goin' to die a-tryin'. I b'lieve that's
all I've got to say, ladies and gentlemen."

There was an awkward silence for a moment after Sam sat down. The
minister in charge of the meeting said afterwards that the remarks were
not exactly what he had expected, and he did not know, at such short
notice, how to answer them. Suddenly a hymn was started by a voice
which every one knew, though they seldom heard it in prayer-meeting. It
belonged to Judge Prency's wife, who for years had been the mainstay of
every musical entertainment which had been dependent upon local talent.
The hymn began,--

Am I a soldier of the cross,

and the assemblage sang it with great force and spirit. The meeting was
closed soon afterwards; and as Sam, in spite of an occasional kind
greeting, was endeavoring to escape from the hard stare of curious
eyes, Mrs. Judge Prency, who was the handsomest and most distinguished
woman in the village, stopped him, grasped his hand, and said,--

"Mr. Kimper, you gave the most sensible speech I ever heard in an
experience meeting. I'm going to believe in you thoroughly."

Deacon Quickset, who was closely following his new charge, listened
with fixed countenance to the lady's remark. He followed Sam from the
church, snatched him away from the wife who had joined him, and said,--

"Samuel, that experience of yours rather disappointed me. It wasn't all
there. There was something left out,--a good deal left out."

"I guess not, deacon. I said all I knowed."

"Then you ought to know a good deal more. You've only got at the
beginning of things. No church'll take you into membership if you don't
believe more than that."

"Maybe I'll know it in the course of time, deacon, if I keep on
a-learnin'."

"Maybe you will,--if you do keep on. But you didn't say anything about
your hope of salvation, nor the atonement, nor your being nothing
through your own strength."

"I couldn't say it if I didn't know about it," Sam replied. "All my
troubles an' wrong doin's have come of not livin' right: so right
livin' is all I've had time to think about an' study up."

"You need to think about dying as well as living," said the deacon.

"Him that took care of another thief that was dyin' 'll take care of me
if I get in that fix, I guess, if I hang on to Him tight."

"Not unless you hang on in the right way," said the deacon. "You must
believe what all Christians believe, if you want to be saved. You don't
feel that you