“He then spent eighteen years in Germany preaching and devoting himself to scientific studies, and at the age of thirty-eight he emigrated to this country.  He claimed no denominational name, but preached this glorious truth.  I can come nearer to him than any other whose history I have known, for was he not called of God, and did he not fulfil his mission gloriously?  He was ill on board the ship which brought him to America, and when it arrived in Philadelphia, a man by the name of Christopher Sower came on board, saying he was looking for a man who was ill, and whom he wished to take to his house.  This man Sower was also divinely led, for he received a commandment in a dream to go seven miles from his home in Germantown to a certain wharf in Philadelphia, and inquire on board a ship just arrived for a man who was ill, to take him home and to specially care for him.  He hitched his horse to his carriage, and followed the instructions of his dream.”

“Were these facts the doors that led you out into light?” I asked.

“I never read these facts, Emily, until after my vision was made clear, and I saw the future that lives and waits for all.”

“Girls,” called Aunt Hildy, “ef you’ve got through with the meetin’, I want to ask about these biscuit; I’m afraid they’re going to be poor; come look at ’em, Emily.”

“The biscuit are all right, Aunt Hildy.  Did you hear what the preacher said.”

“No, not really, heard all I could without neglectin’ of my work.”

“She has been telling me a story of a good man.  We will ask her to preach again.”

“Perhaps,” said Aunt Hildy, “more’n just you and I will hear her.  I can’t see how all these ideas are comin’ out, and ’pears to me, it looks as ef we’d got to meet, and have a battle somewhere before long.  The troubles are simmerin’ over the fire of different minds, and I shall never sell my birthright over a mess of pottage; that’s jest what I shan’t do.  It has stuck to me where everything else has failed, and I’m never agoin’ to let go of it.”

I knew to what she alluded, for our good minister had stirred the waters with his sermons, and they were, of course, induced by his fearing the progress of liberal thought in our midst.  We had ourselves received a sermon evidently directed at us, which described the act of going to hear Mr. Ballou as a wrong step.  Even if we had not been clear-sighted enough to have taken the sermon to ourselves, we should have been reminded of it by the looks of some of the congregation, who sought out our pew with strong reproof in their eyes; among those whose eyes met mine in this manner, I remember most distinctly Jane North and Deacon Grover.  I smiled involuntarily, and with a glance of horror at my wickedness, they turned their faces toward the preacher.

Clara was not with us that Sabbath, for which I was glad.  I wondered what would be done, and the week after mother left us, Jane North came over, and I expected to hear some talk concerning it.