he clean hearts I see in my poor."

"Uncle Mac again?" ventured Mark.

"Uncle Mac, and Uncles Mac--many of them. They have a heritage of
cleanness. It is the best thing they brought to this new world, and
_we_ were the losers when they left us."

"_We_? But you are English, are you not?" asked Mark courteously.

"Ah! So you caught me then, did you? Yes, I am English, or rather
British. But don't question me about that; I am real Yankee now. Even
my tongue has lost its ancestral rights."

Mark was persistent. "Perhaps you, too, have a little of the 'blessed
drop' that makes the Uncle Macs what they are? I really think, Father,
that you have it."

"Not even a little of the 'blessed drop.' I am really not English,
though born in England. Both father and mother were Scotch. So I am
kin to the 'blessed drop.'"

"And you drifted here--"

"Not exactly 'drifted,' Mark. I came because I wanted to come. I came
for opportunity. I was ambitious, and then there was another
reason--but that is at present forbidden ground. Here is your
constable friend again."

The constable passed with a respectful touch of his helmet. _He_ at
least was of the soil. Every line of his face spoke of New England.

"He is a character worth studying," remarked Father Murray. "Have you
ever talked with him?"

"No. I have had no chance."

"Then find one, and put him in a book. He was once rich for Sihasset.
That was in the lumber days. But he lost his money, and he thinks that
the town owes him a living. That is the Methodist minister to whom he
is speaking now. He, too, is worth your attention."

"Do you get along well with the Protestant clergy of the town?" asked
Mark.

"Splendidly," said Father Murray; "especially with the Universalist.
There is a lot of humor in the Universalist. I suspect the 'blessed
drop' in him. One day I happened to call him a Unitarian, and he
corrected me. 'But what,' I asked, 'is the difference between the
Universalists and the Unitarians?' The little man smiled and said:
'One of my professors put it like this: "The Unitarians believe that
God is too good to damn them, and the Universalists believe they are
too good to be damned."'"

"Still, it cannot be an easy life," said Mark, "to be one of seven or
eight Protestant pastors in such a small town."

"It certainly is hard sledding," replied Father Murray. "But these men
take it very philosophically and with a great deal of self-