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Samantha at Coney Island, a novel by Marietta Holley |
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Chapter 20. Faith Comes To Visit Us... |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY. FAITH COMES TO VISIT US. WE ATTEND THE CAMP MEETIN' AT PILLER PINT, AND FAITH MEETS THE LOVER OF HER YOUTH
We had laid our plans to attend the Camp Meetin' at Piller Pint, and at last the time arriv. The day before the great meetin', the sky wuz rosy in the mornin', the distant lake looked blue, and everything bid fair for a good spell of weather. Josiah iled up the old double harness and washed the democrat off and rubbed it down with shammy skin till it shone like glass. And I prepared a glass can of baked beans brown and crispy, but sweet and rich tastin' as beans know how to be when well cooked, then I briled two young chickens a light yeller brown, and basted 'em well with melted butter, and had a new quart basin of as good dressin' as Jonesville ever turned out, and I've seen good dressers in my day. And a quart can of beautiful creamed potatoes all ready to warm up, two dozen light white biscuit, a canned strawberry pie, and a dozen sugar cookies reposed side by side in a clean market basket, and by 'em lay peacefully a little can of rich yeller butter and one of brittle cowcumber pickles, and one dozen deviled eggs. A better lunch wuz never prepared in the precincts of Jonesville. Oh! and I had some jell too, and cream cheese, and the next mornin' I made two quarts of coffee all ready to warm up in Sister Meechum's tent (she had gin permission), and a can of sweet cream to add richness to it, and lump sugar accordin'. I felt that these wuz extraordinary preparations, but didn't begrech 'em, part on 'em wuz on Faith's account. Well, as I say, the preparations wuz all completed the day before exceptin' the coffee and creamed potatoes, and them wuz accomplised early in the mornin' while I wuz gittin' breakfast, and we all sot off triumphant at nine A.M. It wuz a clear cool mornin' in lovely autumn. Old Nater hadn't as you may say finished up her fall job of colorin' and paintin', but she wuz all rousted up tendin' to it. All along the smooth highway leadin' to the lake, trees and bushes bent over the roadside tinged with crimson and yeller and russet brown, and red, and shaded gold colors mingled with the rich green of the faithful cedars and hemlocks and pines. Sometimes up a high pine tree or ellum a wild ivy had clum and wuz hangin' on with one hand and wavin' out to us its banner of gold and crimson as we passed. And fur off the maple forest looked like a vast mass of rose and amber and golden brown, mingled with the deep green of spruces and cedars, and furder off still a blue haze lay over all like a soft veil partly hidin' and partly revealin' the glory of the seen. And ever and anon the blue flashin' waters of the lake could be seen like the soul in a woman's face, givin' life and meanin' to the picture. Well, anon as we clumb a hill, the hull lake bust out on our vision, it lay spread out broad and beautiful and calm, with the breezes ripplin' its blue surface into waves, and the sunshine sparkling on its bosom, and down under the hill on a pint of land that stretched out into the water stood the noble grove of trees where the camp meetin' wuz held. That wuz Piller Pint. We descended a hill, driv along half a mild or so till we come to a fence and a open pair of bars, in front of which stood two muscular attendants and one on 'em sez, "We take a small fee from them that enter." Sez Josiah, lookin' gloomy, "I spozed religion wuz free." "It is free," sez the man, "but this is only to smooth its way, put up seats and such." Sez Josiah, "I didn't know that Religion had to set down." "Sinners have to set," sez the man. Sez Josiah, "We hain't sinners." But I hunched him and sez, "Pay your fee and go on." So after a deep sithe he produced his old leather wallet and fished up ten cents out of its depths, and we proceeded on. The grove wuz a large one, acres and acres of big trees on every side, and vehicles of every description from smart canopy top buggies, and Sarah's, and automobiles, down to one horse sulkies and rickety buck-boards, and horses of every size and color wuz hitched to 'em. And on the fallen tree trunks sot wimmen and girls, young boys, children, and pairs of lovers wuz walkin' afoot amidst the deep green aisles. Way in the green depths of the woods you could see the glimpse of a woman's dress, or see the head of a horse lookin' out peaceful. But we advanced a little furder as the road led out amongst the trees and pretty soon we come in sight of a large round tent where the meetin' wuz held, and from which we could hear the voice of hims and oratory, along on both sides of the immense tent, so's to leave a road between, wuz rows of small tents where the campers dwelt. They stretched on like two rows of white dwellings way off into the green of the woods. Josiah and I are well thought on in Jonesville, and as fur out as Loontown and Piller Pint, and a man soon advanced and gin us an advantageous position, and Josiah hitched the mair and we advanced into the amphitheatre. The tent riz up like a big white umbrell, or like great broodin' wings overhead, leavin' the sides free for the soft air to enter. There wuz rows of seats, boards laid on wooden supports and on one side a high wooden structure, open towards the seats, in which