any deeper and more devious theological doctrines as well.
Indeed, his heterodoxy was of so mild a type that, viewed by the
incandescent light of to-day, which is not half a century later, it
shines with the clear blue radiance of flawless Calvinism.

If the tedious "lining out," traditionally sacred, was quite
unreasonable and superfluous, commemorating nothing but the days of
hunted Covenanters and few psalm-books and fewer still who were able to
read them, perhaps the remembrance of these things was as conducive to
thankfulness of heart as David's recital of the travails and triumphs of
ancient Israel. Certain it is that profound gratitude to God and
devotion to duty characterized the lives of most of these men and women
who sang the praises of their Maker in this halting and unmusical
fashion.

Marg'et Ann sang in a high and somewhat nasal treble, compassing the
extra feet of Mr. Rouse's doubtful version with skill, and gliding
nimbly over the gaps in prosody by the aid of his dextrously elongated
syllables.

Some of the older men seemed to dwell upon these peculiarities of
versification as being distinctively ecclesiastical and therefore
spiritually edifying, and brought up the musical rear of such couplets
with long-drawn and profoundly impressive "shy-un's" and "i-tee's;" but
these irregularities found little favor in the eyes of the younger
people, who had attended singing-school and learned to read buckwheat
notes under the direction of Jonathan Loomis, the precentor.

Marg'et Ann listened to the Rev. Mr. McClanahan's elaborately divided
discourse, wondering what piece of the logical puzzle Lloyd would
declare to be missing; and she glanced rather wistfully once or twice
toward the Amen corner where the young man sat, with his head thrown
back and his eager eyes fixed upon the minister's face.

When the intermission came, she ate her sweet cake and her triangle of
dried apple pie with the others, and then walked toward the graveyard
behind the church. She knew that Lloyd would follow her, and she prayed
for grace to speak a word in season.

The young man stalked through the tall grass that choked the path of the
little inclosure until he overtook her under a blossoming crab-apple
tree.

He had been "going with" Marg'et Ann more than a year, and there was
generally supposed to be an understanding between them.

She turned when he came up, and put out her hand without embarrassment,
but she blushed as p