t he awful, Mr.
Ellery?"

The Reverend John did not answer. He could not trust himself to speak
just then. When he did it was to announce that he must be getting toward
home. No, he couldn't stay for supper.

Miss Pepper went into the kitchen, and Abishai saw the visitor to the
door. Ellery extended his hand and Kyan shook it with enthusiasm.

"Wa'n't it fine?" he whispered. "Talk about your miracles! Godfreys
mighty! Say, Mr. Ellery, don't you ever tell a soul how it really was,
will you?"

"No, of course not."

"No, I know you won't. You won't tell on me and I won't tell on you.
That's a trade, hey?"

The minister stopped in the middle of his step.

"What?" he said, turning.

Mr. Pepper merely smiled, winked, and shut the door. John Ellery
reflected much during his homeward walk.

The summer in Trumet drowsed on, as Trumet summers did in those days,
when there were no boarders from the city, no automobiles or telephones
or "antique" collectors. In June the Sunday school had its annual
picnic. On the morning of the Fourth of July some desperate spirits
among the younger set climbed in at the church window and rang the bell,
in spite of the warning threats of the selectmen, who had gone on record
as prepared to prosecute all disturbers of the peace to the "full extent
of the law." One of the leading citizens, his name was Daniels, awoke to
find the sleigh, which had been stored in his carriage house, hoisted to
the roof of his barn, and a section of his front fence tastefully draped
about it like a garland. The widow Rogers noticed groups of people
looking up at her house and laughing. Coming out to see what they were
laughing at, she was provoked beyond measure to find a sign over the
front door, announcing "Man Wanted Imediate. Inquire Within." The door
of the Come-Outer chapel was nailed fast and Captain Zeb Mayo's old
white horse wandered loose along the main road ringed with painted black
stripes like a zebra. Captain Zeb was an angry man, for he venerated
that horse.

The storm caused by these outbreaks subsided and Trumet settled into
its jog trot. The stages rattled through daily, the packet came and went
every little while, occasionally a captain returned home from a long
voyage, and another left for one equally long. Old Mrs. Prince, up at
the west end of the town, was very anxious concerning her son, whose
ship was overdue at Calcutta and had not been heard from. The minister
went often to see