Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-30

in each other. their neighbors were be-
fore them Before Fosdick had breathed
one conscious word of love he found his
attachment the latest village joke and
the probabilities of his marriage freely
commented upon.
From drive in the early days of his
engagement, F0sdick brought home
that basket of blackberries which proved
the turning point of his experience.
He found one of the Httle-used mount
ain roads fringed, and in many places
almost overgrown with luxuriant black
berry vines, bending under a burden of
fruit. Stray branches reached far over
the roadway. and the young people
Toasted without leaving their seats. At
a mountain farmhouse, Fosdick bought
a great basket of the fruit for Mrs.
Warner, with whom he boarded, and re-
turning showed the great heap of gleam-
ing berries to Mrs. Johnson, parishioner
whom they met in the highway. He
did not mention that he had bought the
berries, fearing that even that slight
purchase might be made the subject of
discussion. He did des cribe the large
yield in terms that appealed to Mrs.
Johnson's housewifely instincts, and in
doing SO men toned the ease with which
he and Miss Davis had picked berries
from the carriage, little dreaming thathe
had planted a seed which would outstrip
Jacks bean stalk in growth.
Mrs. Warner took good care not to
hide her minister's thoughtfulness I'M
der a busbel. Her neighbors were given
ample opportunity to admire her jars of
jam. BY the time she had told the
story of her prize for the dozenth time
the good woman had come to believe
that the minister had picked the berries
with his own hand. Certainly the other
members of Fosdick's congregation so
understood it, and direful commotion
ensued.
The ladies' prayer-meeting proved a
sorry affair; it soon divided into two
camps, one rallying about Mrs. Meacb-
am, to whom Miss Kidder had commit
ted her view of the case, and the other
following the lead of Mrs. Warner,
whose zeal for the minister was not sec
onded by the best judgment or by skill
in debate. Mrs. Meacham was the wife
of the richest man In Melrose, woman
of fine presence and of experience in
public discussion. She felt slight per-
sonal pique at the young minister which
was warmed into open wrath by some
pointed personal illusions of Mrs War
ner's, and Mrs. Meacham pushed the
matter farther than she otherwise would
have done. The meeting took no official
action, but when it dispersed, with the
sweet strains of Naomi" ringing in the
ears of the participants, it carried into
every home in the parish the charge
that their pastor was a willfu1 and reck-
less liar.
When FoSdick heard of the discussion
the carnal man in him triumphed over
Divine grace, and he ragged furiously.
When Sunday came, and the little
church was crowded, Kate Davis heart
sank as she saw Harold walk quickly
and defiantly into the pulpit, his face
flushed and his eyes shining. The open
ing prayer seemed strangely perfunct-
DRY performance, and Kate's face paled
as she heard the text:
Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor" Kate had been
conscious, without looking at the
Meacham pew, that Mrs. Meacham was
sitting erect in the stern dignity of her
ietted black silk; that Mr.. Meacham,
with his seldOm-wOrn silk hat on his
knee and his lips angrily closed, in
dictated outraged dignity in every fiber,
while Miss Meacham, in white, repre-
scented injured innocence. Kate looked
at this array as Harold repeated his text
slowly, and alas! angrily; and she saw Mr..
Meacham rise, followed by his wife, his
daughter, two sons and some toddling
grandchildren, and mar CHI slowly out of
the church.
The excitement could hardly have
been greater had the choir gallery fall
len. Harold's face paled and then
flushed deeper scarlet as he waited for
the commotion to subside. Then he
painted a denunciation of the sin of
living, with review of the events
of the fortnight. that burned
with Indignation and ranked with in
Justice and un-Christian wrath. Only a
| very angry man could have preached
that sermon. Before it's close, Miss
Kidder, Deacon Wadsworth and his
wife, and the entire johnson family,
| withdrew.
| The church was divided from that
hour. Deacon Wadsworth requested the
pastor to resign. Harold refused, but
| expressed his willingness to submit the
matter to council, if the church chose
to call one. But the supporters of the
| minister proved to be in a majority, and
no meeting was called. Mr.. Meacham
was not, however, to be easily baked.
He declared that never again would he
listen to Mr.. FOsdick's preaching. So
| he set up the altar of his faction in the
| town hall and hired an unsettled minis
ter of the region to preach each Sunday.
Rivalry sprang up between the congre-
cations, and the members did not
! scruple in their methods of securing at
tendance. People who had not seen the
| inside of a church for years were re-
cruited for one camp or the other, and
| Sunday clothes" were distributed as
| premiums to sundry persons who de-
clared their inability to attend for the
| lack of such garments.
The situation was becoming intolera-
| BILE to FosGick. He had refused to re-
sign when Kate begged him to do SO.
Now she had left the village, and he
missed keenly the comfort of her pres
ence and the reinforcement which she
gave to the higher motives by which he
sought to govern his life. He found
himself daily called upon to sympathize
with nettineSS and to aDOrOye of ones