XIX. Avanel and I Ascend to the Jungles of Heaven 318 THE PROGNOSTICATOR’S CLUB 1920 2018 David Carson, Campbellite minister, becomes St. Friend Anne Morrison, a florist, becomes Roxana Grey Eloise Terry, the hostess, becomes Patricia Anthony Clara Horton, a school teacher, becomes Josephine Windom Gregory Webster, an artist, becomes Sparrow Short Nathan Levi, a Jewish boy, becomes Rabbi Terence Ezekiel Margaret Evans, a Christian Scientist, becomes Rachel Madison Daisy Pearl Johnson, a negress, becomes Mary Timmons Nathaniel Davidson, an evangelist, becomes Cave Man Thomas Ruth Everett, a welfare worker, becomes Gwendolyn Charles John Fletcher, the doubter, becomes Dr. Mayo Sims Joseph Bartholdi Michael, I, becomes Joseph Bartholdi Michael, II THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED TO ISADORA CHAPTER I THE CAMPBELLITE, THE FLORIST AND THE HOSTESS In this, our town, we call “New Springfield,” David Carson, a young minister of the Disciples of Christ is a near neighbor of mine. He is a graduate of Bethany College. His great-grandfather studied there before him, when Alexander Campbell, the founder of Bethany, was in his prime. If you want to know of this man as we know him, read Richardson’s staid old biography, or walk the shades of Bethany, West Virginia. Campbell, in our eyes, was the American pioneer theologian. He was devoted to the union of the churches of Christendom. He pleaded that all disciples of Christ call themselves “simply” Christians, and unite on those symbols and ordinances which Christendom has in common. If it would not make our great-grandfathers turn over in their graves, I and my neighbor would call ourselves “simply” Campbellites. We would do it for a human, and not lofty reason. It seems that those spiritually or physically descended from the early Campbellites are on family terms, no matter how they seem to roam in thought or experience, or no matter what their hereditary argumentative disposition. For a “Campbellite” is sure to argue, on the least provocation. There are traces of this tendency even in Richardson’s reverent biography.