said ' Each can bring his little light ' ' Every
light will be missed ' ' He who will not bring his
light will come and go in darkness.' And then
the organ began to play, and the trumpet pipes
were heard, and the chimes in the steeple rang out
merrily. Then as mysteriously as they came, the
congregation melted out of sight again ; each car
rying a taper, they slowly went away into the
street and courts around.

" The vestrymen alone remained. ' Where is our
congregation?-' one asked. Someone replied,
' In the streets ; in the narrow lanes ; in the
courts; in the close rooms; in the damp cellars;
in the stifling atmosphere.' 'Yes, there,' said



another. ' I saw where they lived,' said a third.
' They are within a stone's throw,' added a fourth
' They can easily be reached,' said a fifth. ' They
are quite near,' broke forth a sixth. ' But they
must be sympathized with,' interjected a seventh.
'And we must do the sympathizing,' added the
eighth. 'I personally must do this sympathizing,'
continued a ninth. ' We must not look for
monetary results,' exclaimed the tenth. ' This
church shall remain,' thundered the eleventh.
This made light my heart and I awoke."

As the bishop related his dream, Mr. Richmond
stared vacantly into the fire ; he then grasped the
bishop's hand and pressed it warmly without say
ing a word.

" I am completely used up ; that walk to West
Philadelphia and to Chestnut Hill has taken the
strength out of me."

Mr. Richmond again suggested sending for his
breakfast, but the bishop declined. "But strange
to say," continued Ai, "I fell asleep and dreamed
again. I saw the church moving west and halt
ing between the Church of the Mediator, and
Christ Church Chapel. These churches flanked
the great building, touching the corners, and they
made an imposing group. So close were they,
that it seemed like war between them when the
choir-masters did their full duty. I thought I fol



ios



lowed the church as it floated steadily westward.
I was curious to know why one little spot should
receive this remarkable attention ; why one little
corner in the vineyard should receive such zealous
cultivation. What was all this shepherding for,
to feed the flock or to shear the wool ? "

Mr. Richmond suggested that they walk out and
have something to eat. " I really feel, Mr. Rich
mond, like walking up that way to assure myself
that the plumbers are not even now melting off the
roof."



CHAPTER XIII.
THE LEAVEN AT WORK.

Bear ye one another's burdens. St. Paul.

THE Burrs had finished their quiet cup of tea
without company, which was an unusual thing,
and the gentlemen had settled for a smoke and the
magazines.

There was quite a refreshing breeze through the
arches of the veranda, which set the entangled
vines, now blooming with flowers, waving to and
fro. They had arranged the Chinese lanterns ready
for lighting, and the whole was converted into a
103



fairy bower, making the scene from the street a
pretty one.

Enid was opening her letters. She gathered
from one of them that this matter of personal
service was taking root, for there was quite a circle
of girls who were to be married soon, and two thirds
were going to take the houses in which their
grandmothers had danced. Sue Horton, who was
engaged last summer to that manly, handsome
Purelonder, had arranged for the South-west Cor
ner of Front and Lombard, a fine old place, built
of genuine colonial bricks. " She is a great
friend of Esther Airy's, and they will be quite
near neighbors. I think," said Enid, " that ser
mon of Ai's did it, as I see evidences of it all
around. Sue says it was a bold arraignment of
the half-hearted ; and while it gave offense to a
few, yet the young people were affected by it and
were set thinking."

Ai had been asking for money for the fresh air
fund, and incidental to the sermon, pictured, in
his usual graphic way, the plates being handed up,
piled with rich offerings, and running over. After
this flattering picture, he raised his hand and held
it for a long time ; the suspense was painful, as he
opened and closed it convulsively. He then low
ered it and held fast to the sides of the pulpit and
said calmly, in a low, soft voice, " Yes, you have
104



given largely, but you have given only half; I now
want yourselves, your personal service ; when ac
companied by your service and labors of love,
then only will your gifts become a true offering."
They found stains of blood where he had clasped
the pulpit, the clenching of his hand had pressed
the nails deep into the flesh. He then went on and
told them of the many ways in which this personal
service could be rendered, and of the great need
of heart and sympathy in the world. There never
was such a collection in St. Mark's. The school
girls went down deep into their purses and drained
them of the last cent of pin-money.

