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JACK RACER 
 
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JACK RACER 
 
 By 
 HENRY SOMERVhLLE 
 
 Decorations by ANNE GOLDTHWAITE 
 
 McCLURE, PHILLIPS b* CO. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 M C M I 
 
Copyright, igoi 
 By McClure, Phillips and Company 
 
 UNIVERSITY PRESS • JOHN WILSON 
 AND SON • CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. 
 
MY FATHER & MOTHER 
 
 iviG04G96 
 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 I. Jack's Curious Interest in the Camp- 
 bell Household 3 
 
 II. Social Events are Shaped in Sam Lime- 
 
 cooly's Store 13 
 
 III. On the Road to Camp-Meeting ... 25 
 
 IV. Wherein Pekin is Seen Uniting Religion 
 
 and Festivity 41 
 
 V. A Flirtation is Industriously Fanned . 71 
 VI. Mr. Racer's Kindly Relations with 
 
 Several Ladies Become Apparent . 83 
 VII. A Thrilling Catastrophe Breaks Down 97 
 VIII. The Campbell Family's Views of Cur- 
 rent Events 113 
 
 IX. Lucy and Aunt Kiz Get Acquainted . 125 
 X. A Fire Gives Opportunity for More 
 
 than Heroism 139 
 
viii . CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 XI. And Leaves Jack Racer Unaccountably 
 
 Capricious 157 
 
 XII. Aunt Kiz Invites Him In and Then 
 
 Invites Him Out 169 
 
 XIII. The Professor and the Cantata of 
 
 Esther 187 
 
 XIV. Mrs. George is More Biddable than 
 
 She Knows ion 
 
 XV. The Cantata Proves the Mother of 
 
 Discord 211 
 
 XVI. A Situation More Perilous than it 
 
 Seems 229 
 
 XVII. The Squire Plans a Campaign and a 
 
 Career 245 
 
 XVIII. Pekin Ladies Awake to an Interest in 
 
 Politics 265 
 
 XIX. Jack Racer Wins the Nomination . 277 
 XX. But the Barbecue Makes Him Happier 
 
 Still 299 
 
 XXI. It is Again Evidenced that Pride Goes 
 
 Before a Fall 325 
 
 XXII. The Squire is Awakened to the Hour's 
 
 Perils 345 
 
 XXIII. Curious Social Attentions Follow Un- 
 
 popidarity . 361 
 
CONTENTS ix 
 
 Chapter Page 
 XXIV. The Campbell Family "Stands By" 
 
 Nobly 383 
 
 XXV. Important News Comes Too Late . 401 
 XXVI. Pekin Changes its Mind and Lucy 
 
 Discloses Hers 415 
 
^ 
 
 ^ 
 
CHAPTER ONE 
 
JACK RACER 
 
 Jack's Curious Interest in the Campbell 
 Household 
 
 EKIN had pronounced views on 
 some subjects. These were not 
 many, but they were held with 
 great intensity, and all had ref- 
 erence to what in some circles is 
 called the conduct of life. 
 There was rarely more than one of these 
 prominent. They were taken up seriatim^ as 
 the public speakers say, and, in time, became 
 seasonable. Thus, about the time of cider 
 making and stilling, in a quiet way, to save the 
 overripe and unmarketable fruit, and before the 
 fall rains set in, the temperance agitation be- 
 gan, taking sometimes the energetic form of 
 
4 JACK RACER 
 
 the crusade, and again, the more seductive 
 methods of the Good Templars. 
 This usually ripened into a religious revival 
 in winter, which in spring softened into mu- 
 sical conventions and strawberry festivals, none 
 of which were reckoned as gayeties in Pekin, 
 all having some saving object in view. Not- 
 withstanding, a great many outside matters 
 were accomplished in this way, for which more 
 worldly communities have to depend on more 
 worldly methods. Not to take an interest in 
 whatever was uppermost was to become a 
 member of that vague, though large, body 
 known as Antichrist. The case of such an 
 one, however, was by no means hopeless. Old 
 Jacob Kintzing, who made a good deal of cider 
 publicly, and manufactured apple-jack and 
 peach brandy privately, and during the temper- 
 ance agitation was held to be a winebibber and 
 corrupter of youth, was the mainstay of the 
 winter revival. On the other hand. Squire 
 Green, who led the crusade, at other seasons 
 
JACK'S CURIOUS INTEREST 5 
 
 was an ill-odor in the nostrils of Pekin and 
 unpleasantly spoken of as a whited sepulchre. 
 There was always one exception. At all 
 times and at all seasons, Jack Racer was re- 
 garded with unchanging disapproval. This 
 was not because Jack did not take an interest 
 in everything that went on ; but because of 
 what might be called the quality of Jack's 
 interest. He was popularly supposed to be dis- 
 sipated, from the odor of cardamom seeds he 
 generally diffused, — cardamom seeds, in places 
 of the size of Pekin, being in request among 
 gentlemen addicted to both liquor and society. 
 A good deal of Jack's reputation he had taken 
 pains to earn in the same manner. He usually 
 clad himself in a certain rakish cast of var- 
 ments, surmounted by a tall white hat, which 
 was emphasized by a broad black band. This 
 by no means indicated any special affliction in 
 Jack's family, but was chosen with a fine 
 instinct of the fitness of things from the Pekin 
 pomt of view. This hat was especially frowned 
 
6 JACK RACER 
 
 upon, for Pekin insisted on the moral quality 
 of clothes, and associated white hats with the 
 sporting men who passed through on their way 
 to the Sparta fair. 
 
 This fine August morning, Jack was to meet 
 Will Triplow and Amzi TuUis at Sam Lime- 
 cooly's store, to arrange a camp-meeting party 
 — for now that the gardens were all under way, 
 the annual camp-meetings were announced for 
 Lima and Sparta, as well as for Pekin. 
 Jack walked with a light heart down Main 
 Street, snapping his riding whip about his slen- 
 der legs and whistling an air from Le Petit 
 Faust^ in clear, low tones. Of the nativity 
 of his tune he had no idea, but it had a light, 
 worldly ring which caught his ear. He also 
 realized that it was as different as possible from 
 the fashion of music in Pekin, where the gay- 
 est young ladies spread out the Gospel Hymns 
 when asked to favor with some music, and 
 where the most hopeless midnight brawlers 
 sang " Hold the Fort." 
 
JACIC'S CURIOUS INTEREST 7 
 Jack stopped before the store door to pull off 
 a piece of dried herring which hung at one side 
 among the indications of Sam's varied trade. 
 "Jack, give us a piece ! " 
 " Hello, Billy Campbell ! Is that you ? " 
 Jack handed down a piece of herring to an 
 eight-year-old boy, who twitched his trousers 
 and turned up a pair of blue eyes and a very 
 freckled nose. 
 
 " Why, Billy, how you 're blowing ! " 
 " I 've been runnin' races with Bob Wally, 
 an' I can beat him, Jack. He runjis as tight 
 as he could go, but I run the tightest." 
 Jack laughed so loud that Sam Limecooly came 
 to the door. 
 
 " Jack, the fellows are waitin'." 
 *' That 's a good occupation. Billy, are you 
 all well down to your house ? " 
 " I guess mother ain't. She has her jaws tied 
 up." 
 
 " How 's your father ? " 
 " He 's gone to Lima, to get the power fixed." 
 
8 JACK RACER 
 
 "Hay-press broke again, eh?" Jack stood 
 awhile, twirling his mustache. 
 " By the way, I forgot to ask after Aunt Kiz. 
 She 'd never forgive me, Billy." 
 " Oh, she 's railin', as usual." 
 " Billy Campbell, you don't know what you 're 
 talking about." 
 
 " That 's what mother said, anyway. She was 
 cussin' things, that 's what she was doin'." 
 " That 's a fib. Aunt Kiz does n't say bad 
 words." 
 
 " Then it 's because she dasn't." The young- 
 ster looked up from the doorstep. 
 " How do you know .'' " 
 " I see it in her eye." 
 
 " Jack ! Jack ! " called impatient voices from 
 within. 
 
 Jack lifted one foot up the wooden step to- 
 ward the door, and paused. 
 " I saw Nance Jackson going in your house 
 this morning." 
 ''She's goin' to help wash. Looky here, 
 
JACK'S CURIOUS INTEREST 9 
 
 what she give me." The boy held out a corn- 
 cob pipe. 
 
 Jack caught him by the shoulders. 
 " Billy Campbell, if I catch you with that pipe 
 in your mouth, it won't be good for you." 
 " You ain't my keeper." 
 « But you won't, Billy," said the young man, 
 condescending to coax. " It would make your 
 women folks feel bad." 
 "Mebbe I won't." 
 
 " So Nance is there, helping wash. Is there 
 anything the matter more than common ? " 
 "Hello,^ there's Bob Wally. Hi, Bob!" 
 Billy started down the street at full speed, 
 leaving Jack to chew the cud of his curiosity 
 in the Campbell family's health and domestic 
 
 affairs. 
 
