in rum?"
"No!" promptly replied the startled, but strongly temperate John Birge.
"Then I'll pray," was the quick response. "I never prayed in my life, but
I will now; like enough I can save him yet. You folks think he can hear
everything that's said, don't you?"
Strangely moved as well as startled, her visitor answered her only by a
bow. The shaking hands were clasped, and in a clear firm voice the sick
woman spoke:
"O Lord, don't let Tode ever drink a drop of rum!"

Then the little boy crouching in the corner, rose up and came quickly
over to his mother.
"Keep away, Tode," said the woman at the foot of the bed, speaking in
an awe-stricken voice. "Keep away, don't touch her; she ain't talking to
you."
Not so much as a glance did the mother bestow upon her boy, but
repeated over and over again the sentence, "O Lord, don't let Tode ever
touch a drop of rum."
"Is that the way?" she asked, suddenly turning her sharp bright eyes full
on Mr. Birge.
"Is that the way they pray? are them the right kind of words to use?"
"My poor friend," began he, but she interrupted him impatiently.
"Just tell me if that's the name you call him by when you pray?"
"Yes," he said. "Only won't you add to them, 'And forgive and save me
for Jesus' sake.'"
"Never mind me," she answered, promptly. "'Tain't of no consequence
about me, never has been; and I haven't no time to waste on myself. I
want to save him. 'O Lord, don't let Tode ever touch a drop of rum.'"
"He doesn't need time," pleaded her visitor. "He can hear both prayers
at once. He can save both you and Tode in a second of time; and he
loves you and is waiting."
This was her answer:
"O Lord, don't let Tode ever touch a drop of rum."
All that woman's soul was swallowed up in the one great longing.
Unable longer to endure the scene in silence, John Birge dropped on his
knees and said:

"Lord Jesus, hear this prayer for her boy, and save this poor woman
who will not pray for herself."
The words seemed to arrest her attention.
"What do you care?" she added, at length.
"The Lord Jesus cares. He died to save you."
Then John Birge repeated his prayer, adding a few simple words.
The little silence that followed was broken by the repetition of the poor
woman's one solemn sentence:
"O Lord, don't let Tode ever touch a drop of rum."
"And save me," added John Birge.
"And save me"--her lips took up the sentence--"for Jesus' sake."
"For Jesus' sake."
The next time she added these words of her own accord; and again and
again was the solemn cry repeated, until there came a sudden changing
of the purple shadows into solemn ashy gray, and with one
half-murmured effort, "not a drop of rum" and "for Jesus' sake," the
voice was forever hushed.
The neighbor watcher was the first to break the stillness.
"Well, I never in all my life!" she ejaculated, speaking solemnly. "For
the land's sake! I wish every rum-seller in the world could a heard her.
Well, her troubles is over, Mr. Birge. Now, what's to be done next?"
"Is she anything to you, Mary, except an acquaintance?"
"I'm thankful to say she ain't. If she had been I'd expect to die of shame
for letting her die in this hole. She's a neighbor of mine, at least I live
around the corner; but I don't know much about her, only that her man

comes home drunk about every night, and tears around like a wild
beast."
Which last recalled to John's remembrance the reason of his being in
that room.
"Is that her husband lying out there?" he asked, nodding toward the
door.
"Yes, it is. Been there long enough to know something by this time, I
should think, too."
"It seems to me the first thing to be done is to get him in here; it isn't
decent to leave him in this storm."
"It's decenter than he deserves, in my opinion, enough sight," Mary
muttered.
Nevertheless they went toward the door, and with infinite pains and
much fearful swearing from the partially roused man, they succeeded in
pushing and pulling and dragging him inside the cellar on the floor,
when he immediately sank back into heavy sleep.
"Isn't he a picture of a man, now?" said the sturdy Mary, with a face
and gesture of intense disgust.
"I would rather