But the real fruit appeared afterward. A few
girls .who were home on a vacation organized and
laid some plans by which to create a sentiment in
favor of personal service. They separated and
went to their respective schools, some to Vv'ellesley,
some to Swarthmore, others to Vassar. At school
they gathered a few of a like mind, and organized
for personal service. These efforts soon began
bearing fruit. Out of a bevy of eight girls, seven
were married, and six of them took houses in
quarters tenanted by the poor. Enid ran over in
her mind the facts, and said, "One is going into
5i4Penn Street; another into 402 South Front
Street ; still another is going into 336 Spruce
Street ; and two sisters will take 46 and 48 Almond
.105



Street, below Front, where they will have a river
view. Our friend Dorothy will move into 820
Swanson, a fine quaint old place ; and her cousin
has already renovated 520 South Front. Cecilia
Horton has asked me to look at and draw plans to
have 34 Catharine Street restored, just as it was when
her great grandfather lived there. She is engaged
to a noble fellow who has nursed a sick blind man,
one of Ai's poor. They say he is one of the gen
uine Knickerbocker stock, and would not go home
during the University vacation, but asked Ai for
work, and was directed to the garret of the old
man. He watched at night at the bedside, to the
great relief of the wornout family, and slept on
Ai's rugs during the day-time.

" He is a large, manly-looking fellow, takes the
lead in rowing and never misses a ball when at the
bat ; but mention suffering to him, point out in
justice, give him a scent of meanness, and he be
comes as ferocious as a lion, and as tender as a girl.
Cecilia has made a good choice, and she is worthy
of the man, one of the truest girls I ever met."

" I hear that the new bishop is gathering around
him a strong force of workers," said the merchant
Burr, laying down his paper; "not only in the
work of the little Minster, but he seems to be in
fecting the churches with his enthusiasm for hu
manity. The whole vestry of the Nazarene is
1 06



composed now of young men. They are mostly
University boys who were attracted by Ai, and
think of looking into the matter of the other half.
They naturally talked of the matter at home, and
to the surprise of everybody, after the last Easter
Election, the church found itself with an entirely
new vestry, all but one old man whom they re
tained, as one playfully remarked, for ballast."
"Ballast is a good thing, but when the ship be
comes loaded with ballast, it is not going to carry
bread," suggested the other Burr.

"So the good old men reasoned, and elected
their hopeful sons as their successors, gracefully
admitting that a little fresh, new blood was a good
thing. " They however did not lose their heads,
and so retained on the vestry a good load of bal
last to keep the enthusiasm of youth from turning
the neighborhood topsy-turvy, a courtly old man,
a gentleman of the old school. The whole matter
was characterized by the most perfect good humor
and philosophical frankness. Such men one does
not like to see go out men who are so free to ad
mit the signs of the times."

Enid suggested that the sons no doubt had in
herited the wisdom of their sires, and this wisdom
plus the enthusiasm of youth would make the old
church a power again.

In the afternoon of the same day, a little com-
107



pany had gathered at number 3 Chancery Lane by
accident. It always appeared an accident until it
happened so often and so regularly on about the
same day of the month, that some brain was set
thinking, and a law was discovered governing the
matter.

It has already been stated that Impey was an in
veterate reader, and kept abreast with all the lead
ing, stirring thought of the times. He read what
was best in books, and devoured all that was
printed in the Magazines and Reviews. This fact
Mrs. Airy had carefully noted, and the fact of Im-
pey's communicativeness made the circumstance a
very fortunate one for her. That bright woman
always needed an invisible patch on her boot about
the tenth day of the month. This of course her
husband never found out of his own accord, but
her lady acquaintances somehow discovered it. If
on the ninth day the little boot was whole and
sound, that little foot would catch between the
planks of a bridge, trod by children with impunity;
or some rough stone would make a visit to the shoe
maker a necessity. There was a good cobbler
quite near her house, but she preferred to take a
long walk and so went down to Impey. About
the tenth day of the month Impey had become
pretty well advanced with the contents of the
Magazines, and the two things seemed to form a
1 08



most fortunate conjuncture. Mrs. Airy promptly
appeared on the tenth, and Impey, glad to talk
when he had an attentive listener, was always
pleased to see her. He had assimilated the fresh
est thought of the times and now was happy to
deliver the results of his reading.

