urishes on the
big horn, served to augment their weight of conviction, and buckling to
their labor with saw-mill regularity of stroke, and a settled
determination not to be overtaken by slower time, they soon blended with
the verge of the horizon, and took that leap into space which rescues them
from all further connection with this narrative.

So thin is the partition wall that separates the real from the ideal with
these beings, that they continually advertise themselves for a scare, and
should they by any accident be deprived of their weekly supply of the
element, loss of appetite and other serious bodily symptoms would
undoubtedly ensue.

We have volunteered these remarks and illustrations, pertaining to the
philosophy of this question, with a view of introducing the following
occurrence:

In that portion of the State of Mississippi where the pumpkins grow
largest, and the mosquitoes are supplied with blood-letting apparatus at
both extremities, and at about that period of _post bellum_ history when
the K. K. K. rabies had taken strongest hold upon the chivalry of the
neighboring hills and valleys, a great "awakening" occurred among the
children of the new Abrahamic covenant. In other words, and to quote the
language of one of the communicants, "a ole fashyun'd whoopin', bumpin',
jumpin,' tumblin,' rousation of de dry bones had superseemed froo de
inscroomentality of Brudder Jones's preechin'." For a period of six weeks
the lame, halt, and blind of the neighboring plantations had been led into
the troubled waters with manifestations of relief that the most skeptical
would hardly question, and still, to quote further, "Zion was a wavin',
and de onregenerate milyums flockin' abode of de 'gospil car.'" Indeed,
the "orfumdoxeky of de new doctorin'" was having its effect everywhere,
and old soggy timber that had resisted the improvements in wedges for half
a century went to atoms under the vigorous mauling of "Brudder Jones." No
sooner had one squad of penitents been "bumped" through and converted into
stools for the sisters, than the raw material for another and larger was
at hand, and "swingin', whoopin', rollin'," the "thing" held right on its
course over the rheumatic toes of the aged and infirm, and into the
combative "buzzums" of the young, vigorous, and
"kick-him-hard-and-let-him-go."

But though nothing could be more delightful to the writer than to continue
the narrative in this strain, recording only the tr