"Like them, madam--like them! If I were one-half as lank and homely, I should want to be born again once a week, at least."
Sugar-scoop lifted both hands in awful horror.
"There are souls," says she, "given up to eternal darkness, I fear. Oh, sister, how I tremble for yours!"
I was trembling with indignation. What right had this woman to a.s.sault me in this fashion? I did not know her; she did not know me. My white feather was a badge of n.o.ble patriotism; my gaiter boots fitted a foot that has been an object of encomium with every shoemaker who has been honored by taking its measure--to say nothing of a glance given it by imperial eyes. Does religious zeal justify uncivil intrusion? What right had this sugar-scoopy woman to exhort me? How did she know that my heart was not already in the right path?
I asked this very question:
"Madam," says I, "by what right do you pretend to teach me, a stranger, of whose life you can know nothing?"
"I"m in the service of the Lord," says she, "looking up lost sheep. When I find one, torn and draggled with sin, it is my duty to drive it into the fold, where its fleece can be worked white as snow."
"But how can you tell? By what authority do you claim the right to judge of a person you have never seen?"
"Are we not told to go out into the highways and the hedges, and force them to come in?" says she.
"Whether they want to or not?" says I.
"Exactly," says she; "their not wanting to come into the fold shows the state of wickedness into which they have fallen."
"But how do you know that I am wicked?" says I.
She looked at me a long time, as if the idea were new to her. She had been so eager in raking up sinners, that it seemed to hurt her feelings to think that any human being she met wasn"t on the high road to--well, what"s its name?
"That feather," says she, "isn"t a mark of regeneration."
"No," says I, "but it is the badge of a patriotic idea."
The creature didn"t take in this delicate political hint. In fact, anything fine or keen is sure to puzzle your woman of one idea.
"Where do you go to meeting?" says she, as abrupt as a cracked stick.
"Where my father did, generally," says I.
She looked at me queerly from under her sugar-scoop.
"Haven"t backslid, nor nothing; because, if you have, remember, before it is too late, that the last state of a backsliding sinner is worse than the first."
Lx.x.xVI.
THE BLACKSMITH"S CONVERSION.
Before I could answer that audacious woman, a man came along with green spectacles on his eyes, and a broad straw hat on his head.
"What, sister, hard at work? got hold of a case, I reckon; but press forward to the mark of the prize."
"Oh, brother," says Sugar-scoop, "can"t you stop a moment, and sow a morsel of seed on this barren rock. This is a precious sheep."
"Lamb, if you please," says I, quickly.
"No," says she, as smooth as oil, but no doubt boiling over with inward spite, "I have eyes, and can see. Sheep is the word. She is a precious sheep that, perchance, has once been in the fold, but is wandering far away from the straight and narrow path."
"A backslider," says he, eying my face over his spectacles.
"Hardened," says she.
"Take her to the anxious-seat. Brother Blank is just the man for her case. You"ve heard of Brother Blank, just from the West, and burning with zeal. Heard of the way he converted a blacksmith out there--a great, stout, burly, unregenerated fellow. Why, compared to him, this poor, sinful creature is just nothing. That was a mighty work. What, you never heard of it? Well, I was there, and heard all about it on the spot.
"You see, Brother Blank, who belongs to the Methodist wing of this camp-meeting, was sent out by the conference to a spa.r.s.e Western district, where the meeting-houses were a good way apart, and there was any amount of horseback riding to be done. On the cross-roads, near one of the stations, there was a blacksmith shop, where a great, two-fisted, tough old sinner was blowing up red-hot coals into red-hot flames, morning and night, which ought to have reminded him of the eternal fires which threatened him, but only kindled his wicked soul into fierce rebellion against G.o.d.
"Now this fellow had an awful spite against the ministers, and never let a new one pa.s.s his shop, without going out with his leather ap.r.o.n on, and a hammer in his hand, to scare the pious soul half to death with abuse, if nothing worse. When Brother Blank came on the district, he had to ride by the four corners like the rest; but he was a brave soldier of the Cross, and rode a first-rate horse, besides being a tall, powerful man in body as well as in spirit. I rather think he had heard of the blacksmith, but that made no difference to him, he neither rode faster nor slower when he came in sight of the shop, but looked straight ahead, and trusted in the Lord.
"The moment Brother Blank came in sight, that miserable heathen brought his hammer down on the anvil with a crash, flung it across the shop, and went out with his fists clinched, his great bony chest bare, and his eyes blazing like sin.
""Hallo!" says he, standing right in the middle of the road.
""Hallo!"
"Brother Blank drew up his horse, and says he:
""What"s wanting, my friend?"
""I want you to just tumble down from that saddle, and pay toll," says the old sinner. "No minister pa.s.ses this corner without stopping to take a thrashing from these."
"Here the blacksmith held up two clinched fists, hard and black as sledge-hammers.
""No nonsense; but get off, I say," he bellowed out.
"Brother Blank had a heavy whip in his hand, with a short plump lash, which he began to play with.
""Get down, I say!"
"Brother Blank got down and laid the bridle on the neck of his horse.
""Now step out here and take it like a man," says the blacksmith. "The last two ministers were such puny fellers, there was no fun in thrashing them; but you"re something worth while. Stand out, I say."
"While he was talking, the fire-blowing wretch rolled up his red flannel shirt-sleeves to the elbow, and went at Brother Blank with both fists.
"Now, sisters, Brother Blank is a true Christian--meek as a lamb in prayer and persuasion, but the sight of that audacious old sinner riled up the natural man in him awfully. He stepped back. His right arm swung out, and that whip-lash curled round the fellow"s bronzed neck like a garter snake. Again and again the lash fell, now across the red face, now across the naked arms, but generally left great red welts, like the bars of a fiery gridiron, across his chest.
"Blind with the blows, and crazy with rage, the fellow struck out fiercely, but the lash stung him at every point, and at last he was glad to yell for quarters. Then it was that Brother Blank remembered that his mission was to convert sinners.
""Down upon your knees," says he, pointing to the dusty road with his whip--"down upon your knees, and pray the Lord to forgive your sins."