ill harshly calling to prayer.

The Ellwells had kept the old Four Corners in Middleton long after the
family had moved out into the wider world of Boston, and from farming
and the ministry had entered the spheres of commerce and money-owning.
In the time of old Roper Ellwell the Four Corners had been the
parsonage for Middleton, and there first the Rev. Roper Ellwell had
stirred the placid waters of meeting-house faith until something like
a primitive revival had spread into neighboring parishes. His wife, a
learned woman, had managed half a dozen young men who were preparing
their Greek and Latin for Camberton. Those were the homely and kindly
days of the Four Corners.

Then Roper Ellwell was called by the Second Church, in Boston, to be
their pastor. This was the beginning of the Ellwell family in the good
society of New England. The pastor's eloquence waxed into books that
are found to-day on the shelves of the Harvard Library, with the
University book-plate recording their gift by the author; also in
black-cloth bindings, admirably printed, going to auction from some
private library formed by a parishioner of the noted divine. When he
became old in service, the congregation, now rich and fashionable,
added to his ministrations the vigor of a younger man. Yet Roper
Ellwell, on fine Sundays, still fired one of his former discourses
from the lofty pulpit of his church. As these days grew rarer, the old
pastor divided his time between his son's house on Beacon Street and
the Four Corners.

Mark Ellwell was, as he should be, his father's son with the leaven of
a newer world which led him into business instead of the ministry. But
a fair product of Camberton, and a man well known and liked in Boston,
where he was a merchant, when that term did not cover shop-keeping or
gambling. He made a solid fortune in wool; built a house just beyond
Charles Street on Beacon Street; was a member of two good clubs, and a
deacon in his father's church.

In these days the Four Corners was used chiefly in the autumn months,
and as a playhouse for the feeble pastor. Mark Ellwell built a summer
home in Nahant.

There was one son who grew up--John. This Ellwell was sent to
Camberton in due time, where he broke the family tradition by living a
licentious life. He was kept in the university for two years, from
respect to his family, in spite of his drunkenness and idleness. When
the war broke out--John was then in his third year at Cambe