The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1885-05-07
A Meeting House IN the tennessee
Mountains.

Mountains.
The little log meeting house at tne
Notch stood high on rugged spur u
tho Great Smoky. Dense forests en-
compassed it. on every hand, obscurlhg
that familiar picture of mountain ana
cIoud and cove. From its rude, glass
less windows one could look out on no
distant vista. save perhaps in the VISION
ary glories of heaven or the climatlc
discomforts of he'll, according to the
state of the conscience, or perchance inc
liver. The sky was aloof and limited.
The laurel tangled the aisles of the woods.
Sometimes from the hard benches a
weary, tow headed brat might rejoice to
mark in the monotony the frisking OF a
squirrel on bough by, or wood
pecker so!emnly tapping; The acorn Is
would rattle on the roof, II
the wind stirred, as if in punctuation OF
the discourse. The pines. mastering
strong among the oaks, joined their mys-
tic threnody to the sad-voiced curing
within. The frs stretched down long.
pendulous, dark'ing boughs, and hlled
| the air with their balsamic fragrance.
Within the house the dull light fell over
a few rude benches and platform with
chair and table, which was used as
pulpit. Shadows of many deep, rich
tones of brown lurked among the rafters.
| Here and there a cobweb, woven to the
consistence of fabric. swung in the air.
The drone of blue bottle, tluttering in
ana out of the window in a slant
of sunshine, might invade the rev.
erent silence, as Brother Jake Tobln
turned the leaves to read the chapter.
Sometimes there would sound, too, a
commotion among the horses without,
embarrassed from tie wagons and
hitched to the trees; then in more than
one of the solemn faces might be de-
serted an anxious perturbation-not fear
because of equine perversities, but because
of the id:osyncrases of callow human
nature in the urchins left in charge of
the teams. No one ventured to investi-
gate, however, and. with that worldly
discomfort contcnding with the spiritual
exaltations they sought to foster, the
rows of rcligionists swayed backward
and forward in rhythm to the readers
voice, rising and falling in long, bill
Lowry sweeps of sound, like the ground
swell of ocean waves.
1t was strange. looking upon their
| faces, and with knowledge of the linn
tied phases of their existence, their SINH
larity of experience here, where hun
dred years might come and go, working
no change save that, like the leaves, they
| tluttered awhile in the outer air with the
spurious animation called life, and fell
| in death, and made way for new bour-
gconings like unto Misunderstanding
to mark how they differed. Here was
a man of stern, darkly religious con-
viction, who might either have writhed
at the stake or stopped to kindle the
| flames; aud here was an accountant soul
that knew only those keen mercantile
motives-the hope of reward and the
fear of hell; and here was an enthusi-
ast's eye, touched by the love of God
and here was an unfinished, hardly hu-
manized face, that it seemed as pre-
sumptuous to claim as the exponent of q
soul as the faces of the stupid oxen out
| of-doors. All were earnest; many wore
an expression of excited interest, as the
details of the chapter waxed to a climax,
/ like the tense stiffness of a metropolitan
audience before an unimagined coup de
/ theatre. The men all sat on one side
chewing their guilds: the women on the
other, almost masked by their limp sun
bonnets. The ubiquitous baby-severa
i>of hm-was there, and more than one,
babbled aloud and cried out peevishly
Only one, becoming uproarious, Wa
made public example; being quietl,
borne out and deposited in the OK wagon
at the mercy of the urchins who presided
over the teams, while his mother creaket
in again on the tips of deprecating. anx
ious toes, to hear the Word.-Atanti
! M0nth[U