"We meet as Highlariers!" sez he gayly, and bent still closter, I spozed he wuz goin' to kiss me. And so philosophical is my mind asleep or awake, I thought even then, the law couldn't touch him for it if he did. But before his face met mine, that immense flaming cigar sot fire to the piller case. The flames riz up round me, the smoke entered my nostrils and nose.

I sprung up. Josiah had disappeared, but the smell of fire remained. I hurried to the winder. As I had last seen it all the great pleasure ground seemed fast asleep. Gone wuz the tread of the innumerable multitude. The music of the bands wuz hushed, the cries of the different venders and showmen, automobiles, wagons, the stiddy sound of machinery running the mechanical amusements, and the constant sound of footsteps and voices, that filled the day full, wuz all hushed. Even to the long onshapely animal house Night had brought silence. The hull place looked like a City of Dreams, only the eternal waves washin' up on the beach, seemed to emphasize the silence.

But what wuz that I see over the dim ruffs? A slender spiral of flame shootin' up through the shadows, and on Dreamland tower a rosy blush seemed to grow on its whiteness. As I watched the flame, it grew larger and larger, and my heart most stopped beatin', for I knowed what a fire would mean in them unsubstantial buildin's. And somewhere there under them flimsy ruffs was my Josiah!

The flame increased! Coney Island wuz afire! Made sensitive by anxiety, I had reconized the smoke borne to me on some vagrant breeze.

The long elaborate dream of mine hadn't lasted a second. It wuz staged in the real Dream Land, for the awful drayma so soon to be enacted there, by the terrible actor, Fire! The most fearful and tragic actor on the hull stage of life.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

Thus did I scream as I throwed on my clothes, I thought at the top of my voice, but I don't spoze it wuz much above a whisper, for Bildad's folks didn't hear me in the next room, through the thin wall, till I rushed to their door and knocked, cryin' out:

"Bildad, git up! Josiah is afire!"

"What you say?" he called back.

"Dreamland is afire! Josiah is in danger! But I will save him or perish!" And I ketched up a two quart pail of water, and rushed out doors. You can't recall your exact thoughts at such a time, yet I have a ricellection of thinkin'—Josiah is small boneded, and two quarts of water might put him out if he had jest got afire. But where wuz the idol of my soul? I spoze every woman on Coney Island thought them thoughts whether she remembers it or not. Where is he? Will he escape? And men wuz thinkin', Where is she? Is she safe? Love puts the question, and Fear and Horrer answers it.

As I rushed along cryin' Fire! winders wuz throwed up, doors opened, and in less time than I can tell on't, Surf Avenue wuz full of people. Frenzied cries and shouts rung through the air. And as the flames riz higher and higher, so did the shrieks and yells of the crowd, which had swelled to a mob; bells clanged, fire wagons raced and jangled.

Quicker than any seen wuz ever changed at a theatre the Quiet Night wuz turned into Pandemonium. Men, wimmen and children rushin' every which way—police—firemen—fire bells clangin'—men shoutin'—wimmen shriekin'—and every minute the flames increased!

The firemen did what they could, they worked like giants, but the element they wuz workin' aginst wuz more powerful than man. Anon burnin' timbers fell with a crash, clouds of smoke wropped us round and choked us, the firemen sent up streams of water that turned to mountains of steam.

I wuz carried by the screechin' mob hither and yon with no will of my own. Another element wuz added to the dretful seen. Someone cried out:

"The wild animals are loose!"

Wimmen fainted, and men, wimmen and children screamed louder than ever, expectin' any minute a tiger or lion or leapord to rush at 'em, or a maddened elephant to tromple 'em down.

They said the sight at that time in the animal house wuz enough to turn the soundest brain, for to save the animals they had to let 'em loose. And as they couldn't be driven out, at last it wuz a great writhin', strugglin' mass of animal forms appallin' to see, while the ears wuz deafened by the maddened cries of leapords and hyenas—the wild jabberin' of monkeys, snarlin' and growlin' of panthers, tigers and bears, roarin' of lions—hybrids—hissin' of serpents—pitiful frightened neighing of ponies, trumpetin' of elephants. A great screamin', roarin, hissin', writhin', fightin' mass!

But as they refused to be driven to safety, the keepers after heroic efforts to save 'em, give 'em a more merciful death. It took fur greater heroism to do this, for some of 'em wuz dear pets, and it wuz like slayin' their own children, and they aimed their revolvers at 'em through tearful eyes.

A bareheaded bystander sez, "The fire started in Hell Gate."

Sez I, "Jest what you could expect of that place, I never hearn no good of it yet."

But the wild crowd surged to and fro. Earth and Heaven seemed filled with the dretful roar and confusion—

It wuz a riot of deafenin' noise and clamor below, and fur fur above, Dreamland Tower flamed up a immense pillar of fire, blazin' out for the last time over sea and land, and with a dyin' effort at decoration, crashed down, sendin' up a shower of golden sparks a hundred feet high.

Jest then a woman sez, "The little Incubator Babies have been forgotten."

"Not by me!" I sez, and I strove to push my way towards 'em, the woman toilin' along by my side through the inferno of clamor, steam, smoke, and shriekin' rushin' humanity. But jest before we got there we met the good doctors and nurses who wuz bearin' 'em to safety, and I sez to the woman, "It will be a shame if them helpless mites are ever brought back to this place of danger."

"Danger!" the words rousted up afresh my agonized fears. Where wuz Josiah? Where wuz my idol? The woman tried to comfort me, for I wuz now cryin' aloud, and callin' on his name.

