obscure and confused state of mind, Mr. Adkin entered the house of
God and ascended the pulpit. A little while he sat, endeavouring to
collect his thoughts; then he arose and commenced giving out a hymn.
Lifting his eyes from the book, as he finished reading the first
verse, he saw, directly in front of him, the man from whom he had
purchased the forty bushels of corn. He was looking at him fixedly,
and there was on his countenance an expression of surprise and
contempt, that, bringing back, as the man's presence did, a vivid
recollection of the events of Monday, almost deprived Mr. Adkin, for
a moment or two, of utterance. He faltered, caught his breath, and
went on again with the reading. On raising his eyes at the
conclusion of the second verse, Mr. Adkin saw his corn customer
slowly moving down the aisle toward the door of entrance. How keenly
he felt the rebuke! How sadly conscious was he of being out of place
in the pulpit!

After the singing of the hymn, the preacher made a prayer; but it
was cold and disjointed. He had no freedom of utterance. A chapter
was read, an anthem sung, and then Mr. Adkin arose in the pulpit,
took his text, and, ere giving utterance to the first words of his
discourse, let his eyes wander over the congregation. A little to
the right sat Mr. Giles, wearing a very sober aspect of countenance,
and looking at him with knit brows and compressed lips. The sight
caused the words "brother going to law with brother" to pass almost
electrically through his mind. As his glance rebounded from Mr.
Giles quickly, it next rested upon Mrs. Smith, who, with perked head
and a most malicious curling of the lip, said, as plain as manner
could say it--"You're a nice man for a preacher, a'n't you?"

How Mr. Adkin beat about the bushes and wrought in obscurity,