On that day a thing of no little importance was happening at Cranston.
Various members of Whaley's church were holding a meeting at the
farm-house of a certain Simon Suggs. They numbered seven in all,
including Mrs. Suggs, who was supposed to take no part beyond supplying
the group with fresh cider, which had been kept cool in a spring-house
and was now served with warm gingerbread. But she was alert, open-eyed,
and open-eared to all that was done and said.
The meeting was called to order by Suggs himself. "As I understand it,"
he began, rising and clearing his throat, "the object of this meeting is
to take a vote on what we ought to do in the matter under discussion. Do
I hear any motion in that respect?"
"I move," said a wizen-faced little man in a high, piping voice, "that
we all go in a body to Brother Whaley and lay the matter before him.
Grave charges have been preferred against him as a consistent church
member, and a proposition has been made to turn him out. I hold that he
deserves at least a chance to make a statement--show his side, if he has
got one, even before it goes to the official board. Most of you contend
that he was aware of what he was doing from the start."
"Of course he knowed!" cried out another man, who was a shoemaker and
bore the marks of his trade on his hands. "Wasn't that contractor
hand-in-glove with him, and didn't Cavanaugh know the whole thing as
plain as the nose on his face? I know a man that went straight to
Brother Whaley and told him this Trott was an atheist, and my informant
offered to bring sworn evidence of all that Trott had said on that line,
the most damnable talk, by the way, that hell ever had spouted in our
midst."
"Oh, I'm admitting that part," the wizen-faced little man piped in. "I
admit all that, Brother Tumlin. Brother Whaley had heard of that, but it
seems that Cavanaugh persuaded him to gloss it over and leave the fellow
in Tilly's hands for gradual conversion to the truth; but as to the
other matter--the thing that is too dirty to talk about even here to you
men while Sister Suggs is out of the room--"
"He knew that, too," broke in the shoemaker, angrily. "How could he keep
from it? We got it, didn't we? Isn't Trott's mother notorious?"
"I'm not disputing that," the little man went on. "All I want to set
forth is that, even though Brother Whaley thinks he is the only man in
seven states that can interpret Scripture right and does know
considerable on that line, he is entitled to a fair show from us."
"I wonder, brethren"--it was Mrs. Suggs who now appeared, wiping her fat
hands on her blue-and-white checked apron--"I wonder if I might be
allowed to put in a bare word right here?"
Silence prevailed. A look of vague dissent passed over the solemn faces.
Suggs pulled at his stubby chin whiskers and knitted his bushy brows.
"If I'm chairman," he said, dryly, "I may or may not, according to my
discretion, permit Sister Suggs to speak; but as her husband, brethren,
I think if I don't give her a chance she will make it hot for me, so if
she will promise to fetch in some more cold cider right off I'll let her
speak."
"Oh yes, let her," a voice said in a drowsy tone from the horsehair sofa
in a corner. "In my time I've known women to hit a nail on the head when
twenty men had either missed it or bent it double and spoiled the
woodwork. What is it, sister? Shoot it out! Saint Paul was against women
talking in public, but I like to listen to 'em--I do."
"I was just thinking of one thing, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen"--Mrs.
Suggs bowed her frowsy head formally. She had presided at a church
meeting of her sex once or twice, and there was something more than
imitation of her husband's manner in her tone and bearing--"I was
thinking of one particular thing that men are apt to overlook in a
scramble like this seems to be, and that is this. I may as well tell you
that I've had talks with the wife of the man under investigation, and,
as I know how to handle a woman as well as the next one, I dropped on to
a few things that I'll bet you all will overlook."
There was a sudden commotion in the yard, and, springing up, Suggs went
to a window, parted the curtains, and looked out. Turning, he rapped on
the back of his chair with his big pocket-knife and stared at his wife.
"That cow has pushed the rails down and got to the calf again," he said.
"Either you or me will have to go out and part 'em. Of course I'm
willing to do it, but if I am to conduct this meeting properly, why--"
"I move we take a recess," spoke up the wizen-faced man, "just long
enough to dispose of the cow-and-calf matter, and then come back and
finish up in here."
"No, I'll go attend to it," Mrs. Suggs sighed. "I know how to handle
her, but you fellows have got to hold my place open. I'll be right back.
It is just a baby calf, and I can tote it about in my arms. I'll drop
it over in the old hog-pen till later."
She had scarcely left the room when a lank man past middle age, with
long beard that was quite gray in spots and black as to the remainder,
stood up. "Would it be in order, Mr. Chairman," he began, "while the
lady whom you have recognized as having the floor is absent, for me to
say a word or two, being as this matter is _pro bono publico_ and vital
to us all--in fact, is the _primum mobile_ of our faith in the Almighty
and His plans?"
"You have the floor, Professor Cardell. Hold on to it," Suggs said,
formally. "If you don't get through before my wife parts the cow and
calf she will just have to wait, that's all. That's one reason I never
thought women had a right to dabble in matters like this. They would get
interested in it and burn a pan of bread to cinders, or let a helpless
baby crawl out of its swaddlings into the fire. Go ahead, but I'd hurry
up a little. When there is a debate of any sort on my wife can do her
housework ten times as quick as ordinarily, if the work is holding her
back from the talk."
