IT seemed to Bishop Caiaphas that the new rector of the Church of the
Advent was disposed to take on himself almost over-zealously the office
of a new broom, and to sweep out the corners of the parish so cleanly
and so thoroughly that even many of the little pet negligences of his
own were likely to be cleared away with other things that could be
better spared.
There was, for instance, a poor family in the parish named Kettle.
It consisted of a father, a mother, and a blind son. The father,
Joseph Kettle, had been a cobbler by trade, but he had become almost
completely crippled by rheumatism. The wife, Martha Kettle, Bishop
Caiaphas had every reason to think, was a very industrious, worthy,
honest woman. She was a particular pensioner of Mrs. Caiaphas's, who
used to give the poor woman her cast-off dresses. In these dresses
Martha always looked the perfection of neatness and respectability,
and Mrs. Caiaphas felt the pleasantness of doing a worthy charity in
giving away her cast-off garments to one who looked so well in them.
Martha Kettle used to do the greater part of the washing and the finer
laundry work for the rectory, and, altogether, the Kettles were quite a
part of the family dependants.
The only apparent blot upon the otherwise fair surface of
respectability of the Kettle family was the son of this worthy pair,
one Tom Kettle, who had been blind from his birth. He was thoroughly
bad.
Why the children of apparently respectable poor people so often
degenerate into that class of the poor who are not respectable is one
of the mysteries of that Providence that so arranges these factors of
its divine paradox. The sons of rich people oftentimes fall away from
grace, but they are rarely allowed to be altogether lost, no matter how
dissipated they may become. The sons of poor people, when they fall
away from grace, do generally go altogether to the bad.
Tom Kettle was just such a degeneration from the poor respectability
of his parents. He was one of that kind with whom you feel you can do
nothing to help them--that they have nothing you can take hold of.
They do not seem to have any real affection for you, or any feeling
for the kindnesses you do them; they not only do not seem to feel any
gratitude, but they do not seem to feel any responsiveness to personal
kindness; they do not seem to understand any of the usual requirements
of duty or obedience or common honesty. They accept all you do for
them with a certain half-sullen acquiescence, but they make no return
by becoming better--they do not even attempt to improve themselves.
Such a one was Tom Kettle. Bishop Caiaphas had known him for all the
twenty odd years that he had been rector of the Church of the Advent,
but in all that time he did not feel that he had found anything of Tom
Kettle's nature that he could grasp. He used to confess, almost with
despair, "I cannot understand him."
When Dr. Caiaphas had first come into the parish the boy was about
eight or ten years old. He was a rather fine-looking little fellow at
that time, and his mother always kept him well dressed. Dr. Caiaphas
was at once very much interested in him, for the misfortune into which
the boy had been born appealed very strongly to his sympathies. He
managed to get him entered into the public asylum for the blind, there
to be educated.
Dr. Caiaphas did not know then, as he afterwards discovered, that
Tom was an essentially dishonest boy, mischievous, a liar, and very
profane. He saw that he was wilful, but then he felt that much must be
forgiven to one who was so afflicted. Tom Kettle did not refuse to go
to the asylum, but within two weeks he had run away. Dr. Caiaphas was
very angry, for he had been at much trouble to get him entered at the
institution. He scolded, and Tom listened sullenly. "I ain't a-goin'
back again," said he; "the bread was sour twict, and they don't give
you but one help of butter."
Then Tom's mother began pleading for him, and the upshot of it was
that he was not returned to the asylum--and the authorities were very
willing that he should not be again sent to them.
Perhaps, if Tom Kettle had had his eyesight he would have been a
professional thief; as it was, he had become a professional beggar.
He was away from home more than half the time, and no one knew how
he was living or what he was doing. His mother used to cry over his
transgressions.
Such as this was the man blind from his birth who sat begging by the
road-side when Christ passed by.
Christ opened his eyes, for the divine mercy draws no distinction
between the righteous and the sinner--unless it be to pity the sinner.
* * * * *
One day Dr. Dayton almost burst in upon Bishop Caiaphas as he sat in
his study.
"Bishop," he said, "do you know a fellow named Tom Kettle?"
The bishop leaned back in his well-worn, leather chair almost with a
sigh. He felt that the new broom was about to begin sweeping again.
"Tom Kettle, the blind man?" he asked.
"Blind?" said Dr. Dayton. "Are you sure he ever was blind?"
"Why, yes," said the bishop. "I am as morally sure of it as I can be of
anything."
