al
aspect. When a sudden stir of the leaves or the breaking of a twig
recalled him to the world, and he would lift his head, it might hardly
seem the same face, so heavy was the lower jaw, so insistent and
coercive his eye. But if he took off his hat to place therein his cotton
bandana handkerchief or (if he were in luck and burdened with game) the
scalp of a wild-cat--valuable for the bounty offered by the State--he
showed a broad, massive forehead that added the complement of
expression, and suggested a doubt if it were ferocity his countenance
bespoke or force. His long black hair hung to his shoulders, and he wore
a tangled black beard; his deep-set dark blue eyes were kindled with the
fires of imagination. He was tall, and of a commanding presence but for
his stoop and his slouch. His garments seemed a trifle less well ordered
than those of his class, and bore here and there the traces of the blood
of beasts; on his trousers were grass stains deeply grounded, for he
knelt often to get a shot, and in meditation beside the rocks. He spent
little time otherwise upon his knees, and perhaps it was some
intuition of this fact that roused the wrath of certain brethren of the
camp-meeting when he suddenly appeared among them, arrogating to himself
peculiar spiritual experiences, proclaiming that his mind had been
opened to strange lore, repeating thrilling, quickening words that
he declared he had read on the dead rocks whereon were graven the
commandments of the Lord. The tumultuous tide of his rude eloquence, his
wild imagery, his ecstasy of faith, rolled over the assembly and awoke
it anew to enthusiasms. Much that he said was accepted by the more
intelligent ministers who led the meeting as figurative, as the finer
fervors of truth, and they felt the responsive glow of emotion and
quiver of sympathy. He intended it in its simple, literal significance.
And to the more local members of the congregation the fact was patent.
"Sech a pack o' lies hev seldom been tole in the hearin' o' Almighty
Gawd," said Job Grinnell, a few days after the breaking up of camp.
He was rehearsing the proceedings at the meeting partly for the joy of
hearing himself talk, and partly at the instance of his wife, who had
been prevented from attending by the inopportune illness of one of the
children. "Ez I loant my ear ter the words o' that thar brazen buzzard I
eyed him constant. Fur I looked ter see the jedgmint o' the Lord descend
upon him like