“It would be of no use.  You will have to excuse me.  I am very busy this morning.  I hope you will find something.  Sorry I can’t give you something to do here.  But I keep only a horse and a cow and do the work myself.”

The Rev. Henry Maxwell closed the door and heard the man walk down the steps.  As he went up into his study he saw from his hall window that the man was going slowly down the street, still holding his hat between his hands.  There was something in the figure so dejected, homeless and forsaken that the minister hesitated a moment as he stood looking at it.  Then he turned to his desk and with a sigh began the writing where he had left off.

He had no more interruptions, and when his wife came in two hours later the sermon was finished, the loose leaves gathered up and neatly tied together, and laid on his Bible all ready for the Sunday morning service.

“A queer thing happened at the kindergarten this morning, Henry,” said his wife while they were eating dinner.  “You know I went over with Mrs, Brown to visit the school, and just after the games, while the children were at the tables, the door opened and a young man came in holding a dirty hat in both hands.  He sat down near the door and never said a word; only looked at the children.  He was evidently a tramp, and Miss Wren and her assistant Miss Kyle were a little frightened at first, but he sat there very quietly and after a few minutes he went out.”

“Perhaps he was tired and wanted to rest somewhere.  The same man called here, I think.  Did you say he looked like a tramp?”

“Yes, very dusty, shabby and generally tramp-like.  Not more than thirty or thirty-three years old, I should say.”

“The same man,” said the Rev. Henry Maxwell thoughtfully.

“Did you finish your sermon, Henry?” his wife asked after a pause.

“Yes, all done.  It has been a very busy week with me.  The two sermons have cost me a good deal of labor.”

“They will be appreciated by a large audience, Sunday, I hope,” replied his wife smiling.  “What are you going to preach about in the morning?”

“Following Christ.  I take up the Atonement under the head of sacrifice and example, and then show the steps needed to follow His sacrifice and example.”

“I am sure it is a good sermon.  I hope it won’t rain Sunday.  We have had so many stormy Sundays lately.”

“Yes, the audiences have been quite small for some time.  People will not come out to church in a storm.”  The Rev. Henry Maxwell sighed as he said it.  He was thinking of the careful, laborious effort he had made in preparing sermons for large audiences that failed to appear.

But Sunday morning dawned on the town of Raymond one of the perfect days that sometimes come after long periods of wind and mud and rain.  The air was clear and bracing, the sky was free from all threatening signs, and every one in Mr. Maxwell’s parish prepared to go to church.  When the service opened at eleven o’clock the large building was filled with an audience of the best-dressed, most comfortable looking people of Raymond.