CHAPTER II
During the following weeks Mr. McGowan continued to grow in favor with the people of the church and village. Every Sunday the little chapel was crowded. His sermons, practical in thought, simple in language, and direct in delivery, were discussed about the tables of the country folk during Sunday dinner. The boys of the Athletic Club had received him cordially, not only because of his athletic ability, but because he had proved himself a good fellow. Elder Fox had strenuously opposed intimate relationships between the club and former ministers, but he made no attempt to interfere with Mr. McGowan, although he remained skeptical as to the wisdom of such secular tendencies. Sim Hicks, the keeper of the Inn, did not like the minister, and declared he would 30 oust him from the community if it were the last act of his life.
The one man who responded most naturally, whole-heartedly, and with simple loyalty to the power of the young man’s personality was Captain Josiah Pott. These two became close companions, and one evening Mrs. Eadie Beaver remarked concerning it:
“Ain’t you glad I got him in with you, Josiah?”
“Cal’late I am, Eadie. I was mad at first, but it’s beginning to mean a heap to me to have him here.”
“You always seemed so lonely when you’d come home, and I’d see your light in the setting-room window. It don’t seem that way now when I look across.”
“It is real nice and homelike having him in the house.”
“I’m glad it’s different for you,” declared his next-door neighbor as she looked about the room. “Things look real trim since the painters got through.”
The seaman’s face clouded. “It took a sight more than I thought it would, though, 31 and it ain’t going to be easy to pay back to Jim what I borrowed to do the repairing with.”