Bacon felt as if he had made too much of a concession, and had a strong inclination to shout after him, and retract his invitation; but he did not, only worked on, with an occasional bear-like grin. There was something captivating in this fellow"s free and easy way.
When he came up to the house an hour or two later, in singular good humor for him, he found the Elder in the creamery, with his niece Eldora, who was not more won by him than was his sister Jane b.u.t.tles, he was so genial and put on so few religious frills.
Mrs. b.u.t.tles never put on frills of any kind. She was a most frightful toiler, only excelled (if excelled at all) by her brother. Unlovely at her best, when about her work in her faded calico gown and flat shoes, hair wisped into a slovenly knot, she was depressing. But she was a good woman, of sterling integrity, and ambitious for her girl. She was very glad of the chance to take charge of her brother"s household after Marietta married.
Eldora was as attractive as her mother was depressing. She was very young at this time and had the physical perfection--at least as regards body--that her parents must have had in youth. She was above the average height of woman, with strong swell of bosom and glorious, erect carriage of head. Her features were coa.r.s.e, but regular and pleasing, and her manner boyish.
Elder Pill was on the best terms with them as he watched the milk being skimmed out of the "submerged cans" ready for the "caaves and hawgs," as Mrs. b.u.t.tles called them.
"Uncle told you t" come here "nd stay t" supper, did he? What"s come over him?" said the girl, with a sort of audacious humor.
"Bill has an awful grutch agin preachers," said Mrs. b.u.t.tles, as she wiped her hands on her ap.r.o.n. "I declare, I don"t see how--"
"_Some_ preachers, not _all_ preachers," laughed Pill, in his mellow nasal. "There are preachers, and then again preachers. I"m one o" the t"other kind."
"I sh"d think y" was," laughed the girl.
"Now, Eldory, you run right t" the pig-pen with that milk, whilst I go in an" set the tea on."
Mr. Pill seized the can of milk, saying, with a tw.a.n.g: "Show me the way that I may walk therein," and, accompanied by the laughing girl, made rapid way to the pig-pen just as the old man set up a ferocious shout to call the hired hand out of the corn-field.
"How"d y" come to send _him_ here?" asked Mrs. b.u.t.tles, nodding toward Pill.
"Damfino! I kind o" liked him--no nonsense about him," answered Bacon, going into temporary eclipse behind his hands as he washed his face at the cistern.
At the supper table Pill was "easy as an old shoe"; ate with his knife, talked about fatting hogs, suggested a few points on raising clover, told of pioneer experiences in Michigan, and soon won them--hired man and all--to a most favorable opinion of himself. But he did not trench on religious matters at all.
The hired man in his shirt-sleeves, and smelling frightfully of tobacco and sweat (as did Bacon), sat with open mouth, at times forgetting to eat, in his absorbing interest in the minister"s yarns.
"Yes, I"ve got a family, too much of a family, in fact--that is, I think so sometimes when I"m pinched. Our Western people are so indigent--in plain terms, poor--they _can"t_ do any better than they do. But we pull through--we pull through! John, you look like a stout fellow, but I"ll bet a hat I can _down_ you three out of five."
"I bet you can"t," grinned the hired man. It was the climax of all, that bet.
"I"ll take y" in hand an" flop y" both," roared Bacon from his lion-like throat, his eyes glistening with rare good-nature from the shadow of his gray brows. But he admired the minister"s broad shoulders at the same time. If this fellow panned out as he promised, he was a rare specimen.
After supper the Elder played a masterly game of croquet with Eldora, beating her with ease; then he wandered out to the barn and talked horses with the hired man, and finished by stripping off his coat and putting on one of Mrs. b.u.t.tles"s ap.r.o.ns to help milk the cows.
But at breakfast the next morning, when the family were about pitching into their food as usual without ceremony, the visitor spoke in an imperious tone and with lifted hand. "_Wait!_ Let us look to the Lord for His blessing."
They waited till the grace was said, but it threw a depressing atmosphere over the group; evidently they considered the trouble begun.
At the end of the meal the minister asked:--
"Have you a Bible in the house?"
"I reckon there"s one around somewhere. Elly, go "n see "f y" can"t raise one," said Mrs. b.u.t.tles, indifferently.
"Have you any objection to family devotion?" asked Pill, as the book was placed in his hands by the girl.
"No; have all you want," said Bacon, as he rose from the table and pa.s.sed out the door.
"I guess I"ll see the thing through," said the hand.
"It ain"t just square to leave the women folks to bear the brunt of it."
