arisen on the wings of his eloquence and was painting hell for the
sinners in the most terrible colors, when to the utter surprise of the
whole congregation, a loud and penetrating snore broke from the throat
of the pastor of the church. It rumbled down the silence and startled
the congregation into sudden and indignant life like the surprising
cannon of an invading host. Horror-stricken eyes looked into each
other, hands were thrown into the air, and heavy lips made round O's
of surprise and anger. This was his meditation. The Rev. Elisha
Edwards was asleep!

Uncle Isham Dyer turned around and looked down on his pastor in
disgust, and then turned again to his exhortations, but he was
disconcerted, and soon ended lamely.

[Illustration: UNCLE ISHAM DYER EXHORTS.]

As for the Rev. Elisha himself, his snore rumbled on through the
church, his head drooped lower, until with a jerk, he awakened
himself. He sighed religiously, patted his foot upon the floor, rubbed
his hands together, and looked complacently over the aggrieved
congregation. Old ladies moaned and old men shivered, but the pastor
did not know what they had discovered, and shouted Amen, because he
thought something Uncle Isham had said was affecting them. Then, when
he arose to put the cap sheaf on his local brother's exhortations, he
was strong, fiery, eloquent, but it was of no use. Not a cry, not a
moan, not an Amen could he gain from his congregation. Only the local
preacher himself, thinking over the scene which had just been enacted,
raised his voice, placed his hands before his eyes, and murmured,
"Lord he'p we po' sinnahs!"