UC-NRLF 
 
 1NSTON 
 
7 3 
 
JTiction, Jfact, anb JTaucy 0eric0 
 
 EDITED BY ARTHUR STEDMAN 
 
 MR. BILLY DOWNS AND HIS LIKES 
 
JTtrtton, -foet, antr Jan en Series. 
 
 MERRY TALES. 
 
 BY MARK TWAIN. 
 
 THE GERMAN EMPEROR AND HIS EASTERN 
 NEIGHBORS. 
 
 BY POULTNEY BILLOW. 
 
 PADDLES AND POLITICS DOWN THE 
 DANUBE. 
 
 BY POULTNEY BIGELOW. 
 
 SELECTED POEMS. 
 
 BY WALT WHITMAN. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHIA: THE STORY OF A LIFE. 
 BY WALT WHITMAN. 
 
 DON FINIMONDONE: CALABRIAN 
 SKETCHES. 
 
 BY ELISABETH CAVAZZA. 
 
 THE MASTER OF SILENCE: A ROMANCE. 
 BY IRVING BACHELLER. 
 
 WRITINGS OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 
 EDITED BY PAUL LEICESTER FORD. 
 
 ESSAYS IN MINIATURE. 
 
 BY AGNES REPPLIER. 
 
 MR. BILLY DOWNS AND HIS LIKES. 
 BY RICHARD MALCOLM JOHNSTON. 
 
 Bound in Illuminated Cloth, each, 75 Cents. 
 
 Complete Set, 10 Volumes, in Box, $7.50. 
 
 *** For Sale by all Booksellers, or sent postpaid, on 
 
 receipt of price, by the Publishers, 
 
 GHAS. L, WEBSTER & 00,, NEW YORK. 
 
" Proceeding thence to one of the trees near the gate, he alighted, 
 hitched his beast, and, opening the gate, advanced modestly up the 
 walk." Page 53. 
 
MR. BILLY DOWNS 
 
 AND HIS LIKES 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD MALCOLM JOHNSTON 
 
 CHARLES L. WEBSTER & CO. 
 1892 
 
Copyright, 1892, 
 CHARLES L. WEBSTER & CO. 
 
 (All rights reserved.) 
 
 PRESS OF 
 JENKINS & McCowAN, 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 
flfSL 
 
 MA-i/O 
 
 EDITOR S NOTE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 TENTH VOLUME OF THE SERIES 
 
 Courteous Reader. In our ramble along what might 
 be called the literary lane of this Series, your cicerone 
 may justly claim that his efforts at entertainment have 
 been fairly successful. Starting with a merry " God 
 speed " from the prince of humorists, we soon found 
 ourselves in the lively company of the prince of canoe 
 ists and his energetic young Kaiser. Mr. Bigelow s 
 championship of a sovereign little understood in this 
 country has proved effective, while his enthusiastic de 
 scription of his romantic journey Down the Danube 
 lightened many an hour of our way. Did not we also 
 take part in those inspiring Hungarian dances, and fore 
 gather with the noble Lajos or was it merely the listen 
 ers fancy which made it seem so ? Yet we were not 
 allowed to forget that all this joyous living is but a 
 peace in war, likely to be invaded at any moment by 
 the hoarse growling of the Russian bear. 
 
 From such scenes of life and action it was restful to 
 turn aside for an interval to the rock tomb of Walt 
 
vi EDITOR S NOTE 
 
 Whitman. There we read to each other, not " sad 
 stories of the death of kings," but the old bard s rhyth 
 mic self-personifications of Nature and Mankind, and 
 his triumphant chantings of the future of These States. 
 Then with lowered voices we follow him through many 
 a hospital ward, the while he ministered to the spiritual 
 and temporal wants of a nation s heroes. 
 
 Anon \veresumed our walk, this time among a group 
 of sunny-hearted Calabrian peasants. Strange, was it 
 not, that we should understand their speech, while 
 they seemingly chattered away in " that soft bastard 
 Latin ? " But the magic touch of their creator gave us 
 the illusion as well as that too brief vision of iridescent 
 Princess Humming-Bird. 
 
 Who is the quiet-looking fellow who joins us as the 
 Italian voices die away in the distance; and how should 
 we suspect that he would thrill us with that weird story 
 of Ravel, the mind-reader? And further to pique our 
 curiosity, he will not tell us whether it lies in the domain 
 of fact, or in that of fancy. 
 
 Very plainly in the domain of fact is the discourse of 
 our next companion, the man of scholarly brow and 
 cheerful manner. Out of his wide store of learning he 
 tells us of a Genoese, the Christ Bearer whose high 
 purpose has been so fruitlessly questioned of late and 
 points his story with the words of the Genoese himself, 
 convincing us by their steadfast sincerity. 
 
EDITOR S NOTE vii 
 
 And now we chance upon a sovereign princess of 
 " That proud and humble . . . Gypsy Land " 
 
 one of the very elect of Bohemia. Most graciously are 
 we permitted to form a group while she talks of our 
 friends, the books, and of how we may cherish their 
 friendship most worthily. With gentle satire or spark 
 ling epigram, she brushes aside the fads and fallacies 
 of this literary/;? de siecle, calling upon us to return to 
 the sane and simple ways of the masters. 
 
 So we reach the tenth milestone of our ramble, and 
 while we are resting by the wayside let us hail the gen 
 tleman who is approaching, and ask him for " another 
 story." We who have heard him before know that he 
 seldom fails to respond to such a request, and always, 
 too, in a manner quite inimitable. As he comes nearer 
 you may observe the dignified yet courteous and kindly 
 bearing of a gentleman of the old school. The white 
 hair and moustache, the sober dress, betoken the vet 
 eran, although they are almost contradicted by brilliant 
 eyes and an innate youthfulness in word and thought. 
 It is not difficult to recognize, in Col. Richard Malcolm 
 Johnston, the founder of a school of fiction and the 
 dean of Southern men of letters. 
 
 ARTHUR STEDMAN. 
 
 Century Club, New York, 
 Oct. 21, 1892. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS n 
 
 PARTING FROM SAILOR , 63 
 
 Two ADMINISTRATIONS 76 
 
 ALMOST A WEDDING IN DOOLY DISTRICT . . 102 
 
 SOMETHING IN A NAME 163 
 
 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS .... 189 
 
 The editor of this Series desires to express his sincere 
 thanks for assistance received from Mr. Scudder of the 
 Atlantic Monthly, Mr. Gilder of the Century, Dr. Ward of 
 the Independent, and Dr. Mabie of the Christian Union. In 
 the present volume special acknowledgment is due Messrs. 
 Harper & Brothers for the use of the story entitled "Two 
 Administrations." 
 
 ix 
 
MR. BILLY DOWNS AND 
 HIS LIKES 
 
 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 " The meek will he guide in judgment " 
 I 
 
 / "CURIOUS is the inequality often noticed 
 ^ x in human friendships. Indeed, as a rule, 
 the most devoted seem to exist between un- 
 equals, superiors submitting complacently to 
 be loved, indulged and waited on, inferiors con 
 tent to submit and serve sometimes even 
 thankful to do so. How uncomplainingly 
 Theseus accepted the love and sacrifices of 
 Pirithous ! How touching to David the devo 
 tion of Jonathan, " passing the love of wom 
 en" ! 
 
 Of a kind similar, although upon a lower 
 
12 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 plane, were the loves of Jones Kindrick, the 
 greater, and Simeon Newsome, the less. Four 
 miles south of our village, at the crossing of 
 the county-seat road by one leading from the 
 west toward Ivy s Bridge on the Ogeechee 
 River, dwelt the Newsomes. Their large, 
 square mansion kept within plenty of good 
 things for their enjoyment, and that of others 
 who came there with or without special invi 
 tation. A mile and a half east, near the road 
 last mentioned, in a dwelling somewhat smaller 
 but whiter, lived the Kindricks. The heads of 
 these families had died some years before, and 
 their widows, who were cousins, had been man 
 aging the estates well during the time it took 
 the boys to grow old enough for such respon 
 sibilities. As for Sim (nobody except his 
 mother ever called him Simeon), as long as he 
 had been anything he had been as steady as 
 any clock. He seldom laughed, except when 
 politeness so required. Not that he was mo 
 rose; it w r as only that he rarely saw or heard 
 things which to him seemed worthy of laugh 
 ing about. He had tried to take to schooling 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 13 
 
 with the fondness desired by his parents, but 
 while in the midst of demonstrative and other 
 adjective pronouns in the forenoons, and of tare 
 and tret and the double rule of three in the 
 afternoons, not seeing his way clear he pleaded 
 fatigue, after such fruitless endeavors, and 
 begged of his father to be let go to plowing. 
 
 A set-off to Sim s humility was the pride he 
 felt in the abilities of his cousin Jones, a year 
 older than himself. This had been going on 
 from childhood until now, when each had 
 reached his majority. While at school Sim 
 was looked upon as better than Jones in little 
 things like spelling and reading, for which 
 Jones expressed contempt that had much influ 
 ence upon Sim s imagination of his greatness. 
 This was exalted higher when Sim broke down, 
 and Jones, misliking the plow, with which he 
 had been threatened, dashed forward and got 
 along whether or no, cajoling where he could 
 not delay to conquer, hopping over where he 
 could not cajole, or, with connivance of the 
 master (who liked not to lose a good-paying 
 scholar), slipped through behind others who 
 
14 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 had opened the way for themselves, and always 
 looked and talked like one who was moving 
 
 o 
 
 from victory to victory. In time he had ac 
 quired a stock of words, many of them new, 
 which filled Sim with admiration not less fond 
 than awful. Of middle height, brown, brawny, 
 solemn-faced, he never felt a pulsation of envy 
 when he looked at the tall, slender, fair, ever- 
 smiling Jones. 
 
 It went on thus after they had taken control 
 of the plantations. Sim s sense of inferiority 
 ought to have subsided when it appeared how 
 much better he understood and conducted busi 
 ness; but knowing that the soul of Jones was 
 too high to let itself be entirely engrossed in 
 mere agriculture, he was pleased when the lat 
 ter from time to time let him offer counsel 
 and followed it. 
 
 For a time Jones had been circulating him 
 self and his vocabulary among the girls, and 
 his mother and his sister Maria, the latter two 
 years older than himself, plain of feature, sen 
 sible of mind and industrious of body, wished 
 that he would get married and settle down to 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 1 5 
 
 steady work. He let them urge, and answered 
 that his matrimonial cogitations had not yet 
 come to a head. 
 
 " Yes," said his mother one day, " you think 
 you must be a mighty picker and chooser; and 
 if you don t lookout you ll go clean through 
 the woods and then have to be satisfied with 
 a crooked stick. If you only knew it, S phrony 
 Miller is the girl for you that is, if you could 
 get her." 
 
 " As for the ability of sophisticating S phro 
 ny Miller into the chains of mattermony, ma, 
 I no; perhaps I oughtn t to use the words." 
 
 " I wouldn t if I were in your place," said 
 Miss Maria. " It would be a good thing for 
 you to get S phrony, if you could. If you d 
 marry, Cousin Sim would. I really believe he s 
 waiting to see when you are going to settle 
 before starting out himself, intending to keep 
 himself entirely out of your way." 
 
 " Sim ! He s a dear good fellow, isn t he ? I 
 wish Sim had a better gift of languages; but 
 oh, old Sim will get on well enough, I hope. 
 As for me and myself, you and ma, and, I may 
 
16 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 say, all other ladies, ha ! ha ! will have to wait 
 till my mind comes to judgment." 
 
 "I say judgment ! " retorted his mother, 
 probably not knowing herself precisely all that 
 she intended to convey by the remark. 
 
 It was different with Sim. Having reached 
 manhood safely, soundly and honorably, it be 
 gan to occur to him that it might be a good 
 thing to get a wife. He had been too busy 
 to go about much, and it was only when riding 
 to Horeb meeting - house and back again 
 sometimes perhaps during a long sermon with 
 in that he had begun to throw, with moder 
 ately heightened interest, speculative eyes 
 among the pretty girls who were there in such 
 profusion. Then his observations of the life 
 led by Mr. Billy Downs, the most respectable 
 old bachelor among his acquaintances, backed 
 by numerous kind admonitions bestowed upon 
 him by the latter, were leading gradually to 
 the decision that, on the whole, married 
 life was preferable to single, when one took 
 the pains to study their several promises of 
 results, general and special. 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 17 
 
 II 
 
 Now when, with this thought on his mind, 
 Sim next went to the Millers , whose place 
 joined both the Newsomes and the Kindricks , 
 and looked at S phrony from his new point of 
 view, he felt that he was content to rest there. 
 S phrony, who was a tall, rather blonde, pen- 
 sivish, sweet-looking girl, and her young sis 
 ter were the only offspring of their parents. 
 Their dwelling was yet smaller than the Kin 
 dricks , but whiter, and more shrubbery was in 
 the yard than in both the other places put to 
 gether. If the plantation had less acreage, the 
 land was fresher, and it would not have been 
 easy to say of the two sides, one adjoining the 
 Newsomes and the other the Kindricks , which 
 was the better. 
 
 When S phrony noticed that the remarks 
 lately made by Sim at the house, although not 
 numerous, seemed to have been intended main 
 ly for herself, she felt the interest usually ris 
 ing on such occasions, and from that time her 
 talk, the way she dressed, the increased per- 
 
iS A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 fume of flowers, and one thing and another 
 about the room, the non-appearing of her sis 
 ter and parents when he called, all tended to 
 confirm him in the thought that he was attempt 
 ing what, if successful, would be a good and 
 sensible thing. 
 
 Mr. Billy Downs, between whom and him 
 self was an intimacy which, on the part of the 
 former, was warmly fond, urged him to be as 
 quiet as possible, but correspondingly speedy. 
 The reasons for his advice he had sufficient 
 grounds for not fully disclosing. Yet Sim s in 
 stincts convinced him that it was good, and 
 at his fourth visit he was not far from putting 
 to S phrony a question as pointed as he knew 
 how to frame it. He fully resolved that he 
 would do so at the next, and but for one thing 
 this would have been done. That thing not 
 meaning, by use of such a word, to be openly 
 offensive to his memory was Jones Kindrick. 
 For don t you know? no sooner had he 
 found that Sim was going to the Millers in 
 suspicious circumstances, than he went to run 
 ning there himself. More than that, he made 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 19 
 
 it his business to come over to the Newsomes , 
 and, not finding Sim at the house, to follow 
 him out to the very field where he was over 
 seeing the hands. When he found him, thou 
 sands upon thousands of words were used by 
 him, of which I shall here put down a few: 
 
 " Ma and sister Maria have been for some 
 time past specified. They have both been go 
 ing on to me about S phrony Miller in a way 
 and to an extent that in some circumstances 
 might be called even obstropulous; and to 
 quiet their conscience, I ve begun a kind of a 
 visitation over there, and my mind has arriv 
 at the conclusion that she s a good, nice piece 
 of flesh, to use the expressions of a man of the 
 world and society. What do you think, Sim, 
 of the matter under consideration, and what 
 would you advise ? I like to have your ad 
 vice sometimes, and I d like to know what it 
 would be under all the circumstances and ap 
 purtenances of a case which, as it stands, it 
 seems to have, and it isn t worth while to 
 conceal the fact that it does have, a tremen- 
 duous amount of immense responsibility to all 
 
20 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 parties, especially to the undersigned, refer 
 ring, as is well known in books and newspa 
 per advertisements, to myself. What would 
 you say to the above, Sim, in all its parts and 
 parties ? " 
 
 It was fortunate for Sim that his hopes had 
 not been lifted so high that their sudden fall 
 would be too extremely painful. Through the 
 hints of Mr. Downs he had been feeling some 
 apprehension as to what Jones might do when 
 he heard of his visits to S phrony, and he held 
 his feelings in restraint. He now drew a long 
 breath, the significance of which was lost upon 
 his cousin; then answered: 
 
 " I didn t that is, I never quite got all your 
 languages, Jones; but my opinion of S phrony 
 is, that she s the equil of I may say yes, of 
 any of em. Ahem ! " 
 
 " Your advice then, Sim, is not to the con 
 trary, in all the circumstances ?" 
 
 You mean is it your meaning to the 
 courting of S phrony, Jones ? " 
 
 " You may say words to that effect, for the 
 sake of the whole argyment." 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 21 
 
 " My advice," answered Sim, after swallow 
 ing the air that had accumulated in his mouth 
 " my advice would be to anybody that 
 is, I mean any marrying man that wanted 
 S phrony, if I was asked for my advice, I 
 should give it to git S phrony if he can. I have 
 no hizitation about that, nor not a doubt." 
 
 "Of course, Sim, in an affair magnified as 
 we are on now, your opinion is worth more 
 than ma s and sister Maria s both put together, 
 although it s a satisfaction that, as the case 
 now stands, you colide with em perfect. I 
 have not yet represented to S phrony any open 
 remarks; but I have insinooated a few pleas 
 ant words to her, and her looks on those oc 
 casions were that she were expecting more of 
 the same sort; and now, since I ve had this 
 highly interesting conversation with you, I 
 rather think I shall govern myself according. 
 Still, there can be no doubt, I don t suppose, 
 but what the future is before us, just like the 
 past is behind us, and I can t but thank you for 
 your kind remarks, so entire coliding with ma 
 and sister Maria." 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 Brave man was Simeon Newsome, and in 
 most things self-reliant enough; but he be 
 lieved that he knew perfectly well that nothing 
 could be more vain than for such as he to es 
 say to rival a man of such vast sentiments and 
 such boundless powers of expression. Never 
 had Jones appeared so great before his eyes, 
 what time he could take them off the ground 
 and look up his full length. In his mind he 
 bade S phrony Miller farewell, except as a pro 
 spective cousin, and when Jones, after oceans 
 of other words, went away, he tried to go to 
 thinking about something else. The long habit 
 of submission to his superior, and somewhat 
 of the old gratification of seeing him an easy 
 leader in movements of his genius and inclina 
 tion, soon induced a condition of moderate 
 resignation. Had it not been so with Piri- 
 thoiis after the success of the joint endeavors 
 of Theseus and himself in that first rape of 
 Helen " in the temple of Diana Orthia ? Did 
 he not foresee that the lots cast for her would 
 fall to the greater ? As far back as that one 
 understood well enough how such things go, 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 23 
 
 and so, uncomplaining, even congratulatory, 
 the subordinate went away to seek the less fair 
 Kore among the Molossians. 
 
 Far less content with the condition of things 
 was Mr. Billy Downs. A brief description must 
 serve for the outside of him. He was a rather 
 small, grizzly, thin, but wiry gentleman, some 
 where between forty-five and fifty. He lived 
 in a double log house a mile nearer the village 
 than the Newsomes. He could have afforded 
 to put up a far better mansion, making and 
 laying up as he had been doing for the last 
 twenty-five years. Everybody liked him, and 
 he liked everybody except Jones Kindrick ; 
 but this exception was because he loved Sim 
 Newsome better than anybody else. Accord 
 ing to neighborhood tradition, Mr. Downs had 
 reason to feel peculiar tenderness for Sim. In 
 his youth he had wanted, and in his unskilful 
 way had tried to get, Sim s mother when she 
 was Miss Fortner. Failing in this, he drew him 
 self in, and stayed there until this son had grown 
 old enough to make acquaintance beyond the 
 domestic circle, since when, notably since the 
 
24 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 death of Mr. Newsome, he had been indulg 
 ing for him a feeling somewhat like parental, 
 and it grieved him to see that he was rather 
 dwarfed by his admitted inferiority to Jones 
 Kindrick. The process of affiliation was slow, 
 because Mr. Downs seldom went to the house 
 in Mr. Newsome s lifetime, and after his death, 
 from feelings of delicacy, never. When this 
 good man saw how things had gone in the 
 matter of S phrony Miller, he decided to throw 
 out a few words, holding back others to a later 
 day. Using a name fonder than that by which 
 Sim was commonly addressed, he said: 
 
 " Simyul, if it have been me, when I see Jones 
 abeginnin to use over there at the Millers with 
 his striped kervats and them dictionary words, 
 that was above my inf mation, I should have 
 done like you and drawed in my horns. You 
 ain t the pushin feller Jones Kindrick is, and 
 my expe unce is, it take pushin with female 
 young women to make much headway among 
 em. I did hope it were yourn and S phrony s 
 lot, because she s a fine young woman. But 
 it seem like it weren t; special as Jones is a 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 25 
 
 kind of a cousin, and have always let you give 
 up to him, which people says he oughtn t to 
 that is, everlastin . But now, Simyul, if it was 
 me, / should spread out, and maybe git up 
 a still-hunt outside o Jones s range, and see 
 what s to come of him and S phrony. For 
 two things is absolute certain. One of em is, 
 S phrony ain t the onlest girl in the State o 
 Georgy, and the other is, they ain t no tellin 
 the final upshot of her and Jones, and well, 
 if it was me, I should peeruse around at con- 
 ven ent times, and maybe ride over t other 
 side the river we ll say up, in, and along 
 there about Williams Creek meetin - house, 
 where Jes Vinson live, and he have a big 
 plantation and a daughter besides. But I 
 should make a still-hunt if it was me, because 
 they ain t any countin on Jones, and special 
 when he see you a likely to git ahead of him. 
 Of course I got nothin ag inst Jones Kindrick, 
 only I do wish that Jones Kindrick could git 
 to understand that he ain t to have every girl 
 in the whole State, and special them that he 
 see you abuckin up to." 
 
26 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 Upon these words, apparently wise and evi 
 dently forbearing-, Sim felt that he ought at 
 least thoughtfully to ponder. 
 
 Ill 
 
 ON a Saturday not long afterward, as Mr. 
 Jesse Vinson, one of the deacons, was listening 
 with subdued attention to the sermon then be 
 ing delivered by the pastor of Williams Creek 
 meeting-house, he observed a young man come 
 in softly, take a seat decorously, and with prop 
 er solemnity keep his eyes on the preacher dur 
 ing the remainder of the discourse. When a 
 recess was taken prior to the meeting of the 
 regular conference, Mr. Vinson, having learned 
 that the stranger was the son of his old friend 
 and church brother, Eli Newsome, asked if he 
 would go and spend the night with him. Sim 
 naturally answered yes. Arrived at the Vinson 
 mansion, a respectable brick two-story, a mile 
 away, he found, as Mr. Downs had said, that a 
 young girl was there, and that she was not un 
 like S phrony Miller, only taller, dressier, and 
 more chatty. With such a girl a bashful young 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 27 
 
 man can make his way more easily than with 
 one like himself. Alley Vinson kindly led 
 him along paths which she discovered he could 
 tread with least embarrassment. When he 
 went to bed that night, he felt that perhaps he 
 had done well by venturing there. So he felt 
 next morning on the way to meeting, and so 
 when the congregation was dispersing, and he 
 bade her good-by, and thanked her for the in 
 vitation to come again. 
 
 I don t remember if it was ever known posi 
 tively how Jones Kindrick found out that Sim 
 had been to Williams Creek : but Mr. Billy 
 Downs afterward said that he was glad of it, 
 although he never admitted that he had con 
 tributed anything leading to the information. 
 At all events, at the next meeting-day at Horeb, 
 two weeks thereafter, Jones hardly more than 
 spoke to Sim, and the latter was surprised, after 
 the people were going back home, to see no 
 body in this wide world riding along with 
 S phrony but her father and sister, and S phrony 
 all the while looking as if she felt as lonesome 
 as she could be. Mr. Downs and Sim traveled 
 
28 A BACHELOR S COUNSELTNGS 
 
 along- together. The former was as punctual 
 at religious services as the very deacons. Con 
 scious of being a bachelor and a sinner, and 
 therefore unmeet for the kingdom of heaven, 
 he had never applied for membership, but he 
 hoped, by the use of other outward means, to 
 make his case as mild as possible at the final 
 judgment, which naturally he hoped would be 
 put off as long as possible. 
 
 " It look like a onlucky accident, Simyul, 
 but my hopes is it ll turn out for the best. 
 Jones have a evident a struck on to your trail 
 acrost the river ; and now look at him yonder 
 among them men, awavin of his tongue and 
 the balance o hisself, and S phrony along of 
 her pa and her sister by her lone self. Some- 
 thin s up betwix him and her; and if it was 
 me, I shouldn t go to no Williams Creek next 
 meetin -day, but I should wait to see where 
 the cat s goin to jump." 
 
 " I ve done made up my mind that I ain t a- 
 goin there for yet a while." 
 
 " Of course you ain t; I knewecl all the time 
 you weren t. Now, if it was me, I should feel 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 29 
 
 like givin my horse a cut and gallopin up, 
 and sidlin in there by S phrony, betwix her 
 and her pa; but I don t think I d do it quite yit 
 a while, so public like that, when her feelin s 
 has been hurted, that is, provided she have 
 em for Jones, which I always can not but has 
 had my doubts, and special now when he s a 
 open neglectin of her in that kind o style. 
 And if it was me, I should let Jones have all 
 the rope he want." 
 
 Other talk they had on the way. Mr. Downs 
 had not command of what he called Jones 
 Kindrick s dictionary words, but when he felt 
 like it, he could be equally voluminous. Stam 
 mering had been the language in which the 
 single love of his youth had been conveyed, 
 but now in the romance of this young man 
 whom his imagination had adopted for a son, 
 uncertain, unfixed though it was, he felt an 
 interest equal to that of the most impassioned 
 lover. 
 
 Mr. Downs had wished heartily for Sim to 
 marry S phrony. In his mild way often he had 
 remonstrated with him for his habitual yielding 
 
30 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 to Jones. Sim had listened to his praise with 
 out objecting; for to the humblest as to the 
 vainest sweet are the panegyrics of a friend. 
 Yet it would have been too painful, therefore 
 it was not possible, to part from the exalted 
 estimate that he had had of Jones all his life. 
 Mr. Downs recognized this; and therefore in 
 stead of blaming, he seemed rather to ratify his 
 withdrawal from his little stage when Jones 
 with his paraphernalia of every sort stepped 
 upon the boards. It was for this also that he 
 sent Sim upon the expedition across the river. 
 He believed that Alley Vinson would be an 
 entirely safe investment, yet the main motive 
 was to excite in Jones curiosity first, and after 
 ward jealousy, and so lead him away from the 
 Millers . He believed now that he had suc 
 ceeded. His last words to Sim were: 
 
 "You lay low, Simyul; keep alayin low as 
 you can git. They ain t no tellin whatjones ll 
 do, nor what he won t do. But one thing is cer 
 tain: Jones Kindrick can t do everything, a-in- 
 cludin the marryin of everybody. You may 
 stick a pin right there among them words." 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 31 
 
 He rode on home, his mind occupied with 
 all the wistful thoughts and the sweet thoughts 
 of a true lover Bless his old heart ! 
 
 IV 
 
 AMONG the rural folk of that generation 
 courtships and espousals were for the most 
 part brief. Of the two, Sim and Jones, Alley s 
 father liked better the former; but Sim, acting 
 on the counsel of Mr. Downs, was lying low on 
 his side of the river, and perhaps Alley felt a 
 tiff for such neglect. At all events, about two 
 months afterward, Jones went over there in the 
 family carriage, and brought her back with him 
 to stay. 
 
 It was pleasant to see Mr. Downs when Jones 
 was taken out of all rival possibilities with his 
 dear Simyul. 
 
 " Simyul, it have come egzact as I wanted. 
 Now you can come out and breathe the a r free. 
 And now you got the whole S phrony Miller 
 field before you, and if it was me I should go 
 in, and I should go in speedy, and I should go 
 in bold." 
 
32 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 Sim began at once to feel like a new man, 
 and congratulated himself for following the 
 salutary counsels of Mr. Downs. On the very 
 next meeting-day S phrony seemed to him 
 nicer and sweeter than ever before. There was 
 a merriness not habitual in her face and in her 
 words when, after the start home, she referred 
 to the new couple. 
 
 "Jones and his bride looked quite cozy and 
 bright. Didn t you think so, Sim ? " 
 
 " Well, yes. Jones special looked very com 
 fortable. I m glad he s located at last." 
 
 "So am I." 
 
 " You ? I I m glad to hear it, S phrony." 
 
 - What for ?" 
 
 "Because I I didn t know exactly how 
 you and Jones stood." 
 
 "Stood? Why, we stood always as we re 
 standing now. What do you mean ? " 
 
 I fact is, S phrony, I thought Jones been 
 awantin of you" 
 
 "I hope you haven t been thinking that I 
 wanted Jones." 
 
 She looked at him in mild, smiling reproach, 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 33 
 
 and her lips were so red and her teeth so white 
 that Sim was thankful that they did not and 
 now never could belong to Jones. 
 
 11 1 didn t know why, of course I didn t 
 know, S phrony." 
 
