You know I didn't want to come, an' I guess your fam'ly ain't hankerin' to see me neither." "That's all right," was the reassuring answer.

"You mustn't be frightened at us.

We're just homely people--Hello, there's a letter for me." He stepped back to the table, tore open the envelope, and began to read, giving the stranger an opportunity to recover himself.

And the stranger understood and appreciated.

His was the gift of sympathy, understanding; and beneath his alarmed exterior that sympathetic process went on.