hoarse tones, exaggerating the imitation, of course, until it was
ludicrous. He imitated the somewhat shrill tenor, and the nasal tones of
Deacon Carter, who was doing good work with a class of meek-looking
women. He even imitated Mrs. Roberts' soft, low voice, as she essayed to
interest them in Moses and some of the wonders which he performed.

Vain hope! Struggle as she might to be intensely dramatic in her
narrative, she did not for a moment gain the ascendency.

"Moses?" interrupted Nimble Dick in the very midst of one of her most
earnest sentences. "Let's see! that was the old fellow who swallowed the
serpents, wasn't it? I should have thought he would have been used up."

"You don't know nothin'," interrupted Stephen Crowley, with a nudge at
Dirk that the latter pretended tipped him entirely off the seat, and
left him a limp heap at Mrs. Robert' feet.

"He don't know nothin'!" repeated Stephen, addressing Mrs. Roberts in
a confidential tone. "'T was the serpents swallowed Moses, wasn't it?
Question is, How did he get around again?"

"Quit that!" came at this point from Dirk Colson, in his fiercest tone.
"Look here, you Bill Snyder, if you try pinching on me again I'll pitch
you over the head of old Durant in less than a second!"

What was the poor, pale little woman to do? With one boy crawling about
the floor and two others in a hand-to-hand fight, with the rest in a
giggle, of what use to try to talk to them about Moses? You should have
seen Gracie Dennis eyes by that time! Horror and disgust were about
equally expressed, and rising above them both, a look of actual fear.