"There--that"s what I call a noise, Bill. Sweet Sall CAN make a noise when I worry her into it; she"s just like other women in that respect; she"ll be sure to squall out if you don"t touch her just in the right quarter. But the first time she did NOT go amiss, and as for stunning you--but what"s the matter? Where"s the wind now?"
"Nothing--only I don"t want to be deafened with such a clatter."
"Something"s wrong, Bill, I know it. You look now for all the world like a bottle of sour son, with the cork out, and ready to boil over. As for Sall making a noise the first time, that"s all a notion, and a very strange one. She was as sweet-spoken then as she was when you left me before supper. The last time, I confess, I made her squall out on purpose. But what of that? you are not the man to get angry with a little fun!"
"No, I"m not angry with you, Ned--I am not angry with anybody; but just now, I would rather not hear the fiddle. Put it up."
"There!" said the other good-naturedly, as he placed the favorite instrument in its immemorial case in the corner. "There; and now Bill, untie the pack, and let"s see the sort of wolf-cubs you"ve got to carry; for there"s no two horns to a wild bull, if something hasn"t gored you to-night."
"You"re mistaken, Ned--quite mistaken--quite!"
"Deuse a bit! I know you too well, Bill Hinkley, so it"s no use to hush up now. Out with it, and don"t be sparing, and if there"s any harm to come, I"m here, just as ready to risk a cracked crown for you, as if the trouble was my own. I"d rather fiddle than fight, it"s true; but when there"s any need for it, you know I can do one just as well as the other; and can go to it with just as much good humor. So show us the quarrel."
"There"s no quarrel. Ned," said the other, softened by the frank and ready feeling which his companion showed; "but I"m very foolish in some things, and don"t know how it is. I"m not apt to take dislikes, but there"s a man come to our house with John Cross, this evening, that I somehow dislike very much."
"A man! What"s he like? Anything like Joe Richards? That was a fellow that I hated mightily. I never longed to lick any man but Joe Richards, and him I longed to lick three times, though you know I never got at him more than twice. It"s a great pity he got drowned, for I owe him a third licking, and don"t feel altogether right, since I know no sort of way to pay it. But if this man"s anything like Joe, it may be just the same if I give it to HIM. Now--"
"He"s nothing like Richards," said the other. "He"s a taller and better-looking man."
"If he"s nothing like Joe, what do you want to lick him for?" said the single-minded musician, with a surprise in his manner, which was mingled with something like rebuke.
"I have expressed no such wish, Ned; you are too hasty; and if I did wish to whip him, I don"t think I should trouble you or any man to help me. If I could not do it myself, I should give it up as a bad job, without calling in a.s.sistants."
"Oh, you"re a s.p.u.n.ky follow--a real colt for hard riding," retorted the other with a good-natured mock in his tones and looks; "but if you don"t want to lick the fellow, how comes it you dislike him? It seems to me if a chap behaved so as to make me dislike him, it wouldn"t be an easy matter to keep my hands off him. I"d teach him how to put me into a bad humor, or I"d never touch violin again."
"This man"s a parson, I believe."
"A parson--that"s a difficulty. It is not altogether right to lick parsons, because they"re not counted fighting people. But there"s a mighty many on "em that licking would help. No wonder you dislike the fellow, though if he comes with John Cross, he shouldn"t be altogether so bad. Now, John Cross IS a good man. He"s good, and he"s good-humored.
He don"t try to set people"s teeth on edge against all the pleasant things of this world, and he can laugh, and talk, and sing, like other people. Many"s the time he"s asked me, of his own mouth, to play the violin; and I"ve seen his little eyes caper again, when sweet Sall talked out her funniest. If it was not so late, I"d go over now and give him a reel or two, and then I could take a look at this strange chap, that"s set your grinders against each other."
The fiddler looked earnestly at the instrument in the corner, his features plainly denoting his anxiety to resume the occupation which his friends coming had so inopportunely interrupted. William Hinkley saw the looks of his cousin, and divined the cause.
"You shall play for me, Ned," he remarked; "you shall give me that old highland-reel that you learned from Scotch Geordie. It will put me out of my bad humor, I think, and we can go to bed quietly. I"ve come to sleep with you to-night."
