As Harkey drove away, however, Bill had a dim feeling of dissatisfaction with him.
"He"s too gol-dang polite, that feller is; I don"t like such b.u.t.ter-mouth chaps--they"d steal the cents off"n a dead n.i.g.g.e.r"s eyes."
III
The second Sunday after the part.i.tion of goods the entire Coolly turned out to church in spite of the muddy road. The men, after driving up to the door of the little white church and helping the women to alight, drove out to the sheds along the fence and gathered in knots beside their wagons in the warm spring sun. It was very pleasant there, and the men leaned with relaxed muscles upon the wagon-wheels, or sat on the fence with jack-knives in hand. The horses, weary with six days seeding, slept with closed eyes and drooping lips. Generally the talk was upon spring work, each man bragging of the number of acres he had sown during the week, but this morning the talk was all about the division which had come between the nieces of "deceased Williams." They discussed it slowly as one might eat a choice pudding in order to extract the flavor from each spoonful.
"What is it all about, anyhow?" asked Jim Cranby. "I ain"t heard nothing about it." He had stood in open-mouthed perplexity trying to catch a clew. Coming late, he found it baffling.
"That shows where he lives; a man might as well live in a well as up in Mola.s.ses Gap," said one of the younger men, pointing up to the Coolly.
"Why, Ike Harkey is kicking about the six shotes the Deacon put off on him."
"No, it wasn"t the shotes, it was a farrer cow," put in Clint Stone.
"Well, _I_ heard it was a shote."
"So did I," said another.
"Well, Bill Gray told Jinks Ike had stole a cow-bell that belonged to the black farrer cow," said another late comer.
"Stole a cow-bell," and they all drew closer together. This was really worth while!
"Yes, sir; Jinks told me he heard Bill say so yesterday. That"s the way I heard it."
"Well, I"ll be cussed, if that ain"t small business for Ike Harkey!"
"How did it happen?" asked Cranby, with sharpened appet.i.te.
"Well, I didn"t hear no p"rtic"lars, but it seems the bell was hangin"
on a peg in the barn, and when they got home from church it was gone, hide an" hair. Bill is dead sure Ike took it."
"Say, there"ll be fun over that yet, won"t they," said one of the fellows, with a grin.
"Well, Ike better keep out of Bill"s way, that"s all."
"Well--I ain"t takin" sides. Some young"un may have took it."
"Well, let"s go in, boys; I see the Elder"s come. By gum, there"s Harkey!" They all looked toward Harkey, who had just driven up to the door.
Harkey came into church holding his smooth, serious face a little one side, in his usual way, quiet and dignified, as if he were living up to his Sunday suit of clothes. He seemed to be unconscious of the att.i.tude in which he stood toward most of his neighbors.
Bill and Sarah were not present, and that gave additional color to the story of trouble between the sisters.
After the sermon Deacon Harkey led the Sunday School, and the critics of his action were impressed more than usual with his smooth and quiet utterance. Emma seemed more than ordinarily worn and dispirited.
It was perfectly natural that Mrs. Gray should be the last person to know of the division which had slowly set in between the two sisters and their factions. Charitable and guileless herself, it was difficult for her to conceive of slander and envy.
Nevertheless, a division had come about, slowly, but decisively. The entire Coolly was involved in the discussion before Mrs. Gray gave it any serious attention, but one day, when Sarah came in upon her and poured out a mingled flood of sorrow and invective, the good soul was aghast.
"Well, well, I swan! There, there! I wouldn"t make so much fuss over it!" she said, stripping her hands out of the biscuit dough in order to go over and pat Sarah on the shoulder. "After all that to-do gettin"
settled, seems "s if you ought "o _stay_ settled. Good land! It ain"t anything to have a fuss over, anyway!"
"But it is _our_ cow-bell. It belonged on the black farrer cow, that Jim turned his nose up at, and he sneaked around and got it just to spite us."
"Oh, I guess not," she replied incredulously.
"Well, he did; and Emmy put him up to it, and I know she did," said Sarah in a lamentable voice.
"Sary Ann," said Mrs. Gray, as sharply as any one ever heard her speak, "that"s a pretty way to talk about your sister, ain"t it?"
"Well, Mrs. Jim Harkey said--"
"You never mind what Mrs. Jim Harkey said; she"s a _snoop_ and everybody knows it."
"But she wouldn"t tell that, if it weren"t so."
"Well, I tell you, I wouldn"t pay no attention to what she said, and I wouldn"t make such a fuss over an old cow-bell, anyway."
"But the cow-bell is only the starting point; she ain"t been near the house since, and she says all kinds of mean, nasty things about us."
"All comes through Mrs. Jim, I suppose," said Mrs. Gray, with some sarcasm.
"No, it don"t. She told Dade Walker that I got all the biggest flat-irons, when she knows I offered her the bureau. I did everything I could to make her feel satisfied."
"I know you did, and now you must just keep cool till I see Emmy myself."
When Mrs. Gray started out on her mission of pacification, she found it to be entirely out of her control. The Coolly was actively partisan. One party stood by the Harkeys, and another took Sarah"s part, while the _tertium quid_ said it was "all darn foolishness."
Mrs. Gray was appalled at the state of affairs, but struggled to maintain a neutral position. In May, when Bill and Sarah were married, things had reached such a stage that Emma was not invited to the wedding supper. Nothing could have cut deeper than this neglect, and thereafter adherents of the third remove declined to speak when pa.s.sing; some even refused to nod. The Harkey faction also condemned the early marriage of Bill and Sarah as unseemly.
Soon after, Emma came again to see Mrs. Gray, salty with tears, and crushed with the slight Sarah had put upon her. She was a plain pale woman, anyway, and weeping made her pitiable. She explained the situation with her head on Mrs. Gray"s lap:--
"She never has been to see me since that day, and--but I hoped she"d come and see me, but she never sent me any invitation to her wedding."
She choked with sobs at the memory of it.
Mrs. Gray realized the enormity of the offence, and she could only put her arms around Emma"s back and say, "There, there, I wouldn"t take on so about it." As a matter of fact, she had striven to have Bill send an invitation to his brother-in-law, but Bill was inflexible on that point.
With the sound of the stolen cow-bell ringing in his ears, he could not bring himself to ask Ike Harkey into his house.
After Emma grew a little calmer, Mrs. Gray tried again to bridge the chasm. "Now, I just believe if you would go to Sarah--"
"I can"t do that! She"d slam the door in my face. Jim"s wife says Sarah said I shouldn"t pick a single currant out of the garden this year!"
"I don"t go much on what Jim"s wife says," put in Mrs. Gray, guardedly.
She had begun to feel that Jim"s wife was the main disturbing element.
The sisters really suffered from their separation. They had been so used to running in at all times of the day that each missed the other wofully. It had been their habit whenever they needed each other to help cook, or cut a dress, to hang a cloth out of the chamber window, a sign which was sure to bring help post-haste; but now nothing would induce either of them to make the first concession.