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 LJniversit}' of California Berkeley 
 
RS 1 
 
A REASONABLE SERVICE 
 
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A REASONABLE 
 SERVICE 
 
 A Story of Practical Zionic Ideals 
 
 BY GRACE BAUGHMAN,KEAIRNES 
 
 1922 
 
 HERALD PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 Independence, Missouri 
 
DEDICATION 
 
 To my husband, whose interest and understanding have been an 
 invaluable aid in the preparation of this little book, with the 
 earnest prayer that it may be the means of helping, if only a 
 little, towards the realization of the beautiful Zionic dream that 
 is ours. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 As a church we are developing a literature of 
 distinctive motif and special appeal, this book 
 being an excellent sample. Almost a century ago 
 the church teachings suggested here were an- 
 nounced to the world. As a result of the preach- 
 ing of those ideas, thousands of yearning souls 
 gathered to the standard of social betterment 
 that had a consistent religious basis. The dark 
 days of apostasy and disruption, followed by re- 
 organization, delayed the realization of the Zionic 
 dream yet failed to affect its intrinsic beauty and 
 attractive power. 
 
 This book succeeds admirably in combining 
 essential factors in the Zionic program and pre- 
 senting them graphically and effectively. Pos- 
 sibly the demands of the hour to be brief may 
 have been heeded too literally by the author, but 
 she has been faithful to her ideal of correct em- 
 phasis in stressing ideals rather than a detailed 
 romantic situation. 
 
 As the days go by, this author and others will 
 no doubt take up and develop the Zionic theme 
 in song and fiction and exposition. Thus will 
 we all be led to a happy unity in clear ideals, 
 forming the proper nucleus for the real Zion. 
 
 E. D. MOORE. 
 INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapters Pages 
 
 1. The Popular Young Graduate 11 
 
 2. The County Agent in a Religious 
 Argument 21 
 
 3. A Creature of Circumstance 41 
 
 4. A Severed Friendship 61 
 
 5. The Parting of the Ways 77 
 
 6. An Unchanged Decision 93 
 
 7. A View of Commercial Life 115 
 
 8. A Discussion of Stewardship Ideals 141 
 
 9. A Vision Realized .. .167 
 
A Reasonable Service 
 
 CHAPTER 1 
 
 THE POPULAR YOUNG GRADUATE 
 
 HOW good it seems to be home again!" 
 Blythe pulled down a branch of the tall 
 lilac bush and buried her face in its fra- 
 grant blossoms. "Don't you just love lilacs, 
 Uncle John?" 
 
 "I love a certain young lady more," averred 
 the lean, kind- faced man she addressed, "and it 
 seems mighty good to have her home again?" 
 
 "Such an old blarney of an uncle," she accused 
 him gay ly, as she ran up the steps to the wide 
 veranda, tucking a spray of lilacs into her belt 
 as she went. At the top stood her aunt, waiting 
 in smiling dignity to greet her. Blythe had a 
 feeling that if Aunt Lillian had been suddenly 
 forced to climb a tree she would have done it 
 without its affecting her poise in the least. 
 
 "We have been waiting for you," announced 
 Mrs. Blake, leading the way to the dining room. 
 "Hester is quite out of patience." 
 
12 A Reasonable Service 
 
 But the middle-aged housekeeper, who looked 
 after everything in general, did not seem put 
 out in the least as she beamingly responded to 
 Blythe's impetuous greeting. "My, it does a 
 body's eyes good to get sight of you again, my 
 child!" she said. "And to think you won't have 
 to go away any more! But I suppose some 
 young chap will come along some day and carry 
 you off for good and all." 
 
 "Not me!" was Blythe's cheerful reply. "Give 
 me Uncle John every time." 
 
 She was at his heels while he did his evening 
 work, petting her favorite horses and cows, view- 
 ing the new calves with delight, exclaiming over 
 the fat baby pigs, and asking questions until her 
 uncle declared she was an animated interroga- 
 tion point. 
 
 "I was afraid two years of fine arts would 
 spoil you," he said, "but you seem to be as good 
 a farmer as ever." 
 
 "I shall always live on a farm," she declared. 
 "There is more music here than in the clang of 
 city pavements for me!" 
 
 "Better stay with your old uncle, then," he 
 warned her. "You don't know as much about the 
 hard work that most women on the farm have to 
 do as you might." 
 
The Popular Yowig Graduate 13 
 
 "Perhaps not," she replied, thoughtfully. Then 
 with animation, "Isn't this the night for the 
 township meeting?" 
 
 "It is. May I have the pleasure of your com- 
 pany?" 
 
 "If you will let me drive the car just as fast 
 as I want to?" 
 
 "It won't make over seventy-five miles an 
 hour," he replied soberly, and they both laughed 
 together like happy children. 
 
 Truly Blythe had known little of hardship in 
 the twenty-three care-free, happy years of her 
 life. The one dark cloud had been the death of 
 her parents when she was but a child, and the 
 loneliness and anguish of the days that fol- 
 lowed ; but her uncle's childless home was opened 
 wide to her, and since then life had been wonder- 
 fully full high school and business college, for 
 her uncle declared she must have practical educa- 
 tion; then a course of instruction in her beloved 
 music, a reward of merit, he called it. 
 
 John Blake was one of the wealthiest men in 
 the surrounding country, having been left a snug 
 estate by his father and adding to it yearly by 
 his energy and shrewd management. His asso- 
 ciates knew him for a keen business man, yet 
 honest to the last penny. His friends valued him 
 
14 A Reasonable Service 
 
 for his true worth, but few, even of them, knew 
 how often his purse strings were loosened in be- 
 half of the widows and fatherless. Some of them 
 remembered how, years ago, he had loved a blue- 
 eyed girl, daughter of a neighboring farmer, and 
 their coming marriage was planned ; then she was 
 suddenly stricken by a fever, and in a few days 
 her death left John Blake facing a blank wall 
 that shut out the happy visions of the future. 
 
 After a few years, when life had partly settled 
 back into its old channels, he married pretty 
 Lillian Randall, one of the popular young women 
 of the little city. It was no secret among her 
 friends that she was marrying him for his money. 
 He himself held vague suspicion of it, but her 
 seeming sincerity was so disarming that he dis- 
 missed the idea. After marriage came disillusion- 
 ment, but it was characteristic of the man that he 
 turned a smiling face to the world and held his 
 peace. 
 
 When his sister's little daughter, a tiny, gold- 
 en-haired child of seven summers, came into his 
 home, he lavished upon her all the pent-up affec- 
 tion of his nature. They were comrades and 
 chums, sharing mutually each other's joys and 
 sorrows. Perhaps this was why she grew up to 
 womanhood so capable and unspoiled. 
 
The Popular Young Graduate 15 
 
 To-night, as the powerful car went spinning 
 along the road at a hair-raising speed, with 
 Blythe's delighted hands grasping the wheel, 
 they chattered of the thousand and one things 
 that occur in half a year. They were quite alone, 
 for Mrs. Blake never attended any of the farm- 
 ers' meetings. In fact, one of the first reforms 
 she had tried to bring about after their marriage 
 was a change of occupation for her husband. But 
 here John Blake stood firm, and when she found 
 that he could not be moved, she returned to her 
 social pleasures with unabated zeal, for there were 
 always a team and carriage and later a car at her 
 disposal. So, through the passing years, they 
 followed diverging paths, and if John Blake 
 missed the companionship he had looked forward 
 to, he gave no sign. 
 
 As the big roadster sped down the last long 
 slope to the country church where the meeting 
 was to be held, a small, leisurely-moving car sud- 
 denly appeared in the glare of the headlights. 
 Without checking speed, Blythe blew a mellow 
 blast on the horn and flew past, one end of the 
 bumper just grazing the bank and the other 
 barely missing the fender of the smaller machine. 
 
 " You'd better slow down, young lady!" ex- 
 claimed Mr. Blake, nervously. "I've got my will 
 
10 A Reasonable Service 
 
 made and my life insurance paid up, but I'll be 
 hanged if I want to try the next world just yet!" 
 
 "All right, uncle," was the cheerful reply. "It 
 was only up to fifty-five, but if you say so I'll 
 drive a little slower." 
 
 In the church gathered a crowd of the farmers 
 of the surrounding country, with their wives and 
 families. In a moment Blythe was the center of 
 a whirl of welcome, for she was a general favorite 
 with her neighbors. 
 
 "We'll be glad to have you here to lead the 
 singing again," said one of the men, with some 
 relief. "I've done the best I could, but you're 
 the one for that job?" 
 
 In the rush of greeting her friends, Blythe had 
 failed to notice a new arrival until Mr. Blake 
 piloted him to her. He was a little above middle 
 height, broad shouldered, with clear, gray eyes, 
 and a shock of light hair that showed copper tints 
 in the lamplight. 
 
 "Blythe, this is Mr. Cameron, our new county 
 agent," he said. "My niece, Miss Halliday, just 
 back from school." 
 
 Blythe decided she liked his straightforward 
 look and, as she acknowledged the introduction, 
 gave him a glance of cool appraisal which he re- 
 turned with evident interest. 
 
The Popular Young Graduate 17 
 
 "Was it you who tried to annihilate my poor 
 little runabout, Miss Halliday?" he inquired, 
 affably. "I have seen Mr. Blake drive a number 
 of times before, and I couldn't understand what 
 was the matter to-night unless he had become a 
 sudden victim of drink." 
 
 "You must excuse me for frightening you," 
 Blythe replied, almost too politely. Evidently 
 here was an impertinent young man in need of 
 suppression. "I haven't had my hands on the 
 wheel for six months, and it was rather exhilarat- 
 ing." Then she turned her attention to another 
 acquaintance, while Uncle John tried to hide his 
 enjoyment at Neil Cameron's discomfiture. 
 
 The meeting was shortly called to order and 
 the questions of the hour were soon under dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 "I'll tell you what!" exclaimed a short, excita- 
 ble man, who gained the floor after the best meth- 
 ods of haying, harvesting, and kindred subjects 
 had been debated. "There is just one thing ahead 
 of us, and that's cutting down production. I've 
 had three men hired in as many weeks, and the 
 last one left this morning because he said he 
 didn't care about working fourteen hours a day 
 when he could make more in the city, working 
 nine. He forgets that his board and laundry and 
 
 RS 2 
 
18 A Reasonable Service 
 
 usual good time will more than eat up the bal- 
 ance; but my problem remains the same. I can 
 manage eighty or a hundred acres alone, and 
 that's what I'm going to do next year. The rest 
 of you will, too, before long. Let the rest of the 
 world starve if it won't work ! I can raise my own 
 living." 
 
 A smile went around the room, for they all 
 knew the speaker, but there was sympathy also 
 in the tanned faces. 
 
 "Our problems are all much the same, I think," 
 said a quiet-voiced, intelligent-looking man in the 
 rear of the room, "but we don't want the rest of 
 the world to starve, and I don't believe it would, 
 even if we cut down our farming area as so many 
 of us think seriously of doing. It would of ne- 
 cessity drive more back to the land. But we must 
 farm more intensively, if possible, and insist on a 
 fair price for what we produce, and not stand 
 idly by and let prices go tumbling down at the 
 behest of the gamblers on the board of trade. We 
 who have worked over our crops, worried over 
 them, yes, and some of us have prayed over them, 
 no doubt, know better what they are worth in 
 dollars and cents than some one who probably 
 has never raised a peck of corn in his life. 
 
 "The question of help must be solved in some 
 
The Popular Young Graduate 19 
 
 way, too, though I confess I don't know how. 
 Our wives are in the same fix when they need 
 help in the house. The young people are flock- 
 ing to town to spend the days waiting tables in 
 the restaurants or selling shoestrings and patent 
 breakfast foods behind the counters, and the 
 nights at dances and moving picture shows. If 
 some one can propose a rival form of entertain- 
 ment and make farm life so attractive that young 
 men and women will be willing to stay in the 
 country, he will have conferred a boon upon 
 farming humanity." 
 
 "Well, what shall we do?" inquired another, 
 rather flippantly. "Build a dance hall in every 
 community and put on a moving picture every 
 other night?" 
 
 "I don't think this community would favor 
 that" one of the women spoke this time. "I be- 
 lieve we would all rather see the church the cen- 
 ter of interest. But religion doesn't seem to ap- 
 peal greatly to the young people of to-day." 
 
 "It might if there weren't so many white- 
 livered preachers." This came from John Blake. 
 "If they had initiative enough to preach live ser- 
 mons, and not only preach, but practice, and to 
 give the young people something to do that would 
 provide a harmless outlet for their energies, as 
 
20 A Reasonable Service 
 
 well as something helpful to give some practical 
 form to their religion, there would be less trouble 
 in holding them. They want something definite 
 to do, right here in this vale of tears, instead of 
 the vague hope of sometime sitting in heaven 
 and playing a golden harp. No sane, normal hu- 
 man being, old or young, wants to spend all the 
 time, even in the other world, playing a harp! 
 Suppose he has no ear for music!" 
 
 This outburst aroused mingled amusement, 
 amazement, and sympathy among his hearers, 
 but John Blake was in the habit of bursting a 
 mental bomb in the midst of conservative assem- 
 blies, so nobody became excited, but having de- 
 parted so far from the original question and ar- 
 rived at no conclusion, the meeting adjourned 
 after a rousing chorus under Blythe's competent 
 leadership. 
 
The County Agent in a Religious 
 Argument 
 
A Reasonable Service 23 
 
 CHAPTER 2 
 
 A RELIGIOUS ARGUMENT 
 
 WLL you go to the church social this 
 afternoon, Blythe?" inquired Mrs. 
 Blake one morning a few days later. 
 
 "Oh, I had forgotten about the social, Aunt 
 Lillian!" Her aunt failed to detect the relief un- 
 der the seeming regret in the girl's voice. "I've 
 promised Marian I'd spend the whole day with 
 her. You know I haven't been there yet and 
 haven't even seen that blessed infant." 
 
 "Why can't you postpone that until to-mor- 
 row? I know Mr. Titus will be disappointed if 
 you aren't there." 
 
 "Oh, hang Mr. Titus!" exclaimed Blythe, 
 irreverently. "I don't care if he is my pastor, 
 I wish I'd never see him again! Why did they 
 let Mr. Reid go? He had backbone enough to 
 do things worth while, even if he didn't use so 
 much flowery rhetoric in the pulpit." 
 
 "Blythe! Blythe!" Mrs. Blake was plainly 
 shocked. "I'm afraid you've been listening to 
 some of your uncle's heresies, and I'm sure col- 
 lege hasn't unproved your vocabulary. I wish 
 
24 A Reasonable Service 
 
 you could realize what an estimable young man 
 Mr. Titus is." 
 
 "So do I, Aunt Lillian," replied Blythe rather 
 wearily, "but I'm afraid I never shall appreciate 
 him. His hands are so soft and his voice is so- 
 silky. I think I'd better go before I get saucy, 
 auntie," and with a whirlwind kiss she was off, 
 before Mrs. Blake had time to expostulate fur- 
 ther. 
 
 It was a beautiful blue-and-gold morning, and 
 Blythe was exuberantly happy as she whistled to 
 her Scotch collie and raced madly across the or- 
 chard and into the dewy meadow beyond. Gain- 
 ing a knoll, she stopped to look back at the big 
 white farmhouse, with its velvety lawn shaded by 
 stately trees, and the wide orchard joining it a 
 band of sun-pricked shadow. Near and far 
 stretched squares of whispering corn, of waving 
 wheat, of woodland and meadow, dotted here and 
 there with sheltering groves from which peeped 
 the roofs of neighboring farmhouses with their 
 accompaniment of familiar red barns. 
 
 "What a glorious old world to live in, Lad- 
 die!" she cried, stooping to pat the appreciative 
 collie, who bounced up and down with pleasure 
 and then lay down and rolled in the wet, sweet 
 clover. She did not tarry long, however, but 
 
A Religious Argument 25 
 
 crossed the meadow, skirted the bank of a little 
 creek that ran through a bit of woodland, and at 
 last reached a snug homestead, much less preten- 
 tious than the one she had left, but withal neat 
 and comfortable. 
 
 In the garden near by a young woman was 
 hard at work with a wheel hoe. Little beads of 
 perspiration dotted her flushed face, and she was 
 so engrossed with her task that she was not aware 
 of Blythe's approach until she spoke : 
 
 "What an energetic young person you are! 
 And who takes care of His Royal Highness 
 while you work out here?" 
 
 Marian gave a start of surprise, then laughed 
 and explained: "He's in dreamland, taking care 
 of himself. I was hurrying to get through be- 
 fore you came and while he is quiet. Come on 
 into the house." 
 
 "Not much. We'll finish the garden and talk 
 while we work. I can't appreciate the infant 
 anyway until he wakes up." 
 
 The two presented a physical contrast as they 
 worked away together Blythe slim and fair, 
 with hair like the morning sunlight, and Marian 
 plump and brown-eyed, with dark, curly masses 
 of rebellious locks that slipped from their moor- 
 
26 A Reasonable Service 
 
 ings as she worked, and curled about her moist 
 face. 
 
 The summer sun gained in power as it rose, 
 and both were warm and weary when the last 
 weed was routed and they sought the shelter of 
 the cool, vine-covered porch where Junior had 
 finished his nap and was voicing his displeasure 
 in a series of appealing little wails. 
 
 "Oh, let me hold him!" cried Blythe, catch- 
 ing him up and hugging him. "Isn't he nice to 
 squeeze? so round and soft!" 
 
 Then she smiled at Marian and wondered a 
 little at the light in her brown eyes as she took 
 the warm little form in her arms and cooed over 
 him in true, indescribable mother fashion. 
 
 "Have you heard from Jean lately?" Marian 
 inquired a few minutes later, when conversation 
 had begun to lag. 
 
 "Not lately," Blythe replied. "There may be 
 a letter pursuing me now. I left school a few 
 days early, you know." 
 
 Jean was Marian's older sister, and the three 
 girls had been constant chums until the marriage 
 of the two and Blythe's continued attendance at 
 college had forced a parting of the ways. The 
 latter had not been ill-pleased when her friend 
 had chosen to wed Mrs. Blake's nephews, her 
 
A Religious Argument 27 
 
 own playmates and companions in innumerable 
 hairbreadth experiences during growing-up time. 
 Jean lived now in a neighboring city, where her 
 husband held a position in a large factory and 
 where Blythe renewed friendship by periodical 
 visits during vacation time. 
 
 When Marian spoke again it was with some 
 hesitancy: "I wonder if you knew that she and 
 Ralph have changed faiths joined the Latter 
 Day Saints?" 
 
 "No, I didn't know it!" Blythe was visibly 
 surprised. "Does Aunt Lillian know?" 
 
 "Oh, yes ; I wonder she didn't tell you." 
 
 "She has been busy since I came home, and 
 away most of the time. I just escaped going 
 with her this afternoon. I hope Mr. Titus is 
 fatally disappointed," she added maliciously, and 
 her companion giggled with delighted under- 
 standing, then volunteered further information: 
 
 "They attended a series of meetings last winter 
 and became interested and finally joined the 
 church a month ago. Of course many of their 
 friends are friends no longer, but Jean's last let- 
 ter doesn't express any regret. In fact, Roger 
 and I are becoming interested ourselves. They 
 have been sending us some of the church publi- 
 
28 A Reasonable Service 
 
 cations, and Roger declares it is the most sensible 
 religion he has ever heard of." 
 
 "It is, and the most scriptural as well." Both 
 girls started, for neither had heard the approach 
 of the sun-browned young man who stood in the 
 doorway, wiping the sweat of honest toil from 
 his forehead. "I've asked Ralph several ques- 
 tions that have made Mr. Titus squirm and got 
 a reference from the Bible that answered them 
 every time." 
 
 "I'm afraid youVe been listening to what 
 Aunt Lillian calls heresy," Blythe said, an odd 
 little smile on her face. "I didn't suppose any 
 member of the Randall family would forsake 
 the church of his fathers." 
 
 The boy's face sobered instantly. "It's a 
 test, surely," he said. "Ralph and Jean have no 
 relatives any more except Marian and myself. 
 Aunt Lillian has forbidden them the house, and 
 father and mother very nearly did the same." 
 
 "Don't forget me when you are mentioning 
 relatives," Blythe remarked, quietly. "I've never 
 yet refused to associate with anyone on account 
 of religion, and I'm going to visit Jean as usual, 
 if she doesn't object." 
 
 "Write and tell her so," exclaimed Marian, im- 
 
A Religious Argument 29 
 
 pulsively. "It will lighten her homesick heart 
 wonderfully." 
 
 At that moment their attention was attracted 
 by the sound of a motor in distress, and shortly 
 after a trim coupe limped painfully into view 
 from behind the row of trees that bordered the 
 road. 
 
 "Some one in trouble, I suppose," observed 
 Roger, while Blythe rose from the hammock to 
 peep inquisitively through the vine-covered lat- 
 tice. Then she fell back with an exclamation of 
 disgust. 
 
 "Mr. Titus, as I live," she cried. "I dodged 
 the social only to have the social come to me! 
 Don't you dare tell him I'm here, Roger." 
 
 "I won't need to," he replied, calmly; "he's 
 coming up to see for himself. And I'm going 
 to keep him here for dinner, too," he added, mis- 
 chievously. 
 
 "Good morning, Roger." It was the pastor's 
 voice at the door. "I'm having trouble with my 
 car, and, knowing you are a good hand with a 
 motor, I stopped to see if you would help me. 
 I must be in town as soon as possible why, how 
 are you, Miss Halliday! Mrs. Blake told me 
 you were home, but you must have been in hid- 
 ing." 
 
30 . A Reasonable Service 
 
 "Just resting and getting acquainted with my 
 family," Blythe explained. There was no great 
 show of warmth in her manner, and as Roger was 
 leading the way to the crippled car Mr. Titus 
 was forced to follow. The machine, a gift from 
 the grateful members of his parish, had not 
 proved an unmixed blessing to the minister, for 
 he had no leaning towards mechanics, and be- 
 sides, it was difficult to dress as befitted a gentle- 
 man of the cloth and be ready for the work of a 
 chauffeur as well. 
 
 "I think I shall have to hire a driver," he ob- 
 served, as Roger began to dissect the unruly 
 motor. "My purse will hardly permit it, but 
 it is humiliating to be hung up this way so often. 
 Truly a minister of the gospel has a hard row 
 to hoe!" 
 
 Roger smothered a smile into the internals of 
 the machine, but ventured no word of sympathy. 
 He found the trouble shortly and had just 
 finished getting the car in working order when 
 another, a small, brewster-green runabout, drew 
 up and stopped in a swirl of dust. 
 
 "Good morning, Mr. Randall. In trouble?" 
 It was the county agent, homeward bound after 
 a morning call somewhere in the country. 
 
 "Good morning," Roger replied, cordially, for 
 
A Religious Argument 31 
 
 the young agent was winning the confidence of 
 the countryside, and he and Roger had been 
 friends and classmates at the agricultural college 
 they had both attended. "Mr. Titus is having 
 the trouble, not I," and he introduced the two 
 and wondered why they inspected each other so 
 narrowly. 
 
 "I shall be glad to take you back to town with 
 me," Neil said to the minister. 
 
 "Thank you," was the reply, "but I think my 
 car is ready for use again now, thanks to Roger." 
 
 Neil mentally commented that the explanation 
 was unnecessary, for Roger was dusty and 
 smeared with grease, while the pastor was quite 
 as immaculate as usual. Then he turned to the 
 former. 
 
 "I stopped to see about putting on a soil ero- 
 sion demonstration next week," he said. "Would 
 you consent to have it here, or haven't you any 
 ditches on the farm?" 
 
 "Yes, I think you can find one or two," an- 
 swered Roger with a grin. "But come on to the 
 house, both of you. It is nearly noon and we 
 can look things over before dinner. My team 
 is out in the field, anyway." And, overruling 
 objections, he led the way to the house, where he 
 
32 A Reasonable Service 
 
 left Mr. Titus, who had forgotten his hurry, 
 while he and Neil went to examine the field. 
 
 "Run on in and entertain the minister," 
 Marian commanded, as she came back to the 
 kitchen after ushering her guest into the cool 
 porch, which was their summer living room. 
 
 "Never!" exclaimed Blythe. "I'll fry your 
 chicken and mash your potatoes and do every 
 blessed thing that's left to do out here, but I 
 absolutely balk at that!" 
 
