The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1910-06-02
CHAPTER I.

The revival In PdrdulSc ' ohCy' ""
Quoted by the Reverand Silas CRAFTS
Of South Tredegar. was In the middie
of its second week. and the heid-to
use Brother Crafts own word-was
white to the harvest
Little Zoar. the square, weather.
tinged wooden church at the head or
tho valley. built upon land donated 10
the denomination in times long past
by an impenitent but generous MAJOR
Dabney, stood a little way back from
the pike in a grove Of young pines.
BY half past six OF the June evening
the revivalists congregation had begun
to assemble.
Those who came farthest were first
on the ground; and by the time L.
year-old Thomas Jefferson, spattins
barefooted up the dusty pike, had
reached the church-house with the kew,
there was a goodly sprinkling of un-
hitched teams in the grove. the horses
champing their feed noisily in the wag-
on-boxes, and the people gathering In
little neighborhood knots to discuss
gravely the one topic uppermost In An
minds-the present outpouring or grace
on Paradise Valley and the region
roundabout.
Dye reckon the Elderll make 1t this
time with his brother in law" asked
tall. fat-chested mountaineer from the
Pine Knob uplands.
Samantha Parkins, she allows that
Caleb has done sinned away his day
o. grace" said another Pine Knobber.
but / amt goin' that far Caleb's
sight like the iron he makes in that
old furnace o hisn-honest and even
grained, and just as good for plow-
points and the like as 1t is for soap
kittles. But hot r cold. it's just the
same, we cayn't change hit, and we
cayn't change him."
That's about right said a third.
TT looks to me like Caleb done sot his
stakes where he's goin' TO run the fur
row. II Twin a dozen years and mo-
with such a sancterfed woman as Mar
tina Gordon won't make out to toll Il
man up to the pearly gates. / allow
the amt no preacher goin' to do IT.
We'll, now: maybe that's the rea-
ron," drawled Japheth Pettigrass. the
only unmarried man in the small cir
Gle OF listeners: but he was promptly
put down by the tall mountaineer.
Hold on thar. Japhe Pettigrass. I
allow tn amt no dyed-in- the wool
hawss- trader like you goin' to stand
up and say anything agsinst Marthy
Gordon while I'm a-listenin'. I'm rec
ollectin' right now the time when she
sot UT day and night for more n a
week with my Malviny-"
Thomas Jefferson had opened the
church house doors and windows and
was out among the unhitched teams
looking for Scrap Pendry. who had
| been one of a score to go forward for
prayers the night before. So it hap
pened that he overheard the fiat-chest-
ed mountaineer's tribute to his moth
err. It warmed him generously; but
there was boyish scowl for Japheth
Pettigra SIS. What had the horse-trade.
teen saying to make IL needful for Bill
/ Layne to speak up as his mothers de-
| fender? Thomas Jefferson recorded 4
black mark against Pettigrass' name
and went on TO search for Scrap.
What you hiding for?" he demand
ed, when the newly made convert was
discovered skulking in the dusky shad-
ows OF the pines beyond the farthest
outlying wagon.
Il amt hidin'," was the half defiant
answer.
Come on out where the folks are,
urged Thomas Jefferson. Sim can
trell and the other fellows are allowin'
you're afeard."
II amt afeard," denied the convert.
mo; but you're sort q shamed, and
that's about the same thing, / reckon.
| Come on out; I'll go long with YOU"
| Then spake the newborn love in the
heart of the big. rough, country boy.
Il cayn't understand how you can hold
out. Tom-Jeff. I've CODE thoo', praise
the Lord, but 1 jest natchelly got TO
have stars for my crown. You say
you'll go long with me. Tom-Jeff: say
IT ag'in, and mean it,
1t was admitted on all sides that
Brother Crafts was a powerful preach
| er. Other men had wrestled nightly
| In Zoar. but none to such heart-shak-
| ing purpose When he expatiated On
| the ineffable glories of Heaven and
| the joys OF the redeemed, which was
not too often. the reflection of the ce-
| lestial effulgences could be seen rip
| ping like sunshine on the sea of faces
| spreading away from the shore of the
| pulpit steps. When he spoke of hell
and its terrors. which was frequently
and with thrilling descriptive. even so
hardened a scoffer as Japheth Petit
grass was wont to declare that you
could hear the cracking of the fam IS
and the cries of the doomed.
The hush that remained unbroken TIL
he announced his text in a voice that
rang like an alarm bell pealed in the
dead OF night. There are voices ana
voices. but only row and then one
which is pitched in the key OF the
spheral harmonies When the Rever-
end Silas hurled out the Baptists
words, Repent we: for the kingdom OF
heaven is at hand, the responsive THRU
from the packed benches was like the
sympathetic vibration of harpstrings
answering trumpet blast.
He passed from pleading to denun-
saauon The setting Of The 0rsat