“Perhaps he was a mite harsh, but there is another side of it.  There were only three of us left of the Friends’ society to go to the old meeting-house on First Day so that it might not be said that after one hundred years we had allowed the society of the fathers to perish in our town.  Thee may have noted that my father and I still use the plain language, keeping up the ways of the founders.  My father sat at the head of the meeting, my Uncle Joachim was next to him on the facing seat.  I am the only worshiper.  I am not fitted to be a minister.  My father, when Joachim died, had no one with whom to exchange the hand-shake at the end of the meeting.”

“And now he’s losing his congregation?”

“Yes, my friend, and so my father blames me for going, just as he blamed Uncle Joachim for dying.  He has the meeting much at heart.”

“What will he do for a crowd after you go away?”

“He will continue to sit at the head of the meeting, sir.”

There was silence between them for some time.  The blacksmith clanked on his way sturdily.

“He will still sit at the head of the meeting!  Only a little fire is left there, sir, but he will not allow it to go out as long as he is alive to blow the bellows of devotion.”

“Look here, Brother Chick,” demanded Farr.  “I don’t want to be prying or impertinent, but what’s your idea?”

“I’m not ashamed of anything I’m going to do.  Even though it is a very strange plan, as the world would look at it, I’m not ashamed of it.  A very few words will tell you:  I’m going out among men and spread the gospel of mercy and forbearance, teach the lessons of peace, urge men to forgive instead of fight—­showing them that courts of law are more often the devil’s playground than the abode of real justice.  I have worked hard, I have read many books, I have stored information in my mind, I have laid up money enough.  You behold my armor—­I have wrought at it patiently for a long time.”

“Expect to have ’em throw things at you?”

But the blacksmith, replying, gave no sign that he resented this brusque humor.

“It is well known that it is hard to attract the attention of the world from its own affairs.  For instance, if I had stood in the yard to-day, dressed as a plain man, thee would have passed on thy way—­providing father had been chopping up kindling-wood instead of a coffin.  If I had stopped thee and started to explain my views thee would have paid little attention to me.  Isn’t that so?”

“It’s so.”

“Well, then, thee have my theory and know my plan and have noted how it has worked,” said Mr. Chick.

“I don’t want to discourage you in a good thing, but how long do you think a policeman would let you stand on a street corner?”

“I shall find places where I can deliver my message without offending.”

“There’s another point—­a rather delicate point to consider, Brother Chick.  There are plenty of persons who are a bit dull when they are examining a man’s motives, but who think they are almighty smart in detecting a man’s mental failings; when somebody does anything they wouldn’t do they say he’s crazy.”