Lying may be excusable in a man, but 'tis a
terrible bad habit for a boy."
"Lor', father, that worn't a lie. I told Mr. S - - our cow worn't in
his peas. Nor more she wor; she was in his wheat."
"But she was in the peas all night, boy."
"That wor nothing to me; she worn't in just then. Sure I won't get a
licking for that?"
"No, no, you are a good boy; but mind what I tell you, and don't
bring me into a scrape with any of your real lies."
Prevarication, the worst of falsehoods, was a virtue in his eyes.
So much for the old man's morality.
Monaghan was in his glory, prepared to work or fight, whichever
should come uppermost; and there was old Thomas and his sons, the
contractors for the clearing, to expedite whose movements the bee
was called. Old Thomas was a very ambitious man in his way. Though
he did not know A from B, he took into his head that he had received
a call from Heaven to convert the heathen in the wilderness; and
every Sunday he held a meeting in our loggers' shanty, for the
purpose of awakening sinners, and bringing over "Injun pagans" to
the true faith. His method of accomplishing this object was very
ingenious. He got his wife, Peggy - or "my Paggy," as he called
her - to read aloud to him a text from the Bible, until he knew it
by heart; and he had, as he said truly, "a good remembrancer," and
never heard a striking sermon but he retained the most important
passages, and retailed them secondhand to his bush audience.
I must say that I was not a little surprised at the old man's
eloquence when I went one Sunday over to the shanty to hear him
preach. Several wild young fellows had come on purpose to make fun
of him; but his discourse, which was upon the text "We shall all
meet before the judgment-seat of Christ," was rather too serious a
subject to turn into a jest, with even old Thomas for the preacher.
All went on very well until the old man gave out a hymn, and led
off in such a loud, discordant voice, that my little Katie, who was
standing between her father's knees, looked suddenly up, and said,
"Mamma, what a noise old Thomas makes." This remark led to a much
greater noise, and the young men, unable to restrain their
long-suppressed laughter, ran tumultuously from the shanty.
I could have whipped the little elf; but small blame could be
attached to a child of two years old, who had never heard a
preacher, especially such a preacher as the old backwoodsman, in
her life. Poor man! He was perfectly unconscious of the cause of
the disturbance, and remarked to us, after the service was over,
