"
"Did they listen to you?"
"Gladly. Many of them clung to it. The worst of them respected and
protected me. One night I came to a lonely log-house in the Brazos
woods--that was 'far, far West' then. I think the eight men in it were
thieves; I believe that they intended to rob, and perhaps to murder,
me. But they gave me supper, and took my saddle-bags, and put up my
horse. 'Reckon you're from the States,' one said. 'Twelve months ago.'
'Any news?' 'The grandest. If you'll get your boys together I'll tell
you it.'"
"They gathered very quickly, lit their pipes, and sat down; and,
sitting there among them, I preached the very best sermon I ever
preached in my life. I was weeping before I'd done, and they were just
as wretched as I like to see sinners. I laid down among them and slept
soundly and safely. Ten years afterward I gave the sacrament to four
of these very men in Bastrop Methodist Church. If I was a young man
I would be in the Rio Grande District. I would carry 'the glad tidings'
to the ranger camps on the Chicon and the Secor, and the United States
forts on the Mexican border. It is 'the few sheep in the wilderness'
that I love to seek; yea, it is the scape-goats that, loaded with the
sins of civilized communities, have been driven from among them!"
Richard started to his feet.
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