covered from Ethel Sherman.

When Sunday came, a new, and in a way pleasurable, experience came with
it. His landlady, Mrs. Moore, a widow whose two sons were away on a long
fishing voyage, and who seemed so afraid of her solitary boarder as to
no more than ask if he wanted this or that during his lonely meals, now
appeared to gain courage with the advent of the Lord's day.

"I'd be pleased, sir," she said humbly, "if ye'd attend sarvice with me
at the meetin'-house this morning."

And though Winn had planned to turn his back on the coop-like houses
that composed the town, and take a long stroll over the island, there
was such an appealing hope in this good woman's invitation that he could
not resist it, and at once consented to attend "sarvice" with her. And
he was not sorry he did, for when the little bell began calling the
piously inclined together, and he issued forth with Mrs. Moore, who was
dressed in a shiny black silk and a "bunnit" the like of which his
grandmother used to wear, and looking both proud and pleased, he felt it
a pleasant duty. On the way to the small brown church which stood just
beyond the steamer landing and at the foot of a sloping hill dotted
thick with tombstones, he felt that he was the observed of all
observers, and when seated in Mrs. Moore's pew, cushioned with faded
green rep, whichever way he looked some one was peeping curiously at
him. In a way it made him feel unpleasant, and he wondered if his
necktie was awry; then as he looked around at the worn and out-of-date
garb of the few men and almost grotesque raiment of the women and girls,
what Jess had said of the people recurred to him in a forcible way. The
usual service that followed, similar in kind to any country church, was
interesting to Winn mainly because it recalled his boyhood days. When
the minister, a thin, gray-haired man, began his sermon, Winn grew
curious. He was accustomed to pulpit oratory of a high class, and
wondered now what manner of discourse was like to emanate from this
humble desk. The text was the old and time-worn "The Lord will provide,"
that has instilled courage and hope into millions of despondent hearts,
and now used once more to encourage this little band of simple
worshippers. The preacher made no new deductions, in fact, seemed to, as
usual, lay stress upon the need of faith that the Lord would provide,
come what might. To this end he quoted freely from Scripture, and Winn
was beginning to lose in