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NORTH GEORGIA TIMES.
£ B," CARTER, I I>r °P r H'Jtof.
REY. i DR. TALI AGE
•
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE’S SUN¬
DAY SERMON.
Subject “The Upper Forces In Ameri¬
can History.”
Text: “And the Lord opened the eyes .of
the young man; and he saw; and, behold,
the mountain was full of horses and char
iots of lire round about Elisha .”—It Kings
vi, 17.
, As it cost England many regiments and
two million dollars a year to keep safely a
troublesome captive at St. Helena, so the
King of Syria sends out a whole army to
capture one minister of religion—perhaps 50,
000 men to take Elisha. During the night
the army of Assyrians came around the vil¬
lage of Dothan, where the prophet was
staying. At Elisha early rushed daybreak in the said; man
servant of and
“What shall we do? there is a
whole army come to destroy you. We must
die, we must die.” But "Elisha was not
scared a bit, for ho looked up and saw
the mountains all around full of super
natural forces, aud he knew that if there
were 50,000 Assyrians against him there
were 100,(XX) angels for him; and in
answer to the prophet’s prayer in behalf of
his affrighted it too. Horses man of servant," harnessed the young man
saw fire to char¬
iots of fire, and drivers of fire pulling reins
of fire on bits of fire; and warriors of fire
with brandished sword of fire, and the brill¬
iance of that morning sunrise w,v3 eclipsed
cavalcade. by the galloping splendors the of th celestial
“And Lord opened the eyes
of the young man; and he saw; and, behold,
tho mountain was full of horses and chariots
of firo round about Elisha.” I have which often
threaten spoken to you American of the Assyrian institutions, perils
one but now
as we aro assembling to keep centennial cele¬
bration of the inauguration of Washington,
I speak of the upper forces of the text that
are to fight on our side. If all tho low levels
aro filled with armed threats, I have to tell
you that the mountains of our hope and coup
age and faith are full of the horses and char¬
iots of Divine rescue.
You will notico that tho Divine equipage is
always kiel and represented Isaiah as John, a chariot of fire. Eze¬
and when they come to
describe the Divino equipage, always repre¬
sent it as a wheeled, a harnessed, an uphol¬
stered conflagration. It is not a chariot like
Kings and conquerors of earth mount, Thai but an
organized and a compressed fire. means
purity> through burning justice, chastisement, deliverance
escapes. Chariot of rescue?
yes, but chariot of fire. All our national
disentliralments agonies and red have disasters. been through Through scorching
tribu¬
lation the individual rises. Through tribu¬
lation nations rise. Chariots of rescue, but
chariots of fire.
But how do I know that this Divino equi¬
page is on the side of our institutions? I know
it by the history of the last one hundred and
from eight years. the The of American John revolution started
pendence Hall, pen in 1776. The Hancock, in Inde¬
colonies without
ships, yifhout without ammunition, without guns,
trained warriors, mercy,
without prestige. On the other side, the
armies mightiest and nation the grandest of the navies earth, and the tho largest
most
distinguished commanders, and resources in¬
exhaustible, back them and in the nearly fight. all Nothing nations ready against to
immensity. up as
,
The cause of the American colonies, which
started at zero, dropped still lower through
the the quarreling jealousies of small the Generals, and and through
at successes, through
the winters which surpassed all their prede¬
cessors in depth of snow and horrors of con¬
cealment. Elisha, surrounded by the whole
than Assyrian army, did not seem to be worse off
did tho thirteen colonies encom pass ed
and overshadowed by foreign assault, what
decided the contest in our favor? The upper
forces, the upper armies. The green And
white mountains of New England, the high¬
lands along tho Hudson, the mountains of
Virginia, full all the Appalachian ranges were
of re-enforcements whioh the young man
Washington saw by faith, and his men
endured the frozen feet, and the gan¬
grened and wounds, the long and the march exhausting because hun¬
ger, “the
Lord opened the eyes of tho young man; and
he saw; and, behold, the mountains were full
of horses and chariots of fire round about
Elisha.” Washington himself was a mira¬
cle. What Joshua was in sacred history the
first American President was in secular his¬
tory. A thousand other men excelled him in
different things, but ho excelled them all in
roundness and completeness of character.
