In the brush : $b or, Old-time social, political, and religious life in the southwestPierson, Hamilton W. (Hamilton Wilcox)
History
In the brush : $b or, Old-time social, political, and religious life in the southwest
Pierson, Hamilton W. (Hamilton Wilcox)
Missions -- Southwest, Old; Southwest, Old -- Social life and customs
That was one of the most moving and beautiful tributes of affection
and love for the Word of God to which I have ever listened. I see her
now through the lapse of years, her bright, black eyes and her face
all aglow with joy, as she sat at one side of her fireplace in that
comfortless cabin. The chimney, made of sticks and mud, and standing
on the outside of the house, had leaned away from the opening that had
been cut through the logs for the fireplace, and left a large open
space through which and the logs the winds blew upon her back about
as freely as through a rail-fence. Where the brick or stone hearth
should have been, there was only a bed of ashes and a few smoldering
fire-brands. Two beds on one side of the room and a few rough
articles of household furniture numbered all the comforts of their
one apartment. Such were her surroundings, and yet I had made her one
of the happiest mortals I have ever seen. As I looked into her black,
expressive eyes and her bright face, which must have been beautiful
in earlier years, it was hard to believe that she could not read a
word--that she had never learned a single letter of the alphabet of her
mother-tongue.
"Well," said an old man, who thus far had sat quite mute, "I'm sure my
old woman makes good use of hers; she reads it about half the time. I
believe she would go crazy if you should take her Bible away."
This old man, with his hair hanging down to his shoulders, his
powder-horn, pouch, and other hunting equipments hanging at his side,
had entered the house with his gun in hand just as I rode up, having
apparently just returned from a morning hunt. I now learned that he was
the father of the man at whose house I was--the man in whose family
so great a change had been wrought since Mr. K---- had given his wife
the Bible. After I had satisfied them that they were not to lose their
Testament and Bible, all tongues were unloosed, and I wish it were in
my power to give in detail the conversation that followed.
"Can't you stay and preach for us to-night?" said the old man. "We can
send word around, and you'll have a house full. I want to hear you
mightily. We didn't sleep any last night, hardly. Jake came home from
meeting so full, and he was trying to tell us about the sermon. You
ought to stay and see the G----s; you ought to hear them sing and pray."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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