Bret Harte

By Shore and Sedge Bret Harte

Book Excerpt: ... glory!" he continued, with fluent vacuity and wandering, dull, observant eyes."But if I had a little more practice in class, Brother Silas, more education?""The letter killeth," interrupted Brother Silas. Here his wandering eyes took dull cognizance of two female faces peering through the opening of the tent. "No, yer mishun, Brother Gideon, is to seek Him in the by-ways, in the wilderness, --where the foxes hev holes and the ravens hev their young, --but not in the Temples of the people. Wot sez Sister Parsons?"One of the female faces detached itself from the tent flaps, which it nearly resembled in color, and brought forward an angular figure clothed in faded fustian that had taken the various shades and odors of household service."Brother Silas speaks well," said Sister Parsons, with stridulous fluency. "It's fore-ordained. Fore-ordinashun is better nor ordinashun, saith the Lord. He shall go forth, turnin' neither to the right hand nor the left hand, and seek Him among the lost .