The younger man had listened in deep dejection.
“Yes, it’s to be the old story. I saw it coming. The Lord is proving us again. But surely this will be the last. He will not again put us through fire and blood.”
He paused, and for a moment his quick brown eyes looked far away.
“And yet, do you know, Bishop, I’ve thought that he might mean us to save ourselves against this Gentile persecution. Sometimes I find it hard to control myself.”
The Bishop grinned appreciatively.
“So I heer’d. The Lute of the Holy Ghost got too rambunctious back in the States on the subject of our wrongs. And so they called you back from your mission?”
“They said I must learn to school myself; that I might hurt the cause by my ill-tempered zeal—and yet I brought in many—”
“I don’t blame you. I got in trouble the first and only mission I went on, and the first time I preached, at that. When I said, ‘Joseph was ordained by Peter, James, and John,’ a drunken wag in the audience got up and called me a damned liar. I started for him. I never reached him, but I reached the end of my mission right there. The Twelve decided I was usefuller here at home. They said I hadn’t got enough of the Lord’s humility for outside work. That was why they put me at the head of—that little organisation I wanted you to join last spring. And it’s done good work, too. You’ll join now fast enough, I guess. You begin to see the need of such doin’s. I can give you the oath any time.”
“No, Bishop, I didn’t mean that kind of resistance. It sounded too practical for me; I’m still satisfied to be the Lute of the Holy Ghost.”
“You can be a Son of Dan, too.”