The world never saw Mg like, and probably there
never will see his like again, because
probably never will bo another such exi¬
gency. Ho was let down a Divine interposi¬
tion. He was from God direct.
I do not know how any man can read tho
history of those times without admitting
that the contest was decided by the upper
forces.
Then in 18G1, when our Civil tho War South opened,
many at the North aud at pro¬
nounced it national suicide. It was not cour¬
age against against cowardice, it it was large not wealth
poverty, was not States
against small States. It was heroism against
heroism, it was the the resources of pi many 'genei 1 -
ations tions, against resources North many genera¬ against
it was the prayer of the
tile prayer of the South,it was one-half of the
nation in armed wrath meeting the other Whkj; half
-of cpuld ttiO cpine nation but in extermination? armed indighation.
in-chief Aj tile of opening the United of the war States the forces commander
was a
man who had been great in battle, but old
age had come with quietude. many infirmities, He could and ho
had mount a right horse, to and ho rode not the
a on
battle field in a carriage, asking the
driver not to jolt it too much. During the
most of the four years of the contest, on the
Southern side was a man in mid-life, who
had in his veins the blood of many th&horoes genera¬
tions of warriors, himself one of
o. < Chernbusco and Cerro the Gordo, Contreras
af. arid T Chapulteppc. As years passed i*q
the scroll pf fgnnage unrobed, there
came strength out from both sides a heroism and ft
and a determination that tho wqrid
hsd never ^eya marshaled but
extermination could come when Philip Sheri¬
dan and Stonewall Jackson met, and Nathan¬
iel Lyon and Sidney Johnson rode in from
north and south, and Grant and Lee, the two
thunderbolts of battle, clashed ? Yet we are
a natjon, aud yot wo are at peace. Earthly
courage did not decide the conflict. The up¬
per forces of the text. They fell us there was
a battle fought above the clouds on Lookout
Mountain; than that. but there was something higher
Again the horses this and chariots of God came
to the rescue of nation in 1876, at the
close devilish qf a ferocity, Presidential election famous fqf
A darker cloud yet settled
down upon this nation. The result of the
election was in dispute, and revolution, not
between two or three sections, but revolution
in every town and village and city of the
the United States, seemed imminent. The
prospect was that New York would throttle
New York, aud Boston, New Orleans Boston, would and grip New
Orleans, Savannah, and and 'Washington, Washington. Savannah,
Some said Mr. Tilden was elected; others
said Mr. Hayes was elected; and how
near we came to universal massacre
jotne of us guessed, but God only knew.
SPRING PLACE. GA., THURSDAY. MAY 23, 1889.
1 ascribe our escape not to the hon
esty and righteousness of infuriated
pouticians, the but I ascribe it to the upper rolled
forces of text. Chariots of mercy
in, and though the w heels were not heard and
the flash was not seen, yet all through the
mountains of the north and the south and
the east and the west, though the hoofs did
not clatter, the <»valrv of God galloped bv.
I tell you God is the friend of this nation. In
the awful excitement at the massacre of Lin¬
coln, when there was a prospect that greater
slaughter would open upon this nation, God
hushed the tempest. In the awful excitement
at the time of Garfield's assassination, God
put His foot on the neck of the cyclone.
To prove that God is on tho side of this na¬
tion, I argue from Tho last eight or nine great
health national harvests, and from the national
demics of the exceptional—and last quarter of a from century—epi¬ the great
revivals very of religion, and from the spreading
of the Church of God, and from the continent
blossoming with asylums and reformatory which in¬
stitutions, and from an Edenization
promises that this whole land is to be a Para¬
dise where God shall walk in the cool of the
day. If I what
in other sermons showed you was
the evil that threatened to upset and demol¬
ish American institutions, I am encouraged
moro than I can tell you as I see the regi¬
ments wheeling down doxologies, the sBy, and and that my which lere
miads turn into
was the Good Friday of the nation’s crucifix¬
ion becomes the Easter mom of its resurroo
tion. Of course God works through human
instrumentalities, and this national better¬
ment is to come among other things through
a scrutinized ballot box. By the law of reg¬
istration it is almost impossible now to have
illegal voting. There was a time—you
and I remember it very well—when droves
Df vagabonds wandered up and down on
election day and from poll there, to and poll, voted and
voted here and voted
everywhere, and there amounted was no challenge; nothing, be- or,
if there were, it to
cause nothing vagabonds, could so Now, suddenly jn be proved well
upon the every
organized neighborhood, every voter is
watched with severest scrutiny. I must
tell tho registrar my name, and how
old I am, and how long I have re¬
sided m the State, and how long I have re¬
sided in the ward or township, and if I mis¬
represent, fifty witnesses will rise and Shut mo
out from the ballot box. Is not that a great
advance? Aud then notice the law that pro¬
hibits a man voting if he has bet on the elec¬
tion. A step further needs to be taken and
that man forbidden a vote who has offered or
taken a bribe, whether it be in the shape of a
free drink or cash paid their down, hand the suspicious the Bible
cases obliged their to put in if they on vote at all.
