“But this great new open Book of Revelations, full of God’s power and grace, and the wonderful story of what He has done for us sence He wakened the soul of His servant, Columbus, and sent him over the troubled ocean to carry His name into the wilderness, and the strength and the might He has given to us sence as a nation—­

“This great object lesson, full of the sperit of prophecy and accomplishment, won’t be here but a few short months.

“And I believe if there could be another chapter added to the Bible this week, and we could have the Lord’s will writ out concernin’ it, I believe it would read—­

“’Go to that Fair.  Study its wonderful lessons with awe and reverence.  Go week days if you can, and if you can’t, go Sundays.  And you rich people, who have art galleries of your own to wander through Sundays, and gardens and greenhouses full of beauty and sweetness, and the means to seek out loveliness through the world, and who don’t need the soul refreshment these things give—­don’t you by any Pharisaical law deprive my poor of their part in the feast I have spread for both rich and poor.’”

Sez Miss Cork, “I wouldn’t dast to talk in that way, Arville.  To add or diminish one word of skripter is to bring an awful penalty.”

“I hain’t a-goin’ to add or diminish,” says Arville.  “I hain’t thought on’t.  I am merely statin’ what, in my opinion, would be the Lord’s will on the subject.”

But right here the schoolmaster struck in.  He is a very likely young man—­smart as a whip, and does well by the school, and makes a stiddy practice of mindin’ his own business and behavin’.

He is a great favorite and quite good-lookin’, and some say that he and Lophemia Pegrum are engaged; but it hain’t known for certain.

He spoke up, and sez he, “There is one great thing to think of when we talk on this matter.  There is so much to be said on both sides of this subject that it is almost impossible to shut your eyes to the advantages and the disadvantages on both sides.

“But,” sez he, “if this nation closes the Fair Sundays, it will be a great object lesson to the youth of this nation and the world at large of the sanctity and regard we have for our Puritan Sabbath—­

“Of our determination to not have it turned into a day of amusement, as it is in some European countries.

“It would be something like painting up the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer in gold letters on the blue sky above, so that all who run may read, of the regard we have for the day of rest that God appointed.  The regard we have for things spiritual, onseen—­our conflicts and victories for conscience’ sake—­the priceless heritage for which our Pilgrim Fathers braved the onknown sea and wilderness, and our forefathers fought and bled for.”