 " What have they got Nance for to-day ? 
 They ain't usually so considerate," he said to 
 himself. " Drat the boy." Then he entered 
 Sam Limecooly's store. 
 
CHAPTER TWO 
 
II 
 
 Social Events are shaped in Sam Limecooly's 
 Store 
 
 ^ERE he was assailed by the in- 
 dignant voices of two young 
 men. They were sufficiently 
 well-favored youths, but of the 
 bilious-type of the country. At 
 present, they decorated the counter, and had 
 between them a large cheese, at which they 
 both were nibbling. 
 
 " How much time do you think I 've got. Jack 
 Racer, that you keep me waitin' here ? " 
 " You 've got all the time there is, my boy. 
 Much as anybody." 
 
 Amzi Tullis, to whom Jack spoke, was the 
 young Croesus of the neighborhood, but a 
 Crcesus whose proper view of the advantage 
 of possessing fat meadows was tempered by 
 
14 JACK RACER 
 
 being also the possessor of a bristly shock of 
 red hair and innumerable freckles. These quali- 
 fying facts bore outward fruit ; but in secret 
 Amzi nourished visions of beautiful and dash- 
 ing women in whose sight the fat meadows 
 should entirely obscure the unlovelier features 
 of his personalitv. 
 
 His companion, Will Triplow, kept the jewelry 
 store of Pekin. Will was a nice, dainty fel- 
 low, with well-kept nails. This should not 
 have been a distinguishing feature in Pekin, 
 but, unhappily, it was. Will was a ladies' 
 man and always to be depended on to show 
 courtesies to young lady visitors in Pekin. He 
 was consequently much sought after on all 
 social occasions, when his natural amiability 
 was rendered more attractive by reason of a 
 tenor voice. With this, it being neither too 
 weak nor very strong, he was reasonably sat- 
 isfied. Knowing a few chords on the piano, 
 he could accompany himself, and showed the 
 greatest readiness to fill up any social gap in 
 
SOCIAL EVENTS 15 
 
 this way. Another amiable trait was his habit 
 of keeping newspaper clippings in his pocket- 
 book, from which verses of poetry and amus- 
 ing incidents could be opportunely produced. 
 You and I might have objected to his voice 
 as too feminine, and to the particularity of his 
 enunciation. But in Pekin these were held to 
 be tokens of a refined nature. 
 The third of the trio was Sam Limecooly, big, 
 ugly, sententious, and wise ; the proprietor of 
 the largest store in the village, where, in his 
 shirt-sleeves and with the assistance of a clerk, 
 he measured calico and sold combs, hams, and 
 molasses with strict impartiality and attention 
 to business. 
 
 "Yes, Jack; we have been here a consider- 
 able spell," said Mr. Triplow. 
 " Why do you fellows waste so much time talk- 
 ing ? " said Jack, as he reversed a chair and be- 
 strode it. " Have you engaged your teams ? " 
 " That 's settled so far as Triplow and I are 
 concerned." Sam Limecooly, having dis- 
 
i6 JACK RACER 
 
 patched a youthful customer with a bar of 
 soap to finish the washing, was now at leisure 
 to join in the conversation. " We engaged 
 Tim Lucky's browns and two-seated concern. 
 It 's more to the purpose to settle about the 
 girls." 
 
 " Tullis, what have you ? " asked Jack, medita- 
 tively, and giving no heed. 
 " I 've got a spanking new top-buggy ! " Amzi 
 looked from one to another and shut his lips 
 in comical defiance. " I went to Sparkins at 
 Lima and I said, ' Look here, Sparkins, I might 
 as well buy the thing out and out. Give me 
 the purtiest thing out, and I '11 stand the 
 damage.' " 
 
 " Cushions soft, back upholstered, springs 
 easy ? " Jack asked, still musing. 
 " Easy as a cradle. It 's just such a stylish 
 thing, Jack — " Amzi's face crimsoned as he 
 threw out the suggestion — "I thought I 'd 
 ask Laury Francis." 
 " Why, of course. Get a girl to match," Jack 
 
SOCIAL EVENTS 17 
 
 said, gruffly ; and Amzi felt himself brushed 
 aside. The young man then resumed, with 
 an air of indifference, " I suppose you fellows 
 will take Miss Ross and Miss Burke, as you 're 
 going together ? " 
 
 " Jehosaphat ! " cried Sam. Will Triplow, 
 who had been lying on the counter, his head 
 pillowed on a pile of brown paper, started up 
 with eyes so bulging with astonishment that 
 Jack broke into a loud laugh. 
 " Why, Jack, who are you going to take ? " 
 inquired Amzi, who was in a cooler frame of 
 mind, his fate being settled. 
 " I ought to have told you in the first place. 
 It 's out of the question mv taking anybody. 
 When the basket-meeting was first talked about, 
 Uncle George asked me to drive Elder John- 
 son out. You see, it is n't often the old fellow 
 asks me a favor, and I want to oblige him. 
 But I '11 be with you as soon as I tuck the 
 elder safely away in the Amen corner. Now, 
 I have an errand, as we 've about settled this 
 2 
 
i8 JACK RACER 
 
 matter." Jack started for the door, but with- 
 out his usual alacrity. 
 
 " Bv the way,Tullis," he called back, ••' there 's 
 a Chicago fellow with stunning side-whiskers 
 staying up at Francis's. I 'd go a little 
 slow." 
 
 He stopped, and watched with contentment 
 Amzi's sudden dislocation of mind at this piece 
 of news, and then went to the rescue. 
 " Never mind, old fellow, he '11 be gone in a 
 week, and both the girl and the buggy will 
 keep." 
 
 " But what '11 I do about the basket-meetin'. 
 Jack ? " 
 
 "Take Campbell's niece, Amzi. She'll ap- 
 preciate your upholstery, eh ? " 
 "Jus' as you say. Jack," said Amzi, now 
 humble in his discomfiture. " She has n't the 
 beauty and the style of Laury Francis, but 
 she 's comfortable and she 's soothin'." 
 " Oh, I don't suggest her as an anodyne," 
 said Jack, apparently hard to please. 
 
SOCIAL EVENTS 19 
 
 Some association of ideas stirred Mr. Triplow, 
 who moved on his brown-paper pillow, and, 
 clasping his hands, began, — 
 
 O Woman ! in our hours of ease 
 Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, 
 When pain and anguisli wring the brow 
 You d — 
 
 '' How does it go, boys ? " 
 *' You bawl for her, like a calf for a cow. 
 That's truth, if it isn't poetry," said Jack, 
 good-hu mo redly. 
 
 " I like Lucy because she listens so hearty." 
 " And you talk so much, O sententious Sam- 
 uel ! " 
 
 " Yes, sir, she bends forward, cocks up one 
 little ear, and looks you in the eye until you 
 feel you 're Demosthenes or Cicero." 
 " I 'm with you, Limecooly," chimed in Will 
 Triplow, " I like to see a woman pay at- 
 tention." 
 
 " If you '11 allow me to suggest," interrupted 
 Jack, "you '11 send your ladies word, that no 
 
20 JACK RACER 
 
 time may be lost in collecting the stray yel- 
 low-legged chickens." 
 
 So saying, Jack departed, and might have been 
 seen woino- up the street in a high state of 
 satisfaction. 
 
 " ' If you '11 allow me to suggest ! ' That is 
 good," murmured Sam, As his own girl was 
 away on a visit, he was indifferent as to whom 
 he escorted. At the same time, he was curi- 
 ous at being disposed of so summarily. 
 Will Triplow had scarcely recovered from his 
 astonishment at being thrust into what he had 
 taken to be Jack's preserves, but he felt a new 
 impulse. 
 
 " If you don't mind, Sam, I '11 take Miss Burke. 
 I always felt a desire to study her character." 
 " I 'm glad, since things have turned out so," 
 said honest Amzi, " that I 'm to take Lucy. 
 She 's plain and simple. I never could abide 
 riddles." 
 
 "Well, Anna's good enough for me," said 
 Sam. 
 
SOCIAL EVENTS 21 
 
 As the young men left, Sam watched them 
 from the door, still wearing his puzzled look. 
 " He 's afraid to take one, and he 's afraid to 
 take both. That's my opinion." 
 
