singing--all wore out slaving. Old Joe starts out once in a while to
buy her a present and brings home some new kind of farm machinery.
Isn't that like a man? But what else would you expect of a man who
never goes to church, even a Methodist one? I was real thankful to see
you and the young Doctor in the Presbyterian church your first Sunday.
No doctor for me who isn't a Presbyterian."

"We were in the Methodist church last Sunday evening," said Anne
wickedly.

"Oh, I s'pose Dr. Blythe has to go to the Methodist church once in a
while or he wouldn't get the Methodist practice."

"We liked the sermon very much," declared Anne boldly. "And I thought
the Methodist minster's prayer was one of the most beautiful I ever
heard."

"Oh, I've no doubt he can pray. I never heard anyone make more
beautiful prayers than old Simon Bentley, who was always drunk, or
hoping to be, and the drunker he was the better he prayed."

"The Methodist minister is very fine looking," said Anne, for the
benefit of the office door.

"Yes, he's quite ornamental," agreed Miss Cornelia. "Oh, and VERY
ladylike. And he thinks that every girl who looks at him falls in love
with him--as if a Methodist minister, wandering about like any Jew, was
such a prize! If you and the young doctor take MY advice, you won't
have much to do with the Methodists. My motto is--if you ARE a
Presbyterian, BE a Presbyterian."

"Don't you think that Methodists go to heaven as well as
Presbyterians?" asked Anne smilelessly.

"That isn't for US to decide. It's in higher hands than ours," said
Miss Cornelia solemnly. "But I ain't going to associate with them on
earth whatever I may have to do in heaven. THIS Methodist minister
isn't married. The last one they had was, and his wife was the
silliest, flightiest little thing I ever saw. I told her husband once
that he should have waited till she was grown up before he married her.
He said he wanted to have the training of her. Wasn't that like a man?"

"It's rather hard to decide just when people ARE grown up," laughed
Anne.

"That's a true word, dearie. Some are grown up when they're born, and
others ain't grown up when they're eighty, believe ME. That same Mrs.
Roderick I was speaking of never grew up. She was as foolish when she
was a hundred as when she was ten."

"Perhaps that was why she lived so long," suggested Anne.

"Maybe 'twas. _I_'d rather live fifty sensible years than a hundred
fooli