Jefferson somewhat sheepishly subsided to the desk on which he had been
sitting.

"That's exactly why I came back!" cried the preacher. "I know that you
and Lost Chief belong to the heroic early history of America. This should
be a valley of old Puritan ideals. A church should stand here beside the
school. You never have built a church. You never have allowed a minister
to settle here. You never--"

Here Grandma Brown's brother-in-law, Johnny Brown, spoke. "I've deponed
that many a time to this crowd of mavericks! You'd ought to--"

"Keep quiet, Johnny!" ordered Grandma. "Fowler, if you are going to give
us a regular Bible sermon, go ahead. Otherwise, I'm going home. I can
jaw, myself."

"Also, cuss some, Grandma," suggested a slow voice. Grandma did not heed.

"If you're going to preach, preach," she said to the minister.

Mr. Fowler threw his head back. "Ten years ago I let you drive me out of
Lost Chief before I'd preached a sermon. God has never let me rest since,
no matter where I was, and when I was re-appointed to Mountain City,
before I preached my first sermon there, I came out here. You are going
to have the Word of God preached to you to-day if you shoot me for it.
And beware lest you come to Esau's fate for ye know how afterward, when
he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no
place for repentance, though he sought it carefully, with tears."

He paused, took a Bible from his pocket and opened it.