So back to town went Elder Brown, not in the order of the early morn,
but silently, moodily, despairingly, surrounded by mental and actual
gloom.

The old man had turned a last appealing glance upon the angry woman,
as he mounted with Aleck's assistance, and sat in the light that
streamed from out the kitchen window. She met the glance without a
waver.

"She means it, as sure as my name is Elder Brown," he said, thickly.
Then he rode on.

IV

To say that Elder Brown suffered on this long journey back to Macon
would only mildly outline his experience. His early morning's fall had
begun to make itself felt. He was sore and uncomfortable. Besides, his
stomach was empty, and called for two meals it had missed for the
first time in years.

When, sore and weary, the elder entered the city, the electric lights
shone above it like jewels in a crown. The city slept; that is, the
better portion of it did. Here and there, however, the lower lights
flashed out into the night. Moodily the elder pursued his journey, and
as he rode, far off in the night there rose and quivered a plaintive
cry. Elder Brown smiled wearily: it was Balaam's appeal, and he
recognized it. The animal he rode also recognized it, and replied,
until the silence of the city was destroyed. The odd clamor and
confusion drew from a saloon near by a group of noisy youngsters, who