which rose evenly to the window-sill at the back of the tiny building,
seemed to precipitate themselves upon the mean wooden pulpit. Three
benches set endwise to the platform served for the choir, and there was
a small harmonium. The girl (a daughter of a prosperous farmer) who
played it was already in her place, and a group of children had taken
possession of the front pew. These were playing under the book-rest and
frequent giggles burst from their number. At last one of them threw a
hat so much too high that it dropped into the next pew, and a
preter-natural silence fell upon the group, who all wriggled themselves
erect on their seats and looked apprehensively round. The girl at the
harmonium bent back to look at the clock and then pulled out her stops
and began to play. The door clicked, and burst open to admit a cold
breeze and a big farm boy in his Sunday clothes, whose head and
shoulders came in before the rest of him was ready to follow, and who
held on to the door as he entered as if for protection. Every child
turned its head and watched him while he ducked his head on to the
book-board for a second, and then sat upright, adjusting his neck into
his collar. The farmer, whose daughter played the organ, came next with
his wife, who made her way with an air of ownership to her seat, and
having covered her face with her hand for a moment, untied her
bonnet-strings and fanned her hot face. Every other moment now the door
burst open, and admitted someone from the dark blue outside--a group of
clumsy youths who flung themselves upon the pew doors as if they had
formed the deliberate purpose of keeping them out, some girls in their
finery nodding to acquaintances as they entered, some labourers in
unaccustomed clothes, and last Mary Colton who walked with her
calculating step to the nearest choir bench. Then a larger group
hesitated at the door and the evangelist entered, mounting the pulpit
with a confident tread, the minister taking a seat in the choir benches
and the stewards sitting behind him. There was some whispering between