"Knowles went over there one day to conduct a funeral, which was interrupted by a dog-fight under the coffin and nearly broken up by a row over two dollars which had been found in a pocket of the dead man.
"We opened a club-house next to the hotel, and began a campaign for the regeneration of Trent. Soon we discovered that its one officer was unwilling to arrest offenders against law and order. We had him removed and a new man put in his place. This man was set upon and severely beaten, and lost interest in the good work. Then Harry applied for the job and got it. He took with him a force of husky young men--mostly college boys. The first day on duty he arrested in the street a drunken man who carried in his hands a small sack of potatoes. The latter whistled for help, and the enemies of law and order swarmed out of their haunts. Harry had become an expert ball pitcher, noted for speed and accuracy. He floored his man and took possession of the potatoes, with which he proceeded to defend himself.
Only two b.a.l.l.s were pitched, but they held the enemy in check until Harry"s deputies had rushed out of the club-house. A flying wedge scattered the crowd. No further violence was needed. The ruffians saw that he meant business and had the nerve and muscle to carry it through, and nothing more was necessary--just then.
"They took the drunken man to the lock-up, and came back and got a bartender, and led him in the same path. Harry has the situation well in hand, and is the most popular man in our community. Every day we have items to put to his credit, and nothing to charge against his reputation. There"s something going on at the club every evening, and the rooms are crowded. Those men who had sat day by day brawling under the lindens now spend most of their leisure in the reading and card rooms. Peace reigns in Trent. Such is the power of united benevolence working with the strong hand and the courageous spirit."
XVII
WHICH PRESENTS A DECISIVE INCIDENT IN OUR CAMPAIGN AGAINST OLD NEW ENGLAND
"Harry was pretty well disabled with affection for a time. He was like a Yankee with the "rheumatiz," and you know when a Yankee gets hold of the "rheumatiz" he hangs on. It don"t often get away from him. It becomes an a.s.set--a conservational a.s.set--an ever-present help in time of haying.
"Since Harry"s return the tactics of Marie had been faultless. Her eyes had said, "Come on," while her words had firmly held him off. He shook the tree every time they met, but the squirrel wouldn"t come down.
"It was a hard part for Marie to play, between the pressure of two handsome boys and her duty to grandpapa. The Reverend Robert had won the favor of the old gentleman by turning from tennis to agriculture for exercise. He had gone over to the Benson farm and helped with the spring"s work; he had supper there every Sunday evening, after which he conducted a little service for the Deacon"s benefit. He was pressing, as they say in golf, and it didn"t improve his game. I saw that Marie was not quite so fond of him. I had maintained an att.i.tude of strict neutrality, but could not fail to observe that Marie had begun to lean.
""You have captured the rest of Pointview, and you ought to be able to take Benson"s Hill," Marie had said to Harry. "Grandfather is the last enemy of your crusade."
"It was a timely touch on the accelerator, and Harry began to speed up a little.
""The farm is so well defended, and there"s nothing I dread so much as a hickory cane," the boy had answered. "The last visit I made to the farm I wondered whether I was going to convert him to my way of thinking, or he was going to convert me to jelly."
"Indeed, Deacon Joe stood firm as a mountain. People were saying that the minister would win in a walk, when Marie converted her grandfather by the most remarkable bit of woman"s strategy that I ever observed.
It was Napoleonic.
"One day in May, Harry came, much excited, to my office. Deacon Joe was about to move to his island, a mile or so off sh.o.r.e. He was going to take Marie with him for an indefinite period. No boat would be permitted to land there except his own and the Reverend Robert"s.
Marie would be a sort of prisoner. That day she had told him of the plan of her grandfather. In Harry"s opinion Knowles had suggested it.
""Where is the girl"s mother?" I asked.
""On some Cook"s tour in Europe, and the old man is crazy as a March hare," said my young friend. "He"s got a lot of bulldogs over there, and his hired men have been instructed to shoot a hole in any boat that comes near."
"I went over to the Benson homestead that afternoon, and found Deacon Joe sitting on the piazza."
""How are you?" I asked.
""Not very stout," said he; "heart flutters like a ketched bird."
""What are you doing for it?"
""Doctor give me some medicine; I fergit the name of it, but it is the stuff they use to blow up safes with."
