diff options
Diffstat (limited to '15099.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 15099.txt | 6606 |
1 files changed, 6606 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/15099.txt b/15099.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7658283 --- /dev/null +++ b/15099.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6606 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hoosier Schoolmaster, by Edward Eggleston + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Hoosier Schoolmaster + A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana + +Author: Edward Eggleston + +Release Date: February 18, 2005 [EBook #15099] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOOSIER SCHOOLMASTER *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +THE HOOSIER +SCHOOLMASTER + +A Story of Backwoods Life +in Indiana + +REVISED + +with an introduction and Notes on the District +by the Author, + +EDWARD EGGLESTON + +With Character Sketches by + +F. OPPER + +and other Illustrations by + +W.E.B. STARKWEATHER + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + +1871 + + + + +AS A PEBBLE CAST UPON A GREAT +CAIRN, THIS EDITION IS INSCRIBED TO THE +MEMORY OF JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, +WHOSE CORDIAL ENCOURAGEMENT TO MY +EARLY STUDIES OF AMERICAN DIALECT IS +GRATEFULLY REMEMBERED. + +THE AUTHOR. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE LIBRARY EDITION. + +BEING THE HISTORY OF A STORY. + + +"THE HOOSIER SCHOOL-MASTER" was written and printed in the autumn of +1871. It is therefore now about twenty-one years old, and the publishers +propose to mark its coming of age by issuing a library edition. I avail +myself of the occasion to make some needed revisions, and to preface the +new edition with an account of the origin and adventures of the book. If +I should seem to betray unbecoming pride in speaking of a story that has +passed into several languages and maintained an undiminished popularity +for more than a score of years, I count on receiving the indulgence +commonly granted to paternal vanity when celebrating the majority of a +first-born. With all its faults on its head, this little tale has become +a classic, in the bookseller's sense at least; and a public that has +shown so constant a partiality for it has a right to feel some curiosity +regarding its history. + +I persuade myself that additional extenuation for this biography of a +book is to be found in the relation which "The Hoosier School-Master" +happens to bear to the most significant movement in American literature +in our generation. It is the file-leader of the procession of American +dialect novels. Before the appearance of this story, the New England +folk-speech had long been employed for various literary purposes, it is +true; and after its use by Lowell, it had acquired a standing that made +it the classic _lingua rustica_ of the United States. Even Hoosiers and +Southerners when put into print, as they sometimes were in rude +burlesque stories, usually talked about "huskin' bees" and "apple-parin' +bees" and used many other expressions foreign to their vernacular. +American literature hardly touched the speech and life of the people +outside of New England; in other words, it was provincial in the narrow +sense. + +I can hardly suppose that "The Hoosier School-Master" bore any causative +relation to that broader provincial movement in our literature which now +includes such remarkable productions as the writings of Mr. Cable, Mr. +Harris, Mr. Page, Miss Murfree, Mr. Richard Malcom Johnson, Mr. Howe, +Mr. Garland, some of Mrs. Burnett's stories and others quite worthy of +inclusion in this list. The taking up of life in this regional way has +made our literature really national by the only process possible. The +Federal nation has at length manifested a consciousness of the +continental diversity of its forms of life. The "great American novel," +for which prophetic critics yearned so fondly twenty years ago, is +appearing in sections. I may claim for this book the distinction, such +as it is, of being the first of the dialect stories that depict a life +quite beyond New England influence. Some of Mr. Bret Harte's brief and +powerful tales had already foreshadowed this movement toward a larger +rendering of our life. But the romantic character of Mr. Harte's +delightful stories and the absence of anything that can justly be called +dialect in them mark them as rather forerunners than beginners of the +prevailing school. For some years after the appearance of the present +novel, my own stories had to themselves the field of provincial realism +(if, indeed, there be any such thing as realism) before there came the +succession of fine productions which have made the last fourteen years +notable. + +Though it had often occurred to me to write something in the dialect now +known as Hoosier--the folk-speech of the southern part of Ohio, Indiana, +and Illinois of forty years ago--I had postponed the attempt +indefinitely, probably because the only literary use that had been made +of the allied speech of the Southwest had been in the books of the +primitive humorists of that region. I found it hard to dissociate in my +own mind the dialect from the somewhat coarse boisterousness which +seemed inseparable from it in the works of these rollicking writers. It +chanced that in 1871 Taine's lectures on "Art in the Netherlands," or +rather Mr. John Durand's translation of them, fell into my hands as a +book for editorial review. These discourses are little else than an +elucidation of the thesis that the artist of originality will work +courageously with the materials he finds in his own environment. In +Taine's view, all life has matter for the artist, if only he have eyes +to see. + +Many years previous to the time of which I am now speaking, while I was +yet a young man, I had projected a lecture on the Hoosier folk-speech, +and had even printed during the war a little political skit in that +dialect in a St. Paul paper. So far as I know, nothing else had ever +been printed in the Hoosier. Under the spur of Taine's argument, I now +proceeded to write a short story wholly in the dialect spoken in my +childhood by rustics on the north side of the Ohio River. This tale I +called "The Hoosier School-Master." It consisted almost entirely of an +autobiographical narration in dialect by Mirandy Means of the incidents +that form the groundwork of the present story. I was the newly +installed editor of a weekly journal, _Hearth and Home_, and I sent this +little story in a new dialect to my printer. It chanced that one of the +proprietors of the paper saw a part of it in proof. He urged me to take +it back and make a longer story out of the materials, and he expressed +great confidence in the success of such a story. Yielding to his +suggestion, I began to write this novel from week to week as it appeared +in the paper, and thus found myself involved in the career of a +novelist, which had up to that time formed no part of my plan of life. +In my inexperience I worked at a white-heat, completing the book in ten +weeks. Long before these weeks of eager toil were over, it was a +question among my friends whether the novel might not write _finis_ to +me before I should see the end of it. + +The sole purpose I had in view at first was the resuscitation of the +dead-and-alive newspaper of which I had ventured to take charge. One of +the firm of publishers thought much less favorably of my story than his +partner did. I was called into the private office and informed with some +severity that my characters were too rough to be presentable in a paper +so refined as ours. I confess they did seem somewhat too robust for a +sheet so anaemic as _Hearth and Home_ had been in the months just +preceding. But when, the very next week after this protest was made, the +circulation of the paper increased some thousands at a bound, my +employer's critical estimate of the work underwent a rapid change--a +change based on what seemed to him better than merely literary +considerations. By the time the story closed, at the end of fourteen +instalments, the subscription list had multiplied itself four or five +fold. It is only fair to admit, however, that the original multiplicand +had been rather small. + +Papers in Canada and in some of the other English colonies transferred +the novel bodily to their columns, and many of the American country +papers helped themselves to it quite freely. It had run some weeks of +its course before it occurred to any one that it might profitably be +reprinted in book form. The publishers were loath to risk much in the +venture. The newspaper type was rejustified to make a book page, and +barely two thousand copies were printed for a first edition. I remember +expressing the opinion that the number was too large. + +"The Hoosier School-Master" was pirated with the utmost promptitude by +the Messrs. Routledge, in England, for that was in the barbarous days +before international copyright, when English publishers complained of +the unscrupulousness of American reprinters, while they themselves +pounced upon every line of American production that promised some +shillings of profit. "The Hoosier School-Master" was brought out in +England in a cheap, sensational form. The edition of ten thousand has +long been out of print. For this large edition and for the editions +issued in the British colonies and in continental Europe I have never +received a penny. A great many men have made money out of the book, but +my own returns have been comparatively small. For its use in serial form +I received nothing beyond my salary as editor. On the copyright edition +I have received the moderate royalty allowed to young authors at the +outset of their work. The sale of the American edition in the first +twenty years amounted to seventy thousand copies. The peculiarity of +this sale is its steadiness. After twenty years, "The Hoosier +School-Master" is selling at the average rate of more than three +thousand copies per annum. During the last half-dozen years the +popularity of the book has apparently increased, and its twentieth year +closed with a sale of twenty-one hundred in six months. Only those who +are familiar with the book trade and who know how brief is the life of +the average novel will understand how exceptional is this +long-continued popularity. + +Some of the newspaper reviewers of twenty years ago were a little +puzzled to know what to make of a book in so questionable a shape, for +the American dialect novel was then a new-comer. But nothing could have +given a beginner more genuine pleasure than the cordial commendation of +the leading professional critic of the time, the late Mr. George Ripley, +who wrote an extended review of this book for the _Tribune_. The monthly +magazines all spoke of "The Hoosier School-Master" in terms as favorable +as it deserved. I cannot pretend that I was content with these notices +at the time, for I had the sensitiveness of a beginner. But on looking +at the reviews in the magazines of that day, I am amused to find that +the faults pointed out in the work of my prentice hand are just those +that I should be disposed to complain of now, if it were any part of my +business to tell the reader wherein I might have done better. + +_The Nation_, then in its youth, honored "The Hoosier School-Master" by +giving it two pages, mostly in discussion of its dialect, but dispensing +paradoxical praise and censure in that condescending way with which we +are all familiar enough. According to its critic, the author had +understood and described the old Western life, but he had done it +"quite sketchily, to be sure." Yet it was done "with essential truth and +some effectiveness." The critic, however instantly stands on the other +foot again and adds that the book "is not a captivating one." But he +makes amends in the very next sentence by an allusion to "the +faithfulness of its transcript of the life it depicts," and then +instantly balances the account on the adverse side of the ledger by +assuring the reader that "it has no interest of passion or mental +power." But even this fatal conclusion is diluted by a dependent clause. +"Possibly," says the reviewer, "the good feeling of the intertwined love +story may conciliate the good-will of some of the malcontent." One could +hardly carry further the fine art of oscillating between moderate +commendation and parenthetical damnation--an art that lends a factitious +air of judicial impartiality and mental equipoise. Beyond question, _The +Nation_ is one of the ablest weekly papers in the world; the admirable +scholarship of its articles and reviews in departments of special +knowledge might well be a subject of pride to any American. But its +inadequate reviews of current fiction add nothing to its value, and its +habitual tone of condescending depreciation in treating imaginative +literature of indigenous origin is one of the strongest discouragements +to literary production. + +The main value of good criticism lies in its readiness and penetration +in discovering and applauding merit not before recognized, or +imperfectly recognized. This is a conspicuous trait of Sainte-Beuve, the +greatest of all newspaper critics. He knew how to be severe upon +occasion, but he saw talent in advance of the public and dispensed +encouragement heartily, so that he made himself almost a foster-father +to the literature of his generation in France. But there is a class of +anonymous reviewers in England and America who seem to hold a +traditional theory that the function of a critic toward new-born talent +is analogous to that of Pharaoh toward the infant Jewish population[1]. + +During the first year after its publication "The Hoosier School-Master" +was translated into French and published in a condensed form in the +_Revue des Deux Mondes_. The translator was the writer who signs the +name M. Th. Bentzon, and who is well known to be Madame Blanc. This +French version afterward appeared in book form in the same volume with +one of Mr. Thomas Bailey Aldrich's stories and some other stories of +mine. In this latter shape I have never seen it. The title given to the +story by Madame Blanc was "Le Maitre d'Ecole de Flat Creek." It may be +imagined that the translator found it no easy task to get equivalents in +French for expressions in a dialect new and strange. "I'll be dog-on'd" +appears in French as "devil take me" ("_diable m'emporte_"), which is +not bad; the devil being rather a jolly sort of fellow, in French. "The +Church of the Best Licks" seems rather unrenderable, and I do not see +how the translator could have found a better phrase for it than +"_L'Eglise des Raclees_" though "_raclees_" does not convey the double +sense of "licks." "_Jim epelait vite comme l'eclair_" is not a good +rendering of "Jim spelled like lightning," since it is not the celerity +of the spelling that is the main consideration. "_Concours +d'epellation_" is probably the best equivalent for "spelling-school," +but it seems something more stately in its French dress. When Bud says, +with reference to Hannah, "I never took no shine that air way," the +phrase is rather too idiomatic for the French tongue, and it becomes "I +haven't run after that hare" ("_Je n'ai pas chasse ce lievre-la_"). +Perhaps the most sadly amusing thing in the translation is the way the +meaning of the nickname Shocky is missed in an explanatory foot-note. It +is, according to the translator, an abbreviation or corruption of the +English word "shocking," which expresses the shocking ugliness of the +child--"_qui exprime la laideur choquante de l'enfant_." + +A German version of "The Hoosier School-Master" was made about the time +of the appearance of the French translation, but of this I have never +seen a copy. I know of it only from the statement made to me by a German +professor, that he had read it in German before he knew any English. +What are the equivalents in High German for "right smart" and "dog-on" I +cannot imagine. + +Several years after the publication of "The Hoosier School-Master" it +occurred to Mr. H. Hansen, of Kjoege, in Denmark, to render it into +Danish. Among the Danes the book enjoyed a popularity as great, perhaps, +as it has had at home. The circulation warranted Mr. Hansen and his +publisher in bringing out several other novels of mine. The Danish +translator was the only person concerned in the various foreign +editions of this book who had the courtesy to ask the author's leave. +Under the old conditions in regard to international copyright, an author +came to be regarded as one not entitled even to common civilities in the +matter of reprinting his works--he was to be plundered without +politeness. As I look at the row of my books in the unfamiliar Danish, I +am reminded of that New England mother who, on recovering her children +carried away by the Canadian Indians, found it impossible to communicate +with a daughter who spoke only French and a son who knew nothing but the +speech of his savage captors. Mr. Hansen was thoughtful enough to send +me the reviews of my books in the Danish newspapers; and he had the +double kindness to translate these into English and to leave out all but +those that were likely to be agreeable to my vanity. Of these I remember +but a single sentence, and that because it was expressed with felicity. +The reviewer said of the fun in "The Hoosier School-Master:" "This is +humor laughing to keep from bursting into tears." + +A year or two before the appearance of "The Hoosier School-Master," a +newspaper article of mine touching upon American dialect interested Mr. +Lowell, and he urged me to "look for the foreign influence" that has +affected the speech of the Ohio River country. My reverence for him as +the master in such studies did not prevent me from feeling that the +suggestion was a little absurd. But at a later period I became aware +that North Irishmen used many of the pronunciations and idioms that +distinctly characterized the language of old-fashioned people on the +Ohio. Many Ulster men say "wair" for were and "air" for are, for +example. Connecting this with the existence of a considerable element of +Scotch-Irish names in the Ohio River region, I could not doubt that here +was one of the keys the master had bidden me look for. While pursuing at +a later period a series of investigations into the culture-history of +the American people in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, I +became much interested in the emigration to America from the north of +Ireland, a movement that waxed and waned as the great Irish-linen +industry of the last century declined or prospered. The first American +home of these Irish was Pennsylvania. A portion of them were +steady-going, psalm-singing, money-getting people, who in course of time +made themselves felt in the commerce, politics, and intellectual life of +the nation. There was also a dare-devil element, descended perhaps from +those rude borderers who were deported to Ireland more for the sake of +the peace of North Britain than for the benefit of Ireland. In this +rougher class there was perhaps a larger dash of the Celtic fire that +came from the wild Irish women whom the first Scotch settlers in Ulster +made the mothers of their progeny. Arrived in the wilds of Pennsylvania, +these Irishmen built rude cabins, planted little patches of corn and +potatoes, and distilled a whiskey that was never suffered to grow +mellow. The forest was congenial to men who spent much the larger part +of their time in boisterous sport of one sort or another. The +manufacture of the rifle was early brought to Lancaster, in +Pennsylvania, direct from the land of its invention by Swiss emigrants, +and in the adventurous Scotch-Irishman of the Pennsylvania frontier the +rifle found its fellow. Irish settlers became hunters of wild beasts, +explorers, pioneers, and warriors against the Indians, upon whom they +avenged their wrongs with relentless ferocity. Both the Irish race and +the intermingled Pennsylvania Dutch were prolific, and the up-country of +Pennsylvania soon overflowed. Emigration was held in check to the +westward for a while by the cruel massacres of the French and Indian +wars, and one river of population poured itself southward into the +fertile valleys of the Virginia mountain country; another and larger +flood swept still farther to the south along the eastern borders of the +Appalachian range until it reached the uplands of Carolina. When the +militia of one county in South Carolina was mustered during the +Revolution, it was found that every one of the thirty-five hundred men +enrolled were natives of Pennsylvania. These were mainly sons of North +Irishmen, and from the Carolina Irish sprang Calhoun, the most +aggressive statesman that has appeared in America, and Jackson, the most +brilliant military genius in the whole course of our history. Before the +close of the Revolution this adventurous race had begun to break over +the passes of the Alleghanies into the dark and bloody ground of +Kentucky and Tennessee. Soon afterward a multitude of Pennsylvanians of +all stocks--the Scotch-Irish and those Germans, Swiss, and Hollanders +who are commonly classed together as the Pennsylvania Dutch, as well as +a large number of people of English descent--began to migrate down the +Ohio Valley. Along with them came professional men and people of more or +less culture, chiefly from eastern Virginia and Maryland. There came +also into Indiana and Illinois, from the border States and from as far +south as North Carolina and Tennessee, a body of "poor whites." These +semi-nomadic people, descendants of the colonial bond-servants, formed, +in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, the lowest rank of +Hoosiers. But as early as 1845 there was a considerable exodus of these +to Missouri. From Pike County, in that State, they wended their way to +California, to appear in Mr. Bret Harte's stories as "Pikes." The +movement of this class out of Indiana went on with augmented volume in +the fifties. The emigrants of this period mostly sought the States lying +just west of the Mississippi, and the poorer sort made the trip in +little one-horse wagons of the sorriest description, laden mainly with +white-headed children and followed by the yellow curs that are the one +luxury indispensable to a family of this class. To this migration and to +a liberal provision for popular education Indiana owes a great +improvement in the average intelligence of her people. As early as 1880, +I believe, the State had come to rank with some of the New England +States in the matter of literacy. + +The folk-speech of the Ohio River country has many features in common +with that of the eastern Middle States, while it received but little +from the dignified eighteenth-century English of eastern Virginia. There +are distinct traces of the North-Irish in the idioms and in the peculiar +pronunciations. One finds also here and there a word from the +"Pennsylvania Dutch," such as "waumus" for a loose jacket, from the +German _wamms_, a doublet, and "smearcase" for cottage cheese, from the +German _schmierkaese_. The only French word left by the old _voyageurs_, +so far as I now remember, is "cordelle," to tow a boat by a rope carried +along the shore. + +Substantially the same folk-speech exists wherever the Pennsylvania +migration formed the main element of the primitive settlement. I have +heard the same dialect in the South Carolina uplands that one gets from +a Posey County Hoosier, or rather that one used to get in the old days +before the vandal school-master had reduced the vulgar tongue to the +monotonous propriety of what we call good English. + +In drawing some of the subordinate characters in this tale a little too +baldly from the model, I fell into an error common to inexperienced +writers. It is amusing to observe that these portrait characters seem +the least substantial of all the figures in the book. Dr. Small is a +rather unrealistic villain, but I knew him well and respected him in my +boyish heart for a most exemplary Christian of good family at the very +time that, according to testimony afterward given, he was diversifying +his pursuits as a practising physician by leading a gang of burglars. +More than one person has been pointed out as the original of Bud Means, +and I believe there are one or two men each of whom flatters himself +that he posed for the figure of the first disciple of the Church of the +Best Licks. Bud is made up of elements found in some of his race, but +not in any one man. Not dreaming that the story would reach beyond the +small circulation of _Hearth and Home_, I used the names of people in +Switzerland and Decatur counties, in Indiana, almost without being aware +of it. I have heard that a young man bearing the surname given to one of +the rudest families in this book had to suffer many gibes while a +student at an Indiana college. I here do public penance for my culpable +indiscretion. + +"Jeems Phillips," name and all, is a real person whom at the time of +writing this story I had not seen since I was a lad of nine and he a man +of nearly forty. He was a mere memory to me, and was put into the book +with some slighting remarks which the real Jeems did not deserve. I did +not know that he was living, and it did not seem likely that the story +would have vitality enough to travel all the way to Indiana. But the +portion referring to Phillips was transferred to the county paper +circulating among Jeems' neighbors. For once the good-natured man was, +as they say in Hoosier, "mad," and he threatened to thrash the editor. +"Do you think he means you?" demanded the editor. "To be sure he does," +said the champion speller. "Can you spell?" "I can spell down any master +that ever came to our district," he replied. As time passed on, +Phillips found himself a lion. Strangers desired an introduction to him +as a notability, and invited the champion to dissipate with them at the +soda fountain in the village drug store. It became a matter of pride +with him that he was the most famous speller in the world. Two years +ago, while visiting the town of my nativity, I met upon the street the +aged Jeems Phillips, whom I had not seen for more than forty years. I +would go far to hear him "spell down" a complacent school-master once +more. + +The publication of this book gave rise to an amusing revival of the +spelling-school as a means of public entertainment, not in rustic +regions alone, but in towns also. The furor extended to the great cities +of New York and London, and reached at last to farthest Australia, +spreading to every region in which English is spelled or spoken. But the +effect of the chapter on the spelling-school was temporary and +superficial; the only organization that came from the spelling-school +mania, so far as I know, was an association of proof-readers in London +to discuss mooted points. The sketch of the Church of the Best Licks, +however, seems to have made a deep and enduring impression upon +individuals and to have left some organized results. I myself +endeavored to realize it, and for five years I was the pastor of a +church in Brooklyn, organized on a basis almost as simple as that in the +Flat Creek school-house. The name I rendered into respectable English, +and the Church of the Best Licks became the Church of Christian +Endeavor. It was highly successful in doing that which a church ought to +do, and its methods of work have been widely copied. After my work as a +minister had been definitely closed, the name and the underlying thought +of this church were borrowed for a young people's society; and thus the +little story of good endeavor in Indiana seems to have left a permanent +mark on the ecclesiastical organization of the time. + +If any one, judging by the length of this preface, should conclude that +I hold my little book in undue esteem, let him know that I owe it more +than one grudge. It is said that Thomas Campbell, twenty years after the +appearance of his best-known poem, was one day introduced as "the author +of 'The Pleasures of Hope.'" "Confound 'The Pleasures of Hope,'" he +protested; "can't I write anything else?" So, however much I may prefer +my later work, more carefully wrought in respect of thought, structure, +and style, this initial novel, the favorite of the larger public, has +become inseparably associated with my name. Often I have mentally +applied Campbell's imprecation on "The Pleasures of Hope" to this +story. I could not write in this vein now if I would, and twenty-one +years have made so many changes in me that I dare not make any but minor +changes in this novel. The author of "The Hoosier School-Master" is +distinctly not I; I am but his heir and executor; and since he is a more +popular writer than I, why should I meddle with his work? I have, +however, ventured to make some necessary revision of the diction, and +have added notes, mostly with reference to the dialect. + +A second grudge against this story is that somehow its readers persist +in believing it to be a bit of my own life. Americans are credulous +believers in that miracle of the imagination whom no one has ever seen +in the flesh--the self-made man. Some readers of "The Hoosier +School-Master" have settled it for a certainty that the author sprang +from the rustic class he has described. One lady even wrote to inquire +whether my childhood were not represented in Shocky, the little lad out +of the poor-house. A biographical sketch of me in Italian goes so far as +to state that among the hard resorts by which I made a living in my +early life was the teaching of a Sunday-school in Chicago. + +No one knows so well as I the faults of immaturity and inexperience that +characterize this book. But perhaps after all the public is right in so +often preferring an author's first book. There is what Emerson would +have called a "central spontaneity" about the work of a young man that +may give more delight to the reader than all the precision of thought +and perfection of style for which we strive as life advances. + +JOSHUA'S ROCK ON LAKE GEORGE, 1892. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Since writing the passage in the text, I have met with the +following in _The Speaker_, of London: "Everybody knows that when an +important work is published in history, philosophy, or any branch of +science, the editor of a respectable paper employs an expert to review +it; . . . indeed, the more abstruse the subject of the book, the more +careful and intelligent you will find the review. . . . It is equally +well known that works of fiction and books of verse are not treated with +anything like the same care. . . . A good poem, play, or novel is at +least as fine an achievement as a good history; yet the history gets the +benefit of an expert's judgment and two columns of thoughtful pimse or +censure, while the poem, play, or novel is treated to ten skittish lines +by the hack who happens to be within nearest call when the book comes +in."] + + + + +PART OF THE PREFACE TO THE + +FIRST EDITION. + + +I may as well confess, what it would be affectation to conceal, that I +am more than pleased with the generous reception accorded to this story +as a serial in the columns of _Hearth and Home_. It has been in my mind +since I was a Hoosier boy to do something toward describing life in the +back-country districts of the Western States. It used to be a matter of +no little jealousy with us, I remember, that the manners, customs, +thoughts, and feelings of New England country people filled so large a +place in books, while our life, not less interesting, not less romantic, +and certainly not less filled with humorous and grotesque material, had +no place in literature. It was as though we were shut out of good +society. And, with the single exception of Alice Gary, perhaps, our +Western writers did not dare speak of the West otherwise than as the +unreal world to which Cooper's lively imagination had given birth. + +I had some anxiety lest Western readers should take offence at my +selecting what must always seem an exceptional phase of life to those +who have grown up in the more refined regions of the West. But nowhere +has the School-master been received more kindly than in his own country +and among his own people. + +Some of those who have spoken generous words of the School-master and +his friends have suggested that the story is an autobiography. But it is +not, save in the sense in which every work of art is an autobiography: +in that it is the result of the experience and observation of the +writer. Readers will therefore bear in mind that not Ralph nor Bud nor +Brother Sodom nor Dr. Small represents the writer, nor do I appear, as +Talleyrand said of Madame de Stael, "disguised as a woman," in the +person of Hannah or Mirandy. Some of the incidents have been drawn from +life; none of them, I believe, from my own. I should like to be +considered a member of the Church of the Best Licks, however. + +It has been in my mind to append some remarks, philological and +otherwise, upon the dialect, but Professor Lowell's admirable and +erudite preface to the Biglow Papers must be the despair of every one +who aspires to write on Americanisms. To Mr. Lowell belongs the +distinction of being the only one of our most eminent authors and the +only one of our most eminent scholars who has given careful attention to +American dialects. But while I have not ventured to discuss the +provincialisms of the Indiana backwoods, I have been careful to preserve +the true _usus loquendi_ of each locution. + +BROOKLYN, December, 1871. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER I + PAGE +A Private Lesson from a Bulldog . . . 37 + +CHAPTER II. +A Spell Coming. . . . . . . . . . . . 52 + +CHAPTER III. +Mirandy, Hank, and Shocky . . . . . . 57 + +CHAPTER IV. +Spelling Down the Master. . . . . . . 70 + +CHAPTER V. +The Walk Home . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 + +CHAPTER VI. +A Night at Pete Jones's . . . . . . . 97 + +CHAPTER VII +Ominous Remarks of Mr. Jones. . . . . 105 + +CHAPTER VIII. +The Struggle in the Dark. . . . . . . 109 + +CHAPTER IX. +Has God Forgotten Shocky? . . . . . . 114 + +CHAPTER X. +The Devil of Silence. . . . . . . . . 118 + +CHAPTER XI. +Miss Martha Hawkins . . . . . . . . . 125 + +CHAPTER XII. +The Hardshell Preacher. . . . . . . . 133 + +CHAPTER XIII. +A Struggle for the Mastery. . . . . . 143 + +CHAPTER XIV. +A Crisis with Bud . . . . . . . . . . 150 + +CHAPTER XV. +The Church of the Best Licks. . . . . 157 + +CHAPTER XVI. +The Church Militant . . . . . . . . . 163 + +CHAPTER XVII. +A Council of War. . . . . . . . . . . 169 + +CHAPTER XVIII. +Odds and Ends . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 + +CHAPTER XIX. +Face to Face. . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 + +CHAPTER XX. +God Remembers Shocky. . . . . . . . . 185 + +CHAPTER XXI. +Miss Nancy Sawyer . . . . . . . . . . 192 + +CHAPTER XXII. +Pancakes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 + +CHAPTER XXIII. +A Charitable Institution. . . . . . . 203 + +CHAPTER XXIV +The Good Samaritan. . . . . . . . . . 212 + +CHAPTER XXV. +Bud Wooing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 + +CHAPTER XXVI. +A Letter and its Consequences . . . . 220 + +CHAPTER XXVII. +A Loss and a Gain . . . . . . . . . . 224 + +CHAPTER XXVIII. +The Flight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 + +CHAPTER XXIX. +The Trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 + +CHAPTER XXX. +"Brother Sodom" . . . . . . . . . . . 249 + +CHAPTER XXXI. +The Trial Concluded . . . . . . . . . 254 + +CHAPTER XXXII. +After the Battle. . . . . . . . . . . 269 + +CHAPTER XXXIII. +Into the Light. . . . . . . . . . . . 274 + +CHAPTER XXXIV. +"How it Came Out" . . . . . . . . . . 278 + + + + +The Hoosier School-Master. