BROUGHT DOWN A DELUGE.

Speaking of overdoing matters reminds us that there was a Methodist preacher once travelling in the summer. There had been a protracted drought; the earth was parched and dry, and vegetation withered. At night, our friend stopped in front of a house which belonged to a widow lady, and asked permission to stay all night. The old lady told him bread was scarce, and that corn was still more scarce, and that she did not know whether she could spare enough to feed him and his horse. The traveller answered that he was a minister, and if she would allow him to stay all night, he would pray for rain. Upon this she consented: so that night and the next morning the minister put up long and fervent prayers for rain, and again went on his way rejoicing. The night after he left there came up a tremendous storm. The old lady, on getting up in the morning, found her garden flooded, her fences swept away, her plantation washed in gullied, while ruin and devastation stared her in the face. Turning to one who was standing by, she said, “Plague take these Methodist preachers – they always overdo the thing! I was afraid of this the night before last, when that fellow kept praying so loud!”