“Trew,” said Apollos, “that's another thing. I hed a message come once-t from my son that lives to Taunton. We was all so sca't and faint when we see it, that we did n't none of us dast to open it, and finally the feller that druv over with it hed to open it fur us.” “What was there in it?” said Mr. Small; “sickness?--death?” “No, he wanted his thick coat expressed up. But my wife didn't get over the shock for some time. Wonderful thing, that telegraph--here's a man standing a hundred miles off, like enough, and harpooning an idea chock right into your mind.” “Then that was a beautiful truth,” said Maria: “that father and Shakspeare would like enough be changed right round, in Heaven; I always said father wasn't appreciated here.” “Well,” said Apollos, “'tis always so; we don't begin to realize the value of a thing tell we lose it. Now that we sort o' stand and gaze at Uncle Capen at a fair distance, as it were, he looms. Ef he only hed n't kep' so quiet, always, about them 'ere wonders. A man really ought, in justice to himself, to blow his own horn--jest a little. But that was a grand discourse, wa'n't it, now?” “Oh, yes,” said Maria, “though I did feel nervous for the young man. Still, when you come to think what materials he had to make a sermon out of,--why, how could he help it! And yet, I doubt not he takes all the credit to himself.” “I should really have liked to have heard Father Cobb treat the subject,” said Mrs. Small, rising to go, and nodding to her husband. “'T was a grand theme. But 't was a real chance for the new minister. Such an opportunity doesn't happen not once in a lifetime.” The next morning, after breakfast, on his way home from the post-office, the minister stopped in at Dr. Hunter's office. The Doctor was reading a newspaper. Mr. Holt took a chair in silence. The Doctor laid down the paper and eyed him quizzically, and then slowly shook his head. “I don't know about you ministers,” he said. “I attended the funeral; I heard the biographical discourse; I understand it gave great satisfaction; I have reflected on it over night; and now, what I want to know is, what on earth 'there was in it about Uncle Capen.” The minister smiled. “I think,” he replied, “that all that I said about Uncle Capen was strictly true.” End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The New Minister's Great Opportunity, by Heman White Chaplin