 " I knew you didn t. I suppose you didn t 
 care." 
 
 "Oh, yes, I did; yes, I did." 
 
 " And suppose you had known that I didn t, 
 then what ? " 
 
 "Why, I should have put in then myself, 
 right straight, like I wanted to do, and was 
 agoin to do when I see Jones acomin and 
 and and abarkin up the same tree." 
 
 Her laugh, unused as she was to great hi 
 larity, rang loud. 
 
 " I I declare I m glad to hear it, that I was 
 mistakened." 
 
 " Did I say you were mistaken ? " 
 
 " No; but you laughed, which go to show 
 that you ain t been apesterin your mind about 
 Jones." 
 
 " No, indeed ; I never put in any sort of bid 
 for Jones Kindrick. You always set a higher 
 
34 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 value on your cousin Jones than anybody else 
 did except Alley Vinson." 
 
 " And I m mighty glad she done it. Be 
 cause," he said almost fretfully " because ever 
 since my mind been in a condition to want 
 anybody for myself, I been awantin of you." 
 
 " Why, then, didn t you come out like a man 
 and tell me so ? " 
 
 " It were because Jones law me, S phrony, 
 I done told you about Jones." 
 
 "And then you thought you d go over to 
 the Vinsons ." 
 
 She looked at him searchingly. 
 
 " It were Uncle Billy Downs sent me over 
 there." 
 
 "For what?" 
 
 " Well, Uncle Billy say that it might sagash- 
 uate Jones away from you." 
 
 " What in this world is that ? Sagashuate! 
 That word s beyond me." 
 
 " It were Uncle Billy s word. He meant 
 that Jones .would be for puttin out my tracks 
 over there, like he put em out over here. If I 
 had have knew that Jones had called off from 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 35 
 
 you, I declare on my word and honor, S phrony, 
 I d never went nigh there." 
 
 " Suppose you had thought that Jones jilted 
 me, what would you have done then ? " 
 
 11 I d a come at you the same, S phrony, 
 jes the same." 
 
 "Then I say, bless your heart, and Mr. 
 Downs s too." 
 
 " I m glad to hear it." 
 
 He looked at her wistfully, and said not an 
 other word. 
 
 " Well ? " at length she inquired. 
 
 " I I got no more to say, but, soon as 
 Jones were off the track for good, Uncle Billy 
 and me we made up our minds for me to court 
 you." 
 
 " Well, why don t you ? " 
 
 " Ain t I been atryin to do it, S phrony, 
 ever sence we left the meetin -house ? " 
 
 "Oh ! now I think I understand you. What 
 do you want me to say ? " 
 
 " I want you to say yes, and then, waitin 
 like I been adoin , I don t want you to put it 
 off too fur." 
 
36 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 " Well, sir, I ll tell you now plain, Sim New- 
 some, that there is n t a man living that I would 
 get married to inside of two months, and you 
 needn t to ask me." 
 
 " Let me see; that would fetch it to middle 
 of December. That ll suit me, S phrony; it ll 
 come in nice for Christmas." 
 
 " Laws help my heart, Sim ! You talk like 
 I was a piece of pound-cake, or a tumbler of 
 sillibub." 
 
 " No comparison to them, S phrony; not to 
 a whole oven full o pound-cake, nor a whole 
 stand o sillibub." 
 
 " Hush ! And now let me tell you one thing, 
 my young man. If I am to marry you, you 
 have got to quit letting Jones Kindrick top 
 you in every everlasting thing. I have been 
 mad many a time to see how he has run over 
 you, when you were worth ten times as much. 
 Do you hear me ? " 
 
 11 1 hear every word you say, S phrony. Be- 
 twix me and you and Uncle Billy Downs, I 
 know Jones can be made to to shinny on his 
 own side." 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 37 
 
 " No, sir; / shall have nothing to do with it; 
 and your uncle Billy Downs, as you call him, 
 shall have nothing to do with it. If you can t 
 keep yourself on a level with Jones Kindrick, 
 I ll I think we d just as well drop it, and go 
 to talking about something else. It s right 
 cool to-day, don t you think so, for the middle 
 of October ? " 
 
 " S phrony, please don t go to drappin all 
 my feelin s down on the very ground, talkin 
 about the weather ! I hain t been astudyiri 
 about the weather, nor thinkin nor keerin one 
 single continental whether it s cool or hot. I 
 oughtn t to brought in you and Uncle Billy, 
 and if you say so, the first time I ketch Jones 
 Kindrick out of his house, I ll whirl in on him 
 and maul some of his big languages out of him. 
 S phrony, please take back what you said 
 about the weather, won t you ? " 
 
 She looked at him affectionately, and said: 
 
 " My dear Sim, I m not afraid that you 
 won t assert your manhood. I take back all I 
 said about the weather, and everything else 
 that hurt you." 
 
38 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 " I m glad to hear it. I hain t never been 
 afraid of Jones. It s his big languages which 
 I never learnt that has made me keep out of 
 his way. Jones know I can outfarm him, out 
 run him, fling him down, and can whip him, if 
 it come to that; and now, since I find you don t 
 like my givin up to him, which ma and Uncle 
 Billy has always ruther scolded me for doin , 
 he better keep some of his languages to him 
 self, for me." 
 
 " There ll be no need of any fussing. Jones 
 will see that hereafter you intend to be your 
 own man, and that will be all that is needed." 
 
 " I m glad to hear it." 
 
 " Is that all you have to say ? If it had been 
 Jones, he would have used some of his biggest 
 words in saying what sort of wife I d make." 
 
 " Confound Jones ! " 
 
 V 
 
 IT is a goodly sight, the influence of a good 
 woman on a husband who needs it. Fortified 
 by the support of S phrony, Sim felt, if in some 
 respects not yet the full equal of Jones, at least 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 39 
 
 sufficient to all usual responsibilities. It de 
 lighted Mr. Downs to see him lift up his head 
 among men, even in the presence of Jones, and 
 not much less when the Newsome fence was 
 extended in order to take in such a beautiful 
 slice of the Miller land. In the next year 
 Sim s mother died, after which Mr. Downs, his 
 embarrassment being now all gone, visited 
 freely at the house, and contributed his part 
 to Sim s development into a big, solid, respect 
 able farmer. 
 
 When the novelty with Jones was about over, 
 he seemed to feel somewhat the constraint of 
 being confined in his attentions to just one wife, 
 especially when Alley showed herself to be a 
 person who would not be willing to submit to 
 any very great amount of foolishness. Her 
 father s indebtedness was more than had been 
 suspected, and the dowry that had come along 
 with her was much less than what Jones had 
 counted upon. Alley made up at least she 
 tried to make up for this deficit by industry 
 and self-assertion, which, if he only had known 
 it, were the very things that, for his sake, were 
 
40 A BACHELORS COUNSELINGS 
 
 best for her to have. It is curious how a man 
 who long has towered among men can be let 
 down by one woman, not oversized or aggres 
 sive, only firm and ladylike. His lofty gait, 
 exuberant gaiety, and overflowing verbosity 
 declined in the constant presence of a wife who 
 estimated him at his comparative conjugal 
 value, and not much more. Alley and S phrony 
 were very friendly ostensibly affectionate. 
 Yet it cut Alley, who was more ambitious, to 
 suspect that S phrony felt that she had the bet 
 ter husband; for not until after her marriage 
 had she learned that it was not for the want of 
 trying that Jones had not gotten S phrony; 
 then she remembered, with a sting of more 
 than one kind, how lightly, before their mar 
 riage, he had spoken of Sim, whom she now 
 saw was regarded by everybody except Jones 
 as the latter s superior. Her very loyalty im 
 parted to these stings a sharper painfulness. 
 Stimulated by her influence, Jones became 
 much more energetic in business, and, like all 
 such persons, hoped to recover his lost as 
 cendancy. At the death of his mother, intes- 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 41 
 
 tate, a year afterward, he persuaded his sister 
 Maria to forego a property division, as they 
 were to continue to live together. Upon this ar 
 rangement Mr. Downs expressed his opinions, 
 but only to Sim. 
 
 " It ain t people s own fau t when they hain t 
 the beautiful face of other people, Simyul, I 
 know from expe unce, but that ain t no reason 
 for them to be runned over, and they d a been 
 a fuss if any o my people had wanted to keep 
 me out o my sheer o my father s prop ty be 
 cause I weren t their equil in pooty and size 
 able. As for Jones, he s bound to be above 
 somebody. He have lit offo you, and he can t 
 git the up-hand o his wife, and now he have 
 lit on to Miss M ria. He hain t got what he 
 expected to git by Alley, and now I suppose 
 he think he ll make it up out of Miss M ria." 
 
 Miss Maria was as good as she was plain. 
 She had great respect for her sister-in-law, but 
 she loved best S phrony, with whom she some 
 times held chats more or less confidential. 
 
 " Brother thought it wasn t worth while to 
 have a division, as we were all together, and I 
 
42 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 didn t care about it, as I never expect to go 
 away from there. Alley said not one word 
 about it, no way; for she s a good, honor ble 
 woman, Alley is, but it cut her sometimes, I 
 suspicion, that brother don t make and manage 
 equil to Cousin Sim. She treats me just like 
 her own sister, which as for brother, he hain t 
 always done; that is, not to that extent. He 
 know I never expect to change my condition, 
 and so I suppose he think it ain t worth while. 
 And then, you know, the little baby s named 
 Maria, which of course it s after ma, although 
 the same name as me, and it s a sweet a little 
 thing as it can be, and it take to me a most the 
 same as it take to Alley, and so on the whole 
 I told brother, at least for the present, and 
 till I said different, to let things stay as they 
 are." 
 
 Things went on with reasonable smoothness 
 for two years longer, at the end of which, after 
 the birth of her second child, S phrony died. 
 It was very hard on poor Sim, who, for all he 
 thought about it, and grieved about it, and did 
 everything about it that is usually done in such 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 43 
 
 painful emergencies, was not able to see how, 
 if ever, the loss was to be repaired. 
 
 VI 
 
 IN this while everything about Mr. Downs 
 had grown more dry, not rapidly, but percep 
 tibly. No; there was one exception his love 
 for Sim. 
 
 " Been my own daughter," he said often, as 
 tears were in his eyes, "I wouldn t a felt 
 more miser ble, special for poor Simyul. The 
 good Lord always know what s for the best; 
 but sech as that never struck me that way. I 
 no doubt S phrony have gone to mansions in 
 the sky, for she was as good as they ever make 
 em; but what poor Simyul is to do, I has yit 
 to see." 
 
 For several months he watched and tended 
 him closely; he waited such time as was re 
 spectful to S phrony s memory, and then de 
 cided that in a manner as delicate as possible 
 he would put forth a feeler. 
 
 " Simyul, M ria Kindrick mayn t be as hand 
 some as some, nor she may n t be quite as 
 
44 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 young; but that nor them don hender her 
 from bein a oncommon fine female, and I have 
 been stud in on it, and my mind have arriv at 
 the conclusion that M ria Kindrick would make 
 the best sort of a companion to them that has 
 lost who they oncet had, and is left with two 
 little motherless children." 
 
 Sim shuddered slightly; then in his heart he 
 thanked Mr. Downs, whose motives he knew to 
 be all kindness, for only hinting his thoughts, 
 instead of blurting them out, as is sometimes 
 done by people who seem to have not a par 
 ticle of delicacy. He looked at his children, 
 one waddling about on the piazza, the other in 
 the nurse s arms, and said : 
 
 " Uncle Billy, it appears like to me that since 
 S phrony s been gone I feel like I don t keer 
 one blessed thing that is, for myself." 
 
 " I know egzact how you feel, Simyul, though 
 I ain t never been in them conditions, a-owin , 
 I suppose, to my not a never havin a wife to 
 lose o no sort. But if it was me, I should 
 have my eye on them childern, aknowin 
 no man person can always see which sech 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 45 
 
 as them, innercent if they be, is obleeged to 
 have." 
 
 "The good Lord know how sorry I am for em," 
 and Sim looked at them with much generosity. 
 
 "Of course you are, abein they re your own 
 childern; but a young man like you, he ought 
 to be sorry for hisself too." 
 
 Then Sim candidly admitted that he was. 
 
 "I m thankful for that much," said Mr. 
 Downs, heartily, "and if it was me, I should 
 try my level best to requiperate, like the doc 
 tor say; I should try to polish myself up in all 
 mod rate ways, and let people see that I hadn t 
 give up, not by a long shot; and to save 
 my life, I can t keep out of my head, if Jones 
 was to divide with Miss M ria, which, bein his 
 own dear sister, he s bound to do, and this side 
 o the plantation was to fall to her, how corn- 
 pack every thing would be, provided people 
 had the mind to make it so by jindin and nu- 
 nitin o theirselves and it and them." 
 
 After several talks on this line, Sim lifted 
 up his head as well as he could. It was not 
 strange that he should drop in at the Kindricks 
 
46 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 occasionally, and listen thankfully to what 
 consolation the family offered. After the first 
 outpour, Jones did little in that way; but Al 
 ley, and especially Miss Maria, were earnestly 
 sympathetic and kind. Sim soon began to 
 come there quite often, so often that Jones 
 considered it necessary to say something about 
 it. One morning at the breakfast-table he 
 looked up from his plate and said: 
 
 "M ria, Sim Newsome comes here oftener 
 than I can see fit to take any stock in his trav 
 elings and in his visits." 
 
 At that moment both ladies had their coffee- 
 cups in their hands, Miss Maria s touching her 
 lips, and Alley s on its way. These were set 
 down promptly, Miss Maria s so abruptly that 
 some of its contents splashed into the saucer. 
 She looked straight at Jones for a second or 
 so, then rose, and left the room. 
 
 Contrariwise with Alley. Her face reddened 
 with generous shame, and she said: 
 
 "I have heard you make many imprudent, 
 not to say foolish and shameless speeches, but 
 never one equal to that." 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 47 
 
 Her disgust was so manifest that he avoided 
 the look which she gave him, and said sul 
 lenly : 
 
 "I jest wanted to inform M ria that Sim 
 Newsome was not fooling nor hidwinking me, 
 sneaking over here with his moanin talks and 
 conversations." 
 
 "Mr. Newsome has not been coming here in 
 any such way, Mr. Kindrick, and if he has 
 been coming here at all with the notion which 
 you showed Maria that you believe, I don t see, 
 for my life, how you could study up a better 
 way to drive her to accept him at the first offer 
 he makes to her." 
 
 "My Lord! for a gentleman s own wife to 
 converse in that way, and on a subject of the 
 vitualest importance to him as the man of the 
 house !" 
 
 " Gentleman ! Man of the house ! Pshaw ! " 
 Then she rose also, and left him to himself. 
 Going to Maria s chamber, she said: 
 
 "Maria, do please try not to mind Mr. Kin 
 drick. I am deeply mortified; but I hope you 
 understand your brother well enough to not let 
 
48 A HACIIKLOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 his reckless, insulting words distress you too 
 much." 
 
 " Law, my dear child ! I left the table to 
 keep from seeing the trouble that I knew such 
 outrageous words would give you. Cousin 
 Sim, I don t suppose, has been thinking about 
 me as brother hinted. But brother ought to 
 know that if Cousin Sim was foolish enough to 
 want me, the way to make me take him would 
 be to talk about him in that way." 
 
 " Let us kiss, and say no more about it." 
 
 And so they did. 
 
 In a case of this sort, which inevitably must 
 grow worse if it docs not grow better, and that 
 soon, there was one of two things for a man 
 like Jones Kindrick to do. One was to amend 
 himself. But people like him cannot learn to 
 yield entirely a supremacy after it has been 
 admitted so long. When his control over Sim 
 had ceased, he thought to transfer it to Alley. 
 Failing here, except so far as a loyal wife will 
 always submit to any sort of husband, he now 
 sought to domineer over his patient sister, and 
 we have seen what was likely to come of that. 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 49 
 
 Jones, although not an old man, was too old 
 to amend. Perhaps he had so decided in his 
 mind. Then, not so intending, however, he 
 took the other alternative. To make short an 
 unpleasant recital, he went into a decline, and 
 when he foresaw that he was not to retrace 
 his steps, he asked Sim, as a cousin and a 
 friend, to be as liberal as he could with Alley 
 and the baby when division of his mother s 
 estate should be had between them and Maria. 
 And Sim promised solemnly that whatever in 
 fluence he should have in that matter should 
 be exerted on the line of the wishes just de 
 clared. Jones thanked him and the rest for all 
 that they had done and promised, and then 
 went his way. 
 
 " On the whole," said Mr. Downs, kindly, 
 " it were as honor ble thing as Jones could do, 
 poor feller." 
 
 VII 
 
 "No, Simyul," said Mr. Downs, feeling the 
 sweetness which we all have when in forgiving 
 mood, " they ain t a thing I has to say ag inst 
 
50 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 poor Jones. He were a fine young man, if he 
 have only knowed how to act different." 
 
 A generous man, Sim felt becoming regrets. 
 He was touched by the appeal in behalf of Alley 
 and her baby, and he resolved to befriend them 
 to the degree comporting with other claims. 
 He had not intimated to Miss Maria that if she 
 should choose, she might have the place left 
 vacant by S phrony. Once or twice, constantly 
 stimulated by Mr. Downs and the needs of his 
 children, he had not been very far from doing 
 it. But, somehow, S phrony s image or lack of 
 ardent desire had hindered. When Jones had 
 gotten out of everybody s way, Sim gradually 
 began to ask himself if he was quite as sorry 
 as he used to be ; for somehow, when he was 
 at the Kindricks , he had somewhat of a notion 
 that Jones, wherever he was (and he sincerely 
 hoped it was a good place), had his eye upon 
 him. Alley behaved with entire decorum, ex 
 hibiting neither too much nor too little of un 
 availing sorrow. Both ladies accepted thank 
 fully his counsels about the management of 
 their business. Seeing how much these were 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS $1 
 
 needed in the comparatively run-down condi 
 tion in which things had been left, he went 
 over often, because, business man that he was, 
 he knew it to be necessary. 
 
 This seems a fitting place to mention the 
 somewhat changed relations of Sim and Mr. 
 Downs toward each other. Latterly their con 
 fidential chattings had been getting into rather 
 dwindling condition. Perhaps neither did so 
 deliberately; but at all events they seemed to 
 have decided simultaneously that the future, 
 better than they, would know how to take care 
 of itself. 
 
 Mr. Downs s land joined both properties. 
 One day it occurred to him that the Downs- 
 Kindrick line offence, being rather crumbling, 
 ought to be reset. While walking alongside 
 he discovered an ancient mark which showed 
 that the fence had been put by mistake on the 
 hither side of his line. Knowing that right 
 was nothing but right, he resolved to ride over 
 and have a friendly talk upon the subject with 
 one or both of the Kindrick ladies. But he did 
 not do so immediately after making the dis- 
 
52 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 covery. No; he first went to town and pur 
 chased some very nice cloth and other mate 
 rials, had everything cut out by the tailor, and 
 afterward on that same day, bless you 
 rode away up to Miss Faithy Wimpy, whom 
 he, as well as everybody else, knew to be the 
 best maker-up in that whole region. When 
 all was finished and brought back, it was then 
 that he went to the Kindricks . Yet he did not 
 travel by the public road, which would have 
 taken him by the Newsome place. He rode 
 over his own ground until reaching the fence 
 aforementioned. This he laid down, and, after 
 passing over, traveled on quietly and thought 
 fully. The ladies were sitting on the piazza, 
 each moderately busy at some sort of needle 
 work, when they heard from behind the house 
 the opening and shutting of a gate that led in 
 to the lower portion of the plantation. 
 
 "Wonder who can be there at that gate," 
 said Miss Maria, suspending her work; "the 
 hands ain t anywhere in that part of the plan 
 tation." Rising, she walked to the end of the 
 piazza, and, looking back, said: "Alley, do 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 53 
 
 come here. It s Mr. Downs s horse, I think, but 
 who in this world it is that s on him, I can t tell." 
 
 The horseman came on alongside the garden 
 and the yard. Proceeding thence to one of the 
 trees near the gate, he alighted, hitched his 
 beast, and, opening the gate, advanced modest 
 ly up the walk. Even then Miss Maria didn t 
 dream who it was. 
 
 "Why, Maria," said Alley, "it s Mr. Downs 
 himself." And she smiled; for by this time, 
 poor thing, she could pick up a little sprightli- 
 ness. 
 
 " What in this world," said Miss Maria in low 
 tones, "can he be coming here for, and from 
 the back way ? that is, if it s him, which I don t 
 why, how d ye, Mr. Downs ? I didn t know 
 you at first." 
 
 " You knewed me, Miss M ria," he answered, 
 as he was shaking hands, "but you knewed 
 not these strange clothes, special comin up the 
 back way of a suddent like." 
 
 " Might have been something in that," she 
 answered, trying to ignore another faint smile 
 on Alley s face. 
 
54 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 il Come on business," he said when seated, 
 and with many carefully selected words he 
 proceeded to tell what it was, looking at one 
 and the other alternately. They answered 
 promptly that they had not a doubt of the verity 
 of his statements, and that the fence should be 
 made to conform to the newly ascertained line. 
 
 " Well," said the visitor, with as much heart 
 iness as he could command, " if you two had 
 been a couple o men, which I m thankful you 
 ain t, I d a had to palarver and palarver about 
 that line, and then maybe not satisfy em. But 
 bein women, it s done settled in short order. 
 I ll git Simyul Newsome to ride down there 
 with me some time soon, so he can see they 
 ain t no doubts about it. You can trust Sim 
 yul, I know." 
 
 " Certainly," answered Miss Maria; " but we 
 can trust you just as well, Mr. Downs." 
 
 " I m much obleeged; " and afterward he 
 thought of a thousand more words which he 
 could and would have said but that they did 
 not occur to him until after he had left the 
 house. 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 55 
 
 When he reached home, he gave some swift 
 orders to his foreman, and then, after putting 
 off his finery, and getting into his every-day 
 things, rode straight to the Newsomes . When 
 he got there, if it had been to save his own life, 
 or even that of Sim, he could not have told ex 
 actly how he felt. He began as coolly as it 
 was possible to try to assume to be : 
 
 " I ve been over to the Kindricks this morn- 
 in , Simyul." 
 
 " Ah ? I m glad to hear it, Uncle Billy. I 
 hope you found all well." 
 
 "Yes; I heard no complaint. No; I were 
 down there by me and their fence, and I con 
 cluded I d peeruse on up to the house and let 
 them females know that I acc dental found out 
 that the fence weren t exactly on the line be- 
 twix us, but it run a leetle on my side. When 
 I told em, they said they was perfect ricon- 
 ciled to have it sot right. I told em I d see 
 you about it first, so you could see I weren t 
 mistakened, as I could show a cross-mark on a 
 tree plain as open and shet. They lowed they 
 was willin to trust ary one of us, me and you." 
 
56 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 "Of course, Uncle Billy. I would have 
 known they d a said that. About what differ 
 ence does it make ? " 
 
 " I should say five acres, more or less, by the 
 look of my eye." 
 
 "All right; when you git ready, I ll speak 
 to them, and they ll help you move the fence. 
 I ll take your word for it." 
 
 " That s what I sha n t do, Simyul, and that s 
 what I come to see you about." 
 
 " Why, it s nothing but right." 
 
 But in the tone of Mr. Downs and in his look 
 was a firmness which convinced Sim that it 
 would be useless to insist. 
 
 "No, Simyul; not with the feelin s and the 
 respects I has for them females. You want to 
 know what I done soon as I got home from 
 there ? I called for Sam, I did, and I told him 
 to let the hands drap everything, and go down 
 there and tear down that fence, and then set it 
 up again with sound rails, top to bottom, eend 
 to eend, on the same line as before." 
 
 " I can t understand you, Uncle Billy." 
 
 " I don t wonder at you, Simyul, for nother 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 5/ 
 
 can I understand myself, not square, straight 
 up and down. But let me tell you fur as I can 
 see down into my own insides." 
 
 Here Mr. Downs felt his eyes begin to trem 
 ble; so he turned them away from Sim, and 
 thus proceeded : 
 
 " When I got there in the cool o the morn- 
 in like, and I see them couple o fine women 
 asettin there in the piazzer, busy as two bees, 
 and it look like the bein of a widder have im 
 proved Alley to that, I couldn t but say to my 
 self, if it was me, and I was a young man, it 
 seem like the sight of her would perfect blind 
 a feller s eye. And then I say to myself, what 
 a pity ! because, when the time come, and Sim- 
 yul Newsome and Miss M ria Kindrick may see 
 it their juty to be pardners, if for nothin else, 
 for conven ence, and then when the prop ty is 
 divided, I said to myself, I sha n t fence in that 
 land, but I ll leave it right whar it is, vallible 
 as it is, and the timber that s on it, I ll leave it 
 thar for the surwivor." 
 
 " Why, law, Uncle Billy ! I and Cousin 
 M ria have no such notion." 
 
58 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 " What ? " cried Mr. Downs, turning upon 
 Sim, his eyes dancing and his face aglow with 
 smiles. " Well, well, well ! Now my mind is 
 easy, Simyul, which it hain t been before, not 
 sence they told me the breath were out o poor 
 Jones s body for good. I knewcd it weren t 
 egzact the thing to be thinkin about it so year 
 ly, but the good Lord know I couldn t he p it, 
 and I say to myself it do look like the good 
 Lord have flung another chance in your way, 
 after givin up so many times to Jones, which, 
 poor feller, I hain t nary a word to say ag inst 
 him, now he s dead, and goned; but facts is 
 facts, and I am now atalkin to you as a man 
 o jedgment in this world, which no man, and 
 I may say no nobody else, ever deparches from 
 it tell they time come, and when it do, you can t 
 no more hender em from goin than you can 
 hender the sun from settin , and if he ever had 
 a wife, the said wife is then cut loose, and that 
 for good. Why, the very postle Paul writ that. 
 Of course, you know, I ain t sayin any thing 
 ag inst Jones, alayin where he is, and aleavin 
 of a wife which for beautiful I never see but one 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 59 
 
 which was beyond her; but that was before you 
 was borned. Let that all go now." 
 
 Then with a gentle gesture he waved back 
 the image of the love of his youth, and proceed 
 ed : 
 
 " But to begin where we lef off. When they 
 told me that Jones, poor feller, have give up, it 
 flash in my mind quick as thunder that it do 
 look like Jones Kindrick have gone away peace 
 able and honor ble, and flung his widder and 
 his innercent infant on to you, aknowin that 
 you would forgive him and do the best you 
 could by both of em; and special when I did 
 think on my soul this mornin she was pooty 
 as a pink, spite o all her moanin caliker, I say 
 to myself, there s Simyul Newsome s chance. 
 As for the last surwivor, Miss M ria, I ll yit 
 leave that line fence jest as it is." 
 
 Sim promised to ponder these words. 
 
 VIII 
 
 WHEN one approaches and foresees the end 
 of a story, detail is tiresome. Sim had prom 
 ised to ponder, and he did so with entire fidel- 
 
6o A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 ity and some rapidity. Even yet he had not 
 parted from all sense of the vast superiority 
 of Jones over himself, and he looked with some 
 dread upon the attempt to be a successor to 
 such a man; but he remembered that he had 
 given his promise to him to aid in having jus 
 tice done to his widow and child; then Alley 
 was more beautiful, and looked sweeter than 
 ever before, and yes, he was obliged to ad 
 mit that he loved her. Sim Newsome, not 
 withstanding his humility, was a man who, 
 when his mind was made up to do a thing, 
 could go right along to it. So one day he 
 went over there, and as soon as he had taken 
 her hand and said good morning, he told her 
 that he had come to ask if she would have him. 
 Alley did not answer immediately, but stepped 
 back to bring out a chair for him, and to see if 
 Maria had gone out, as she knew that she was 
 expecting to do. It was then that, holding her 
 eyes down, and looking at her hands folded in 
 her lap, she answered that she would. 
 
 And now there were left Miss Maria and Mr. 
 Downs. It would be a tedious recital of her 
 
A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 61 
 
 lonesomeness all by herself in that big house, 
 and the increased sense of it that lately had 
 come to Mr. Downs in the smaller mansion 
 which hitherto had been large enough to con 
 tain him and all his simple familiar things and 
 ambitions. I could not say what influence in 
 terest in two romances had exerted upon a 
 mind long unused to such things. But Jones 
 Kinclrick having gotten out of Sim s way for 
 good and all, and the latter no longer needing 
 help to withstand his encroachings, Mr. Downs 
 began to feel lonesome both for himself and for 
 Miss Maria. I never knew, nor did anybody 
 else, precisely how these two got together. 
 In the economy of the world, provision is made 
 somewhere for all legitimate wants. We have 
 been taught by microscopic investigation that 
 even the protoplasm, which has neither eyes, 
 nor mouth, nor ears, nor hands, nor feet, not 
 inside, nor outside, yet knows how to seek and 
 find affiliation with its kind, if for nothing else, 
 for comfort in its solitude. By some sort of 
 quasi-involuntary, but always friendly move 
 ments, executed in a comparatively brief time 
 
62 A BACHELOR S COUNSELINGS 
 
 after Alley and her baby had been taken to the 
 Newsome house, these two became one. Some 
 people said that the continued multiplication 
 of poor kin around them had something to do 
 with it; but others argued that the winning 
 card in the hands of Mr. Downs, so intended 
 when he slipped it out of the pack, was that 
 generous sacrifice which he had made for the 
 survivor. 
 
