of a cane, that the spectators shrieked with laughter.

"I'm afraid he'd smash the minister, too," declared Sarah.

"Oh, well," said Jessie, "I don't see that there was any harm in Mr.
Egerton's singing and playing when he was young----"

"Oh, yes, o' course you'll take his part!" cried Miss Cotton. "But
I'll tell you this much, I've got something more to tell, bigger than
all that, something that'll make _you_ think he ain't quite so perfect."

"Why, 'Liza!" cried Mrs. Hamilton in alarm, "there surely ain't more!"

"There jist is, Mrs. Hamilton, an' something pretty queer." She was
whispering again, and her audience drew near with bated breath. "Maria
wrote two whole pages about him, an' she left the worst to the last.
She said, 'I s'pose he's a great fella' for the girls, he always was in
Toronto, an'--Jessie's lookin' scairt, I do declare! Well, she said
he'd better take care 'cause he was engaged to a high-toned lady in
Toronto, engaged to be _married_, mind you! It's true, too, because
Maria knows. She's rich, an' awful stylish, an' her name's Helen
Weir-Huntley, mind ye, one o' them high-toned names with a stroke in
the middle. An' Mrs. McNabb told Mrs. Fraser on the sly that Mrs.
Basketful told her he wrote to a girl by that name every week o' his
life, only not to tell. An' he gets a letter back every week, too,
with a big chunk of red wax on it, an' some kind of a business stamped
on; jist stylish folks uses that kind. So I guess you girls had better
quit playin' organs an' doin' things for him!"

Jessie's face flushed crimson. "I don't see what difference that would
make, 'Liza," she said with a steady look from her deep grey eyes.

"Well, well, ain't it awful!" commented Mrs. Hamilton for the fifth
time, quite overcome by this second disclosure.

"Well, I think it's a pretty queer thing, anyhow," said the narrator,
setting the sewing machine whirring again; "I don't set up for no saint
myself----"

"That's a good thing, 'Liza," interrupted Maggie, who had recovered
somewhat; "just think how it would bother you!"

"But I _do_ say," continued the other, imperturbably, "that ministers
ought to act different from common folks. And when I heard about his
goin's on, I jist thought it wasn't any wonder he acted so queer about
the organ. Bella, let's see if this band fits. Goodness gracious,
girls, speak of angels! Who's that comin' in at the front gate?"

"It's him! It's the minister!" cri