f 'em didn't bust or we'd have foundered.'

"You remind me of Billy Peter, Mr. Ellery, you don't exaggerate. Queer?
Some folks think your goin' to that meetin' last night QUEER? At this
moment one half of Trumet is talkin' about it and runnin' out to tell
the other half. I guess I'd better hurry up with this breakfast. We're
goin' to have callers."

Strange to say, however, this prophecy of early morning visitors did
not prove true. Nine o'clock, then ten, and no visitor came to the
parsonage. Mrs. Coffin affirmed that she did not understand it. Where
was Didama? Where Lavinia Pepper? Had the "Trumet Daily Advertiser"
suspended publication?

At half past ten the gate slammed. Keziah peered from the window.

"Humph!" she ejaculated. "Here comes Elkanah and he's got storm signals
set, by the looks. He's comin' after you, Mr. Ellery."

"Very well," was the calm reply; "let him come."

"What are you goin' to say to him?"

"Nothing, except that I did what I considered right at the time. Show
him into the study, Mrs. Coffin, please."

Captain Daniels marched to the dining-room door, his gold-headed cane
marking time like a drumbeat. He nodded curtly to Keziah, who answered
the knock, and stepped across the threshold.

"Hum--ha!" he barked. "Is the minister--hum--ha! is Mr. Ellery in?"

"Yes, he's in."

"Tell him I want to see him."

The housekeeper announced the visitor.

"He's as sour as a skimmin' of last week's milk," she whispered. "Don't
be afraid of him, though."

"Oh, I'm not. Show him in."

"All right. Say, Mr. Ellery, it's none of my business, but I wouldn't
say anything about your seein' Grace home. That's none of HIS business,
either, or anybody else's."

The head of the parish committee stalked into the study and the
door closed behind him. A rumble of voices in animated conversation
succeeded.

Mrs. Coffin went out into the kitchen and resumed her business of making
a dried-apple pie. There was a hot fire in the stove and she opened the
back door to let in the fresh air. She worked briskly, rolling out the
dough, filling the deep dish, and pinking the edges of the upper crust
with a fork. She was thinking as she worked, but not of the minister or
his visitor.

She put the pie in the oven and set the damper. And, as she knelt by the
stove, something struck her lightly on the back of the neck. She looked
up and about her, but there was no one in sight. Then she picked up the
object which had