we got a long way
from it, we turned around and looked at it for the last.

Then Mr. Miller said he was glad he was out of the church, that he had
tried to do certain things, but they wouldn't let him, and kept him in a
groove. And now he was going to sell atlases and geographies, and be a
free man, and maybe write a book. And he said: "The idea seems to be
that goodness, spirituality, is church. It isn't, and it never was; it
wasn't when the Savior came; He found goodness and spirituality in a lot
of things, in a free life, in the freedom of out-doors, and not in the
synagogues. Now, boys, believe in the Bible, in the Savior--I mean that;
but don't let that belief make you into a membership with those who live
for denial, for observation of injunctions, for abstinence from life,
more or less, for solemnity, for religion as business, and business as
religion, and religion for business. This is not goodness--not
spirituality. Lincoln was good and spiritual--he believed in the mind
and he used it. Wisdom, beauty, play, adventure, friendship, love,
fights for the right, and for your rights, travel, everything, anything
that keeps the mind going; and kindness, generosity, hospitality,
laughter, trips down the Mississippi, making cities beautiful and clean,
having fun,--all these things are spirituality and goodness. They are
religion--they are the religion of the Savior. They will make America;
and they ought to be Americanism."

So Mr. Miller went on. I can't remember half he said, but it was plain
he was worked up. Losin' his church or somethin' had set his thoughts
free; and everything considered, I think he wanted to give us some ideas
about things. And so after lookin' at Linkern's home, a frame house, not
very big, not fine, but a good house; and lookin' at the furniture and
things he had, we took the train back to Petersburg.

CHAPTER XXVIII

I could see plainer and plainer that I was losin' Mitch. There was
somethin' about having this business together of huntin' for treasure
that kept us chums; and now that was over and if we didn't get something
else, where would we end up? Mitch said that the trip to Springfield had
cured him of being mad at his pa for takin' us to Hannibal to see Tom
Sawyer the butcher. And he said: "Suppose you was at Old Salem fishin'
and you had a can of worms for bait, or thought you had, and you was
really out of worms. Which would be better, to set there and think you
had bait