CHAPTER XIV.

The Supply Committee hold their first formal Meeting.

Place:  James Wheaton’s library.—­Hour:  seven and a half o’clock in the evening.—­Present:  James Wheaton, Thomas Gear, James Goodsole, Solomon Hardcap, and John Laicus.—­John Laicus in the chair.

Laicus.: 

—­Gentlemen the first business in order is to appoint a secretary.

Deacon Goodsole.: 

—­Oh, you can keep the minutes.  We don’t want much of a record.

Laicus.: 

—­Very good, if that is agreed to.  My minutes will be very simple.

James Wheaton.: 

—­That’s all right.  What do you hear from Mr. Mapleson?  Anything?

Laicus.: 

—­Yes I have his letter in my pocket.

James Wheaton.: 

—­When will he come?

Laicus.: 

—­He declines to come.

James Wheaton,:  [(astonished).]

—­Declines to come.  Why a church mouse would starve on the pittance they pay him at Koniwasset Corners.  What’s his reason?

Laicus.: 

—­His letter is a rather singular and striking one, gentlemen. 
Perhaps I had better read it.

Which he thereupon proceeds to do, slowly and distinctly, till he reaches the closing paragraphs, which he omits as being of a purely personal character.

James Wheaton.: 

—­That fellow’s got stuff in him and no mistake.  By Jove I believe if
I was running this church I would take him on trust.

Solomon Hardcap.: 

—­I think it a very presumptuous letter.  The idea.  What does he expect?  Does he think we’re goin’ to take a preacher without ever havin’ heard him preach?

Deacon Goodsole.: 

—­We have heard him preach, Mr. Hardcap.  He preached here two Sundays last summer.  Don’t you recollect?

Solomon Hardcap.: 

—­Yes.  I remember.  But I didn’t take no notice of his sermons; he wan’t preachin’ as a candidate.

Mr. Gear.: 

—­Gentlemen I am not very much acquainted with church affairs and I don’t think I understand this business very well.  What do you mean by preaching as a candidate?  I thought a candidate was a man who applied for an office.  Am I to understand that whenever a pulpit is vacant the church expects different ministers to apply for it, and puts them on trial, and picks out the one it likes the best?

Mr. Hardcap.: 

—­That’s it exactly.

Mr. Gear.: 

—­You don’t really mean to say that any decent ministers apply for the place on those terms.

Deacon Goodsole,:  [(warmly).]

—­Indeed they do Mr. Gear.  There is never any lack of candidates for a favorable parish.  I have got half a dozen letters in my pocket now.  One man writes and sends me copies of two or three letters of recommendation.  Another gives me a glowing account of the revival that has followed his labors in other fields.  Then there’s a letter from a daughter that really moved me a good deal.  She pleads hard for her father who is poor and is getting old, and needs the salary sadly-poor man.