Though None Go with Me Read Online Free Page B

manage,” Elisabeth said.
    â€œAnd don’t think I won’t be telling your father what time you waltzed in here. The street lamps are already lit, forevermore!”
    Elisabeth wouldn’t deny that her aunt could cook—in fact, she took pleasure in saying so. The old woman clearly didn’t know how to take compliments, but they certainly defused her. “Delicious as always, Aunt Agatha,” Elisabeth called from the kitchen.
    â€œIt would have tasted even better fresh!”
    â€œThat’s why I’m so sorry I was late!”
    â€œLet that be a lesson …”
    â€œWhere is Daddy, anyway?”
    â€œYou’re old enough to quit calling him Daddy. You sound like a baby.”
    â€œIt’s a term of endearment,” Elisabeth said. “Like when I call you Auntie.”
    â€œYou can lay that to rest anytime, too,” Agatha said. “Doctor Daddy is at the hospital in Schoolcraft, no surprise. Said you shouldn’t wait up.”
    â€œWhat’s he doing there? Does he have a patient there?”
    â€œI don’t manage his day, Elisabeth! It doesn’t strike me odd that a doctor is at a hospital!”
    Elisabeth was still wondering about her father later while reading her Bible. Being hungry for it, despite having read it daily as a duty for years, was new to her. She dressed for bed and sat reading and praying. She had come a long way in a few hours, from believing she had the Christian life figured out to fearfully considering some divine call. But to do what?
    No wonder her friends criticized her for acting older. She felt older. Elisabeth remembered fondly when Frances and her other friends were also interested in Bible stories and memorizing verses, Sunday school picnics, prayer meetings, camp, even protracted meetings.
    â€œProtracted meetings!” Aunt Agatha repeated at dinner when she’d heard the phrase one too many times that summer. “James, I swear, it sounds like a dental society meeting.”
    Her brother chuckled. “Agatha,” he said, “that would be an extracted meeting. Protracted merely means they are extended for as long as the guest speaker is drawing a good crowd and God seems to be working—”
    â€œI know what it means, James! I was raised in the same home as you.”
    â€œI wish you’d come,” he said, filling his plate again. “This year’s speaker knew Mr. Moody personally.”
    â€œYou don’t say,” she said. “Get Dwight Moody here and I will join you.”
    â€œMoody’s been dead since ’99.”
    â€œAs if I didn’t know that! Prop up his corpulent corpse, and I’ll be on the front row.”
    Dr. LeRoy stared at her. “That’s disrespectful, even for you.”
    â€œEven for me?” Aunt Agatha said. “What does that mean?”
    â€œWho speaks ill of the dead, let alone of the greatest evangelist who ever lived?”
    â€œYou’re putting Moody ahead of the apostle Paul?” she said, ignoring her food.
    â€œHow can you know so much of the Bible and turn your back on God?”
    â€œWe’ve been down this road,” she said. “You know well that I didn’t turn my back on God. He turned his back on me.”
    â€œI’m about to do the same,” Dr. LeRoy said.
    â€œHe did to you what he did to me!” she wailed. “How could you forgive him for taking your Vera? She was just a child!”
    â€œThe Lord giveth and—”
    She slapped her fork on the table. “Stop with the platitudes! More power to you if you let God tear your life apart and come back for more. When he took both Kathleen and my Godfrey, he took all he’s going to get.”
    â€œI wish that were true.”
    â€œYou two go to your protracted meetings and leave me in peace.”
    â€œYou know what I’m going to do there, Aunt Agatha?” Elisabeth said brightly.
    â€œBesides roast in