ld daddy, and--and well, there
is no use of your rubbing the old hog's bristles the wrong way. They
might stick in your hand in the long run. You've talked too much to our
men on your line of free thought, I am thinking. I heard one say
yesterday that you claimed to be an out and out atheist. They all like
you, but they are members of some church or other and they were
scandalized to hear it. We are in a narrow, hidebound community up here
and we've got to watch where we step. Fellers like those will talk, and
what they say will be added to by others."

"I won't keep my mouth shut for anybody," John said, firmly, as he got
up and began to dress. "I don't want to go to-day, but I will if you say
so."

"Well, I _do_ say so," Cavanaugh answered. "And we will set out as soon
as the family does. I'm going to set, as usual, in the old man's Bible
class that comes before the regular discourse, though I can't say that I
get much profit out of it. I disagree with his interpretation of many
passages, but he'd crawl over the benches and have a fist fight with me
if I disputed his points. They say he is a regular devil when he is
mad. Church member though he is, he actually shot a man once, and it was
a wonder the chap didn't die. He carries a revolver. What do you think
of that for an active disciple of the great Prince of Peace?"

"They are all that way," John said, warmly. "They are crooks and haven't
brains enough to see how crooked their reasoning is."

Shortly after breakfast the three Whaleys started to church. Tilly
walked between her father and mother, and John and Cavanaugh followed
close behind. They found, on their arrival, a group of villagers,
mountaineers, and farmers loitering on the grass-plot in front of the
little building, but the Whaleys went straight in, and John and the
contractor did likewise. Cavanaugh went forward to the benches at the
front which were reserved for Whaley's Bible class. Eight or ten men and
women were already seated there, and they nodded appreciatively to him
and the Whaley family. John found himself quite alone on a bench near
the door. He saw Tilly and her mother chatting with some other women,
and Cavanaugh making himself quite at home as he shook hands with
various smiling members of the class. Only half an hour was to be given
to the class work and nearly all the students had arrived. John saw
Whaley open his worn and interlined Bible and then step back to a
bell-rope which hung