Chapter II

"We've seen changes, Mr Murchison. Aye. We've seen
changes."

Dr Drummond and Mr Murchison stood together in the store
door, over which the sign "John Murchison: Hardware,"
had explained thirty years of varying commercial fortune.
They had pretty well begun life together in Elgin. John
Murchison was one of those who had listened to Mr Drummond's
trial sermon, and had given his vote to "call" him to
the charge. Since then there had been few Sundays when,
morning and evening, Mr Murchison had not been in his
place at the top of his pew, where his dignified and
intelligent head appeared with the isolated significance
of a strong individuality. People looked twice at John
Murchison in a crowd; so did his own children at home.
Hearing some discussion of the selection of a premier,
Alec, looking earnestly at him once said, "Why don't they
tell Father to be it?" The young minister looked twice
at him that morning of the trial sermon, and asked
afterward who he was. A Scotchman, Mr Drummond was told,
not very long from the old country, who had bought the
Playfair business on Main Street, and settled in the
"Plummer Place," which already had a quarter of a century's
standing in the annals of the town. The Playfair business
was a respectable business to buy; the Plummer Place,
though it stood in an unfashionable outskirt, was a
respectable place to settle in; and the minister, in
casting his lot in Elgin, envisaged John Murchison as