go shyly and lingeringly up to the pulpit desk. And the congregation
would settle back with a resigned air to listen to the simple, good old
fellow give a long and tedious recital of his spiritual experiences,
punctuated by many sighs and tearful "Amens" from beneath the
sympathetic Paisley shawl.

But in spite of much comfort afforded by the Methodists, Duncan
Polite's heart was often heavy with foreboding. He could not help
seeing that Andrew Johnstone must soon come to open war with the new
party in the church. In his well-meant and vigorous efforts to make
everyone tread the old paths the ruling elder produced a great amount
of friction; for, though he feared God, he did not regard man, and woe
betide the reckless youth who made himself too conspicuous in the
reform movement.

The Sabbath school was his stronghold, for there he was superintendent
and monarch absolute, and there he seized every opportunity to publicly
rebuke anyone who dared transgress his rigid laws.

But the rising generation was not to be wholly deterred from rising by
even the terrors of Splinterin' Andra; and, as Duncan Polite feared,
the inevitable conflict ensued.

The immediate cause of the rupture was a church organ, merely a myth as
yet, but real enough to arouse the apostle of ancient customs to his
best fighting mood. The very mention of an instrument made by man to
be used in the worship of God, was to the ruling elder the extreme of
sacrilege. But in spite of his disapproval, the young people went so
far as to hold a meeting at which to discuss the possibility of their
purchasing the coveted instrument.

Miss Cotton, the chief dress and mischiefmaker in the village, although
no longer absolutely young, was the leader of the rising generation,
and she counselled just going ahead without Splinterin' Andra's advice.

There were not many, however, who were possessed of either her courage
or her indiscretion. They all agreed, though, that Andrew Johnstone
was the one insurmountable barrier to their hopes. Most of the other
elders had been approached in a tentative way. Peter McNabb was a
broad-minded man with such a passion for music that, though he looked
askance at any innovation, yet he would have welcomed anything that
would help the singing. Old Donald Fraser considered an organ an
unmixed evil and remarked, when asked for his opinion on the subject,
that it would be "clean defyin' o' the Almighty" to introduce one into