“You have relations living there, probably, so that you are attached to the place as your home?”

“I had an aunt there once; she brought me up, for I was an orphan.  But she was taken away seven years ago, and I have no other kindred that I know of, besides my Aunt Poyser, who is very good to me, and would have me come and live in this country, which to be sure is a good land, wherein they eat bread without scarceness.  But I’m not free to leave Snowfield, where I was first planted, and have grown deep into it, like the small grass on the hill-top.”

“Ah, I daresay you have many religious friends and companions there; you are a Methodist—­a Wesleyan, I think?”

“Yes, my aunt at Snowfield belonged to the Society, and I have cause to be thankful for the privileges I have had thereby from my earliest childhood.”

“And have you been long in the habit of preaching?  For I understand you preached at Hayslope last night.”

“I first took to the work four years since, when I was twenty-one.”

“Your Society sanctions women’s preaching, then?”

“It doesn’t forbid them, sir, when they’ve a clear call to the work, and when their ministry is owned by the conversion of sinners and the strengthening of God’s people.  Mrs. Fletcher, as you may have heard about, was the first woman to preach in the Society, I believe, before she was married, when she was Miss Bosanquet; and Mr. Wesley approved of her undertaking the work.  She had a great gift, and there are many others now living who are precious fellow-helpers in the work of the ministry.  I understand there’s been voices raised against it in the Society of late, but I cannot but think their counsel will come to nought.  It isn’t for men to make channels for God’s Spirit, as they make channels for the watercourses, and say, ’Flow here, but flow not there.’”

“But don’t you find some danger among your people—­I don’t mean to say that it is so with you, far from it—­but don’t you find sometimes that both men and women fancy themselves channels for God’s Spirit, and are quite mistaken, so that they set about a work for which they are unfit and bring holy things into contempt?”

“Doubtless it is so sometimes; for there have been evil-doers among us who have sought to deceive the brethren, and some there are who deceive their own selves.  But we are not without discipline and correction to put a check upon these things.  There’s a very strict order kept among us, and the brethren and sisters watch for each other’s souls as they that must give account.  They don’t go every one his own way and say, ’Am I my brother’s keeper?’”

“But tell me—­if I may ask, and I am really interested in knowing it—­how you first came to think of preaching?”