The night was cloudy outside, and the church too dark for reading, so the clergyman brought out and placed two candles upon the altar. The father and daughter each noted the candlesticks were bottles. "How incongruous!" thought the Surgeon-Major. The one had evidently held gin, the other whisky.
The service was short, just a lesson and a hymn. Only half-a-dozen were present. When it came to the hymn the clergyman beckoned to Alice and her father. Each accepted from the clerk's hand a bottle and a candle, and he motioned them to stand on either side of him. This they did, he holding the hymn-book. They sang, "I need Thee every hour."
After the service the new-comers waited for the clergyman, and the three passed down towards the door. The intruder was already making his bed.
"Say! Parson, that wasn't bad," he said.
"What wasn't bad?"
"That there tune; but I never thought you'd confess it."
"Confess what?"
"That you needed it every hour. Isn't that what you meant by having the chechachoes hold the bottles?"
"No, it wasn't!" The Parson was annoyed. "You get out of here in the morning, or I'll throw you into the slough."
"All right, Pard."