State.  They had a right to be proud of themselves, too.  They belonged to the substantial order of the community, with perhaps not so many very rich men as the Presbyterians had, but on the other hand with far fewer extremely poor folk than the Baptists were encumbered with.  The pews in the first four rows of their church rented for one hundred dollars apiece—­quite up to the Presbyterian highwater mark—­and they now had almost abolished free pews altogether.  The oyster suppers given by their Ladies’ Aid Society in the basement of the church during the winter had established rank among the fashionable events in Tecumseh’s social calendar.

A comprehensive and satisfied perception of these advantages was uppermost in the minds of this local audience, as they waited for the Bishop to begin his reading.  They had entertained this Bishop and his Presiding Elders, and the rank and file of common preachers, in a style which could not have been remotely approached by any other congregation in the Conference.  Where else, one would like to know, could the Bishop have been domiciled in a Methodist house where he might have a sitting-room all to himself, with his bedroom leading out of it?  Every clergyman present had been provided for in a private residence—­even down to the Licensed Exhorters, who were not really ministers at all when you came to think of it, and who might well thank their stars that the Conference had assembled among such open-handed people.  There existed a dim feeling that these Licensed Exhorters—­an uncouth crew, with country store-keepers and lumbermen and even a horse-doctor among their number—­had taken rather too much for granted, and were not exhibiting quite the proper degree of gratitude over their reception.

But a more important issue hung now imminent in the balance—­was Tecumseh to be fairly and honorably rewarded for her hospitality by being given the pastor of her choice?

All were agreed—­at least among those who paid pew-rents—­upon the great importance of a change in the pulpit of the First M. E. Church.  A change in persons must of course take place, for their present pastor had exhausted the three-year maximum of the itinerant system, but there was needed much more than that.  For a handsome and expensive church building like this, and with such a modern and go-ahead congregation, it was simply a vital necessity to secure an attractive and fashionable preacher.  They had held their own against the Presbyterians these past few years only by the most strenuous efforts, and under the depressing disadvantage of a minister who preached dreary out-of-date sermons, and who lacked even the most rudimentary sense of social distinctions.  The Presbyterians had captured the new cashier of the Adams County Bank, who had always gone to the Methodist Church in the town he came from, but now was lost solely because of this tiresome old fossil of theirs; and there were numerous other instances of the same sort, scarcely less grievous.  That this state of things must be altered was clear.