abue. I
reckon yer pap an' Henry an' Abner kin git a shakedown in some uv the
wagon-beds, or else on the groun'; 'twon't hurt 'em this dry weathah.
No, Tommy, nary step do you go; you an' Buddy's gwintah stay right
heah. Camp-meetin's hain't no place fer brats. Maybe, though, ef you're
good, I'll tek you ovah with me some day; or I'll let you go 'long with
Rache an' Tom some mawnin', when they tek the baskets uv vi'tuls fur
the folks to eat."

CHAPTER X.

AFTERNOON IN THE GROVE

One afternoon toward the close of the revival, Betsy and John Calvin
Gilcrest and Henry and Susan Rogers took their lunch-baskets to a shady
grove near the big spring, with the intention of spending the afternoon
in the woods.

"I'm completely worn out," declared Susan, throwing herself down upon a
grassy knoll and tossing her bonnet aside. "I've had enough excitement
for one while."

"And I, too," assented Betsy, as she uncovered her lunch-basket. "Every
nerve in my body is on the war-path. We'll be having the 'jerks,' if
this meeting lasts much longer."

"If you do," remarked John Calvin, as he attacked the wing of a fried
chicken, "I suppose you'll think it an 'evidence of conversion,' as old
Daddy Stratton shouted out this morning when Billy Hinkson fell to the
ground foaming at the mouth."

"'Evidence of conversion,' indeed!" rejoined Betty. "I never felt
further from it in my life. My head is like a ragbag stuffed to
overflowing with all sorts of odds and ends of doctrinal wisdom, and
when I want to get at any one sensible idea, out tumble a dozen or more
that are of no use whatever."

"My head's all confused, too," acknowledged Susan. "Yesterday Dr.
Poague preached on 'Saved by Grace,' and showed that all we have to do
is just to sit still and wait for the Lord's call. I felt real
comfortable under that discourse. But last night old Brother Steadman's
text was, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,' and he
made me dreadfully uneasy. Now, are there two plans of salvation, or
only one?"

"Why, two, of course," said John Calvin, with laughing assurance. "One
teaches that if you mean to get to heaven, you must keep your horse
everlastingly hittin' the road; the other, that the best way to get
there is just to sit still. I like the 'sittin'-still plan' best,
myself," he declared, with boyish frivolity.

"This is what puzzles me," said Betsy, ignoring her brother's
irreverent summary of the two seemingly c