CHAPTER THREE 
 
Ill 
 
 On the Road to Camp-Meeting 
 
 EKIN is in the prairie country. 
 East, west, north, south, it lies a 
 dead level, diversified only by the 
 hand of man in orchards, mead- 
 ows, and low farmhouses, screened 
 by plantations from the fierce sweep ot the 
 prairie winds. The range of vision is almost 
 unbroken to where the yellow grasses touch 
 the skv. But the sublimity of the vast ex- 
 panse of the sea and the restfulness of the 
 long mountain reaches are here only ennui and 
 impatience. A fine land for corn and cattle ! 
 This is its aspect in the eyes of its inhabitants, 
 and has added its touch of sordidness and com- 
 monplace to their character. This, however, 
 is unappreciated at Pekin and, in any case, 
 would be held inmateriaL 
 
26 JACK RACER 
 
 At this season the roads are superb. They lie 
 smooth and level between fields of yellow 
 bloom and white buckwheat, where myriads 
 of bees are sipping sweets for Pekin honey, 
 and wanton butterflies are idling. To-day 
 there is an almost unbroken procession of non- 
 descript vehicles, laden with an equally non- 
 descript variety of human beings, on the way 
 to the camp-ground. Extremes meet in Judge 
 Francis's fine carriage and daughter, just home 
 from boarding-school, with her Chicago beau ; 
 and Tim Lucky in his two-wheeled cart, with 
 his old wife by his side. 
 
 Loitering at the start, to avoid the dust, and in 
 no haste for the opening exercises, was the 
 camp-meeting party. The special attraction 
 of the day was Mahala Plyley, a female evan- 
 gelist, who was in great demand for such oc- 
 casions. This they knew. The postal card 
 which assisted in carrying on the negotiations 
 had been read aloud by Jack Racer in Sam 
 Limecooly's store. 
 
TO CAMP-AIEETING 27 
 " Mv terms aie," Miss Plyley wrote, "fifty 
 dollars for three weeks' work. Please engage 
 the largest house of worship, where all can 
 gather that are ready to do battle on the Lord's 
 side. 
 
 "P. S. I run all summer," 
 In some communities this postal card would 
 have filled the front seats at an early hour, but 
 Pekin was used to it, apostles being common 
 to the prairie. 
 
 Miss Burke leaned idly back in the carriage 
 at Will Triplow's side, her eves half closed 
 and on her handsome face a shadow of dis- 
 content. Miss Ross, on the front seat, was, 
 on the contrary, in high spirits, making com- 
 ments of more or less wit on everything on the 
 road. 
 
 Anna Ross had what people call a sharp tongue. 
 There is no doubt that it was 4 tongue one 
 would hesitate to have engaged against one's 
 self. The Ross family had lived at Pekin 
 ever since Anna was a baby. She had grown 
 
28 JACK RACER 
 
 up with the Pekiii boys and girls, and had ruled 
 them, or fought them manfully if they resisted 
 her rulings. She had once even drubbed great 
 Sam Limecooly, now sitting by her side. He 
 was much smaller then ; in fact, he v/as 
 only six years old, and had refused, after the 
 twentieth time, to say bureau — he called it 
 buow — for her amusement, Anna having 
 spoken plainly ever since she could speak 
 at all. 
 
 In those earlv days, Anna and Jack Racer had 
 been allies, Anna engaging literally tooth and 
 nail on Jack's side in any of his emergencies. 
 In this way, she was a valuable friend, never 
 thinking it worth inquiring what Mr. Triplow 
 would call the "subject matter" of Jack's 
 troubles. For this Jack had always been duly 
 grateful, and a strong feeling existed between 
 them. UntiJ the arrival of Miss Burke, Anna 
 had never thought of analyzing her and Jack's 
 friendship. Her quick wit soon perceived a 
 difference in Jack's attentions to Miss Burke. 
 
TO CAMP-MEETING 29 
 
 Anna was not pleased with what, she saw. Ac- 
 cordingly, the two girls became great friends. 
 Anna's spirits on this day arose partly from the 
 fact that at least Irene Burke was not going 
 to the basket-meeting with Jack Racer. That 
 she herself was not going with him gave her 
 no trouble. Anna's happiness for some time 
 had rested on such negative facts. On other 
 occasions, receiving the lesser share of Jack's 
 divided attentions had made her rather cross 
 at home. This was somewhat hard on the 
 Ross familv, the harder from the fact that, as 
 old Air. Ross said, he "had no use for Jack 
 Racer, anyway." 
 
 " There go Amzi and Lucy. Don't vou gi\e 
 us your dust ! How smiling Amzi looks. I 
 wonder if that will make a match. It would 
 be a good thing for her, she ain't any more 
 than Campbell's hired giri. Thev say they 
 pay her wages." 
 
 " That 's just like you girls, always thinking 
 of getting married." 
 
30 J ACK RACER 
 
 " That 's no such thing, Sam Limecooly. For 
 my part, I don't think much of matrimony." 
 " Do you hear that. Miss Burke ? " Mr. Trip- 
 low, who had been vainly endeavoring to study 
 female character as represented by Miss Burke, 
 was now glad to relieve his ill-paid efforts by 
 joining in Anna's conversation. 
 " Oh, Miss Anna ! you can't be in earnest." 
 " Yes, I am. So far as I can see, getting 
 married only gives folks an extra good chance 
 to be disagreeable. Isn't that so, Irene? Is 
 the girl asleep ? " Anna peered around. 
 " Are n't you fond of conversation. Miss 
 Burke ? " asked Mr. Triplow. 
 " I am in general, but not in particular," re- 
 plied that lady, who was considering mean- 
 while what she thought of Anna's vulgar way 
 of expressing herself. Miss Burke, coming 
 from a larger town, had higher claims to re- 
 finements of speech. 
 
 " Well," exclaimed Mr. Triplow, " I enjoy the 
 clashing ot mind against mind, for my part." 
 
TO CAMP-xVlEETING 31 
 Whereupon Miss Burke laughed hysterically, 
 and Mr. Triplow felt more and more deeply 
 how difficult was the task he had undertaken. 
 " There comes Jack Racer with his new horse 
 and trotting buggy. What a spectacle ! Who 
 has he with him ? " 
 
 As Anna spoke, Miss Burke leaned forward 
 curiously and then sank back in her seat with 
 a shade less of discontent. 
 Jack sped forth with a merry nod, his feet 
 planted a yard apart, his arms extended at tull 
 length, holding the tightly-drawn reins, a 
 jockey cap pulled over his forehead. 
 " Hi, there ! Look sharp ! The elder 's in a 
 hurry." 
 
 " Mercy on me, you 'd think Jack had entered 
 for the Sparta fair. Do look at the elder." 
 The tall, gaunt form clutched with one hand 
 the tall hat, the other clung to the back of the 
 buggv, which left but little grip to the thin 
 fingers. 
 Everybodygave way to the flying steed. Jimmy 
 
32 JACK RACER 
 
 Bergan drew his wagon up to one side of the 
 road and stopped. Miss Samantha Dyer, who 
 occupied a precarious chair in the wagon, 
 brushed angrily the dust that Jack's wheels 
 had transferred to her shoulders, 
 "• I do think the law ought to make Jack 
 Racer behave hisself. Suchdrivin' to meetin', 
 dustin' everybody, is scan'lous." 
 " It 's vain appealin' to the world's law, Sister 
 Dyer," said Mrs. Bergan, who was spiritually 
 minded. " It 's grace Jack Racer needs, an' 
 we may hope he '11 be teched this day, though 
 I do hate to feel gritty an' git my bunnit spiled ; 
 but sacrifices we are called upon to make, Sister 
 Dyer." 
 
 " But I ain't satisfied with that view of it. Mis' 
 Bergan, so long as there's peace justices and 
 town constables to make folks behave. It is 
 not as if it was rain, as falls on the just an' 
 the unjust even on meetin' days, an' shrinkin' 
 wool goods as it does. I never have a word 
 to say agin Providence. I 'm the las' person 
 
TO CAMP-MEETING 33 
 to do that. But Jack Racer ain't him, nor no 
 ways akin to him, that ever I heerd." 
 " But he works by insterments, Sister Dyer, 
 some of them the lowest and meanest sort. 
 Bein' a good Christian and perfessor, you can't 
 deny that." 
 
 " Laws-a-mercy, who ever thought of denyin' 
 it. Mis' Bergan ? " Sister Dyer exclaimed, with 
 some asperity. Having a more logical mind, 
 she held in some contempt her companion's 
 inability to keep direct hold upon a subject. 
 But remembering her debt for a chair in the 
 Bergan wagon, she added, graciously, "Let 
 me straighten down your collar, Sister Bergan. 
 You '11 muss it." 
 
 Jack and the elder were spinning on. 
 " You see. Elder, I mean to get you there in 
 time," said Jack, cheerily. 
 " But the horse, Jackson. The merciful 
 man is merciful to his beast, the Scriptures 
 say." 
 
 The elder spoke with difficulty, his teeth were 
 3 
 
34 JACK RACER 
 
 locked in unison with his grasp on the buggy 
 seat. 
 
 " Never mind Fancy, as long as we enjoy it. 
 I Ve speeded her on this road at 2 : 31. I '11 
 do it again, if you like." Jack bent forward 
 another half-inch and gave another loop to his 
 lines. The elder let go of his hat and grasped 
 Jack's arm fervently. The much-worn head- 
 covering bounded off into the road, knocking 
 the yellow bloom off the prairie daisies in its 
 flight. 
 