"To be morally sure and actually sure are two very different things,"
said Dr. Dayton. "What do you really know of this man and his family?"
Dr. Dayton often catechised Bishop Caiaphas in this way, and the bishop
did not like it. It did not seem right that he should be so questioned
and cross-questioned by the man whom he himself had installed in
the vacant pulpit of the Church of the Advent; but he answered very
patiently. "I am afraid that Tom Kettle is a sad black sheep. As
for his parents, I have always found them good, decent, respectable
people. We--Mrs. Caiaphas and I--have known them almost ever since we
have come here."
"Have you often given clothes to them?" pursued Dr. Dayton,
remorselessly.
The bishop winced uncomfortably. He fingered the papers on his desk.
"I believe," he said, "now and then Mrs. Caiaphas has given clothes to
Martha Kettle."
Dr. Dayton laughed. "I am sure she has," he said. "As for Mrs. Kettle,
she is, indeed, a very thrifty woman. Perhaps you do not know, bishop,
that for some time past she has been habitually selling the clothes
that Mrs. Caiaphas has given to her. She sells them to the poorer
neighbors in the house in which she lives. She cleans them and mends
them, and then sells them."
Bishop Caiaphas could not believe this. "Oh, doctor," he said, "surely
you are mistaken in this. I have known Martha Kettle intimately for
years, and I cannot believe she would do such a thing."
Dr. Dayton laughed again. "My dear friend," he said, laying his hand
on the bishop's shoulder, "the fact is that your warmly affectionate
nature lays you peculiarly open to the attacks of designing people.
Only yesterday this woman sold a black dress that Mrs. Caiaphas had
given her to a poor sewing-woman on the flat above. A great many
little things make me think that these Kettles are more sly than
simple. The poor people in the parish have seen that they were--if I
may so phrase it--pets of yours and of Mrs. Caiaphas's, and many things
that you might have known have been kept from you because they were
afraid to tell."
Poor Bishop Caiaphas felt that the new broom had swept out a corner
that was especially dear to him. Added to this was that singular
bitterness that one feels in finding that one's impulses of charity and
generosity have been imposed upon. He tried to excuse Martha Kettle,
but he felt that if what Dr. Dayton said were true, Martha could never
be the same to him again. "Well," he said, after a pause, "I don't
quite see the heinousness of this offence. The clothes were given to
her, and she could do as she chose with them. I had rather she had worn
them herself, but, after they were given to her, I don't see that I
could dictate what she should do with them."
"Just so," said Dr. Dayton; "but, if you will forgive me, I think it
would have been wiser not to have given her so much. However, that is
only a little matter--a straw that may show the drift of the wind. What
I chiefly came to you about was concerning this man Tom Kettle. I have
only spoken of this other little thing because I have questioned in my
own mind whether this family that you have helped so liberally, and who
have deceived you so entirely in small things, may not have deceived
you in great things. This is why I asked you if you were sure that
Tom Kettle was really blind. Day before yesterday he met this Healer
that the poor people are making such a hubbub about. He came back with
his eyesight as sharp as is mine at this very minute. He claims that
he was miraculously cured. Is it not possible that these people have
been deceiving you all this time, and that the man never was blind?
I don't know how you yourself feel about all this business, bishop,"
he continued, "but to me such trifling with things sacred is very
revolting."
"Very," said Bishop Caiaphas. Then he sat in thoughtful silence for a
while. "This is very dreadful to me, Dayton," he said, at last--"very
dreadful, indeed. I cannot even yet believe that the parents of this
man are really as deceitful as you suspect them to be. I think they
erred in turning my charity into a matter of sordid gain, but I do not
think they could have deceived me in such a thing as Tom's blindness. I
confess, however, that you have sadly shaken my confidence in them."
"You do not believe this man's story, do you? You don't believe that
Tom Kettle has been miraculously cured?"
"I cannot believe it--of course, I cannot believe it."
"Then what other alternative is there but to believe that these people
have been deceiving you all these years? Tom Kettle himself is a
thorough-going rogue. He is doing a great mischief now, for I find
the poor people throughout the parish are actually inclined to listen
to his story. I find they are talking a great deal about it, and it
is my opinion that if some immediate means are not taken to deal very
drastically with this case that is so palpably thrust upon us, we shall
have still more of these poor, misguided people flocking away from the
Church to follow after Christ."
The bishop still sat thoughtfully. "What would you recommend?" he said,
after a while.
"Well, if you ask my advice, I should recommend that you appoint a
committee to examine into this man's story; and if we find--as I am
sure we shall find--that he is playing a trick upon the community, that
he--and, if need be, his parents--be dismissed from the communion of
the Church."