She sez, "He will escape; men can git round so much easier than wimmen."

"Have you a husband in this dretful place?" sez I.

"No," sez she, "only their dust, I have got three in a vase on my mantle piece in Surf Avenue." Instinctively I thought "she'd had husbands to burn, but some wimmen can't get one to save their lives, and them that get one can't keep track on him."

But I d'no whether she saved her vase or not, for we wuz parted by the hustlin', tearin', scramblin' mob, and I wuz carried in another direction, choked and blinded, and tossted and torn.

I hearn someone say, "Black Prince is loose, the biggest lion of all!" And sure enough, wild and crazy with the fiery heat and noise, the great beast rushed up and down, the crowd givin' him the Right of Way. And at last he clim' up onto a battlement and looked down on the mad seen below, the shoutin' yellin' mob bore me onwards, so I stood only a stun's throw from the spot.

Never agin will there be such a seen presented to the eye of man, as that kingly form, standin' up above the crowd aginst the background of lurid flame.

But who wuz that standin' directly beneath, in the very middle of danger? My heart bounded so it most broke through my bodist waist.

Did I not know that small boneded figger? That bald head lit up by the glare of flames? It wuz! it wuz Josiah! My pardner-huntin' wuz ended, but wuz it to be death at the gole? That agonizin' thought made me by the side of myself, and entirely onbeknown to me I rushed forwards and cried to the lordly beast above, jest ready to spring:

"Don't harm Josiah! Devour me instead!"



I knowed I would make a better meal for it; Josiah is lean and boney. But I won't try to make myself out better than I am; I didn't think of the lion's digestion, and how Josiah would set on his stomach. My only thought wuz to save my pardner. And with a herculaneum effort I reached his side, and snatched him away jest as a shot rung out and the noble beast fell, his great, shaggy head restin' on the balustrade, lookin' down on the crowd below as if in questionin' agony and contempt, as though his last thoughts wuz:

"Did you tear me away from my own free, beautiful, tropical forest for such a fate as this? Where is man's boasted wisdom and power? I could have cared for myself, lived and died in happiness and safety, but civilized man has ruined and destroyed the wild beast."

* * * * *

The rest of that seen is like a dream to me. I guess when the heavy dread and fear I had carried so long, wuz lifted from my brain, it made me light-headed. 'Tennyrate, it don't seem as if I come fully to myself, till Josiah and I wuz takin' leave at Bildad's with tickets for Jonesville in our pockets.

The agony I had went through there, and my joy in his recovery wuz such, that I didn't throw Josiah's waywardness in his face (not much of any). But if you'll believe it—and I don't spoze you will—he turned the tables 'round, and blamed me. That is often done by pardners of both sects, when they feel real guilty, to try to draw attention off their own misdoin's, by findin' fault with their pardners. It has been done time and agin, and I spoze will be, as long as man is man, and woman is woman.

When I told him that I rid down there with Deacon Gansey, that man acted jealous and mad as a hen. He never liked him, they fell out years ago about a rail fence, and wuz hurt. But now he acted furious, and his last words to Bildad wuz:

"I want you to have a funeral for Deacon Gansey before I see you agin, and I'll pick out the him I want you to sing at his funeral:

"Believein', we rejoice, To see the cuss removed."

But I spoke right up and sez, "Don't you bury him till he is dead, Bildad, no matter who tells you to."

And Josiah didn't like that, or acted as if he didn't; mebby he wuz subterfugin' to draw off attention. Truly, pardners is a mysterious problem, and it takes sights of wisdom and patience to solve' em, and sometimes you can't git the right answer to 'em then, male or female.

As we left Surf Avenue I looked back on the blackened ruins of what had been the fair City of Dreamland, the broken totterin' remains of that glorious tower, the black tangled masses of iron and steel, the ruins of the great animal house mixed with the ashes of a hundred and twenty animals, and I see with my mind's eye that great flat plain of blackened ruins, all cleared away, and green velvety grass, and trees, and fountains sprayin' over shrubs, and flowers, and white smooth paths windin' through the bloom and verdure clear down to the clean sand of the water's verge. And the high fence of Exclusion that shets them from other fair parks along the shore removed, thousands and thousands and thousands of happy children playin' there in the pure air, takin' in in one summer day enough strength to last 'em through a crowded, suffocatin', weary week. And grown folks, rich and poor, tired of city sights and sounds, strollin' about or settin' on comfortable seats lookin' off on the water, or watchin' the play of their children, the fresh air blowin' some of their cares and troubles away.



CHAPTER NINETEEN

WE RETURN TO JONESVILLE AND JOSIAH BUILDS TIRZAH ANN'S COTTAGE WITH STRANGE INVENTIONS AND ADDITIONS



CHAPTER NINETEEN

WE RETURN TO JONESVILLE AND JOSIAH BUILDS TIRZAH ANN'S COTTAGE WITH STRANGE INVENTIONS AND ADDITIONS

I told Josiah I hoped my vision would come true, and they would make an open park of Dreamland, so the millions who visit Coney Island could git a good look at Mom Nater and old Ocean. "And heaven knows," sez I, "there would be amusements enough left in Luny, and Steeple Chase Park, and other resorts all along the shore." And he said he didn't care a dum what they did with it. Sez he, "They needn't build it up on my account, for I won't patronize 'em any more!" And I told him, "I guessed he wouldn't be missed, specially Sundays and holidays." And he said, "Miss me or not, they needn't try to git me there agin, and they may jest as well give up hopin' to, first as last."

