Many things were puzzling in Fairbridge, that is, puzzling to a person with a logical turn of mind.

For instance, nobody could say that Fairbridge people were not religious.

It was a church going community, and five denominations were represented in it; nevertheless, the professional expounders of its doctrines were held in a sort of gentle derision, that is, unless the expounder happened to be young and eligible from a matrimonial point of view, when he gained a certain fleeting distinction.

Otherwise the clergy were regarded (in very much the same light as if employed by a railroad) as the conductors of a spiritual train of cars bound for the Promised Land.

They were admittedly engaged in a cause worthy of the highest respect and veneration.