“See that he comes, another time. I send
him my peace, and tell him that it will not return
to me. Say that I said he needs me.”
He went out between Enraghty and Hingston, and as
they walked away, he sank his voice back in words
of Scripture; farther away he began his hymn:
“Plunged in a gulf of dark despair,
We wretched sinners lay”—
and ended with his shout of “Salvation!”
The cabin of the Reverdys stood on a byway beyond
the Gillespies. Sally had joined the girl on
her way out of the Temple, and was prancing beside
her as they went homeward together. “Oh,
ain’t it just great? I feel like as if
I could fly. I never seen the Power in Leatherwood
like it was to-night. He’s sent;
you can tell that as plain as the nose on your face.
How happy I do feel! I believe in my heart I got
salvation this minute. Don’t you feel the
Spirit any? But you was always such a still girl!
I did like the way the women folks was floppun’
all round. I say, if you feel the Power workun’
in you, show it, and help the others to git it.
What do you s’pose he meant by your paw’s
needun’ him?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps he
will,” the girl answered briefly.
“Goun’ to tell him? Well, that’s
right, Janey. I kep’ wonderun’ why
he didn’t come to-night. If Abel hadn’t
be’n so beat out with his work at the Cross
Roads to-day, you bet I’d ‘a’ made
him come; but he said I’d git enough
glory for both. I believe his talkun’ with
Squire Braile don’t do him no good. You
b’lieve Washington and Jefferson was friends
with Tom Paine? The Squire says they was, but
I misdoubt it, myself; I always hearn them two was
good perfessun’ Christians. Kind o’
lonesome along here where the woods comes so close’t,
ain’t it? Say, Janey: I wisht you’d
come a little piece with me, though I don’t
suppose the bad spirits would dast to come around
a body right on the way home from the Temple this way—”
They had reached the point where Sally must part with
the girl, who stopped to lift the top rail of the
bars to the lane leading from the road to her father’s
cabin. She let it drop again. “Why,
I’ll go the whole way with you, Sally.”
“Will you? Well, I declare to gracious,
you’re the best girl I ever seen. I believe
in my heart, I’ll rout Abel out and make him
go back home with you.”
“You needn’t,” the girl said.
“I’m not afraid to go alone in the dark.”
“Well, just as you say, Janey. What do
you do to keep from beun’ afraid?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I just think,
I suppose.”
“Well, I just want to squeal.”
Sally had been talking in her loud, loose voice to
keep her courage up. “Well, I declare if
we ain’t there a’ready. If you just
say the word I’ll have Abel out in half a minute,
and—”
“No,” the girl said. “Good
night.”
