was standing by the stove,
turning the long strips of salt pork that curled and sizzled in the
skillet. Her shoulders seemed to droop a trifle more in her
working-dress, but her face was flushed from the heat of the cooking.

"There wasn't any call to get a warm supper for me, Tildy. I ain't
hungry to speak of."

"Well, I guess anyway I'd better make some milk gravy for the children;
I didn't have up a fire at noon, see'n' you was away. It ain't much
trouble."

Her voice was resolutely cheerful, and Alex knew that the discussion was
ended. But after the supper things were cleared away, she said to Mary
Frances, "Can't you go and let your pa see how nice you can say your
psa'm?"

And the child had gone outside where Alex was sitting, and had stood
with her hands behind her, her sharp little shoulders moving in unison
with her sing-song as she repeated the verses.

"'That man hath perfect blessedness
Who walketh not astray
In counsel of ungodly men,
Nor stands in sinners' way,
Nor sitteth in the scorner's chair:
But placeth his delight
Upon God's law, and meditates
On his law day and night.'"

The child caught her breath with a long sigh, and hurried on to the end.

"'In judgment, therefore, shall not stand
Such as ungodly are;
Nor in th' assembly of the just
Shall wicked men appear.
For why? The way of godly men
Unto the Lord is known;
Whereas the way of wicked men
Shall quite be overthrown.'"

Then she stood still, waiting for her father's praise.

He caught her thin little arm and drew her toward him, where she could
not look into his face.

"You say it very nice, Mary Frances,--very nice indeed."

And Mary Frances smiled, a prim little satisfied smile, and nestled her
slim body against him contentedly.

II.

Ten years drifted away, and there was a new minister in the congregation
at Blue Mound. The Reverend Andrew Turnbull had died, and his successor
had come from a Western divinity school, with elocutionary honors thick
upon him. Under his genial warmth the congregation had thawed into a
staid enthusiasm. To take their orthodoxy with this generous coating of
zeal and kindliness and graceful rhetoric, and know that the bitterness
that proclaimed it genuine was still there, unimpaired and effective,
was a luxury that these devout natures were not slow to appreciate. A
few practical sermons delivered with the ardor and enthusiasm of a
really earn