"Oh, Dayton," said the bishop, "could you do such a thing as that?
Could you come between a man and his God?"
"No," said Dr. Dayton, "but I would thrust myself between a rotten
sheep and my wholesome flock, that may else become contaminated, even
if, in doing so, that one sheep should be sacrificed."
Again the bishop sat for a while in moody silence. He was turning a
lead-pencil around and around between his fingers. "Very well," he
said, at last, "I shall appoint a committee, as you recommend. How
would day after to-morrow do for them to meet?"
"At what time?"
"Well, say nine o'clock in the evening, here at the rectory."
"Very well; that will suit me."
After the visitor had gone, the bishop went straight to his wife and
told her what he had heard about Martha Kettle.
"I don't believe it," said Mrs. Caiaphas, promptly.
"I am afraid it is true," said the bishop.
"If it is," said Mrs. Caiaphas, "I will never give her another stitch
as long as I live."
* * * * *
The evening that the committee was to meet at the rectory, Gilderman
and his wife dined with the bishop and Mrs. Caiaphas. After the dinner
Gilderman was to go up to the club. A reception was to be given to
Secretary Titus, and he was one of the committee appointed to receive
the guest of the club.
When Gilderman had married Dr. Caiaphas's daughter it had provoked no
small degree of talk in the particular social set to which he belonged.
It was regarded as a distinct _mésalliance_ upon his part, and his
aunt, Mrs. de Monteserrat, had been so offended that she had refused to
attend the wedding, and had not even yet fully taken him with his wife
into her favor again.
Dr. Caiaphas maintained a very philosophical attitude concerning his
daughter's exalted marriage. "I believe Henry is a good, kind man,"
he had been heard to declare, "or else I would not have trusted so
precious a gift as my dear daughter into his keeping."
Nevertheless, in his heart of hearts he was enormously elated at her
great good-fortune; for a family alliance of an ecclesiastic of even so
high a position as Dr. Caiaphas enjoyed, with a young Roman of such an
exalted altitude as Gilderman, was a matter to bring great glory not
only upon the young wife herself, but upon her entire family. It meant
that the ægis of his power and wealth and influence was to be extended
over all the other sons and daughters--it made possible opportunities
of the highest advancement for the young men, and possible alliances of
the same social magnitude for the girls.
Dr. Caiaphas was very paternal towards his son-in-law, and the young
man was very filial towards his wife's father. Nevertheless, when
Gilderman came occasionally with his wife to the rectory--to dine,
perhaps, with the family--it was as though he descended, bringing her
with him, from an exalted altitude to a plane of a lower atmosphere.
He was very dutiful, very kind, very docile, but there was,
nevertheless, a certain air of remoteness about him, and neither he nor
they forgot that he was Henry Herbert Gilderman, the grandson of James
Quincy Gilderman.
Upon this occasion Gilderman sat with the family in the library for a
while after dinner.
Already the house was beginning to assume that cluttered appearance
that foreshadows the actual time for moving.
"It is dreadful," said Mrs. Gilderman, "to think of leaving the dear
old home. I cannot remember any but this. Horace"--Horace was Mrs.
Gilderman's brother and the bishop's eldest son--"Horace himself was
only eight years old when papa and mamma moved here."
"By-the-way," said Gilderman, "when do you expect Horace?"
"I don't know," said Mrs. Caiaphas. "We hoped that he would be here
some time during the latter part of the month, but I doubt now if he
will be on until May. He says these fishery negotiations are keeping
them all very busy just now."
Gilderman laughed. "I dare say," he said, "that the government might
dispense with Horace for a few weeks if he would make a special point
of it."
"I don't know," said Mrs. Caiaphas; "he writes that he's very busy."
The two younger daughters, Ella and Frances--slim, angular girls--the
one of twelve, the other of fourteen, were sitting under the light
of the table-lamp reading. Ella, the elder of the two, kept her
finger-tips corked tightly in her ears to shut out the conversation
while she read. The others sat by the fire, Mrs. Caiaphas shading her
face from the blaze with a folded newspaper. The bishop appeared to be
very preoccupied. Every now and then Mrs. Caiaphas glanced towards him
from behind the newspaper. "Don't worry so much about those Kettles,
Theodore," said she.
