"Catch me going to evening service again! Only fifty people out, and
it was a sheer waste of fuel and light. The sermon was one of the
dullest I ever heard. I believe Mr. Jones is growing too old for our
church. We need a young man, more up with the times. He is
everlastingly harping on the necessity of doing what we can in the
present to save souls. To hear him talk you would think every man who
wasn't running round to save souls every winter was a robber and an
enemy of society. He is getting off, too, on this new-fangled
Christian Sociology, and thinks the rich men are oppressing the poor,
and that church members ought to study and follow more closely the
teachings of Christ, and be more brotherly and neighbourly to their
fellow men. Bah! I am sick of the whole subject of humanity. I shall
withdraw my pledge to the salary if the present style of preaching
continues."

"What was the text of the sermon tonight?" asked Mrs. Hardy.

"Oh, I don't remember exactly! Something about 'This night thy soul
shall be demanded,' or words like that. I don't believe in this
attempt to scare folks into heaven."

"It would take a good many sermons to scare you, Robert."

"Yes, more than two a week," replied Mr. Hardy, with a dry laugh. He
drew off his overcoat and threw himself down on the lounge in front of
the open fire. "Where are the girls?"

"Alice is upstairs reading the morning paper; Clara and Bess went over
to call on the Caxtons."

"How did they happen to go over there?"

Mrs. Hardy hesitated. Finally she said, "James came over and invited
them."

"And they know I have forbidden them to have anything to do with the
Caxtons! When they come in I will let them know I mean what I say. It
is very strange the girls do not appear to understand that."

Mr. Hardy rose from the lounge and walked across the room, then came
back and lay down again, and from his recumbent position poked the fire
savagely with the shovel.

Mrs. Hardy bit her lips and seemed on the point of replying, but said
nothing.

At last Mr. Hardy asked, "Where are the boys?"

"Will is getting out his lessons for to-morrow up in his room. George
went out about eight o'clock. He didn't say where he was going."

"It's a nice family. Is there one night in the year, Mary, when all
our children are at home?"

"Almost as many as there are when you are at home!" retorted Mrs.
Hardy. "What with your club and your lodge and your scientif