"Couldn"t you give me a little something to eat before I go," he said, returning. "I havn"t tasted food since this morning, and feel a little faint."
"Jane, can"t you give him some cold meat and bread?" Mr. Wade turned to his wife, and she answered, just a little fretfully, "Oh, yes, I suppose so;" and going to the cupboard, brought out a dish containing a piece of cold fat bacon that had been boiled with cabbage for dinner, and half a loaf of bread, which she placed on the kitchen table and told the man to help himself. The stranger did not wait for another invitation; but set to work in good earnest upon the bread and bacon, while the farmer stood with his hands behind him, and his back to the fire, whistling the air of "Auld Lang Syne," while he mentally repeated the words of the hymn of "When I can read my t.i.tle clear," and wished that his visitor would make haste and get through with his supper. The latter, after eating for a short time with the air of a man whose appet.i.te was keen, began to discuss the meat and bread with more deliberation, and occasionally to ask a question, or make a remark, the replies to which were not very gracious, although Mr. Wade forced himself to be as polite as he could be.
The homely meal at length concluded, the man b.u.t.toned up his old coat and drew on his coa.r.s.e woolen gloves again, and thanking Mr.
and Mrs. Wade for their hospitality, opened the door and looked out.
It was quite dark, for there was no moon, and the sky was veiled in clouds. The wind rushed into his face, cold and piercing. For a moment or two, he stood with his hand upon the door, and then closing it he turned back into the house, and said to the farmer
"You say it is still three miles to D--?"
"I do," said Mr. Wade coldly.
"I said so to you when you first stopped, and you ought to have pushed on like a prudent man. You could have reached there before it was quite dark."
"But I was cold and hungry, and might have fainted by the way."
The manner of saying this touched the farmer"s feelings a little, and caused him to look more narrowly into the stranger"s face than he had yet done. But he saw nothing more than he had already seen.
"You have warmed and fed me, for which I am thankful. Will you not bestow another act of kindness upon one who is in a strange place, and if he goes out in the darkness may lose himself and perish in the cold?"
The peculiar form in which this request was made, and the tone in which it was uttered, put it almost out of the power of the farmer to say no.
"Go in there and sit down," he (sic) answed, pointing to the kitchen, "and I will see my wife, and hear what she has to say."
And Mr. Wade went into the parlor where the supper table stood, covered with a snow-white cloth, and displaying his wife"s set of bluesprigged china, that was only brought out on special occasions.
Two tall mould candles were burning thereon, and on the hearth blazed a cheerful hickory fire.
"Hasn"t that old fellow gone yet?" asked Mrs. Wade. She had heard his voice as he returned from the door.
"No. And what do you suppose? He wants us to let him stay all night."
"Indeed, and we"ll do no such thing! We can"t have the likes of him in the house, no how. Where could he sleep?"
"Not in the best room, even if Mr. N--shouldn"t come."
"No, indeed!"
"But I really don"t see, Jane how we can turn him out of doors. He doesn"t look like a very strong man, and it"s dark and cold, and full three miles to D--."
"It"s too much! He ought to have gone on while he had daylight, and not lingered here as he did until it got dark."
"We can"t turn him out of doors, Jane; and it"s no use to think of it. He"ll have to stay now."
"But what can we do with him?"
"He seems like a decent man, at least; and don"t look as if he had anything bad about him. We might make him a bed on the floor somewhere."
"I wish he had been to Guinea before he came here," said Mrs. Wade, fretfully. The disappointment, the conviction that Mr. N--would not arrive, and the intrusion of so unwelcome a visitor as the stranger, completely unhinged her mind.
"Oh, well, Jane," replied her husband in a soothing voice, "never mind. We must make the best of it. Poor man! He came to us tired and hungry, and we have warmed him and fed him. He now asks shelter for the night, and we must not refuse him, nor grant his request in a complaining reluctant spirit. You know what the Bible says about entertaining angels unawares."
"Angels! Did you ever see an angel look like him?"
"Having never seen an angel," said the husband smiling, "I am unable to speak as to their appearance."
This had the effect to call an answering smile to the face of Mrs.
Wade, and a better feeling to her heart. And it was finally agreed between them, that the man, as he seemed like a decent kind of a person, should be permitted to occupy the minister"s room, if that individual did not arrive, an event to which they both now looked with but small expectancy. If he did come, why the man would have put up with poorer accommodations.
When Mr. Wade returned to the kitchen where the stranger had seated himself before the fire, he informed him, that they had decided to let him stay all night. The man expressed in a few words his grateful sense of their kindness, and then became silent and thoughtful. Soon after, the farmer"s wife, giving up all hopes of Mr. N--"s arrival, had supper taken up, which consisted of coffee, warm cream short cakes, and sweet cakes, broiled ham, and broiled chicken. After all was on the table, a short conference was held, as to whether it would do not to invite the stranger to take supper. It was true, they had given him as much bread and bacon as he could eat; but then, as long as he was going to stay all night, it looked too inhospitable to sit down to the table and not ask him to join them. So, making a virtue of necessity, he was kindly asked to come in to supper, an invitation which he did not decline. Grace was said over the meal by Mr. Wade, and then the coffee was poured out, the bread helped, and the meat served.
There was a fine little boy of some five or six years old at the table, who had been brightened up, and dressed in his best, in order to grace the minister"s reception. Charley was full of talk, and the parents felt a natural pride in showing him off, even before their humble guest, who noticed him particularly, although he had not much to say.
"Come, Charley," said Mr. Wade, after the meal was over, and he sat leaning back in his chair, "can"t you repeat the pretty hymn mamma learned you last Sunday?"
Charley started off, without further invitation, and repeated, very accurately, two or three verses of a new camp-meeting hymn, that was just then very popular.
"Now let us hear you say the Commandments, Charley," spoke up the mother, well pleased at her child"s performance. And Charley repeated them with only the aid of a little prompting.
"How many commandments are there?" asked the father.
The child hesitated, and then looking up at the stranger, near whom he sat, said, innocently,--
"How many are there?"
The man thought for some moments, and said, as if in doubt--
"Eleven, are there not?"
"Eleven!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Wade, looking towards the man in unfeigned surprise.
"Eleven!" said her husband, with more of rebuke than astonishment in his voice. "Is it possible, sir, that you do not know how many Commandments there are? How many are there, Charley? Come! Tell me; you know, of course."
"Ten," said the child.
"Right, my son," returned Mr. Wade, with a smile of approval.
"Right. Why, there isn"t a child of his age within ten miles who can"t tell you that there are ten Commandments. "Did you never read the Bible, sir?" addressing the stranger.
"When I was a little boy, I used to read in it sometimes. But I"m sure I thought there were eleven Commandments. Are you not mistaken about there being only ten?"
Sister Wade lifted her hands in unfeigned astonishment, and exclaimed--
"Could any one believe it? Such ignorance of the Bible!"
Mr. Wade did not reply, but he arose, and going to one corner of the room, where the Good Book lay upon a small mahogany stand, brought it to the table, and pushing away his plate, cup and saucer, laid the volume before him, and opened that portion in which the Commandments are recorded.
"There!" he said, placing his finger upon a proof of the man"s error. "There! Look for yourself!"
The man came round from his side of the table, and looked over the farmer"s shoulder.