Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
"One day somebody in that church had an inspiration. 'I tell you what
it is,' one of the members said, bringing down his doubled-up fist on
the seat before him for emphasis, 'I believe we ought to make Daniel
Miller our treasurer. That thing would suit him, and he is just the man
to do the work.'
"'But Daniel Miller is so deaf,' objected one. 'He grows worse and
worse; I notice that his wife always has to find the hymns for him, and
the place in the Bible, and point to the text.'
"'What if he is deaf?' said his champion; 'a man doesn't have to hear
in order to add money and keep accounts, and make out bills and send
them out, and keep everything straight. I believe it is work that he
could do, and I believe it would do him good; make him feel that he can
do something for the church, and that we have confidence in him. I tell
you what it is, brethren, I'm going to propose his name at our next
election.'
"Well, he was as good as his word, and sure enough, all the people
said 'Amen.' They did it with so much enthusiasm, and with such a look
on their faces that said, 'What a splendid idea! I wonder we never
thought of it before,' that there was quite an excitement, and Mrs.
Miller looked about her, and the tears began to gather in her eyes, and
she put her head down suddenly on the seat in front of her. She was a
grand, good woman—a helpmeet to her good husband in every sense of the
word.
"Well, Daniel Miller looked around with that meek, inquiring look on
his face, a little troubled, as much as to say, 'Are you having a good
time, brethren, or is there something going on in the Lord's house that
oughtn't to be; I'm jealous for his honor; I hope all is well.'
"The chairman got out of his chair of office and went down the aisle,
and bent over Mr. Miller, and said in a good, loud voice, 'You have
been elected our Church Treasurer by a unanimous vote.'
"You ought to have seen his face then; it was a picture. It flushed and
glowed, and his eyes grew dim, and his lips quivered, and it seemed for
a minute that he couldn't speak at all. Then he stammered out something
about not being fitted for the work—his infirmity being so great; he
wished he could do something, he would be glad to, if he could, but
maybe it was a risk to try it.
"Then the chairman put down his mouth to his ear again, and called out,
'We all stand ready to go your security, every one of us.'
"And then, sir, if you will believe it, that decorous assembly, made
up of a class of people who believed every one of them in doing things
decently and in order, just clapped their hands, and he understood it,
and he got out his handkerchief very suddenly. You never saw anything
work more like a charm than that arrangement did all around.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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