 "Perhaps you wouldn't mind entertaining 
 some of our company," suggested Marian, teas- 
 ingly. 
 
 "Whom do you mean?" Blythe inquired, 
 pausing in the act of turning the chicken, with 
 her fork poised in the air. 
 
 "Mr. Cameron. He is young and charming. 
 Haven't you met him yet?" 
 
 "Oh, yes. I have my own opinion of his 
 charm, however." 
 
 "Blythe, Blythe! You are impossible! Did 
 ever a man breathe that could meet with your 
 requirements?" 
 
 "As a source of entertainment, yes. As an 
 asset through life, no. They are either atro- 
 ciously impious or inhumanly religious. Give me 
 a man who is clean even though red-blooded, and 
 
A Religious Argument 33 
 
 < 
 red-blooded even though he has a reverent mind 
 
 and gentle hands." Which was a long and aston- 
 ishingly serious speech for Blythe. 
 
 Marian stared at her for a few surprised 
 seconds. "Well," she exclaimed at length, "which 
 of those specifications does the county agent 
 lack? Is he too impious or too religious, or 
 what? Roger seems to like him." 
 
 "Which ought to be recommendation enough 
 for anyone in the eyes of his wife," Blythe re- 
 torted, smiling. "No, I've never even heard a 
 thing against him, my dear. He just seems 
 sort of irreponsible you might call it super- 
 ficial." 
 
 "I shall keep an eye out for a man cut after 
 the pattern of an angel," Marian assured her 
 with resignation, "and if I should find one I'll 
 surely send him around for inspection." 
 
 The return of Roger and Neil put an end to 
 further discussion, and soon they were all 
 gathered around a well-laden table. For a time 
 general matters of interest, more especially of 
 farm interest, formed the topic of conversation, 
 during which Mr. Titus devoted himself to the 
 fried chicken. He seemed somewhat bored and, 
 when a lull occurred, took advantage of it to re- 
 mark: 
 
 RS 3 
 
34 A Reasonable Service 
 
 "You scientific farmers are beyond me. I 
 can't even discuss your line of business with you 
 any more. Now mine is religion, and naturally 
 I feel that the time has been wasted to some ex- 
 tent unless we talk at some length regarding 
 matters that pertain to the salvation of the soul. 
 I feel that we ought all to give more time and 
 effort to the cause of Christ. I am thinking of 
 putting on a series of revival meetings this fall, 
 perhaps with the aid of some evangelist, and 
 wherever I go I am asking the help and coopera- 
 tion of the people." 
 
 He paused, but no one spoke, so he continued : 
 "Of course we are all ready to loosen our purse 
 strings and help, but if each of us would do some 
 personal service, think what an inspiration it 
 would be to the minister! For instance, Miss 
 Halliday, you might lend us the use of your voice 
 that beautiful gift from heaven. You can 
 preach as eloquent a sermon with it as can the 
 minister himself. The burning question each 
 should ask him or herself is, 'How much can I do 
 to save souls?' ' 
 
 "That should be the burning question, surely," 
 observed Neil, deliberately, "and it seems that 
 something should be done when we see the way 
 the world is going. We are becoming a nation 
 
A Religious Argument 35 
 
 of Sabbath breakers. Our people are leaving the 
 churches to flock to the pleasure resorts by the 
 hundreds on Sundays. Vice and wickedness are 
 on every hand. But there is another question 
 the church must answer, 'What have I to give 
 them when they come to me? If they come ask- 
 ing bread, must I give them a stone?' I know 
 that pleasure draws many away; but I have 
 heard enough expressed to know that many have 
 tried out religion and found it wanting. 'If it 
 is not more satisfying than the world/ they say, 
 'why bother about it at all?' They have de- 
 manded the bread of life and received a stone, 
 and it is causing widespread dissatisfaction with 
 religion everywhere." 
 
 Mr. Titus gave the impression of recovering 
 from a shock to some of his inner mechanism, 
 while Blythe felt temporarily stunned. What 
 business had this superficial young man express- 
 ing ideas like these? 
 
 But Roger, without waiting for the pastor to 
 recover, took up the cudgel where Neil had laid 
 it down. "That is much the way I feel about 
 it," he said. "I have gone to church ever since 
 I can remember, and I must confess it seems 
 more like a form of godliness and a denial of 
 the power thereof. I have heard men and 
 
36 A Reasonable Service 
 
 women kneel and pray for the Lord to speak to 
 them. But how can he speak? They deny that 
 he does so in this day and age of the world. Oh, 
 it stirs my blood to read of the Pentecostal 
 showers given to the church of old? If they 
 could speak with tongues and prophesy under 
 the power of the Holy Spirit in those days, 
 why cannot those things be given now?" 
 
 "They could be given if they were needed" 
 Mr. Titus seemed to have regained his breath 
 "but we do not need direct revelation to-day. We 
 have the written word. Christ had promised to 
 send the Comforter, and it was sent in this form 
 that the faith of the early Christians might be 
 strengthened. They were spiritual babes, 
 whereas we have progressed beyond that stage." 
 
 "Heaven pity them if they were any weaker 
 spiritually than some of us to-day!" ejaculated 
 Roger, fervently. 
 
 But Neil was speaking again. "Paul tells us 
 in the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians," he 
 said, "that 'God hath set some in the church, 
 first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly 
 teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of heal- 
 ings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.' 
 If the Lord changes not, as Malachi, the very 
 last prophet of the Old Testament, proclaims, 
 
A Religious Argument 37 
 
 have we not the right to expect those things in 
 the church to-day?" 
 
 "But we do not need them now." The pastor 
 was becoming desperate. "Paul says also that 
 'whether there be prophecies they shall fail; 
 whether there be tongues, they shall cease.' That 
 time has come, don't you see?" 
 
 "Have you a Bible, Roger?" Neil asked, and 
 when it was put into his hands he turned to the 
 thirteenth chapter of the first Corinthian epistle 
 and read, " * Whether there be prophecies, they 
 shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall 
 cease ; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish 
 away. For we know in part and we prophesy in 
 part. But when that which is perfect is come, 
 then that which is in part shall be done away.' 
 And in his letter to the Ephesians," he continued, 
 "Paul says plainly that 'He [Christ] gave some, 
 apostles ; and ome, prophets ; and some, pastors 
 and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, for 
 the work of the ministry, for the edifiying of the 
 body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of 
 the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of 
 God, unto the measure of the stature of the full- 
 ness of Christ.' So, you see, these things are to 
 remain in the church until she has reached that 
 
38 A Reasonable Service 
 
 state of perfection when she does not need them 
 any more." 
 
 "That is just what I have been trying to tell 
 you." Mr. Titus was somewhat triumphant. 
 "That is why we do not need them to-day." 
 
 "I'm afraid we are still a long way from per- 
 fection," Neil said, slowly, "and the world was 
 never farther from a unity of faith than to-day, 
 with a Presbyterian church on one corner, a 
 Methodist on another, a Christian, a Catholic, a 
 Baptist in between, while mystic shrines and 
 spiritualistic mediums flourish everywhere in our 
 cities." 
 
 Mr. Titus hastily finished his last bite of 
 strawberry shortcake and rose from the table. 
 
 "You will excuse me for leaving so soon, won't 
 you, Mrs. Randall? I have enjoyed your excel- 
 lent dinner so much I really hadn't noticed how 
 late it is getting. Sometime, when I have more 
 time at my disposal, I should like to finish this 
 interesting argument, Mr. Cameron. If you are 
 going to the social, Miss Halliday, why not give 
 me the pleasure of your company?" 
 
 "Thank you, Mr. Titus, but I'm not planning 
 on going. I had forgotten about it and promised 
 to spend the day here, so I had to turn down 
 Aunt Lillian's invitation this morning." Blythe's 
 
A Religious Argument 39 
 
 cheeks were flushed and her pulses singing, for 
 she scented battle in the glances the two men ex- 
 changed, and somehow her opinion of Neil had 
 risen several degrees in the last half hour. 
 
 "Are you an ex-minister, Mr. Cameron?" she 
 inquired, when they were left alone for a few 
 minutes. 
 
 "Not I!" Neil replied, smiling. "No one 
 ever accused me of that before." 
 
 "Then where did you learn to quote scripture?" 
 she persisted. "Do you study your Bible while 
 you race about in that green runabout looking 
 after the interests of the rural citizens of the 
 county?" 
 
 There was a faint smile on Neil's lips, and his 
 eyes were very tender as he replied, "I had a 
 mother, once." 
 
 Blythe pondered over many things as she 
 walked home across the fields at sunset with Lad- 
 die frisking beside her. The words she had heard 
 quoted from the Book of all books kept repeat- 
 ing themselves in her mind with unceasing force. 
 She had a feeling, vague but inexpressibly sweet, 
 of following again some dim trail of childhood 
 that her feet had stumbled upon after years of 
 wandering. The sun sank behind the horizon 
 and the evening star peeped softly out of the 
 
40 A Reasonable Service 
 
 afterglow. As she lifted her eyes to its pure, 
 white radiance, a prayer, sincere though unut- 
 tered, leaped from the restless, unsatisfied depths 
 of her soul, "Help me, O Father of Light, to 
 find the way that leads to thee!" 
 
A Creature of Circumstance 
 
A Reasonable Service 43 
 
 CHAPTER 3 
 
 A CREATURE OF CIRCUMSTANCE 
 
 r I ^HE summer days passed swiftly for 
 \^ Blythe. She was busy at home helping 
 Hester keep the household machinery run- 
 ning, and with the various activities of the church 
 she attended in Sardis, of which the Reverend 
 Claude Titus was pastor. Her one great gift, a 
 full soprano voice of wonderful sweetness, 
 seemed always in demand, yet she wondered 
 sometimes as she sang if she really were lighten- 
 ing the burden of care on some of the tired faces 
 upturned to hers for they were there, depressed 
 and weary, even in the congregation of Grace 
 Church, the richest and most exclusive in the 
 little city. She felt an inexplainable longing to 
 be of more use in the world just how, she 
 could not tell. Surely this was not the kind of 
 service rendered by the man of Nazareth as he 
 walked the shores of Galilee. Surely there was 
 something to do besides singing Sunday after 
 Sunday to the richly clad occupants of the Grace 
 Church pews. 
 
 She voiced something of this to her uncle one 
 
44 A Reasonable Service 
 
 Sunday, as she stood on the veranda where he 
 sat reading, after her return with Mrs. Blake 
 from church for John Blake seldom attended 
 services at Grace Church. 
 
 "Do you think, Uncle John," she said, as she 
 stood flipping her gloves discontentedly against 
 the veranda rail, "that I'm really useful enough 
 to deserve a place on this old earth?" 
 
 Mr. Blake looked somewhat startled at 
 Blythe's outburst. "Why, I had never thought 
 of it just that way," he answered, peering at her 
 over his glasses, "but I know one place would 
 seem mighty empty without you." 
 
 "Please be serious, uncle," she begged, sitting 
 down on the arm of his chair and rumpling his 
 hair affectionately. "I'm dreadfully out of sorts 
 with myself, lately. Here I am, helping Hester 
 when I feel like it, and going off for a good 
 time whenever I feel like doing that. Why, I 
 even have them filed away ahead of time like 
 business engagements. Bob Weston was home 
 to-day from the city and wanted to arrange at 
 least three theater parties during my intended 
 visit at Jean's. He was real cross when I told 
 him 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' 
 Dear old Bob!" she added, with a little thought- 
 ful smile. 
 
A Creature of Circumstance 45 
 
 "Is that the way you feel about him?" in- 
 quired Mr. Blake, watching her face keenly. 
 
 "Yes, just as I used to feel when we robbed 
 Hester's cooky jar and divided the spoils out 
 under the apple trees. He is just the same, only 
 grown a little bigger." 
 
 "He has a good position in the city now, hasn't 
 he?" John Blake's eyes were still studying the 
 girl's profile. 
 
 "Oh, yes with Grandfather Weston, who in- 
 creases Bob's salary to suit his wants." 
 
 "Are you a cynic, Blythe?" 
 
 "I wonder!" Her voice was tired, and with a 
 sudden gesture he swept her into the shelter of 
 his arms. 
 
 "Honey," he said, gently, "never marry any 
 man unless you respect him for his manhood and 
 true worth, as well as love him, and if you can 
 do that, don't worry too much about his bank ac- 
 count." 
 
 Blythe was silent for a few moments, then re- 
 turned to the subject of her grievance. "And 
 then on Sundays," she went on, with a gesture of 
 disgust, "after every service here comes some 
 one with the senseless flattery that some people 
 seem to think should be dosed out regularly. It 
 affects me just as too much candy did when I 
 
46 A Reasonable Service 
 
 was a youngster. If I could feel that I actually 
 helped some one, instead of merely pleasing the 
 artistic ear I've heard of the ministry of music, 
 but I don't believe that anyone who goes to 
 Grace Church needs it!" 
 
 Mr. Blake took his spectacles off, wiped them, 
 and tried to put them on again upside down, a 
 sure sign he was perturbed. "You keep right on 
 singing at Grace Church, honey," he admonished. 
 1 'I know some who go there, and they've told me 
 they get more good from your singing than any 
 other part of the service and it wasn't any of 
 those who give you regular doses of flattery, 
 either. I wonder ," he hesitated and regarded 
 her thoughtfully. "Be ready right after dinner, 
 and we'll take a little trip this afternoon and 
 have some of your best music along," he con- 
 cluded. 
 
 He was on the porch again when Blythe ap- 
 peared at the appointed time, cool and fresh in 
 blue linen, with a big roll of music under her 
 arm. 
 
 "Not knowing what will be expected of me," 
 she said gayly, "I tried to come well supplied." 
 
 "What have you here?" he asked, turning the 
 pieces over critically. "Better run and get that 
 
A Creature of Circumstance 47 
 
 book of old songs. You won't need much of this 
 new-fangled stuff." 
 
 "All right." Blythe's good humor was un- 
 impaired. "I'll take this, too, though. I want 
 to be prepared for anything." 
 
 "Where are you two going?" inquired Mrs. 
 Blake, languidly, from the depths of a big wicker 
 chair, as the girl disappeared. 
 
 "To the county poor farm." There was a half- 
 smile on her husband's face as he answered. 
 "Want to go along?" 
 
 "Good gracious, no!" was the shocked reply. 
 "What in the world are you going there for? I 
 should think Blythe would be tired enough to 
 stay at home and rest this hot afternoon! She 
 has to be at the services again to-night, too." 
 
 But Mr. Blake just then perceived Blythe re- 
 turning through the hall, and beating a hasty 
 retreat, piloted her out through a side door and 
 into the waiting car. He took the opposite direc- 
 tion from Sardis, and for a dozen miles the 
 "chummy" roadster, which was its driver's spe- 
 cial favorite, glided along while Blythe vainly 
 racked her brain in an effort to guess where they 
 were going, and proudly refrained from asking. 
 
 "Some one in trouble, I suppose," he observed 
 as they spied a small, brewster-green runabout 
 
48 A Reasonable Service 
 
 stalled at the side of the road a short distance 
 ahead. "Why, it is Neil Cameron!'' and he drew 
 up with a friendly inquiry. 
 
 "Yes, sir; I do seem to be in some trouble," 
 Neil admitted, ruefully regarding a damaged 
 tire. "This is my second blowout to-day, and my 
 supply of patches is gone, too." 
 
 "Run the car on to the next house on the rim," 
 advised Mr. Blake. "Then get in and take a spin 
 with us, and we'll hunt a garage and get a new 
 tire before we come back, if you wish. It is only 
 a few miles to the next town. I know the man 
 who lives down the road a few rods, and he'll look 
 after your car until we get back, if he's at home." 
 The farmer proved to be at home, and soon the 
 roadster was purring along the dusty road, Neil 
 in the back seat, in the midst of what seemed to 
 be a miniature horticultural display. 
 
 "Going to the fair, Mr. Blake?" he inquired 
 with a smile. 
 
 "No; just a visit to some friends of mine," was 
 the reply. "I have Blythe guessing; now you do 
 the same. Ever meet the young fellow before 
 who lives back there where you left the car?" he 
 asked, as they bowled along fast enough to fan 
 away the heat of the August sun, yet slow 
 enough so conversation was not difficult. "He 
 
A Creature of Circumstance 49 
 
 went to college with Roger and remembered 
 you." 
 
 "I thought his face and name seemed familiar," 
 Neil replied; "but I could not think where I had 
 seen him. He has a nice little home there." 
 
 "He's renting," Mr. Blake said. "Bought a 
 place of his own a few years ago, made a pay- 
 ment down, and was getting along splendidly. 
 Then last spring he lost nearly all of his hogs, 
 which he had been depending on to sell and raise 
 the money to meet his payments with, and lost 
 them so near the time his interest was due that 
 the banks couldn't help him out on such short 
 notice because of the tightness of the financial 
 situation. Some modern Shylock in the city held 
 the mortgage, who refused to give the boy more 
 time and kicked him out, minus several thousand 
 dollars. He came to me for help, but I had 
 everything tied up, too, just then. He thought 
 pretty seriously of leaving the farm altogether 
 for a while, but one day when I was talking to 
 him he gritted his teeth and said, "I'm going to 
 rent a farm next year, Mr. Blake. I'll show that 
 old thief he can't put me out of business, with all 
 his dirty dollars!" He's making good now, be- 
 cause both he and his plucky little wife have the 
 courage ; but that shows what is going on in busi- 
 
 RS 4 
 
50 A Reasonable Service 
 
 ness every day the survival of the man with the 
 biggest capital back of him, and the crushing of 
 the smaller struggler who is honestly trying to 
 earn a living and a home. It is within the bounds 
 of the law, but not the bonds of brotherhood." 
 
 "Brotherhood is something modern society 
 cares little about in a general sense," Neil said, 
 thoughtfully. "I have had a chance to observe 
 conditions, both in the city and country, and I 
 am convinced that if we had a system in opera- 
 tion of which the brotherhood of man was the 
 underlying principle, a system in which the strug- 
 gling laborer or business man of small means 
 would be given a helping hand instead of a kick, 
 that we should go farther towards solving the 
 labor difficulties of to-day than all the strikes and 
 arbitration committees in the world." 
 
 "Yes, but where would you find anyone in this 
 selfish old world to work out this system enough 
 people to make it practicable? Individual effort 
 is nothing more than charity in many cases- 
 helping the one who is hard up over one tight 
 place, only to do it again when he needs it the 
 next time." 
 
 "It shall be done, I think," Neil answered with 
 conviction. "No one has studied the situation but 
 will admit that the world at large is in a par- 
 
A Creature of Circumstance 51 
 
 oxysm of money-grabbing, of wickedness, and 
 heedless personal liberty and pleasure; yet there 
 are some, I am sure, who still have higher ideals 
 at heart, who work for and dream of the time 
 when there shall be neither want nor misery 
 among the children of men!" 
 
 "You are a dreamer," said John Blake. "I was 
 one myself once. I have developed into a cynic, 
 though a charitable one, I hope, if the combina- 
 tion is not impossible." 
 
 Blythe listened to the conversation with inter- 
 est. It was one of Mrs. Blake's grievances that 
 as a small girl she would leave the chatter of the 
 afternoon club to sit on the sunny doorstep with 
 Uncle John and an unwilling man or two who 
 had, of necessity, come as driver for a carriage 
 load of womenfolk, and listen to them with 
 delight as they discussed the weather or politics. 
 Just now she was debating in her own mind what 
 manner of young man this was. She had met 
 him often during the summer at the informal 
 gatherings of the young people of the neighbor- 
 hood, where he was a frequent guest, and found 
 her liking for him increasing as they became bet- 
 ter acquainted. She had never seen him at church, 
 nor heard him mention religion since the day of 
 Mr. Titus 's rout, and mentally classified him as 
 
52 A Reasonable Service 
 
 one of those who had asked for bread and re- 
 ceived a stone and turned away in disgust. 
 
 She was roused from her reverie by a shifting 
 of the gears as Mr. Blake turned into a side road, 
 climbed a long grade, and drove in through a 
 maple-shaded driveway to a large building set 
 in the middle of a grassy lawn. 
 
 "The county farm! Uncle John, why did you 
 come here?" Blythe asked in surprise. 
 
 "You know what you told me before dinner. 
 I brought you here to sing for these friendless 
 people." 
 
 "But, perhaps they don't want me to!" She 
 was plainly upset at the idea. 
 
 "Wouldn't you, if you were in the poorhouse?" 
 
 Blythe suppressed a shudder and met her un- 
 cle's eyes squarely. "I'll not fail you, Uncle 
 John," she said, "but find out before I commit 
 myself, please." 
 
 A few moments later the three were greeting 
 the inmates of the home, who were gathered on 
 the big porch. 
 
 "This young lady has come to sing for you." 
 The caretaker's wife, who had cordially assured 
 Blythe that her services would be welcomed, ad- 
 dressed her charges. The girl's heart ached as 
 she looked at them most of them old and infirm 
 
A Creature of Circumstance 53 
 
 and bearing evidence of having seen happier 
 days. Some seemed openly delighted at the pros- 
 pect, while others merely scowled. However, they 
 all filed into the living room, as the matron led 
 the way to the piano, for at least this offered a 
 break in the dull monotony of their lives. 
 
 "Do you prefer to play your accompaniments, 
 Miss Halliday?" Neil inquired, as he unstrapped 
 her music case. "I'm not much of a musician, 
 but I used to play for the college glee club when 
 there was no one else around who could." 
 
 "I shall certainly appreciate it," she replied. 
 "I hardly supposed you had time for such things. 
 Now, if any of you have a favorite song in mind," 
 she said, as she faced her audience, "tell me 
 what it is and I'll do my best." 
 
 "Marchin' through Georgy!" shouted a little 
 old man, in a cracked voice, and she sang it 
 through to Neil's rousing accompaniment. But 
 his fingers were gentle on the keys when a sweet- 
 faced, white-haired lady asked for "When the 
 swallows homeward fly." Blythe, glancing at 
 her as she sang, wondered what wave of adversity 
 had cast her here. Her hair, snowy white, waved 
 softly back from a face delicate and refined and 
 evidently beautiful at one time, but now disfig- 
 ured by an ugly scar across the forehead. There 
 
54 A Reasonable Service 
 
 were fine lines of suffering about her mouth, but 
 her gray eyes were full of sympathy and sweet- 
 ness. 
 
 They ran the gamut of the old songs, and 
 when "Old Black Joe" and "Carry me back to 
 Old Virginny" threatened to bring the tears, 
 Blythe swung into "Comin' thru the rye," for 
 her own voice was none too steady at times. The 
 old hymns were not forgotten, and they ended 
 with "Should auld acquaintance be forgot," in 
 which everyone joined, with more zest, perhaps, 
 than harmony. 
 
 During the concert the contents of the car 
 were transferred to a tub of cold water, and soon 
 the whole company was on the lawn exclaiming 
 happily over huge slices of melon. Although 
 Blythe had been the object of distrust at first, 
 she discovered that she had become immensely 
 popular as she went about among them after she 
 had sung her way into their hearts. 
 
 She found herself watching the sweet-faced old 
 lady, who was sitting a little apart from the oth- 
 ers, and presently went over and sat down on 
 the grass at her feet. 
 
 By and by the two slipped away together, 
 and in a few moments Neil's listening ear caught 
 the sound of the piano again. He rose and walked 
 
A Creature of Circumstance 55 
 
 casually away, reaching by a roundabout path a 
 place just outside the open window, where a 
 clump of bushes screened him from both the 
 house and the group on the lawn. Throwing 
 himself on the soft grass, he lay looking up at 
 the amethyst sky while he listened to the music 
 within, where Blythe was playing softly a rhyth- 
 mic barcarolle that flowed under her fingers like 
 quiet water. 
 
 "I can see it all when I close my eyes," her 
 auditor cried, when the notes ceased in a long, 
 softly drawn chord. "The boatman pulling home 
 in the twilight, with the water swishing against 
 the sides of the boat and the white clouds in the 
 west rolling back like gates of pearl. It has been 
 so long since I have heard real music that this is 
 a treat to my soul!" 
 
