"O they all up, thank the Lawd. Mr. March, this is the Lawd's doin' an' mahvellous in ow eyes, meetin' up with you this way. I was prayin' faw it as I turned the bend in the road! He's sent me to you, Mr. March, I feel it!" March showed distress, but the parson continued bright. "I jest been up to get Brother Garnet to come he'p us in ow protracted meet'n', an' to arrange to let the college boys come when they begin school ag'in, day after to-morrow. Mr. March, I wish you'd come, won't you? to-night!" "I couldn't very well come to-night, Mr. Tombs. I--I approve of such meetings. I think it's a very pleasant way to pass--" he reddened. "But I'm too busy----" "This is business, Mr. March! The urgentest kind! It's the spirit's call! It may never call again, brotheh! What if in some more convenient season Gawd should mawk when yo' fear cometh?" The young man drooped like a horse in the rain, and the pastor, mistaking endurance for contrition, pressed his plea. "You know, the holy book says, Come, faw _all_ things ah _now_ ready; it don't say _all_ things will ever be ready again! The p'esumption is they won't! O my dear young brotheh, there's a wrath to come--real--awful--everlasting--O flee from it! Come to the flowing fountain! One plunge an' yo' saved! Johnnie--do I make too free? I've been prayin' faw you by name faw years!" "O you hadn't ought to have done that, sir! I wa'n't worth it." "Ah! yes you air! Johnnie, I've watched yo' ev'y step an' stumble all yo' days. I've had faith faw you when many a one was savin' you was jess bound to go to the bad--which you know it did look that way, brotheh. But, s' I, Satan's a-siftin' of him! He's in the gall o' bitterness jess as I was at his age!" "You! Ha-ha! Why, my dear Mr. Tombs, you don't know who you're talking about!" "Yes, I do, brotheh. I was jess so! An' s' I, he'll pull through! His motheh's prayers 'll prevail, evm if mine don't! An' now, when ev'ybody sees you a-changin' faw the better----" "Better! Great Sc----" "Yes, an' yet 'ithout the least sign o' conversion--I say, s' I, it's restrainin' grace! Ah! don't I know? Next 'll come savin' grace, an' then repentance unto life. Straight is the way, an' I can see right up it!" "Why, Mr. Tombs, you're utterly wrong! I've only learned a little manners and a little sense. All that's ever restrained me, sir, was lack of sand. The few bad things I've kept out of, I kept out of simply because I knew if I went into 'em I'd bog down. It's not a half hour since I'd have liked first-rate to be worse than I am, but I didn't have the sand for that, either. Why, sir, I'm worse to-day than I ever was, only it's deeper hid. If men went to convict camps for what they are, instead of what they do, I'd be in one now." "Conviction of sin! Praise Gawd, brotheh, you've got it! O bring it to-night to the inquirer's seat!"