r, sweet voices among
the children, and they all seemed to enjoy singing so much it could not
be otherwise than agreeable to those who were listening, and Violet did
her best. Then David, very reverently, but not very firmly, took Mr
Caldwell's duty upon himself, and offered a few words of prayer; and
then the children repeated together the Lord's Prayer, and after that
everything went well enough. David and Violet took their usual places,
with their classes round them, and Jem suggested to Mr Philip that he
should take Mr Caldwell's rough-looking boys in hand "and give them a
talk."

"Hear them repeat their verses, and tell them a story. You can do it as
well as Mr C. Shall I tell them that you are the new minister?"

"Thank you. I will introduce myself. I ought to be able to say
something to these young rascals. I hope they won't find me out."

He seemed to get on very well. Jem would have liked to get rid of the
three little fellows for whom he was responsible, so as to hear what he
was saying. The boys liked it, evidently; at least they listened with
great interest; and one would have thought that Mr Philip was quite
accustomed to the work, he did it so easily. The boys laughed more than
once, and grew eager and a little noisy; but their teacher was perfectly
grave and proper, and did not give Jem the shadow of an excuse for
wishing to "knock him down." He congratulated him when it was all over.

"Yes; I flatter myself it was the right man in the right place this
time," said Mr Philip. "You didn't think I could do as well as old
Caldwell, did you."

Jem shrugged his shoulders.

"Yes, you could do it, once in a way, after a fashion, at any rate."

But though Jem spoke so coldly to Philip himself, he was enthusiastic in
his praises of him when they were giving their mother the history of the
afternoon after Frank had gone home.

"He can do anything, I think," said he. "He was not at a loss for a
moment. I believe, if he had been put to it, he could have done the
whole business as well as Davie did, and he did it very well."

David said nothing, but Violet repeated her opinion as to their new
friend's want of earnestness.

"If it had been the most foolish thing in the world, he would have done
it just as well, and just as willingly, if he had thought it was
expected of him to do it."

"Are you not a little severe on him?" said her mother.

"No, mamma; I don't mean to be severe. He would thi