mon the parts were
never assembled on this earth, nor could be, for some of it was ground
to powder under eight pairs of ponderous heels. But the minister at that
trying moment was too much otherwise engaged to notice that the child of
his brain lay scattered on the ground.

Seven times he made the round up and down, up and down that merciless
group, tossed like a thistle-down from man to man. And at last, when his
breath was gone, when the world had grown black before him, and he felt
smaller and more inadequate than he had ever felt in his whole conceited
life before, he found himself bound, helplessly bound, and cast
ignominiously into a wagon. And it was a strange thing that, though
seemingly but five short minutes before the place had been swarming with
worshipful admirers thanking him for his sermon, now there did not seem
to be a creature within hearing, for he called and cried aloud and
roared with his raucous voice until it would seem that all the
surrounding States might have heard that cry from Arizona, yet none came
to his relief.

They carried him away somewhere, he did not know where; it was a lonely
spot and near a water-hole. When he protested and loudly blamed them,
threatening all the law in the land upon them, they regarded him as one
might a naughty child who needed chastisement, leniently and with
sorrow, but also with determination.

They took him down by the water's side and stood him up among them. He
began to tremble with fear as he looked from one to another, for he was
not a man of courage, and he had heard strange tales of this wild, free
land, where every man was a law unto himself. Were they going to drown
him then and there? Then up spoke Jasper Kemp:

"Mr. Parson," he said, and his voice was kind but firm; one might almost
say there was a hint of humor in it, and there surely was a twinkle in
his eye; but the sternness of his lips belied it, and the minister was
in no state to appreciate humor--"Mr. Parson, we've brought you here to
do you good, an' you oughtn't to complain. This is altruism, an' we're
but actin' out what you been preachin'. You're our brother an' we're
tryin' to do you good; an' now we're about to show you what a dynamic
force we are. You see, Mr. Parson, I was brought up by a good Scotch
grandmother, an' I know a lie when I hear it, an' when I hear a man
preach error I know it's time to set him straight; so now we're agoin'
to set you straight. I don't know where yo