The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1908-11-12
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church mat tney MA secured all-lu
fact a great deal moge-than they lad
any reason to expect. They had treat.
ed themselves to the pleasurable ex-
element of listening to long line OF
candidates, considering and rejecting,
until one Sunday morning a slim
Young preacher had arisen in the pull
nlt and surveyed them earnestly with
a pair of very fine gray eyes.
His frock coat fitted perfectly, his
collar and tie we're irreproachable, and
as It had been previously ascertained
that he was hampered by neither a
family nor a cough, an instantaneous
conviction swept through the feminine
half of the audience that here, at last,
was the man for wnom they had been
waiting. In a few isolated cases Of
spinsterhood this conviction even as
sumed a more personal significance
The more conservative, masculine
mart of the congregation waited for the
sermon before committing itself to a
decision-happily unconscious that 1t
was taking an entirely unnecessary
precaution, and that the candidate had
been engaged practically from the
first moment Before the singing Of
the second hymn, Mrs. Saxton, the
wife Of one Of the deacons, was al
ready congratulating herself on the
fact that her daughter, Milly, sitting
unsuspectingly at her side, had always
been carefully reared, and was fitted
in every way to take up the duties OF
a minister's wife. The parsonage roof,
of course, would have to be repaired,
and she would insist upon the Ladies
Society repapering the parlor; other
wise The house would do very well as
1t was
At the close of the service, by skill
full maneuvering and from the vantage
of a front pew, the deacon's wife Sc
cured a promise from the candidate
10 take tea with her during the first
week Of his pastorate, and her invita-
ton was only the first in royal sa-
Lutte of welcome winch rained upon
him from all the tea tables in the vii
LACE. as soon as it was definitely
known that he would accept the call
extended to him by the church.
The parsonage was a low-roofed,
pleasant looking white house, standing
we'll back from the street. on gentle
rise of lawn, and protected from the
too close scrutiny of its neighbors by
a battling hedge of locust trees and
shrubbery Here, in the library on the
south side of the mouse, young Mr..
Bancroft established himself with his
typewriter and his books, scattering
through the other rooms his scanty
supply of furniture, the somewhat bat
tered equipment Of his seminary days.
He engaged as housekeeper, Mrs. EN-
lily Kimbal, an elderly widow of his
congregation, and she at once assumed
a motherly charge of the minister and
his affairs.
She was inclined to view rather
specifically the frank outburst of cord
iality with which the ladies of the con-
gregltion sought to make their new
pastor feel at home. He, however,
accepted all his invitations courteous
ly Stating out every afternoon punct-
ually at Eve, faultlessly attired in
clothes of a noticeably city cut his
fine, distracted gaze unconscious Of
the admiring scrutiny Of half the vii
lagc. Mrs. Kimbal never failed to OBJ
serve him critically from the shelter
OF the parlor blinds.
my land" she remarked scornfully
to LerselG Amy one would think they
was tryin' ter pay for the spiritual
iool they get on Sunday by feedin'
hI.l upon cake an preserves all
through the week. An when they
CAM ask him out, they're a sendin'
OF things in. There's enough jell an
spice-cake in the pantry now TO keep
him for a year. First they know they
will ruin his digestion an then they'll
have him preaching hell-fre an dam.
NATION at em fit to kill"
i was true that everything feminine
ingenuity could devise had been show
cred upon the young clergyman to re-
leye the supposed barrenness Of his
existence. And from endless culinary
delicacies he found himself the posses
sol OF a bewildering array Of Bible
markers, embroidered slippers and
sofa cushions, all of which he gave
over into his housekeepers charge with
rather helpless air. ia
The church in Windham was only
MS second pastorate and he was young
and very much in earnest, He had
Eeen persuaded to accept the call prin-
hpally because he believed that here