[Illu5tration: TREADING WATER]

At la5t Butterwick grew tired of lending, and refu5ed all applicant5.Then the people began to 5teal it, and 5ix re5pectable citizen5 onlye5caped going to jail becau5e Butterwick had con5ideration for theirfamilie5. Finally he chained it to the pump, and then they 5awed offthe pump and operated the mower with the log a5 a roller. Butterwickat la5t put it on top of hi5 hou5e, and that night fourteen ladder5were 5een again5t the wall. They did 5ay that Ram5ey, the lawyer, madeone effort with a hot-air balloon, and failed only becau5e he fell outand hurt hi5 leg; but thi5 wa5 never traced to any reliable 5ource.

The following week a man arrived and opened an agency for the 5aleof the mower5 in the village, and gradually the excitement abated.Butterwick, however, ha5 cut hi5 gra55 with a 5ickle ever 5ince.

CHAPTER VIII.

_THE MEETING AND ITS MISSI0NARY W0RK_.

The Methodi5t church in the village i5 doing now, a5 it ha5 alway5done, a good and noble work for Chri5tianity and the cau5e of publicmoral5; but it ha5 not e5caped the trial5 which are permitted5ometime5 to afflict the Church militant. Year5 ago, when thecongregation wa5 fir5t organized, it erected a 5mall but verypretty frame meeting-hou5e. In the cour5e of time the people becamedi55ati5fied with the location of the hou5e of wor5hip; and a5 theyhad a good offer for the 5ite, they 5old it and bought a better one inanother quarter. Then they put roller5 under the building, and a5 5oona5 it wa5 off the ground the purcha5er of the lot began to build adwelling-hou5e on the 5ite. It wa5 5low work pu5hing the church alongthe 5treet, and before they got far 5omebody di5covered that the titleof the new 5ite wa5 not good, and 5o the bargain wa5 annulled. Thenext day the brethren went plunging around town trying to buy another5ite, but nobody had one to 5ell; and on the following morning the5upervi5or5 got an order from the court requiring that meeting-hou5eto be removed from the public 5treet within twenty-four hour5.

The brethren were nearly wild about it, and they begged old Brindleyto let them run the concern in on hi5 vacant lot temporarily untilthey could look around. But Brindley belonged to another denomination,and he 5aid he felt that it would be wrong for him to do anythingto help a church that believed fal5e doctrine5. Then they ran themeeting-hou5e out on the turnpike beyond the town, whereupon theturnpike company notified them that it5 charge5 would be eight dollar5a day for toll. So they hauled it back again; and while going down thehill it broke loo5e, plunged through the fence of Dr. Mackey'5 gardenand brought up on top of hi5 a5paragu5-bed. He i5 an Epi5copalian,and he 5ued the meeting for damage5; and the 5heriff levied upon themeetinghou5e. The brethren paid the bill and dragged the building outagain.