"Well, he happened to be one of those men who never intrude on a pastor, no matter what time they come; so his pastor told him he was glad to see him, and would talk with him while he finished and put up his sermon; but Daniel didn't seem to want to talk; he watched that sermon with a curious, wistful air. At last he spoke, 'I've been turning a ridiculous idea over in my mind for a long time; I don't suppose it could be done, but I've thought sometimes that I would just like to try an experiment, and read over one of your sermons before you preached it, and see if I couldn't follow you from the pulpit better after that.' It was a queer notion, but it took the pastor's fancy. The fact was, he loved Daniel Miller so much that almost anything he said took his fancy, and he handed over the sermon and told the old gentleman to try it, by all means, he could have it as well as not. It would have done your heart good to see Daniel Miller's radiant face the next day. 'It worked, sir, it worked!' he said to the pastor, and he rubbed his hands together like a gleeful boy; 'I could follow you right along a good piece at a time.' If you'll believe it, that thing grew into a regular custom; the pastor had a boy, a bright enough fellow, who was always ready to scamper over to Daniel Miller's with the sermon on Saturday nights as soon as the minister could spare it, and wait while Daniel Miller went over it. Fact is, as the years went by, he was more willing to do that than any other errand the father could get up, and he and Nettie went over church accounts, and some other accounts together, many a Saturday night. But I happen to know that that pastor came to have a queer feeling that he couldn't preach a sermon until Daniel Miller went over it! That might be in part because he discovered that the old man had a way of going over it on his knees, and every sentence he came to that seemed to him ought to do a certain person any good, he would pray, 'Lord, bless that to John Watkins,' and so on, you know. Little Nettie, she let that secret out to the boy one night; and the minister came to feel that Daniel Miller was the associate pastor, and was praying the sermon into the hearts of the people all the time it was being preached. When a minister really feels that, he preaches carefully, I believe.