PARTING FROM SAILOR 
 
 " Meaner than sea-weed." HORACE 
 
 the piazza of Hines s store, which stood 
 at the crossroads, very near our house, 
 men of the neighborhood used to gather on 
 Saturday afternoon where, after making their 
 little purchases, they lingered and chatted 
 about things old and new. I, when a child, 
 often went there with more or less permission, 
 and listened with an interest which it has been 
 always pleasant to me to recall. I remember 
 one conversation in particular among some 
 elderly men abmit various mean men who had 
 been in their acquaintance, and the general 
 conclusion was that in this respect one hard 
 to beat was Jim Rakestraw. I propose to re 
 hearse one of the stories told about him. 
 
 In all that region during his time nobody 
 had ever heard of such a thing as the selling 
 63 
 
64 PARTING FROM SAILOR 
 
 of a dog. In the first place, dogs were far 
 more plentiful than people, except individual 
 owners, believed there was need for. Owners, 
 of course (and everybody was an owner), be 
 lieved in the value of their own, and the general 
 worthlessness of others. There was seldom a 
 dog who did not have one friend; that was his 
 master. Other people, as a rule, were either 
 hostile to him or indifferent; and they often 
 expressed surprise that the owner would con 
 sent to feed him for the worth that was in him. 
 The municipal law did not countenance a suit 
 asking damages for killing one, because it was 
 a thing in which courts did not recognize prop 
 erty which was worthy of their consideration. 
 Whenever a person had one which he cared 
 not to keep for his own uses, it was dispatched 
 generally by drowning unless a neighbor 
 cared to have it, in which case it was given to 
 him out and out, and no ado, not even of 
 thanks, made about it. If a man had gone 
 about offering to sell one of the things, he 
 would have been regarded not much better 
 than a dog, and it was right there that the 
 
PARTING FROM SAILOR 65 
 
 especial meanness of Jim Rakestraw came in. 
 The common law in this matter he was the 
 only one in that whole settlement who had no 
 more self-respect than to break, and that in a 
 way that added to the disgrace. 
 
 He was a tall, gaunt, big-footed, lazy fellow, 
 with a wife, a houseful of children, and more 
 dogs than these, including, sometimes, the 
 sides of bacon that were in his smoke 
 house. With one exception, those dogs were 
 hounds, and that of low degree, so low indeed 
 that they would plunder hens nests, and even 
 sneak into the dairy and the pantry, and help 
 themselves to whatever they found there. 
 
 Mrs. Rakestraw was an excellent, industri 
 ous, and extremely meek woman, who was 
 trying to bring up her children well, and keep 
 as decent a household as was possible in the 
 circumstances. But Jim, too indolent to work, 
 when not lounging about the house and yard, 
 went roaming with his hounds; and he believ 
 ed, or pretended to believe, that the rabbits, 
 squirrels, and opossums taken in these ex 
 cursions more than compensated for the ab- 
 
66 PARTING FROM SAILOR 
 
 sence of what his family might have had, if 
 he had been without this pack of greedy con 
 sumers, and tended properly the small but 
 sufficient bit of ground which his wife had in 
 herited from her father. People used to say 
 they wondered how such a nice woman could 
 ever have married a good-for-nothing like Jim. 
 Yet she was like many another, who, after get 
 ting a mean husband, and finding out how 
 great and how incurable his meanness is, goes 
 silently along, doing the best she knows how, 
 and trying to look over faults which she has 
 learned from experience that it is useless to 
 endeavor to amend. 
 
 On the place was a dog of which all the 
 family except Jim was very fond. It was a 
 handsome cur, neat, honest in his habits, de 
 voted to his mistress and her children, even 
 down to the very baby in the cradle. Then to 
 some degree he was a protector against those 
 thieving hounds which, when not stretched on 
 the ground, were everlastingly prowling about 
 places where they had no business. At every 
 fair chance Sailor could get, he bit one of them 
 
PARTING FROM SAILOR 6/ 
 
 in the midst of his marauding, although he had 
 been whipped by Jim several times for doing 
 it. One day Jim said to his wife: 
 
 " Betsy, several people wants that dog Sail 
 or. Mr. Jenks, special, told me yisterday he d 
 like to have him for a guard-dog, and help in 
 huntin up some wild hogs in his reed-bottoms 
 on the creek; and I told him if you didn t have 
 any great objection to it, I ruther thought I d 
 let him take him. I didn t say I would, positive 
 and p int-blank, because I ain t sure in my mind 
 that I can make a good thing out of it." 
 
 And he tried to look both innocent and wise; 
 but he looked only sheepish and mean. 
 
 "Oh, dear me, laws, Mr. Rakestraw ! " she 
 answered, quickly. " I d hate to part from 
 Sailor; and I just know the children would cry 
 to see him go away from here. Why not let 
 Mr. Jenks have one of the hounds ? You ve got 
 more of them than is needed, seems to me." 
 
 " That I hain t; not for the use I ve got for 
 hounds. Them hounds brings in too many 
 things to this family for me even to think 
 about partin from one of them. No; not one 
 
68 PARTING FROM SAILOR 
 
 single one of tJicui, cert n sure. Besides, Mr. 
 Jenks already have now as many hounds as he 
 want; and then he don t want the breed of em 
 mixed, so he say." 
 
 Several days passed, and from his silence 
 they hoped that he had decided not to let 
 Sailor go; but one night after supper he said: 
 
 " Betsy, as you seemed ruther ag inst my 
 givin away Sailor to Mr. Jenks, he said to me 
 to-day when I met him on the road that he d 
 like to buy him; and he offered such a big pay 
 for him that fact of the business is, I thought 
 it were my juty to take it; and I told him right 
 down I d do it." 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Rakestraw ! Sell a dog, Mr. Rake- 
 straw ! Why, I never heard of such a thing. 
 I shall feel bad to see Sailor go; but I d rather 
 you d give him to Mr. Jenks out and out than 
 to sell him. I don t know what people would 
 think of us for selling such a thing as a dog, 
 poor as we are. Indeed, Mr. Rakestraw, I d 
 be afraid of some sort of bad luck coming from 
 it; that I would." 
 
 " Well, now, as for my part, I can t see how 
 
PARTING FROM SAILOR 69 
 
 people should think strange of it; and if they 
 did, it s my business and not theirs. I ve got 
 along so fur myself by tendin to my own busi 
 ness, and other people may do the same. But, 
 when a man, and a rich man at that, make me 
 a offer of twenty dollars for a piece o prop ty 
 that s no more account than that cur-dog, that 
 he do nothin under the sun but lay around the 
 house, and fight my hounds every chance he 
 git, when he see my very eye ain t on him, 
 like it were him owns these whole preemerses, 
 and not me, why, I say ag in, it s jes my very 
 juty to take it; an my word is done passed to 
 do it, and that to-morrow." 
 
 " Twenty dollars! That does seem a big 
 price for for a dog." 
 
 Indeed, they were so poor that to them it 
 was a very large sum. 
 
 The next day, fastening Sailor with a rope, 
 Jim led him away. When they were out of 
 sight the mother and some of the children 
 cried a little; but soon they dried their eyes, 
 and went to their work, such as were big 
 enough, all trying to hope that everything 
 
70 PARTING FROM SAILOR 
 
 would turn out for the best. Some little things 
 were needed by Mrs. Rakestraw; but she de 
 cided that the portion of the money which her 
 husband, considering that Sailor had been her 
 own property, would allow to her, should be 
 spent in getting some necessary things for the 
 children. 
 
 When Jim came home again he had on an 
 air of much satisfaction, and bestowed general 
 looks and words of kindness among the whole 
 family for whom he had done such a fine thing. 
 The little children occasionally glanced tow 
 ard his pockets, expecting, perhaps, to see 
 them all swelled out with those moneys so 
 much vaster than what they had ever seen in 
 all their lives. He made no sign as to whether 
 at all, or in what proportions, it was on his 
 mind to distribute among them; and, of course, 
 not one in the family made any allusion to the 
 matter. Next morning, after eating breakfast, 
 and calling up his hounds, he said: 
 
 " Betsy, I m goin ahuntin this mornin . 
 Twasn t exactly convenant yisterday, and so 
 Mr. Jenks said he d send the pay for Sailor 
 
PARTING FROM SAILOR /I 
 
 over here some time about 9 o clock. Take 
 keer of em tell I git back, won t you ? and 
 don t let the children go to handlin nor med- 
 dlin in no ways." 
 
 All right, Mr. Rakestraw," she answered, 
 meekly; " I ll do like you say." 
 
 About two hours after, as, with her sewing, 
 she sat before the cabin door, she heard the 
 yard gate opened and shut. Looking up, she 
 saw advancing a negro boy, having under 
 either arm what seemed an awkwardly wrap 
 ped bundle. As the comer approached she 
 recognized in him one of Mr. Jenks s servants, 
 and the bundles proved to be a couple of very 
 young hound puppies. 
 
 " Mawnin , Mis Rakesaw ! " greeted the boy, 
 with a hearty grunt. " De Lord know I m 
 tired atotin o dem hot, wigglin , squirmin 
 puppies; that s the ill-conwentest load /ever 
 went anywhar to k yar." 
 
 " Howd y, Peter. What on earth are you 
 going to do with those wretched little things ?" 
 
 For, indeed, wearied with travel in a way so 
 unusual, the little beasts looked intensely for- 
 
72 PARTING FROM SAILOR 
 
 lorn, and when put upon the ground let forth 
 howlings so pitiful that the baby in the cradle 
 near by, waking up, knew no better than to 
 join with his utmost in the chorus. 
 
 "Marster sent em to Mis Rakesaw," said 
 Peter. " Dee traded twix dem en de dog 
 he fotch yisterday to our house. It pears like 
 your baby skeer t of em." 
 
 "My good gracious!" she exclaimed, but 
 instantly her womanly delicacy put itself for 
 ward. Lifting the baby, and giving it to one 
 of the older children to quiet, she said to the 
 boy: 
 
 " All right, Peter; did your master send any 
 word ? " 
 
 " No m. Marster say I jes got to fetch de 
 puppies here, en den come on back. Good-by, 
 Mis Rakesaw." 
 
 " Good-by, Peter. I m much obliged to you." 
 
 I couldn t tell the disappointment, the sense 
 of humble hopelessness, nor the less humble 
 submission. Yet there was some relief in that 
 her husband had not sold the dog for money, 
 a thing which she had feared might have low- 
 
PARTING FROM SAILOR /3 
 
 ered him yet further in people s opinions. Put 
 ting the whelps in as fit a place as she could 
 find, and feeding them to their fill with milk 
 and bread-crumbs, she cautioned the children 
 against showing to their father any disposition 
 to complain, then went back to her work. 
 
 Notwithstanding the squirrel and the two 
 rabbits brought by Jim, when returned from 
 his hunt, and despite the thickness of whatever 
 it was that covered the heart that was in him, 
 on his face was a look of some little conscious 
 ness of meanness. Yet it was easily repressed, 
 and he cried, triumphantly: 
 
 "Now, ain t they beauties, Betsy? They 
 come o that breed o long-legged hounds were 
 sent to Mr. Jenks all the way from South Cal- 
 lina, and the stock of em run back clean plum 
 up to the Revolution war; and Mr. Jenks said, 
 and he said it sollom, that, twern t so many in 
 the last litter he could spar a couple of em, 
 nobody could git em for love or money. And 
 he said he wanted Sailor, and if I said so, I 
 might have a couple for him. Now I vallied 
 them puppies in my mind, I did; I vallied em 
 
74 PARTING FROM SAILOR 
 
 at ten dollars apiece, and cheap at that; for it 
 ain t anigh what they d fetch, if people was to 
 begin biddin ag inst one nother fur em, know- 
 in how fur their mammy come from, and how 
 fur back the stock of em runs." 
 
 He was content with the silence which, as 
 was habitual with his wife, followed his boast 
 ing. 
 
 This was told by old Mr. Pate, who, after 
 the rehearsal, thus commented: 
 
 " In my time I don t know the numbers of 
 good, fine women that has had mean, triflin 
 men for their husband, albe I can t deny that 
 sometimes, not often, but sometimes, the boot 
 have been on t other leg, as the sayin is. I ve 
 studied a heap on it, and my mind have about 
 got to conclude that the good Lord ordered it 
 so, aknowin it weren t best for the same kind 
 o people to jes couple and huddle together by 
 theirselves. It s that, or somethin else, cert n. 
 But as for Jim Rakestraw, well, my opinion of 
 him have always been, and special after his 
 meanness about that cur-dog and them hound- 
 puppies, that whoever want to go about 
 
PARTING FROM SAILOR 75 
 
 alookin for a meaner husband, and a meaner 
 man of family in gener l than what Jim Rake- 
 straw were, he got to git up and start on the 
 hunt soon in the mornin ." 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 " Alas, regardless of their doom, 
 The little victims play." 
 
 Ode on Eton College 
 
 I 
 
 T N the village of Sangston was a school of 
 -*- about fifty boys, including ten or a dozen 
 boarders. They were not thought too many, 
 but rather too much, for the last teacher, a man 
 of uncombative disposition and only ordinary 
 physical strength; and so when he had to run 
 away, as it were, in search of a less arduous 
 job elsewhere, the patrons, hearing what a 
 famous disciplinarian was Mr. Isaiah Cubbedge, 
 who had been practising his profession in an 
 other village some fifty miles south, invited him 
 to come and try what he could do with the ma 
 terial on hand. He was a tall, wiry, pale gen 
 tleman, hungry-looking as unhealthy, although 
 
 it was said that he never missed at home a 
 76 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 77 
 
 meal s full victuals, nor a day s, nor a part of a 
 day s attendance at school. He seemed to de 
 sire to visit little and be visited less, his mind 
 being occupied entirely with studying how to 
 manage his business. He was thought to be 
 the very man that the Sangston people wanted 
 to manage these boys, of whom old Mr. Big 
 ger had said that unless somebody could be 
 gotten suited for that purpose they were bound 
 to take the whole town. A man of few words 
 outside was Mr. Cubbedge, and a deep, low 
 voice, inquiring but not confiding in its tone. 
 Among his features, perhaps the most interest 
 ing was his nose. It started out modestly, 
 even as if timidly, from the narrow space be 
 twixt his small, deep-set, gray, ever-moving 
 eyes, and seemed to feel that it had no need of 
 a bridge worth speaking about. But after pass 
 ing beyond the position where the bridge, if 
 one had been deemed necessary, would have 
 been built, it began to lift itself up, and kept 
 on lifting and diminishing until it came to a 
 point where it looked cunning as inquisitive. 
 When he was talking to people, or being talked 
 
78 TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 to by them, his eyes fluttered all over and 
 around them as if seeking for the most unguard 
 ed place for his nose to pierce. The boys used 
 to say that what made him so lean and sickly- 
 looking was the eternal watch which he put 
 upon them, while constant exercise in flogging 
 kept up his appetite. Having come therewith 
 a great name for discipline, he acted as if he 
 meant to hold on to it and, if possible, exalt it 
 to yet sublimer heights. His education was 
 not of the best; but it was regarded good 
 enough for the discipline, which w r as the main 
 thing. One boy boarded with him. His fa 
 ther, hearing what a great thing the discipline 
 was to be, wanted him to get all the possible 
 good of it. We shall see that he did so. 
 
 School-boys like to try the metal of a new 
 master. These, fifty strong, said in private 
 that they would have to be made to see how 
 they could not dodge any such man. For 
 dodging was the limit of their ambition. Every 
 one knew that if he either resisted or ran away 
 from the discipline, he would be brought back 
 and made to take, perhaps, a double portion. 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 79 
 
 Such was the temper of the times, which now 
 seems so strange. 
 
 To outsiders (particularly Mr. John Overby, 
 who, having been through such a regime, was 
 thankful to have come out no worse hurt) it 
 was funny to notice how soon, after the coming 
 of Mr. Cubbedge, the hope of dodging him had 
 nothing to stand upon. In school, out, study- 
 time, play-time, daytime, night-time, seldom 
 any mischief could be done singly, in couples, 
 in threes, in large gangs that would not be 
 detected, when punishment of some grade was 
 sure to follow. Some good men in Sangston 
 and its vicinity were thankful, and were led to 
 indulge some hope for the young when they 
 heard that Mr. Cubbedge spent so much 
 time in ferreting out and punishing evil do 
 ings. He was not a bloodthirsty man, like 
 some of his class used to be. He seldom cut 
 with his hickory or his peachy tree below the 
 skin, however much he might be fond of strip 
 ing it; but his chief pride was to show, inside 
 and outside, that it was not worth a school 
 boy s while to try to fool him. Little Billy 
 
80 TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 Wiggins, who was caught and whipped at 
 least once a day, used to attribute his bad luck 
 to the nose which in vain I have endeavored 
 to describe. 
 
 " His old nose is everlastin turned up and 
 alookin around, and it can smell same as a 
 hound." 
 
 The name of the favored boarder was New 
 ton Pollock. He was undergrown for fourteen, 
 and had a dark, though mild face, except when 
 he was engaged in mischief. The belief of 
 Billy Wiggins in the nose came from Newt, 
 who told him and others that Mr. Cubbedge 
 had a kind of soap with which he polished it 
 every night, so as to keep it keen, alert, and 
 investigative. All pitied poor little Newt, liv 
 ing right there in the very house of Mr. Cub 
 bedge, yet, foolhardy as he was, hoping to es 
 cape his watch, and a limited sadness was fondly 
 indulged when he told of the whippings he got 
 almost every night of his life under the peach- 
 tree at the back of the Cubbedge garden. For 
 Mr. Cubbedge, standing for the time being in 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 8 1 
 
 the place of Newt s father, administered his pun 
 ishments within the domestic circle. His pa 
 rents must not be disappointed of their great 
 expectations from his peculiar privilege. Jim 
 Brantly, a boy of seventeen, one of the leaders 
 in sports, mischief, and general school-boy 
 unlicensed achievements, habitually said: 
 
 " I d simply just die before I would board 
 with him ! In the place of his father ! Yes, 
 and his mother, and his big brothers and sis 
 ters, and his uncles and aunts, and the over 
 seer, even him to have an occasional whack at 
 the poor little fellow ! Don t talk to me about 
 old Cubbedge being Newt s father. It makes 
 me sick to hear him name the very name." 
 
 Yet Newt, who claimed to be as tough as 
 whalebone, said he could stand it, and would 
 stand it, rather than get his share of fun, or run 
 away to be brought back for worse. Then Mrs. 
 Cubbedge, a fattish woman, whose main des 
 tiny, as it seemed, was to get up good meals 
 for her husband, let the latter do all the scold 
 ing and punishing in the family, and Newt 
 thought that sometimes she looked as if she 
 
82 TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 would like to give him some advice if she could 
 ever find an opportunity. On the whole, his 
 endurance and his temerity got much admira 
 tion. This was carried to a high degree one 
 day, when, as Mr. Cubbedge was passing along 
 the line with his switches of assorted sizes, 
 Newt came up, and, in a sort of bold humility, 
 said: " Mr. Cubbedge, I wish you would give 
 me my whippin along of the other boys." 
 
 The master momentarily smiled; then be 
 stowing a stern, parental look, answered: " Do 
 you go straight back to your seat, Newt Pol 
 lock. I m responsible to your natchuril father 
 for you, sir, and I shall attend to you how and 
 when and where it suit my convenance and 
 my duty as a parrent." 
 
 Newt slunk back, feeling ever so badly. The 
 boys thought it showed enormous pluck. 
 
 II 
 
 THE many guises of Mr. Cubbedge, and their 
 many findings were commented on much for 
 the most part favorably. 
 
 " The very man we ve been wanting for these 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 83 
 
 boys," said old Mr. Bigger. He had no young 
 children, but perhaps took more interest in 
 things than if he had had a houseful. Pro 
 nounced in opinions, feeling himself the equal 
 of any in argumentation, he was fond of tack 
 ling Overby, a large, good-tempered young 
 lawyer, who had not joined in the praise be 
 stowed upon the new teacher. Mr. Bigger 
 hoped to remove the difficulties in the way of 
 his understanding by persistent appeals. 
 
 " Yes, sir, Johnny Overby, the very man the 
 Sangston boys needed to head them in their 
 pranks. If it wasn t for Mr. Cubbedge there s 
 no telling what people would do : gates 
 changed all over town, fences built across 
 the street, wheels took off and hid everywhere, 
 and, as for strawberries and May-apples, it s 
 come to that it ain t worth a body s while to 
 try to raise such as them even as it is." 
 
 " Have you noticed, Mr. Bigger," said Over 
 by, " that there are more of such things since 
 than before Mr. Cubbedge came ? " 
 
 " Now, Johnny Overby," replied Mr. Bigger, 
 in immediate disputant mood, " that s like a 
 
84 TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 lawyer pleading a case when justice, if not law, 
 is on the other side. I m not talking like a 
 lawyer, but like a plain, honest man, and I say 
 it shows the good of d s ipline, and if somebody 
 can t find out the boys of this generation in 
 their badness, why, old people will have to 
 give up everything to them, and I have knew 
 school-boys, Johnny Overby, ever since long 
 before you was born, and I have never knew 
 them as bad as they are now, and agetting 
 worse every day." 
 
 It was only a day or two back that Mr. Big 
 ger had been roused from sleep too early one 
 morning by his driver (who had instructions 
 to carry to the mill a grist of corn) by news 
 that the hind wheels of his wagon were on the 
 front axle, the fore wheels on the hind, and the 
 tongue clean, gone. It had taken full two 
 hours to get things out of confusion, and go on 
 to the mill in peace. It was some consolation 
 that Mr. Cubbedge, to whom the outrage had 
 been reported, had detected and punished the 
 parties engaged in it. A good man was Mr. 
 Bigger, but fiery, and by the boys regarded as 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 85 
 
 their enemy. Then they were fond of hearing 
 accounts of his mighty wrath and threatenings 
 when such tricks were played upon him. 
 
 In the discussion, which was long, and on 
 Mr. Bigger s part quite animated, the young 
 man argued mainly that, in his opinion, the 
 fame of Mr. Cubbedge would be put on a firmer 
 foundation if he could prevent crimes, instead 
 of detecting them after their commission. 
 When, wearied by what was a mere war of 
 words, he was about to turn away, Mr. Overby 
 said: 
 
 "Well, Mr. Bigger, in the case of Mr. Cub 
 bedge and his famous discipline, I beg to enter 
 an appeal." 
 
 " An appeal ? What do you mean by that, 
 sir ? " 
 
 " I appeal to the future. My opinion is that 
 matters are going to get worse." 
 
 The old man looked at him with angry 
 compassion as he moved on toward his office. 
 But Overby s appeal was justified. Hen 
 roosts began to be robbed, especially that of 
 Mr. Bigger, and in spite of Mr. Cubbedge s dis- 
 
86 TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 guises and prowlings, no trace of a stolen 
 chicken, alive or dead, could be found. Hear 
 ing that Overby had laughed at this news, Mr. 
 Bigger, meeting him upon the main street, ac 
 costed him thus: 
 
 " Now, Johnny Overby, you are obliged to 
 acknowledge that for such as that there isn t 
 a solitary grain of excuse, and I just want to 
 put you one question, if you ll answer it fair 
 and square. Do you love chicken, or do you 
 not ? " 
 
 " I do, sir much, very much." 
 
 The old man looked around among the by 
 standers and said, Gentlemen, you see he 
 has given up the whole case." 
 
 A hearty laugh arose, in which Overby join 
 ed as merrily as the rest of the audience; then 
 he said: " Yes, Mr. Bigger, you have me there; 
 but what about Mr. Cubbedge ? Why don t he 
 detect the boys and punish them ? " 
 
 "Just because he can t, sir. I put the case 
 before him, and he says it s altogether too 
 much for him; that he has set up, and gone 
 around time and time again at night, and he 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS S/ 
 
 just can t. He say somebody must be in it 
 besides school -boys; but I don t believe it 
 myself." 
 
 By this time all except these two had walk 
 ed away. Then the lawyer, with an air of 
 much mystery, in a low voice, said: "Those 
 chickens were not stolen by the boys, Mr. Big 
 ger. If they were, Mr. Cubbedge would have 
 found out every single case." 
 
 Then he broke off suddenly, as if on press 
 ing business at his office. Mr. Bigger looked 
 at him steadily for several moments, then 
 slowly followed.. 
 
 "Johnny Overby," he said, when seated in 
 the back room, " you looked just now like you 
 knewed who d been robbin them hen-roosts." 
 
 " I do not, Mr. Bigger. If I did, of course I 
 would give information; but I believe I can 
 find out." 
 
 "Well, sir, if you can, I ll see that you are 
 paid a good fee, and I ll tell you mostly for 
 why. If they get two little Dominickers that 
 I m tryin to raise, to get into the breed of, I 
 shall get so mad that I m afraid I ll say things 
 
88 TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 that I ll have to be had up in the church 
 for." 
 
 " Would you recognize those chickens if you 
 were to see them in a strange, unexpected 
 place, Mr. Bigger ? " 
 
 14 Why, yes, man. I could swear to them in 
 the moon." 
 
 " Then, sir, if you can be perfectly quiet 
 upon the subject, and not mention the word 
 chicken in public, my opinion is that I can find 
 out the thief at least one of them." 
 
 A week afterward the day was bleak, and 
 was followed by a very dark night. Near mid 
 night, at the signal of a whistle on the rear 
 premises of an inexpensive mansion, the mas 
 ter of a small family came out quietly, and was 
 met by a negro man with a basket of chickens. 
 The price asked being more reasonable than 
 when sold by daylight, and a twist or two of 
 tobacco being accepted in barter, the buyer 
 and the seller, the basket held between them, 
 were about to move toward the hen-roost when 
 the sheriff, with a posse of three, headed by 
 Mr. Bigger, rushed forth. When a light was 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 89 
 
 struck, and two young Dominicas a rooster 
 and a pullet were taken from the basket, and 
 found to be sound in wind and limb, the good 
 man shed tears. Perhaps these were more pro 
 fuse because the buyer was Mr. Cubbedge ! 
 
 It was a pitiful sight; there under the peach- 
 tree, so many of whose twigs had been torn 
 away for putting parental discipline upon Newt 
 Pollock s little back. The nose of Mr. Cub 
 bedge, after its many findings, seemed so dis 
 gusted with this last that, if practicable, it 
 would turn and take itself far away, after pierc 
 ing one by one the invaders of his premises. 
 
 " I had to see it with my own eyes to believe 
 it ! " said Mr. Bigger; " and hadn t been for 
 Mr. Triplett that helt me up, I d a fell plump 
 on my head aclimbing over them palings." 
 
 It was Saturday night. They agreed not to 
 prosecute if the culprit would leave the village 
 by Monday morning. His wife refused to ac 
 company him, and after a few days went back to 
 her people. She said that she had often remon 
 strated against her husband s trading with ne 
 groes, and she expressed the opinion that he 
 
QO TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 was partially insane. The poor woman had 
 to believe something, you know, to mitigate 
 the shame she felt. 
 
 Ill 
 
 AND now what was to be done for those ev 
 erlasting school-boys, as Mr. Bigger called 
 them ? The exiled school-master went away, 
 not wholly without that gentleman s respect. 
 
 " I m a man that ll give even a dog all the 
 credit he deserves. I owned a first-rate pos 
 sum hound once, but he were caught sucking 
 eggs, and suspicioned of running after sheep, 
 and so I made the niggers kill him. I give 
 Mr. Cubbedge credit for finding out what Pd a 
 never done, and hadn t been his own self that 
 had them chickens stole he d a found out that 
 too. You see there was where the poor man 
 was lacking." 
 
