t get any harm from a sermon. I do
manage to drag them to church, but it is like taking a horse to water--it
is another matter to make them listen."

Mrs. Molesworth returned home feeling that Mary Parton treated serious
subjects with undue levity. Mrs. Parton, seeing Miss Betty Bishop
approaching, lingered at the gate.

"Well, Betty, I suppose you know we are to have Dr. Hollingsworth at our
church Sunday."

She had heard it, but did not seem disposed to enlarge upon it, as was her
custom with a piece of news.

"Cornelia Molesworth is worrying because she has heard he is not
orthodox."

"She is not obliged to hear him, is she? Nobody can amount to anything
nowadays without being accused of heresy; however, I fancy Dr.
Hollingsworth can bear up under Mrs. Molesworth's disapproval."

Mrs. Parton surveyed Miss Betty with a twinkle in her eye. "I declare,
Betty," she remarked, irrelevantly, "you are growing younger. You look
nearer twenty than forty this minute."

"Perhaps it is my new hat," Miss Betty suggested; but surely she had
passed the age when one flushes over the possession of a becoming hat.

Mrs. Parton laughed to herself as she went back to the house, "Do you
suppose that is why he is coming? Goodness! I wish the colonel was here."

The news was discussed all over town that Monday morning.

"What brings Dr. Hollingsworth here?" Dr. Barnes asked, meeting Colonel
Parton in the bank. "He is a friend of the Whittredges, I understand.
Anyway, it is a compliment to Friendship."

"Friendship is a great place. He liked our looks when he was here a month
or so ago," and the colonel laughed his easy laugh.

"More than likely he thinks we need a little stirring up," Mr. Roberts
remarked from his desk.

"Did you hear the joke on my Belle?" the colonel asked, and proceeded to
relate the story of the supposed detective and the photograph.

The Arden Foresters in their turn talked it over that afternoon, sitting
in a row near the red oak, which lavished badges of crimson and gold upon
them now. The October air was delicious. They had raced up the hill and
down to the landing and back again, for pure joy of moving in the
sparkling atmosphere.

"I have something to tell you," Rosalind announced. "You must all come to
church next Sunday, for our president is going to preach."

"Is that what you have to tell? because I knew it already," said Belle,
whose cheeks matched the oak leaf she was pinning on her jacket