“How do you do this morning?” he said, holding out his hand.  “Do you know I have a mission for you?  There are two boys who seem to belong to nobody, and to have nothing in common with this gathering, except curiosity.  The superintendent has twice tried to charm them in, but without success—­they will come no further than that tree.  I think they have slipped in from the village, probably in a most unorthodox fashion, and what I am coming at is, will you go out under the tree to them and beguile them into attending a Sabbath-school for once in their lives?  They look to me as though it was probably a rare occurrence.”

Now you are not to suppose that this invitation came to Flossy with the same sound that it would have had to you, if Mr. Roberts had come to you that Sabbath morning and asked you to tell those two boys a Bible story.  It is something that you have probably been doing a good deal of, all your grown-up life, and two boys at Chautauqua are no more to you than two boys anywhere else, except that there is a delightful sensation connected with having a class-room out in the open air.  But imagine yourself suddenly confronted by Dr. Vincent, and asked if you would be so kind as to step on the platform and preach to five thousand people, from a text that he would select for you!  Now you have something of an idea as to how this request felt to Flossy.  A rare glow spread all over her face, and she looked up at her questioner with eyes that were quivering in tears.

“You do not know what you are saying,” she said, in low and trembling voice.  “I have not been to a Sabbath-school in seven years, and I never taught anybody anything in my life.”

It was true that he did not know.  It seemed to him such a very little thing that he had asked.  However, he spoke gently enough as one who was courteous, even when he could not quite comprehend.

“Then is not to-day a good time to commence?  You will surely never have a better opportunity.”

But she shook her head, and turned quite away from him, walking down among the trees where no people were.  Her joy was all gone, and her pleasant time.  She had meant to go to Sabbath-school; to sit down quietly in some body’s class and learn, oh! a very great deal during the next hour.  Now she was all stirred up, and could not go anywhere.

As for Mr. Roberts, he went back to the large class who were waiting for him.  And those two boys hovered around the edge of that feast like hungry creatures who yet had never learned to come to the table and take their places.  Flossy looked at them; at first indignantly, as at miserable beings who had spoiled her pleasure; then she became fascinated by their bright, dirty faces and roguish ways.  She edged a little nearer to them.  Boys she was afraid of; she knew nothing about them.  Had they been a little older, and been dressed well, and been of the stamp of boys who knew how to bring her handkerchief to her when she dropped it, she would have known what to say to them.  But boys who were not more than twelve or fourteen, and who were both ragged and dirty, were new phases of life to her.