ir, and a shadow on silent wings sped past. The road
was dusty in front of the shop, and for a space there was no shade. Into
the full radiance of the moonlight a rabbit bounded along, rising erect
with a most human look of affright in its great shining eyes as it
tremulously gazed at the motionless figures. It too was motionless for
a moment. The young musician made a lunge at it with his bow; it sprang
away with a violent start--its elongated grotesque shadow bounding
kangaroo-like beside it--into the soft gloom of the bushes. There was no
other traveller along the road, and the talk was renewed without further
interruption. "Waal, sir, ef'twarn't fur the testimony o' the words
he reads ez air graven on them rocks, I couldn't-git my cornsent ter
b'lieve ez Moses ever war in Tennessee," said the advanced thinker.
"I ain't onder-takin' ter say what State he settled in, but I 'lowed
'twarn't hyar. It mus' hev been, though, 'count o' the scripture on them
broken tables."

"I never knowed a meetin' woke ter sech a pint o' holiness. The saints
jes rampaged around till it fairly sounded like the cavortin's o' the
ungodly," a retrospective voice chimed in.

"I raised thirty-two hyme chunes," said the musician, who had a great
gift in quiring, and was the famed possessor of a robust tenor voice. "A
leetle mo' gloryin' aroun' an' I'd hev kem ter the eend o' my row, an'
hev hed ter begin over agin." He spoke with acrimony, reviewing the
jeopardy in which his _repertoire_ had been placed.

"Waal," said the blacksmith, passing his hand over his black head, as
sleek and shining as a beaver's, "I'm a-goin' up ter the bald o' the
mounting some day soon, ef so be I kin make out ter shoe that mare o'
mine"--for the blacksmith's mount was always barefoot--"I'm afeard ter
trest her unshod on them slippery slopes; I want ter read some o' them
sayin's on the stone tables myself. I likes ter git a tex' or the eend
o' a hyme set a-goin' in my head--seems somehow ter teach itself ter the
anvil, an' then it jes says it back an' forth all day. Yestiddy I never
seen its beat--'Christ--war--born--in--Bethlehem.' The anvil jes rang
with that ez ef the actial metal hed the gift o' prayer an' praise."

"Waal, sir," exclaimed Job Grinnell, who had been having frequent
colloquies aside with the companionable jug, "ye mought jes ez well save
yer shoes an' let yer mare go barefoot. Thar ain't nare sign o' a word
writ on them rocks."

They all sat s