 "Listen again," Blythe said, "and you will see 
 a butterfly among the flowers in the garden." 
 And she began a light, dancing movement with 
 her right hand while her left swayed the flowers 
 gently like a summer wind. She was doing her 
 best, under the inspiration of a sympathetic lis- 
 tener. Sometimes she played the instrument 
 alone; sometimes she joined her sweet young 
 voice to its tones. At last, evidently in response 
 
56 A Reasonable Service 
 
 to a request, her fingers touched a chord, and a 
 voice, low and tender, but not her own, began: 
 
 "Lead, kindly Light, amid th' encircling gloom, 
 
 Lead Thou me on; 
 
 The night is dark and I am far from home, 
 Lead Thou me on." 
 
 Neil found himself on his feet, his pulses tin- 
 gling. Where had he heard that voice before? 
 Blindly his mind groped back through the years 
 and he saw himself, a tired little boy, lying in 
 his mother's arms, with his curly head nestled on 
 her shoulder, while she sang him to sleep with 
 this same old hymn that was half a prayer. 
 
 He heard the closing of a door, and looking 
 out through the screen of bushes, saw th two go 
 down the steps and back to the group on the 
 lawn, Blythe's arm around the older woman's 
 waist. Strangely white and shaken, he went di- 
 rectly to the car, and Blythe wondered why he 
 was so quiet during the drive home. 
 
 When they were back at the farmhouse, with 
 the new tire in place on the brewster-green runa- 
 bout and Mr. Blake engrossed in conversation 
 with his young friend, Neil came directly to 
 Blythe's side of the car. 
 
A Creature of Circumstance 57 
 
 "I must thank you and your uncle for the 
 afternoon, Miss Halliday, perhaps in more ways 
 than one; but at least I feel that I never should 
 have known you as I do now but for this ex- 
 perience. I was just outside on the grass while 
 you were playing for your friend," he went on, 
 flushing a little, "and I wondered, after listening 
 to you at the keyboard, what you must think of 
 me for offering my services !" 
 
 "I considered it very kind of you," she an- 
 swered, her level gaze on his face, "and I appre- 
 ciate it much more than I do your unbidden pres- 
 ence later on, which you confess so shamelessly!" 
 
 "Don't be too hard on me," he begged. "Isn't 
 the ripple of the water and the wind among the 
 flowers and the music of the song bird Nature's 
 own free music? Then, too, I felt strangely at- 
 tracted to the lady you were entertaining. Do 
 you know her name or history?" 
 
 "She is by far the dearest old lady I ever 
 knew!" Blythe replied, somewhat pacified. "She 
 is a musician herself, and I'm going to send her 
 some of the music she likes and doesn't have 
 there. She told me how she came to be where 
 she is. She was returning home from the bed- 
 side of a sister who had been sick, and a terrible 
 railroad accident occurred. Her head was in- 
 
58 A Reasonable Service 
 
 jured perhaps you noticed the scar and she 
 thinks it must have unbalanced her mind, and 
 she wandered away when no one saw her, for 
 when she came to herself she was miles from 
 where it happened, with a family of poor peo- 
 ple, and ill in bed. They did not know who she 
 was, and for a long time she could not even re- 
 member her own name. Then, when her memory 
 came back and she wrote to her people, she could 
 get no answer. She was not strong enough to 
 work, and she did not wish to impose upon her 
 benefactors any longer, so she left them and 
 went where we found her to-day." 
 
 Blythe, gazing into the distance as she talked, 
 did not notice that Neil had grown very white. 
 "You did not learn her name?" he asked. But 
 Mr. Blake, returning just then, unwittingly in- 
 terrupted with a question, and Blythe had no 
 chance to answer. 
 
 "Well, how did you like my missionary meet- 
 ing?" inquired her uncle, as they drove into the 
 sunset towards home. 
 
 "It was the best I ever attended," Blythe re- 
 plied, "and I believe I learned something of the 
 ministry of music to-day. It makes my heart 
 ache to see those people, though. They should be 
 in homes of their own! Did you notice my lady 
 
A Creature of Circumstance 59 
 
 of the white hair? She isn't happy there! She 
 doesn't belong there!" 
 
 "Very few of them do belong there," replied 
 Mr. Blake. "They are creatures of circum- 
 stances. If you should inquire you would find 
 that most of them came from towns or cities. 
 They have received a living wage all their lives, 
 but not enough more to prepare for old age. 
 Consequently, when they cannot work any longer 
 there is only one thing ahead of them the alms- 
 house." 
 
 They drove on in silence for a while, but as 
 they mounted the crest of a hill, Blythe obeyed 
 a sudden impulse to look behind, and saw the 
 brewster-green runabout turn back over the way 
 they had come. 
 
A Severed Friendship 
 
A Reasonable Service 63 
 
 CHAPTER 4 
 
 A SEVERED FRIENDSHIP 
 
 G3OD afternoon, Jeannie! May I enter the 
 shrine where Genius burns her incense?" 
 The young woman at the easel turned 
 at the sound of Blythe's voice, and, rising 
 quickly, came forward to greet the girl in the 
 doorway. Although there was an eager friend- 
 liness about her movements, there was also a cer- 
 tain dignified grace that went well with the 
 thoughtful expression in her brown eyes and 
 the Madonna-like sweetness of her face. She was 
 somewhat older than Blythe and there was a big- 
 sisterly air in the way she put her arms around 
 the girl and welcomed her in the usual feminine 
 fashion. 
 
 "I was beginning to think you were never com- 
 ing again," she said. "Did the fact that we have 
 joined the church that we have make any differ- 
 ence?" She put the question directly and Blythe 
 answered her in like manner. 
 
 "Not a bit. You have a right to your own 
 way of believing, and if you are satisfied I'm 
 sure I don't see why anyone else should object." 
 
64 A Reasonable Service 
 
 "I can't tell you how glad I am that you feel 
 that way about it, Blythe." Jean's voice broke a 
 little as she spoke. "It has cost us many one- 
 time friendships, but somehow I couldn't bear to 
 lose you, too, dear." 
 
 "No danger. But why aren't you showing me 
 your latest production? I came to be enter- 
 tained." 
 
 "It is ready for criticism, so do your worst," 
 replied Jean with a smile, leading the way to the 
 easel. 
 
 "Why, Jean!" cried the girl, impetuously. 
 "It is simply exquisite! Such blending of colors 
 and that suggestion of haze in the background! 
 You'll be a real artist some day, Jeannie dear; 
 but really you should go out into the country 
 and get reacquainted with it before you attempt 
 to paint country sunsets. Don't you know that 
 a pig in the foreground destroys the peace of the 
 scene for anyone at all acquainted with pigs?" 
 
 "How you do lift me to the stars and then drop 
 me into the depths!" Jean complained, disgust- 
 edly. "That isn't a pig at all it is a red bowl- 
 der!" 
 
 "Paint it out, anyway," advised the unper- 
 turbed Blythe. "No self-respecting farmer 
 
A Severed Friendship 65 
 
 would tolerate a bowlder in his hayfield, even for 
 ornamental purposes." 
 
 "If all critics are as heartless as you, I've no 
 show at all," said Jean with resignation, as she 
 put away paints and brushes. "Come on into the 
 kitchen. You are a better cook than art critic, 
 any day." 
 
 "That is a more useful accomplishment, any- 
 how," Ely the replied, and soon they were busy 
 at the household tasks over which womenfolk 
 love to converse as they work. 
 
 "We are having tent meetings now services 
 every night," Jean remarked, when they were all 
 seated around the dinner table after Ralph's re- 
 turn from work. "I wonder if you would care to 
 go, Blythe." 
 
 "Why, certainly," was the somewhat unex- 
 pected reply, "I'll go if you are going." 
 
 She was sitting idly in the porch swing an hour 
 later, waiting for the others to come out, when a 
 handsome coupe drew up before the house. A 
 young man, well groomed and prosperous look- 
 ing, ran up the steps and stopped with a salute 
 and a mischievous smile on his face at sight of 
 her. 
 
 "Well, fair princess," he said with a bow, "I 
 discovered your retreat, didn't II" 
 RS 5 
 
66 A Reasonable Service 
 
 "How did you know I came?" she demanded. 
 "You saw me in Sardis yesterday, and no one 
 knew I was coming until an hour before I left 
 home." 
 
 "I know your ways," he replied, provokingly. 
 "I haven't picked up your handkerchiefs and car- 
 ried your schoolbooks and made a regular dog 
 of myself for nothing all these years!" 
 
 "And pulled my hair and tipped over my ink 
 bottle and made life miserable at least half the 
 time! You are surely to be pitied, Bob!" 
 
 Yet she knew that she was very fond of him 
 as he sat down beside her and began in his old, 
 coaxing way, "There's a road just out of town 
 that winds along the crest of a ridge, with a val- 
 ley on either side filled with little farms and pur- 
 ple shadows and twinkling lights. There's a car 
 all ready to go, with soft cushions and a chap just 
 aching to take the wheel if he can get the best 
 girl in the world to occupy half the front seat." 
 
 "Where's the pretty stenographer and the 
 blue-eyed heiress and the dusky-haired violin 
 teacher you've been telling me about?" 
 
 "Oh, bother! They're all right when you aren't 
 accessible, but you know they are only substi- 
 tutes. You wouldn't have me wasting my gaso- 
 line on the desert air, would you?" 
 
A Severed Friendship 67 
 
 "Certainly not. But I've promised to go with 
 Jean and Ralph to-night, so I can't go this time." 
 
 "Where, may I ask?" 
 
 "To church at the tent." 
 
 Bob's eyes narrowed a little and the smile left 
 his lips. "Don't fool with those Mormons," he 
 said. "Ralph and Jean are two of the best peo- 
 ple in the world and they hooked them in." 
 
 "You ought to know I'm not easily hooked, 
 Bobby." It was Blythe's turn to tease. "But 
 if they have anything worth hearing, why not 
 hear it? Come with us and listen, too." 
 
 "I won't," Bob said, flatly, standing up to 
 make it more emphatic. "Chuck the whole thing 
 and come on, please," he pleaded, changing his 
 tactics. 
 
 "I'll confess I am curious to hear what they 
 have to offer," she returned, without moving. "If 
 they are such monsters as they are reported to 
 be by some, I want to see them. It would be bet- 
 ter than going to the zoo!" 
 
 "Very well, I'll come when your time isn't so 
 fully occupied," he replied, shortly, as he turned 
 away, and in a moment the car was only a moving 
 gray shadow in the dusk. 
 
 "Where did Bob go?" inquired Jean, coming 
 out just then. "I thought I heard his voice." 
 
68 A Reasonable Service 
 
 "You did/' Blythe assured her, "but I refused 
 to go for a ride, and he went away in a pet. He'll 
 be all right in a day or two." 
 
 "May we have your help in the choir to-night?" 
 Jean asked as they entered the lighted tent, al- 
 ready well filled. 
 
 "Not to-night," was the answer. "Run along 
 and do your duty. I prefer to sit and listen." 
 
 She looked in vain for any signs of Satanic 
 influence among the crowd as she took her seat. 
 "If there are nonmembers here, as Ralph says 
 there are every night," she thought, "the Saints 
 must look very much like them, for I can't tell 
 one from the other." 
 
 Even her well-trained ear did not detect any 
 serious flaws in the music rendered by the choir, 
 and when the speaker arose, a man a little past 
 the prime of life, whose dark hair showed a fine 
 peppering of gray, she gave him her undivided 
 attention. 
 
 Perhaps it was fortunate that he chose to speak 
 that night on the origin of the church he repre- 
 sented, giving a brief sketch of its early history, 
 of the angel's visit to the lad, Joseph Smith, the 
 organization of the church and the persecution it 
 endured, and of the murder of the two Martyrs, 
 Joseph and Hyrum. He told of the subsequent 
 
A Severed Friendship 69 
 
 "dark and cloudy day," when the flock was scat- 
 tered and a band of them were led away to a "salt 
 land" by Brigham Young, where their wicked 
 practices and the evil doctrine of polygamy cast 
 an odium on the name of Latter Day Saint which 
 even the pure living of those left behind, and 
 who eventually formed the Reorganized Church, 
 could not entirely overcome. With the difference 
 between the two churches plainly shown and the 
 vague prejudice she had held removed, Blythe 
 needed no second invitation to the services the 
 following night. 
 
 This time the speaker took for his text the 
 words of the Lord through Jeremiah, "Stand 
 ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, 
 where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye 
 shall find rest for your souls." With convincing 
 reasoning he showed that this gospel of latter 
 days is the same that was given to Adam in the 
 beginning, the same taught by the Carpenter of 
 Nazareth as he walked the shores of Galilee; 
 that, though lost in the darkness of the ages past, 
 was restored to earth for the last time by an 
 angel from heaven; that again the erring chil- 
 dren of earth were given the opportunity to walk 
 in the "old paths" and find rest to their souls. 
 
 She learned, during the nights that followed, 
 
70 A Reasonable Service 
 
 of a God, warm, living, personal, who spoke to 
 his people in all ages, whenever they drew near 
 to him in spirit; who reveals his will in latter 
 days as surely as he spoke to Moses from the 
 burning bush. She felt her heart glow with grat- 
 itude at the all-enveloping love that could reach 
 down through the ages and grant the same 
 blessings as those enjoyed on that Pentecostal 
 day so long ago. And always the feeling pressed 
 upon her of following again a dim trail of child- 
 hood that her feet had stumbled upon after years 
 of wandering. 
 
 As the truth forced itself upon her, however, 
 she fought again that battle, old as the world, of 
 right against wrong that bloodless struggle 
 with the human heart as the battleground. 
 
 As the conviction grew stronger that at last 
 she had found what her soul cried out for, the 
 thought of home and friends crowded in more 
 and more insistently. Well she knew that life- 
 long companions would turn away; that even 
 the woman who had taken the place of mother 
 would give her only a cold disapproval if she 
 linked her fortunes with this despised faith. Of 
 her uncle's attitude she was not so sure, and the 
 uncertainty of it added to the turmoil of soul 
 
A Severed Friendship 71 
 
 she was enduring, hidden beneath her usual gay, 
 careless manner. 
 
 In this state of mind she answered the tele- 
 phone one afternoon when Bob, having re- 
 covered from his ill humor, called for a dinner 
 and theater engagement for the evening. Glad 
 of a chance to get away from the tumult of 
 thought which kept crowding through her mind, 
 she accepted and was swept into an evening of 
 congenial company, of shaded lights on cut glass 
 and china, and later, the soul-stirring music of 
 a famous opera. Bob was quite his usual win- 
 ning self, and Blythe could not help but feel 
 that it was good to get back to the old, luxurious 
 life of pleasure after an uneventful summer on 
 the farm for during college days her uncle's 
 generosity and her own popularity had made 
 good times very much the rule. 
 
 Bob gave her a quick glance of approval 
 not the first one that evening as she sat leaning 
 back in the soft curve of the richly cushioned 
 seat when he drove her home at the close of the 
 evening's enjoyment. 
 
 "You are in a very becoming situation," he 
 remarked. "You haven't decided to make it 
 permanent, have you?" 
 
 "I don't know just how to do it," she replied, 
 
72 A Reasonable Service 
 
 rather flippantly, "unless as a taxicab driver. Do 
 you think I'd make a good one?" 
 
 "You never do take me seriously, Blythe," he 
 said, somewhat sulkily. "You seem to think I'm 
 only the high school kid who told you sentimental 
 mush and got laughed at for his pains. You 
 don't imagine I could possibly be in earnest 
 about anything, do you?" 
 
 "I hope so. You used to build air castles, too, 
 Bob. Have any of your dreams come true? 
 Then, seeing the expression on her companion's 
 face, she added, impulsively, "Let's not spoil the 
 perfectly lovely evening we've had together by 
 quarreling. We ought to be grown up enough 
 to stop that by this time." 
 
 "You have a lecture laid up for me," he in- 
 sisted. "I can see it in your eye. Go ahead and 
 get it off your mind." 
 
 "I haven't lectured you for a long while, have 
 I, Bob? It is ungrateful to do it now, but per- 
 haps it will be good for your soul. What are 
 you doing in the world, anyway? Are you in 
 the bank because you are necessary to the busi- 
 ness, or because you are the grandson of the 
 president? Are you making yourself a necessity 
 or learning new and better ways of doing things 
 in the business world? And why did you stop 
 
A Severed Friendship 73 
 
 studying law? You were doing well, weren't 
 you?" 
 
 "You're a merciless interrogator, Ely the," he 
 answered, rather uneasily. "I stopped law be- 
 cause the future of it was too far ahead. I 
 wanted more immediate results. I'm getting 
 them at the bank." 
 
 "I'm not so sure. Do you think you have 
 mastered the work there well enough to get 
 another position if you were suddenly thrown on 
 your own resources?" 
 
 "I shouldn't starve, at least. Let's talk about 
 something pleasant. What's on for to-morrow?" 
 
 "Going to church morning and evening. I'd 
 rather not arrange anything for the afternoon." 
 
 "Where are you going down to hear the 
 Mormons again?" 
 
 "Yes, if you insist on calling them that." 
 
 "It is my turn to ask questions now. Are 
 you getting interested in what they have to offer ? 
 Do you know what your people would think if 
 they were to know you are going there ? Do you 
 want to be the third or fourth wife of some 
 Mormon preacher?" 
 
 "I am interested, Bob. They preach the 
 Bible. And you are mistaken about their be- 
 ing polygamists I believe you know better. The 
 
74 A Reasonable Service 
 
 church in Utah has practiced it, but you won't 
 find a people on earth with any higher ideals 
 than the Reorganized Church." 
 
 "I don't care to hear about them. They 
 surely have a way of getting people in. Helene 
 was greatly taken up with them once when she 
 was visiting a school friend who belonged, but 
 we soon got the foolish idea out of her head 
 when she came home with Ted Worthington's 
 help." 
 
 "Ted Worthington would soon get the idea 
 of religion out of anyone's head," Blythe re- 
 plied, distastefully. "Helene's foolish if she 
 marries him!" 
 
 "Why? He's well off and a good lawyer with 
 a growing practice. He may be a little gay at 
 times, but he'll get over that. But, seriously, 
 why don't you let me take you to church to-mor- 
 row? Our pastor here is a good one, and now 
 that the old crowd knows you are in town every- 
 body will expect you to be there." 
 
 "Tell them where I am, if they ask. I have 
 promised to sing in the morning." 
 
 "I suppose you are making yourself very use- 
 ful," Bob said, bitterly. "For heaven's sake, 
 Blythe, think what you are doing!" 
 
 "I am thinking, for the first time in my life, 
 
A Severed Friendship 75 
 
 I believe. Could anything induce you to go to 
 the tent some night?" 
 
 "No!" he replied, shortly. "I'm not very keen 
 about religion, anyway. It helps keep one 
 respectable in the eyes of the world to go to 
 some church that's all. The Mormon Church 
 doesn't even do that!" 
 
 Realizing the futility of argument, Blythe 
 said no more, but the careless pleasure of the 
 evening was gone, and again her brain seethed 
 with a tumult of thought. The rest of the ride 
 was finished almost in silence, and when they 
 spoke it was of other things. 
 
 As they turned down the home street she 
 chanced to glance out of the window of the car 
 and saw a small, dust-covered, brewster-green 
 runabout just ahead of them, but before she 
 could glimpse the driver it turned into the yard 
 of a brown bungalow and lost itself in the 
 shadows. 
 
The Parting of the Ways 
 
A Reasonable Service 79 
 
 CHAPTER 5 
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 
 
 THE next morning Blythe was at the un- 
 pretentious but well-kept church where 
 Sunday morning services were held, in 
 company with Jean and Ralph, and in time for 
 the Sunday school session. Only once before she 
 had been one of the young people's class, but 
 she was interested and ready to come again. 
 
 After this was over and the opening song of 
 the church service sung, she took her place be- 
 side the young pianist for the solo she was to 
 sing. It was one she had often sung before and 
 she could not quite explain why she had selected 
 it, but as the accompanist struck the opening 
 chords she felt a strange, sweet thrill sweep over 
 her, and she sang with such a spirit of inspiration 
 as she had never felt before: 
 
 "Last night I lay a-sleeping 
 
 There came a dream so fair, 
 I saw the New Jerusalem 
 
 Beside the temple there. 
 I heard the children singing, 
 
 And ever as they sang, 
 Methought the voice of angels 
 From heaven in answer rang." 
 
80 A Reasonable Service 
 
 Was she sensing more fully the ministry of 
 music, or did the sweet Spirit of the Master 
 rest upon her and thrill through the tones of 
 her voice? She pondered it as she took her seat, 
 the spirit of peace and exaltation still envelop- 
 ing her. 
 
 Glancing over the sea of faces before her, she 
 gave a start of surprise. Near the back of the 
 room sat the white-haired lady of the almshouse, 
 with a clear-eyed, dark-haired young woman on 
 one side and Neil Cameron on the other, adjust- 
 ing a wrap about her shoulders and giving un- 
 mistakable evidence of having a personal inter- 
 est in her welfare. 
 
 Blythe sat vainly trying to unravel the mys- 
 tery until the opening words of the speaker 
 caught her ear: "I shall talk to you a little while 
 this morning on the gathering and the building 
 up of Zion. You are nearly all Latter Day 
 Saints and therefore are, or should be, vitally in- 
 terested in this subject." 
 
 He quoted from the Book of Doctrine and 
 Covenants, showing that the people of the Lord 
 were to be "gathered in unto one place, upon 
 the face of this land, to prepare their hearts and 
 be prepared in all things, against the day when 
 tribulation and desolation are sent forth among 
 
The Parting of the Ways 81 
 
 the wicked." That here Zion, the New Jeru- 
 salem, should be established with love as her 
 corner stone and righteousness and equality 
 among the chief stones of her foundation. Here 
 should be a busy, happy people; none idle, yet 
 none ground down by the treadmill of poverty 
 and unceasing toil. Purity must reign, for not 
 until Zion becomes in reality the "pure in heart" 
 shall she "spread herself and become very glori- 
 ous, very great, and very terrible: and the na- 
 tions of the earth shall honor her and shall say, 
 Surely Zion is the city of our God." 
 
 He was not the speaker who had occupied at 
 the tent the previous weeks, but one holding the 
 office of bishop, and by virtue of his calling and 
 experience he was not an impractical dreamer, 
 but a man of business ability. He emphasized 
 the fact that the law of tithing and consecration 
 must be fulfilled; that Zion can be redeemed only 
 in the appointed way; the observance of the law 
 as laid down by the great Master Builder; that 
 the idler shall have no place there, and the work 
 must be accomplished by the mutual labor and 
 sacrifice of all. 
 
 Listening in wonder, Blythe realized that there 
 were heights in this strange work that her mind 
 
 had not before grasped; that should she, in all 
 RS 6 
 
82 A Reasonable Service 
 
 sincerity, cast her lot with this people, it must 
 be with an utter consecration of time, of talent, 
 of all she possessed. She believed with all her 
 heart and felt with a surge of joy that here was 
 something definite to work for something real 
 and tangible ; yet she thought again of home and 
 friends and sent up a silent prayer for guidance 
 and help that she might not be tried beyond what 
 she was able to bear. 
 
 When she reached the door after services, Neil 
 and his two companions had left the church and 
 she saw him helping them into the runabout. 
 Then he turned, glanced at the outcoming stream 
 of worshipers as if searching for some one, and 
 seeing her, came quickly back. 
 
 "I went out to call on you the day after you 
 left home," he said, as he returned her firm hand- 
 clasp. "May I see you this afternoon? There 
 is a special reason." 
 
 "I know of no reason why you cannot," she 
 returned, smiling. 
 
 "Thank you," he replied, and was gone. 
 
 She was swaying lazily in the porch swing and 
 carrying on a spasmodic conversation with Jean 
 and Ralph between pages of a late magazine 
 when he drove up in the runabout. He and the 
 Randalls were old friends, which fact Ely the 
 
The Parting of the Ways 83 
 
 had discovered, and for a time the talk was 
 general. Then a party of friends came by and 
 stopped to chat a moment, and under cover of 
 the diversion Neil made quick use of his oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 "When we can manage a polite get-away," he 
 said, impulsively, "let's run away to the country. 
 Are you above riding in my little car?" 
 
 "Not at all," she replied, her eyes sparkling 
 at the thought of a ride in the fresh September 
 air. "Jean's class of girls is coming to practice 
 something before long, and Ralph is dying to 
 read this magazine, so we can escape with great 
 ease and grace." This they presently did. 
 
 "Do you know," she said as the car sped along, 
 "this is the first time I've been out in the coun- 
 try since I came. If it were not that I have 
 formed the habit of going to church and dislike 
 to stop, I should have gone home before this to 
 get a breath of fresh air." 
 
