Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-01-21
AN QLD-TIME STORY.
Why the New Meeting House Was
Moved From the Hill. ~

AD"so ia esi"e oiu uOusc,, VI WAS ever
preached by the good old man.
Some wouldn't call ,,it,,a sermons.
though, an perhaps 'tisn't jest the.
word for it, but twill do well enough.
I'll tell We how twas, if ye're in no
hurry, an then we can ledge for yer
selves. There's good moon jest afore
ten, or thereabouts, an that's as soon's
yell want ter start, reckon. SopulI
around the lounge, Kate; an, Nose,
poke up the blaze a bit. There's
nothin' like big fire to tell stories
by, specially when they're old-time
stories, told after the chores are done.
Wen keep the cheers, Cynthia, an
leave the lounge for you young folks.
Set the apples on the hearth, if you
haven't room, an I'll take Joe. He's
pooty big to hold, but then, l never
could talk tirst-rate about I'D times
'thout somethin'' on my knee. .Itsorter.
Heads my thoughts back, We know, m
helps bring things to mind.
Well, we see 9the way twas, we'd
been tryim ter build new meetin'-
house. The school-house WASH large,
stiH it held us comfort bly, most times;
but one way m another we got to
talkin' up new house, an almost be-
fore we knew it we'd decided ter
build It's N&ttt's n .NNSNy ,SAA
| s'pose't always happens on such
occasions that there's about half-a-
dozen places where a meetin' house
can be built, an about as many differ
ent ones who think the good twill do
all depends on its beih' built where
they say. Twas so with us, only more
so, for we had ,more'n half-a-dozen
places. n is.JIg
After awhile, though, we Tot EN-
down to two, but by that time the
height of the steeple couldn't be de-
cided on, an a special meetin had to
be called to settle that.
Ears the steeple wasSconcerned,
didn't care so very much myself, or
really whether we had any steeple at
all, but it did seems though the build
in oughter be in the trees by the
schOol-house. You don't know how
pooty twas there in summer time,
fore the biggest trees bowed down.
an winters, too, for that matter. The
trees wus always full of birds N things,
a-singin' an a-chippefin' + = II
An SIGH nice place ter tie yer boss
of hot day An if baby begun to
fuss an fume- as babies will when the
sermons uncommon dry-why, We
could take 'em out under TIE trees an
show 'em the birds n things, an fore
ye'd know it they'd begin ter crow an
ter laff. ..ty .a..t..,.
Well, as rs teliin yc, Manda n
sorter wanted 1t there. An in fact, all
the old folks did, but the younger ones
thought wouldn't be seem much
among the trees, and they wanted il
out on the hill bit.
We felt badly enough about it, we
old folks did, .an'-,thes little Seriptel
they scraped up, SIGH as IA city that
set on HILL" an somethin'. about
goin' "up to the house of the Lord,
an so forth, didn't comfort u.s. mutl
nor make the old trees seem any less
like home.
Well, the long an short ont is, We
let it go, an they built the, new house
on the hill Twas long in the early
fall, an the house was nearly done an
off'n on we'd heard it limited 'twa,
bout time ter hold meetin's in it. 81
the fust thing we knew, one Sunday
twas given out that two weeks from
that ay-"Providence permittin'-
services would be held, at the new
meetin' house.
This was more tryin' than YOU
think, | s'pose, for ne older ones
We,dput off leayin' the sold house S,
long that it seemed almost's though
'twouldn' t happen in our tlayAleast
wise not till spring. An when meetin
let out that afternoon, we was a sobe
set. can tell We! Deacon Coleman,
remember. took il harder'n most of us
He'd paid good deal towards the new
house, an one way an another ha,
helped it along amazin'ly, but, he clnn,
to the trees as hard as any of us
After sermon that day. he tried to b
rs chippant as usual. but we coul
sect he wasn't feelin' right; an whel
i tried to cheer him up little tn
tears came an he conkln tsay . word
The next two weeks wus Mstlin
time. The ones who favored the hill
was busy a-fxin an a-fnefyin' tn
walls N pulpit an a sendin' wor
here an there among the congregation
Twas about all the town talked of, j
fact. an the good feelin' wus so gen
eral that even we older ones began
think that perhaps a, little good migf
come of il, after all.
But all I once the was somethir
else TO think shout. The minister VS.
taken very sick. He'd been failin' fC
some time. but as he kept-a-preachin
,twasn't much noticed. He'd watche
the thing closely from the start. b'
rn..a..ll Ak.nr- Ia