This was Mr. Elder’s first effort to obtain a subscription for paying off the minister’s debt.  It quite disheartened him.  He had intended making three calls on his way to his store that morning, for the purpose of trying to raise something for Mr. Malcolm; but he felt so discouraged by the reception he had met with from Mr. Larkin, that he passed on without doing so.  Near his store was a carriage repository.  The owner of it put his hand upon his shoulder as he was going by, and said, “Just step in, I want to show you something beautiful.”

Mr. Elder went in, and was shown a very handsome and fashionably-made carriage, with all the modern improvements.

“This is something very elegant, certainly.  Who is it for?”

“One of the members of your church.”

“Ah?”

“Yes.  It is for Larkin.”

“Indeed!  How much does it cost him?”

“Eight hundred dollars.”

“He ought to have a fine pair of horses for so fine a carriage.”

“And so he has.  He bought a noble span, last week, for a thousand dollars.”

Mr. Elder said what he could in praise of the elegant carriage; but he couldn’t say much, for he had no heart to do so.  He felt worse than ever about the deficiency in Mr. Malcolm’s salary.  On the next day he was in better spirits, and called in upon one of the members of the church, as he passed to his store.  He stated his errand, and received this reply—­

“I’ll tell you what, Mr. Elder, I am of Larkin’s opinion in this matter.  If our minister agreed to come for four hundred dollars, he should stick to his contract.  He’s no business to go in debt, and then call upon us to get him out of his difficulties.  It isn’t the clean thing.  I don’t mind a few dollars any more than you do; but I like principle.  I like to see all men, especially ministers, stick to their text.  Malcolm knew before he came here what we could afford to give him, and if he couldn’t live upon that, he had no business to come.  That’s what I think of it, and I always speak out my mind plainly.”

Mr. Elder made no more begging calls on that day.  But he tried it again on the next, and found that Larkin had been over the ground before him, and said so much about “the imposition of the thing,” that he could do little or nothing.  There was a speciousness about Larkin’s manner of alluding to the subject, that carried people away with him; particularly as what he said favoured their inclination to keep a tight hold on their purse-strings.  He was piqued with Elder, and this set him to talking, and doing more mischief than he thought for.