Therefore he had worked as never even in the old preparatory days.
So long as he remained there, he must at least earn daily bread.
More than that, he must make good, as soon as possible, the money
spent at college. So he sent away the hired negro man; he undertook
the work done by him and more: the care of the stock, the wood
cutting, everything that a man can be required to do on a farm in
winter. Of bright days he broke hemp. Nothing had touched David so
deeply as the discovery in one corner of the farm of that field of
hemp: his father had secretly raised it to be a surprise to him, to
help him through his ministerial studies. This David had learned
from his mother; his father had avoided mention of it: it might rot
in the field! In equal silence David had set about breaking it; and
sometimes at night his father would show enough interest merely to
ask some questions regarding the day's work.

Yet, notwithstanding this impending tragedy with his father, and
distress at their reduced circumstances caused by his expenses at
college, David, during these two months, had entered into much new
happiness.

The doubts which had racked him for many months were ended. He had
reached a decision not to enter the ministry; had stripped his mind
clean and clear of dogmas. The theologies of his day, vast, tangled
thickets of thorns overspreading the simple footpath of the pious
pilgrim mind, interfered with him no more. It was not now necessary
for him to think or preach that any particular church with which he
might identify himself was right, the rest of the human race wrong.
He did not now have to believe that any soul was in danger of
eternal damnation for disagreeing with him. Release from these
things left his religious spirit more lofty and alive than ever.