18. CHAPTER XVIII.
ODDS AND ENDS.
THE Spring-in-rock, or, as it was sometimes, by a
curious perversity, called, “the rock-in-spring,”
was a spring running out of a cavelike fissure in a
high limestone cliff. Here the old man sheltered himself
on that dreary Christmas evening, until Bud
brought his roan colt to the top of the cliff above, and he and
Ralph helped the old man up the cliff and into the saddle. Ralph
went back to bed, but Bud, who was only too eager to put in his
best licks, walked by the side of old John Pearson the six miles
over to Buckeye Run, and at last, after eleven o'clock, he deposited
him in a hollow sycamore by the road, there to wait the
coming of the mail-wagon that would carry him into Jackson
County.
“Good by,” said the basket-maker, as Bud mounted the colt to
return. “Ef I'm wanted jest send me word, and I'll make a
forrard movement any time. I don't like this ere thing of running
off in the night-time. But I reckon General Winfield Scott
would a ordered a retreat ef he'd a been in my shoes. I'm lots
obleeged to you. Akordin' to my tell, we're all of us selfish in
every thing; but I'll be dog-on'd ef I don't believe you and one or
two more is exceptions.”
Whether it was that the fact that Pete Jones had got consid'able
shuck up demoralized his followers, or whether it was that the
old man's flight was suspected, the mob did not turn out in very
great force, and the tarring was postponed indefinitely, for by the
time they came together it became known somehow that the
man with a wooden leg had outrun them all. But the escape of
one devoted victim did not mollify the feelings of the people
toward the next one.
By the time Bud returned his arm was very painful, and the
next day he went under Dr. Small's treatment to reduce the fracture.
Whatever suspicions Bud might have of Pete Jones, he
was not afflicted with Ralph's dread of the silent young doctor.
And if there was anything Small admired, it was physical
strength and courage. Small wanted Bud on his side, and least
of all did he want him to be Ralph's champion. So that the
silent, cool, and skillful doctor went to work to make an impression
on Bud Means.
Other influences were at work upon him also. Mrs. Means
volleyed and thundered in her usual style about his “takin' up
with a one-legged thief, and runnin' arter that master that was
a mighty suspicious kind of a customer, akordin' to her tell.
She'd allers said so. Ef she'd a been consulted he wouldn't a
been hired. He warn't fit company fer nobody.”
And old Jack Means 'lowed Bud must want to have their
barns burnt like some other folks' had been. Fer his part, he
had sense enough to know they was some people as it wouldn't
do to set a body's self agin. And as fer him, he didn't butt his
brains out agin a buckeye-tree. Not when he was sober. And so
they managed, during Bud's confinement to the house, to keep
him well supplied with all the ordinary discomforts of life.
But one visit from Martha Hawkins, ten words of kindly
inquiry from her, and the remark that his broken arm reminded
her of something she had seen at the East and something somebody
said the time she was to Bosting, were enough to repay the
champion a thousand-fold for all that he suffered. Indeed, that
visit, and the recollection of Ralph's saying that Jesus Christ was
a sort of a Flat Creeker himself, were manna in the wilderness
to Bud.
Poor Shocky was sick. The excitement had been too much
for him, and though his fever was very slight it was enough to
produce just a little delirium. Either Ralph or Miss Martha was
generally at the cabin.
“They're coming,” said Shocky to Ralph, “they're coming.
Pete Jones is agoing to bind me out for a hundred years. I
wish Hanner would hold me so's he couldn't. God's forgot all
about us here in Flat Creek, and there's nobody to help it.”
And he shivered at every sudden sound. He was never free
from this delirious fright except when the master held him tight
in his arms. He staggered around the floor, the very shadow of
Shocky, and was so terrified by the approach of darkness that
Ralph staid in the cabin on Wednesday night and Miss Hawkins
staid on Thursday night. On Friday, Bud sent a note to Ralph,
asking him to come and see him.
“You see, Mr. Hartsook, I ha'n't forgot what we said about
puttin' in our best licks for Jesus Christ. I've been a trying to
read some about him while I set here. And I read where he
said something about doing fer the least of his brethren being
all the same like as if it was done fer Jesus Christ hisself. Now
there's Shocky. I reckon, p'r'aps, ef anybody is a little brother
of Jesus Christ, it is that Shocky. Pete Jones and his brother
Bill is detarmined to have him back there to-morry. Bekase, you
see, Pete's one of the County Commissioners, and to-morry's the
day that they bind out. He wants to bind out that boy jes' to
spite ole Pearson and you and me. You see, the ole woman's
been helped by the neighbors, and he'll claim Shocky to be a
pauper, and they a'n't no human soul here as dares to do a
thing con
trary to Pete. Couldn't you git him over to Lewisburg?
I'll lend you my roan colt.”
Ralph thought a minute. He dare not take Shocky to the
uncle's where he found his only home. But there was Miss
Nancy Sawyer, the old maid who was everybody's blessing. He
could ask her to keep him. And, at any rate, he would save
Shocky somehow.
As he went out in the dusk, he met Hannah in the lane.
