"It was not becoming that I should use my fists, except to defend the weak. I am a minister of the Lord."
"A parson!" cried Pete.
"A minister of the Lord," repeated with some severity the man in black, "of the brotherhood named Ebenezer."
Pete remembered hearing that a new parson was coming to the local Methodists, but nothing had led him to expect such thrilling developments.
"I used to be in the fancy," said the minister, "but five years ago the Lord challenged me, and knocked me out in the first round."
Pete was following a train of thought.
"Is a minister the same as a parson?" he asked at length.
"Is a priest of Jehovah the same as a priest of Baal? For shame, young man!"
"I mean can a minister do wot a Parson does?—tell a poor feller wot's dying that he wöan't go to hell."