He looked up, almost with a start. Then he laughed. "Why, I don't
think that I was worrying about the Kettles," he said. "I was thinking
about raising money to finish that central light of the great chancel
window at the cathedral. Mrs. Hapgood had promised fifty thousand
dollars towards it before she died, but she left no provision for
it in her will, and her heirs do not seem willing to carry out her
intentions."
"How much will it cost to finish it?" said Gilderman.
"Well," said the bishop, "according to the plan of White & Wall it will
cost between sixty and eighty thousand dollars."
"Whew!" whistled Gilderman. Then presently he asked: "Couldn't it be
done for less than that?"
"It might," said the bishop; "but White & Wall's design is very
beautiful."
"It ought to be," said Gilderman. "Look here, sir; why don't you get a
lot of your friends together--Dorman-Webster and the rest of those old
fellows--and put it to them? I dare say you could raise it in that way."
"Well, you see," said the bishop, "they've all contributed so liberally
lately that I don't like to press them too far." Then he turned to
Gilderman. "You, for instance--how much would you be willing to
contribute?" he said.
Gilderman laughed. He, too, had given a good deal of money to the
church of late, and he did not want to give any more just now. "Oh,
I don't know," he said. "I wouldn't mind giving you two or three
thousand."
The bishop smiled. "That wouldn't go far," he said, "and I rather fancy
that others may feel as you do." He looked up at the clock. "Will the
study be ready for the committee, my dear?" he asked.
"Yes," said Mrs. Caiaphas. "I told John to have it cleared as soon as
we were through dinner."
The committee began arriving a few minutes after the hour. The first
arrival was Dr. Dayton. He came directly into the library, almost with
the air of ownership. Indeed, the house was really his now, and the
bishop was only there on sufferance until the late bishop's family
should vacate at the temple quadrangle house. After the first few words
of greeting, he and the bishop presently began talking about the matter
in hand. Gilderman sat listening to them.
"But these poor people believe these things," said Gilderman, cutting
in at one point of the conversation.
"If they believe they must be taught to disbelieve," said Dr. Dayton.
"All this insane and irrational enthusiasm of religion," he continued,
"is very revolting to me." He stood before the fire as he spoke, his
legs a little apart and his hands clasped behind his back. "Surely,"
he continued, "as we are images of God we must know that God is the
perfection of rationality. What pleasure, then, can such senseless
irrationality be to Him? That which delights God is the offering of
common-sense."
So spoke Dr. Dayton very positively, as though he knew exactly what God
liked and what He did not like.
Presently others of the committee began to come, and then the bishop
and Dr. Dayton went into the dining-room.
Gilderman sat for a while listening to the intermittent talk between
mother and daughter. The time was drawing very near when Mrs. Gilderman
should be confined, and Gilderman was at times almost startled at
the directness of the talk between the two. "I wonder if they would
object," he said, after a while, "if I went into the dining-room? I
would like very much to hear this examination of Tom Kettle."
"Why, no, Henry," said Mrs. Caiaphas. "I am sure they wouldn't object
at all."
Gilderman hesitated for a moment or two; then he got up and sauntered
out of the room.
When he came into the dining-room, he found the company all seated
around the table, and Tom Kettle standing before them. He was a
rather short, thick-set man, with a heavy, sullen, if not lowering
countenance. His eyes were small and set far apart, his cheek-bones
wide, and his face short, giving him somewhat the look of a male cat.
He winked and blinked in the light, as though his eyes were still weak
and his sight tender.
Joseph and Martha Kettle sat in the farther part of the room, close
against the wall. Mrs. Caiaphas had given Martha Kettle a "talking-to,"
and they were both subdued, almost frightened. Bishop Caiaphas was
conducting the examination. He had evidently just asked Tom Kettle how
it was he had received his sight. "He put clay on my eyes," said Tom,
briefly, almost sullenly. "Then I went and washed as He told me, and
now I can see."
"How long had you been blind before this happened to you?" asked Dr.
Dayton.
"Why," said Kettle, "that you know as well as I do. I always was
blind--I never did see."
"And do you mean to say," said Dr. Dayton, "that Christ cured you by
simply rubbing dirt on your eyes?"
"Yes, sir," said the man.
"And you think it was a miracle?"
"You see it's a miracle," said the man. "I couldn't see before, and now
I do see."
"That is not possible," said Dr. Dayton. "A man who consorts, as this
Man does, with sinners and harlots and outcasts of all kinds could not
do such a thing. Such as He could have no power from God, and so He
could not cure you as you say He did."
Perhaps all of the committee thought that Dr. Dayton was taking too
much on himself in the conduct of the examination. He was a newcomer
among them, and it was not becoming that he should arrogate to himself
the conduct of the meeting, even though the case did come within the
jurisdiction of his own parish.
