han act up to their opinions. To all
these things Mrs. Swiggs listens with delight.

Spyke, too, is in every way a well made-up man, being extremely tall and
lean of figure, with nice Saxon hair and whiskers, mild but thoughtful
blue eyes, an anxious expression of countenance, a thin, squeaking
voice, and features sufficiently delicate and regular for his calling.
His dress, too, is always exactly clerical. If he be cold and pedantic
in his manner, the fault must be set down to the errors of the
profession, rather than to any natural inclination of his own. But what
is singular of Brother Spyke is, that, notwithstanding his passion for
delving the heathen world, and dragging into Christian light and love
the benighted wretches there found, he has never in his life given a
thought for that heathen world at his own door--a heathen world sinking
in the blackest pool of misery and death, in the very heart of an
opulent city, over which it hurls its seething pestilence, and scoffs at
the commands of high heaven. No, he never thought of that Babylon of
vice and crime--that heathen world pleading with open jaws at his own
door. He had no thought for how much money might be saved, and how much
more good done, did he but turn his eyes; go into this dark world (the
Points) pleading at his feet, nerve himself to action, and lend a strong
hand to help drag off the film of its degradation. In addition to this,
Brother Spyke was sharp enough to discover the fact that a country
parson does not enjoy the most enviable situation. A country parson must
put up with the smallest salary; he must preach the very best of
sermons; he must flatter and flirt with all the marriageable ladies of
his church; he must consult the tastes, but offend none of the old
ladies; he must submit to have the sermon he strained his brain to make
perfect, torn to pieces by a dozen wise old women, who claim the right
of carrying the church on their shoulders; he must have dictated to him
what sort of dame he may take for wife;--in a word, he must bear meekly
a deal of pestering and starvation, or be in bad odor with the senior
members of the sewing circle. Duly appreciating all these difficulties,
Brother Spyke chose a mission to Antioch, where the field of his labors
would be wide, and the gates not open to restraints. And though he could
not define the exact character of his mission to Antioch, he so worked
upon the sympathies of the credulous old lady, as to we