The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1917-08-30
Thus challenged, Ward had nothing

Thus challenged, Ward had nothing
10 say.
After dinner he left early. but he did
not 60 home. He went up the hill. As
he strobe on, he remembered many
things. The girl was without the sheet
anchor of any belief, adrift and alone,
and he had made no attempt to help
her unbelief. Although it was after
ten, the house was still lighted down
stairs, and he went without hesitation
into the garden.
Thus 1t happened that he saw Elinor
In Huff's arms, saw him thrust her vio-
lently from him, and rush away across
the dower-beds, leaving her there
alone.
Ward remained in the shadows. To
save his life he could not have spoken
to Elinor then. Under his constrained
exterior he was in the thrall of the
f1ercest jealousy. This little fair
haired girl, to whom his God was no
God, had taken a powerful hold on
him.
Elinor, who slept little that night,
saw the light in his window until it
faded into the dawn.
Elinor went to the early communion
the following day. The church was
dark. There were hardly two dozen
people scattered e the building. She
sat far back and was heavily yelled.
When the congregation knelt, she
knelt. An old woman In the next pew
gave her the prayer book open at the
service. On her knees then went Eli
o and listened to Wards fine voice
echoing through the empty building.
The morning was warn and the WIN
dows open. The odor Of burned wood
from the parish house crept in.
"Thou shalt not STEAL" Ward read
from the Decalogue, and the people
said:
"Lord have mercy upon us and in.
cline u hearts to keep this law"
"Thou shalt not STEAL"
In the palm of her left glove Elinor
had the Bryant pear-shaped pearl.
Ward had not seen her. He went
through the service reverently, with an
impressiveness Of voice and bearing
that showed how real it was to him.
And in his voice, reading, exhorting,
commanding, there were tender notes
that caught Elinor's breath in her
throat.
When the service vas over, she rose
from her knees and dropped the Bry.
ant pearl into the alms-box by the
door. The congregation, small and
scattered, was still kneeling. The
doorway and the alms-box were in twi.
light.
Drawing down her veil, she went
quickly out into the sunshine.
At the eleven o'clock service Ward
announced the burning of the parish
building.
1T is not my intention to make an
appeal" he said simply. "The parish
house was built to fill q great need;
that need still exists. If our church is
to be an element in the daily lives of
the people Of this town, we must have
a meeting place for them. For the
worship Of our God, the church build
ing is sufficient, but if religion is to you
the thing it is to me, the broader reli-
gion Of universal brotherhood, the
church building is not enough.
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
myself"
Seventy-eight thousand dollars was
taken up in the collection at Saint
Jude's that morning. Over fifty thou
sand was in checks, the rest was in
cash.
Walter Huff, sitting alone in the
back Of the church, had watched Ward
intently through the service.
Unlike Elinor, Huff had been raised
in a Presbyterian household. He had
come to jeer, to watch with his thief's
eyes the o%ffertory piling into the silver
plates. But the service told on him.
Somewhere down in his violent young
heart there crept a sense of shame. 1t
was only when he looked at Ward that
his eyes hardened.
This man who had come between
him and his girl-this white-handed,
surpliced, p~rayer-reading priest, who
in a dozen words could compel the peo-
pie before him to lay a fortune at his
feet-Huff ground his teeth together.
But something of unwilling admiration
mixed with his scorn. This was
40 9