Sez I, "Can't you be megum, Josiah? You wuz all carried away with it, and now you're turned agin it; what makes you turn so fur? Can't you see the good side to it?"

"No, I can't, and won't!"

So we went home some like the Baptist and the Methodist who had a public meetin' to argy their two beliefs, on which they wuz dretful sot, and they converted each other, so the Baptist went home a Methodist, and the Methodist a Baptist.

I'd been considerable sot agin it, but I went home with the eye of my spectacles able to look on both sides. The side I didn't like, that it shares with other Pleasure Resorts. And its good side, as a care lightener, and diversion to toil. And a golden Pleasure House to the millions of children who go there every year, many of 'em poor children who get there their only glimpse of rest and light hearted enjoyment.

But my dear pardner can't be megum; that quality wuz left out when he wuz manufactured. And now if anyone sez Coney Island, he starts for the barn.

Serenus come home a few days after we did. He'd been on the Bowery of Coney Island that night, Josiah havin' refused to go to such a lowdown place with him. So as it often is in this strange world, the wrong-doer comes out ahead, for the present. He made a night of it with Jim Cobb, a rural cousin, and not a hair of his head wuz scorched, nor the smell of fire on his garments.

But I wuz proud that Josiah withstood temptation, and told him that I would ruther he had got afire, and burned considerable, than had him yield to the tempter.

I myself never sot foot on the Bowery; I wuzn't goin' to nasty up my mind with it, though I hearn there wuz some good things to be seen there. Folks told me I'd ort to gone to Brighton, and Atlantic City, and see the milds of beautiful Pleasure places along the ocean, but I sez, "I thank you, but I've seen enough," though there wuz sights there that I would loved to see.

Among 'em wuz that Mother's Camp, where thousands and thousands of poor children and their mas go to spend a day in the bracin' atmosphere. And the children have pure milk, and their mas good tea, and they can go there day after day all they want to. How the children look forward to it, and their mas too.



The goodness and helpfulness of such places along the beach, wrops their bright mantillys over some of the other places not so good and makes folks more lenitent to 'em, as they endure a poor husband for the sake of his good wife, and visey versey.

A few days after we got home, Josiah took Penstock and they sot off for a two weeks' stay at Shadow Island. And a few days after they got there he writ me that they had broke ground for the cottage. And that very day I got my feet wet down to the creek paster huntin' for a turkey's nest, and come down with inflamatory rumatiz, and couldn't walk a step for upwards of four weeks, and Ury's wife come and took care on me. My head felt bad too, Coney Island had been too much for me—

Well, Josiah would come home Sundays all wrought up and enthusiastick boastin' what a model house it wuz, jest perfect, and what new and magnificent discoveries he had made to lighten labor, which he wuz goin' to git patented and probable make our everlastin' fortune, as well as make Tirzah Ann perfectly happy. And I'd set with my foot on a piller, and hear him go on and forebode and forebode, and I groaned more about the house than I did with the pain in my lim, though that wuz fearful.

Well, after it had been goin' on for about four weeks, one Saturday when he come home over Sunday, he said the house wuz all up and nearin' completion, and he carried the idee if he didn't come right out and say it, that there wuzn't a mansion in the New Jerusalem that went ahead on't. My rumatiz and head wuz quite a little better, and he proposed that I should go back with him Monday mornin' on a short tower and see the house, and be a humble witness and admirer of his glorious triumph (he didn't say these words right out but carried the idee plain in his linement, and hauty demeanor). Well, I concluded to go, and Philury bandaged up my lim in soft flannel moistened with anarky, and packed various bottles of linement, etc., in my portmanty and Ury took us to the train.

Well I will pass over our voyage to Shadow Island, but in the fullness of time we arrove there, and stood in front of the cottage. The seen all round it wuz fair indeed, but the structure looked queer, queer as a dog. There wuz piazzas and porticos, and ornament piled on ornament cropped out on every side. It wuz weighted down with cheap little sawed out peaks and pints, and triangles perforated with holes for ornaments, but the hull thing looked shiftless, tippin' and lop sided. I stood lookin' at it in silence for a long time, it looked so queer that it sort o' stunted and brow beat me, and my first words wuz spoke as much to my own soul as to my companion, "It looks strange, passin' strange!"

"Yes," sez Josiah, "hain't it a uneek plan?"

"Yes," sez I, "a uneeker one wuz never seen on this planet." And agin I seemed to lose myself in strange emotions, it looked so awful, a kind of or mingled with my indignation and regret.

"Nobody will steal them idees!" sez he proudly.

"No," sez I sadly, "you're safe from that." And I sez, as I looked up at the queer, lop sided, flighty, vain thing, "It leans over considerable, Josiah Allen, it is very tippin'."

He looked worried, but sez in a sort of apology way, "I had it lean over one side on account of havin' rain water dripp offen the eaves, and have the snow slide off in drifty times. Ruffs have been known to fall in, and I wanted to ensure Tirzah Ann's havin' a ruff over her head anyway."

Agin I looked on in solemn or, and sez wonderin'ly, "What will Tirzah Ann say when she sees it?"

"I don't care," sez he, "what she sez! if she don't like it she can lump it!"

But I could see that the tippin' sides wuz done through a mistake, and he wuz tryin' to cover it up with a mantilly of bravado and boastfulness. I agin kep' silence for quite a spell, and my next words, so fur as I remember 'em, wuz, "Where is the suller?"

