allic sharpness that had an odd impatient
worldliness about it, suddenly ceased.

"That bell," said Bradley's voice, with the same suggestion of conveying
important truths to the listening congregation within, "was took from
the wreck of the Tamalpais. Brother Horley bought it at auction at
Horse Shoe Bay and presented it. You know the Tamalpais ran ashore on
Skinner's Reef, jest off here."

"Yes, with plenty of sea room, not half a gale o' wind blowing, and her
real course fifty miles to westward! The whole watch must have drunk or
sunk in slothful idleness," returned the deep voice again. A momentary
pause followed, and then the two deacons entered the church with the
stranger.

He appeared to be a powerfully-built man, with a square, beardless chin;
a face that carried one or two scars of smallpox and a deeper one of
a less peaceful suggestion, set in a complexion weather-beaten to the
color of Spanish leather. Two small, moist gray eyes, that glistened
with every emotion, seemed to contradict the hard expression of the
other features. He was dressed in cheap black, like the two deacons,
with the exception of a loose, black alpaca coat and the usual black
silk neckerchief tied in a large bow under a turndown collar,--the
general sign and symbol of a minister of his sect. He walked directly
to the raised platform at the end of the chapel, where stood a table on
which was a pitcher of water, a glass and hymnbook, and a tall upright
desk holding a Bible. Glancing over these details, he suddenly paused,
carefully lifted some hitherto undetected object from the desk beside
the Bible, and, stooping gently, placed it upon the floor. As it hopped
away the congregation saw that it was a small green frog. The intrusion
was by no means an unusual one, but some odd contrast between this
powerful man and the little animal affected them profoundly. No
one--even the youngest--smiled; every one--even the youngest--became
suddenly attentive. Turning over the leaves of the hymnbook, he then
gave out the first two lines of a hymn. The choir accordion in the front
side bench awoke like an infant into wailing life, and Cissy Appleby,
soprano, took up a little more musically the lugubrious chant. At the
close of the verse the preacher joined in, after a sailor fashion, with
a breezy bass that seemed to fill the little building with the trouble
of the sea. Then followed prayer from Deacon Shadwell, broken by "Amens"
from the preacher, w