Secret Bread

added their groans and outcries to the rest. Parson Boase stood aside, powerless while the excitement lasted. Those were days when Methodism was at its most harsh; the pure, if fierce, wh

mael had hitherto been kept out of this maelstrom of gloomy fears, but now that Annie, with the vicarious piety of so many women, had set h

ecause the singing, from without, always sounded so much noisier and more frequent than church music. Annie impressed on him that he was to say nothing to the Parson about her intentions, and, th

pt for the obstinate forelock that would fall over his eyes; then she took him firmly by the hand and they set out together. Vassie, to whom any gathering was better than none, was already gone with a girl friend; John-James, who was the Martha of the family, had too much to attend to at the farm; while Archelaus was frankly a scoffer, though an uneasy one. Neither was Annie anxious for the presence of her other children at chapel. The belief that as a judgment on her these dearly-loved ones were n

ld be left for them; family groups already discussing all they had heard of the preacher; knots of youths, half-ribald and half-curious, encouraging each other as over their reluctant spirits there blew the first breath o

in its prey. The chapel had one chimney cocked like an ear, and two large front windows that were the surprised eyes in a face where the door made a mouth, into which the black stream of people was pouring. If he had ever heard of Moloch he would have been struck by the resemblance, and unfairly so, for when revivals were not in the air that

ld pale green, the pews painted a dull chocolate that had flaked off in patches, the pulpit a great threatening erecti

ir. The pews soon filled to overflowing; people even sat up the steps of the pulpit and stood against the walls; every place was taken s

e of the head above the collar at the back. Abimelech Johns was a tin-miner who had spent his days in profane swearing and coursing after hares with greyhounds until the Lord had thrown him into a trance like that which overtook Saul of Tarsus, and not unlike an epileptic fit Abimelech himself had had in childhood. Since the

dent button-holing of the Almighty, and Ishmael began to feel bored and at the same time relieved. Then

s a drea

rlastin

rs do with

s, fire an

mmuning with unseen powers before entering on the good fight. When he opened them it could be seen that in one he had a slight cast; this was wont to grow more marked with emotion, and gave at all times the disconcerting impression that he was looking every way at once. It seemed to Ishmael that

m, remembered how he had lied to the Parson about that evening's meeting, how he lied to his mother many times a day for the sake of ease; remembered how he and Jacka's John-Willy had pored over a snail which they had unearthed in the act of laying her eggs. There they were, still adhering to her-a cluster of little opaque white spheres, like soapy bubbles. He and John-Willy had used the occasion to try and add to their store of knowledge, and the memory of that unedifying discussion made Ishmael burn now. That time, too, when he stole his mother's Bible from her room that he might puzzle over portions of it which he had better have left unread. True, it had been John-Willy-whose household did not include a Bible and who could not read-who had started him on the course and urged him on, for as boys go, especially country-bred boys, Ishmael was singularly clean of thought by nature, and also far more

*

tes could be seen: he was no longer articulate; convulsive shudders tore at him, froth dabbled his chin. Suddenly he fell down inside the pulpit and was lost to v

ell as the preacher's hands gripped the edge of the pulpit again and he dragged himself er

ard. I see 'ee over there"-pointing a shaking forefinger-"you'm hesitating. You can't make up your mind to give up that sin you love. Give

ey had been running. A young girl sprang up and ripped the ribbon off the straw bonnet she was wearing; the sharp tearing sound added an alien note to the babel. Then she too, trembling violently, a

k Ishmael

citedly; "go to the pe

r? You'm got to

ng to shield both eyes and ears at the same time with

u'll die and go to hell unless you repent. Get up and be saved ...;

distraught with fear. He felt if he were put in that place of dread he would die at once. He fo

her hands dabbing aimlessly from her own face to the sides of the pew. It was another woman, a comfortable creature who

r was over, and the penitents, confident of their salvation, were rejoicing together. All was peace and happiness