and swear vote
So through the sacred chest of our nation’s
suffrage God also redemption will wifi this come. nation through
save has an
aroused moral sentiment. There never
been so much discussion of morals and im
morals. , ,, Men,. whether , ,, or not ... they acknowl- , ,
edge what is right, have to think what is
right. We have men who have had their
hands m public treasury the most of then
lifetime, hands stealing discoursing all they eloquently could about lay their dis
on, public service, and with
honesty m families their preaching men two eio
ur three of own, of
quently about the beauties the seventh
and commandment. drunkenness is The thrust question in the of face sobriety of this
u«tiL.li 1 ue hove* - kjcfoiti, and to take a pai-t iu
our political contests. The question of na
tional deferentially sobriety heard is going the to be bar respectfully Iegis- and
at of every
latiu-e and every house of representatives
and every United States Senate, and an pm
nipotent voice will ring down the sky and
across this land tides and back drunkenness again, saying which to
these rising of
threaten to wholm home and church and car
tion; “Thus far shalt thou come, but no fur
ther, and here shall thy proud waves be
stayed.”
I have not m my mind a shadow of dis
beartenrnent as large aq the shadow of a
house fly’s wing. My faith is in the upper
forces, the upper armies of the text. God is
not dead. The chariots are not unwheeled,
If you would only pray moro and wash your
eyes the in the Christian cool, blight water, it would fresh bo from
well of reform, said
of you as of this one of the text: “The Lord
opened the eves of the young man; and he
saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of
iiorses and chariots of fire round about
Elisha,”
When the army of Antigonus went into
battle his soldiers were very muob discour
aged, and they rushed up to' the General and
said to him; “Don’t you see we have a few
forces and they have so many more?’ and the
soldiers were affrighted at the smallness of
their number and the greatness of the enemy,
Antigonus, himself and their said, commander, with indignation straightened and
up “How
vehemence; many do you reckon me
to be?” And when we see tho vast armios
arrayod against the cause of sobriety it I may ask
sometimes bo very discouraging, but
you of righteousness—I in making up your ask estimate how of the forces
Lord God Almighty you many doyou
reckon the to be? Ho is
our commander. The Lord of Hosts is His
name. I have the best authority tor tjiyiijg
that the chariots of God ftfe twenty thoU
sand, and the mountains are full of them.
You will take without my saying it tlAt
my only faith is in Christianity and in the
upper forces suggested in the text. Political
parties come and go, and they may tri right
and they may bo wrong; bfit God lives, and
I think He has ordained this nation for a
career of prosperity that no demagogism
will bo able to halt. I expect to live tnwsq
political party which Ten Commandments wmhgvo^pmtteirm of
SeinM two planks—the When and thd
bp the Mount, that party is
formed it will sweep across this land, like a
tornado it I was fie going to say, but when I think
I change is not to the devastation, but resuscitation,
that wul figure end this say, land such like a party as
gales from sweep heave®, across spoe
Have you any dQubt about the need of tho
Christian religion to purify and make decent
American politics ? At every yearly or quad.
