Instead he got to his feet and
crawling out again through the window, went home. He felt renewed and full
of new courage because of the experiences of the night, but when he got to
his own house and stood at the door outside, he heard his neighbor, David
Chapman, a wheelwright who worked in Charlie Collins' wagon shop, praying
in his bedroom before an open window. Joe listened for a moment and, for
some reason he couldn't understand, his new-found faith was destroyed by
what he heard. David Chapman, a devout Methodist, was praying for Hugh
McVey and for the success of his invention. Joe knew his neighbor had also
invested his savings in the stock of the new company. He had thought that
he alone was doubtful of success, but it was apparent that doubt had come
also into the mind of the wheelwright. The pleading voice of the praying
man, as it broke the stillness of the night, cut across and for the moment
utterly destroyed his confidence. "O God, help the man Hugh McVey to remove
every obstacle that stands in his way," David Chapman prayed. "Make the
plant-setting machine a success. Bring light into the dark places. O Lord,
help Hugh McVey, thy servant, to build successfully the plant-setting
machine."
BOOK THREE
CHAPTER VIII
When Clara Butterworth, the daughter of Tom Butterworth, was eighteen years
old she graduated from the town high school. Until the summer of her
seventeenth year, she was a tall, strong, hard-muscled girl, shy in the
presence of strangers and bold with people she knew well.
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