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A PRIVATE LESSON FROM A BULLDOG. + + +"Want to be a school-master, do you? You? Well, what would _you_ do in +Flat Crick deestrick, _I'd_ like to know? Why, the boys have driv off +the last two, and licked the one afore them like blazes. You might teach +a summer school, when nothin' but children come. But I 'low it takes a +right smart _man_ to be school-master in Flat Crick in the winter. +They'd pitch you out of doors, sonny, neck and heels, afore Christmas." + +The young man, who had walked ten miles to get the school in this +district, and who had been mentally reviewing his learning at every step +he took, trembling lest the committee should find that he did not know +enough, was not a little taken aback at this greeting from "old Jack +Means," who was the first trustee that he lighted on. The impression +made by these ominous remarks was emphasized by the glances which he +received from Jack Means's two sons. The older one eyed him from the top +of his brawny shoulders with that amiable look which a big dog turns on +a little one before shaking him. Ralph Hartsook had never thought of +being measured by the standard of muscle. This notion of beating +education into young savages in spite of themselves dashed his ardor. + +He had walked right to where Jack Means was at work shaving shingles in +his own front yard. While Mr. Means was making the speech which we have +set down above, and punctuating it with expectorations, a large brindle +bulldog had been sniffing at Ralph's heels, and a girl in a new +linsey-woolsey dress, standing by the door, had nearly giggled her head +off at the delightful prospect of seeing a new school-teacher eaten up +by the ferocious brute. + +The disheartening words of the old man, the immense muscles of the young +man who was to be his rebellious pupil, the jaws of the ugly bulldog, +and the heartless giggle of the girl, gave Ralph a delightful sense of +having precipitated himself into a den of wild beasts. Faint with +weariness and discouragement, and shivering with fear, he sat down on a +wheelbarrow. + +"You, Bull!" said the old man to the dog, which was showing more and +more a disposition to make a meal of the incipient pedagogue, "you, +Bull! git aout[2], you pup!" The dog walked sullenly off, but not until +he had given Ralph a look full of promise of what he meant to do when he +got a good chance. Ralph wished himself back in the village of +Lewisburg, whence he had come. + +"You see," continued Mr. Means, spitting in a meditative sort of a way, +"you see, we a'n't none of your saft sort in these diggings. It takes a +_man_ to boss this deestrick. Howsumdever, ef you think you kin trust +your hide in Flat Crick school-house I ha'n't got no 'bjection. But ef +you git licked, don't come on us. Flat Crick don't pay no 'nsurance, you +bet! Any other trustees? Wal, yes. But as I pay the most taxes, t'others +jist let me run the thing. You can begin right off a Monday. They a'n't +been no other applications. You see, it takes grit to apply for this +school. The last master had a black eye for a month. But, as I wuz +sayin', you can jist roll up and wade in. I 'low you've got spunk, +maybe, and that goes for a heap sight more'n sinnoo with boys. Walk in, +and stay over Sunday with me. You'll hev' to board roun', and I guess +you better begin here." + +Ralph did not go in, but sat out on the wheelbarrow, watching the old +man shave shingles, while the boys split the blocks and chopped wood. +Bull smelled of the new-comer again in an ugly way, and got a good kick +from the older son for his pains. But out of one of his red eyes the dog +warned the young school-master that _he_ should yet suffer for all kicks +received on his account. + +"Ef Bull once takes a holt, heaven and yarth can't make him let go," +said the older son to Ralph, by way of comfort. + +It was well for Ralph that he began to "board roun'" by stopping at Mr. +Means's. Ralph felt that Flat Creek was what he needed. He had lived a +bookish life; but here was his lesson in the art of managing people, for +he who can manage the untamed and strapping youths of a winter school in +Hoopole County has gone far toward learning one of the hardest of +lessons. And in Ralph's time, things were worse than they are now. The +older son of Mr. Means was called Bud Means. What his real name was, +Ralph could not find out, for in many of these families the nickname of +"Bud" given to the oldest boy, and that of "Sis," which is the +birth-right of the oldest girl, completely bury the proper Christian +name. Ralph saw his first strategic point, which was to capture Bud +Means. + +After supper, the boys began to get ready for something. Bull stuck up +his ears in a dignified way, and the three or four yellow curs who were +Bull's satellites yelped delightedly and discordantly. + +"Bill," said Bud Means to his brother, "ax the master ef he'd like to +hunt coons. I'd like to take the starch out uv the stuck-up feller." + +"'Nough said[3]," was Bill's reply. + +"You durn't[4] do it," said Bud. + +"I don't take no sech a dare[5]," returned Bill, and walked down to the +gate, by which Ralph stood watching the stars come out, and half wishing +he had never seen Flat Creek. + +"I say, mister," began Bill, "mister, they's a coon what's been a eatin' +our chickens lately, and we're goin' to try to ketch[6] the varmint. +You wouldn't like to take a coon hunt nor nothin', would you?" + +"Why, yes," said Ralph, "there's nothing I should like better, if I +could only be sure Bull wouldn't mistake me for the coon." + +And so, as a matter of policy, Ralph dragged his tired legs eight or ten +miles, on hill and in hollow, after Bud, and Bill, and Bull, and the +coon. But the raccoon[7] climbed a tree. The boys got into a quarrel +about whose business it was to have brought the axe, and who was to +blame that the tree could not be felled. Now, if there was anything +Ralph's muscles were good for, it was climbing. So, asking Bud to give +him a start, he soon reached the limb above the one on which the raccoon +was. Ralph did not know how ugly a customer a raccoon can be, and so +got credit for more courage than he had. With much peril to his legs +from the raccoon's teeth, he succeeded in shaking the poor creature off +among the yelping brutes and yelling boys. Ralph could not help +sympathizing with the hunted animal, which sold its life as dearly as +possible, giving the dogs many a scratch and bite. It seemed to him that +he was like the raccoon, precipitated into the midst of a party of dogs +who would rejoice in worrying _his_ life out, as Bull and his crowd were +destroying the poor raccoon. When Bull at last seized the raccoon and +put an end to it, Ralph could not but admire the decided way in which he +did it, calling to mind Bud's comment, "Ef Bull once takes a holt, +heaven and yarth[8] can't make him let go." + +But as they walked home, Bud carrying the raccoon by the tail, Ralph +felt that his hunt had not been in vain. He fancied that even red-eyed +Bull, walking uncomfortably close to his heels, respected him more +since he had climbed that tree. + +"Purty peart kind of a master," remarked the old man to Bud, after Ralph +had gone to bed. "Guess you better be a little easy on him. Hey?" + +But Bud deigned no reply. Perhaps because he knew that Ralph heard the +conversation through the thin partition. + +Ralph woke delighted to find it raining. He did not want to hunt or fish +on Sunday, and this steady rain would enable him to make friends with +Bud. I do not know how he got started, but after breakfast he began to +tell stories. Out of all the books he had ever read he told story after +story. And "old man Means," and "old _Miss_ Means," and Bud Means, and +Bill Means, and Sis Means listened with great eyes while he told of +Sinbad's adventures, of the Old Man of the Sea, of Robinson Crusoe, of +Captain Gulliver's experiences in Liliput, and of Baron Munchausen's +exploits. + +Ralph had caught his fish. The hungry minds of these backwoods people +were refreshed with the new life that came to their imaginations in +these stories. For there was but one book in the Means library, and +that, a well-thumbed copy of "Captain Riley's Narrative," had long since +lost all freshness. + +"I'll be dog-on'd[9]," said Bill, emphatically, "ef I hadn't 'ruther +hear the master tell them whoppin' yarns than to go to a circus the best +day I ever seed!" Bill could pay no higher compliment. + +What Ralph wanted was to make a friend of Bud. It's a nice thing to +have the seventy-four-gun ship on your own side, and the more Hartsook +admired the knotted muscles of Bud Means the more he desired to attach +him to himself. So, whenever he struck out a peculiarly brilliant +passage, he anxiously watched Bud's eye. But the young Philistine kept +his own counsel. He listened, but said nothing, and the eyes under his +shaggy brows gave no sign. Ralph could not tell whether those eyes were +deep and inscrutable or only stolid. Perhaps a little of both. When +Monday morning came, Ralph was nervous. He walked to school with Bud. + +"I guess you're a little skeered by what the old man said, a'n't you?" + +Ralph was about to deny it, but on reflection concluded that it was best +to speak the truth. He said that Mr. Means's description of the school +had made him feel a little down-hearted. + +"What will you do with the tough boys? You a'n't no match for 'em." And +Ralph felt Bud's eyes not only measuring his muscles, but scrutinizing +his countenance. He only answered: + +"I don't know." + +"What would you do with me, for instance?" and Bud stretched himself up +as if to shake out the reserve power coiled up in his great muscles. + +"I sha'n't have any trouble with you." + +"Why, I'm the wust chap of all. I thrashed the last master, myself." + +And again the eyes of Bud Means looked out sharply from his shadowing +brows to see the effect of this speech on the slender young man. + +"You won't thrash me, though," said Ralph. + +"Pshaw! I 'low I could whip you in an inch of your life with my left +hand, and never half try," said young Means, with a threatening sneer. + +"I know that as well as you do." + +"Well, a'n't you afraid of me, then?" and again he looked sidewise at +Ralph. + +"Not a bit," said Ralph, wondering at his own courage. + +They walked on in silence a minute. Bud was turning the matter over. + +"Why a'n't you afraid of me?" he said presently. + +"Because you and I are going to be friends." + +"And what about t'others?" + +"I am not afraid of all the other boys put together." + +"You a'n't! The mischief! How's that?" + +"Well, I'm not afraid of them because you and I are going to be friends, +and you can whip all of them together. You'll do the fighting and I'll +do the teaching." + +The diplomatic Bud only chuckled a little at this; whether he assented +to the alliance or not Ralph could not tell. + +When Ralph looked round on the faces of the scholars--the little faces +full of mischief and curiosity, the big faces full of an expression +which was not further removed than second-cousin from contempt--when +when young Hartsook looked into these faces, his heart palpitated with +stage-fright. There is no audience so hard to face as one of +school-children, as many a man has found to his cost. Perhaps it is that +no conventional restraint can keep down their laughter when you do or +say anything ridiculous. + +Hartsook's first day was hurried and unsatisfactory. He was not of +himself, and consequently not master of anybody else. When evening came, +there were symptoms of insubordination through the whole school. Poor +Ralph was sick at heart. He felt that if there had ever been the shadow +of an alliance between himself and Bud, it was all "off" now. It seemed +to Hartsook that even Bull had lost his respect for the teacher. Half +that night the young man lay awake. At last comfort came to him. A +reminiscence of the death of the raccoon flashed on him like a vision. +He remembered that quiet and annihilating bite which Bull gave. He +remembered Bud's certificate, that "Ef Bull once takes a holt, heaven +and yarth can't make him let go." He thought that what Flat Creek needed +was a bulldog. He would be a bulldog, quiet, but invincible. He would +take hold in such a way that nothing should make him let go. And then he +went to sleep. + +In the morning Ralph got out of bed slowly. He put his clothes on +slowly. He pulled on his boots in a bulldog mood. He tried to move as he +thought Bull would move if he were a man. He ate with deliberation, and +looked everybody in the eyes with a manner that made Bud watch him +curiously. He found himself continually comparing himself with Bull. He +found Bull possessing a strange fascination for him. He walked to school +alone, the rest having gone on before. He entered the school-room +preserving a cool and dogged manner. He saw in the eyes of the boys that +there was mischief brewing. He did not dare sit down in his chair for +fear of a pin. Everybody looked solemn. Ralph lifted the lid of his +desk. "Bow-wow! wow-wow!" It was the voice of an imprisoned puppy, and +the school giggled and then roared. Then everything was quiet. + +The scholars expected an outburst of wrath from the teacher. For they +had come to regard the whole world as divided into two classes, the +teacher on the one side representing lawful authority, and the pupils on +the other in a state of chronic rebellion. To play a trick on the master +was an evidence of spirit; to "lick" the master was to be the crowned +hero of Flat Creek district. Such a hero was Bud Means; and Bill, who +had less muscle, saw a chance to distinguish himself on a teacher of +slender frame. Hence the puppy in the desk. + +Ralph Hartsook grew red in the face when he saw the puppy. But the cool, +repressed, bulldog mood in which he had kept himself saved him. He +lifted the dog into his arms and stroked him until the laughter +subsided. Then, in a solemn and set way, he began: + +"I am sorry," and he looked round the room with a steady, hard +eye--everybody felt that there was a conflict coming--"I am sorry that +any scholar in this school could be so mean"--the word was uttered with +a sharp emphasis, and all the big boys felt sure that there would be a +fight with Bill Means, and perhaps with Bud--"could be so _mean_--as +to--shut up his _brother_ in such a place as that!" + +There was a long, derisive laugh. The wit was indifferent, but by one +stroke Ralph had carried the whole school to his side. By the +significant glances of the boys, Hartsook detected the perpetrator of +the joke, and with the hard and dogged look in his eyes, with just such +a look as Bull would give a puppy, but with the utmost suavity in his +voice, he said: + +"William Means, will you be so good as to put this dog out of doors?" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 2: _Aout_ is not the common form of _out_, as it is in certain +rustic New England regions. The vowel is here drawn in this way for +imperative emphasis, and it occurs as a consequence of drawling speech.] + +[Footnote 3: "_'Nough said_" is more than enough said for the French +translator, who takes it apparently for a sort of barbarous negative and +renders it, "I don't like to speak to him." I need hardly explain to any +American reader that _enough said_ implies the ending of all discussion +by the acceptance of the proposition or challenge.] + +[Footnote 4: _Durn't, daren't, dasent, dursent_, and _don't dast_ are +forms of this variable negative heard in the folk-speech of various +parts of the country. The tenses of this verb seem to have got +hopelessly mixed long ago, even in literary use, and the speech of the +people reflects the historic confusion.] + +[Footnote 5: _To take a dare_ is an expression used in senses +diametrically opposed. Its common sense is that of the text. The man who +refuses to accept a challenge is said to take a dare, and there is some +implication of cowardice in the imputation. On the other hand, one who +accepts a challenge is said also to take the dare.] + +[Footnote 6: Most bad English was once good English. _Ketch_ was used by +writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for _catch_. A New +Hampshire magistrate in the seventeenth century spells it _caitch_, and +probably pronounced it in that way. _Ketch_, a boat, was sometimes +spelled _catch_ by the first American colonists, and the far-fetched +derivation of the word from the Turkish may be one of the fancies of +etymologists.] + +[Footnote 7: The derivation of _raccoon_ from the French _raton_, to +which Mr. Skeat gives currency, still holds its place in some of our +standard dictionaries. If American lexicographers would only read the +literature of American settlement they would know that Mr. Skeat's +citation of a translation of Buffon is nearly two centuries too late. As +early as 1612 Captain John Smith gives _aroughcune_ as the aboriginal +Virginia word, and more than one New England writer used _rackoon_ a few +years later.] + +[Footnote 8: This prefixed _y_ is a mark of a very illiterate or antique +form of the dialect. I have known _piece yarthen_ used for "a piece of +earthen" [ware], the preposition getting lost in the sound of the _y_. I +leave it to etymologists to determine its relation to that ancient +prefix that differentiates _earn_ in one sense from _yearn_. But the +article before a vowel may account for it if we consider it a +corruption. "The earth" pronounced in a drawling way will produce _the +yearth_. In the New York Documents is a letter from one Barnard Hodges, +a settler in Delaware in the days of Governor Andros, whose spelling +indicates a free use of the parasitic _y_. He writes "yunless," +"yeunder" (under), "yunderstanding," "yeundertake," and "yeouffeis" +(office).] + +[Footnote 9: Like many of the ear-marks of this dialect, the verb +"dog-on" came from Scotland, presumably by the way of the north of +Ireland. A correspondent of _The Nation_ calls attention to the use of +"dagon" as Scotch dialect in Barrie's "Little Minister," a recent book. +On examining that story, I find that the word has precisely the sense of +our Hoosier "dog-on," which is to be pronounced broadly as a Hoosier +pronounces dog--"daug-on." If Mr. Barrie gives his _a_ the broad sound, +his "dagon" is nearly identical with "dog-on." Here are some detached +sentences from "The Little Minister:" + +"Beattie spoke for more than himself when he said: 'Dagon that Manse! I +never gie a swear but there it is glowering at me.'" + +"'Dagon religion,' Rob retorted fiercely; 't spoils a' thing.'" + +"There was some angry muttering from the crowd, and young Charles Yuill +exclaimed, 'Dagon you, would you lord it ower us on week-days as well as +on Sabbaths?'" + +"'Have you on your Sabbath shoon or have you no on your Sabbath shoon?' +'Guid care you took I should ha'e the dagont things on!' retorted the +farmer." + +It will be seen that "dagont," as used above, is the Scotch form of +"dog-oned." But Mr. Barrie uses the same form apparently for "dog-on it" +in the following passage: + +"Ay, there was Ruth when she was na wanted, but Ezra, dagont, it looked +as if Ezra had jumped clean out o' the Bible!" + +Strangely enough, this word as a verb is not to be found in Jamieson's +dictionary of the Scottish dialect, but Jamieson gives "dugon" as a +noun. It is given in the supplement to Jamieson, however, as "dogon," +but still as a noun, with an ancient plural _dogonis_. It is explained +as "a term of contempt." The example cited by Jamieson is Hogg's "Winter +Tales," I. 292, and is as follows: + +"What wad my father say if I were to marry a man that loot himsel' be +thrashed by Tommy Potts, a great supple wi' a back nae stiffer than a +willy brand? . . . When one comes to close quarters wi' him he's but a +dugon." + +Halliwell and Wright give _dogon_ as a noun, and mark it Anglo-Norman, +but they apparently know it only from Jamieson and the supplement to +Jamieson, where _dogguin_ is cited from Cotgrave as meaning "a filthie +old curre," and _doguin_ from Roquefort, defined by "brutal, currish" +[hargneux]. A word with the same orthography, _doguin_, is still used in +French for puppy. It is of course a question whether the noun _dogon_ +and its French antecedents are connected with the American verb +_dog-on_. It is easy to conceive that such an epithet as _dogon_ might +get itself mixed up with the word dog, and so become an imprecation. For +instance, a servant in the family of a friend of mine in Indiana, +wishing to resign her place before the return of some daughters of the +house whom she had never seen, announced that she was going to leave +"before them dog-on girls got home." Here the word might have been the +old epithet, or an abbreviated participle. _Dogged_ is apparently a +corruption of dog-on in the phrase "I'll be dogged." I prefer _dog-on_ +to _dogone_, because in the dialect the sense of setting a dog on is +frequently present to the speaker, though far enough away from the +primitive sense of the word; perhaps.] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +A SPELL COMING. + + +There was a moment of utter stillness; but the magnetism of Ralph's eye +was too much for Bill Means. The request was so polite, the master's +look was so innocent and yet so determined. Bill often wondered +afterward that he had not "fit" rather than obeyed the request. But +somehow he put the dog out. He was partly surprised, partly inveighed, +partly awed into doing just what he had not intended to do. In the week +that followed, Bill had to fight half a dozen boys for calling him +"Puppy Means." Bill said he wished he'd licked the master on the spot. +'Twould 'a' saved five fights out of the six. + +And all that day and the next, the bulldog in the master's eye was a +terror to evil-doers. At the close of school on the second day Bud was +heard to give it as his opinion that "the master wouldn't be much in a +tussle, but he had a heap of thunder and lightning in him." + +Did he inflict corporal punishment? inquires some philanthropic friend. +Would you inflict corporal punishment if you were tiger-trainer in Van +Amburgh's happy family? But poor Ralph could never satisfy his +constituency in this regard. + +"Don't believe he'll do," was Mr. Pete Jones's comment to Mr. Means. +"Don't thrash enough. Boys won't l'arn 'less you thrash 'em, says I. +Leastways, mine won't. Lay it on good is what I says to a master. Lay it +on good. Don't do no harm. Lickin' and l'arnin' goes together. No +lickin', no l'arnin', says I. Lickin' and l'arnin,' lickin' and larnin', +is the good ole way." + +And Mr. Jones, like some wiser people, was the more pleased with his +formula that it had an alliterative sound. Nevertheless, Ralph was +master from this time until the spelling-school came. If only it had not +been for that spelling-school! Many and many a time after the night of +the fatal spelling-school Ralph used to say, "If only it had not been +for that spelling-school!" + +There had to be a spelling-school. Not only for the sake of my story, +which would not have been worth the telling if the spelling-school had +not taken place, but because Flat Creek district had to have a +spelling-school. It is the only public literary exercise known in +Hoopole County. It takes the place of lyceum lecture and debating club. +Sis Means, or, as she wished now to be called, Mirandy Means, expressed +herself most positively in favor of it. She said that she 'lowed the +folks in that district couldn't in no wise do without it. But it was +rather to its social than to its intellectual benefits that she +referred. For all the spelling-schools ever seen could not enable her to +stand anywhere but at the foot of the class. There is one branch +diligently taught in a backwoods school. The public mind seems impressed +with the difficulties of English orthography, and there is a solemn +conviction that the chief end of man is to learn to spell. "'Know +Webster's Elementary' came down from Heaven," would be the backwoods +version of the 'Greek saying but that, unfortunately for the Greeks, +their fame has not reached so far. It often happens that the pupil does +not know the meaning of a single word in the lesson. This is of no +consequence. What do you want to know the meaning of a word for? Words +were made to be spelled, and men were probably created that they might +spell them. Hence the necessity for sending a pupil through the +spelling-book five times before you allow him to begin to read, or +indeed to do anything else. Hence the necessity for those long +spelling-classes at the close of each forenoon and afternoon session of +the school, to stand at the head of which is the cherished ambition of +every scholar. Hence, too, the necessity for devoting the whole of the +afternoon session of each Friday to a "spelling-match." In fact, +spelling is the "national game" in Hoopole County. Baseball and croquet +matches are as unknown as Olympian chariot-races. Spelling and +shucking[10] are the only public competitions. + +So the fatal spelling-school had to be appointed for the Wednesday of +the second week of the session, just when Ralph felt himself master of +the situation. Not that he was without his annoyances. One of Ralph's +troubles in the week before the spelling-school was that he was loved. +The other that he was hated. And while the time between the appointing +of the spelling tournament and the actual occurrence of that remarkable +event is engaged in elapsing, let me narrate two incidents that made it +for Ralph a trying time. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 10: In naming the several parts of the Indian corn and the +dishes made from it, the English language was put to many shifts. Such +words as _tassel_ and _silk_ were poetically applied to the blossoms; +_stalk_, _blade_, and _ear_ were borrowed from other sorts of corn, and +the Indian tongues were forced to pay tribute to name the dishes +borrowed from the savages. From them we have _hominy_, _pone_, _supawn_, +and _succotash_. For other nouns words were borrowed from English +provincial dialects. _Shuck_ is one of these. On the northern belt, +shucks are the outer covering of nuts; in the middle and southern +regions the word is applied to what in New England is called the husks +of the corn. _Shuck_, however, is much more widely used than _husk_ in +colloquial speech--the farmers in more than half of the United States +are hardly acquainted with the word _husk_ as applied to the envelope of +the ear. _Husk_, in the Middle States, and in some parts of the South +and West, means the bran of the cornmeal, as notably in Davy Crockett's +verse: + + "She sifted the meal, she gimme the hus'; + She baked the bread, she gimme the crus'; + She b'iled the meat, she gimme the bone; + She gimme a kick and sent me home." + +In parts of Virginia, before the war, the word _husk_ or _hus'_ meant +the cob or spike of the corn. "I smack you over wid a cawn-hus'" is a +threat I have often heard one negro boy make to another. _Cob_ is +provincial English for ear, and I have known "a cob of corn" used in +Canada for an ear of Indian corn. While writing this note "a cob of +Indian corn "--meaning an ear--appears in the report of an address by a +distinguished man at a recent meeting of the Royal Geographical Society. +A lady tells me that she met, in the book of an English traveller, the +remarkable statement that "the Americans are very fond of the young +grain called cob." These Indian-corn words have reached an accepted +meaning after a competition. To _shell_ corn, among the earliest +settlers of Virginia, meant to take it out of the envelope, which was +presumably called the shell. The analogy is with the shelling of pulse.] + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MIRANDY, HANK, AND SHOCKY. + + +Mirandy had nothing but contempt for the new master until he developed +the bulldog in his character. Mirandy fell in love with the bulldog. +Like many other girls of her class, she was greatly enamored with the +"subjection of women," and she stood ready to fall in love with any man +strong enough to be her master. Much has been said of the strong-minded +woman. I offer this psychological remark as a contribution to the +natural history of the weak-minded woman. + +It was at the close of that very second day on which Ralph had achieved +his first victory over the school, and in which Mirandy had been seized +with her desperate passion for him, that she told him about it. Not in +words. We do not allow _that_ in the most civilized countries, and still +less would it be tolerated in Hoopole County. But Mirandy told the +master the fact that she was in love with him, though no word passed her +lips. She walked by him from school. She cast at him what are commonly +called sheep's-eyes. Ralph thought them more like calf's eyes. She +changed the whole tone of her voice. She whined ordinarily. Now she +whimpered. And so by ogling him, by blushing at him, by tittering at +him, by giggling at him, by snickering at him, by simpering at him, by +making herself tenfold more a fool even than nature had made her, she +managed to convey to the dismayed soul of the young teacher the +frightful intelligence that he was loved by the richest, the ugliest, +the silliest, the coarsest, and the most entirely contemptible girl in +Flat Creek district. + +Ralph sat by the fire the next morning trying to read a few minutes +before school-time, while the boys were doing the chores and the bound +girl was milking the cows, with no one in the room but the old woman. +She was generally as silent as Bud, but now she seemed for some +unaccountable reason disposed to talk. She had sat down on the broad +hearth to have her usual morning smoke; the poplar table, adorned by no +cloth, stood in the middle of the floor; the unwashed blue teacups sat +in the unwashed blue saucers; the unwashed blue plates kept company with +the begrimed blue pitcher. The dirty skillets by the fire were kept in +countenance by the dirtier pots, and the ashes were drifted and strewn +over the hearth-stones in a most picturesque way. + +"You see," said the old woman, knocking the residuum from her cob pipe, +and chafing some dry leaf between her withered hands preparatory to +filling it again, "you see, Mr. Hartsook, my ole man's purty well along +in the world. He's got a right smart lot of this world's plunder[11], +one way and another." And while she stuffed the tobacco into her pipe +Ralph wondered why she should mention it to him. "You see, we moved in +here nigh upon twenty-five years ago. 'Twas when my Jack, him as died +afore Bud was born, was a baby. Bud'll be twenty-one the fif' of next +June." + +Here Mrs. Means stopped to rake a live coal out of the fire with her +skinny finger, and then to carry it in her skinny palm to the bowl--or +to the _hole_--of her cob pipe. When she got the smoke a-going, she +proceeded: + +"You see, this yere bottom land was all Congress land[12] in them there +days, and it sold for a dollar and a quarter, and I says to my ole man, +'Jack,' says I, 'Jack, do you git a plenty while you're a-gittin'. Git a +plenty while you're a-gittin',' says I, 'fer 'twon't never be no +cheaper'n 'tis now,' and it ha'n't been; I knowed 'twouldn't," and Mrs. +Means took the pipe from her mouth to indulge in a good chuckle at the +thought of her financial shrewdness. "'Git a plenty while you're +a-gittin' says I. I could see, you know, they was a powerful sight of +money in Congress land. That's what made me say, 'Git a plenty while +you're a-gittin'.' And Jack, he's wuth lots and gobs of money, all made +out of Congress land. Jack didn't git rich by hard work. Bless you, no! +Not him. That a'n't his way. Hard work a'n't, you know. 'Twas that air +six hundred dollars he got along of me, all salted down into Flat Crick +bottoms at a dollar and a quarter a' acre, and 'twas my sayin' 'Git a +plenty while you're a gittin'' as done it." And here the old ogre +laughed, or grinned horribly, at Ralph, showing her few straggling, +discolored teeth. + +Then she got up and knocked the ashes out of her pipe, and laid the pipe +away and walked round In front of Ralph. After adjusting the chunks[13] +so that the fire would burn, she turned her yellow face toward Ralph, +and scanning him closely came out with the climax of her speech in the +remark: "You see as how, Mr. Hartsook, the man what gits my Mirandy'll +do well. Flat Crick land's wuth nigt upon a hundred a' acre." + +This gentle hint came near knocking Ralph down. Had Flat Creek land been +worth a hundred times a hundred dollars an acre, and had he owned five +hundred times Means's five hundred acres, he would have given it all +just at that moment to have annihilated the whole tribe of Meanses. +Except Bud. Bud was a giant, but a good-natured one. He thought he would +except Bud from the general destruction. As for the rest, he mentally +pictured to himself the pleasure of attending their funerals. There was +one thought, however, between him and despair. He felt confident that +the cordiality, the intensity, and the persistency of his dislike of Sis +Means were such that he should never inherit a foot of the Flat Creek +bottoms. + +But what about Bud? What if he joined the conspiracy to marry him to +this weak-eyed, weak-headed wood-nymph, or backwoods nymph? + +If Ralph felt it a misfortune to be loved by Mirandy Means, he found +himself almost equally unfortunate in having incurred the hatred of the +meanest boy in school. "Hank" Banta, low-browed, smirky, and crafty, was +the first sufferer by Ralph's determination to use corporal punishment, +and so Henry Banta, who was a compound of deceit and resentment, never +lost an opportunity to annoy the young school-master, who was obliged to +live perpetually on his guard against his tricks. + +One morning, as Ralph walked toward the school-house, he met little +Shocky. What the boy's first name or last name was the teacher did not +know. He had given his name as Shocky, and all the teacher knew was that +he was commonly called Shocky, that he was an orphan, that he lived with +a family named Pearson over in Rocky Hollow, and that he was the most +faithful and affectionate child in the school. On this morning that I +speak of, Ralph had walked toward the school early to avoid the company +of Mirandy. But not caring to sustain his dignity longer than was +necessary, he loitered along the road, admiring the trunks of the +maples, and picking up a beech-nut now and then. Just as he was about +to go on toward the school, he caught sight of little Shocky running +swiftly toward him, but looking from side to side, as if afraid of being +seen. + +[Illustration: BETSY SHORT] + +"Well, Shocky, what is it?" and Ralph put his hand kindly on the great +bushy head of white hair from which came Shocky's nickname. Shocky had +to pant a minute. + +"Why, Mr. Hartsook," he gasped, scratching his head, "they's a pond down +under the school-house," and here Shocky's breath gave out entirely for +a minute. + +"Yes, Shocky, I know that. What about it? The trustees haven't come to +fill it up, have they?" + +"Oh! no, sir; but Hank Banta, you know--" and Shocky took another +breathing spell, standing as dose to Ralph as he could, for poor Shocky +got all his sunshine from the master's presence. + +"Has Henry fallen in and got a ducking, Shocky?" + +"Oh! no, sir; he wants to git you in, you see." + +"Well, I won't go in, though, Shocky." + +"But, you see, he's been and gone and pulled back the board that you +have to step on to git ahind your desk; he's been and gone and pulled +back the board so as you can't help a-tippin' it up, and a-sowsin' right +in ef you step there." + +"And so you came to tell me." There was a huskiness in Ralph's voice. +He had, then, one friend in Flat Creek district--poor little Shocky. He +put his arm around Shocky just a moment, and then told him to hasten +across to the other road, so as to come back to the school-house in a +direction at right angles to the master's approach. But the caution was +not needed. Shocky had taken care to leave in that way, and was +altogether too cunning to be seen coming down the road with Mr. +Hartsook. But after he got over the fence to go through the "sugar camp" +(or sugar _orchard_, as they say at the East), he stopped and turned +back once or twice, just to catch one more smile from Ralph. And then he +hied away through the tall trees, a very happy boy, kicking and +ploughing the brown leaves before him in his perfect delight, saying +over and over again: "How he looked at me! how he did look!" And when +Ralph came up to the school-house door, there was Shocky sauntering +along from the other direction, throwing bits of limestone at fence +rails, and smiling still clear down to his shoes at thought of the +master's kind words. + +"What a quare boy Shocky is!" remarked Betsey Short, with a giggle. "He +just likes to wander round alone. I see him a-comin' out of the sugar +camp just now. He's been in there half an hour." And Betsey giggled +again; for Betsey Short could giggle on slighter provocation than any +other girl on Flat Creek. + +When Ralph Hartsook, with the quiet, dogged tread that he was +cultivating, walked into the school-room, he took great care not to seem +to see the trap set for him; but he carelessly stepped over the board +that had been so nicely adjusted. The boys who were Hank's confidants in +the plot were very busy over their slates, and took pains not to show +their disappointment. + +The morning session wore on without incident. Ralph several times caught +two people looking at him. One was Mirandy. Her weak and watery eyes +stole loving glances over the top of her spelling-book, which she would +not study. Her looks made Ralph's spirits sink to forty below zero, and +congeal. + +But on one of the backless little benches that sat in the middle of the +school-room was little Shocky, who also cast many love glances at the +young master; glances as grateful to his heart as Mirandy's ogling--he +was tempted to call it ogring--was hateful. + +"Look at Shocky," giggled Betsey Short, behind her slate. "He looks as +if he was a-goin' to eat the master up, body and soul." + +And so the forenoon wore on as usual, and those who laid the trap had +forgotten it, themselves. The morning session was drawing to a close. +The fire in the great old fire-place had burnt low. The flames, which +seemed to Shocky to be angels, had disappeared, and now the bright +coals, which had played the part of men and women and houses in Shocky's +fancy, had taken on a white and downy covering of ashes, and the great +half-burnt back-log lay there smouldering like a giant asleep in a +snow-drift. Shocky longed to wake him up. + +As for Henry Banta, he was too much bothered to get the answer to a +"sum" he was doing, to remember anything about his trap. In fact, he had +quite forgotten that half an hour ago in the all-absorbing employment of +drawing ugly pictures on his slate and coaxing Betsey Short to giggle by +showing them slyly across the school-room. Once or twice Ralph had been +attracted to Betsey's extraordinary fits of giggling, and had come so +near to catching Hank that the boy thought it best not to run any +further risk of the beech switches, four or five feet long, laid up +behind the master in sight of the school as a prophylactic. Hence his +application just now to his "sum" in long division, and hence his +puzzled look, for, idler that he was, his "sums" did not solve +themselves easily. As usual in such cases, he came up in front of the +master's desk to have the difficulty explained. He had to wait a minute +until Ralph got through with showing Betsey Short, who had been seized +with a studying fit, and who could hardly give any attention to the +teacher's explanations, she did want to giggle so much! Not at anything +in particular, but just at things in general. + +While Ralph was "doing" Betsey's "sum" for her, he was solving a much +more difficult question. A plan had flashed upon him, but the punishment +seemed a severe one. He gave it up once or twice, but he remembered how +turbulent the Flat Creek elements were; and had he not inly resolved to +be as unrelenting as a bulldog? He fortified himself by recalling again +the oft-remembered remark of Bud, "Ef Bull wunst takes a holt, heaven +and yarth can't make him let go." And so he resolved to give Hank and +the whole school one good lesson. + +"Just step round behind me, Henry, and you can see how I do this," said +Ralph. + +Hank was entirely off his guard, and, with his eyes fixed upon the slate +on the teacher's desk, he sidled round upon the broad loose board +misplaced by his own hand, and in an instant the other end of the board +rose up in the middle of the school-room, almost striking Shocky in the +face, while Henry Banta went down into the ice-cold water beneath the +school-house. + +"Why, Henry!" cried Ralph, jumping to his feet with well-feigned +surprise. "How _did_ this happen?" him by the fire. + +Betsey Short giggled. + +Shocky was so tickled that he could hardly keep his seat. + +The boys who were in the plot looked very serious indeed. + +Ralph made some remarks by way of improving the occasion. He spoke +strongly of the utter meanness of the one who could play so heartless a +trick on a schoolmate. He said that it was as much thieving to get your +fun at the expense of another as to steal his money. And while he +talked, all eyes were turned on Hank--all except the eyes of Mirandy +Means. They looked simperingly at Ralph. All the rest looked at Hank. +The fire had made his face very red. Shocky noticed that. Betsey Short +noticed it, and giggled. The master wound up with an appropriate +quotation from Scripture. He said that the person who displaced that +board had better not be encouraged by the success--he said _success_ +with a curious emphasis--of the present experiment to attempt another +trick of the kind. For it was set down in the Bible that if a man dug a +pit for the feet of another he would be very likely to fall in it +himself. Which made all the pupils look solemn, except Betsey Short, who +giggled. And Shocky wanted to. And Mirandy cast an expiring look at +Ralph. And if the teacher was not love-sick, he certainly was sick of +Mirandy's love. + +[Illustration: HANK BANTA'S IMPROVED PLUNGE BATH] + +When school was "let out," Ralph gave Hank every caution that he could +about taking cold, and even lent him his overcoat, very much against +Hank's will. For Hank had obstinately refused to go home before the +school was dismissed. + +Then the master walked out in a quiet and subdued way to spend the noon +recess in the woods, while Shocky watched his retreating footsteps with +loving admiration. And the pupils not in the secret canvassed the +question of who moved the board. Bill Means said he'd bet Hank did it, +which set Betsey Short off in an uncontrollable giggle. And Shocky +listened innocently. + +But that night Bud said slyly: "Thunder and lightning! what a manager +you _air_, Mr. Hartsook!" To which Ralph returned no reply except a +friendly smile. Muscle paid tribute to brains that time. + +But Ralph had no time for exultation; for just here came the +spelling-school. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 11: This word _plunder_ is probably from Pennsylvania, as it +is exactly equivalent to the German word _plunder_, in the sense of +household effects, the original meaning of the word in German. Any kind +of baggage may be called _plunder_, but the most accepted sense is +household goods. It is quite seriously used. I have seen bills of lading +on the Western waters certifying that A.B. had shipped "1 lot of +plunder;" that is, household goods. It is here used figuratively for +goods in general.] + +[Footnote 12: _Congress land_ was the old designation for land owned by +the government. Under the Confederation, the Congress was the +government, and the forms of speech seem to have long retained the +notion that what belonged to the United States was the property of +Congress.] + +[Footnote 13: The commonest use of the word _chunk_ in the old days was +for the ends of the sticks of cord-wood burned in the great fireplaces. +As the sticks burned in two, the chunks fell down or rolled back on the +wall side of the andirons. By putting the chunks together, a new fire +was set a-going without fresh wood. This use of the word is illustrated +in a folk-rhyme or nursery jingle of the country which has neither sense +nor elegance to recommend it: + + "Old Mother Hunk + She got drunk + And fell in the fire + And kicked up a chunk." +] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SPELLING DOWN THE MASTER. + + +"I 'low," said Mrs. Means, as she stuffed the tobacco into her cob pipe +after supper on that eventful Wednesday evening: "I 'low they'll app'int +the Squire to gin out the words to-night. They mos' always do, you see, +kase he's the peartest[14] _ole_ man in this deestrick; and I 'low some +of the young fellers would have to git up and dust ef they would keep up +to him. And he uses sech remarkable smart words. He speaks so polite, +too. But laws! don't I remember when he was poarer nor Job's turkey? +Twenty year ago, when he come to these 'ere diggings, that air Squire +Hawkins was a poar Yankee school-master, that said 'pail' instid of +bucket, and that called a cow a 'caow,' and that couldn't tell to save +his gizzard what we meant by '_low_[15] and by _right smart_[16]. But +he's larnt our ways now, an' he's jest as civilized as the rest of us. +You would-n know he'd ever been a Yankee. He didn't stay poar long. Not +he. He jest married a right rich girl! He! he!" And the old woman +grinned at Ralph, and then at Mirandy, and then at the rest, until Ralph +shuddered. Nothing was so frightful to him as to be fawned on by this +grinning ogre, whose few lonesome, blackish teeth seemed ready to devour +him. "He didn't stay poar, you bet a hoss!" and with this the coal was +deposited on the pipe, and the lips began to crack like parchment as +each puff of smoke escaped. "He married rich, you see," and here another +significant look at the young master, and another fond look at Mirandy, +as she puffed away reflectively. "His wife hadn't no book-larnin'. She'd +been through the spellin'-book wunst, and had got as fur as 'asperity' +on it a second time. But she couldn't read a word when she was married, +and never could. She warn't overly smart. She hadn't hardly got the +sense the law allows. But schools was skase in them air days, and, +besides, book-larnin' don't do no good to a woman. Makes her stuck up. I +never knowed but one gal in my life as had ciphered into fractions, and +she was so dog-on stuck up that she turned up her nose one night at a +apple-peelin' bekase I tuck a sheet off the bed to splice out the +table-cloth, which was rather short. And the sheet was mos' clean too. +Had-n been slep on more'n wunst or twicet. But I was goin' fer to say +that when Squire Hawkins married Virginny Gray he got a heap o' money, +or, what's the same thing mostly, a heap o' good land. And that's +better'n book-larnin', says I. Ef a gal had gone clean through all +eddication, and got to the rule of three itself, that would-n buy a +feather-bed. Squire Hawkins jest put eddication agin the gal's farm, and +traded even, an' ef ary one of 'em got swindled, I never heerd no +complaints." + +And here she looked at Ralph in triumph, her hard face splintering into +the hideous semblance of a smile. And Mirandy cast a blushing, gushing, +all-imploring, and all-confiding look on the young master. + +"I say, ole woman," broke in old Jack, "I say, wot is all this 'ere +spoutin' about the Square fer?" and old Jack, having bit off an ounce of +"pigtail," returned the plug to his pocket. + +As for Ralph, he fell into a sort of terror. He had a guilty feeling +that this speech of the old lady's had somehow committed him beyond +recall to Mirandy. He did not see visions of breach-of-promise suits. +But he trembled at the thought of an avenging big brother. + +"Hanner, you kin come along, too, ef you're a mind, when you git the +dishes washed," said Mrs. Means to the bound girl, as she shut and +latched the back door. The Means family had built a new house in front +of the old one, as a sort of advertisement of bettered circumstances, an +eruption of shoddy feeling; but when the new building was completed, +they found themselves unable to occupy it for anything else than a +lumber room, and so, except a parlor which Mirandy had made an effort to +furnish a little (in hope of the blissful time when somebody should "set +up" with her of evenings), the new building was almost unoccupied, and +the family went in and out through the back door, which, indeed, was the +front door also, for, according to a curious custom, the "front" of the +house was placed toward the south, though the "big road" (Hoosier for +_highway_) ran along the north-west side, or, rather, past the +north-west corner of it. + +When the old woman had spoken thus to Hannah and had latched the door, +she muttered, "That gal don't never show no gratitude fer favors;" to +which Bud rejoined that he didn't think she had no great sight to be +pertickler thankful fer. To which Mrs. Means made no reply, thinking it +best, perhaps, not to wake up her dutiful son on so interesting a theme +as her treatment of Hannah. Ralph felt glad that he was this evening to +go to another boarding place. He should not hear the rest of the +controversy. + +Ralph walked to the school-house with Bill. They were friends again. For +when Hank Banta's ducking and his dogged obstinacy in sitting in his wet +clothes had brought on a serious fever, Ralph had called together the +big boys, and had said: "We must take care of one another, boys. Who +will volunteer to take turns sitting up with Henry?" He put his own name +down, and all the rest followed. + +"William Means and myself will sit up to-night," said Ralph. And poor +Bill had been from that moment the teacher's friend. He was chosen to be +Ralph's companion. He was Puppy Means no longer! Hank could not be +conquered by kindness, and the teacher was made to feel the bitterness +of his resentment long after. But Bill Means was for the time entirely +placated, and he and Ralph went to spelling-school together. + +Every family furnished a candle. There were yellow dips and white dips, +burning, smoking, and flaring. There was laughing, and talking, and +giggling, and simpering, and ogling, and flirting, and courting. What a +full-dress party is to Fifth Avenue, a spelling-school is to Hoopole +County. It is an occasion which is metaphorically inscribed with this +legend: "Choose your partners." Spelling is only a blind in Hoopole +County, as is dancing on Fifth Avenue. But as there are some in society +who love dancing for its own sake, so in Flat Creek district there were +those who loved spelling for its own sake, and who, smelling the battle +from afar, had come to try their skill in this tournament, hoping to +freshen the laurels they had won in their school-days. + +"I 'low," said Mr. Means, speaking as the principal school trustee, "I +'low our friend the Square is jest the man to boss this 'ere consarn +to-night. Ef nobody objects, I'll app'int him. Come, Square, don't be +bashful. Walk up to the trough, fodder or no fodder, as the man said to +his donkey." + +There was a general giggle at this, and many of the young swains took +occasion to nudge the girls alongside them, ostensibly for the purpose +of making them see the joke, but really for the pure pleasure of +nudging. The Greeks figured Cupid as naked, probably because he wears so +many disguises that they could not select a costume for him. + +The Squire came to the front. Ralph made an inventory of the +agglomeration which bore the name of Squire Hawkins, as follows: + +1. A swallow-tail coat of indefinite age, worn only on state occasions^ +when its owner was called to figure in his public capacity. Either the +Squire had grown too large or the coat too small. + +2. A pair of black gloves, the most phenomenal, abnormal, and unexpected +apparition conceivable in Flat Creek district, where the preachers wore +no coats in the summer, and where a black glove was never seen except on +the hands of the Squire. + +3. A wig of that dirty, waxen color so common to wigs. This one showed a +continual inclination to slip off the owner's smooth, bald pate, and the +Squire had frequently to adjust it. As his hair had been red, the wig +did not accord with his face, and the hair ungrayed was doubly +discordant with a countenance shrivelled by age. + +4. A semicircular row of whiskers hedging the edge of the jaw and chin. +These were dyed a frightful dead-black, such a color as belonged to no +natural hair or beard that ever existed. At the roots there was a +quarter of an inch of white, giving the whiskers the appearance of +having been stuck on. + +5. A pair of spectacles "with tortoise-shell rim." Wont to slip off. + +6. A glass eye, purchased of a peddler, and differing in color from its +natural mate, perpetually getting out of focus by turning in or out. + +7. A set of false teeth, badly fitted, and given to bobbing up and +down. + +8. The Squire proper, to whom these patches were loosely attached. + +It is an old story that a boy wrote home to his father begging him to +come West, because "mighty mean men get into office out here." But Ralph +concluded that some Yankees had taught school in Hoopole County who +would not have held a high place in the educational institutions of +Massachusetts. Hawkins had some New England idioms, but they were well +overlaid by a Western pronunciation. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he began, shoving up his spectacles, and sucking +his lips over his white teeth to keep them in place, "ladies and +gentlemen, young men and maidens, raley I'm obleeged to Mr. Means fer +this honor," and the Squire took both hands and turned the top of his +head round half an inch. Then he adjusted his spectacles. Whether he was +obliged to Mr. Means for the honor of being compared to a donkey was not +clear. "I feel in the inmost compartments of my animal spirits a most +happifying sense of the success and futility of all my endeavors to +sarve the people of Flat Creek deestrick, and the people of Tomkins +township, in my weak way and manner." This burst of eloquence was +delivered with a constrained air and an apparent sense of a danger that +he, Squire Hawkins, might fall to pieces in his weak way and manner, +and of the success and futility of all attempts at reconstruction. For +by this time the ghastly pupil of the left eye, which was black, was +looking away round to the left, while the little blue one on the right +twinkled cheerfully toward the front. The front teeth would drop down so +that the Squire's mouth was kept nearly closed, and his words whistled +through. + +"I feel as if I could be grandiloquent on this interesting occasion," +twisting his scalp round, "but raley I must forego any such exertions. +It is spelling you want. Spelling is the corner-stone, the grand, +underlying subterfuge, of a good eddication. I put the spellin'-book +prepared by the great Daniel Webster alongside the Bible. I do, raley. I +think I may put it ahead of the Bible. For if it wurn't fer +spellin'-books and sich occasions as these, where would the Bible be? I +should like to know. The man who got up, who compounded this work of +inextricable valoo was a benufactor to the whole human race or any +other." Here the spectacles fell off. The Squire replaced them in some +confusion, gave the top of his head another twist, and felt of his glass +eye, while poor Shocky stared in wonder, and Betsey Short rolled from +side to side in the effort to suppress her giggle. Mrs. Means and the +other old ladies looked the applause they could not speak. + +"I app'int Larkin Lanham and Jeems Buchanan fer captings," said the +Squire. And the two young men thus named took a stick and tossed it from +hand to hand to decide which should have the "first choice." One tossed +the stick to the other, who held it fast just where he happened to catch +it. Then the first placed his hand above the second, and so the hands +were alternately changed to the top. The one who held the stick last +without room for the other to take hold had gained the lot. This was +tried three times. As Larkin held the stick twice out of three times, he +had the choice. He hesitated a moment. Everybody looked toward tall Jim +Phillips. But Larkin was fond of a venture on unknown seas, and so he +said, "I take the master," while a buzz of surprise ran round the room, +and the captain of the other side, as if afraid his opponent would +withdraw the choice, retorted quickly, and with a little smack of +exultation and defiance in his voice, "And _I_ take Jeems Phillips." + +And soon all present, except a few of the old folks, found themselves +ranged in opposing hosts, the poor spellers lagging in, with what grace +they could, at the foot of the two divisions. The Squire opened his +spelling-book and began to give out the words to the two captains, who +stood up and spelled against each other. It was not long until Larkin +spelled "really" with one _l_, and had to sit down in confusion, while a +murmur of satisfaction ran through the ranks of the opposing forces. His +own side bit their lips. The slender figure of the young teacher took +the place of the fallen leader, and the excitement made the house very +quiet. Ralph dreaded the loss of prestige he would suffer if he should +be easily spelled down. And at the moment of rising he saw in the +darkest corner the figure of a well-dressed young man sitting in the +shadow. Why should his evil genius haunt him? But by a strong effort he +turned his attention away from Dr. Small, and listened carefully to the +words which the Squire did not pronounce very distinctly, spelling them +with extreme deliberation. This gave him an air of hesitation which +disappointed those on his own side. They wanted him to spell with a +dashing assurance. But he did not begin a word until he had mentally +felt his way through it. After ten minutes of spelling hard words Jeems +Buchanan, the captain on the other side, spelled "atrocious" with an _s_ +instead of a _c_, and subsided, his first choice, Jeems Phillips, coming +up against the teacher. This brought the excitement to fever-heat. For +though Ralph was chosen first, it was entirely on trust, and most of +the company were disappointed. The champion who now stood up against the +school-master was a famous speller. + +Jim Phillips was a tall, lank, stoop-shouldered fellow who had never +distinguished himself in any other pursuit than spelling. Except in this +one art of spelling he was of no account. He could not catch well or bat +well in ball. He could not throw well enough to make his mark in that +famous West ern game of bull-pen. He did not succeed well in any study +but that of Webster's Elementary. But in that he was--to use the usual +Flat Creek locution--in that he was "a boss." This genius for spelling +is in some people a sixth sense, a matter of intuition. Some spellers +are born, and not made, and their facility reminds one of the +mathematical prodigies that crop out every now and then to bewilder the +world. Bud Means, foreseeing that Ralph would be pitted against Jim +Phillips, had warned his friend that Jim could "spell like thunder and +lightning," and that it "took a powerful smart speller" to beat him, for +he knew "a heap of spelling-book." To have "spelled down the master" is +next thing to having whipped the biggest bully in Hoopole County, and +Jim had "spelled down" the last three masters. He divided the +hero-worship of the district with Bud Means. + +For half an hour the Squire gave out hard words. What a blessed thing +our crooked orthography is! Without it there could be no +spelling-schools. As Ralph discovered his opponent's mettle he became +more and more cautious. He was now satisfied that Jim would eventually +beat him. The fellow evidently knew more about the spelling-book than +old Noah Webster himself. As he stood there, with his dull face and long +sharp nose, his hands behind his back, and his voice spelling +infallibly, it seemed to Hartsook that his superiority must lie in his +nose. Ralph's cautiousness answered a double purpose; it enabled him to +tread surely, and it was mistaken by Jim for weakness. Phillips was now +confident that he should carry off the scalp of the fourth school-master +before the evening was over. He spelled eagerly, confidently, +brilliantly. Stoop-shouldered as he was, he began to straighten up. In +the minds of all the company the odds were in his favor. He saw this, +and became ambitious to distinguish himself by spelling without giving +the matter any thought. + +Ralph always believed that he would have been speedily defeated by +Phillips had it not been for two thoughts which braced him. The sinister +shadow of young Dr. Small sitting in the dark corner by the water-bucket +nerved him. A victory over Phillips was a defeat to one who wished only +ill to the young school-master. The other thought that kept his pluck +alive was the recollection of Bull. He approached a word as Bull +approached the raccoon. He did not take hold until he was sure of his +game. When he took hold, it was with a quiet assurance of success. As +Ralph spelled in this dogged way for half an hour the hardest words the +Squire could find, the excitement steadily rose in all parts of the +house, and Ralph's friends even ventured to whisper that "maybe Jim had +cotched his match, after all!" + +But Phillips never doubted of his success. + +"Theodolite," said the Squire. + +"T-h-e, the o-d, od, theod, o, theodo, l-y-t-e, theodolite," spelled the +champion. + +"Next," said the Squire, nearly losing his teeth In his excitement. +Ralph spelled the word slowly and correctly, and the conquered champion +sat down In confusion. The excitement was so great for some minutes that +the spelling was suspended. Everybody In the house had shown sympathy +with one or the other of the combatants, except the silent shadow in the +corner. It had not moved during the contest, and did not show any +interest now in the result. + +"Gewhilliky crickets! Thunder and lightning! Licked him all to smash!" +said Bud, rubbing his hands on his knees, "That beats my time all +holler!" + +And Betsey Short giggled until her tuck-comb fell out, though she was on +the defeated side. + +Shocky got up and danced with pleasure. + +But one suffocating look from the aqueous eyes of Mirandy destroyed the +last spark of Ralph's pleasure in his triumph, and sent that awful +below-zero feeling all through him. + +"He's powerful smart, is the master," said old Jack to Mr. Pete Jones. +"He'll beat the whole kit and tuck of 'em afore he's through. I know'd +he was smart. That's the reason I tuck him," proceeded Mr. Means. + +"Yaas, but he don't lick enough. Not nigh," answered Pete Jones. "No +lickin', no larnin', says I." + +It was now not so hard. The other spellers on the opposite side went +down quickly under the hard words which the Squire gave out. The master +had mowed down all but a few, his opponents had given up the battle, and +all had lost their keen interest in a contest to which there could be +but one conclusion, for there were only the poor spellers left. But +Ralph Hartsook ran against a stump where he was least expecting it. It +was the Squire's custom, when one of the smaller scholars or poorer +spellers rose to spell against the master, to give out eight or ten +easy words, that they might have some breathing-spell before being +slaughtered, and then to give a poser or two which soon settled them. He +let them run a little, as a cat does a doomed mouse. There was now but +one person left on the opposite side, and, as she rose in her blue +calico dress, Ralph recognized Hannah, the bound girl at old Jack +Means's. She had not attended school in the district, and had never +spelled in spelling-school before, and was chosen last as an uncertain +quantity. The Squire began with easy words of two syllables, from that +page of Webster, so well known to all who ever thumbed it, as "baker," +from the word that stands at the top of the page. She spelled these +words in an absent and uninterested manner. As everybody knew that she +would have to go down as soon as this preliminary skirmishing was over, +everybody began to get ready to go home, and already there was the buzz +of preparation. Young men were timidly asking girls if "they could see +them safe home," which was the approved formula, and were trembling in +mortal fear of "the mitten." Presently the Squire, thinking it time to +close the contest, pulled his scalp forward, adjusted his glass eye, +which had been examining his nose long enough, and turned over the +leaves of the book to the great words at the place known to spellers as +"incomprehensibility," and began to give out those "words of eight +syllables with the accent on the sixth." Listless scholars now turned +round, and ceased to whisper, in order to be in at the master's final +triumph. But to their surprise "ole Miss Meanses' white nigger," as some +of them called her in allusion to her slavish life, spelled these great +words with as perfect ease as the master. Still not doubting the result, +the Squire turned from place to place and selected all the hard words he +could find. The school became utterly quiet, the excitement was too +great for the ordinary buzz. Would "Meanses' Hanner" beat the master? +beat the master that had laid out Jim Phillips? Everybody's sympathy was +now turned to Hannah. Ralph noticed that even Shocky had deserted him, +and that his face grew brilliant every time Hannah spelled a word. In +fact, Ralph deserted himself. As he saw the fine, timid face of the girl +so long oppressed flush and shine with interest; as he looked at the +rather low but broad and intelligent brow and the fresh, white +complexion and saw the rich, womanly nature coming to the surface under +the influence of applause and sympathy--he did not want to beat. If he +had not felt that a victory given would insult her, he would have missed +intentionally. The bulldog, the stern, relentless setting of the will, +had gone, he knew not whither. And there had come in its place, as he +looked in that face, a something which he did not understand. You did +not, gentle reader, the first time it came to you. + +The Squire was puzzled. He had given out all the hard words in the book. +He again pulled the top of his head forward. Then he wiped his +spectacles and put them on. Then out of the depths of his pocket he +fished up a list of words just coming into use in those days--words not +in the spelling-book. He regarded the paper attentively with his blue +right eye. His black left eye meanwhile fixed itself in such a stare on +Mirandy Means that she shuddered and hid her eyes in her red silk +handkerchief. + +"Daguerreotype," sniffed the Squire. It was Ralph's turn. + +"D-a-u, dau--" + +"Next." + +And Hannah spelled it right. + +Such a buzz followed that Betsey Short's giggle could not be heard, but +Shocky shouted: "Hanner beat! my Hanner spelled down the master!" And +Ralph went over and congratulated her. + +And Dr. Small sat perfectly still in the corner. + +And then the Squire called them to order, and said: "As our friend +Hanner Thomson is the only one left on her side, she will have to spell +against nearly all on t'other side. I shall therefore take the liberty +of procrastinating the completion of this interesting and exacting +contest until to-morrow evening. I hope our friend Hanner may again +carry off the cypress crown of glory. There is nothing better for us +than healthful and kindly simulation." + +Dr. Small, who knew the road to practice, escorted Mirandy, and Bud went +home with somebody else. The others of the Means family hurried on, +while Hannah, the champion, stayed behind a minute to speak to Shocky. +Perhaps it was because Ralph saw that Hannah must go alone that he +suddenly remembered having left something which was of no consequence, +and resolved to go round by Mr. Means's and get it. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 14: _Peart_ or peert is only another form of the old word +_pert_--probably an older form. Bartlett cites an example of _peart_ as +far back as Sir Philip Sidney; and Halliwell finds it in various English +dialects. Davies, afterward president of Princeton College, describes +Dr. Lardner, in 1754, as "a little pert old gent." I do not know that +Dr. Daries pronounced his _pert_ as though it were _peart_, but he uses +it in the sense it has in the text, viz., bright-witted, intelligent. +The general sense of _peart_ is lively, either in body or mind.] + +[Footnote 15: Mr. Lowell suggested to me in 1869 that this word _'low_ +has no kinship with _allow_, but is an independent word for which he +gave a Low Latin original of similar sound. I have not been able to +trace any such word, but Mr. Lowell had so much linguistic knowledge of +the out-of-the-way sort that it may be worth while to record his +impression. Bartlett is wrong in defining this word, as he is usually in +his attempts to explain dialect outside of New England. It does not mean +"to declare, assert, maintain," etc. It is nearly the equivalent of +_guess_ in the Northern and Middle States, and of _reckon_ in the South. +It agrees precisely with the New England _calk'late_. Like all the rest +of these words it may have a strong sense by irony. When a man says, "I +'low that is a purty peart sort of a hoss," he understates for the sake +of emphasis. It is rarely or never _allow_, but simply _'low_. In common +with _calk'late_, it has sometimes a sense of purpose or expectation, as +when a man says, "I 'low to go to town to-morry."] + +[Footnote 16: No phrase of the Hoosier and South-western dialect is such +a stumbling-block to the outsider as _right smart_. The writer from the +North or East will generally use it wrongly. Mrs. Stowe says, "I sold +right smart of eggs," but the Hoosier woman as I knew her would have +said "a right smart lot of eggs" or "a right smart of eggs," using the +article and understanding the noun. A farmer omitting the preposition +boasts of having "raised right smart corn" this year. No expression +could have a more vague sense than this. In the early settlement of +Minnesota it was a custom of the land officers to require a residence of +about ten days on "a claim" in order to the establishment of a +pre-emption right. One of the receivers at a land office under +Buchanan's administration was a German of much intelligence who was very +sensitive regarding his knowledge of English. "How long has the claimant +lived on his claim?" he demanded of a Hoosier witness. "Oh, a right +smart while," was the reply. The receiver had not the faintest notion of +the meaning of the answer, but fearing to betray his ignorance of +English he allowed the land to be entered, though the claimant had spent +but about two hours in residing on his quarter-section.] + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE WALK HOME. + + +You expect me to describe that walk. You have had enough of the Jack +Meanses and the Squire Hawkinses, and the Pete Joneses, and the rest. +You wish me to tell you now of this true-hearted girl and her lover; of +how the silvery moonbeams came down in a shower--to use Whittier's +favorite metaphor--through the maple boughs, flecking the frozen ground +with light and shadow. You would have me tell of the evening star, not +yet gone down, which shed its benediction on them. But I shall do no +such thing. For the moon was not shining, neither did the stars give +their light. The tall, black trunks of the maples swayed and shook in +the wind, which moaned through their leafless boughs. Novelists always +make lovers walk in the moonlight. But if love is not, as the cynics +believe, all moonshine, it can at least make its own light. Moonlight is +never so little needed or heeded, never so much of an impertinence, as +in a love-scene. It was at the bottom of the first hollow beyond the +school-house that Ralph overtook the timid girl walking swiftly through +the dark. He did not ask permission to walk with her. Love does not go +by words, and there are times when conventionality is impossible. There +are people who understand one another at once. When one soul meets +another, it is not by pass-word, nor by hailing sign, nor by mysterious +grip that they recognize. The subtlest freemasonry in the world is this +freemasonry of the spirit. + +Ralph and Hannah knew and trusted. Ralph had admired and wondered at the +quiet drudge. But it was when, in the unaccustomed sunshine of praise, +she spread her wings a little, that he loved her. He had seen her awake. + +You, Miss Amelia, wish me to repeat all their love-talk. I am afraid +you'd find it dull. Love can pipe through any kind of a reed. Ralph +talked love to Hannah when he spoke of the weather, of the crops, of the +spelling-school. Weather, crops, and spelling-school--these were what +his words would say if reported. But below all these commonplaces there +vibrated something else. One can make love a great deal better when one +doesn't speak of love. Words are so poor! Tones and modulations are +better. It is an old story that Whitefield could make an audience weep +by his way of pronouncing the word Mesopotamia. A lover can sound the +whole gamut of his affection in saying Good-morning. The solemnest +engagements ever made have been without the intervention of speech. + +And you, my Gradgrind friend, you think me sentimental. Two young fools +they were, walking so slowly though the night was sharp, dallying under +the trees, and dreaming of a heaven they could not have realized if all +their wishes had been granted. Of course they were fools! Either they +were fools to be so happy, or else some other people are fools not to +be. After all, dear Gradgrind, let them be. There's no harm in it. +They'll get trouble enough before morning. Let them enjoy the evening. I +am not sure but these lovers whom we write down fools are the only wise +people after all. Is it not wise to be happy? Let them alone. + +For the first time in three years, for the first time since she had +crossed the threshold of "Old Jack Means" and come under the domination +of Mrs. Old Jack Means, Hannah talked cheerfully, almost gayly. It was +something to have a companion to talk to. It was something to be the +victor even in a spelling-match, and to be applauded even by Flat Creek. +And so, chatting earnestly about the most uninteresting themes, Ralph +courteously helped Hannah over the fence, and they took the usual +short-cut through the "blue-grass pasture." There came up a little +shower, hardly more than a sprinkle, but then It was so nice to have a +shower just as they reached the box-elder tree by the spring! It was so +thoughtful in Ralph to suggest that the shade of a box-elder is dense, +and that Hannah might take cold! And it was so easy for Hannah to yield +to the suggestion! Just as though she had not milked the cows in the +open lot in the worst storms of the last three years! And just as though +the house were not within a stone's-throw! Doubtless it was not prudent +to stop here. But let us deal gently with them. Who would not stay in an +earthy paradise ten minutes longer, even though it did make purgatory +the hotter afterward? And so Hannah stayed. + +"Tell me your circumstances," said Ralph, at last. "I am sure I can help +you in something." + +"No, no! you cannot," and Hannah's face was clouded. "No one can help +me. Only time and God. I must go, Mr. Hartsook." And they walked on to +the front gate in silence and in some constraint. But still in +happiness. + +As they came to the gate, Dr. Small pushed past them in his cool, +deliberate way, and mounted his horse. Ralph bade Hannah good-night, +having entirely forgotten the errand which had been his excuse to +himself for coming out of his way. He hastened to his new home, the +house of Mr. Pete Jones, the same who believed in the inseparableness of +"lickin' and larnin'." + +"You're a purty gal, a'n't you? You're a purty gal, a'n't you? _You_ +air! Yes, you _air_" and Mrs. Means seemed so impressed with Hannah's +prettiness that she choked on it, and could get no further. "A purty +gal! you! Yes! you air a mighty purty gal!" and the old woman's voice +rose till it could have been heard half a mile. "To be a-santerin' along +the big road after ten o'clock with the master! Who knows whether he's a +fit man fer anybody to go with? Arter all I've been and gone and done +fer you! That's the way you pay me! Disgrace me! Yes, I say disgrace me! +You're a mean, deceitful thing. Stuck up bekase you spelt the master +down. Ketch _me_ lettin' you got to spellin'-school to-morry night! +Ketch ME! Yes, ketch ME, I say!" + +"Looky here, marm," said Bud, "it seems to me you're a-makin' a blamed +furss about nothin'. Don't yell so's they'll hear you three or four +mile. You'll have everybody 'tween here and Clifty waked up." For Mrs. +Means had become so excited over the idea of being caught allowing +Hannah to go to spelling-school that she had raised her last "Ketch +me!" to a perfect whoop. + +"That's the way I'm treated," whimpered the old woman, who knew how to +take the "injured innocence" dodge as well as anybody. "That's the way +I'm treated. You allers take sides with that air hussy agin your own +flesh and blood. You don't keer how much trouble I have. Not you. Not a +dog-on'd bit. I may be disgraced by that air ongrateful critter, and you +set right here in my own house and sass me about it. A purty fellow you +air! An' me a-delvin' and a-drudgin' fer you all my born days. A purty +son, a'n't you?" + +Bud did not say another word. He sat in the chimney-corner and whistled +"Dandy Jim from Caroline." His diversion had produced the effect he +sought: for while his tender-hearted mother poured her broadside into +his iron-clad feelings, Hannah had slipped up the stairs to her garret +bedroom, and when Mrs. Means turned from the callous Bud to finish her +assault upon the sensitive girl, she could only gnash her teeth in +disappointment. + +Stung by the insults to which she could not grow insensible, Hannah lay +awake until the memory of that walk through the darkness came into her +soul like a benediction. The harsh voice of the scold died out, and the +gentle and courteous voice of Hartsook filled her soul. She recalled +piece by piece the whole conversation--all the commonplace remarks about +the weather; all the insignificant remarks about the crops; all the +unimportant words about the spelling-school. Not for the sake of the +remarks. Not for the sake of the weather. Not for the sake of the crops. +Not for the sake of the spelling-school. But for the sake of the +undertone. And then she traveled back over the three years of her +bondage and forward over the three years to come, and fed her heart on +the dim hope of rebuilding in some form the home that had been so happy. +And she prayed, with more faith than ever before, for deliverance. For +love brings faith. Somewhere on in the sleepless night she stood at the +window. The moon was shining now, and there was the path through the +pasture, and there was the fence, and there was the box-elder. + +She sat there a long time. Then she saw someone come over the fence and +walk to the tree, and then on toward Pete Jones's. Who could it be? She +thought she recognized the figure. But she was chilled and shivering, +and she crept back again into bed, and dreamed not of the uncertain days +to come, but of the blessed days that were past--of a father and a +mother and a brother in a happy home. But somehow the school-master was +there too. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A NIGHT AT PETE JONES'S. + + +When Ralph got to Pete Jones's he found that sinister-looking individual +in the act of kicking one of his many dogs out of the house. + +"Come in, stranger, come in. You'll find this 'ere house full of brats, +but I guess you kin kick your way around among 'em. Take a cheer. Here, +git out! go to thunder with you!" And with these mild imperatives he +boxed one of his boys over in one direction and one of his girls over in +the other. "I believe in trainin' up children to mind when they're spoke +to," he said to Ralph apologetically. But it seemed to the teacher that +he wanted them to mind just a little before they were spoken to. + +"P'raps you'd like a bed. Well, jest climb up the ladder on the outside +of the house. Takes up a thunderin' sight of room to have a stairs +inside, and we ha'n't got no room to spare. You'll find a bed in the +furdest corner. My Pete's already got half of it, and you can take +t'other half. Ef Pete goes to takin' his half in the middle, and tryin' +to make you take yourn on both sides, jest kick him." + +In this comfortless bed "in the furdest corner," Ralph found sleep out +of the question. Pete took three-fourths of the bed, and Hannah took all +of his thoughts. So he lay, and looked out through the cracks in the +"clapboards" (as they call rough shingles in the old West) at the stars. +For the clouds had now broken away. And he lay thus recounting to +himself, as a miser counts the pieces that compose his hoard, every step +of that road from the time he had overtaken Hannah in the hollow to the +fence. Then he imagined again the pleasure of helping her over, and then +he retraced the ground to the box-elder tree at the spring, and repeated +to himself the conversation until he came to the part in which she said +that only time and God could help her. What did she mean? What was the +hidden part of her life? What was the connection between her and Shocky? + +Hours wore on, and still the mind of Ralph Hartsook went back and +traveled the same road, over the fence, past the box-elder, up to the +inexplicable part of the conversation, and stood bewildered with the +same puzzling questions about the bound girl's life. + +At last he got up, drew on his clothes, and sat down on the top of the +ladder, looking down over the blue-grass pasture which lay on the border +between the land of Jones and the land of Means. The earth was white +with moonlight. He could not sleep. Why not walk? It might enable him to +sleep. And once determined on walking, he did not hesitate a moment as +to the direction in which he should walk. The blue-grass pasture (was it +not like unto the garden of Eden?) lay right before him. That box-elder +stood just in sight. To spring over the fence and take the path down the +hill and over the brook was as quickly done as decided upon. To stand +again under the box-elder, to climb again over the farther fence, and to +walk down the road toward the school-house was so easy and so delightful +that it was done without thought. For Ralph was an eager man--when he +saw no wrong in anything that proposed itself, he was wont to follow his +impulse without deliberation. And this keeping company with the stars, +and the memory of a delightful walk, were so much better than the +commonplace Flat Creek life that he threw himself into his night +excursion with enthusiasm. + +At last he stood in the little hollow where he had joined Hannah. It was +the very spot at which Shocky, too, had met him a few mornings before. +He leaned against the fence and tried again to solve the puzzle of +Hannah's troubles. For that she had troubles he did not doubt. Neither +did he doubt that he could help her if he could discover what they +were. But he had no clue. In the midst of This meditations he heard the +thud of horses' hoofs coming down the road. Until that moment he had not +felt his own loneliness. He shrank back into the fence-corner. The +horsemen were galloping. There were three of them, and there was one +figure that seemed familiar to Ralph. But he could not tell who it was. +Neither could he remember having seen the horse, which was a sorrel with +a white left forefoot and a white nose. The men noticed him and reined +up a little. Why he should have been startled by the presence of these +men he could not tell, but an indefinable dread seized him. They +galloped on, and he stood still shivering with a nervous fear. The cold +seemed to have got into his bones. He remembered that the region lying +on Flat Creek and Clifty Creek had the reputation of being infested with +thieves, who practiced horse-stealing and house-breaking. For ever since +the day when Murrell's confederate bands were paralyzed by the death of +their leader, there have still existed gangs of desperadoes in parts of +Southern Indiana and Illinois, and in Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, and the +Southwest. It is out of these materials that border ruffianism has +grown, and the nine members of the Reno band who were hanged two or +three years ago by lynch law[17], were remains of the bad blood that +came into the West in the days of Daniel Boone. Shall I not say that +these bands of desperadoes still found among the "poor whitey, +dirt-eater" class are the outcroppings of the bad blood sent from +England in convict-ships? Ought an old country to sow the fertile soil +of a colony with such noxious seed? + +Before Ralph was able to move, he heard the hoofs of another horse +striking upon the hard ground in an easy pace. The rider was Dr. Small. +He checked his horse in a cool way, and stood still a few seconds while +he scrutinized Ralph. Then he rode on, keeping the same easy gait as +before, Ralph had a superstitious horror of Henry Small. And, shuddering +with cold, he crept like a thief over the fence, past the tree, through +the pasture, back to Pete Jones's, never once thinking of the eyes that +looked out of the window at Means's. Climbing the ladder, he got into +bed, and shook as with the ague. He tried to reason himself out of the +foolish terror that possessed him, but he could not. + +Half an hour later he heard a latch raised. Were the robbers breaking +into the house below? He heard a soft tread upon the floor. Should he +rise and give the alarm? Something restrained him. He reflected that a +robber would be sure to stumble over some of the "brats." So he lay +still and finally slumbered, only awakening when the place in which he +slept was full of the smoke of frying grease from the room below. + +At breakfast Pete Jones scowled. He was evidently angry about something. +He treated Ralph with a rudeness not to be overlooked, as if he intended +to bring on a quarrel. Hartsook kept cool, and wished he could drive +from his mind all memory of the past night. Why should men on horseback +have any significance to him? He was trying to regard things in this +way, and from a general desire to keep on good terms with his host he +went to the stable to offer his services in helping to feed the stock. + +"Don't want no saft-handed help!" was all he got in return for his +well-meant offer. But just as he turned to leave the stable he saw what +made him tremble again. There was the same sorrel horse with a white +left forefoot and a white nose. + +To shake off his nervousness, Ralph started to school before the time. +But, plague upon plagues! Mirandy Means, who had seen him leave Pete +Jones's, started just in time to join him where he came into the big +road. Ralph was not in a good humor after his wakeful night, and to be +thus dogged by Mirandy did not help the matter. So he found himself +speaking crabbedly to the daughter of the leading trustee, in spite of +himself. + +"Hanner's got a bad cold this mornin' from bein' out last night, and she +can't come to spellin'-school to-night," began Mirandy, in her most +simpering voice. + +Ralph had forgotten that there was to be another spelling-school. It +seemed to him an age since the orthographical conflict of the past +night. This remark of Mirandy's fell upon his ear like an echo from the +distant past. He had lived a lifetime since, and was not sure that he +was the same man who was spelling for dear life against Jim Phillips +twelve hours before. But he was sorry to hear that Hannah had a cold. It +seemed to him, in his depressed state, that he was to blame for it. In +fact, it seemed to him that he was to blame for a good many things. He +seemed to have been committing sins in spite of himself. Broken nerves +and sleepless nights often result in a morbid conscience. And what +business had he to wander over this very road at two o'clock in the +morning, and to see three galloping horsemen, one of them on a horse +with a white left forefoot and a white nose? What business had he +watching Dr. Small as he went home from the bedside of a dying patient +near daylight in the morning? And because he felt guilty he felt cross +with Mirandy, and to her remark about Hannah he only replied that +"Hannah was a smart girl." + +"Yes," said Mirandy, "Bud thinks so." + +"Does he?" said Ralph. + +"I should say so. What's him and her been a-courtin' fer for a year ef +he didn't think she was smart? Marm don't like it; but ef Bud and her +does, and they seem to, I don't see as it's marm's lookout." + +When one is wretched, there is a pleasure in being entirely wretched. +Ralph felt that he must have committed some unknown crime, and that some +Nemesis was following him. Was Hannah deceitful? At least, if she were +not, he felt sure that he could supplant Bud. But what right had he to +supplant Bud? + +"Did you hear the news?" cried Shocky, running out to meet him. "The +Dutchman's house was robbed last night." + +Ralph thought of the three men on horseback, and to save his life he +could not help associating Dr. Small with them. And then he remembered +the sorrel horse with the left forefoot and muzzle white, and he +recalled the sound he had heard as of the lifting of a latch. And it +really seemed to him that in knowing what he did he was in some sense +guilty of the robbery. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 17: Written in 1871.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +OMINOUS REMARKS OF MR. JONES. + + +The school-master's mind was like ancient Gaul--divided into three +parts. With one part he mechanically performed his school duties. With +another he asked himself, What shall I do about the robbery? And with +the third he debated about Bud and Hannah. For Bud was not present, and +it was clear that he was angry, and there was a storm brewing. In fact, +it seemed to Ralph that there was a storm brewing all round the sky. For +Pete Jones was evidently angry at the thought of having been watched, +and it was fair to suppose that Dr. Small was not in any better humor +than usual. And so, between Bud's jealousy and revenge and the suspicion +and resentment of the men engaged in the robbery at "the Dutchman's" (as +the only German in the whole region was called), Ralph's excited nerves +had cause for tremor. At one moment he would resolve to have Hannah at +all costs. In the next his conscience would question the rightfulness of +the conclusion. Then he would make up his mind to tell all he knew +about the robbery. But if he told his suspicions about Small, nobody +would believe him. And if he told about Pete Jones, he really could tell +only enough to bring vengeance upon himself. And how could he explain +his own walk through the pasture and down the road? What business had he +being out of bed at two o'clock in the morning? The circumstantial +evidence was quite as strong against him as against the man on the horse +with the white left forefoot and the white nose. Suspicion might fasten +on himself. And then what would be the effect on his prospects? On the +people at Lewisburg? On Hannah? It is astonishing how much instruction +and comfort there is in a bulldog. This slender school-master, who had +been all his life repressing the animal and developing the finer nature, +now found a need of just what the bulldog had. And so, with the thought +of how his friend the dog would fight in a desperate strait, he +determined to take hold of his difficulties as Bull took hold of the +raccoon. Moral questions he postponed for careful decision. But for the +present he set his teeth together in a desperate, bulldog fashion, and +he set his feet down slowly, positively, bulldoggedly. After a wretched +supper at Pete Jones's he found himself at the spelling-school, which, +owing to the absence of Hannah, and the excitement about the burglary, +was a dull affair. Half the evening was spent in talking in little +knots. Pete Jones had taken the afflicted "Dutchman" under his own +particular supervision. + +"I s'pose," said Pete, "that them air fellers what robbed your house +must a come down from Jinkins Run. They're the blamedest set up there I +ever see." + +"Ya-as," said Schroeder, "put how did Yinkins vellers know dat I sell te +medder to te Shquire, hey? How tid Yinkins know anyting 'bout the +Shquire's bayin' me dree huntert in te hard gash--hey?" + +"Some scoundrels down in these 'ere parts is a-layin' in with Jinkins +Run, I'll bet a hoss," said Pete. Ralph wondered whether he'd bet the +one with the white left forefoot and the white nose. "Now," said Pete, +"ef I could find the feller that's a-helpin' them scoundrels rob us +folks, I'd help stretch him to the neardest tree." + +"So vood I," said Schroeder. "I'd shtretch him dill he baid me my dree +huntert tollars pack, so I vood." + +And Betsey Short, who had found the whole affair very funny, was +transported with a fit of tittering at poor Schroeder's English. Ralph, +fearing that his silence would excite suspicion, tried to talk. But he +could not tell what he knew, and all that he said sounded so hollow and +hypocritical that it made him feel guilty. And so he shut his mouth, and +meditated profitably on the subject of bull dogs. And when later he +overheard the garrulous Jones declare that he'd bet a hoss he could +p'int out somebody as know'd a blamed sight more'n they keerd to tell, +he made up his mind that if it came to p'inting out he should try to be +even with Jones. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE STRUGGLE IN THE DARK + + +It was a long, lonesome, fearful night that the school-master passed, +lying with nerves on edge and eyes wide open in that comfortless bed in +the "furdest corner" of the loft of Pete Jones's house, shivering with +cold, while the light snow that was falling sifted in upon the ragged +patch-work quilt that covered him. Nerves broken by sleeplessness +imagine many things, and for the first hour Ralph felt sure that Pete +would cut his throat before morning. + +And you, friend Callow, who have blunted your palate by swallowing the +Cayenne pepper of the penny-dreadfuls, you wish me to make this night +exciting by a hand-to-hand contest between Ralph and a robber. You would +like it better if there were a trap-door. There's nothing so convenient +as a trap-door, unless it be a subterranean passage. And you'd like +something of that sort just here. It's so pleasant to have one's hair +stand on end, you know, when one is safe from danger to one's self. But +if you want each individual hair to bristle with such a "Struggle in +the Dark," you can buy trap-doors and subterranean passages dirt cheap +at the next news-stand. But it was, indeed, a real and terrible +"Struggle in the Dark" that Ralph fought out at Pete Jones's. + +When he had vanquished his fears of personal violence by reminding +himself that it would be folly for Jones to commit murder in his own +house, the question of Bud and Hannah took the uppermost place in his +thoughts. And as the image of Hannah spelling against the master came up +to him, as the memory of the walk, the talk, the box-elder tree, and all +the rest took possession of him, it seemed to Ralph that his very life +depended upon his securing her love. He would shut his teeth like the +jaws of a bulldog, and all Bud's muscles should not prevail over his +resolution and his stratagems. + +It was easy to persuade himself that this was right. Hannah ought not to +throw herself away on Bud Means. Men of some culture always play their +conceit off against their consciences. To a man of literary habits it +usually seems to be a great boon that he confers on a woman when he +gives her his love. Reasoning thus, Ralph had fixed his resolution, and +if the night had been shorter, or sleep possible, the color of his life +might have been changed. + +But some time along in the tedious hours came the memory of his +childhood, the words of his mother, the old Bible stories, the +aspiration after nobility of spirit, the solemn resolutions to be true +to his conscience. These angels of the memory came flocking back before +the animal, the bull-doggedness, had "set," as workers in plaster say. +He remembered the story of David and Nathan, and it seemed to him that +he, with all his abilities and ambitions and prospects, was about to rob +Bud of the one ewe-lamb, the only thing he had to rejoice in in his +life. In getting Hannah, he would make himself unworthy of Hannah. And +then there came to him a vision of the supreme value of a true +character; how it was better than success, better than to be loved, +better than heaven. And how near he had been to missing it! And how +certain he was, when these thoughts should fade, to miss it! He was as +one fighting for a great prize who feels his strength failing and is +sure of defeat. + +This was the real, awful "Struggle in the Dark." A human soul fighting +with heaven in sight, but certain of slipping inevitably into hell! It +was the same old battle. The Image of God fought with the Image of the +Devil. It was the same fight that Paul described so dramatically when he +represented the Spirit as contending with the Flesh. Paul also called +this dreadful something the Old Adam, and I suppose Darwin would call it +the remains of the Wild Beast. But call it what you will, it is the +battle that every well-endowed soul must fight at some point. And to +Ralph it seemed that the final victory of the Evil, the Old Adam, the +Flesh, the Wild Beast, the Devil, was certain. For, was not the pure, +unconscious face of Hannah on the Devil's side? And so the battle had +just as well be given up at once, for it must be lost in the end. + +But to Ralph, lying there in the still darkness, with his conscience as +wide awake as if it were the Day of Doom, there seemed something so +terrible in this overflow of the better nature which he knew to be +inevitable as soon as the voice of conscience became blunted, that he +looked about for help. He did not at first think of God; but there came +into his thoughts the memory of a travel-worn Galilean peasant, hungry, +sleepy, weary, tempted, tried, like other men, but having a strange, +divine Victory in him by which everything evil was vanquished at his +coming. He remembered how He had reached out a Hand to every helpless +one, how He was the Helper of every weak one. And out of the depths of +his soul he cried to the Helper, and found comfort. Not victory, but, +what is better, strength. And so, without a thought of the niceties of +theological distinctions, without dreaming that it was the beginning of +a religious experience, he found what he needed, help. And the Helper +gave His beloved sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HAS GOD FORGOTTEN SHOCKY? + + +"Pap wants to know ef you would spend to-morry and Sunday at our house?" +said one of Squire Hawkins's girls, on the very next evening, which was +Friday. The old Squire was thoughtful enough to remember that Ralph +would not find it very pleasant "boarding out" all the time he was +entitled to spend at Pete Jones's. For in view of the fact that Mr. Pete +Jones sent seven children to the school, the "master" in Flat Creek +district was bound to spend two weeks in that comfortable place, +sleeping in a preoccupied bed, in the "furdest corner," with +insufficient cover, under an insufficient roof, and eating floating +islands of salt pork fished out of oceans of hot lard. Ralph was not +slow to accept the relief offered by the hospitable justice of the +peace, whose principal business seemed to be the adjustment of the +pieces of which he was composed. And as Shocky traveled the same road, +Ralph took advantage of the opportunity to talk with him. The master +could not dismiss Hannah wholly from his mind. He would at least read +the mystery of her life, if Shocky could be prevailed on to furnish the +clue. + +"Poor old tree!" said Shocky, pointing to a crooked and gnarled elm +standing by itself in the middle of a field. For when the elm, naturally +the most graceful of trees, once gets a "bad set," it can grow to be the +most deformed. This solitary tree had not a single straight limb. + +"Why do you say 'poor old tree'?" asked Ralph. + +"'Cause it's lonesome. All its old friends is dead and chopped down, and +there's their stumps a-standin' jes like grave-stones. It _must_ be +lonesome. Some folks says it don't feel, but I think it does. Everything +seems to think and feel. See it nodding its head to them other trees in +the woods? and a-wantin' to shake hands! But it can't move. I think that +tree must a growed in the night." + +"Why, Shocky?" + +"'Cause it's so crooked," and Shocky laughed at his own conceit; "must a +growed when they was no light so as it could see how to grow." + +And then they walked on in silence a minute. Presently Shocky began +looking up into Ralph's eyes to get a smile. "I guess that tree feels +just like me. Don't you?" + +"Why, how do you feel?" + +"Kind o' bad and lonesome, and like as if I wanted to die, you know. +Felt that way ever sence they put my father into the graveyard, and sent +my mother to the poor-house and Hanner to ole Miss Means's. What kind of +a place is a poor-house? Is it a poorer place than Means's? I wish I was +dead and one of them clouds was a-carryin' me and Hanner and mother up +to where father's gone, you know! I wonder if God forgets all about poor +folks when their father dies and their mother gits into the poor-house? +Do you think He does? Seems so to me. Maybe God lost track of my father +when he come away from England and crossed over the sea. Don't nobody on +Flat Creek keer fer God, and I guess God don't keer fer Flat Creek. But +I would, though, ef he'd git my mother out of the poor-house and git +Hanner away from Means's, and let me kiss my mother every night, you +know, and sleep on my Hanner's arm, jes like I used to afore father +died, you see." + +Ralph wanted to speak, but he couldn't. And so Shocky, with his eyes +looking straight ahead, and as if forgetting Ralph's presence, told over +the thoughts that he had often talked over to the fence-rails and the +trees. "It was real good in Mr. Pearson to take me, wasn't it? Else I'd +a been bound out tell I was twenty-one, maybe, to some mean man like +Ole Means. And I a'n't but seven. And it would take me fourteen years to +git twenty-one, and I never could live with my mother again after Hanner +gets done her time. 'Cause, you see, Hanner'll be through in three more +year, and I'll be ten and able to work, and we'll git a little place +about as big as Granny Sanders's, and--" + +Ralph did not hear another word of what Shocky said that afternoon. For +there, right before them, was Granny Sanders's log-cabin, with its row +of lofty sunflower stalks, now dead and dry, in front, with its +rain-water barrel by the side of the low door, and its ash-barrel by the +fence. In this cabin lived alone the old and shriveled hag whose +hideousness gave her a reputation for almost supernatural knowledge. She +was at once doctress and newspaper. She collected and disseminated +medicinal herbs and personal gossip. She was in every regard +indispensable to the intellectual life of the neighborhood. In the +matter of her medical skill we cannot express an opinion, for her +"yarbs" are not to be found in the pharmacopoeia of science. + +What took Ralph's breath was to find Dr. Small's fine, faultless horse +standing at the door. What did Henry Small want to visit this old quack +for? + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE DEVIL OF SILENCE. + + +Ralph had reason to fear Small, who was a native of the same village of +Lewisburg, and some five years the elder. Some facts in the doctor's +life had come into Ralph's possession in such a way as to confirm +life-long suspicion without giving him power to expose Small, who was +firmly intrenched in the good graces of the people of the county-seat +village of Lewisburg, where he had grown up, and of the little +cross-roads village of Clifty, where his "shingle" now hung. + +Small was no ordinary villain. He was a genius. Your ordinary hypocrite +talks cant. Small talked nothing. He was the coolest, the steadiest, the +most silent, the most promising boy ever born in Lewisburg. He made no +pretensions. He set up no claims. He uttered no professions. He went +right on and lived a life above reproach. Your vulgar hypocrite makes +long prayers in prayer-meeting. Small did nothing of the sort. He sat +still in prayer-meeting, and listened to the elders as a modest young +man should. Your commonplace hypocrite boasts. Small never alluded to +himself, and thus a consummate egotist got credit for modesty. It is but +an indifferent trick for a hypocrite to make temperance speeches. Dr. +Small did not even belong to a temperance society. But he could never be +persuaded to drink even so much as a cup of tea. There was something +sublime in the quiet voice with which he would say, "Cold water, if you +please," to a lady tempting him with smoking coffee on a cold morning. +There was no exultation, no sense of merit in the act. Everything was +done in a modest and matter-of-course way beautiful to behold. And his +face was a neutral tint. Neither face nor voice expressed anything. Only +a keen reader of character might have asked whether all there was in +that eye could live contented with this cool, austere, self-contained +life; whether there would not be somewhere a volcanic eruption. But if +there was any sea of molten lava beneath, the world did not discover it. +Wild boys were sick of having Small held up to them as the most +immaculate of men[18]. + +Ralph had failed to get two schools for which he had applied, and had +attributed both failures to certain shrugs of Dr. Small. And now, when +he found Small at the house of Granny Sanders, the center of +intelligence as well as of ignorance for the neighborhood, he trembled. +Not that Small would say anything. He never said anything. He damned +people by a silence worse than words. + +Granny Sanders was not a little flattered by the visit. + +"Why, doctor, howdy, howdy! Come in, take a cheer. I am glad to see you. +I 'lowed you'd come. Old Dr. Flounder used to say he larnt lots o' +things of me. But most of the doctors sence hez been kinder stuck up, +you know. But I know'd you fer a man of intelligence." + +Meantime, Small, by his grave silence and attention, had almost +smothered the old hag with flattery. "Many's the case I've cured with +yarbs and things. Nigh upon twenty year ago they was a man lived over on +Wild Cat Run as had a breakin'-out on his side. 'Twas the left side, jes +below the waist. Doctor couldn't do nothin'. 'Twas Doctor Peacham. He +never would have nothin' to do with 'ole woman's cures.' Well, the man +was goin' to die. Everybody seed that. And they come a-drivin' away over +here all the way from the Wild Cat. Think of that air! I never was so +flustered. But as soon as I laid eyes on that air man, I says, says +I, that air man, says I, has got the shingles, says I. I know'd the +minute I seed it. And if they'd gone clean around, nothing could a saved +him. I says, says I, git me a black cat. So I jist killed a black cat, +and let the blood run all over the swellin'. I tell you, doctor, they's +nothin' like it. That man was well in a month." + +[Illustration: MRS. MEANS] + +"Did you use the blood warm?" asked Small, with a solemnity most +edifying. + +These were almost the only words he had uttered since he entered the +cabin. + +"Laws, yes; I jest let it run right out of the cat's tail onto the +breakin'-out. And fer airesipelus, I don't know nothin' so good as the +blood of a black hen." + +"How old?" asked the doctor. + +"There you showed yer science, doctor! They's no power in a pullet. The +older the black hen the better. And you know the cure fer rheumatiz?" +And here the old woman got down a bottle of grease. "That's ile from a +black dog. Ef it's rendered right, it'll knock the hind sights off of +any rheumatiz you ever see. But it must be rendered in the dark of the +moon. Else a black dog's ile a'n't worth no more nor a white one's." + +And all this time Small was smelling of the uncorked bottle, taking a +little on his finger and feeling of it, and thus feeling his way to the +heart--drier than her herbs--of the old witch. And then he went round +the cabin gravely, lifting each separate bunch of dried yarbs from its +nail, smelling of it, and then, by making an interrogation-point of his +silent face, he managed to get a lecture from her on each article in her +_materia medica_> with the most marvelous stories illustrative of their +virtues. When the Granny had got her fill of his silent flattery, he was +ready to carry forward his main purpose. + +There was something weird about this silent man's ability to turn the +conversation as he chose to have it go. Sitting by the Granny's +tea-table, nibbling corn-bread while he drank his glass of water, having +declined even her sassafras, he ceased to stimulate her medical talk and +opened the vein of gossip. Once started, Granny Sanders was sure to +allude to the robbery. And once on the robbery the doctor's course was +clear. + +"I 'low somebody not fur away is in this 'ere business!" + +Not by a word, nor even by a nod, but by some motion of the eyelids, +perhaps, Small indicated that he agreed with her. + +"Who d'ye s'pose 'tis?" + +But Dr. Small was not in the habit of supposing. He moved his head in a +quiet way, just the least perceptible bit, but so that the old creature +understood that he could give light if he wanted to. + +"I dunno anybody that's been 'bout here long as could be suspected." + +Another motion of the eyelids indicated Small's agreement with this +remark. + +"They a'n't nobody come in here lately 'ceppin' the master." + +Small looked vacantly at the wall. + +"But I low he's allers bore a tip-top character." + +The doctor was too busy looking at his corn-bread to answer this remark +even by a look. + +"But I think these oversmart young men'll bear looking arter, _I_ do." + +Dr. Small raised his eyes and let them _shine_ an assent. That was all. + +"Shouldn't wonder ef our master was overly fond of gals." + +Doctor looks down at his plate. + +"Had plenty of sweethearts afore he walked home with Hanner Thomson +t'other night, I'll bet." + +Did Dr. Small shrug his shoulder? Granny thought she detected a faint +motion of the sort, but she could not be sure. + +"And I think as how that a feller what trifles with gals' hearts and +then runs off ten miles, maybe a'n't no better'n he had orter be. That's +what I says, says I." + +To this general remark Dr. Small assented in his invisible--shall I say +_intangible_?--way. + +"I allers think, maybe, that some folks has found it best to leave home +and go away. You can't never tell. But when people is a-bein' robbed +it's well to lookout. Hey?" + +"I think so," said Small quietly, and, having taken his hat and bowed a +solemn and respectful adieu, he departed. + +He had not spoken twenty words, but he had satisfied the news-monger of +Flat Creek that Ralph was a bad character at home and worthy of +suspicion of burglary. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 18: The original from which this character was drawn is here +described accurately. The author now knows that such people are not to +be put into books. They are not realistic enough.] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +MISS MARTHA HAWKINS. + + +"It's very good for the health to dig in the elements. I was quite +emaciated last year at the East, and the doctor told me to dig in the +elements. I got me a florial hoe and dug, and it's been most excellent +for me[19]." Time, the Saturday following the Friday on which Ralph kept +Shocky company as far as the "forks" near Granny Sanders's house. Scene, +the Squire's garden. Ralph helping that worthy magistrate perform sundry +little jobs such as a warm winter day suggests to the farmer. Miss +Martha Hawkins, the Squire's niece, and his housekeeper in his present +bereaved condition, leaning over the palings--pickets she called +them--of the garden fence, talking to the master. Miss Hawkins was +recently from Massachusetts. How many people there are in the most +cultivated communities whose education is partial! + +"It's very common for school-master to dig in the elements at the +East," proceeded Miss Martha. Like many other people born in the +celestial empires (of which there are three--China, Virginia, +Massachusetts), Miss Martha was not averse to reminding outside +barbarians of her good fortune in this regard. It did her good to speak +of the East. + +Now Ralph was amused with Miss Martha. She really had a good deal of +intelligence despite her affectation, and conversation with her was both +interesting and diverting. It helped him to forget Hannah, and Bud, and +the robbery, and all the rest, and she was so delighted to find somebody +to make an impression on that she had come out to talk while Ralph was +at work. But just at this moment the school-master was not so much +interested in her interesting remarks, nor so much amused by her amusing +remarks, as he should have been. He saw a man coming down the road +riding one horse and leading another, and he recognized the horses at a +distance. It must be Bud who was riding Means's bay mare and leading +Bud's roan colt. Bud had been to mill, and as the man who owned the +horse-mill kept but one old blind horse himself, it was necessary that +Bud should take two. It required three horses to run the mill; the old +blind one could have ground the grist, but the two others had to +overcome the friction of the clumsy machine. But it was not about the +horse-mill that Ralph was thinking nor about the two horses. Since that +Wednesday evening on which he escorted Hannah home from the +spelling-school he had not seen Bud Means. If he had any lingering +doubts of the truth of what Mirandy had said, they had been dissipated +by the absence of Bud from school. + +"When I was to Bosting--" Miss Martha was _to_ Boston only once in her +life, but as her visit to that sacred city was the most important +occurrence of her life, she did not hesitate to air her reminiscences of +it frequently. "When I was to Bosting," she was just saying, when, +following the indication of Ralph's eyes, she saw Bud coming up the hill +near Squire Hawkins's house. Bud looked red and sulky, and to Ralph's +and Miss Martha Hawkins's polite recognitions he returned only a surly +nod. They both saw that he was angry. Ralph was able to guess the +meaning of his wrath. + +Toward evening Ralph strolled through the Squire's cornfield toward the +woods. The memory of the walk with Hannah was heavy upon the heart of +the young master, and there was comfort in the very miserableness of the +cornstalks with their disheveled blades hanging like tattered banners +and rattling discordantly in the rising wind. Wandering without purpose, +Ralph followed the rows of stalks first one way and then the other in a +zigzag line, turning a right angle every minute or two. At last he came +out in a woods mostly of beech, and he pleased his melancholy fancy by +kicking the dry and silky leaves before him in billows, while the +soughing of the wind through the long, vibrant boughs and slender twigs +of the beech forest seemed to put the world into the wailing minor key +of his own despair. + +What a fascination there is in a path come upon suddenly without a +knowledge of its termination! Here was one running in easy, irregular +curves through the wood, now turning gently to the right in order to +avoid a stump, now swaying suddenly to the left to gain an easier +descent at a steep place, and now turning wantonly to the one side or +the other, as if from very caprice in the man who by idle steps +unconsciously marked the line of the foot-path at first. Ralph could not +resist the impulse--who could?--to follow the path and find out its +destination, and following it he came presently into a lonesome hollow, +where a brook gurgled among the heaps of bare limestone rocks that +filled its bed. Following the path still, he came upon a queer little +cabin built of round logs, in the midst of a small garden-patch inclosed +by a brush fence. The stick chimney, daubed with clay and topped with +a barrel open at both ends, made this a typical cabin. + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN PEARSON] + +It flashed upon Ralph that this place must be Rocky Hollow, and that +this was the house of old John Pearson, the one-legged basket-maker, and +his rheumatic wife--the house that hospitably sheltered Shocky. +Following his impulse, he knocked and was admitted, and was not a little +surprised to find Miss Martha Hawkins there before him. + +"You here, Miss Hawkins?" he said when he had returned Shocky's greeting +and shaken hands with the old couple. + +"Bless you, yes," said the old lady. "That blessed gyirl"--the old lady +called her a girl by a sort of figure of speech perhaps--"that blessed +gyirl's the kindest creetur you ever saw--comes here every day, most, to +cheer a body up with somethin' or nuther." + +Miss Martha blushed, and said "she came because Rocky Hollow looked so +much like a place she used to know at the East. Mr. and Mrs. Pearson +were the kindest people. They reminded her of people she knew at the +East. When she was to Bosting--" + +Here the old basket-maker lifted his head from his work, and said: +"Pshaw! that talk about kyindness" (he was a Kentuckian and said +_kyindness_) "is all humbug. I wonder so smart a woman as you don't +know better. You come nearder to bein kyind than anybody I know; but, +laws a me! we're all selfish akordin' to my tell." + +"You wasn't selfish when you set up with my father most every night for +two weeks," said Shocky as he handed the old man a splint. + +"Yes, I was, too!" This in a tone that made Ralph tremble. "Your father +was a miserable Britisher. I'd fit red-coats, in the war of +eighteen-twelve, and lost my leg by one of 'em stickin' his dog-on'd +bagonet right through it, that night at Lundy's Lane; but my messmate +killed him though which is a satisfaction to think on. And I didn't like +your father 'cause he was a Britisher. But ef he'd a died right here in +this free country, 'though nobody to give him a drink of water, blamed +ef I wouldn't a been ashamed to set on the platform at a Fourth of July +barbecue, and to hold up my wooden leg fer to make the boys cheer! That +was the selfishest thing I ever done. We're all selfish akordin' to my +tell." + +"You wasn't selfish when you took me that night, you know," and Shocky's +face beamed with gratitude. + +"Yes, I war, too, you little sass-box! What did I take you fer? Hey? +Bekase I didn't like Pete Jones nor Bill Jones. They're thieves, dog-on +'em!" + +Ralph shivered a little. The horse with the white forefoot and white +nose galloped before his eyes again. + +"They're a set of thieves. That's what they air." + +"Please, Mr. Pearson, be careful. You'll get into trouble, you know, by +talking that way," said Miss Hawkins. "You're just like a man that I +knew at the East." + +"Why, do you think an old soldier like me, hobbling on a wooden leg, is +afraid of them thieves? Didn't I face the Britishers? Didn't I come home +late last Wednesday night? I rather guess I must a took a little too +much at Welch's grocery, and laid down in the middle of the street to +rest. The boys thought 'twas funny to crate[20] me. I woke up kind o' +cold, 'bout one in the mornin.' 'Bout two o'clock I come up Means's +hill, and didn't I see Pete Jones, and them others that robbed the +Dutchman, and somebody, I dunno who, a-crossin' the blue-grass paster +_towards_ Jones's?" (Ralph shivered.) "Don't shake your finger at me, +old woman. Tongue is all I've got to fight with now; but I'll fight them +thieves tell the sea goes dry, I will. Shocky, gim me a splint." + +"But you wasn't selfish when you tuck me. Shocky stuck to his point most +positively. + +"Yes, I was, you little tow-headed fool! I didn't take you kase I was +good, not a bit of it. I hated Bill Jones what keeps the poor-house, and +I knowed him and Pete would get you bound to some of their click, and I +didn't want no more thieves raised; so when your mother hobbled, with +you a-leadin' her, poor blind thing! all the way over here on that +winter night, and said, 'Mr. Pearson, you're all the friend I've got, +and I want you to save my boy,' why, you see I was selfish as ever I +could be in takin' of you. Your mother's cryin' sot me a-cryin' too. +We're all selfish in everything, akordin' to my tell. Blamed ef we +ha'n't, Miss Hawkins, only sometimes I'd think you was real benev'lent +ef I didn't know we war all selfish." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 19: Absurd as this speech seems, it is a literal transcript of +words spoken in the author's presence by a woman who, like Miss Hawkins, +was born in Massachusetts.] + +[Footnote 20: When the first edition of this book appeared, the critic +who analyzed the dialect in _The Nation_ confessed that he did not know +what to "crate" meant. It was a custom in the days of early Indiana +barbarism for the youngsters of a village, on spying a sleeping +drunkard, to hunt up a "queensware crate"--one of the cages of round +withes in which crockery was shipped. This was turned upside down over +the inebriate, and loaded with logs or any other heavy articles that +would make escape difficult when the poor wretch should come to himself. +It was a sort of rude punishment for inebriety, and it afforded a +frog-killing delight to those who executed justice.] + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE HARDSHELL PREACHER. + + +"They's preachin' down to Bethel Meetin'-house to-day," said the Squire +at breakfast. Twenty years In the West could not cure Squire Hawkins of +saying "to" for "at." "I rather guess as how the old man Bosaw will give +pertickeler fits to our folks to-day." For Squire Hawkins, having been +expelled from the "Hardshell" church of which Mr. Bosaw was pastor, for +the grave offense of joining a temperance society, had become a member +of the "Reformers," the very respectable people who now call themselves +"Disciples," but whom the profane will persist in calling +"Campbellites." They had a church in the village of Clifty, three miles +away. + +I know that explanations are always abominable to story readers, as they +are to story writers, but as so many of my readers have never had the +inestimable privilege of sitting under the gospel as it is ministered in +enlightened neighborhoods like Flat Creek, I find myself under the +necessity--need-cessity the Rev. Mr. Bosaw would call it--of rising to +explain. Some people think the "Hardshells" a myth, and some sensitive +Baptist people at the East resent all allusion to them. But the +"Hardshell Baptists," or, as they are otherwise called, the "Whisky +Baptists," and the "Forty-gallon Baptists," exist in all the old Western +and South-western States. They call themselves "Anti-means Baptists" +from their Antinomian tenets. Their confession of faith is a caricature +of Calvinism, and is expressed by their preachers about as follows: "Ef +you're elected, you'll be saved; ef you a'n't, you'll be damned. God'll +take keer of his elect. It's a sin to run Sunday-schools, or temp'rince +s'cieties, or to send missionaries. You let God's business alone. What +is to be will be, and you can't hender it." This writer has attended a +Sunday-school, the superintendent of which was solemnly arraigned and +expelled from the Hardshell Church for "meddling with God's business" by +holding a Sunday-school. Of course the Hardshells are prodigiously +illiterate, and often vicious. Some of their preachers are notorious +drunkards. They sing their sermons out sometimes for three hours at a +stretch[21]. + +Ralph found that he was to ride the "clay-bank mare," the only one of +the horses that would "carry double," and that consequently he would +have to take Miss Hawkins behind him. If it had been Hannah instead, +Ralph might not have objected to this "young Lochinvar" mode of riding +with a lady on "the croup," but Martha Hawkins was another affair. He +had only this consolation; his keeping the company of Miss Hawkins might +serve to disarm the resentment of Bud. At all events, he had no choice. +What designs the Squire had in this arrangement he could not tell; but +the clay-bank mare carried him to meeting on that December morning, +with Martha Hawkins behind. And as Miss Hawkins was not used to this +mode of locomotion, she was in a state of delightful fright every time +the horse sank to the knees in the soft, yellow Flat Creek clay. + +"We don't go to church so at the East," she said. "The mud isn't so deep +at the East. When I was to Bosting--" but Ralph never heard what +happened when she was to Bosting, for just as she said Bosting the mare +put her foot into a deep hole molded by the foot of the Squire's horse, +and already full of muddy water. + +As the mare's foot went twelve inches down into this track, the muddy +water spurted higher than Miss Hawkins's head, and mottled her dress +with golden spots of clay. She gave a little shriek, and declared that +she had never "seen it so at the East." + +The journey seemed a little long to Ralph, who found that the subjects +upon which he and Miss Hawkins could converse were few; but Miss Martha +was determined to keep things going, and once, when the conversation had +died out entirely, she made a desperate effort to renew it by remarking, +as they met a man on horseback, "That horse switches his tail just as +they do at the East. When I was to Bosting I saw horses switch their +tails just that way." + +What surprised Ralph was to see that Flat Creek went to meeting. +Everybody was there--the Meanses, the Joneses, the Bantas, and all the +rest. Everybody on Flat Creek seemed to be there, except the old +wooden-legged basket-maker. His family was represented by Shocky, who +had come, doubtless, to get a glimpse of Hannah, not to hear Mr. Bosaw +preach. In fact, few were thinking of the religious service. They went +to church as a common resort to hear the news, and to find out what was +the current sensation. + +On this particular morning there seemed to be some unusual excitement. +Ralph perceived it as he rode up. An excited crowd, even though it be at +a church-door on Sunday morning, can not conceal its agitation. Ralph +deposited Miss Hawkins on the stile, and then got down himself, and paid +her the closest attention to the door. This attention was for Bud's +benefit. But Bud only stood with his hands in his pockets, scowling +worse than ever. Ralph did not go in at the door. It was not the Flat +Creek custom. The men gossiped outside, while the women chatted within. +Whatever may have been the cause of the excitement, Ralph could not get +at it. When he entered a little knot of people they became embarrassed, +the group dissolved, and its component parts joined other companies. +What had the current of conversation to do with him? He overheard Pete +Jones saying that the blamed old wooden leg was in it anyhow. He'd been +seen goin' home at two in the mornin'. And he could name somebody else +ef he choosed. But it was best to clean out one at a time. And just then +there was a murmur: "Meetin's took up." And the masculine element filled +the empty half of the "hewed-log" church. + +When Ralph saw Hannah looking utterly dejected, his heart smote him, and +the great struggle set in again. Had it not been for the thought of the +other battle, and the comforting presence of the Helper, I fear Bud's +interests would have fared badly. But Ralph, with the spirit of a +martyr, resolved to wait until he knew what the result of Bud's suit +should be, and whether, indeed, the young Goliath had prior claims, as +he evidently thought he had. He turned hopefully to the sermon, +determined to pick up any crumbs of comfort that might fall from Mr. +Bosaw's meager table. + +In reporting a single specimen passage of Mr. Bosaw's sermon, I shall +not take the liberty which Thucydides and other ancient historians did, +of making the sermon and putting it into the hero's mouth, but shall +give that which can be vouched for. + +"You see, my respective hearers," he began--but alas! I can never +picture to you the rich red nose, the see sawing gestures, the nasal +resonance, the sniffle, the melancholy minor key, and all that. "My +respective hearers-ah, you see-ah as how-ah as my tex'-ah says that the +ox-ah knoweth his owner-ah, and-ah the ass-ah his master's crib-ah. +A-h-h! Now, my respective hearers-ah, they're a mighty sight of +resemblance-ah atwext men-ah and oxen-ah" [Ralph could not help +reflecting that there was a mighty sight of resemblance between some men +and asses. But the preacher did not see this analogy. It lay too close +to him], "bekase-ah, you see, men-ah is mighty like oxen-ah. Fer they's +a tremengious defference-ah atwixt defferent oxen-ah, jest as thar is +atwext defferent men-ah; fer the ox knoweth-ah his owner-ah, and the +ass-ah, his master's crib-ah. Now, my respective hearers-ah" [the +preacher's voice here grew mellow, and the succeeding sentences were in +the most pathetic and lugubrious tones], "you all know-ah that your +humble speaker-ah has got-ah jest the best yoke of steers-ah in this +township-ah." [Here Betsey Short shook the floor with a suppressed +titter.] "They a'n't no sech steers as them air two of mine-ah in this +whole kedentry-ah. Them crack oxen over at Clifty-ah ha'n't a patchin' +to mine-ah. Fer the ox knoweth his owner-ah and the ass-ah his master's +crib-ah. + +"Now, my respective hearers-ah, they's a right smart sight of +defference-ah atwext them air two oxen-ah, jest like they is atwext +defferent men-ah. Fer-ah" [here the speaker grew earnest, and sawed the +air, from this to the close, in a most frightful way], "fer-ah, you +see-ah, when I go out-ah in the mornin'-ah to yoke-ah up-ah them air +steers-ah, and I says-ah, 'Wo, Berry-ah! _Wo, Berry-ah!