 Neil gave her a keen glance, but before there 
 was time for a remark she turned to him and 
 asked pointedly, "Are you a member of the Lat- 
 ter Day Saint Church?" 
 
 "I am," he answered. 
 
 "I have never heard anyone mention it," she 
 said with a smile, "but ever since you sent Mr. 
 
84 A Reasonable Service 
 
 Titus away in such a hurry that day I've half 
 suspected you of some duplicity." 
 
 "And when you saw me in church this morn- 
 ing your worst suspicions were confirmed, I sup- 
 pose," he returned. "Did you recognize my 
 companions?" 
 
 "One of them. I was somewhat out of sorts 
 because you gave me no chance to speak to her." 
 
 "I wanted to explain first it would have been 
 awkward there. She is my mother, and the other 
 my sister, Margaret." 
 
 "But why ' Blythe began, then stopped ab- 
 ruptly. 
 
 "Why was she in the poorhouse? She told 
 you, herself. We searched everywhere but 
 could find no trace, and at last decided she had 
 been killed in the wreck and her body one of 
 those charred beyond recognition in the fire that 
 followed. The shock and worry hastened father's 
 death, and Margaret and I left the place we were 
 living and went away, I to school and she to her 
 hospital training. We had but just moved there 
 when mother went on that ill-fated trip, and I 
 suppose that made it more difficult for her to 
 find us. 
 
 "She knew me that day at the poorhouse, but 
 she knew that I was with friends and so spared 
 
The Parting of the Ways 85 
 
 me the possible humiliation of a public explana- 
 tion. You can imagine some of the strength of 
 character my mother possesses from the self-con- 
 trol she exercised that day," he added with pride. 
 
 "I love your mother," Blythe said, briefly. "Go 
 on, please." 
 
 "When I saw her last her hair was red-gold 
 it is not gray with age now and she did not 
 have that deforming scar across her face, so I 
 did not recognize her; but when she sang 'Lead, 
 kindly light,' I think I knew then. But I wanted 
 to have time to think and find out whether 
 or not you knew anything about her. I think 
 she told you what she did for a purpose my 
 mother is very wise and after you and Mr. 
 Blake were gone I went back. She was waiting 
 for me down by the gate alone, and when I came 
 she put her arms around me and cried as if her 
 heart were breaking but I knew she was shed- 
 ding tears of joy! We came here that night to 
 Margaret, and you can imagine the reunion that 
 followed." 
 
 There were tears in Blythe's eyes as he finished, 
 and she did not speak at once; then she said 
 simply, "I am very glad. I wonder if your 
 mother would care to see me again." 
 
86 A Reasonable Service 
 
 "She wants me to bring you as soon as we 
 get back to town." 
 
 "I shall be glad to go. I wonder," she went 
 on after a pause, "why so much of the bitter 
 comes to some and seemingly none to others. 
 Sometimes I'm almost ashamed that my own life 
 has been so full of sunshine I have hardly had 
 an ungratified wish!" 
 
 "Your time will come, no doubt. Life is sel- 
 dom all smooth sailing sooner or later we strike 
 the breakers." 
 
 "But I don't want to," she insisted. "I am a 
 coward. I don't like to think of meeting diffi- 
 culties and trials. I want my friends to be happy, 
 and most of all, I want to be happy myself. Did 
 you ever hear such a selfish and wholly irre- 
 sponsible statement before?" 
 
 But Neil only smiled. "When they come to 
 you," he said, "you will meet them like the good 
 soldier you are, and when they are over you will 
 be glad they came to you and wonder why you 
 never appreciated real happiness before." 
 
 Then, because the world was young to them, 
 they forgot the serious things of life and en- 
 joyed the drive to the full. 
 
 "I wonder if this is the road Bob described to 
 me," Blythe remarked, suddenly. "It is on top 
 
The Parting of the Ways 87 
 
 of the world, isn't it? And there are little farms 
 and purple shadows on either side. Have I 
 waited two whole weeks in vain for this! Never!" 
 
 "I'm afraid you will have to explain," Neil 
 said, politely. "Is Bob friend or enemy?" 
 
 "He is both," she declared gayly. "He in- 
 vited me to go for a drive one night and I refused 
 for a very good reason. Then he stayed away 
 two whole weeks to punish me and took me to 
 the opera last night as a recompense. Bob's 
 punishments never did me any good, anyhow," 
 she finished, airily. 
 
 "I am more bewildered than ever!" Neil com- 
 plained. "Is he a cousin, or a big brother, or a 
 fiance? He seems to have some claim on you." 
 
 "He is none of the three just a boy I grew 
 up with. We hunted eggs and went nutting and 
 snowballed and coasted and jeopardized our lives 
 several times daily, usually in company with 
 Ralph and Jean and Roger and Marian. His 
 surname is Weston, and he works in the city in 
 his grandfather's bank. He is the son of the fore- 
 most lawyer of Sardis, whom you may have met." 
 
 "I have met them both, I believe, now that 
 you mention it," he replied. It was at the end 
 of his tongue to inquire if she and this Bob Wes- 
 ton intended to follow the example set by the 
 
88 A Reasonable Service 
 
 other four, but he reflected in time that it was 
 none of his business and that Blythe would prob- 
 ably consider the question somewhat imperti- 
 nent. So, instead, 'he offered to gather some of 
 the purple asters and yellow goldenrod that lined 
 the roadside and which she was admiring audibly 
 at that moment. 
 
 She scrutinized him rather closely from the 
 shelter of the runabout as he came back with his 
 arms full of the golden and purple blossoms. He 
 was not so handsome as Bob, she decided, but 
 there was a fine strength about his face which 
 Bob's had never possessed, as he stood with 
 bared head in the sunshine. 
 
 "Some of them need their faces washed," he 
 apologized, as he piled them into her lap. "This 
 roadside dust is very hard on their complexions." 
 
 Then, as the sun was low in the west, they 
 turned their faces towards the city and drove 
 home in the quiet autumn dusk. The breath of 
 evening was still warm and sweet as summer air, 
 and Blythe breathed it gratefully as they slipped 
 past the brown fields and patches of woodland 
 where the trees were already putting on their 
 colored dresses a growing portent of coming 
 change. 
 
 At the brown bungalow that evening she 
 
The Parting of the Ways 89 
 
 found Mrs. Cameron awaiting her coming with 
 a heart-warming welcome. She met Margaret, 
 tall and well-poised, with a soothing calm in the 
 very touch of her firm hands. There was another 
 inmate of the home, a plump, auburn-haired 
 young woman whom Margaret introduced as 
 Elizabeth Wilcox, a public-school nurse of the 
 city. 
 
 "Betty and I were companions in misery at 
 bachelor-girl housekeeping until mother came." 
 she explained. "Now she keeps the home fires 
 burning while we are away at work." 
 
 They went to church in the runabout that 
 evening, Blythe, Margaret, and Neil, Mrs. 
 Cameron being weary and Betty obligingly of- 
 fering to stay with her. The sermon was not 
 destined to set at rest the emotions that had been 
 distressing Blythe the past week, for the speaker 
 took for his text the first and second verses of 
 the twelfth chapter of Romans, "I beseech you 
 therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that 
 ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, 
 acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable 
 service. And be ye not conformed to this world : 
 but be ye transformed by the renewing of your 
 mind, that ye may prove what is that good and 
 acceptable and perfect will of God." 
 
90 A Reasonable Service 
 
 Much of the sermon that followed was lost 
 upon her; the words of the text kept repeating 
 themselves over and over in her mind. Had 
 she rendered unto God a reasonable service? 
 She confessed to herself in shame that her serv- 
 ice had been given to the goddess of worldly 
 pleasure. And there was solemn warning in the 
 words, "Be ye not conformed to this world: but 
 be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, 
 that ye may prove what is that good and ac- 
 ceptable and perfect will of God." Surely her 
 mind had been renewed during these weeks, when 
 the light of inspiration had been turned on the 
 Scriptures ; when words, hitherto not understood, 
 had burned with new meanings, and she had been 
 able to prove to her own satisfaction by these 
 same Scriptures what was "the good and accept- 
 able and perfect will of God." Yet some power 
 held her back, until she was ready to cry out at 
 the pain of the conflict within her. 
 
 When Neil left her at her door after services 
 she went directly to her room, calling a brief 
 good-night to Jean and Ralph as they came up 
 the walk from the street. Long after the house 
 was quiet she sat on the broad window seat look- 
 ing out into the moonlit night. Careless and 
 happy though her life had been, she realized to- 
 
The Parting of the Ways 91 
 
 night that under the surface a current of vague 
 unrest and longing was moving that must some- 
 time burst through and carry her into new and 
 untried waters. 
 
 "Why did I go that first night?" she said to 
 herself with a rush of bitterness. "Why should 
 I leave my church and my associates? Yet, deep 
 in my heart I know this is the true church, 
 in full harmony with the gospel of Christ. 
 But am I strong enough to face the world and be 
 called a Mormon! And my home would it be 
 my home any longer? I know it would not. 
 Would it be ingratitude to those who have given 
 it to me? And yet, to my Maker I owe all my 
 reasonable service!" 
 
 So the struggle went on far into the night. 
 The peace of the outer world seemed to mock 
 the wild tumult in her soul as she fought her 
 battle there alone; but at last she flung herself 
 to her knees in a passion of tears and prayed 
 brokenly for help, and when she arose the victory 
 was won, and a cool breeze or was it the touch 
 of a watching angel's hand came in through 
 the window and soothed her to slumber. 
 
 And as she slept she dreamed. She stood at 
 the parting of the ways, and before her stretched 
 two paths. One, broad, carpeted with roses, and 
 
92 A Reasonable Service 
 
 cool with tempting shadows, turned towards the 
 left, and in the distance she could see a mansion 
 lifting its proud head to the sky ; but as she looked 
 more closely she beheld sinister shapes lurking 
 among the cooling shadows, and sharp thorns 
 and treacherous pitfalls beneath the roses. Then 
 she turned towards the other, straight and nar- 
 row and paved with pearl, whereon was carved 
 the same name as that above the door of the little 
 white chapel she had attended that morning. It 
 was flooded with golden light, and above it 
 glowed the words, "Strait is the gate and narrow 
 is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there 
 be that find it." Far away, at the end of the 
 road, she caught the gleam of a city of gold, and 
 with a song of joy on her lips she set her feet 
 in the narrow way. 
 
An Unchanged Decision 
 
A Reasonable Service 95 
 
 CHAPTER 6 
 
 AN UNCHANGED DECISION 
 
 JOHN BLAKE sat on the sunny porch tak- 
 ing an after-dinner rest and waiting for the 
 first splutter of the noisy little Ford that 
 brought the daily mail. When it came he put 
 his glasses on that he might be able to look it 
 over on the way back, and sauntered leisurely 
 down to the mail box. There were several let- 
 ters; but one square, cream-tinted envelope ad- 
 dressed to him in Blythe's round, girlish hand re- 
 ceived his first attention. He tore it open and 
 read. 
 
 "Dear Uncle and Aunt: 
 
 "I arrived at a momentous conclusion last night 
 and I am writing to-day to tell you about it. I 
 received your letter, Aunt Lillian, reproaching 
 me because I was not at church the day Mr. Titus 
 was in the city, but the fact is, I have been at- 
 tending the services of the Latter Day Saints 
 and have decided to join that church. I know 
 this will have much the same effect as a bomb 
 bursting at your feet, but I have thought about 
 
96 A Reasonable Service 
 
 it yes, and prayed over it and my way is clear 
 at last. Forgive me if this seems ungrateful 
 to you believe me, I have no ingratitude in my 
 heart, and I am, as always, 
 
 "Your affectionate 
 
 "BLYTHE. 
 
 "P. S. Please do not blame Ralph and Jean 
 for this. I have been going because I wished to 
 go, and made up my mind to take this step with- 
 out any outside interference." 
 
 There was another note which Mr. Blake 
 found folded into one of the tiny canoes he had 
 taught her to make years ago. This was evi- 
 dently intended for him alone, for it began: 
 
 "Dear Uncle John : 
 
 "This is private if you wish to keep it so. I 
 know how Aunt Lillian will feel about this I 
 wish I knew you wouldn't care too much. It 
 would be too much to ask for your consent, per- 
 haps, but if you still love me a little and don't 
 think me utterly crazy, I should appreciate 
 knowing it. "Your own 
 
 "BLYTHE." 
 
 When John Blake finished reading the letters 
 he did a strange thing; he climbed two flights of 
 
An Unchanged Decision 97 
 
 stairs to the big attic and poked into dark cor- 
 ners and turned over the miscellaneous articles 
 that such places usually contain until his nose 
 was tipped with dust and his iron-gray hair cov- 
 ered with cobwebs. Finally he found a small 
 walnut trunk, black with age, carried it down, 
 and deposited it between the seats of the "chum- 
 my" roadster, covering it carefully with a robe. 
 
 When his wife drove up in the gray coupe 
 which was her especial property, he was potter- 
 ing about the yard, but he left his work at once 
 and gave her Blythe's letter. Then he stood 
 watching the conflicting emotions of amazement, 
 despair, and anger on her handsome face as she 
 read it through. 
 
 "John Blake, you must not allow her to do 
 this thing!" she cried. "She is insane; hypno- 
 tized by those people! You must go down at 
 once and bring her home ! It must be prevented, 
 some way!" 
 
 "I shall do nothing to prevent it," her hus- 
 band answered, quietly. "She is of age and a 
 free-born citizen with as good a set of brains as 
 anyone I know. She has only come into her own, 
 Lillian, and you know it." 
 
 "I believe you've been an accomplice to this." 
 Mrs. Blake was almost in tears. "You've prob- 
 RS 7 
 
98 A Reasonable Service 
 
 ably known it all along. If you won't go, I will 
 or better yet, I'll have Mr. Titus see her. He 
 is going to the city this afternoon." 
 
 "Titus is apt to come home with his wings 
 singed," returned Mr. Blake, dryly. "She 
 doesn't take much stock in his opinions." 
 
 "Surely she will have some respect for the 
 cloth, at least. John, I'm simply wild about 
 this," and she retired hastily to the house and the 
 telephone. Then her husband got out the big 
 roadster and drove calmly into Sardis. 
 
 Meanwhile Blythe was having her own per- 
 plexities. She realized that she had made a fatal 
 step so far as her home life was concerned, al- 
 though her mind was calm and untroubled after 
 the assurance that had come to her the night be- 
 fore. She posted the letter to her uncle early 
 in the morning and came back just as the rest of 
 the family were sitting down at the breakfast 
 table. 
 
 "Do you know of any position open to a book- 
 keeper or stenographer, Ralph?" she asked as she 
 unfolded her napkin. 
 
 Ralph looked somewhat surprised. "Are you 
 thinking of launching yourself upon a business 
 career, fair cousin?" he inquired with a smile. 
 
 "It is likely to be necessary," she replied. "I 
 
An Unchanged Decision 99 
 
 expect to be baptized very shortly and I don't 
 intend to afflict you and Jean as a guest the rest 
 of my life." 
 
 "Forgive me for teasing, Blythe." Ralph had 
 grown suddenly grave. "I am very glad to hear 
 what you have told us, but I know, too, what it 
 will mean to you. I suppose this will be laid to 
 our charge, Jean," he added, looking across the 
 table at his wife. 
 
 But her brown eyes were quite untroubled. 
 "We have had enough laid to our charge that a 
 little more doesn't matter," she said, "and our 
 home is yours, Blythe, as long as you wish to 
 stay." 
 
 "I wish to work," replied Blythe with decision. 
 "I thank you, Jean you know I'd rather stay 
 here than anywhere else, but I'm going to pay 
 my way if I do. I am glad Uncle John insisted 
 on giving me an education to work with," she 
 added. "If you don't know of any vacancy, 
 Ralph, I shall start out to-day to find a place." 
 
 "My assistant bookkeeper expects to leave for 
 California before cold weather," he answered; 
 "perhaps in a week or two. I wonder if you 
 would care to work at the factory." 
 
 "To be sure," she said. "It would be much 
 
100 A Reasonable Service 
 
 pleasanter working with you than a stranger. It 
 seems almost too good to be true!" 
 
 "Of course Mr. Aldrich does the hiring," he 
 interposed, "though my opinion goes a long way 
 with him. But there has been some trouble with 
 the employees there and sometimes a strike is 
 serious. I shouldn't like you to run into danger, 
 Blythe." He hesitated a moment, then as she 
 seemed about to speak, continued, "Come out to 
 the factory with me this morning and get your 
 application in if you feel that you want the place. 
 Perhaps you can tell more about it when you see 
 Mr. Aldrich and look things over." 
 
 So she finished her breakfast hastily and they 
 set out together. The large implement factory 
 where Ralph was bookkeeper stood far out, near 
 the edge of the city. It did not look particularly 
 prepossessing that first morning as they stepped 
 from the street car a miscellaneous collection of 
 structures, belching out clouds of smoke, while 
 the shriek and roar of a switching freight train 
 on the track near by added to the confusion. 
 
 "I feel a little nervous," Blythe confessed, as 
 they walked the short distance from the car line 
 to the main building. "If this sort of an inter- 
 view affects me, what must it be to a girl who 
 
An Unchanged Decision 101 
 
 is back a week on her rent and has the soles worn 
 off her shoes!" 
 
 Ralph glanced at her quickly, but she was not 
 jesting. She was looking instead at an over- 
 dressed slip of a girl across the street, whose 
 complexion was unnaturally pale, whose cheeks 
 were brilliantly rouged, whose dark eyes were 
 darker still under their blackened lashes. 
 
 "That is Fannie Evans, a local character," he 
 explained, following her glance. "She isn't the 
 kind you would care to know, Blythe." 
 
 Blythe's face was troubled. She had seen too 
 little of the seamy side of life to be untouched 
 by sin and poverty. On the corner a blind man 
 stood begging, and she dropped a coin into the 
 tin cup he held and met Ralph's smile with a half 
 defiant look. 
 
 "How do you know he isn't poor, with a wife 
 and family dependent?" she demanded. "His 
 card says so." 
 
 "He lives down the street a little way," was 
 the reply, "in a house quite as comfortable as 
 ours, and his wife wears twenty-dollar georgette 
 waists. I saw her buy one." 
 
 "How can you tell how to give?" asked the 
 girl, somewhat despairingly. "Surely all beg- 
 
102 A Reasonable Service 
 
 gars don't live in modern houses and buy twenty- 
 dollar waists for their wives!" 
 
 "They do not." Ralph's face was grave now. 
 "You must either give indiscriminately or not 
 give at all. The first is hard on your pocketbook ; 
 the second is hard on your heart." 
 
 There was no more time for moralizing, how- 
 ever, for the factory door was before them and 
 Ralph led the way up the stairs to his own special 
 sanctum. It was above some of the noise and 
 there was a glimpse of the river and green trees 
 far away, as Blythe noted through the window; 
 but most of the view was shut out by a tall ware- 
 house just across the street, beyond which was a 
 huddled group of dilapidated houses, the homes 
 of the less prosperous of the factory workers. 
 
 "Well, how do you like the prospect?" Ralph, 
 who had been furtively watching her as he ar- 
 ranged his work for the day, broke the silence. 
 
 "It might be more pleasing," she admitted, 
 "but I won't beat a retreat now." 
 
 When Mr. Aldrich, a brisk, middle-aged man 
 appeared, she stated her errand as soon as they 
 were introduced. 
 
 "Have you had any experience?" he asked, 
 looking at her sharply from behind his horn- 
 rimmed spectacles. 
 
An Unchanged Decision 103 
 
 "No office experience." She felt rather small 
 and inadequate as she answered. "I understand 
 bookkeeping though and am fairly -rapid at ste- 
 nography and typewriting. I can also spell most 
 of the everyday words of the English language 
 and punctuate my sentences," she added with a 
 smile. 
 
 Mr. Aldrich returned her smile, and she dis- 
 covered that his keen eyes could twinkle kindly 
 behind his spectacles, but he only said as he hur- 
 ried away, "Mr. Randall will file your applica- 
 tion and it will be considered along with the 
 others." 
 
 She was a victim of mixed feelings as she left 
 the factory and boarded a home-bound car. She 
 abhorred street cars, and the thought of riding 
 to and from her work day after day gave her a 
 sense of aversion. But the morning was freshly 
 beautiful and her spirits rose again during the 
 walk home from the car line. She stopped to 
 watch two or three squirrels frisking among the 
 fallen leaves and smile at several happy babies 
 in neighboring dooryards. Then a familiar voice 
 hailed her, and turning, she saw her old pastor 
 hurrying to overtake her. 
 
 "Why, Mr. Reid," she said, delightedly, "I 
 didn't know you were in the city." 
 
104 A Reasonable Service 
 
 "I exchanged pulpits with the pastor here 
 yesterday," he explained. "I did not see you at 
 church." 
 
 "I wasn't there," was the reply. Then she 
 added, a little uncomfortably, "I suppose you 
 have been hearing all about my apostasy." 
 
 "Yes, from Bob Weston. He seemed honestly 
 troubled over it and wished me to see you." 
 
 "That was very kind of Bob," she said, ironi- 
 cally. Somehow she felt rather nettled that Bob 
 should have had a hand in this. 
 
 "Mr. Reid," she continued, "do you know 
 anything against the Latter Day Saint Church? 
 Honestly, now? If you do, I wish to know it." 
 
 "I do not," he answered, frankly. "I have 
 known many of the members of the church and 
 have a high opinion of them. They are honest, 
 clean, and law-abiding, of course with some ex- 
 ceptions. Their doctrine seems strange in many 
 ways, but they have more of the actual Scriptures 
 in their belief than any other church I know of." 
 
 "It seems to me," she said with a smile, "that 
 Bob has sent rather a poor missionary to reclaim 
 the lost sinner. If you think they have more of 
 the Scriptures than other churches, why aren't 
 you one of them?" 
 
 "You were always hard to manage, Blythe," 
 
An Unchanged Decision 105 
 
 he replied, returning her smile. "It may seem 
 rather a strange thing for a clergyman to say, 
 but religion is something like patent medicine. 
 You have to change the formula as often as you 
 find you need some other ingredient to make it 
 more effective." 
 
 "I see your meaning," she answered. "You 
 think these people have merely adapted more of 
 the Scriptures than other churches; that it will 
 be only a question of time until the rest of the 
 churches catch up, so to speak." 
 
 "You are putting it very plainly, Blythe, but 
 that is really what I mean. What difference does 
 the mode of baptism make, for instance, or some 
 of the other principles they insist on? Why run 
 the risk of severing your friendships and your 
 family relations by uniting with this church when 
 you can believe all the Bible you wish and still 
 retain your old membership?" 
 
 "Because I refuse to belong to a church that 
 either teaches in opposition to the Bible or ig- 
 nores some parts of it completely," she said, 
 warmly. "Because I believe that this church is 
 the only true one. Its very existence depends on 
 the principles written down in the Scriptures. 
 It is patterned after the church in Christ's time. 
 Therefore, if the mode of baptism was by immer- 
 
106 A Reasonable Service 
 
 sion in Christ's time, as the Bible so plainly 
 shows, why do it some other way now?" 
 
 "You are too far gone to reclaim, I'm afraid," 
 he told her in mock despair. But he listened as 
 they walked down the street together while she 
 told him something of her new belief, of her 
 doubt and indecision of the night before, and the 
 dream that followed it. 
 
 "I see your mind is made up, Blythe," he said 
 as they parted, for the train on which he was to 
 leave the city was almost due. "I am not one to 
 tell you that you are absolutely wrong. That is 
 a matter which must be between you and your 
 God. If you are sure you are right, go ahead. 
 My blessing goes with you, my dear child." 
 
 She saw that her defense had moved him, and 
 with sudden convicton she turned to him and 
 said, "The time is coming, Mr. Reid, when your 
 church will fail to satisfy you, also." 
 
 She was alone in the house that afternoon, 
 Jean being away on an errand, when the tele- 
 phone rang and she found herself coupled with 
 Sardis. She waited in some trepidation until she 
 heard Mr. Blake's voice on the wire. 
 
 "Hello," he said. "Am I talking to Blythe?" 
 
 "Yes, Uncle John." 
 
An Unchanged Decision 107 
 
 "All right. When are you going to be bap- 
 tized?" 
 
 "Why the arrangements are made for to- 
 night," she replied, somewhat disconcerted at the 
 unexpected inquiry. 
 
