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If I'd tell you what Pill said to me the other day, when we was in Robie's store, you'd fall in a fit. An' to hear him talkin' here t'night, is enough to make a horse laugh." "You're all in league with the devil," said the old man, wildly; and so the battle raged on. Milton and Radbourn escaped from it, and got out into the clear, cold, untainted night.
After the discussion along familiar lines had taken place, Radbourn resumed the chair and called on any one in the room to volunteer a word on either side. "We would like to hear from Talcott," he said. "Talcott, Talcott," called the rest. Bradley rose, as if impelled by some irresistible power within himself. He began stammeringly.
Instantly at the word "Amen," like the popping of a cork, the tumult burst out again. Hands clapped, laughter flared out, desks were slammed, papers were rattled, feet pounded, and the brazen monotonous clanging voice of the clerk sounded above it all like some new steam calliope whose sounds were words. "You see how much prayer means here," said Radbourn.
He saw that Bacon's treatment had been heroic; he couldn't get that pitiful confusion of the preacher's face out of his mind. But, after all, Bacon's seizing of just that instant was a stroke of genius. Some one touched him on the arm. "Why, Elder, Mr. Pill, how de do? Sit down. Draw up a chair." There was trouble in the preacher's face. "Can I see you, Radbourn, alone?"
There were phrases whose reach and significance he did not realize to the full, but their effect was not lost. He never forgot such things. He was thinking how diametrically opposite Miss Wilbur's ideas were, when Radbourn came up, and said with a significant smile: "Well, Talcott, you did get hold of all the regulation stock material. The Home Market idea is a great field for you.
"The heat of the furnace doesn't reach as far as the horses," Radbourn moralized, as he aided in unhitching the shivering team. "In the vast, calm spaces of the stars, among the animals, such scenes as we have just seen are impossible." He lifted his hand in a lofty gesture. The light fell on his pale face and dark eyes. The girls were a little indignant and disposed to take the preacher's part.
He thought, as he sawed wood in the back alleys of the town, and at night he toiled at his books. Those were great days. New powers were swiftly burgeoning. Radbourn spoke to several of the politicians of the town about Bradley. "There is a good deal in that man Talcott. Of course he's just beginning, but you'll hear from him on the stump. He is an orator that reaches people.
There was Amos B. Tripp, whom Radbourn said resembled "a Chinese god" immense, featureless, bald, with a pout on his face like an enormous baby. The "watch dog of the house," Major Hendricks, was tall, thin, with the voice and manner of an old woman. His eyes were invisible, and his chin-beard wagged up and down as he shouted in high tenor his inevitable objection.
He saw that Bacon's treatment had been heroic; he couldn't get the pitiful confusion of the preacher's face out of his mind. But, after all, Bacon's seizing of just that instant was a stroke of genius. Some one touched him on the arm and he turned. "Why Elder Mr. Pill, how de do? Sit down. Draw up a chair." There was trouble in the preacher's face. "Can I see you, Radbourn, alone?"
The deacons nodded their heads together in counsel, and when they turned to the desk Pill was gone! "Gee whittaker! That was tough," said Milton to Radbourn; "knocked the wind out o' him like a cannon-ball. What'll he do now? "He can't do anything but acknowledge his foolishness." "You no business t' come here an' 'sturb the Lord's meetin'," cried old Daddy Brown to Radbourn.
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