and, turning away, went
angrily down the street. The fact that the minister had given him back
his money was a severe shock to some of his deep-rooted opinions. He
had always regarded churches as greedy institutions, looking and
begging for money from everyone; ministers as parasites on society,
living without honest labour, preying on the working man. Sam's
favourite story was the old one about the woman whose child got a coin
stuck in its throat. She did not send for the doctor, but for the
minister! Sam had always seen considerable truth in this story and had
told it to every minister he had met.

He told himself now that he was glad to get back the money, twenty-five
dollars was not picked up every day. But he was not glad. The very
touch of the bills was distasteful to him!

He did not tell his wife of the occurrence. Nor did he put the money in
the black bag, where their money was always kept in the bureau drawer,
safe under lock and key. He could not do that without telling his wife
where it came from. So he shoved it carelessly into the pocket of the
light overcoat that he was wearing. Sam Motherwell was not a careless
man about money, but the possession of this particular twenty-five
dollars gave him no pleasure.

CHAPTER VIII

THE OTHER DOCTOR

The young minister went down the street with a thoughtful face.

"I wonder if I did right," he was thinking. "It is a hard thing to talk
that way to a human being, and yet it seems to be the only thing to do.
Oh, what it would mean for God's work if all these rich farmers were
saved from their insatiable greed."

He turned into Dr. Clay's office.

"Oh, Clay!" he burst out when he had answered the young man's friendly
greeting, "it is an awful thing to lay open a mean man's meanness, and
tell him the plain truth about himself."

"It is, indeed," the young doctor answered, "but perhaps it is heroic
treatment your man needed, for I would infer that you have been reading
the law to someone. Who was it?"

"Sam Motherwell," the minister answered.

"Well, you had a good subject," the doctor said gravely. "For
aggravated greed, and fatty degeneration of the conscience, Mr.
Motherwell is certainly a wonder. When that poor English girl took the
fever out here, it was hard to convince Sam that she was really sick.
'Look at them red cheeks of hers,' he said to me, 'and her ears ain't
cold, and her eyes is bright as ever. She's just lookin' for a rest, I
think, i