to axe. Libbie said
she'd bring the whole kettle along, an' it could be het on the church
stove an' made soup of. So it went on, down to even Liddy Ember, that
was my partner an' silly poor, an' in about four minutes everything was
provided for, beddin' an' all.

"Mis' Toplady had flew upstairs, gettin' out the linen, an' she was
comin' down the front stairs with her arms full o' sheets an' pillow
slips when through the front door walks Timothy Toplady, come in all
excited an' lookin' every which way. Seems he'd barked his elbow in the
rescue work an' laid off for liniment.

"'Oh, Timothy,' says his wife, 'them poor little children. We've been
plannin' it all out.'

"'Who's goin' to take 'em in?' says Timothy, tryin' to roll up his
overcoat sleeve for fear the Sodality'd be put to the blush if he got to
his elbow any other way.

"'They're all warm in the church,' Mis' Toplady says; 'we're goin' to
leave 'em there. Zittelhof's goin' to take up canvas cots. We're gettin'
the bedding together,' she told him.

"Timothy looked up, sort o' wild an' glazed.

"'Canvas cots,' s'e, 'in the house o' the Lord?'

"'Why, Timothy,' says his wife, helpless, 'it's all warm there now, an'
we don't know what else. We thought we'd carry up their supper to 'em--'

"'Supper,' says Timothy, 'in the house o' the Lord?'

"Then Mis' Toplady spunks up some.

"'Why, yes,' she says; 'I'm goin' to milk the Jersey an' take up the two
pails.'

"Timothy waves his barked arm in the air.

"'Never!' s'e. 'Never. We elders'll never consent to that, not in this
world!'

"At that we all stood around sort o' pinned to the air. This hadn't
occurred to nobody. But his wife was back at him, rill crispy.

"'Timothy Toplady,' s'she, 'they use churches for horspitals an'
refuges,' she says.

"'They do,' says Timothy, solemn, 'they do, in necessity, an' war, an'
siege. But here's the whole o' Friendship Village to take these children
in, an' it's sacrilege to use the house o' God for any purpose whatever
while it's waitin' its dedication. It's stealin', he says, 'from the
Lord Most High.'

"I never see anybody more het up. We all tried to tell him. Nobody in
Friendship has a warm spare room in winter, without it's the Proudfits,
an' they was in Europe an' their house locked. Mebbe six of us, we
counted up afterwards, could 'a' took in two children to sleep in a cold
room, or one child to sleep with some one o' the family. But as Abel
said, whe