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Excerpt: Uncle Abner


    "I ought to say a word about my Uncle Abner.  He was one of those austere, deeply religious men who were the product of the Reformation.  He always carried a Bible in his pocket and he read it where he pleased.  Once the crowd at Roy's Tavern tried to make sport of him when he got his book out by the fire; but they never tried it again.  When the fight was over Abner paid Roy eighteen silver dollars for the broken chairs and the table - and he was the only man in the tavern who could ride a horse.  Abner belonged to the church militant, and his God was a war lord."


Source: Melville Davisson Post, "The Angel of the Lord" (1911).