ip. Now everybody can go into town to church."

"They can, boy," Pa Shenk answered, "but they don't. Not all of 'em.
Some don't care enough to go anywhere. One-year tenants, mostly, they
are. Some go to town, all right enough, but not to church. A few go to
church, I admit, but only a few."

J.W. started to speak, hesitated, then blurted it out. "Maybe dad and
others like him are responsible for some of the trouble. They've pulled
out and left just a few to carry the load. You're all right, of course;
you really belong here. But a lot of the farmers who have moved to town
have rented their places to what you call one-year tenants, and it seems
to me that's a poor way to build up anything in the country, churches or
anything else. Tenants that are always moving don't get to know anybody
or to count for anything. It's not much wonder they are no use to the
church."

"There's a good deal in that, John Wesley," said Pa Shenk. "Your father
and me, we get along fine. We're more like partners than owner and
tenant. But it isn't so with these short-term renters. The owner raises
the rent as the price of land rises, and the tenant is mostly too poor
to do anything much after he's paid the rent. Besides, he's got no stake
in the neighborhood. Why should he pay to help build a new church, when
he's got to move the first of March? And the church has been as careless
about him as he has been about the church."

"That's what bothers me," J.W. commented. "But even so, I should think
something could be done to interest these folks. They've all got
families to bring up."

"Something can be done, too," said Pa Shenk. "You remember when the
people on upper Deep Creek used to come here to church, four miles or
so? Well, now they are going to Fairfield Church--owners, renters,
everybody. It's surprising how Fairfield Church is growing. That's going
away from town, not to it, and they're as near to town as we are."

"Then," persisted J.W., "how do you account for it?"

"Only one way, my boy," said Pa Shenk. "I'm as much to blame as any, but
we've had some preachers here that didn't seem to understand, and then
lately we've had preachers who stayed in town all the time except on
preaching Sunday, and we scarcely saw or heard of 'em all the two weeks
between. They haven't held protracted meetings for several years, and I
ain't blaming 'em. What's the use of holding meetings when you know
nobody's coming except people that were converted