CHAPTER IX.

IN THE WOODS.


The party walked leisurely along till they came to a log
church, which Mr. Parlin paused to admire. It was in harmony, he said,
with the roughness of the landscape.

"I should like to attend service here by moonlight; I think it would be
very sweet and solemn in such a lonely place. There would be no sound
outside; and as you looked through the open door, you would only see a
few quiet trees listening to the words of praise."

"The evenings here must seem like something holy," said Mrs. Clifford,
"'the nun-like evenings, telling dew-beads as they go.'"

"O, my shole!" cried Katie, dancing before the church door, and clapping
her hands; "that's the bear's house, the _bear's_ house! Little boy went
in there, drank some of the old bear's podge, so _sour_ he couldn't
drink it." Here she looked disgusted, but added with a honeyed smile,
"Then bimeby drank some o' _little_ bear's podge, and '_twas_ so sweet
he drank it aw--all up!"

Everybody laughed, it was so absurd to think of looking for bears and
porridge in a building where people met to worship. Dotty had just been
saying to herself, "How strange that God is in this mizzable house out
West, just as if it was in Portland!" But Katie had rudely broken in