A more delightful listener than Mrs. Airy could
not be found. She was always dressed with the
most exquisite taste, the material tending toward
richness, but never gaudy.

She had a pretty foot which Impey maintained
was really remarkable, and which he suggested
should not be spoilt by wearing shoes made over
any common last of ordinary mould ; so she had
a special last made at considerable expense, all
delicately shaped and moulded like her foot, and
she had the exclusive use of it. The ladies often
wondered how Mrs. Airy kept that same pretty
foot while she was losing ground otherwise. She
had a bright eye that always seemed to catch
Impey's when he looked up from his vamp.

She had had advantages as a girl, all that money
could purchase. She made term time and kept it
up until she became a bud ; even then she tried
quietly to patch up the breaks of the past, but all
to no purpose she remained only bright and in
telligent. When a girl she lacked application.
She would not study. She was afflicted with in-
109



tellectual laziness, and this left her often stranded
when called upon to grapple with facts. She
could talk brilliantly enough, too, at times, but it
was all within a tiny narrow circle. She lacked
wings. Her quickness and natural intelligence
helped her out a great deal, but there were times
when she could neither touch bottom nor float,
and so was cast hopelessly upon the shore. Mrs.
Airy was bright, and knew all this, and she saw
her opportunity in Impey. So she stumped a
hole regularly on the ninth day of the month and
had it promptly mended on the tenth, while she
waited. She always was pleased when several
were ahead and the wait was a long one. Impey
noticed she always wore an old pair, and wondered
what become of the numerous new pairs she was
constantly ordering. She said she had given them
away, and found the old ones more comfortable.
She did not mind patched ones, if not too patchy.
This unselfishness touched Impey, and he thought
her a good-hearted philanthropist.

While Mrs. Airy was taking off her shoe on
this particular day, the door opened, and Mrs.
Amos came'in.

" O Mrs. Airy, I am glad to see you Mr.
Impey, you are hard at work as usual always
busy I too am going to trouble you with a little

break my toe is coming out."
no



As she was explaining how it occurred, the door
opened and Mrs. Amos's daughter came in. This
rather surprised the mother, but the daughter was
not one to be talked to under the circumstances. As
they were moving their chairs, the door opened to
admit Miss Ostander, a fine looking woman, hav
ing a positive air and a determined manner. She
seemed to be well acquainted with Impey, but did
not know the rest. She found a seat in a corner
on the opposite side of the room, near the window,
and soon was lost in the Reviews.

"I suppose you all want your work done at
once, while you wait," Impey suggested. "I
will do my best, but I never work after four
o'clock ; that is a part of my creed." Mrs. Airy
said she was not in a hurry and would not mind
letting anyone else take her turn first. Miss
Ostander did not seem to care about any mending,
being absorbed in the Popular Science Monthly.
Soon the door opened again, and a breezy little
lady appeared, all aglow, her cheeks bright as a
peach. " O, you here, Mrs. Airy? and you,
Mrs. Amos? and dear Miss Amos, how delighted
I am to see you. It seems we are all here. In
deed I had to have my shoes attended to, I am
walking on my uppers. O, I did not see you, Miss
Ostander, you kept so quiet. Well this is a meet
ing. Mr. Impey, you must be very busy; you
in



must have a good deal of patience. Do you know,
we think of asking you to deliver a lecture before
the New Century ? It is all a secret yet. You
must be very patient with us women ; our hus
bands, some of them at least, think us fussy. And
here you have us all in a bunch."

Impey said he did not mind, but rather enjoyed
company, and it never prevented him from work
ing talk rather helped him but he was sorry he
could not attend to all the work at once. He said
for ten days he had not had a single shoe to mend,
not a drop of their refreshing presence, and now it
poured. It seemed he always had luck toward
the middle of the month, it was so last month and
the month before. He had a regular flood of
mending about the middle of the month. Mrs.
Airy tried to look indifferent and made some pretty
remarks about Impey's gallant appreciation of their
refreshing presence ; the rest kept quiet and felt
relieved by Mrs. Airy's winning ways.

