Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-11-19
Father Carter.

The Southern Magazl2e has sketch OF
Father Carter, "a hard-shell Baptist preach
er whose youth had been spent in the
mountains of Carolina, but who was ia
nous preacher in his persuasion. He was
an enthusiast on the subject Of immersion,
and being strong in his own convictions, and
earnest and decided in expressing them,
he Influenced others. He gathered around
him as disciples men of higher cultivation
than himself. His preaching would as
touish any city congregation. but it was
at least stirring in its character. In the
woods and under the giant trees and in the
log school-houses Of California, where he
was brought into contact with minds as
rude and uniformed as his own, it was
that his emotional nature met a response
and carried his audiences with him. A
favorite sermon of his he called his eagl
sermon and was from a text in Deuter
onomy as an eagle stirreth up her nest,
huttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad
her wings, taketh them The writer once
heard it, and its general tenor is indelibly
imprinted on his mind. After a long
continued preliminary exercise, he began :
My friends, thar is menny kinds of ca les.
They are singular birds-that is, they are
quare birds. Thar is the grey eagle, with
white bars on his head +; thar is the bald
eagle ditto, who goes about like a roarin'
lion seekin what he may eat up. Thar is
the grand old American eagle, what flops
his wings and flies over all creation; and
hav heern tell of double-hedder, an
Austrian, but | never seed one, and l don't
believe thar is one-though that don't
signify, for some of you uns might say
YOU hadn't never seen God, consequently
thar wurn't none. But thar is, neverthe
less, Notwithstanding fur which.
Now [ onct knowed an eagle-that is,
knowed on him-and her too, for thar wal
two on em, big rooster eagle, and her
eagle. 1t war in the big mountains o
Caroiny; and thar they pitched theil
tents in tall and towering pine-right il
the top-and it hung over deep preci
pice wheu the loud winds did roar on Car,
oliny's shore. But it warn't fur III
calleth his sheep by name and they follel
him, and the desert blossoms like rose
and the barren are better than them tha
bareth children-neverthel notwith
standing fur which.
Wal, these here eagles pitched theil
tent in this waste, bowling wilderness, wha
they wur as lonely as a solitary snipe il
dog days.
Fust, they got whar there wur two
cross-lims; then they brought big sticks
and laid 'em carefully round and roun(
until it begun to look sorter like BIZ
balloon carreering to the sky, only it wa
on tree; then they put in littler sticks ant
littler and lttler, till bimeby it wur smal
and compact like. Then they got all tn
wool and down and moss and soft things
and put em down into the bottom and or
the sides of its insides, and made it smooth
and warm and comfortable like-like unit
the man that filled his barns, and told hi
soul to be easy and take things natere'
like-anu laid their eggs thar-but fu
the terrible voice that said; Fool, thi
night thy soul shall be-that is, he war t.
die that very night, and all his nice thing
wouldn't be emmy more use to him-thougl
they wun't hurt, fur THAR eggs were hatch
ed and all their young uns came out witt
nary single feather on them-neverthe
less Notwithstanding fur which.
Wal, these eagles and their young un
lived in their fine home and had on sof
clothing like John the Immerser wander
ing in the wilderness, whar in king
houses-and the big uns fed 'em as parint
feed THAR little ous-though thar's com
mandment agin stealing, which the eagle
have to do. but it's THAR natur-thoug
that don't signify, fur when | wud do good
evil is present-and man amt an eagl
bird by chance-nevertheless notwith
standing fur which.
When the eagles growed up and he
feathers-that is, when they came to tn
: age of countability, which is expected Q
boys and girls like-though gh eagles natu
is different then the old eagles wante
them to fly abroad and mount up on wing
of eagles, and jine the song that float
around the throne, And that's war th
= text begins; fur that's the way the Fathe
| up yonder wants us to do when we reac
the age of countability to fly upward an
iine the band in the narrer way, and pas
through the strait gate. But they didn
like to leave home and THAR kinred an