_ WO, BERRY-AH', +why Berry-ah jest stands stock still-ah and don't hardly breathe-ah +while I put on the yoke-ah, and put in the bow-ah, and put in the +key-ah, fer, my brethering-ah and sistering-ah, the ox knoweth his +owner-ah, and the ass-ah his master's crib-ah. Hal-le-lu-ger-ah! + +"But-ah, my hearers-ah, but-ah when I stand at t'other eend of the +yoke-ah, and say, 'Come, Buck-ah! _Come, Buck-ah!_ COME, BUCK-AH! COME, +BUCK-AH!' why what do you think-ah? Buck-ah, that ornery ole Buck-ah, +'stid of comin' right along-ah and puttin' his neck under-ah, acts jest +like some men-ah what is fools-ah. Buck-ah jest kinder sorter stands +off-ah, and kinder sorter puts his head down-ah this 'ere way-ah, and +kinder looks mad-ah, and says, Boo-_oo_-OO-OO-ah!" + +Alas! Hartsook found no spiritual edification there, and he was in no +mood to be amused. And so, while the sermon drew on through two dreary +hours, he forgot the preacher in noticing a bright green lizard which, +having taken up its winter quarters behind the tin candlestick that hung +just back of the preacher's head, had been deceived by the genial warmth +coming from the great box-stove, and now ran out two or three feet from +his shelter, looking down upon the red-nosed preacher in a most +confidential and amusing manner. Sometimes he would retreat behind the +candlestick, which was not twelve inches from the preacher's head, and +then rush out again. At each reappearance Betsey Short would stuff her +handkerchief into her mouth and shake in a most distressing way. Shocky +wondered what the lizard was winking at the preacher about. And Miss +Martha thought that it reminded her of a lizard that she see at the +East, the time she was to Bosting, in a jar of alcohol in the Natural +History Rooms. The Squire was not disappointed in his anticipation that +Mr. Bosaw would attack his denomination with some fury. In fact, the old +preacher outdid himself in his violent indignation at "these people that +follow Campbell-ah, that thinks-ah that obejience-ah will save 'em-ah +and that belongs-ah to temp'rince societies-ah and Sunday-schools-ah, +and them air things-ah, that's not ortherized in the Bible-ah, but comes +of the devil-ah, and takes folks as belongs to 'em to hell-ah." + +As they came out the door Ralph rallied enough to remark: "He did attack +your people, Squire." + +"Oh, yes," said the Squire. "Didn't you see the Sarpent inspirin' him?" + +But the long, long hours were ended and Ralph got on the clay-bank mare +and rode up alongside the stile whence Miss Martha mounted. And as he +went away with a heavy heart, he overheard Pete Jones call out to +somebody: + +"We'll tend to his case & Christmas." Christmas was two days off. + +And Miss Martha remarked with much trepidation that poor Pearson would +have to leave. She'd always been afraid that would be the end of it. It +reminded her of something she heard at the East, the time she was down +to Bosting. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 21: Even the Anti-means Baptists have suffered from the dire +spirit of the age. They are to-day a very respectable body of people +calling themselves "Primitive Baptists." Perhaps the description in the +text never applied to the whole denomination, but only to the Hardshells +of certain localities. Some of these intensely conservative churches, I +have reason to believe, were always composed of reputable people. But +what is said above is not in the least exaggerated as a description of +many of the churches in Indiana and Illinois. Their opposition to the +temperance reformation was both theoretical and practical. A rather able +minister of the denomination whom I knew as a boy used to lie in +besotted drunkenness by the roadside. I am sorry to confess that he once +represented the county in the State legislature. The piece of a sermon +given in this chapter was heard near Cairo, Illinois, in the days before +the war. Most of the preachers were illiterate farmers. I have heard one +of them hold forth two hours at a stretch. But even in that day there +were men among the Hardshells whose ability and character commanded +respect. This was true, especially in Kentucky, where able men like the +two Dudleys held to the Antinomian wing of their denomination. But the +Hardshells are perceptibly less hard than they were. You may march at +the rear of the column among Hunkers and Hardshells if you will, but you +are obliged to march. Those who will not go voluntarily, the +time-spirit, walking behind, prods onward with a goad.] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +A STRUGGLE FOR THE MASTERY + + +The school had closed on Monday evening as usual. The boys had been +talking in knots all day. Nothing but the bulldog in the slender, +resolute young master had kept down the rising storm. A teacher who has +lost moral support at home, can not long govern a school. Ralph had +effectually lost his popularity in the district, and the worst of it was +that he could not divine from just what quarter the ill wind came, +except that he felt sure of Small's agency in it somewhere. Even Hannah +had slighted him, when he called at Means's on Monday morning to draw +the pittance of pay that was due him. + +He had expected a petition for a holiday on Christmas day. Such holidays +are deducted from the teacher's time, and it is customary for the boys +to "turn out" the teacher who refuses to grant them, by barring him out +of the school-house on Christmas and New Year's morning. Ralph had +intended to grant a holiday if it should be asked, but it was not +asked. Hank Banta was the ringleader in the disaffection, and he had +managed to draw the surly Bud, who was present this morning, into it. It +is but fair to say that Bud was in favor of making a request before +resorting to extreme measures, but he was overruled. He gave it as his +solemn opinion that the master was mighty peart, and they would be beat +anyhow some way, but he would lick the master fer two cents ef he warn't +so slim that he'd feel like he was fighting a baby. + +And all that day things looked black. Ralph's countenance was cold and +hard as stone, and Shocky trembled where he sat. Betsey Short tittered +rather more than usual. A riot or a murder would have seemed amusing to +her. + +School was dismissed, and Ralph, instead of returning to the Squire's, +set out for the village of Clifty, a few miles away. No one knew what he +went for, and some suggested that he had "sloped." + +But Bud said "he warn't that air kind. He was one of them air sort as +died in their tracks, was Mr. Hartsook. They'd find him on the ground +nex' morning, and he lowed the master war made of that air sort of stuff +as would burn the dog-on'd ole school-house to ashes, or blow it into +splinters, but what he'd beat. Howsumdever he'd said he was a-goin' to +help, and help he would; but all the sinno in Golier wouldn't be no +account again the cute they was in the head of the master." + +But Bud, discouraged as he was with the fear of Ralph's "cute," went +like a martyr to the stake and took his place with the rest in the +school-house at nine o'clock at night. It may have been Ralph's +intention to preoccupy the school-house, for at ten o'clock Hank Banta +was set shaking from head to foot at seeing a face that looked like the +master's at the window. He waked up Bud and told him about it. + +"Well, what are you a-tremblin' about, you coward?" growled Bud. "He +won't shoot you; but he'll beat you at this game, I'll bet a hoss, and +me, too, and make us both as 'shamed of ourselves as dogs with +tin-kittles to their tails. You don't know the master, though he did +duck you. But he'll larn you a good lesson this time, and me too, like +as not." And Bud soon snored again, but Hank shook with fear every time +he looked at the blackness outside the windows. He was sure he heard +foot-falls. He would have given anything to have been at home. + +When morning came, the pupils began to gather early. A few boys who were +likely to prove of service in the coming siege were admitted through the +window, and then everything was made fast, and a "snack" was eaten. + +"How do you 'low he'll get in?" said Hank, trying to hide his fear. + +"How do I 'low?" said Bud. "I don't 'low nothin' about it. You might as +well ax me where I 'low the nex' shootin' star is a-goin' to drap. Mr. +Hartsook's mighty onsartin. But he'll git in, though, and tan your hide +fer you, you see ef he don't. _Ef_ he don't blow up the school-house +with gunpowder!" This last was thrown in by way of alleviating the fears +of the cowardly Hank, for whom Bud had a great contempt. + +The time for school had almost come. The boys inside were demoralized by +waiting. They began to hope that the master had "sloped." They dreaded +to see him coming. + +"I don't believe he'll come," said Hank, with a cold shiver. "It's past +school-time." + +"Yes, he will come, too," said Bud. "And he 'lows to come in here mighty +quick. I don't know how. But he'll be a-standin' at that air desk when +it's nine o'clock. I'll bet a thousand dollars on that. _Ef_ he don't +take it into his head to blow us up!" Hank was now white. + +Some of the parents came along, accidentally of course, and stopped to +see the fun, sure that Bud would thrash the master if he tried to break +in. Small, on the way to see a patient perhaps, reined up in front of +the door. Still no Ralph. It was just five minutes before nine. A rumor +now gained currency that he had been seen going to Clifty the evening +before, and that he had not come back, though in fact Ralph had come +back, and had slept at Squire Hawkins's. + +"There's the master," cried Betsey Short, who stood out in the road +shivering and giggling alternately. For Ralph at that moment emerged +from the sugar-camp by the school-house, carrying a board. + +"Ho! ho!" laughed Hank, "he thinks he'll smoke us out. I guess he'll +find us ready." The boys had let the fire burn down, and there was now +nothing but hot hickory coals on the hearth. + +"I tell you he'll come in. He didn't go to Clifty fer nothing" said Bud, +who sat still on one of the benches which leaned against the door. "I +don't know how, but they's lots of ways of killing a cat besides chokin' +her with butter. He'll come in--_ef_ he don't blow us all sky-high!" + +Ralph's voice was now heard, demanding that the door be opened. + +"Let's open her," said Hank, turning livid with fear at the firm, +confident tone of the master. + +Bud straightened himself up. "Hank, you're a coward. I've got a mind to +kick you. You got me into this blamed mess, and now you want to +craw-fish. You jest tech one of these 'ere fastenings, and I'll lay you +out flat of your back afore you can say Jack Robinson." + +The teacher was climbing to the roof with the board in hand. + +"That air won't win," laughed Pete Jones outside. He saw that there was +no smoke. Even Bud began to hope that Ralph would fail for once. The +master was now on the ridge-pole of the school-house. He took a paper +from his pocket, and deliberately poured the contents down the chimney. + +Mr. Pete Jones shouted "Gunpowder!" and set off down the road to be out +of the way of the explosion. Dr. Small remembered, probably, that his +patient might die while he sat here, and started on. + +But Ralph emptied the paper, and laid the board over the chimney. What a +row there was inside! The benches that were braced against the door were +thrown down, and Hank Banta rushed out, rubbing his eyes, coughing +frantically, and sure that he had been blown up. All the rest followed, +Bud bringing up the rear sulkily, but coughing and sneezing for dear +life. Such a smell of sulphur as came from that school-house! + +Betsey had to lean against the fence to giggle. + +[Illustration: FIRE AND BRIMSTONE] + +As soon as all were out, Ralph threw the board off the chimney, leaped +to the ground, entered the school-house, and opened the windows. The +school soon followed him, and all was still. + +"Would he thrash?" This was the important question in Hank Banta's mind. +And the rest looked for a battle with Bud. + +"It is just nine o'clock," said Ralph, consulting his watch, "and I'm +glad to see you all here promptly. I should have given you a holiday if +you had asked me like gentlemen yesterday. On the whole, I think I shall +give you a holiday, anyhow. The school is dismissed." + +And Hank felt foolish. + +And Bud secretly resolved to thrash Hank or the master, he didn't care +which. + +And Mirandy looked the love she could not utter. + +And Betsey giggled. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A CRISIS WITH BUD. + + +Ralph sat still at his desk. The school had gone. All at once he became +conscious that Shocky sat yet in his accustomed place upon the hard, +backless bench. + +"Why, Shocky, haven't you gone yet?" + +"No--sir--I was waitin' to see if you warn't a-goin', too--I--" + +"Well?" + +"I thought it would make me feel as if God warn't quite so fur away to +talk to you. It did the other day." + +The master rose and put his hand on Shocky's head. Was it the +brotherhood in affliction that made Shocky's words choke him so? Or, was +it the weird thoughts that he expressed? Or, was it the recollection +that Shocky was Hannah's brother? Hannah so far, far away from him now! +At any rate, Shocky, looking up for the smile on which he fed, saw the +relaxing of the master's face, that had been as hard as stone, and felt +just one hot tear on his hand. + +"P'r'aps God's forgot you, too," said Shocky in a sort of half +soliloquy. "Better get away from Flat Creek. You see God forgets +everybody down here. 'Cause 'most everybody forgets God, 'cept Mr. +Bosaw, and I 'low God don't no ways keer to be remembered by sich as +him. Leastways I wouldn't if I was God, you know. I wonder what becomes +of folks when God forgets 'em?" And Shocky, seeing that the master had +resumed his seat and was looking absently into the fire, moved slowly +out the door. + +"Shocky!" called the master. + +The little poet came back and stood before him. + +"Shocky, you mustn't think God has forgotten you. God brings things out +right at last." But Ralph's own faith was weak, and his words sounded +hollow and hypocritical to himself. Would God indeed bring things out +right? + +He sat musing a good while, trying to convince himself of the truth of +what he had just been saying to Shocky--that God would indeed bring +things out right at last. Would it all come out right if Bud married +Hannah? Would it all come out right if he were driven from Flat Creek +with a dark suspicion upon his character? Did God concern himself with +these things? Was there any God? It was the same old struggle between +Doubt and Faith. And when Ralph looked up, Shocky had departed. + +In the next hour Ralph fought the old battle of Armageddon. I shall not +describe it. You will fight it in your own way. No two alike. The +important thing is the End. If you come out as he did, with the doubt +gone and the trust in God victorious, it matters little just what shape +the battle may take. Since Jacob became Israel there have never been two +such struggles alike, save in that they all end either in victory or in +defeat. + +It was after twelve o'clock on that Christmas day when Ralph put his +head out the door of the school-house and called out: "Bud, I'd like to +see you." + +Bud did not care to see the master, for he had inly resolved to "thrash +him" and have done with him. But he couldn't back out, certainly not in +sight of the others who were passing along the road with him. + +"I don't want the rest of you," said Ralph in a decided way, as he saw +that Hank and one or two others were resolved to come also. + +"Thought maybe you'd want somebody to see far play," said Hank as he +went off sheepishly. + +"If I did, you would be the last one I should ask," said Ralph. "There's +no unfair play in Bud, and there is in you." And he shut the door. + +"Now, looky here, Mr. Ralph Hartsook," said Bud. "You don't come no gum +games over me with your saft sodder and all that. I've made up my mind. +You've got to promise to leave these 'ere digging, or I've got to thrash +you." + +"You'll have to thrash me, then," said Ralph, turning a little pale, but +remembering the bulldog. "But you'll tell me what It's all about, won't +you?" + +"You know well enough. Folks says you know more 'bout the robbery at the +Dutchman's than you orter. But I don't believe them. Fer them as says it +is liars and thieves theirselves. 'Ta'n't fer none of that. And I shan't +tell you what it _is_ fer. So now, if you won't travel, why, take off +your coat and git ready fer a thrashing." + +The master took off his coat and showed his slender arms. Bud laid his +off, and showed the physique of a prize-fighter. + +"You a'n't a-goin to fight _me_?" said Bud. + +"Not unless you make me." + +"Why I could chaw you all up." + +"I know that." + +"Well, you're the grittiest feller I ever did see, and ef you'd jest kep +off of my ground I wouldn't a touched you. But I a'n't a-goin' to be cut +out by no feller a livin' 'thout thrashin' him in an inch of his life. +You see I wanted to git out of this Flat Crick way. We're a low-lived +set here in Flat Crick. And I says to myself, I'll try to be somethin' +more nor Pete Jones, and dad, and these other triflin', good-fer-nothin' +ones 'bout here. And when you come I says, There's one as'll help me. +And what do you do with yor book-larnin' and town manners but start +right out to git away the gal that I'd picked out, when I'd picked her +out kase I thought, not bein' Flat Crick born herself, she might help a +feller to do better! Now I won't let nobody cut me out without givin' +'em the best thrashin' it's in these 'ere arms to give." + +"But I haven't tried to cut you out." + +"You can't fool _me_." + +"Bud, listen to me, and then thrash me if you will. I went with that +girl once. When I found you had some claims, I gave her up. Not because +I was afraid of you, for I would rather have taken the worst thrashing +you can give me than give her up. But I haven't spoken to her since the +night of the first spelling-school." + +"You lie!" said Bud, doubling his fists. + +Ralph grew red. + +"You was a-waitin' on her last Sunday right afore my eyes, and a-tryin' +to ketch my attention too. So when you're ready say so." + +"Bud, there is some misunderstanding." Hartsook spoke slowly and felt +bewildered. "I tell you that I did not speak to Hannah last Sunday, and +you know I didn't." + +"Hanner!" Bud's eyes grew large. "Hanner!" Here he gasped for breath, +and looked around, "Hanner!" He couldn't get any further than the name +at first. "Why, plague take it, who said Hanner?" + +"Mirandy said you were courting Hannah," said Ralph, feeling round in a +vague way to get his ideas together. + +"Mirandy! Thunder! You believed Mirandy! Well! Now, looky here, Mr. +Hartsook, ef you was to say that my sister lied, I'd lick you till yer +hide wouldn't hold shucks. But _I_ say, a-twix you and me and the +gate-post, don't you never believe nothing that Mirandy Means says. Her +and marm has set theirselves like fools to git you. Hanner! Well, she's +a mighty nice gal, but you're welcome to _her_. I never tuck no shine +that air way. But I was out of school last Thursday and Friday +a-shucking corn to take to mill a-Saturday. And when I come past the +Squire's and seed you talking to a gal as is a gal, you know"--here Bud +hesitated and looked foolish--"I felt hoppin' mad." + +Bud put on his coat. + +Ralph put on his coat. + +Then they shook hands and Bud went out. Ralph sat looking into the fire. +There was no conscientious difficulty now in the way of his claiming +Hannah. The dry forestick lying on the rude stone andirons burst into a +blaze. The smoldering hope In the heart of Ralph Hartsook did the same. +He could have Hannah If he could win her. But there came slowly back the +recollection of his lost standing in Flat Creek. There was +circumstantial evidence against him. It was evident that Hannah believed +something of this. What other stones Small might have put in circulation +he did not know. Would Small try to win Hannah's love to throw it away +again, as he had done with others? At least he would not spare any pains +to turn the heart of the bound girl against Ralph. + +The bright flame on the forestick, which Ralph had been watching, +flickered and burned low. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE CHURCH OF THE BEST LICKS. + + +Just as the flame on the forestick, which Ralph had watched so +intensely, flickered and burned low, and just as Ralph with a heavy but +not quite hopeless heart rose to leave, the latch lifted and Bud +re-entered. + +"I wanted to say something," he stammered, "but you know it's hard to +say it. I ha'n't no book-larnin to speak of, and some things is hard to +say when a man ha'n't got book-words to say 'em with. And they's some +things a man can't hardly ever say anyhow to anybody." + +Here Bud stopped. But Ralph spoke in such a matter-of-course way in +reply that he felt encouraged to go on. + +"You gin up Hanner kase you thought she belonged to me. That's more'n +I'd a done by a long shot. Now, arter I left here jest now, I says to +myself, a man what can gin up his gal on account of sech a feeling fer +the rights of a Flat Cricker like me, why, dog-on it, says I, sech a man +is the man as can help me do better. I don't know whether you're a +Hardshell or a Saftshell, or a Methodist, or a Campbellite, or a New +Light, or a United Brother, or a Millerite, or what-not. But I says, the +man what can do the clean thing by a ugly feller like me, and stick to +it, when I was jest ready to eat him up, is a kind of a man to tie to." + +Here Bud stopped in fright at his own volubility, for he had run his +words off like a piece learned by heart, as though afraid that if he +stopped he would not have courage to go on. + +Ralph said that he did not belong to any church, and he was afraid he +couldn't do Bud much good. But his tone was full of sympathy, and, what +is better than sympathy, a yearning for sympathy. + +"You see," said Bud, "I wanted to git out of this low-lived, Flat Crick +way of livin'. We're a hard set down here, Mr. Hartsook. And I'm gittin' +to be one of the hardest of 'em. But I never could git no good out of +Bosaw with his whisky and meanness. And I went to the Mount Tabor church +concert. I heard a man discussin' baptism, and regeneration, and so on. +That didn't seem no cure for me, I went to a revival over at Clifty. +Well, 'twarn't no use. First night they was a man that spoke about Jesus +Christ in sech a way that I wanted to foller him everywhere. But I +didn't feel fit. Next night I come back with my mind made up that I'd +try Jesus Christ, and see ef he'd have me. But laws! they was a big man +that night that preached hell. Not that I don't believe they's a hell. +They's plenty not a thousand miles away as deserves it, and I don't know +as I'm too good for it myself. But he pitched it at us, and stuck it in +our faces in sech a way that I got mad. And I says, Well, ef God sends +me to hell he can't make me holler 'nough nohow. You see my dander was +up. And when my dander's up, I wouldn't gin up fer the devil his-self. +The preacher was so insultin' with his way of doin' it. He seemed to be +kind of glad that we was to be damned, and he preached somethin' like +some folks swears. It didn't sound a bit like the Christ the little man +preached about the night afore. So what does me and a lot of fellers do +but slip out and cut off the big preacher's stirrups, and hang 'em on to +the rider of the fence, and then set his hoss loose! And from that day, +sometimes I did, and sometimes I didn't, want to be better. And to-day +it seemed to me that you must know somethin' as would help me." + +Nothing is worse than a religious experience kept ready to be exposed to +the gaze of everybody, whether the time is appropriate or not. But never +was a religious experience more appropriate than the account which +Ralph gave to Bud of his Struggle in the Dark. The confession of his +weakness and wicked selfishness was a great comfort to Bud. + +"Do you think that Jesus Christ would--would--well, do you think he'd +help a poor, unlarnt Flat Cricker like me?" + +"I think he was a sort of a Flat Creeker himself," said Ralph, slowly +and very earnestly. + +"You don't say?" said Bud, almost getting off his seat. + +"Why, you see the town he lived in was a rough place. It was called +Nazareth, which meant 'Bush-town.'" + +"You don't say?" + +"And he was called a Nazarene, which was about the same as +'backwoodsman.'" + +And Ralph read the different passages which he had studied at +Sunday-school, illustrating the condescension of Jesus, the stories of +the publicans, the harlots, the poor, who came to him. And he read about +Nathanael, who lived only six miles away, saying, 'Can any good thing +come out of Nazareth?'" + +"Jus' what Clifty folks says about Flat Crick," broke in Bud. + +"Do you think I could begin without being baptized?" he added +presently. + +"Why not? Let's begin now to do the best we can, by his help." + +"You mean, then, that I'm to begin now to put in my best licks for Jesus +Christ, and that he'll help me?" + +This shocked Ralph's veneration a little. But it was the sincere +utterance of an earnest soul. It may not have been an orthodox start, +but it was the one start for Bud. And there be those who have repeated +with the finest aesthetic appreciation the old English liturgies who have +never known religious aspiration so sincere as that of this ignorant +young Hercules, whose best confession was that he meant hereafter "to +put in his best licks for Jesus Christ." And there be those who can +define repentance and faith to the turning of a hair who never made so +genuine a start for the kingdom of Heaven as Bud Means did. + +Ralph said yes, that he thought that was just it. At least, he guessed +if there was something more, the man that was putting in his best licks +would be sure to find it out. + +"Do you think he'd help a feller? Seems to me it would be number one to +have God help you. Not to help you fight other folks, but to help you +when it comes to fighting the devil inside. But you see I don't belong +to no church" + +"Well, let's you and me have one right off. Two people that help one +another to serve God make a church." + +I am afraid this ecclesiastical theory will not be considered orthodox. +It was Ralph's, and I write it down at the risk of bringing him into +condemnation. + +But other people before the days of Bud and Ralph have discussed church +organization when they should have been doing Christian work. For both +of them had forgotten the danger that hung over the old basket-maker, +until Shocky burst into the school-house, weeping. Indeed, the poor, +nervous little frame was ready to go into convulsions. + +"Miss Hawkins--" + +Bud started at mention of the name. + +"Miss Hawkins has just been over to say that a crowd is going to tar and +feather Mr. Pearson to-night. And--" here Shocky wept again. "And he +won't run, but he's took up the old flintlock, and he'll die in his +tracks." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE CHURCH MILITANT. + + +Bud was doubly enlisted on the side of John Pearson, the basket-maker. +In the first place, he knew that this persecution of the unpopular old +man was only a blind to save somebody else; that they were thieves who +cried, "Stop thief!" And he felt consequently that this was a chance to +put his newly-formed resolutions into practice. The Old Testament +religious life, which consists in fighting the Lord's enemies, suited +Bud's temper and education. It might lead to something better. It was +the best possible to him, now. But I am afraid I shall have to +acknowledge that there was a second motive that moved Bud to this +championship. The good heart of Martha Hawkins having espoused the cause +of the basket-maker, the heart of Bud Means could not help feeling +warmly on the same side. Blessed is that man in whose life the driving +of duty and the drawing of love impel the same way! But why speak of the +driving of duty? For already Bud was learning the better lesson of +serving God for the love of God. + +The old basket-maker was the most unpopular man in Flat Creek district. +He had two great vices. He would go to Clifty and have a "spree" once in +three months. And he would tell the truth in a most unscrupulous manner. +A man given to plain speaking was quite as objectionable in Flat Creek +as he would have been in France under the Empire, the Commune, or the +Republic, and almost as objectionable as he would be in any refined +community in America. People who live in glass houses have a horror of +people who throw stones. And the old basket-maker, having no friends, +was a good scape-goat. In driving him off, Pete Jones would get rid of a +dangerous neighbor and divert attention from himself. The immediate +crime of the basket-maker was that he had happened to see too much. + +"Mr. Hartsook," said Bud, when they got out into the road, "you'd better +go straight home to the Squire's. Bekase ef this lightnin' strikes a +second time it'll strike awful closte to you. You hadn't better be seen +with us. Which way did you come, Shocky?" + +"Why, I tried to come down the holler, but I met Jones right by the big +road, and he sweared at me and said he'd kill me ef I didn't go back and +stay. And so I went back to the house and then slipped out through the +graveyard. You see I was bound to come ef I got skinned. For Mr. +Pearson's, stuck to me and I mean to stick to him, you see." + +Bud led Shocky through the graveyard. But when they reached the forest +path from the graveyard he thought that perhaps it was not best to "show +his hand," as he expressed it, too soon. + +"Now, Shocky," he said, "do you run ahead and tell the ole man that I +want to see him right off down by the Spring-in-rock. I'll keep closte +behind you, and ef anybody offers to trouble you, do you let off a yell +and I'll be thar in no time." + +When Ralph left the school-house he felt mean. There were Bud and Shocky +gone on an errand of mercy, and he, the truant member of the Church of +the Best Licks, was not with them. The more he thought of it the more he +seemed to be a coward, and the more he despised himself; so, yielding as +usual to the first brave impulse, he leaped nimbly over the fence and +started briskly through the forest in a direction intersecting the path +on which were Bud and Shocky. He came in sight just in time to see the +first conflict of the Church in the Wilderness with her foes. + +For Shocky's little feet went more swiftly on their eager errand than +Bud had anticipated. He got farther out of Bud's reach than the latter +intended he should, and he did not discover Pete Jones until Pete, with +his hog-drover's whip, was right upon him. + +Shocky tried to halloo for Bud, but he was like one in a nightmare. The +yell died into a whisper which could not have been heard ten feet. + +I shall not repeat Mr. Jones's words. They were frightfully profane. But +he did not stop at words. He swept his whip round and gave little Shocky +one terrible cut. Then the voice was released, and the piercing cry of +pain brought Bud down the path flying. + +"You good-for-nothing scoundrel," growled Bud, "you're a coward and a +thief to be a-beatin' a little creetur like him!" and with that Bud +walked up on Jones, who prudently changed position in such a way as to +get the upper side of the hill. + +"Well, I'll gin you the upper side, but come on," cried Bud, "ef you +a'n't afeared to fight somebody besides a poor little sickly baby or a +crippled soldier. Come on!" + +[Illustration: Bud Means comes to the rescue of Shocky.] + +Pete was no insignificant antagonist. He had been a great fighter, and +his well-seasoned arms were like iron. He had not the splendid set of +Bud, but he had more skill and experience in the rude tournament of +fists to which the backwoods is so much given. Now, being out of sight +of witnesses and sure that he could lie about the fight afterward, he +did not scruple to take advantages which would have disgraced him +forever if he had taken them in a public fight on election day or at a +muster. He took the uphill side, and he clubbed his whip-stalk, striking +Bud with all his force with the heavy end, which, coward-like, he had +loaded with lead. Bud threw up his strong left arm and parried the blow, +which, however, was so fierce that it fractured one of the bones of the +arm. Throwing away his whip Pete rushed upon Bud furiously, intending to +overpower him, but Bud slipped quickly to one side and let Jones pass +down the hill, and as Jones came up again Means dealt him one crushing +blow that sent him full length upon the ground. Nothing but the leaves +saved him from a most terrible fall. Jones sprang to his feet more angry +than ever at being whipped by one whom he regarded as a boy, and drew a +long dirk-knife. But he was blind with rage, and Bud dodged the knife, +and this time gave Pete a blow on the nose which marred the homeliness +of that feature and doubled the fellow up against a tree ten feet away. + +Ralph came in sight in time to see the beginning of the fight, and he +arrived on the ground just as Pete Jones went down under the well-dealt +blow from the only remaining fist of Bud Means. + +While Ralph examined Bud's disabled left arm Pete picked himself up +slowly, and, muttering that he felt "consid'able shuck up like," crawled +away like a whipped puppy. To every one whom he met, Pete, whose +intellect seemed to have weakened in sympathy with his frame, remarked +feebly that he was consid'able shuck up like, and vouchsafed no other +explanation. Even to his wife he only said that he felt purty +consid'able shuck up like, and that the boys would have to get on +to-night without him. There are some scoundrels whose very malignity is +shaken out of them for the time being by a thorough drubbing. + +"I'm afraid you're going to have trouble with your arm, Bud," said Ralph +tenderly. + +"Never mind; I put in my best licks fer _Him_ that air time, Mr. +Hartsook." Ralph shivered a little at thought of this, but if it was +right to knock Jones down at all, why might not Bud do it "heartily as +unto the Lord?" + +Gideon did not feel any more honest pleasure in chastising the +Midianites than did Bud in sending Pete Jones away purty consid'able +shuck up like. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +A COUNCIL OF WAR. + + +Shocky, whose feet had flown as soon as he saw the final fall of Pete +Jones, told the whole story to the wondering and admiring ears of Miss +Hawkins, who unhappily could not remember anything at the East just like +it; to the frightened ears of the rheumatic old lady who felt sure her +ole man's talk and stubbornness would be the ruin of him, and to the +indignant ears of the old soldier who was hobbling up and down, +sentinel-wise, in front of his cabin, standing guard over himself. + +"No, I won't leave," he said to Ralph and Bud. "You see I jest won't. +What would Gin'ral Winfield Scott say ef he knew that one of them as fit +at Lundy's Lane backed out, retreated, run fer fear of a passel of +thieves? No, sir; me and the old flintlock will live and die together. +I'll put a thunderin' charge of buckshot into the first one of them +scoundrels as comes up the holler. It'll be another Lundy's Lane. And +you, Mr. Hartsook, may send Scott word that ole Pearson, as fit at +Lundy's Lane under him, died a-fightin' thieves on Rocky Branch, in +Hoopole Kyounty, State of Injeanny." + +And the old man hobbled faster and faster, taxing his wooden leg to the +very utmost, as if his victory depended on the vehemence with which he +walked his beat. + +Mrs. Pearson sat wringing her hands and looking appealingly at Martha +Hawkins, who stood in the door, in despair, looking appealingly at Bud. +Bud was stupefied by the old man's stubbornness and his own pain, and in +his turn appealed mutely to the master, in whose resources he had +boundless confidence. Ralph, seeing that all depended on him, was taxing +his wits to think of some way to get round Pearson's stubbornness. +Shocky hung to the old man's coat and pulled away at him with many +entreating words, but the venerable, bare-headed sentinel strode up and +down furiously, with his flintlock on his shoulder and his basket-knife +in his belt. + +Just at this point somebody could be seen indistinctly through the +bushes coming up the hollow. + +"Halt!" cried the old hero. "Who goes there?" + +"It's me, Mr. Pearson. Don't shoot me, please." + +It was the voice of Hannah Thomson. Hearing that the whole neighborhood +was rising against the benefactor of Shocky and of her family, she had +slipped away from the eyes of her mistress, and run with breathless +haste to give warning in the cabin on Rocky Branch. Seeing Ralph, she +blushed, and went into the cabin. + +"Well," said Ralph, "the enemy is not coming yet. Let us hold a council +of war." + +This thought came to Ralph like an inspiration. It pleased the old man's +whim, and he sat down on the door-step. + +"Now, I suppose," said Ralph, "that General Winfield Scott always looked +into things a little before he went into a fight. Didn't he?" + +"_To_ be sure," assented the old man. + +"Well," said Ralph. "What is the condition of the enemy? I suppose the +whole neighborhood's against us." + +"_To_ be sure," said the old man. The rest were silent, but all felt the +statement to be about true. + +"Next," said Ralph, "I suppose General Winfield Scott would always +inquire into the condition of his own troops. Now let us see. Captain +Pearson has Bud, who is the right wing, badly crippled by having his arm +broken in the first battle." (Miss Hawkins looked pale.) + +"_To_ be sure," said the old man. + +"And I am the left wing, pretty good at giving advice, but very slender +in a fight." + +"_To_ be sure," said the old man. + +"And Shocky and Miss Martha and Hannah good aids, but nothing in a +battle." + +"_To_ be sure," said the basket-maker, a little doubtfully. + +"Now let's look at the arms and accouterments, I think you call them. +Well, this old musket has been loaded--" + +"This ten year," said the old lady. + +"And the lock is so rusty that you could not cock it when you wanted to +take aim at Hannah." + +The old man looked foolish, and muttered "_To_ be sure." + +"And there isn't another round of ammunition in the house." + +The old man was silent. + +"Now let us look at the incumbrances. Here's the old lady and Shocky. If +you fight, the enemy will be pleased. It will give them a chance to kill +you. And then the old lady will die and they will do with Shocky as they +please." + +"_To_ be sure," said the old man reflectively. + +"Now," said Ralph, "General Winfield Scott, under such circumstances, +would retreat in good order. Then, when he could muster his forces +rightly, he would drive the enemy from his ground." + +"To be sure," said the old man. "What ort I to do?" + +"Have you any friends?" + +"Well, yes; ther's my brother over in Jackson Kyounty. I mout go there." + +"Well," said Bud, "do you just go down to Spring-in-rock and stay there. +Them folks won't be here tell midnight. I'll come fer you at nine with +my roan colt, and I'll set you down over on the big road on Buckeye Run. +Then you can git on the mail-wagon that passes there about five o'clock +in the mornin', and go over to Jackson County and keep shady till we +want you to face the enemy and to swear agin some folks. And then well +send fer you." + +"To be sure," said the old man in a broken voice. "I reckon General +Winfield Scott wouldn't disapprove of such a maneuver as that thar." + +Miss Martha beamed on Bud to his evident delight, for he carried his +painful arm part of the way home with her. Ralph noticed that Hannah +looked at _him_ with a look full of contending emotions. He read +admiration, gratitude, and doubt in the expression of her face, as she +turned toward home. + +"Well, good-by, ole woman," said Pearson, as he took up his little +handkerchief full of things and started for his hiding-place; "good-by. +I didn't never think I'd desart you, and ef the old flintlock hadn't a +been rusty, I'd a staid and died right here by the ole cabin. But I +reckon 'ta'n't best to be brash[22]." And Shocky looked after him, as he +hobbled away over the stones, more than ever convinced that God had +forgotten all about things on Flat Creek. He gravely expressed his +opinion to the master the next day. