und for wound, stripe for stripe.' And the other one
was, 'And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbor, as he hath done,
so shall it be done to him. Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for
tooth.'

"Well, honey, the sermon he preached from them two texts was somethin'
terrible. He begun by sayin' that the kingdom of God was a kingdom of
justice; that every sin brought its own punishment with it, and there
was no escapin' it. He said God had fixed the penalty for every sin
committed by every sinner; we couldn't always tell what the punishment
would be, one sinner would be punished one way and another sinner
another way, and one would have his punishment right at once, and the
other might not have his for a good many years, but it was sure to
come at last. He never said a word about the blood of Christ, and the
only time he brought up the New Testament was when he told about
Christ sayin' that we had to pay the uttermost farthing.

"Now, of course, child, all o' this is in the Bible, and it must be
true. But then, there's other texts that's jest as true and a heap
more comfortin', and if Parson Page had been preachin' that day, he'd
'a' taken a text about forgiveness and atonement, but maybe we
wouldn't 'a' remembered that as long as we remembered the other
preacher's sermon. I ricollect when meetin' broke everybody appeared
to be laborin' under a sense o' sin, and instead o' shakin' hands and
talkin' awhile as we generally did, we all went home as quick as we
could. Uncle Jim Mathews said it took him a week to git over the
effects o' that sermon, and Sam Amos says, 'I thought I was doin'
right in lettin' that shiftless tenant o' mine off from payin' his
year's rent, I felt so sorry for his wife and children; but,' says he,
'in strict justice and accordin' to this "eye for an eye" doctrine, I
ought to hold him to his contract and make him pay.'

"Well, it wasn't long after this till we begun to hear curious tales
about the Crawford farm. Abram come in one day and says he, 'Jane, I
never have believed in ghosts and spirits, but upon my soul,' says he,
'Miles Crawford's been tellin' me some things that make me think maybe
there's such a thing after all.' And he went on to tell how Miles had
had his straw stacks pulled down, and the fodder scattered all over
the barn floor, and his tools carried off and hid in fence corners,
and his bags o' seed spilled around, and he couldn't tell when it was
done nor who did it. Of c