rch. Hannah, all through
the sermon, wrestled mentally with the parable. It seemed to her it was
a very slippery parable! She would no sooner highly resolve to hold it
till she had wrenched its moral from it, and reduced that moral to terms
which the youngest babe could surely comprehend, than she would find
that the elusive subject had slipped from her grasp, and her whole mind
would be fixed upon the problem of how long it would take a fly to crawl
all the way across the expansive back of Mrs. Graham, who sat in the pew
in front.

She went through the service like a well-constructed automaton, rising,
sitting, singing even, with no notion of what she was doing or why she
was doing it. She bowed her head with the others for the benediction,
and then the soft stirring and cheerful tones of greeting about her,
told her that her hour was come.

The superintendent directed her to "Miss Smith's class." To her final
dismay, she found that that meant a seat on the platform in full view of
the congregation. The little church was barely more than a chapel, and
the chorus choir had two pews upon the platform. Here, it seemed, for
purposes of segregation, Catherine held her flock during the
interminable opening exercises, after which she led them to their own
room in the basement. As one in a dream, Hannah went to the seat pointed
out to her. Margaret Kittredge and Peter and Perdita were already
present. The little Hamilton girl came in with two unknown others. Then
more and more. The little girls settled themselves fussily, getting up
frequently to crush their stiff starchy skirts into place. Their
wide-brimmed hats interfered when they moved and they were never still.
The little boys huddled together, and punched each other without motive,
crowding each other off the seat, and showing the pennies they held in
their moist little palms.

The superintendent tapped his bell. The noisy groups of the
Sunday-school at large lapsed into an approach to order, the teachers
staring consciously ahead with an excess of propriety, and the children
alertly refraining from anything more riotous than fumbling with
hymn-books. Hannah's own charges felt the change in the atmosphere, and
quietness fell upon them. She welcomed it gratefully, aware that it was
in no wise due to her own effort, and spreading a hymn-book open for the
first song, stooped to allow the small boy next her to look on, then
lent her voice as freely as she could to the ch