“If I may turn to the immediate business,” Mr. Drury said with a smile of apology, “suppose you tell J.W. what your Board has to suggest for us here in Delafield, Mr. Conover?”

Conover turned to J.W.  “I wonder if you know anything about Centenary Church?” he asked.

“That little old brick barn over in the East Bottoms?  Why, yes, or I used to; if was quite a church when I was a youngster, but I haven’t been that way lately.  I guess it’s pretty much run down, with all those foreigners moving in.  Most of the old members have probably moved away.  I know there were two Methodist boys with me in high school who lived down there, but they’ve moved up to the Heights.  One of them lives next to the Carbrooks.”

“Mr. Drury should take you down that way one of these days,” said Conover, “and you’d find that when your friends moved out of the church the foreigners who live nearby did not move in.  Centenary Church is run down, as you say.”

Mr. Drury added, “And the few members who are left don’t know which way to turn.  They have a supply pastor, who isn’t able to do much.  He gets a pitiful salary, but they can’t pay more, and there’s no money at all, nor any accommodations, for any special attention to the newcomers.”

“Well,” said Conover, “I’m instructed to tell you Delafield Methodists that the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension is ready to help make a new Centenary Church, for the people who now live around it.  We have a department that pays special attention to immigrant and alien populations.  Our workers know, in general, what is needed.  We can put some trained people into Centenary, with a pastor who knows how to direct their work.  I should not be surprised to see a parish house there, and a modernized church building, and a fine array of everyday work being done there.”

“My, but that sounds great, Mr. Drury, doesn’t it?” asked J.W., in a glow of enthusiasm.  Then he checked himself.  “It sounds well enough,” he said, “but all that means a lot of money.  Where’s the money to come from?”

“From you, of course,” Conover replied, “but not all or most from you.  My Board is a benevolent board—­that is to say, it is the whole church at work in such enterprises as this.  That’s one way in which its share of the church’s benevolent offerings is used”

“But you don’t mean to tell us,” said J.W., incredulously, “that you can drop in on a place like Delafield, make up your mind what is needed, and then dump a lot of money into a played-out church, just like that?”

“Oh, it’s not so informal as all that,” Conover said, “The thing has to go through the official channels, of course.  Your district superintendent and Brother Drury and the Bishop and several others have had a hand in it already.  All concerned have agreed as to the needs and possibilities.  But Delafield is also a good place to put on a demonstration, an actual, operating scheme.  I have been making ready for a survey of the whole East Side, just a preliminary study, and before anything positive is done we must make a more thorough inquiry.  We expect to find out everything that needs to be known.”