BY REV. S. W. DUFFIELD.
OF course Queer Church is on Queer Street, in the town of Manoa. And all good boys and girls who study geography know just where Manoa ought to be.
The Rev. Mr. Thingumbob is the minister, and among the principal attendants are Mr. So-and-So, Mr. What’s-his-Name, Mr. Jigmaree, Mr. You-Know-Who, Mrs. Grundy, Mr. Tom Collins, the Misses Glubberson, Mr. What-d’ye-Callum, that distinguished foreign family the Van Danks, Mr. William Patterson, Mrs. Partington, and Mr. Gradgrind. You have possibly heard of some of these persons before. Besides, there is quite a congregation, and there is also a very big number of little people, aged all the way from five to fifteen.
Where there are so many of them it naturally follows that they have a large number of things their own way. But probably my story would not have been written if a little girl called True Gravelines hadn’t come to town. “True” is short for Gertrude, which was her name.
True had been taken from the Orphan Asylum by Mrs. Potiphar. And because she loved the little lady, Mrs. Potiphar had her taught and trained as her own daughter, and even Mrs. Grundy said that she was charming, and the Glubberson girls—who were old maids and not handsome—allowed that she would make a fine woman.
Finally True came across the story of “Goody-Two-Shoes,” which that great big child of an Oliver Goldsmith told so sweetly, and she had some new ideas. One of them was that she would like to make some changes in Queer Church.
So she got all the boys and girls together after school and proposed her plan. Now True was tall for her age, with dark eyes, and beautiful rich brown hair. And she wore lovely dresses, and such kid slippers, and such a splendid real gold chain with a true and genuine watch that ticked and kept time. So of course she had matters a good deal in her own hands.