Mr. Goodman, Mr. Bonteen's assistant at the temple, was one of the
committee. He was a man of very broad and liberal opinions--too broad
and liberal most people thought. "Stop a bit, doctor," he said, "let us
be fair. The fact that Christ's associates are of such a sort does not
proclaim Him Himself to be abandoned. If He had really been sent from
God to regenerate mankind He would naturally begin with those people
who underlie society, would He not?"
"I don't know about that," said Dr. Dayton, crossly. "My own
observation teaches me that a man cannot be good with evil associates.
You know yourself what the Divine Word says--'With the pure thou wilt
show thyself pure, with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward.'"
"That is very true," said Mr. Goodman, "but, after all, this question
of good and evil is entirely relative. What these people see as being
evil we do not see as being evil; what they see as being good we do
not. Do you not think it is a matter for serious question?"
"It is a matter of common-sense," said Dr. Dayton, almost brusquely.
Mr. Goodman smiled and shrugged his shoulders, but his cheeks grew
a little flushed. The other members of the committee felt very
uncomfortable.
"What do you say of this Man that cured you?" said Bishop Caiaphas.
"I say he's a prophet," said the man.
Dr. Dayton laughed. "I think it's much more likely that you're a rogue,
my friend. The age of miracles is past and done. In this day of light
we do not see miracles, nor does God operate in any other way than
according to His divine law of order and of common-sense. When a man
who is blind receives his sight, he does it through an orderly change
of his body, that is just as perfect and just as slow and according to
divine order as the creation of light itself is according to divine
order. Health and disease must always be according to order, and cannot
be in any other way."
The man looked steadily at Dr. Dayton as he was speaking. "I don't
know just what you mean," he said, "but if you mean that I wasn't
blind before, I only know that I was blind. Here are my father and
mother--you can ask them."
The man and his wife were sitting at the far end of the room, as close
to the wall as possible, and side by side. Seeing the eyes of the
committee fixed upon them, the father slowly arose, holding his cane
somewhat tremulously in his hand. He had a weak face and a retreating
chin and a twitching movement about the jaw.
"Is this man your son?" said Dr. Hopkinson, of St. David's Church.
"Yes, sir, he be," said the man. The woman also had risen and stood
close to her husband, but a little behind him.
"Are you sure he has been blind for all these years?"
"Yes, sir," said the father, "I am sure of that. You see, he couldn't
pretend to be blind all these years and me and his mother not know it."
"Do you know how it is that he is now able to see?"
The man wiped a tremulous hand across his mouth; the fingers were
knotted and twisted with rheumatism. He looked hesitatingly around upon
the circle of eyes fixed upon him. "I don't know, gentlemen," he said,
"about it at all. I know the man's our son, gentlemen, and I know he
was born blind. But how he comes to see now, and who it was that opened
his eyes, I don't know nothing about. He is of age, gentlemen all; ask
him. He will speak for hisself."
It was very plain that the man was afraid of the committee.
Dr. Dayton turned to Tom Kettle. "My friend," he said, "give to God the
glory and the praise for this wonderful thing that has happened to you.
As for this Man--we all know He is a sinner."
Tom Kettle listened sullenly. "I don't know about that," he said,
"whether He is a sinner or not. One thing I do know: I was blind
before, and now I see."
"Come," said another minister--a Mr. Parker--"come, my friend, tell us
truly what the Man did to you."
The man turned his face towards the last speaker, winking quiveringly
as the bright light fell upon his eyes. "I've told you," he said, with
a sudden burst of irritation--"I've told you before what the Man did
to me. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to go and be His
disciples?"
"You forget yourself, my fine fellow," said Dr. Dayton, "and you forget
where you are. We are the disciples of God. As for this Fellow--who is
He?"
The man looked impudently into Dr. Dayton's face. "Why," said he, "here
is a strange thing. You do not know where this Man comes from, and yet
He opened my eyes, and just because He did that you say He's a sinner.
Did you ever hear of any other man opening the eyes of a man born
blind? How could this Man do it if He wasn't from God?"
"You were born in sin and you live in sin," said Dr. Dayton; "do you,
then, mean to teach us--ministers of God?"
"Come, come, Tom, that'll do," said the bishop; "don't say anything
more. It doesn't do any good."
Gilderman stood looking on at all this scene. It seemed to him that Dr.