 At a word the panting little mare drew up. 
 Jack threw down the lines, leaped out, and 
 chased the hat, which he carefully dusted with 
 his handkerchief. 
 " There, Elder, good as new." 
 The elder examined it carefully, and replaced it 
 on his head with an extra pull, which brought 
 it about his ears and ready for any emergency ; 
 this, however, he meant to avert. 
 " I am afraid, Jackson, you have what is called 
 a fast horse." 
 
TO CAAIP-MEETING 35 
 
 " No, indeed, Elder. Fancy is n't fast, she 's 
 
 only industrious. When any work is laid out 
 
 for her to do, she up and does it. Elder, Fancy 
 
 is an example I have always before me." 
 
 Jack looked around with serious face. 
 
 " I am rejoiced to hear it, Jackson. The fast 
 
 horse leadeth to destruction." 
 
 " I remember once when it went before a fall. 
 
 Spilled, Elder, in front of the prettiest girls of 
 
 Sparta, driving against Tim Lucky's Hamble- 
 
 tonian — you know that strain. Destruction ! 
 
 You would have said so, if you had seen that 
 
 sulky and my breeches." 
 
 The elder did not reply. Jack turned around 
 
 inquiringly, and saw the moisture in the old 
 
 man's eyes. 
 
 " Yes, it would grieve me, Jackson, if you 
 
 found the paths of sin pleasant. At first they 
 
 do seem so to a young man of high spirits. 
 
 You see, I knew your mother when she was 
 
 Agnes Kemp, a pretty, fair young girl, prettier 
 
 and fairer than they seem to me nowadays. I 
 
36 JACK RACER 
 
 used to watch her in singing school, and think 
 
 the heavenly choirs could n't hold a sweeter 
 
 voice or face. But your father was a likelier 
 
 man than me, Jackson, so I held my peace. I 
 
 never forgot her, and when I see that young 
 
 thing, Campbell's niece, that has something 
 
 the same takin' ways your mother had, I feel 
 
 more than ever kind feelings for Agnes Kemp's 
 
 son." 
 
 Jack took his lines in one hand, and laid the 
 
 other in the elder's palm, who closed his fingers 
 
 over it. Jack did not turn. His hand rested 
 
 quietly for some minutes. When he lifted it, 
 
 he pointed to the smoke curling above the green 
 
 woods beyond, and to the figures moving under 
 
 the trees. Presently the road disclosed the 
 
 great white tent. 
 
 " You see, Elder, we are nearly there. A 
 
 pretty sight, is n't it ? " 
 
 The old man raised his eyes aloft. 
 
 " ' How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord 
 
 of Hosts ! ' " 
 
TO CAMP-MEETING 37 
 " ' Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and 
 the swallow a nest for herself where she may 
 lay her young, even Thine altars, O Lord ot 
 Hosts, My King, My God.' " 
 
CHAPTER FOUR 
 
IV 
 
 Wherein Pekin is seen Uniting Religion and 
 Festivity 
 
 HE camp-meeting grounds 
 comprised a pretty wooded 
 area, known in the local 
 dialect as "the timber." 
 • Through it ran a small 
 stream. This bit of undulating green was 
 the pride of all the country roundabout and 
 was shown by the inhabitants to visitors as 
 "scenery." From the point of approach, the 
 road by which Jack and the elder came, it was 
 a pleasing scene. The white tent gleamed 
 among the tree tops; the blue smoke from the 
 camp-fires curled above them ; and under their 
 leafy arms, figures added the grace of life and 
 movement. Nearer, the strains of the Gospel 
 Hymns floated on the air. 
 
42 JACK RACER 
 
 Scene and sound thus brought the occasion up 
 to its ideal significance. Closer view some- 
 what rudely dispelled this vision, for the mind 
 is only allowed to hold its perfect images for 
 an instant. The log-cabin in which the pru- 
 dent householder sheltered his family disclosed 
 in its surroundings the absence of sewerage and 
 garbage carts. The handmaidens about the 
 stoves on the porches were neither picturesque 
 nor melodious. The rows of tents gave into 
 interiors with glimpses of unmade beds and 
 confusion of wearing apparel. The greensward 
 was despoiled by the debris of picnic parties and 
 strewn with that later triumph of civiliza- 
 tion, — paper collars. 
 
 About the door of the large tent was a group 
 of young people, laughing, chaffing, and indulg- 
 ing in the varied forms of wit in vogue in the 
 district. No questions of propriety disturbed 
 the hilarity of the occasion. From time to 
 time couples strayed, hand in hand, into the tent 
 to enjoy one another's society undisturbed. 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 43 
 Again, the group would part for a mother 
 leading out a crying child, or for a bevy of rest- 
 less children who had grown tired of the hard 
 benches and had departed with more or less cir- 
 cumstance. 
 
 Jack's appearance with the elder created the 
 general interest which Jack's movements usu- 
 ally aroused, and which he enjoyed with ap- 
 parent unconsciousness. The throng at the 
 door gave wav before him. Jack pressed down 
 the centre aisle, looking back occasionally after 
 the elder, who threaded his wav with some dif- 
 ficulty. Jack's presence in the more active 
 quarters of the tent made a little sensation. 
 The attention of a rural congregation is very 
 lightly held. It now broke entirely loose from 
 the speaker, who had entered into the fervent 
 state of her discourse. Jack, having found the 
 elder a seat near the pulpit, started back through 
 the crowded aisle. The congregation, with one 
 movement, turned its head to follow the slim 
 figure with the rakish white coat and odious hat. 
 
44 JACK RACER 
 
 A small cloud, which betokened rising tem- 
 per, appeared on the speaker's face. She was 
 scarcely older than Jack, a square-faced, dark- 
 browed woman, with short, crisp hair and stal- 
 wart face. 
 
 " Stop ! " she cried, exasperated by the un- 
 usual length of the interruption and that slightly 
 superior air to preachments which Jack did 
 not hide. 
 
 "Stop, vain and foolish young man ! Has no- 
 body warned you of the wrath to come, that 
 you turn your back on the Gospel and its minis- 
 ters, and walk out of the presence of the Holy 
 Spirit like a young turkey cock ?" 
 Jack felt himself addressed, and turned and 
 looked at the angry young priestess. 
 " Stop, I tell you, or the day will come when 
 you will call on the rocks and hills to fall on 
 you. That hat that you hide your face be- 
 hind will lie crushed and trampled in the dust, 
 and the fine garments with which you mock 
 the congregation of the righteous will be things 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 45 
 of shreds and patches, and in vain will you call 
 on high Heaven to cover your nakedness." 
 Jack still stood imperturbably facing the 
 preacher. An instinct of politeness held him. 
 She was a woman and she was talking to him, 
 Jack Racer. The elder raised his gaunt form, 
 and held up a warning hand toward the excited 
 woman. 
 
 " Stop, sister. The ways of the Lord are not 
 our ways. He speaks in the thunder, but also 
 in the still, small voice. Neither you nor I 
 know through what winding roads it may reach 
 the sinful heart. Let the young man go. 
 Whether he knows it or not, he is by inherit- 
 ance the child of the Kingdom, and we will 
 pray that the day will come when he will pass 
 joyfully through the open door. Go, Jackson, 
 and find your young friends." 
 The elder sat down and Jack passed swiftly 
 out of the opening. 
 
 The preacher took up the fervent paragraphs 
 she had abandoned ; but little conversational 
 
46 JACK RACER 
 
 groups, accompanied by the nodding of elderly 
 bonnets, broke out through the tent. 
 Samantha Dyer leaned forward and poked Mrs. 
 Bergan, on the seat in front. 
 " It served him right ; Jack Racer has the im- 
 pidence of Old Nick, an' if he don't land in 
 the calaboose for some of his didos, I 'm no 
 Cassander. What a scorin' she give him ! 
 Did me as much good as her preachin'," 
 " Yes, Sister Dyer, but I was gittin' oneasy. 
 Her words were vergin' nigh on to immod- 
 esty." 
 
 "That's true enufF; an' she an onmarried 
 woman. But, laws, these preachers git so used 
 to talkin' Scriptur' they don' pick an' choose 
 among their words, like you an' I would do, 
 Mis' Bergan." 
 
 Young Mr. Racer quite lost his turkey-cock air 
 beyond the range of the tent and its loungers. 
 On a clean, grassy knoll, beyond the noise of 
 the tent and the settlement of the cabins, Jack 
 saw Amzi's ponderous form disposing logs. 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 47 
 and Will Triplow bowed beneath baskets. 
 Toward them he hastened his steps. 
 Anna called him to relieve her in emptying the 
 baskets, but Jack paused to assist Miss Burke 
 in disengaging a tablecloth. Irene gracefully 
 sank by one of the rearranged logs, and began 
 to talk to Jack in one of those conversational 
 undertones instinctively resented by young la- 
 dies like Miss Ross. 
 
 " Rene," she called, " get up, and come 
 help." 
 
 "I can't; it 's too warm." 
 "You're red as a beet," exclaimed Anna, 
 bluntly. " But you have n't done anything. 
 There's Lucy, who has n't stopped, and she 's 
 fresh as a daisy." 
 
