'Senor,'
he said, 'give me, I pray you, one grain of that corn; I will plant and
replant it until my fields wave with it.' We answered the request with
a shout, and Houston gave it away grain by grain. Phyllis shall plant
and watch mine. In two years one grain will give us enough to sow a
decent lot, and, if we live, we shall see many a broad acre tasseled
with San Jacinto corn."
"You must take me to see your general, John."
"Bishop, we will go to-morrow. You are sure to like him--though, it
is wonderful, but even now he has enemies."
"Not at all wonderful, John. No man can be liked by every one. God
himself does not please all; nay as men are, I think it may stand with
divinity to say He cannot."
"He will like to see you, sir. He told me himself, that nearly all
the Texan colonies brought not only their religion, but their preachers
with them. He said it was these Protestant preachers who had fanned
and kept alive the spirit of resistance to Spanish tyranny and to Roman
priest-craft."
"I have not a doubt of it, John. You cannot have a free faith in an
enslaved country. They knew that the way of the Lord must be prepared.
"'Their free-bred souls
Went not with priests to school,
To trim the tippet and the stole,
And pray by printed rule.
"'And they would cast the eager word
From their hearts fiery core,
Smoking and red, as God had stirred
The Hebrew men of yore.
Pages:
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193