Page:The leopard's spots - a romance of the white man's burden-1865-1900 (IA leopardsspotsrom00dixo).pdf/271

 He worked with indomitable courage for two weeks, visiting the principal towns in the state, and everywhere arousing intense enthusiasm. There was something contagious in his spirit. The young fellows were charmed by his eager intense way of looking at things, they caught the infection and he made hundreds of staunch friends.

"You're just in time!" cried his mother greeting him with radiant face on his return. "She is coming to-morrow. I've a beautiful letter from her. I think one of the sweetest letters a girl ever wrote."

"Let me see it!"

"No."

"Why, Mother, I thought you were all on my side!"

"But I'm not. I'm a woman, and you can't see some things she says."

"Then it's something awfully nice about me."

"Maybe the opposite."

"Then you'd resent it for me."

"I love her too, sir."

"Let me see the tip end of it where she signs her name!"

"You can see that much, there"

"Doesn't she write a lovely hand!" He looked long and lovingly. "That pretty name!—Sallie! So old-fashioned, and so homelike. It's music, isn't it?"

"I didn't know you could be so silly, Charlie."

"It is funny, isn't it? You know I think after all, we are made out of the same stuff, saint and sinner, philosopher and fool. The differences are only skin deep."

"You don't think she is made out of ordinary clay?"

"Oh! Lord, no, I meant the men. Every woman is something divine to me. I think of God as a woman, not a man—a great loving Mother of all Life. If I ever saw the face of God it was in my mother's face."