"You"re a good fellow, Bill; I knew that you couldn"t stand it long, if Sweet Sall kept a still tongue in her head. That reel"s the very thing to drive away bad humors, though there"s another that I learnt from John Blodget, the boat-man, that sounds to me the merriest and comicalest thing in the world. It goes--," and here the fiddle was put in requisition to produce the required sounds: and having got carte blanche, our enthusiastic performer, without weariness, went through his whole collection, without once perceiving that his comical and merry tunes had entirely failed to change the grave, and even gloomy expression which still mantled the face of his companion. It was only when in his exhaustion he set down the instrument, that he became conscious of William Hinkley"s continued discomposure.
"Why, Bill, the trouble has given you a bigger bite than I thought for.
What words did you have with the preacher?"
"None: I don"t know that he is a preacher. He speaks only as if he was trying to become one."
"What, you hadn"t any difference--no quarrel?"
"None."
"And it"s only to-night that you"ve seen him for the first time?"
A flush pa.s.sed over the grave features of William Hinkley as he heard this question, and it was with a hesitating manner and faltering accents, that he contrived to tell his cousin of the brief glimpse which he had of the same stranger several months before, on that occasion, when, in the emotion of Margaret Cooper, replying to a similar question, he first felt the incipient seed of jealousy planted within his bosom.
But this latter incident he forbore to reveal to the inquirer; and Ned Hinkley, though certainly endowed by nature with sufficient skill to draw forth the very soul of music from the instrument on which he played, had no similar power upon the secret soul of the person whom he partially examined.
"But "tis very strange how you should take offence at a man you"ve seen so little; though I have heard before this of people taking dislikes at other people the first moment they set eyes on "em. Now, I"m not a person of that sort, unless it was in the case of Joe Richards; and him I took a sort of grudge at from the first beginning. But even then there was a sort of reason for it; for, at the beginning, when Joe came down upon us here in Charlemont, he was for riding over people"s necks, without so much as asking, "by your leave." He had a way about him that vexed me, though we did not change a word."
"And it"s that very way that this person has that I don"t like," said William Hinkley. "He talks as if he made you, and when you talk, he smiles as if he thought you were the very worst work that ever went out of his hands. Then, if he has to say anything, be it ever so trifling, he says it just as if he was telling you that the world was to come to an end the day after to-morrow."
"Just the same with Joe Richards. I never could get at him but twice; though I give him then a mighty smart hammering; and if he hadn"t got under the broadhorn and got drowned;--but this fellow?"
"You"ll see him at church to-morrow. I shouldn"t wonder if he preaches; for John Cross was at him about it before I came away. What"s worse, the old man"s been asking him to live with us."
"What, here in Charlemont?"
"Yes."
"I"ll be sure to lick him then, if he"s anything like Joe Richards. But what"s to make him live in Charlemont? Is he to be a preacher for us?"
"Perhaps so, but I couldn"t understand all, for I came in while they were at it, and left home before they were done. I"m sure if he stays there I shall not. I shall leave home, for I really dislike to meet him."
"You shall stay with me, Bill, and we"ll have Sall at all hours," was the hearty speech of the cousin, as he threw his arms around the neck of his morose companion, and dragged him gently toward the adjoining apartment, which formed his chamber. "To-morrow," he continued, "as you say, we"ll see this chap, and if he"s anything like Joe Richards--" The doubled fist of the speaker, and his threatening visage, completed the sentence with which this present conference and chapter may very well conclude.
CHAPTER VI.
THE TOAD ON THE ALTAR.
The next day was the sabbath. John Cross had timed his arrival at the village with a due reference to his duties, and after a minute calculation of days and distances, so that his spiritual manna might be distributed in equal proportions among his hungering flock. His arrival made itself felt accordingly, not simply in Charlemont, but throughout the surrounding country for a circuit of ten miles or more. There was a large and hopeful gathering of all sorts and s.e.xes, white and black, old and young. Charlemont had a very pretty little church of its own; but one, and that, with more true Christianity than is found commonly in this world of pretence and little tolerance, was open to preachers of all denominations. The word of G.o.d, among these simple folks, was quite too important to make them scruple at receiving it from the lips of either Geneva, Rome, or Canterbury. The church stood out among the hills at a little distance from, but in sight of the village; a small, neat Grecian-like temple, glimmering white and saintlike through solemn visaged groves, and gaudy green foliage. The old trees about it were all kept neatly trimmed, the brush pruned away and cleared up, and a smooth sweet sward, lawn-like, surrounded it, such as children love to skip and scramble over, and older children rest at length upon, in pairs, talking over their sweet silly affections.
