East and West, North and South, the past, the present, and the future of all sections of the country--all "the burning questions" of the day were discussed. Fidelia listened with shining eyes and changing colour, and dropped a strong word in now and then; and all the time she was saying to herself--

"To think that Jabez should have grown to be just the best sort of man!

And what a life lies before him! I wonder if my Eunice knows?"

And Jabez, seeing her softened glance, knew as well as if she had spoken her name that it was of her sister that she thought.

It rained all the morning, so that there was nothing said about showing the town and the surrounding country to the visitor; and there was all the more time for the talk which seemed to interest them all. The rain ceased, and the sky cleared a little in the afternoon, and a walk was proposed. Mr Ainsworth rose at once and looked at Miss Marsh.

"I shall be glad to take a walk," said she. "I have heard so much talk to-day that I need to rest my mind by tiring my body. Come, Lucy and Lena, get your wrappers and let us go. Will you come with us, Mrs Wainright?"

"No, I think not; and I am not sure about its being best for the girls to go. Had they better, Fidelia?"

"Because of the dampness? It will do Lucy no harm. Lena, perhaps, had better not go."

"Oh, if one goes, they may both go! I guess the damp won't hurt them,"

said Mrs Wainright. And to her husband she said--"And if he has anything to say to her, I guess he'll find a chance to say it."

Apparently Mr Ainsworth had nothing particular to say--at least nothing which Lucy and Lena might not hear, for they all walked on together till they came to the church. It was a new and fine church, and visitors in C--were often taken to see and to admire it; so when Mr Ainsworth proposed that they should go into it, the girls at once set off to get the keys. They returned almost immediately, and with them came a gentleman who told Mr Ainsworth, after he had been introduced, that he knew more about the church than any one in C--, and could give them the history of every nail and stone, window and door. He did not quite do that, but he gave them many interesting particulars as to construction and cost, and the special advantages of the building generally over all the other churches in the town, or, in fact, any other town. Mr Ainsworth listened and kept silence in a way which won the respect of the pleased narrator, who probably was not always so fortunate in his listeners. He got through at last, or had another engagement and went away; and then Jabez said softly--

"Miss Fidelia, do you know why I wanted to come in here? I want to hear you sing again, 'For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.'"

"Of course I will sing it. But I might have done that at home, and saved you the deacon's lecture on architecture. Oh, I must go up into the gallery, must I?"

"Yes; and I will stand here, where I first caught sight of your face."

So Fidelia went up and sang with a glad heart, not the solo only, but the whole Thanksgiving anthem, the two girls doing their best to help.

They did not linger long after that; and when they had left the church, and the girls had gone to carry back the key, Jabez said gravely--

"I shall have that always to think about, till I see you again."

"And I hope that will not be so very long this time," said Fidelia.

It was not very long. They met the next summer in Halsey. There he found her one summer morning standing in the garden, at the opening under the apple-trees, looking down on the river and the meadows and the hills beyond, thinking of many things. There he found courage to say to her all that was in his heart.

Not at that first meeting, however; though even then it would not have surprised her or found her unready with her answer. For they had written to one another constantly since their first meeting at that glad Thanksgiving time; and Fidelia knew all that letters frequent and long could tell her about the work which he had found ready for hand, head, and heart in the far West. Now he had more to tell her. He had been called by the Church in M--, in the state of W--, to be their pastor, and he had accepted the call.

There were just fifteen members in the Church, but they were all New England men and women, of the right sort. M--was only a small place as yet, but the prospects were fair that it would be a city within twenty years. It would one day be a great commercial centre for a grand stretch of country; and the faithful fifteen who had made their home there meant that, in so far as it should be in their power to make it so, it should be a centre of influence for good in the state, and in the whole great country; and their pastor elect meant no less than that also. And when he had got thus far, he said gravely--

"Fidelia, will you come with me, and help in this great work?"

And Fidelia put her hand in his and said quietly--"Jabez, I shall be glad to go." And let the wise men of this world, and the rich men and the mighty, say what they will, there is no greater or grander work to be done under the sun than the work which these two, standing under the apple-trees, agreed to help one another to do. There is no work whose success can avail so much for the happiness of the individual soul, for the household, or for the community, and there is none whose success can bring such wealth and honour and stability to the nation, as that through which the hearts of men are taught to believe and know, and the eyes of men are enlightened to see, that it is "righteousness which exalteth a nation," and that "sin is a reproach to any people."

"Fidelia," said Jabez in a little, "do you suppose that Eunice knows?"

And Fidelia answered softly,--"If she knows, I am pure she is glad."

Before the summer was quite over these two happy people went West to begin their work together. A good many years have pa.s.sed since then.

The place in which "the faithful fifteen" set up the standard is a great city now. They, and those who have joined themselves to them since then, have kept the promise made in these early days to their Lord and to each other. And He who said, "Them that honour Me I will honour,"

has kept His promise to them.