n't, and lived for many years,"
continued the other, "he must have been pretty tough not to write to
his poor old mother at least once in a while. I could never forgive
Joel for that. But they say he had an ugly nature, and was very
stubborn. Well, I'm glad the deacon has taken an interest in the
reformation of Nick Lang, even if I have my doubts about his meeting
with any sort of success."

"Well, you may be a whole lot surprised one of these fine days, my
boy," Hugh smilingly told him.

"The age of miracles has passed, Hugh," remarked Thad skeptically.

"Not the miracles that are brought about by a complete change of
heart on the part of someone the world looks down on as a scamp,"
Hugh persisted. "But you're one of those who want to be shown; I
reckon, Thad, your folks must have come from Missouri, didn't they?"

"Wrong again, Hugh, because none of them ever saw the Mississippi,
though my grandfather fought through the Civil War, and was with
Grant when Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House. But I admit I
am a little stubborn, and prejudiced. It runs in the blood, I
suppose. The Stevens were always sort of pig-headed."

"I've also heard considerable about the deacon as a weather seer,
Thad; how about that? Does he manage to hit it off occasionally, so
as to equal our forecaster at Washington, whose predictions come true
every now and then?"

"Oh! the deacon has made that quite a fad," he was told by the
obliging Thad. "He doesn't confine himself to figuring out just what
sort of day we'll have to-morrow, or even for the coming week. He
looks ahead, and finds out from the signs of Nature what sort of
winter or summer we're going to have next,--cold, mild, hot, cool,
dry or rainy. And say, I've heard he hits it nearly every time."

"Well, what did he say about this particular winter?" Hugh asked,
with renewed interest; for such subjects always gripped his
attention, because he believed some of these shrewd countrymen, who
watched the weather and observed what was going on all around them,
could tell better than any scientific gentleman what was liable to
come along during the succeeding seasons.

"He predicted a severe winter," replied Thad promptly. "Some people
laughed at what he said, especially when Christmas came and went, and
so far we'd had precious little of cold. But it's come along at
last, and from all reports some of the most dreadful weather ever
known is happening away out in th