The ministers came down from the stand, and distributed themselves among the people; bowed heads and shaking forms marking their path;--a woman from the most remote quarter of the throng, rushed up to the mourner's seats, and flung herself upon her knees with a piercing cry;--another and another;--some weeping aloud; some in tearless distress;--numbers knelt where they had sat;--and louder and louder, like the final trump, and the shout of the resurrection morn, arose the surge of song;-- "For soon the reaping time will come And angels shout the harvest home!" Carry trembled and shrank; and Ida's firmer nerves were quivering. A lull in the storm, and a man knelt in the aisle, to implore "mercy and pardon for a dying sinner, who would not try to avert the wrath to come." Sonorous accents went on with his weeping petition;--praying for "the hardened, thoughtless transgressors--those who had neither part nor lot in this matter; who stood afar off, despising and reckless." Again rolled out a chorus; speaking now of joyful assurance. "Jesus my all to heaven has gone-- (When we get to heaven we will part no more,) He whom I fix my hopes upon-- When we get to heaven we will part no more. Oh! Fare-you-well! oh! fare-you-well! When we get to heaven we will part no more, Oh! Fare-you-well!" Ida's eyes brimmed, and Carry sobbed with over-wrought feeling. Arthur bent over the railing and spoke to the latter. He looked troubled,--but for her: Lynn stood against one of the pillars which supported the roof; arms crossed, and a redder mantling of his dark cheek; Charley was cool and grave, taking in the scene in all its parts, with no sympathy with any of the phases of emotion. The tumult increased; shouted thankgivings, and wails of despair; singing and praying and exhorting, clashing in wild confusion. "You had best not stay here," said Arthur to Carry, whose struggles for composure he could not bear to see. "Suffer me to pass, Dr. Dana;" and a venerable minister stooped towards the weeping girl. "My daughter, why do you remain here, so far from those who can do you good? You are distressed on account of sin; are you ashamed to have it known? Do you not desire the prayer of Christians? I will not affirm that you cannot be saved anywhere; 'the arm of the Lord is not shortened,' but I do warn you, that if you hang back in pride or stubbornness, you will be lost; and these only can detain you after what you have heard. Arise, and join that company of weeping mourners, it may not be too late." Carry shook her head. "Then kneel where you are, and I will pray for you." She dried her tears. "Why should I kneel, Mr. Manly? I do not experience any sorrow for sin." "My child!" "My tears are not those of penitence; I do not weep for my sinfulness; I can neither think nor feel in this confusion." The good man was fairly stumbled by this avowal. "Have you _no_ interest in this subject?"