er, you surely ain't a-going up to the court-house to see
Andrew Jackson," she said in sudden alarm.

"No, no, not now," said Peter, hurriedly. "I am riding fast to keep an
appointment to preach on the other side of the river."

"But you can stop long enough to eat breakfast. I lay you haven't had a
bite this blessed day."

Peter shook his head, gathering up the reins.

"And ten to one that you haven't got a cent of money!" Miss Penelope
accused him.

Peter's grim young face relaxed in a faint smile. He put his hand in his
pocket and drew out two small pieces of silver.

"Ah, ha, I knew it!" exulted Miss Penelope. "Now do wait just one
minute till I run in the house and get you some money."

"No, no, there isn't time. I'll miss my appointment to preach. I will
get along somehow. Thank you--good-by."

Miss Penelope, reaching up, seized the bridle-reins and held on by main
force with one hand while she rummaged in her out pocket with the other.

"There!--here are three bits--every cent I've got with me," she said
indignantly, shoving it in his hand. "Well, Peter Cartwright, if your
mother could know--"

But the young backwoodsman, whose fame was already filling the
wilderness, and was to fill the whole Christian world, now pressed on
riding fast, and was soon beyond her kind scolding.

"Well, 'pon my word! Did anybody ever see the like of that!" she cried,
seeing that Ruth had followed her to the door. "That boy don't know half
the time whether he has had anything to eat or not. And it's just
exactly the same to him when he's got money and when he hasn't."

The girl did not hear what Miss Penelope said. Her heart was responding,
as it always did, to everything great or heroic, and she looked after
this boy preacher with newly opened eyes. She suddenly saw as by a flash
of white light, that he and the other pioneer men of God--these
soldiers of the cross who were bearing it through the trackless
wilderness--were of the greatest. Her dim eyes followed the young
man--this brave bearer of the awful burden of the divine
mission--watching him press on to the river. She thought of the many
rivers that he must swim, the forests that he must thread, the savages
that he must contend against, the wild beasts that he must conquer, the
plague that he must defy, the shelterless nights that he must sleep
under the trees--freezing, starving, struggling through winter's cold
and summer's heat, and all for the love of God and