LIBRARY (Mivwsity of IRVINE LEON PONTIFEX BY SARAH PRATT MCLEAN GREENE S&. -=5 HOR OF "CAPE COD FOLKS," "LASTCHANCE JUNCTION,"* OTHER FOLKS," "TOWHBAD," KTC. BOSTON DE WOLFE, FISKE & CO. 361 AND 365 WASHINGTON STREET COPYRIGHT, 1890, BY DE WOLFE, FISKE & Co. C. J. PETERS & SON, TYPOGRAPHERS AND ELECTROTYPERS, 146 HIOH STREET, BOSTON. CONTENTS. I. BEULAH SINGS "BEULAH LAND". ... 5 II. AT THE BLACKSMITH'S 22 III. WINE 36 IV. A FEW LINES 54 V. NED GRIMMER IN PURSUIT 62 VI. Miss BAILEY'S DISCOVERY 73 VII. WIDE LATITUDE 88 VIII. GABRIEL SPAIN HITS OUTWARD . . . . 101 IX. ERSKINE'S DANGEROUS STUDY . . . .108 X. IN A YOUNG WORLD 119 XI. FOR ANOTHER'S NAME 128 XII. DARK MEMORIES . ... . . . 136 XIII. BEULAH SINGS A LULLABY 148 XIV. BEULAH'S CONFESSION 158 XV. ANOTHER VISITOR. . . . . . . 169 XVI. LOVER AND ENEMY 178 CVII. NED'S TRIUMPH 190 VIII. WHERE THE SIGN LAY 201 XIX. A RESIGNATION AND AN ACCEPTANCE . . 212 XX. A WELCOME 224 LEON PONTIFEX. CHAPTER I. BEULAH SINGS " BEULAH LAND." "YE can't git a ten-thousand-dollar man in a five-hunderd-dollar pulpit. No, sir; ye can't do it. Now, preachin' ain't what it was in them days when He, the Lord Jesus Christ, went around not chargin' any thin', and eatin' field-corn, and ketchin' His own fish, and preachin' to all kinds o' folks, anywheres as the sky'd cover Him. No, sir ; good preachin' nowadays is jest like other truck, it's wuth what it'll fetch. And I tell ye, ye can't expect to git no ten-thousand-dollar man down here into this little five-hunderd-dollar parish." " Wai', yes ; I know, I know, Deacon Sextile ; but, after all, it don't seem as though we'd ought to take up with anybody too 'tarnal ridick'lous, now doos it?" 6 LEON PONTIFEX. "Wai', I don' know; we're commanded by St. Paul not to look on a man's outside figger. He's a singerlar-lookin' creetur', I 'low but similarly, ye see, he'll come dirt cheap. He 'lows he'll include the whole parish business, fancy and reg'lar, for four hunderd and fifty dol- lars a year. No harm in lettin' the poor ornery creetur' preach once, and jedgin' what ye think of him, anyway, I told 'em." The Rev. Leon Pontifex was seen approaching. He was tall, with powerful broad shoulders slightly bowed ; with a profusion of dull yellow hair, negro-j ish in form and quality ; with pale and heavy feat- ures, and eyes that appeared as if they might be blind, they were so dim, sodden, and habitually downcast. The young maidens, also gathered on the church porch to witness the approach of the new minister, retired on beholding him into the cloak-room, and giggled hysterically. Formidable gold-rimmed spectacles glared at his unique and unprepos- sessing person with piously restrained disfavor But the poor object of this unflattering attention seemed neither to see nor hear. The fact, patent to its inhabitants, that this LEON PONTIfEX. 7 forlorn little village of Edmond was imminently an important railway centre ; that the new pulpit cover donated by the "Ladies' Society" was of silk plush and a careful work of art ; that the bonnet worn by the leading deacon's lady was an actual import from her sister in New York : all seemed to make no more impression upon the mind of the Rev. Leon Pontifex .than upon some sad old leafless branch that the wind has blown down. He was not old, and yet he seemed indefinitely old. As he rose in the pulpit, some gasping chil- dren gave up at last the unequal struggle with their emotions and burst into a paroxysm of audi- ble merriment. The minister's sad, dim counte- nance did not change. He went through the preliminary acts of the service in a voice that filled his audience with wonder, that grew more and more into a listening awe and silence ; such a great, deep-rolling voice, full of expression, ten- der or awful, and vast, as though strangely con- fined in the little painted chapel of Edmond, and capable, should it get out rampant, of filling the whole hamlet of Edmond and important wild stretches beyond !