pep."

"More than that," continued Mr. McFettridge, "we want a minister that's
a good mixer--one that stands in with the boys."

"Hear! Hear!" cried Mr. Boggs again.

"A mixer! Exactly!" agreed the chairman. "A mixer!" nodding pleasantly
at Mr. Boggs.

"And another thing I will say," continued Mr. McFettridge, "now that I
am on my feet. We want a preacher that will stick to his job--that will
preach the gospel and not go meddlin' with other matters--with politics
and such like."

"Or prohibition," shouted Harry Hobbs from the rear, to the undiluted
joy of the youngsters in his vicinity.

The minister shook his head at him.

"Yes, prohibition," answered Mr. McFettridge, facing toward the rear
of the church defiantly. "Let him stick to his preaching the gospel; I
believe the time has come for a change and I'm prepared to make a motion
that we ask our minister to resign, and that motion I now make."

"Second the motion," cried Mr. Boggs promptly.

"You have heard the motion," said the chairman, with business-like
promptitude. "Are you ready for the question?"

"Question," said Mr. Hayes, after a few moments' silence, broken by the
shuffling of some members in their seats, and by the audible whispering
of Mrs. Innes, evidently exhorting her husband to action.

"Then all those in favour of the motion will please--"

Then from behind the organ a little voice piped up, "Does this mean, Mr.
Chairman, that we lose our minister?"

It was Miss Quigg, a lady whose years no gallantry could set below
forty, for her appearance indicated that she was long past the bloom of
her youth. She was thin, almost to the point of frailness, with sharp,
delicately cut features; but the little chin was firm, and a flash of
the brown eyes revealed a fiery soul within. Miss Quigg was the milliner
and dressmaker of the village, and was herself a walking model of her
own exquisite taste in clothes and hats. It was only her failing health
that had driven her to abandon a much larger sphere than her present
position offered, but even here her fame was such as to draw to her
little shop customers from the villages round about for many miles.

"Does this mean, sir, that Mr. Dunbar will leave us?" she repeated.

"Well,--yes, madam--that is, Miss, I suppose, in a way--practically it
would amount to that."

"Will you tell me yes or no, please," Miss Quigg's neat little figure
was all a-quiver to the tips of her hat plumes.

"Well," said