while he was
standin' lookin' up in the belfry and pullin' and wonderin', here come
Brother Wilson wantin' to know why that bell hadn't been rung. Brother
Wilson was a man that was always on time himself, and he hadn't any
patience with folks that wasn't.

"And old Uncle Gloster says, 'Boss, I'm doin' my best, but it looks
like somebody's done hoodooed this bell.' Says he, 'I'm jest gittin'
over a spell o' rheumatism, and my old j'ints won't stand a climb up
that ladder, and you'll have to git somebody that's young and spry to
go up and see what's the matter.'

"Well, Brother Wilson started off to find somebody who could climb the
ladder, and as soon as he got outside the church, he met Judge Grace
and old Doctor Brigham, both of 'em members of the church, and he told
'em about the trouble with the bell, and they went in to see what they
could do. By the time Brother Wilson had walked around the square,
everybody in town knew that the Presbyterian bell wouldn't ring, and
all the folks come flockin' to the church; but nobody wanted to risk
their neck goin' up the old rickety ladder. While they was all
standin' there stretchin' their necks and reckonin' about what was the
matter, here come John Calvin, and says he, 'Gimme fifty cents, and
I'll go up the ladder.'

"And Brother Wilson says, 'No child o' mine shall be hired to do his
duty.' Says he, 'John Calvin, if that ladder was a green-apple tree,
you'd be at the top of it in less than half a minute. Go up, sir, this
instant, and find out what's the matter with that bell.'

"But Judge Grace and Doctor Brigham and the rest o' the men said
they'd throw in and make up the fifty cents, and John Calvin put the
money in his pocket and went up the ladder. As soon as he got to the
top round he hollered down and says he:

"'No wonder the bell won't ring. Here's a yarn sock tied around the
clapper.' And down he come with the sock in his hand, and handed it to
his father. It turned out afterwards that him and Martin Luther had
had a fallin' out that mornin', and he went up and got the sock jest
to git even with his brother.

"Well, while they was passin' the sock around and speculatin' about
it, old Mis' Maria Morris come along with her bag o' knittin' on her
arm, goin' to spend the day with some of her friends. She stopped to
see what was the matter, and when they told her she says, 'Let me look
at the sock,' and she took it and looked at it right close and says
she, 'Tha