"DO you mean that you'll do it?" Larry asked as though he could scarcely believe what he had just heard Danny say.
The young woodsman nodded numbly. "I know I shouldn't, Larry," he managed, "but I will. I'll tell them you weren't using the sending set."
Now he had done it. He had promised Larry that he'd lie for him. He felt sick and weak inside. He had promised to lie!
"Oh, boy!" Larry exclaimed, the words tumbling out excitedly. "I don't know how I can ever thank you, Danny. I'll do anything. I'll go to church and Sunday school with you. I'll read my Bible and pray and everything. You just don't know what this means to me!"
The young woodsman grinned at him feebly. His throat was tight and dry, and that dull ache had come back to his heart again as he realized a little more what he had promised to do. But at least Larry would go to church with him now, where he'd hear about the Lord Jesus who died to save him from sin. He'd be getting acquainted with more Christian kids and associating with them and seeing that Christ really made a change in a guy's life.
And yet Danny didn't get to sleep until after four the next morning. Every time he closed his eyes he saw a judge in a long black robe standing and pointing at him. "You told a lie!" he was saying. "You were under oath, and you lied!"
The trial had been set for the fifteenth of the following month to give Joe a chance to recover enough to get out of the hospital so he could testify.
"At first I was glad they had set the trial so far ahead," Larry confided, "but now I wish we could have it over with, now that I know what you're going to say on the stand."
Danny winced a little at that.
Larry kept his word about going to church regularly. He was the first one ready for Sunday school and even suggested staying for church on Sunday night.
"I didn't have any idea it would be so much fun to go to church, Danny," he said. "It's really great."
"The important thing is to take Christ as your personal Saviour, Larry," Danny said. "That's what church is all about. Just going on Sunday without becoming a real, born-again Christian isn't enough."
"I know," Larry said. "But I'm not ready to become a Christian yet."
"When will you be ready?" Danny asked seriously.
"Don't worry," Larry replied, smirking. "I'll let you know."
At the youth group the following week the young woodsman was happy to see that Peggy was there. She had been out to Sunday school and church with Eric, but now she was back for the Thursday night youth meeting alone. She stood at the back of the room and looked over the group, then came and sat down beside Danny.
Once again it seemed as though the program was meant just for her. She sat on the edge of her seat, her eyes glued to the faces of those who testified.
Mary Carpenter, who was a junior too, gave her testimony, telling how happy she had been since she had given her heart to Jesus. Dick Brand was next. He told how being a Christian had helped him to solve his personal problems.
"God doesn't promise any of us an easy life just because we take Him as our Saviour," Dick concluded. "But He does promise to help us work things out for ourselves and give us strength and courage. I've found that out from experience."
The speaker spoke on the privileges of Christians, and Peggy's eyes were glistening through the tears by the time he finished. When the meeting was over, she touched Danny on the arm.
"Danny," she almost whispered, "I can't stand it any longer. I...I've got to take Christ as my Saviour. Can you help me?"
"Just a minute," he whispered back. In a moment or two he returned with Mary Carpenter, a pretty, round-faced girl with a happy smile.
"You know Mary, don't you?" he asked.
Peggy nodded. "I guess I should," she said hesitantly. "I've made fun of you for your Christian stand often enough, Mary."
"A lot of people have made fun of me," Mary said simply as the three of them went into a little room in one corner of the church basement where they could be alone.
"I think I secretly envied you even when I made so much fun of you," Peggy went on, "because you seemed so happy and everything. You had something that I didn't have; I knew that."
"But you can have it, Peggy," Mary said gently. "All you have to do is to open your heart and let Jesus come in."
They sat around one of the Sunday school tables, and Mary very slowly and carefully explained the plan of salvation. She used her Bible to show Peggy that the Word of God says no one can live a life that is good enough to get him to Heaven, that the only way we can be saved is to confess that we are sinners and need a Saviour and then put our trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation. When she finished, they knelt beside the table, and Peggy poured out her heart to Jesus.
Danny felt a warm glow inside. To think that this had come about because he had dared to take a few tracts to school and distribute them! The next morning he was going out of the house, his pockets filled with tracts, when Buff Gordon walked past.
"Hi, Danny, buddy," Buff said, his voice so warm and friendly that it surprised the young woodsman.
By this time they had walked a block or so from the house.
"Here," Buff said, "have a cigarette with me. Nobody'll see us way out here."
Danny shook his head. "I don't smoke."
"Come on now," Buff replied. "Don't give me that stuff. You aren't such a lily-white angel as all that."
"But I am a Christian," Danny answered, trying to keep his temper. "And I feel that it's best for a Christian not to smoke."
With that he reached in his pocket and handed Buff a tract.
"I'd like to have you read this some time," he said. "It explains what it means to be a Christian and tells you how to become one."
Buff Gordon stopped on the sidewalk and read part of the tract while the young woodsman stood there praying. Then a sarcastic little smile twisted the older boy's face.
"You think you're pretty holy, don't you, Danny boy?" he said slowly. "But I know what kind of a guy you are. I was talking to Larry last night, and he told me how you've promised to lie for him at the trial!"