""Nitroglycerin! The very thing! I hope they will succeed in blowing up your safe."
"I was pretty close to the old man, and was always very frank with him. He liked opposition, and was as fond of warfare as an Old Testament hero.
""What, sir?" he asked.
""There are some folks that have got to be blowed up before you can get an old idea out of their heads," I went on. "They are locked up with rust. That"s what"s the matter with you, Deacon. Your brain needs to be blowed open an" aired. You stored it full of ideas sixty years ago and locked the door for fear they"d get away. They should have been taken out and sorted over at least once a year, and some thrown into the fire to make room for better ones. If life does you any good, if it really teaches you anything, your brain must keep changing its contents."
"The Deacon hammered the table with his cane, as he shouted:
""You cussed fool of a lawyer! Don"t you know that truth never changes? Truth, sir, is eternal."
"Then I took the bat. "Truth often changes, but error is eternal," I said. "You know when you want to prove anything, these days, you quote from the memoirs of a great man. Well, I was reading the memoirs of the late Doctor G.o.dfrey Vogeldam Guph not long ago. He told of a man who was very singular, but not so singular as the doctor seemed to think. This man knew more than any human being has a right to know. He knew the plans of G.o.d, and had formed an unalterable opinion about all his neighbors. Then he locked up his mind and guarded it night and day, for fear that somebody would break in and carry off its contents.
And it did seem as if people wanted to get hold of his treasure, for they often came and asked about it, and some even questioned its value. He said, "Away with you--truth is eternal, and my soul is full and I will part with none of it."
""Meanwhile the truth about things around him began to change. Neighbor Smith became a good man. Neighbor Brown became a bad man. Priscilla Jones, who had been a vain and foolish woman, was one of the saints of G.o.d. The foundations of the world had changed. In a generation it had grown millions of years older and different--wonderfully different! Even G.o.d himself had changed, it would seem. His methods were not as people had thought them. His character was milder. Everything had changed but this one man. Now when he died and came to St. Peter, the latter said to him:
"""Who were your friends?"
""The new-comer thought a minute, and mentioned the names of some people who had been long dead. "They know the truth about me," he said.
"""Ah, but the truth changes, and they haven"t seen you in many years," said St. Peter.
"""But I have not changed," said the man. "I am just as when they saw me."
"""Then you are a fool or the chief of sinners," said St. Peter.
"Behold a man as changeless as the flint-stone, who has made no friends in over forty years! That is all I need to know about you.
Take either gate you please."
"""One leads to Heaven--doesn"t it?" said the new-comer, in great alarm.
"""Yes, but you wouldn"t recognize the place. There isn"t a soul in paradise that cares which way you go--not a soul in all its mult.i.tude that will be glad to see you. They have better company. Stranger! go which way you please, Heaven will be as uncomfortable as h.e.l.l."
"Deacon Joe gave me close attention, and I saw that my sword had nicked him a little. Anything that affected his hope of Paradise was sure to engage his thought. He shook his head, and said that he didn"t believe it. But he couldn"t fool me. I knew that the seed of change had struck into him.
"I gave him another thrust. "Deacon, you knew Harry Delance when he was a fool. But the truth about _him_ has changed. He is now a hard-working, level-headed young fellow, and you ought to be his friend."
""Wal, I like the way he cuffed them fellers over at Trent," said the Deacon. "He pounded "em n.o.ble--that"s sartin. Mebbe if he licks a few more men I"ll begin to like him."
""Give him a chance," was my answer. "I hear that you are going to move for the summer."
""Goin" to my island to-morrow," said Deacon Joe. "I"m sick of the autymobiles an" the young spendthrifts hangin" around Marie, an" her extravagance, an" the new church nonsense, an" the other goin"s-on.
I"ve got a good house there, an" Marie an" I are goin" to rest an"
stroll around without bein" run over until her mother comes back. The only trouble I have there is the hired men. They rob me right an"
left. I wish somebody would lick them."
""You really need a young man like Harry," I urged. "And Marie needs him. She"ll be lonely over there."
""Not a bit," said the Deacon. "She"ll have a saddle-horse, and young Knowles can come over once a week, if he wants to. I hear he"s done splendid lately."
""He"s doing well, but I am inclined to think that Harry is the better man," I said, taking sides for the first time.