coughing, and sank back upon the sofa,
trembling all over and still muttering that he was ready. There was a
hushed silence for a moment or two, and then a storm of hallelujahs and
shouts. Mr. Perley started another hymn, and it was sung with tremendous
enthusiasm.

Just behind the nervous young man with the celluloid collar sat a stout
individual with a bald head. This was Abijah Thompson, known by the
irreverent as "Barking" Thompson, a nickname bestowed because of his
peculiar habit of gradually puffing up, like a frog, under religious
excitement, and then bursting forth in an inarticulate shout,
disconcerting to the uninitiated. During Baxter's speech and the singing
of the hymn his expansive red cheeks had been distended like balloons,
and his breath came shorter and shorter. Mr. Perley had arisen and was
holding up his hand for silence, when with one terrific "Boo!" "Barking"
Thompson's spiritual exaltation exploded directly in the ear of the
nervous stranger.

The young man shot out of his chair as if Mr. Thompson had fired a
dynamite charge beneath him. "Oh, the Devil!" he shrieked, and then
subsided, blushing to the back of his neck.

Somehow this interruption took the spirit out of the meeting. Giggles
from Luther and the younger element interfered with the solemnity of Mr.
Perley's closing remarks, and no one else was brave enough to "testify"
under the circumstances. They sang again, and the meeting broke up. The
nervous young man was the first one to leave.

Captain Eri got his friend out of the clutches of the "Come-Outers" as
quickly as possible, and piloted him down the road toward his home. John
Baxter was silent and absent-minded, and most of the Captain's cheerful
remarks concerning Orham affairs in general went unanswered. As they
turned in at the gate the elder man said:

"Eri, do you believe that man's law ought to be allowed to interfere
with God's law?"

"Well, John, in most cases it's my jedgment that it pays to steer pretty
close to both of 'em."

"S'pose God called you to break man's law and keep His; what would you
do?"

"Guess the fust thing would be to make sure 'twas the Almighty that was
callin'. I don't want to say nothin' to hurt your feelin's, but I
should advise the feller that thought that he had that kind of a call to
'beware of imitations,' as the soap folks advertise."

"Eri, I've got a call."

"Now, John Baxter, you listen. You and me have been sailin' together, as