He stood agast and repeated, "The suller!" He looked perfectly dumb-foundered but wuzn't goin' to give in he made a mistake, it wuz too mortifyin' to his pride, so sez he in faint axents:

"I laid out to build it after the house wuz done." Sez I, "What wuz you goin' to do with the dirt?"

"Why, I laid out," sez he lookin' helplessly round for a excuse, "I laid out to bring it up in baskets," and he went on brightenin' up as a idee struck him—"I've observed, Samantha, that dirt is handy for house plants, or to plant seeds in the spring of the year."

Sez I dryly, "I guess three or four hundred wagon loads won't be needed for house plants, and after Tirzah Ann sees all that dirt lugged up her suller stairs and through her kitchen she won't have much time or ambition for posies."



"Well," sez he, a bright idee occurrin' to him, "it will be a first rate job for the men to do rainy days. In buildin' a house there hain't much a man can do durin' a hard thunder storm, or hail storm, but they can go right on with the suller jest as well as though it wuz a sunshiny day. That is one great thing that architects have heretofore overlooked, work that men can do durin' cyclones—I have met that want," sez he proudly.

"I should think as much," sez I mekanically, for my thoughts wuzn't there, they wuz afar with Tirzah with her poor health, and the blow that had got to come onto her, when she see this thing that wuz rared up in front of me.

Well, I went round to the kitchen door, the winders all seemed sot in tottlin' and shaky, and my pen fails me to tell the looks of them back door steps, they wuz very high here, for the land sloped off sudden, but suffice it to say that I wouldn't trust even one foot on 'em for a dollar bill. There wuz a great long concern that looked like a huge wooden arm that come out of the settin' room winder on that side and seemed to reach down to the water, and sez I, "What, for the land's sake! is that?"

"That," sez he proudly, "is the crownin' work of my life! that will make me famous and enormously rich when it becomes known to the world. That is a attachment to hitch onto the sewin' machine, the churn, the coffee mill or any domestic article where foot or hand power is used, and is to be used in pumpin' water."

"Pumpin' water!" sez I coldly, "what for?"

"Oh, for drinkin', for irrigatin', or for any use that water is used for, puttin' out fires, or anything."

Sez I coldly, "Do you spoze that Tirzah Ann with her health, is goin' to set at her sewin' machine and do fine sewin', and at the same time pump water from hour to hour?"

"Yes," sez he, "and hain't it a beautiful thought, how it will add to her sweet content and happiness as she sets sewin' on Whitfield's shirts, and thinkin' at the same time she is benefittin' the world at large, quietly and unostentatiously sewin' on gussets, and makin' the desert blossom like a rosy all round her; how happy she will be," sez he.

Sez I, "It is a crazy idee! crazy as a loon! What under the sun would she want to pump hundreds and hundreds of barrels of water for? Half a barrel would last 'em a day for all their work."

He murmured sunthin' about a fountain, that might be sprayin' up in the front yard, and how beautiful it would be, and enjoyable.

And I sez, "Could you set and enjoy yourself lookin' on a fountain risin' up and dashin' jewels of spray all round you, and thinkin' that every drop wuz bein' pumped up by the weary feet of your own girl by your first wife? That poor delicate little creeter's tired feet, toilin' on hour by hour and day by day."

He looked real bad, he hadn't thought so fur, and I went on, "Don't you know it would make the sewin' machine go so hard that no woman could run it a minute, let alone for days and weeks?" His linement fell two or three inches. I see he gin up it needed more strength to run it. "And it looks like furiation too," sez I.

"Look!" He snapped out, "What do you spoze I care for looks!"

But I see his idees wuz all broke up, as well they might be, Tirzah Ann pumpin' water all day with her feet! the idee!

Well, out on one side of the house I see a great pile of bricks, they seemed to be divided in two piles, one wuz good sound bricks, and one wuz broken some, and I sez, "What are these bricks divided off so fur?"

"That," sez he, "is a sample of how men see into things."

"How?" sez I.

"Well, I'll tell you." And he went on proudly, as if glad to git a chance to show off how fur seem' and eqinomical he wuz, and to recover from the machinness that had settled down on him like a dark mantilly, while we discussed the suller and pump attachment.

"I got them bricks at a bargain. I hain't got enough good bricks for the hull chimbly, and so I'm goin' to have 'em begin the chimbly on top instead of the usual way of beginin' at the bottom, and then I can see jest how fur my good bricks will go."

"How be you goin' to make the top bricks stay up?" sez I, "a layin' up on nothin'?"

"That is a man's work," sez he, "a woman couldn't understand it if I should explain it."

"No," sez I, "Heaven knows no woman on earth would ever understand that idee!"

Well, all I could do he would go that very afternoon and engage a mason to do the work, build the chimbly after his views, beginin' on top instead of the bottom. But though deeply mortified at it, that wuz jest the move that sot me free from my anxieties about the house, for the mason, who wuz a great case for a joke, made so much fun of the idee, and of the hull structure, that my companion threw up the hull job and told me that the house might go to——for anything he cared. I will never tell the place he said the house might go to, it is too wicked to even think on calmly, it begun with an H and that is all that I will ever tell to anybody.

Well, when Whitfield and Tirzah Ann come back from Maine and went to Shadow Island to see that strange queer lookin' buildin, I spoze Whitfield laughed till his sides ached. Tirzah cried, they say; cried partly out of sentiment to think her Pa had showed such affection for her as to build the cottage, and partly because it looked so awful, it made her hystericky.

