When all was over, the multitude dispersed very gravely and silently, with hardly a word spoken. I saw but two faces which expressed decided disapproval. These belonged to the old clerk and the still older sexton. We had learned to know these worthies well, and had quite won the heart of the latter by carrying some custards of our own concocting to his poor, toothless, bed-ridden wife.
Mr. Cheriton, as I said, stood in fixed attention till the discourse was ended, and the people had for the most part withdrawn. Then he put his arm within Mr. Wesley's.
"Come into my house and dine with me!" said he earnestly. "Come, I must have more talk with you; you have put many new thoughts and feelings into my head, and heart. Come and tell me what to make of them."
The two gentlemen walked away together, and entered the sashed door, which opened from the church-yard, and led—so Mrs. Thorpe had told us—into the Rector's study.
"What dost thou think of that, John Sexton?" asked the clerk of the other old man, who was diligently fitting the sods over the grave of poor Mrs. Edwards and her babe.
"I like it not—I like it not, Master Tubbs!" replied the sexton. "There were never no such goings on in my young days. I haven't lived to be eighty-six and as able to do my work as ever I was—yes, and one as has kept his church regular ever since he can remember—yes, and helped my father in this very church-yard, as he did his father and grandfather afore him; to be called a miserable sinner at my time of life, except it be by yourself and parson, in the regular way of business, Master Tubbs. I don't say as they did right as brought the poor woman and her babe to this pass—nor neither do I say it is right to have Methodists and Ranters a preaching in this here church-yard of St. Anne's, either."
"Mr. Wesley is a regular clergyman of the Church of England; so Mr. Cheriton tells me, and he ought to know," remarked Master Tubbs dubiously. "But who ever heard of a regular-bred parson going out into the fields and preaching to colliers and such trash, at five o'clock in the morning? And that Mr. Wesley did this very morning on Chowdene Fell."
"So I hear!" returned the clerk. "More than that, Master Smith, the butcher in our street, was coming home from buying fat sheep, and he stopped to listen. 'More shame for you, Master Smith, and you with a family pew of your own in church,' says I.
"'You wouldn't say so, Master Tubbs, if you'd heard 'im,' says he. 'Why, those foul-mouthed men and women—as never used a good word in their lives unless it was to swear by it, stood with the tears running down their black grimy faces, when Mr. Wesley preached to them about their sins being washed whiter than snow. And when he had ended, they all crowded round him to get a word; and one after another was crying and saying—
"'"What shall I do to be saved?" and "Oh Master Wesley, can such a sinner as I be saved?"'