“‘Going to pull the whole thing down, are you?’ he asked.”

“‘Yes, sir,’ replied the working preacher, ripping off a strip of siding, ‘and begin all new.’”

“‘Who is going to pay the bills?’ he asked, chuckling.”

“The preacher tucked up his sleeves and stepped back to get a good swing at an obstinate brace; ‘I don’t know,’ he said, ’but the Lord has money somewhere to buy and pay for all we need.’”

“The man laughed, in intense enjoyment of the absurdity of the whole crazy business.”

“‘I’ll bet five dollars to one,’ he said, with easy confidence of a man who knows his bet will not be taken up, ’that you won’t get the money in this town.’”

“Mr. Conwell brought the axe down with a crashing sweep, and the splinters flew out into the air like a cloud of witnesses to the efficacy of the blow.”

“‘You would lose your money, then,’ quietly said the preacher, ’for Mr.——­ just now came along and has given me a hundred dollars without solicitation.’”

“The man’s eyes opened a trifle wider, and his next remark faded into a long-drawn whistle of astonishment.  Presently—­’Did you get the cash?’ he asked feebly.”

“‘No, but he told me to call for it to-day.’”

“The man considered.  He wasn’t enjoying the situation with quite so much humor as he had been, but he was growing more interested.”

“‘Well!  Is that so!  I don’t believe he meant it,’ he added hopefully.  Then, a man after all not disposed to go back on his own assertion, he said, ’Now I’ll tell you what I’ll do.  If you really get that hundred dollars out of that man, I’ll give you another hundred and pay it to-night,’”

“And he was as good as his word.”

“All that day the preacher worked alone.  Now came in the training of those early days on the farm, when he learned to swing an axe; when he builded up rugged strength in a stalwart frame, when his muscles were hardened and knotted with toil.”

“’Passers-by called one after another, to ask what was going on.  To each one Colonel Conwell mentioned his hope and mentioned his gifts.  Nearly every one had added something without being asked, and at six o’clock, when Colonel Conwell laid down the pick and axe at the end of his day’s work, he was promised more than half the money necessary to tear down the old meeting-house and build a new one.”

“But Colonel Conwell did not leave the work.  With shovel, or hammer, or saw, or paint-brush, he worked day by day all that summer alongside the workmen.  He was architect, mason, carpenter, painter, and upholsterer, and he directed every detail, from the cellar to the gilded vane, and worked early and late.  The money came without asking as fast as needed.  The young people who began to flock about the faith-worker undertook to purchase a large bell, and quietly had Colonel Conwell’s name cast on the exterior, but when it came to the difficult task of hanging it in the