the pulpit
stairs. He began the service with the usual smile on his face; then he
announced his text, "My God shall supply all your need," and closed the
Bible as he always did as soon as the text was read. "Naa," said he,
"I knaw some o' yo are disappointed at seeing me here instead of your
praacher, but it was oather me or nobody. Naa, if th' travelling
praacher had come to-noight, he moight easily ha' praached a much
better sermon than I can, but I'll defy him or onybody else to foind a
grander text than this; it's a raight un, and it's your own fault if
you doan't get some good aat on't: if the Lord had thought you _needed_
it, He would have sent you somebody better than me, for He will supply
all your need." The congregation saw at once the condition they would
have been in if Abe had not come to their help. They smiled at his
remarks, and from that moment forgot their disappointment, nor did they
think of it again during all that service. Thus Abe's tact in managing
people helped him happily through this difficulty, as it had through
many others in his lifetime.

CHAPTER XIV.

Abe's Titles and Troubles.

It is time we said something on this subject, as we are come to the
stage in his life when he began to be known by various dignified
ecclesiastical titles. He loved his own plain name, Abe Lockwood,
better than any other, and therefore wanted no improvement. That was
the name in the roll of the Church, and that was the name written in
the Lamb's book of life; he wanted no other. If any one addressed him
as Mr. Lockwood he would often break in, "They call me Abe Lockwood!"
and this was no pretended humility on his part, but the expression of a
sincere preference for the name by which he had always been known among
his friends: but the time came when it was impossible for him to resist
the universal custom of saluting him by some title, so he had to yield
to the inevitable.

A story is told, how that on one occasion a parcel of clothes came to
the house for his wife and children. It was wrapped in strong brown
paper, and on the address-label was written "Abraham Lockwood, Esq."
Soon after this, he was taking part in a public meeting in the place
from which the present was supposed to have come, and in his speech he
thanked the unknown donor; and having done this, he proceeded to
correct a mistake which, he said, had occurred; the person who sent him
that parcel had addressed him as Esquire. "Na