le.

"No, I don't think so. I _know_ it."

Well, them consolin' words, for thought is a _real thing_, and I jest
wropped her round with my tenderness and compassion, I guess they
comforted her some, 'tennyrate she promised me sweetly that she would
obey and trust, and I felt considerable better about her.

I wuz sorry for her as sorry as I could be, but I had a strong feelin'
inside of my heart (mebby some wise, sweet angel whispered it to me)
that everything would come out right in the end, and Molly would git the
desire of her heart.

She's belonged to the meetin' house for years. But sometimes members git
some shock that jars 'em and sends 'em out of the narrer road for quite
a spell and they git kinder lost gropin' through the dark shadders of
earthly disappointment and sorrow. Nothin' but the light that streams
down from above can pierce them glooms, and I knowed by the sweet light
that lit up Molly's linement that her face wuz turned in the right
direction and she wouldn't look sideways, behind or before, but would
seek for light and help from above.

CHAPTER XII.

Well, for the next week we had a busy time, goin' to the Fair most every
day, sometimes all together, but not stayin' together long, for most
always we'd meet Professor Todd somewhere and he and Blandina would pair
off together (I jest as willin' as anybody ever wuz).

Molly had a young schoolmate who lived in St. Louis, and sometimes they
would spend the day together at some reception or other. But most of the
time Josiah and I paid our two attentions to the Fair stiddy, a
travelin' about and seein' all we could.

And one mornin' Josiah asked me before breakfast, jest as cool as if he
wuz proposin' a glass of lemonade with ice in it, if I didn't want to go
to Jerusalem that mornin'.

Jerusalem! City of our Lord! Oh, my soul, think on't! As he said the
words I looked at him and then some distance through him and beyond, and
entirely onbeknown to myself I begun to hum over that old him:

"Jerusalem the golden, with milk and honey blest,
Beneath thy contemplation sink heart and soul oppressed.
We know not, oh, we know not what joys await us there."

And Josiah broke in and sung the last line with me (or what he called
singin').

"What radiancy of glory, what bliss beyond compare."

But I knowed that singin' that time of day would be apt to draw
attention, specially as Josiah's singin' wuz very base and my sulferino
hain't what it