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When Pettybone turned apostate there was such a commotion as had never before disturbed Coldriver; it subsided, and was forgotten as the years dragged on, by all but Pettybone and Hooper, who continued tenaciously to hate each other with a bitter hatred and the more so that their financial affairs were so inextricably mingled.
Now it regarded him as a martyr, and with clacking tongues and singleness of purpose it espoused his cause and declared that their minister was good enough to marry any girl alive, and that Deacon Pettybone was a mean, narrow-minded, bigoted, cantankerous old grampus. The thing became a public question, second in importance only to the sidewalk. "Hold your hosses," Scattergood advised Jason.
Tell both of 'em to be at my store at three o'clock, but don't tell neither t'other's to be there." At three o'clock Deacon Pettybone and Elder Hooper came face to face in Scattergood's place of business. "Howdy, gents?" said Scattergood. "Lookin' forward to bein' mutual grandads, I calc'late. Must be quite a feelin' to know you're in line to be a grandad." "Huh!" grunted the deacon.
"Guess we'll let Ovid git through when he comes back," said Deacon Pettybone, harshly, making use of the mountain term to denote discharge. There no one is ever discharged, no one ever resigns. The single phrase covers both actions the individual "gets through."
He was so progressive that in the Coldriver parade he occupied a position so advanced that it really seemed like two parades. Old Man Bogle and Deacon Pettybone and Elder Hooper always discussed Locker when politics were exhausted, and their only point of difference was as to when and exactly how Jason would wind up in bankruptcy. They were agreed that he was a bit touched in his head.
The young man's face was alight with happiness. "Mr. Baines," he said, "I'm grateful to you. I shall marry Selina." "Maybe," said Scattergood. "It runs in my mind you got to have dealin's with Deacon Pettybone, and the deacon always figgers that the news he gits from heaven is fresher and more dependable than what anybody else gits. Might ask him and see."
On a certain afternoon Scattergood was seen to accost Selina Pettybone, who paused, and drew nearer, showing signs of regret and interest. "Seliny," said Scattergood, "you're one of them Daughters of Dorcas, or half sisters of Mehitable, or somethin' religious and charitable, hain't you?" "Yes," said Selina, with a smile.
Next morning, Scattergood, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Ovid Nixon, alighted from the train in Coldriver. Deacon Pettybone happened to be standing on the depot platform. "Make you acquainted with Mis' Nixon," said Scattergood, with gravity.
On the bridge he encountered three dark figures, which, upon inspection, resolved themselves into Old Man Bogle, Deacon Pettybone, and Elder Hooper. "Scattergood," said the elder, "somethin's happened." "Somethin' 'most allus does." "This here's special and horrifyin'." "Havin' to do with what?" "That coffee gal, that baggage, that hussy!" "Um!... Sich as?"
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