The minister continued to stride up and down the room with his chin in the air.
"Mr. Nash," said she in a low voice to me, "is always trying to hold him down and keep him back. My husband WANTS to do the great things"--wistfully.
"By every right," the minister was repeating, quite oblivious of our presence, "I should lead these people."
"He sees the weakness of the church," she continued, "as well as any one, and he wants to start some vigorous community work--have agricultural meetings and boys" clubs, and lots of things like that--but Mr. Nash says it is no part of a minister"s work: that it cheapens religion. He says that when a parson--Mr. Nash always calls him parson, and I just LOATHE that name--has preached, and prayed, and visited the sick, that"s enough for HIM."
At this very moment a step sounded upon the walk, and an instant later a figure appeared in the doorway.
"Why, Mr. Nash," exclaimed little Mrs. Minister, exhibiting that astonishing gift of swift recovery which is the possession of even the simplest women, "come right in."
It was some seconds before the minister could come down from the heights and greet Mr. Nash. As for me, I was never more interested in my life.
"Now," said I to myself, "we shall see Christian meet Apollyon."
As soon as Mrs. Minister lighted the lamp I was introduced to the great man. He looked at me sharply with his small, round eyes, and said:
"Oh, you are the--the man who was in church this afternoon."
I admitted it, and he looked around at the minister with an accusing expression. He evidently did not approve of me, nor could I wholly blame him, for I knew well how he, as a rich farmer, must look upon a rusty man of the road like me. I should have liked dearly to cross swords with him myself, but greater events were imminent.
In no time at all the discussion, which had evidently been broken off at some previous meeting, concerning the proposed farmers" a.s.sembly at the church, had taken on a really lively tone. Mr. Nash was evidently in the somewhat irritable mood with which important people may sometimes indulge themselves, for he bit off his words in a way that was calculated to make any but an unusually meek and saintly man exceedingly uncomfortable. But the minister, with the fine, high humility of those whose pa.s.sion is for great or true things, was quite oblivious to the harsh words. Borne along by an irresistible enthusiasm, he told in glowing terms what his plan would mean to the community, how the people needed a new social and civic spirit--a "neighbourhood religious feeling" he called it. And as he talked his face flushed, and his eyes shone with the pure fire of a great purpose. But I could see that all this enthusiasm impressed the practical Mr. Nash as mere moonshine.
He grew more and more uneasy. Finally he brought his hand down with a resounding thwack upon his knee, and said in a high, cutting voice:
"I don"t believe in any such newfangled nonsense. It ain"t none of a parson"s business what the community does. You"re hired, ain"t you, an"
paid to run the church? That"s the end of it. We ain"t goin" to have any mixin" of religion an" farmin" in THIS neighbourhood."
My eyes were on the pale man of G.o.d. I felt as though a human soul were being weighed in the balance. What would he do now? What was he worth REALLY as a man as well as a minister?
He paused a moment with downcast eyes. I saw little Mrs. Minister glance at him--once--wistfully. He rose from his place, drew himself up to his full height--I shall not soon forget the look on his face--and uttered these amazing words:
"Martha, bring the ginger-jar."
Mrs. Minister, without a word, went to a little cupboard on the farther side of the room and took down a brown earthenware jar, which she brought over and placed on the table, Mr. Nash following her movements with astonished eyes. No one spoke.
The minister took the jar in his hands as he might the communion-cup just before saying the prayer of the sacrament.
"Mr. Nash," said he in a loud voice, "I"ve decided to hold that farmers"
meeting."
Before Mr. Nash could reply the minister seated himself and was pouring out the contents of the jar upon the table--a clatter of dimes, nickels, pennies, a few quarters and half dollars, and a very few bills.
"Martha, just how much money is there?"
"Twenty-four dollars and sixteen cents."
The minister put his hand into his pocket and, after counting out certain coins, said:
"Here"s one dollar and eighty-four cents more. That makes twenty-six dollars. Now, Mr. Nash, you"re the largest contributor to my salary in this neighbourhood. You gave twenty-six dollars last year--fifty cents a week. It is a generous contribution, but I cannot take it any longer.
It is fortunate that my wife has saved up this money to buy a sewing-machine, so that we can pay back your contribution in full."
He paused; no one of us spoke a word.
"Mr. Nash," he continued, and his face was good to see, "I am the minister here. I am convinced that what the community needs is more of a religious and social spirit, and I am going about getting it in the way the Lord leads me."
At this I saw Mrs. Minister look up at her husband with such a light in her eyes as any man might well barter his life for--I could not keep my own eyes from pure beauty of it.
I knew too what this defiance meant. It meant that this little family was placing its all upon the altar--even the pitiful coins for which they had skimped and saved for months for a particular purpose. Talk of the heroism of the men who charged with Pickett at Gettysburg! Here was a courage higher and whiter than that; here was a courage that dared to fight alone.
As for Mr. Nash, the face of that Chief Pharisee was a study. Nothing is so paralyzing to a rich man as to find suddenly that his money will no longer command him any advantage. Like all hard-sh.e.l.led, practical people, Mr. Nash could only dominate in a world which recognized the same material supremacy that he recognized. Any one who insisted upon flying was lost to Mr. Nash.
The minister pushed the little pile of coins toward him.
"Take it, Mr. Nash," said he.
At that Mr. Nash rose hastily.
"I will not," he said gruffly.
He paused, and looked at the minister with a strange expression in his small round eyes--was it anger, or was it fear, or could it have been admiration?
"If you want to waste your time on fiddlin" farmers" meetings--a man that knows as little of farmin" as you do--why go ahead for all o" me.
But don"t count me in."
He turned, reached for his hat, and then went out of the door into the darkness.
For a moment we all sat perfectly silent, then the minister rose, and said solemnly:
"Martha, let"s sing something."
Martha crossed the room to the cottage organ and seated herself on the stool.
"What shall we sing?" said she.
"Something with fight in it, Martha," he responded; "something with plenty of fight in it."
So we sang "Onward, Christian Soldier, Marching as to War," and followed up with:
Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve And press with rigour on; A heavenly race demands thy zeal And an immortal crown.
When we had finished, and as Martha rose from her seat, the minister impulsively put his hands on her shoulders, and said:
"Martha, this is the greatest night of my life."
He took a turn up and down the room, and then with an exultant boyish laugh said:
"We"ll go to town to-morrow and pick out that sewing-machine!"