ain’t any fonder of kissing the emotional highlights of Brooklyn
than you be. You mark my words, Mr. T.’s endearments are going to
be declined, with thanks. There are limits to the privileges of
the elect, even in heaven. Why, if Adam was to show himself to
every new comer that wants to call and gaze at him and strike him
for his autograph, he would never have time to do anything else but
just that. Talmage has said he is going to give Adam some of his
attentions, as well as A., I. and J. But he will have to change
his mind about that.”
“Do you think Talmage will really come here?”
“Why, certainly, he will; but don’t you be alarmed; he will run
with his own kind, and there’s plenty of them. That is the main
charm of heaven – there’s all kinds here – which wouldn’t be the
case if you let the preachers tell it. Anybody can find the sort
he prefers, here, and he just lets the others alone, and they let
him alone. When the Deity builds a heaven, it is built right, and
on a liberal plan.”
Sandy sent home for his things, and I sent for mine, and about nine
in the evening we begun to dress. Sandy says, –
“This is going to be a grand time for you, Stormy. Like as not
some of the patriarchs will turn out.”
“No, but will they?”
“Like as not. Of course they are pretty exclusive. They hardly
ever show themselves to the common public. I believe they never
turn out except for an eleventh-hour convert. They wouldn’t do it
then, only earthly tradition makes a grand show pretty necessary on
that kind of an occasion.”
“Do they an turn out, Sandy?”
“Who? – all the patriarchs? Oh, no – hardly ever more than a
couple. You will be here fifty thousand years – maybe more –
before you get a glimpse of all the patriarchs and prophets. Since
I have been here, Job has been to the front once, and once Ham and
Jeremiah both at the same time. But the finest thing that has
happened in my day was a year or so ago; that was Charles Peace’s
reception – him they called ‘the Bannercross Murderer’ – an
Englishman. There were four patriarchs and two prophets on the
Grand Stand that time – there hasn’t been anything like it since
Captain Kidd came; Abel was there – the first time in twelve
hundred years. A report got around that Adam was coming; well, of
course, Abel was enough to bring a crowd, all by himself, but there
is nobody that can draw like Adam. It was a false report, but it
got around, anyway, as I say, and it will be a long day before I
see the like of it again. The reception was in the English
department, of course, which is eight hundred and eleven million
miles from the New Jersey line. I went, along with a good many of
my neighbors, and it was a sight to see, I can tell you. Flocks
came from all the departments. I saw Esquimaux there, and Tartars,
Negroes, Chinamen – people from everywhere. You see a mixture like
that in the Grand Choir, the first day you land here, but you
hardly ever see it again. There were billions of people; when they
were singing or hosannahing, the noise was wonderful; and even when
their tongues were still the drumming of the wings was nearly
enough to burst your head, for all the sky was as thick as if it
was snowing angels. Although Adam was not there, it was a great
time anyway, because we had three archangels on the Grand Stand –
it is a seldom thing that even one comes out.”
“What did they look like, Sandy?”
“Well, they had shining faces, and shining robes, and wonderful
rainbow wings, and they stood eighteen feet high, and wore swords,
and held their heads up in a noble way, and looked like soldiers.”
“Did they have halos?”
“No – anyway, not the hoop kind. The archangels and the upper-
class patriarchs wear a finer thing than that. It is a round,