Part 3 (1/2)
I quickly pulled a concealed ruler, and with a blow on the head, knocked the young giant sprawling, then utilizing all ed his followers till they fled pell-mell to their benches Finally, I hypnotized ive theht prefer My sweet sixteen, black-eyed girl cousin gave efficient aid, winning the girls to my side; they secured the alliance of their sweethearts, and the victory was coht country lads and lasses knewa key to the arithed to keep ahead of the garicultural town, I found every type of the genuine unadulterated yankee stock When I called on Mrs Jones to furnish her share of the pera schoolmaster's provisions, she remarked, ”I can eat you, but I can't sleep you, because I have no spare bedrooned terror, I said that I feared I would not be a very toothsolad hand, ”co, and ill fat you up for our Thanksgiving dinner” I entered, and ate ladness of heart, for she was the inable
It was she who cheered the house and the hearth more than all the Christood woman, entirely happy without the aid of diah theto see this really sensible, natural hue as an oasis in the desert
Her husband ca, a veritable brother Jonathan, hale and hearty, though tired, for he had arisen fro, h to kill a dozen dapper city clerks, and then tra a load of wood to sell in Dover nearly twenty miles away
This load he had labored hard for two days to cut on the ht him the munificent sum of three dollars, yet he was happier than anyout, and rocks he had picked on his farh; but even then he said he had to shoot his corn and potatoes out of a gun to get theround
This fa-bee, where each red ear of corn led to rollicking fun, resounding s-bees when even numbered apple-seeds were the match-makers for bachelors and -matches, when the bashful swains were allowed to clasp hands with their sweethearts, which led to ood old-fashi+oned tohere there were no despairing old routy unmated men
They went every Sunday to whittle sticks, swap jack-knives and horses, and to listen to the white-haired parson who led them by the resistless rhetoric of a blameless life, as well as by his heartfelt prayers and exhortations in those ”hich are ways of pleasantness and those paths which are paths of peace”
”One hot su to a very drowsy crowd after a hard week's work in the hayfield, when suddenly he stopped and shouted: 'Fire! Fire!' at the top of his lungs 'Where? where?' cried so to their feet
'In hell,' cried the indignant parson, 'for those who sleep under the sound of the gospel'”
This model minister was dear to every heart, for it was he who had blessed theht of day, had baptized thes had awakened their aspirations to walk in the straight and narroay It was he who o_, to whom they could say:
”Thou art all to reen isle in the sea love, a fountain and a shrine”
It was he who had lifted their souls on the breath of prayer, when their loved ones had ”fallen asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep, froh they gave his but 400 a year, and half the fish he could catch, yet they liberally supplied his larder with their sweetest butter, freshest eggs, and the choicest cuts from their flocks When a city minister once said to him: ”You have a poor salary, brother,” he at once replied: ”Ah, but I give the, you know”
Grand old man, he followed closely in the footsteps of his Master, and accoood than many famous ones ander far from the precepts of the lowly Nazarene, and deliver featureless seraily-attired Dives under the arches of great cathedrals
But the trail of the serpent is everywhere found, even in this sequestered spot There was, in the outskirts of the town, the inevitable rumshop, fed, it was said, by an illicit still in the woods, and there as usual Satan held high carnival a families dead in trespasses and sins There we assayed to hold tes, but they loved darkness rather than light, and we cast our pearls before swine, who turned and rent us
On one occasion we tried to hold services in the little old deserted schoolhouse, and found it, much to our surprise, packed with the inhabitants of Sodo crowd I never saw not even in darkest New York Beetle-browed, ive forth as much fire-water as a ru: but when the aged minister attempted with earnest words to inspire to a better life it seemed as if all the fiends from heaven that fell, had pealed the banner cry of hell Then a decayed cabbage struck hirant turnips and potatoes filled the air, our little band crowded around to shi+eld hied to wield the chairs vigorously over their heads to fight our way to the door
One of our nuh, luckily had it ready, in we jumped and drove for our lives, pursued by invectives too horrible to mention
This attack was inspired by the keeper of the den of iniquity as he feared he would be deprived of his evil gains, and that night he rewarded them with unlimited free drinks until they drowned their consciences in a prolonged debauch
One of ave his chip-of-the-old-block son some much merited discipline This nant fellow I ever saw One night ithparty, he appeared with so to chuck ht have succeeded but for two of my friends hen the enemy were close upon my heels, suddenly stretched a rope across their path which tripped the their heads in the concussion with the ice
On another occasion, several of us crawled into a long hole to explore a cave in the woods While laboriouslytorches, ere suddenly horrified by fiendish hisses
Visions of snakes danced before our irls shrieked, the torches fell in our frantic scra, deainst our faces scratching and lacerating
Afterour torches, and found ourselves in a wizard-like cave The bats, for such were our assailants, fled away like lost spirits, grotesque shapes were seen fores, fantastic icicles like the stalactites and stalag suspended fro to reach the air of heaven urged us on, and we crawled to the opening through which we entered I was in the advance, and on reaching the entrance was horrified to find it nearly closed by a large rock, and behind it appeared the hing and shouting
”I've got you rats in a hole, and there you'll stay till you die!” he shouted