sh'?" Bill Simmonds shouted. "Anything will
suit us here."

The laugh which followed this remark annoyed Dr. Rannage.

"I am almost inclined to believe you are right," he angrily retorted.

"Ye believe it already, an' we know it."

"Order!" the chairman sternly demanded. "Bill Simmonds, you had better
leave the hall, if you can't behave yourself."

"All right, sir," Bill acquiesced, as he threw a wink to a man across
the aisle and settled back in his seat. "I've got nuthin' more to say."

Dr. Rannage was evidently embarrassed. He mopped his face with his
handkerchief, and took another drink of water.

"I think I have explained matters quite fully," he at last continued,
"and perhaps my companions here would like to say something. I trust,
however, that you will give your new clergyman a fair trial, and do
everything in your power to help him."

"What's his name?" Tom Stephens asked. "You have never mentioned that."

"It is Douglas Stanton. He comes from a good old family, so I
understand, and his grandfather held an important government position
in this province."

Dr. Rannage's companions had very little to say. They were business
men, so they said, and unaccustomed to public speaking. Each made an
appeal to the people to support the new clergyman, to repair the
rectory, and to give more liberally toward the support of the Church in
their parish. They were given an attentive hearing, and when they were
through, the chairman brought the meeting to a sudden close. Just why
he did so Douglas could not understand. Stubbles' manner had greatly
changed since his opening remarks and he seemed to be annoyed and
irritable.

Douglas was the first to leave the building, and he stood outside in
the shadow of the hall hoping to get a word with Stubbles. As the
people passed him, he overheard some of their remarks which were by no
means complimentary.

"He made a mess of it, he surely did," a man was saying. "What does he
know about the country?"

"Nuthin'," his companion replied. "What were them funny things he wore
on his legs? I would like to see him out in the----"

Douglas could not hear his closing words. But the comments of others
were of a similar nature, and he realised that Dr. Rannage had not
smoothed the way for his coming to the parish as rector.

Last of all came the delegates, talking earnestly with one another. He
could not hear what they were saying, but judging from the tone of