"So will everybody else," remarked Captain Maile. "If you press that question, you'll ruin the interest of this meeting. We didn't come here to learn what we ought to do; we're here to study out what's to be done for us."
"Not a bit of it," said Mr. Buffle, who has slowly awakened from his nap. "I'm not, any way. I'm as fond as any one else of getting anything; but I've already been blessed with more than I deserve, and I want to know what God's will concerning me is on earth as well as in heaven."
"Always providing it don't cost you anything," said Captain Maile.
"Nonsense," replied Mr. Buffle, rather angrily. "I never refused to spend money on any really useful charity."
Several members softly responded, "That's true."
"Yes," said Captain Maile; "you occasionally spend a penny out of a dollar, so to speak, and you deserve credit for it, for very few other men of means go so far; you're ahead of your day and generation. When I carry around a subscription paper for anything, your name always has a handsome sum after it. But do you really mean that you are going through this Sermon on the Mount—if we live long enough to get through it, which is very unlikely at the present rate of progress—and practically agree to what it says?"
Mr. Buffle was cornered; but blessed be corners! There are no other positions in life from which a man can obtain so good a view of himself. Mr. Buffle studied the back of the seat in front of him for a few seconds; looked rather blank, then very modest, then very manly, raised his head, and said:
"Yes, I do."
"Good!" was the only word Captain Maile uttered, while Mr. Jodderel shook his head dismally, and exclaimed: