"I'm sorry, Emmy, dear," she said, "but our only excuse for
drawing lots at all would be to have it sacred. We must think of
it as a kind of a sign, almost like God speaking to Moses in the
burning bush."

"Oh, I WISH there was a burning bush right here!" cried the
distracted and recalcitrant missionary. "How quick I'd step into
it without even stopping to take off my garnet ring!"

"Don't be such a scare-cat, Emma Jane!" exclaimed Candace
bracingly. "Jacob Moody can't kill you, even if he has an awful
temper. Trot right along now before you get more frightened.
Shall we go cross lots with her, Rebecca, and wait at the pasture
gate? Then whatever happens Alice can put it down in the minutes
of the meeting."

In these terrible crises of life time gallops with such
incredible velocity that it seemed to Emma Jane only a breath
before she was being dragged through the fields by the other
Daughters of Zion, the guileless little Thirza panting in the
rear.

At the entrance to the pasture Rebecca gave her an impassioned
embrace, and whispering, "WHATEVER YOU DO, BE CAREFUL HOW YOU
LEAD UP," lifted off the top rail and pushed her through the
bars. Then the girls turned their backs reluctantly on the
pathetic figure, and each sought a tree under whose friendly
shade she could watch, and perhaps pray, until the missionary
should return from her field of labor.