ft of his grief that the harvest had been so
light; but he would more than hint the possibility that the labourers
had been few. Most important among his statistics was the number of
young communicants. Wanderers from other folds he admitted, with a
not wholly satisfied eye upon their early theological training, and to
persons duly accredited from Presbyterian churches elsewhere he gave the
right hand of fellowship; but the young people of his own congregation
were his chief concern always, and if a gratifying number of these had
failed to "come forward" during the year, the responsibility must
lie somewhere. Dr Drummond was willing to take his own share; "the
ministrations of this pulpit" would be more than suspected of having
come short, and the admission would enable him to tax the rest upon
parents and Bible-class teachers with searching effect. The congregation
would go gloomily home to dinner, and old Sandy MacQuhot would remark
to his wife, "It's hard to say why will the Doctor get himself in sic
a state aboot mere numbers. We're told 'where two or three are gathered
together.' But the Doctor's all for a grand congregation."

Knox Church, under such auspices could hardly fail to enlarge her
borders; but Elgin enlarged hers faster. Almost before you knew where
you were there spread out the district of East Elgin, all stacks of tall
chimneys and rows of little houses. East Elgin was not an attractive
locality; it suffered from inundation sometimes, when the river was in
spring flood; it gave unresentful room to a tannery. It was the home of
dubious practices at the polls, and the invariable hunting-ground for
domestic servants. Nevertheless, in the view of Knox Church, it could
not bear a character wholly degraded; too many Presbyterians, Scotch
foremen, and others, had their respectable residence there. For these it
was a far cry to Dr Drummond in bad weather, and there began to be talk
of hiring the East Elgin schoolhouse for Sunday exercises if suitable
persons could be got to come over from Knox Church and lead them. I do
not know who was found to broach the matter to Dr Drummond; report says
his relative and housekeeper, Mrs Forsyth, who perhaps might do it under
circumstances of strategical advantage. Mrs Forsyth, or whoever it was,
had her reply in the hidden terms of an equation--was it any farther for
the people of East Elgin to walk to hear him preach than for him to walk
to minister to the people of East