Meanwhile, he had had many experiences of value in his widespread congregation, among them the raising of a charitable fund for an unfortunate neighbour, and he had become well acquainted with Jack Shives, the blacksmith, a singular mixture of brusqueness and kindness. Shives was a good citizen who did good work at the forge, but he was utterly opposed to all creeds and churches. He made it a point to set all the weight of his solid character against these, as well as the power of his biting tongue. As soon as Dr. Jebb asked him to take the pulpit, Jim called on Belle. "Well, I'm to have another chance," he said, as with one hand he lifted an armchair that Dr. Jebb could not have moved at all. "Good," said she. "What is the subject to be?" "I have three subjects I wish to treat," he began; "one, foreign missions; the next is the revised version of the New Testament; and the last is the secularizing influence of church clubs. Which do you say?" Belle looked serious. At length she said: "Maybe you can make something constructive out of these ideas. It depends on how you handle them; but they seem to me far-off and doubtful." He looked the disappointment he felt and waited for her to go on. "What was the _good_ thing that struck you most when you came among us?" Hartigan gazed through the window at the round top of Cedar Mountain, then at the frank face of the slim girl, and with a little outburst of his real nature he cried: "Bejabers, it was the kind way you all received me." "All right, then; why not make _that_ your subject for the next sermon? Let these people know that you think they are kind, and that they make you feel it, and they will become kinder. Then, when you are established in their hearts, you can talk about their faults. That will come later. Since we must find a scripture text to hang your talk on, let's take Ephesians IV:32: 'Be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.'"