"THEM WHAT HAIN'T HAD TROUBLE 'AIN'T HAD NO CAUSE TO LOOK FUR THE LORD."
Jasper and his wife looked at each other, knowingly in the eye; and then the old man said: "I beg yo' pardon, ma'm, but you must have had trouble. But don't let it bother you any mo' than you kin help, fur my experience teaches me that them what hain't had trouble ain't had no cause to look fur the Lord."
"Why, Jasper Starbuck," Margaret spoke up, "ain't you ashamed of yo'se'f to talk about the Lord thatter way?"
"I ain't said a word ag'in Him. Leave it to the preacher thar. Have I, Jim?"
"No, Uncle Jasper."
"Much obleeged to you, Jim; and instead of stayin' five weeks with us as you said you 'lowed to, I wush you'd stay longer. I need you to prove things by. Couldn't make it five months, could you, Jim?"
"No, Uncle Jasper, I must get back to my mountain-side flock. There's many a poor old man tottering along that needs me to help him walk."
"That's a fact," said Starbuck, and turning to Mrs. Mayfield he continued: "He settles nearly all their troubles, ma'm; he's not only their church but their cou't house. I've seed him preach the gospel with one hand and with the other one tear up a lawsuit."
Lou, standing on a chair, had taken down an old gun which rested upon deer horns above the fire place, and was exhibiting it to Tom. "My great grandfather carried it at the battle of New Orleans," she said; and reverently the young man took the gun and pressed the butt to his shoulder, taking aim. "No wonder our country has a spirit that can't be crushed," he remarked, lowering the ancient war hound and looking into its black mouth.