Her father opened his eyes with astonishment when he
came into Janet's bright kitchen that night and heard his little girl
laughing and clapping her hands as merrily as any of them. If anything
had been needed to deepen his interest in them all, their kindness to
the child would have done it; and from that day the minister, and his
children, and Mrs Nasmyth, too, had a firm and true friend in Mr Snow.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

From the time of their arrival, the minister and his family excited
great curiosity and interest among the good people of Merleville. The
minister himself, as Mr Snow told Mrs Nasmyth, was "popular." Not,
however, that any one among them all thought him faultless, unless Mr
Snow himself did. Every old lady in the town saw something in him,
which she not secretly deplored. Indeed, they were more unanimous, with
regard to the minister's faults, than old ladies generally are on
important subjects. The matter was dispassionately discussed at several
successive sewing-circles, and when Mrs Page, summing up the evidence,
solemnly declared, "that though the minister was a good man, and a good
preacher, he lacked considerable in some things which go to make a man a
good pastor," there was scarcely a dissenting voice.

Mrs Merle had ventured to hint that, "they could not expect everything
in one man," but her voice went for nothing, as one of the minister's
offences was, having been several times in at the Judge's, while he
sinfully neglected others of his flock.

"It's handy by," ventured Mrs Merle, again. But the Judge's wife was
no match for the blacksmith's lady, and it was agreed by all, that
whatever else the minister might be, he was "no hand at visiting." True
he had divided the town into districts, for the purpose of regularly
meeting the people, and it was his custom to announce from the pulpit,
the neighbourhood in which, on certain days, he might be expected. But
that of course, was a formal matter, and not at all like the
affectionate intercourse that ought to exist between a pastor and his
people. "He might preach like Paul," said Mrs Page, "but unless on
week days he watered the seed sown, with a word in season, the harvest
would never be gathered in. The minister's face ought to be a familiar
sight in every household, or the youth would never be brought into the
fold," and the lady sighed, at the case of the youth, scattered over the
ten miles square of Merleville. The minister w