remember much about it. Mother and I was
livin' in Trumet then and our house here was shut up. I was only a kid,
or not much more, and Williams was young, too."

"And that's the way he made his money! HIM! Why, he's the most respected
man in this neighborhood, and goes to church, and--"

"Yes. Well, if you make money ENOUGH you can always be respected--by
some kinds of people--and find some church that'll take you in. Ain't
that so, Bailey?"

Captain Stitt and his cousin, Obed Gott, the paint dealer, were standing
in the doorway of the station. They now entered.

"I guess it's so," replied Stitt, pulling up a chair, "though I don't
know what you was talkin' about. However, it's a pretty average safe bet
that what you say is so, Sol, 'most any time. What's the special 'so,'
this time?"

"We was talkin' about Mr. Williams," began Phinney.

"The Grand Panjandrum of East Harniss," broke in the depot master. "East
Harniss is blessed with a great man, Bailey, and, like consider'ble many
blessin's he ain't entirely unmixed."

Obed and Simeon looked puzzled, but Captain Stitt bounced in his chair
like a good-natured rubber ball. "Ho! ho!" he chuckled, "you don't
surprise me, Sol. We had a great man over to South Orham three years ago
and he begun by blessin's and ended with--with t'other thing. Ho! ho!"

"What do you mean?" demanded Sim.

"Why, I mean Stingy Gabe. You've heard of Stingy Gabe, ain't you?"

"I guess we've all heard somethin' about him," laughed Captain Sol; "but
we're willin' to hear more. He was a reformer, wa'n't he?"

"He sartin was! Ho! ho!"

"For the land sakes, tell it, Bailey," demanded Mr. Gott impatiently.
"Don't sit there bouncin' and gurglin' and gettin' purple in the face.
Tell it, or you'll bust tryin' to keep it in."

"Oh, it's a great, long--" began Captain Bailey protestingly.

"Go on," urged Phinney. "We've got more time than anything else, the
most of us. Who was this Stingy Gabe?"

"Yes," urged Gott, "and what did he reform?"

Captain Stitt held up a compelling hand. "It's all of a piece," he
interrupted. "It takes in everything, like an eatin'-house stew. And,
as usual in them cases, the feller that ordered it didn't know what was
comin' to him.

"Stingy Gabe was that feller. His Sunday name was Gabriel Atkinson
Holway, and his dad used to peddle fish from Orham to Denboro and back.
The old man was christened Gabriel, likewise. He owed 'most everybody,
and, besides, was so