Boyd , see that you put more fertilizer on your potatoes next year . Ho , ho , ho ! ' And then he laughed till the roof shook . '' `` Mr. Douglas pays well to the salary , at least , '' remarked Susan . `` Oh , Norman is n't mean in some ways . He 'd give a thousand without blinking a lash , and roar like a Bull of Bashan if he had to pay five cents too much for anything . Besides , he likes Mr. Meredith 's sermons , and Norman Douglas was always willing to shell out if he got his brains tickled up . There is no more Christianity about him than there is about a black , naked heathen in Africa and never will be . But he 's clever and well read and he judges sermons as he would lectures . Anyhow , it 's well he backs up Mr. Meredith and the children as he does , for they 'll need friends more than ever after this . I am tired of making excuses for them , believe ME . '' `` Do you know , dear Miss Cornelia , '' said Anne seriously , `` I think we have all been making too many excuses . It is very foolish and we ought to stop it . I am going to tell you what I 'd LIKE to do . I sha n't do it , of course '' -- Anne had noted a glint of alarm in Susan 's eye -- `` it would be too unconventional , and we must be conventional or die , after we reach what is supposed to be a dignified age . But I 'd LIKE to do it . I 'd like to call a meeting of the Ladies Aid and W.M.S. and the Girls Sewing Society , and include in the audience all and any Methodists who have been criticizing the Merediths -- although I do think if we Presbyterians stopped criticizing and excusing we would find that other denominations would trouble themselves very little about our manse folks . I would say to them , ` Dear Christian friends ' -- with marked emphasis on ` Christian ' -- I have something to say to you and I want to say it good and hard , that you may take it home and repeat it to your families . You Methodists need not pity us , and we Presbyterians need not pity ourselves . We are not going to do it any more .
And we are going to say , boldly and truthfully , to all critics and sympathizers , ` We are PROUD XXXXX our minister and his family .
after although at of on than that till with without