" That article on the confessions of a lawyer,
in the Arena, is going to do good," said Impey,
as he hammered down a seam.

<; We need such common frankness along the
line. The injustices that are done every day in
the name of the law, are going to raise an outcry
some day, that will bring down the woman who
is peeping through the bandage." " By the way,"



said Mrs. Airy, "have you heard of Judge Rue's
resignation ? The unjust laws which he was bound
to enforce proved too much for his nerves, he
says, and he is going to the legislature as mis
sionary."

'By the way, Mrs. Airy, have you read the
essay on the cruelties of sport? " She had not,
but she had ordered all the monthlies, and the
bundle had come, and would be opened in a day
or two ; she had been very busy and she supposed
there was a good deal that was interesting.

She then adroitly drew Impey into the vortex,
and in an hour she had all the titles of the articles
that were really worth reading, carefully laid away
in her excellent memory, and so felt happy.

Her shoe was finished, but she did not leave ;
she would wait until her dear friend Mrs. Amos
had had hers mended, and they would go to
gether.

She then made a mental catalogue of all the im
portant articles and .asked a question or two to
make sure she had made no mistake. Then she
made a remark, in an apparently indifferent way,
concerning one of these very articles. This set
Impey talking ; and he mapped out the subject in
bold outlines, to her inward satisfaction. She was
content with th bare outline, and then switched
him upon another track, an article in the North
8 113



American Review which was shaking the throne
of the financial world. She put the gist of that
also in a neat little bag and stored it away for a
famine. Then she opposed Impey on a point in
which she quite well agreed with him at heart.
He put forth his best arguments on the tariff ques
tion ; and they were the same practically as con
tained in the Forum's article; this little coinci
dence pleased the bright woman, who had only
looked on the cover of the book, and she put
the gist of the tariff article also away on a shelf of
her brain.

That very evening a few club friends of her
husband were charmed with the brilliancy of this
woman ; she was informed on all that was alive
and fresh ; she knew not only what was printed,
but could give a digest of the salient points ; she
went right to the heart of the subject and seemed
to give you the kernel without the rind or shell ;
she never burdened you with a detail of facts.
But the many-sidedness of her reading was the
wonder ; she ranged over the whole field, and
without treating anything specifically, gave you a
bird's eye view of it all. The men went away
making a mental comparison between their wives
and this woman. Their wives did not seem to
read anything ; and yet they had as much time as
this woman, who must be burning the midnight



oil to keep abreast with the thought of the
times.

While these gentlemen were being treated to
this feast of reason, the little Airy boys were drag
ging around the nursery the unopened bundle of
the monthlies, using it as a stage coach ; and
when the package broke they cut out the pictures
and pasted them on the wall. But it did not mat
ter ; it gave them pleasure, and mamma did not
want them particularly.

When Mrs. Amos had her shoe given her, she
and Mrs. Airy left together, and thought they
would stop at the Burrs'. Esther Airy had an ap
pointment with her mother and met them as they
entered the street.

They found the Burrs on the veranda, just light
ing the lanterns. P^sther, a bright girl of about
eighteen, wanted to report the result of her inves
tigation into a case which the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children had in hand.
Enid Burr was one of the managers. Miss Airy
had been detailed to inquire' into the cases of
little girls who carried heavy loads of wood on
their heads. She saw a bundle weighing about
two hundred pounds, which a little girl, stunted
in growth, tried to balance on her head. Two
men came along and shifted the load, and after a
few staggering steps the child walked off. This
"5



was repeated until the whole heap of refuse was
carried off by several such little girls.