 " Oh, she 's used to it." Irene yawned, and 
 leaned back lazily. 
 
 Campbell's niece, who had taken Miss Laura 
 Francis's place on the new cushions, was hov- 
 ering about Amzi with her arms full of twigs, 
 gathered to boil the kettle. 
 
48 JACK RACER 
 
 Jack turned and watched her with a smile of 
 recollection. 
 
 Miss Burke resented his wandering eyes, and 
 appreciated Anna's state of mind. But she was 
 too much a woman of the world, having 
 come from Peru, to revenge herself as a 
 Pekin girl might have done. She laughed 
 lightly. 
 
 " If you don't believe me then, call me lazy. 
 There ! I 've no reputation to sustain now. 
 Mr. Racer, I left my fan in the carriage and 
 I need it." 
 
 Jack got up to obey her imperious tones. His 
 prompt obedience seemed to Anna contempt- 
 ible. 
 
 She was grinding coffee on a stump. As he 
 passed, she said : 
 " You ought to wear a collar." 
 He took the coffee-mill from her hand and 
 seated himself beside her. 
 " Now you can give your whole mind to it," 
 he said, grinding away. 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 49 
 
 " To what ? " 
 " To scolding me." 
 
 " Oh, bah ! " And she attempted to take the 
 mill from him ; but he ground away gravely 
 to the end, then gave it to her and went after 
 the fan. 
 
 Will Triplow, who felt he had no right to ap- 
 proach Miss Burke while Jack was there, was 
 now ready to do his duty as a cavalier. This 
 he still conceived was in the way of making 
 conversation. 
 
 "What do you think, Miss Burke, of getting 
 up a Shakespeare club ? " 
 " A what ? " said Miss Burke, raising herself 
 with apparent difficulty to the level of Will's 
 discourse. 
 
 " A Shakespeare club. In Sparta there is a 
 Shakespeare club, and a literary society, called 
 the Erodelphian. You see we have so few 
 opportunities for mental culture in Pekin. I 
 suppose you have belonged to such clubs in 
 Peru and could take the lead ? " 
 4 
 
50 JACK RACER 
 
 Irene sank back again, languidly. 
 " Suppose you explain your idea, Mr. Triplow. 
 Then I can say yes and no." 
 "Well, you see, we would meet one evening 
 a week, each member assuming a character — 
 not changing our clothes, of course, merely 
 reading ; and you could assign the characters. 
 Now, there 's Hamlet," — and Mr. Triplow 
 entered into more minute details as Jack came 
 up and tossed the fan in Irene's lap. 
 " How does the idea strike you, Miss Anna ; 
 and you. Jack ? " 
 " I hate clubs," said Anna. 
 " Depends on what 's trumps, and the color 
 of your jacks," remarked Mr. Racer, pro- 
 foundly, poking up the grass with a stick. 
 " Poor Shakespeare," said Miss Burke, pity- 
 ingly. " Do you know, Mr. Triplow, very 
 few professional elocutionists can read Shakes- 
 peare." 
 
 " I suppose folks in Pekin know their letters. 
 I rather think we use the same alphabet they 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 51 
 
 do in other places, unless it is Peru," Anna 
 answered, with danger in her eye. 
 "Oh — yes — well — " Miss Burke stopped 
 with an air which seemed to say it v/as n't 
 worth while to enter into explanations. 
 Jack got up hastily. 
 
 " What is the use of two people trying to 
 hang a kettle on a rotten stick, when there 
 are kind and pretty women with stoves up 
 there. Give me the thing, Lucy ! " 
 " Oh, thank you, Jack. Such disobliging 
 sticks I never saw." 
 
 " I should think so. Look at your poor 
 scratched hands. Amzi, what were you think- 
 ing about ? " Jack whirled fiercely on Amzi, 
 who turned up to him a face so scarlet and 
 grimy from the rich prairie sod that Jack burst 
 into a loud laugh, then turned beseechingly to 
 Lucy, — 
 
 " Can't you settle those girls over there ? 
 Make them get up and go to work. Send 
 Anna a mile away, after water, with Trip- 
 
52 JACK RACER 
 
 low, and turn William Shakespeare off of the 
 grounds." 
 
 After Sam Limecooly had bathed one end of 
 the tablecloth with a jug of cream, while lying 
 prone and painfully removing the bits of wood 
 and stout tufts of prairie grass beneath, and 
 after the girls had fastened down the corners 
 with wood, against the frequent prairie zephyrs, 
 the lunch only waited Jack's return with the 
 coffee. Good humor was now restored, and 
 all were entertained by Will Triplow's news- 
 paper jokes, when Jack listlessly appeared, 
 holding the coffee-pot carelessly near his white 
 trousers. 
 
 " Mercy alive. Jack, why don't you hurry ? 
 I have a preference for hot coffee." Anna 
 opened the pot suspiciously, and snuffed at it 
 with a discriminating nose. 
 " It 's stone cold," she shrieked. " It has n't 
 been near the fire." 
 Jack sat calmly down on a log, while the rest 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 53 
 
 of the party gathered about the pot, felt its 
 sides, and peeped within to be assured indi- 
 vidually of Anna's statement. It was even 
 true. 
 
 " Jack, why did n't you cook it ? " Will IVip- 
 low fiercely inquired. 
 
 " William, they would n't let me," replied the 
 silent young man on the log. " I made every 
 sort of overture. It was only a question of 
 how much snubbing I could stand, I even 
 went so far as to show one woman how she 
 could deal over her pots and kettles and let 
 me in — have a Jack pot, as it were — but 
 she flouted me, and I retired. The coffee is 
 all there, and if any of you fellows would like 
 to try it, I '11 resign." 
 
 " Never mind, Jack. I '11 take it ; meeting's 
 breaking now, and I '11 find a place." Lucy 
 picked up the cofFee-pot and started down the 
 knoll. 
 
 " Stop, Lucy. I '11 go with you and handle 
 the thing. You '11 spoil your frock." Jack 
 
54 JACK RACER 
 
 bounded after her. For some seconds they 
 walked silently along the path, then Jack sud- 
 denly asked, — 
 
 " Did you have a nice ride, Lucy ? " 
 " Oh, yes, Jack, a lovely ride." 
 " Bang up buggy, is n't it ? Amzi got it at 
 the Lima fair, — first premium." 
 " I know it was easy. I had nothing to do 
 but sit back and be comfortable." 
 *' Of course Amzi made himself agreeable ? " 
 " He was ever so kind. He told me all about 
 the meadows, and a new steer he has bought, 
 and what a good manager his mother is, and 
 how she makes her butter. I did n't know 
 butter could be so absorbing a subject." Lucy 
 looked up in Jack's face and laughed, but 
 Jack's face was grave. 
 
 '' Amzi is n't much of a talker, Lucy. But 
 he 's good and he 's safe. He 'd never break 
 his wife's heart ; and there are a good many 
 others more flashy who would. Besides, Lucy, 
 no mistake, Amzi is rich, and his wife will 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 55 
 
 only have to sit back and be comfortable, just 
 
 as you did in the buggy to-day." 
 
 "You forget the butter, Jack. It has to be 
 
 worked a half hour to each pound, and his 
 
 mother looking on." 
 
 " Then let her do it herself," exclaimed Mr. 
 
 Racer, angrily. " But that 's all nonsense. 
 
 I 'd back a loving little wife against a mother 
 
 any day," 
 
 " Oh, ' a loving wife,' " said Lucy. " You 
 
 did n't mention that before. Jack." And there 
 
 was that in her inflections to which Jack felt 
 
 it would not be wise to reply. 
 
 The path narrowed and Jack stepped back to 
 
 allow Lucy to go in advance. Gradually he 
 
 slackened his steps until he got the lithe form 
 
 before him into sufficient focal distance, when 
 
 he paused to consider it critically. 
 
 " Lucy ! " as he again quickened his steps. 
 
 " What is that stuff you 're wearing ? " 
 
 " Maidenhair fern, Jack. Oh, you mean my 
 
 dress ? " 
 
56 JACK RACER 
 
 Jack nodded. 
 
 " It 's calico ; my old lavender calico. What 
 a question ! 
 
 " I think it's nice, very nice, calico." 
 " Does it really look nice ? I was so afraid it 
 would n't. I had to wash it yesterday and iron 
 it by candlelight." 
 
 "It'll do," replied Mr. Racer, laconically. 
 " There is Miss Samantha Dyer at the Driggs's 
 cabin, we '11 ask her." Lucy pointed to a 
 gaunt form bending over a boiling pot, and 
 a face dimly descried through a cloud of 
 vapor. 
 
