attendance, and all must preach. The
congregation expect a tiresome time, and from the first are restless.
They go out and come in, and they keep a constant march to and from
the water pail, which usually sits on the desk in front of the
speaker. Several grown people at a time will be standing waiting on
each other at the pail. The speaker seems to be used to such things,
and not at all disconcerted. Nearly all their services are funeral
services for those who may have been dead for years. They bury their
dead the same day or the day following death. They have no religious
service, except a prayer at the grave, if there chance to be a
minister present. Generally about a year after death, but often from
five to fifteen years after, they have the funeral sermon preached.

In regard to healthfulness of our mountain home, we have felt
somewhat disappointed. Up so high, with nice springs and spring
streams, one would expect a healthy climate. On the contrary, almost
every one is ailing. Coughs and colds are universal. It is no wonder
the natives are unhealthy; their habits of living would seem to
prohibit health. They eat corn bread or hoe cake and bacon; some have
flour, but it is always made up into hot biscuit, shortened with
lard. They have this, with little variation, three times a day, 365
days in a year. In summer, green beans cooked with bacon is added to
the bill of fare. Of course the blood becomes impoverished, and
almost every one has scrofula. Calomel and pills are the great
panacea for all their bodily ills. Pills are brought on by the quart,
and sold by the merchants like any other commodity. Cleanliness of
the person is an unheard of luxury; I doubt whether they ever bathe.
Children come to the table with unwashed faces. They are put to bed
with the same clothes they wear during the day. Then add to all this
the fact that tobacco is used almost from the cradle, and whiskies
and toddies from the time the poor child opens its eyes to this
world, and it's no great marvel that gray-haired men are exceedingly
rare, and it's the "_old man_" and the "_old woman_" when one has
reached the age of twenty-five.

Now comes the question, What are we doing for the people? We have
been with them nearly two years, and this has been our effort from
the first, to get them to see that religion is a life rather than a
sectarian belief. We have sought to impress upon them that joining a
church is not Christianity. We have succe