The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-20

THAT reminds me- said The parson. &C.
cordiue % the New York Tribune. as he took
another handful OF crackers from the barrel
and cut q slice from the cheese on the coun-
ter while the proprietor Of the store moved
Uucaslly IA his seat. that reminds me % the
experience Of a member Of the church OF
which ] was pastor MP In Oregon one spring.
The Story was told me 10y Brother Jones him
self while ia tit OF remorse. 'Pars0n,' he
said TO me 'ParsOu. do you remember the
time that YOU asked every member OF the
church To contribute quarter for the purpose
Of paying for the hymn books which had
Just been bought for the Sunday SCHOOL,
Yes / said Brother Jones, l remember the
time very we'll Well, parsOn. he continued,
1 sat there in my seat watching that contri-
button box 20 around and seeing nearly
every body drop in a quarter. When IL came
TO Brother Smith he put in half a dollar.
and don know why it was, unless satan
had me in his clutches, but 1 said to myself.
II here. 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 II
have to put in my quarter, il times are hard
and the children do need shoes and the pros
poets for crops are not good this year. ~ While
l was thinking this way Elder Bennett passed
the box to Brother Brown and he put in anoth-
er half. Satan got me again and seemed to
whisper in my ear, III here, that's for you.
and SO, when the box reached me next. just
looked the other way and Elder Bennett pass
ed along to the next pew after giving the box
a snake TO attract my attention, but l pre-
tended not 10 notice il. Well. you know,
had nearly seven miles to walk home. When
got half way and was going through the
woods it began to rain hard and ii grew dark
much sooner than l had counted on.
remembered a hollow tree just
big enough for me to squeeze
into, which stood a little further on, so
hurried and reached il before / got very wet.
Inc rain began to pour down now, so de-
cldcd to remain in the tree until IL stopped,
knowing that the folks would not worry, be-
cause l often remained in town over night
when | went to church on Sundays l made
myself as comfortable as possible in that
tree, and somehow or other fell asleep and
never woke up until daylight next morning
When did open my eyes ! found that the
water had soaked that tree and Swelled II up
so the crack through which | had crawled
myself was not more than an inch wide. /
was a prisoner, sure enough | might as well
have tried to make Flint, my landlord knock
of some Of the rent Of my farm in bad year
as to try and open that crack any had on
my best clothes and | had even left my
jaCk-kntfe at home. Well, you know par
son, that it rains sometimes three days,
sometimes a week and often month up in
this country when it gets a good start l
looked out of the crack and there did not
seem to be any chance of il stopping Then l
began to think Suppose | should be con
fined here until 1 starve to death?'' With
this thought came recollectionS of my past
life, thought of everything which l had
done which was not according to the Ten
Commandments of the unkind words / had
spoken to my wife and children, and then l
felt in my pocket and my hand touched the
quarter which had kept the day before in
stead OF putting it on the plate Would you
believe it, parSon, when thought of that
felt so small that | passed through that crack
without the slightest dif1cultyY" Then the
store door opened and closed softly, while the
Ioungers caught their breath. There was
momentary cold blast from without and the
parSon was gone.