The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-11-07

80 Jne women followed on up the
mountain, and were so deft-handed
in gathering and binding the sheaves
that by mid afternoon it all stood in
even stocks on little plateau at the
foot of the hill, where, after it dried
off in the sun for few days, it would
be threshed on the hard earth; for
then there were no threshing floors.
At length the fires were kindled,
and as the blue smoke, followed by
the ruddy flames curled in and out
among the great logs like living
things, Madam Vaughn, who had
been Smelling out the heads of grain
in her apron, said: 81 have no in
cense for the fire, and good grain l
will not burn, for that would be
waste; but will burn the chat, and
the grain l will scatter to the winds
and will repeat the Parable of the
Sewer, and we will sing the 91st
Psalm, and | will pray for Gods
blessing upon us, upon our town
ship, upon the harvest, and upon
those who shall come after u.s."
"She talks like a parson, now,
don't she?' whispered Sam Fletcher.
Colonel Emerson made swift
motion with his hand, as Madam
Vaughn, tall and stately, scattered
the chat in the flames, and simulta
neously each man dashed his jug
on the great rock in the midst of the
fire, and the stuff flashed up blue
and lurid like "fire of hell" one of
the old women said.
AS Madam Vaughn was slowly and
impressively repeating the parable
her little audience gazed upon her
with such hungry, awe full eyes,
as if they were seeking for a lesson
for themselves, that she went on
through the whole of the 18th of
Matthew, and as she read the 41st
verse light shone from the north
ward, and looking in that direction
they saw the distillery in flames.
Then what a shout went up, and
they broke into the singing of that
wonderful Psalm of deliverance and
of safety!
Afterward it was said by some that
Tabs voice and that of her lover
were not heard in the singing, but it
was time of great excitement, and
no one could tell, and it was never
known how the distillery took fire.
AS they were going down the
mountain, all, men and women. were
united in praising God that the har-
vesting on Round Top had been
done without liquor, and that now
there was no distillery where liquor
could be made, and that a saw and
grist mill must inevitably follow.
The harvesting went on, the
women helping with cheerful hearts.
At one house after another there was
a harvest supper, but without one
drop of liquor, and then followed the
threshing and the milling, and it was
said that never had SO many wedding
cakes been made of crop of rye.
That came about because the
bright girls who had been following
Tabs example, and refusing to share
their own pure love with love for
liquor, followed it still-and their
weddings followed in the train of
hers.
The winter following was that of
the great revival, and they were able
in the spring to build meeting
house and hire minister. The grain
that was to go to the distillery found
a good market. There was shedding
on the river from December until
April, and it was the year OF great
blessing.
At the dedication of the meeting
house, Colonel Emerson told how
the angels reaped the rye on Round
Top, and then Madam Vaughn, to
the establishment of the visiting
brethren, exercised her right to speak
in meeting and tell the womens side
of the story.
The old minister, who came forty
miles through the wilderness on
horseback to bless the church, said:
The grain was reaped by angels,
for such women l have never seen in
all my travels, to work and cook and
keep house and bring up families,
and to pray and to repeat Scripture,
and to sing psalms and to exhort.
Such women, it will be seen, are to
keep the new nation in the line of
progress, and to hold it stanch for
God"
The men said little, but they were
proud of their mothers and wives and
daughters, and rejoiced in the better
times that the absence of rum had
brought; and not one turned back