of
degeneration. The work of the hand is almost entirely that of
Italians, Poles, Hungarians, and Greeks.

"'Our tradesmen have a low code of honor. They overcharge us for the
necessities of life. Many of them have been caught cheating. Our wives
and sons and daughters are living beyond their means, as if ignorant
of the fact that it is the beginning of dishonesty. Our poverty is
mostly that of the soul. The churches are dying, and the sabbath is
dead. What we need is a return to the honor, sanity, and common sense
of old New England, which gave of its fullness to the land we love.
Let's start a school of old-fashioned decency and Americanism. Let's
call it the Church of All Faiths and make it a center of power.'

"I laid the scheme before him in all its details, and then--

"'I'm with you,' he said, 'and I think I can see Knowles moving and
Deacon Joe coming down off his high horse.'

"'Possibly we could use Knowles,' I suggested. 'There'll be a lot of
detail.'

"'But only as a kind of clerk,' said Harry.

"As a kind of clerk, I agreed. 'We shall need a number of clerks. I
intend that every family within ten miles shall be visited at least
once a week. We shall not only let our light shine, but we shall make
it shine into every human heart in this community. If they're too
callous we'll punch a hole with our trusty blade and let the light in.
The lantern and the rapier shall be our weapons.'

"Harry was full of enthusiasm. He had met Marie on the street, and she
was glad to learn that he was going to work.

"'Incidentally, I hope to win your grandfather's consent,' he had said
to her.

"And she had answered: 'If you could do that I should think you were
an extremely able young man.'

"'And worthy of the best girl living?' Harry had urged.

"'That's too extravagant,' Marie had said as she left him.

"Harry went to work with me at once. He bought the rink and the ground
beneath it and some more alongside. We spent days and nights with an
architect making and remaking the plans, and by and by we knew that
we were right. Soon the contractor began his work, and in three months
we had finished the most notable meeting-house of modern times.

"The walls were tinted a rich cream color, the woodwork was painted
white. There were new carpets in the aisles, and between them
comfortable seats for nine hundred people. The fine old pulpit from
which Jonathan Edwards had preached his first sermon was the center of
a