that struggle. Even her patience and resignation were of a higher type, raised from the plane of passive endurance to the quality of active, positive virtues.

CHAPTER 15

A SMALL BOY'S PROGRESS IN RELIGIONTM

ACCORDING to custom, on the first Sunday in May a Sunday-school was organized at the Sugar Hill schoolhouse for the summer. As usual, Joshua Granger was elected superintendent without an opposing voice; although, as usual, he had been tormented for weeks with a suspicion that there was a movement on foot to elect somebody else, and as usual he had taken pains to inform several of the brethren that he was not "achin' fer the office.' The Sunday-school, too, went on during the summer about as usual, except that Paul Granger took a much more prominent part than theretofore. "Like father, like son.' Having experienced religion, and being the son of an exhorter, classleader, and Sunday-school superintendent, Paul felt it incumbent on him to take a corresponding position among his youthful companions. He learned his Bible lessons during the week, receiving such instruction as his mother could give him in connection therewith. Then, each Sunday morning Joshua coached and quizzed him on the lesson for that day, and prepared him to answer the questions which the superintendent would ask when he came to catechize the school; printed lesson sheets being as yet unknown there. Thus Paul was always well crammed, and rattled off the proper answers glibly before the questions were hardly out of the superintendent's mouth, while the rest of the children feebly echoed Paul's brisk responses. This procedure naturally called forth unfavorable comment; but the remarks never reached Joshua's ears. Nor would it have mattered if they had; for, was he not bringing his son up in God's way? Then why should the jeers of the worldlyminded deter or disturb him, or turn him aside from the path of duty?

Under such training Paul was fast developing into a precocious religious prig. The superintendent, in order to

stimulate the children to learn their lessons, offered a copy of the New Testament as a prize, to be bestowed at the close of the season upon the scholar who had memorized most verses. Of course Paul won the prize. But by the end of the summer the novelty of religious exercises and leadership had somewhat worn off. He began to grow lukewarm; was even in danger of blacksliding. Doubts and questionings, multifarious and multiform, religious and secular, forced themselves upon his mind, often calling for explanation by his mother.

Ma, how old are you?" asked Paul one day, when he and his mother were "visiting," as they delighted to call their long conferences.

"Thirty years old, Paul. Why do ask?"

"I was jes' wond'rin'. You look 's old 's Aunt Sue, an' Steve says she's purty nigh forty. What makes you look 's old 's her? Is it 'cause you hain't hed 'nough to eat?" The mother smiled faintly.

"Don't we have 'nough to eat, Paul?"

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'Yes-I guess so 'nough o' so'thin', but not what I'd like to hev. An' someways our victuals don't taste 's good 's Aunt Sue's. Why don't they?"

In spite of a twinge of pain the mother maintained her faint smile. She sometimes helped Aunt Sue cook, and Aunt Sue always complimented her on her skill.

"Aunt Sue has more to cook with than I have," she replied.

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Why don't pa git you 's much to cook with 's Uncle Hez gits Aunt Sue?"

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He hain't got the money."

Why don't he work an' earn it? Uncle Hez's got lots more money 'n pa, but he works a good deal more'n pa does besides."

"But your pa is doing the Lord's work."

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"I know; preachin'. The boy was silent a moment, and then went on: Why does some folks git money fer doin' the Lord's work an' some don't? Brother Shore an' other ministers gits money fer it, an' wears nice clo'es; but pa don't seem to git nothin', only a little stuff give us to eat once in a while, arter the revivil meetin's is done."

"Your ра don't expect to git much pay in this world. He'll git his reward in heaven, an' so 'll you an' me too." But ministers gits some here."

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THE ERROR, AND THE REASON WHY

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The mother made no reply. After a moment the boy continued, as though stating his own conclusion rather than asking a question:

"Ma, don't you s'pose pa studies an' preaches so much jes' 'cause he'd ruther do it 'n work?"

Mary started, shocked as if the son had cursed his father. But looking into the boyish face she saw only innocence and frankness there, and she felt that, however wicked his words might sound, there was no guile in his heart. Not for an instant did she think of treating his question as worthy serious consideration. That would have been sacrilege. But she was roused to the necessity of answering her son in a way, if possible, to put his mind at rest and stop such dangerous trains of thought. So, drawing him to her she said tenderly but very earnestly:

"You mus❜n't say that, Paul. Somebody's got to do God's work, an' your pa thinks he's had a call. It's the greatest an' noblest work in the world. We mus'n't complain. The more we suffer here the happier 'll be our life in heaven."

The promise of heavenly joys did not sink very deeply into the boy's heart. He was thinking just then that he would like to have as good a supper as he knew Steve and Hez were eating. He had not yet reached the years and the faith when he could resignedly exchange earthly certainties for heavenly promises.

