ich it was right to be
interested had issued a sort of examination-paper, and promised a prize
to the best answerer. The questions were all of one kind: 'What is the
Modern Athens--the Eternal City--the City of the Tribes? Who was the
Wizard of the North--the Bulwark of the Protestant Faith? The earlier
names on the list presented little difficulty to Hyacinth. Marion
took down his answers, whilst Elsie murmured a pleasant chorus of
astonishment at his cleverness. Suddenly he came to a dead stop. 'Who
was the Martyr of Melanesia?'

'I have never heard of him,' said Hyacinth.

'Never heard of the Martyr of Melanesia!' said Elsie. 'Why, we knew that
at once.'

'Yes,' said Marion, 'there was an article on him in last month's
_Gleaner_. Surely you read the _Gleaner_, Mr. Conneally?'

Hyacinth felt Marion's eyes fixed on him with something of a reproach
in them. He wrestled with a vague recollection of having somewhere
heard the name of the periodical. For a moment he thought of risking
cross-questioning, and saying that he had only missed the last number.
Then he suddenly remembered the card with silver lettering which
hung above his coat in the hall, and told the truth with even a quite
unnecessary aggravation.

'No, I never remember seeing a copy of it in my life. I don't even know
what it is about.'

'Oh!' said the girls, round-eyed with horror. 'Just think! And we all
have collecting-boxes.'

'It is a missionary periodical,' said Marion. 'It has news in it
from every corner of the mission-field, and every month a list of the
stations that specially need our prayers.'

Hyacinth left the Rectory that night with three well-read numbers of the
_Gleaner_ in his pocket.

Afterwards he had many talks with Canon Beecher and the Quinns about
the work of the missionary societies. He learnt, to his surprise, that
really immense sums of money were subscribed every year by members of
the Church of Ireland for the conversion of the heathen in very remote
parts of the world. It could not be denied that these contributions
represented genuine self-denial. Young men went without a sufficiency
of tobacco, and refrained from buying sorely-needed new tennis-racquets.
Ladies, with the smallest means at their command, reared marketable
chickens, and sold their own marmalade and cakes. In such ways, and not
from the superfluity of the rich, many thousands of pounds were gathered
annually. It was still more wonderful to him to disc