therewith
than a dinner of herbs with a brawling woman." It made an unexpected
hit. Realizing his blunder, he smiled broadly and added:

"Well, if you have any doubts about Solomon's statement, you can have
none whatever about mine."

He then went on to preach a most extraordinary discourse in which fun,
wit, and humour were occasionally interspersed with allusions to the
subject matter. No arguments, no logic, were discoverable; but there
were plenty of amusing illustrations, a good deal that might better have
been left out, and the audience was highly amused though wholly
unedified.

"And how did ye like my sermon?" was the hearty greeting Hartigan gave
Belle Boyd next day, as they met on the boardwalk of Main Street. She
glanced up with a faint flush, looked down, then meeting his eyes
squarely she said:

"Some parts I liked, but much of it I did not."

This was an unexpected reply; Jim had quite looked for a burst of
admiration. In answer to his questions, Belle gave an analysis of the
sermon, as they walked along, pointing out the clay and the gold, and
the total lack of form.

His attitude, at first, had been superior and his tone frivolous. For,
strange to say, the gallantry so strong in his Irish blood is ever mixed
with, or maybe it is a mere mark of belief in, the superiority of the
male. But, before Belle had finished two things had happened--he was
much less sure of his sermon and was a little in awe of her. There could
be no doubt that she was right. Yes, those two stories would have been
better left out; an early paragraph should have been at the end, for it
was the summing up; and the illogical conclusion, which had no promise
in anything he said before, was weak, to say the least. Hartigan felt
much as he used to feel when his mother had called him into a detailed
account of some doubtful conduct.

"What are you going to give us next time?" inquired Belle.

"I thought of beginning a series of sermons on the bad habits of the
congregation--swearing, drinking, gambling, horse-racing, smoking, and
spitting. Last Sunday, right by the door in church, two men were smoking
their pipes and spitting on the floor. It seems to me that Revelations
XI:2 is about the right medicine for such conduct. This is the text:
'And he opened the bottomless pit and there arose a smoke out of the
pit,' Or Psalms XXXVII:20: 'The wicked shall perish ... into smoke shall
they consume away,' Then there is a passage in Jerem