sum obtained, in cash
and promises, was $1,860. The stewards had collected of this a trifle
less than half, but hoped to get it all in during the ensuing quarter.
There were, also, the bill of Mr. and Mrs. Soulsby for $150, and the
increases of $100 in the pastor's salary and $25 in the apportioned
contribution of the charge toward the Presiding Elder's maintenance, the
two latter items of which the Quarterly Conference had sanctioned.

"I want to hear the names of the subscribers and their amounts read
out," put in Brother Pierce.

When this was done, it became apparent that much more than half of the
entire amount had been offered by two men. Levi Gorringe's $450 and
Erastus Winch's $425 left only $985 to be divided up among some seventy
or eighty other members of the congregation.

Brother Pierce speedily stopped the reading of these subordinate names.
"They're of no concern whatever," he said, despite the fact that his
own might have been reached in time. "Those first names are what I was
getting at. Have those two first amounts, the big ones, be'n paid?"

"One has--the other not," replied Gorringe.

"PRE-cisely," remarked the senior trustee. "And I'm goin' to move that
it needn't be paid, either. When Brother Winch, here, began hollerin'
out those extra twenty-fives and fifties, that evening, it was under a
complete misapprehension. He'd be'n on the Cheese Board that same Monday
afternoon, and he'd done what he thought was a mighty big stroke of
business, and he felt liberal according. I know just what that feelin'
is myself. If I'd be'n makin' a mint o' money, instead o' losin' all the
while, as I do, I'd 'a' done just the same. But the next day, lo, and
behold, Brother Winch found that it was all a mistake--he hadn't made a
single penny."

"Fact is, I lost by the whole transaction," put in Erastus Winch,
defiantly.

"Just so," Brother Pierce went on. "He lost money. You have his own word
for it. Well, then, I say it would be a burning shame for us to consent
to touch one penny of what he offered to give, in the fullness of his
heart, while he was laborin' under that delusion. And I move he be not
asked for it. We've got quite as much as we need, without it. I put my
motion."

"That is, YOU don't put it," suggested Winch, correctingly. "You move
it, and Brother Ware, whom we're all so glad to see able to come and
preside--he'll put it."

There was a moment's silence. "You've heard the motion," said Ther