"I do not think that is quite true, mistress!" said Mary, who very seldom ventured to speak a word. "My Aunt Kesiah, who is with us now, used to hear Mr. Wesley preach in Bristol, and thereabouts, when she lived in those parts last year; and she said great complaint was made by some of the clergy, that Mr. Wesley and his brother sent so many to the sacrament. * The sexton at Kingswood, where all the colliers live, was downright vexed about it, aunt said. They do have preachers of the common people I believe, but they are only preachers." * See Charles Wesley's "Memoirs," concerning the colliers of Kingswood. "They are all Papists, and in league with the Pretender. My father says so," said Betty Humble. "Anyhow, they preach to the poor colliers and miners, that nobody had thought of before, any more than if they were brutes," said Mary, with spirit. "My aunt says, that there at Kingswood, where all sorts of wickedness, drinking, swearing, fighting, and what not used to go on, you hardly hear a bad word, or see a drunken person nowadays. The very women mend their own and their children's clothes, and strive to keep their houses neat, and the men sing psalms, and hymns, when they go to and from their work, instead of wicked vile songs, as they used to." "The Methodists bewitch them," said Martha. "There was John Bristate's wife—she used to be the greatest scold in the Sandgate—and made naught of heaving the cat at John's head, and now she is like a lamb. John says it makes him just feared at times when he comes in late, to find his supper waiting by the fire, and to see Sally knitting, and the poor beast of a cat that used to dread her very step sitting in her lap or on her gown." "If he would rather have a cat thrown at his head than to see it sitting on his wife's gown, he is not of my mind," said Mrs. Thorpe dryly. "I like a cat well enough, but not in that way, and I should say it would be altogether more healthful to the cat." "I heard a gentleman—it was Lord Bulmer—say that some preacher declared that he knew his sins were forgiven," said I. "And Mrs. Bunnell had some talk with Mr. Cheriton about the matter, and she said it was in the prayer-book." "I don't think that can be, and it does seem great presumption in a common man to pretend to know that his sins are forgiven," observed Mrs. Thorpe. "I have no spite against the Methodists, but the good old Church of England is good enough for me, as it was for my father before me, and so it ought to be for you, Mary Lee. Don't you be led away by any new-fangled notions, but do your duty toward God and your neighbor according to the catechism and you will be all right, never fear."