gold piece won't bother you
any more, for it's in my possession, and I'm goin' to put it in the
treasury of our Mite Society,' and that's what she did the very next
meetin' we had.

"Mis' Page said that Parson Page could hardly git to sleep that night,
he was so troubled and so upset, and he kept talkin' about the things
he'd done because he thought they was right, and how they'd led him into
doin' wrong, and says he: 'This morning when I set out for town, I
thought I knew exactly what was right and what was wrong, but now I'm so
turned and twisted,' says he, 'that if anybody asked me whether the ten
commandments ought to be observed, I believe I'd stop and think a long
time before I answered, and then like as not I'd say, "Sometimes they
ought, and sometimes they oughtn't."'

"Well, of course the news went all over the country that Parson Page had
gone to the circus, and everywhere Brother Page went he was kept busy
explainin' about the rain and the crowd and how he got in by accident
and couldn't git out, and by the time the Presbytery met, all the
preachers had got wind of the story, and some of 'em laughed about it,
and some of 'em said it was a serious matter. Brother Robert McCallum
did more laughin' than anybody. He used to say that next to savin' souls
he enjoyed a good joke more than anything in the world, and Sam Amos
used to say that if Brother McCallum ever wanted to change his business,
he could be the end man in a nigger minstrel show without any trouble.

"Brother McCallum and Parson Page 'd been schoolmates, so they both felt
free to joke with one another; and the minute they'd shook hands,
Brother McCallum begun laughin' about Parson Page goin' to the circus,
and says he: 'Brother Page, I wish I'd been in your place.' Says he:
'I've always thought a man loses a heap by bein' a preacher. If anybody
ought to be allowed to go to the circus,' says he, 'it looks like it
ought to be us preachers, that's proof against temptation and that's
strong to wrestle with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Instead o'
that we send the poor, weak sinners into the temptation and lead the
preachers away from it.' Says he: 'I went to that very show, but I
wasn't so lucky as you, for it was clear weather, and I didn't have a
chance to see anything but the animals.'

"And then, after sayin' all that, what did Brother McCallum do but git
up the last day of Presbytery and read a paper with a lot of 'whereases'
and 'be it