Year: 1874

: good look at her face, for preacher
# ginerally marry purity faces. Preach
n ers is good deal like other folks. q
: they do purtend to be better, hey
| We'll, naow, that Ann Elizer Meach
: am is purity, sartin. An everybod,
! says he's goin' to marry her an
, somebody said the presidin' elder
mout tie EN- up next Sunday at Quar-


tily meetin', maybe. Then they'l
, divide the work in the middle and yt
halves. She'll pray and he'll PREACH


At this the peddler broke into sin.
lister laugh, sure that he had conciliat.
ed both the Captain and Patty by his
news. He now proposed to sell some
tinw ware, thinking he had worked his
audience up to the righ, state of mind
| Patty did not know why she should
feel vexed at hearing this bit of in.
telligence from Jenkinsville. What
was Morton Goodwin TO herr She
went around the house as usual this
evening,trying to hide all appearance
of feeling. She even persuaded her
father to buy half-a dozen tin cups
and some milk buckets she smiled
at the peddler for calling them pals.
She was not willing to crafty the
Captain by showing him how much
she disliked the scof1ing Yankee .
But when she was alone that evening
even the prayer book had lost its
power to soothe. She was mortified,
vexed, humiliated on every hand
She felt hard and bitter, above all,
toward the sect that had first made a
division between Morton and herself,
and cordially blamed the Mcthodists
for all her misfortunes.


1t happened that upon the very
next Sunday Russell Bigelow was to
preach. Far and wide over the West
had travelled the fame of this great
preacher, who, though born in Yer
mont, was wholly Western in his inn
passloned manner. can orator is to
be judged not by his printed dis
courses, but by the memory of the c!-
feet he has produced" says French
writer; and if we may Judge Of Rus
sell Bigelow by the fame that fills
Ohio and Indiana even to this day he
was surely an orator of the highest
order. He is known as the ''inde-
scribable." The news that he was to
preach had set the Hissawachee Set


tlement atire with eager curiosity to
hear him. Even Patty declared her
intention Of going, much to the Cap
tain's regret. The meeting was not
to be held at Wheeler's, but in the
woods, and she could go this time
without entering the house of her
fathers foe. She had no other motive
than vague hope Of hearing some
thing that would divert her: life had
grown so heavy that she craved ex-
citement of any kind. She would take
back seat and hear the famous
Methodist for herself. But Patty
put ON all her gold and costly apparel.
She was determined that nobody
should suspect her of any intention
of "joining the church" Her mood
was one of curiosity on the surface,
and Of proud hatred and quiet deii-
auce below.


No religious meeting is ever SO de-
| ligh.fnl as a meeting held in the for.
est; no forest is SO satisfying as a
forest Of beech; the wide-spreading
boughs-drooping when they start
from the trunk, but wcll-sustaned at
the last-stretch out regularly and
with steady horizontalness, the last
years leaves form carpet like a
cushion, while the dense foliage shuts
out the sun. To this meeting in the
beech woods Patty chose to walk,
since it was less than mile away.*
As she passed through little
cove, she saw man laying fiat on
his face in prayer II was the preacher,
Awe stricken, Patty hurried on 10
the meeting She had intended to
take a seat in the rear Of the congre-
CATION, but being little confused
and absent minded she did not OBJ
serve at first where the stand had
been erected, and that she was enter
ing the side nearest to the pulpit
When she discovered her mistake it
was too late to withdraw, the aisle
beyond her was already full of stand
ing people; there was nothing for her
but to take the onl y vacant seat in
sight. This put her in the very midst
of the members, and in that position
she was quite conspicuous; even
strangers from other settlements saw
with astonishment a woman elegant
ly dressed, for that time, sitting in
the very midst of the devout sisters


for the men and women sat apart.
All around Patty there was not a
single artificial or piece Of jewelrv.
Indeed, most Of the women wore cal
leo sunbonnets. The Iissawachee
people who knew her were astonish-
ed to see Patty at meeting at all
They remembered her treatment of
Morton, and they looked upon Capt.
Lumsden as Cog and Magog incar-
mated in one. This sense Of the
conspicuousness of her position was
painful to Patty, but she presently
forgot herself in listening to the sing
ing. There never was such chorus
as backwoods Methodist congrega-
ton, and here among the trees they
sang hymn after hymn, now with the
tenderest pathos, now with triumph


ant Joy, now with solemn earnestness.
They sang "Children of the Heavenly
King" and "Come let us Anew"
and "Blow ye the trumpet, blow,


and "Arise my soul, arise," and
Glow happy every child of grace
While they were singing this last, the
celebrated preacher entered the pull
pit, and there ran through the
audience movement of wonder,
almost of disappointment. His clothes
we're of that sort of cheap cotton
cloth known as "blue drilling" and
did not fit him. He was rather short.
and inexpresibly awkward. His hair
hung unkempt over the best potion OF
his face-the broad projecting fore
head. His eyebrows were overhang-
ing; his nose, cheek-bones and chin
large. His mouth was wide and with
a sorrowful depression at the corners,