the preachers sot or stood. A wooden railin' run along in front of that rough pulpit. Under foot wuz the green moss and rich mold of the onbroken forest. And way up over the white tent the tall tree tops arched, and you could look way up into the green aisles of light with glimpses of sunshine between, castin' shady shadows and golden ones on the grass and moss below. Folks wuz settin' round of all sorts, some handsome, some humbly, some dressed up slick, some in rough common attire, but most on 'em looked like good sturdy farmers and their families. The old grand-ma of ninety with bent form and earnest face, side by side with her great grand-child. I myself with Josiah sot down by a large boneded woman with a big, calm, good-lookin' face. She had on a dress and mantilly of faded black cashmere; the mantilly wuz wadded, a pink knit woolen scarf wuz wound loose round her neck, she had a small hat of black straw trimmed with red poppies, and she wore a pair of large hoop ear-rings. Her face had the calm and sunshine of perfect peace on it. Her husband, a small pepper-and-salt iron gray man, with sandy hair and a multitude of wrinkles, sot by her, and they had a young child elaborately dressed in red calico between 'em. Beyond her sot a little slender woman in a stylish dark blue dress and turban, her face alert and eager, lit with deep gray eyes, had the passion and zeal of a Luther or Wesley. On the nigh side of me sot two young girls in pink and white muslin; a father and mother and three children wuz behind us, and on the seat in front wuz some young men and two old ones. I hearn the big calm woman say, "I shall be dretful disappinted if he don't come to-day." "So shall I," sez the pepper-and-salt man, "I shall feel like turnin' right round and goin' back home, but I think he is sure to be here." Bein' temporary neighbors I asked who it wuz that wuz expected. "Why, the great revivalist and preacher who is expected here to-day." Sez I, "Who is it?" The woman said she couldn't remember the name, but he wuz the greatest preacher sence Wesley. He jest went about doin' good, folks would go milds and milds to hear him, and he drawed their souls and sperits right along with his fervor and eloquence. He is to a big meetin' at Burr's Mills to-day, but is expected here for sure. Two hundred had been converted under him at Burr's Mills. He had been there a week. I sez, "Whyee! is that so?" "Yes," sez the calm woman, and she went on to say, "I hear that he used to be a wicked man, but had some trouble that made him desperate, and finally driv him right into the Kingdom, and sence that he can't seem to work hard enough for the Master." "Well," sez I, "Saul the scoffer got turned into Paul the apostle, and that same power is here to-day." "Speakin' of the power," sez the woman, "two wimmen and a man had the power last night, one girl lay speechless for hours, and when she come to said she had been ketched right up into Heaven. She talked beautiful," sez she. Sez I calmly, "That's jest what Paul said, he said he wuz caught up to the Third Heaven." Sez Josiah, "That power don't come to earth to-day, Samantha." Sez I, "Who told you it didn't? I hain't hearn on't. Earth hain't no furder from Heaven now than it wuz then, and the same God reigns." "Amen," sez the pepper-and-salt man, I see he had zeal and religion, but I felt kinder flustrated to be "amened" to in public, and I looked kinder meachin' I spoze, and the calm woman see I did. And she sez: "Sister Calvin Martin lays there now in her tent with the Power. She lay there all day yesterday and all night." Some of the boys before me begun to titter and snicker at anybody's havin' the power, and I sez, eyein' 'em sternly, "Do you know what you're laughin' at, young men? You talk about it real glib, but have you any idee of the greatness and overwhelmin' might of the Force you're speakin' of? That Power wuz at Pentecost in cloven tongues of flame, and strange voices and words that no man could utter. Saul laughed at the Power but it struck him blind in the street, and ketched him up into the Seventh Heaven. When that Power comes down on earth, let sinners quail, and saints look on with or and tremblin'." They looked real meachin'. But jest then the Experience meetin' begun, and a old man with thin white hair and white whiskers framin' his meek wrinkled face, come forward, and layin' his hand on the railin' sez in a kinder tremblin' voice, "Bless the Lord who has made His servant able to come to this temple in the wilderness, to witness the glory He has poured down on his people. Every camp-meetin' for years I have thought would be my last, but bless Him who has preserved me to this day." "Yes, bless the Lord! Amen! amen!" wuz shouted on every side, and as he stopped after a few minutes' exhortation, the other ministers and some of the old bretheren crowded round the white headed old saint to shake his hand. Then a sweet faced little girl in a pink hat got up and said "the Lord wuz precious to her." "Amen! amen! Bless His name! He carries the lambs in His bosom!" said the white headed preacher. Then a pleasant lookin' middle-aged minister related this incident, "A young boy had been converted, and said he had a view of Heaven. A onbeliever tried to frighten him and asked him if he didn't tremble at the thought. Sez the boy, 'My feet are on the rock.' "'But don't you tremble?' sez the infidel. "'Yes,' sez the boy, 'I do, but the rock under my feet don't tremble.'"
