,
you know. But shall we not have them bring us one of these juleps of the
country? I find them most agreeable, I declare."

I did not criticise his conduct as a wearer of the cloth, but declined
his hospitality on the ground that it was early in the day for me. He
urged me so little and was so much the gentleman that I explained.

"Awhile ago," I said, "my father came to me and said, 'I see, Jack, that
thee is trying to do three things--to farm, hunt foxes, and drink
juleps. Does thee think thee can handle all three of these activities in
combination?' You see, my mother is a Quakeress, and when my father
wished to reprove me he uses the plain speech. Well, sir, I thought it
over, and for the most part I dropped the other two, and took up more
farming."

"Your father is Mr. John Cowles, of Cowles' Farms?"

"The same."

"No doubt your family know every one in this part of the country?"

"Oh, yes, very well."

"These are troublous times," he ventured, after a time. "I mean in
regard to this talk of secession of the Southern States."

I was studying this man. What was he doing here in our quiet country
community? What was his errand? What business had a julep-drinking,
horse-riding parson speaking in a Virginia pulpit where only the gospel
was known, and that from exponents worth the name?

"You are from Washington?" I said at length.

He nodded.

"The country is going into deep water one way or the other," said I.
"Virginia is going to divide on slavery. It is not for me, nor for any
of us, to hasten that time. Trouble will come fast enough without our
help."

"I infer you did not wholly approve of my little effort the other
evening. I was simply looking at the matter from a logical standpoint.
It is perfectly clear that the old world must have cotton, that the
Southern States must supply that cotton, and that slavery alone makes
cotton possible for the world. It is a question of geography rather than
of politics; yet your Northern men make it a question of politics. Your
Congress is full of rotten tariff legislation, which will make a few of
your Northern men rich--and which will bring on this war quite as much
as anything the South may do. Moreover, this tariff disgusts England,
very naturally. Where will England side when the break comes? And what
will be the result when the South, plus England, fights these tariff
makers over here? I have no doubt that you, sir, know the complexion of
all these neighb