nding spirit that he turned
to reply, when the minister addressed him.

They had scarcely settled down to one of their long, quiet talks, when
they were summoned to tea by Graeme, and before tea was over, Janet and
the bairns came home. The boys had found their way up the hill when
school was over, and they all came home together in Mr Snow's sleigh.
To escape from the noise and confusion which they brought with them, Mr
Greenleaf and the minister went into the study again.

During the silence that succeeded their entrance, there came into Mr
Greenleaf's mind a thought that had been often there before. It was a
source of wonder to him that a man of Mr Elliott's intellectual power
and culture should content himself in so quiet a place as Merleville,
and to-night he ventured to give expression to his thoughts. Mr
Elliott smiled.

"I don't see that my being content to settle down here for life, is any
more wonderful than that you should have done so. Indeed, I should say,
far less wonderful. You are young and have the world before you."

"But my case is quite different. I settle here to get a living, and I
mean to get a good one too, and besides," added he, laughing,
"Merleville is as good a place as any other to go to Congress from;
there is no American but may have that before him you know."

"As for the living, I can get here such as will content me. For the
rest, the souls in this quiet place are as precious as elsewhere. I am
thankful for my field of labour."

Mr Greenleaf had heard such words before, and he had taken them "for
what they were worth," as a correct thing for a minister to say. But
the quiet earnestness and simplicity of Mr Elliott's manner struck him
as being not just a matter of course.

"He is in earnest about it, and does not need to use many words to prove
it. There must be something in it." He did not answer him, however.

"There is one thing which is worth consideration," continued Mr
Elliott, "you may be disappointed, but I cannot be so, in the nature of
things."

"About getting a living?" said Mr Greenleaf, and a vague remembrance of
Deacons Fish and Slowcome made him move uneasily in his chair.

"That is not what I was thinking of, but I suppose I may be sure of
that, too. `Your bread shall be given you, and your water sure.' And
there is no such thing as disappointment in that for which I really am
labouring, the glory of God, and the good of souls."

"Well," said Mr