"Church fairs may
be begging, but they belong to the history of the United States of
America, and I miss my guess if there would have been much preaching
of the gospel in a good many places without them. I guess it ain't
any worse to hold church fairs in this country than it is to have the
outrageous goings on in the old country. I guess we can cheat a
little with mats and cakes and things and not stand any more danger
of hell-fire than all those men putting each other's eyes out and
killing everybody they can hit, and spending the money for guns and
awful exploding stuff that ought to go for the good of the world. I
ain't worried one mite about church fairs when the world is where it
is now. You just run right into your study, Mr. Elliot, and finish
your sermon; and there's a pan of hot doughnuts on the kitchen table.
You go through the kitchen and get some doughnuts. We had breakfast
early and you hadn't ought to work too hard on an empty stomach. You
run along. Don't you worry. All this is up to me and Maria Dodge and
Abby Daggett and a few others. You haven't got one blessed thing to
do with it. All you've got to do is to preach as well as you can, and
keep us from a free fight. Almost always there is a fuss when women
get up a fair. If you can preach the gospel so we are all on speaking
terms when it is finished, you will earn your money twice over. Run
along."
Wesley Elliot obeyed. He always obeyed, at least in the literal
sense, when Mrs.
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