ignation, quickened, as soon as he found himself in white, by
clerical and theological zeal. These feelings impelled him to produce a
creaking of the heavy vestry door, a well-known signal for his daughter
to slip out of the chancel pew and come to him.

"Now, papa, what is it?" cried that quick young lady; "that miserable
Methodist that ruined your boots, has he got the impudence to come
again? Oh, please do say so, and show me where he is; after church
nobody shall stop me--"

"Janetta, you quite forget where you are, as well as my present
condition. Be off like a good girl, as quick as you can, and bring No.
27 of my own handwriting--'Render unto Caesar'--and put my hat upon it.
My desire is that Billyjack should not know that a change has been made
in my subject of discourse."

"Papa, I see; it shall be done to perfection, while Billyjack is at his
very loudest roar in the chorus of the anthem. But do tell me who it is;
or how can I enjoy it? And lemon drops--lemon drops--"

"Janetta, I must have some very serious talk with you. Now don't be
vexed, darling; you are a thoroughly good girl, only thoughtless and
careless; and remember, dear, church is not a place for high spirits."

The rector, as behooved him, kissed his child behind the vestry door, to
soothe all sting, and then he strode forth toward the reading-desk; and
the tuning of fiddles sank to deferential scrape.

It was not at all a common thing, as one might know, for Widow Precious
to be able to escape from casks and taps, and the frying pan of eggs
demanded by some half-drowned fisherman, also the reckoning of notches
on the bench for the pints of the week unpaid for, and then to put
herself into her two best gowns (which she wore in the winter, one over
the other--a plan to be highly commended to ladies who never can have
dress enough), and so to enjoy, without losing a penny, the warmth of
the neighborhood of a congregation. In the afternoon she could hardly
ever do it, even if she had so wished, with knowledge that this was
common people's time; so if she went at all, it must--in spite of the
difference of length--be managed in the morning. And this very morning
here she was, earnest, humble, and devout, with both the tap keys in her
pocket, and turning the leaves with a smack of her thumb, not only to
show her learning, but to get the sweet approval of the rector's pew.

Now if the good rector had sent for this lady, instead of his daughter
Ja