 "• What, that old witch ? " Jack closed the dis- 
 tance between them with a bound. " I would n't 
 ask her for half-a-dollar." 
 " Why, Jack ? " 
 
 " Because I did ask her, and she turned me 
 away like a whipped school-boy." 
 ■" You said something to her." 
 *'Of course I did. I was polite as a French- 
 man." 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 57 
 " That 's what 's the matter. She thought you 
 were making tun of her." 
 " Shall I push her one side, and knock over 
 pots and kettles ? I '11 do it, if you say." 
 " Please leave it to me. You 've done quite 
 enough." 
 
 " Who 's that ? Is that you, Lucy ? Yes., 
 seein' it 's you, maybe I can make room." 
 Miss Samantha covered her pot and took Lucy 
 in with a glance that left Jack altogether out- 
 side. 
 
 " Here, Jack, give it to me." 
 "No, you'll spoil your frock." Miss Samantha 
 stood looking grimly on while Jack lifted the 
 cofFee-pot to its place. 
 
 "You 're fortinit, Lucy, if you can keep your 
 clothes clean. It 's more 'n some other folks 
 can do, what with other folks' fast drivin' an' 
 dust-slingin'." 
 
 Jack prudently retired to a stump outside. 
 "Sorry I ain't got a cheer to offer, Lucy," said 
 
 Miss Samantha, now quite hospitable ; " but 
 
58 JACK RACER 
 
 take a bucket." And she turned the water- 
 pail upside down. 
 
 " Yer Aunt Kiz ain't hyar, Lucy ? " 
 "No, indeed. You know Aunt Kiz has n't 
 any faith in the good of camp-meetings." 
 " Yer Aunt Kiz is by natur' a doubter, an' she 
 has her experience grafted on to that. She 
 met Preacher Rossiter at camp-meeting an' was 
 brought in under him. Rossiter was powerful 
 fur awakenin' sinners. Aunt Kiz was a purty 
 young girl with a neat figger, an' wearin' num- 
 ber ones. She sot a good deal on herself an' 
 that made her fall greater." 
 " I don't understand you, Miss Samantha. 
 What do you mean by her fall ? " Lucy got 
 up from her bucket, which rolled off the 
 porch. 
 
 " Sho, child, sit down ! Why, where 's the 
 bucket ? " And she rescued it from a wander- 
 ing pig that had half disappeared inside of it. 
 " Is it possible you don't know ? If I 'd a 
 thought that, I 'd a bit my tongue — " 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 59 
 "Whatever it is, I know it is n't Aunt Kiz's 
 fault." 
 
 " Oh, gals is gals, an' it 's the natur' of wimmen 
 to run after the preacher. Rossiterwasrun after 
 oncommon, but there's no question he took 
 to Keziar. They was promised sweethearts 
 an' was to be married when he got a circuit 
 of his own. But some highflier hearin' him, 
 an' thinkin' him promisin', sent him to college 
 somewhere east in Ohio to git trained, an' he 
 got trained so fur an' so fast, he left Keziar in 
 the lurch, at least he never remembered to send 
 her so much as the scratch of a pen after- 
 ward. She ain't much use fur means of grace 
 since." 
 
 "And did she never hear of him again ? " asked 
 Lucv, breathless and with wide-open eyes. 
 "I dunno. She never let on. The last I 
 heerd of him he had a fine church an' a fine 
 ladv in Chicago." 
 
 " Then that is what has made Aunt Kiz so 
 bitter, so funny bitter, I mean. We like it ; 
 
6o JACK RACER 
 
 and I thought it was to make us laugh. 
 
 Poor Aunt Kiz ! " Her eyes swam with 
 
 tears. 
 
 " Well, Kiz allays did see the rediclus side of 
 
 things." 
 
 " I don't care if he is a preacher, he is a mean, 
 
 mean man, and if I ever see him I '11 tell him 
 
 so.'^ 
 
 "That's right, Lucy ; and I'll tell him so 
 
 too," shouted Jack from his stump. 
 
 Miss Samantha raised her eyes and looked 
 
 calmly through her spectacles into vacancy. 
 
 " Yer pot 's biled, Lucy." 
 
 The ravenous party was grouped about the 
 dinner-table. 
 
 "Here, Amzi, come take the coffee. I'veboiled 
 it." 
 
 " 'I 've boiled it,' indeed! " cried Anna. "Why 
 did n't you boil it the first time ? I 'm so 
 hungr}' that I 've devoured in my mind every- 
 thing on this table." 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 61 
 " For so much be thanked, Anna's mind is n't 
 as large as her mouth," said Sam Limecooly, 
 solemnly. 
 
 « Nor so active," added Jack, seating himself 
 by Miss Burke's side, with no other invita- 
 tion than the sweeping aside of her volumi- 
 nous draperies as he appeared. 
 " I 'm pretty faint, but I still have some 
 strength in my arms," was Anna's reply, 
 flinging at each a phenomenal pickle. 
 The wit of such parties, as the hunger, is not 
 of a very delicate quality. The conversation 
 was chiefly personal, and, for the. most part, 
 turned on the respective merits of one an- 
 other's appetites ; but, such as it was, was 
 greatly enjoyed. 
 
 " Well, really, I 've done everything to divide 
 this chicken but put my foot on it." 
 « Do stop, Anna," Amzi finally begged ; " I 'm 
 too full to laugh any more." 
 "Then why don't you laugh outside .'' " Jack 
 asked, plaintively. 
 
62 JACK RACER 
 
 " There 's your friend, Mr. Racer." Miss 
 Burke pointed to the tall form of the elder 
 coming toward them, holding an ear of corn, 
 which from time to time he lifted with sus- 
 picion to his nose. 
 
 " What is the old fellow about ? " Jack 
 jumped to his feet. 
 
 " He 's trying to tole a donkey," remarked 
 Anna, still wrestling with her chicken. 
 " Oh, Miss Anna, you are always so exceed- 
 ingly severe," exclaimed Mr. Triplow, and 
 was about to continue his protestations against 
 the severity .of her sex, when the elder arrived. 
 *■*■ Jackson, I 'm sorry to disturb you and your 
 young friends. I thought I 'd bait the horse 
 for you, and, strangely, the beast refused his 
 corn. I myself have observed a peculiar smell 
 about it." The elder lifted it again to his 
 nose. " It is an odor not altogether disagree- 
 able, but very stimulating to the nostrils." 
 Jack took the ear and smelled it ; a very un- 
 necessary act. Meanwhile the color stole over 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 63 
 
 his face, which was always rather pale, and by 
 
 no means accustomed to blushing. 
 
 " As you say. Elder, it is peculiar. The mare 
 
 won't touch the corn ? You 're good to trouble 
 
 yourself about it at all. I '11 get the bait from 
 
 some of the other fellows. Don't bother. 
 
 Elder." 
 
 " It 's whiskey. Soaked in whiskey." Amzi 
 
 examined it with the air of a connoisseur. 
 
 " Now that you mention it, I do observe that 
 
 strange pungencythatbelongs to strong drink." 
 
 " Sure enough, Elder. The solution, I think, 
 
 is plain," said Jack, hesitating to gain time. 
 
 " Oh, how horrid ! It 's liquor," said the ladies 
 
 in succession, each having touched it with the 
 
 tip of her nose. 
 
 "It must have been the drive," continued Jack. 
 
 " Whiskey, you know. Elder, is nothing but 
 
 corn-juice. It must have been the drive." 
 
 " How is that, Jackson ? " 
 
 " Don't you see. Elder ? The corn was loose 
 
 in the box and we drove pretty fast." 
 
64 JACK RACER 
 
 " Ah, I see ; the corn has been bruised, and 
 the juice set free. But — I'd no idea fer- 
 mentation would go on so quickly." The 
 elder looked inquiringly. 
 " It 's pretty warm to-day." 
 " Very true. Very true. A singular phenome- 
 non." The group was too astonished for 
 speech, and the elder continued: "There's 
 one point I 'd like to make, my young friends. 
 Touch not, nor defile you lips with that from 
 which an ignorant beast turns with loathing. 
 If you can borrow any fodder, Jackson, I '11 
 go, for I 've promised to take a snack with 
 Brother Goby." 
 
 " Well, I call that the finest impromptu I ever 
 heard," exclaimed Anna, as the elder moved 
 away. 
 
 " You give it a fine name, Anna." 
 Jack started at the sound of Lucy's voice. 
 " Look here ; all of you. I 'd rather lie to the 
 elder than that he should think ill of me." 
 *' Why, in the name of common sense," asked 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 65 
 
 Sam, recovering his speech, " did you put a 
 bottle of whiskey loose in the box ? " 
 " I did n't. Tom Bruce had it the day we 
 went to the Sparta races, and I forgot all about 
 it. The bottle, of course, broke, and I suppose 
 the glass was ground to powder in the melee. 
 As for the elder, a lie more or less won't hurt 
 me, and the truth would have pained him." 
 " At any rate, you only suggested the story, 
 and if he was such an old goose as to swallow 
 it — " . 
 
 " Thank you. Miss Burke, for your charity. 
 Now and then I do feel mean. Limecooly, 
 lend me some fodder." 
 