 "If you care to wait until to-morrow night per- 
 haps I can be there," he said, and Blythe gasped. 
 
 "Uncle John," she demanded, "how do you 
 feel about it, anyway?" 
 
 She heard him chuckle softly. "I'm talking 
 from the central office in town," he said, "so I 
 can be quite honest about telling you. I have 
 been expecting it for a matter of fifteen years, so 
 I'm not greatly surprised. I'll be down to-mor- 
 row afternoon," he went on. "If you care to 
 wait, all right. But be prepared for an advance 
 from the enemy's quarter in an hour or two. 
 Good-by." 
 
 She was still seeking an explanation of this 
 amazing conversation when the doorbell rang 
 and she answered it to find herself face to face 
 with the Reverend Claude Titus. 
 
 "Good afternoon, Miss Halliday," he said. "If 
 you have a few moments' leisure I should like 
 to talk to you." 
 
 "Certainly." Blythe knew at once why he had 
 come, as she led the way into the living room. 
 
108 A Reasonable Service 
 
 SI*lfP 
 
 "I just arrived in town and came here at once," 
 
 he continued. "Your aunt called me up just be- 
 fore I left and told me you were thinking of join- 
 ing the Mormons!" The gesture with which 
 Mr. Titus delivered the words expressed un- 
 speakable things. "Knowing, of course, that you 
 do not know the depth of their iniquity, I came 
 to warn you before it is too late before you are 
 drawn in and down beyond all reclamation!" 
 
 "Mr. Titus," Blythe said, quietly, looking him 
 squarely in the eye, "if you do not know that 
 there is a decided difference between the Reor- 
 ganized Church, the one I contemplate uniting 
 with, and the people of Utah, you are an ex- 
 tremely ignorant minister!" 
 
 Mr. Titus's appearance expressed mingled 
 surprise and horror. "Have you become so en- 
 meshed in their toils," he exclaimed, "that you 
 no longer give any credence to the opinion of a 
 minister of the gospel? Your aunt is ready and 
 willing to forgive all if you will come home at 
 once and forget these things; but if you should 
 ally yourself with these people she intimated 
 that her doors would be forever closed against 
 you!" 
 
 "I have expected as much," was the calm reply, 
 "and my decision is unchanged." 
 
An Unchanged Decision 109 
 
 Seeing no signs of repentance, the minister 
 rose with dignity. "I am very sorry to have such 
 disheartening word to take to your aunt and all 
 your anxious friends in Sardis," he said. "You 
 will find doors closed against you that have al- 
 ways opened wide. You will meet people on the 
 street who will turn away lest they be seen speak- 
 ing to you. You will " 
 
 "Stop!" Blythe was speaking now, and sternly, 
 too. "Since I have been in the city, Mr. Titus, 
 I have been hearing, quite accidentally, a little 
 of your history. A friend of Mrs. Randall lived 
 in the city called Macedonia, where you posed as 
 a minister of the gospel and where you did things 
 so unbecoming to a minister that you were forced 
 to leave. If I cared to start an inquisition, de- 
 cent people would refuse to speak to you on the 
 streets of Sardis, and the town would soon be 
 made too hot a place for your continued resi- 
 dence!' 
 
 The face of Mr. Titus turned somewhat gray. 
 "You cannot prove it!" he cried, but there was a 
 hint of fear in his voice. "When you have noth- 
 ing more to say in defense you start in bemean- 
 ing your would-be friends and rescuers. I shall 
 leave you to your fate you are past all redemp- 
 tion!" 
 
110 A Reasonable Service 
 
 The stern lines of Blythe's face were relaxed 
 into a half smile as she closed the door behind 
 him. "Why have I so suddenly become the ob- 
 ject of such tender care?" she mused. "If friends 
 and emissaries can accomplish it I shall surely 
 be turned from my purpose! But how thankful 
 I am that Uncle John is left to me. I can't un- 
 derstand him, at all!" 
 
 The next afternoon, true to his word, he ap- 
 peared in the "chummy" roadster with the small 
 black trunk still tucked in between the seats. 
 
 "Open it, Blythe," he said, as he set it on the 
 floor of the hall and handed her a small brass 
 key. With a strange sensation she turned the 
 key and lifted the lid. There seemed to be only 
 papers, old church magazines, most of them, but 
 as she lifted them out she found many books 
 underneath, with either her father's name or her 
 mother's written on the flyleaves. 
 
 "All the books of the church," she said, turn- 
 ing over the leaves of an old Book of Mormon. 
 "Please explain, uncle. Where did you get this? 
 Do you mean to tell me that my parents were 
 Latter Day Saints?" 
 
 "Your father was a minister of the gospel," 
 Mr. Blake replied, "and your mother the best 
 Latter Day Saint I ever knew. When they died 
 
An Unchanged Decision 111 
 
 your aunt took you into our home only on condi- 
 tion that you should know nothing of their belief. 
 I was almost converted to it myself, so I did not 
 agree willingly; but I wanted you with all my 
 soul, and there was no other place for you to go, 
 so what could I do? When your letter came I 
 knew the prayers of your mother were being an- 
 swered and I was glad. Then I hunted this 
 up I thought perhaps it had been destroyed, 
 but I found it in a dark corner of the attic and 
 brought it down, for I knew you would be glad 
 to get it. There are other things in it you will 
 treasure, old letters written by your father and 
 mother, and photographs of them, and things 
 they loved. You will want to leave it here with 
 Jean, perhaps, for safe-keeping." 
 
 "Mr. Titus was here yesterday," Blythe said 
 rather irrelevantly, and told her uncle of his 
 visit. 
 
 "Your aunt was quite beside herself when he 
 came back with his report which did not include 
 quite all you have told me. I happened to be in 
 the next room when he called to tell her about 
 it. She told me after he left that you could never 
 set foot inside the door again; and I promised to 
 break up the next missionary meeting and throw 
 
112 A Reasonable Service 
 
 Titus bodily out of doors at the first opportunity 
 if she persisted in her determination." 
 
 "Uncle John; you didn't!" she cried, between 
 laughter and tears. 
 
 "Yes, I did," he said, with rather a shame- 
 faced smile. "I got rather vehement, I'm afraid. 
 But as Lillian dreads a scene above all things, she 
 gave up, and I came down to take you home." 
 
 "But don't you see I can't go, Uncle John? 
 Knowing she feels as she does I would never go 
 and run the risk of making the whole household 
 miserable. Jean and Ralph want me to stay here 
 and I mean to work I have my application in 
 now as Ralph's assistant." 
 
 So, although he was disappointed, Mr. Blake 
 agreed with Blythe that perhaps it was best for 
 her to remain where she was. 
 
 "Did you wait for me to come, honey?" he 
 asked, looking down at her where she still sat on 
 the floor before the little trunk. 
 
 "Yes," she replied, "and I am so glad I did! 
 It will seem like a joyful home-coming, now that 
 you have told me what you have. I know now 
 why it has all seemed so strangely familiar to 
 me I had not entirely forgotten the things I 
 learned as a little child." 
 
 So she entered the water with a firm step at 
 
An Unchanged Decision 113 
 
 the font of the little chapel that night, and John 
 Blake stood watching with a dimness before his 
 eyes and an old urge in his heart which grew 
 stronger as he listened to the closing words of 
 her confirmation at the service a little later, 
 "Thou art indeed recognized as a child of God, 
 and with Israel thou shalt find thine inheritance. 
 And thou shalt be a chosen vessel in the work of 
 the redemption of Zion and the building up of 
 the New Jerusalem, the city of our God." 
 
 RS 8 
 
A View of Commercial Life 
 
A Reasonable Service 117 
 
 CHAPTER 7 
 
 A VIEW OF COMMERCIAL LIFE 
 
 BLYTHE awoke next morning at the first 
 glimmer of dawn and lay in the delicious 
 peace of awaking day, thinking over the 
 events of the past weeks. She was still possessed 
 with a feeling of exaltation, the afterglow of the 
 good Spirit which had bathed her soul at her con- 
 firmation the evening before, a feeling that pos- 
 sessed her for many days. It was well, perhaps, 
 for the sun had not set upon her first day of the 
 new life until she needed all the strength that 
 was in her. 
 
 "I am going home with you after all, Uncle 
 John," she announced at the breakfast table. 
 "There are a number of things at home that I 
 shall need, so I'll go with you and come back on 
 the evening train." 
 
 Before they left, however, she was called to the 
 telephone, and Bob Weston's voice spoke. 
 "Where in the world have you been, Blythe?" he 
 demanded. "I called for you all Sunday after- 
 noon and evening at Jean's and at all your old 
 haunts, and nobody knew where you were !" 
 
118 A Reasonable Service 
 
 "I was visiting friends," she replied rather 
 coldly. She resented Bob's possessive tone some- 
 what. "I have been here most of the time since." 
 
 "Well, I called to see if you would go to the 
 Worthingtons to-night. Daisy saw me to-day 
 and told me to be sure to bring you. Swell hop, 
 you know. Did you get the invitation she sent 
 you?" 
 
 "Not yet," she replied; "perhaps it will come 
 to-day. But I'm going home with Uncle John 
 this morning." 
 
 "Oh, put it off a day. Helene is down and 
 intends to visit you and Jean. You can go home 
 together then in a day or two." 
 
 "But I'm coming back to-night," she was 
 forced to acjmit. "I'm going home to pack up." 
 
 "To pack up! What in thunder is the rum- 
 pus? Blythe, you haven't joined that church 
 and broken with your family, have you?" 
 
 "I have joined the church, yes." 
 
 "And now you have to leave home!" Bob 
 seemed to be trying to swallow his wrath. "What 
 are you going to do now work in a ten-cent 
 store?" 
 
 But the receiver had clicked, and it took long 
 and persistent ringing to bring Blythe back 
 again. 
 
Commercial Lafe 119 
 
 "I say, Blythe," he pleaded, "come anyway, 
 to-night. No one needs to know you've turned 
 Mormon for a while, at least. We'll have one 
 more good time together, anyway." 
 
 "No; I've reformed." 
 
 "You don't mean to say you've quit dancing!" 
 
 "Yes. I've decided it isn't worth while." 
 
 "Well, I'll be hanged! You always have. Is 
 your new church any better than the old one?" 
 
 "If I didn't think so, I should never have 
 changed." 
 
 Bob was silent a moment, and when he spoke 
 again his voice was like ice. "Then I shall be 
 compelled to tell them all why you aren't there 
 to-night. I warn you, you won't be the popular 
 Miss Halliday you have always been very long, 
 at this rate." Then he changed his tactics again. 
 "I shall meet you at the train to-night. No, you 
 needn't expostulate. I'll be there, and you had 
 better be prepared to go, for I'll take you any- 
 way." 
 
 Blythe turned away, weary and heartsick for 
 the moment. She knew her home-going would 
 be an ordeal, and she wondered if she would still 
 be strong enough to answer no when Bob should 
 meet her at the train that evening. 
 
 Mrs. Blake was away when they reached home, 
 
120 A Reasonable Service 
 
 however, and she drew a breath of relief. Hes- 
 ter's welcome was quite as warm as ever, and she 
 left her preserving kettle to look out for itself 
 while she hovered around Blythe and helped with 
 the packing. Mr. Blake came upstairs as they 
 were finishing and helped move the big trunk 
 which, with two bags, contained most of Blythe's 
 worldly goods. Then he closed the door of her 
 room, locked it, and put the key in his pocket. 
 
 "It's here when you want it again, honey," he 
 said, rather brokenly. 
 
 Blythe wondered if it were chance that, as they 
 were driving out into the road, a brewster-green 
 runabout should appear suddenly in a cloud of 
 dust and stop with a howling of brakes to let 
 Neil Cameron out. 
 
 "I didn't know you were home, Miss Halli- 
 day," he said, evidently quite well pleased to have 
 made the discovery. 
 
 "I am going back on the five o'clock train," 
 she answered, and he gave her a quick glance and 
 asked no questions. 
 
 "I intend to drive to the city this evening," he 
 informed her. "Would you care to go in the 
 runabout?" 
 
 Would she care to go? Here was deliverance 
 at the eleventh hour! But her reply was politely 
 
Commercial Life 121 
 
 reserved, although she accepted with inward 
 gratitude. 
 
 On the way she told him briefly of the occur- 
 rences of the past few days. "Only three days 
 ago," she said, "I told you I wished my friends 
 to be happy and myself as well ; and then I vol- 
 untarily plunged myself into ostracism and my 
 friends into despair." 
 
 "I think you are very brave," he answered, 
 sincerely: "the more so, because you knew just 
 what would happen if you did it." 
 
 They rounded a curve just then, and in the 
 distance the city appeared, gray and mysterious 
 in the twilight, a dream city of the dusk, with all 
 its misery and sin and squalor veiled by the sof- 
 tening mantle of charity; and watching it, Blythe 
 wondered how long the iron hands of time and 
 circumstance would hold her there, away from 
 the country home she loved. 
 
 The next afternoon she received a visit from 
 Helene Weston, Bob's sister. 
 
 "Bob was awfully put out last night," she said 
 during the course of conversation. "He went to 
 the station to meet you, and when you weren't 
 there he telephoned Daisy he couldn't come on 
 account of a business engagement fancy a busi- 
 
122 A Reasonable Service 
 
 ness engagement that could keep Bob away from 
 a good time!" 
 
 "He takes altogether too much for granted," 
 Blythe replied, decidedly. "I told him I wouldn't 
 go, and it really serves him right that a chance 
 came along and I came down in a car. I shall 
 not apologize." 
 
 Helene wisely decided it was time to change 
 the subject and did so. "Are you still having 
 meetings at the tent?" she inquired. "I have been 
 hearing about them." 
 
 "Yes, all this week, but no longer, I think." 
 Jean, who had stepped into the next room, heard 
 and answered. "Stay all night, Helene, and go 
 with us this evening." Which invitation was 
 somewhat unexpectedly accepted. 
 
 Blythe observed that Helene gave the speaker 
 strict attention during the sermon that night and 
 that she seemed to be thinking deeply as they 
 walked home together after the service; but not 
 until they were alone in Blythe's room, which she 
 shared for the night, did she speak of what 
 seemed to be troubling her. 
 
 "Blythe," she said, "I am as much a Latter 
 Day Saint at heart as you are. I learned all 
 about their belief last summer when I was visit- 
 ing a school friend. Then father found out about 
 
Commercial Life 128 
 
 it and sent for me, and you know the rest. I'm 
 engaged to Ted, and it would mean giving 
 everything up if I should join them now. What 
 shall I do what can I do?" 
 
 "There is only one thing to do," Blythe said, 
 "and no one but you can do it. Ask God to 
 give you strength to take the right way as you 
 see it and stick to it." 
 
 "But can't you see what it would mean?" 
 Helene paced up and down the room in her agi- 
 tation. "It would mean not only giving up my 
 family and home, but Ted, too. He would never 
 consent for his wife to belong to an unpopular 
 church like this and I love Ted!" 
 
 "And yet," Blythe reminded her gently, 
 "what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the 
 whole world and lose his own soul?" 
 
 "I know," Helene answered, "but I can't think 
 to-night. Perhaps in the morning I shall know 
 better what to do." 
 
 When morning came, however, she had reached 
 no decision save that she was going home. "I 
 must have more time to think it over," she in- 
 sisted. But well Blythe knew what the result 
 would be under the influences of her home and 
 friends, and she was not surprised a few months 
 later to read in the local paper of Sardis of "one 
 
124 A Reasonable Service 
 
 of the most brilliant social functions of the sea- 
 son, the marriage of Miss Helene Weston and 
 Theodore Worthington, a successful young law- 
 yer of the city." 
 
 One morning, a day or two after Helene's 
 visit, Ralph called her after reaching the factory. 
 "Miss Emerson is ill to-day," he said. "Can you 
 come out and help?" 
 
 "Of course," she replied. "I'll be glad to have 
 something to do." 
 
 In a short time she was at the office and busy 
 at work. So engrossed did she become that she 
 quite forgot the view from the window, and the 
 street and factory noises. 
 
 "You're all right," Ralph told her that night 
 as they went home. "If I have any influence 
 with Mr. Aldrich you'll get the place." 
 
 As a matter of fact she did get it and went to 
 work the next week. And although she some- 
 times grew weary and disheartened, for the most 
 part she was happy and contented. She was glad 
 to find that Margaret Cameron was the factory 
 nurse, and a warm friendship sprang up between 
 the two girls. Often Blythe went along when 
 Margaret received a call after office hours, for 
 she was learning to both love and pity the factory 
 people, and many a gift of fruit and flowers, or 
 
 
Commercial Life 125 
 
 something more substantial, found its way to 
 Margaret's patients. It taxed Blythe's income 
 sometimes, and she was learning for the first time 
 in her life the real worth of money. Her uncle 
 had sent her a generous check after her return 
 from home, but after tithing it she thriftily 
 banked it as an emergency fund and set to work 
 to make her salary cover expenses, with the re- 
 sult that very often the money she had put away 
 for some little luxury of her own went to the fruit 
 vender or the groceryman. 
 
 "I wish I knew how to ease pain as you do," 
 she said rather enviously to Margaret one eve- 
 ning, as she stood watching the latter bandage 
 the burned limbs of a child and saw the look of 
 pain grow less on the little face as the soothing 
 ointment was applied. 
 
 "You are learning," was the reply, "and really, 
 it does not matter so much what we do if we do 
 it well you in your corner and I in mine." 
 
 Blythe smiled at the words of the old song she 
 had almost forgotten. Then she grew grave 
 again, as she looked around the bare little room 
 with its broken windows and unplastered walls 
 and into the strip of grassless yard beyond. 
 
 "Margaret," she said as they went home to- 
 gether on the street car, "the men are on the 
 
126 A Reasonable Service 
 
 verge of a strike at the factory. They want more 
 wages, which the company can hardly afford to 
 grant, considering the returns that are coming in 
 now. I know, having access to the books. But 
 I know another thing that if those people had 
 pleasant, comfortable homes to live in and a little 
 more opportunity to feed their souls they 
 wouldn't be so full of seething unrest. The com- 
 pany owns all of those shanties back of the ware- 
 house, and if the owners would invest a few thou- 
 sands in repairing and making them habitable 
 but they won't. Ralph broached the subject to 
 Mr. Aldrich, and though he sympathizes with 
 the idea, the owners do not he has tried to get 
 them to see it, himself." 
 
 "I know," Margaret replied, thoughtfully. 
 "The owners think they are doing their full duty 
 to the employees by hiring a nurse to look after 
 them, but so many of the accidents and illnesses 
 are caused by ignorance and lack of sanitation 
 that sometimes I get almost discouraged and 
 think there is no use in trying. It is much like 
 healing a sore in one place only to have it break 
 out in another." 
 
 "You are a veritable angel of mercy," Blythe 
 cried, warmly. "But I wish I could do some- 
 thing. It will only increase the misery if a strike 
 
Commercial Life 127 
 
 is called, but one can hardly blame them, with 
 winter coming on and the cold winds blowing 
 away the heat through the cracks as fast as they 
 pile the hard-earned fuel in. If they could only 
 realize what they really need, instead of the per- 
 petual cry of more wages." 
 
 "The question of more wages is a problem, 
 nevertheless," Margaret said. "I know families 
 that can hardly exist on what the father earns 
 large families of six or more. The children go to 
 work as fast as they are old enough, denied the 
 heritage a free-born American child has a right 
 to, a childhood and an education." 
 
 "I see," Blythe replied. "The man with a fam- 
 ily of eight receives the same as the one with no 
 family at all. That really seems only fair, for 
 one man's work should be as valuable as anoth- 
 er's. One trouble is, the man with a family 
 failed to look ahead and save up a little, and the 
 one with none is making the same mistake to- 
 day. In fact, I don't suppose there is much to 
 save," she added, thinking of how her own salary 
 had dwindled away since last pay day. 
 
 She sat silent for a while, looking out of the 
 car window. It was one of those dreary autumn 
 nights with a wet mist falling so thickly that even 
 the street lights looked damp and cheerless. 
 
128 A Reasonable Service 
 
 "The whole economic system is out of joint," 
 she decided, finally. "I know that while the 
 manufacturer sometimes receives excess profits 
 he cannot always grant the increase labor de- 
 mands, for his own expenses are heavy and his 
 returns very often light. I know that organized 
 labor is often unreasonable, demanding more 
 than it is actually worth sometimes; that im- 
 proper methods of marketing and distribution 
 are one cause of the high prices the consumer has 
 to pay and the low prices the producer receives, 
 with the corresponding unrest and dissatisfac- 
 tion everywhere. But what can we do about it?" 
 
 "There is only one remedy," Margaret an- 
 swered, "and the world is not yet ready for it- 
 the acceptance of those rules the Lord has laid 
 down for the establishment and operation of Zion. 
 Strikes are not a cure, for they cause more mis- 
 ery, and I suppose, on the other hand, that mis- 
 ery is the cause of some of them, at least. Take 
 the case of our own factory, for instance. There 
 is a certain class of the employees who could 
 stand a few days or weeks of idleness without 
 suffering; those who have a little laid by, who 
 live on the well-kept and prosperous-looking 
 streets a little distance away from the noise and 
 grime of the plant. But we know what it would 
 
Commercial Life 129 
 
 mean to the shanty dwellers and there is where 
 the trouble always starts. Their homes are mis- 
 erable makeshifts ; there are innumerable hungry 
 mouths to feed, and many of them are foreign 
 born. What more could an agitator wish? When 
 a man's family is cold and hungry, he will listen 
 to anything. And when trouble is once started, 
 all members of the union must necessarily get in 
 line, whether they want to or not. This is just 
 as true when a nation-wide strike is called as 
 when there is local trouble." 
 
 "We debated all those things in school," Blythe 
 said, with gentle sarcasm, "and decided that we 
 had discovered the cause and effect, and that as 
 soon as we were admitted into the world of busi- 
 ness we should at once find the remedy inex- 
 perienced young idiots that we were! The more 
 I rub up against the real thing the nearer I am 
 convinced that the trouble lies primarily in the 
 innate selfishness of mankind. Not that all man- 
 kind is selfish, but the ones who are trying to 
 right the wrongs of the earth are so much in the 
 minority that they make very slow progress. The 
 giddy old world, childish with age, only cries, 
 'On with the dance,' and keeps on with the mad 
 whirl." 
 
 Margaret sat listening with a questioning 
 RS 9 
 
130 A Reasonable Service 
 
 smile. "I wonder if you are the same girl Neil 
 described to me a few months ago who seemed 
 to have discovered the fountain of perpetual 
 happiness," she said. 
 
 "That was years ago," Blythe replied, mus- 
 ingly. "No, I am not the same. I feel sometimes 
 like a made-over garment that has lost its fresh- 
 ness. I used to think life was all sunshine that 
 misery and want existed only in storybooks or 
 some remote corner of the earth. I know now 
 that it is at our very doors, but I am happier, 
 much happier, doing what little I can to help." 
 
 Life was far from being all shadows for 
 Blythe, however. Her newfound faith was a 
 constant source of joy to her, and she had learned 
 to love the people who attended services at the 
 little chapel. Here she found her musical talent 
 of unfailing worth, and here she became a prime 
 favorite with young and old. There were good 
 times also, many of them, when the socially in- 
 clined met at the various homes or in the church 
 basement for informal gatherings, and she won- 
 dered sometimes, looking back, how the old life 
 had ever satisfied her. 
 
 In her work at the office she was finding pleas- 
 ure, almost contentment, in the realization that 
 she was doing a day's work from sun to sun. She 
 
Commercial Life 131 
 
 succeeded in gaining Mr. Aldrich's consent to 
 establish a small mission Sunday school for 
 the factory children, where the superintendent of 
 the local Sunday school was only too glad to 
 gather a little band of them every Sabbath after- 
 noon and, with the aid of his helpers, teach them 
 the gospel story. The number grew, for Blythe 
 and Margaret were gaining the friendship and 
 confidence of the mothers and fathers, and soon 
 the empty room which had been given over to the 
 school bade fair to become too small for its pur- 
 pose. 
 