rbunlal election we have in this country great
manufactories, manufactories of lies, and
they half orq run dozen day and night, and they rowdy' turn'
out a a day all equipped and
for fufi sailing. Large lies tod small lies,
Lies Lies private cut bias tod and lies lies putyio and diagonal. lies prurient, Long
cut
limbed lies and lies with double-back action,
Lies complimentary and lies defamatory,
t ' i “"tua'i. some people believe, and lies that
alTthe people believe, and lies Eke jbet nobody
believes. Lies with Lumps camels tma
scales add like feet crocodile? ana'neck? antelope’s as long and as
Storks tis swift as an scalloped
stings like adders. Lies raw and
and panned and stewed. Crawling lies-and
jumping lies and soaring lies. Lie* and with braiders at
tachment screws and rufflers
and ready wound bobbers. except Lies during by £hris- elec
tian people who by novor lie but
H r ,ti c and lies people who always campaign- fie,
beat themselves in a Presidential
I confess I am ashamed to have a foreigner I should
visit this country in such tunes.
think he would stand dazed, his bftnfl nights! PU W
pocketbook, and dare not go out
What will the hundreds of thousands of for
signers who come here to live think of usl
What a disgust they must have for the land
of their adoption? The only good thing
about it is, many of them cannot understand
£k£f£J“Kffi; 2} sSC Si
French papers translate it subscribers. all and peddle out 1
the infernal stuff to their ’
Nothing-but Christianity The 1 will Christian ever stop
such a flood of ind&ency. while. The billings- re
ligion will speak after a
gate and low scandal through which we Wsraq
every year or every tour years, must tte re¬
buked by the religion which speaks from its
two great mountains, from the one mount¬
ain intoning tho command: “Thou shalt not
bear false witnesses against making thy neighbor,” plea
and from the other mount for
kindness and love and blessing rather than
eursing. Yes, we are going to have a na¬
tional religion.
There are two kinds of natio xd9? religion, and
The one is supported by the 8 tare, is a
matter of human politics, and it has great
patronage, and under it men will struggle qualifica¬ for
prominence without referenco to
tions, and its archbishop and is there supported great by a
salary of ?T5,000 a year, are
cathedrals, with all the machinery of music
and canonicals, and room for a thousand peo¬
ple, yet an audience of fifty people or twenty
people Tve or ten or such two. religion,as that, such
want no no
national, religion; hut we want this kind of
national religion; tho vast majority of the
people converted and evangelised, and then
they will manage tho secular as well as the
religious. Do this impracticable? No.
you say that is
The time is coming just as certainly as there
is a God and that this is His book and that Ho
has the strength and the honesty to fulfill His
promises. One of tho ancient Emperors used
to pride himself on performing that which
his counselors said that was impossible, impossibles and I have
to tell you to-dav “Hath man's are
God’s easies. He said and shall He not
do it? Hath Ho commanded and will He not
brine it to pass?” The Christian religion is
coming to lake possessiont>f every home, ballot of box,
of every school house, of every every
valley, of every mountain, of every acre of
our national domain. This nation, notwith¬
standing all the evil influences that are trying
to Never destroy it, is going according to live. John Miiton,
since, to
when “Satan was hurled headlong flaming
from the ethereal skies in hideous ruin and
combustion down,” have the powers of dark¬
ness been so determined to win this continent
as they are now. What a jewel it is—a jewel
carved in relief, the cameo of this planet!
On one side of us the Atlantic ocean, dividing
us from the worn out governments of Europe.
On tile other side the Pacific ocean, dividing On tho
us from the superstitions Arctic which of Asia. is the
north of us the sea, gym¬
nasium in which the explorers and navigators
develo p their courage. A continent ten thou¬
sand five hundred miles long, seventeen
milliou one-seventh square miles, and njl of at rich it culti¬ but
about oapnblo
vation. Oue hundred millions of popula¬
tion on this continent of North and South
America—one hundred millions millions, and All room flora
tor many hundred more.
and nil fauna, all metals and all precious
woods, and all grains and all fruits. The
Appalachian the ganglia range carrying the backbone, life all through and the riv¬ and
ers
out to the extremities. Isthmus of Darien
the narrow waist of a giant continent, all to
be under one government, unit all free, and
all Christian, and tho scene of dirist’s per
sonal reign on earth if, according to tho ex¬
potation fast of hi, many throne good people, this world. l:e shall Who at
set up in
s lmll leave this hemisphere, shore Christ or Satan?
