Good-by, Paul. I shall soon return again to see you."

Paul took every favorable opportunity to visit his sister and brothers, to console and strengthen them against the temptations to which he knew they were exposed.

"Now, Patsy, my boy," he said to the elder of his younger brothers, "every time you look at that cross--show it to me--have you lost it?"

"No, sir-ee; I never put it off my neck since mother put it on," said Patrick, pulling it out of his bosom.

"Every time you look at that crucifix," continued Paul, "think how our Lord G.o.d Himself suffered; how, when he was a boy like you, he was good, obeyed his parents, and was subject to them. Now, you have no parents here but one, the Catholic Church; and if you obey not her counsels and precepts, you will not be rewarded by Christ, whose image you wear around your neck. Say the Six Precepts of the Church for me, Pat."

"First. I am the Lord thy G.o.d--"

"Oh, Pat, you are saying the ten commandments of G.o.d. Your little brother Eugene can say _them_. I examined you in these before."

"Oh, I forgot. 1st. To hear Ma.s.s on Sundays and holy days of obligation.

2d. To fast and abstain on the days commanded. 3d. To confess our sins at least once a year. 4th. To receive communion at Easter. 5th. To contribute to the support of our pastors. 6th. Not to solemnize marriage within forbidden degrees, nor clandestinely."

"The first precept, Patrick, we cannot keep here, as we are not near the church. But the second, 'to abstain on the days commanded,' we can keep.

Do you ever eat meat on Friday, Pat?"

"Never but once, through mistake," said Pat. "I thought it was Thursday.

Mr. Prying is always wanting me to eat it every day, and so was a gentleman whom he called the _priest_,--sure he is not a right priest, is he, Paul?"

"Not at all, Pat; he is only a Protestant minister."

"A minister!" said Pat, in astonishment. "Why did they call him a priest? He wanted me and Eugene to eat meat on Friday; but I said I could not, it would make me sick. Then Mrs. Prying told him to let me be; that she could not allow any interference with our religion; and since that, the minister never returned to our house, or n.o.body said a word about it. I think she is very good. She often cries when she hears me and Eugene speaking of father and mother, G.o.d rest their souls!

Paul," said Pat, introducing a new subject, "ain't there a h.e.l.l to punish the wicked, as well as a heaven to reward the good?"

"Certainly, Pat; does not the Catechism say so?"

"Yes, but yesterday, Ca.s.sius Prying tried to persuade me that there was no h.e.l.l. He said all would go to heaven, in the end. I told him it was no such thing. He said the minister said so."

"Oh, Patrick, my boy, beware of Ca.s.sius; you must not listen to his talk, for it is wicked. G.o.d tells us there is a h.e.l.l, and we must believe all he teaches us by his church and his word, or we will be condemned to h.e.l.l forever."

"Oh, the Lord save us! I won't hear to Ca.s.sius no more."

"That's a good boy, Patsy; mind to watch Eugene, and make him do as you do. We will all soon be going home to uncle's, please G.o.d."

"How soon, Paul? I am tired of being in 'Merica."

"Very soon, please G.o.d. Good-by, and be good: learn this, the eighth chapter of the Catechism, next."

"I will, Paul, with G.o.d's help."

This is the way Paul, our hero, took care of the responsibility G.o.d had thrown on his tender shoulders at the age of fifteen. Never did missionary or priest labor, by prayer, and prudence, and anxiety, to save souls to Christ, as Paul did to save his brothers. He was to them the true Joseph, who not only kept their bodies from starving, but preserved their souls from a worse than Egyptian captivity. And not only did his exertions produce the desired effect on the immediate objects of his solicitude, but G.o.d added as the reward of his zeal other souls, "not of this fold."

Old uncle Jacob was all but disconsolate at the loss of Paul. He was his bed-fellow for years, and every night and morning was witness of his piety and punctuality in prayer. And although poor uncle Jacob himself had long since learned to doubt of all forms of faith, he could not be indifferent to the example set him by Paul's steady devotion. The poor old man, besides, led a very innocent life, and the grace of G.o.d had few obstacles to contend with in its influx into his empty but innocent soul. He was often heard to say in presence of even Mr. Gulmore, the minister, and Amanda, who might be called the female parson, that, if any religion was worth having, it was that one which made Paul so victorious in his arguments, and so pure and pious in his conduct. "That was the young one," said uncle, his voice trembling with feeling, for he loved Paul as a son, "that was the child that deserved to be called one; that knowed what he owed to G.o.d, and man too."

"He was as cunning as a fox, and as full of the spirit of Popery as an egg is of meat," said Mr. Grin.o.ble bitterly.

"I know him to be as innocent as a dove," said uncle Jacob, warmly, "and believe him to be as full of the Spirit of G.o.d as Samuel was in the temple. There, now."

"Then, uncle Jacob, I see you are beginning to believe in the Bible,"

sarcastically added the parson. "I am glad to find your mind inclined in that way. I hope you will soon get religion and the change of heart."

"I hope and pray to the Lord," said the old man, in a voice little removed from that of one in tears, "to change my heart, and give me religion, as I now believe there is such a thing on earth. But, Mr.

Grin.o.ble, your hard and cruel religion, I trust, shall never be mine.

G.o.d forbid! _It_ will never change my heart."

"Uncle, don't you talk that way," said Amanda. "This is very unpleasant.

Take no notice of him, sir," said she, addressing the parson, who appeared to be disconcerted at this pointed attack of uncle Jacob.

