and felt the sting of defeat; but who had gone a
little farther down the road, and had come back to tell them to
persevere, for things were better farther on!

He had had to do with travel-stained, wayfaring men for so long that
he had got into the way of handing out to them at once, when he had
the opportunity, the richest treasures of his Father's storehouse.
When they looked to him for bread they were not given a stone, and
so, standing in the bare schoolroom that day, he preached to them
Christ, the Saviour of mankind, and showed the way of life eternal.

There was something very winsome about Mr. Burrell's preaching,
not because of his eloquence, for he was a man of plain speech,
low-voiced and gentle, but because he spoke with the quiet certainty
of one who sees Him who is invisible. Near the front sat Bud Perkins
and Teddy Watson, athletic-looking young fellows, clear-eyed and
clean-skinned, just coming into their manhood, and there was a
responsiveness in the boys' faces that made the minister address his
appeal directly to them as he set before them the two ways, asking
them to choose the higher, the way of loving service and Christlike
endeavour.

When the service was over, Mrs. Burrell went around shaking hands
with the women. "I am so glad we thought of holding service here,"
she said genially. "You people do turn out so well. Is this Mrs.
Cavers?" she asked, as she shook hands with Mrs. Steadman.

Pearl Watson put her right.

Mrs. Steadman, in a broad black hat resplendent with cerise roses,
stiffened perceptibly, but Mrs. Burrell did not notice this, but
rattled on in her gayest humour. "I always do get those names mixed.
I knew there were the two families out here."

She then turned to Mrs. Slater and Mrs. Motherwell. "It is a
bare-looking school, isn't it?" she said amiably. "You women ought
to try to fix it up some. It does look so wind-swept and parched and
cheerless." Mrs. Burrell prided herself on her plain speaking.

At this Mrs. Steadman, who was a large, pompous woman, became so
indignant that the cerise roses on her hat fairly shook. "I guess it
doesn't keep the children from learning," she said hotly; "and that's
mostly what a school is for."

"Oh, you are quite wrong, Mrs. Steadman," Mrs. Burrell replied,
wondering just how it had happened that she had given Mrs. Steadman
cause for offence. "Perhaps you think it doesn't prevent the children
from learning, but it does. There's plenty o