 It was about the middle of the school term. 
 After some persuasion Overby agreed to take 
 charge for the remainder. One of the citizens 
 took Newt Pollock into his house to stay until 
 his father s wishes could be known. 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 91 
 
 " I m afraid Johnny Overby ain t fit for the 
 business," said Mr. Bigger. " He caught Mr. 
 Cubbedge sleek as a bean, but I have my 
 doubts if he can catch them boys, because, you 
 see, he likes em so well that he have confi 
 dence in em, when everybody knows that a 
 school-boy is a school-boy, and always will be 
 till he s quit and been put to work. Still, I say 
 this in confidence to everybody, because it s the 
 best parrents can do for the present, and I don t 
 want to discourage him in the very first off- 
 start." 
 
 At the end of the first day the new teacher 
 said among his friends: " These boys until 
 to-day seemed to like me. Yet this morning, 
 as soon as I had entered the room, I saw that 
 I was regarded as an enemy and a spy. My 
 first impulse was to drag down an armful of 
 hickories from Cubbedge s rack, and go to 
 thrashing around generally for the imputed in 
 sult that I had ceased to be a gentleman on 
 the instant of getting into their collected pres 
 ence. It was too easy, however. Then I re 
 flected that they had never had opportunity to 
 
92 TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 learn better behavior. It is a more embar 
 rassing thing than I expected, and I m almost 
 sorry that I undertook it. However, I am going 
 to do something with those chaps, see if I don t." 
 
 About the practical jokes played upon the 
 citizens during several consecutive nights he 
 said not a word, being employed in efforts to 
 convince the boys that his mission there was 
 mainly to teach in books, a thing which had 
 been secondary during the late administra 
 tion. One morning Mr. Bigger, finding every 
 vehicle on his lot without wheels, and every 
 enclosure without gates, rushed with as furious 
 haste as his advanced age would allow down 
 into the village, and inquired of Mr. Overby 
 what he was going to do about it. 
 
 " Nothing, Mr. Bigger. My hands are full 
 of business of my own." Then he went on to 
 the school-house. 
 
 " Well, if it wasn t for my little Dominickers, 
 I ain t shore But Mr. Bigger stopped, 
 knowing, on sudden reflection, that it would 
 not be right to give expression to the thought 
 that was on his mind. So he looked at Mr. 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 93 
 
 Overby s back, and said, " He s done failed 
 a ready, just as I said he would." 
 
 The teacher s omission to take notice of the 
 matter was a disappointment all around, for 
 your school-boy does not wish to be ignored 
 entirely when he has been striving to produce 
 much excitement. The floggings gotten for 
 mere idleness were so inane that they were dis 
 gusted, and in a conclave of the most daring a 
 conspiracy was made to do something which it 
 was believed would rouse this new young mas 
 ter to a higher sense of the duties and difficul 
 ties of his position. The very next morning, 
 when he entered, the school-room was a sight 
 which, if it had been Mr. Bigger, would have 
 endangered his being called up before the 
 church sure enough at the earliest Conference. 
 
 As it was, Overby laughed. There were the 
 desks and benches turned backward, sideways, 
 all ways except the right, and all crossed and 
 piled, piled and crossed. When he had taken 
 his fill of laughter he pondered for a moment 
 or so, then said : 
 
 " As matters here are in no case for business, 
 
94 TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 and as I have some at my office, I shall go to 
 it, and not return before to-morrow morning, 
 at which time it is probable that I shall dismiss 
 this school for good, write to the parents of the 
 boarding pupils to send for them, and advise 
 that all of you be put to work rather than waste 
 time in such fooleries as this. Before I do 
 break up, however, I shall call the roll, and 
 ask every boy to answer upon his honor, if he 
 has not lost what sense of it he was born with, 
 what part he had in this funny business. I 
 don t know but that I might like to keep a 
 school, if I could get a set of boys who would 
 give some promise of becoming in time the gen 
 tlemen their fathers are. But, by-by till to 
 morrow." 
 
 These words were effective. Not a boarder 
 wanted to be called home, nor a native to be 
 put to work. They rearranged the furniture, 
 then parted in silence, disgusted every one with 
 the rest. An hour afterward, Newt Pollock, 
 going by an unaccustomed street, repaired to 
 Overby s office, where, thankful to find him 
 alone, he immediately said, 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 95 
 
 " I ve come to tell you, Mr. Overby, who all 
 mixed up them benches and things." 
 
 "Were you one of them, Newton ? " 
 
 " I done a little bit, sir; but Jim Brantly and 
 them " 
 
 "Stop, sir! If you mention another boy s 
 name, I ll break your neck ! Look at me, 
 boy ! Was it through you that Mr. Cubbedge 
 found out so much about the mischief of the 
 boys ? I knew it was somebody. Was it you ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir; it was me sometimes." 
 
 " And didn t you know that such as that was 
 the meanest thing that a white man s son could 
 be guilty of ? " 
 
 " I didn t think it was all right, Mr. Overby; 
 but Mr. Cubbedge told me, and pa said I must 
 do every thing he told me." 
 
 " What made him beat you so much, then ? 
 They tell me he wore out a whole peach-tree 
 on you." 
 
 "Never struck me a lick in his life." 
 
 " Well, well ! Look here, boy, did you know 
 that that man was in the habit of trading with 
 negroes for stolen property ? " 
 
96 TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 " I never dreamed of it, Mr. Overby. I give 
 you my word I didn t." 
 
 He looked at him narrowly for a moment, 
 then said: "I believe you, my poor boy. 
 Some day you ll find out how near you ve been 
 to ruin. Go away now. Don t you say a word 
 about this conversation. If those boys were to 
 know what you offered to tell me, they d tear 
 you to pieces or run you out of town, and be 
 right in doing it. Go on. Shut the door when 
 you re out." 
 
 IV 
 
 OVERBY walked in the next morning, keep 
 ing his hat in hand, as if he had called merely 
 for a brief visit while on his way to an impor 
 tant engagement somewhere else. He ap 
 peared to be in the best of tempers. 
 
 The boys sat silent and sad and orderly, 
 showing that every one, native and foreign, 
 had been talked with. The young man s pur 
 pose was to get parental influence in the direc 
 tion which he believed most appropriate. The 
 solemnest, humblest-looking was poor little 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 97 
 
 Newt, who shrank as a mouse in reach of any 
 number of cats and kittens. 
 
 " Well," said the master, promptly, intent on 
 despatching at once the little business of his 
 call, "how goes it? How do you all feel your 
 selves this morning ? You look calm and 
 healthy. I am going to begin with calling the 
 roll, and as I proceed, I want those who in 
 anywise took part in the disorder here yester 
 day morning to rise. I expect every boy to 
 answer for himself alone. If any one informs, 
 or shows that he wants to inform against an 
 other, I shall drive him out with the biggest 
 stick that Mr. Cubbedge has left; and if I am 
 to stay here (which in a few minutes I will 
 make up my mind whether or not to do), I 
 shall do the same with any whom I may find 
 hereafter to have answered me falsely. Those 
 who may expect to do this will save time and 
 trouble if they will make for their hats and take 
 themselves off. All ready ? Here goes." 
 
 Thirty-one rose. 
 
 " High ! Quite a batch ! I knew that it re 
 quired numbers to finish up that job so com- 
 
98 TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 pletely. When the time comes for you to be 
 put to real work, your parents and employers 
 will find you handy enough. I ve no doubt 
 that every one has answered truly. Now sit 
 down and listen to me for a few minutes, as I 
 have just this minute made up my mind to keep 
 with you at least awhile longer." 
 
 After they were seated, he had a talk with 
 them, of which the following was a part : 
 
 "As far as I know or believe, the father of 
 every boy in this school is what is generally 
 called in society a gentleman. Now a gentle 
 man will always hold himself responsible for 
 his own actions, and he never utters a deliber 
 ate falsehood. Gentlemen sometimes do put 
 upon one another practical jokes; but they are 
 never such as wound feelings, do injuries, 
 or subject to serious inconvenience. Some of 
 those which you boys have been playing upon 
 several citizens of this village must not be re 
 peated if I remain at the head of this school. For 
 I will not that anything that I have to do with 
 shall be regarded by my neighbors as a nui 
 sance. Another thing. A gentleman never 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS QQ 
 
 puts himself on the sly with others, and nobody 
 ever needs to be put on the sly with him. Now 
 I maintain that a boy can be and that he is 
 bound to be as much a gentleman .as any man, 
 and that he will be if he be treated so as to be 
 made to feel that such is expected of him. 
 The unhappy man who was lately in this place, 
 not a man of honor himself, had never learned 
 how to deal with those who are. You saw into 
 what misfortune he was led by this ignorance. 
 Perhaps some persons, a very few, suspected 
 you of the crime by which he was disgraced. 
 / did not. 
 
 " A few words now about myself. What I 
 claim, so far as you all are concerned, is that 
 I am a gentleman, bound by every obligation 
 to be one, and that I have education enough 
 to teach what your parents wish you to know 
 about text-books. I know not how else to 
 deal with you than in the plain ways common 
 among gentlemen everywhere. I will not 
 watch you in secret. At the same time I say 
 to you frankly that I am easy to believe what 
 people tell me with expectation for me to be- 
 
100 TWO ADMINISTRATIONS 
 
 lieve. But you shall not report to me against 
 one another, except as to such things as, for 
 your own protection, I ought to know. Even 
 in that event, I should rather that you would 
 first give information to your own parents or 
 guardians. Whatever comes to me must come 
 with the knowledge of the one who is to be in 
 formed against. If any of you should prove too 
 indolent, or otherwise too reckless of the 
 wishes of your friends in your behalf, to meet 
 my efforts for their improvement, I shall send 
 them home ; for it suits not my tastes to 
 habitually beat other people s children. Now 
 I like you, boys, and you used to seem to like 
 me before I came here. I cannot understand 
 how such an action should make me forfeit 
 your friendship and kind opinions. In that re 
 gard I am going to hope to be reinstated. 
 
 " On this plan I have undertaken for a short 
 time to keep this school. Whomsoever it suits, 
 let them stay. If there are any whom it suits 
 not, let them gather up their things and go 
 home." 
 
 When Newt Pollock s father had come in 
 
TWO ADMINISTRATIONS IOI 
 
 answer to Overby s letter, he was sorely dis 
 tressed to find how he had been used, and he 
 inquired, although none could answer, where 
 Mr. Cubbedge might be found. It was touch 
 ing how he pleaded Newt s limited understand 
 ing in extenuation of his behavior, and ex 
 pressed his thanks that it had not been made 
 known in the school. 
 
 Mr. Bigger could never quite understand 
 how changes so salutary could have been 
 wrought, except by constant use of the hickory 
 or the peach tree. Waking up of mornings, 
 finding that not a wheel nor a gate had been 
 disturbed, he looked sometimes as if he were 
 disappointed, and inwardly indulging gloomy 
 prophesyings. You see, everything was so en 
 tirely against time-honored precedents. For 
 a time his manner toward Overby was some 
 what reserved ; but when he found that the 
 young man showed no disposition to taunt or 
 to boast, and when his young Dominicas had 
 grown up and taken their proud places in the 
 barn-yard, he seemed to feel that, as an hon 
 orable man, he ought to strive to be reconciled. 
 
ALMOST A WEDDING IN DOOLY 
 DISTRICT 
 
 " Dwell I but in the suburbs 
 Of your good pleasure ? " 
 
 -Julius Ccesar 
 
 I 
 
 EMELINE LYNCH, independent 
 and honorable as she was, would not 
 have thanked anybody who knew it to go 
 about making a blowing horn of the numerical 
 rank held by herself among five sisters, the 
 youngest of whom, imitating, with this single 
 exception, her elders, had been married long 
 enough to have several children, more or less 
 interesting. At the period of this little episode 
 in her personal history she was indisputably 
 at the head of her aged father s house, and so 
 had been since the death of her mother ten 
 years back. Well aware that everybody knew 
 of her not having remained single for total 
 
 102 
 
IN UOOLY DISTRICT 103 
 
 lack of opportunities, she was entirely cool in 
 discoursing upon such matters. 
 
 "As for marrying," she not unfrequently 
 said, "and the marrying of women partic lar, 
 that s a question that have two sides to it. 
 Because, ever since and before I was too young 
 and giddisome to know much better, I have 
 been anoticing that there s many a girl mar 
 ries, and after she have married, and been mar 
 ried long enough to find out what they is in it 
 to their cost, it looked too plain to me that 
 they feel like if it was to do over again, they 
 wouldn t. But then you know, and they do too, 
 that it s then everlasting too late to be making 
 a big to-do about it, like the poor girl in the 
 spelling-book pictur , that she look so pitiful 
 and not expected at her pitcher in her hand, 
 and her milk spill t on the ground, that some 
 times I m a most always sorry for her, spite of 
 her keerlessness in not alooking where she 
 was atreading with her feet. Now I never 
 have said that I wouldn t marry, that is never 
 and at no time, make no odds who it was asked 
 me. For they is nobody that know positive 
 
IO4 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 what they may do sometime or another, when 
 things may happen that their mind will alter. 
 For, as for women, all so be I m one of em 
 myself according to the app intment of the 
 good Lord, I hain t come yet to any settled 
 conclusion, what they will do and what they 
 won t when they take the notion. Pap some 
 times says I ought to get married, because he s 
 getting old, and I ought to have somebody to 
 look up to when he s gone. But I tell him 
 they are two sides to that question too, the 
 looking up, or, as to that, the looking down, 
 or around in gener l. But to get married, just 
 to say I am married, as some do, to keep from 
 being called a old maid, I am not one of that 
 kind. I ve seen too much to the contrairey." 
 
 The old man, Johnny Lynch, had been liv 
 ing where he was ever since his marriage. 
 The mansion, originally a double cabin of 
 hewed logs, had been added to in one or an 
 other modest, irregular way, as the needs of 
 his increasing family required. So he had add 
 ed to his inherited acres from time to time, 
 and now, after giving over to each of his daugh- 
 
IN UOOLY DISTRICT 105 
 
 ters upon marriage what dowry could be spared, 
 he was not in debt, and even had a little money 
 out among his neighbors. If he had known 
 how dependent he was upon this good daugh 
 ter, possibly he would have been less con 
 cerned about her forming a connection which 
 must have subtracted from that in which both 
 were living in content. But he had been hap 
 py as a married man; his other daughters on 
 the average had done reasonably well, and so, 
 somehow, he was anxious that Emeline should 
 not be left to live alone. 
 
 It was in that section of the county next 
 from ours across the Ogeechee River, known 
 as Dooly District, wherein were large bodies of 
 piney-woods land, which, although much less 
 productive than those in the upper region cov 
 ered by oak, hickory and their likes, yet sup 
 ported a large number of families who were 
 content with such returns as moderate in 
 dustry could get from them. Hitherto they 
 had submitted without much complaining to 
 be regarded inferior to those at the county 
 seat and the parts around and northward, 
 
IO6 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 representatives from whom held, as if by in 
 herent right, the principal public offices, polit 
 ical and municipal. Lately the righteousness 
 of this precedent a few had begun to question, 
 none so noisily as Jeffrey Hammick, justice of 
 the peace, who had his residence and the 
 holdings of his court at the crossroads, three 
 miles from the Lynches . He had an excellent, 
 hard-working wife, who had done her very 
 best in the performance of every duty; but he 
 was one who probably would have been poor 
 and continued poor, wherever he might have 
 lived and whatever vocation he might have 
 followed. He liked this office because it re 
 quired little work to be done, brought him in 
 frequent contact with people, let him often hold 
 in his hands moneys, although knowing that, 
 except his costs, he must turn them over to 
 others, and feel that thus he might be more 
 surely on the line of future promotion. All of 
 the children except one had gone away, the 
 girls marrying poorly, and those whom the 
 boys took to wife doing likewise. Only Patsy 
 was left, who was small for fifteen, of weak un- 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT IO/ 
 
 derstanding which there had been few oppor 
 tunities to cultivate even to a degree that was 
 possible, yet tolerably pretty, and lately get 
 ting somewhat rid of her palishness, and show 
 ing signs, modestly however, that she was will 
 ing to be noticed by young men. She knew 
 that she wasn t bright, and this made her seem / 
 humbly thankful for attentions, however incon 
 siderable. As she was, she became now the 
 extremest hope of her mother. They dwelt in 
 a double cabin, with two small shed rooms be 
 hind, which for years and years the wife had 
 been vainly hoping would be bettered in one 
 way or another. 
 
 Squire Hammick, among his many goings 
 about and talkings, had picked up a good deal 
 of information of one sort and another; and he 
 was never without hope of being able to em 
 ploy it upon a broader plane. By this time 
 patrician rule, which long had been almost ex 
 clusive in middle Georgia, had begun to yield to 
 democratic invasion, and goodly numbers of men 
 from several of the counties were being elect 
 ed to the General Assembly who, though pos- 
 
108 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 sessed of good properties, understood much less 
 about enacting laws than running plantations. 
 Several such had been chosen in this very 
 county, but in no instance from Dooly District. 
 Hammick of late had been calling frequent at 
 tention to this fact on Court Saturdays, and he 
 believed that he was making some impression. 
 Even if such an honor had come down there 
 he knew that he could hardly count upon be 
 ing its first recipient; but then it would be a 
 beginning of better times in whose fruits he 
 might confidently expect to share. Before any 
 active movement was begun on this line an in 
 teresting stranger came into the district. 
 
 II 
 
 THE newcomer, calling himself Putnam Da- 
 vison,and claiming to be a native of one of the 
 lower counties in South Carolina, was a slen 
 der, darkish, not ill-looking person, apparently 
 between thirty-five and forty. His small, bright 
 gray eyes looked as if in their time they had 
 seen many more things than were known to the 
 simple folk of that community, among whom 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT IOQ 
 
 it was a surprise that such a man should have 
 come there and located himself. After mov 
 ing about somewhat among the people and in 
 specting several sites for a country store, he 
 decided upon the crossroads, taking board 
 with the Hammicks. Reserved to a degree 
 that seemed becoming to a stranger, yet his 
 answers to direct interrogatories seemed satis 
 factory in one who seemed too modest to talk, 
 except privately and that in a mild way with 
 his host, about his experiences which were in 
 timated and believed to be interesting. With 
 in convenient radius of the store were quite a 
 number of nice girls and a few widows, who 
 were waiting for opportunities not too unrea 
 sonable. Among these, if he was more par 
 ticular in attention to any one, it was Miss 
 Lynch, who accepted them very graciously, 
 more, she said, because it gratified her father, 
 than because she was disposed to take into her 
 hands the newest broom that was ever born or 
 made. No; she was not of that sort. It was 
 avowedly from the same motive that whenever 
 she went to the store, or saw him coming 
 
1 10 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 to her father s she put on an extra ribbon 
 or so. 
 
 The merchant seemed to compassionate 
 Patsy Hammick s limited gifts and opportuni 
 ties, and kindly encouraged her to take good 
 care of herself, grow as fast as she could, and 
 be improved in all possible ways, giving it as 
 the opinion of a man who had seen more of the 
 world than she had, that if his advice was fol 
 lowed, she might marry before people expected 
 it, and that higher than she had ever looked for. 
 Of course, as he said rather confidentially to 
 Miss Lynch, the poor child ought to have some 
 encouragement, if she could get it. Miss Lynch 
 made little remark upon such speeches, believ 
 ing that she had good reason. But Patsy felt 
 herself much helped up, and soon began to look 
 of another sort. Not that she was bold among 
 young men who were taking note of her im 
 provement. No; away from home, or before 
 company at home, though not so shy as former 
 ly, she kept the same reserve, as if she felt not 
 the slightest need of haste about things of that 
 kind. Her father, with whom she talked much 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT III 
 
 more freely than with her mother, was well 
 pleased with all the appearances. A rather 
 small, shaggy-haired man, he was credulous 
 as he was loquacious, and hopeful as ambitious. 
 His wife, whose own experience had been 
 harder than might have been, or ought to have 
 been, whose other daughters in the marriage 
 line had done nothing to boast of, was far less 
 hearty about the changes in Patsy. 
 
 " Don t you let that man put too high notions 
 in your head, Patsy," she occasionally said. 
 " You know not a thing about him, nor no 
 body else knows but monstrous little. He s 
 got a object of some sort in behaving so polite to 
 everybody, poor folks and all; and you better 
 mind what you re about. Your pap thinks he s 
 some great somebody, special since he s found 
 out, he say, that he have once killed a Injun. 
 But to save my life I can t fetch my mind to 
 think he s all what your pap and some other 
 people is abeginning to make out; and if he is, 
 you may be perfect sure he ll never want you. 
 In all events, every girl have to be partic lar 
 about herself with men. If I was called on to 
 
112 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 pick out a pattern of a woman about not being 
 fooled by men-people, its Em line Lynch, that 
 she s always jest as calm in her mind where 
 they are as where they ain t, and she declare 
 she ll never marry no man, she don t care who 
 it is, till one come that she feel no doubt in her 
 mind she s going to better herself. And it s 
 the advice I give all my girls; but nary one of 
 em would take it." 
 
 Patsy, never replying in words, and trying 
 not to do so in looks, inwardly shrugged her 
 shoulders at the absurdity of comparing herself 
 with one, who, unmarried yet, was old enough 
 to be her mother. 
 
 Miss Lynch, although a trifle taller perhaps 
 than most lovers would prefer, and her mouth, 
 by this time from habitual firmness of character 
 and speech, a little drawn at the corners, yet 
 was a lady quite personable enough for such a 
 man as Davison, unless he should be proven 
 to be a greater man than to her he seemed. 
 Toward her it was noticed, soon after his com 
 ing, that his manners were pointedly deferen 
 tial. While now and then with other unmar- 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 113 
 
 ried females he jested yet never to intemper 
 ate, even hearty hilarity in her presence he 
 wore the air of manlike seriousness; and once 
 or twice, in a distant, melancholy way, he had 
 hinted that he doubted if it was prudent, or ex 
 actly according to Nature for a man to remain 
 always single, and therefore he had been think 
 ing, more so lately than ever before, that he 
 might eventually feel that he owed to himself 
 to look around. She heard him say his say, 
 yet gave no sign whereby he could guess 
 whether or not she might become willing to 
 aid in his explorations. 
 
 " Pap," she said one day to her father, " the 
 men-folks, you among em, and some women 
 and girls, it appears, act like you all think 
 there s a mighty heap in Mr. Davison." 
 
 " Why, my daughter, it s perfect certain that 
 he have a heap o inf mation, more, a long 
 ways, than anybody about here, special about 
 the late war ag inst the British, which they say 
 he went in it when a boy and fit under Gen l 
 Jackson; and Squire Hammick say he have it 
 from him p int blank that he have kill t one In- 
 
114 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 jun, if no more. Jeffy is a chattery-scattery 
 talking feller, I know; still the man is a infma- 
 tion man and seem like perfect studdy in his 
 ways." 
 
 "Well I don t know; but I wish the man 
 would look straighter and clearer at people 
 when he s atalking to em. I don t believe 
 Missis Hammick thinks so overly much of 
 him. I don t know the reason, but I m going 
 to find out. She may be poor and plain, but 
 she s got sense, and she s jest the best female 
 person /know, and I m agoing to find out." 
 
 "Well, my child, look like you re goin to 
 keep puttin off and puttiri off about your own 
 self." 
 
 " Don t you be afraid that I don t know and 
 won t know how to take care of myself, my 
 dear old pap." 
 
 Never a hard word had been between them. 
 There was some delicacy in the matter of in 
 vestigating Davison through Mrs. Hammick. 
 Miss Lynch pondered long the changes in 
 Patsy, her better dressing, the brightness of 
 her face when at meeting or otherwheres from 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 11$ 
 
 home; these, with the innuendoes of Hammick 
 about prospective better fortunes for his fam 
 ily, in contrast with the deeper seriousness of 
 his wife. Deciding that it was a matter of 
 duty, she made up her mind to go there before 
 very long. Before she had fixed upon a day 
 for the visit some things occurred which I will 
 proceed straightway to narrate. 
 
 Ill 
 
 DAVISON had been there something over a 
 year, had done reasonably well in his business 
 with the capital of a few hundreds which he 
 had brought, and had made many acquaint 
 ances, a goodly number even in the upper dis 
 tricts of the county. Among the most cordial 
 of these was James Slater, a rather stout, lo 
 quacious man of about thirty. He came from 
 near the border, and, strictly speaking, was about 
 half pine and half oak, although, for reasons 
 partly social, but mainly political, he had been 
 claiming heretofore to be all oak. He had 
 been acting deputy to the sheriff, Granbury 
 Backus, slight, darkish, reticent, some years 
 
Il6 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 older; but being dropped by him, he deter 
 mined, if he could make desirable combina 
 tions, to run for the office in chief at the next 
 fall elections. Aspiring far beyond any 
 strength that he possessed, yet the position 
 which he held carried with it a certain prestige 
 which he relied on for as much at least as it 
 was worth, and it was not long before he be 
 came hopeful of success. After circulating 
 among the other districts with results not 
 quite satisfactory, he went down into Dooly, 
 where many consultations were had between 
 him, Davison, and Hammick. The Squire 
 would have liked, the best of all things, to get 
 to the Legislature, and Davison declared that 
 he would much prefer him to himself. In this 
 he was partially sincere, as, for special rea 
 sons, he would have liked better an office 
 which would not have taken him out of the 
 county. But it was plain enough before Sla 
 ter made it more so, that Hammick could not 
 carry the district, a matter that was essential. 
 He gave up readily; but it was because he had 
 been made to believe that in good time he 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 1 1/ 
 
 would have Davison for a son-in-law. So the 
 combination was made, and it was not long 
 before Jim Slater was regarding himself as 
 shrewd a wire-puller as could be found. 
 
 Mr. Lynch went to the county-seat habitu 
 ally on Saturday in every fortnight. At one 
 of these visits, Slater, waiting till the old man 
 had gotten through with his business and some 
 friendly chattings, followed him to the horse- 
 rack on the public square, and, as he held the 
 bridle reins ready to mount, said: 
 
 " Uncle Johnny, I ve been wantin to talk 
 with some of you leadin Dooly people. Why 
 don t some of you never come out for the Leg- 
 islatur ? " 
 
 " I don t know, Jeems, without it s because 
 none of us ain t smart enough to git there, or 
 ain t thought to be." 
 
 " Well, now, it jes hurt my feelin s to even 
 hear tell of any sech a insiniation, and, fact is, 
 it ought to be stopped; for if I ain t mistakened 
 in the const ution o the State, everybody o 
 the people at large is liable to have their rip - 
 sentatives. And if I was a Dooly man and I 
 
Il8 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 am half, as you know, on my mother s side, 
 and proud of it, to boot yit, in that case, I 
 should plant myself solid on my rights and on 
 my dignities; and I should call on everybody 
 else down there to do the same likeways of all 
 shade." 
 
 "Why, Jeems, I don t know of anybody that 
 want to go to the Legislatur ; that is, anybody 
 that s fitten. I has heerd along this year oc 
 casional some little complainin s that the 
 deestrick has to pend on the oaky woods 
 always for rip sentatives. But I ve been satis 
 fied with them we has had. Fact is, I couldn t 
 if I was called on, I couldn t name a man 
 down there that would keer about runnin that 
 every voter would feel like unitin on. Squire 
 Hammick might like it, abein of a ruther a 
 ambitious sort of acreetur ; but I hardly think 
 he could make what I d call much of a rally." 
 
 " If," said the deputy, as if to a third person, 
 with respectful consideration for the good man s 
 modesty "if /was called on to name the 
 name of the man that would m, e the very 
 ground swell all down the Geechee and Long 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 1 19 
 
 Creek bottoms, and go bustin along clean to 
 the very lines an bound ries of Wash n ton 
 County and Jeffson County, and come a even 
 ararin up into the oaky woods, the name I 
 should name would be the name Uncle Johnny 
 Lynch go by, both when he s at home and 
 when he ain t; and I am allowed to say that 
 them is the sentiments of Cap n Davison and 
 many a Dooly man besides." 
 
 "Oh, no, Jeems," he answered in sincere prot 
 estation," I m too old, and I hain t the eddication. 
 That is perfect out o the question, Jeems." 
 
 " Well," he replied, as if much disappointed, 
 " a man know his own business, and what suit 
 him better n other people; but me an Cap n 
 Davison sh, well." 
 
 " C avison, you say, Jeems ? I didn t 
 
 know n w vvere a captain." 
 
 "Oh yes; I didn t know it myself, tell I 
 pinned him down to acknowledge it. He have 
 greatest respects of you, Uncle Johnny, and I 
 don t know how often I ve heerd him say that 
 as for Mi? c Em line, he haven t seen her beat 
 nowheres," 
 
120 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 He saw that the parental heart was touched, 
 and he said, quickly : 
 
 " How would he do ? That is, provided he 
 could be got to run ? " 
 
 "Well, now, Jeems, 1 hain t been thinkin 
 about anybody for sech as that. Cap n Davi- 
 son, as you call him, seem like a nice man, and 
 he have a heap o inf mation. I m gratified in 
 my mind he predate Em line, that she s good 
 and industr ous, if I say it. You come down 
 and talk with our people. I m too old for sech ; 
 but I sha n t say a word ag in Mr. or Cap n 
 Davison, if he turn out to be the man." 
 
