than any ointment.

CHAPTER XVII

THE REVIVAL SERVICE

AMBROSE was raking the dead leaves in his front yard two weeks after the
oyster supper when Susan Barrows summoned him across to her with a wave
of her ear trumpet. All day she sat outdoors in her wheeled chair,
huddled in rugs, until the snow came, with her eager old eyes fastened
on the street, her curiosity hungry after eighty years.

Ambrose knelt beside her with his lips to her trumpet.

"They're sayin' ugly things about you," she whispered. Then seeing the
hurt in the man's face that even Miner had not fully understood, she
rested her trembling hand on his gray head. "Talkin' but not believin',
Ambrose Thompson. I ain't sayin' that some people don't agree to this
ugly story, since whatever's ugly naturally pleases 'em, but the most of
Pennyroyal is just rollin' this bit of scandal 'bout you under their
tongues like a sweet morsel and then spittin' it out, knowin' it ain't
fitten to swallow. But what worries me is that I'm afeard you'll be
losin' the widow. Here's Brother Tupper startin' in with a series of
revival services to-night at his new church, and the legislator
neglectin' the welfare of his State to keep close to the widow! Not that
it's the law I am so much scared of as the preacher. Peachy's plump and
jelly-like and kin be easy shook, and I ain't been a female eighty years
'thout knowin' how easy 'tis to work on our religious feelin's. You
goin' to the revivin'?"

Not at once did Uncle Ambrose reply; instead he seemed to be
considering.

"I'm not at all sure, Miss Susan; seems like I've felt kind of lonesome
in church since we lost Brother Bills, but I've more'n half way promised
Peachy; she seemed so dead set on my attendin'."

Susan grinned. "Ef she's worryin' about you needin' religious
instruction, Ambrose, don't you lose hope. It's a powerful wifely sign."

And so Uncle Ambrose went on back to his work, vaguely comforted though
not yet certain whether or not to obey the widow's request. To tell the
truth, he had comparatively little faith in his own chance with Peachy,
since his befriending the boy Sam had brought with it so unfortunate a
result. And yet the thought of the possession of the Widow Tarwater had
daily grown more and more alluring as his rivals' claims progressed, and
she seemed so much less ready for his picking than in past times.

Late that evening when the first of the present series of revival
services was