"'For the pastors are become brutish and have not sought the Lord:
therefore they shall not prosper, and--'"

"A-MEN!"

The shout came from the second bench from the front, where Ezekiel
Bassett, clam digger and fervent religionist, was always to be found on
meeting nights. Ezekiel was the father of Susannah B. Bassett, "Sukey
B." for short, who played the melodeon. He had been, by successive
seizures, a Seventh Day Baptist, a Second Adventist, a Millerite, a
Regular, and was now the most energetic of Come-Outers. Later he was to
become a Spiritualist and preside at table-tipping seances.

Ezekiel's amen was so sudden and emphatic that it startled the reader
into looking up. Instead of the faces of his congregation, he found
himself treated to a view of their back hair. Nearly every head
was turned toward the rear corner of the room, there was a buzz of
whispering and, in front, many men and women were standing up to look.
Captain Eben was scandalized.

"Well!" he exclaimed. "Is this a prayer meetin' or--or--what? Brethren
and sisters, I must say--"

Ezekiel Bassett stepped forward and whispered in his ear. The
captain's expression of righteous indignation changed to one of blank
astonishment. He, too, gazed at the dark corner. Then his lips tightened
and he rapped smartly on the table.

"Brethren and sisters," he thundered, in the voice which, of old, had
enforced obedience aboard his coasting schooner, "remember this is the