He was too thoroughly knit up in the habits of a Puritan education to use any form of profane language, but no man knew so well how to produce the startling effect of an oath without swearing; and this day he drove about the field in such a stormy manner that his sons, accustomed as they were to his manners, were alarmed. "Tell you what," said one of the boys to Abner, "the old man's awful cranky to-day. Reely seems as if he was a little bit sprung. I don't know but he's going crazy!" CHAPTER XXX. THE CRISIS. It was a warm, soft June evening. The rosy tints of sunset were just merging into brown shadows over the landscape, the frogs peeped and gurgled in the marshes, and the whippoorwills were beginning to answer each other from the thick recesses of the trees, when the old ministerial chaise of Dr. Cushing might have been seen wending its way up the stony road to the North Poganuc school-house. The Doctor and his wife were talking confidentially, and Dolly, seated between them, entered with eager sympathy into all they were saying. They were very happy, with a simple, honest, earnest happiness, for they hoped that the great object of his life and labors was now about to be accomplished, that the power of a Divine Influence was descending to elevate and purify and lift the souls of his people to God. "My dear, I no longer doubt," he said. "The presence of the Lord is evidently with us. If only the church will fully awaken to their duty we may hope for a harvest now." "What a pity," answered Mrs. Cushing, "that that old standing quarrel of Zeph Higgins and the church cannot be made up; his children are all deeply interested in religion, but he stands right in their way." "Why don't you talk to him, Papa?" asked Dolly. "Nobody can speak to him but God, my child; there's a man that nobody knows how to approach." Dolly reflected silently on this for some minutes, and then said, "Papa, do you suppose Christ loves him? Did he die for him?" "Yes, my child. Christ loved and died for all." "Do you think _he believes_ that?" asked Dolly, earnestly. "I'm afraid he doesn't think much about it," answered her father. Here they came in sight of the little school-house. It seemed already crowded. Wagons were tied along the road, and people were standing around the doors and windows.