but I can't," he said, speaking as if
hurried, "Please tell Miss Ogden there's a class of sixteen girls in
our Sunday school, and the teacher's gone; and I've taken the liberty
of promising for her that she'll take charge of it."

"I'll call her," said Mrs. Murdoch.

"No, no," replied the elder. "Just tell her it's a nice class, and
that the girls expect her to come, and we'll be ever go much obliged to
her. Good-morning!"--and he was gone.

"Oh, Mrs. Murdoch!" exclaimed Mary, when the elder's message was given.
"I can't! I don't know them! I suppose I ought; but I'd have said no,
if I had seen him."

The elder had thought of that, perhaps, and had provided against any
refusal by retreating. As he went away he said to himself:

"She can do it, I know; if she does, it'll help me carry out my plan."

He looked, just then, as if it were a very good plan, but he did not
reveal it.

Mary Ogden persuaded Mrs. Murdoch to take her to another church that
morning, so that she need not meet any of her new class.

"I hope Jack will go to church in the city," she said; and her mother
said the same thing to Aunt Melinda over in Crofield.

Jack could not have given any reason why his feet turned westward, but
he went slowly along for several blocks, while he stared at the rows of
buildings, at the sidewalks, at the pavements, and at everything else,
great and small. He was actually leaving the world in which he had
been brought up--the Crofield world--and taking a first stroll around
in a world of quite another sort. He met some people on the streets,
but not many.

"They're all getting ready for church," he thought, and his next
thought was expressed aloud.

"Whew! what street's this, I wonder?"

He had passed row after row of fine buildings, but suddenly he had
turned into a wide avenue which seemed a street of palaces. Forward he
went, faster and faster, staring eagerly at one after another of those
elegant mansions of stone, of marble, or of brick.

"See here, Johnny," he suddenly heard in a sharp voice close to him,
"what number do you want?"

"Hallo," said Jack, halting and turning. "What street's this?"

He was looking up into the good-natured face of a tall man in a neat
blue uniform.

"What are you looking for?" began the policeman again. But, without
waiting for Jack's answer, he went on, "Oh, I see! You're a greeny
lookin' at Fifth Avenue. Mind where you're going, or you'll run into
somebod