ct of the morning papers and their tendency to
gather in small knots and engage in earnest conversation. In a corner
behind the paddle-box, securely screened from wind and sun, sat Mr.
Jodderel and Mr. Primm, the latter adoring with much solemn verbosity
the sacred word, and the former piling text upon text to demonstrate the
final removal of all the righteous to a new state of material existence
in a better-ordered planet. In the one rocking-chair of the cabin sat
Insurance President Lottson, praising to Mr. Hooper, who leaned
obsequiously upon the back of the chair and occasionally hopped
vivaciously around it, the self-disregard of the disciples, and the
evident inability of any one within sight to follow their example. The
prudent Wagget was interviewing Dr. Fahrenglotz, who was going to attend
the meeting of a sort of Theosophic Society, composed almost entirely of
Germans, and was endeavoring to learn what points there might be in the
Doctor's belief which would make a man wiser unto salvation, while
Captain Maile stood by, a critical listener, and distributed pitying
glances between the two. Well forward, but to the rear of the general
crowd, stood Deacon Bates, in an attitude which might have seemed
conservative were it not manifestly helpless; Mr. Buffle, with the
smile peculiar to the successful business man; Lawyer Scott, with the
air of a man who had so much to say that time could not possibly suffice
in which to tell it all; Squire Woodhouse, who was in search of a good
market for hay; Principal Alleman, who was in chase of an overdue
shipment of text-books; and Mr. Radley, who, with indifferent success,
was filling the self-assigned roll of moderator of the little
assemblage.

"Nothing settled by the meeting?" said Mr. Buffle, echoing a despondent
suggestion by Deacon Bates. "Of course not. You don't suppose that what
theologians have been squabbling over for two thousand years can be
settled in a day, do you? We made a beginning and that's a good half of
anything. Why, I and every other man that builds boats have been hard at
work for years, looking for the best model, and we haven't settled the
question yet. We're in earnest about it--we can't help but be, for
there's money in it, and while we're waiting we do the next best
thing--we use the best ones we know about."

"Don't you think you'd get at the model sooner, if some of you weren't
pig-headed about your own, and too fond of abusing each other's?"