Then a good lookin' young man arose and sez, "Did you ever hear of the drunken horse jockey and thief down to Loontown? Well, I'm that man clothed and in my right mind. The Lord stopped me in my evil course, and I am His and He is mine." A bystander sez, "That is so, he is a changed man." Then they all sung:
He left out a "wuzn't," he meant that he wuzn't a stranger to his God. Bashfulness wuz the cause. Madder red wuz pale compared to his face when he sot down, and his tongue wuz thick and husky. I wuz sorry for him. Then a woman riz up with a black bunnet and veil on and white collar and cuffs; she looked like a Quakeress, and I believe that if Emperors and Zars had stood before her she would have been onmoved, she wuz as calm and earnest as Ruth or Esther, or any of our good old four-mothers. Sez she: "My friends, I see your faces to-day and watch the different expressions upon them. How will these faces look when we meet at the Bar of God? Will peace be on them? Or dismay and everlastin' regret?" "Oh yes! The Lord help! Let us hear from some one else!" A slight pause ensued and then there riz up this melogious appealin' old him:
"Tell your experience, Joe, tell it here!" shouted an old man. Joe stepped forward, took the Bible offen the rustic stand, turned over the leaves to the first page, and slowly and laboriously read, "Darkness was on the face of the earth--and God said, let there be light--and there wuz light." He closed the book and looked round with rapt luminous eyes. "That is me," sez he, "that is my experience." "Amen! amen!" shouted the brethren. The little refined lookin' woman in the blue dress started this verse and sung it through almost alone, in a clear sweet voice:
All to once a woman rose with a light on her face as if she wuz lookin' on sunthin' fur above this earth. She delivered a eloquent exhortation in words of praise and ecstasy. More and more earnest and eloquent she grew and lifted up from earthly influences. At last she lifted her hands and stepped out with a swayin' motion of her body, as if keepin' step to some onhearn melody that ears stuffed with the cotton of worldliness and onbelief wuzn't fine enough to ketch, and finally her feet begun to keep step with that mysterious music, that for all I know might have been soundin' down from the ramparts of the New Jerusalem. Round and round she slowly swayed and stepped. Wuz it to the rythm of that invisible music? There wuz a look on her pure face as if she wuz hearin' sunthin' we didn't. I wuz riz up and carried away some distance from myself. When still lookin' up with that rapt luminous face she fell to the ground as prostrate as Saul did on the road to Jerusalem, and lay in that state, so I hearn afterwards, for a day and a night. Jest as she fell that iron gray man yelled out, "Bless the Lord!" And I sez, bein' all wrought up, "Don't you know when to say that, and when not to? She might have broke her nose." He looked queer. In a few minutes I see a stir round the speakers' stand, and knew the speaker of the day, the great revivalist from the West, had come. And anon I see a tall noble figger passin' through the crowd that made way for it reverentially. And lo and behold! I see as I ketched a glimpse of his profile that it wuz the minister I had hearn at Thousand Island Park. The same sweet smile rested on his face as he looked round on his brethren and the crowd before him, some like a benediction, only more tender like, and a light seemed to be shinin' through his countenance, ketched from some Divine power. It wuz the same face I had framed that summer day in the Tabernacle at T. I. Park, and hung up in my mind right by the side of Isaiah and St. Paul. Yes, I see agin the broad white forward with the brown hair mixed with gray thrown back from it kinder careless, his eyes had the same sweet sad expression, soft, yet deep lookin', and pitiful, as if he wuz sorry for us and would love to teach us the secret he had found of how to overcome the world and its sins and sorrows. His prayer had the same power of lifting us up fur above the world and settin' down our naked souls in the presence of Him who searcheth the heart, searchin' and probin' to our consciences, and yet consolin', puttin' us in mind of that text, "As a father pitieth his children" and yet wants 'em to mind. It wuz a prayer for help and as if we would git it. He read in that same sweet, melogious voice I remembered so well, Paul's wonderful words about how he wuz led from the blackness of unbelief up into the Great Light, and how he wuz caught up into the Third Heaven and saw things so great and glorious that it would not be lawful for man