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Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature by Various
page 36 of 218 (16%)
the thin sward, and repeated a prayer. Meantime the population gathered;
behind them canoe after canoe touched the shore; before them there was
a swift, tumultuous hurrying from the villages; presently they were
surrounded by a compact, eager, barbaric multitude. The babble of its
wonder turned to silence as the priest rose, extended his fat hands, and
commenced a sermon.

Father Higgins was not a bit astonished at hearing himself pour forth a
torrent of words which he did not understand, nor at seeing in the faces
of his wild listeners that they perfectly comprehended his discourse. It
was merely a supernatural inspiration; it was but another exhibition of
the heavenly gifts of the Church; he was as much at his ease as if he
had been in the habit of working miracles from his cradle. At the close
of his harangue he took out his breviary, and translated a prayer into
the unknown tongue. Evidently the auditors understood this also, for
while some crouched to earth in undisguisable terror, others looked
upward as if expecting an answer from the sky.

Presently a savage, in a many-colored robe of feathers, stepped in front
of the multitude, and uttered a few sentences.

"It's a mighty quare providence that this miracle works ownly wan way,"
observed Father Higgins to Heller. "It's meself can prache acceptably to
this poor haythin, an' it's meself, loikewise, can't sense a blissid
word he gabbles."

"He is comparing you with your predecessor," exclaimed the professor.
"He says the other man called himself a messenger from God; but as he
could not talk Feejee, they saw that he was a liar, because God knows
every language; and so, having found him a liar, they fattened him with
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