“You put it more gently than our friend Mr. Archer,” Mr. Harrison said, smiling.  “He is in a condition of absolute scorn.  He gives none of them credit for honesty or genuine interest.  He says it is a running away from work, a regular shirking of what they ought to be doing, and going off into the woods to have a good time, and, by way of gulling the public, they pretend to season it with religion.”

Dr. Dennis laughed.

“That sounds precisely like him, and is quite as logical as one could expect, coming from that source,” he said, indifferently.  “Why doesn’t it occur to his dull brain, that thinks itself such a sharp one, that the leaders thereof are men responsible to no one save God and their own consciences for the way in which they spend their time?  There is nothing earthly to hinder their going to the woods, and staying three months if they please to do so.”

“Oh, but I have left out one of the important reasons for the meeting.  It is to make money; a grand speculation, whereby the fortunes of these same leaders are to be made at the expense of the poor victims whom they gather about them.”

Again Dr. Dennis’ shoulders went upward in that peculiar but expressive shrug.

“Of all the precarious and dangerous ways of making a fortune, I should think that went ahead,” he said, still laughing.  “What an idea now!  Shouldn’t you suppose people with common sense would have some faint idea of the immense expenses to be involved in such an undertaking, and the tremendous risks to be run?  If they succeed in meeting their expenses this year I think they will have cause for rejoicing.”

“The point that puzzles me,” Mr. Harrison said, “is what particular commandment would they be breaking if they should actually happen to have twenty-five cents to put in their pockets when the meeting closed; though, as you say, I doubt the probability.  But they force no one to come; it is a matter for individual decision, and they render a fair equivalent for every cent of money spent; at least, if the spender thinks it is not a fair equivalent he is foolish to go; so why should they not make enough to justify them in giving their time to this work?”

“Of course, of course,” assented Dr. Dennis, heartily; “they ought to; none but an idiot would think otherwise.”

It is to be presumed that both these gentlemen had gotten so far away from the name that was quoted as holding these views as to forget all about him, else they certainly would not have been guilty of calling a brother minister an idiot, however much his arguments might suggest the thought.

“But,” continued Dr. Dennis, “my trouble lies, as I said, in the results.  I have no sort of doubt that great good will be done, and I have the same feeling of certainty that harm will be done.  Take it in my own church.  We are so situated, or we think ourselves so situated, that not a single one of the earnest, hearty workers who would come back to us with a blessing for themselves and us, is able to go; instead, we have four representatives who will turn the whole thing into ridicule, and dish it up for the entertainment of their friends during the coming winter.