tty woman.

Certainly after such a sharp rebuke he could not fail to return to his
original task, imposed upon him because of his fault in bringing the
feud fighters of his home mountains together, untrained and
unrepentant, to hear the voice of his pride declare the Word for the
edification of sinners. Parson Rasba did not mince his words as he
contemplated the joy he had felt in being eloquent and a "power" of a
speaker from the pulpits of the mountain churches. The murdering by the
feud fighters had taught him what he would never forget, and his frank
acknowledgment of each rebuke gave him greater understanding.

While the gale lasted he watched the river and the sky. The wild fowl
flying low, and dropping into woods behind him led to forays seeking
game, and in a bayou a mile distant he drew down with deadly aim on one
of a flock of geese. He killed that bird, and then as its startled and
lumbering mates sought flight, he got two more of them, missing another
shot or two in the excitement.

The three great birds made a load for him, and he returned to his boat
with a heart lighter than he had known in many a day because it seemed
to him a "sign" that he need not hate himself overmuch. The river
consoled him, and its constancy and integrity were an example which he
could not help but take to heart.

Gales might blow, fair weather might tempt, islands might interpose
themselves in its way, banks and sandbars might stand against the flood,
but come what might, the river poured on through its destined course
like a human life.

He entertained the whimsical fancy, as his smallest goose was roasting,
that perhaps the Mississippi might sin. In so many ways the river
reminded him of humankind. He had stood beside a branch of the
Mississippi which was so small and narrow that he could dam it with his
ample foot, or scoop it up with a bucket--and yet here it was a mile
wide! In its youth it was subject to the control of trifling things, a
stone or a log, or the careless handiwork of a man. Down here all the
little threads of its being had united in a full tide of life still
subject to the influences of its normal course, but wearing and tearing
along beyond any power to stop till its appointed course was run.

Insensibly Parson Rasba felt the resources of his own mind flocking to
help him. Just being there beside that mighty torrent helped him to get
a perspective on things. Tiny things seemed so useless in the front of