for him.

"Well, if you insist on doing something for me", and he hesitated, "but
I know it will do no good--go down to the kitchen, fill a big coffee cup
half full of bilin' hot water, dissolve a lump of loaf sugar in it, drop
in a little lump of butter 'bout as big as a robin's egg. Then reach up
in the old cupboard in the hall, top shelf and way back in the corner,
you'll find a big, black bottle. Pour quite a lot out of this bottle
into the cup, fill it up. Grate a little nutmeg into it and fetch it up
yar."

Then holding his hands to his head as if suffering great pain, dropping
his voice to a faint whisper as if he were about to collapse, he said:

"Bring it up here and if I don't want to take it you jes' make me."

Not long afterwards the whole neighborhood was talking of the conversion
of Uncle Joe and the day of his baptism marked an epoch in that section.
The lion and the lamb were roaming together. Old Bill Colvin and Uncle
Joe were making cider on the shares. Many were the strange tales told
of how the conversion of Uncle Joe came about.

The day of baptism saw the largest gathering in the history of Red Stone
meeting house. Alfred, Cousin Charley and all the country folks round
about were there and many from town. Many were the conjectures made by
the idle gossipers as to whether Joe would hold out. Tom Porter
prophesied that the first time Joe got on a tear he would lick the
preacher. Billy Hickman, the preacher, was a mite of a man, while Uncle
Joe was a giant in comparison.

[Illustration: Alfred's Ride]

Uncle Joe had never been ducked or put under water but once, that the
writer knows of. It was sheep-washing time. The sheep in a pen on the
bank of the creek. Uncle Joe and another man in the creek up to their
middles washing the sheep. Alfred and another boy in the pen catching
the sheep dragging them to the bank as the workers called for another
sheep. There was one old bell-wether that was too strong for the boys.
After futile attempts to drag him to the creek Alfred decided to ride
him. Jumping astride of the animal it made frantic efforts to free
itself from the burden. Round the pen, bleating and panting it ran. It
started for the creek and from a height of several feet it plunged,
hitting Uncle Joe square between the shoulders.

[Illustration: They All Follow]

Its weight and Alfred's sent the powerful man under the water. Where one
sheep leads another will follow. As he attempted to ri