The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-03-28

as they hao proDaoiy never stared De- fore. No wonder, either, knowing, as they did, nothing about the Flower mis- sion, and less than nothing about the mission for the conversion of Professor ! Nabs.
 First Of all, there was little Miss Linn, in her white muslin and buttercup hat. She looked half dead with fright, her big, pretty blue eyes wandering all around her in terrified, agonizing sort of way. her whole manner saying as plainly as possible. Here's Professor Nabs." Next there were three members of the Flower mission-three earnest young women, one short and iabby, who plodded over the tiles with fat, noisy steps, another who turned her toes in, and 9 third with long earrings, who, having some idea of elegance, advanced with hands dropping from the wrist, and long up and do sn steps like a camel's. Thirdly, there was Miss Smith, who settled her eye-glass all the way up, and Miss Pointer, who hid her shame behind her pocket handker- chief. Last of all, there was-Professor Nabs.
 All the rest of this strange scene went for nothing in the minds of the spectators. ! &S 9OOh AS kuG1I Sk2ktlC4 SCuSGS u1 aux tn the fact that before them, in flesh and blood, was Professor Nabs. He pranced triumphantly after Miss Smith and Miss Pointer, his yellow green hat in one hand 8 very large prayer-book and hymn-book held prominently in the other. The ruby beams played on his big, snow-white biow, as he passed by the brown saints in the niches. It quite seemed as if these battered saints were lending a little of their borrowed lustre to him.
 Up the long aisle went Miss Linn, and made violent dash into the two big empty pews waiting for the incurables, whither she was followed in due course by the rest ot the Flower mission and Professor Nabs. By this time the con. gregation had so far recovered from their surprise as to be able to return te their devotions.
 l If there was one thing that St. Peters prided itself in more than another, it was the singing of tho choir. The congrega- tion would as soon have thought of joiu- ing in the rector's part of the Litany as of joining in the singing. To Professor Nabs, however, who knew none of these things, it seemed that all this rising and falling of the voices was but a poor af fair; and by the way of, as he mentally expressed 1t, helping them on a bit, he struck up with such lusty md discordant shout, that the little boys of the choir g.ggled outright, and the elder mem bers of 1t turned crimson from shame a.d dis. com6sure. '.
 Professor Nabs, however. thought he was getting on nicely. The organ ex- | kslawokAl h;vH AAsA than anything he could produce from the piano, so that he excelled even the widest of his everyday efforts. He had all the abandon of a great artist. too, and was so much carried away by his own enthus. iasm during the psalms, that he shook his head and emphasized himself from first to last, generally coming in little too late at the end of each verse. Indeed, he was so much struck with the ad- vantages poss&ssed by the organ over the piano as an accompanying instrument that he sat quite quietly all through the reading of the first lesson, busy with an abstruse calculation as to how much in- come he would lose, how much interest he would have to pay, and how big a lump sum it would cost. to buy an organ as large as this one of St. Peters, and to build an organ oh amber for it behind his drawing-room. He was thus alike ob- livious to the curiosity of the congrega- ton, the burning indignation of the rec tor, and the blushes of the Flower mis- sion. By the time the second lesson be- gan, however, he had made up his mind that the organ scheme was impossible; and as Miss Linn happened to be sitting next him, he thought he might as well point out a few of the most glaring archi- tectural delinquencies to her, until little Miss Linn was so terror-stricken that she almost went straight of into mysteries. The prayers came to an end, and just as the rector mounted into his pulpit, the side door opened, and the seven poor in- curables came tottering in. It was a strange practice this, probably instituted by the rector. To more than one of the incurables it seems as if they had began at the wrong end of the service; but very possibly the rector thought it was an easy thing to say prayers at home: whereas, it was an exceedingly difficult thing to listen to sermon such as he could deliver in the wards of an incursble hospital.
 They were seven respectable. faint, and WS0A hhSoto0iOSy thCAC was plenty of room for their poor, tired limbs in the long pews, even without crushing Professor Nabs and the six Flower Mis- sionaries.
 Professor Nabs What had come over him? From the first moment his eyes lighted on the white faces and distorted forms, the grin upon his face died like a beam of sunshine at the coming of snow. And even as Miss Linn frightened up and began to look about her a little, shadows of darkness gathered about his white brow, and pain quivered around the eyes, until by-and-by he began to clasp and unclasp his hands, and to nut ter and shake his head to himself, until the surrounding pews were divided in feeling as to whether they should break out into tears or into laughter.
 There was one old woman who partic- ularly seemed to fascinate him. He