Give him courage not to fear the face of man . Make him a burning and a shining light to this sadly abused congregation . ' Just imagine the feelings of the young minister in the china closet ! But he came right out like a man , though his face was very red , as soon as Mr. Scott had done praying . And Mr. Scott was lovely to him , and shook hands , and never mentioned the china closet . And they were the best of friends ever afterwards . '' `` How did old Mr. Scott find out the young minister was in the closet ? '' asked Felix . `` Nobody ever knew . They supposed he had seen him through the window before he came into the house , and guessed he must be in the closet -- because there was no way for him to get out of the room . '' `` Mr. Scott planted the yellow plum tree in Grandfather 's time , '' said Cecily , peeling one of the plums , `` and when he did it he said it was as Christian an act as he ever did . I wonder what he meant . I do n't see anything very Christian about planting a tree . '' `` I do , '' said the Story Girl sagely . When next we assembled ourselves together , it was after milking , and the cares of the day were done with . We foregathered in the balsam-fragrant aisles of the fir wood , and ate early August apples to such an extent that the Story Girl said we made her think of the Irishman 's pig . `` An Irishman who lived at Markdale had a little pig , '' she said , `` and he gave it a pailful of mush . The pig at the whole pailful , and then the Irishman put the pig IN the pail , and it did n't fill more than half the pail . Now , how was that , when it held a whole pailful of mush ? '' This seemed to be a rather unanswerable kind of conundrum .
We discussed the problem as we roamed the wood , and Dan and Peter almost quarrelled over it , Dan maintaining that the thing was impossible , and Peter being of the opinion that the XXXXX was somehow `` made thicker '' in the process of being eaten , and so took up less room .
Cecily Felix Irishman Markdale aisles conundrum mush pailful plums right