l Mrs. Murray's steadiness of nerve to repress an
exclamation of terror at critical moments. The corduroy was Black's
abomination. He longed to dash through and be done with it; but, however
much the minister sympathized with Black's desire, prudence forbade that
his method should be adopted. So from log to log, and from hole to hole,
Black plunged and stepped with all the care he could be persuaded to
exercise, every lurch of the carryall bringing a scream from Maimie in
front and a delighted chuckle from Hughie behind. His delight in the
adventure was materially increased by his cousin's terror.

But once the swamp was crossed, and Black found himself on the firm
road that wound over the sand-hills and through the open pine woods, he
tossed his great mane back from his eyes, and getting his head set off
at a pace that foreboded disaster to anything trying to keep before him,
and in a short time drew up at the church gates, his flanks steaming and
his great chest white with foam.

"My!" said Maimie, when she had recovered her breath sufficiently to
speak, "is that the church?" She pointed to a huge wooden building about
whose door a group of men were standing.

"Huh-huh, that's it," said Hughie; "but we will soon be done with the
ugly old thing."

The most enthusiastic member of the congregation could scarcely call the
old church beautiful, and to Maimie's eyes it was positively hideous.
No steeple or tower gave any hint of its sacred character. Its
weather-beaten clapboard exterior, spotted with black knots, as if
stricken with some disfiguring disease, had nothing but its row of
uncurtained windows to distinguish it from an ordinary barn.

They entered by the door at the end of the church, and proceeded down
the long aisle that ran the full length of the building, till they came
to a cross aisle that led them to the minister's pew at the left side
of the pulpit, and commanding a view of the whole congregation. The main
body of the church was seated with long box pews with hinged doors. But
the gallery that ran round three sides was fitted with simple benches.
Immediately in front of the pulpit was a square pew which was set apart
for the use of the elders, and close up to the pulpit, and indeed as
part of this structure, was a precentor's desk. The pulpit was, to
Maimie's eyes, a wonder. It was an octagonal box placed high on one
side of the church on a level with the gallery, and reached by a spiral
staircase.