to speak of them, and where he goes on to tell of his belief, his hope and his faith. The text wuz Paul's words when he recalls those divine hours up on the heights alone with God: "Wherefore not being disobedient to the heavenly vision." And as he went on, as uplifted as I wuz, I felt fearful ashamed to think how many times I had been disobedient to the Heavenly vision, the white ideals that shone out in my mind so high and clear in the mornin' light, and I wuz so sure I could reach. But havin' set down to rest in the heat of the day, and bein' drawn off into the shadders and thickets of environin' cares and perplexities, I didn't git nigh enough to grasp holt of, and I whispered as much to my pardner. And he said he felt different, he had always ever sence he sot out marched right straight towards the Kingdom. Sez I, "Josiah Allen, hain't you ever meandered at all from that straight and narrer way?" "No mom, not a inch, not a hair's breadth." I wuz dumb-foundered by his conceit as many times as I had witnessed it. The sermon that follered wuz white and glowin' with the light of Heaven. You could see that _he_ had not been disobedient to that Divine vision that had been revealed to him. The deep sweet look of his eyes told of them supreme heights his own soul had reached. Upliftin', sympathizin', soul searchin', callin' on the best in every heart there to rise up and try to fly Heavenward. His looks and words rousted up my soul and carried me off so fur from the world and Piller Pint, that I lost sight entirely of the crowd around me. But anon I hearn a voice at my side and I see Faith had come back onbeknown to me (she had been in Sister Meechum's tent mendin' a rent in her dress). But when I looked at her I realized how the face of St. Stephen looked. It sez, "His face shone like the face of an angel." Faith's looked jest so, only tears wuz slowly droppin' from her eyes and runnin' down her white cheeks. Sez I, whisperin' to her with or in my axents, "What is it, Faith? What is it, dear? Is it the Power?" I most knew it wuz, and I wuz mekanically turnin' it over in my mind what I should do with her if she fell over prostrate, and where I should lay her out. When she turned, her glowin' awe-struck eyes held a world of joy and glory in each one on 'em. "Yes, it is the Power, the power and goodness of God." And she whispered in blissful axents, "It is Richard, Richard redeemed and working for my Master." I see it all, it wuz the lost lover of her youth, I read it in her face. You could have knocked me down with a clothes-pin aimed by a infant. "How come he here?" sez I in a onbelievin' way. "God sent him!" She whispered. "He sent this blessedness to me, to know his soul is saved, that he is working for Him." I felt queer. That afternoon they met under a ellum tree. He'd found out she wuz there, and asked for a interview, which I see that she granted him. It wuz a pretty spot, clost to the water, with trees of droopin' ellums and some maples, and popples touched with fire and gold. The autumn leaves made a sort of canopy over their heads, and all round 'em wuz the soft melancholy quiet of the fall of the year. He stood there waitin' for her. "Faith!" "Richard!" * * * * * I don't know how long they stood there, her little cold hands held in his big warm palms, his eyes searchin' the dear face and findin' a sacred meanin' in it, and she in hisen. He wuz pale, his voice trembled like the popple leaves overhead, and visey versey hern. The settin' sun glowed warm on the face of the water some as his eyes did, readin' her sweet face, and some of that fire seemed to glow in his deep blue eyes. "I had been so wicked, Faith, I had done so much harm, I said I would never seek my own happiness, I would work only for my fellow creatures, striving if I might undo some of my evil work, but I see to-day that I have been an egotist. God would not be offended at my happiness if I could win the dear woman I have loved all these years. You have forgiven me, Faith, I see it in your sweet eyes." [Illustration: "_I don't know how long they stood there, his eyes searchin' the dear face and findin' a sacred meanin' in it._" (_See page 347_)] Agin he paused, and nothin' broke the silence but the murmur of the blue waters swashin' up on the beach, and furder off through the trees some belated campers jest drivin' onto the ground sung out with clear voices,
And through the arched vista of autumn leaves they could see that the sky beyend the Pint gleamed out like a city of golden palaces. They seemed to be goin' through its gates----into the glory beyend. [THE END] _ |
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