Middle West -- Fiction; Short stories, American; Villages -- Fiction
“Come right in, gentlemen,” I says. “If it’s money, I can’t give you a
cent. If it’s work, I’m drove to death as it is. But if it’s advice, I
do enjoy myself giving that.”
It was our own superintendent that spoke, as being the least foreign to
me, I s’pose,--though it happened that I was better acquainted with both
the other two.
“It’s neither, Miss Marsh,” he says, “it’s some ideas we want off’n you.
We’ve got,” says he, “a plan.”
Then he unrolled it, assisted by the other two.
“We thought,” he says, “that in all this added interest in church
attendance which we are hoping to stimulate, the three churches had
ought to pull together a little.”
At that my heart jumped up. It was what I had been longing for, and
grieving because it didn’t come true.
“We thought we’d ought to have a little more community effort,” says the
White Frame superintendent, clearing his throat. I guess he knew how
that word “community” always gets me. I’d rather read that one word than
half the whole books on the market.
“Oh, yes,” I says. “Yes! I think so too.”
“We thought we’d ought to make the experience one of particular blessing
and fellowship,” says the Red Brick superintendent, fairly beaming.
And me, the simple soul, I beamed back.
“Count on me,” says I, fervent, “to do anything in the world to help on
a thing like that!”
“We were sure of it,” said our superintendent, “and that is why we have
come to you. Now,” says he, “the idea is this: We thought we’d each take
a color--give each church a color, you know.”
“A color?” says I.
“Exactly,” says he. “The White Frames white. The Red Bricks red. And us
blue. Then on each of the four Sundays the number present in the three
churches will be kept track of and totaled at the end of the month. And,
at the end of the month, the church having had the largest attendance
for the whole time shall be given a banquet by the other two. What do
you say to that?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account