THE CHURCH MILITANT.
Bud was doubly enlisted on the side of John Pearson, the basket-maker.
In the first place, he knew that this persecution of the unpopular old
man was only a blind to save somebody else; that they were thieves who
cried, "Stop thief!" And he felt consequently that this was a chance to
put his newly-formed resolutions into practice. The Old Testament
religious life, which consists in fighting the Lord's enemies, suited
Bud's temper and education. It might lead to something better. It was
the best possible to him, now. But I am afraid I shall have to
acknowledge that there was a second motive that moved Bud to this
championship. The good heart of Martha Hawkins having espoused the cause
of the basket-maker, the heart of Bud Means could not help feeling
warmly on the same side. Blessed is that man in whose life the driving
of duty and the drawing of love impel the same way! But why speak of the
driving of duty? For already Bud was learning the better lesson of
serving God for the love of God.
The old basket-maker was the most unpopular man in Flat Creek district.
He had two great vices. He would go to Clifty and have a "spree" once in
three months. And he would tell the truth in a most unscrupulous manner.
A man given to plain speaking was quite as objectionable in Flat Creek
as he would have been in France under the Empire, the Commune, or the
Republic, and almost as objectionable as he would be in any refined
community in America. People who live in glass houses have a horror of
people who throw stones. And the old basket-maker, having no friends,
was a good scape-goat. In driving him off, Pete Jones would get rid of a
dangerous neighbor and divert attention from himself. The immediate
crime of the basket-maker was that he had happened to see too much.
"Mr. Hartsook," said Bud, when they got out into the road, "you'd better
go straight home to the Squire's. Bekase ef this lightnin' strikes a
second time it'll strike awful closte to you. You hadn't better be seen
with us. Which way did you come, Shocky?"
"Why, I tried to come down the holler, but I met Jones right by the big
road, and he sweared at me and said he'd kill me ef I didn't go back and
stay. And so I went back to the house and then slipped out through the
graveyard. You see I was bound to come ef I got skinned. For Mr.
Pearson's, stuck to me and I mean to stick to him, you see."
Bud led Shocky through the graveyard. But when they reached the forest
path from the graveyard he thought that perhaps it was not best to "show
his hand," as he expressed it, too soon.
"Now, Shocky," he said, "do you run ahead and tell the ole man that I
want to see him right off down by the Spring-in-rock. I'll keep closte
behind you, and ef anybody offers to trouble you, do you let off a yell
and I'll be thar in no time."
When Ralph left the school-house he felt mean. There were Bud and Shocky
gone on an errand of mercy, and he, the truant member of the Church of
the Best Licks, was not with them. The more he thought of it the more he
seemed to be a coward, and the more he despised himself; so, yielding as
usual to the first brave impulse, he leaped nimbly over the fence and
started briskly through the forest in a direction intersecting the path
on which were Bud and Shocky. He came in sight just in time to see the
first conflict of the Church in the Wilderness with her foes.
For Shocky's little feet went more swiftly on their eager errand than
Bud had anticipated. He got farther out of Bud's reach than the latter
intended he should, and he did not discover Pete Jones until Pete, with
his hog-drover's whip, was right upon him.
Shocky tried to halloo for Bud, but he was like one in a nightmare. The
yell died into a whisper which could not have been heard ten feet.
I shall not repeat Mr. Jones's words. They were frightfully profane. But
he did not stop at words. He swept his whip round and gave little Shocky
one terrible cut. Then the voice was released, and the piercing cry of
pain brought Bud down the path flying.
"You good-for-nothing scoundrel," growled Bud, "you're a coward and a
thief to be a-beatin' a little creetur like him!" and with that Bud
walked up on Jones, who prudently changed position in such a way as to
get the upper side of the hill.
"Well, I'll gin you the upper side, but come on," cried Bud, "ef you
a'n't afeared to fight somebody besides a poor little sickly baby or a
crippled soldier. Come on!"
[Illustration: Bud Means comes to the rescue of Shocky.]
Pete was no insignificant antagonist. He had been a great fighter, and
his well-seasoned arms were like iron. He had not the splendid set of
Bud, but he had more skill and experience in the rude tournament of
fists to which the backwoods is so much given. Now, being out of sight
of witnesses and sure that he could lie about the fight afterward, he
did not scruple to take advantages which would have disgraced him
forever if he had taken them in a public fight on election day or at a
muster. He took the uphill side, and he clubbed his whip-stalk, striking
Bud with all his force with the heavy end, which, coward-like, he had
loaded with lead. Bud threw up his strong left arm and parried the blow,
which, however, was so fierce that it fractured one of the bones of the
arm. Throwing away his whip Pete rushed upon Bud furiously, intending to
overpower him, but Bud slipped quickly to one side and let Jones pass
down the hill, and as Jones came up again Means dealt him one crushing
blow that sent him full length upon the ground. Nothing but the leaves
saved him from a most terrible fall. Jones sprang to his feet more angry
than ever at being whipped by one whom he regarded as a boy, and drew a
long dirk-knife. But he was blind with rage, and Bud dodged the knife,
and this time gave Pete a blow on the nose which marred the homeliness
of that feature and doubled the fellow up against a tree ten feet away.
Ralph came in sight in time to see the beginning of the fight, and he
arrived on the ground just as Pete Jones went down under the well-dealt
blow from the only remaining fist of Bud Means.
While Ralph examined Bud's disabled left arm Pete picked himself up
slowly, and, muttering that he felt "consid'able shuck up like," crawled
away like a whipped puppy. To every one whom he met, Pete, whose
intellect seemed to have weakened in sympathy with his frame, remarked
feebly that he was consid'able shuck up like, and vouchsafed no other
explanation. Even to his wife he only said that he felt purty
consid'able shuck up like, and that the boys would have to get on
to-night without him. There are some scoundrels whose very malignity is
shaken out of them for the time being by a thorough drubbing.
"I'm afraid you're going to have trouble with your arm, Bud," said Ralph
tenderly.
"Never mind; I put in my best licks fer _Him_ that air time, Mr.
Hartsook." Ralph shivered a little at thought of this, but if it was
right to knock Jones down at all, why might not Bud do it "heartily as
unto the Lord?"
Gideon did not feel any more honest pleasure in chastising the
Midianites than did Bud in sending Pete Jones away purty consid'able
shuck up like.