nt up to heaven that night from these young men,
and from almost all the number present."

This narrative strongly affected the group of ministers, and some more
emotional than others shouted: "Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!"

"Brother Very, did I tell the story right?" said Harvey.

"You told it about as it was," responded Very, "only there is this
sequel to add: one of these young men made an able and successful
preacher. After traveling a few years his health failed, and he died
triumphantly."

A sallow-faced parson from the river-bottoms remarked: "Jasper Very has
been through many trying experiences, and I am going to ask him to tell
us how he conquered that cantankerous woman by tact and muscles."

Thus appealed to, Very told the following anecdote: "Some time ago I
crossed the Ohio River into the State of Illinois where I had some
preaching engagements. On one of my tours I met a local preacher who
was a small, good natured, pious and withal a useful preacher. He had a
wife who was a noted virago. She was high tempered, overbearing and
quarrelsome. She opposed her husband's preaching, and was unwilling he
should ask a blessing at the table or conduct family prayers. If he
persisted in his effort to pray she would run noisily about the rooms
and overturn the chairs. If unable to stop him any other way she would
catch a cat and throw it in his face while he was kneeling and trying
to pray. The little man had invited several preachers to his home to
talk with the woman and bring her to a better frame of mind, but she
cursed them to their face and raged like one possessed. Several times
he invited me to go home with him, but I was afraid to trust myself. I
pitied the poor little man so much that finally I yielded, and went
home with him one evening. When we arrived I saw she was mad, and the
devil was in her as big as an alligator. So I determined on my course.
After supper her husband said very kindly: 'Come, wife, stop your
little affairs, and let us have prayers.' To this she replied: 'I will
have none of your praying about me.' Speaking mildly, I expostulated
with her, but to no use; for the longer I spoke the more wrathful she
became, and she cursed me most bitterly. Then I spoke sternly and said:
'Madam, if you were a wife of mine, I would break you of your bad ways,
or I would break your neck.'

"'The devil you would!' she said. With this she poured upon me such a
torrent of curses as was almost beyond end