bare and desolate lookin' that I almost cried. He
ort to marry," sez she, "I have five daughters myself, and three
onmarried nieces and they all say the same thing, that he ought to be
married to some woman who would jest worship him, for no woman could
help it, and take care on him. For," sez she with a shrewd look, "the
smartest men and the most spiritual ones are the most helpless, come
to things of this world."

"Yes," sez I, "our minister to Jonesville could no more make a mess of
cream biscuit than he could fly. He is great on the Evidences, and a
great Bible expounder, but he couldn't sew on a button so it wouldn't
pucker the cloth, if he should cry like a babe."

"No," sez she, "I presume not, my girls are splendid with the needle,
and good cooks, and so religious--it's a sight! and so are my
sister's three girls, though they don't quite come up to my five."

Well, there wuz a stir in the crowd. The Elder had come down and wuz
shakin' hands right and left with them that crowded up to him. The
little woman pressed towards him and I wuz drawed along in her wake by
the crowd, some as a stately ship is swep' on by a small tug and the
flowin' waves. And anon, after shakin' hands with her, he took my hand
in hisen. A emotion swep' through me, a sort of electric current that
connects New Jerusalem to Jonesville and Zoar. He bent his full sweet
penetratin' look onto me, it seemed to go through my head clear to my
back comb, and he sez,

"Have I met you before?"

"Yes," sez I, "in sperit, we have met, I want to thank you for the
words you have said this day. It seems to me I shall be good for some
time, it seems that I _must_ after hearin' your discourse, and I want
to thank you for it, thank you earnest and sincere."

He smiled sort o' sad and yet riz up, and sez, "We are all wayfarers
here on a hard journey, and if I can help anyone along the way, it is
I who should be thankful, and," sez he, "may God bless you, sister!"

And he passed on.

But he seemed to leave a wake of glory behind him as he went, some
like the glow on the water when the sun walks over it, a warmin' life
givin' influence that comes from a big soul filled with light and
goodness. I seemed to be riz up above the earth all the way back to
the hotel, though in body I wuz walkin' afoot by the side of my
pardner. He too wuz enthused by the sermon--I had reconized his little
treble voice shoutin' out "Amen!" and he said now that it wuz grand,
po