other side; but a severer trial awaited their constancy when they had
descended the hill and drew near the pine-built and undecorated house
of prayer. Around the door, from which the drummer still sent forth
his thundering summons, was drawn up a formidable phalanx, including
several of the oldest members of the congregation, many of the
middle-aged and nearly all the younger males. Pearson found it
difficult to sustain their united and disapproving gaze, but Dorothy,
whose mind was differently circumstanced, merely drew the boy closer
to her and faltered not in her approach. As they entered the door they
overheard the muttered sentiments of the assemblage; and when the
reviling voices of the little children smote Ilbrahim's ear, he wept.

The interior aspect of the meeting-house was rude. The low ceiling,
the unplastered walls, the naked woodwork and the undraperied pulpit
offered nothing to excite the devotion which without such external
aids often remains latent in the heart. The floor of the building was
occupied by rows of long cushionless benches, supplying the place of
pews, and the broad aisle formed a sexual division impassable except
by children beneath a certain age.

Pearson and Dorothy separated at the door of the meeting-house, and
Ilbrahim, being within the years of infancy, was retained under the
care of the latter. The wrinkled beldams involved themselves in their
rusty cloaks as he passed by; even the mild-featured maidens seemed to
dread contamination; and many a stern old man arose and turned his
repulsive and unheavenly countenance upon the gentle boy, as if the
sanctuary were polluted by his presence. He was a sweet infant of the
skies that had strayed away from his home, and all the inhabitants of
this miserable world closed up their impure hearts against him, drew
back their earth-soiled garments from his touch and said, "We are