What
a place this is for longevity!"

"You are finding out its characteristics by degrees, I see."

"Yes, am I not?" said he, with his pleasant laugh. "I know intimately
every member of my parish and every member of every other parish by this
time from sheer hearsay. Each house I visit gives me no end of valuable
and minute information about all the other houses. I am waiting to come
out with a rousing sermon against gossip, till I shall have gained all
possible enlightenment and help from it. I mustn't kill my goose that
lays the golden eggs before I have all the eggs I want, must I?"

"And knowing us all so well, what do you think of Joppa as a whole?"
asked Phebe, curiously. "You always say it is too soon to judge, but
surely you must really know by this time."

He did not answer for a moment, then turned to her very seriously. "I
think," he said slowly, "it is a place that needs a much older, a much
better, and a much wiser man than I am to be among its leaders in any
sense. It is not at all what I thought it would be when I accepted the
trust. It is beyond me. But since the Bishop sent me here, I mean to stay
and do my best."

"How will you begin?"

"I will begin with you," he answered, lightly, with a smile that lit up
all his face, the moment's seriousness quite gone. "You were my first
friend, and I ought to take you first in hand, ought I not? I am going
to do you a great deal of good."

"How?"

"I'm going to teach you to love books."

"You can't."

"Yes, I can. You don't know books, that is all. I intend to introduce you
to each other. I have some so interesting you can't help liking them, and
you'll find yourself crying for more before you know it. I am going to
bring them over to you. You shall have something better to do than fill
up all your mornings with promoting stockings of exasperating colors, and
listening to tales of Sabbath-breakers. Just wait and see. I am going to
metamorphose you."

"Oh, I wish you would!" sighed Phebe, clasping her hands and speaking so
earnestly that he looked at her in surprise. "I am so sick of myself. I
do want to be something better than I am. I am so dreadfully
common-place. I amount to so little. I know so little. I can do so
little. And there is no one here who cares to help me to any thing
better. I don't know enough even to know how to improve myself. But I do
want to. Will you help me, Mr. Halloway? Will you really help me?" She
positively had tears s