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preacher begun to preach; and begun in earnest, too; and went weaving first to

one side of the platform and then the other, and then a leaning down over the

front of it, with his arms and his body going all the time, and shouting his words

out with all his might; and every now and then he would hold up his Bible and

spread it open, and kind of pass it around this way and that, shouting, "It's the

brazen serpent in the wilderness! Look upon it and live!" And people would

shout out, "Glory! -- A-a-men!" And so he went on, and the people groaning

and crying and saying amen: ssssssssss

"Oh, come to the mourners' bench! come, black with sin! (amen /)?? come,

sick and sore! (amen /) come, lame and halt, and blind! (amen /) come, pore

and needy, sunk in shame! (a-a-men /) come all that's worn, and soiled, and

suffering! -- come with a broken spirit! come with a contrite heart! come in

your rags and sin and dirt! the waters that cleanse is free, the door of heaven

stands open -- oh, enter in and be at rest!" (a-a-men I glory, glory hallelujah!)

And so on. You couldn't make out what the preacher said, any more, on

account of the shouting and crying. Folks got up, everywheres in the crowd,

and worked their way, just by main strength, to the mourners' bench, with the

tears running down their faces; and when all the mourners had got up there to

the front benches in a crowd, they sung, and shouted, and flung themselves

down on the straw, just crazy and wild. ssssssssss

Well, the first I knowed, the king got agoing; and you could hear him over

everybody; and next he went a-charging up on to the platform and the preacher

he begged him to speak to the people, and he done it. He told them he was a

pirate -- been a pirate for thirty years, out in the Indian Ocean, and his crew

was thinned out considerable, last spring, in a fight, and he was home now, to

take out some fresh men, and thanks to goodness he'd been robbed last night,

and put ashore off of a steamboat without a cent, and he was glad of it, it was

the blessedest thing that ever happened to him, because he was a changed man

now, and happy for the first time in his life; and poor as he was, he was

going to start right off and work his way back to the Indian Ocean and put

in the rest of his life trying to turn the pirates into the true path; for he

could do it better than anybody else, being acquainted with all the pirate crews

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