horse asleep in his dotage under the apple tree in the
barnyard.

"That horse has three windgalls, he is swinneyed in both shoulders, and
I think he has a gravel in one of his forefeet!" he remarked in a tone
of deep dejection.

I laughed and felt more nearly kin to him morally than I had ever felt
before. There was a squint-eyed shrewdness in the way he involved and
disposed of the Presiding Elder that was wittily familiar to me, and
all the more diverting because William never suspected the
Machiavellian character of his conduct. He kept his eye on God, as
usual, letting not his soul's right hand know what his left one was
doing.

But, going back to Brother Brock and the subject of Methodist stewards
in general. The preacher soon discovers that the rich ones are the
most obstreperous. And besides the good ones, the rich, obstreperous
ones are divided into two classes. The first class consists of those
who threaten to resign if everything is not done according to their
desires, which they hide and compel you to find out the best way you
can. Occasionally a preacher gets into a community where everybody in
the church--from the janitor to the steward and treasurer--has this
mania for threatening to resign.

I shall never forget William's first experience with such a church. It
was in a little village where human interest consisted in everybody
hating, suspecting or despising everyone else. He went about like a
damned soul, trying to restore peace and brotherly love. But they
would have none of either. Each steward approached him privately and
tendered his resignation, giving reasons that reflected upon the
character of some other steward. Then the organist tendered her
resignation because the Sunday-school superintendent had reflected upon
her playing, and she retaliated by reflecting upon his unmarried
morals. When the superintendent heard of her complaint and withdrawal
he at once sent in his resignation, because he did not wish to cause
contention in the church.

William afterward discovered that they treated every new preacher the
same way, taking advantage of the opportunity to damage each other as
much as possible and to try his faith to the limit. But the delightful
thing about William was that where his patience and faith gave out his
natural human blood began to boil, and when that started he could
preach some of the finest, fiercest, most truthful Gospel I have ever
heard from any preacher.