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 22: The elaborate etymological treatment of this word in its +various forms in our best dictionary is a fine illustration of the fact +that something more than scholarship is needed for penetrating the +mysteries of current folk-speech. _Brash_--often _bresh_--in the sense +of refuse boughs of trees, is only another form of _brush_; the two are +used as one word by the people. _Brash_ in the sense of brittle has no +conscious connection with the noun in popular usage, but it is accounted +by the people the same word as _brash_ in the sense of rash or +impetuous. The suggestion in the Century Dictionary that the words +spelled _brash_ are of modern formation violates the soundest canon of +antiquarian research, which is that a word phrase or custom widely +diffused among plain or rustic people is of necessity of ancient origin. +Now _brash_, the adjective, exists in both senses in two or three of the +most widely separated dialects of the United States, and hence must have +come from England. Indeed, it appears in Wright's Dictionary of +Provincial English in precisely the sense it has in the text.] + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +ODDS AND ENDS. + + +The Spring-in-rock, or, as it was sometimes, by a curious perversion, +called, the "rock-in-spring," was a spring running out of a cave-like +fissure in a high limestone cliff. Here the old man sheltered himself on +that dreary Christmas evening, until Bud brought his roan colt to the +top of the cliff above, and he and Ralph helped the old man up the cliff +and into the saddle. Ralph went back to bed, but Bud, who was only too +eager to put in his best licks, walked by the side of old John Pearson +the six miles over to Buckeye Run, and at last, after eleven o'clock, he +deposited him in a hollow sycamore by the road, there to wait the coming +of the mail-wagon that would carry him into Jackson County. + +"Good-by," said the basket-maker, as Bud mounted the colt to return. "Ef +I'm wanted jest send me word, and I'll make a forrard movement any time. +I don't like this 'ere thing of running off in the night-time. But I +reckon General Winfield Scott would a ordered a retreat ef he'd a been +in my shoes. I'm lots obleeged to you. Akordin' to my tell, we're all +of us selfish in everything; but I'll be dog-on'd ef I don't believe you +and one or two more is exceptions." + +Whether it was that the fact that Pete Jones had got consid'able shuck +up demoralized his followers, or whether it was that the old man's +flight was suspected, the mob did not turn out in very great force, and +the tarring was postponed indefinitely, for by the time they came +together it became known somehow that the man with a wooden leg had +outrun them all. But the escape of one devoted victim did not mollify +the feelings of the people toward the next one. + +By the time Bud returned his arm was very painful, and the next day he +went under Dr. Small's treatment to reduce the fracture. Whatever +suspicions Bud might have of Pete Jones, he was not afflicted with +Ralph's dread of the silent young doctor. And if there was anything +Small admired it was physical strength and courage. Small wanted Bud on +his side, and least of all did he want him to be Ralph's champion. So +that the silent, cool, and skillful doctor went to work to make an +impression on Bud Means. + +Other influences were at work upon him also. Mrs. Means volleyed and +thundered in her usual style about his "takin' up with a one-legged +thief, and runnin' arter that master that was a mighty suspicious kind +of a customer, akordin' to her tell. She'd allers said so. Ef she'd a +been consulted he wouldn't a been hired. He warn't fit company fer +nobody." + +And old Jack Means 'lowed Bud must want to have _their_ barns burnt like +some other folkses had been. Fer his part, he had sense enough to know +they was some people as it wouldn't do to set a body's self agin. And as +fer him, he didn't butt his brains out agin a buckeye-tree. Not when he +was sober. And so they managed, during Bud's confinement to the house, +to keep him well supplied with all the ordinary discomforts of life. + +But one visit from Martha Hawkins, ten words of kindly inquiry from her, +and the remark that his broken arm reminded her of something she had +seen at the East and something somebody said the time she was to +Bosting, were enough to repay the champion a thousand fold for all that +he suffered. Indeed, that visit, and the recollection of Ralph's saying +that Jesus Christ was a sort of a Flat Creeker himself, were manna in +the wilderness to Bud. + +Poor Shocky was sick. The excitement had been too much for him, and +though his fever was very slight it was enough to produce just a little +delirium. Either Ralph or Miss Martha was generally at the cabin. + +"They're coming," said Shocky to Ralph, "they're coming. Pete Jones is +a-going to bind me out for a hundred years. I wish Hanner would hold me +so's he couldn't. God's forgot all about us here in Flat Creek, and +there's nobody to help it." + +And he shivered at every sudden sound. He was never free from this +delirious fright except when the master held him tight in his arms. He +staggered around the floor, the very shadow of Shocky, and was so +terrified by the approach of darkness that Ralph staid in the cabin on +Wednesday night and Miss Hawkins staid on Thursday night. On Friday, Bud +sent a note to Ralph, askin him to come and see him. + +"You see, Mr. Hartsook, I ha'n't forgot what was said about puttin' in +our best licks for Jesus Christ. I've been a-trying to read some about +him while I set here. And I read where he said somethin about doing fer +the least of his brethren being as the same like as if it was done fer +Jesus Christ his-self. Now there's Shocky. I reckon, p'r'aps, as anybody +is a little brother of Jesus Christ, it is that Shocky. Pete Jones and +his brother Bill is determined to have him back there to-morry. Bekase +you see, Pete's one of the County Commissioners and to-morry's the day +that they bind out. He wants to bind out that boy jes' to spite ole +Pearson and you and me. You see, the ole woman's been helped by the +neighbors, and he'll claim Shocky to be a pauper, and they a'n't no +human soul here as dares to do a thing con_tra_ry to Pete. Couldn't you +git him over to Lewisburg? I'll lend you my roan colt." + +Ralph thought a minute. He dared not take Shocky to the uncle's where he +found his only home. But there was Miss Nancy Sawyer, the old maid who +was everybody's blessing. He could ask her to keep him. And, at any +rate, he would save Shocky somehow. + +As he went out in the dusk, he met Hannah in the lane. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +FACE TO FACE. + + +In the lane, in the dark, under the shadow of the barn, Ralph met Hannah +carrying her bucket of milk (they have no pails in Indiana)[23]. He +could see only the white foam on the milk, and Hannah's white face. +Perhaps it was well that he could not see how white Hannah's face was at +that moment when a sudden trembling made her set down the heavy bucket. +At first neither spoke. The recollection of all the joy of that walk +together in the night came upon them both. And a great sense of loss +made the night seem supernaturally dark to Ralph. Nor was it any lighter +in the hopeless heart of the bound girl. The presence of Ralph did not +now, as before, make the darkness of her life light. + +"Hannah--" said Ralph presently, and stopped. For he could not finish +the sentence. With a rush there came upon him a consciousness of the +suspicions that filled Hannah's mind. And with it there came a feeling +of guilt. He saw himself from her stand-point, and felt a remorse almost +as keen as it could have been had he been a criminal. And this sudden +and morbid sense of his guilt as it appeared to Hannah paralyzed him. +But when Hannah lifted her bucket with her hand, and the world with her +heavy heart, and essayed to pass him, Ralph rallied and said: + +"_You_ don't believe all these lies that are told about me." + +"I don't believe anything, Mr. Hartsook; that is, I don't want to +believe anything against you. And I wouldn't mind anything they say if +it wasn't for two things"--here she stammered and looked down. + +"If it wasn't for what?" said Ralph with a spice of indignant denial in +his voice. + +Hannah hesitated, but Ralph pressed the question with eagerness. + +"I saw you cross that blue-grass pasture the night--the night that you +walked home with me." She would have said the night of the robbery, but +her heart smote her, and she adopted the more kindly form of the +sentence. + +Ralph would have explained, but how? + +"I did cross the pasture," he began, "but--" + +Just here it occurred to Ralph that there was no reason for his night +excursion across the pasture. Hannah again took up her bucket, but he +said: + +"Tell me what else you have against me." + +"I haven't anything against you. Only I am poor and friendless, and you +oughtn't to make my life any heavier. They say that you have paid +attention to a great many girls. I don't know why you should want to +trifle with me." + +Ralph answered her this time. He spoke low. He spoke as though he were +speaking to God. "If any man says that I ever trifled with any woman, he +lies. I have never loved but one, and you know who that is. And God +knows." + +"I don't know what to say, Mr. Hartsook." Hannah's voice was broken. +These solemn words of love were like a river in the desert, and she was +like a wanderer dying of thirst. "I don't know, Mr. Hartsook. If I was +alone, it wouldn't matter. But I've got my blind mother and my poor +Shocky to look after. And I don't want to make mistakes. And the world +is so full of lies I don't know what to believe. Somehow I can't help +believing what you say. You seem to speak so true. But--" + +"But what?" said Ralph. + +"But you know how I saw you just as kind to Martha Hawkins on Sunday +as--as--" + +"Han--ner!" It was the melodious voice of the angry Mrs. Means, and +Hannah lifted her pail and disappeared. + +Standing in the shadow of his own despair, Ralph felt how dark a night +could be when it had no promise of morning. + +And Dr. Small, who had been stabling his horse just inside the barn, +came out and moved quietly into the house just as though he had not +listened intently to every word of the conversation. + +As Ralph walked away he tried to comfort himself by calling to his aid +the bulldog in his character. But somehow it did not do him any good. +For what is a bulldog but a stoic philosopher? Stoicism has its value, +but Ralph had come to a place where stoicism was of no account. The +memory of the Helper, of his sorrow, his brave and victorious endurance, +came when stoicism failed. Happiness might go out of life, but in the +light of Christ's life happiness seemed but a small element anyhow. The +love of woman might be denied him, but there still remained what was +infinitely more precious and holy, the love of God. There still remained +the possibility of heroic living. Working, suffering, and enduring still +remained. And he who can work for God and endure for God, surely has +yet the best of life left. And, like the knights who could find the Holy +Grail only in losing themselves, Hartsook, in throwing his happiness out +of the count, found the purest happiness, a sense of the victory of the +soul over the tribulations of life. The man who knows this victory +scarcely needs the encouragement of the hope of future happiness. There +is a real heaven in bravely lifting the load of one's own sorrow and +work. + +And it was a good thing for Ralph that the danger hanging over Shocky +made immediate action necessary. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 23: The total absence of the word _pail_ not only from the +dialect, but even from cultivated speech in the Southern and Border +States until very recently, is a fact I leave to be explained on further +investigation. The word is an old one and a good one, but I fancy that +its use in England could not have been generally diffused in the +seventeenth century. So a Hoosier or a Kentuckian never _pared_ an +apple, but _peeled_ it. Much light might be thrown on the origin and +history of our dialects by investigating their deficiencies.] + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +GOD REMEMBERS SHOCKY. + + +At four o'clock the next morning, in the midst of a driving snow, Ralph +went timidly up the lane toward the homely castle of the Meanses. He +went timidly, for he was afraid of Bull. But he found Bud waiting for +him, with the roan colt bridled and saddled. The roan colt was really a +large three-year-old, full of the finest sort of animal life, and +having, as Bud declared, "a mighty sight of hoss sense fer his age." He +seemed to understand at once that there was something extraordinary on +hand when he was brought out of his comfortable quarters at four in the +morning in the midst of a snow-storm. Bud was sure that the roan colt +felt his responsibility. + +In the days that followed, Ralph often had occasion to remember this +interview with Bud, who had risked much in bringing his fractured arm +out into the cold, damp air. Jonathan never clave to David more +earnestly than did Bud this December morning to Ralph. + +"You see, Mr. Hartsook," said Bud, "I wish I was well myself. It's hard +to set still. But it's a-doing me a heap of good. I'm like a boy at +school. And I'm a-findin' out that doing one's best licks fer others +ain't all they is of it, though it's a good part. I feel like as if I +must git Him, you know, to do lots for me. They's always some sums too +hard fer a feller, and he has to ax the master to do 'em, you know. But +see, the roan's a-stomping round. He wants to be off. Do you know I +think that hoss knows something's up? I think he puts in his best licks +fer me a good deal better than I do fer Him." + +Ralph pressed Bud's right hand. Bud rubbed his face against the colt's +nose and said: "Put in your best licks, old fellow." And the colt +whinnied. How a horse must want to speak! For Bud was right. Men are +gods to horses, and they serve their deities with a faithfulness that +shames us. + +Then Ralph sprang into the saddle, and the roan, as if wishing to show +Bud his willingness, broke into a swinging gallop, and was soon lost to +the sight of his master in the darkness and the snow. When Bud could no +more hear the sound of the roan's footsteps he returned to the house, to +lie awake picturing to himself the journey of Ralph with Shocky and the +roan colt. It was a great comfort to Bud that the roan, which was almost +a part of himself, represented him in this ride. And he knew the roan +well enough to feel sure that he would do credit to his master. "He'll +put in his best licks," Bud whispered to himself many a time before +daybreak. + +The ground was but little frozen, and the snow made the roads more +slippery than ever. But the rough-shod roan handled his feet dexterously +and with a playful and somewhat self-righteous air, as though he said: +"Didn't I do it handsomely that time?" Down slippery hills, through deep +mud-holes covered with a slender film of ice he trod with perfect +assurance. And then up over the rough stones of Rocky Hollow, where +there was no road at all, he picked his way through the darkness and +snow. Ralph could not tell where he was at last, but gave the reins to +the roan, who did his duty bravely, and not without a little flourish, +to show that he had yet plenty of spare power. + +A feeble candle-ray, making the dense snow-fall visible, marked for +Ralph the site of the basket-maker's cabin. Miss Martha had been +admitted to the secret, and had joined in the conspiracy heartily, +without being able to recall anything of the kind having occurred at the +East, and not remembering having seen or heard of anything of the sort +the time she was to Bosting. She had Shocky all ready, having used some +of her own capes and shawls to make him warm. + +Miss Martha came out to meet Ralph when she heard the feet of the roan +before the door. + +"O Mr. Hartsook! is that you? What a storm. This is jest the way it +snows at the East. Shocky's all ready. He didn't know a thing about it +tell I waked him this morning. Ever since that he's been saying that God +hasn't forgot, after all. It's made me cry more'n once." And Shocky +kissed Mrs. Pearson, and told her that when he got away from Flat Creek +he'd tell God all about it, and God would bring Mr. Pearson back again. +And then Martha Hawkins lifted the frail little form, bundled in shawls, +in her arms, and brought him out into the storm; and before she handed +him up he embraced her, and said: "O Miss Hawkins! God ha'n't forgot me, +after all. Tell Hanner that He ha'n't forgot. I'm going to ask him to +git her away from Means's and mother out of the poor-house. I'll ask him +just as soon as I get to Lewisburg." + +Ralph lifted the trembling form into his arms, and the little fellow +only looked up in the face of the master and said: "You see, Mr. +Hartsook, I thought God had forgot. But he ha'n't." + +And the words of the little boy comforted the master also. God had not +forgotten him, either! + +From the moment that Ralph took Shocky into his arms, the conduct of the +roan colt underwent an entire revolution. Before that he had gone over a +bad place with a rush, as though he were ambitious of distinguishing +himself by his brilliant execution. Now he trod none the less surely, +but he trod tenderly. The neck was no longer arched. He set himself to +his work as steadily as though he were twenty years old. For miles he +traveled on in a long, swinging walk, putting his feet down carefully +and firmly. And Ralph found the spirit of the colt entering into +himself. He cut the snow-storm with his face, and felt a sense of +triumph over all his difficulties. The bulldog's jaws had been his +teacher, and now the steady, strong, and conscientious legs of the roan +inspired him. + +Shocky had not spoken. He lay listening to the pattering music of the +horse's feet, doubtless framing the footsteps of the roan colt into an +anthem of praise to the God who had not forgot. But as the dawn came on, +making the snow whiter, he raised himself and said half-aloud, as he +watched the flakes chasing one another in whirling eddies, that the snow +seemed to be having a good time of it. Then he leaned down again on the +master's bosom, full of a still joy, and only roused himself from his +happy reverie to ask what that big, ugly-looking house was. + +"See, Mr. Hartsook, how big it is, and how little and ugly the windows +is! And the boards is peeling off all over it, and the hogs is right in +the front yard. It don't look just like a house. It looks dreadful. What +is it?" + +Ralph had dreaded this question. He did not answer it, but asked Shocky +to change his position a little, and then he quickened the pace of the +horse. But Shocky was a poet, and a poet understands silence more +quickly than he does speech. The little fellow shivered as the truth +came to him. + +"Is that the poor-house?" he said, catching his breath. "Is my mother in +that place? _Won't_ you take me in there, so as I can just kiss her +once? 'Cause she can't see much, you know. And one kiss from me will +make her feel so good. And I'll tell her that God ha'n't forgot." He had +raised up and caught hold of Ralph's coat. + +Ralph had great difficulty in quieting him. He told him that if he went +in there Bill Jones might claim that he was a runaway and belonged +there. And poor Shocky only shivered and said he was cold. A minute +later, Ralph found that he was shaking with a chill, and a horrible +dread came over him. What if Shocky should die? It was only a minute's +work to get down, take the warm horse-blanket from under the saddle, and +wrap it about the boy, then to strip off his own overcoat and add that +to it. It was now daylight, and finding, after he had mounted, that +Shocky continued to shiver, he put the roan to his best speed for the +rest of the way, trotting up and down the slippery hills, and galloping +away on the level ground. How bravely the roan laid himself to his work, +making the fence-corners fly past in a long procession! But poor little +Shocky was too cold to notice them, and Ralph shuddered lest Shocky +should never be warm again, and spoke to the roan, and the roan +stretched out his head, and dropped one ear back to hear the first word +of command, and stretched the other forward to listen for danger, and +then flew with a splendid speed down the road, past the patches of +blackberry briars, past the elderberry bushes, past the familiar red-haw +tree in the fence-corner, over the bridge without regard to the threat +of a five-dollar fine, and at last up the long lane into the village, +where the smoke from the chimneys was caught and whirled round with the +snow. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +MISS NANCY SAWYER. + + +In a little old cottage in Lewisburg, on one of the streets which was +never traveled except by a solitary cow seeking pasture or a countryman +bringing wood to some one of the half-dozen families living in it, and +which in summer was decked with a profusion of the yellow and white +blossoms of the dog-fennel--in this unfrequented street, so generously +and unnecessarily broad, lived Miss Nancy Sawyer and her younger sister +Semantha. Miss Nancy was a providence, one of those old maids that are +benedictions to the whole town; one of those in whom the mother-love, +wanting the natural objects on which to spend itself, overflows all +bounds and lavishes itself on every needy thing, and grows richer and +more abundant with the spending, a fountain of inexhaustible blessing. +There is no nobler life possible to any one than to an unmarried woman. +The more shame that some choose a selfish one, and thus turn to gall all +the affection with which they are endowed. Miss Nancy Sawyer had been +Ralph's Sunday-school teacher, and it was precious little, so far as +information went, that he learned from her; for she never could conceive +of Jerusalem as a place in any essential regard very different from +Lewisburg, where she had spent her life. But Ralph learned from her what +most Sunday-school teachers fail to teach, the great lesson of +Christianity, by the side of which all antiquities and geographies and +chronologies and exegetics and other niceties are as nothing. + +And now he turned the head of the roan toward the cottage of Miss Nancy +Sawyer as naturally as the roan would have gone to his own stall in the +stable at home. The snow had gradually ceased to fall, and was eddying +round the house, when Ralph dismounted from his foaming horse, and, +carrying the still form of Shocky as reverently as though it had been +something heavenly, knocked at Miss Nancy Sawyer's door. + +With natural feminine instinct that lady started back when she saw +Hartsook, for she had just built a fire in the stove, and she now stood +at the door with unwashed face and uncombed hair. + +"Why, Ralph Hartsook, where did you drop down from--and what have you +got?" + +"I came from Flat Creek this morning, and I brought you a little angel +who has got out of heaven, and needs some of your motherly care." + +Shocky was brought in. The chill shook him now by fits only, for a fever +had spotted his cheeks already. + +"Who are you?" said Miss Nancy, as she unwrapped him. + +"I'm Shocky, a little boy as God forgot, and then thought of again." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +PANCAKES. + + +Half an hour later, Ralph, having seen Miss Nancy Sawyer's machinery of +warm baths and simple remedies safely in operation, and having seen the +roan colt comfortably stabled, and rewarded for his faithfulness by a +bountiful supply of the best hay and the promise of oats when he was +cool--half an hour later Ralph was doing the most ample, satisfactory, +and amazing justice to his Aunt Matilda's hot buckwheat-cakes and warm +coffee. And after his life in Flat Creek, Aunt Matilda's house did look +like paradise. How white the table-cloth, how bright the coffee-pot, how +clean the wood-work, how glistening the brass door-knobs, how spotless +everything that came under the sovereign sway of Mrs. Matilda White! For +in every Indiana village as large as Lewisburg, there are generally a +half-dozen women who are admitted to be the best housekeepers. All +others are only imitators. And the strife is between these for the +pre-eminence. It is at least safe to say that no other in Lewisburg +stood so high as an enemy to dirt, and as a "rat, roach, and mouse +exterminator," as did Mrs. Matilda White, the wife of Ralph's maternal +uncle, Robert White, Esq., a lawyer in successful practice. Of course no +member of Mrs. White's family ever stayed at home longer than was +necessary. Her husband found his office--which he kept in as bad a state +as possible in order to maintain an equilibrium in his life--much more +comfortable than the stiffly clean house at home. From the time that +Ralph had come to live as a chore-boy at his uncle's, he had ever +crossed the threshold of Aunt Matilda's temple of cleanliness with a +horrible sense of awe. And Walter Johnson, her son by a former marriage, +had--poor, weak-willed fellow!--been driven into bad company and bad +habits by the wretchedness of extreme civilization. And yet he showed +the hereditary trait, for all the genius which Mrs. White consecrated to +the glorious work of making her house too neat to be habitable, her son +Walter gave to tying exquisite knots in his colored cravats and combing +his oiled locks so as to look like a dandy barber. And she had no other +children. The kind Providence that watches over the destiny of children +takes care that very few of them are lodged in these terribly clean +houses. + +But Walter was not at the table, and Ralph had so much anxiety lest his +absence should be significant of evil, that he did not venture to +inquire after him as he sat there between Mr. and Mrs. White disposing +of Aunt Matilda's cakes with an appetite only justified by his long +morning's ride and the excellence of the brown cakes, the golden honey, +and the coffee, enriched, as Aunt Matilda's always was, with the most +generous cream. Aunt Matilda was so absorbed in telling of the doings of +the Dorcas Society that she entirely forgot to be surprised at the early +hour of Ralph's arrival. When she had described the number of the +garments finished to be sent to the Five Points Mission, or the Home for +the Friendless, or the South Sea Islands, I forget which, Ralph thought +he saw his chance, while Aunt Matilda was in a benevolent mood, to +broach a plan he had been revolving for some time. But when he looked at +Aunt Matilda's immaculate--horribly immaculate--housekeeping, his heart +failed him, and he would have said nothing had she not inadvertently +opened the door herself. + +"How did you get here so early, Ralph?" and Aunt Matilda's face was +shadowed with a coming rebuke. + +"By early rising," said Ralph. But, seeing the gathering frown on his +aunt's brow, he hastened to tell the story of Shocky as well as he +could. Mrs. White did not give way to any impulse toward sympathy until +she learned that Shocky was safely housed with Miss Nancy Sawyer. + +"Yes, Sister Sawyer has no family cares," she said by way of smoothing +her slightly ruffled complacency, "she has no family cares, and she can +do those things. Sometimes I think she lets people impose on her and +keep her away from the means of grace, and I spoke to our new preacher +about it the last time he was here, and asked him to speak to Sister +Sawyer about staying away from the ordinances to wait on everybody, but +he is a queer man, and he only said that he supposed Sister Sawyer +neglected the inferior ordinances that she might attend to higher ones. +But I don't see any sense in a minister of the gospel calling +prayer-meeting a lower ordinance than feeding catnip-tea to Mrs. Brown's +last baby. But hasn't this little boy--Shocking, or what do you call +him?--got any mother?" + +"Yes," said Ralph, "and that was just what I was going to say." And he +proceeded to tell how anxious Shocky was to see his half-blind mother, +and actually ventured to wind up his remarks by suggesting that Shocky's +mother be invited to stay over Sunday in Aunt Matilda's house. + +"Bless my stars!" said that astounded saint, "fetch a pauper here? What +crazy notions you have got! Fetch her here out of the poor-house? Why, +she wouldn't be fit to sleep in my--" here Aunt Matilda choked. The bare +thought of having a pauper in her billowy beds, whose snowy whiteness +was frightful to any ordinary mortal, the bare thought of the contagion +of the poor-house taking possession of one of her beds, smothered her. +"And then you know sore eyes are very catching." + +Ralph boiled a little. "Aunt Matilda, do you think Dorcas was afraid of +sore eyes?" + +It was a center shot, and the lawyer-uncle, lawyerlike, enjoyed a good +hit. And he enjoyed a good hit at his wife best of all, for he never +ventured on one himself. But Aunt Matilda felt that a direct reply was +impossible. She was not a lawyer but a woman, and so dodged the question +by making a counter-charge. + +"It seems to me, Ralph, that you have picked up some very low +associates. And you go around at night, I am told. You get over here by +daylight, and I hear that you have made common cause with a lame soldier +who acts as a spy for thieves, and that your running about of night is +likely to get you into trouble." + +Ralph was hit this time. "I suppose," he said, "that you've been +listening to some of Henry Small's lies." + +"Why, Ralph, how you talk! The worst sign of all is that you abuse such +a young man as Dr. Small, the most exemplary Christian young man in the +county. And he is a great friend of yours, for when he was here last +week he did not say a word against you, but looked so sorry when your +being in trouble was mentioned. Didn't he, Mr. White?" + +Mr. White, as in duty bound, said yes, but he said yes in a cool, +lawyerlike way, which showed that he did not take quite so much stock in +Dr. Small as his wife did. This was a comfort to Ralph, who sat +picturing to himself the silent flattery which Dr. Small's eyes paid to +his Aunt Matilda, and the quiet expression of pain that would flit +across his face when Ralph's name was mentioned. And never until that +moment had Hartsook understood how masterful Small's artifices were. He +had managed to elevate himself in Mrs. White's estimation and to destroy +Ralph at the same time, and had managed to do both by a contraction of +the eyebrows! + +But the silence was growing painful and Ralph thought to break it and +turn the current of talk from himself by asking after Mrs. White's son. + +"Where is Walter?" + +"Oh! Walter's doing well. He went down to Clifty three weeks ago to +study medicine with Henry Small. He seems so fond of the doctor, and the +doctor is such an excellent man, you know, and I have strong hopes that +Wallie will be led to see the error of his ways by his association with +Henry. I suppose he would have gone to see you but for the unfavorable +reports that he heard. I hope, Ralph, you too will make the friendship +of Dr. Small. And for the sake of your poor, dead mother"--here Aunt +Matilda endeavored to show some emotion--"for the sake of your poor dead +mother--" + +But Ralph heard no more. The buckwheat-cakes had lost their flavor. He +remembered that the colt had not yet had his oats, and so, in the very +midst of Aunt Matilda's affecting allusion to his mother, like a +stiff-necked reprobate that he was, Ralph Hartsook rose abruptly from +the table, put on his hat, and went out toward the stable. + +"I declare," said Mrs. White, descending suddenly from her high moral +stand-point, "I declare that boy has stepped right on the threshold of +the back-door," and she stuffed her white handkerchief into her pocket, +and took down the floor-cloth to wipe off the imperceptible blemish left +by Ralph's boot-heels. And Mr. White followed his nephew to the stable +to request that he would be a little careful what he did about anybody +in the poor-house, as any trouble with the Joneses might defeat Mr. +White's nomination to the judgeship of the Court of Common Pleas. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +A CHARITABLE INSTITUTION. + + +When Ralph got back to Miss Nancy Sawyer's, Shocky was sitting up in bed +talking to Miss Nancy and Miss Semantha. His cheeks were a little +flushed with fever and the excitement of telling his story; theirs were +wet with tears. "Ralph," whispered Miss Nancy, as she drew him into the +kitchen, "I want you to get a buggy or a sleigh, and go right over to +the poor-house and fetch that boy's mother over here. It'll do me more +good than any sermon I ever heard to see that boy in his mother's arms +to-morrow. We can keep the old lady over Sunday." + +Ralph was delighted, so delighted that he came near kissing good Miss +Nancy Sawyer, whose plain face was glorified by her generosity. + +But he did not go to the poor-house immediately. He waited until he saw +Bill Jones, the Superintendent of the Poor-House, and Pete Jones, the +County Commissioner, who was still somewhat shuck up, ride up to the +court-house. Then he drove out of the village, and presently hitched his +horse to the poor-house fence, and took a survey of the outside. Forty +hogs, nearly ready for slaughter, wallowed in a pen in front of the +forlorn and dilapidated house; for though the commissioners allowed a +claim for repairs at every meeting, the repairs were never made, and it +would not do to scrutinize Mr. Jones's bills too closely, unless you +gave up all hope of renomination to office. One curious effect of +political aspirations in Hoopole County, was to shut the eyes that they +could not see, to close the ears that they could not hear, and to +destroy the sense of smell. But Ralph, not being a politician, smelled +the hog-pen without and the stench within, and saw everywhere the +transparent fraud, and heard the echo of Jones's cruelty. + +A weak-eyed girl admitted him, and as he did not wish to make his +business known at once, he affected a sort of idle interest in the +place, and asked to be allowed to look round. The weak-eyed girl watched +him. He found that all the women with children, twenty persons in all, +were obliged to sleep in one room, which, owing to the hill-slope, was +partly under ground, and which had but half a window for light, and no +ventilation, except the chance draft from the door. Jones had declared +that the women with children must stay there--"he warn't goin' to have +brats a-runnin' over the whole house." Here were vicious women and good +women, with their children, crowded like chickens in a coop for market. +And there were, as usual in such places, helpless, idiotic women with +illegitimate children. Of course this room was the scene of perpetual +quarreling and occasional fighting. + +In the quarters devoted to the insane, people slightly demented and +raving maniacs were in the same rooms, while there were also those utter +wrecks which sat in heaps on the floor, mumbling and muttering +unintelligible words, the whole current of their thoughts hopelessly +muddled, turning around upon itself in eddies never ending. + +"That air woman," said the weak-eyed girl, "used to holler a heap when +she was brought in here. But Pap knows how to subjue 'em. He slapped her +in the mouth every time she hollered. She don't make no furss now, but +jist sets down that way all day, and keeps a-whisperin'." + +Ralph understood it. When she came in she was the victim of mania; but +she had been beaten into hopeless idiocy. Indeed this state of incurable +imbecility seemed the end toward which all traveled. Shut in these bare +rooms, with no treatment, no exercise, no variety, and meager food, +cases of slight derangement soon grew into chronic lunacy. + +One young woman, called Phil, a sweet-faced person, apparently a +farmer's wife, came up to Ralph and looked at him kindly, playing with +the buttons on his coat in a childlike simplicity. Her blue-drilling +dress was sewed all over with patches of white, representing ornamental +buttons. The womanly instinct toward adornment had in her taken this +childish turn. + +"Don't you think they ought to let me go home?" she said with a +sweetness and a wistful, longing, home-sick look, that touched Ralph to +the heart. He looked at her, and then at the muttering crones, and he +could see no hope of any better fate for her. She followed him round the +barn-like rooms, returning every now and then to her question. "Don't +you think I might go home now?" + +The weak-eyed girl had been called away for a moment, and Ralph stood +looking into a cell, where there was a man with a gay red plume in his +hat and a strip of red flannel about his waist. He strutted up and down +like a drill-sergeant. + +"I am General Andrew Jackson," he began. "People don't believe it, but I +am. I had my head shot off at Bueny Visty, and the new one that growed +on isn't nigh so good as the old one; it's tater on one side[24]. That's +why they take advantage of me to shut me up. But I know some things. My +head is tater on one side, but it's all right on t'other. And when I +know a thing in the left side of my head, I know it. Lean down here. Let +me tell you something out of the left side. Not out of the tater side, +mind ye. I wouldn't a told you if he hadn't locked me up fer nothing. +_Bill Jones is a thief_! He sells the bodies of the dead paupers, and +then sells the empty coffins back to the county agin. But that a'n't +all--" + +Just then the weak-eyed girl came back, and, as Ralph moved away, +General Jackson called out: "That a'n't all. I'll tell the rest another +time. And that a'n't out of the tater side, you can depend on that. +That's out of the left side. Sound as a nut on that side!" + +But Ralph began to wonder where he should find Hannah's mother. + +"Don't go in there," cried the weak-eyed girl, as Ralph was opening a +door. "Ole Mowley's in there, and she'll cuss you." + +"Oh! well, if that's all, her curses won't hurt," said Hartsook, +pushing open the door. But the volley of blasphemy and vile language +that he received made him stagger. The old hag paced the floor, abusing +everybody that came in her way. And by the window, in the same room, +feeling the light that struggled through the dusty glass upon her face, +sat a sorrowful, intelligent Englishwoman. Ralph noticed at once that +she was English, and in a few moments he discovered that her sight was +defective. Could it be that Hannah's mother was the room-mate of this +loathsome creature, whose profanity and obscenity did not intermit for a +moment? + +Happily the weak-eyed girl had not dared to brave the curses of Mowley. +Ralph stepped forward to the woman by the window, and greeted her. + +"Is this Mrs. Thomson?" + +"That is my name, sir," she said, turning her face toward Ralph, who +could not but remark the contrast between the thorough refinement of her +manner and her coarse, scant, unshaped pauper-frock of blue drilling. + +"I saw your daughter yesterday." + +"Did you see my boy?" + +There was a tremulousness in her voice and an agitation in her manner +which disclosed the emotion she strove in vain to conceal. For only the +day before Bill Jones had informed her that Shocky would be bound out on +Saturday, and that she would find that goin' agin him warn't a payin' +business, so much as some others he mout mention. + +Ralph told her about Shocky's safety. _I_ shall not write down the +conversation here. Critics would say that it was an overwrought scene. +As if all the world were as cold as they! All I can tell is that this +refined woman had all she could do to control herself in her eagerness +to get out of her prison-house, away from the blasphemies of Mowley, +away from the insults of Jones, away from the sights and sounds and +smells of the place, and, above all, her eagerness to fly to the little +shocky-head from whom she had been banished for two years. It seemed to +her that she could gladly die now, if she could die with that flaxen +head upon her bosom. + +And so, in spite of the opposition of Bill Jones's son, who threatened +her with every sort of evil if she left, Ralph wrapped Mrs. Thomson's +blue drilling in Nancy Sawyer's shawl, and bore the feeble woman off to +Lewisburg. And as they drove away, a sad, childlike voice cried from the +gratings of the upper window, "Good-by! good-by!" Ralph turned and saw +that it was Phil, poor Phil, for whom there was no deliverance[25]. And +all the way back Ralph pronounced mental maledictions on the Dorcas +Society, not for sending garments to the Five Points or the South Sea +Islands, whichever it was, but for being so blind to the sorrow and +poverty within its reach. He did not know, for he had not read the +reports of the Boards of State Charities, that nearly all alms-houses +are very much like this, and that the State of New York is not better in +this regard than Indiana. And he did not know that it is true in almost +all other counties, as it was in his own, that "Christian" people do not +think enough of Christ to look for him in these lazar-houses. + +And while Ralph denounced the Dorcas Society, the eager, hungry heart of +the mother ran, flew toward the little white-headed boy. + +No, I can not do it; I can not tell you about that meeting. I am sure +that Miss Nancy Sawyer's tea tasted exceedingly good to the pauper, who +had known nothing but cold water for years, and that the bread and +butter were delicious to a palate that had eaten poor-house soup for +dinner, and coarse poor-house bread and vile molasses for supper, and +that without change for three years. But I can not tell you how it +seemed that evening to Miss Nancy Sawyer, as the poor English lady sat +in speechless ecstacy, rocking in the old splint-bottomed rocking-chair +in the fire-light, while she pressed to her bosom with all the might of +her enfeebled arms, the form of the little Shocky, who half-sobbed and +half-sang, over and over again, "God ha'n't forgot us, mother; God +ha'n't forgot us." