Then she opened the Testament at the old place, and read the words long since fixed in her memory.  And then she—­weary and heavy laden—­came again to Him who invites, and found rest.  And then she found, as many another has found, that coming to God is not, as theorists will have it, a coming once for a lifetime, but a coming oft and ever repeated.

Jonas and Cynthy Ann retired to the kitchen, and the former said hi his irreverent way, “Blamed ef Abigail ha’nt got more devils into her’n Mary Magdalene had the purtiest day she ever seed!  I should think, arter a life with her fer a mother, the bad place would be a healthy and delightful clime.  The devil a’n’t a patchin’ to her.”

“Don’t, Jonas; you talk so cur’us, like as ef you was kinder sorter wicked.”

“That’s jest what I am, my dear, but Abigail Anderson’s wicked without the kinder sorter.  She cusses when she’s a-prayin’.  She cusses that poar gal right in the Lord’s face.  Good by, I must go.  Smells so all-fired like brimstone about here.”  This last was spoken in an undertone of indignant soliloquy, as he crossed the threshold of Cynthy’s clean kitchen.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

SCARING A HAWK.

Jonas was thoroughly alarmed.  He exaggerated the harm that Humphreys might do to August, now that he knew where he was.  August, on his part, felt sure that Humphreys would not do anything against him; certainly not in the way of legal proceedings.  And as for the sale of Samuel Anderson’s farms, that did not disturb him.  Like almost everybody else at that time, August Wehle was strongly impressed by the assertions of the Millerites, and if the world should be finished in the next month, the farms were of no consequence.  And if Millerism proved a delusion, the loss of Samuel Anderson’s property would only leave Julia on his level, so far as worldly goods went.  The happiness this last thought brought him made him ashamed.  Why should he rejoice in Mr. Anderson’s misfortune?  Why should he wish to pull Julia down to him?  But still the thought remained a pleasant one.

Jonas would not have it so.  He had his plan.  He went home from the Adventist meeting that very night with Cynthy Ann, and then stood talking to her at the corner of the porch, feeling very sure that Humphreys would listen from above.  He heard his stealthy tread, after a while, disturb a loose board on the upper porch.  Then he began to talk to Cynthy Ann in this strain: 

“You see, I can’t tell no secrets, Cynthy Ann, even to your Royal Goodness, as I might say, seein’ as how as you a’n’t my wife, and a’n’t likely to be, if Brother Goshorn can have his way.  But you’re the Queen of Hearts, anyhow.  But s’pose I was to hint a secret?”

“Sh—­sh—­h-h-h!” said Cynthy Ann, partly because she felt a sinful pleasure in the flattery, and partly because she felt sure that Humphreys was above.  But Jonas paid no attention to the caution.