At supper-time the hostess and
the rest of the family took their places at the long table, as
was the custom, and he astonished them by his knowledge not only
of town history, but of village matters they had supposed unknown
to any one.
When the stranger had finished his supper and returned to the
bar-room, he had to pass through a long entry, and the landlady,
whispering to her daughter, said:--
"Betsy, you go up to the chamber closet and get the silver and
bring it down. This man is going to sleep there and I am afraid
of him. He must be a fortune-teller, and the Lord only knows what
else!"
In going to the chamber the daughter had to pass through the
bar-room. As she was moving quietly through, hoping to escape the
notice of the newcomer, he turned in his chair, and looking her
full in the face, suddenly said:--
"Madam, you needn't touch your silver. I don't want it. I am a
gentleman."
Whereupon the bewildered Betsy scuttled back to her mother and
told her the strange guest was indeed a fortune-teller.
Of Cochrane's initial appearance as a preacher Ivory had told
Waitstill in their talk in the churchyard early in the summer. It
was at a child's funeral that the new prophet created his first
sensation and there, too, that Aaron and Lois Boynton first came
under his spell.
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