But Whitfield sobered down, and when he come back to Jonesville acted good to Josiah, he seemed to be real thankful to Josiah and me for buildin' it, and his grateful, affectionate ways kinder took the edge offen Josiah's humiliation, but then he would probable have sprunted up anyway—mortification never prayed on him for more'n a short time.

Well, the end on't wuz, Whitfield hired a good carpenter to oversee the work, and some strong workmen who wuz able to lift and lug, there wuz plenty of lumber, and in four weeks the house wuz transmogrified into a good lookin' cottage. They built on a L, I believe they called it, which they're to use as a store room, and under that Tirzah Ann is to have her suller, Whitfield wuzn't the man to deprive her of that comfort. And in some way they straightened up the house, and put in a winder here and there, tore off lots of the ornaments, but left on some of the piazzas, and balconies, and things, and it wuz a pretty and commogious lookin' cottage. They painted the hull concern a soft buff color, with red ruffs that looked real picturesque settin' back aginst the dark green of the trees.

And sure enough the first week in September we had our party there. It wuzn't a surprise—no, Heaven knows the surprise wuz when we first laid eyes on the house as Josiah left it—but it wuz a very agreable party. Tirzah Ann did well by us in cookin' (of course we helped her) and we all stayed three days and two nights; Thomas J. and Maggie and the children, and Josiah and me. Tirzah Ann and Whitfield stayed longer, so's to leave everything in first rate order for another year. They sot out some pretty shrubs and made some posy beds under the winders, and planted bulbs in 'em, that they spozed would rise up and break out in sunny smiles when they met 'em another summer. They lay out to take sights of comfort in that house—yes indeed!

And I shouldn't be at all surprised if it ended by our all havin' cottages there for summer comfort. It looks like it now. Though I told 'em I'd ruther have our cottage on the main land pretty nigh to 'em; there's places where the land juts out into the river havin' all the looks of a island on the fore side, and on the hindside more solidity somehow.

And with the society of the Saint on the front side, and Safety on the hind side, it seems as if anybody could take considerable comfort there.



CHAPTER TWENTY

FAITH COMES TO VISIT US. WE ATTEND THE CAMP MEETIN' AT PILLER PINT, AND FAITH MEETS THE LOVER OF HER YOUTH



CHAPTER TWENTY

FAITH COMES TO VISIT US. WE ATTEND THE CAMP MEETIN' AT PILLER PINT, AND FAITH MEETS THE LOVER OF HER YOUTH

Accordin' to her promise Faithful Smith come to Jonesville in the fall and we wuz glad enough to see her.

We had laid our plans to attend the Camp Meetin' at Piller Pint, and at last the time arriv. The day before the great meetin', the sky wuz rosy in the mornin', the distant lake looked blue, and everything bid fair for a good spell of weather.

Josiah iled up the old double harness and washed the democrat off and rubbed it down with shammy skin till it shone like glass. And I prepared a glass can of baked beans brown and crispy, but sweet and rich tastin' as beans know how to be when well cooked, then I briled two young chickens a light yeller brown, and basted 'em well with melted butter, and had a new quart basin of as good dressin' as Jonesville ever turned out, and I've seen good dressers in my day. And a quart can of beautiful creamed potatoes all ready to warm up, two dozen light white biscuit, a canned strawberry pie, and a dozen sugar cookies reposed side by side in a clean market basket, and by 'em lay peacefully a little can of rich yeller butter and one of brittle cowcumber pickles, and one dozen deviled eggs.

A better lunch wuz never prepared in the precincts of Jonesville.

Oh! and I had some jell too, and cream cheese, and the next mornin' I made two quarts of coffee all ready to warm up in Sister Meechum's tent (she had gin permission), and a can of sweet cream to add richness to it, and lump sugar accordin'.

I felt that these wuz extraordinary preparations, but didn't begrech 'em, part on 'em wuz on Faith's account. Well, as I say, the preparations wuz all completed the day before exceptin' the coffee and creamed potatoes, and them wuz accomplised early in the mornin' while I wuz gittin' breakfast, and we all sot off triumphant at nine A.M.

It wuz a clear cool mornin' in lovely autumn. Old Nater hadn't as you may say finished up her fall job of colorin' and paintin', but she wuz all rousted up tendin' to it.

All along the smooth highway leadin' to the lake, trees and bushes bent over the roadside tinged with crimson and yeller and russet brown, and red, and shaded gold colors mingled with the rich green of the faithful cedars and hemlocks and pines. Sometimes up a high pine tree or ellum a wild ivy had clum and wuz hangin' on with one hand and wavin' out to us its banner of gold and crimson as we passed. And fur off the maple forest looked like a vast mass of rose and amber and golden brown, mingled with the deep green of spruces and cedars, and furder off still a blue haze lay over all like a soft veil partly hidin' and partly revealin' the glory of the seen. And ever and anon the blue flashin' waters of the lake could be seen like the soul in a woman's face, givin' life and meanin' to the picture.

Well, anon as we clumb a hill, the hull lake bust out on our vision, it lay spread out broad and beautiful and calm, with the breezes ripplin' its blue surface into waves, and the sunshine sparkling on its bosom, and down under the hill on a pint of land that stretched out into the water stood the noble grove of trees where the camp meetin' wuz held. That wuz Piller Pint.

We descended a hill, driv along half a mild or so till we come to a fence and a open pair of bars, in front of which stood two muscular attendants and one on 'em sez, "We take a small fee from them that enter."

Sez Josiah, lookin' gloomy, "I spozed religion wuz free."

"It is free," sez the man, "but this is only to smooth its way, put up seats and such."

