and look right over at father . '' Eben flicked his mare with his whip , and she broke into a trot . The silence was filled with a faint , fairy-like melody from afar down the road where a pungful of young folks from White Sands were singing hymns on their way to meeting . `` Look here , Mollie , '' said Eben awkwardly at last , `` are you going to stand up for prayers to-night ? '' `` I -- I ca n't as long as father acts this way , '' answered Mollie , in a choked voice . `` I -- I want to , Eb , and Mirry and Bob want me to , but I ca n't . I do hope that the evangelist wo n't come and talk to me special to-night . I always feels as if I was being pulled two different ways , when he does . '' Back in the kitchen at home Mrs. Bell was waiting for her husband to bring the horse to the door . She was a slight , dark-eyed little woman , with thin , vivid-red cheeks . From out of the swathings in which she had wrapped her bonnet , her face gleamed sad and troubled . Now and then she sighed heavily . The cat came to her from under the stove , languidly stretching himself , and yawning until all the red cavern of his mouth and throat was revealed . At the moment he had an uncanny resemblance to Elder Joseph Blewett of White Sands -- Roaring Joe , the irreverent boys called him -- when he grew excited and shouted . Mrs. Bell saw it -- and then reproached herself for the sacrilege . `` But it 's no wonder I 've wicked thoughts , '' she said , wearily . `` I 'm that worried I ai n't rightly myself . If he would only tell me what the trouble is , maybe I could help him . At any rate , I 'd KNOW . It hurts me so to see him going about , day after day , with his head hanging and that look on his face , as if he had something fearful on his conscience -- him that never harmed a living soul .
And then the way he groans and mutters XXXXX his sleep !
If after as at down for in of on that