 Gradually the murmurs of discontent grew 
 less. After due deliberation, the company had 
 granted the advance in wages the employees de- 
 manded, and life settled back to its old channels. 
 But Blythe, going with Margaret on her errands 
 of mercy, knew the revolt was still seething, and 
 waited with trepidation for the outbreak, 
 
 Neil sometimes came to the office on his brief 
 trips to the city. If Ralph was absent he quietly 
 helped Blythe with her work or sat reading until 
 she was ready to go. Then he would take her 
 home in the runabout, stopping for Margaret if 
 she happened to be at work among her patients. 
 Blythe wondered why he had the freedom of the 
 factory until she learned of his friendship with 
 
132 A Reasonable Service 
 
 Mr. Aldrich and that he had at one time been 
 one of his most trusted employees. 
 
 One December day she received a call from 
 Bob. His visits had been more and more infre- 
 quent of late, and he had never before been to 
 the factory. 
 
 "I came out to see what kind of a place you 
 have to work," he said. "And I find you here in 
 this hole! You might have had a place in the 
 bank if you had asked for it." 
 
 "I am busy and happy," she replied briefly, 
 clicking away at her typewriter. He sat watch- 
 ing her quietly for a few moments, noting the 
 soft curve of her cheek, the droop of her long 
 lashes as she bent over her work, the tendrils of 
 curling, golden hair, like yellow sunshine about 
 her face. 
 
 "Blythe!" he burst out at last, "you're alto- 
 gether too pretty for a working girl. Why don't 
 you cut out the whole miserable business and live 
 like the little aristocrat that you are?" 
 
 She caught a glimpse of the shanties through 
 the window, sitting forlornly among blackened, 
 soot-covered snowbanks, and her soul revolted 
 within her. "The day of the aristocrat is pass- 
 ing," she said. "I am proud to be one of the 
 workers, for when all is told they are the only 
 
Commercial Life 133 
 
 ones who have ever helped to make the world any 
 better." 
 
 "I suppose so; and then the world turns around 
 and gives them a kick. Blythe, you know I want 
 you!" he said, leaving his chair to come and stand 
 at her side. "I've never been able to think of 
 you as any other man's wife. No, not even since 
 youVe joined that abominable church; not even 
 since we can't talk together fifteen minutes with- 
 out a clash of opinions. Why is it, I wonder?" 
 
 He was plainly miserable, and Blythe felt a 
 wave of pity for him. "It is because our view- 
 points have changed, Bob," she said, gently; "or, 
 rather, mine has changed and yours has not. But 
 I have some work to finish to-night, and my time 
 is my employer's now. I'll talk to you when I 
 get this done." 
 
 . "It seems to me you are rather particular to 
 whom you talk!" he said, hotly. "Don't I know 
 that Cameron comes up here and wastes your 
 valuable time whenever he feels like it? Oh, I 
 know. I might have expected it you have made 
 a wholesale exchange of old friends for new. 
 Perhaps that is why you turned Mormon be- 
 cause he is one. Perhaps 
 
 But he was cut short by a flame of anger from 
 Blythe that sent him away with white face and 
 
134 A Reasonable Service 
 
 set lips, though she was sorry for her loss of tem- 
 per before his footsteps had ceased echoing down 
 the corridor. "Poor Bob," she said to herself; 
 "he's worried and upset or he would never have 
 said what he did/' 
 
 Then she put her head down on the desk and 
 cried a little, for she realized better than he, per- 
 haps, that their paths were growing farther and 
 farther apart as surely as night follows day. 
 
 She felt the holiday season approaching, with 
 a sense of indifference, almost of dread, but she 
 threw herself into the preparation of a cantata 
 at the church and a tree for the factory children, 
 and forgot, in a measure, her homesickness. Then 
 Mrs. Cameron invited the three to eat dinner at 
 the brown bungalow, and she found the day pass- 
 ing swiftly and not unhappily. 
 
 When she reached home that night she found 
 in her Christmas mail another generous check 
 from her uncle and a long box with the name of 
 an exclusive importer and dealer on the cover, 
 which, when she opened it, proved to be a gift 
 from Bob a necklace of exquisitely carved ivory 
 and jade, so beautiful that she gasped at its 
 loveliness, so suggestive of the luxury it sym- 
 bolized that she felt a little pang for the moment. 
 
Commercial Life 135 
 
 With it was a card which said, "My peace offer- 
 ing and many good wishes. Bob." 
 
 Her first impulse was to show it to Jean ; her 
 second, to put it back into its case and address 
 it to Bob, together with a brief note which read: 
 
 "Dear Bob: Believe me, please, when I tell 
 you why I am returning this because even our 
 lifelong friendship cannot warrant my acceptance 
 of such a valuable gift as this. I truly appre- 
 ciate the thought that prompted your sending it, 
 and hope you will not misjudge me too much. 
 
 "Sincerely, 
 
 "BLYTHE." 
 
 With the coming of the new year there came 
 severe weather and its attendant suffering in the 
 homes of poverty. Again the murmuring began, 
 aggravated by the laying off of the night shift on 
 account of an unexpected slackness of orders. 
 
 "Oi tell yez we don't have to sthand it!" cried 
 a burly Irishman, father of five, one of whom was 
 down with pneumonia. He was speaking to 
 Blythe, who had come out to relieve Margaret, 
 for the influenza was raging and the latter was 
 almost worn out with work and loss of sleep. 
 "Here we sthay like hogs in a house wid cracks 
 ye kin trow a cat tru." 
 
136 A Reasonable Service 
 
 "Pat, I wish you had asked for better homes 
 last fall instead of higher wages. You might 
 have gotten them then," she said, though in her 
 heart she did not believe it. 
 
 "We need more wages, too," he muttered. 
 "Next time we'll ask for the houses." 
 
 But evidently Pat was overruled, for when the 
 demand came, it was for shorter hours and an 
 increase in pay, perhaps in the hope of providing 
 work for the unemployed night shift. This the 
 company flatly refused, and the strike became a 
 reality. When the whistle blew one morning 
 there was no sound of tramping feet, and the big 
 plant was silent and empty. 
 
 "I have received orders to hire outside help if 
 the employees strike," Mr. Aldrich said grimly 
 to Ralph and Blythe, who had appeared at the 
 usual time. "There are plenty of men in the city 
 who need work. We won't have to shut down 
 long." 
 
 True to his word, he had the work going again 
 in a few days, though with a much smaller force 
 than before. There was no open hostility, but 
 the old laborers stood in knots and watched the 
 new in sullen silence as they crowded in and out 
 of the buildings, and Blythe, looking into their 
 
Commercial Life 137 
 
 faces, knew that revenge would come sooner or 
 later. 
 
 The change made the office work heavier, and 
 often she and Ralph and Mr. Aldrich stayed and 
 worked long after the factory had closed for the 
 night. One night they were at work later than 
 usual, Blythe alone in the office where the other 
 two had left her, to visit some other part of the 
 plant. She was busy at her books when she heard 
 the closing of a door downstairs. She was 
 startled for an instant, for the doors were always 
 locked at night, but remembering that it was 
 probably Ralph and Mr. Aldrich returning, she 
 thought no more of it and went back to her work. 
 Presently she became aware of a pungent odor 
 in the air, the scent of burning wood; and filled 
 with sudden alarm she slipped from her stool 
 and threw open the door into the corridor. Thin 
 wisps of smoke were drifting up from the lower 
 floor, and Blythe's first thought was of escape. 
 Then she remembered that the alarm must be 
 turned in or the whole plant would go. Like a 
 flash came the thought of the huddled shanties, 
 and the havoc and horror that might follow if the 
 fire reached them, and without hesitation she 
 closed the door and went to the telephone. 
 
 But the dry interior of the old building burned 
 
138 A Reasonable Service 
 
 like tinder, and when she stepped out into the 
 hall again it was filled with suffocating clouds of 
 smoke, and she could see the red glow of fire be- 
 low. Choked and blinded, she was forced to turn 
 back and find some other way of escape. Another 
 door led from the office into a storeroom beyond 
 and her hand was on the latch when the door 
 into the corridor was burst open and Neil Cam- 
 eron stood beside her. Why or how he had come 
 she did not know she only knew that she felt 
 no surprise at his presence there, that calm and 
 courage came to her as he caught her arm and 
 hurried her through the storeroom and into a side 
 hall that was comparatively free from smoke. 
 He seemed to know where he was going, for, 
 feeling along the wall, he found an outer door 
 and threw it open. At their feet was a sheer drop 
 to the pavement, thirty feet below. 
 
 "I thought there was a fire escape here," he 
 said in disgust, and turned hurriedly back into 
 the storeroom, returning with a coil of rope he 
 had found with the aid of a pocket flash-light. 
 
 "Take hold with your hands to ease the strain 
 on your body," he directed, knotting it quickly 
 around her. 
 
 "But you, Neil!" she cried, "What will you 
 do?" 
 
Commercial Life 189 
 
 He caught, for a fleeting second, the look in 
 her eyes, and his heart leaped with something 
 which was not fear. 
 
 "I'm coming too, dear I'd follow you to the 
 end of the earth if I knew you wanted me to 
 come," he said gently. 
 
 She shuddered as she looked down, for the 
 smoke was already drifting between her and the 
 snowy pavement; then taking a fresh grip on 
 herself she grasped the rope and was lowered to 
 safety below. With swift fingers Neil fastened 
 the end he was holding and came down hand over 
 hand just as the belated fire engine appeared, 
 and they joined the crowd of excited people who 
 had collected and were yelling themselves hoarse 
 at the rescue. 
 
 The rest of the events of the night were like a 
 chaotic dream to Blythe their frenzied search 
 through the crowd for Ralph and Mr. Aldrich 
 and the return of the two from one of the other 
 buildings, quite unaware that anything was 
 wrong until the noise brought them out to see; 
 the fight of the firemen to save the rest of the 
 plant, and their final control of the fire. When 
 the excitement was over, she found herself shiv- 
 ering with cold and the reaction, and heard Neil 
 reproaching himself for his neglect, as he 
 
140 A Reasonable Service 
 
 wrapped her carefully in his big coat and whisked 
 her away in the runabout to Jean, who knew 
 nothing of the disaster until they came home with 
 the news. 
 
A Discussion of Stewardship Ideals 
 
A Reasonable Service 143 
 
 CHAPTER 8 
 
 A DISCUSSION OF STEWARDSHIP IDEALS 
 
 WHEN Blythe opened her eyes next 
 morning, she was lying in her own 
 white bed and Margaret Cameron was 
 moving about putting the room to rights. 
 
 "I suppose you imagine I'm sick," Blythe ob- 
 served, eyeing the antiseptic young woman with 
 disfavor. 
 
 "You are under the care of a trained nurse by 
 Mr. Aldrich's orders, at least," Margaret replied 
 with a smile. "He says you are the most valu- 
 able employee he has and wants you well taken 
 care of. You and Neil are in all the papers this 
 morning." 
 
 "There should be a price on the heads of all 
 reporters," Blythe said. "I'm perfectly all right 
 this morning, though. Just tired. How is Neil, 
 and why aren't you at home looking after him, 
 like a dutiful sister?" 
 
 "He's feeling almost as good as new, except 
 that he got singed a little last night." 
 
 "Why, how did he get burned?" asked Blythe 
 in surprise. "I didn't." 
 
144 A Reasonable Service 
 
 "Going up the stairs to find you, I suppose," 
 was the answer. "It isn't serious at all. Just a 
 few blisters around his head and face and some 
 missing hair and eyebrows. He'll be all right. 
 He wanted me to come to you. Betty's looking 
 after him," she added, with a mischievous look in 
 her eyes. 
 
 "You had better look after him yourself," 
 Blythe advised, rather resentfully. "I'm all 
 right, only just tired," she finished drowsily, 
 and in a few moments her regular breathing told 
 Margaret she was asleep again. In fact, she was 
 quite worn out with the work and anxiety of the 
 past few weeks, though she had not realized it, 
 and welcomed a chance to lie blissfully in bed 
 and rest. 
 
 "She seems to be all right," Margaret told 
 Jean downstairs. "No sign of cold, even. Just 
 let her sleep now. There's nothing for me to do, 
 so I'll run along." 
 
 "I wish you'd stay and answer the telephone," 
 Jean declared. "I've been absolutely over- 
 whelmed with inquiries this morning, even from 
 Sardis. Uncle John saw the account in the morn- 
 ing papers and was anxious about it, of course." 
 
 By the next day Blythe was downstairs, quite 
 herself again, except for an unusual weariness. 
 
Stewardship Ideals 145 
 
 "Neil telephoned just before you came down," 
 Jean told her. "He and his mother are coming 
 over if you feel like having company." 
 
 "I don't see why I shouldn't," Blythe declared. 
 "One would think I'm convalescing from some 
 dangerous illness, the fuss everyone makes." 
 
 At the brown bungalow Neil was having a 
 rather bad time with himself as he ran out the 
 runabout and prepared it for the drive to Sardis, 
 for there he intended to go when he had paid his 
 respects to Blythe. Viewed in the sober light of 
 day, the words he had spoken to her the night 
 before seemed rashly unwise. 
 
 "Why didn't I wait?" he groaned to himself. 
 "I can't press the matter now, for if I do she will 
 think I'm cad enough to expect her to marry me 
 out of gratitude. It seems to me I'm in a deu- 
 cedly awkward position any way I can fix it." 
 Then his mind came back to the only question 
 that, after all, made any real difference. "I won- 
 der if I was right last night if she really cares." 
 
 Blythe's greeting was so naturally and unaf- 
 fectedly like herself, however, that he wisely re- 
 solved to let the matter rest and talk about some- 
 thing more tangible and less dangerous. 
 
 "I was out to the factory this morning," he 
 told her. "The main building is only a pile of 
 
 RS 10 
 
146 A Reasonable Service 
 
 ruins ; and it is a good thing, too, for it was noth- 
 ing but a trap. I don't see how they ever saved 
 the others, as close as they were together, but 
 they are safe and everything is quiet there now. 
 Do you suppose the fire was accidental?" 
 
 She shook her head and told him what she 
 knew. "I am sure some one came in and set it 
 inside," she said. "No doubt they thought every- 
 one was gone, for we always keep the doors 
 locked after closing time and we were later than 
 usual last night. The intruder must have forced 
 an entrance in some way. I have felt sure some 
 sort of trouble was brewing ever since the new 
 laborers came, but I do not think there was any 
 general plan among the men to do this, for no 
 level-headed person would consent to such an 
 insane act. It must have been done by a few of 
 the more inflammatory ones some of the shanty 
 dwellers, no doubt." 
 
 "Neil," she asked after a moment's silence, 
 "how did you happen to be there so late last 
 night? I have been wondering about it all day." 
 
 "I don't know," he replied, thoughtfully. "I 
 had no intention of coming ten minutes before I 
 started. Then something told me I was needed, 
 and I left Sardis as soon as I could get the car 
 out of the garage. I telephoned Jean from 
 
Stewardship Ideals 147 
 
 mother's and she said you were at the factory. I 
 thank God I went there at once!" 
 
 She was quiet a moment, listening absent- 
 mindedly to Mrs. Cameron and Jean in the next 
 room as they discussed some new beauty in the 
 latter's windowful of blossoming plants. Then 
 she turned to him and said, "I haven't thanked 
 you, Neil, because I knew you wouldn't care to 
 have me; but you are a friend I am glad and 
 proud to own!" And Neil very nearly forgot his 
 resolution of an hour ago as he clasped the small 
 hand she held out to him. 
 
 Not many days passed until work was resumed 
 at the factory. New machinery was installed 
 temporarily in some of the smaller buildings and 
 plans were made to begin on a main structure as 
 soon as the weather permitted. Many of the old 
 employees came back and asked for work, 
 shocked into the fear that they would find noth- 
 ing to do the rest of the winter by the disaster 
 that had threatened to annihilate their homes as 
 well as their means of a livelihood. 
 
 A temporary office was fitted up and soon 
 Blythe was at her old task. The bitter weather 
 had moderated, and with the warmer days of 
 February there was less suffering and disease 
 among the factory people, so she found her time 
 
148 A Reasonable Service 
 
 less fully occupied. Margaret, too, welcomed the 
 change, for the work of the winter had been a 
 severe strain upon even her sturdy constitution, 
 and she felt a decided need for rest. 
 
 One evening Blythe was curled lazily in a big 
 arm chair, with a pile of books and magazines 
 beside her, waiting for Ralph and Jean to return 
 from a trip down town, when the door bell rang 
 and she found that her caller was Bob Weston. 
 
 "I have been intending to come ever since the 
 night of the fire," he said. "It doesn't matter 
 why I haven't, I guess." 
 
 Somehow he did not seem quite like the Bob 
 she had always known. His face was a little paler 
 and he seemed unusually quiet. He answered her 
 questions and tried to keep up his end of the con- 
 versation for a while, but presently he broke off 
 and asked abruptly, "Are you going to marry 
 Neil Cameron, Blythe?" 
 
 "Why, no not that I know of," she replied, 
 somewhat disconcerted by the unexpected query. 
 "Why do you ask me that?" 
 
 "Oh, no reason in particular. I just wished 
 to tell you that you might do worse. I was out 
 there the night of the fire oh, I know you didn't 
 see me, but I was there, nevertheless. Cameron 
 went up those flaming stairs at three bounds. I 
 
Stewardship Ideals 149 
 
 was just behind, but they held me and wouldn't 
 let me go. 'There's no use in your risking your 
 life, too,' one man told me, and thought he was 
 being kind. 'If there is anything to be done in 
 there Cameron will do it!' I'd have given my 
 right hand to have had him say that about me!" 
 
 What an admission for Bob to make! Blythe 
 lay back in her chair, watching him in wonder as 
 he paced up and down the room. 
 
 "I saw you again just as you reached the 
 ground I saw you watching him come down the 
 rope, with your heart in your eyes! You have 
 never looked at me like that in all the years I 
 have known you! And so I've decided there's no 
 use is there any hope for me, Blythe?'' 
 
 She shook her head without speaking. 
 
 "I thought as much I just wanted to be 
 sure," he said, "and so I'll go my way and you 
 will go yours. I've lost you by my own worth- 
 lessness, I suppose. But the world is large and 
 I may find something worth while to do, yet. If 
 I do, it will be due to some of the jolts you have 
 given me, perhaps!" 
 
 "Don't, Bob ; please don't !" she begged. Here 
 was a new Bob; one she could not understand. 
 "Have I been so utterly heartless?" 
 
 "No, you have not been heartless. I needed 
 
150 A Reasonable Service 
 
 something hard to wake me up. I'm going away 
 soon I don't know just where, yet, but the bank 
 stifles me! So this is my farewell. I've been try- 
 ing to come for weeks but I couldn't. Good-by, 
 Blythe; good-by!" 
 
 Not trusting herself to speak, Blythe held out 
 her hands to him. He looked at them, lying in 
 his own, for a moment; then he lifted first one 
 and then the other to his lips, and went away 
 into the night. And when Jean came up to 
 Blythe's room to chat a moment before going to 
 bed, she was much concerned to find her in tears. 
 
 With the coming of warmer weather John 
 Blake drove often to the city. Usually he went 
 on Sunday, that he might attend the morning 
 service at the white chapel for the seed sown in 
 his heart years agone was beginning to swell and 
 grow. There was another chapel somewhat simi- 
 lar in Sardis, and very often the "chummy" road- 
 ster was seen parked outside, in spite of Mrs. 
 Blake's protests. 
 
 "I don't interfere with your religion, Lillian," 
 her husband would assure her calmly, "and you 
 have no right to interfere with mine." 
 
 So it happened that he might have been seen in 
 the city one bright spring day, with most of the 
 available space in the roadster filled with Easter 
 
Stewardship Ideals 151 
 
 eggs and candy rabbits for the factory children. 
 He always took Blythe out to the mission Sun- 
 day school when he was in the city, and his ap- 
 pearance was a never-failing source of delight to 
 his small acquaintances, with whom he was be- 
 coming quite intimate. The school was growing 
 and there were adult classes now, for the fathers 
 and mothers were being drawn in by the interest 
 of their children. 
 
 To-day a thunder shower threatened, and as 
 soon as the service was over the cars which had 
 brought the superintendent and his helpers out 
 hurried back into the city. With Blythe at the 
 wheel, Mr. Blake holding his breath beside her, 
 and Jean and Ralph tucked in behind, the big 
 roadster made amazingly good time on the return 
 trip, and they reached the curb in front of the 
 house just as the first rush of rain came down. 
 
 "What fun!" cried Blythe as they raced madly 
 up the walk to the shelter of the porch. "It re- 
 minds me of the time when I was young! Why, 
 we have a visitor!" she added, as Neil arose from 
 the porch swing and came forward with a book in 
 his hand. 
 
 "I knew you would soon be back, so I made 
 myself comfortable," he said. "The runabout re- 
 fused to work this morning, but I coaxed it up 
 
152 A Reasonable Service 
 
 and came this afternoon and found everyone 
 gone and the doors locked over home." 
 
 "Well, why didn't you wait on your own 
 porch?" inquired Jean, inhospitably. "Is ours 
 more attractive?" 
 
 "Aren't you afraid of hurting my feelings, 
 Jean?" he asked, with a grin; but Jean only 
 laughed teasingly and led the way into the house, 
 for the rain was pouring now, and bringing with 
 it the chill of an early spring shower. 
 
 "What have you been reading, Neil?" Blythe 
 inquired ; then, as he held up a small book bound 
 in flexible leather, "Oh, the Book of Doctrine 
 and Covenants." 
 
 "Yes," he replied; "I have been looking up all 
 I can find on the subject of Zion. The theme has 
 a never-failing attraction for me perhaps be- 
 cause, as Mr. Blake told me once, I am a 
 dreamer," he added with a smile. 
 
 "I should like to hear what you have learned 
 about this Zion that is to be established," said 
 John Blake with sudden animation; "it interests 
 me. I am something of a dreamer myself, you 
 know, and if there is any way of making my 
 dreams come true by putting them into practical 
 operation, I wish to know it. Everywhere I go 
 among the members of your church I hear this 
 
Stewardship Ideals 153 
 
 same subject discussed. It seems to be moving 
 upon the minds of all. It is one of the things we 
 did not hear much about when I went to church 
 years ago. Is it a fanatical dream, or is there 
 really something divine back of it?" 
 
 "If there is anything divine back of the work," 
 Neil replied, "there surely is divinity behind the 
 Zionic plan. It is not the dream of a fanatic, but 
 a plan given by the God of heaven and earth. 
 We have nothing to fear if, in the establishment 
 of Zion, we follow closely the law laid down by 
 the Master Mind. We have even the proof writ- 
 ten down in history that it will succeed, for the 
 city builded by Enoch ages ago was governed by 
 the same laws of equality and brotherly love that 
 are given us to-day. In the thirty-sixth section 
 of the latter-day revelations and the seventh 
 chapter of Genesis, Inspired Version, we read 
 that the Lord in those days called his people 
 Zion because they were of one heart and one 
 mind, and dwelt in righteousness ; and there was 
 no poor among them. 
 
 "You see there are many qualifications re- 
 quired of the people to whom this wonderful task 
 is given. They must be humble and full of love; 
 they must be unselfish, willing to impart of their 
 substance to those in need. In the Fishing River 
 
154 A Reasonable Service 
 
 revelation we find that the lack of these qualifi- 
 cations hindered the redemption of Zion in the 
 beginning of the latter-day work." 
 
 "What about this law of equality?" inquired 
 Mr. Blake. "I have been doing a little studying 
 myself and in one place in the Book of Covenants 
 I find, 'In your temporal things ye shall be equal, 
 and this not grudgingly, otherwise the manifes- 
 tations of the Spirit shall be withheld.' ' 
 
 "The law of equality is one of the fundamental 
 principles by which the establishment of Zion is 
 to be accomplished," Neil answered. "Let me 
 read to you from the fourth verse of the eighty- 
 first section: 'You are to be equal, or in other 
 words, you are to have equal claims on the prop- 
 erties, for the benefit of managing the concerns 
 of your stewardships, every man according to his 
 wants and his needs, inasmuch as his wants are 
 just.' The fact that this was given to certain in- 
 dividuals does not confine its application to them 
 alone, for reading on, we find, 'And all this for 
 the benefit of the church of the living God, that 
 every man may improve upon his talent, that 
 every man may gain other talents; yea, even an 
 hundredfold, to be cast into the Lord's store- 
 house, to become the common property of the 
 whole church, every man seeking the interest of 
 
Stewardship Ideals 155 
 
 his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye 
 single to the glory of God." 
 
 "Do I gather from this, then, that my neigh- 
 bor's frying-pan, for instance, is as much mine as 
 it is my neighbor's?" Mr. Blake wished to know. 
 
