thing, the
widow lifted her eyes and said, "Ef it's the bucket, I reckon ye'll
find it at the spring, where one of them foolish Filgee boys left it.
I've been that tuckered out sens sundown, I ain't had the ambition to
go and tote it back." Without a word Gideon repaired to the spring,
filled the missing bucket, replaced the hoop on the loosened staves of
another he found lying useless beside it, and again returned to the
house. The widow once more pointed to the chair, and Gideon sat down.
"It's quite a spell sens you wos here," said the Widow Hiler, returning
her foot to the cradle-rocker; "not sens yer was ordained. Be'n
practicin', I reckon, at the meetin'."

A slight color came into his cheek. "My place is not there, Sister
Hiler," he said gently; "it's for those with the gift o' tongues. I go
forth only a common laborer in the vineyard." He stopped and
hesitated; he might have said more, but the widow, who was familiar
with that kind of humility as the ordinary perfunctory expression of
her class, suggested no sympathetic interest in his mission.

"Thar's a deal o' talk over there," she said dryly, "and thar's folks
ez thinks thar's a deal o' money spent in picnicking the Gospel that
might be given to them ez wish to spread it, or to their widows and
children. But that don't consarn you, Brother Gideon. Sister Parsons
hez money enough to settle her darter Meely comfortably on her own
land; and I've heard tell that you and Meely was only waitin' till you
was ordained to be jined together. You'll hev an easier time of it,
Brother Gideon, than poor Marvin Hiler had," she continued, suppressing
her tears with a certain astringency that took the place of her lost
pride; "but the Lord wills that some should be tried and some not."

"But I am not going to marry Meely Parsons," said Gideon quietly.

The widow took her foot from the rocker. "Not marry Meely!" she
repeated vaguely. But relapsing into her despondent mood she
continued: "Then I reckon it's true what other folks sez of Brother
Silas Braggley makin' up to her and his powerful exhortin' influence
over her ma. Folks sez ez Sister Parsons hez just resigned her soul
inter his keepin'."

"Brother Silas hez a heavenly gift," said the young man, with gentle
enthusiasm; "and perhaps it may be so. If it is, it is the Lord's
will. But I do not marry Meely because my life and my ways henceforth
must lie far beyond her sphere of strength. I oughtn't to drag