“Yes,” Marty came back, “but not because Latin America is so nearly Christian.  What about this atheism and superstition and ignorance; isn’t it just a non-Christian civilization with Christian labels on some parts of it?”

“One thing I’ve heard,” put in Jeannette, not that she wanted to argue, but she felt she ought to say something on J.W.’s side if she could, “that the religions of the Orient, at least, are really great religions, more suited to the minds of the people than any other.  ’East is East, and West is West,’ you know.  But, of course, the people don’t live up to the high levels of their beliefs.  Americans don’t, either.”

Mr. Drury shot an amused yet admiring glance at Jeannette.  What a loyal soul she was!  Then said he:  “The religions of the East are great religions, Jeannette.  They represent the best that men can do.  The Orient has a genius for religion, and it has produced far better systems than the West could have done.  Some of the truth that we Western people get only in Christianity the thinkers of Asia worked out for themselves.  But God was back of it all.”

That suited J.W.’s present mood.  “All right, then; let’s clean up as we go—­Delafield, Saint Louis, the Southwest, Mexico, Latin America; that’s the logical order.  Then the rest of the world.”

Marty put in a protest here:  “That won’t do, old man.  Your logic’s lame.  You want us to go into Mexico now, with all we’ve got.  Your letters have said so, and you’ve said it again to-night.  But we’re not ’cleaning up as we go.’  Look at Delafield; the town you’ve moved away from.  Look at Saint Louis; the town where you make your living.  Are they Christianized?  Cleaned up?  Yet you are ready for Mexico.  No; you’re all wrong, J.W.  I don’t believe the world’s going to be saved the way you break up prairie sod, a field at a time, and let the rest alone.  We’ve got to do our missionary work the way they feed famine sufferers.  They don’t give any applicant all he can eat, but they try to make the supply go ’round, giving each one a little.  Remember, J.W., the rest of the world is as human as our western hemisphere.”

“I know,” admitted J.W.  “And I don’t say I’ve got the right of it.  I’d have to see the Orient before I made up my mind.  But those countries have waited a long while.  A few more years wouldn’t be any great matter.”

Alma Wetherell now joined the opposition.  It looked as though J.W. and Jeannette must stand alone, for the old people said nothing, though they listened with eager ears.  Said Alma, “I think it would matter a lot.  The more we do for one people, while ignoring all the others, the less we should care to drop a developing work to begin at the bottom somewhere else.”

“There’s something in that,” J.W. conceded.  “I’m not meaning to be stubborn.  But I’ve had just a glimpse of the size of the missionary job in one little corner of the world.  Even that is too big for us.  We could put our whole missionary investment into Mexico without being able to do what is needed.”