No, no one was sick.

"That's a mercy. Goin' callin', be you?"

"No."

"Hum! Queer weather for a walk, I call it. Won't be many out to-night,
except Come-Outers goin' to holler their lungs loose at prayer meetin'.
He, he! You ain't turned Come-Outer, have you, Mr. Ellery? You've headed
right for the chapel."

Ellery's reply was hurried and a bit confused. He said good night and
went on.

"Laviny," whispered the shocked Kyan, "do you think that was
a--er--polite thing to say to a parson? That about his turnin'
Come-Outer? He didn't make much answer, seemed to me. You don't think he
was mad, do ye?"

"I don't care if he was," snorted Miss Pepper. "He could tell a body
where he was goin' then. Nobody can snub me, minister or not. I think
he's kind of stuck-up, if you want to know, and if he is, he'll get took
down in a hurry. Come along, don't stand there with your mouth open like
a flytrap. I'd like to know what he was up to. I've a precious good mind
to follow him; would if 'twa'n't so much trouble."

She didn't. Yet, if she had, she would have deemed the trouble worth
while. For John Ellery stumbled on through the mist till he reached the
"Corners" where the store was located and the roads forked. There, he