"Ma," he said with boyish enthusiasm, "when I git to be a man I'll work 's hard's ever I kin, an' I'll buy you lots o' nice things to eat an' wear, an' a horse an' buggy, an' a cutter, an' a silk dress, an'-an'-we'll hev lots o' milk, an' beef, an' butter, an' good bread like Aunt Sue's, instid o' jes' johnny-cake an' taters an' salt pork-yes, an' pie an' cake too.

After a moment's silent, rapturous contemplation of these essentials of an ideal state of existence, Paul inquired: "Ma, wha' do you want me to do when I'm growed up?" Looking steadily into the sparkling, eager eyes, the mother replied impressively:

"Your pa wants you to be a minister an' win souls to Christ."

The eagerness and sparkle faded.

"You remember the great Apostle Paul, who done so much for Christ. You were named after him, b'cause your father wantid you to be an apostle too, an evangelist, a

great revivilist. You know your pa never had no chance to git an education, but he wants you to go to school an' learn a great deal, an' then be a minister, an' preach in big churches, an' convert a great many people."

For a minute Paul silently considered the future thus mapped out for him, feeling as though the whole momentous question, including the fate of the souls whose prospective conversion lay in his hands, must be decided by him then and there. At last, slowly, gravely, with an air of lofty eight-year-old resignation, he replied:

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Wal, I s'pose I kin do it, but I don't hanker to."

The conversation ended there. It was the first time Paul had shown a disposition to go into an investigation of his surroundings, or to look far into the future. Thereafter, however, such talks grew more and more frequent, and each time were so guided by Mary as to repress the spirit of honest inquiry normally developing in the boy, and to direct his mind wholly to religious things; to the Bible as the ultimate and infallible authority, to God as a personal ruler constantly watching over and directing the affairs of men, and to the littleness and insignificance of everything in this life, and the magnitude and magnificence of everything belonging to the life after death.

This training produced the natural and desired effect. The boy gradually learned to look at all things through the medium of the Bible, and to judge all things by Bible standards. It was impossible for him to establish in his mind standards based on sense observation and logical deduction. Yet the mother was bringing up her boy as she had been brought up, and as she and her husband honestly believed children should be brought up.

Whose was the fault?

Manifestly the error went back to the preceding generation and lay not merely with the parents of Joshua and Mary but also with the society around them.

But was that the ultimate source of the error?

By no means. The source, and the responsibility, lay with every man or woman, from the first dawning of human intelligence, who, acting from motives of selfish impulse instead of from motives of right and duty, had helped to bring about this state of things; who had traded upon human ignorance, or fear, or weakness; or who had fostered vice or prejudice or superstition, whether at the home hearth, or

HIGLEY DOOM IS PATRIOTIC

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from the political rostrum, or from the pulpit, or with the pen. And the proportion of the responsibility is to be gauged by the knowledge each individual had of the right and the wrong, by his physical and mental power of selfcontrol, and by the extent of his opportunity and means for turning and guiding the current of human thought and action from the false to the true.

Do not, then, blame the father and mother over much. They were what their surroundings had made them. Their standpoint was too low for them to see the great structure of human society in its true form and proportions. Rather condemn those who, from higher vantage ground and with every means for learning the truth, fail or refuse to learn it; or, having learned it, persist in preaching a lie and in fostering ignorance and superstition.

"What d'ye s'pose Brother Smashem's b'en an' gone an' done?" said Aunt Sue to Mary one day in August.

"I don't know," responded Mary. Has he done so'thin' drea'ful?'

"Yes, he hez; he's b'en an' gone an' 'nlistid," replied Aunt Sue, vainly striving to vent by tone and gesture the indignation she felt. "Jes' to think on't! His poor wife with four little childern, an' them a-livin' f'm han' to mouth-an' precious little fer the han' to carry to the mouth 't thet, ef their near neighbors speaks true. What's the poor woman an' her babies ever goin' to do? Thet's what I'd like to know."

"I knowed he'd 'nlistid," quietly replied Mary, whose mildness stirred Aunt Sue to increased wrath.

"Ye did, did ye," she snapped; though both she and Mary knew that the snappishness was not directed against Mary personally. "Who told ye?"

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Joshua; Brother Doom told 'im he was goin' to 'nlist; that he felt it his duty to go an' help save 'is country."

"Save his country! Bah! He's a likely critter to talk 'bout savin' his country. He jes' wants to git away f'm home an' hev a good time, an' march roun' 'ith drums an' fifes an' flags-fer thet's what war means to sich as himan' git out o' workin' stiddy an' honest. Not but thet it's right an' brave fer them to go to war thet hain't got a bigger duty to hum. But them thet's sitooated like Hig Doom 'd best wait till they're needed wuss down South 'n they be