"In any case," the minister went on to say, without noticing the Sergeant’s look, "this should be done, because being an elder, and, as such, a man with grave and solemn responsibilities, you will I am sure see the propriety of at once acquiescing in my proposal, so as to avoid the temptation of your being occupied by trifles and frivolities--contemptible trifles, not to give a harsher name to all that the bird’s habits indicate. But when, in addition to this consideration, these habits, Adam, have, as a fact, occasioned serious scandal, no doubt can remain in any well-constituted mind as to the _necessity_ of the course I have suggested."
"Destroy Charlie--I mean, the starling?" enquired the Sergeant, stroking his chin, and looking down at the minister with a smile in which there was more of sorrow and doubt than of any other emotion. "Do you mean, Mr. Porteous, that I should kill him?"
"I don’t mean that, necessarily, _you_ should do it, though _you_ ought to do it as the offender. But I certainly mean that it should be destroyed in any way, or by any person you please, as, if not the best possible, yet the easiest amends which can be made for what has caused such injury to morals and religion, and for what has annoyed myself more than I can tell. Remember, also, that the credit of the eldership is involved with my own."
"Are you serious, Mr. Porteous?" asked the Sergeant.
"Serious! Serious!--Your minister?--on Sabbath morning!--in a grave matter of this kind!--to ask if I am serious! Mr. Mercer, you are forgetting yourself."
"I ask pardon," replied the Sergeant, "if I have said anything disrespectful; but I really did not take in how the killing of my pet starling could mend matters, for which I say again, that I am really vexed, and ax yer pardon. What has happened has been quite unintentional on my part, I do assure you, sir."
"The death of the bird," said the minister, "I admit, in one serse, is a mere trifle--a trifle to _you_: but it is not so to _me_, who am the guardian of religion in the parish, and as such have pledged my word to your neighbours that this, which I have called a great scandal, shall never happen again. The least that you can do, therefore, I humbly think, as a proof of your regret at having been even the innocent cause of acknowledged evil; as a satisfaction to your neighbours, and a security against a like evil occurring again; and as that which is due to yourself as an office-bearer, to the parish, and, I must add, to _me_ as your pastor, and _my_ sense of what is right; and, finally, in order to avoid a triumph to Dissent on the one hand, and to infidelity on the other,--it is, I say, beyond all question your clear duty to remove the _cause_ of the offence, by your destroying that paltry insignificant bird. I must say, Mr. Mercer, that I feel not a little surprised that your own sense of what is right does not compel you at once to acquiesce in my very moderate demand--so moderate, indeed, that I am almost ashamed to make it."