Part 3 (2/2)
We knew our enemy too well to expect any mercy, and painfully made our way backwards to the main cavern None had ever explored it further
I at last saw a gli to the upper world through which, with great exertions, we dragged ourselves back to the sweet air of heaven The delight of the reaction was exquisite like that of escaping froained
When the ferocious Sampson heard of our deliverance, he fled, and was never heard of again, yet this demon in human form had a twin brother as one of the best men in the town
”From the sa darkness and the frozen tide, and one to the peaceful sea”
CHAPTER VI
DREAMS OF MY YOUTH
In the early spring came the close of school terrets My pecuniary reas small; but I shall always remember with pleasure the kind assurances received that I left the intellectual status of that town her than I found it I have visited the place only once since, but her life, andones were scattered to the four winds of heaven in search of that happiness and wealth which is seldom found beneath the stars
I reached the old hohted to see once ain, to hear the fa chorus fro over the resurrection of nature, to explore each sheltered nook for the early cowslips, violets, pussy-s, dandelions, and crocuses; to gossip with my old friends the chipmunks, the muskrats, and the woodchucks; to revisit each mossy hollow and sequestered retreat in ain the histles, to caress the opening buds and tiny green growing blades of grass; to float oncearms of my chums, the oaks, birches, and heht of Psyche, the butterfly, so e of the immortal soul from the body dead The wood duck seeracefully into the little coves in my river, the woodpeckers beat their druah”--screa life to nature thrilled s are crossing, the earth springs forth in the beauty of green, and the soul of the beautiful chanted to all, the sweet refrain:
Come to me, come to me, oh my God, oh, come to me everywhere, Let the earth mean Thee, and the mountain sod, the ocean and the air, For Thou art so far that I so within, and looking without, if Thou art anywhere
Mylost baby”; my father and brothers ”killed the fatted calf” for the ”prodigal returned,” the wide old fireplace sent forth its cheering warathered round to swap stories, and the apples, walnuts and home-brewed juice of the fruit contributed their inspiration to the hearty good cheer
Within and without the genial spirit of springtime cheered the heart of s ani the words of the poet
”Doves on the sunny eaves are cooing, The chip-bird trills fro, And the crocus darts up the spring to see
Spring has co the earth with her soft war, And wakes from the winter's dream of death”
That summer my services were frequently utilized as substitute preacher by our good pastor, as ton calls ”brown creeturs” He had harped on one string of his vocal apparatus so long that like Jeshuran of old ”it waxed fat and kicked” Exceedingly monotonous and soporific was his voice, and it was necessary to strain every nerve to tell whether he was preaching, praying or reading, the words wereof Hebrew, Greek, Latin and all things dead had driven out all the vim and enthusiasical institution had filled his uments for the destruction of all other denominations to the entire exclusion of all common sense He forcibly reminded me of the Scotch dominie who stopped at the stove to shake off the water one rainya fire ”Niver”
One hot Sunday when our clergy away as usual, a well-to-do fat brother, who once said he had such entire confidence in our clergyed to keep awake to watch hi the speaker's voice The reverend stopped, and thinking innocently, that so the disturbance, said: ”Will the sexton please put that dog out” This aroused fatty, who left the church in a rage, and his subscription was lost forever
Our pious pastor was a fair sample of the ”wooden men” turned out by the educational mills of the day; to an assembly of whom Edwin Booth is reported to have said: ”The difference between the theatre and the church is this, you preach the gospel as if it were fiction, while we speak fiction as if it were the gospel truth When you give less attention to dry theological disquisitions and races of elocution, you ood in the world”
His pastoral calls were appalling; arm extended like a pump handle to shake hands, one up and down motion, a ”how do you do?”--”fine day,”
then a soleenerally followed by his one story; ”The day my wife and I were married it rained, but it cleared off pleasant soon after, and it has been pleasant ever since,” then suspended animation, finally, ”let us pray,” and when the same old prayer with few variations was ended, oncethe same hopeless face He was not a two-faced man, for had he another face, he would surely have worn it
This sad-eyed man was much tormented by a brotherdesire to secure our pastor's poor little salary for his own private use and behoof His plan evidently was to throw the stigma of heresy upon the incu hard to show us exactly where foreordination ends and free ins, the ex- such talk to be rank Ar sinners to the belief that they could be saved even if they were not so predestinated in the eternalJehovah, who had foredooular speaker was duumentative duett followed, much to the scandal of the saints and the hilariousness of the sinners, until the pitying organist struck up with great force: ”Froruntled disturber left the church vowing he would never pay another cent for such heretical ser the church members as to whether fermented wine should be used at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and when a vote was taken in favor of the unferust and joined the ”Pedo Baptist” church where he could have alcohol in his
All this of course uish This was the tiainst Cotton Mather theology, who proclaireatly enhanced by looking down fro in hell
Unitarianisrew apace, and Henry Ward Beecher i: ”Many preachers act like the foolish angler who goes to the trout brook with a big pole, ugly line and naked hook, thrashes the waters into a foa, bite or be damned, bite or be damned!