me that most men seem to mind their own interests pretty well.
There is Uncle Inglis, to be sure--But then he is a minister, and doing
good is his business, you know."

"Frank," said Jem, as his mother did not answer immediately, "do you
know that papa might have been a banker, and a rich man now, like your
father? His uncle offered him the chance first, but he had made up his
mind to be a minister. His uncle was very angry, wasn't he, mamma?"

But his mother had no wish that the conversation should be pursued in
that direction, so she said, "Yes, Frank, it is his business to do God's
work in the world, but no more than it is yours and mine, in one sense."

"Mine!" echoed Frank, with a whistle of astonishment, which Jem echoed.

"Yours, surely, my dear boy, and yours, Jem; and your responsibility is
not lessened by the fact that you may be conscious that you are refusing
that personal consecration which alone can fit you for God's service, or
make such service acceptable."

There was nothing answered to this, and Mrs Inglis added, "And being
consecrated to God's service, we do His work well, when we do well the
duty he has appointed us, however humble it may be."

"But to come back to Hobab, mamma," said Jem, in a little while. "After
all, do you really think it was a desire to do God's work in helping the
people that made him go with them, if he did go? Perhaps he thought of
the fighting and the possible adventures, as Frank says."

"We have no means of knowing, except that it does not seem to have been
so much with the thought of his being a protector, that Moses asked him,
as of his being a guide. `Thou mayest be to us instead of eyes,' said
he."

"Yes," said Jem, hesitatingly, "I suppose so; but it must have been
something to him to think of leading such a host."

"But he would not have led the host," said David. "Yet it must have
been a grand thing to follow such a leader as Moses."

"Aunt Mary," said Frank, "if there is something for us all to do in the
world, as you say, I, for one, would much rather think of it as a place
to fight in than to work in."

"The same here," said Jem.

"Well, so it is," said Mrs Inglis.

"`In the world's broad field of battle.' Don't you remember, Davie?"

"Yes, I remember, `Be a hero in the strife,'" said David. "And Paul
bids Timothy, `Fight the good fight of faith;' and in another place he
says, `That thou mayest war a good warfare;' which is better authority