Storm had no sooner said “Amen” than a voice, coming from some one in the group down by the door, piped up:  “I should very much like to say a few words.”

“That must be Hoek Matts Ericsson,” thought the pastor, and others with him.  For no one else in the parish had such a sweet and childlike treble.

The next moment a little meek-faced man made his way up to the platform, followed by a score of men and women who seemed to be there for the purpose of supporting and encouraging him.

The pastor, the schoolmaster, and the entire congregation sat in suspense.  “Hoek Matts has come to tell us of some awful calamity,” they thought.  “Either the king is dead, or war has been declared, or perhaps some poor creature has fallen into the river and been drowned.”  Still Hoek Matts did not look as if he had any bad news to impart.  He seemed to be in earnest and somewhat stirred, but at the same time he looked so pleased that he could hardly keep from smiling.

“I want to say to the schoolmaster and to the congregation,” he began, “that Sunday before last, while I was sitting at home with my family, the Spirit descended upon me, and I began to preach.  We couldn’t get down here to listen to Storm, on account of the ice and sleet, and we sat longing to hear the Word of God.  Then all at once I had the feeling that I could speak myself.  I’ve been preaching now for two Sundays, and all my folks at home and our neighbours, too, have told me that I ought to come down here and let all the people hear me.”

Hoek Matts also said he was astonished that the gift of speech should have fallen upon so humble a man.  “But the schoolmaster himself is only a peasant,” he added, with a little more confidence.

After this preamble, Hoek Matts folded his hands and was ready to begin preaching at once.  But by that time the schoolmaster had recovered from his first shock of surprise.

“Do you think of speaking here now, Hoek Matts—­immediately?”

“Yes, that’s my intention,” the man replied.  He grew as frightened as a child when Storm glowered at him.  “It was my purpose, of course, to first ask leave of the schoolmaster and the rest,” he stammered.

“We’re all through for the day,” said Storm, conclusively.

Then the meek little man began to beg with tears in his voice:  “Won’t you please let me say a few words?  I only want to tell of the things that have come to me when walking behind the plow and when working by myself at the kiln; and now they want to come out.”

But the schoolmaster, though he had had such a day of triumph himself, felt no pity for the poor little man.  “Matts Ericsson comes here with his own peculiar notions, and claims that they are messages from God,” he declared rebukingly.

Hoek Matts dared not venture a protest, and the schoolmaster opened the hymnbook.

“Let us all join in singing hymn one hundred and eighty-seven,” he said.  Whereupon he read out the hymn in stentorian tones, then he began to sing at the top of his voice, “Are your windows open toward Jerusalem.”