stenin' to him, but they don't remember a
word he says."

"Do his daughters favour any of them?"

"Not as fer as I know. They are mighty sensible girls, an' put up with
the young fellers comin' to their place because it pleases their dad.
He likes to express his views, an' they know it."

"Why is Mr. Strong so much down on churches, religion and parsons?"
Douglas asked.

"I can't tell ye that. He's got a grouch of some kind, though I never
heard him say what it is."

"Did he ever go to church?"

"Not him, though I've seen his daughters there. Nell has played the
organ at times, fer she's mighty musical. My, ye should hear her play
the fiddle! She makes it fairly talk."

"Where did she learn to play so well?"

"From her dad. He was a perfessor, or something like that years ago,
though his playin' is pretty shaky now."

Douglas asked no more questions just then, but went on with his work,
and meditated upon what he had heard. Perhaps this old man Strong was
really the cause of much of the Church trouble in the parish. Jake
might be wrong in his opinion about the young men, and they may have
been greatly influenced by the words of the blind professor. He longed
to see Strong that he might hear what he had to say, and at the same
time to meet his daughters. How he was going to do this, he had not
the least idea, though he somehow felt that he would have to wrestle
with the unbeliever if he intended to make any headway in Rixton. He
had won his first step in the parish as a wrestler, but to contend
against firmly rooted opinions was a far more difficult undertaking.
It would be all the harder if he should find Strong a stubborn,
narrow-minded person, unreasonable, and firmly-settled in his views.

When dinner was over, Jake asked Douglas if he would go to the
shoe-maker's for him.

"Two of the traces broke on me the other day," he explained, "an' I
haven't had time to git them fixed. Ye'll find Joe Benton's place jist
beyond the store."

"Shall I wait until they are mended?" Douglas asked.

"Yes, if ye want to, an' if Joe's able to do them to-day. I think
he'll do 'em all right, providin' he doesn't git side-tracked on his
hobby."

"What's that?"

"It's 'ligion, that's what 'tis. He's great on the Bible an' Church
history. He holds service every Sunday in his house, since we've had
no parson."

"Do many attend?"

"Naw. Jist him an' his wife, I guess. But Joe's a good, honest
feller,