 "I do not understand it so," Neil replied, smil- 
 ing. "The Saints are to receive inheritances. 
 This fact runs all through the Book of Doctrine 
 and Covenants. When I receive an inheritance 
 it is mine no one can take it from me; no one 
 has a share in it unless I bestow it upon him. 
 These are to be obtained by purchase, and if I 
 should go down and purchase a tract of land in 
 the region of Zion it would be as much mine as 
 if I should purchase it right here. If I could pay 
 for it in full, I should be expected to consecrate 
 that which is left, if there is any, after the just 
 wants and needs of myself and those dependent 
 upon me are supplied* and after I have deducted 
 the amount necessary for the carrying on of my 
 business. Also, under the law, my increase must 
 be tithed. If I am not able to pay in full for my 
 inheritance I am immune from the law of conse- 
 cration until it is paid for, but this does not ex- 
 cuse me from paying my tithing. If I am ca- 
 pable of managing more than my inheritance, by 
 stewardship may be enlarged indefinitely, but 
 
156 A Reasonable Service 
 
 always that which is produced above my just 
 wants and needs returns to the church to be used 
 for the mutual benefit of all." 
 
 "I see how this would tend towards equality," 
 said Mr. Blake, thoughtfully. "There would be 
 no piling up of surplus wealth by individuals, 
 but a distribution of it where it is most needed. 
 But suppose sudden illness or unexpected ex- 
 pense should come up? Where would the man 
 be who had consecrated all of his surplus?" 
 
 "I cannot believe that he is expected to shave 
 his bank account so closely that there would be 
 nothing for an emergency," Neil replied; "but 
 if he should find that he needed more he would 
 certainly be entitled to assistance from the church 
 if he had been keeping the law by which it is gov- 
 erned. You will remember that I read to you a 
 while ago that the Saints are to have equal claims 
 on the properties, for the benefit of managing the 
 concerns of their stewardships. When we are all 
 working on a stewardship basis, happy in seeing 
 our brother prosper as we ourselves, loving one 
 another to the extent that we can overlook petty 
 faults or go to one another in kindness when 
 larger ones appear, then we shall find that the 
 largest obstacle has been removed in the estab- 
 lishment of Zion, for Zion is 'the pure in heart.' 
 
Stewardship Ideals 157 
 
 "But if all have an equal claim on the proper- 
 ties, wouldn't there be a good chance for graft? 
 All men aren't honest, you know? Wouldn't it 
 be easy for a man to get a hand-out whether he 
 deserved it or not?" Mr. Blake was evidently 
 seeking exhaustive information. 
 
 "Not while the law of the Lord is enforced and 
 our men of the bishopric have the keenness of 
 vision they possess to-day. The law says plainly 
 that the 'idler shall not have place in the church,' 
 and precautions are being taken by those in au- 
 thority which make it increasingly hard for an 
 unworthy individual to get by. In harmony 
 with the instruction given in section seventy-two, 
 anyone wishing to locate in the region known as 
 Zion must file an inventory of that which he pos- 
 sesses with the bishopric and take with him a cer- 
 tificate signed by the bishop or three elders of his 
 home district to present to the presiding bishop, 
 if he desires to be accounted a wise steward and 
 receive an inheritance in Zion. 
 
 "We have great things to look forward to," 
 he continued with increasing earnestness, "when 
 the lands are purchased as the Lord commanded 
 them to be so many years ago. We shall see mills 
 and factories built that will give employment to 
 thousands of our people. They will not be 
 
158 A Reasonable Service 
 
 ground down under the heel of big business, but 
 will be given a chance to work for that God-given 
 right a home of their own. I see no reason why 
 they should not be allowed to buy shares in the 
 plants where they are at work ; it would give them 
 an income for old age and take the burden of 
 much of the handling of money from the bishop. 
 These details will be worked out, however, as the 
 need demands and the Spirit of inspiration di- 
 rects. Just now there is little work there for the 
 day laborer, and the demand is for consecrated 
 men and women who will go with the one ideal in 
 mind of assisting in the building up of Zion. 
 Men of some means are needed, those who are 
 able to make their own way without being a bur- 
 den upon the church, but most of all are needed 
 those whose hearts are filled with love and the 
 spirit of service." 
 
 Outside the spring rain was pouring, and Mr. 
 Blake arose and walked to the window to look for 
 a break in the clouds. 
 
 "You may as well prepare to stay here to- 
 night, Uncle John," Jean observed. "It has al- 
 ready rained enough to make the road slippery." 
 
 "Yes, sit down, uncle," Ralph urged. "I'll con- 
 fess I'm learning something new right along. If 
 this plan succeeds, as we have every reason to 
 
Stewardship Ideals 159 
 
 believe it will do, we shall be relieved of the worry 
 and suffering caused by such occurrences as we 
 had here last winter. Strikes and walkouts will 
 be unknown in this land of brotherly love, for 
 every man will have the interest of his neighbor 
 at heart as much as his own." 
 
 Blythe, listening with visions in her eyes, said 
 nothing at all, but she was seeing in fancy a row 
 of neat cottages, each in the midst of a grassy 
 yard, where the factory children romped and 
 played, with roses in their cheeks and the blessed 
 sunshine above them, undimmed by any drifting 
 pall of smoke. She saw the men and women of 
 the factory busy and happy at their work, the 
 cloud of sullen resentment gone from their faces, 
 knowing they were no longer slaves of toil but 
 free-born citizens, earning a livelihood by the 
 sweat of honest labor, even as their brethren and 
 sisters all around them were doing. And in her 
 heart she rejoiced that she had found this gospel 
 of wonderful promises and high ideals. 
 
 "Do you think the time has come for the gath- 
 ering to begin?" Jean inquired. 
 
 "It has already begun," Neil replied, "but the 
 command should be heeded, 'Let not your gath- 
 ering be in haste nor by flight ; but let all things 
 be prepared before you; and in order that all 
 
160 A Reasonable Service 
 
 things be prepared before you, observe the com- 
 mandments which I have given concerning these 
 things, which saith, or teacheth, to purchase all 
 the lands by money which can be purchased for 
 money in the region round about the land which 
 I have appointed to be the land of Zion, for the 
 beginning of the gathering of my Saints ; all the 
 land which can be purchased in Jackson County, 
 and the counties round about, and leave the resi- 
 due in mine hand.' I am reading now from the 
 ninth verse of section ninety-eight. You see, the 
 first step must be the purchase of lands Zion 
 must first be established agriculturally. This will 
 be accomplished in two ways purchase by indi- 
 viduals who are moved upon to go and buy lands 
 for themselves, and purchase by the bishopric of 
 the church with funds obtained through conse- 
 cration and offerings. When every member of 
 the church obeys the financial law, then will the 
 redemption of Zion be quickly brought about, 
 for there will be enough that these other indus- 
 tries may soon be established. Then and not until 
 then, will the invitation be extended to all, 'Come 
 and gather unto Zion, for there is work for all,' 
 and the promise be fulfilled, 'It shall come to 
 pass that the righteous shall be gathered out from 
 
Stewardship Ideals 161 
 
 among all nations, and shall come to Zion sing- 
 ing, with songs of everlasting joy.' ' 
 
 "You mean," observed Ralph, "that the church 
 is not in a position now to give help or work to 
 all who wish to gather; that no one should go 
 who does not have some definite means of liveli- 
 hood in view, or some special work to do when 
 they get there." 
 
 "That's it, exactly. And right here let me say, 
 that those who desire or expect to aid in the 
 building up of Zion must prepare themselves to 
 be able to do some useful, constructive work. We 
 should not sit down and make no effort to get 
 ready to go. We should endeavor to prepare 
 ourselves, both spiritually and financially, for the 
 Lord says in section fifty-eight, 'It is not meet 
 that I should command in all things, for he that 
 is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful 
 and not a wise servant,' and further on, 'He that 
 doeth not anything until he is commanded and 
 receiveth it with doubtful heart and keepeth it 
 with slothfulness, the same is damned.' So we 
 must move forward trustingly as the way opens 
 before us, for the Lord has said that Zion must 
 be redeemed and the fulfillment of prophecy 
 warns us that the time is short. If we fail or step 
 aside the work will roll on just the same, for the 
 RS 11 
 
162 A Reasonable Service 
 
 time is surely coming when 'Zion shall flourish 
 upon the hills, and rejoice upon the mountains, 
 and shall be assembled together unto the place 
 which I [the Lord] have appointed/ even though 
 chaos and darkness reign outside her bounda- 
 
 ries." 
 
 "There seems to be some difference of opinion 
 among the Saints as to how far the boundaries 
 of Zion extend/' Ely the observed, breaking her 
 silence for the first time. "Some believe the 
 whole of this great country of ours is included 
 that it is foolish to gather into one place at all." 
 
 "We are told/' Neil replied, "that in time to 
 come the meek shall inherit the earth, and the 
 glory of the Lord cover it; but the one thing em- 
 phasized now is to 'purchase the lands in Jackson 
 County that can be purchased, and in the adjoin- 
 ing counties round about/ We find mention of 
 it again in Doctrine and Covenants 102, the reve- 
 lation given on Fishing River. 
 
 "The Lord still declares that he changes not 
 when in section 127 he tells the church: 'As the 
 saints have heretofore been instructed in refer- 
 ence to the gathering, they are now again ad- 
 monished that the gathering must not be in haste, 
 nor without due preparation, and must be done 
 in accordance with the revelation given to the 
 
Stewardship Ideals 163 
 
 church upon Fishing River and in accordance 
 with the counsel and advice of the elders of the 
 church whose duty it has been made to counsel 
 and advise the saints.' 
 
 "Oh, if only those early Saints had heeded the 
 admonition, how far along might we be now in 
 the establishment of Zion! Even yet some use 
 the command not to gather in haste as an excuse 
 to rest upon their oars in this great work ahead 
 of us. It seems to me that now is the greater 
 need of haste we have wasted so much precious 
 time! Not the kind that drives men and women 
 helter-skelter into Jackson County, but a wise, 
 systematic, intelligent haste that begins in care- 
 ful and prayerful preparation and brooks no de- 
 lay when the opportunity for action arrives. 
 
 "Then shall we not be oppressed by the knowl- 
 edge that when the time of trouble and great 
 tribulation shall come upon the earth we shall be 
 found without a place of refuge. Even now 
 we can see the dark storm clouds rolling across 
 the blue sky of our vision. Even now nation 
 looks with watchful eye upon nation; even now 
 labor and capital stand ready to fly at one an- 
 other's throats, while murder, theft, and violence 
 stalk abroad through the land. 
 
 "Surely, with the events of every day unrolling 
 
164 A Reasonable Service 
 
 before us, we cannot declare much longer that the 
 day is far distant when 'every man that will not 
 take up his sword against his neighbor must needs 
 flee unto Zion for safety.' We cannot expect 
 this place of refuge to rise up suddenly when the 
 need requires. We have been warned of how 
 and when it must be done, and of the need for it. 
 And the promise, blazoned in letters of hope, 
 comes to us, 'It shall be called the New Jerusa- 
 lem, a land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of 
 safety for the saints of the most high God ; and 
 the glory of the Lord shall be there, and the ter- 
 ror of the Lord also shall be there, insomuch that 
 the wicked will not come unto it ; and it shall be 
 called Zion. . . . And there shall be gathered unto 
 it out of every nation under heaven; and it shall 
 be the only people that shall not be at war one 
 with another. . . . And it shall come to pass that 
 the righteous shall be gathered out from among 
 all nations, and shall come to Zion singing with 
 songs of everlasting joy.' " (Section 45.) 
 
 "I am glad the rain kept us in this afternoon," 
 Mr. Blake said. "I have received new views from 
 our talk here, as well as having some of my own 
 confirmed. The time is coming when my name 
 will be on the records of the church if my investi- 
 
Stewardship Ideals 165 
 
 gations in the future be as satisfactory as they 
 have been in the past." 
 
 "I am glad to hear you say that, Mr. Blake," 
 Neil assured him, heartily. "The church needs 
 such men as you and you need the church." 
 
 With that the informal meeting broke up, for 
 the rain had ceased, and the sun peeping through 
 the clouds in the west told them that the after- 
 noon was waning. 
 
A Vision Realized 
 
A Reasonable Service 169 
 
 CHAPTER 9 
 
 A VISION REALIZED 
 
 SPRING had burst into being at last. Every 
 passing breeze bore a hint of blossoming 
 hedgerows and orchards sweet with bloom, 
 while the fresh new grass spread like an emerald 
 shadow over all the earth no, not all. It 
 stopped in dismay at the edge of city pavements 
 and the hard-packed earth around the factory 
 shanties, sending only a spindling blade or two 
 as an advance guard that seemed a pitiful mock- 
 ery of the springtime. 
 
 Blythe, going to work day after day, felt a 
 wild desire to run away to the country lanes that 
 she knew stretched beyond the ceaseless roar of 
 machinery and the clang and rattle of electric 
 cars and freight trains. She kept a big bunch 
 of lilacs from Jean's blossoming bush on the office 
 desk and wondered impatiently why they made 
 her more poignantly homesick than ever. 
 
 One day a sound came to her ears as she bent 
 over her books, a sound that she did not recog- 
 nize for a moment the honk of wild geese. 
 From the open window she saw them, a flying 
 
170 A Reasonable Service 
 
 wedge against the blue of the sky, following the 
 urge of instinct to the shores of some reed-gir- 
 dled northern lake. She watched them out of 
 sight, the wanderlust of the spring stirring in her 
 own veins. Then, indisposed for the moment to 
 go back to work, she glanced down to see what 
 was occurring below. Crossing the street from 
 the direction of the shanties, she noticed the same 
 girl she had seen on the street that first morning 
 she visited the factory. Her cheeks seemed to 
 have lost some of their color, her eyes were darkly 
 circled, and she walked slowly, as if from phys- 
 ical weakness. Watching her idly, Blythe won- 
 dered where she was going; then she saw a 
 strangely familiar brewster-green runabout 
 drawn up to the curb, and realized with a start 
 that this was the girl's destination, for she walked 
 directly to it and climbed into the seat. 
 
 The back of the car was towards Blythe and 
 she stood trying vainly to remember whether or 
 not this were indeed the number of Neil's ma- 
 chine when he himself came from the same direc- 
 tion with a bundle in his hand, stepped into the 
 runabout, and drove away down the street. 
 
 For a moment Blythe stood half stunned, try- 
 ing to summon a reason for this surprising inci- 
 dent, and finding none. The fact that she did 
 
A Vision Realized 171 
 
 not even know Neil was in the city witnessed 
 against him, for not in many weeks past had he 
 failed to see her when he came. With a sensation 
 of numbness she went back to her work. So this 
 was the man she had come to regard above other 
 men the man whom she had believed to be as 
 clean as she herself was pure! Hot tears came 
 to her eyes and she dashed them away as she 
 heard Ralph returning to the office. But all the 
 brightness was gone from the spring day, and 
 the scent of the lilacs sickened her. One moment 
 she was sorry that she had been called to the 
 window; the next, she told herself sternly, that 
 she was fortunate to have it so, for neither by 
 example nor precept had John Blake taught her 
 to believe in a double standard of morals, and 
 she had come to womanhood with a keen appre- 
 ciation of what true manhood was worth, and set 
 a standard she refused to lower. So, when calm- 
 ness came back, she resolved to demand an ex- 
 planation and abide by the consequences, and, in 
 the days which followed, went to work with re- 
 doubled energy that she might, in a measure, 
 forget. 
 
 "You are foolish, Jean," she said, almost irri- 
 tably, when that young woman insisted that she 
 
172 A Reasonable Service 
 
 looked ill, was working too hard, and needed a 
 rest. "I've hardly been sick a day in my life." 
 
 When Neil did come, a week later, there was 
 company in the house, and in spite of herself 
 the change in her manner towards him was so 
 marked that he went away hurt and wondering, 
 without giving her any opportunity of seeing him 
 alone. 
 
 One day, strangely enough, she went to his 
 mother for comfort. She found her sitting on the 
 porch among her flowers, her hands busy with 
 some needlework. Dropping into a big wicker 
 chair, Blythe sat watching her a while in silence, 
 a silence that Mrs. Cameron understandingly left 
 unbroken. 
 
 At last she spoke: "Mrs. Cameron, I seem to 
 have come to the end of things lately. Ever since 
 I have started trying to live the life of a Chris- 
 tian and saint, things have been harder than they 
 ever were before." 
 
 The older woman drew Blythe gently from her 
 chair to the rug at her feet. "Lay your head 
 back in my lap and let me smoothe your temples 
 while we talk. Of course things have been 
 harder, child. Satan always gets to work when 
 he knows we are really trying to do right and 
 perhaps the loving Father knows that we need 
 
A Vision Realized 173 
 
 some difficulties and trials to make us stronger. 
 Would you like to tell me about it?" 
 
 "No, I don't think I would," Blythe answered, 
 honestly. Then after a pause she went on, "If 
 you should suddenly discover, or have every rea- 
 son to believe, that people you trusted and re- 
 spected weren't at all what they seemed to be 
 wouldn't it turn your world topsy-turvy for a 
 while? Wouldn't it shake your faith a little?" 
 
 "It is very hard," Mrs. Cameron replied. 
 "That is one of the hardest things I have had to 
 meet the discovery of flagrant human weak- 
 nesses in some of my fellow beings whom I loved 
 and trusted; but I have learned that, no matter 
 what others may do, God is still in heaven, and 
 my duty towards him is unchanged. I have 
 learned to trust him when I could not understand 
 all that came to me sometimes, and through that 
 I have learned not to lose faith in my brother and 
 sister, but to keep on trying to help them, even 
 though they seem to have lost the way." 
 
 Blythe went away strengthened and somewhat 
 comforted, but she arose next morning with some 
 premonition of coming disaster upon her, and 
 when a long-distance call came from Sardis that 
 afternoon she waited in dread for the message. 
 Then she heard her uncle's voice. "Can you come 
 
174 A Reasonable Service 
 
 home, Blythe? Aunt Lillian is badly hurt lost 
 control of the car on a down grade and it turned 
 over with her." 
 
 "I can come, Uncle John, but does she want 
 me?" Blythe closed her eyes to shut out the 
 whirling room. 
 
 "I think so. She can't talk, but she has been 
 trying to tell me something, and when I asked 
 if she wanted you a look of relief came into her 
 eyes." 
 
 "All right. I'll be there on the first train. It 
 leaves in thirty minutes." 
 
 Roger was awaiting her at the depot in the 
 roadster, and as they drove along the familiar 
 road Blythe looked about with the strange feel- 
 ing of a home-comer after years of absence, so 
 crowded with events had been the months just 
 past. 
 
 Hester opened the door as she came up the 
 steps and greeted her affectionately. Blythe went 
 at once to her aunt's room, where Mrs. Blake lay 
 helpless, her hand clasped in that of her husband, 
 drawn closer to him in the shadow of death than 
 she had ever been in the full flush of life. There 
 was a look in her eyes as Blythe bent over her 
 that made the girl stoop and kiss her tenderly. 
 
A Vision Realized 175 
 
 Then she sat down and took the other hand in 
 her own. 
 
 "She can't live but a few hours, the doctors 
 say," Hester had told her. "Paralysis of the 
 nerve centers as well as internal injuries." 
 
 It was not long, indeed, for as the day waned 
 she seemed to sink lower, closing sometimes her 
 wide, questioning eyes ; but what lay behind them 
 and her locked lips no one could know, for, 
 though she rallied once as the day waned, it was 
 to speak only one indistinct word, "Good-by." 
 Then in the twilight she passed out with the 
 dying day. 
 
 The next evening Blythe slipped out into the 
 orchard, searching for the peace that used to 
 come with the starlight. All day she had been 
 busy with the hundred and one things which 
 needed attending to, glad to be at work that she 
 might forget, in some measure, the headache and 
 that baffling sense of loss that comes when those 
 with whom we have walked a little way have 
 passed beyond our ken. Dropping down on the 
 grass at the foot of an old, gnarled apple tree, 
 she looked out across the peaceful meadow, 
 strung with the tiny lanterns of dancing fireflies, 
 to where the lights of the town pricked through 
 the dusk. 
 
176 A Reasonable Service 
 
 Presently she was roused by the sound of ap- 
 proaching footsteps, and some one called her 
 name softly. She hesitated a moment before she 
 answered, for the voice was Neil's. 
 
 "Where are you, Blythe? Ah, I thought I 
 might find you here." He held out his hands 
 and drew her to her feet. "Heaven knows I 
 don't want to intrude, little girl, but if there's 
 anything I can do I want to do it. Somehow 
 you haven't seemed to care to have me around 
 lately. What have I done, Blythe? Tell me." 
 
 Leaning against the bole of the big tree, her 
 face white in the dusk, she told him. 
 
 "I'm sorry, Blythe," he said gravely. "I should 
 have explained long ago if I had known. Fan- 
 nie's family and ours were friends and neighbors 
 for years. She comes from good stock I don't 
 know why she went to the bad. Margaret found 
 her ill in one of the factory shanties ill and 
 penniless. She and mother did all they could for 
 her and got her back on her feet again, and finally 
 mother persuaded her to go home to her father 
 and mother who live alone and wanted her. Mar- 
 garet and I were taking her there that day I 
 suppose Margaret was in the car and you did not 
 see her. If you don't believe me, she will tell 
 you the same." 
 
A Vision Realized 177 
 
 "I shall never ask her I do believe yon, Neil." 
 And peace and healing came to her, even in the 
 midst of heartache. 
 
 Loath to leave her uncle in his new loneli- 
 ness, she lingered a few days ; but at last she felt 
 that she must go, and told him so. 
 
 "Why can't you stay, Blythe?" he asked. "I 
 need you we all need you." 
 
 And then, to her own surprise, she found her- 
 self thinking with regret of the office, the little 
 white chapel, and the mission Sunday school. 
 But she knew that, while others could do her 
 work there, no one else could fill her niche in her 
 uncle's heart and home, so she left with the prom- 
 ise to return as soon as Mr. Aldrich could find 
 another assistant in the office. 
 
 "Hester and the youngsters will keep you from 
 being lonely until I come back," she told him. 
 For she had found in the home Hester's orphan 
 niece and nephew who were finishing out the 
 school year with their aunt, the one with whom 
 they had been living having moved away. 
 
 One morning Margaret came into the office 
 where she was at work. 
 
 "Blythe," she said, "I want you to go with me 
 to the June meeting of the factory owners next 
 week. I am to report on my work and I want 
 RS 12 
 
178 A Reasonable Service 
 
 you there to verify some of the things I tell them 
 and stand back of me when I ask for better 
 dwellings and more sanitary conditions for the 
 factory people. There is as much sickness in 
 summer as in winter, but because there is less 
 suffering among them as a whole they don't real- 
 ize it. I have been trying to make them see that 
 dirty dooryards and swarming flies are respon- 
 sible in a great measure for the rows of little 
 graves that grow longer every year ; but they say, 
 and with reason, too, 'What can we do? We 
 must throw our refuse somewhere, and our houses 
 are too poor to keep the flies out.' They must 
 have help and encouragement or they won't try 
 to clean up." 
 
 "I don't want to be a wet blanket," Blythe re- 
 turned, "and I'll go with you gladly, but I don't 
 believe the factory people will get any favors. 
 The company wound is still raw over the loss of 
 last winter, which the owners blame upon all im- 
 partially, and they will tell you calmly that they 
 cannot afford any more improvements, with the 
 extra building on hand this year." 
 
 "I'm going, at least," Margaret declared, "and 
 do what I can. You are in a position to know all 
 that I do and help me if you will." 
 
 "I'll do it gladly," was the reply. "My heart 
 
A Vision Realized 179 
 
 is with the factory people, but I can get the other 
 fellow's viewpoint too, you see." 
 
 They went and presented the case as strongly 
 as possible ; but the company, divided against it- 
 self, could not agree on any decision, and all 
 Margaret obtained was a half-hearted promise 
 to look things over and see what could be done 
 which proved to be very little. 
 
 John Blake was waiting for Blythe when she 
 reached home that evening. "I'm going to ar- 
 range for every child to spend a week at Pleas- 
 ant Acres this summer," he said when she told 
 of the meeting; "that is, if you and Hester can 
 manage a dozen or so at a time. We can stretch 
 two tents on the lawn for them to sleep in and 
 turn them loose through the day. We'll make 
 them think they've had a peep into paradise." 
 All of which happened in due time. His next 
 remark, however, filled Blythe with dismay. 
 
