wo weeks than a little money in a ole stocking. What d'ye say?"

Jonas here put in that he didn't see why they mightn't sell to him as
well as to Bob Walker. Cynthy Ann had worked fer Mrs. Anderson fer
years, and him and Cynthy was a-goin' to be one man soon. Why not
sell to them?

"Because selling to you is selling to Andrew," said Mrs. Abigail, in a
conclusive way.

And so Bob got the farms, possession to be given after the fourteenth of
August, thus giving the day of doom three days of grace. And Bob rode
round the county boasting that he was as rich a man as there was in
Clark Township. And Jonas declared that ef the eend did come in the
month of August, Abigail would find some onsettled bills agin her fer
cheatin' the brother outen the inheritance. And Clark Township
agreed with him.

August was secretly pleased that one obstacle to his marriage was gone.
If Andrew should prove right, and the world should outlast the middle of
August, there would be nothing dishonorable in his marrying a girl that
would have nothing to sacrifice.

Andrew, for his part, gave vent to his feelings, as usual, by two or
three bitter remarks leveled at the whole human race, though nowadays he
was inclined to make exceptions in favor of several people, of whom
Julia stood first. She was a woman of the old-fashioned kind, he said,
fit to go alongside Heloise or Chaucer's Grisilde.

CHAPTER XLI.

THE LAST DAY AND WHAT HAPPENED IN IT.

The religious excitement reached its culmination as the tenth and
eleventh of August came on. Some made ascension-robes. Work was
suspended everywhere. The more abandoned, unwilling to yield to the
panic, showed its effects on them by deeper potations, and by a
recklessness of wickedness meant to conceal their fears. With tin horns
they blasphemously affected to be angels blowing trumpets. They imitated
the Millerite meetings in their drunken sprees, and learned Mr.
Hankins's arguments by heart.

The sun of the eleventh of August rose gloriously. People pointed to it
with trembling, and said that it would rise no more. Soon after sunrise
there were crimson clouds stretching above and below it, and popular
terror seized upon this as a sign. But the sun mounted with a scorching
heat, which showed that at least his shining power was not impaired.
Then men said, "Behold the beginning of the fervent heat that is to melt
the elements!" Night drew on, and every "shooting-star" was a new sign
of the en