Surrounded by an admiring crowd, each of whom had his respectful salutation, we see our friend John Cross toward noon approaching the sacred dwelling. Truly he was the most simple, fraternal of all G.o.d"s creatures. He had a good word for this, an affectionate inquiry for that, a benevolent smile, and a kind pressure of the hand for all.
He was a man to do good, for everybody saw that he thought for others before himself, and sincerity and earnestness const.i.tute, with the necessary degree of talent, the grand secrets for making successful teachers in every department.
Though a simple, unsophisticated, unsuspecting creature, John Cross was a man of very excellent natural endowments. He chose for his text a pa.s.sage of the Scriptures which admitted of a direct practical application to the concerns of the people, their daily wants, their pressing interests, moral, human, and social. He was thus enabled to preach a discourse which sent home many of his congregation much wiser than they came, if only in reference to their homely duties of farmstead and family. John Cross was none of those sorry and self-const.i.tuted representatives of our eternal interests, who deluge us with a vain, worthless declamation, proving that virtue is a very good thing, religion a very commendable virtue, and a liberal contribution to the church-box at the close of the sermon one of the most decided proofs that we have this virtue in perfection. Nay, it is somewhat doubtful, indeed, if he ever once alluded to the state of his own scrip and the treasury of the church. His faith, sincere, spontaneous, ardent, left him in very little doubt that the Lord will provide, for is he not called "Jehovah-Jireh?"--and his faith was strengthened and confirmed by the experience of his whole life. But then John Cross had few wants--few, almost none! In this respect he resembled the first apostles. The necessities of life once cared for, never was mortal man more thoroughly independent of the world. He was not one of those fine preachers who, dealing out counsels of self-denial, in grave saws and solemn maxims, with wondrous grim visage and a most slow, lugubrious shaking of the head--are yet always religiously careful to secure the warmest seat by the fireside, and the best b.u.t.tered bun on table.
He taught no doctrine which he did not practise; and as for consideration--that test at once of the religionist and the gentleman--he was as humbly solicitous of the claims and feelings of others, as the lovely and lowly child to whom reverence has been well taught as the true beginning, equally of politeness and religion.
Before going into church he urged his protege, Stevens, to consent to share in the ceremonies of the service as a layman; but there was still some saving virtue in the young man, which made him resolute in refusing to do so. Perhaps, his refusal was dictated by a policy like that which had governed him so far already; which made him reluctant to commit himself to a degree which might increase very much the hazards of detection. He feared, indeed, the restraints which the unequivocal adoption of the profession would impose upon him, fettering somewhat the freedom of his intercourse with the young of both s.e.xes, and, consequently, opposing an almost insurmountable barrier to the prevailing object which had brought him to the village. Whatever may have been the feelings or motives which governed him, they, at least, saved him from an act which would have grievously aggravated his already large offence against truth and propriety. He declined, in language of the old hypocrisy. He did not feel justified in taking up the cross--he felt that he was not yet worthy; and, among the members of a church, which takes largely into account the momentary impulses and impressions of the professor, the plea was considered a sufficiently legitimate one.
But though Stevens forbore to commit himself openly in the cause which he professed a desire to espouse, he was yet sufficiently heedful to maintain all those externals of devotion which a serious believer would be apt to exhibit. He could be a good actor of a part, and in this lay his best talent. He had that saving wisdom of the worldling, which is too often estimated beyond its worth, called cunning; and the frequent successes of which produces that worst of all the diseases that ever impaired the value of true greatness--conceit. Alfred Stevens fancied that he could do everything, and this fancy produced in him the appearance of a courage which his moral nature never possessed. He had the audacity which results from presumption, not the wholesome strength which comes from the conscious possession of a right purpose. But a truce to our metaphysics.
Never did saint wear the aspect of such supernatural devotion. He knelt with the first, groaned audibly at intervals, and when his face became visible, his eyes were strained in upward glances, so that the spectator could behold little more in their orbs than a sea of white.
"Oh! what a blessed young man!" said Mrs. Quackenbosh.
"How I wish it was he that was to preach for us to-day," responded that gem from the antique, Miss Polly Entwistle, who had joined every church in Kentucky in turn, without having been made a spouse in either.