Doctor Johns - 1883 Author:Donald Grant Mitchell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: the meeting-house door ; after which he walks to his own house, with the assured step of a man who is conscious of having accomplished an important duty. It is t... more »he very house we just now saw with the ponderous ogees over its front, the balustrade upon its roof, and the dame in spectacles at the window ; this latter being the spinster, Miss Meacham, elder sister to the wife of the Squire, and taking upon herself, with active zeal and a neatness that knew no bounds, the office of housekeeper. This was rendered necessary in a manner by the engagement of Mrs. Elderkin with a group of young flax-haired children, and periodic threats of addition to the same. The hospitalities of the house were fully established, and no state official could visit the town without hearty invitation to the Squire's table. The spinster received the announcement of the minister's coming with a quiet gravity, and betook herself to the needed preparation. Home Established. MR. JOHNS, meanwhile, when he had left the Haudby parlor, where we saw him last, and was fairly upon the stair, had replied to the suggestion of his little wife about the sermon on Revelations with a fugitive kiss, and said, " I will think of it, Rachel." And he did think of it, — thought of it so well, thathe left the beautiful sermon in his drawer, and took with him a couple of strong doctrinal discourses, upon the private hearing of which his charming wife had commented by dropping asleep (poor thing!) in her chair. But the strong men and women of Ashfield relished them better. There was a sermon for the morning on " Regeneration the work only of grace ;" and another for the afternoon, on the outer leaf of which was written, in the parson's bold hand, " The doctrine of Election compatible with the infinite goodness of God." It is...« less