Dayton was very disagreeable, and he disliked him exceedingly. Just
then a servant came in and whispered to Gilderman, from Mrs. Gilderman,
that the carriage was waiting. "All right," said Gilderman, "tell her
I'll be there immediately."
He was curious to see the result of the meeting. He lingered for a few
moments, but the members of the committee were talking together. Tom
Kettle still stood sullenly at the head of the table. Gilderman was
very curious to hear from the man's own lips just what had happened to
him, but there were no more questions asked, and he did not have an
opportunity to speak to him.
* * * * *
When Gilderman came out to the carriage with his wife the Kettles had
just quitted the rectory. They were walking up the drive to the street
and they did not at first know that Mr. and Mrs. Gilderman were so
near. Tom Kettle was talking in a loud, violent voice, and his parents
were trying in vain to silence him. "I don't care a damn," he was
saying; "I don't care if they do turn me out of the Church--what do I
care?"
"Hush, hush, Tom!" said the mother; "don't talk so loud; they'll hear
you."
"I don't care if they do hear me," said he. "They ain't done nothing
for me. He made me see. I know that, and they can't make me say nothing
else. They may go to hell! I know what He did to me."
"Hush, hush, Tom!" they could hear Mrs. Kettle saying. "There's Mr.
Gilderman."
"Isn't it dreadful!" said Mrs. Gilderman. She and Gilderman were
standing under the _porte-cochère_.
"Yes--yes; I suppose it is," said Gilderman. Then he suddenly called
out: "Here, Tom; come here a minute. I want to speak to you."
Although Tom Kettle had said that he did not care for any of them, he
had ceased his loud, violent talking. He did not come at Gilderman's
bidding. "If you want to speak to me," he said, "you can come to
me--I'm not coming to you."
"Very well," said Gilderman, "I will come." He went down the steps and
along the driveway to where the three figures stood in the gloom beyond
the verge of light of the electric lantern. They made no attempt to
escape, but it seemed to him that they shrank at the approach of his
powerful presence.
"It ain't our fault, Mr. Gilderman," said Martha Kettle, almost crying.
"He will talk, and I can't stop him."
"No, you can't," said Tom Kettle, sullenly but defiantly.
"That's all right, Martha," said Gilderman. "Look here, Tom; I want you
to tell me all the truth about this. What did Christ do to you?"
The man looked stubborn and lowering. "You heard me tell 'em in yonder,
didn't you?" said he. "Why do you ask me again?"
"Because I want to know. How did He do it? What did He do to you?"
Tom Kettle looked at him suspiciously for a little space. Then a sudden
impulse seemed to seize him to tell the story. "All right; I'll tell
you," he said. "I was sitting alongside the road, and I heard Him
coming. I knew He was somewheres about, and I knew it was Him as soon
as I heard Him coming."
"How did you know it?"
"I don't know--I just knew it. The people were all saying, 'Here He
is' and 'There He goes.' I just thought maybe He can cure me of my
blindness. I called out to Him, 'Have mercy on me!' They told me to be
still, but I wouldn't. I just kept on calling, 'Have mercy on me!'"
"What did you do that for?"
"I don't know. Well, He stopped by-and-by and He says, 'What do you
want me to do to you?' I says, 'Open my eyes.'"
"What did He do then?"
"He talked with the people for a while. I don't remember what He said;
then, after a little bit, I felt Him rub something on my eyes that
felt like wet dirt. Then He said to me, 'Go wash yourself.' There was
a stream of water running there, and a bank down from the road. I went
down the bank and acrost a bit of field. I kneeled down by the water.
One of my hands was in the water--it was that cold it cut like a knife.
Then I washed my face. I thought I had gone crazy."
"Could you see then?"
"I could, indeed, Mr. Gilderman--so help me God, I could! I didn't know
what had happened to me at first. It just seemed as though my eyes was
all broke up into pieces, and they moved about as I moved. I got up
and ran away, and as I did so all these pieces seemed to move about. I
thought I'd gone crazy."
"Come, Henry!" called Mrs. Gilderman.
"In a moment, dear. Where was this?"
"Over yonder."
"What are you going to do now?"
"I don't know. I'm going to find Him if I can."
"Who? The Man who healed you?"
"Yes."
Gilderman had been feeling in his vest pocket. "Here, Tom," he said,
"take this."
Kettle shrank back. "I don't want your money," he said, resentfully,
and then he turned away.
Gilderman, as he went back to the carriage, wondered passively why
Tom Kettle did not take the money. He felt that he could not just
understand the workings of the man's soul.
X