The genuineness of the change which had come over Sam Kimper slowly became the subject of general conversation in Bruceton.

Judge Prency frequently spoke of it; so did his wife; and, as the Prencys were leaders of village society, whatever interested them became the fashion.

People with shoes which needed repairing visited the new cobbler in great numbers, each prompted as much by curiosity as by business, for they seldom haggled about prices.
Sam's family, too, began to receive some attention.

Mrs.Prency, having first secured a promise from Sam that the children should go to Sunday-school if they could be decently clad, interested several ladies to the extent of bestowing some old clothing, which she hired a sewing woman to make over into becoming garments for Billy and Mary.

Mrs.
Kimper, too, was enabled to dress well enough to appear in church, though she stipulated that she should go only to evening services.
"I don't 'mount to much, Mrs.Prency," said she to the family's benefactor; "there ain't much left of me as I once was, but I ain't goin' to have people look at me the way they do, any more than I can help." "The feeling does you credit, Mrs.Kimper," said the lady, "but you won't long be troubled that way.