all one, you know."

"But what _do_ she mean?" said Mrs. Salter.

"Yes, what's the use o' havin' a church, ef folks ain't goin' to it?"
said Mrs. Carpenter.

"No," said Diana, laughing; "I only asked why any one _must_ go, if he
don't want to? Where's the _must?_"

"When we had good Mr. Hardenburgh, for example," chimed in Mrs.
Boddington, "who was as loggy as he could be; good old soul! and put us
all to sleep, or to wishin' we could. My! hain't I eaten quarts o' dill
in the course o' the summer, trying to keep myself respectably awake
and considerin' o' what was goin' on! Di says, why _must_ any one eat
all that dill that don't want to?"

"Cloves is better," suggested Miss Gunn.

Some laughed at this; others looked portentously grave.

"It's just one o' Di's nonsense speeches," said her mother; "what they
mean I'm sure I don't know. She reads too many books to be just like
other folks."

"But the books were written by other folks, mother."

"La! some sort, child. Not our sort, I guess."

"Hain't Di never learned her catechism?" inquired Mrs. Flandin.

"Is there anything about going to church in it?" asked the girl.

"There's most all sorts o' good things in it," answered vaguely Mrs.
Flandin, who was afraid of committing herself. "I thought Di might ha'
learned there something about such a thing as we call _duty_."

"That's so," said Mrs. Mansfield.

"Just what I am asking about," said Di. "That's the thing. Why _is_ it
duty, to go to church when one don't want to go?"

"Well, I'm sure it was time we had a new minister," said Mrs Salter;
"and I'm glad he's come. If he's no better than old Mr. Hardenburgh,
it'll take us a spell to find it out; and that'll be so much gained. He
don't _look_ like him any way."

"He _is_ different, ain't he?" assented Mrs. Boddington. "If we wanted
a change, we've got it. How did you all like his sermon last Sabbath?"

"He was very quiet--" said Mrs. Flandin.

"I like that," said Diana. "When a man roars at me, I never can tell
what he is saying."

"He seemed to kind o' know his own mind," said Mrs. Salter.

"I thought he'd got an astonishin' knowledge o' things in the town, for
the time he's had," said Mrs. Mansfield.

"I wisht he had a family," remarked Miss Gunn; "that's all I've got
agin him. I think a minister had allays ought to have a family."

"He will,--let him alone a while," said Mrs. Boddington. "Time enough.
Who have we got in town that would do fo