 Having thus secured the most influential 
 man in the district, Slater went further to work 
 among men and among women. He regretted 
 that the limits of his education kept him from 
 the highest flights while discoursing upon mil 
 itary renown, and the importance of lofty aims 
 among marrying females. It soon became 
 noised abroad that Captain Davison, with 
 much reluctance, and only after repeated ur 
 gent solicitation, had consented to stand for the 
 Legislature at the ensuing elections ; and it 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 121 
 
 was said that his friends, depending in general 
 upon his well-known fitness, would rely main 
 ly upon his war record. Then followed a cam 
 paign, some incidents in which old men tell of 
 with interest even to this day. 
 
 IV 
 
 AT that time, in want of more commanding 
 strength, the regime of class supremacy in this 
 county had suffered greater inroads than in any 
 of the neighboring. This year quite a number 
 of new men came out for the various offices. 
 When it was announced that Dooly had put 
 forth a candidate, oaky woods people laughed; 
 but they became serious when it was said that 
 in his day he had killed an Indian. Men now 
 living remember the eagerness with which the 
 candidacy of this hero, lately come from foreign 
 parts, was advanced. People, especially wo 
 men, not only piney, but oaky, went into the 
 canvass, and a stranger might have thought 
 that the savages were not all yet across the 
 Ogeechee. Legends of their atrocities were 
 revived to the degree that afterward Backus 
 
122 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 declared that in his opinion the very spelling- 
 book couldn t hold all those women s words. 
 The Captain, soon made conscious of entire 
 security, did no other work, not even for Jim 
 Slater, except to move about not too much, 
 let himself be lauded, and look as if he felt 
 that he had done no more than any true man, 
 on opportunity, would do for his country. One 
 day a gentleman who had retired from the 
 contest asked Jim to tell him something about 
 the killing. 
 
 "My gracious, man! I thought you was 
 one as kep up with hist ry. I couldn t p int 
 out the very place. Look into hist ry. It s in 
 there som ers. If it ain t, it s bound to be when 
 it s writ full and complete." 
 
 Then he broke away, and went again on his 
 raging. 
 
 The one cool head was Backus. Unlettered, 
 he was yet a seer of what was in man. 
 
 "Gent men," he said to the other candidates, 
 " this thing s agoin to have its course, and it 
 ain t worth while to try to stop it. You all let 
 him alone, it is my advice, and fight among 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 123 
 
 yourselves for the other places. The deestrict 
 is liable to have one rip sen tive ; and if they 
 want a man nobody knows anything about, 
 whyjes let em, special as you can t help your 
 selves ; as for Jim Slater, I ll try to take keer 
 of him." 
 
 One day, when Davison was in town, he 
 took him aside, and after looking at him in 
 silence, until he saw that he had embarrassed 
 him, said : 
 
 " Cap n Davison, I wouldn t be surprised if I 
 didn t know more about you than you think. 
 Now, if you go to fightin me too hard for Jim 
 Slater, my opinion is, it ll do you more harm 
 than good." 
 
 It was purely a guessing venture ; but it 
 went home. The Captain shivered for an in 
 stant, and answered humbly : 
 
 "Why, Mr. Backus, you re mistaken if you 
 think I m doing anything against you. Other 
 people brought me out ; I didn t want it." 
 
 " Well, I jes thought I d fling out them pri- 
 minary remarks to let be knew that them that 
 fights me is liable to git fit back. That s all." 
 
124 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 Shortly afterward he whispered to one of his 
 friends : 
 
 " Nothin in him. He ll git elected, because 
 most o the women and the old men is fer him ; 
 but to my opinions, he s agoin to drap down 
 after the lection, and that suddent." 
 
 At the close of the court on the day of elec 
 tion, Jim Slater, whose name was at the bot 
 tom of the list, went to Davison, and in a voice 
 loud enough to be heard by several others, said: 
 
 "It was me that had you lected to the 
 Legislatur , and stid of totin far and helpin 
 me, you let me come out at the very tail end 
 o the ticket. Now we ll see what good it s 
 goin to do you. You fooled me, and you ll 
 fool the rest of em, and you ll fool yourself 
 yit." 
 
 Although known to be no fighter, he waited 
 a moment for an answer. Receiving none, he 
 turned away as from an object of disgust, and 
 went out. The scene surprised everybody ex 
 cept Backus. Davison men w.ere much cha 
 grined. If he had knocked down the insulter, 
 a thing which he could have done with impun- 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 125 
 
 ity, his prestige might have stayed long enough 
 at least to enable him to avoid some of the 
 troubles that, unknown yet to any human being, 
 were destined soon to pursue him. 
 
 If men newly elected to offices beyond ex 
 pectation most ambitious, could avert all 
 molestation afterward concerning methods 
 employed in their campaigns, what times they 
 might have ! But even members-elect of Leg 
 islatures cannot be always blest. Remembered 
 promises, some perhaps conflicting, charges 
 with oblivion of services, enmities born where 
 one sees them necessary to have them not, 
 threatenings about unearthing of buried things 
 whose resurrection would be unpleasant such 
 as these sometimes sadden the most eager as 
 pirant. On the ride home with Hammick, who 
 was running over with exultation, the Captain, 
 for the most part, was thinking of Jim Slater. 
 Jim had become a smaller fly than ever ; yet I 
 do not know if he who invented the simile con 
 sidered the size of the insect that invaded the 
 unguent. Then what Backus had said, to 
 gether with some other things, had led him to 
 
126 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 fear, even before the election day, that he had 
 made some mistakes, and it behooved, if he 
 could not correct, to prepare, and that soon, 
 for their avoidance. Already had he been talk 
 ing with a merchant at the court house about 
 the disposal of his stock of goods preparatory 
 to any change that might possibly become 
 emergent. On reaching home at supper time 
 he smiled with apparent pleasure at the con 
 gratulations, more expressed in looks than 
 words, by Patsy, who had on her next best 
 frock. The girl saddened immediately after 
 the meal when, announcing that he was tired, 
 Davison went off to bed. It was not the first 
 time she had done so, latterly. The mother s 
 uneasiness, begun soon after the coming of 
 Davison into the house, had been growing 
 more and more serious. But, with one excep 
 tion, she kept her thoughts to herself. This 
 was Miss Lynch, who, in pursuance of her 
 resolution, had repaired to the Hammicks , 
 some days before the election, and come away 
 fearing that she had found out more than she 
 had been expecting. 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 1 27 
 
 V 
 
 How many new calico frocks were gotten 
 out on the next morning ready to be put on, 
 Jim Slater perhaps could have guessed nearer 
 than anybody else. The Captain, noticing that 
 Patsy seemed quite down-hearted, chatted with 
 her as pleasantly as he could, for a while put 
 ting her back into cheerful mood. 
 
 " It s all right, Patsy," he whispered, as he 
 rose to go to his horse standing at the gate. 
 He did not tell her whither he was going ; but 
 in less than an hour he and Miss Lynch were 
 in particular, intimate conversation. When he 
 had announced the intention of his visit she 
 scrutinized him for several moments, then said : 
 
 " I won t deny I been athinking about you, 
 Mr. Davison, from what you said to me, and 
 your and Jeems Slater s hints to me and the 
 rest of the family ; but to be honest with you, 
 I ve done it to satisfy Pap more than my own 
 self; and my conclusions I ve come to, I don t 
 want you, and couldn t be injuced in no ways ; 
 and my advice is to you to go and marry 
 
128 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 Patsy Hammick; the quicker it s done the bet 
 ter." 
 
 His face showed instant disgust and appre 
 hension. 
 
 " Do you suppose, Miss Em line, that I d 
 marry that foolish thing, that hasn t sense 
 enough to to 
 
 " I ll finish your words to know what she 
 was about when you were trying to make her 
 believe you wanted her, and she believed you. 
 I ve got not another single word to say to you, 
 Mr. Davison, excepting that if you have fooled 
 that poor girl intentual, you ought to do what 
 you promised, and if you won t jest so, you 
 ought to be made to. Yonder s your horse." 
 
 She flirted herself away, and he immediately 
 left the house. He knew that the sands be 
 neath his feet were shifting away. Remount 
 ing his horse, he rode to the court house, and 
 did not return till the next day, accompanied 
 by the merchant with whom he had been ne 
 gotiating and to whom he disposed of his stock, 
 one-half for cash, the remaining money to be 
 paid in twenty days. 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 
 
 That night Mrs. Hammick was taken quite 
 sick. Next morning, after quite an affectionate 
 talk with Patsy, Davison said that he must go 
 to town, and that he would return at least in 
 two or three days. He kissed her at parting, 
 saying as before, "It s all right, Patsy." And 
 he gave her ten dollars, which was many times 
 more than all the money that ever was in her 
 hands. Something of a pain not entirely of 
 his own touched his heart, as, after mounting 
 his horse, he turned his head and noticed how 
 yearning was the look which he believed was 
 to be the last to be bestowed by her upon him 
 self. 
 
 The case of Mrs. Hammick grew worse con 
 stantly. Two days after Davison s departure, 
 Patsy, borne upon her father s nag of all work, 
 went to the Lynches , saying that her mother 
 was very sick, and wanted Miss Emeline, if she 
 could, to please come there soon as possible. 
 Putting in a bundle a few possibly needed 
 things, Miss Lynch set out at once with the 
 messenger. Patsy s incessant weeping made 
 her hasten her gait. All she could learn by 
 
130 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 questionings of her was that the doctor said it 
 was a bad case of fever, and he was afraid she 
 wouldn t get over it. The eye of experience 
 at once detected that the sickness was unto 
 death. After brief words of salutation the vis 
 itor said : 
 
 " Missis Hammick, is anything on your mind 
 you want to say to me ? " 
 
 " Yes, Em line, honey, when you git rested 
 good, and we has a chance." 
 
 " Tell me now, my dear friend. You d better. 
 I m not at all tired. Mr. Hammick," she con 
 tinued, turning to him, " you and the rest please 
 go out for a little while. I ll do whatever s 
 wanted in here." 
 
 When they had retired, drawing one hand 
 from beneath the coverlet, and raising it, the 
 invalid said : 
 
 " Em line, my mind have been pestered 
 about Patsy, poor child, that you know how 
 weakly she s always been. I want to talk to 
 you little bit about her if you re willin , and I 
 has the strength." 
 
 " Certainly, Missis Hammick ; talk perfect 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 131 
 
 free, and I promise to try to do whatever you 
 want done." 
 
 " Thanky, oh, thanky, Em line. I knowed 
 not who, under the good Lord, to turn to but 
 you." 
 
 The few words were enough. She labored 
 so painfully that her friend, taking down from 
 her face the withered hand, pressed it softly 
 and said : 
 
 " That ll do that ll do ; I think I understand 
 the case ; and as God lives in Heaven, I ll do 
 all I can for Patsy." 
 
 " Bless his holy name ! Oh, Em line ! I feel 
 so happy, I I " 
 
 Then she sunk into sleep. 
 
 It was a mercy that Miss Lynch came. The 
 house was full of those none of whom knew 
 what to do ; the husband, sympathetic in looks, 
 as if he had been the tenderest of his kind, the 
 other children and children-in-law all in one 
 another s way. Miss Lynch moved among and 
 put them aside, as if they had been chairs or 
 stools. That night, calling all to her bedside, 
 the mother told them that she had given Patsy 
 
132 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 to Miss Lynch. At sunrise she died. Patsy 
 then throwing herself upon the bed, cried pite- 
 ously : 
 
 " Oh, Ma, I didn t tell you-" 
 
 " Hush ! " said Miss Lynch, seizing her arm 
 and lifting her from the bed. " It was well for 
 the poor soul you didn t. Go and wash your 
 face, and comb your hair, and tie some of 
 your things in a hank chief, and be ready, time 
 I m done laying her out, to go on back with 
 me home." 
 
 Nobody objected to the bequest. After the 
 funeral Miss Lynch obtained from Hammick, 
 in the presence of witnesses, his solemn relin- 
 quishment of all claims to Patsy ; and when 
 they \vere at home, made her sit down by her 
 side, and then demanded, in the name of the 
 mother who was dead, and who, as she said, 
 was in Heaven and hearing every word that 
 was said, to be told the whole truth about her 
 and Davison. Patsy did her best to open her 
 whole heart. The questioner believed that she 
 saw into it as into her own. 
 
 " That ll do," she said, rising, and snuffing 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 133 
 
 loudly through her nostrils ; " if they is any 
 law in the land for such as that, I ll make that 
 man marry you, sure enough ; and if they ain t, 
 I ll make him sorry, somehow, for the day he 
 ever laid eyes on you. I m going to town to 
 morrow." 
 
 This feeling of motherhood, in the childless, 
 as in the bearer of many children ! How be 
 nignant of the Creator in imparting it to every 
 female ! The little child dresses and fondles 
 her doll, whether of porcelain or of rags, un 
 dresses, lays in the cradle, and rocks to sleep. 
 These are the earliest prophecies of mother 
 hood, and, being without selfishness, are per 
 haps sweeter than fulfillment even the most 
 felicitous. The maid, past the time of love and 
 its fruiting, adopts somebody or something on 
 which to shed maternal love that can never be 
 entirely objectless. Emeline Lynch, feeling 
 for the first time in all her life that she was 
 destined not to marry, accepted from the arms 
 of her dying friend one who else must become 
 an outcast, and already the sense of mother 
 hood was felt by her to be like it would have 
 
134 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 been had the adopted in infancy depended upon 
 her breast. Feeling for the girl s weakness a 
 contempt without limit, in her dead mother s 
 place she conceived a clire hatred for him who 
 had outraged it. In the breast of the new 
 mother were none of the shame nor the re 
 morse which, however undefmable or unde 
 served, might have been in the one who had 
 died; therefore resentment was more fierce in 
 the triple sense of innocence, superiority, and 
 security from personal taint. The last infirmity 
 of virtue is temptation to indulge pride, which 
 of all, because of extremest difficulties in its 
 curing, is perhaps the most to be shunned. 
 
 VI 
 
 THE collapse of extravagant, unreasoning 
 favoritism is generally as rapid as its rise. The 
 jeerings of those who had voted against Davi- 
 son stimulated inquiries which, before the elec 
 tion, were unheeded. Yet people were less 
 concerned about the time and circumstances 
 of the Captain s military exploit, than ashamed 
 of themselves for making so much ado about 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 135 
 
 the killing of one Indian, when there was not 
 another, even a friendly, within two hundred 
 miles. They must rid themselves of some of 
 the shame, and throw it upon Davison, who, but 
 only at the last, had shown himself unworthy 
 of their support. Tom Kemp, one of his most 
 ardent backers, made so purely for the heroic 
 fighting qualities of his candidate, on the very 
 night of the election expressed his disgust. 
 
 " Stid o knockin Jim Slater down, and 
 stompin him for his imp dent, he hacked like 
 a whipped hound, which go to show that if he 
 ever kill t a Injun he shot him in the back. As 
 long as I live I ll be sorry I voted for him." 
 
 " It look," said the sheriff, " like it were ruther 
 a big hullaberloo about one single lone po In 
 jun; don t you think so, Tom ? " 
 
 " I do, Mr. Backus; blamed if I don t. I m 
 agoin to take one more drink, and then I m 
 agoin home." 
 
 The member-elect remained in town, and 
 studied the changing phase of public opinion. 
 Early one morning, taking Backus far aside, 
 after speaking at some length upon present 
 
136 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 conditions, he asked for counsel. Backus for 
 several moments appeared to be reflecting 
 gravely on what answer he should make. At 
 length he said: 
 
 " Cap n Davison, as Jim Slater say that were 
 your name you was knew by where you come 
 from, you has ast my advices, and I m agoin 
 to give em, honest, squar . They is beginnin 
 to be some talk, and some dissat faction about 
 the way you got elected; an people has been 
 a-askin of theirselves, and a-askin o Jim, 
 where you come from for cert n, and where, an 
 when, an how you come to kill that Injun, and 
 Jim. say say he know nothin about it, an he 
 say he s done with you an the Injun, to boot. 
 But what s ahurtin you the worst, the wim- 
 ming has begun to turn ag inst you, which you 
 know they was the mainest backers you had 
 from the stump. The talk is that some o them 
 young wimming in Dooly, not countin in wid- 
 ders, has been ruther trifled with by you, along 
 o Jim in your name, which my expe unce is 
 that s one o the danjousest things for a feller 
 to let hisself git caught at, an run the resk of 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 137 
 
 gittin his brains knocked out with a stick, or 
 his back took with a cowhide, or a hole made 
 through him with a shotgun, er a rifle, make 
 no odds which, as to that; er, if not that, then 
 sued for britch o married contract, and a ver- 
 di t for big damage, an not able to spon , an 
 then took with a ca-sa* and not be able to 
 give secuority, bein of ruther a stranger in the 
 county, when 
 
 He paused momentarily, and looked in the 
 direction of the place where the jail stood. 
 Noticing the abject terror of the man, he pro 
 ceeded: 
 
 " Course, in sech a case, a feller can take 
 benefit o the insolvent law; that is, if he can 
 prove they ain t no fraud in the showin he 
 make o what prop ty he have; but no man that 
 think much of hisself love er want to do sech 
 as that. Now, Cap n Davison, I has heerd it 
 hinted about that some people believes that 
 you has actuil give your word to Patsy Ham- 
 mick; an ef so be, an you don t stand up to 
 
 * Abbreviation of Capias ad Satis faciendum, a writ di 
 recting the sheriff to seize the person of the debtor. 
 
138 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 it, they is obleeged to be some trouble o some 
 sort. Them is plain people down there in 
 Dooly deestrick; but they ve got cha-recter, 
 and they ve got the sperrit, special when their 
 wimming is in the case. They ain t not so very 
 much in Squire Jeffy Hammick; but Missis 
 Hammick, that the poor woman is dead and 
 buried, but I have heerd many and many a 
 person down there say, male and female I ve 
 heerd em say that, to their opinions, she were 
 the very hardest workin and the best Christen 
 woman that went to Long Creek meetin -house ; 
 and that girl, which everybody say she were 
 a ruther weakly kind of a girl, which makes 
 sech as that go to hurt people s feelin s worse n 
 if she d a been better able to take keer of her 
 self. I m told Missis Hammick on her dyin 
 bed give Patsy to Miss Em line Lynch, and 
 Miss Em line have adopped her out and out. 
 You may know much about Miss Em line Lynch 
 as whut I do. If you don t, I ll simply say that 
 if / wus to git in a scrape o that sort, I d soon 
 have any six men ag inst me in Dooly deestrick 
 as Miss Em line Lynch, ithout I could com- 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 139 
 
 permise the case splendid fine woman though 
 she be. Ahem ! " 
 
 They parted. Davison went immediately to 
 his debtor, and proposed to discount at twenty 
 per cent, for cash the promissory note for his 
 goods. The proposal was accepted on allow 
 ance of three days for raising the money. 
 Thence he repaired to his boarding-house near 
 an edge of the village and there remained un 
 til he was called for later in the day. 
 
 VII 
 
 EARLY that morning Miss Lynch said to her 
 adopted: 
 
 " Patsy, my child, I m going to town to-day 
 on some business. I hope you ain t going to 
 be too lonesome with thes yourself and Pap 
 won t you try not, honey ? " 
 
 "Yes m, I won t be too lonesome. I ll be 
 sewin most o the time." 
 
 " That s a good girl." 
 
 Taking the family gig and a small negro 
 boy along, she drove to town, and alighted at 
 the house of the sheriff. Delaying only to say 
 
140 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 and hear a few words of greeting with Mrs. 
 Backus she walked to the public square, where 
 she noticed Backus entering his office, having 
 just parted with Davison. Hasting there, and 
 finding him alone, she instantly broke forth: 
 
 " Good-morning, Mr. Backus; we are all well, 
 I thank you; Missis Backus say you all well; I 
 come to see about that man Davison that I 
 want him took and made marry Patsy Ham- 
 mick, that now her poor mother s dead and 
 gone, I ve adopped her according to her re 
 quest, that he promised the poor thing to marry 
 her over and over again, and not only so, but 
 told her he were married to her, making her 
 believe it, and keep her mouth shut tell he 
 could get ready to tell it to her parrents and 
 everybody else by and large, and if it s neces 
 sary for her to swear to it, I ll fetch her here; 
 but I m ready to kiss the book my own self, 
 and swear I hain t nary doubt about what she 
 have told me, and she ought to be married if 
 she ain t. Where is he ? " 
 
 " He s in town somewheres, Miss Em line. 
 I see him come out jes a minute ago from 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 14! 
 
 Luckett s store ; and go on towards Missis 
 Wade s, where he bode. You say he have told 
 the girl he were done married to her ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, Mr. Backus yes, sir, and then he 
 pretend to say some sort o cer mony , and then he 
 threaten, if she tell anybody before he get ready, 
 he ll go away, and leave her; my Lord ! and 
 what s the first thing to be did, Mr. Backus ? 
 I ain t got time to tell you all that man s mean 
 ness. What s the first thing to be did ? Pap 
 say if any lawing s to be done I better go to 
 Mr. Channell; but I thought I d see you first." 
 
 " Of course the papers has to be got out first, 
 Miss Em line; and you ll have to have a law 
 yer for that." 
 
 " Come along, then," she said, rising and al 
 most rushing out. As soon as she was in the 
 lawyer s office, she exclaimed: 
 
 " I come to see you, Mr. Channell, excuse my 
 manners for forgetting to say howdye and good- 
 morning, and ask how your family was, ahop- 
 ing they re well as common; but Pap said go to 
 you if any lawing was to be done against that 
 Davison, and I brought Mr. Backus along to 
 
M2 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 tell you better than I could what s to be did, 
 and then I want him put through the whole 
 len th of the law if he don t marry Patsy of his 
 own accords like all honor ble people does." 
 
 When he had gotten from her a statement 
 of facts, he said: 
 
 "Unfortunately, Miss Emeline, there is no 
 provision in the law for forcing a man to marry 
 against his consent." 
 
 " What, Mr. Channell ! not after he have 
 fooled a young, weakly, ign ant girl that knows 
 nothin about law, nor mighty little about any 
 thing else, and made her believe, as the poor 
 thing believe to this day, she were married to 
 him accordin to the cer mony he tell her they 
 has where he come from ? Ain t they no law 
 for sech as that, Mr. Channell ? " 
 
 "Oh, yes; women thus outraged may sue 
 for pecuniary compensation, which, in a case 
 like this, I ve no doubt any jury would put at 
 a very high figure." 
 
 " You mean money ? Because, if you do, the 
 miser ble creetur hain t a tent nor not even a 
 fift of what he ought to pay her for her and, 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 143 
 
 and the good Lord ! that I has to have sech 
 a case on my hands that always have tried to 
 be a modest female according to the raising 
 my mother give me but, oh, my gracious ! " 
 she looked as if she wanted to scream. " I 
 wish, in my heart I wish I could be a man one 
 time and come up with that villion, and him 
 tell me he never promised to marry Patsy 
 Hammick, and won t. I d make a law for him, 
 I would ! Well, I want the law put on him what 
 it ll be so kind and condescendin to do in this 
 case. And then, if he can t pay up, you and 
 Mr. Backus, a-including your cost, I want him 
 put in that jail, and me be his egzekerter till 
 the last dollar, and the last cent 
 
 She stopped, put her hand to her brow, and 
 seemed that she felt herself yielding to pas 
 sion that was not entirely becoming. Soon 
 tears came, and removing her hand she let 
 them flow, and, then, in soft, tremulous voice, 
 said: 
 
 " Mr. Channell, and you, Mr. Backus, you 
 know what makes me go on this way ? If you 
 don t, I ll tell you. Her mother were the very 
 
144 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 salt of the earth, if they is any, and I humble 
 believe she s been, ever sence the breath went 
 out her body, have she been akneelin down 
 before the tJirone of God, and apraying Him, 
 not only for her poor child she left on my 
 hands, but for me, jest me, that I might be 
 stren thened to do fur her what she need. And 
 don t you know ? I got so I do believe I love 
 that child, weakly as she is, and people ll say 
 she s ruined, that I love her same as if she was 
 mine. It ain t me; because I m one that s of a 
 hard that is, I m one that in gener l it s been 
 hard to be perfect satisfied with them about 
 me, special them that s younger than me, be 
 sides of being females, and my nature have 
 been changed to that sence the death of that 
 poor, hard-working, humble Christen, that I 
 jest know it ain t me, and that it s nobody but 
 the good Lord in heaven. Fix up your papers, 
 Mr. Channell, sech as I have to sign, as I want 
 to be getting on back home." 
 
 When the papers usual in a suit for breach 
 of marriage promise had been drawn, also 
 copies and the process of the court, it was late 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 145 
 
 in the afternoon. Davison had not appeared 
 on the street since morning. Channell, ac 
 quainted with the understanding between him 
 and his debtor, repaired to the latter and re 
 quested him to send a messenger saying that 
 he was ready to comply with the offer of the 
 morning without further delay, as the money 
 had come in that evening. 
 
 "I ll deposit it with you, Mr. Luckett, if it s 
 found to be needed." 
 
 The action was riot unnecessary. Davison s 
 horse stood saddled at the gate, and he was 
 waiting for his supper before mounting. His 
 hostess had told him of having seen Miss 
 Lynch in town that day. Shortly afterward 
 he had gone to his room and packed his sad 
 dle-bags. When the horse was brought out, 
 he asked for an early supper, saying that he 
 was going to ride down to Squire Hammick s 
 to return the next day. Indeed, he had re 
 solved upon flight, making first for Augusta 
 where, from the well-known credit of Luckett, 
 he did not doubt of being enabled to easily 
 discount his paper. Immediately after the 
 
146 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 coming of the messenger, without suspicion 
 he repaired to the store. At his entrance, 
 Backus came out of the back room and said, in 
 his calm, slow manner : 
 
 "Cap n Davison, beg pardon for int ruptin 
 you and Mr. Luckett; but I want to say a 
 word before him and you begin your settle 
 ment. Miss Em line Lynch was in town to 
 day, and she come as next friend, I believe 
 the lawyers call it, yes, as next friend of Miss 
 Patsy Hammick, which she s under lawful age, 
 as I s pose you might know, and she that is, 
 Miss Em line, do she want to know if you ll 
 marry the said Patsy like you promised." 
 
 Pale, in abject despair, he answered: 
 
 "Mr. Backus, I never promised to marry 
 Patsy Hammick, and it can t be proved I did. 
 Everybody knows what a poor, weakly Mr. 
 Backus, I cant marry that girl; it s perfectly 
 impossible." 
 
 "That s enough, Cap n; I got nothin more 
 to say about that; but I ll have to take charge 
 of you for the time abein , and my authority 
 is this writ, a-askin ten thousand dollars for 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 147 
 
 britch o married contract, and acallin for 
 bail." 
 
 VIII 
 
 WHEN told that he whose wife she believed 
 herself to be had been imprisoned for refusing 
 to acknowledge her, Patsy was shocked to a 
 degree that alarmed Miss Lynch. Hearing 
 two days afterward that he had consented to 
 marry her publicly, she became more hap 
 py than ever she had been in all her life. 
 Davison had already sent in his resignation 
 as member-elect of the Legislature, and made 
 to Mr. Channell a showing of his effects, which, 
 besides his horse and its accouterments, 
 amounted to about eight hundred dollars. He 
 proposed, on condition of dismissal of the suit 
 and release from jail, to marry Patsy, give her 
 five hundred dollars, and then leave the coun 
 ty. The lawyer advised acceptance. So on 
 the next day but one Miss Lynch took Patsy 
 into town. She and Mrs. Backus made ready 
 the bride as well as possible in the brief time 
 allowed, and seldom one more blushing and 
 
148 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 trembling went forth to meet the bridegroom. 
 Miss Lynch trembled also, and she whispered 
 to Mrs. Backus that never in all her born days 
 had she felt so scared. 
 
 "I can t tell what is make me so, Missis 
 Backus; but I m that trimbly I don t know 
 what to do. If anybody ever did want any 
 thing over and then be let go back home, it s 
 me. I thes know that if it was me myself a- 
 going to get married, I wouldn t be that put 
 out. Ain t it a pity, when a woman has to be 
 so anxious to have a girl she love like she 
 were her own child married to a man she de 
 spises, and twern t ag inst Scriptur , she wants 
 him dead and in his grave ? Please pray for 
 me, Missis Backus, if you have time; but don t 
 let anybody know I asked you. Oh, my!" 
 
