. Aesculapius."

"Thee is welcome."

"I was over to the m-m-meeting house last night, and heard your
s-s-speech. Didn't understand a w-w-word, but saw that you c-c-can talk
like a United States Senator."

David bowed and blushed.

"I came over to make you a p-p-proposition. Want you to yoke up with me,
and help me sell the 'B-B-Balm of the Blessed Islands.' You can do the
t-t-talking and I'll run the b-b-business; see?"

He put his thumbs in the armholes of his vest, spread his feet apart,
squared himself and smiled like a king who had offered his throne to a
beggar.

David regarded him with a look of astonishment.

"What do you s-s-say?"

Gravely, placidly, the young Quaker answered: "I thank thee, friend, for
what thee evidently means as a kindness, but I must decline thy offer."

"Decline my offer? Are you c-c-crazy? Why do you d-d-decline my offer?"

"Because I have no wish to leave my home and work."

Although his answer was addressed to the man, his eyes were directed to
the woman. His reply, simple and natural enough, astounded the quack.

"What!" he exclaimed. "Do you mean that you p-p-prefer to stay in this
p-p-pigstye of a town to becoming a citizen of the g-g-great world?"

"I do."

"But listen; I will pay you more money in a single month than you can
earn by d-d-driving your plow through that b-b-black mud for a whole
year."

"I have no need and no desire for more money than I can earn by daily
toil."

"No need and no desire for money! B-b-bah! You are not talking to
sniveling old women and crack-b-b-brained old men; but to a f-f-feller
who can see through a two-inch plank, and you can't p-p-pass off any of
your religious d-d-drivel on him, either."

This coarse insult went straight to the soul of the youth. His blood
tingled in his veins. There was a tightening around his heart of
something which was out of place in the bosom of a Quaker. A hot reply
sprang to his lips, but died away as he glanced at the woman, and saw
her face mantled with an angry flush.

Calmed by her silent sympathy, he quietly replied: "Friend, I have no
desire to annoy thee, but I have been taught that 'the love of money is
the root of all evil,' and believing as I do I could not answer thee
otherwise than I did."

It was evident from the look upon the countenance of the quack that he
had met with a new and incomprehensible type of manhood. He gazed at the
Quaker a moment in silence and then exclaimed, "Young