uv an exhorter in his day, and desired to say a word
in explanation uv that parable, ez applicable to the present time; and,
sez he, "ef I am interrupted, remember I b'long to the church military,
wich is, just now, the church triumphant." And cockin his musket he
proceeded, very much uninterrupted.

"The prodigal son," sez he, "wuz received by the old man with
considerable doins, but, my worthy friends, he went out decently. He
didn't, ez soon ez he withdrawed from the house, turn around and make
war onto the old gentleman--he didn't burn his house and barns, tear up
his garden, burn his fences, and knock down the balance uv the children.
Not any. He went away peaceably, a _misguided_ good-for-nothin, but yet
a _peaceable_ good-for-nothin. Secondly, he come back uv his own akkord.
The old man didn't go after him, and fight for four years, at a cost uv
half his substance, to subdue him and bring him back, but when he hed
run through his pile, and squandered his share uv the estate, and got
hungry, he came back like a whipped dog.

"My friends, let me draw a small parallel between these cases.

"The Prodigal Son went out,--so did the South,--thus farly the cases is
alike.

"The Prodigal didn't steal nothin. The Confederacy took everything it
cood lay its hands on.

"The Prodigal spent only what wuz his to spend. The Confederacy spent
not only all it stole, but all it cood borrer, when it knowd its
promises to pay wuzent worth the mizable paper they wuz printed onto.

"The Prodigal, when he did come, come ez penitent ez the consciousness
that he hed made a fool uv hisself cood make him. The Confederacy wuz
whipped back, but it still swears hefty oaths that it wuz right all the
time.

"The Prodigal didn't _demand_ veal pot-pies, and purple robes, and sich,
but begged to be a servant unto the more sensible brethren wich stayed.
The South comes back _demandin_ office, uv wich the fatted calf, and
rings, and purple robes is typical, and considerably more share in the
government than it had before it kicked over the traces, and went out
like the lost tribes uv Israel.

"Spozn the Bible prodigal hed stopped his parient, and remarked to him
thus: 'I am willin to come back, on conditions. Yoo must pay my
debts--yoo must give me an ekal share uv the farm with the other
boys--yoo must treat me in all respecks just ez ef I hadn't gone out,
and--this is essential--yoo must take with me all the sharpers who
ruined me, all th