 "Hester thinks she must leave this fall," he 
 said. "This aunt the children have been living 
 with has moved on to a western ranch where 
 there is not much chance for an education, so 
 Hester thinks she must look after them." 
 
 "Why, Uncle John, we can't get along with- 
 out Hester ! It is an absolute impossibility ! Why 
 can't the children stay with us and go to school?" 
 
180 A Reasonable Service 
 
 Which was exactly what he wished her to pro- 
 pose, but he only said, "I am perfectly willing 
 myself, but I wanted to consult you first. You 
 are my junior partner, you know." 
 
 One summer morning a few weeks later Neil 
 walked into his office in such exuberant spirits 
 that his stenographer looked at him in some sur- 
 prise. 
 
 "Lovely morning, Miss Steele," he assured 
 her. 
 
 "Why, yes rather cloudy, though." 
 
 "So it is I hadn't noticed. It is clearing 
 away, however." 
 
 Then he went to work at his desk and became 
 so absorbed that when she inquired about the lo- 
 cation of a farm which was listed for sale he an- 
 swered, "Pleasant Acres, a mile east of town." 
 
 "I was referring to Riverview Farm," she cor- 
 rected him, rather coldly. 
 
 "Oh, yes, excuse me!" he apologized hastily. 
 "I was thinking of another place." 
 
 The day, usually so full, dragged abominably, 
 and he was glad when an errand called him out 
 of town in the afternoon, for it relieved his spirits 
 somewhat to get out in the country and drive the 
 runabout at the top of its speed. When he came 
 back Miss Steele was gone, much to his relief, 
 
A Vision Realized 181 
 
 and he turned his attention immediately to the 
 telephone. 
 
 "Hello, Is this 417? Is this Blythe?" 
 
 "Yes, this is Blythe," she assured him. 
 
 "I saw you come this morning or rather I 
 saw you go out of town." 
 
 "Did you? You are a long time making your- 
 self known." 
 
 "Oh, well, business, you know. I'm coming 
 out this evening if you don't mind," he added. 
 
 "All right; do. If we had anything prepared 
 for company," she continued, "I'd ask you out 
 for supper, but Uncle John was called away this 
 afternoon, so we're just having old maid's tea." 
 
 "What is that?" he inquired. "I've never sam- 
 pled one, I guess." 
 
 "Oh, anything that is convenient," she re- 
 turned. "This time it is milk just off the ice and 
 chicken sandwiches and fresh-baked rolls and 
 honey and strawberry shortcake with whipped 
 cream, and 
 
 "An oasis in the desert, Blythe! I've been eat- 
 ing restaurant fare for two solid weeks." 
 
 "Oh, yes, and Hester baked molasses cookies 
 to-day fat ones with raisins sticking out every 
 now and then." 
 
 "Oh, have a heart!" he implored. "I shall 
 
182 A Reasonable Service 
 
 come without an invitation if you continue to 
 tempt me." 
 
 "Well, come on/' she said, demurely. "I'm 
 not sure what Hester will say, but perhaps she 
 won't mind. Shall we look for you right away?" 
 
 But her question fell on a dead receiver, for 
 Neil was on his way to the runabout. He knew 
 Hester too well to be at all alarmed at Blythe's 
 suggestion of an inhospitable reception, and 
 headed the car in the direction of Pleasant Acres 
 at once. 
 
 When supper was over he donned a pair of 
 Mr. Blake's overalls and helped the hired man 
 with the evening work, then romped with the chil- 
 dren on the lawn and so won their hearts that 
 there was a howl of protest when Hester carried 
 them off to bed. Then he went in search of 
 Blythe, who had disappeared, and found her with 
 Mr. Blake, sampling the pink-cheeked harvest 
 apples in the orchard. 
 
 "Have one," she invited. "When Uncle came 
 home he told me the apples were ripe so we ran 
 away and came to see." 
 
 Presently John Blake left them and went to- 
 wards the house, and Neil turned to her and 
 asked reminiscently, "Have we ever watched the 
 
A Vision Realized 183 
 
 moon come up over the hill from the edge of the 
 orchard?" 
 
 "I don't remember any such occasion," she re- 
 plied. 
 
 "Then let's establish a precedent," he proposed, 
 and they strolled down through the apple trees 
 and into the clover-scented meadow beyond. 
 They talked of what does it matter? Every- 
 thing except the one thing beating uppermost in 
 their young hearts. Halting at last, they stood 
 leaning on the gate which led into a wide wheat 
 field where the shocks of grain stood in long rows 
 like silent sentinels of the night. Before them 
 lay spread the great checkerboard of field and 
 meadow, bathed in the soft afterglow of the sun- 
 set and the light of a round, yellow moon, just 
 peering over the edge of the horizon. 
 
 For a time they stood in silence; then Neil re- 
 peated reverently, " 'Great and marvelous are 
 thy works, O Lord." How much nearer heaven 
 would we wish to be than this, if only there were 
 no sin and sorrow anywhere in the peace of the 
 night?" Then he turned to her and said softly, 
 "It would be almost heaven to me if I knew 
 Sweetheart, if we love each other, why wait 
 longer to say it?" 
 
 Pray do not listen longer. This is their hour, 
 
184 A Reasonable Service 
 
 and no unbidden ear should hear. You, young 
 man, if you wish light on the subject, may con- 
 sult an encyclopedia of etiquette or a treatise on 
 mathematics with equal benefit, for no matter 
 how carefully you plan your speech you will find 
 it gone from your mind and only the words of 
 the heart remaining when the decisive moment 
 comes; and you, dear girl, will think them the 
 sweetest words ever spoken and read the mean- 
 ing clear, even though the tongue that gives them 
 utterance be halting and uncertain. As for the 
 rest of us, we have our memories, sweeter by far 
 in that they are shared by only one other. 
 
 So, though moonlit eves have been made for 
 lovers since the world began, this one smiled only 
 for these two. For them, the grave, golden moon 
 lighted the way home across the dewy meadows 
 while the clover blossoms kissed their feet as they 
 passed; and for them rose dreams and hopes for 
 the future, fused and blended together by the 
 pure, white fire of love. And a gray-haired man, 
 watching them come home, felt a mist before his 
 eyes which was not the mist of the night, and a 
 strange pain at his heart at the stir of an old 
 memory. 
 
 At the edge of the orchard they paused to look 
 out again across the moonlit fields. "Dear," he 
 
A Vision Realized 185 
 
 asked, "would you be content to be the wife of a 
 common, everyday farmer?" 
 
 "I can imagine a great deal worse condition 
 in life," she replied, smiling. "Tell me about it." 
 
 "I have always wanted to dig in soil I could 
 call my own and breathe the free air and do all 
 the experimenting I wished, for myself. I have 
 a little ahead enough to give us a start towards 
 a home of our own. I have received the intima- 
 tion, from those in a position to know, that my 
 previous training and experience would be of use 
 in the work which has grown dear to my soul 
 the building up of Zion. So, with your consent, 
 I have decided where to buy. Would a little cot- 
 tage, set in a tangle of green trees and the view 
 of a river with brown and emerald shores, be any 
 inducement?" 
 
 "Oh, Neil," she breathed softly, "you meant 
 an uncommon, everyday farmer, didn't you? Yes, 
 I'm sure I shall be happy as a queen!" 
 
 "Is everything ready, Hester?" Blythe came 
 in through the kitchen door one bright October 
 morning, fresh as the new day itself, with a glow 
 on her face and a light in her blue eyes that Hes- 
 ter did not fail to note. 
 
186 A Reasonable Service 
 
 "Everything is ready," she replied. "Just a 
 few finishing touches. The children will help me 
 with those, so run along and do whatever you 
 please. They must do something to make up for 
 missing school to-day." 
 
 "Sure we will," cried David, and Madge added 
 an eager assent; so Blythe slipped away to the 
 veranda for a long look at the view she loved so 
 well and to dream for a moment of a future close 
 at hand. Already the month had been marked 
 by two events which gave her reason to remember 
 it ; one the baptisms of John Blake, Roger, Mar- 
 ian, and Hester in the chapel font at Sardis ; and 
 the other, the ordination of Neil Cameron to the 
 lesser priesthood at the fall conference, held at 
 the little white chapel where the angel message 
 had first come to her. She had listened with 
 heart overflowing with emotion, to the words, so 
 nearly identical with those spoken to her, though 
 given through a different officiating minister: 
 "Thou shalt be an instrument in the hands of 
 God in the work of the redemption of Zion and 
 the building up of the New Jerusalem." 
 
 She was thinking of this now, as she stood 
 looking out over the sun-filled valley thinking, 
 too, of the dear home she was leaving and the 
 man she respected and loved as a father, and of 
 
A Vision Realized 187 
 
 her future with Neil, whom she respected no less 
 and, after the way of the world, loved a little 
 more. She was waiting for him now, wondering 
 why her heart could find room at the same mo- 
 ment for such a measure of pain and rapture. 
 She searched the road for the familiar brewster- 
 green runabout, but there was only a dark blue 
 "chummy" roadster, shining and new, in sight, 
 which received but a passing glance until she saw 
 it stop at the gate. Then she gave a start of sur- 
 prise, for Neil himself stepped out, took off his 
 hat, and waved it invitingly. 
 
 "Come down from your tower, princess," he 
 called. "I have something to show you. You 
 are a vision of the morning!" he continued, on 
 closer inspection of her glowing face. "A vision 
 to bring mere man to his knees in the dust! 
 It makes my heart turn over to reflect that in 
 less than two hours I shall have the undisputed 
 right to kiss you any time, any place 
 
 "What extravagant language you do use, 
 Neil ! And don't get down on your knees grass 
 stains are very hard to remove. Whose car is 
 this, and what were you going to show me?" 
 
 "My dear, this is our car! Don't you know the 
 runabout was only loaned to me while acting as 
 county agent ? This is the coach of state in which 
 
188 A Reasonable Service 
 
 we shall depart on our wedding journey a few 
 hours hence. If you will take the trouble to ob- 
 serve closely, you will find the space between the 
 front and back seats packed with necessary arti- 
 cles for camping out in case we would desire to 
 do so and the weather permits. I tried to leave 
 room for a suit case or two," he added, poking 
 about among the contents of the machine. 
 
 "Oh, how lovely!" she cried. "And to think 
 we can go in our very own car! I have been 
 dreading a railway journey!" 
 
 "Good morning, Neil." John Blake had saun- 
 tered down to the gate as they talked and stood 
 looking the new possession over appraisingly. 
 "When you two children have finished admiring 
 the car and one another, come on into the house. 
 I want to talk to you." 
 
 He was seated before his desk when they came 
 in, a pile of papers before him which had been 
 recently collected from an open drawer. From 
 them he selected a bank book and held it out to 
 Blythe. 
 
 "When your father and mother died," he said, 
 "I took what they left and deposited it in your 
 name. This shows what you have, with the addi- 
 tion of the interest and a little I have added now 
 and then." 
 
A Vision Realized 189 
 
 Blythe took it wonderingly and looked at the 
 total. Even a rapid computation, after a glance 
 at the original amount, told her that Mr. Blake's 
 addition had not been so small as he would have 
 it seem. 
 
 "I wanted to be sure you would have some- 
 thing for yourself," he went on, "but so long as 
 you had no need of it I said nothing about it to 
 you, though my lawyer was fully advised of the 
 matter." 
 
 "You are far too good to me, uncle," Blythe 
 said unsteadily, her arms around his neck. "You 
 have always been a father to me." 
 
 With a quick gesture of tenderness he drew 
 her down to his knee. "You will notice this total 
 is several years old," he went on. "I withdrew 
 it then and invested it in Government bonds, so 
 there is a little more plus the interest. It is ready 
 for you whenever you want it." 
 
 "That is for Blythe to decide," Neil replied 
 quietly, in answer to the glance Mr. Blake gave 
 him. "The money is safely invested now, and it 
 seems as well to me to leave it in bonds." 
 
 "Just as well for the present, perhaps," Blythe 
 said, "but I happen to know where it can be used 
 to advantage." Then she went on with firmness 
 as Neil raised a dissenting voice, "This is going 
 
190 A Reasonable Service 
 
 to be a partnership business as well as a steward- 
 ship, or none at all. You see, uncle, we are going 
 on that basis, so it is best to tell you before you 
 turn it over to us." 
 
 "My dear child, it is yours without any turn- 
 ing over. As for the stewardship part of it, I 
 filed an inventory when I visited the bishop two 
 weeks ago and expect to go on that basis myself. 
 And though I expect to remain here a while, I 
 shall sell when I can do so to advantage and do 
 my share towards helping to buy up the land 
 there, as we have been commanded to do. I am 
 trying, just now, to get my tithing paid up, and 
 it is taking most of my loose change, he went on 
 whimsically, "but the Lord has blessed me so 
 abundantly all my life that it seems to me to be 
 about time to begin paying the back rent. So go 
 ahead, my children ; do the best you can with the 
 light and intelligence God gives you and may his 
 blessing be ever with you." 
 
 There was no time for more, for the guests 
 were arriving. There were only a few, in ac- 
 cordance with Blythe's wishes Marian and 
 Roger; and Ralph, Jean, Mrs. Cameron, Mar- 
 garet, and Betty from the city. And since all 
 weddings are more or less alike, we shall only 
 say that after the brief but impressive ceremony 
 
A Vision Realized 191 
 
 was over, with Elder Howe, the minister who 
 had led Blythe into the waters of baptism, offi- 
 ciating, and Hester's bountiful dinner disposed 
 of, the farewells were said and the blue roadster 
 went spinning down the road, while John Blake 
 waved bravely from the veranda as long as a cer- 
 tain blue-clad, girlish figure with a fluttering 
 handkerchief was visible. 
 
 So they began their life journey together. 
 Perhaps the thought of the bigness of it sealed 
 their lips, for they sat silent while the brown road 
 rolled up to meet them and disappeared beneath 
 the flying wheels. At length Blythe, looking up 
 at Neil's strong, browned profile, felt the pain of 
 the sundering of old ties melt into a warm wave 
 of joy, and murmured, softly and experiment- 
 ally, the unaccustomed words, "My husband." 
 
 Softly spoken though they were, he heard them 
 and turned to her with his grave eyes sud- 
 denly alight. "My wife!" he said. "It sobers 
 one, doesn't it, sweetheart that marriage cove- 
 nant that says so little and means so much. I 
 hope it may always mean as much to us as it does 
 at this instant." 
 
 "It will mean more and more as the years go 
 by," she replied. "It must. I am not afraid 
 with you." 
 
192 A Reasonable Service 
 
 "Your husband has many faults, I fear," said 
 Neil, slowly, "but I have come to you clean and 
 straight, unashamed to look the world in the face, 
 conscious I have never knowingly wronged man, 
 woman, or little child." 
 
 "Do you remember another ride we took on 
 just such a day as this?" she inquired after an- 
 other silence. "The very first one we took to- 
 gether and alone if I remember rightly?" 
 
 "Do I remember? Shall I ever forget? Only 
 you had too much to say about Bob Weston to 
 make it an unmixed pleasure to me. I felt ag- 
 grieved because he had ever spoken of that road 
 on top of the world. I wanted to discover it to 
 you solely by myself. I used to fear he was 
 something of a rival. Was I right?" 
 
 "We were always friends," she replied. Never 
 had she spoken, even to Neil, of Bob's farewell 
 visit that winter night. "He is in South America 
 now, with a party of mining engineers. That was 
 the one thing he always wished to do. He even 
 took a course in it at one time, but his mother 
 did not approve no gentleman's job, she said 
 and his father was determined he should be a 
 lawyer. Between them and a doting grandfather 
 he came very near to being nothing, but some 
 
A Vision Realized 193 
 
 stronger strain of ancestry saved him from the 
 wreck." 
 
 "Was that the reason you didn't marry him 
 instead of me?" Neil persisted, searching the 
 grave eyes lifted to his. 
 
 "No you are the reason," she answered with 
 a reassuring smile. But she did not tell him of 
 the one letter she had received from Bob after 
 he left, in which he said, "Have you married Neil 
 Cameron yet, Blythe? I know he is ten times 
 more worthy of you than I but don't blame me 
 too much when I tell you that even yet, lying by 
 the campfire at night, I have my dreams." Nor 
 did she tell him of her reply a letter full of 
 hope and encouragement and news of home and 
 friends, but one which brought Bob's dreams to 
 a speedy and merciful end. 
 
 One golden afternoon, when they had tired of 
 loitering through the dreamy, enchanted days 
 and star-strewn, mysterious nights of Indian 
 summer, they stood on the Temple Lot and 
 looked out across the City of Hope. Peace was 
 over all like a mantle, enshrouding the old Stone 
 Church, the quiet streets, the distant squares of 
 the city whose clustering roofs were half hidden 
 among the trees. Only the passing of an occa- 
 sional automobile and the far-away whine of a 
 RS 13 
 
194 A Reasonable Service 
 
 city-bound electric car broke the stillness of the 
 sunlit air, softened by the warm, autumn haze. 
 
 "I don't know why I have such a feeling of 
 perfect peace and contentment," Blythe said, 
 unless the blessing of God rests in fuller measure 
 on this land that he has set apart as his own. It 
 is a beautiful city and a beautiful land perfect, 
 it seems to me." 
 
 "Perfect in beauty and location, certainly," 
 Neil responded, "because the place was chosen 
 by the Master Builder; and we earnestly hope 
 and fervently pray and ardently work for its 
 perfection in all things when it shall be a glorious 
 similitude of the pattern given by its great De- 
 signer." 
 
 For a time they lingered, but as the hour grew 
 late they left the sacred spot and, winding 
 through the streets, came out upon a rock road 
 with a panorama of country on either side so fair 
 to the eye that Blythe caught her breath in de- 
 light. 
 
 "I don't wonder that you wanted to come 
 back," she said. "It is a vision of loveliness. Are 
 we near home yet?" 
 
 "A few miles farther on," was the answer, and 
 she sat in silence, watching the changing land- 
 scape. As it began to darken they turned into a 
 
A Vision Realized 195 
 
 wide valley and Neil pointed out to her the out- 
 line of a small bungalow nestling among over- 
 hanging trees a little way ahead. 
 
 "There is our home," he told her, "and there, 
 not far beyond, the town and church. Here, 
 please God, we shall live and labor until he or- 
 ders otherwise." 
 
 They drove in under the bending trees and 
 climbed the steps to the door; but when Neil had 
 opened it Blythe gave an exclamation of sur- 
 prise. 
 
 "Why, it is all furnished!" she cried. "No 
 wonder you wouldn't stop and go furniture hunt- 
 ing in the city! When did you do it, Neil?" 
 
 "That uncle of yours insisted on doing it," he 
 replied. "That was one of his reasons for com- 
 ing down last month. I know we had planned 
 on doing it ourselves, but he was quite unman- 
 ageable about it. He did it better than we could 
 have afforded to, no doubt, for you know there 
 are decided limitations to your husband's pocket- 
 book. At his request I told him what you wanted, 
 so I don't believe you will be disappointed." 
 
 "Dear Uncle John! What have I done to de- 
 serve all this happiness?" 
 
 "Once before you reproached yourself for such 
 a state of affairs," he reminded her, "and then 
 
196 A Reasonable Service 
 
 you found your pathway full of lions. So don't 
 think the difficulties are all over now. We shall 
 have our trials that will try us to the very core, 
 perhaps, for in this way are we to be made 
 polished and tested stones for the building of 
 Zion; but if we keep right with each other and 
 with God we have nothing to fear." 
 
 "I know," she answered softly, "and I know, 
 too, that no matter how much we care for each 
 other there will come times to both of us when 
 we shall have to fight our own personal battles 
 alone, with no one but God to help us." 
 
 Then, womanlike, she explored the house and 
 lingered over its contents until Neil, coming in 
 from one of his trips to the car, inquired, "Are 
 we going to have anything to eat, Blythe? I've 
 made a fire and put the tea kettle on and brought 
 the stuff in from the car." 
 
 "Oh, of course," she replied. "I had forgot- 
 ten there was any such thing as eating." 
 
 When the meal was ready, however, she missed 
 him and went in search, calling his name. He 
 answered from the porch and, as she came to his 
 side, slipped his arm around her and drew her 
 close. 
 
 "I have been seeing visions night visions, I 
 suppose," he said. "Did you ever look upon a 
 
A Vision Realized 197 
 
 scene of such surpassing beauty as this moonlit 
 valley? I have been looking into the future and I 
 can see it as I see it to-night, but in it dwells a 
 busy, happy people, filled with the love of God 
 and their fellow men. I see mills and factories 
 at work I see farmers and miners and me- 
 chanics men in every vocation of life, working 
 together in peace and harmony and understand- 
 ing. And when I look ahead a little farther to 
 the time when our Lord shall come suddenly to 
 his temple, my soul is filled with such boundless 
 exaltation and joy that I can find no words to 
 express it." 
 
 From somewhere in the night came the distant 
 rattle of a wagon, as a load of happy young peo- 
 ple passed along the road and their voices floated 
 back, mellow and sweet: 
 
 "Israel, Israel, God is speaking; 
 
 Hear your great Deliv'rer's voice! 
 Now a glorious morn is breaking 
 
 For the people of his choice. 
 Come to Zion, come to Zion, 
 And within her walls rejoice." 
 
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 emplification of the Master's call: "Go work in my 
 vineyard." 
 
 ^Written especially for the young people of the 
 church. 
 
 No. 866C Cloth.... ....$1.50 
 
 HERALD PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI 
 
What a Dollar Will Do 
 
 ^Invested in our collection of tracts num- 
 bering over thirty in all, and covering a 
 wide range of general and special sub- 
 jects, our 
 
 'Dollar Library 
 
 99 
 
 will give one a survey of our church be- 
 liefs that is at once comprehensive and 
 satisfactory. 
 
 IJThis is one of our popular numbers and 
 usually elicits repeat orders for friends. 
 
 1JA dollar bill or your check will bring it in 
 a hurry and you will appreciate it for 
 months to come. 
 
 HERALD PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI 
 
Square Blocks 
 
 including other sermons and articles by 
 President Elbert A. Smith 
 
 ^Perhaps no writer in the church has more 
 friends to appreciate his literary work 
 than our "Brother Elbert," long-time edi- 
 tor of Saints' Herald and Autumn Leaves. 
 In this book we have some of his best, se- 
 lected to cover a wide range of subjects 
 and situations. It is a book of over 500 
 pages, each page inspiring one to higher 
 attainments. 
 
 Order No. 817C $1.75 
 
 HERALD PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 
 INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI 
 
A true story with valuable historical 
 setting 
 
 A Story of the Plains 
 
 By Eva Bailey Short 
 
 there are who feel that life is too 
 serious to be devoted to reading fiction. 
 Here they may satisfy the universal crav- 
 ing for living over again dramatic scenes 
 by reading this narrative which has its 
 basis in pioneer life in the great West of 
 America. 
 
 flThere are many thrills and a pleasing 
 church atmosphere surrounding the chief 
 character, who becomes a "valiant one" in 
 the early days of the Reorganization. 
 
 No. 869C Cloth ........................ ............................... $1.00 
 
 HERALD PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI 
 
Zion Builders' Sermons 
 
 A series of sermons preached by Elbert A. 
 Smith to the young people. 
 
 This is about as readable a collection of 
 sermons as one will ordinarily find, based on 
 subjects of fundamental value and so brim- 
 ful of human interest that boys of twelve 
 years of age sat intently all during the eve- 
 nings of their delivery. 
 
 In booklet form of 116 pages and at a 
 very nominal cost. They convict the mem- 
 ber and convince the nonmember. 
 
 No. T1308 20c 
 
 HERALD PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI 
 
A 5tory of Old Jlauvoo 
 
 Timbers for the Temple 
 
 By Elbert A. Smith 
 
 1JThe dramatic scenes in the church at Nauvoo 
 about the time of the death of Joseph Smith are 
 here interwoven into a historical story that fixes 
 the events of those days permanently and meaning- 
 fully in the reader's mind. 
 
 reaction of righteous minds over the sugges- 
 tions concerning spiritual wifery brought among 
 the people at this time, is graphically portrayed 
 and one comes to appreciate the courage and te- 
 nacity manifested by those who took a vigorous 
 stand for the right. 
 
 No. 888 $1.25 
 
 HERALD PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 
 INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI 
 
2 3 APR 1967 
 18 JUN1967