"I give it up," Philip replied, "though I shan't be surprised if 'tis something relative to a camera being a means of grace."
"I can't imagine how."
"Perhaps not, but let's await—literally speaking—developments."
"He'll be here," said Caleb, a few moments later; he looked gleeful as he said it, and shuffled his feet in a manner so suggestive of dancing that Grace pretended to be shocked, at which Caleb reddened. During the remainder of the afternoon he looked as happy as if he had collected a long-deferred bill, or given the dreaded "malary" a new repulse. He hurried Philip and Grace home to supper, so that the kitchen might sooner be free for photographic purposes, and dusk had scarcely lost itself in darkness when he closed the store and appeared at the house with Pastor Grateway, who expressed himself exuberantly concerning the picture of his church and congregation; but Caleb cut him short by saying:—
"Ev'rythin' ready, Mis' Somerton? Good! Come along, Brother Grateway—you, too, Philip."
While the trays and chemicals were being arranged, Caleb explained to the pastor that photographs were first taken on glass plates, chemically treated, and that the picture proper was made by light passing through a plate to the surface of sensitized paper. When the red lamp was lighted, Caleb continued:—
"Now, when Mis' Somerton lays a plate in that tray, you'll see it's as blank as a sheet o' paper, or as the faces o' some o' the ungodly that you've been preachin' at an' laborin' with, year in and year out. You can't see nothin' on it, no matter if you use a hundred-power magnifyin' glass. But the pictur' 's there all the same; it was took weeks ago; might ha' been months or years, but it's there, an' yet the thing goes on lookin' blank till the developer is poured on it—just like Mis' Somerton's doin' now. Now keep your eye on it. It don't seem to mind, at first—goes on lookin' as blank as the faces o' case-hardened sinners at a revival meetin'. But bimeby—pretty soon—"
"See those spots!" exclaimed the minister. "Eh? Why, to be sure. Well, a photograph plate is a good deal like measles an' religion—it first breaks out in spots. But keep on lookin'—see it come!"
"Wonderful! Wonderful!" exclaimed the minister.