em. I think that during
the course of my life work in the vineyard I have received a million
buttons of which I--I mean the Lord--can have no possible use. If these
buttons had been dollars or shillings, or even pennies, think of the
blessings they would have brought from above."

The reverend man spoke several times with excusable asperity of
"buttons," and after another psalm and a sounding benediction the
religious exercises were finished, and the real business of the evening,
the spelling-bee and the kissing games, began.

At these socials many of the old folks took part in the spelling-bee,
after which they usually went home--an event eagerly awaited by the
young people.

There was but one incident in the spelling-bee that touched our friends,
and I shall pass briefly over that part of the entertainment preceding
it. The class, ranging in years from those who lisped in youth to those
who lisped in age, stood in line against the wall, and Wetmore,
spelling-book in hand, stood in front of them to "give out" the words.
It was not considered fair to give out a word not in the spelling-book
until the spelling and "syllabling" of sentences was commenced. All
words were syllabled, but to spell and syllable a sentence was not an
easy task, and by the time sentences were reached the class usually had
dwindled down to three or four of the best spellers. Of course, one who
missed a word left the class. Our friends--Billy Little, Dic, Rita, and
Sukey Yates--were in the contest.

The first word given out was metropolitan, and it fell to Douglas of the
Hill. He began: "M-e-t--there's your met; r-o--there's your ro; there's
your metro; p-o-l--there's your pol; there's your ro-pol; there's your
met-ro-pol; i--there's your i; there's your pol-i; there's your
ro-pol-i; there's your met-ro-pol-i; t-e-n--there's your--" "t-a-n,"
cried the girl next to him, who happened to be Sukey Yates, and Douglas
stepped down and out.

A score or more of words were then spelled without an error, until
Constantinople fell to the lot of an elderly man who stood by Rita. He
began: "C-o-n--there's your Con; s-t-a-n--there's your stan; there's
your Con-stan; t-i--there's your ti; there's your stan-ti; there's your
Con-stan-ti; n-o--there's your no; there's your ti-no; there's your
stan-ti-no; there's your Con-stan-ti-no; p-e-l--there's your pell;
there's your no--"--"p-l-e--there's your pell" (so pronounced); "there's
your Con-stan-ti-no-ple," chi