is clothes," observed Miss Thompson.
"They look as if he made them himself."

"Perhaps he did, but they're good enough to go with Faith Armstrong's
cloak" (which had been made by a rival artiste), responded Miss Green.
"What dark colors she wears, no variety, and how dreadful old they
make her look!"

"Hush!" said Miss Thompson, "the deacon's going to open."

During the colloquy of the two spinsters a grave, respectable-looking
man, somewhat advanced in years, had taken a seat behind the
reading-desk, and opening the large Bible that lay upon it, selected
a chapter, and now invited the attention of the audience to its
contents. Upon its conclusion he gave out a hymn, the tune of which
was announced by another person, who immediately on naming it pulled
out a pitch-pipe from his pocket and making a slight sound, furnished
the starting note. The singing proceeded principally from a certain
part of the room, as if by some understanding the singers had been
collected together, although scattered sounds also, of either rumbling
bass or shrill treble whose trembling modulations betrayed the
advanced age of the performers, were here and there heard. Some
of these guerrilla passages were sadly out of time and tune, and
according to the humor of the hearer might either provoke a smile
or start a tear. The gay and thoughtless might, indeed, laugh at the
wavering and undecided notes, but to the reflecting mind there was
something profoundly pathetic in the feeble tribute to the praise of
their Maker, of those whose voices in the ordinary course of nature
must soon be silent in the grave.

After the singing was ended, the person who had hitherto officiated
invited Deacon Baldwin, calling him by name, to make a prayer.
Hereupon the deacon rose, and folding his hands complied with the
request, while most of the congregation respectfully bent forward,
or covered their faces with their handkerchiefs. The prayer evidently
came from a sincere and earnest heart, but contained nothing that
requires it should be recorded. Another hymn was then sung, upon the
conclusion of which followed the sermon.

The person who came forward to perform this office was a short,
thick-set man, of middle age, with a bull neck. His features were
harsh and severe, and stamped with an expression of mortification,
though the gross animality of the mouth and chin too plainly revealed
how many and desperate were the conflicts it must have cost him to
become