Page:Six months in Kansas.djvu/61

Rh excuse to leave the apartment, when in any way it comes out that it is "Typhoid," upon the lounge. Not everybody, but some, perhaps the largest proportion, are afraid. Tonight there comes one to tarry for the night who carries in his mien the beauty of manly courage. How I wish for the power, my mother, of graphic delineation, so that this specimen might appear before you as he did to me. Somewhere in an old family bible, well worn with use and bearing a broken clasp upon one side, I have a distinct recollection of an engraving of one of the prophets. Often of a Sunday, in that old east room, where few people ever ventured (for it was the best room), I took the heavy bible from its place on the table between the windows into a chair, and with a child's curiosity, took a peep at those old pictures. No one ever explained them. They have all passed away from my memory with the exception of this grand old prophet. Even now I see the fine head, the majestic beard, the heavy masses of curling hair, the uplifted hand and upturned eyes, with the flowing robes! Once, a very few years since, and yet how long it seems! that