Dick stepped from the gallery into the crowd as the last ones emerged, ran up to the pulpit and stamped out the fire in the straw with his bare feet. He looked around to see if they had left anything valuable behind in the stampede, and sauntered leisurely out of the church. “Now dog-gone ’em let ’em yell!” he muttered to himself. When Uncle Josh sufficiently recovered his senses to think, and saw the church still standing, with not even a whiff of smoke to be seen, instead of the roaring furnace he had expected, he was amazed. He called his scattered deacons together and they went cautiously back to investigate. “Hit’s no use in talkin’ Bre’r Josh, dey sho wuz er fire!” cried one of the deacons. “Sho’s de Lawd’s in heaben. I feel it gittin’ on my fingers fo I drap dat straw!” said another. “Hit smite me fust right on top er my haid!” whispered Uncle Josh in awe. They cautiously approached the pulpit and there in front of it lay the charred fragments of the burned straw pile. They gathered around it in awe-struck wonder. One of them touched it with his foot. “Doan do dat!” cried Uncle Josh, lifting his hand with authority. They drew back, Uncle Josh saw the immense power in that heap of charred straw. Some of it was a little damp and it had been only partly burned. “Dar’s de mericle er de Sperit!” he solemnly declared. “Yas Lawd!” echoed a deacon. “Fetch de hammer, en de saw, en de nails, en de boards en build right dar en altar ter de Sperit!” were his prophetic commands. And they did. They got an old show case of glass, put the charred straw in it, and built an open box work around it just where it fell in front of the pulpit. Then a revival broke out that completely paralysed the industries of Campbell county. Every negro stopped work and went to that church. Uncle Josh didn’t have to preach or to plead. They came in troops towards the magic altar, whose fame and mystery had thrilled every superstitious soul with its power. The benches were all moved out and the whole church floor given up to mourners. Uncle Josh had an easy time walking around just adding a few terrifying hints to trembling sinners, or helping to hold some strong sister when she had “come through,” with so much glory in her bones that there was danger she would hurt somebody. After a week the matter became so serious that the white people set in motion an investigation of the affair. Dick had thrown out a mysterious hint that he knew some things that were very funny. “Doan you tell nobody!” he would solemnly say to Charlie. And then he would lie down on the grass and roll and laugh. At length by dint of perseverance, and a bribe of a quarter, the Preacher induced Dick to explain the mystery. He did, and it broke up the meeting.