The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-03-06
SOLDIERS STORY.
COnky stiles.

know as much of the Bible as he did.
Thirty years ago, people as class were
much better acquainted with the Bible
than folk are nowadays, and there wasn't
another one OF 'em in the whole Con-
necticut valley, from the Canada line to
the sound, that could stand up 'longside
of Conky Stiles and quote Scripture.
Well, he knew the whole thing by heart,
from Genesis, oh ,pter i, to the amen
at the end of the Revelation Of st. John
the divine; that's the whole business
in nutshell
His name wasn't Conky; we called
him Conky for short. His real name
was Silas Stiles, but one time, at Sun
day-school convention, Mr.. Hubbell, the
minister, spoke of him as g veritable
concordance of the Holy Scriptures"
and so we boys undertook to call him
Concordance, but bimeby that name
got whitfield down to Conky, and Conky
stuck to him all the rest of his life; not
a bad name for him, neither, as names
go; heap more dignfied than 81
My father always insisted that Conky
got his start in the Scriptures in this
way: Conky's folks lived for about
five years (while Conky was a boy) in
the old Ransom house. Their next
neighbors were the Cooleys, and just
over across the road lived the Kelseys.
Maybe you've heard of the Cooley
Kelsey deba {? No? Funny, isn't it O.,
how soon folks forget events and epochs
and thingsl Fifty years ago nothin'
else but the Cooley-Kelsey debate was
talked of in Hampshire county, and yet
here we are livin' in this intelligent
state of Illinois, and its dollars TO dough-
nuts that half our people never heard
of Lawyer Kelsey or of Deacon Cooley.
You see, the deacon was high up IN
the Congregational church, and he be-
lieved in " baptyzo," which is the Greek
for the Congregational doctrine of
sprinkling. Lawyer Kelsey had never
been converted and had never made
profession, but, having brother who
was Baptist minister in Pennsylvania,
he was counted with the Baptists, too,
and guess he was Baptist if he was
anything, although, like as not, he'd
have said he wa a heather if he
thought he could get up an argument
by sayin' it, for of all the folks you ever
saw Lawyer Kelsey was the worst for
keepin' things stirred up. One time
Deacon Cooley and Lawyer Kelsey
came together an locked horns on that
word d" baptizo," Lawyer Kelsey main
tainin' that the word wasn't or shouldn't
be bapty 30" but baptidzo," and,
as you know, of course, there is as
much difference between bapty 20"
and baptidzJ" as there is between a
fog and thunder shower.
Well, for about six months they had
it up hill and down dale, in all the
meetin' houses and school. houses, and
vestry-rooms, and town halls in the
country, and it did beat all how much
learnin' they got out of the books and
dictionaries, and what long sermons
they made, and what a sensation there
was among the unbelievers as we'll as
the elect! guess they'd have been ar
gum yet if the freshet hadn't come and
distracted public attention by carryin'
away the Northampton bridge and the
Holyoke dam.
1t happened that while this theologi.
cal cataclysm was at its height Conky
Stiles, being six years old, was born
again, and, repentin' of his sins, made
profession of faith. And from that
time he never lapsed or backslided, but
was always conscientious and devout
follower, illustrating in his daily walks
Gas Mr.. Hubbell, the minister, said)
those priceless virtues which had illu-
minated the career of his Grandmother
Cowles, a lady esteemed not more by the
elders for her piely than by the younger
folks for her cookies and squash pies.
When Conky was eight years old he
got the prize at our Sunday school for
having committed to memory the most
Bible verses in the year, and that same
spring he got up and recited every line
of the Acts of the Apostles without
having to be prompted once. By the
time he was twelve years old, he knew
the whole Bible by heart, and most of
the hymn hook, too; although, as | have
said, the Bib e was his specially. Yet
he wasn't one of your pale-faced, stu.
dious boys; no, sir, not bit of it!
He took Just as much consolation in
playin' three-old-cat and barn ball and
hocky as any Of the rest of us boys,
and he could beat US all fishin'; although
perhaps that was because he learnt a
new way of spittin' on his bait from his
Uncle Lutte Mason, who was consider
able of sport in those days.
Conky was always hearty and CHEEKY
we all felt good when he was around.
We never minded that way he had OF
quotin' things from the Bible; we'd got
used to it; and may be it was desira.
BILE influence. AT any rste, we all liked
COnky.
But perhaps you don't understand
what l mean when l refer to his
way of quotin' the Bible. 1t was
like this: Conky, We'll say, would be
gOin' down the road, and I'd come out
of the house and boiler: " Hello, there
Conkyl Where be you goin'?"
Then he'd say, John xxi: 3"-tha
would be all he'd say, and that woult
be enough; for it gave us to understand
that he was goin' a-6shin'.
Conky never made mis- axe; his quo
tations were always right; he always hi
the chapter and the verse sure pop the
first time.
The habit grew on him as be go
older. Associating with Conky for fif
teen or twenty minutes wasn't much