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 24: Some time after this book appeared Dr. Brown-Sequard +announced his theory of the dual brain. A writer in an English magazine +called attention to the fact that the discovery had been anticipated by +an imaginative writer, and cited the passage in the text as proving that +the author of "The Hoosier School-Master" had outrun Dr. Brown-Sequard +in perceiving the duality of the brain. It is a matter for surprise that +an author, even an "imaginative" one, should have made so great a +discovery without suspecting its meaning until it was explained by some +one else.] + +[Footnote 25: The reader may be interested to know that "Phil" was drawn +from the life, as was old Mowley and in part "General Jackson" also. +Between 1867 and 1870, I visited many jails and poor-houses with +philanthropic purpose, publishing the results of my examination in some +cases in _The Chicago Tribune_. Some of the abuses pointed out were +reformed, others linger till this day, I believe.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +THE GOOD SAMARITAN. + + +The Methodist church to which Mrs. Matilda White and Miss Nancy Sawyer +belonged was the leading one in Lewisburg, as it was in most county-seat +villages in Indiana. If I may be permitted to express my candid and +charitable opinion of the difference between the two women, I shall have +to use the old Quaker locution, and say that Miss Sawyer was a Methodist +and likewise a Christian; Mrs. White was a Methodist, but I fear she was +not likewise. + +As to the first part of this assertion, there was no room to doubt Miss +Nancy's piety. She could get happy in class-meeting (for who had a +better right?), and could witness a good experience in the quarterly +love-feast. But it is not upon these grounds that I base my opinion of +Miss Nancy. Do not even the Pharisees the same? She never dreamed that +she had any right to speak of "Christian Perfection" (which, as Mrs. +Partington said of total depravity, is an excellent doctrine if it is +lived up to); but when a woman's heart is full of devout affections and +good purposes, when her head devises liberal and Christlike things, when +her hands are always open to the poor and always busy with acts of love +and self-denial, and when her feet are ever eager to run upon errands of +mercy, why, if there be anything worthy of being called Christian +Perfection in this world of imperfection, I do not know why such an one +does not possess it. What need of analyzing her experiences _in vacuo_ +to find out the state of her soul? + +How Miss Nancy managed to live on her slender income and be so generous +was a perpetual source of perplexity to the gossips of Lewisburg. And +now that she declared that Mrs. Thomson and Shocky should not return to +the poor-house there was a general outcry from the whole Committee of +Intermeddlers that she would bring herself to the poor-house before she +died. But Nancy Sawyer was the richest woman in Lewisburg, though nobody +knew it, and though she herself did not once suspect it. + +How Miss Nancy and the preacher conspired together, and how they managed +to bring Mrs. Thomson's case up at the time of the "Sacramental Service" +in the afternoon of that Sunday in Lewisburg, and how the preacher made +a touching statement of it just before the regular "Collection for the +Poor" was taken, and how the warm-hearted Methodists put in dollars +instead of dimes while the Presiding Elder read those passages about +Zaccheus and other liberal people, and how the congregation sang + + "He dies, the Friend of sinners dies" + +more lustily than ever, after having performed this Christian act--how +all this happened I can not take up the reader's time to tell. But I can +assure him that the nearly blind English woman did not room with +blasphemous old Mowley any more, and that the blue-drilling pauper frock +gave way to something better, and that grave little Shocky even danced +with delight, and declared that God hadn't forgot, though he'd thought +that He had. And Mrs. Matilda White remarked that it was a shame that +the collection for the poor at a Methodist sacramental service should be +given to a woman who was a member of the Church of England, and like as +not never soundly converted! + +And Shocky slept in his mother's arms and prayed God not to forget +Hannah, while Shocky's mother knit stockings for the store day and +night, and day and night she prayed and hoped. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +BUD WOOING. + + +The Sunday that Ralph spent in Lewisburg, the Sunday that Shocky spent +in an earthly paradise, the Sunday that Mrs. Thomson spent with Shocky +instead of old Mowley, the Sunday that Miss Nancy thought was "just like +heaven," was also an eventful Sunday with Bud Means. He had long adored +Miss Martha in his secret heart, but, like many other giants, while +brave enough to face and fight dragons, he was a coward in the presence +of the woman that he loved. Let us honor him for it. The man who loves a +woman truly, reverences her profoundly and feels abashed in her +presence. The man who is never abashed in the presence of womanhood, the +man who tells his love without a tremor, is a shallow egotist. Bud's +nature was not fine. But it was deep, true, and manly. To him Martha +Hawkins was the chief of women. What was he that he should aspire to +possess her? And yet on that Sunday, with his crippled arm carefully +bound up, with his cleanest shirt, and with his heavy boots freshly +oiled with the fat of the raccoon, he started hopefully through fields +white with snow to the house of Squire Hawkins. When he started his +spirits were high, but they descended exactly in proportion to his +proximity to the object of his love. He thought himself not dressed well +enough He wished his shoulders were not so square, and his arms not so +stout. He wished that he had book-larnin' enough to court in nice, big +words. And so, by recounting his own deficiencies, he succeeded in +making himself feel weak, and awkward, and generally good-for-nothing, +by the time he walked up between the rows of dead hollyhocks to the +Squire's front door, to tap at which took all his remaining strength. + +Miss Martha received her perspiring lover most graciously, but this only +convinced Bud more than ever that she was a superior being. If she had +slighted him a bit, so as to awaken his combativeness, his bashfulness +might have disappeared. + +It was in vain that Martha inquired about his arm and complimented his +courage. Bud could only think of his big feet, his clumsy hands, and his +slow tongue. He answered in monosyllables, using his red silk +handkerchief diligently. + +"Is your arm improving?" asked Miss Hawkins. + +"Yes, I think it is," said Bud, hastily crossing his right leg over his +left, and trying to get his fists out of sight. + +"Have you heard from Mr. Pearson?" + +"No, I ha'n't," answered Bud, removing his right foot to the floor +again, because it looked so big, and trying to push his left hand into +his pocket. + +"Beautiful sunshine, isn't it?" said Martha. + +"Yes, 'tis," answered Bud, sticking his right foot up on the rung of the +chair and putting his right hand behind him. + +"This snow looks like the snow we have at the East," said Martha. "It +snowed that way the time I was to Bosting." + +"Did it?" said Bud, not thinking of the snow at all nor of Boston, but +thinking how much better he would have appeared had he left his arms and +legs at home. + +"I suppose Mr. Hartsook rode your horse to Lewisburg?" + +"Yes, he did;" and Bud hung both hands at his side. + +"You were very kind." + +This set Bud's heart a-going so that he could not say anything, but he +looked eloquently at Miss Hawkins, drew both feet under the chair, and +rammed his hands into his pockets. Then, suddenly remembering how +awkward he must look, he immediately pulled his hands out again, and +crossed his legs. There was a silence of a few minutes, during which Bud +made up his mind to do the most desperate thing he could think of--to +declare his love and take the consequences. + +"You see, Miss Hawkins," he began, forgetting boots and fists in his +agony, "I thought as how I'd come over here to-day, and"--but here his +heart failed him utterly--"and--see--you." + +"I'm glad to see you, Mr. Means." + +"And I thought I'd tell you"--Martha was sure it was coming now, for Bud +was in dead earnest--"and I thought I'd just like to tell you, ef I only +know'd jest how to tell it right"--here Bud got frightened, and did not +dare close the sentence as he had intended--"I thought as how you might +like to know--or ruther I wanted to tell you--that--the--that I--that +we--all of us--think--that--I--that we are going to have a +spellin'-school a Chewsday night." + +"I'm real glad to hear it," said the bland but disappointed Martha. "We +used to have spelling-schools at the East." But Miss Martha could not +remember that they had them "to Bosting." + +Hard as it is for a bashful man to talk, it is still more difficult for +him to close the conversation. Most men like to leave a favorable +impression, and a bashful man is always waiting with the forlorn hope +that some favorable turn in the talk may let him out without absolute +discomfiture. And so Bud stayed a long time, and how he ever did get +away he never could tell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +A LETTER AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. + + +"SQUAR HAUKINS + +"this is too Lett u no that u beter be Keerful hoo yoo an yore familly +tacks cides with fer peepl wont Stan it too hev the Men wat's sportin +the wuns wat's robin us, sported bi yor Fokes kepin kumpne with 'em, u +been a ossifer ov the Lau, yor Ha wil bern as qick as to an yor Barn tu, +so Tak kere. No mor ad pressnt." + +This letter accomplished its purpose. The Squire's spectacles slipped +off several times while he read it. His wig had to be adjusted. If he +had been threatened personally he would not have minded it so much. But +the hay stacks were dearer to him than the apple of his glass eye. The +barn was more precious than his wig. And those who hoped to touch Bud in +a tender place through this letter knew the Squire's weakness far better +than they knew the spelling-book. To see his new red barn with its large +"Mormon" hay-press inside, and the mounted Indian on the vane, +consumed, was too much for the Hawkins heart to stand. Evidently the +danger was on the side of his niece. But how should he influence Martha +to give up Bud? Martha did not value the hay-stacks half so highly as +she did her lover. Martha did not think the new red barn, with the great +Mormon press inside and the galloping Indian on the vane, worth half so +much as a moral principle or a kind-hearted action. Martha, bless her! +would have sacrificed anything rather than forsake the poor. But Squire +Hawkins's lips shut tight over his false teeth in a way that suggested +astringent purse-strings, and Squire Hawkins could not sleep at night if +the new red barn, with the galloping Indian on the vane, were in danger. +Martha must be reached somehow. + +So, with many adjustings of that most adjustable wig? with many turnings +of that reversible glass eye? the Squire managed to frighten Martha by +the intimation that he had been threatened, and to make her understand, +what it cost her much to understand, that she must turn the cold +shoulder to chivalrous, awkward Bud, whom she loved most tenderly, +partly, perhaps, because he did not remind her of anybody she had ever +known at the East. + +Tuesday evening was the fatal time. Spelling-school was the fatal +occasion. Bud was the victim. Pete Jones had his revenge. For Bud had +been all the evening trying to muster courage enough to offer himself as +Martha's escort. He was not encouraged by the fact that he had spelled +even worse than usual, while Martha had distinguished herself by holding +her ground against Jeems Phillips for half an hour. But he screwed his +courage to the sticking place, not by quoting to himself the adage, +"Faint heart never won fair lady," which, indeed, he had never heard, +but by reminding himself that "ef you don't resk notin' you'll never git +nothin'." So, when the spelling-school had adjourned, he sidled up to +her, and, looking dreadfully solemn and a little foolish, he said: + +"Kin I see you safe home?" + +And she, with a feeling that her uncle's life was in danger, and that +his salvation depended upon her resolution--she, with a feeling that she +was pronouncing sentence of death on her own great hope, answered +huskily: + +"No, I thank you." + +If she had only known that it was the red barn with the Indian on top +that was in danger, she would probably have let the galloping brave take +care of himself. + +It seemed to Bud, as he walked home mortified, disgraced, disappointed, +hopeless, that all the world had gone down in a whirlpool of despair. + +"Might a knowed it," he said to himself. "Of course, a smart gal like +Martha a'n't agoin' to take a big, blunderin' fool that can't spell in +two syllables. What's the use of tryin'? A Flat Cricker Is a Flat +Cricker. You can't make nothin' else of him, no more nor you can make a +Chiny hog into a Berkshire." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +A LOSS AND A GAIN. + + +Dr. Small, silent, attentive, assiduous Dr. Small, set himself to work +to bind up the wounded heart of Bud Means, even as he had bound up his +broken arm. The flattery of his fine eyes, which looked at Bud's muscles +so admiringly, which gave attention to his lightest remark, was not lost +on the young Flat Creek Hercules. Outwardly at least Pete Jones showed +no inclination to revenge himself on Bud. Was it respect for muscle, or +was it the influence of Small? At any rate, the concentrated extract of +the resentment of Pete Jones and his clique was now ready to empty +itself upon the head of Hartsook. And Ralph found himself in his dire +extremity without even the support of Bud, whose good resolutions seemed +to give way all at once. There have been many men of culture and more +favorable surroundings who have thrown themselves away with less +provocation. As it was, Bud quit school, avoided Ralph, and seemed more +than ever under the influence of Dr. Small, besides becoming the +intimate of Walter Johnson, Small's student and Mrs. Matilda White's +son. They made a strange pair--Bud with his firm jaw and silent, +cautious manner, and Walter Johnson with his weak chin, his nice +neck-ties, and general dandy appearance. + +To be thus deserted in his darkest hour by his only friend was the +bitterest ingredient in Ralph's cup. In vain he sought an interview. Bud +always eluded him. While by all the faces about him Ralph learned that +the storm was getting nearer and nearer to himself. It might delay. If +it had been Pete Jones alone, it might blow over. But Ralph felt sure +that the relentless hand of Dr. Small was present in all his troubles. +And he had only to look into Small's eye to know how inextinguishable +was a malignity that burned so steadily and so quietly. + +But there is no cup of unmixed bitterness. With an innocent man there is +no night so dark that some star does not shine. Ralph had one strong +sheet-anchor. On his return from Lewisburg on Monday Bud had handed him +a note, written on common blue foolscap, in round, old-fashioned hand. +It ran: + + "Dear Sir: Anybody who can do so good a thing as you did for our + Shocky, can not be bad. I hope you will forgive me. All the + appearances in the world, and all that anybody says, can not make + me think you anything else but a good man. I hope God will reward + you. You must not answer this, and you hadn't better see me again, + or think any more of what you spoke about the other night. I shall + be a slave for three years more, and then I must work for my mother + and Shocky; but I felt so bad to think that I had spoken so hard to + you, that I could not help writing this. Respectfully, + + "HANNAH THOMSON. + + "To MR. R. HARTSOOK, ESQ." + +Ralph read it over and over. What else he did with it I shall not tell. +You want to know whether he kissed it, and put it into his bosom. Many a +man as intelligent and manly as Hartsook has done quite as foolish a +thing as that. You have been a little silly perhaps--if it is silly--and +you have acted in a sentimental sort of a way over such things. But it +would never do for me to tell you what Ralph did. Whether he put the +letter into his bosom or not, he put the words into his heart, and, +metaphorically speaking, he shook that little blue billet, written on +coarse foolscap paper--he shook that little letter full of confidence, +in the face and eyes of all the calamities that haunted him. If Hannah +believed in him, the whole world might distrust him. When Hannah was in +one scale and the whole world in the other, of what account was the +world? Justice may be blind, but all the pictures of blind cupids in the +world can not make Love blind. And it was well that Ralph weighed things +in this way. For the time was come in which he needed all the courage +the blue billet could give him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +THE FLIGHT. + + +About ten days after Ralph's return to Flat Creek things came to a +crisis. + +The master was rather relieved at first to have the crisis come. He had +been holding juvenile Flat Creek under his feet by sheer force of will. +And such an exercise of "psychic power" is very exhausting. In racing on +the Ohio the engineer sometimes sends the largest of the firemen to hold +the safety valve down, and this he does by hanging himself to the lever +by his hands. Ralph felt that he had been holding the safety-valve down, +and that he was so weary of the operation that an explosion would be a +real relief. He was a little tired of having everybody look on him as a +thief. It was a little irksome to know that new bolts were put on the +doors of the houses in which he had staid. And now that Shocky was gone, +and Bud had turned against him, and Aunt Matilda suspected him, and even +poor, weak, exquisite Walter Johnson would not associate with him, he +felt himself an outlaw indeed. He would have gone away to Texas or the +new gold fields in California had It not been for one thing. That +letter on blue foolscap paper kept a little warmth in his heart. + +His course from school on the evening that something happened lay +through the sugar-camp. Among the dark trunks of the maples, solemn and +lofty pillars, he debated the case. To stay, or to flee? The worn nerves +could not keep their present tension much longer. + +It was just by the brook, or, as they say in Indiana, the "branch[26]," +that something happened which brought him to a sudden decision. Ralph +never afterward could forget that brook. It was a swift-running little +stream, that did not babble blatantly over the stones. It ran through a +thicket of willows, through the sugar-camp, and out into Means's +pasture. Ralph had just passed through the thicket, had just crossed the +brook on the half-decayed log that spanned it, when, as he emerged from +the water-willows on the other side, he started with a sudden shock. For +there was Hannah, with a white, white face, holding out a little note +folded like an old-fashioned thumb-paper. + +"Go quick!" she stammered as she slipped it Into Ralph's hand, +inadvertently touching his fingers with her own--a touch that went +tingling through the school-master's nerves. But she had hardly said the +words until she was gone down the brookside path and over into the +pasture. A few minutes afterward she drove the cows up into the lot and +meekly took her scolding from Mrs. Means for being gone sech an awful +long time, like a lazy, good-fer-nothin piece of goods that she was. + +Ralph opened the thumb-paper note, written on a page torn from an old +copy-book, in Bud's "hand-write" and running: + + "Mr. Heartsook + + "deer Sur: + +"I Put in my best licks, taint no use. Run fer yore life. A plans on +foot to tar an fether or wuss to-night. Go rite off. Things is awful +juberous[27]. + + "BUD." + +The first question with Ralph was whether he could depend on Bud. But he +soon made up his mind that treachery of any sort was not one of his +traits. He had mourned over the destruction of Bud's good resolutions by +Martha Hawkins's refusal, and being a disinterested party he could have +comforted Bud by explaining Martha's "mitten." But he felt sure that Bud +was not treacherous. It was a relief, then, as he stood there to know +that the false truce was over, and worst had come to worst. + +His first impulse was to stay and fight. But his nerves were not strong +enough to execute so foolhardy a resolution. He seemed to see a man +behind every maple-trunk. Darkness was fast coming on, and he knew that +his absence from supper at his boarding-place could not fail to excite +suspicion. There was no time to be lost. So he started. + +Once run from a danger, and panic is apt to ensue. The forest; the +stalk-fields, the dark hollows through which he passed, seemed to be +peopled with terrors. He knew Small and Jones well enough to know that +every avenue of escape would be carefully picketed. So there was nothing +to do but to take the shortest path to the old trysting place, the +Spring-in-rock. + +Here he sat and shook with terror. Angry with himself, he inly denounced +himself for a coward. But the effect was really a physical one. The +chill and panic now were the reaction from the previous strain. + +For when the sound of his pursuers' voices broke upon his ears early in +the evening, Ralph shook no more; the warm blood set back again toward +the extremities, and his self-control returned when he needed it. He +gathered some stones about him, as the only weapons of defense at hand. +The mob was on the cliff above. But he thought that he heard footsteps +in the bed of the creek below. If this were so, there could be no doubt +that his hiding-place was suspected. + +"O Hank!" shouted Bud from the top of the cliff to some one in the creek +below, "be sure to look at the Spring-in-rock--I think he's there." + +This hint was not lost on Ralph, who speedily changed his quarters by +climbing up to a secluded, shelf-like ledge above the spring. He was +none too soon, for Pete Jones and Hank Banta were soon looking all +around the spring for him, while he held a twenty-pound stone over +their heads ready to drop upon them in case they should think of looking +on the ledge above. + +When the crowd were gone Ralph knew that one road was open to him. He +could follow down the creek to Clifty, and thence he might escape. But, +traveling down to Clifty, he debated whether it was best to escape. To +flee was to confess his guilt, to make himself an outlaw, to put an +insurmountable barrier between himself and Hannah, whose terror-stricken +and anxious face as she stood by the brook-willows haunted him now, and +was an involuntary witness to her love. + +Long before he reached Clifty his mind was made up not to flee another +mile. He knocked at the door of Squire Underwood. But Squire Underwood +was also a doctor, and had been called away. He knocked at the door of +Squire Doolittle. But Squire Doolittle had gone to Lewisburg. He was +about to give up all hope of being able to surrender himself to the law +when he met Squire Hawkins, who had come over to Clifty to avoid +responsibility for the ill-deeds of his neighbors which he was powerless +to prevent. + +"Is that you, Mr. Hartsook?" + +"Yes, and I want you to arrest me and try me here in Clifty." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 26: I have already mentioned the absence of _pail_ and _pare_ +from the ancient Hoosier folk-speech. _Brook_ is likewise absent. The +illiterate Indiana countryman before the Civil War, let us say, had no +pails, pared no apples, husked no corn, crossed no brooks. The same is +true, I believe, of the South generally. As the first settlers on the +Southern coast entered the land by the rivers, each smaller stream was +regarded as a branch of the larger one. A small stream was therefore +called a _branch_. The word brook was probably lost in the first +generation. But a small stream is often called a _run_ in the Middle and +Southern belt. Halliwell gives _rundel_ as used with the same +signification in England, and he gives _ryn_ in the same sense from an +old manuscript.] + +[Footnote 27: _Juberous_ is in none of the vocabularies that I have +seen. I once treated this word in print as an undoubted corruption of +_dubious_, and when used subjectively it apparently feels the influence +of dubious, as where one says: "I feel mighty juberous about it." But it +is much oftener applied as in the text to the object of fear, as "The +bridge looks kind o' juberous." Halliwell gives the verb _juberd_ and +defines it as "to jeopard or endanger." It is clearly a dialect form of +_jeopard_, and I make no doubt that _juberous_ is a dialect variation of +_jeopardous_, occasionally used as a form of _dubious_.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +THE TRIAL. + + +The "prosecuting attorney" (for so the State's attorney is called in +Indiana) had been sent for the night before. Ralph refused all legal +help. It was not wise to reject counsel, but all his blood was up, and +he declared that he would not be cleared by legal quibbles. If his +innocence were not made evident to everybody, he would rather not be +acquitted on a preliminary examination. He would go over to the circuit +court and have the matter sifted to the bottom. But he would have been +pleased had his uncle offered his counsel, though he would have declined +it. He would have felt better to have had a letter from home somewhat +different from the one he received from his Aunt Matilda by the hand of +the prosecuting attorney. It was not very encouraging or very +sympathetic, though it was very characteristic. + + +"Dear Ralph: + +"This is what I have always been afraid of. I warned you faithfully the +last time I saw you. My skirts are clear of your blood, I can not +consent for your uncle to appear as your counsel or to go your bail. You +know how much it would injure him in the county, and he has no right to +suffer for your evil acts. O my dear nephew! for the sake of your poor, +dead mother--" + +We never shall know what the rest of that letter was. Whenever Aunt +Matilda got to Ralph's poor, dead mother in her conversation Ralph ran +out of the house. And now that his poor, dead mother was again made to +do service in his aunt's pious rhetoric, he landed the letter on the hot +coals before him, and watched it vanish into smoke with a grim +satisfaction. + +Ralph was a little afraid of a mob. But Clifty was better than Flat +Creek, and Squire Hawkins, with all his faults, loved justice, and had a +profound respect for the majesty of the law, and a profound respect for +his own majesty when sitting as a court representing the law. Whatever +maneuvers he might resort to in business affairs in order to avoid a +conflict with his lawless neighbors, he was courageous and inflexible on +the bench. The Squire was the better part of him. With the co-operation +of the constable, he had organized a _posse_ of men who could be +depended on to enforce the law against a mob. + +By the time the trial opened in the large school-house in Clifty at +eleven o'clock, all the surrounding country had emptied its population +into Clifty, and all Flat Creek was on hand ready to testify to +something. Those who knew the least appeared to know the most, and were +prodigal of their significant winks and nods. Mrs. Means had always +suspected him. She seed some mighty suspicious things about him from the +word go. She'd allers had her doubts whether he was jist the thing, and +ef her ole man had axed her, liker-n not he never'd a been hired. She'd +seed things with her own livin' eyes that beat all she ever seed in all +her born days. And Pete Jones said he'd allers knowed ther warn't no +good in sech a feller. Couldn't stay abed when he got there. And Granny +Sanders said, Law's sakes! nobody'd ever a found him out ef it hadn't +been fer her. Didn't she go all over the neighborhood a-warnin' people? +Fer her part, she seed straight through that piece of goods. He was fond +of the gals, too! Nothing was so great a crime in her eyes as to be fond +of the gals. + +The constable paid unwitting tribute to William the Conquerer by crying +Squire Hawkins's court open with an Oyez! or, as he said, "O yes!" and +the Squire asked Squire Underwood, who came in at that minute, to sit +with him. From the start, it was evident to Ralph that the prosecuting +attorney had been thoroughly posted by Small, though, looking at that +worthy's face, one would have thought him the most disinterested and +philosophical spectator in the court-room. + +Bronson, the prosecutor, was a young man, and this was his first case +since his election. He was very ambitious to distinguish himself, very +anxious to have Flat Creek influence on his side in politics; and, +consequently, he was very determined to send Ralph Hartsook to State +prison, justly or unjustly, by fair means or foul. To his professional +eyes this was not a question of right and wrong, not a question of life +or death to such a man as Ralph. It was George H. Bronson's opportunity +to distinguish himself. And so, with many knowing and confident nods and +hints, and with much deference to the two squires, he opened the case, +affecting great indignation at Ralph's wickedness, and uttering Delphic +hints about striped pants and shaven head, and the grating of +prison-doors at Jeffersonville. + +"And, now, if the court please, I am about to call a witness whose +testimony is very important indeed. Mrs. Sarah Jane Means will please +step forward and be sworn." + +This Mrs. Means did with alacrity. She had met the prosecutor, and +impressed him with her dark hints. She was sworn. + +"Now, Mrs. Means, have the goodness to tell us what you know of the +robbery at the house of Peter Schroeder, and the part defendant had in +it." + +"Well, you see, I allers suspected that air young man--" + +Here Squire Underwood stopped her, and told her that she must not tell +her suspicions, but facts. + +"Well, it's facts I am a-going to tell," she sniffed indignantly. "It's +facts that I mean to tell." Here her voice rose to a keen pitch, and she +began to abuse the defendant. Again and again the court insisted that +she must tell what there was suspicious about the school-master. At last +she got it out. + +"Well, fer one thing, what kind of gals did he go with? Hey? Why, with +my bound gal, Hanner, a-loafin' along through the blue-grass paster at +ten o'clock, and keepin' that gal that's got no protector but me out +that a-way, and destroyin' her character by his company, that a'n't fit +fer nobody." + +Here Bronson saw that he had caught a tartar. He said he had no more +questions to ask of Mrs. Means, and that, unless the defendant wished to +cross-question her, she could stand aside. Ralph said he would like to +ask her one question. + +"Did I ever go with your daughter Miranda?" + +"No, you didn't," answered the witness, with a tone and a toss of the +head that let the cat out, and set the court-room in a giggle. Bronson +saw that he was gaining nothing, and now resolved to follow the line +which Small had indicated. + +Pete Jones was called, and swore point-blank that he heard Ralph go out +of the house soon after he went to bed, and that he heard him return at +two in the morning. This testimony was given without hesitation, and +made a great impression against Ralph in the minds of the justices. Mrs. +Jones, a poor, brow-beaten woman, came on the stand in a frightened way, +and swore to the same lies as her husband. Ralph cross-questioned her, +but her part had been well learned. + +There, seemed now little hope for Ralph. But just at this moment who +should stride into the school-house but Pearson, the one-legged old +soldier basket-maker? He had crept home the night before, "to see ef the +ole woman didn't want somethin'," and hearing of Ralph's arrest, he +concluded that the time for him to make "a forrard movement" had come, +and so he determined to face the foe. + +"Looky here, Squar," he said, wiping the perspiration from his brow, +"looky here. I jes want to say that I kin tell as much about this case +as anybody." + +"Let us hear it, then," said Bronson, who thought he would nail Ralph +now for certain. + +So, with many allusions to the time he fit at Lundy's Lane, and some +indignant remarks about the pack of thieves that driv him off, and a +passing tribute to Miss Martha Hawkins, and sundry other digressions, in +which he had to be checked, the old man told how he'd drunk whisky at +Welch's store that night, and how Welch's whisky was all-fired mean, and +how it allers went straight to his head, and how he had got a leetle too +much, and how he had felt kyinder gin aout by the time he got to the +blacksmith's shop, and how he had laid down to rest, and how as he +s'posed the boys had crated him, and how he thought it war all-fired +mean to crate a old soldier what fit the Britishers, and lost his leg by +one of the blamed critters a-punchin' his bagonet[28] through it; and +how when he woke up it was all-fired cold, and how he rolled off the +crate and went on to_wurds_ home, and how when he got up to the top of +Means's hill he met Pete Jones and Bill Jones, and a slim sort of a +young man, a-ridin'; and how he know'd the Joneses by ther hosses, and +some more things of that kyind about 'em; but he didn't know the slim +young man, tho' he tho't he might tell him ef he seed him agin kase he +was dressed up so slick and town-like. But blamed ef he didn't think it +hard that a passel o thieves sech as the Joneses should try to put ther +mean things on to a man like the master, that was so kyind to him and to +Shocky, tho', fer that matter, blamed ef he didn't think we was all +selfish, akordin' to his tell. Had seed somebody that night a-crossin' +over the blue-grass paster. Didn't know who in thunder 'twas, but it was +somebody a-makin' straight fer Pete Jones's. Hadn't seed nobody else, +'ceptin' Dr. Small, a short ways behind the Joneses. + +Hannah was now brought on the stand. She was greatly agitated, and +answered with much reluctance. Lived at Mr. Means's. Was eighteen years +of age in October. Had been bound to Mrs. Means three years ago. Had +walked home with Mr. Hartsook that evening, and, happening to look out +of the window toward morning, she saw some one cross the pasture. Did +not know who it was. Thought it was Mr. Hartsook. Here Mr. Bronson +(evidently prompted by a suggestion that came from what Small had +overheard when he listened in the barn) asked her if Mr. Hartsook had +ever said anything to her about the matter afterward. After some +hesitation, Hannah said that he had said that he crossed the pasture. Of +his own accord? No, she spoke of it first. Had Mr. Hartsook offered any +explanations? No, he hadn't. Had he ever paid her any attention +afterward? No. Ralph declined to cross-question Hannah. To him she never +seemed so fair as when telling the truth so sublimely. + +Bronson now informed the court that this little trick of having the old +soldier happen in, in the flick of time, wouldn't save the prisoner at +the bar from the just punishment which an outraged law visited upon such +crimes as his. He regretted that his duty as a public prosecutor caused +it to fall to his lot to marshal the evidence that was to blight the +prospects and blast the character, and annihilate for ever, so able and +promising a young man, but that the law knew no difference between the +educated and the uneducated, and that for his part he thought Hartsook a +most dangerous foe to the peace of society. The evidence already given +fastened suspicion upon him. The prisoner had not yet been able to break +its force at all. The prisoner had not even dared to try to explain to +a young lady the reason for his being out at night. He would now +conclude by giving the last touch to the dark evidence that would sink +the once fair name of Ralph Hartsook in a hundred fathoms of infamy. He +would ask that Henry Banta be called. + +Hank came forward sheepishly, and was sworn. Lived about a hundred yards +from the house that was robbed. He seen ole man Pearson and the master +and one other feller that he didn't know come away from there together +about one o'clock. He heerd the horses kickin', and went out to the +stable to see about them. He seed two men come out of Schroeder's back +door and meet one man standing at the gate. When they got closter he +knowed Pearson by his wooden leg and the master by his hat. On +cross-examination he was a little confused when asked why he hadn't told +of it before, but said that he was afraid to say much, bekase the folks +was a-talkin' about hanging the master, and he didn't want no lynchin'. + +The prosecution here rested, Bronson maintaining that there was enough +evidence to justify Ralph's committal to await trial. But the court +thought that as the defendant had no counsel and offered no rebutting +testimony, it would be only fair to hear what the prisoner had to say +in his own defense. + +All this while poor Ralph was looking about the room for Bud. Bud's +actions had of late been strangely contradictory. But had he turned +coward and deserted his friend? Why else did he avoid the session of the +court? After asking himself such questions as these, Ralph would wonder +at his own folly. What could Bud do if he were there? There was no human +power that could prevent the victim of so vile a conspiracy as this, +lodging in that worst of State prisons at Jeffersonville, a place too +bad for criminals. But when there is no human power to help, how +naturally does the human mind look for some divine intervention on the +side of Right! And Ralph's faith in Providence looked in the direction +of Bud. But since no Bud came, he shut down the valves and rose to his +feet, proudly, defiantly, fiercely calm. + +"It's of no use for me to say anything. Peter Jones has sworn to a +deliberate falsehood, and he knows it. He has made his wife perjure her +poor soul that she dare not call her own." Here Pete's fists clenched, +but Ralph in his present humor did not care for mobs. The spirit of the +bulldog had complete possession of him. "It is of no use for me to tell +you that Henry Banta has sworn to a lie, partly to revenge himself on +me for punishments I have given him, and partly, perhaps, for money. The +real thieves are in this court-room. I could put my finger on them." + +"_To_ be sure," responded the old basket-maker. Ralph looked at Pete +Jones, then at Small. The fiercely calm look attracted the attention of +the people. He knew that this look would probably cost him his life +before the next morning. But he did not care for life. "The testimony of +Miss Hannah Thomson is every word true, I believe that of Mr. Pearson to +be true. The rest is false. But I can not prove it. I know the men I +have to deal with. I shall not escape with State prison. They will not +spare my life. But the people of Clifty will one day find out who are +the thieves." Ralph then proceeded to tell how he had left Pete Jones's, +Mr. Jones's bed being uncomfortable; how he had walked through the +pasture; how he had seen three men on horseback: how he had noticed the +sorrel with the white left forefoot and white nose; how he had seen Dr. +Small; how, after his return, he had heard some one enter the house, and +how he had recognized the horse the next morning. "There," said Ralph +desperately, leveling his finger at Pete, "there is a man who will yet +see the inside of a penitentiary, I shall not live to see it, but the +rest of you will." Pete quailed. Ralph's speech could not of course +break the force of the testimony against him. But it had its effect, and +it had effect enough to alarm Bronson, who rose and said: + +"I should like to ask the prisoner at the bar one question." + +"Ask me a dozen," said Hartsook, looking more like a king than a +criminal. + +"Well, then, Mr. Hartsook. You need not answer unless you choose; but +what prompted you to take the direction you did in your walk on that +evening?" + +This shot brought Ralph down. To answer this question truly would attach +to friendless Hannah Thomson some of the disgrace that now belonged to +him. + +"I decline to answer," said Ralph. + +"Of course, I do not want the prisoner to criminate himself," said +Bronson significantly. + +During this last passage Bud had come in, but, to Ralph's disappointment +he remained near the door, talking to Walter Johnson, who had come with +him. The magistrates put their heads together to fix the amount of bail, +and, as they differed, talked for some minutes. Small now for the first +time thought best to make a move in his own proper person. He could +hardly have been afraid of Ralph's acquittal. He may have been a little +anxious at the manner in which he had been mentioned, and at the +significant look of Ralph, and he probably meant to excite indignation +enough against the school-master to break the force of his speech, and +secure the lynching of the prisoner, chiefly by people outside his gang. +He rose and asked the court in gentlest tones to hear him. He had no +personal interest in this trial, except his interest in the welfare of +his old schoolmate, Mr. Hartsook. He was grieved and disappointed to +find the evidence against him so damaging and he would not for the world +add a feather to it, if it were not that his own name had been twice +alluded to by the defendant, and by his friend, and perhaps his +confederate, John Pearson. He was prepared to swear that he was not over +in Flat Creek the night of the robbery later than ten o'clock, and while +the statements of the two persons alluded to, whether maliciously +intended or not, could not implicate him at all, he thought perhaps this +lack of veracity in their statements might be of weight in determining +some other points. He therefore suggested--he could only suggest, as he +was not a party to the case in any way--that his student, Mr. Walter +Johnson, be called to testify as to his--Dr. Small's--exact whereabouts +on the night in question. They were together in his office until two, +when he went to the tavern and went to bed. + +Squire Hawkins, having adjusted his teeth, his wig, and his glass eye, +thanked Dr. Small for a suggestion so valuable, and thought best to put +John Pearson under arrest before proceeding further. Mr. Pearson was +therefore arrested, and was heard to mutter something about a "passel of +thieves," when the court warned him to be quiet. + +Walter Johnson was then called. But before giving his testimony, I must +crave the reader's patience while I go back to some things which +happened nearly a week before and which will serve to make it +intelligible. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 28: This form, _bagonet_, is not in the vocabularies, but it +was spoken as I have written it. The Century Dictionary gives _bagnet_, +and Halliwell and Wright both give _baginet_ with the _g_ soft +apparently, though neither the one nor the other is very explicit in +distinguishing transcriptions from old authors from phonetic spellings +of dialect forms. I fancy that this _bagonet_ is impossible as a +corruption of _bayonet_, and that it points to some other derivation of +that word than the doubtful one from _Bayonne_.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +"BROTHER SODOM." + + +In order to explain Walter Johnson's testimony and his state of mind, I +must carry the reader back nearly a week. The scene was Dr. Small's +office. Bud and Walter Johnson had been having some confidential +conversation that evening, and Bud had got more out of his companion +than that exquisite but weak young man had intended. He looked round in +a frightened way. + +"You see," said Walter, "if Small knew I had told you that, I'd get a +bullet some night from somebody. But when you're initiated it'll be all +right. Sometimes I wish I was out of it. But, you know, Small's this +kind of a man. He sees through you. He can look through a door"--and +there he shivered, and his voice broke down into a whisper. But Bud was +perfectly cool, and doubtless it was the strong coolness of Bud that +made Walter, who shuddered at a shadow, come to him for sympathy and +unbosom himself of one of his guilty secrets. + +"Let's go and hear Brother Sodom preach to-night," said Bud. + +"No, I don't like to." + +"He don't scare you?" There was just a touch of ridicule in Bud's voice. +He knew Walter, and he had not counted amiss when he used this little +goad to prick a skin so sensitive. "Brother Sodom" was the nickname +given by scoffers to the preacher--Mr. Soden--whose manner of preaching +had so aroused Bud's combativeness, and whose saddle-stirrups Bud had +helped to amputate. For reasons of his own, Bud thought best to subject +young Johnson to the heat of Mr. Soden's furnace. + +Peter Cartwright boasts that, on a certain occasion, he "shook his +brimstone wallet" over the people. Mr. Soden could never preach without +his brimstone wallet. There are those of refinement so attenuated that +they will not admit that fear can have any place in religion. But a +religion without fear could never have evangelized or civilized the +West, which at one time bade fair to become a perdition as bad as any +that Brother Sodom ever depicted. And against these on the one side, and +the Brother Sodoms on the other, I shall interrupt my story to put this +chapter under shelter of that wise remark of the great Dr. Adam Clark, +who says "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, the terror of God +confounds the soul;" and that other saying of his: "With the _fear_ of +God the love of God is ever consistent; but where the _terror_ of the +Lord reigns, there can neither be _fear, faith_, nor _love_; nay, nor +_hope_ either." And yet I am not sure that even the Brother Sodoms were +made in vain. + +On this evening Mr. Soden was as terrible as usual. Bud heard him +without flinching. Small, who sat farther forward, listened with pious +approval. Mr. Soden, out of distorted figures pieced together from +different passages of Scripture, built a hell, not quite, Miltonic, nor +yet Dantean, but as Miltonic and Dantean as his unrefined imagination +could make it. As he rose toward his climax of hideous description, +Walter Johnson trembled from head to foot and sat close to Bud. Then, as +burly Mr. Soden, with great gusto, depicted materialistic tortures that +startled the nerves of everybody except Bud, Walter wanted to leave, but +Bud would not let him. For some reason he wished to keep his companion +in the crucible as long as possible. + +"Young man!" cried Mr. Soden, and the explosive voice seemed to come +from the hell that he had created--"young man! you who have followed the +counsel of evil companions"--here he paused and looked about, as if +trying to find the man he wanted, while Walter crept up close to Bud +and shaded his face--"I mean you who have chosen evil pursuits and who +can not get free from bad habits and associations that are dragging you +down to hell! You are standing on the very crumbling brink of hell +to-night. The smell of the brimstone is on your garments; the hot breath +of hell is in your face! The devils are waiting for you! Delay and you +are damned! You may die before daylight! You may never get out that +door! The awful angel of death is just ready to strike you down!" Here +some shrieked with terror, others sobbed, and Brother Sodom looked with +approval on the storm he had awakened. The very harshness of his tone, +his lofty egotism of manner, that which had roused all Bud's +combativeness, shook poor Walter as a wind would shake a reed. In the +midst of the general excitement he seized his hat and hastened out the +door. Bud followed, while Soden shot his lightnings after them, +declaring that "young men who ran away from the truth would dwell in +torments forever." + +Bud had not counted amiss when he thought that Mr. Soden's preaching +would be likely to arouse so mean-spirited a fellow as Walter. So vivid +was the impression that Johnson begged Bud to return to the office with +him. He felt sick, and was afraid that he should die before morning. He +insisted that Bud should stay with him all night. To this Means readily +consented, and by morning he had heard all that the frightened Walter +had to tell. + +And now let us return to the trial, where Ralph sits waiting the +testimony of Walter Johnson, which is to prove his statement false. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE TRIAL CONCLUDED. + + +I do not know how much interest the "gentle reader" may feel in Bud. But +I venture to hope that there are some Buddhists among my readers who +will wish the contradictoriness of his actions explained. The first dash +of disappointment had well-nigh upset him. And when a man concludes to +throw overboard his good resolutions, he always seeks to avoid the +witness of those resolutions. Hence Bud, after that distressful Tuesday +evening on which Miss Martha had given him "the sack," wished to see +Ralph less than any one else. And yet when he came to suspect Small's +villainy, his whole nature revolted at it. But having broken with Ralph, +he thought it best to maintain an attitude of apparent hostility, that +he might act as a detective, and, perhaps, save his friend from the +mischief that threatened him. As soon as he heard of Ralph's arrest he +determined to make Walter Johnson tell his own secret in court, because +he knew that it would be best for Ralph that Walter should tell it. +Bud's telling at second-hand would not be conclusive. And he sincerely +desired to save Walter from prison. For Walter Johnson was the victim of +Dr. Small, or of Dr. Small and such novels as "The Pirate's Bride," +"Claude Duval," "The Wild Rover of the West Indies," and the cheap +biographies of such men as Murrell. Small found him with his imagination +inflamed by the history of such heroes, and opened to him the path to +glory for which he longed. + +The whole morning after Ralph's arrest Bud was working on Walter's +conscience and his fears. The poor fellow, unable to act for himself, +was torn asunder between the old ascendency of Small and the new +ascendency of Bud Means. Bud finally frightened him, by the fear of the +penitentiary, into going to the place of trial. But once inside the +door, and once in sight of Small, who was more to him than God, or, +rather, more to him than the devil--for the devil was Walter's God, or, +perhaps, I should say, Walter's God was a devil--once in sight of Small, +he refused to move an inch farther. And Bud, after all his perseverance, +was about to give up in sheer despair. + +Fortunately, just at that moment Small's desire to relieve himself from +the taint of suspicion and to crush Ralph as completely as possible, +made him overshoot the mark by asking that Walter be called to the +stand, as we have before recounted. He knew that he had no tool so +supple as the cowardly Walter. In the very language of the request, he +had given Walter an intimation of what he wanted him to swear to. Walter +listened to Small's words as to his doom. He felt that he should die of +indecision. The perdition of a man of his stamp is to have to make up +his mind. Such men generally fall back on some one more positive, and +take all their resolutions ready-made. But here Walter must decide for +himself. For the constable was already calling his name; the court, the +spectators, and, most of all, Dr. Small, were waiting for him. He moved +forward mechanically through the dense crowd, Bud following part of the +way to whisper, "Tell the truth or go to penitentiary." Walter shook and +shivered at this. The witness with difficulty held up his hand long +enough to be sworn. + +"Please tell the court," said Bronson, "whether you know anything of the +whereabouts of Dr. Small on the night of the robbery at Peter +Schroeder's." + +Small had detected Walter's agitation, and, taking alarm, had edged his +way around so as to stand full in Walter's sight, and there, with keen, +magnetic eye on the weak orbs of the young man, he was able to assume +his old position, and sway the fellow absolutely. + +"On the night of the robbery"--Walter's voice was weak, but he seemed to +be reading his answer out of Small's eyes--"on the night of the robbery +Dr. Small came home before--" here the witness stopped and shook and +shivered again. For Bud, detecting the effect of Small's gaze, had +pushed his great hulk in front of Small, and had fastened his eyes on +Walter with a look that said, "Tell the truth or go to penitentiary." + +"I can't, I can't. O God! What shall I do?" the witness exclaimed, +answering the look of Bud. For it seemed to him that Bud had spoken. To +the people and the court this agitation was inexplicable. Squire +Hawkins's wig got awry, his glass eye turned in toward his nose, and he +had great difficulty in keeping his teeth from falling out. The +excitement became painfully intense. Ralph was on his feet, looking at +the witness, and feeling that somehow Bud and Dr. Small--his good angel +and his demon--were playing an awful game, or which he was the stake. +The crowd swayed to and fro, but remained utterly silent, waiting to +hear the least whisper from the witness, who stood trembling a moment +with his hands over his face, and then fainted. + +The fainting of a person in a crowd is a signal for everybody else to +make fools of themselves. There was a rush toward the fainting man, +there was a cry for water. Everybody asked everybody else to open the +window, and everybody wished everybody else to stand back and give him +air. But nobody opened the window, and nobody stood back. The only +perfectly cool man in the room was Small. With a quiet air of +professional authority he pushed forward and felt the patient's pulse, +remarking to the court that he thought it was a sudden attack of fever +with delirium. When Walter revived, Dr. Small would have removed him, +but Ralph insisted that his testimony should be heard. Under pretense of +watching his patient, Small kept close to him. And Walter began the same +old story about Dr. Small's having arrived at the office before eleven +o'clock, when Bud came up behind the doctor and fastened his eyes on the +witness with the same significant look, and Walter, with visions of the +penitentiary before him halted, stammered, and seemed about to faint +again. + +"If the court please," said Bronson, "this witness is evidently +intimidated by that stout young man," pointing to Bud. "I have seen him +twice interrupt witness's testimony by casting threatening looks at +him, I trust the court will have him removed from the court-room." + +After a few moments' consultation, during which Squire Hawkins held his +wig in place with one hand and alternately adjusted his eye and his +spectacles with the other, the magistrates, who were utterly bewildered +by the turn things were taking, decided that It could do no harm, and +that it was best to try the experiment of removing Bud. Perhaps Johnson +would then be able to get through with his testimony. The constable +therefore asked Bud if he would please leave the room. Bud cast one last +look at the witness and walked out like a captive bear. + +Ralph stood watching the receding form of Bud. The emergency had made +him as cool as Small ever was. Bud stopped at the door, where he was +completely out of sight of the witness, concealed by the excited +spectators, who stood on the benches to see what was going on in front. + +"The witness will please proceed," said Bronson. + +"If the court please"--it was Ralph who spoke--"I believe I have as much +at stake in this trial as any one. That witness is evidently +intimidated. But not by Mr. Means. I ask that Dr. Small be removed out +of sight of the witness." + +"A most extraordinary request, truly." This was what Small's bland +countenance said; he did not open his lips. + +"It's no more than fair," said Squire Hawkins, adjusting his wig, "that +the witness be relieved of everything that anybody might think affects +his veracity in this matter." + +Dr. Small, giving Walter one friendly, appealing look, moved back by the +door, and stood alongside Bud, as meek, quiet, and disinterested as any +man in the house. + +"The witness will now proceed with his testimony." This time it was +Squire Hawkins who spoke. Bronson had been attacked with a suspicion +that this witness was not just what he wanted, and had relapsed into +silence. + +Walter's struggle was by no means ended by the disappearance of Small +and Bud. There came the recollection of his mother's stern face--a face +which had never been a motive toward the right, but only a goad to +deception. What would she say if he should confess? Just as he had +recovered himself, and was about to repeat the old lie which had twice +died upon his lips at the sight of Bud's look, he caught sight of +another face, which made him tremble again. It was the lofty and +terrible countenance of Mr. Soden. One might have thought, from the +expression it wore, that the seven last vials were in his hands, the +seven apocalyptic trumpets waiting for his lips, and the seven thunders +sitting upon his eyebrows. The moment that Walter saw him he smelled the +brimstone on his own garments, he felt himself upon the crumbling brink +of the precipice, with perdition below him. Now I am sure that "Brother +Sodoms" were not made wholly in vain. There are plenty of mean-spirited +men like Walter Johnson, whose feeble consciences need all the support +they can get from the fear of perdition, and who are incapable of any +other conception of it than a coarse and materialistic ones Let us set +it down to the credit of Brother Sodom, with his stiff stock, his +thunderous face, and his awful walk, that his influence over Walter was +on the side of truth. + +"Please proceed," said Squire Hawkins to Walter. The Squire's wig lay on +one side, he had forgotten to adjust his eye, and he leaned forward, +tremulous with interest. + +"Well, then," said Walter, looking not at the court nor at Bronson nor +at the prisoner, but furtively at Mr. Soden--"well, then, if I +must"--and Mr. Soden's awful face seemed to answer that he surely +must--"well, then, I hope you won't send me to prison"--this to Squire +Hawkins, whose face reassured him--"but, oh! I don't see how I can!" +But one look at Mr. Soden assured him that he could and that he must, +and so, with an agony painful to the spectators, he told the story in +driblets. How, while yet in Lewisburg, he had been made a member of a +gang of which Small was chief; how they concealed from him the names of +all the band except six, of whom the Joneses and Small were three. + +Here there was a scuffle at the door. The court demanded silence. + +"Dr. Small's trying to git out, plague take him," said Bud, who stood +with his back planted against the door. "I'd like the court to send and +git his trunk afore he has a chance to burn up all the papers that's in +it." + +"Constable, you will arrest Dr. Small, Peter Jones, and William Jones. +Send two deputies to bring Small's trunk into court," said Squire +Underwood. + +The prosecuting attorney was silent. + +Walter then told of the robbery at Schroeder's, told where he and Small +had whittled the fence while the Joneses entered the house, and +confirmed Ralph's story by telling how they had seen Ralph in a +fence-corner, and how they had met the basket-maker on the hill. + +"_To_ be sure," said the old man, who had not ventured to hold up his +head, after he was arrested, until Walter began his testimony. + +Walter felt inclined to stop, but he could not do it, for there stood +Mr. Soden, looking to him like a messenger from the skies, or the +bottomless pit, sent to extort the last word from his guilty soul He +felt that he was making a clean breast of it--at the risk of perdition, +with the penitentiary thrown in, if he faltered. And so he told the +whole thing as though it had been the day of doom, and by the time he +was through, Small's trunk was in court. + +Here a new hubbub took place at the door. It was none other than the +crazy pauper, Tom Bifield, who personated General Andrew Jackson in the +poor-house. He had caught some inkling of the trial, and had escaped in +Bill Jones's absence. His red plume was flying, and in his tattered and +filthy garb he was indeed a picturesque figure. + +"Squar," said he, elbowing his way through the crowd, "I kin tell you +sornethin'. I'm Gineral Andrew Jackson. Lost my head at Bueny Visty. +This head growed on. It a'n't good fer much. One side's tater. But +t'other's sound as a nut. Now, I kind give you information." + +Bronson, with the quick perceptions of a politician, had begun to see +which way future winds would probably blow. "If the court please," he +said, "this man is not wholly sane, but we might get valuable +information out of him. I suggest that his testimony be taken for what +it is worth." + +"No, you don't swar me," broke in the lunatic. "Not if I knows myself. +You see, when a feller's got one side of his head tater, he's mighty +onsartain like. You don't swar me, fer I can't tell what minute the +tater side'll begin to talk. I'm talkin' out of the lef' side now, and +I'm all right. But you don't swar me. But ef you'll send some of your +constables out to the barn at the pore-house and look under the hay-mow +in the north-east corner, you'll find some things maybe as has been +a-missin' fer some time. And that a'n't out of the tater side, nuther." + +Meantime Bud did not rest. Hearing the nature of the testimony given by +Hank Banta before he entered, he attacked Hank and vowed he'd send him +to prison if he didn't make a clean breast. Hank was a thorough coward, +and, now that his friends were prisoners, was ready enough to tell the +truth if he could be protected from prosecution. Seeing the disposition +of the prosecuting attorney, Bud got from him a promise that he would do +what he could to protect Hank. That worthy then took the stand, +confessed his lie, and even told the inducement which Mr. Pete Jones +had offered him to perjure himself. + +"_To_ be sure," said Pearson. + +Squire Hawkins, turning his right eye upon him, while the left looked at +the ceiling, said: "Be careful, Mr. Pearson, or I shall have to punish +you for contempt." + +"Why, Squar, I didn't know 'twas any sin to hev a healthy contemp' fer +sech a thief as Jones!" + +The Squire looked at Mr. Pearson severely, and the latter, feeling that +he had committed some offense without knowing it, subsided into silence. + +Bronson now had a keen sense of the direction of the gale. + +"If the court please," said he, "I have tried to do my duty in this +case. It was my duty to prosecute Mr. Hartsook, however much I might +feel assured that he was innocent, and that he would be able to prove +his innocence. I now enter a _nolle_ in his case and that of John +Pearson, and I ask that this court adjourn until to-morrow, in order to +give me time to examine the evidence in the case of the other parties +under arrest. I am proud to think that my efforts have been the means of +sifting the matter to the bottom, of freeing Mr. Hartsook from +suspicion, and of detecting the real criminals." + +"Ugh!" said Mr. Pearson, who conceived a great dislike to Bronson. + +"The court," said Squire Hawkins, "congratulates Mr. Hartsook on his +triumphant acquittal. He is discharged from the bar of this court, and +from the bar of public sentiment, without a suspicion of guilt. +Constable, discharge Ralph Hartsook and John Pearson." + +Old Jack Means, who had always had a warm side for the master, now +proposed three cheers for Mr. Hartsook, and they were given with a will +by the people who would have hanged him an hour before. + +Mrs. Means gave it as her opinion that "Jack Means allers wuz a fool!" + +"This court," said Dr. Underwood, "has one other duty to perform before +adjourning for the day. Recall Hannah Thomson." + +"I jist started her on ahead to git supper and milk the cows," said Mrs. +Means. "A'n't a-goin' to have her loafin' here all day." + +"Constable, recall her. This court can not adjourn until she returns!" + +Hannah had gone but a little way, and was soon in the presence of the +court, trembling for fear of some new calamity. + +"Hannah Thomson"--it was Squire Underwood who spoke--"Hannah Thomson, +this court wishes to ask you one or two questions." + +"Yes, sir," but her voice died to a whisper. + +"How old did you say you were? + +"Eighteen, sir, last October." + +"Can you prove your age?" + +"Yes, sir--by my mother." + +"For how long are you bound to Mr. Means?" + +"Till I'm twenty-one." + +"This court feels in duty bound to inform you that, according to the +laws of Indiana, a woman is of age at eighteen, and as no indenture +could be made binding after you had reached your majority, you are the +victim of a deception. You are free, and if it can be proven that you +have been defrauded by a willful deception, a suit for damages will +lie." + +"Ugh!" said Mrs. Means. "You're a purty court, a'n't you, Dr. +Underwood?" + +"Be careful, Mrs. Means, or I shall have to fine you for contempt of +court." + +But the people, who were in the cheering humor, cheered Hannah and the +justices, and then cheered Ralph again. Granny Sanders shook hands with +him, and allers knowed he'd come out right. It allers 'peared like as if +Dr. Small warn't jist the sort to tie to, you know. And old John Pearson +went home, after drinking two or three glasses of Welch's whisky, +keeping time to an imaginary triumphal march, and feeling prouder than +he had ever felt since he fit the Britishers under Scott at Lundy's +Lane. He told his wife that the master had jist knocked the hind-sights +offen that air young lawyer from Lewisburg. + +Walter was held to bail that he might appear as a witness, and Ralph +might have sent his aunt a Roland for an Oliver. But he only sent a note +to his uncle, asking him to go Walter's bail. If he had been resentful, +he could not have wished for a more complete revenge than the day had +brought. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +AFTER THE BATTLE. + + +Nothing can be more demoralizing in the long run than lynch law. And yet +lynch law often originates in a burst of generous indignation which is +not willing to suffer a bold oppressor to escape by means of corrupt and +cowardly courts. It is oftener born of fear. Both motives powerfully +agitated the people of the region round about Clifty as night drew on +after Ralph's acquittal. They were justly indignant that Ralph had been +made the victim of such a conspiracy, and they were frightened at the +unseen danger to the community from such a band as that of Small's. It +was certain that they did not know the full extent of the danger as yet. +And what Small might do with a jury, or what Pete Jones might do with a +sheriff, was a question. I must not detain the reader to tell how the +mob rose. Nobody knows how such things come about. Their origin is as +inexplicable as that of an earthquake. But, at any rate, a rope was +twice put round Small's neck during that night, and both times Small +was saved only by the nerve and address of Ralph, who had learned how +unjust mob law may be. As for Small, he neither trembled when they were +ready to hang him, nor looked relieved when he was saved, nor showed the +slightest flush of penitence or gratitude. He bore himself in a quiet, +gentlemanly way throughout, like the admirable villain that he was. + +He waived a preliminary examination the next day; his father went his +bail, and he forfeited bail and disappeared from the county and from the +horizon of my story. Two reports concerning Small have been in +circulation--one that he was running a faro-bank in San Francisco, the +other that he was curing consumption in New York by some quack process. +If this latter were true, it would leave it an open question whether +Ralph did well to save him from the gallows. Pete Jones and Bill, as +usually happens to the rougher villains, went to prison, and when their +terms had expired moved to Pike County, Missouri. + +But it is about Hannah that you wish to hear, and that I wish to tell. +She went straight from the court room to Flat Creek, climbed to her +chamber, packed in a handkerchief all her earthly goods, consisting +chiefly of a few family relics, and turned her back on the house of +Means forever. At the gate she met the old woman, who shook her fist in +the girl's face and gave her a parting benediction in the words: "You +mis'able, ongrateful critter you, go 'long. I'm glad to be shed of you!" +At the barn she met Bud, and he told her good-by with a little huskiness +in his voice, while a tear glistened in her eyes. Bud had been a friend +in need, and such a friend one does not leave without a pang. + +"Where are you going? Can I--" + +"No, no!" And with that she hastened on, afraid that Bud would offer to +hitch up the roan colt. And she did not want to add to his domestic +unhappiness by compromising him in that way. + +It was dusk and was raining when she left. The hours were long, the road +was lonely, and after the revelations of that day it did not seem wholly +safe. But from the moment that she found herself free, her heart had +been ready to break with an impatient homesickness. What though there +might be robbers in the woods? What though there were ten rough miles to +travel? What though the rain was in her face? What though she had not +tasted food since the morning of that exciting day? Flat Creek and +bondage were behind; freedom, mother, Shocky, and home were before her, +and her feet grew lighter with the thought. And if she needed any other +joy, it was to know that the master was clear. And he would come? And +so she traversed the weary distance, and so she inquired and found the +house, the beautiful, homely old house of beautiful, homely old Nancy +Sawyer, and knocked, and was admitted, and fell down, faint and weary, +at her blind mother's feet, and laid her tired head in her mother's lap +and wept and wept like a child, and said, "O mother! I'm free! I'm +free!" while the mother's tears baptized her face, and the mother's +trembling fingers combed out her tresses. And Shocky stood by her and +cried: "I knowed God wouldn't forget you, Hanner!" + +Hannah was ready now to do anything by which she could support her +mother and Shocky. She was strong, and inured to toil. She was willing +and cheerful, and she would gladly have gone to service if by that means +she could have supported the family. And, for that matter her mother was +already able nearly to support herself by her knitting. But Hannah had +been carefully educated when young, and at that moment the old public +schools were being organized into a graded school, and the good +minister, who shall be nameless, because he is, perhaps, still +living in Indiana, and who in Methodist parlance was called "the +preacher-in-charge of Lewisburg Station"--this good minister and Miss +Nancy Sawyer got Hannah a place as teacher in the primary department. +And then a little house with four rooms was rented, and a little, a very +little furniture was put into it, and the old sweet home was established +again. The father was gone, never to come back again. But the rest were +here. And somehow Hannah kept waiting for somebody else to come. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +INTO THE LIGHT. + + +For two weeks longer Ralph taught at the Flat Creek school-house. He was +everybody's hero. And he was Bud's idol. He did what he could to get Bud +and Martha together, and though Bud always "saw her safe home" after +this, and called on her every Sunday evening, yet, to save his life, he +could not forget his big fists and his big feet long enough to say what +he most wanted to say, and what Martha most wanted him to say. + +At the end of two weeks Ralph found himself exceedingly weary of Flat +Creek, and exceedingly glad to hear from Mr. Means that the school-money +had "gin out." It gave him a good excuse to return to Lewisburg, where +his heart and his treasure were. A certain sense of delicacy had kept +him from writing to Hannah just yet. + +When he got to Lewisburg he had good news. His uncle, ashamed of his +previous neglect, and perhaps with an eye to his nephew's growing +popularity, had got him the charge of the grammar department in the new +graded school in the village. So he quietly arranged to board at a +boarding-house. His aunt could not have him about, of which fact he was +very glad. She could not but feel, she said, that he might have taken +better care of Walter than he did, when they were only four miles apart. + +He did not hasten to call on Hannah. Why should he? He sent her a +message, of no consequence in itself, by Nancy Sawyer. Then he took +possession of his school; and then, on the evening of the first day of +school, he went, as he had appointed to himself, to see Hannah Thomson. + +And she, with some sweet presentiment, had got things ready by fixing up +the scantily-furnished room as well as she could. And Miss Nancy Sawyer, +who had seen Ralph that afternoon, had guessed that he was going to see +Hannah. It's wonderful how much enjoyment a generous heart can get out +of the happiness of others. Is not that what He meant when he said of +such as Miss Sawyer that they should have a hundred-fold in this life +for all their sacrifices? Did not Miss Nancy enjoy a hundred weddings +and have the love of five hundred children? And so Miss Nancy just +happened over at Mrs. Thomson's humble home, and, just in the most +matter-of-course way, asked that lady and Shocky to come over to her +house. Shocky wanted Hannah to come too. But Hannah blushed a little, +and said that she would rather not. + +And when she was left alone, Hannah fixed her hair two or three times, +and swept the hearth, and moved the chairs first one way and then +another, and did a good many other needless things. Needless: for a +lover, if he be a lover, does not see furniture or dress. + +And then she sat down by the fire, and tried to sew, and tried to look +unconcerned, and tried to feel unconcerned, and tried not to expect +anybody, and tried to make her heart keep still. And tried in vain. For +a gentle rap at the door sent her pulse up twenty beats a minute and +made her face burn. And Hartsook was for the first time, abashed in the +presence of Hannah. For the oppressed girl had, in two weeks, blossomed +out into the full-blown woman. + +And Ralph sat down by the fire, and talked of his school and her school, +and everything else but what he wanted to talk about. And then the +conversation drifted back to Flat Creek, and to the walk through the +pasture, and to the box-elder tree, and to the painful talk in the lane. +And Hannah begged to be forgiven, and Ralph laughed at the idea that she +had done anything wrong. And she praised his goodness to Shocky, and he +drew her little note out of--But I agreed not tell you where he kept it. +And then she blushed, and he told how the note had sustained him, and +how her white face kept up his courage in his flight down the bed of +Clifty Creek. And he sat a little nearer, to show her the note that he +had carried in his bosom--I have told it! And--but I must not proceed. A +love-scene, ever so beautiful in itself, will not bear telling. And so I +shall leave a little gap just here, which you may fill up as you please. +. . . Somehow, they never knew how, they got to talking about the future +instead of the past, after that, and to planning their two lives as one +life. And . . . And when Miss Nancy and Mrs. Thomson returned later in +the evening, Ralph was standing by the mantel-piece, but Shocky noticed +that his chair was close to Hannah's. And good Miss Nancy Sawyer looked +in Hannah's face and was happy. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +"HOW IT CAME OUT" + + +We are all children in reading stories. We want more than all else to +know how it all came out at the end, and, if our taste is not perverted, +we like it to come out well. For my part, ever since I began to write +this story, I have been anxious to know how it was going to come out. + +Well, there were very few invited. It took place at ten in the morning. +The "preacher-in-charge" came, of course. Miss Nancy Sawyer was there. +But Ralph's uncle was away, and Aunt Matilda had a sore throat and +couldn't come. Perhaps the memory of the fact that she had refused Mrs. +Thomson, the pauper, a bed for two nights, affected her throat. But Miss +Nancy and her sister were there, and the preacher. And that was all, +besides the family, and Bud and Martha. Of course Bud and Martha came. +And driving Martha to a wedding in a "jumper" was the one opportunity +Bud needed. His hands were busy, his big boots were out of sight, and it +was so easy to slip from Ralph's love affair to his own, that Bud +somehow, in pulling Martha Hawkins's shawl about her, stammered out half +a proposal, which Martha, generous soul, took for the whole ceremony, +and accepted. And Bud was so happy that Ralph guessed from his face and +voice that the agony was over, and Bud was betrothed at last to the +"gal as was a gal." + +And after Ralph and Hannah were married--there was no trip, Ralph only +changed his boarding-place and became head of the house at Mrs. +Thomson's thereafter--after it was all over, Bud came to Mr. Hartsook, +and, snickering just a little, said as how as him and Martha had fixed +it all up, and now they wanted to ax his advice; and Martha proud but +blushing, came up and nodded assent. Bud said as how as he hadn't got no +book-larnin' nor nothin', and as how as he wanted to be somethin', and +put in his best licks fer Him, you know'. And that Marthy, she was of +the same way of thinkin', and that was a blessin'. And the Squire was +a-goin' to marry agin', and Marthy would ruther vacate. And his mother +and Mirandy was sech as he wouldn't take no wife to. And he thought as +how Mr. Hartsook might think of some way or some place where he and +Marthy mout make a livin' fer the present, and put in their best licks +fer Him, you know. + +Ralph thought a moment. He was about to make an allusion to Hercules and +the Augean stables, but he remembered that Bud would not understand it, +though it might remind Martha of something she had seen at the East, the +time she was to Bosting. + +"Bud, my dear friend," said Ralph, "it looks a little hard to ask you to +take a new wife"--here Bud looked admiringly at Martha--"to the +poor-house. But I don't know anywhere where you can do so much good for +Christ as by taking charge of that place, and I can get the appointment +for you. The new commissioners want just such a man." + +"What d'ye say, Marthy?" said Bud. + +"Why, somebody ought to do for the poor, and I should like to do it." + +And so Hercules cleaned the Augean stables. + +And so my humble, homely Hoosier story of twenty years ago[29] draws to +a close, and not without regret I take leave of Ralph and Hannah; and +Shocky, and Bud, and Martha, and Miss Nancy, and of my readers. + + * * * * * + +P.S.--A copy of the Lewisburg _Jeffersonian_ came into my hands to-day, +and I see by its columns that Ralph Hartsook is principal of the +Lewisburg Academy. It took me some time, however, to make out that the +sheriff of the county, Mr. Israel W. Means, was none other than my old +friend Bud, of the Church of the Best Licks. I was almost as much +puzzled over his name as I was when I saw an article in a city paper, by +Prof. W.J. Thomson, on Poor-Houses. I should not have recognized the +writer as Shocky, had I not known that Shocky has given his spare time +to making outcasts feel that God has not forgot. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 29: Written in 1871.] + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Hoosier Schoolmaster, by Edward Eggleston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOOSIER SCHOOLMASTER *** + +***** This file should be named 15099.txt or 15099.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/0/9/15099/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |