mns, and
looked upon its importation into the church service much as if the use
of incense had been introduced. He was a little man, with a shrewd eye
and a slow tongue--but a tongue that could give a deadly thrust when he
got ready to use it.

"The Aye-men," he said with great deliberation, and when he was most
deliberate, he was most to be feared. "Inteet, and you'll be putting
that tail to the end o' the psawlms too." He tapped Lawyer Ed on the
arm with his spectacle case. "Jist be waiting a bit till you get
permission, young man. You and John Thornton are not jist awl the
session."

Mr. McPherson was the senior elder, the champion of all things
orthodox, and he was inclined to regard Lawyer Ed and J. P. as
irresponsible boys.

"Hoot toot, mon," shouted Lawyer Ed jovially. "What's wrong wi' a bit
Aye-men foreby? It's in the Scriptur', 'Let all the people say
Amen'--and here you would forbid them!"

Jock was a Highlander, and Lawyer Ed's habit of addressing him in a
Lowland dialect was particularly irritating as the mischievous young
elder well knew.

"Yus. You know the Scriptures ferry well indeed, but if you would be
reading a little farther you will find that it will be saying, 'How
shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen?'"

This tickled Lawyer Ed and he laughed loudly. "Tut, tut, Jock! It's a
small thing to make a fuss about. You and Jimmie McTavish and a lot
more of you fellows are dead set against all sorts of things that you
accept in the end. Why, man, I can remember the day when you two
objected to the little organ in the old church, and you got used to it
and liked it."

"I liked it? Indeed, and when would that be?"

"Well, you stopped kicking, anyway, until we got the big one, which was
clean unreasonable, whatefer."

"No, sir." Mr. McPherson's spectacle case tapped the younger man's arm
peremptorily. "I was perfectly logical then, as I am now. I objected
when the wee squeaking thing was brought in, and I objected more when
you and the weemin filled up the end o' the church with a machine to
turn us all deef. As I say, I was perfectly logical, the greater the
organ, the greater the objection."

J. P. hid a smile in the darkness and hastened to interpose, for when
Jock once got riding his objection hobby he would agree with nothing
under the sun.

"There's an article in the _British Weekly_ on the evolution of the
church service--" he began; but his impetu