THE LIGHT OF DAY 



A EETEOSPECT 



/~\NE of my earliest remembrances is seeing and 

 ^-^ hearing my father and one of his neighbors 

 dispute about religious doctrines. They had both 

 not long before that " experienced religion," and had 

 united themselves to different churches, Jerry, the 

 neighbor, to the Methodist, and father to the old 

 school Baptist, and the zeal of each to show the 

 other the errors in his creed was very great. Time 

 after time they would confront each other, and the 

 long winter night there in the old kitchen would be 

 filled with the din of their earnest, often angry, de- 

 bate. I think Jerry rather forced the fighting, as I 

 chiefly remember him as the aggressor. I can see 

 him yet as he would open the door and come in just 

 after supper, always very much occupied with the 

 stick he was whittling. He had whittled all the dis- 

 tance he had come, about a mile, and had arranged 

 his argument and fortified his points while he 

 whittled. After the usual commonplace gossip, 

 Jerry would gradually approach the subject of the 