"Amanda, I will talk so, I must talk so," said poor uncle, rising. "How can ye reconcile it to religion, to justice, or to charity, the snares and plots laid by you, miss, in company with those _men of G.o.d_, to rob that poor child Paul, and his little sister and brothers, of their ancient, n.o.ble, and holy religion? Fie, fie, fie! Is it such conduct you call religion? It is the very reverse. It resembled more the conduct of the serpent in paradise, than that of the meek disciples of Jesus Christ. It was more like the religious profession of Herod, to get the Child at Bethlehem into his clutches, than anything else we read of, your conduct was. There is more Bible for you, Mr. Grin.o.ble," said he, slamming the door after him, and retiring to his room.

"'Tis not much use attempting to convert such an old hardened sinner,"

said Grin.o.ble, smothering his mortification at the rebuff of uncle Jacob.

"That Paul has ruined him," said Amanda. "I would not be a bit surprised if he died a Papist yet."

"Sure you would not let the Popish priest visit him, on any account?"

said the tolerant parson.

"I fear pa would, for you know uncle Jacob left him this farm, and more than half what he possesses in money and stock. Come, tea is ready."

Poor uncle Prying, as we have said already, was the senior brother of Ephraim and Reuben Prying, and was now about seventy-two years of age.

During the last twenty years of his life he labored under a slight asthmatic affection, which lately increased in violence, and, joined with a disease of the liver, which physicians said he suffered from, now seriously endangered his life. Since he was eighteen years old, Mr.

Jacob Prying never went inside a meeting-house or professed any religion; a conclusion which he partly was drove to by the hypocrisy of a certain minister in his neighborhood, who wanted to have Mr. Jacob married to a daughter of his, who, two days before the marriage, he found out, accidentally, had been seduced by an ex-senator in Boston.

This piece of deception on the part of the religious teacher, and the treachery of the _maid_ herself, so disgusted Jacob Prying, that he registered a vow in heaven that he never again would allow himself to become the victim of hypocrisy or of female dissimulation. The parsons, all round, because he was proof against their transparent baits, to fill their meeting-houses, cried him down as an infidel, whose heart was hardened, and who despised the Bible. Uncle Jacob never attempted to dispel the prejudices raised against him by the malice of despised dominies; but his heart refuted their lies, for it was open to every n.o.ble and humane influence, and, above all, undefiled from the corruption of the world. Hence, in his hour of sickness, in his hour of trial and need, the Almighty rewarded him for his natural good parts, and sent His angel to conduct him, by the simple means herein recorded, to the bosom of that holy religion, outside which there is nothing but bitterness and woe, and without which "it is impossible to please G.o.d."

Knowing the nature of the enemies he had to contend with, poor Mr. Jacob Prying was silent on the subject of his religious doubts till the advent of Paul to the farm. Like the ancient n.o.ble Roman, who, under the garb of folly, concealed his profound heroic wisdom, uncle Jacob was content to be called an infidel and unbeliever, so that he might preserve his heart undefiled, and ready for that precious pearl "of great price"

which his heart sighed for, and which he was about now to receive; becoming, in his latter days, a further ill.u.s.tration of the Divine narrative that "G.o.d adds daily to the Church those who are to be saved."

CHAPTER XV.

THE CONVERSION.

"The Lord be praised; I am glad to hear it," said Paul, one day, as he sat by the bedside of uncle Jacob, who was now in the last stage of his disease. "Paul," said the dying man, "while I was robust, and independent in means, I relied too much on these gifts of G.o.d, and too little on the Giver of them. But now, when this frail wall, that shuts the soul in from her world of kindred spirits, is nearly worn down, and the glorious light of eternity shines through the c.h.i.n.ks of this earthen rampart, in all directions I see the necessity of having the soul prepared, thoroughly washed, before she goes into a world of such purity and justice; and you have convinced me, or, rather, G.o.d has taught me, that it is only in that religion of which G.o.d alone is the Author that the means of purification can be found. So, Paul, in G.o.d's name, take a team, and go for the priest of G.o.d immediately; there is no time to be lost. 'Tis consoling to reflect that there is a priest of G.o.d now to be had on earth, as well as in the days of the ancient patriarchs. How merciful G.o.d was," said he, soliloquizing, "in leaving us on earth a priest, a representative of his divine Son, to prepare the soul for the terrible voyage of eternity! All eternity is not too long to thank him for this blessing."

Paul communicated the wishes of his dying brother to Mr. Ephraim Prying, who answered, "Certainly, Paul; why not? Go for the priest; take the best team--that black mare, there, is the fastest traveller. O my poor brother, why will you leave us?" said he, as he rushed up to his brother's bed room.

It soon went abroad that uncle Jacob was at the point of death; and all the friends and many neighbors were a.s.sembled around the bed, and among others Mr. Barker, the Methodist preacher, who thought, as the Presbyterian dominie's nostrums were rejected by Jacob, his own, as being more novel, might have the desired effect. And though these several ministers were jealous each of the influence of his neighbor, yet any thing with them was preferable to the priest. Let uncle Jacob turn Turk, Jew, or Heathen, any thing but a Papist, and the six sectarian teachers of the village of S---- were content.

"Now, brother Jacob," said his roaring reverence, after a long-winded prayer, in which he professed to command great influence with the powers above, "how do you feel? Tell us your experience, and what you see."

"I am afraid, if I tell ye what I think and feel," said the feeble invalid, "ye may not like to hear it, and I do not wish to give offence.

I have something else now to occupy my time besides talking for your entertainment."