"Well," piped up Bub Lum, aged fourteen, and a perfect imp--

"I guess that if the Fair is open Sundays, folks that are there won't
complain about there not bein' folks enough assembled together. I guess
they won't complain on't--no, indeed!"

But nobody paid any attention to Bub, and Arvilly continued--

"I believe in usin' some common sense right along, week days and Sundays
too. It stands to reason that the Lord wouldn't gin us common sense if
He didn't want us to use it.

"We don't need dyin' grace while we are a livin', and so with other
things. There will be meetin'-housen left and ministers in 1894, most
likely, and we can attend to 'em right along as long as we live.

"But this great new open Book of Revelations, full of God's power and
grace, and the wonderful story of what He has done for us sence He
wakened the soul of His servant, Columbus, and sent him over the
troubled ocean to carry His name into the wilderness, and the strength
and the might He has given to us sence as a nation--

"This great object lesson, full of the sperit of prophecy and
accomplishment, won't be here but a few short months.

"And I believe if there could be another chapter added to the Bible this
week, and we could have the Lord's will writ out concernin' it, I
believe it would read--

"'Go to that Fair. Study its wonderful lessons with awe and reverence.
Go week days if you can, and if you can't, go Sundays. And you rich
people, who have art galleries of your own to wander through Sundays,
and gardens and greenhouses full of beauty and sweetness, and the
means to seek out loveliness through the world, and who don't need the
soul refreshment these things give--don't you by any Pharisaical law
deprive my poor of their part in the feast I have spread for both rich
and poor.'"

Sez Miss Cork, "I wouldn't dast to talk in that way, Arville. To add or
diminish one word of skripter is to bring an awful penalty."

"I hain't a-goin' to add or diminish," says Arville. "I hain't thought
on't. I am merely statin' what, in my opinion, would be the Lord's will
on the subject."

But right here the schoolmaster struck in. He is a very likely young
man--smart as a whip, and does well by the school, and makes a stiddy
practice of mindin' his own business and behavin'.

He is a great favorite and quite good-lookin', and some say that he and
Lophemia Pegrum are engaged; but it hain't known for certain.

He spoke up, and sez he, "There i