diff --git a/mCross.pl b/mCross.pl
index 06ef17b..4445250 100755
--- a/mCross.pl
+++ b/mCross.pl
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ =head1 AUTHOR
 my $prog = basename ($0);
 my $progDir = dirname ($0);
 my $ext = 10;
-my $padding = 0;
+my $padding = 2;
 my $mismatch = 1;
 my $topWordFile = "";
 my $bgFastaFile = "";