Page:The Social War.djvu/189

Rh CHAPTER XLIII.

HE night at Tabernacle Hall when the bloody conspirators had a row, on account of Deacon Rob Stew's peculiar sentiments, which caused almost fatal assaults upon the deacon and Rev. Joe Pier, it seemed that they could not finish all their plans; and at that part of their proceedings when Dr. Toy Pancy announced that he believed the deacon was expiring, another hubbub arose that nearly amounted to a terrific fight amongst the holy saints; but the dignified and influential Sister Nancy Clover nipped the thing in the bud by her cool and determined eloquence.

The cause of this hubbub was the various expressions of the saints, upon learning from Dr. Toy Pancy that Deacon Rob Stew was dying. Several downtrodden brothers, who despised the usurping deacon, cried out:

"Thank the Lord, he is dying!"

Which immediately aroused the friends of the deacon, who mourned and lamented heartily the dying state of the heroic man of the elect, and who shouted:

"Silence, apostates!"

Instantly the latter moved to assault the former, when Sister Nancy Clover cried out vehemently:

"Shame! shame! brothers; be men, not brutes! If these dissensions are permitted to continue, I feel assured that we shall be our own destroyers, which will prove that we are Dr. Juno's best friends. I have, therefore, one single question to put to you, which I wish you to answer as soon as you understand it: Who do you love best, Dr. Juno or Deacon Rob Stew, and for which of the two will you work as a unit, for you are compelled to choose between the two antagonistic causes which these two heroes advocate? I ask, emphatically, for which will you work as a unit until you die?"