The theological student, whoever he chanced to be, sent down once a month from the seminary to try his apprentice hand upon the chapel congregation, was always advised to see 'Liphalet Truitt when he first arrived; and in the summer boarder season, when the women were all busy, he was more than likely to be fed and housed over Sunday by Mr. Truitt, who came near to being deacon of the congregation. 'Liphalet was the mainstay of the Ladies' Aid Society. He was the one called into the breach whenever failure, financial or otherwise, seemed to threaten any branch of the church work. He was the head and spirit of the annual Sunday-school picnic, and he was always present in the winter, and active, at the semimonthly bean or oyster-suppers rounding out the regular sessions of the Ladies' Aid Society meetings. Thus, 'Liphalet was the ladies' stand-by. And it was at Christmas that the taut little ex-steward shone more brightly than at any other season. Being a lover of children, he helped make the greatest holiday of all the year a delight for those who attended the chapel Sunday-school. He supplied most of the toys and candy hung for each child on the tree, buying the gifts himself and distributing them from his sack, with other presents for the older people, in the guise of good Saint Nicholas on Christmas night. He aided in dressing the chapel in Christmas garb, and sometimes secured the tree itself from some dealer in Paulmouth. It might be that a selfish thought had entered into his mind at first regarding these holiday activities. But what good thing, after all, has not the germ of selfishness at the root of it? "A certain party" had been on the Christmas celebration committee from time immemorial. Eliphalet Truitt had first given his money and personal endeavor to make the occasion a success because it offered the opportunity for an association that was very sweet indeed to him. Between voyages, during his brief visits to Cardhaven, he had been wont to take his flute in the evening and call at the cottage where "a certain party" kept house for Doctor Ambrose. Demure, pink-cheeked Sue Ambrose, with the pretty waves of silvering hair drawn over her shell-like ears, the soft white bands at throat and wrists, her trim figure, her low throaty, contralto voice like a bird call when she laughed, seemed to 'Liphalet to possess the most delightful personality in all the world.