When Dan’l Hastings had finished his exhortation—which was in reality an arraignment of Thomas Donaldson’s medical heresies—and sat down, the Rev. Mr. Simpson arose, and, bending an accusing glance upon the shrinking boy, began: “I perceive on the part of some of the younger members of the congregation a disposition towards levity. The house of God is not the place to find amusement. I never see young people deriding their elders without thinking of the awful lesson taught by the Lord’s judgment upon those wicked youths whom the she-bears devoured. I never see a child laughing in church without trembling in spirit for his future. Some of the men whom I have seen in prison, condemned to death or a life of confinement, have begun their careers just in this way, showing disrespect for their elders and for the church. Beware, young people, who think you are smart and laugh and titter in the sanctuary; there is a prison waiting for you, there is a hell yawning for you. Behold, there is death in the pot!”
With a terrible look at the boy, Mr. Simpson sat down. There was much craning of necks and gazing about, but few in the church would have known to whom the pastor’s remarks were addressed had not Miss Prime, at their conclusion, sighed in an injured way, and, rising with set lips, led the culprit out, as a criminal is led to the scaffold. How the boy suffered as, with flaming face, he walked down the aisle to the door, the cynosure of all eyes! He saw in the faces about him the accusation of having done a terrible thing, something unheard of and more wicked than he could understand. He felt revolted, child as he was, at the religion that made so much of his fault. Inwardly, he vowed that he would never “get religion” or go into a church when he was big enough to have his own way.
They had not gone far when a step approached them from behind, and Eliphalet Hodges joined them. Miss Prime turned tragically at his greeting, and broke out, “Don’t reproach me ’Liphalet; it ain’t no trainin’ o’ mine that’s perduced a child that laughs at old foks in the Lord’s house.”
“I ain’t a-goin’ to reproach you, Miss Hester, never you fear; I ain’t a-goin’ to say a word ag’in’ yore trainin’; but I jest thought I’d ask you not to be too hard on Freddie. You know that Dan’l is kind o’ tryin’ sometimes even to the gravity of older people; an’ childern will be childern; they ain’t got the sense, nor—nor—the deceit to keep a smooth face when they’re a-laughin’ all in their innards.”
Miss Prime turned upon him in righteous wrath. “ ’Liphalet,” she exclaimed, “I think it’s enough fur this child to struggle ag’inst natural sin, without encouragin’ him by makin’ excuses fur him.”
“It ain’t my intention nor my desire to set a bad example before nobody, especially the young lambs of the flock, but I ain’t a-goin’ to blame Freddie fur doin’ what many another of us wanted to do.”
“ ’Deed an’ double, that is fine talk fur you, ’Liphalet Hodges! you a trustee of the church, an’ been a class-leader, a-holdin’ up fur sich onregenerate carryin’s-on.”
“I ain’t a-holdin’ up fur nothin’, Miss Hester, ’ceptin’ nature an’ the very couldn’t-help-it-ness o’ the thing altogether. I ain’t a boy no more, by a good many years, but there’s times when I’ve set under Dan’l Hastings’s testimonies jest mortally cramped to laugh; an’ ef it’s so with a man, how will it be with a pore innercent child? I ain’t a-excusin’ natural sin in nobody. It wa’n’t so much Freddie’s natural sin as it was Dan’l’s natural funniness.” And there was something very like a chuckle in ’Liphalet’s throat.
“ ’Liphalet, the devil’s been puttin’ fleas into yore ear, but I ain’t a-goin’ to let you argy me out o’ none o’ my settled convictions, although the Old Man’s put plenty of argyment into yore head. That’s his way o’ capturin’ a soul.—Walk on ahead, Frederick, an’ don’t be list’nin’. I’ll ’tend to yore case later on.”
“It’s funny to me, Miss Hester, how it is that Christians know so much more about the devil’s ways than they do about the Lord’s. They’re allus a-sayin’, ‘the Lord moves in a mysterious way,’ but they kin allus put their finger on the devil.”
“ ’Liphalet Hodges, that’s a slur!”
“I ain’t a-meanin’ it as no slur, Miss Hester; but most Christians do seem to have a powerful fondness for the devil. I notice that they’re allus admirin’ his work an’ praisin’ up his sharpness, an’ they’d be monstrous disappointed ef he didn’t git as many souls as they expect.”
“Well, after all the years that I’ve been a-workin’ in the church an’ a-tryin’ to let my light so shine before the world, I didn’t think that you’d be the one to throw out hints about my Christianity. But we all have our burdens to bear, an’ I’m a-goin’ to bear mine the best I kin, an’ do my dooty, whatever comes of it.” And Miss Hester gave another sigh of injured rectitude.
“I see, Miss Hester, that you’re jest bent an’ bound not to see what I mean, so I might as well go home.”
“I think my mind ain’t givin’ way yit, an’ I believe that I do understand plain words; but I ain’t a-bearin’ you no grudge. You’ve spoke yore mind, an’ it’s all right.”
“But I hope there ain’t no hard feelin’s, after all these years.”
“Oh, ’Liphalet, it ain’t a part of even my pore weak religion to bear hard feelin’s towards no one, no matter how they treat me. I’m jest tryin’ to bear my cross an’ suffer fur the Lord’s sake.”
“But I hope