^ho shall have the of h«r inland seas,
tho silver- of hw N evedas, the gold of her Colo¬
ra dos, the telescopes of her observatories, the
brain of her universities, the wheat of her
prairies, the beaches—the rice of her savannas, the two
great Baffin’!; ocean Terra one Fuego, reaching! mm
bay to del and the
other from Behring straits to Cape Horu--
and all the normal and temporal and spiritual
and everlasting interests of a population
vast beyond all human computation? Who
shall have the hemisphere? You and I will
decide that, by or help to decide by it maintenance* byconsoien
tious vote, earnest prayer,
of philanthropies, Christian institutions,'by by body, support of great
soul tho right sido putting pf all moral, mind an<\
and national on religious
Ah! it will movement^, nut be long
before it will not
make any difference to you or to me what be.
comes of this continent, so far as earthly corn
fort is concerned. All we will want of it will
be the seven largest, feet and by there three, and that be will take in
will room and to
spare. That is all of this country \\0 Will need
very soon—the youngest of us, But wo have
an anxiety of the about generations the welfare that and the happi
neas are coming on,
and it will be a grand thing if, whop the arch,
angel's trumpet like sounds, we find that our sop
ulchor, Vided for tqe oue is Joseph of Arimathea pro
One of Christ, in the midst of a garden,
the seven wonders of the world was
the white marble watch tower of Pharos of
Egypt. Sostratus, the architect and soulptor,
after it, bufldiug Then he that watch tower cut his name
on and covered it with Mastering,
to please the outside King ho put the monarcVs
name on the of the plastering; and
the storms beat, and the seas dashed in their
fury, they and they washed off the plastering, and
washed the it out, and they washed it
down, but namo of Sostratus was deep
cut in the imperishable rook. So across the
face of this nation there have been a great
many names written, religions. across our finances,
across of remembrance, our amte written niuius worthy
n on “ the
nrchiti^kir-e sofiOUl^ and of gpr asylums, churches, and’our and our
otar homes
of mercy, but God is the architoot of this
continent, grandeurs, and he was tho sculptor of all its
and long the uttei 1 , tldough the wash
of the ages apd tempests of centuries all
dthof names .hall be obliterated, the Divine
signature and brighter and Divine namo, wifi be brighter
as the millenniums go Uv and
the world shall see that tk* God %ho wade
this continent -has redeemed it by His grace
from Have afi 'its sorrows faith and from thing afi its crimes
After all you ip such a teen ns that?
the chariots fiave wnwheeled,
and after all the war chargers have been
crippled, the the chariots which Elisha saw on
umph morning followed of his peril will roll on in tri
white hOi’*?a. by God afi could the,.armies it of heaven
on do without us,
but H® win not The weakest of us, the
Tklntest of fls, the smallest brmou.i pf us,
shall have a part in the tr iumph. Wo luay
not have ouy name. likb the pame of Sos
L aius, oilt in imperishable rock and cunsjdm
uous bbred foi' in centuries, bettor, ifigeti but than ijjg' that, shall ba remem. in the
a even
deem heart the u? Him who came to redeem us and re
close to workl, and our names will be seen
the signature of His wound, for as
to-day Ho throws out His arms toward us He
says; palms “Behold, My hand.” I have graven thee on the
agencies, on the potency By ui the prater, mightiest T uf afi
seek iqtUpwtd’sWSar^. hog you
feme ptm time there, 4,600,000 letters
the dead letter ago wm-o
m postoffiee at Washing ton
letters that lost tneir way—but pot one
prayer ever directed to the heart Of God mis
earned. The way is all clear for tho
of vonr supplications benyeu*f“i ; d id behalf
of this nation, uetvto the postal commnni
cauufi Was so ea$y, and long ago, on a rock
one hundred feet high en tho coast of Eng
land, and there great was letters a barrel the fastened side of the to, a post,
in on rock, mx
lt c0 “"» be seen far out at scq. were the
word?; boa,y “Postoffiee;” take agdwneB ships came by,
a Sfcrhd Pfit put to those and fetch letters. And
to that barrel were tnat lock deposits of affection in
that barrel, although no it contained wft» ever put upon
for America, and Europe, and Asia, messages aid
Africa, and all the islands of the sea. Many
a storm tossed sailor, homesick, got message
of kindness by that rook, and many a liGine
prosperity wotO ip inthfdhtoge of sympathies
—prayers down! Postal going celestial, up meeting blessings coming
rock wintry not but by by a storm the struck
Ages, on a coast, Rock of
A Pig in the Fence.
