in what constitutes the service of
the Master?"

"Aye! Is not the way so plain that a wayfaring man, though a fool,
cannot err therein?"

"Yet, 'they shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh
that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.' The
great question to decide is which is right. 'Not every one that saith
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.'"

"I am right!" cried Mr. Parris, his face flaming with passion.

"So Melendez believed, when he drenched the soil of Fort Carolinia with
the blood of innocent women and children."

"Young man, I am the preacher, not you. It is for me to speak and you to
listen. Satan has been unchained, and the air is full of evil spirits."

"Mr. Parris, I have heard enough. Let me stop you here. It will be
better for you and better for me. Let me go home."

"Not yet. The Lord commands, and it must and shall be spoken. I have
been in torments ever since I stopped short of it before. Look not
amazed nor alarmed when I tell you that the day of the wrath of the Lord
is coming, and the minions of hell that torment this accursed land will
be gathered into the fires of destruction. Charles, forgive this
earnestness, it is for your sake. It is another of my miseries. I cannot
speak on that subject nor of that subject without stumbling at every
syllable, unless I let go my check and run mad;" and as Charles Stevens
gazed into those wild eyes and hollow cheeks, he thought the man must
already be mad.

"Let us return home, Mr. Parris. Take another day to think, before you
give expression to what you would say."

"No, no; you must hear me now! Here is a man driving his cows forth to
graze. He will be gone directly. I entreat you let us walk down the road
and return, for what I would say, Charles, must be for your ears alone."

He yielded to the entreaty. How could he do otherwise, for there could
be no harm in walking with the pastor? Mr. Parris, among his other
accomplishments, had the power of dissembling. He could assume a smiling
exterior while a devil raged in his heart. After they had gone aside
some distance, and the farmer had passed on with his cows, they returned
to the old stone wall, and Charles waited, very much as a criminal
might, who stood to receive his sentence.

"You know what I am going to say," the pastor began, his austere face
once more assuming its terrible expression. "You don't like me, your
mother don't like me, a