It was shortly after breakfast that the Elder concluded he"d walk up to Brother Jennings"s and see about church matters.
"I shall expect you, Brother Bacon, to be at the service at 2.30."
"All right, go ahead expectun"," responded Bacon, with an inscrutable sidewise glance.
"You promised, you remember?"
"The--devil--I did!" the old man snarled.
The Elder looked back with a smile, and went off whistling in the warm, bright morning.
II
The schoolhouse down on the creek was known as "h.e.l.l"s Corners" all through the county, because of the frequent rows that took place therein at "corkuses" and the like, and also because of the number of teachers that had been "ousted" by the boys. In fact, it was one of those places still to be found occasionally in the West, far from railroads and schools, where the primitive ignorance and ferocity of men still prowl, like the panthers which are also found sometimes in the deeps of the Iowa timber lands.
The most of this ignorance and ferocity, however, was centred in the family of Dixons, a dark-skinned, unsavory group of Missourians. It consisted of old man Dixon and wife, and six sons, all man-grown, great, gaunt, sinewy fellows, with no education, but superst.i.tious as savages. If anything went wrong in "h.e.l.l"s Corners" everybody knew that the Dixons were "on the rampage again." The school-teachers were warned against the Dixons, and the preachers were besought to convert the Dixons.
In fact, John Jennings, as he drove Pill to the schoolhouse next day, said:--
"If you can convert the Dixon boys, Elder, I"ll give you the best horse in my barn."
"I work not for such hire," said Mr. Pill, with a look of deep solemnity on his face, belied, indeed, by a twinkle in his small, keen eye--a twinkle which made Milton Jennings laugh candidly.
There was considerable curiosity, expressed by a murmur of lips and voices, as the minister"s tall figure entered the door and stood for a moment in a study of the scene before him. It was a characteristically Western scene. The women sat on one side of the schoolroom, the men on the other; the front seats were occupied by squirming boys and girls in their Sunday splendor.
On the back, to the right, were the young men, in their best vests, with paper collars and b.u.t.terfly neckties, with their coats unb.u.t.toned, their hair plastered down in a fascinating wave on their brown foreheads. Not a few were in their shirt-sleeves. The older men sat immediately between the youths and boys, talking in hoa.r.s.e whispers across the aisles about the state of the crops and the county ticket, while the women in much the same way conversed about the children and raising onions and strawberries. It was their main recreation, this Sunday meeting.
"Brethren!" rang out the imperious voice of the minister, "let us pray."
The audience thoroughly enjoyed the Elder"s prayer. He was certainly gifted in that direction, and his pet.i.tion grew genuinely eloquent as his desires embraced the "ends of the earth and the utterm"st parts of the seas thereof." But in the midst of it a clatter was heard, and five or six strapping fellows filed in with loud thumpings of their brogans.
Shortly after they had settled themselves with elaborate impudence on the back seat, the singing began. Just as they were singing the last verse, every individual voice wavered and all but died out in astonishment to see William Bacon come in--an unheard-of thing! And with a clean shirt, too! Bacon, to tell the truth, was feeling as much out of place as a cat in a bath-tub, and looked uncomfortable, even shamefaced, as he sidled in, his shapeless hat gripped nervously in both hands; coatless and collarless, his shirt open at his ma.s.sive throat. The girls t.i.ttered, of course, and the boys hammered each other"s ribs, moved by the unusual sight. Milton Jennings, sitting beside Bettie Moss, said:--
"Well! may I jump straight up and never come down!"
And Shep Watson said: "May I never see the back o" my neck!" Which pleased Bettie so much that she grew quite purple with efforts to conceal her laughter; she always enjoyed a joke on her father.
But all things have an end, and at last the room became quiet as Mr.
Pill began to read the Scripture, wondering a little at the commotion.
He suspected that those dark-skinned, grinning fellows on the back seat were the Dixon boys, and knew they were bent on fun. The physique of the minister being carefully studied, the boys began whispering among themselves, and at last, just as the sermon opened, they began to push the line of young men on the long seat over toward the girls" side, squeezing Milton against Bettie. This pleasantry encouraged one of them to whack his neighbor over the head with his soft hat, causing great laughter and disturbance. The preacher stopped. His cool, penetrating voice sounded strangely unclerical as he said:--
"There are some fellows here to-day to have fun with me. If they don"t keep quiet, they"ll have more fun than they can hold." (At this point a green crab-apple bounded up the aisle.) "I"m not to be bulldozed."