. Some of them became angry, and
talked very forcibly, and feelings of indignation soon spread among all
the sisters of the church. If their minister had seen fit to stay at
home and preach a sermon like this to his own wife (who, it may be
remarked, was not present on this occasion), it would have been well
enough, provided he had made no allusions to outsiders; but to come
there and preach such things to them was entirely too much for their
endurance. Each one of the women knew she had not seven devils, and only
a few of them would admit of the possibility of any of the others being
possessed by quite so many.

Their preacher's explanation of the manner in which every woman came to
be possessed of just so many devils appeared to them of little
importance. What they objected to was the fundamental doctrine of his
sermon, which was based on his assertion that the Bible declared every
woman had seven devils. They were not willing to believe that the Bible
said any such thing. Some of them went so far as to state it was their
opinion that Uncle Pete had got this fool notion from some of the
lawyers at the court-house when he was on a jury a month or so before.
It was quite noticeable that, although Sunday afternoon had scarcely
begun, the majority of the women of the congregation called their
minister Uncle Pete. This was very strong evidence of a sudden decline
in his popularity.

Some of the more vigorous-minded women, not seeing their minister among
the other people in the clearing in front of the log church, went to
look for him, but he was not to be found. His wife had ordered him to be
home early, and soon after the congregation had been dismissed he
departed by a short cut through the woods. That afternoon an irate
committee, composed principally of women, but including also a few men
who had expressed disbelief in the new doctrine, arrived at the cabin of
their preacher, but found there only his wife, cross-grained old Aunt
Rebecca. She informed them that her husband was not at home.

"He's done 'gaged hisse'f," she said, "ter cut an' haul wood fur Kunnel
Martin ober on Little Mount'n fur de whole ob nex' week. It's fourteen
or thirteen mile' from h'yar, an' ef he'd started ter-morrer mawnin',
he'd los' a'mos' a whole day, 'Sides dat, I done tole him dat ef he git
dar ter-night he'd have his supper frowed in. Wot you all want wid him?
Gwine to pay him fur preachin'?"

Any such intention as this was instantaneo