 " Come, Anna, let 's clear the things away." 
 Lucy was already at work, and the two young 
 men started for the horses. 
 The group lay lazily disposed on the green 
 turf and awaited the two young men. 
 " What will we do with ourselves this after- 
 noon ? " asked Anna, in a sleepy voice, her 
 head in Irene's lap. 
 
 5 
 
66 JACK RACER 
 
 " Suppose we tell conundrums, Miss Anna." 
 Will Triplow began to feel for his pocket- 
 book. 
 
 " I think we ought to go to one meeting," 
 Lucy stood up, and Amzi lifted his ponderous 
 frame. 
 
 " Speak for yourself, Lucy, and for Amzi if 
 he 's willing. I 'm not going into the tent." 
 " Conundrums are childish. I 'm going to 
 gather lichens to finish my bracket. Won't 
 you help me, Mr. Racer ? " 
 " Oh, Irene, you said just now it was too 
 warm to stir." 
 
 " So it is. I shall sit under some tree and Mr. 
 Racer will gather the lichens." 
 "Mr. Racer will, of course, obey," sneered 
 Anna. 
 
 Jack turned from watching Lucy and Amzi on 
 their way to the tent. 
 
 " Mr. Racer, since you are all so mighty polite, 
 will, of course, obey Miss Burke. Miss Burke, 
 at your service." 
 
RELIGION AND FESTIVITY 67 
 
 " Well, I call this a nice party. Irene Burke 
 never thinks of anybody but herself." 
 "Miss Anna, there are some entertaining 
 young ladies here from Salem. Suppose we 
 join them," suggested Mr. Triplow. 
 " I hate the Salem girls, they are such an airy 
 set. But, laws, you need n't think you are 
 bound to stay here with me." 
 " You go. Will," said the amiable Sam. "I '11 
 stay here with Anna, and we '11 abuse you all 
 in turn." Will hastened, and Sam sat down ; 
 but, except in philosophy, it must be confessed 
 that Mr. Limecooly's afternoon was not fruit- 
 ful. 
 
CHAPTER FIVE 
 
Flirtation is Industriously Fanned 
 
 'ACK and Miss Burke wandered 
 silently away into the depths of 
 the timber. Jack led the way 
 with rapid step and preoccupied 
 air. There was a cloud on Irene's 
 brow, and finally she dropped breathless among 
 the roots of a wide-spreading tree. Jack, 
 intent on his occupation, busied himself with 
 great zeal, speaking only to announce some 
 desirable lichen or bit of moss. 
 Miss Burke fanned herself in silence for some 
 time, and then adjusted her position with great 
 care. Again her handsome face lowered. At 
 length she spoke. 
 
 " Do come and sit down, Jack ; you make me 
 nervous." 
 
72 JACK RACER 
 
 " Why, Irene, I thought you wanted them." 
 
 " So I do, but I did n't mean to be unmerciful." 
 
 " I am at your service, you know." 
 
 Jack threw the little basket at her feet and 
 
 dropped on the grass. He sat silent for an 
 
 instant, and then stretched himself on the turf 
 
 and rested his head on his hand. Although he 
 
 lay quite near, his face was turned away and 
 
 his gaze was off toward the golden meadows. 
 
 Plainly, Miss Burke liked this arrangement no 
 
 better. Her face grew dark again, but finally 
 
 she said, sweetly : 
 
 "Jack, I looked for you last night; and you 
 
 have n't told me why you did n't come." 
 
 " Have n't I .'' Aunt George had a tea-fight 
 
 and made a point of my staying to take home 
 
 the wounded." 
 
 " I was sorry. Mrs. Maule was away, and I 
 
 sat on the porch until ten o'clock waiting for 
 
 you. We would have been all alone." 
 
 " By Jove, that was too bad," exclaimed Jack, 
 
 without turning his head. " But I had the 
 
FLIRTATION FANNED 73 
 
 worst of it, Irene. I can imagine you look- 
 ing distractinglv beautiful in the moonlight, 
 but can you imagine me tugging along the 
 Sparta road with an elderly femak on each 
 arm and carrying what they called their work ? 
 I could scarcely see over it." 
 Irene's quick ear detected that Jack was mak- 
 ing talk. 
 
 " But why did n't you come back our way ? 
 I was sitting at the window and would have 
 seen you and come downstairs." 
 " You would have driven me away if I had 
 dragged myself to your place. I had tio back- 
 bone left. You 've no idea how I 'd been bul- 
 lied all evening." 
 
 Irene leaned forward and touched him on the 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Poor Jack ! If you had come to me I would 
 have consoled you." 
 
 At her touch Jack turned on his elbow and 
 looked toward the tree against which Irene 
 leaned. 
 
74 JACK RACER 
 
 " I was in the mood to have played the Good 
 Samaritan. The oil and bandages were near/' 
 Jack still stared. 
 
 " Provided the right man fell by the roadside, 
 — you, Jack." 
 
 " By Jove, Irene, you are a beautiful woman," 
 said the young man, letting her light talk go by. 
 Miss Burke laughed gleefully. 
 " You always say that as if you had made a 
 new discovery." 
 " I always have." 
 
 " I believe you do forget me, Jack, when you 
 are away." 
 
 Jack did not answer, but continued to gaze. 
 " A fair return, Jack. You are the only com- 
 panionable person I 've found in Pekin. What 
 would I have done without you, my boy ! " 
 Jack drew himself toward her on the grass, 
 his pale face growing paler. He stretched out 
 his arm idly and caught up one of the light 
 ruffles of her dress, fingering it with apparent 
 interest, but without speaking. 
 
FLIRTATION FANNED 75 
 Irene watched him curiously. Finally, with 
 some consciousness, Jack said : 
 " This is pretty stuff. Women's clothes are 
 marvellous to me. Yours, Irene, are always 
 like a cloud from which you seem to emerge. 
 This vapory, frothy stuff is not calico, is it ? " 
 Jack asked, with sudden thought. 
 " Calico," she answered, with some indigna- 
 tion. "You ask if my organdie muslin is cal- 
 ico. Do people trim calico with lace? " 
 " Calico is nice," persisted Jack. 
 " Calico costs eight cents a yard, and this forty 
 cents. You see, I have the right to be indignant, 
 Jack. I would n't wear calico to a picnic." 
 " Don't say anything against calico, Irene." 
 Jack put his fingers in his ears and whirled 
 himself over, but with too much energy, for 
 the momentum sent him rolling to the foot 
 of the hillside, where he lay, with his fingers 
 still in his ears. 
 
 Irene laughed loudly from her mossy seat. 
 Jack made no motion to come back, but still 
 
76 JACK RACER 
 
 lay flat on the grass, looking up into the tree- 
 tops. 
 
 " Come back, Jack. I '11 forgive you." 
 " 1 can't get up," answered the young man, 
 sprawling like a school-boy. " ' Facilis descen- 
 sus Averni ; ' that is to say, it is easy to roll 
 down hill. Everybody knows one can't roll 
 back." 
 
 Irene paused, with moody face. This was 
 truly uphill work. She hesitated for some mo- 
 ments. 
 
 " I Ml come help you. Jack." 
 She shook out her draperies and started lightly 
 down the hillside. Midway, a stray bough 
 caught her hair. Jack had not moved. 
 " I 'm a prisoner. Jack. You '11 have to help 
 me." 
 
 Jack looked toward her. Irene stood on tip- 
 toe, with her fluffy draperies about her, trying 
 to release her hair. Her sleeves had fallen 
 back, baring her shapely arms, which, uplifted, 
 brought into clear outlines the beautiful curves 
 
FLIRTATION FANNED 77 
 
 of her undulating form. The color came and 
 
 went in her face, and on her fell the sunlight 
 
 filtered through the leaves. 
 
 " How unkind, Jack, when I was coming to 
 
 your relief," she called to Jack, still on his 
 
 back, and rapturously gazing at her. 
 
 He jumped to his feet. 
 
 "You would n't say so, if you knew." 
 
 She dropped her arms and yielded herself to 
 
 Jack, whose arms encircled her head, while his 
 
 slim, muscular fingers broke the unruly twigs. 
 
 " There, you are free ; but let me pick the 
 
 leaves from your hair. 
 
 Irene did not move, but stood with bent head, 
 
 steadying herself by resting one hand on Jack's 
 
 arm, while he slowly gathered the leaves from 
 
 her escaping hair. 
 
 They were all gone, but still he stood. 
 
 " Thank you, Jack," Irene said, in a low voice, 
 
 and, taking his hand, went back to her seat 
 
 beneath the tree. They sat down still hand 
 
 in hand, and without speaking. 
 
78 JACK RACER 
 
 After some moments Irene said : 
 " Jack, you must let me do my hair." 
 Jack unloosed his fingers, and buried his face 
 in his hands. Irene twisted up her hair, looking 
 the while at Jack with a curious smile, although 
 her face yet showed some traces of emotion. 
 " Oh, it won't stay up." Down fell the luxu- 
 riant hair about her shoulders. " There, my 
 comb has fallen by you, Jack." 
 Jack picked it up. 
 