"I followed the stunted little girls to their
homes," said Esther, " and found them in a state
of abject poverty. The father told me of his
shamefully scanty wages. This roused me and I
went to the contractor. The contractor said the
contract was very low the merchant of the ware
house would not give more for the job. He di
rected me to the merchant. Whom do you think
I went to see? It was none other than my own,
dear, good father, who was having a new ware
house erected for his increasing business. I talked
to father, but he said it was a matter of business,
and girls could not understand the laws that gov
ern business and trade. Now I may not under
stand trade ; I know nothing about the tariff, but
such as I hear from mamma ; but this one thing
I do know, that those stunted little creatures stag
gered under their loads, one piece of rubbish
was actually in the shape of a cross, and two men
had some difficulty in getting it balanced on her
head, and that their skulls were flattened and al
most crushed by this awful pressure. Now look at
this spectacle ; it seemed as though she was go
ing to a crucifixion. What did I find ? The
child was compelled by the parents ; the father
said his wages were low. he was oppressed by the
116



contractor ; the contractor said he could not pay
more because he was squeezed by the man who
builds ; and when I go along the line and trace
the matter to its source, I find that my own dear
father gets his work done at as cheap a rate
as possible, plenty of contractors are willing to do
it as cheaply, and so the matter goes, no matter
how many skulls are flattened. I thought those
spines would crack, every step those little slaves
took."

The company listened with interest to the earn
est young girl, and were charmed with the energy
and the philosophy she displayed in her day's
work.

Enid Burr silently reflected through it all, and
ran over in her mind the number of arrests that had
been made to prevent similar cruelty to children.
It was always the parents who had been arrested ;
and Enid Burr was set thinking about causes. Her
mind was open. Her theories were always exposed
for revision. She thought of our custom of re
garding appearances instead of causes, of dealing
with the man caught red-handed, without too
closely inquiring into the state of that society that
begot him, and the condition of things that bred
him.

She was relieved from her thoughts by her hus
band interjecting in a decided tone that savored
117



somewhat of quiet indignation, '" I think that lit
tle bishop of yours is about right when he says we
must trace evils to their sources, seek foundations,
and stop this building on hay, wood, and stubble.
It is all very well to arrest parents, but had we not
better inquire why they have no coal in their cel
lars ? " Here Esther began to give a more detailed
account of her talk with her father. She learned
that his profits, clear of all expenses, were fifty
dollars a day; that if he was willing to give only
a portion of this, he still could live, and the con
tractor could then give better wages to the work
men ; the workmen in turn could put coal into
their cellars, and then the little girls need not be
sent out to have their skulls flattened and their
spines broken. But her father said it was not
business-like; and so the result of all these methods
is that little children are squeezed and ground be
tween the upper stone of business methods and the
nether stone of circumstance.

" Papa then opened a drawer and gave me ten
dollars, and told me to buy a hat if I liked. He
also paid his subscription to the Society, and said
I was a good girl to be thoughtful for the poor,
but I really did not know much about business ,
and it would not be well to inquire too closely into
the matter ; it was a complex question and men in
business shut their eyes and got along the best they
118



could. I don't need a hat ; those little girls had
none ; they made a cushion of old rags and then
loaded their dreadful loads on it, and staggered
down the street."



CHAPTER XIV.
WAYS AND MEANS.

He liveth long who liveth well,
All else is life but flung away,
He liveth longest who can tell
Of true things truly done each day.
Anon.

QUITE late one evening after a busy day, Ai
had settled down in his large wicker chair before
a blazing fire, for his usual hour of light reading.
He had drawn the blinds, for he wished to be en
tirely alone. It was his custom to keep his win
dows unshaded until late in the evening, to give
the people of the street a glimpse of his room
his bright fire, the few pieces of bric-a-brac which
had been given him, his pictorial papers with which
he decorated the walls, his books, and the boys
who rolled on his rugs ; all these things made him
the happy man he was, and he wished to share
them with all who passed. But late'in the even
ing he claimed an hour of solitude. He had just
119



taken down a volume of Whittier, when he heard
a gentle, timid rap at the door. He opened it and
the light of the fire aided him in recognizing the
young priest who had followed in the procession
to the little cathedral. He stood timidly, waiting
for a special invitation.

The bishop reached out both hands and drew
him in, and placed him in the wicker chair. He
seemed exhausted and really quite sick. As he re
moved his hat, the lines on this young face seemed
deeper, and the gray in the hair more abundant,
than Ai thought, the day he first saw him. He
had a troubled look ; but casting a glance about
the poorly furnished room, and feeling still the
warm grasp of the bishop's hand, he took courage,
as if this seemed a place where one might find
sympathy.

" I came to see you at this late hour because
I wanted to find you alone ; -I can now speak
without being disturbed or limited by your engage