 Accompanied by Mrs. Backus and two other 
 woman friends, Miss Lynch and Patsy reached 
 the church door as the sheriff with Davison, 
 followed by the minister and a dozen or more 
 of others, came. The bridegroom, pale and 
 haggard, raised not his eyes since the mo 
 ment of quitting the jail, even to look at 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 149 
 
 Patsy when Miss Lynch led her to where 
 they had paused before ascending the steps. 
 She looked appealingly into his face and 
 did not note the deep aversion with which 
 he turned from her. At that moment Chan- 
 nell came up to the front with an elderly gen 
 tleman with whom in the rear of the proces 
 sion he had been chatting in subdued tones all 
 the way from the jail. 
 
 "Who is that old man with Squire Chan- 
 nell?" asked several in whispers, and none 
 could answer. 
 
 "Wait a moment, please, Mr. Backus," said 
 Channell in a loud voice. "A gentleman who 
 has lately come into town wishes to say, be 
 fore this marriage takes place, a few words 
 which it may be important to the parties to 
 hear." 
 
 Davison turned, and at sight of the stranger, 
 shrinking, retreated until his back was against 
 the house, where he stood gazing as if at his 
 last avenging judge. 
 
 " Mr. Sheriff," said the man, " you, reverend 
 sir, and all who are assembled here, I am one 
 
150 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 of the representatives-elect of the coming Leg 
 islature from the county of Decatur. My name 
 is Leverett. For the purpose of securing com 
 fortable quarters during the session, I went to 
 Milledgeville in advance, where I met your 
 Mr. Anderson, who was there with the same 
 intent. Hearing him mention the circum 
 stances in which one of his colleagues, a Cap 
 tain Davison, had gained his election, and 
 afterward sent in his resignation, I was led to 
 suspect that I might know that person. So I 
 obtained a means of conveyance and reached 
 this village about an hour ago. The sight of 
 the prisoner has verified my suspicion. His 
 name is not Davison, but Woodson. Two years 
 ago, in the county of Gadsden, in the territory 
 of Florida, he intermarried with the daughter 
 of a man well known to myself. Within a few 
 weeks afterward his wife, some of his fraudu 
 lent practices having become known to her, 
 separated from him. Leaving that county, he 
 came to my residence, where, knowing that I 
 stood under some obligations for assistance 
 rendered by his father-in-law, with a forged 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 151 
 
 letter pretended to be written by him, he got 
 from me one hundred dollars; and I have 
 heard, on very best authority, that he similarly 
 defrauded several other persons in Florida. 
 His wife, within my certain knowledge, was 
 living ten days ago, and I have every reason to 
 believe that she is now. Little as such a man 
 deserves an interference which screens him 
 from punishment for the perpetration of big 
 amy, a yet more heinous crime, yet, as an hon 
 est citizen, and as a faithful conservator of the 
 laws, I feel myself constrained to make it. It 
 will be some satisfaction to her friends, that 
 this young woman can have what benefit and 
 comfort are in this solemn public recognition 
 by the man who so outraged her. My child," 
 approaching Patsy, "it is cruel for you to be 
 so sorely disappointed; but I trust 
 
 " I don t believe it ! " Patsy shrieked. Then, 
 running to Davison, she tried to put her arms 
 about his neck. He flung himself away from 
 her, saying: 
 
 Get away, you Don t you see I can t 
 marry you ?" 
 
152 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 Then addressing the sheriff: 
 
 "I ve got nothing to say, Mr. Backus." 
 
 By this time quite a number of townspeople 
 were at the scene. 
 
 " Gent men," said Tom Kemp, in a low 
 voice, slowly advancing, followed by several 
 others, "we ought to deal with that man." 
 
 Backus seized the prisoner s arm, and, facing 
 the men, said in a low, firm tone: 
 
 "Boys, you know, ithout my tellin you, 
 that sech as that won t begin to do, and can t 
 be done cept over my dead body." 
 
 Then he took him away. 
 
 Patsy, uttering a piteous wail, sank upon the 
 ground. 
 
 Lifting her, and with one arm fondling her 
 to her breast, Miss Lynch raised the other, 
 and cried aloud: 
 
 "You people, you proud folks that lives in 
 town and think you have contemp for them 
 that has feelings for sech as this, I want you 
 to know that they isn t one of you that loves 
 the smartest, beautifulest offspring you ve got 
 any better than I love this poor girl that her 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT I 53 
 
 mother give her to me with her dying breath. 
 And I tell you now that she s as innocent of 
 sin, and of the meaning to do it, as any child 
 that ever hung on its mother s breast, and 
 sickened there, and died there." 
 
 Smoothing the hair on Patsy s forehead, say 
 ing, There, now, precious, that ll do," she led 
 her away. 
 
 Before leaving for home she took her hostess 
 aside and said: 
 
 "Missis Backus, don t you know, I feel like 
 I ain t been quite coming up to my promise to 
 poor Missis Hammick? And it s because I ve 
 so often been tJiat angry and mad with that 
 man, that I know the good Lord don t want 
 no sech in nobody, it being him that keeps 
 kindled the coals for sech people s heads, as 
 we have thankful saw poured on this blessed 
 day, which I can t remember as I ever felt as 
 calm and peaceable and thankful in my mind 
 as when that good old man, bless his heart, 
 when he stepped for ards so unbeknownst, and 
 clinched the nail on him anot ithstanding the 
 egzitement when my heart went pitter-patter, 
 
154 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 pitter-patter. Because, don t you know, that 
 dear good woman never opened her mouth to 
 say nary single angry word ag inst that man, 
 all so be she suspicioned what I know for cer 
 tain. Because you know the good Lord lets 
 good people, when they re dying, he lets them 
 forgive like they want to be forgive. But now 
 it s all over, and it look like the poor man 
 have so many things to answer for, maybe a- 
 including some more which nobody about here 
 know anything about, it look like he may nev 
 er git out the penitentiary alive, at least in my 
 day, I feel like I ought to try to forgive him, 
 if I can, for Patsy s sake, that you see for your 
 self, she love the miser ble villion yet, which I 
 do think on my soul, it made me that but I 
 made up my mind not to keep angry and mad, 
 if I can help it, and I want you to tell Mr. 
 Backus to tell Mr. Channell to tell the judge, 
 when he come down on him, that I, a-acting 
 not for myself, but as Patsy s mother, like her 
 that s dead app inted me, that I want nothing 
 done to the poor creetur excepting what the 
 law allow. Because, don t you know, Missis 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 155 
 
 Backus, I want to try to forgive as I want to 
 be forgive. Good-by, and I thanky you, and 
 I know Patsy do, if she is one that knows not 
 how to say it; but we both thanky for all the 
 trouble we ve put you to." 
 
 After remanding the prisoner, Backus and 
 Mr. Leverett repaired with Channell to the 
 office of the latter. 
 
 "And did the feller ever kill the Injun, sure 
 enough?" asked Backus. 
 
 "Not that I ever heard," answered the gen 
 tleman. "It became known, however, very 
 soon after his marriage, that he had been 
 grossly defrauding an aged inoffensive Indian 
 out of a little property that he had; and this 
 and other rascalities which his wife discovered 
 led to her abandonment of him. Her father 
 and some other citizens forced him to restore 
 the property and take himself out of the coun 
 ty. Not long afterward the old man disap 
 peared also; but I never heard that Woodson 
 or any other had been suspected of making 
 way with him. Yet there s no telling what 
 such a creature would not do." 
 
156 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 "Well," replied Backus, "I ve been in this 
 country, been forty-two year last week; I were 
 born up on Williams Creek, and I never knewed 
 the rip tation o killin a human of no sort to 
 start up so brash and come down so suddcnt 
 flat. What s your opinions, Squire Channell, 
 if another one of em was to come here and 
 start arunnin on that line ? " 
 
 "I rather suspect, Backus, that after giving 
 him some start in the direction whence he 
 came, the people would put hounds on his 
 track; and I m not sure that I wouldn t join in 
 the chase. Wouldn t you ? " 
 
 "Couldn t say; pend on circum ses." 
 
 "Ah, gentlemen," said Mr. Leverett, "lie 
 as most probably it was, the card, if he had 
 known how to play it, was a good one. I ve 
 known more than one man to win with it when 
 it was the only one that he held. You know 
 that mankind must learn to hate those whom 
 they persuade themselves that they have been 
 commissioned by Heaven to destroy. After 
 severe wars people concern themselves less 
 about homicides than theft and cheatings in 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 157 
 
 general. I can remember when the killing of 
 a man was sometimes punished by fine and im 
 prisonment, while for the stealing of a horse 
 the thief was sure to be hanged." 
 
 IX 
 
 ONE morning near the end of summer, Miss 
 Lynch, accompanied by a small girl of seven 
 or eight years, came into town and stopped for 
 a comforting chat with Mrs. Backus. When 
 they were seated, she said to the child: 
 
 "You run out, Em line, honey, and play in 
 the yard while Aunty and Missis Backus have 
 a little talky-talky. We ll soon be through, 
 and then I and you will go to Mr. Luckett s 
 store and git the things we come for." 
 
 Her face showed the traces of grief, and 
 tears came several times during the conver 
 sation. 
 
 " I didn t want her to hear me talking about 
 Patsy, because, Missis Backus, she mightn t 
 think I loved Jier like I promised when Sis 
 Marthy said I might have her if I could per 
 suade her to come to me. But oh, Missis 
 
15$ ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 Backus ! hav n t you heard me say that I never 
 have knew about women, what they ll do and 
 what they won t? I never dreamed to love 
 that girl like I did, and when I see how she 
 grieved and went on about that man, so that 
 she got sick and had to be put to bed, and for 
 three weeks it look like, all me and Pap and 
 the very doctor could do, she d die right there 
 but final, at last, she revived, and her appe 
 tite come back, and she got up. And then I 
 bought her, out of the money we got for her, 
 I bought her a likely young neeger-woman, 
 and that seem to peert n her up smart. And 
 then the good Lord bless my poor soul ! it 
 weren t more than four months before I noticed 
 that she were not displeaged when Ace Usry 
 one Sunday, that he never had even noticed 
 her in all his lifetime before, that he had to 
 buck up and ride along home with her from 
 Long Creek meetin . And after we got home 
 and I told her, and that in solom word, that it 
 were for nothin iLnder the sun, but because he 
 have found out she own a neeger-woman, she 
 never said yea nor nay, nor never opened her 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT 159 
 
 mouth; and so the very next day here rid up 
 Ace again, and asked for her, and without com 
 ing to me for my advice, she put on the very 
 best frock she had, and she went out to meet 
 him. I declare I went off to myself, I did, and I 
 thes cried and cried. And when Ace was gone, 
 and she come and see me acryin , she cried too, 
 and she said if I felt that way about it she d 
 never see Ace Usry another time, nor no other 
 young man would she let even name the get 
 ting of married to her again. Now you see how 
 it was; the sponsibility all flung on me again. 
 And I tried to ask myself what her mother, 
 that I d not a doubt that she was in Heaven, I 
 wanted to ask what shed want done. And it 
 seem like the answer come, Em line, you ve 
 done your duty. Let her go along with Ace 
 Usry. It s all for the best. And I done it; 
 and when Missis Usry come to ask what I 
 knew about Patsy s character along with that 
 man Davison, because you know Ace ain t but 
 nineteen years old, and a good conditioned 
 boy he is; but when she asked me that, I told 
 her it were hard to say exact what Patsy Ham- 
 
160 ALMOST A WEDDING 
 
 mick were. She wasn t what people natchly 
 might call a girl, in all the senses people in 
 cludes of such a word; nor she wasn t a married 
 woman, neither according to the word of the 
 Gospul nor the law of the land; all so be as 
 much as twice she had tried to be and once 
 thought she were. I told Missis Usry, that 
 nigh as I could come at it, Patsy were more 
 like a widder than anything else; for if him she 
 thought she were married to wasn t dead, 
 twasn t because he oughtn t to be, and to her 
 he were dead for good; and then I told her 
 that as for her ameaning or awanting to do 
 wrong or act unlawful, she were as innocent 
 of such as that as me or her, or anybody on 
 the face of the good Lord s yearth. And that 
 satisfied her and the family; and after that, 
 when I see how things were agoing, I told 
 em if it was to be, I wanted it over and be 
 done with it. And I helped the poor child; for 
 she s nothing but a child, and never will be; 
 but I helped her to get her wedding clothes, 
 and let them have a nice wedding; and the 
 poor girl flung her arms around me and cried 
 
IN DOOLY DISTRICT l6l 
 
 like a baby when they went away. And after 
 they got off, oh, Missis Backus! I thought I 
 felt like my heart was broke ! " 
 
 After brief indulgence of her tears, she re 
 sumed: 
 
 " But I m thankful I m agetting to have 
 some comfort out of little Em line, you see 
 yonder under that chainey tree, that Marthy 
 let me have her, and I must wash my face and 
 try to peert n up before I call her. You know 
 how jealous-minded girl-children are. Well, 
 it s done me good to tell you about it all. But, 
 Missis Backus, the final conclusion of my mind 
 about women is, that there isn t anybody, nor 
 there ain t nobody can tell what they will do, 
 nor what they won t when they have their 
 feelings in the case; nor, as I know by my own 
 experience, they can t tell their very own 
 selves. But again, I want to say one thing 
 about them that s as certain as death and taxes, 
 as the sayin is, and that s that they ve got to 
 have somebody, if they ve got no husband, and 
 no children, they ve actual positive got to have 
 somebody to scatter their affection on of some 
 
162 ALMOST A WEDDING IN DOOLY DISTRICT 
 
 sort; and the onlest way I can think of to ex 
 plain it all, it s thes because the good Lord 
 made em so." 
 
 She retired into the house, and after freshen 
 ing herself as well as she could, came out. 
 Calling cheerily to the child, she said: 
 
 " Come, Em line ; come, darling. Aunty s 
 through with her talk. Come in and tell 
 Missis Backus thanky and good-by. Then 
 we ll go on to the store where Aunty s going 
 to get some mighty nice things for her little 
 precious." 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 " I do beseech you 
 
 (Chiefly that I may set it in my prayers), 
 What is your name ? " The Tempest 
 
 T OFTEN say to myself, Phyllis Phips, if 
 *- nobody else pities you for the name you ve 
 got, I know I do. As for the PJiips part, I 
 come by that according to natur , o course; 
 but then my father, he had to stick on Phyllis, 
 after a old aunt, not thinking how quare and 
 a most ridic lous it sounded. Twasn t for my 
 name I would move to town, like severial nice 
 quality ladies has advised. Ah, well ! people 
 ought to try to get riconciled to what they 
 can t help; and I don t know but what I will 
 go there after awhile, anyhow." 
 
 Born in humble condition a few miles outside 
 of the town of Athens in the State of Georgia, 
 
 left an orphan when ten years old, given a 
 163 
 
1 64 SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 home in the family of one of the neighbors, her 
 aptness and industry at all kinds of domestic 
 work soon began to overpay the expense of 
 keeping her and even of giving to her a little 
 schooling. When she became of age, from the 
 extra work she had done she had saved from 
 the proceeds a few hundreds. By this time she 
 had grown uncommonly expert in the making 
 of female wear of every description, from slip 
 pers up to hats and bonnets. Her fame at 
 length extended into town, whence orders were 
 carried to her or she was besought to come in 
 for greater convenience in executing them. 
 Often she had been told that if she would re 
 move there, take a shop of her own and keep 
 for sale materials used in her work, she might 
 get a considerably larger income. She hesi 
 tated long before acting upon the suggestion. 
 " It s not only that I feel easier out here, but 
 it s that in town I thes get tired out a constant 
 being called Miss Phips. I can t even set at 
 the table, but it s Miss Phips, will you ? and 
 Miss Phips, won t you? And sometimes 
 their very neegers torments me by getting of 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME 165 
 
 it wrong, and a body can plain see that if they 
 didn t daresn t, they d giggle; because them 
 quality people is good and polite to me the 
 same if I was the governor s daughter, and them 
 house - girls know they don t daresn t. Yit 
 somehow out here don t you know when 
 anybody wants me, they thes say Phyllis," 1 and 
 is done with it. But I m adepending on the 
 good Lord to direct me. Maybe it ll seemeth 
 to him best after awhile for me to make the 
 move." 
 
 At length, with modest fear, she decided to 
 try the change. Her visible property at this 
 period was a negro girl, named Puss, now 
 about fourteen years old, whom, like herself, 
 left an orphan when a child, she had bought 
 for a small price from a master who was glad 
 to let her go into such keeping. Her invisible 
 was promissory notes for perhaps a thousand 
 dollars, which she easily called in. There was 
 no work about the house that Puss had not 
 learned well under the careful training of her 
 mistress, by whom she was greatly prized both 
 as a handmaid and a trusted companion and 
 
166 SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 confidante. Within the last year the judgment 
 of Puss was decided for the affirmative. 
 
 " Beca se, you see, Miss Phyllis, in town, 
 young oman like you what s han some and got 
 prop ty, en makin mo , dee ken ketch a beau 
 dat ll be wufifhavin , name en all." 
 
 " You hussy ! I expect you re counting on 
 catching one for yourself." 
 
 " Dat I ain ; I ain old enough, en when I is, 
 no nigger needn t be comin roun me, long as 
 you single." 
 
 "That s a good girl." 
 
 I don t know the lady s exact age at this 
 juncture; but she would have been hurt if she 
 had heard of anybody s guessing it to be over 
 thirty. Tall and slim she was, indeed, yet no 
 body conscientiously could have said that she 
 was what people called scrawny. What she 
 may have been thought to lack in comeliness, 
 she much more than made up in vigor and 
 sprightliness of movement. Ofthe beaux whom, 
 for aught I know, she had in her native region, 
 this much only is certain not one had proved 
 satisfactory all around. 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME 167 
 
 And so the venture was made, the mistress, 
 even in the midst of her perturbings, never fail 
 ing to smile whenever Puss told her hopes that, 
 along with other good fortune, a man would 
 present himself with all the qualities, name in 
 cluded, that would justify every reasonable ex 
 pectation. 
 
 They got a nice little shop on College Avenue; 
 commodious enough, with two rooms above and 
 two in the rear, for all their needs, and Miss 
 Phips very soon had every reason to be pleas 
 ed with the prospects. Her goods, upon which, 
 not experienced in such things, she had laid 
 an extremely reasonable margin, were taken 
 so fast that new stock had to be brought almost 
 constantly from Augusta in response to orders, 
 not a single one of which ever so much as 
 dreamed of going there without the cash in its 
 pocket. 
 
 On the opposite side of the street was the 
 leading tailoring shop, which was kept by a 
 man named Jordan. Among his employes was 
 one who some months before had come there 
 from Savannah. His name was Granville Quart- 
 
l68 SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 ley, and but such a person as he was deserves, 
 it seems to me, to begin a new chapter. 
 
 II 
 
 SOMEWHAT below middle height, Mr. Quart- 
 ley had a rather handsome face, a good figure, 
 and dressed superbly. Even when seated on 
 the bench with his work in his lap he and every 
 thing about him looked nice. When upon the 
 street not a student of the college near by ever 
 wore a sleeker hat, a jauntier blue or snuff col 
 ored velvet-collared coatee, a more checkered 
 waistcoat, more striped trousers, or shinier 
 shoes. Under this exterior was a singleness of 
 nature which perhaps sought thus to be hidden 
 for the sake of a certain ambition that, although 
 indulged during the ten years since his coming 
 to manhood, had not yet compassed its aims. 
 This was to rise from journeyman and become 
 head of a shop of his own. His notion was 
 that in an up-country town like Athens, noted 
 for its cultured society, the chances of his as 
 cent might be better than they were in Savan 
 nah where businesses of all kinds were entire- 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME 169 
 
 ly too prone, he thought, to keep themselves 
 within old channels. He candidly made known 
 to his employer, on beginning a temporary en 
 gagement, his trust that before very long his 
 doing merely hired work would be a thing of 
 the past. 
 
 "All right," said Mr. Jordan, a very kind- 
 hearted person; "if it s in you to go up, you ll 
 go up." 
 
 His work gave entire satisfaction. The boss 
 did not scold even his extravagant dressing; 
 for of course it wasn t his business to be fault 
 finding about how many and how fine clothes 
 people wore when their bills were settled 
 promptly. Custom, especially from the stu 
 dents, soon began to improve. These often 
 consulted the Savannah man s tastes to the 
 degree that kindled yet hotter his ambition. 
 
 "Quartley," one day said Nick Wilder, of 
 the junior class, " I wonder a fellow like you, 
 handsome, tasty, stylish, and all that, don t 
 keep a shop of your own." 
 
 This was late on a Saturday afternoon, when 
 they were about to cross each other at the 
 
I/O SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 gate of the college campus, the young man 
 being on one of his tentative meditating 
 parades. 
 
 "My idea exactly, Mr. Wilder, and has 
 been for a long time; but capital, sir, that s 
 what has kept in my way capital." 
 
 "Capital? The want of it, you mean, I 
 suppose." 
 
 "Of course; you understand." 
 
 " I do, now. Haven t you laid up anything ? " 
 
 "Not to that extent, Mr. Wilder. I make 
 money free; but I spend it free for of course 
 for the sake of necessary appearances. But 
 I m going to try to be more equinomical." 
 
 "Equinomical ! Yes; I suppose that s a 
 good thing in its place. I never but see 
 here, Quartley, if I was in your place, with 
 your looks, and your manners, and your gaits 
 when promenading on the street, and could 
 fix up myself like you can, I d just go and 
 many some capital, and I d do it quick while 
 my blood was on me, blamed if I wouldn t. 
 Why don t you just step across the street some 
 time and take a net along with you. and haul 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME I/I 
 
 in Miss Phips ? Do you know that that woman 
 has money already, and is making perfect 
 mints of it all the time ? " 
 
 " Don t talk so loud, please, Mr. Wilder," he 
 answered, looking furtively toward the milli 
 ner s, a few rods distant. " You think it would 
 go ? " 
 
 "I wouldn t be at all surprised. Why, on 
 general principles, man, a woman with the 
 name of Miss Phips ought to be willing to 
 swap it for the aristocratic one of Mrs. 
 Granville Quart ley, and give boot. No sir, I 
 wouldn t be surprised, and / should push a 
 case like that to the very wall. Do you know 
 her ? " 
 
 "Yes not quite so loud, please. I am 
 slight acquainted there." 
 
 Wilder, getting down to the ear of his list 
 ener, in a whisper that gasped for loud, pas 
 sionate expression, said, " Then my advice is 
 to push it ! " 
 
 They parted. Wilder on reaching his room, 
 said to his chum: 
 
 "Boiling, I gave just now, on the spur of 
 
1/2 SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 the moment, some good advice to little Quart- 
 ley that was, to marry Miss Phips if he could 
 get her." 
 
 "Capital idea ! They d suit first rate. She 
 don t need very much of a man for a husband, 
 and his name would make him the greatest 
 plenty for her." 
 
 That night Mr. Quartley, gotten up in his 
 very best, made a pointedly formal call across 
 the street, and was received so kindly that he 
 talked with much freedom of the Granvilles 
 and the Quartleys of England, and perhaps of 
 other countries and large islands, from all of 
 whom, according to an aged aunt of the family 
 who could go back nobody knew how far, 
 there was not a doubt that they were descend 
 ed. Then he spoke, but with becoming indef- 
 initeness, of his hope, after overcoming some 
 few difficulties, of being able to place himself 
 in a position where all the old ones of the 
 names had been and where all the new ones 
 ought to be. Miss Phips s responses were as 
 sympathetic as a delicate female can feel her 
 self at liberty to make in such circumstances; 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME 1/3 
 
 and when he rose to go and said that he had 
 spent a delightful evening, she said she was 
 glad of it; and when he said that he was com 
 ing again very shortly, she said she would be 
 glad to see him. 
 
 After he had gone, Puss came in from the 
 keyhole in the next room, where she had been 
 peeping and listening. 
 
 "I m de proudest nigger in dis whole town, 
 I is." 
 
 " What for, you hussy, that s been evedrop- 
 ping all the time Mr. Quartley was here ? " 
 
 " Beca se he s the very man fer you, and he 
 git closter and closter to you ev y time he 
 come." 
 
 " Pshaw ! I don t suppose he cares anything 
 or much about me; and, besides, even if he 
 did, I don t no I don t know what sort of 
 man he d make to have about the house, and 
 don t you think he s too short for me, Puss?" 
 
 " No m, dat I don t. He des o de right lenk; 
 beca se you gwine be de man o de house your- 
 seff, no marter who tis; en him bein small ll 
 make it easier fer you. To my opinion Mr. 
 
1/4 SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 Gramle Quartle er whut s his name is de 
 very pootist man in dis town; en Miss Lucky s 
 oman, whut wash fer him, say he de nicest in 
 his underclo s of enybody she wash fer." 
 
 " Of course, such as that ought to go a good 
 ways with a lady that can be neat herself, and 
 could wish to always have neat people and 
 neat things about her. I acknowledge that 
 his name is perfec beautiful to the sound of it, 
 and, if ruther small, he s han some, and have 
 the look to be polite and obleeging, that no 
 woman in my business would wish to be both 
 ered in the managing of it to suit herself Oh 
 ho, me ! " 
 
 "Yes m; glad to see you so contented in 
 your mind." 
 
 4< But, Puss," she said, with intense earnest 
 ness, "I would see my coffin and have the 
 screws screwed in the very lid, and bear all its 
 confwinements before I d take one single step 
 in this awful and interesting piece of business 
 until I m asked straight up and down." 
 
 " No m, dat I wouldn t; but no need o dat. 
 When you en him wus in here talkin , Miss 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME 175 
 
 Lucky s oman drapped in to fetch dem laces 
 whar you wouldn let me do up, en you sent 
 em to her; en she say dat man told her you 
 was de scrimshest young oman in dis whole 
 town, en he LK her opinion ef she think you d 
 marry; en she told him she didn know for 
 cert n; but she thought you d take de leap in 
 de dark, right man come around. En den de 
 oman ax me whut / thought; en I answered 
 her, I b lieved you would, ef you got suited; 
 but I told her no man needn t come at you 
 widout he have a pootty name; and den I add 
 dat I has heer n you say dat man had de poot- 
 estin de sound you ever heerd. En dat s all I 
 said." 
 
 " You hussy ! But you re a smart, good girl. 
 Go on to bed. I know you re sleepy." 
 
 " Yes m; en I m thankful to de good Lord 
 dat I is contented in my mind bout my mis- 
 t ess." 
 
 Ill 
 
 NICK WILDER was delighted with the results 
 of his encouraging counselings. He was made 
 
1/6 SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 a confidant and was fond of talking about the 
 brief courtship, the incipient modest retreating 
 of Miss Phips before the begun onset, the 
 lover s pushing pursuit, her avowed reluctance 
 subdued by assurings of him and Puss, the fi 
 nal yielding to resistless assaults from without 
 and from within that little home. Yet it must 
 not be believed that, before the final yes was 
 said, prudent inquiries were not put to Mr. Jor 
 dan, and, honest man that he was, received 
 plain answers. As far as he knew, Mr. Quart- 
 ley was a person of good character and habits, 
 and, although subject to brief seasons of loss 
 of temper and spirits, extremely amiable and, 
 as Mr. Jordan believed, very affectionate. He 
 could not say that he thought Mr. Quartley, 
 although the very neatest of all his employes 
 with his needle, was competent to run a shop 
 of his own, because he could not cut and fit, 
 and besides he knew not enough about the 
 keeping of accounts and the general manage 
 ment of the business. 
 
 "But," he said, in conclusion, "I tell you 
 again, Miss Phips, that he s a amiable and a 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME 1/7 
 
 affectionate man, and I has no doubt but what 
 marrying will improve him, specially to a wo 
 man like you who, he will speedy find out, 
 wants no extravagance and not too fancy do 
 ings about you. What Mr. Quartley want is 
 to have a manager, and under which my believe 
 is that he could be brought to the scale of a 
 good reason ble husband to such. On my mind 
 there ain t a doubt that when he have learnt 
 your business in all its ways, and its rt-part- 
 ments and its dk-partments, so to speak, you 
 couldn t find a handier man, nor woman, to 
 tend to it under your direction. But for that, 
 he ll kick against it at the offstart, and he ll 
 have to be broke in, and nobody can do that 
 better than you can. And the way is just sim 
 ple enough. When he s told to do it, and flares 
 up about it, it s to let him have rope to splurge 
 hisself till he gets over it. It won t last long. 
 He may make threats about doing something 
 desp rate to hisself; but there s never anything 
 in that, as I found out by exper ence. Yes, 
 madam, as for a husband, and to attend to 
 things under a sensible woman like you, my 
 
1 78 SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 opinion is, that as soon as it can be put out of 
 his head that he s to run a big concern of his 
 own, after some little cavorting, you to keep 
 perfect cool, and making out like you ain t 
 anoticing him, nor bothering yourself about 
 him, he ll quiet down and be as affectionate and 
 as handy as any woman in your business would 
 want or desire to have a man about the house." 
 After these candid words, which Miss Phips 
 construed to be more for than against the step, 
 she felt secure in giving indulgence to her af 
 fection, to romance, and to pride. Many a bri 
 dal has been in that pretty little town among 
 the hills; but I doubt if at ever a one of them 
 the feelings of the bride were more innocently 
 exultant than when this good mantuamaker to 
 her few guests showed her visiting cards, com 
 ing all the way from Savannah, and inscribed 
 
 MRS. GRANVILLE QUARTLEY, 
 9 COLLEGE AVENUE, 
 
 Athens, Ga. 
 
