rn of the ingrain
carpet. Then he lifted his head, and nodded it in assent. "Yes,"
he said; "we will do nothing by which our 'brother stumbleth, or is
offended, or is made weak.'"

Brother Pierce's parchment face showed no sign of surprise or pleasure
at this easy submission. "Another thing: We don't want no book-learnin'
or dictionary words in our pulpit," he went on coldly. "Some folks may
stomach 'em; we won't. Them two sermons o' yours, p'r'aps they'd do down
in some city place; but they're like your wife's bunnit here, they're
too flowery to suit us. What we want to hear is the plain, old-fashioned
Word of God, without any palaver or 'hems and ha's. They tell me
there's some parts where hell's treated as played-out--where our
ministers don't like to talk much about it because people don't want to
hear about it. Such preachers ought to be put out. They ain't Methodists
at all. What we want here, sir, is straight-out, flat-footed hell--the
burnin' lake o' fire an' brim-stone. Pour it into 'em, hot an' strong.
We can't have too much of it. Work in them awful deathbeds of Voltaire
an' Tom Paine, with the Devil right there in the room, reachin' for
'em, an' they yellin' for fright; that's what fills the anxious seat an'
brings in souls hand over fist."

Theron's tongue dallied for an instant with the temptation to comment
upon these old-wife fables, which were so dear to the rural religious
heart when he and I were boys. But it seemed wiser to only nod again,
and let his mentor go on.

"We ain't had no trouble with the Free Methodists here," continued
Brother Pierce, "jest because we kept to the old paths, an' seek for
salvation in the good old way. Everybody can shout 'Amen!' as loud
and as long as the Spirit moves him, with us. Some one was sayin' you
thought we ought to have a choir and an organ. No, sirree! No such
tom-foolery for us! You'll only stir up feelin' agin yourself by hintin'
at such things. And then, too, our folks don't take no stock in all that
pack o' nonsense about science, such as tellin' the age of the earth by
crackin' up stones. I've b'en in the quarry line all my life, an' I know
it's all humbug! Why, they say some folks are goin' round now preachin'
that our grandfathers were all monkeys. That comes from departin'
from the ways of our forefathers, an puttin' in organs an' choirs, an'
deckin' our women-folks out with gewgaws, an' apin' the fashions of the
worldly. I shouldn't wonder if them k