exclaimed. "What next? Old Tom, drunken Tom, swearin an ravin' Tom Brent's boy a preacher!" Then suddenly she opened her eyes and sat up very erect and alert as she broke forth, "Sally Martin, what air you a-tellin' me? It ain't possible. It's ag'in' nature. A panther's cub ain't a-goin' to be a lamb. It's downright wicked, that's what I say."
"An' so says I to Mis' Murphy, them same identical words; says I, Mis' Murphy, it's downright wicked. It's a-shamin' of the Lord's holy callin' o' the ministry."
"An' does the young scamp pertend to 'a' had a call?"
"No, indeed: he was mighty opposed to it, and so was her husband; but that woman was so set she would n't agree to nothin' else. He don't pertend to 'a' heerd no call, 'ceptin' Miss Hester's, an' that was a command. I know it's all true, fur Mis' Murphy, while she wasn't jest a-listenin', lives next door and heerd it all."
And so the two women fell to discussing the question, as they had heard it, pro and con. It was all true, as these gossips had it, that Miss Hester had put into execution her half-expressed determination to make a