 IV 
 
 MRS. QUARTLEY, after having her new sign 
 board put over the door, decided (the first hoi- 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME 179 
 
 idays she ever had), with her little man, to 
 spend a fortnight at Helicon Springs, a water 
 ing place near by. Talks about business were 
 kept out of this half of the first moon. The 
 bride listened to stories of many Granvilles and 
 not a few Quartleys, with interest that, keen in 
 the beginning, began, after a while, like other 
 sharp things after repeated use, to lose its first 
 edge. Occasionally he made brief but warm 
 allusions to his hopes which, until now, capital 
 had delayed. Her notices of these were vague. 
 He would willingly have remained longer, but 
 at the end of the time set, using his services in 
 the packing of both trunks, she led him back 
 home. He had already learned that whatever 
 she said, whether it was yes or no, she meant it. 
 
 Puss was in ecstasy at their return, and de 
 clared that they looked as happy as two little 
 chickens. She got for them a nice supper, and, 
 if anything, a nicer breakfast next morning. 
 
 After this meal, Mr. Quartley was much sur 
 prised to hear that the young woman who had 
 been standing in the shop had been dismissed, 
 but more so at these words : 
 
180 SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 " My dear, you can attend to the business 
 there for the present." 
 
 If he had been ordered to wash the dishes, 
 clean off the table, make up the bed, and sweep 
 the floor, he would have been not less at a loss 
 what to answer. 
 
 "Why, my dear, you yes, indeed you do." 
 
 " No, darling, I don t; that is I don t mean 
 to. It may come a little awkward to you at 
 first, as you don t know the price of things; 
 but when I ain t in the shop, I ll be in here, 
 where you can call me when you re bothered. 
 The girl was good enough in some respects; 
 but she wa n t active and persuady as I just 
 know you re going to be, of which them that 
 know you have spoke to me in splendidest lan 
 guage." 
 
 " But why, my dear, this is a kind oi&fcmale 
 business which why, of course I I should 
 think not." 
 
 " It s not so female as to hurt, Mr. Quartley; 
 and then there s collars and neck handkerchiefs, 
 and things for men, well as women. If I can 
 sell to men-people, you can sell to women-peo- 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME l8l 
 
 pie, as many a man does, excepting of such 
 articles, of course, that men is not expected to 
 know that females wears them, and when 
 theyre wanted, they can call for me. But as 
 you don t appear prepar d in your mind for it, 
 you can thes walk about to-day, or you can 
 set in here and talk to Puss, a not interrupting 
 of her too much in her work." 
 
 Whereupon she went into the shop, opened 
 the windows and stood watching for the early 
 worm. 
 
 Mr. Quartley looked alternately at Puss and 
 the encompassing walls, and for awhile, per 
 haps, few parrots have felt more narrowly en 
 caged. 
 
 "Puss," he said, at length, "think she s in 
 downright earnest ? " 
 
 " Dat she is," answered Puss, pausing not in 
 her washing a plate. " Miss don want no fool 
 ishness o no sort o nobody. When I don 
 clean dese things to suit her, she take de rag 
 out my hand and dis de way she do." 
 
 Then sousing the cloth in the dishpan, she 
 dabbed the plate on the face in a manner per- 
 
182 SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 fectly regardless. " I know dat, en so I tends 
 to my business de way she want, en when I 
 does, she s des good to me as she can be. But 
 Miss never want no foolishness, she don t." 
 "Well," he said, after a shudder and a long- 
 
 o 
 
 breath, "when I brush my hat and clothes, I 
 shall go down to the river. Some things a 
 man can stand, and some he can t." 
 
 While he was making ready for the threat 
 ened journey, Puss, more or less alarmed, 
 slipped into the shop and whispered to her 
 mistress. 
 
 "All right, Puss, go back to your work," 
 she answered, continuing to brush off the 
 counter. A few moments after, as the desper 
 ate man was walking with deep solemnity to 
 the outer door, she said: " My dear, if you go 
 off the pavement, please roll up your breeches, 
 because there s been a rain, you know, and the 
 mud in the streets is perfect awful." 
 
 " Breeches ! " he echoed, scornfully, as he 
 emerged. After slowly perambulating the 
 neighborhood for a few hours, he decided to 
 pay a parting call to Nick Wilder. 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME 183 
 
 "Why, hello, Quartley ! glad to see you. 
 I d congratulate you if you didn t look so grum. 
 What s the matter ? Is your wife dead ? " 
 
 "No, Mr. Wilder; but /shall be soon." 
 
 " My, my ! that is news. Marrying been 
 too much for you, Quartley ? " 
 
 "Oh, no, sir; but change of occupation- 
 man like me can t stand such as that, Mr. 
 Wilder." 
 
 " Ay, now I understand you. Going to sell 
 ing ribbons, corsets, and whalebones, and such 
 things ? Well, I don t know if I wouldn t rather 
 do that than have to be squatting everlastingly 
 cross-legged on my haunches. But what you 
 going to do about it ? " 
 
 " There s a river at the foot of this town, I m 
 told, and I m on my way there." 
 
 "Pshaw, Quartley, I took you for a man of 
 some sense ! " 
 
 The bell for recitation ringing just then, he 
 said, as he was proceeding to the call: "Well, 
 I must bid you farewell, my dear fellow. That s 
 the reddest and muddiest stream in the world 
 after a rain, not excepting the turbid Tiber ; 
 
184 SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 and I should think about it awhile before I 
 plunged into it. Besides, you ve married what 
 I should call tip-top, if you only knew it. But, 
 by-by. Let us hear if anything comes of it." 
 
 " Weren t you ashamed to talk to the poor 
 fellow that way, Nick ? " said Boiling. 
 
 "The dickence ! there s not the slightest 
 danger, and, if there was, that s the way to 
 prevent it." 
 
 The suicide then slowly repaired to his late 
 employer, who, being busy with looking over 
 his books, had but few words to spare for 
 him. 
 
 " Well, Quartley, I don t think I would; at 
 least, not till I tried the business a while. 
 Your wife, of course, will be shocked consid- 
 er ble at first; but my exper ence is, women 
 get over such things. She s already got up 
 her new sign of Mrs. Granville Quartley, and 
 you adrowning of yourself, you may plank 
 down your last dollar on that, it ain t to not 
 come down. And I ll just swear, Quartley, 
 that I wouldn t like the idea, after I was dead, 
 of people saying that, excepting of my name 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME 185 
 
 to give my wife, I wer n t of one continental 
 red cent use to her, and so, a cording, I 
 drownded myself like a blind hound puppy, or 
 a perfect unuseless kitten. Go on and do it, 
 if it suit you; but I wouldn t which is the last 
 words I ve got to waste on you I just wouldn t, 
 without I first pulled off them fine things, and 
 I d splunge in that water and mud just like I 
 come in the world, blamed if I wouldn t." 
 
 Shivering slightly, he turned away. Of his 
 walkings over and over again to the brow of 
 the declivity where the pavement ended and 
 back again, the set limits of this story forbid 
 narration. At dusk, being quite hungry, he 
 thought he would go home and get his supper, 
 leaving the future to take care of itself. Be 
 sides, irritated, though not violently, that 
 neither his wife nor Puss had been inquiring 
 about him on the streets, he felt it due to him 
 self to let them know that he was not as far 
 gone as perhaps they had been supposing. 
 
 " You darling dear ! " said Mrs. Quartley, 
 " I know you feel better. You show it in 
 your very eyes; and just to think that you ve 
 
l86 SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 come back without a speck of mud on your 
 breeches ! " 
 
 Then she made him sit down at the table, 
 and eat, and eat, and eat. 
 
 In brief time, contrasting himself with what 
 he might have been if fished out of the Oconee, 
 he rose to calmness, to cheerfulness, to gayety, 
 to energy, and, in the space before bedtime, 
 let himself be inducted into some of the mys 
 teries of millinery, and expressed himself as 
 gratified that they were not as unpleasant as 
 he had been expecting. 
 
 The Saturday afterward, as he was taking 
 on College Avenue a promenade kindly al 
 lowed him, and calmly revolving the absorp 
 tion of his name and himself in a business new 
 and unforeseen, meeting Wilder, the latter 
 said: 
 
 " Why, Quartley ! you look like a new man." 
 
 " Think so, Mr. Wilder ?" 
 
 "Certainly. The only difficulty with you 
 was, you were screwed up too tight. Let 
 ting you down has made you look natural as 
 life." 
 
SOMETHING IN A NAME 187 
 
 " I think I m getting so, Mr. Wilder; I hope 
 so, I thank you." 
 
 And he did get so, and the business pros 
 pered more and more. He became in a brief 
 while the most active and efficient of clerks, 
 the most manageable and uxorious of husbands. 
 Nick used to tell that it was pleasant to note 
 how, with the nimbleness of a gray squirrel, at 
 a word or a sign from his wife he glided up and 
 down on the step-ladder which she had pro 
 vided for him to reach the upper shelves. The 
 Confederate war crippled them somewhat, but 
 they rallied and prospered again. When they 
 told Puss that she was free, she said: 
 
 When Miss Phyllis drive me away I m a- 
 gwine, en not befo ." 
 
 Puss has had three husbands, never beinsr 
 
 o 
 
 quite sure whether or not she was ever a wid 
 ow. Assuming, like her mistress, to be the 
 man in her own family, these gentlemen, 
 after some little participation in her society, 
 went, one after another, away, whether to 
 drown themselves or simply to pass what the 
 law calls "beyond seas," she did not closely 
 
188 SOMETHING IN A NAME 
 
 inquire; but to every one of those who pro 
 posed to be her fourth, she has answered: 
 
 "No, I thanky. I done tried three o you, 
 en dem s de greatest plenty for me. Marryin 
 don seem like to me it s my lot." 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR 
 COUSINS 
 
 " I ll make assurance doubly sure 
 And take a bond of fate." Macbeth 
 
 I 
 
 ^T D rather be dead than live the life we re 
 -* living," said Mrs. Sally Towns one day. 
 
 " But you d a sight rather I was dead," an 
 swered Mr. Tom Towns, her husband. 
 
 " I would not. God knows that neither of 
 us is prepared to die. If I was, I d pray to Him 
 to take me this clay." 
 
 " Why, I thought you was always ready to 
 sail right away to Heaven, and was jest waitin 
 to git rid o me, and carry out some of your 
 projects." 
 
 "Make as much fun as you please, Mr. 
 Towns. You re a man and I m a woman. 
 You re my husband and I m your wife. You 
 189 
 
190 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 know you can insult me and abuse me as much 
 as you please, as you ve been doing for the 
 last twenty years and better. There s nobody 
 and nothing to hinder you. As for the prop 
 erty, and you know that at least half of it came 
 by me, you ve already given Ryal more than 
 his part, if you were to die and a division was 
 made betwixt him and me and Wiley. And 
 now you say you re going to town, to-morrow, 
 and make another will, and give to Ryal, not 
 only all the negroes except Bob and his fam 
 ily, but this very house, where I was born, 
 where I was raised, where I married you, where 
 Wiley was born. Well, sir, the law gives you 
 the power, and you ll take it, as you ve always 
 done with what power the law or anything else 
 ever gave you. Do it, sir; I ll never ask you 
 again to remember me and Wiley in your will; 
 and he will never ask you, as you know. But 
 even if you could forget your wife at such a 
 time, I can t see, for the life of me I can t sec, 
 how a father can forget his son." 
 
 The old man, who was full twenty-five years 
 her senior, looked at her searchingly. 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS IQI 
 
 " Don t you think that, with Buck Sinkler to 
 help you, and Wiley, you could manage to get 
 along ? " 
 
 She blushed deeply, and instantly answered: 
 
 " Mr. Towns, if I d been a man like you, and 
 had the thoughts you ve had or pretended to 
 have about Buck Sinkler, I d have killed Buck 
 Sinkler before now, or I d have killed my wife, 
 or I d have killed her son that had my name, 
 or I d have killed myself. I d have killed some 
 body, certain." 
 
 "I spect you would." 
 
 " I would, indeed. That s the difference be 
 tween people. You ve hinted and hinted about 
 Buck Sinkler ever since I ve been married to 
 you, as if I wanted you to die so that well, 
 God only knows what all your thoughts have 
 been, and He knows that they ve had no just 
 foundation. But when a man like you wants 
 to outrage the feelings of a woman, especially 
 if she s his wife, he wants no foundation. The 
 safest piece of meanness which a man can do 
 in this world is meanness to his wife. The law 
 gives him not only all her property, but the 
 
IQ2 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 right to abuse her and slander her. As for 
 Buck Sinkler, I don t suppose he s ever known 
 of your thoughts about him, or if he has he s 
 too much self-respect and respect for me to 
 care anything about them," 
 
 " Respect for hisself, and you too, hah ! " 
 
 " Yes, sir; respect for both. You don t seem 
 to understand how a man can have respect for 
 his own honor and that of a poor, helpless, 
 abused woman at the same time." 
 
 ( I do believe she wants me dead ! " he said, 
 bitterly. 
 
 " No, sir. You needn t believe, and as to 
 that, you don t believe any such thing. Little 
 as you know me, it s enough for you to be cer 
 tain that I m no murderer, in deed or in heart, 
 and if I could be, that I wouldn t in the case of 
 my own husband and the father of my own and 
 only child." 
 
 "How do I know that?" and his pale 
 wrinkled face anguished with the pangs of un 
 disguised incertitude. 
 
 "Know what?" she asked, her fiery blue 
 eyes piercing him to the heart. " Know 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 193 
 
 what ? Oh, my God ! What does this man 
 mean ! " 
 
 At that moment Wiley Towns entered the 
 room, having just returned from the field. 
 
 " There s one of the persons," said his moth 
 er, " that we were talking about. You may as 
 well let him hear what it was you want to say 
 about his mother and about him." 
 
 They were two powerful men. The father, 
 known as Long Tom Towns, was six feet three 
 inches tall, or had been before age had bent 
 him, black-eyed, and once black-haired, with 
 high cheek bones, a Roman nose, even in ad 
 vanced age giving signs of mighty strength of 
 will and muscle and bone. The son, an inch 
 shorter, was strikingly like him, except that he 
 had his mother s complexion of eyes, hair, and 
 flesh. In spite of his plain manners and coun 
 try breeding, he had the looks and carriage of 
 a thorough gentleman. 
 
 " What is it, mother ? " he said tenderly, taking 
 her hand, but proceeding no further in his endear 
 ment. " What s the matter with mother, father ? 
 Threatening her yet again about your will ? " 
 
194 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 The father looked with some embarrassment 
 upon his son who, scarcely twenty years of 
 age, fixed his eyes upon him and began calmly, 
 sadly, to remonstrate with him. 
 
 " Father, it s time these troubles between 
 you and mother should stop. Why they should 
 ever have started, goodness knows. You ve 
 never seemed to know mother, somehow, fa 
 ther." 
 
 He had put his arm around his mother and 
 drew her toward him. The feelings he could 
 no longer repress now showed themselves in 
 his looks and in his words. 
 
 " I haven t the slightest idea that you do 
 know one fact about her, father, and that is 
 that she s the best woman upon the top of the 
 ground. For some reason God Almighty 
 knows, I don t, you ve been always hard with 
 her and slighted her, and sometimes you ve 
 appeared to be suspicious. I I don t my 
 God I don t know whether you ve been sus 
 picious of her or not, nor what about. But 
 with all the opportunities you ve had, you ve 
 never found out what she was worth to you, 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 195 
 
 and that all your suspicion about her if 
 you ve got any ain t worth hell s room." He 
 paused, and with his disengaged hand shaded 
 his eyes for a few moments. Partly subdu 
 ing his excitement, he looked at his father 
 calmly: 
 
 " Father, you ve already given off to Brother 
 Ryal a considerable part of the property. All 
 right. It was yours to do with what you pleas 
 ed, and neither mother nor I ever objected to 
 it. You ve often threatened to disinherit her 
 entirely, and me in part that is, you ve so 
 threatened to her; never to me. Now, I m 
 going to say this: I d rather you d go on and 
 do what you intend, provided you do so quietly, 
 than to keep on threatening about it. If you 
 cut her out by your will, you may as well do 
 the same by me, for every cent you leave to 
 me I shall consider hers, and not my own ; 
 understand that at once. Never mind, mother," 
 he continued, drawing her yet closer, " I can 
 not only support you, but I can make you rich. 
 If we were thrown out of house and home 
 Cousin Buck will let us have his Gum Hill 
 
196 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 place free of rent until I can make enough to 
 buy one for our own." 
 
 He felt his mother give a slight shudder at 
 the mention of the name of Buck Sinkler. His 
 father s face became yellow. 
 
 " Your Cousin Buck, hah ! " he cried, tremb 
 ling with more than one wretched thought. 
 " Already makin your arrangements, hah ! 
 Ryal s right, damned if he ain t! I m goin to 
 Ryal, and I swear 
 
 It was a horrid oath. Then ordering his 
 horse it was late in the evening he rode 
 away. 
 
 " What upon earth did he mean by those 
 words, mother ? " asked Wiley in stupefied as 
 tonishment. 
 
 "Oh, Wiley, Wiley!" 
 
 She threw her arms around him and they 
 both wept sore. 
 
 II 
 
 FOR fifty years Long Tom Towns had been 
 what they called a rusher. Beginning his in 
 dependent career a poor orphan, he accumu- 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 197 
 
 lated property rapidly, and at the death of his 
 first wife, leaving one child, was one of the 
 wealthiest men in the neighborhood. His 
 plantation joined that of Mr. John Sinkler, 
 whose daughter and only child, Sally, was 
 twenty years old. Buck Sinkler, her cousin, of 
 about her age, living about a mile away, had 
 always loved her the best in the world. But 
 somehow Long Tom, employing his accus 
 tomed energy, prevailed, and, the second 
 wife s parents having died shortly after the 
 marriage, the two plantations were united. 
 
 The conversation recited in the foregoing 
 chapter must serve for a brief history of this 
 ill-assorted marriage. The law in Georgia 
 then, as in most States of the Union, in imita 
 tion of the common laws of England, gave to 
 the husband all his wife s estate that he could re 
 duce to his possession in her lifetime, and even 
 after her death made him administrator, with 
 out liability to render account, and therefore 
 heir of all the estate in which, when dying, she 
 had an interest, vested or contingent. Such 
 rights and powers, in such a man as Tom 
 
198 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 Towns, often led to unhappy consequences, 
 especially where the disparity of age in the 
 husband and wife was great, as in this case, 
 and the husband prone to jealousy. Matters 
 seemed now to have culminated. Broken in 
 health at last by age, by exposure in all sorts 
 of weather, by long yielding to stormy and evil 
 passions, Tom Towns had gradually fallen un 
 der control of Ryal, his elder son, who now 
 dwelt at the house where he had lived prior to 
 his second marriage. 
 
 On the day following that on which the last 
 interview was held with his wife and Wiley, 
 he and Ryal went on horseback to the coun 
 ty seat. Their way lay for half a mile toward 
 Dukesborough, and then diverged southeast 
 ward to the highway leading from the latter to 
 the former village. On the same day Wiley 
 Towns went to Dukesborough. His taking his 
 gun along was not extraordinary, as such an 
 action was frequent among country youth in 
 those times, when game of several sorts was 
 abundant. 
 
 But Wiley was not himself that day. He 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS IQ9 
 
 came early under the influence of liquor for 
 the first time in his life. Then he talked freely 
 and bitterly of his father, especially of the 
 latter s treatment of his mother. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon before he could 
 be induced to leave. Finally old Mr. Lead- 
 better got him upon his horse, and he went 
 reeling away, holding to the mane; his gun 
 swung by a leathern strap dangling at his 
 side. 
 
 Two shots, with a short interval between, 
 an hour later. The sound came up from the 
 bottom a quarter of a mile north of Little 
 Joe Willis s. They heard them distinctly at 
 old Mr. Jonikin s, a mile further south, where 
 Mrs. Willis was on a visit. Mrs. Towns, 
 already anxious about Wiley s prolonged ab 
 sence, especially in his state of mind, was 
 startled, put up her sewing and walked to the 
 gate. Two horses came up saddled, bridled, 
 but riderless, galloping. They were her hus 
 band s, and Ryal s. A few minutes afterward, 
 as she was walking rapidly down the road, 
 she met Joe driving slowly his wagon, and 
 
200 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 Ryal leading, behind, Wiley s horse. In the 
 wagon was the dead body of Tom Towns. 
 
 " My God ! " she exclaimed, " what is this, 
 Ryal ? " 
 
 You see for yourself," answered Ryal. 
 
 "Where s Wiley?" 
 
 ;< Wiley? He s down in the bottom, or 
 twixt here and there." 
 
 She looked for a moment upon her husband s 
 body with horror and then rushed on down the 
 road. 
 
 " You see how it is, Joe," said Ryal. 
 
 "Jes so, Ryal," said Joe. 
 
 They turned in the yard and drove to the 
 house door. Soon Mrs. Towns came up, lead 
 ing her son, whose swollen face and bloodshot 
 eyes were piteous and terrible to see. 
 
 "I hardly think it was done o purpose, 
 Joe," said Ryal when they had taken out the 
 body, carried it into the house and returned to 
 the gate. " I can t hardly believe it was done 
 o purpose." 
 
 Joe Willis was much confused as well as hor 
 rified. 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 2OI 
 
 "I hope not, Ryal. Leastways, I should 
 wish in fact, I should both wish and hope 
 
 " You better go for Mr. Jonikins, Joe, hadn t 
 you ? " 
 
 " I think so," answered Joe, eagerly, and 
 started off. 
 
 "Joe," said Ryal, detaining him for a mo 
 ment, see here, Joe. It s not exactly the 
 time to be talkin about business; but I want 
 to tell you that pa told me, no longer n yis- 
 terday, that he didn t hardly think that he 
 treated you exactly right about the heater, and 
 that if he lived he intended to let you have it on 
 reasonable terms. But he told me that if he 
 died and, Joe, pa seemed to have a suspicion 
 that he wasn t going, somehow, to live long 
 you mind what I m a sayin , Joe?" 
 
 " Co se I do, Ryal." 
 
 " Yes, he seem to spicion that too many was 
 agin him for him to live long, and so he told 
 me that if he should die he was very keer- 
 ful to say if he wanted me to let you have 
 the heater on reasonable terms, and I made up 
 my mind to let you have it well, for little or 
 
202 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 nothin , Joe. It ain t exactly the time to be 
 talkin about business, but yit, knowin how 
 you d been worried and put to trouble about 
 that heater, I thought I d let you know what 
 pa said about it, and what I done already made 
 up my mind I d do. You mind, Joe ? " 
 
 "Yes, Ryal : thanky, thanky," said Joe, 
 moving off. Then he muttered to himself: 
 " Dammdest case I ever see or heerd of." 
 
 Ill 
 
 THEY buried the old man behind the garden. 
 The funeral service was short and constrained. 
 There was agitation in the public mind, but it 
 was silent. What sympathy was expressed 
 was mostly for the widow, and next, strange 
 as it seemed, for Wiley, whose heart seemed 
 broken by remorse. Ryal was pale and tear 
 less. He gave minute directions about the 
 burial. When the grave was filled he took a 
 spade from a bystander, smoothed it down 
 from head to foot, scraped the clods carefully 
 away, then, after looking at it for a few mo- 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 203 
 
 ments, as if it were his grave and nobody else 
 had any interest in it, turned away. 
 
 " I can t think," said Ryal to Mr. Jonikin, in 
 presence of others of the neighbors, " that is 
 I don t like to think that Wiley did it o pur 
 pose. Wiley was drunk, you know, Mr. Joni 
 kin, and for the onliest time at least the 
 onliest time I ever heerd of in his life. He 
 were mighty mad with pa, that s a fact, es 
 pecially about somethin pa said to ma yis- 
 terday. So he said when we got to him where 
 he was alayin down in the road, and pa called 
 to him. He talked rough to pa and pa talked 
 rough to him. Wiley were mighty drunk and 
 mighty mad. When I see him raise his gun I 
 jumped to take it from him but I was too late. 
 Yit Wiley, mad as he were, didn t seem to know 
 exactly what he was adoin nor what he done. 
 To save my life I can t believe that Wiley 
 knowed fully what he were about, and it s my 
 hopes that the neighbors mayn t think so." 
 
 Wiley Towns was overwhelmed. Yet he 
 protested innocence of having- shot his father 
 intentionally. He admitted to have felt very 
 
2O4 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 great indignation against him for certain treat 
 ment he had inflicted upon his mother the pre 
 vious day, and he therefore supposed that, un 
 der the influence of liquor, while in a quarrel 
 on the road, he had fired. The day after the 
 funeral he rode to town and offered himself to 
 the sheriff, who sent him back home on his pa 
 role to appear if prosecution should be insti 
 tuted. This conduct, coupled with the rumor 
 that Tom Towns had disinherited by will his 
 wife entirely and left almost nothing to Wiley, 
 enhanced yet more the sympathy for them. 
 
 " Somebody ought to a killed such a man," 
 said Mrs. Joe Willis. 
 
 " And sure enough they did, Mandy," said 
 Joe. " Uncle Tom weren t the friend to me 
 that he promised ma on her death-bed to be- 
 that is, not exactly, and he never treated me 
 exactly right about the heater. Still I m sorry 
 well, I hope now I ll git it." 
 
 "Joe, that heater, as you call it, don t seem 
 to be ever off your mind." 
 
 " Well, Mandy, nobody wants to be flung 
 into a heater if he can help it." 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 205 
 
 "I suppose not, from the worry yours gives 
 you." 
 
 " It ain t mine. That s the mischief of it. 
 It s Uncle Tom s, arunnin right into me." 
 
 All the same," she said laughing; but 
 what makes you expect to get out of it now ? " 
 
 " Ryal done said I could have it." 
 
 " Good gracious, Joe ! You and Ryal ought 
 both to be ashamed of yourselves, talking 
 about such things so soon." 
 
 Joe was a little ashamed. Now this heater 
 was the one great trouble on the mind of Joe 
 Willis. What was known among planters as a 
 heater," called thus, according to tradition, 
 from the smoothing iron used by laundresses, 
 was a triangular piece of ground protruding 
 from one into another plantation, thereby ren 
 dering fencing of it troublesome and expen 
 sive. The being "flung into a heater" was 
 most especially disagreeable to small farmers. 
 Joe Willis, who was the nephew of T^om 
 Towns s first wife, had besought him often to 
 take him out of the heater; but the former, who 
 enjoyed his worrying in that regard, had al- 
 
206 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 ways persisted in demanding a price that he 
 was unable to pay. Yet Joe, hopeful as he 
 was now of relief, felt somewhat ashamed by 
 this remark of his wife, and went off to himself 
 and ruminated. 
 
 The person most avowed in expression of 
 sympathy for the widow and Wiley was Buck 
 Sinkler. He was yet a bachelor, hearty in 
 body and mind, thriving, the owner of two 
 plantations, Gum Hill and that containing his 
 residence two miles west of the Townses . Ever 
 fond of his Cousin Sally, he had visited often 
 the house in former years, until Towns s mo- 
 roseness kept him away. He and Wiley, how 
 ever, were very often together, and to Wiley 
 he was drawn the more closely because of his 
 father s growing partiality for Ryal, who was 
 Buck s brother-in-law, to whose intermarriage 
 with his sister, ten years before, he had been 
 vehemently opposed. 
 
