The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-10-07

gan his pastorate in Windham, II wa
felt by the members of the village
church that they had secured all-il
fact a great deal more-than they ha0
any reason to expect. They had treat
ed themselves to the ploasurable eX-
element of listening to long line o.
candidates, considering and rejecting
until one Sunday morning slim
young preacher had arisen in the pull
pit and surveyed them earnestly with
q pair of very fine gray eyes.
His frock coat fitted perfectly, his
collar and tie were irreproachable, and
as it had been previously ascertaineu
that he was hampered by neither Il
family nor a cough, Gn instantaneous
conviction swept through the feminine
half of the audience that here, at last,
was the man for whom they had been
waiting. In a few isolated cases OF
spinsterhood this conviction even as
sumed a more personal significance.
The more conservative, masculine
part of the congregation waited for the
sermon before committing itself to
decision-happily unconscious that IL
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 deacons wife Sc
cured promise from the candidate
to take tea with her during the first
week of his pastorate, and her invita-
tion was only the first in royal sa-
Lutte of welcome which rained upon
him from all the tea tables in the viii
lage, as soon as it was definitely
known that he would accept the call
extended to him by the church.
The parsonage was low-roofed,
pleasant looking white house, standing
well back from the street, on a 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 house, 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
skeptically the frank outburst of cord
iality with which the ladies of the con-
gregation sought to make their new
pastor feel at home. He, however,
accepted all his invitations courteous
ly, starting out every afternoon punct-
ually at five, faultlessly attired in
clothes of a noticeably city cut, his
fine, distracted gaze unconscious of
the admiring scrutiny of half the viii
lage. Mrs. Kimbal never failed to OBJ
serve him critically from the shelter
of the parlor blinds.
'Mys land!" she remarked scornfully
to herself. ANY one would think they
was tryin' ter pay for the spiritual
food they get on Sunday by feedin'
him upon cake an preserves all
through the week. An when they
can't ask him out, they're a sendin'
of things in. There enough jell an
spice-cake in the pantry now to keep
him for year. First they know they
will ruin his digestion an then they'll
have him preaching hell-ire an dam
nation at em fit to kill"
1t was true that everything feminine
ingenuity could devise had been show
cred upon the young clergyman to re-
lieve the supposed barrenness of his
existence. And from endless culinary
delicacies.he found himself the posses
sor of a bewildering array of Bible
markers, embroidered slippers and
sofa cushions, all of which he gave
over into his housekeeper's charge with
a rather helpless air.
The church in Windham was only
his second pastorate and he was young
and very much in earnest. He had
been persuaded to accept the call prin-
cipally because he believed that here
he had found definite work waiting
to be done. From the first Sunday
that he had preached in the village he
had set his heart upon securing the
erection OF new church to replace the
present old, dilapidated structure
Apparently his plan met with ready
sympathy and encouragement on every
side. The more influential men of his
congregation, whom he approached
first, listened to him attentively, and