The Quickening

The revival in Paradise Valley conducted by the Reverend Silas Crafts of South Tredegar was in the middle of its second week and the field-to use Brother Crafts' own word-was white to the harvest.<P>Little Zoar the square weather-tinged wooden church at the head of the valley built upon land donated to the denomination in times long past by an impenitent but generous Major Dabney stood a little way back from the pike in a grove of young pines. By half-past six of the June evening the revivalist's congregation had begun to assemble.<P>Those who came farthest were first on the ground; and by the time twelve-year-old Thomas Jefferson spatting barefooted up the dusty pike had reached the church-house with the key there was a goodly sprinkling of unhitched teams in the grove the horses champing their feed noisily in the wagon-boxes and the people gathering in little neighborhood knots to discuss gravely the one topic uppermost in all minds-the present outpouring of grace on Paradise Valley and the region round-about.