Sez Josiah, "I didn't know that Religion had to set down."

"Sinners have to set," sez the man.

Sez Josiah, "We hain't sinners." But I hunched him and sez, "Pay your fee and go on." So after a deep sithe he produced his old leather wallet and fished up ten cents out of its depths, and we proceeded on.

The grove wuz a large one, acres and acres of big trees on every side, and vehicles of every description from smart canopy top buggies, and Sarah's, and automobiles, down to one horse sulkies and rickety buck-boards, and horses of every size and color wuz hitched to 'em. And on the fallen tree trunks sot wimmen and girls, young boys, children, and pairs of lovers wuz walkin' afoot amidst the deep green aisles. Way in the green depths of the woods you could see the glimpse of a woman's dress, or see the head of a horse lookin' out peaceful.

But we advanced a little furder as the road led out amongst the trees and pretty soon we come in sight of a large round tent where the meetin' wuz held, and from which we could hear the voice of hims and oratory, along on both sides of the immense tent, so's to leave a road between, wuz rows of small tents where the campers dwelt. They stretched on like two rows of white dwellings way off into the green of the woods. Josiah and I are well thought on in Jonesville, and as fur out as Loontown and Piller Pint, and a man soon advanced and gin us an advantageous position, and Josiah hitched the mair and we advanced into the amphitheatre.

The tent riz up like a big white umbrell, or like great broodin' wings overhead, leavin' the sides free for the soft air to enter. There wuz rows of seats, boards laid on wooden supports and on one side a high wooden structure, open towards the seats, in which the preachers sot or stood. A wooden railin' run along in front of that rough pulpit. Under foot wuz the green moss and rich mold of the onbroken forest. And way up over the white tent the tall tree tops arched, and you could look way up into the green aisles of light with glimpses of sunshine between, castin' shady shadows and golden ones on the grass and moss below.

Folks wuz settin' round of all sorts, some handsome, some humbly, some dressed up slick, some in rough common attire, but most on 'em looked like good sturdy farmers and their families. The old grand-ma of ninety with bent form and earnest face, side by side with her great grand-child.

I myself with Josiah sot down by a large boneded woman with a big, calm, good-lookin' face. She had on a dress and mantilly of faded black cashmere; the mantilly wuz wadded, a pink knit woolen scarf wuz wound loose round her neck, she had a small hat of black straw trimmed with red poppies, and she wore a pair of large hoop ear-rings. Her face had the calm and sunshine of perfect peace on it. Her husband, a small pepper-and-salt iron gray man, with sandy hair and a multitude of wrinkles, sot by her, and they had a young child elaborately dressed in red calico between 'em.

Beyond her sot a little slender woman in a stylish dark blue dress and turban, her face alert and eager, lit with deep gray eyes, had the passion and zeal of a Luther or Wesley. On the nigh side of me sot two young girls in pink and white muslin; a father and mother and three children wuz behind us, and on the seat in front wuz some young men and two old ones. I hearn the big calm woman say, "I shall be dretful disappinted if he don't come to-day."

"So shall I," sez the pepper-and-salt man, "I shall feel like turnin' right round and goin' back home, but I think he is sure to be here." Bein' temporary neighbors I asked who it wuz that wuz expected.

"Why, the great revivalist and preacher who is expected here to-day."

Sez I, "Who is it?" The woman said she couldn't remember the name, but he wuz the greatest preacher sence Wesley. He jest went about doin' good, folks would go milds and milds to hear him, and he drawed their souls and sperits right along with his fervor and eloquence. He is to a big meetin' at Burr's Mills to-day, but is expected here for sure. Two hundred had been converted under him at Burr's Mills. He had been there a week.

I sez, "Whyee! is that so?"

"Yes," sez the calm woman, and she went on to say, "I hear that he used to be a wicked man, but had some trouble that made him desperate, and finally driv him right into the Kingdom, and sence that he can't seem to work hard enough for the Master."

"Well," sez I, "Saul the scoffer got turned into Paul the apostle, and that same power is here to-day."

"Speakin' of the power," sez the woman, "two wimmen and a man had the power last night, one girl lay speechless for hours, and when she come to said she had been ketched right up into Heaven. She talked beautiful," sez she.

Sez I calmly, "That's jest what Paul said, he said he wuz caught up to the Third Heaven."

Sez Josiah, "That power don't come to earth to-day, Samantha."

Sez I, "Who told you it didn't? I hain't hearn on't. Earth hain't no furder from Heaven now than it wuz then, and the same God reigns."

"Amen," sez the pepper-and-salt man, I see he had zeal and religion, but I felt kinder flustrated to be "amened" to in public, and I looked kinder meachin' I spoze, and the calm woman see I did. And she sez:

"Sister Calvin Martin lays there now in her tent with the Power. She lay there all day yesterday and all night."

Some of the boys before me begun to titter and snicker at anybody's havin' the power, and I sez, eyein' 'em sternly, "Do you know what you're laughin' at, young men? You talk about it real glib, but have you any idee of the greatness and overwhelmin' might of the Force you're speakin' of? That Power wuz at Pentecost in cloven tongues of flame, and strange voices and words that no man could utter. Saul laughed at the Power but it struck him blind in the street, and ketched him up into the Seventh Heaven. When that Power comes down on earth, let sinners quail, and saints look on with or and tremblin'."

They looked real meachin'. But jest then the Experience meetin' begun, and a old man with thin white hair and white whiskers framin' his meek wrinkled face, come forward, and layin' his hand on the railin' sez in a kinder tremblin' voice, "Bless the Lord who has made His servant able to come to this temple in the wilderness, to witness the glory He has poured down on his people. Every camp-meetin' for years I have thought would be my last, but bless Him who has preserved me to this day."

