don't know anything, especially if it's business that somebody else has
to carry on. If Mrs. Poynter don't like the way I'm doing business for
her, she knows a way to get rid of me, and she can do it easily
enough."

"Deacon," said the minister, "I don't wish to offend you, but matters
of this sort may develop into a scandal, and injure the cause for which
both of us profess to be working with all our hearts. And, by the way,
the Browning children are likely to be sent away from the academy at
which they are boarding, because their expenses are not paid, according
to the terms of the trust reposed in you by their father. I have been
written to several times by the principal, who is an old friend of
mine. Can't the matter be arranged in some way so that I shall not hear
any more about it? I have no possible method of replying in a manner
that will satisfy the principal."

"Tell him to write to me, doctor; tell him to write to me. He has no
business to put such affairs before anybody else. He will get his
money. If he didn't believe it, he wouldn't have taken the children in
the first place. But I will see that you don't hear any more about
either of these matters, and, as I am pretty busy and don't get a
chance to see you as often as I'd like, I want to say that it seems to
me that now is just the time to get up a warmer feeling in the church.
It's getting cold weather, and folks are glad to get together in a warm
room where there's anything going on. Now, if you will just announce
next Sunday that there's going to be a series of special meetings to
awaken religious interest in this town, I think you will do a good deal
more good among those who need it than by worrying members of your own
congregation about things that you don't understand. I don't mean any
offence, and I hope you won't take any; but when a man is trying to do