DIM never observe -when a pig in the fence
8snd8 forth his most pitiful shout.
How all of his neighbors betake themselves
thence
To punish him ere he gets out?
Wbrta hubbub they raise, so that others i
afar,
May know his condition, and hence
Come running to join them in adding a scar
To the pig that is fast in the fence?
Well, swine are not all of the creatures that
be,
Who find themselves sticking between
The rails of the fence, and who strive to got
free,
While tho world is still shoving them in;
IV ho find that tho favor they meet with de¬
pends,
hot on worth, but on dollars and cents;
And that tis but few who will prove them
; selves friends
To the pig that is fast in tho fenco.
. —Boston Globe.
BETSEY’S LITTLE GIRL.
Upon the whole, I liked my little
house very much.
I fio not deny that it had been a
sor ttof experiment, my buying that
soliti^y 51 cottage among the sand-dunes
Long Island coast, where the
breakers of the Atlantic washed tlic
sb^re, fiery and one tall lighthouse kept its
watch on tho long tongue of land
whiofc people called “The Devil’s Point.”
But the doctor had told me that sea-air
and quiet were what I needed, and here
surely, I should find them both.
It was a very old-fashioned house,
with law ceilings, small, lozenge-paned
windows and wainscoted rooms.
The little parlor was in front, looking
ogt uj on the ocean. Beyond this wns a
sjnali room iu which I decided to put
mv fcwing-machine and writing-desk;
then umo a long, dark hall, also wain¬
scoted on either side, and lighted only
<
by old, little, round windows, placed
high up; and the kitchen—a sort of
wing—lini ; -had the lower part of the
house.
The Second story was a mere attic,
but (it Sw -ed very well for bed-rooms
for mo aud Betsey Balmford, my ser
vant.
“9’poso it's altogether safo for you
two women to live all alone out here?”
said Old Peier Smith, whose itinerant
wagon served us with butcher's meat,
groceries, kerosene, aud all sorts of
things, every other day.
“Of course it’s safo,” said I. “Whv
not?”
“Sort o’ lonesome, ain’t it?” squeaked
Old Peter.
“We came here for quiet and rest.”
“And s’poso,” added Old Peter, “you
should be sick. Tliero ain’t no family
lives nearer than The Devil’s Point, an’
that’s throe good miles away.”
“But we don’t propose to be sick,”
said I.
The longer I stayed in the cottage,
the moro I was pleased.
The sunsets across the plain of waters
were things of constantly-changing
beauty: tl\e air was full of saline fresh
ussi; my walks along the beach were
delightful.
J rend and vested, and felt myself
growing stronger with every day, while
Betsey in the kitchon was reducing
things to the apple-pie order that was
dwr to her soul.
One evening, just at dusk, I rang my
bell a little impatiently. Betsey’s round,
red face presently appeared in the door¬
way.
“Betsey,” said I, “what child have
you got out there?”
“Tlierq ain’t «o child, ma’am,” said
Betsey.
t‘I am sure I heard a child’s voice.”
Betsey stared fixedly at mo.
“I guess likely, Miss Emma, it was
me, a-blowin’ out at the cat,” said she.
“I left a pan o’ milk on the window¬
sill, and ^hat blamed creetur broke a
pan® o' glass, humpin’ through to get at
it, and putty’s ono of the things I didn’t
think to put into the till of the tool-box
when we packed up,”
“Well,” said I, “I wish you’d be a
little quieter with your cat.”
“I will, ma’am,” said Betsey Balm
ford.
A few minutes later, as I sat dreamily
at the window, a light-running figure
seemed to pass between me and the
purpling glow of the sky—the figure of
a child, with its fair hair blowing back
like an aureole and both its hands
•tretchcd out toward the sunset.
(‘ThereI” said I. “I knew it!"
