ver, him and his wife. They fall
upon good wages and their heads are turned with joy. They've been
hungry for generations back and they've always seen those above them
who dressed fine and lived soft, and they want a taste of luxury too;
they're bound to satisfy themselves. So they'll spend and spend and
have beefsteak for dinner every day just because they never had enough
before, but they'd turn into wild beasts of selfishness, most of 'em,
if they had no check. 'Tis there the church steps in. 'Remember your
Maker and do Him honor in His house of prayer,' says she. 'Be
self-denying, be thinking of eternity and of what's sure to come!' And
you will join with me in believing that it's never those who have
given most to the church who come first to the ground in a hard time
like this. Show me a good church and I'll show you a thrifty people."
Father Daley looked eagerly at the agent for sympathy.

"You speak the truth, sir," said the agent. "Those that give most are
always the last to hold out with honest independence and the first to
do for others."

"Some priests may have plundered their parishes for pride's sake;
there's no saying what is in poor human nature," repeated Father Daley
earnestly. "God forgive us all for unprofitable servants of Him and
His church. I believe in saying more about prayer and right living,
and less about collections, in God's house, but it's the giving hand
that's the rich hand all the world over."

"I don't think Ireland has ever sent us over many misers; Saint
Patrick must have banished them all with the snakes," suggested the
agent with a grim smile. The priest shook his head and laughed a
little and then both men were silent again in the counting-room.

The mail train whistled noisily up the road and came into the station
at the end of the empty street, then it rang its loud bell and puffed
and whistled away again.

"I'll bring your mail over, sir," said the agent, presently. "Sit here
and rest yourself until I come back and we'll walk home together."

The leather mail-bag looked thin and flat and the leisurely postmaster
had nearly distributed its contents by the time the agent had crossed
the street and reached the office. His clerks were both off on a long
holiday; they were brothers and were glad of the chance to take their
vacations together. They had been on lower pay; there was little to
do in the counting-room--hardly anybody's time to keep or even a
letter to write.

Tw