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glories, stood three tall Gothic chairs made of black walnut. What part these chairs ever played in rite or ceremony, what prelates once occupied these great seats, neither the preacher nor any of his congregation knew. That information had vanished from the memory of the people after a century of isolation among the hills.

The church filled rapidly—the church members choosing the front seats, the unconverted taking places near the door. These two bodies merged near the central row of seats. A little later came a concerted movement as the choir went forward to the stall on the right side of the pulpit. A pale village girl took her place at the small reed organ. She screwed the stool around to its proper height, then conferred timidly with the song leader as to what songs should be used. The two laid out the music on the organ desk while everybody in the congregation leaned forward to get a song book out of the rack on the back of the seat in front of them. Then the organist began swaying from side to side, pumping the organ with her feet, and the instrument set up a dolorous wailing. Audience and choir then lifted a queer nasal cacophony of song. When it was finished the Reverend Blackman arose from the central chair behind the pulpit, came forward in the midst of a spreading quiet, laid his own worn leather Bible on top of the big pulpit Bible, adjusted the lamp wick to suit his eyes, then for several moments stood looking at his congregation with a long melancholy face. Then he read his text of how Pharaoh hardened his heart, and after the reading, nodded at the banker who sat on the front seat and said, "Brother Northcutt will now lead us in prayer."

A strong gratified tremor went through the banker as he, and the greater part of the congregation, slipped out of the seats and knelt beside them. In the rear of the church a number of sinners merely leaned their heads over the backs of the next seats, and one or two contumacious spirits refused to bow at all but sat bolt-upright.

Mr. Northcutt began his prayer in a conversational tone but gradually became more vehement until near the end he