"Yes, bless the Lord! Amen! amen!" wuz shouted on every side, and as he stopped after a few minutes' exhortation, the other ministers and some of the old bretheren crowded round the white headed old saint to shake his hand.

Then a sweet faced little girl in a pink hat got up and said "the Lord wuz precious to her."

"Amen! amen! Bless His name! He carries the lambs in His bosom!" said the white headed preacher. Then a pleasant lookin' middle-aged minister related this incident, "A young boy had been converted, and said he had a view of Heaven. A onbeliever tried to frighten him and asked him if he didn't tremble at the thought. Sez the boy, 'My feet are on the rock.'

"'But don't you tremble?' sez the infidel.

"'Yes,' sez the boy, 'I do, but the rock under my feet don't tremble.'"

"Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land, A weary land, a weary land— Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land— A shelter in the time of storm."

High and clear this believin' song floated through our souls—and up to Heaven.

Then a good lookin' young man arose and sez, "Did you ever hear of the drunken horse jockey and thief down to Loontown? Well, I'm that man clothed and in my right mind. The Lord stopped me in my evil course, and I am His and He is mine."

A bystander sez, "That is so, he is a changed man." Then they all sung:

"There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Emmanuel's veins; And sinners plunged beneath its flood Lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty sta-ains; Lose all their guilty sta-ains; And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains."

That is a melogious chorus, but so kinder floatin' on, and back and forth, that I don't see how they can ever stop it when they begin. Of course as wuz natural there wuz some there who wuz bashful and made mistakes. A tall slim young man got up, he wuz studying for the ministry, sez he, "My friends, I am a stranger to you all, I am a stranger to myself, and I trust," sez he, "I am a stranger to my God."

He left out a "wuzn't," he meant that he wuzn't a stranger to his God. Bashfulness wuz the cause. Madder red wuz pale compared to his face when he sot down, and his tongue wuz thick and husky. I wuz sorry for him. Then a woman riz up with a black bunnet and veil on and white collar and cuffs; she looked like a Quakeress, and I believe that if Emperors and Zars had stood before her she would have been onmoved, she wuz as calm and earnest as Ruth or Esther, or any of our good old four-mothers. Sez she:

"My friends, I see your faces to-day and watch the different expressions upon them. How will these faces look when we meet at the Bar of God? Will peace be on them? Or dismay and everlastin' regret?"

"Oh yes! The Lord help! Let us hear from some one else!" A slight pause ensued and then there riz up this melogious appealin' old him:

"Shall Jesus bear the cross alone, And all the world go free? No, there's a cross for every one, And there's a cross for me."

A colored boy got up; he wuz tall and gant with big soft eyes full of the pathetic wisdom and ignorance of his race. He spoke kinder slow and sez, "I wuz sick once and I felt alone. I wuz afraid to die. Now if I wuz sick I shouldn't be alone, nor afraid, I've got somebody with me. Jesus Christ is with me all the time. I hain't lonesome no more, nor 'fraid."

"Tell your experience, Joe, tell it here!" shouted an old man. Joe stepped forward, took the Bible offen the rustic stand, turned over the leaves to the first page, and slowly and laboriously read, "Darkness was on the face of the earth—and God said, let there be light—and there wuz light."

He closed the book and looked round with rapt luminous eyes. "That is me," sez he, "that is my experience."

"Amen! amen!" shouted the brethren. The little refined lookin' woman in the blue dress started this verse and sung it through almost alone, in a clear sweet voice:

"I am but a traveller here, Heaven is my home. Earth's but a desert drear, Heaven is my home. Time's cold and chilling blast, soon will be over past, I shall reach home at last, Heaven is my home."

"Amen! amen! Now let us hear from another." And one after another rose and told of the goodness of God and what He had done for them. The sweet earnest hims floated out ever and anon and over the place seemed to brood a Presence that boyed our sperits up as on wings, and I felt that we wuz there with one accord, and my soul seemed lifted up fur above Jonesville and Josiah, and all earthly troubles.

All to once a woman rose with a light on her face as if she wuz lookin' on sunthin' fur above this earth. She delivered a eloquent exhortation in words of praise and ecstasy. More and more earnest and eloquent she grew and lifted up from earthly influences. At last she lifted her hands and stepped out with a swayin' motion of her body, as if keepin' step to some onhearn melody that ears stuffed with the cotton of worldliness and onbelief wuzn't fine enough to ketch, and finally her feet begun to keep step with that mysterious music, that for all I know might have been soundin' down from the ramparts of the New Jerusalem. Round and round she slowly swayed and stepped. Wuz it to the rythm of that invisible music?

There wuz a look on her pure face as if she wuz hearin' sunthin' we didn't. I wuz riz up and carried away some distance from myself. When still lookin' up with that rapt luminous face she fell to the ground as prostrate as Saul did on the road to Jerusalem, and lay in that state, so I hearn afterwards, for a day and a night. Jest as she fell that iron gray man yelled out, "Bless the Lord!"

And I sez, bein' all wrought up, "Don't you know when to say that, and when not to? She might have broke her nose." He looked queer.

In a few minutes I see a stir round the speakers' stand, and knew the speaker of the day, the great revivalist from the West, had come. And anon I see a tall noble figger passin' through the crowd that made way for it reverentially. And lo and behold! I see as I ketched a glimpse of his profile that it wuz the minister I had hearn at Thousand Island Park. The same sweet smile rested on his face as he looked round on his brethren and the crowd before him, some like a benediction, only more tender like, and a light seemed to be shinin' through his countenance, ketched from some Divine power.

