noon
It 's the Rev. Theron Ware . '' The annual camp-meeting of the combined Methodist districts of Octavius and Thessaly was held this year in the second half of September , a little later than usual . Of the nine days devoted to this curious survival of primitive Wesleyanism , the fifth fell upon a Saturday . On the noon of that day the Rev. Theron Ware escaped for some hours from the burden of work and incessant observation which he shared with twenty other preachers , and walked alone in the woods . The scene upon which he turned his back was one worth looking at . A spacious , irregularly defined clearing in the forest lay level as a tennis-court , under the soft haze of autumn sunlight . In the centre was a large , roughly constructed frame building , untouched by paint , but stained and weather-beaten with time .