I jumped up, and ran out toward the
beach. I was almost certain I saw tho
track of tiny footsteps on tho damp sand;
feut as l gazed the incoming tide cast a
fringe of shells and seaweed at my feet,
Vol. IX. New Series. NO. 1G.
and at tho same time swept away all
traces of aught else.
^
“It’s very strange,’’ I thought, “I
must have been doing what po*r Aunt
Eunice used to accuse mo of—dreaming
with my eyes open!”
The next morning but one, Old Peter
was not perched on his load, as usual.
Abigail, his wife, occupied the hard,
buffalo-robed seat, and wielded whip
and reins.
“My ole man’s down with rheuma¬
tic,” said she. “It does seem as if he
allays selected the most onconvenieut
times and seasons. I’ve got some nice
soft-shell clams this morning, Miss Gray,
and some of my own home-baked bread.
And I thought likely your crackers
would be out by this time.”
“Thcy is, ma’am,” said Betsey Balm
ford, giving my skirt an admonitory
pull.
I frowued.
“It seems to me,” said I, “that we
aro eating moro crackers than' usual.
There aro only two of us.”
Betsey shrugged her shoulders.
“Two must eat,” said she, “as well
as two and twenty. ”
And she went back into the kitchen.
“Hired help? Sort o’ sot in her
ways,” said Mrs. Smith, “ain’t she?”
“She is a very good, faithful ser¬
vant, ” said I, referring to my list of ar¬
ticles needed.
“How d’ye like it here?” questioned
Abigail, as she measured out a modicum
of condensed milk.
“Very well,” I responded, secretly
wondering how many times I had al¬
ready answered the question.
“Hain’t seen nothin’ queer ’bout the
place, hev ye?”
“Queer?” I repeated. “What should
I see—queer?”
Abigial Smith craned her neck to
look beyond me into tha long, wain¬
scoted entry.
“Hired help can’t hear me, can she?”
whispered she, mysteriously.
“What do you mean?”
“Wul, it was r. sister-in-law o’ mine
lived here, ten year ago,” said Abigail,
with the self-satisfied air of one who has
a tail to unfold, ‘ ‘as told mo there was
strange sights and sounds. Hain’t the
hired help said nothin' to you about it?”
“No.”
“It’s just as well, mebbe,” said Abi¬
gail, gathering up her reins and prepar¬
ing to drive on.
I stopped her with an imperative ges
ture.
“Stop!" said I. “I insist upon an
explanation. There must be some mean¬
ing to your words. What is it?”
“Old Miles Moneygale built the
house,” said Abigail Smith. “lie and
his wife were dreadful queer folks. They
had a little niece lived with ’em as peo¬
ple said had money of her own—a like¬
ly child with long yellow hair and the
prettiest complexion you ever seen. One
night they found her dead at the foot of
the cellar steps. Miles Moneygale was
tho heir, and they sold the house and
moved out west, and lived like rich peo¬
ple arter that. But folks allays calcer
latcd—mind, though, there wan’t no
proof of it—that there was foul play;
that that child never came to her end by
fair means. Aud every family that’s
lived hero scnce, they’ve seen a little
child, where there wan’t nothin’ but
sea and sky. And they’ve been most
sure they heard a child’s voice cryin’ out,
down cellar.”
I felt myself growing chill all over,
but somehow I contrived to utter the
word:
“Nonsense!”
“That’s what I tell ’em,” said Abi¬
gail, tho wife of Peter. “How could it
be? But, all the same, that’s one rea¬
son it ain’t been easy to sell tho place.
I wouldfl’t let the hired help know if I
was you. They’re dreadful apt to be
superstitious, hired help is. Nothing
more to-day? Wal, good-mornin’ I”
And shaking the reins above the
drowsy pony’s back, she drove away,
leaving me standing there on the thresh¬
old in a sort of maze.
Of course it was nonsense—.supersti¬
tion—tho outcome of foolish nursery
tales; but, for all that, it made me feel
uncomfortable.
However, in the intense morning sun¬
shine, I manage to laugh it away. When
the night came on, dark and loaded
with the ominous mprmurings of a com¬
ing storm, things assumed quite a dif¬
ferent aspect.
