"Well, as to that, I believe he is not a church member; but he respects religion. Why, when he put his price so very low, he said it was for the sake of the cause. 'We must work cheap for the cause, you know,' he said, and he smiled very pleasantly. I am sure that sounds Christian-like."
Auntie Barber sighed a little. She could not be certain from that remark that the young man served the Lord.
"Besides," said little Miss Parker briskly, "it will be a help to him, you know; he isn't very regular in his attendance at church; no young men are, nowadays. I think it will be doing a good deed to put him in a position where he will feel obliged to be in church."
Over this idea, Auntie Barber went home to think, and the triumphant committee went to formally invite Mr. Pemberton.
The next Sabbath morning, it must be confessed that our church was unusually full, and all eyes turned expectantly toward the choir gallery, which was just back of the pulpit, and had for several years been vacant. All the seats were filled now, with bright, expectant faces. Mr. Pemberton believed in a chorus choir, and had been prodigal in his invitations. All the pretty girls he knew had been cordially asked to come and help sing.
Auntie Barber looked up at the rows of faces with a benignant smile.
"The young folks like it," she murmured, "and it ain't a bad looking sight. They'll drown'd our voices, and that will be all right. I've been most afraid this good while that I sung too loud, for I s'pose my voice is getting old, but now I needn't be afraid of troubling anybody."
"You'll have to permit congregational singing," explained lively Miss Parker to Mr. Pemberton, at their first rehearsal. "It was the only ground on which the innovation was permitted, that the choir should simply lead the congregation. It's in the charter, or the constitution, or something; no, the man who gave the organ, fifty years or so ago, stipulated that there should always be congregational singing."
"Oh, certainly," said the affable Mr. Pemberton; "we'll simply lead the congregation; that is all in the world we propose to do; they may sing to their heart's content." And he twinkled his handsome eyes, and looked so good-naturedly about him, that the girls voted him "perfectly delightful."
So now everything was in readiness, and the pastor was reading the hymn: