Dominie Dean

reater burdens. He was always loaded down with others' fights against poverty, passion and sin because something within him always said: "This is one case in which

dress; or from the battle of old Wickham Reid against his insane inclination to suicide; or from the battles of all the backsliders of one kind and another; or from the battle of the Rathgebers against starvation; the battle of young Ross Baldwin against the trains of thoug

f putting the choir in surplices won, 'Thusia was sorry she was not in the choir; her worn Sunday gown would not then be a weekly humiliation. Her hats, poor things! were problems as difficult to finance as a war. The grocer's bill was a monthly catastrophe; "the wood is low again, David

l pay enough to supply those few dollar

own porch until he saw Mack come from the

ng me Hail Columbia. She's all right, dominie; fine little gir

s hand on Ma

ck, a good long walk out into the country and tell each other just how fine Amy is." Mack smiled knowingly.

how fine a little girl sh

" said

ssing the cemetery, and when they were beyond the town he walked Mack hard. He let Mack do the talking and kept him talking of Amy, for of what would a lover, drunk or sober, rather talk than o

and Mack in a comfortable chair and David slumped down in his own great chair, they talked of Amy and of a hundre

said David, and Mack turned

am a beast

at, Mack, because you

eant it. David, deep in his chair, his eyes on

how much of a hold has

n stop an

ves stop their howling for the alcohol. I don't mean that, Mack. Just how insistent is the wish

I don't mean to get the way I was this afternoon

tapped more a

in the eyes like a man, Mack," he said. "We ought to be able to beat this thing. Now

longest period the young fellow had been sober for some time, and that Mack had already been docketed in the minds of those who knew him best as a hard and reckless

kard; no one would want her to; but if she throws him over he will be gone, David. She'll give him his chance, and she wi

influence will be lost," said Dav

, as one who has saved the worst tidings until

vid walked the streets with Mack until the youth fell asleep as he walked, and days when Mack lay half stupid in David's great chair while the dominie scribbled his sermon notes at the desk beneath the spatter-work motto: "Keep an even mi

ere discussing another person; and, "but on the other han

frightful weeks when Mack threw everything aside and plunged into unbridled dissipation. The periods after these sprees were dec

rogress. It was slow and there were no "Cures" to work a sudden change, as there are now, but under the tottering structure of Mack's will David was slowly

t frequent companion. In David's mind the idea probably formed itself thus: "I must make Mack come to me as often as possible," and, "Mack won't come unless he likes me." He set about making Mack like him, and making him like 'Thusia and little Roger and baby Alice, and making him like the manse and all that was in it. With Amy turning her face from Mack, and Mack's mother varying

ing Mack love the manse and all those in it, wor

"Ungel Mack" to the child. The boy would climb the gate and cry, "Here cometh Ungel Mack!" with all the eagerness of joyful childhood. Sometimes

the other young fellows pay her attentions. It was as if Mack had never courted her; as if they were bound by a friendship that had never ripened into anything warmer but that might some day. Mack was fine about it; eager as he was to have Amy he held himself in check.

great opportunity came to David's door. It came in the form of a man of sixty years, silk-hatted and frock-coated. He walked slowly up the street from the direction of the town, and

smiling. "My name is Benton, and I don

e all the features. It was a face that was too large for itself, it left no room for the eyes, which had to peer out as best they could from between the brows that crowded them from above, and the cheekbones that crowded them from below, but they were kind, keen, sane eyes; they were even twinkling

"I think he is napping. If you wi

lipped into the kitchen. The day was hot and Mr. Benton was hot, and there were lemons and

think!" asked David. "Shall w

the study. Mr. Benton placed his hat on the floor beside the cha

aid. "Fat man's misery on a day like this. I

you after the service

anted to think that sermon over and coo

d wa

ngs that sound best hot from the lips don't amount to so much an hour later. That was a good sermon, then and now! It was a rem

looked at Mr. Benton. He was trying to keep an even mind u

, and I came here to hear you. I think you are the man we want. I can almost say that if you preach as well for us next Sunday as

aid David slowly. "It

s a church that needs a young man and a church in which you will have opportunity for t

membership, average attendance morning and evening, stipend, growth, d

he salary of the s

the week, the pitiful hat 'Thusia tried to make respectable, her oft-remodeled gowns. It was comfort to the verge of lux

t even put aside a goodly bit. It would mean he could start anew with a clean slate and be rid of the stupid interference of all the Hardcome and Grimsby tribe. 'Thusia would be with him, and Rose Hinch-who had become, in a way, a lay sister of good w

he heard the voic

pening his eyes. "I'll have to-you have

ce in a pitcher s

Benton, and as 'Thusia tapped David aro

ulpit." The color slowly mounted from 'Thusia's throat to her brow. She stood holding the small tin tray, and the glasses trembled against the pitcher. It did not need the figures Mr

she said steadily, "but of c

husia's lemonade, and David dropped back into his great chair and his old life of help

had worked the final cure. Perhaps it did. Perhaps Mack, hearing, as all of us did, of the great chance David had put aside, guessed what none of us guessed-that it was for him David remained in Riverban