whispered to himself, “there should come from among them one who, like Goliath the Philistine of Gath, could defeat me and take from me my possessions.”  In fancy he felt the sickening dread that he thought must have lain heavy on the heart of Saul before the coming of David.  Jumping to his feet, he began to run through the night.  As he ran he called to God.  His voice carried far over the low hills.  “Jehovah of Hosts,” he cried, “send to me this night out of the womb of Katherine, a son.  Let Thy grace alight upon me.  Send me a son to be called David who shall help me to pluck at last all of these lands out of the hands of the Philistines and turn them to Thy service and to the building of Thy kingdom on earth.”

II

David Hardy of Winesburg, Ohio, was the grandson of Jesse Bentley, the owner of Bentley farms.  When he was twelve years old he went to the old Bentley place to live.  His mother, Louise Bentley, the girl who came into the world on that night when Jesse ran through the fields crying to God that he be given a son, had grown to womanhood on the farm and had married young John Hardy of Winesburg, who became a banker.  Louise and her husband did not live happily together and everyone agreed that she was to blame.  She was a small woman with sharp grey eyes and black hair.  From childhood she had been inclined to fits of temper and when not angry she was often morose and silent.  In Winesburg it was said that she drank.  Her husband, the banker, who was a careful, shrewd man, tried hard to make her happy.  When he began to make money he bought for her a large brick house on Elm Street in Winesburg and he was the first man in that town to keep a manservant to drive his wife’s carriage.

But Louise could not be made happy.  She flew into half insane fits of temper during which she was sometimes silent, sometimes noisy and quarrelsome.  She swore and cried out in her anger.  She got a knife from the kitchen and threatened her husband’s life.  Once she deliberately set fire to the house, and often she hid herself away for days in her own room and would see no one.  Her life, lived as a half recluse, gave rise to all sorts of stories concerning her.  It was said that she took drugs and that she hid herself away from people because she was often so under the influence of drink that her condition could not be concealed.  Sometimes on summer afternoons she came out of the house and got into her carriage.  Dismissing the driver she took the reins in her own hands and drove off at top speed through the streets.  If a pedestrian got in her way she drove straight ahead and the frightened citizen had to escape as best he could.  To the people of the town it seemed as though she wanted to run them down.  When she had driven through several streets, tearing around corners and beating the horses with the whip, she drove off into the country.  On the country roads after she had gotten out of sight