's--music from off, an' strange ministers,
an' Reverend Arthur Bliss from the City. I guess Abel an' the elders hed
tacked printed invites to half the barns in the county.

"I rec'lect it was o' Wednesday, the one next before the dedication, an'
windy-cold an' wintry. I'd been havin' a walk that day, an' 'long about
five o'clock, right about where we are, I'd stood watchin' the sunset
over the Pump pasture there, till I was chilled through. The smoke was
rollin' out o' the church chimney because they was dryin' the plaster,
an' I run in there to get my hands warm an' see how the plaster was
doin'. An' inside was the three elders, walkin' 'round, layin' a finger
on a sash or a post--the kind o' odd, knowledgeable way men has with new
buildin's. The Ladies' Aid had got the floor broom-clean, an' the
lamp-chandelier filled an' ready; an' the foreign pipe-organ that the
Proudfits had sent from Europe was in an' in workin' order, little
lookin'-glass over the keyboard an' all. It seemed rill home-like, with
the two big stoves a-goin', an' the floor back of 'em piled up with the
chunks Peleg Bemus had sawed for nothin'. Everything was all redded up,
waitin' for the pews.

"Timothy Toplady was puttin' out his middle finger stiff here an' there
on the plaster.

"'It's dry as a bone,' he says, 'but what I say is this, le's us leave a
fire burn here all night, so's to be sure. I'd hate like death to hev
the whole congregation catchin' cold an' takin' Hiram Gekerjeck's
medicine.'

"I rec'lect Eppleby Holcomb looked up sort o' dreamy--Eppleby always
goes round like he'd swallowed his last night's sleep.

"'The house o' God,' he says over; 'ain't that curious? Nothin' about it
to indicate it's the house o' God but the shape--no more'n's if 'twas a
buildin' where the Holy Spirit never come near. An' yet right here in
this place we'll mebbe feel the big wind an' speak with Pentecostal
tongues.'

"''T seems like,' says Postmaster Sykes, thoughtful, ''t seems like we'd
ought to hev a little meetin' o' thanks here o' Sat'day night--little
informal praise meetin' or somethin.'

"Timothy shakes his head decided.

"'Silas Sykes, what you talkin'?' he says. 'Why, the church ain't
dedicated yet. A house o' God,' s'e, 'can't be used for no purpose
whatsoever without it's been dedicated.'

"'So it can't--so it can't,' says the postmaster, apologetic, knowin' he
was in politics an' that the brethren was watchin' him, cat to mouse,
fo