Professor Cardell pulled at his beard till his lips smacked and his
white teeth showed. "I'm of the opinion, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen," he
began, "that Whaley was tempted by the big wages young Trott was
drawing, and all that Cavanaugh had to say about what Trott was apt to
amount to in the future. As we all know, _facilis descensus Averno est_,
and any man with natural greed in his veins is subject to temptation.
Therefore I wish to state quite plainly--"
"Well, plain or not plain," Mrs. Suggs was heard saying, as she bustled
into the room, brushing short brown hairs from her dress and frowning on
the speaker, "I don't intend to have my place gobbled up behind my
back. Huh! I reckon not! You stout, able-bodied men let me do the dirty
work, and make that a reason for depriving me of my liberty of opinion
and the use of free speech."
"As I see it," rapped Suggs with his knife, "Professor Cardell has just
got to a point that if he wasn't allowed to go on he'd have to go back
to the beginning and start over. I've noticed that he is that kind of a
speaker, and as time is--"
"Professor Cardell nor no other creature in pants can take my place,"
Mrs. Suggs fumed. "What is he saying, anyway? You men ought to be
ashamed of yourselves, setting here like stranded catfish, swallowing
all them foreign words and pretending you understand 'em. He whirls off
a lot of jumbled talk and the last one of you look as wise as a sleepy
ape in the corner of a cage in a circus."
"I see I ought to apologize." Professor Cardell wore a flush which
looked as if it had its rise in scholastic pride rather than in rebuked
humility. "I am well aware that my phraseology is interspersed with
Latin, but that is due to my constant reading of the ancient classics
and a habit I have when I am alone of holding converse in that beautiful
tongue."
"Beautiful, a dog's hind foot!" cried Mrs. Suggs. "Listen to me,
Professor Cardell. I can give you valuable advice, and I'm going to do
it here and now. You'd make much more headway, and clothe and feed your
wife and children a sight better, if you would throw all that gibberish
overboard and talk stuff that folks understand. Now nobody else hasn't
had the face to tell you the truth about this, but I will. You know when
you put in application as principal of the new school, and was turned
down so flat? Now I got it straight from the wife of one of the
committee who was to select the teacher, that when you got up before
that body of plain farm folks to show what you could do, and begun all
that Latin chatter, you cooked your goose for good and all. And, while I
hold nothing against you otherwise, I agree with them. I've always heard
that Latin is a dead language, and if that is so, it ought to be used on
dead folks and not on live ones. No living person can understand half
you say, and therefore I claim that your talk on this matter ought not
to go before what I've got to say in words so plain that a fool can
understand."
"I yield the floor to the lady," the Professor said in confusion.
"_Prior tempore, prior jure._ She has it by rights, and I beg the pardon
of the chair: and the assembly."
"Thank you, Professor," Mrs. Suggs said, as she picked at a few stray
calf hairs on her sleeve. "I wouldn't insist if I wasn't sure that I've
got something to say in plain English that you all will overlook. It is
this, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen. I've had friendly talks with Sister
Whaley and she has sort of let me in on her troubles and fears. Now
there is just one thing that will happen if you botch this matter. Dick
Whaley is the biggest fool and the wildest man when he is mad that ever
lived, and, while you haven't thought of it, this thing may bring about
bloodshed. He has already brought one man to death's door, and this will
be the worst thing for Brother Whaley to stand of anything that ever
crossed his path. He might have stood the talk about his son-in-law
being an atheist, but he'll never put up with what is being said about
selling his own child to a life of infamy, and the likelihood of his
being the grandfather of stock of that sort. If you fellers go on with
this, the innocent blood of more than one person may be on your heads.
Now I'm giving you fair warning, and I'm doing it in time to set you
all to thinking. Serving God is our duty, but if you fellows go over to
Dick Whaley's with this cock-and-bull yarn that you just heard from a
man peddling through the country, you will be led there by the devil
himself. That is all I've got to say."
She sat down. There was a lengthy silence. The men glanced from one to
another in helpless inquiry of rapidly shifting eyes. Then a composite
stare became fixed upon Suggs's troubled lineaments. He arose, shrugged,
knitted his brows, and coughed.
"There is something in what my wife has said," he began, "and, on the
whole, it may be that we ought to wait a little while before we take
this thing up. The whole country is rife with it, and Brother Whaley is
bound to hear it. He may act rash--in fact, now that I think of it, he
will be sure to do it, and I'm going to be frank and say here and now
that I'd rather not handle matches around as big a powder-can as this
one is. So if you will bring in the cider and cakes, Sister Suggs, I'll
adjourn this meeting _sine die_. By the way, that's Latin, isn't it,
Professor?"
"Yes," the Professor answered, warmly grateful for being applied to,
"but I'd prefer the less common and more erudite term of _re infecta_."
"Which means," replied Suggs, without intending to joke, "that we may be
infected again?"
"Oh no, not that, by any means!" the Professor responded. "You quite
miss the point. You see, my worthy brother, in the Latin language--"
But the cider and cake was being brought in; the men were rising to
receive the glasses which were tinkling on a tray, and good humor and
smug rectitude prevailed.