self I cannot, nor is
there any man in our country who can take it off my shoulders."

[Illustration: Jake As Christian]

Jake, smiling more pleasantly than ever, answered, "I kin."
Suiting the action to the word, he flung his burden into the
Slough of Despond. The pond was a thin piece of canvas painted
to represent the quagmire. The burden made a sound as of the
house falling down. Jake wiped the perspiration from his face
and, spitting a mouthful of tobacco juice to one side, he gazed
on the audience and smiled. It was too much for even the staid
old church members. The laughter was so great that Palmer pulled
the curtain and announced an organ recital.

Christian's burden was replaced on Jake's back, he was
admonished to pay closest attention to Palmer's promptings. Jake
continued the pilgrimage. In the next scene Jake, representing
Christian on his journey from the City of Destruction to the
Celestial City, must pass through the Dark Valley of Shadows.
When Jake, instead of keeping to the right and following the
straight and narrow path, boldly walked into the mouth of the
burning pit, out of which Palmer was sending sparks and smoke.
Palmer again pulled the curtain on the scene. Jake sat on a
stage stump. Smoke was still coming from the pot of damp straw.
Tears filled Jake's eyes, tears caused by the smoke. Palmer
rushed back and forth, declaring Jake had made a farce of the
most beautiful and inspiring scene in the entire exhibition. I
was substituted for Jake. I knew every speech; I had learned
them all and it went good to the last.

The second book is even more impressive and instructive than the
first. You should read it. As the young ladies walk in at the
Beautiful Gate of the city, Pilgrim is seen through a gauze; one
by one the sheets of gauze are pulled down until Christian fades
away like a vision. It held the audience dumb; they never
witnessed anything like it; neither did I. Palmer wouldn't let
me speak the words; he said they must be delivered with great
dramatic effect. The words are: "I see myself now at the end of
my journey, my toilsome days are ended. I have formerly lived by
hearsay and faith, but I now go where I shall live by sight."
But glorious it was to see how the open regions were filled with
horses and chariots, with trumpeters and p