emed a great pull to get it on foot at all. New
settlers never have any money--like ourselves,' jauntily added Arthur.
'I never thought I could be so happy with empty pockets. Don't be
deceived by that jingling--it is only a few keys which I keep for
purposes of deception. Haven't I seen Uncle Zack's eyes glisten, and I
am certain his mouth watered, when he thought the music proceeded from
red cents!'

'But why must our church have a tin spire?' asked Linda by and by. 'It
would remind me of some plaything, Bob.'

'Because it's national,' was the reply. 'But you needn't be afraid; if
we have a shed like a whitewashed barn for the first ten years, with
seats of half-hewn logs, we may deem ourselves fortunate, and never
aspire to the spire. Excuse my pun.'

'Oh, did you intend that for a pun?' asked Linda innocently. 'I beg your
pardon for not laughing in the proper place. But how about the minister
of these bush churches, Bob?'

'Well, as the country opens up and gets cleared, we may reckon on having
some sort of minister. I mean some denomination of preacher, within
twenty-five or thirty miles of us; and he will think nothing of riding
over every Sunday. It's quite usual.'

'He's a zealous man that does it in the bitter winter, with the weather
some degrees below zero,' remarked Arthur.

'How happy he must feel to be able to deny himself, and to suffer for
Jesus' sake,' said Linda softly. 'Robert, I often think could _we_ do
nothing down in that wretched place they call the "Corner," where nobody
appears to know anything about God at all? Couldn't we have a Sunday
school, or a Bible class, or something of that sort? It hardly appears
right to be Christians, and yet hold our tongues about our Saviour among
all these dark souls.'

The thought had been visiting Robert too, during some of his Sundays;
but had been put aside from a false timidity and fear of man. 'How holy
must be my life, how blameless my actions, if I set up to teach others?'
was one deterring consideration. As if he could not trust his God's help
to keep him what a Christian ought to be!

'We will think over it, Linda,' he said gravely.

An opening seemed to come ere next Sabbath. On the Saturday arrived at
the 'Corner' the worthy itinerant preacher who occasionally visited
there, and was forthwith sent up to the Wynns' shanty for entertainment
by Zack Bunting; who, however willing to enjoy the eclat of the minister's
presence, was always on the