grimace, but said nothing.

"'When pride cometh, than cometh shame,'" said Mrs. Armadale quietly.

"O yes, some sorts of pride," said the little minister's wife briskly;
"but I mean a proper sort. We don't want to let our church go down, and
we don't want to have our Sunday school thinned out; and I can tell
you, where the children go, there the fathers and mothers will be
going, next thing."

"What do you propose to do?" said Lois. "We have not fairly heard yet."

"Well, we thought we'd have some sort of celebration, and give the
school a jolly time somehow. We'd dress up the church handsomely with
evergreens; and have it well lighted; and then, we would have a
Christmas tree if we could. Or, if we couldn't, then we'd have a real
good hot supper, and give the children presents. But I'm afraid, if we
don't have a tree, they'll all run off to the other church; and I think
they're going already, so as to get asked. Mr. Seelye said the
attendance was real thin last Sabbath."

There followed an animated discussion of the whole subject, with every
point brought up again, and again and again. The talkers were, for the
most part, Charity and Madge, with the two ladies who had come in; Mrs.
Armadale rarely throwing in a word, which always seemed to have a
disturbing power; and things were taken up and gone over anew to get
rid of the disturbance. Lois sat silent and played with her spoon. Mrs.
Barclay and Philip listened with grave amusement.

"Well, I can't sit here all night," said Charity at last, rising from
behind her tea-board. "Madge and Lois,--just jump up and put away the
things, won't you; and hand me up the knives and plates. Don't trouble
yourself, Mrs. Barclay. If other folks in the village are as busy as I
am, you'll come short home for your Christmas work, Mrs. Seelye."

"It's the busy people always that help," said the little lady
propitiatingly.

"That's a fact; but I don't see no end o' this to take hold of. You
hain't got the money; and if you had it, you don't know what you want;
and if you did know, it ain't in Shampuashuh; and I don't see who is to
go to New York or New Haven, shopping for you. And if you had it, who
knows how to fix a Christmas tree? Not a soul in our church."

Mrs. Barclay and her guest withdrew at this point of the discussion.
But later, when the visitors were gone, she opened the door of her
room, and said,

"Madge and Lois, can you come in here for a few minutes? It is
bus