to hold your Quarterly
Conference AFTER this money's been raised, not before."

"I see what you mean," Mr. Ware responded gravely. "But--"

"But what!" Sister Soulsby interjected, with vivacity.

"Well," said Theron, picking his words, "in the first place, it rests
with the Presiding Elder to say whether an adjournment can be made until
Tuesday, not with me."

"That's all right. Leave that to me," said the lady.

"In the second place," Theron went on, still more hesitatingly, "there
seems a certain--what shall I say?--indirection in--in--"

"In getting them together for a revival, and springing a debt-raising on
them?" Sister Soulsby put in. "Why, man alive, that's the best part of
it. You ought to be getting some notion by this time what these Octavius
folks of yours are like. I've only been here two days, but I've got
their measure down to an allspice. Supposing you were to announce
tomorrow that the debt was to be raised Monday. How many men with
bank-accounts would turn up, do you think? You could put them all in
your eye, sir--all in your eye!"

"Very possibly you're right," faltered the young minister.

"Right? Why, of course I'm right," she said, with placid confidence.
"You've got to take folks as you find them; and you've got to find them
the best way you can. One place can be worked, managed, in one way,
and another needs quite a different way, and both ways would be dead
frosts--complete failures--in a third."

Brother Soulsby coughed softly here, and shuffled his feet for an
instant on the carpet. His wife resumed her remarks with slightly abated
animation, and at a slower pace.

"My experience," she said, "has shown me that the Apostle was right.
To properly serve the cause, one must be all things to all men. I have
known very queer things indeed turn out to be means of grace. You
simply CAN'T get along without some of the wisdom of the serpent. We are
commanded to have it, for that matter. And now, speaking of that, do
you know when the Presiding Elder arrives in town today, and where he is
going to eat supper and sleep?"

Theron shook his head. "All I know is he isn't likely to come here," he
said, and added sadly, "I'm afraid he's not an admirer of mine."

"Perhaps that's not all his fault," commented Sister Soulsby. "I'll tell
you something. He came in on the same train as my husband, and that old
trustee Pierce of yours was waiting for him with his buggy, and I saw
like a flash what was i