I was half sorry that I had bought
the cottage. I began to wonder whether
it would bo possible to dispose of it
without any actual loss. And—this is
the strangest of all—as I sat there I
heard the unmistakable sound of •
child’s half-smothered laugh.
“I will not endure this!” I cried,
starting with nervous energy to my feet.
“I’ll go and git with Betsey in the
kitchen first.”
The door leading into the kitchen was
fastened, but the bolt was old and rust¬
ed, and gave way instantly before tho
pressure of my band.
I found myself in the cheerful lighted
room, where Betsey Balmford sat at her
needle-worlc, with a little, fair-haired
child playing with some scallop-shells
at her feet.
I looked incredulously from one to tho
other.
“Betsey,” said I, “what is this?”
Betsey’s work dropped to her feet;
she rose up as stiff as a hop-pole.
“Ma’am,” said she, “I knowed you’d
find it out, sooner or later, and mebbe
it’s jest as well sooner. I can’t say I’m
sorry, for it's nothin’ more than my
bouuden duty 1’vo been doirig. But I vo
felt dreadful guilty, with this baby in
the house, and me a-kcepin’ a secret from
you. And if you say go, why go it must
be!”
While she spoke, the fair-haired child
looked smilingly up into my face.
“Betsey,” said I, faintly, “who ia
this?”
“It’s my brother's- child, ma’am,”
said Betsey. “A poor little orphan, as
has no one to care for her but me.
When wo lived in the city, ma’am, I
could see her every day, when I went
out of errands or when my work was
done at night. I hired her boarded witli
the Widow Baker, a motherly soul as
ever was; hut when I como out here I
missed her more than tongue can tell; and
what was I to do, ma’am, fornll I knowed
you wasn’t fond of children,—when
one night little Flora made her appear¬
ance at this very door? And tho child
had walked, ma’am, if you please, all
tho way from New York, askin’ her
way here and there, and once in a way
gettin’ a-lift from a wagon. ..^And I’ve
kept her hid nway. - the •anti¬
dunes in the day times, and took her in
my own bed of nights. And once I
had to shut her down cellar, that rainy
day she couldn’t go out, and you was in
the house all day. And there was her
keep, to be sure—you may remember
yourself noticin’ how tho victuals got
away—but I've eaten ns little as I could
myself, and I'vo been very economical
about other things.”
Betsey looked imploringly at me.
Little Flora laughed silently over her
sea-slieels.
“Betsey,” said I, “you have done
right—perfectly right—except in using
any concealment. You ought to have
told mo everything."
“I was ’fraid you wouldn’t want a
child racketin’ about the house, ” said
Betsey, humbly. -‘But indeed Flora is
very quiet.”
“She may stay,” said I. “And you
needn't hide her away, Betsey. You
and I are neither of us very young. It
may do us good to have a little oue
about the house.”
“Tho Lord bo good to you, ma’am,”
said Betsey, with tears in her hard, mid¬
dle-aged eyes, “an’ if I live to be a hun¬
dred years old, I’ll never forget this of
you. But, Miss Emma, there’s some¬
thing else I ought to tell youl”
“What is it, Betsey?”
“I shouldn’t novor ’a tried to hide the
girl away, if I hadn’t heard a story of
how tho cottage was haunted by the
ghost of a little child as came to a vio¬
lent end in this very injusc. Thinks I
to myself, there’s always tho ghost
to put any unusual sights or sounds off
on.”
I smiled to think of the secret I had
been trying to hide from Betsey.
“So you knew about the ghost, Bet¬
sey?” said I.
“La, ma’am 1 I’ve heard tho story half
a dozen times over,” answered my hand¬
maiden.
“And you were not afraid?”
“I know there ain’t no such things,
calmly responded Betsey. “It’s live
folk I’m afeard of, ma’am, not dead
ones. Me afeard? I guess notl”
“Well, Betsey, said I, cheerfully, “I
know of no better recipe to drive a
shadow out of the houso than to put a
reality into it. Little Flora shall exor¬
cise the ghost! Como here, baby, and
kiss me! Your eyes are just the color of
the sea at mid-day l”
From that day forward the cottage
was like a different place. Little Flora
brightened it up, as if her eyes had been
real stars, instead of ‘ ‘make-believe”
ones. No more ghostly shadows crept
across the threshold.