 " Ryal," he would say of his brother-in-law, 
 " always had the same claws as his father. I 
 could see em, but he managed to keep em hid 
 from Sis Nancy till she married him. He is 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 2O/ 
 
 and always was as regular a chip of the block 
 as were ever clipped off with a hatchet, only 
 he s sly in his meanness, while his father 
 weren t. Tom Towns didn t care if people 
 knowed he was mean, so he could keep on 
 getting property. Well, I m sorry that Wiley 
 killed him, but I shall always believe it was 
 an accident. As he had to die, it s a pity he 
 didn t before he signed that cussed will. I 
 want to see now how Ryal s goin to look 
 when him and Sis Nancy move into that house 
 arfter Cousin Sally and Wiley move out. I 
 haven t seen Sis Nancy, for Ryal and I ain t as 
 thick as brothers-in-law might be expected to 
 be. But I can t believe that Sis Nancy s goin 
 to be satisfied to see Cousin Sally drove out o 
 that house where she was born, and have to 
 begin life over again. Take the case up and 
 clown, by and large, over and under, all round, 
 it s a cussed bad case." 
 
 IV 
 
 THE following is a part of a dialogue had 
 between Ryal Towns and his wife on Saturday 
 
208 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 night, after the homicide, which occurred on 
 Wednesday afternoon: 
 
 " Ryal, what s this talk about your pa s will 
 ing all the property to you and cutting out 
 Cousin Sally and Wiley ? " 
 
 " Who told you about it ? " 
 
 Mandy Willis. She was over here this even 
 ing, and said Joe told her so, and she said that 
 you had promised to let Joe have the twenty- 
 acre heater next to him for almost nothing." 
 
 " I think Mandy might find enough to do at 
 home to keep her from here, mecldlin with my 
 business." 
 
 " I don t see how that is meddling, Ryal. 
 Mandy is not a meddlesome woman, either; 
 but is it so ? " 
 
 " No it ain t. Wiley s left Bob, his wife, and 
 his youngest child, and ma s left what furni 
 tures he had when pa married her." 
 
 " Is that all ? and the house and Sinkler 
 place, that ain t Cousin Sally s ? " 
 
 " No ; it s ours." 
 
 She arose and walked a time or two across 
 the room, then paused in front of her husband, 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 2OQ 
 
 who, during the rest of the conversation, sel 
 dom looked toward her. 
 
 " What do you mean by ours, Ryal ? " 
 
 " Why mine, Nancy, and yours." 
 
 " You may well say mine; but there you 
 might have stopped ; for I have no part or lot 
 in that piece of property." 
 
 He looked at her for a moment, and his dark 
 face flushed. 
 
 " I never see such a woman as you, Nancy, 
 to stand in the way of your own interest." 
 
 " Ryal," she said, endeavoring to be calm, 
 " we ve had, that is, you ve had from your pa, 
 what, if the property was divided between you 
 three, would be your part, and the cause of it 
 is not that your pa loved you so much ; but, 
 more than anything else, because Cousin Sally 
 and Wiley both liked Brother Buck, and your 
 pa hated him." 
 
 "I don t know; I can t say that pa really 
 hated Buck." 
 
 " Yes you do know it, Ryal, and you never 
 tried to keep him from hating him, although 
 he s your wife s only brother." 
 
210 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 " You re mistaken, Nancy. I like Buck 
 Sinkler myself. Leastways I ve tried to get 
 him to like me, but he never comes anigh me, 
 nor anigh you, as to that, exceptin when he 
 knows that he won t meet long o me." 
 
 He uttered this in a piteous tone. 
 
 " And that s because he thinks you ve help 
 ed to prejudice your pa against Cousin Sally 
 and Wiley." 
 
 " It s no sich a thing," he said, doggedly. 
 
 " Ah, well, then let that go. But tell me 
 now, Ryal have you been expecting to move 
 over yonder when Cousin Sally and Wiley 
 gather up their few things and start wandering 
 around for victuals and shelter ?" 
 
 " Nancy, you didn t s pose that I were goin 
 to let ma and Wiley suffer ? " 
 
 "That s neither here nor there. Are you 
 expecting to move over there ? " 
 
 " Well, to tell you the truth, I am. But I 
 tend to let em have this place until Wiley can 
 get one of his own, and I made up my mind 
 not to charge one cent o rent." 
 
 Well, Ryal," she said in a low voice, 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 211 
 
 "there s one person that s not going there to 
 live, and that person s me." 
 
 " Name o God, Nancy ! what do you mean ?" 
 
 " You ve called on the right name, Ryal," 
 she continued, trembling, but not with mortal 
 fear. " It s a name that ain t been called on in 
 these two families, as a habit; leastways, like 
 it ought to be the more s the pity. If I was 
 willing to move over there and Cousin Sally s 
 work has made it the prettiest in the neighbor 
 hood it s because of the name of God that I d 
 be afraid to go. Ryal, you re my husband; I ve 
 been a true wife to you; you ve been a man 
 that for a wife to get along with, she has to 
 take a heap of pains, because you re hard to 
 please, and you re slow to let it be known when 
 you are pleased." 
 
 She sat down, looked into the fire, and her 
 eyes filled with tears. She wiped them away 
 and proceeded : 
 
 " I don t say that you ve been cruel to me, but 
 you ve hurt my feelings, and many times when 
 you didn t intend to do it and didn t know you 
 done it. You ve been hard on the negroes that 
 
212 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 came by me, and you ve never liked my broth 
 er. But as to that I ve never been so much 
 hurt, because there was never much love to 
 lose betwixt you and Brother Buck. You ve 
 hurt me the worst by the way you ve treated 
 Cousin Sally and hinted to your pa about her, 
 and prejudiced him against her. She s not 
 only my cousin, but she s a woman, and any 
 woman that s a true one is obliged to feel hurt 
 when she sees another true woman put upon 
 in ways that hurt her the worst. Such as that 
 goes to a woman s HEART!" She uttered 
 the last word almost with a scream, then rose 
 and stood before her husband, who yet kept 
 his seat and looked upon the floor. 
 
 " And when you ask me in the name of 
 God what I mean, I answer that that s what I 
 mean, and that I d no more go to live in that 
 house, that is, in the way you ve been think 
 ing about, than I d make my bed upon your 
 pa s grave ! " 
 
 He started for a moment, but controlled his 
 anger. She saw it, yet felt no alarm. 
 
 " And not even," said he, " when he was kill- 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 213 
 
 ed by his own son, and the son of the woman 
 we re talkin about ? " 
 
 " Ryal, you ve told me, and you ve told other 
 people that you hardly thought that Wiley 
 knew what he was about when he shot his fa 
 ther, and that you were certain he wouldn t have 
 done such a thing if he hadn t been drunk. 
 Mr. Jonikin says that when Wiley got to the 
 house with Cousin Sally, he was so drunk that 
 he wouldn t believe and could hardly be made 
 to understand that his father was dead. But let 
 that all go. Cousin Sally had nothing to do 
 with that; and yet it was his suspicion of her 
 that made him sign such a will. You knew it 
 was, Ryal. He loved Wiley more than he did 
 you. He told you so more than once, and be 
 fore me. The very night he staid here he said 
 he intended to leave Wiley all of Bob s family, 
 and this place as long as Cousin Sally remain 
 ed a widow, and now he s left that out. How 
 it happened I don t know." 
 
 Ryal looked at her for a moment and seemed 
 to be considering how to reply. 
 
 " Another thing, Ryal. When your mother 
 
214 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 died you were a sickly child. I ve heard Mr. 
 Jonikin and Mrs. Jonikin say that Cousin Sally, 
 though she was scarcely grown when she mar 
 ried your pa, yet from the very day she married 
 him, took you, and nobody who didn t know 
 better would have believed but that you were 
 her own child; and she raised you and carried 
 you through years of sickness, until you got 
 over it, and that not even when Wiley was born 
 did she ever make any difference with you ex 
 cept to make Wiley give way to you, which the 
 boy s always done and does yet." 
 
 "My Godamighty, Nancy ! What has that 
 got to do with it ? " he said with quivering voice. 
 
 " I don t know what it s got to do with you, 
 Ryal," she answered, looking him in the face 
 with dilated eyes; " but with me it s got this 
 that even if I believed that Wiley shot his fa 
 ther in cold blood and with a clear head and I 
 haven t a doubt that it was an accident, for that 
 boy never could be a murderer, drunk or sober 
 yet for Sally s sake I could not go to that house 
 to live; no more you hear me say it again 
 than I could make my bed upon your pa s grave." 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 215 
 
 She left him immediately and went off to bed. 
 Ryal sat up much later. 
 
 ON that same night another conjugal chat 
 was had in the neighborhood. Joe Willis had 
 returned from his field, eaten his supper silent 
 ly, and he and his wife sat before the fire. She 
 had been waiting to see him settled and still; 
 for he was naturally a restless little man, and, 
 I suppose I ought to add, remarkably hand 
 some, as this was the main reason why he had 
 succeeded in getting such a wife. 
 
 " Joe, Nancy Towns says she isn t going to 
 move over to your Aunt Sally s, and she says 
 that if she was in your place, she wouldn t go 
 to fencing in that heater, at least yet awhile." 
 She had other things to say to her husband; 
 but she determined to withhold them for the 
 present. Ryal had been over there that morn 
 ing, and said that he might move his fence at 
 once, and pay his own price, and at his own 
 time, and Joe was ruminating. 
 
216 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 " Nancy," he answered, with his usual cour 
 ageous start in discussing with his wife ques 
 tions on which they were not in entire accord, 
 " Nancy may tend to her own business, Man- 
 dy, and I ll try to tend to mine." 
 
 " The reason she gives, Joe, is that she thinks 
 the property belongs, or ought to belong, and 
 if justice is done will belong, as much to your 
 Aunt Sally and Wiley as to Ryal." 
 
 " Nancy don t know anything about it, Man- 
 dy," said he petulantly. "Women don t un 
 derstand about land, nor the titles to land. 
 Now, Mandy, the titles to all the land up to 
 last Wednesday evenin , them titles lay in 
 Uncle Tom, the heater and all, and which, as 
 to that, he d a never took me out where he 
 flung me. But you see now, Mandy, Uncle 
 Tom he s dead, and the title s outen him and 
 settled in Ryal, accordin to the will he left. 
 And, therefore, Mandy, them titles " 
 
 " Look at me, Joe. Turn around, and look 
 at me," for Joe sat with his back not exactly 
 opposed to, but quartering to her, and looked 
 up at the ceiling wisely and intently as he de- 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 2 
 
 livered himself of these legal dicta. "Turn 
 right around and look at me there. Nancy 
 says that your Uncle Tom, from what Ryal 
 tells her, did not give to Wiley the property 
 that he said he was going to give him the very 
 night before he made his will." 
 
 " Lor me, Mandy, can t a man change his 
 mind, and especially about the makin of wills 
 and passin the titles to landed property ? A 
 man may talk, and talk, and talk, both before 
 and after, as to that matter, he d signed the 
 papers; but it s not his talk neither before nor 
 after, that passes the titles, but it s the papers, 
 and which Nancy, and in fact wimming in 
 general 
 
 "As for changing a man s mind, Joe, of 
 course he can do that. I ve known you even 
 to do that when you found you was wrong 
 
 " Oh, thunder ! " and Joe resumed his former 
 position. 
 
 " As you re certain to do now." 
 
 He turned square around again. 
 
 "What about that heater that s made me 
 keep up two strings o fence for the last ten 
 
218 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 years when I oughtn t to ve kep up but one, 
 and hit a short one ? I tell you, Mandy " 
 
 She rose, lifted her chair, and set it down 
 close by her husband. 
 
 "Joe, there s something mighty bad about 
 all this business." 
 
 " Good gracious me alive, Mandy ! It is a 
 bad piece o busines; but is it any o mine ? Did 
 I have anything to do with the makin o Uncle 
 Tom s will or the or the shootin of him ? " 
 
 " You ought to be ashamed of yourself for 
 asking me any such a question." 
 
 "Well, you look like ah, you look like 
 you spicioned." 
 
 " Well, Joe, if I look that way I deceive my 
 looks, as the saying is. Of course, we all know 
 how your Uncle Tom was killed, but every 
 body believes it was an accident; but that s 
 got nothing to do with the other business." 
 
 " Of co se it ain t. If it had " Joe got up, 
 and walked the floor. 
 
 "You see, Mandy," said he, returning to 
 calm discussion of legal principles, "when I 
 once gits the heater into my possession, my 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 2IQ 
 
 peaceable possession, you mind, Mandy, so far 
 as Ryal s concerned the titles to the property, 
 and landed property, Mandy, s a thing that 
 women, as a general thing not that I don t 
 think a heap of Nancy, and suppose you know, 
 leastways you ought to know, my opinion of 
 you." 
 
 Joe rubbed his curly head passionately as he 
 walked up and down. 
 
 " Joe, "said his wife, turning and following 
 him with her eyes as he walked, " you ve never 
 taken my advice and been sorry for it." 
 
 " Mandy," said Joe, pausing, looking at his 
 wife, and speaking almost in a whisper, " I m 
 afraid not to go on to fencing that heater 
 arfter Ryal told me to. Ryal Towns is my 
 cousin; but he s Ryal s a curious fellow." 
 
 She rose up instantly. 
 
 "Joe, let me ask you a question. Aren t 
 you a man ? " 
 
 " What did you say, Mandy ? " 
 
 " I ll try to speak distinct, so that there 
 mayn t be a mistake. I asked Mister Josiah 
 Willis if he wasn t a man." 
 
220 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 " If I ain t if I ain t mistaken bout my own 
 sect, I I am. Leastways, I ll go so far as to 
 give it as my opinion, that I think I am." 
 
 " Well, then, I d be a man, and I d keep on 
 being a man. You are one man and Ryal 
 Towns another, and I can t see how one man, 
 if he is a man, can be afraid of another man, 
 who is nothing more than a man. And yet 
 there stands my husband, whom I love better 
 than my own life, who acknowledges " 
 
 She put her hand to her eyes, turned from 
 him, and sobbed. 
 
 " Oh, Joe, Joe! " she proceeded, yet weeping; 
 " you are as honest-hearted a man as ever 
 lived, in spite of the wretched examples you ve 
 had in your Uncle Tom and Ryal. Thank 
 God, you ve never loved em much. But I 
 didn t think you was afraid of em, and until 
 this very week you haven t been ; and I want 
 to know what it s about, and I m going to find 
 out before I go to bed." Then clearing her 
 face she continued, " But before I do that, I ll 
 give you a message that was left here for you 
 this evening by Buck Sinkler." 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 221 
 
 Who from ? 
 
 " William Mobley. 
 
 Joe started. " What upon earth can Wil 
 liam Mobley want with me ? " 
 
 " That I can t tell ; but he told Buck to tell 
 you that he wanted to see you on urgent busi 
 ness a Monday morning-, unless you could go 
 to town to-morrow. The will s agoin to be 
 brought into court a Monday, and he wants to 
 see you beforehand. He was going to send 
 the sheriff with a paper of some sort to you ; 
 but Buck said it wasn t worth while, because 
 he d tell you. And he said also to Buck that 
 from what he had heard about the will he be 
 lieved he could break it." 
 
 Joe walked rapidly across the room several 
 times without saying a word. 
 
 She watched him as he walked. On one 
 side of the fireplace was a cradle in which lay 
 asleep another little Joe, a year old. She 
 rose, went to the cradle, pulled the covering 
 from the child s face and said : 
 
 " Come here, Joe." 
 
 He came. 
 
222 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 " Look down there. There lies Joe Willis 
 the second, beautiful like his father, and loved 
 by me next to his father. But do you know, 
 Joe, that I d rather he would die to-night, 
 there in his cradle, than to grow up to a man and 
 be afraid to do right for fear of another man ? " 
 
 Joe pulled at his hair as if he hated it. She 
 took a chair, and drew another close beside it ; 
 then said : 
 
 " Come here, Joe; sit down by me, and let us 
 talk, heart to heart, as we promised to do, with 
 each other." 
 
 Joe took the chair. They sat long together 
 and their talk was the beginning of a conjugal 
 career happier than it had ever been before. 
 
 VI 
 
 RYAL TOWNS was deeply pained by the 
 knowledge of the sympathy there was in the 
 neighborhood for his stepmother and brother, 
 and the universal sentiment that the homicide 
 was wholly accidental. Late on Sunday after 
 noon he rode over to Joe Willis s. Finding 
 that Joe was gone to town he was greatly sur- 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 223 
 
 prised, and asked of his wife the reason. She 
 answered that William Mobley had sent a 
 message to him that he wished to see him, but 
 about what she could not say. Mr. Sinkler 
 who brought it didn t know. He mused awhile, 
 then without alighting from his horse, turned 
 and rode back. 
 
 The court having jurisdiction of the estates 
 of minors and deceased persons, with that of 
 general public county business, consisted of 
 five justices, resident citizens. The greater 
 part of Monday had been consumed in the 
 matters of roads and bridges, and it was mid 
 way in the afternoon before the consideration 
 of the ordinary business came on. When it 
 did, Mr. Elam Sandige, as counsel for Ryal 
 Towns, propounded the last will and testament 
 of Thomas Towns in common form ; that is, 
 without formal notice to all parties presumed 
 to be interested, a procedure which made it 
 unnecessary to seriously contest at this junc 
 ture. William Mobley, a young lawyer, and a 
 relative of the Sinklers, had been retained by 
 Buck to watch the case and obtain whatever 
 
224 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 was possible for Mrs. Towns and Wiley. This 
 he was endeavoring to do, and, as a start in 
 working the case had sent the message to Joe 
 Willis, with whom, on Monday morning, he 
 had a long conference. 
 
 When the case was opened he asked of Mr. 
 Sandige permission to inspect the paper pro 
 pounded , read it carefully and then rose and said : 
 
 " May it please your honors, the paper pro 
 pounded seems to have been executed in con 
 formity to all legal requirements. In the cod 
 icil of the will, however, but for reasons which 
 it is not now necessary to explain, I might 
 contend, on the part of those whom I represent, 
 there are conditions which tend to show that 
 the testator s mind was not fully determined 
 when the will was signed. But I propose to 
 put the case of my clients upon other grounds." 
 
 Then taking his hat, he withdrew from the 
 court house and went to his office. 
 
 " It s no use talking, Buck," he said an hour 
 afterward, as, with the latter and the sheriff, 
 Triplett, standing in the vestibule of his office, 
 he looked at Ryal while, with his letters testa- 
 
 \ 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 225 
 
 mentary in his hand, he was making for his 
 horse standing at the rack on the public 
 square; "I don t blame you for wanting it 
 stopped, but you can t stop such things, Buck; 
 God Almighty won t let them stop. I sus 
 pected how it was from the first." 
 
 Ryal unhitched his horse and had his foot in 
 the stirrup ready to mount, when Triplett s 
 hand was laid upon his shoulder. He shrank 
 as if it were a heavy bar of heated iron. 
 
 " I m sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Towns," 
 said Triplett, " but I ve a paper for you." He 
 held it up before his face so he could see the 
 superscription. 
 
 "My God!" exclaimed Ryal, and leaned 
 against the rack. "Who says so, Triplett? 
 Who started this ? " Further utterance was 
 choked in his throat. He requested to be al 
 lowed to go to Mr. Sandige s office. The 
 sheriff conducted him thither and waited at the 
 door until he emerged. Then, as it was too 
 late to procure bail, even if allowable, Triplett, 
 by consent of Mobley, rather than imprison 
 him in jail, took him to his own house for the 
 
226 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 night. Buck Sinkler had already sent a mes 
 senger to Wiley requesting him to notify Ryal s 
 wife that he would be arrested on a criminal 
 charge, without saying what. It was late at 
 night when Wiley reached town with his sister- 
 in-law, as their residence was sixteen miles 
 distant. Old Triplett could never speak of the 
 meeting of husband and wife without tears. 
 Ryal assured her of his innocence, and she 
 thoroughly believed it. Neither Ryal nor his 
 wife slept that night. She lay by his side, and 
 they conversed the livelong night. Stung to 
 the heart by not finding her brother there (he 
 had returned home by another way), she clung 
 closer to her husband, and when the morning 
 came felt that never, since the day of her mar 
 riage, had she loved him so entirely. 
 
 Early in the day the justices before whom 
 the trial for commitment was to be had met in 
 the court room. Ryal, pale as the dead, looked 
 hard at Joe Willis, who was sitting by William 
 Mobley. He had sought Joe several times on 
 the day before; but as no one could tell him 
 where he was, he supposed he had returned 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 22/ 
 
 home. Joe looked about him and seemed to 
 see everybody in the room except Ryal. The 
 counsel opening the case said he had but one 
 witness to offer, but perhaps would follow his 
 testimony with some circumstances tending, if 
 necessary, to corroborate it. Then he asked 
 Joe Willis to take the stand. Mrs. Towns re 
 garded Joe and her husband alternately. Ryal 
 looked at Joe for a few moments then at his 
 wife for a few more, most yearningly. It was 
 the last time that he ever saw that face. 
 
 Joe Willis himself was a little pale when he 
 began. He employed many words in relating 
 how he had been on a walk to the heater, 
 counting the rails that he would save by tak 
 ing it into his own possession, if such a for 
 tune should ever befall him, and then how, 
 upon the return home, he was astonished to 
 find Wiley Towns lying by the side of the road 
 asleep and intoxicated, while his horse was 
 browsing near by. There Joe paused. 
 
 "What did you do when you saw Wiley 
 Towns ? " asked Mr. Mobley. 
 
 "Nothin , answered Joe. "Narythingdidldo." 
 
228 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Because I heard voices." Ryal groaned 
 from the great deep of his breast. 
 
 "I heard voices," continued Joe, "and I 
 didn t want Uncle Tom to think that I had 
 anything to do with the making of Wiley 
 drunk; and so I got out o the road and dodged 
 behind the big poplar." 
 
 "Joe," said Ryal, haggard and beseeching, 
 "how can you stand there and talk that way 
 when you know you was at home when I got 
 there, and you asked me who that was shootin 
 down in the bottom ? " 
 
 " Yes, Ryal," answered Joe, without looking 
 at him, " but I m on my oath now, and at that 
 time things was too hot, and too much devil 
 was in you for me to let you know where I 
 thes been and what I saw." 
 
 Ryal shifted his chair so that he could rest 
 his elbow on a table near by and lean his 
 head upon his hand. Lifting his gaze above 
 Joe it seemed fixed upon the ceiling. His 
 wife followed him with her eyes, which were 
 fastened upon him while Joe proceeded with 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 22Q 
 
 his testimony. This was to the effect fol 
 lowing : 
 
 The old man s fondness for Wiley seemed to 
 have been returning as he drew near home. 
 When first heard by Joe he was railing at Ryal 
 for wanting all the property, and especially for 
 having left the will in town contrary to his ex 
 press injunctions. They had reached the little 
 stream of water that crossed the road, and their 
 horses were drinking. 
 
 "I mean to go right back to town and burn 
 up that cussed will. It ain t the way I want it. 
 The old man- 
 Just as the old man said these words Wiley s 
 horse appeared walking towards those ridden 
 by the others, and Wiley was observed pros 
 trate in the road. His father gave an excla 
 mation and called to him. Ryal said to his fa 
 ther that one of the neighbors whom they met 
 on the return had told him that Wiley had been 
 in Dukesborough all day, and been drinking 
 very hard. Both dismounted and approached 
 Wiley. Ryal reached him first. Lifting the 
 gun as far as the belt yet around Wiley would 
 
230 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 allow, then getting upon his knees, and taking- 
 deliberate aim, he shot his father. The latter 
 was so close that every shot went through his 
 body. The report momentarily aroused Wiley, 
 and in some sort of a struggle between the two 
 brothers the gun was fired again after the fa 
 ther had fallen. Joe would never forget, he 
 said, "the words of the old man when, seeing 
 Ryal pointing the gun, he threw up his hands 
 and cried : Oh, Wiley ! Wiley ! He s going 
 to kill me! forgive me, Wiley! Oh, my God, 
 forgive me ! 
 
 Then Joe told how Ryal had charged Wiley 
 with the killing, and how himself, after crawling 
 upon his hands and knees for a few rods, had 
 risen and run to his own house, where he had 
 barely recovered his breath when Ryal came 
 up. 
 
 During the recital Ryal Towns s face grew 
 more and more livid. His head subsided until 
 it now lay upon his arm on the table. His wife 
 then moved her chair beside his and, taking 
 his hands, she shuddered. 
 
 " Ryal, ".she said, " this is death ! Oh, you 
 
THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 23! 
 
 judges and you people, leave him with me for 
 a little while, won t you ? won t you ? " 
 
 " Clear the court room, Mr. Sheriff," said one 
 of the justices who, with his colleague and the 
 rest, went out, or backed to the door. 
 
 She put her arm around her husband, and 
 drew his head to her bosom. 
 
 " There, now, that s the only place." Look 
 ing into his eyes, yet directed on high, she said: 
 
 " Ryal, do you know that the hand of God is 
 upon you ? Oh, my husband, do you know 
 that you are dying ? " 
 
 " Yes," he answered. 
 
 " Oh, my husband ! my husband ! " 
 
 She took from her shoulders the shawl where 
 with she was wrapped, folded it, rose from her 
 chair, placed the shawl in it, and tenderly laid 
 his head upon it; then knelt by his side. 
 
 "Ryal, my husband, don t go into the pres 
 ence of God without repentance and confes 
 sion. Oh, my Ryal, pray God to forgive you ! 
 Pray, Ryal ! pray, my husband ! Pray ! Oh, 
 my God ! don t take his life till he prays ! " 
 
 And then she uttered a scream so loud, so 
 
232 THE TOWNSES AND THEIR COUSINS 
 
 piercing, so agonizing- that none who heard it 
 ceased during life to remember it. 
 
 " Pray for me, Nancy," he said in a whisper. 
 She lifted her eyes toward Heaven, and in her 
 husband s name implored pardon, especially for 
 this last great crime. 
 
 The words were few but full of passion, and 
 they were not ended when he died. 
 
 A year after this event Buck Sinkler and his 
 sister, who now lived with him, were sitting by 
 the fireside in the evening. Buck had just re 
 turned from a visit to Mrs. Towns, and was in 
 low spirits. His sister said to him : 
 
 "Brother Buck, I knew it would be useless. 
 Even if Cousin Sally should think of marrying 
 again, and I know she doesn t any more than I 
 do, she wouldn t think it would be right to 
 marry you, remembering how her husband felt 
 about you." 
 
 " Yes," answered Buck, "that s what she told 
 
 me. She s a great woman, Sally is. She s truer to 
 
 Tom Towns in his grave than the poor creature 
 
 was to her when living. Be it so. I give it up. 
 
 THE END 
 
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 hearty commendation in this country or England. 
 ("Fiction, Fact, and Fancy Series.") Cloth, 12mo, 75 
 cents. (In Press.) 
 
Popular New Books. Chas. L. Webster & Co. 
 
 fliscellaneous. 
 
 Tariff Reform: The Paramount Issue. Speeches 
 and writings on the questions involved in the presiden 
 tial contest of 1892. By WILLIAM M. SPRINGER, Chair 
 man of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House 
 of Representatives, Fifty-second Congress. AVith por 
 traits of the author and others. This book is endorsed 
 by Hon. Adlai E. Stevenson, Hon. Calvin S. Brice, and 
 Hon. John G. Carlisle. Unquestionably the paramount 
 issue of the Campaign is the Tariff. * Cloth, library 
 style, $1.50; Paper, $1.00. 
 
 Physical Beauty: How to Obtain and How to 
 Preserve It. By ANNIE JENNESS MILLER. A prac 
 tical, sensible, helpful book that every woman should 
 read; including chapters on Hygiene, Foods, Sleep, 
 Bodily Expression, the Skin, the Eyes, the Teeth, the 
 Hair, Dress, the Cultivation of Individuality, etc., etc. 
 Fully illustrated, octavo, 300 pages. White Vellum, 
 Gold and Silver Stamps, in Box, $2.00; Blue Vellum, 
 $2.00. 
 
 " Every woman will be a more perfect woman for reading it; 
 more perfect in soul and body." Philadelphia Inquirer. 
 
 "Her arguments are sane, philosophical, and practical." 
 New York World. 
 
 " Parents may well place it in the hands of their young 
 daughters. 11 Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette. 
 
 "Earnestly and gracefully written. 1 New York Sun. 
 
 " The illustrations are pretty and suggestive." The Critic. 
 
 The Speech of Monkeys. By R. L. GARNER. Mr. 
 Garner s articles, published in the leading periodicals 
 and journals touching upon this subject, have been 
 widely read and favorably commented upon by scientific 
 men both here and abroad. "The Speech of Monkeys " 
 embodies his researches up to the present time. It is 
 divided into two parts, the first being a record of ex 
 periments with monkeys and other animals, and the 
 second part a treatise on the theory of speech. The 
 work is written so as to bring the subject within reach 
 of the casual reader without impairing its scientific 
 value. Small 8vo, with Frontispiece, Cloth, $1.00. 
 
M144710 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 GENERAL LIBRARY- U.C. BERKELEY