“I am glad to see you,” she said, taking my hat, which I was careful to remove, remembering Jo’s experience. “My father did not feel well to-day, and we are all at home, as Mr. Westlock agreed to take his place at Fairview.”
Mr. Shepherd came in at this moment, followed by his respectable wife (who bowed stiffly to both of us at once, as though we were not worth two separate efforts), and impressed me at once with his freedom for a Sunday evening. It was a funeral day at our house, but Mr. Shepherd laughed and talked as though we were at a party. As I looked at his pale and effeminate face, I thought that his daughter was very much like him, and that had a son been born to the family, he would have been like his mother--quiet, dignified, and capable.
“I worked in the field so late Saturday,” he said, with the utmost candor and freedom, “that I felt too tired to preach to-day, so I sent word to your father that he would oblige me by preaching a sermon on future punishment. It is one of the rules of the church that this disagreeable topic be discussed from the pulpit at least once a year. I dislike it, and am glad to shirk. Your father is very fond of the subject, I am told. But no difference what he says about it, I will apologize next Sunday, and deny it. The religion of Fairview seems to make the people miserable; I shall change it if I can. I have been religious all my life, and it never caused me a sorrow. I don’t believe in devils much, but I believe a great deal in angels.”
As he looked at me as if he desired an expression on the subject, I said angels were certainly the most comforting to think about.
“I have been much distressed by the unhappy faces I have seen since coming here, and I hope I may be the humble instrument of brightening them. The right kind of religion will put flowers in the yard, let sunlight in at the window, and fill the house with content and happiness. I became a Christian man because I longed for heaven, rather than because I feared the dreadful abode of the wicked, and it is my intention to introduce this gospel here.”
Mr. Shepherd was directing his conversation to me, as Mateel and Jo had retired to another part of the room and were very much interested in each other. I therefore wished him success in the undertaking.