Boarding Round/Chapter 6

When Sunday morning came the kindhearted Captain proposed to James that he go with them to church. He said: "I know that your father is a Congregationalist, and that you have been brought up to attend that meeting. And you can continue to do the same here if you choose; but to-day we should be happy to have you go with us. We are Methodists. You've noticed our meeting house, right down here at the fork of the roads."

"Oh, yes, I should be most happy to go with you this morning," was the teacher's quick response.

"We are to have our new minister to-day," continued the Captain. "We have been waiting for him a good while. He had his appointment to come to us last spring, but the people of his church were so very anxious that he remain with them a while longer, that he was permitted to stay on for six months. Then, as he was leaving them, he met with a ​bad accident, which laid him up, and so we have been waiting. He is still lame, and has to use a cane."

When James Sears was seated with Captain and Mrs. Hale in their pew, the house was already well filled with people, waiting for the coming of the new preacher. Soon, with some difficulty, he was seen ascending the pulpit stairs. But then the attention of the audience was divided between the new man in the pulpit and the new man in Capt. Hale's pew. At first more looked towards the pulpit, but soon the larger number were casting furtive glances at the young man in the pew. And there was no little whispering in all parts of the church. "Who is that handsome young man?" The young ladies did not intimate that they thought the stranger handsome, but they were quite as eager as their fathers and mothers to find out who he was. Where there were schoolchildren in the pews, the information sought was soon obtained, "Why, he is the master."

Before beginning the service of the morning, the new minister wished to make an explanatory remark. He had left his parish with great regret. He had become strongly attached to the people there, especially because of the troubles which they had passed through, and of his own ability to assist and comfort them. But the last Sabbath of his stay with them came, and he must bid them ​good-by. As he said his last word in the pulpit, they were in tears, and his own tears were mingled with theirs. Everything about him, as well as the people, seemed to be saying: "Farewell, Brother Watkins." But as he tried to get to the door, many crowded around him. They looked up in his face and said in broken accents, "Farewell, Brother Watkins-ah." There were aged and feeble people, who reached out their trembling hands, saying, as words could not, "Farewell, Brother Watkins-ah." Everything out of doors seemed to be saying the same words. As he unhitched the horse that he rode, the familiar old post seemed to say, "Farewell, Brother Watkins-ah." Every dear spot in the road seemed to say, "Farewell, Brother Watkins-ah." At last he came to the brook where he had so many times given his faithful horse a taste of the sweet water. He would do so once more. So he threw the rein over old Jerry's neck, and let him put his mouth down to drink. He himself sat idly in the saddle, gazing at the bright scene around him, when suddenly an old hog burst out of the alder bushes at his horse's feet, and the next thing he knew of himself he was lying on his back in the water; and, as he caught a glimpse of his horse's erect head and tail going over the crest of the hill, they seemed to say, "Farewell, Brother Watkins-ah."

But a Good Samaritan, who happened to ​come along just at that time, kindly assisted the dripping minister to get into his wagon, saying jokingly, to cheer him up, "Well, anyhow, Reverend, for once you won't be dry in your preaching." And he himself felt that there was a large ingredient of truth in this remark. The shock, from his fall, and the bruises were such that he found little pleasure. in trying to stand alone. But he could not be too thankful that he had so far recovered from the injury then received, that he could be with his new people that morning. He gave them an excellent sermon, notwithstanding the difficulty he had in standing erect in his pulpit.

After the service the brothers and sisters gathered around Brother Watkins, to assure him of their joy that he had so far recovered, and to express their high estimation of the sermon which they had heard. But while doing this, their eyes would involuntarily turn towards the young man who was leaving the church in company with Capt. Hale. The larger part of the people remained for the Sunday school. Among these was a class of young women, or perhaps more properly, large girls, who had recently "finished" their education in the district school. Some of these had now suddenly come to the conclusion that there was something more that they might learn, and they were sorry that they had not continued to go to school, at least one ​year more. It was said that Mr. Sears had a superior education, and he could help them in some new studies.

But at the close of the Sunday school these girls' mothers, and certain spinsters, who were accounted leaders in church affairs, "got their heads together" to talk over the expediency of reviving their sewing society. "It is time," they said, "that we were doing more for the heathen." The sermon to which they had just listened showed how they should care for the ignorant and the unfortunate, and especially those far away in the darkness of heathenism. There were some churches, it was said, who had their own particular missionary in foreign lands. Not every church had the right sort of a man. They had not had. But it occurred to them now that young Sears would make a fine missionary. It is said that some of our best missionaries who have gone to foreign countries, have been very fine-looking young men, as befitted their beautiful character. For that matter, where could we find one superior to our teacher. "Yes," said Mrs. Crosby, who had a daughter in the class of girls who wished that they were in school, "I don't think that a better looking man for a missionary can be found. I'd just had but a glimpse of him before he came into church, but he strikes me as something remarkable. He is very intellectual looking—that's the best part of it."

​"Sure," added Mrs. Sweet, "my Nellie met him in the road, and she came home, saying that Mr. Sears has the most attractive face she ever saw. I believe she would be willing to go to the ends of the earth with that man."

It was agreed that they could not have the first meeting till after Thanksgiving, and that notice should be given the next Sunday.