Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-11-13
CHAPTER III.
TIE MINISTER'S DAUGHTER.

THE MINISTER'S DAUGHTER.
have said little as yet with regard to
the Rev. Henry Granville; in truth, have
only mentioned him and mis- emaciated
frame. The minister was young man,
not yet forty years old, and had come to
the settlement full of health with the
other colonists five years before. His
family, when he removed to Sagnauck to
become the pastor of the Puritan flock,
consisted Of wife and one child-a girl.
He had come to the new land in the first
flush of youthful ambition = ambi-
tious to do stern work for his
stern God, and had at once thrown
himself into the arena, ready to combat
Popery and witchcraft. Popery he had
studied in the old country until he knew
it by heart. He could discourse fuently
against apostolic succession and the SUI
premacy Of St. Peter; he had the subject
Of indulgences down to q fine point, and
could show up the infamy of Peter
yclept, the Pope-in great style; he was
also well versed in the ritual, and could
show the most prejudiced-for extempore
prayer-that the devil lurked in the pray
er-book. AS for bishops, priests, and
deacons, he leveled them all at one fell
blow; for did not bishop and presbyter
mean the same in the New Testament,
and was not a deacon a man set apart to
serve tables and look after the widows?
And when it came to candles and in
cense, he had only but to ask where either
was commanded by Christ, and his oppo-
nent was silenced, or so he thought. It
is true that when he brought forward the
latter argument some of the weak or I'M
cody ones asked where in the Bible he
found sanction for infant baptism, and
for women coming to communion; but he
passed them by as scofers.
But when he came to Sagnauck he
found another attractive subject for in
racfT ha ctar-y - Do Il
candles, and incense had lost its charms
because he there met with no believers
in the chair of st. Peter. Consequently
he had turned his study to the next most
inviting subject.
Puritan he was to the core. Medieval
and mystical he was through and through.
If he had not one mystical subject to
study, he must secure another.
So from Romanism he glided into
witchcraft, and each was alike mystical
and unknown to him.
And I do not blame him. In fact, if
any careless words OF mine, so far, have
| led the reader to believe that I am I'M
friendly to the Rev. Henry Granville,
wish he would disabuse himself of the
| idea at once. He is not my ideal of
man or of a minister, but he is my
warped ideal of Puritan student.
wish had lived when he did. I should
have believed in witches and fairies with
| him.
So, having found no more use for his
philippics against poor st. Peter, long
since dead, and his successor, the Pope,
he turned the channel of his thoughts to
| the next mystical subject which was
worrying the minds of men around him.
| He read with deep interest the weird
stories of Cotton Mather and believed
them all; and, in time, SO thoroughly
| did he become imbued with them, that in
| query stream he saw a nymph, in every
4 nd in III ~
| possibilities of witch. He knew all
the infallible signs by which one of these
/ DEVILS own children could be detected,
and, it was reported, had even been pres
ent on the occasion of the burning of one
of them at Salem, all of which gave his
word upon the subject much credence in
the settlement.
But, it was not until he had come to
Sagnauck that he had any personal ex-
| perience with these fearful emissaries of
| the evil one. Soon after he had settled
in his new home, Mark Hillary had
called upon him and the same day his
| daughter had gone into commissions, At
speech made no favorable impression up
on the minister, seldom entered the par
sonage. At first the minister thought
little of the pioneersman in connection
with the sudden nervous attack of his
daughter, but as time passed, he learned
had sold himself to the evil one in ex-
change for that most internal passion,
power over his fellow-man. The minis
ter saw that his child was of that pecuI-
lar temperament which made her sensi-
tive to the influences of the unseen world.
At first her experiences with regard to
Hillary had been general, but strange.
She seldom mentioned his name or be-
trayed any fear of the man, but whenever
he passed her upon the one village street,
or in the woods around the settlement
she unccnsciously shuddered.
Once, gossip said. when Hillary unex-
pectedly came upon her and the minister
SIS they were walking hand in hand along
the bank of Sagnauck Greek. she uttered
q piercing shrek and fell down upon the
grass, foaming at the mouth.
At another time they came upon him
when he was gazing at the stout trees
bowling before the wind, and was mutter-
ing to himself as was his custom at such
times Achsah convulsively seized her
fathers hand and babe him hurry away.
For do you not see" she said, he is
making the trees bow to him.. And the
father believed that her sensitive nature
had enabled her to detect an evil power
which he could not
- NJ. rxo.-rrrr-xrrr,