What really ailed Mr.--- was that he was lacking in common
sense, or he would never have called upon me with his whole board
of deacons in the quiet of the Sunday noon, right after church,
to demand a retraction. I have no hope that a sense of the humor
of the thing found its way into the clerical consciousness when I
replied that I never in the most exciting times transacted business
on Sunday; for if it had, we would have been friends for life. But
I know that it "struck in" in the case of the deacons. They went
out struggling with their mirth behind their pastor's back. I think
he restrained himself with difficulty from pronouncing the major
excommunication against me, with bell, book, and candle, then and
there.
About that time I saw advertised for sale a stereopticon outfit,
and bought it without any definite idea of what to do with it. I
suppose it ought to be set down as foolishness and a waste of money.
And yet it was to play an important part in the real life-work that
was waiting for me. Without the knowledge which the possession of
it gave me, that work could not have been carried out as it was.
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