It wuz the same face I had framed that summer day in the Tabernacle at T. I. Park, and hung up in my mind right by the side of Isaiah and St. Paul. Yes, I see agin the broad white forward with the brown hair mixed with gray thrown back from it kinder careless, his eyes had the same sweet sad expression, soft, yet deep lookin', and pitiful, as if he wuz sorry for us and would love to teach us the secret he had found of how to overcome the world and its sins and sorrows.

His prayer had the same power of lifting us up fur above the world and settin' down our naked souls in the presence of Him who searcheth the heart, searchin' and probin' to our consciences, and yet consolin', puttin' us in mind of that text, "As a father pitieth his children" and yet wants 'em to mind. It wuz a prayer for help and as if we would git it.

He read in that same sweet, melogious voice I remembered so well, Paul's wonderful words about how he wuz led from the blackness of unbelief up into the Great Light, and how he wuz caught up into the Third Heaven and saw things so great and glorious that it would not be lawful for man to speak of them, and where he goes on to tell of his belief, his hope and his faith. The text wuz Paul's words when he recalls those divine hours up on the heights alone with God:

"Wherefore not being disobedient to the heavenly vision."

And as he went on, as uplifted as I wuz, I felt fearful ashamed to think how many times I had been disobedient to the Heavenly vision, the white ideals that shone out in my mind so high and clear in the mornin' light, and I wuz so sure I could reach. But havin' set down to rest in the heat of the day, and bein' drawn off into the shadders and thickets of environin' cares and perplexities, I didn't git nigh enough to grasp holt of, and I whispered as much to my pardner.

And he said he felt different, he had always ever sence he sot out marched right straight towards the Kingdom.

Sez I, "Josiah Allen, hain't you ever meandered at all from that straight and narrer way?"

"No mom, not a inch, not a hair's breadth." I wuz dumb-foundered by his conceit as many times as I had witnessed it.

The sermon that follered wuz white and glowin' with the light of Heaven. You could see that he had not been disobedient to that Divine vision that had been revealed to him. The deep sweet look of his eyes told of them supreme heights his own soul had reached. Upliftin', sympathizin', soul searchin', callin' on the best in every heart there to rise up and try to fly Heavenward.

His looks and words rousted up my soul and carried me off so fur from the world and Piller Pint, that I lost sight entirely of the crowd around me. But anon I hearn a voice at my side and I see Faith had come back onbeknown to me (she had been in Sister Meechum's tent mendin' a rent in her dress). But when I looked at her I realized how the face of St. Stephen looked. It sez, "His face shone like the face of an angel." Faith's looked jest so, only tears wuz slowly droppin' from her eyes and runnin' down her white cheeks. Sez I, whisperin' to her with or in my axents,

"What is it, Faith? What is it, dear? Is it the Power?"

I most knew it wuz, and I wuz mekanically turnin' it over in my mind what I should do with her if she fell over prostrate, and where I should lay her out. When she turned, her glowin' awe-struck eyes held a world of joy and glory in each one on 'em.

"Yes, it is the Power, the power and goodness of God." And she whispered in blissful axents, "It is Richard, Richard redeemed and working for my Master."

I see it all, it wuz the lost lover of her youth, I read it in her face. You could have knocked me down with a clothes-pin aimed by a infant.

"How come he here?" sez I in a onbelievin' way.

"God sent him!" She whispered. "He sent this blessedness to me, to know his soul is saved, that he is working for Him."

I felt queer.

That afternoon they met under a ellum tree. He'd found out she wuz there, and asked for a interview, which I see that she granted him. It wuz a pretty spot, clost to the water, with trees of droopin' ellums and some maples, and popples touched with fire and gold. The autumn leaves made a sort of canopy over their heads, and all round 'em wuz the soft melancholy quiet of the fall of the year. He stood there waitin' for her.

"Faith!"

"Richard!"

* * * * *

I don't know how long they stood there, her little cold hands held in his big warm palms, his eyes searchin' the dear face and findin' a sacred meanin' in it, and she in hisen. He wuz pale, his voice trembled like the popple leaves overhead, and visey versey hern.

The settin' sun glowed warm on the face of the water some as his eyes did, readin' her sweet face, and some of that fire seemed to glow in his deep blue eyes.

"I had been so wicked, Faith, I had done so much harm, I said I would never seek my own happiness, I would work only for my fellow creatures, striving if I might undo some of my evil work, but I see to-day that I have been an egotist. God would not be offended at my happiness if I could win the dear woman I have loved all these years. You have forgiven me, Faith, I see it in your sweet eyes."



Agin he paused, and nothin' broke the silence but the murmur of the blue waters swashin' up on the beach, and furder off through the trees some belated campers jest drivin' onto the ground sung out with clear voices,

"God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform."

"He led me here to-day. I had not seen your face for twenty years, but this morning, at day dawn, I stood at my open window striving to decide to which place I should go to-day. Through a mistake I was expected in two places. And as I stood thinking, your face dawned on my inner vision as plainly as I see it now, and I had to come here, something told me I must come. He led me here and you also. He has a meaning in this——shall we read it together, Faith?"

And through the arched vista of autumn leaves they could see that the sky beyend the Pint gleamed out like a city of golden palaces. They seemed to be goin' through its gates——into the glory beyend.

THE END