The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-09-09
rAs PARSONS STORY.
Tow One Of His Flock Was Extricats
from n Disagrccabie Position.

from Disagrccabie Position.
"That reminds me-" said the parson,
as he took another handful of crackers
rom the barrel and cut slice from
the cheese on the counter, while the
proprietor of the store moved uneasily
In his seat-''that reminds me of the
experience of q member Of the church
of which was the pastor up in Oregon
)ne spring. The story was told to me
10y Brother Jones himself while in fit
Of remorse.
"'Parson,' he said to me-'parson, do
you remember the time that you asked
every member of the church TO con-
tribute a quarter for the purpose of
paying for the hymn books which had
just been bought for the Sunday
school?'
YES said, Brother Jones, re-
member the time very WE'LL
"'Well, parson,' he continued, 4 sat
there in my seat watching the contri-
button box go around, and seeing near
ly everybody drop in quarter. When
u came to Brother Smith he put in
half a dollar, and | don't know why it
was, unless Satan had me in his
clutches. but said to myself, "There,
now, he has put in enough to make up
! for mine, and felt of the quarter in
my pocket. Just then the box came to
Widow Franklin, and she did not put
: in anything There" said l, ''now
I'll have to put in my quarter. if
times are hard and the children do
need shoes and the prospects for crops
are not good this year.
"'Whilc / was thinking this way
Elder Bennet passed the box to Brother
Brown, and he put in another half.
Satan got me again and seemed to
whisper in my ear: There, that's for
you,' and so when the box reached me
next Just looked the other way. and
Elder Bennett passed along to the next
pew, after giving the box shake to
attract my attention, but 1 pretended
not to notice it.
"'Well, you know, | had nearly sew
en- miles to walk home. When | got
half way and was going through the
woods it began to rain hard and it
grew dark much sooner than | had
counted on. | remembered u hollow
tree just big enough for me to squeeze
into which stood little further on, SO
, l hurried and reached it before / got
very wet. The rain began to pour
down now, SO decided to remain in
, the tree until it stopped, knowing that
the folks would not worry, because
, often stopped in the town over night
when went to church Sundays.
"'I made myself as comfortable as
possible in that tree. and somehow OF
} other fell asleep and never woke up
until daylight the next morning. When
] did open my eyes | found that the
, water had soaked that tree and swelled
/ it up so that the crack through which
had crawled myself was not more
than an inch wide was prisoner,
sure enough. and | might as well have
tried to make Flint my landlord,
, knock off some of the rent of my farm
: in a bad year as to try and open that
, crack any. / had on my best Clothes
and had left even my jackknife at
: home.
t "'Well, you know, parson, that i
} rains sometimes three days, sometimes
1 a week, and often a month up in this
t country when it gets good start
1 looked out of the crack, and there die
t not seem to be any chance of its stop
; ping. Then / began to think: Sup
1 pose | should be confined here until
!; starve to death?' With this though
e came recollections of my past life.
= thought of everything had done which
6 was not according to the ten command
t ments; of the unlsind words | hat
9 spoken to my wife and children, ant
o then I felt in my pocket and my hant
: touched the quarter which l had KEEP
the day before instead of putting it OF
the plate
"Would you believe it, parson. whel
= l thought of that / felt so small that
= passed out through that crack withou
q the slightest difficulty"
:. Then the store door opened an
l. closed softly, while the loungers caugii
e their breath. There was momentary
q cold blast from without. and the parsor
h was gone.-N. Y. Tribune.