 "No," as she held out her hand, — "let me 
 put it in." He took up the long coil of hair 
 and put it to his lips. 
 " Foolish boy." 
 
 With some skill, he wound the coil about 
 Irene's well-shaped head. 
 
 " Have you made me look quite like a fright ? " 
 She turned her smiling face toward him and 
 looked into his, with eyes softly veiling her 
 triumph. 
 
 For answer he drew her toward him and 
 kissed her beautiful lips. 
 
FLIRTATION FANNED 79 
 
 " Oh, Jack, suppose somebody saw you." 
 
 " We are two out of all the world. The rest 
 
 are dead, gone, forgotten." 
 
 There they sat until the long shadows sent Mr. 
 
 Triplow calling through the timber, in his high 
 
 tenor : 
 
 " Miss Burke ! oh, Miss Burke ! We are about 
 
 departing." 
 
 "Oh, Jack, there is that silly fellow. I'm 
 
 afraid I have n't been very polite." 
 
 " Don't ask me to blame you, Irene." And 
 
 together they started toward Mr. Triplow's 
 
 voice. 
 
 In the evening when Lucy went to her room, 
 
 she drew up her blind to let in the full tide of 
 
 moonlight, for her candle enticed mosquitoes, 
 
 which were of an unusually long-billed breed 
 
 at Pekin. 
 
 As she stood at the window, two figures passed 
 
 beneath. 
 
 « A pair of sweethearts. Why, it 's Jack and 
 
 Miss Burke ! " 
 
8o J A C K R A C E R 
 
 "Goodness gracious, Lucy, ain't you in bed 
 
 yit? I was tiptoein' in for fear I 'd wake you." 
 
 " I 'm doing my hair, Aunt Kiz." 
 
 Lucy took down the long braids and began to 
 
 languidly unplait them. 
 
 " What 's the matter, child ? Are you tired, 
 
 or has somebody been sassin' you ? " 
 
 " What an idea ! I 'm only tired." She was 
 
 silent a moment. " I do believe, Aunt Kiz, 
 
 that ironing is n't as hard work as enjoying 
 
 yourself when you 've laid out to have a good 
 
 time." 
 
 " Humph ! You 're young to have found that 
 
 out. But since you have, I 'm not surprised 
 
 you got it at the basket-meetin'." 
 
uUMk 
 
 Siii^i 
 
 m 
 
 ^ 
 
 Mlcira^^ 
 
 
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 9H| 
 
 P^.^^^=S3 
 
 ^ 
 
 CHAPTER SIX 
 
VI 
 
 Mr. Racer's Kindly Relations with Several Ladies 
 Become Apparent 
 
 ON'T you tell me you won't do 
 it, Billy Campbell ! " 
 Aunt Kiz said this as she was 
 reversing Billy Campbell from a 
 position which allowed a large 
 proportion of blood in his little body to dis- 
 color his face. 
 
 " I should think you 'd be ashamed of your- 
 self to whip such a little boy," 
 Billy had backed himself up against the wall 
 before venturing this remark, and looked indig- 
 nant reproach. 
 
 " Well, I 'm not, and if you tell me again you 
 •■won't do it,' I'll spank you if Queen Victory 
 herself is here." 
 " No, you would n't." 
 
84 JACK RACER 
 
 " Yes, I would, you naughty boy. I 've 
 
 whipped your father before you, and I 've 
 
 whipped Lucy, and I '11 whip you, too." 
 
 " No, you would n't. If I 'd tell you ' I won't 
 
 do it ' before a strange woman, you know you 
 
 would n't turn me up and show my dirty 
 
 patched breeches. You would n't, either." 
 
 "Well, I could mighty soon take you into the 
 
 back kitchen." 
 
 "That wasn't what you said. You know it 
 
 was n't." 
 
 " Billy Campbell, why don't you mind your 
 
 aunt ? " cried a voice of exaggerated sternness, 
 
 from the window. 
 
 *' Coz I ain't a good minder. Jack Racer." 
 
 " Is that you, Jack Racer ? I ain't see hide 
 
 nor hair of you for a coon's age." 
 
 " I 've been asleep. Aunt Kiz. There, Billy, 
 
 cut and run." Jack lifted the boy out of the 
 
 window. 
 
 " Yes, asleep ; prowlin' around nights, like an 
 
 owl." 
 
RELATIONS WITH LADIES 85 
 
 "And, likean owl, Ihave to sleepdays. See?" 
 Still, young Mr. Racer colored slightly. 
 " I heerd of vou turnin' the basket-meetin' into 
 a horse-race." 
 
 " Look here, Aunt Kiz, I 'm not going to let 
 vou bully nie. Beside, we 're in the same 
 cait." 
 
 "I race horses, do I ? " • 
 "No, but Mahala Plylev says you 're the Achan 
 in the camp." 
 
 " Who 's he ? I heerd she gave you a dress- 
 in'." 
 
 Jack leaped into the room through the window, 
 and thev laughed the laugh of the unregener- 
 ate, which was loud and long. 
 " Oh, what a noise ! " Lucy opened the door, 
 broom in hand. On her head was a blue sweep- 
 ing cap, with a nodding frill framing a bright 
 young face. Her sleeves were rolled above the 
 dimpled arms and a checked gingham apron, 
 such as the young ladies of Pekin copy out of 
 the Designer^ the Decorator and the Ladies' Bou- 
 
86 JACK RACER 
 
 doh\, covered her dress, which was neatly tucked 
 up — a picturesque costume, which tends to re- 
 duce domestic work to merely an opportunity. 
 " Does n't she look formidable, Aunt Kiz ? Is 
 that a weapon of offence ? " 
 " This is sweeping day, Jack. I always clear 
 the room." 
 
 " Polite, is n't she ? " Jack nodded to Aunt 
 Kiz. " Lucy, let me help." He seized the 
 broom and began sweeping, at least with zeal. 
 Aunt Kiz prudently gathered up her stockings 
 and retired with her chair to the sidewalk, 
 where she was out of the dust and could ex- 
 change crisp comments with the passers-by. 
 " Oh, Jack, what a dust you make ! Don't 
 sweep except where I 've sprinkled tea leaves," 
 Lucy cried, walking before him, and dropping 
 from her finger-tips the fragrant tea. "No, 
 that is n't the way." She paused, watching him 
 critically. 
 
 " Pshaw ! Anybody can sweep. What you 
 want to do is to get the dirt out." 
 
RELATIONS WITH LADIES 87 
 
 " But there areways and ways. Hold the broom 
 straight. Here." 
 
 " Is n't that the way I do ? " exclaimed Jack, 
 ruefully. 
 
 " Not if I am a judge." Jack admitted to him- 
 self admiration of Lucy's quick, even strokes. 
 " I believe there is a trick in it," he said aloud. 
 " But, Lucy, you '11 spoil your hands. You 
 ought to wear gloves." 
 
 " Don't you be puttin' notions in Lucy's head," 
 shouted Aunt Kiz from the pavement. " Sweep- 
 in', an' plenty of it, is good for gals. Makes 
 'em healthy." 
 
 « It will round out the arms," said Mr. Racer, 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 " If you only would move the sewing machine. 
 Jack. That would be a help. But don't, oh. 
 Jack, don't open all the doors ! It keeps the 
 dust so — so undecided." 
 " How she orders a fellow about. Does she 
 always have her own way ? " 
 " Aunt Kiz will see the joke of that." 
 
88 JACK RACER 
 
 "Just look how you walked away with Miss 
 Samantha." 
 
 " Do you know, I saw her coming down the 
 street a little while ago with her arms full of 
 bundles. They stuck out in every direction, 
 until she looked just like — just like a hat- 
 rack." 
 
 " Yes," called Aunt Kiz, " and she turned the 
 corner instead of comin' past ; I 'd a thought 
 she was mad if she had n't sent in yesterday and 
 borried the tubs. I think it was grocery things 
 she had, from the shape of the bundles. I 
 expect she 's goin' to have company and ain't 
 goin' to give us an invite, since she went down 
 pump way, and this is a half square nigher." 
 " I know she won't ask me," said Jack, mourn- 
 fully. " I regret to say that lady flouts me. 
 I wonder why ? I never did her any harm." 
 " Maybe you did her a favor ; that '11 serve, with 
 some folks," said Aunt Kiz, grimly. 
 "I can't say I ever particularly obliged her, 
 either. But that would n't be a satisfactory 
 
RELATIONS WITH LADIES 89 
 
 reason for treating me like the dust beneath 
 her commodious carpet-slippers." 
 " What are you but a worm of the dust ? " 
 retorted Aunt Kiz. 
 
 "I '11 be an anaconda, if you like; but don't 
 be so disagreeable in your choice of crawling 
 things." 
 
 "Jack," said Lucy, emerging from a corner, 
 where she had been on her knees with a tur- 
 key-wing, "you like it." 
 " Like being called a caterpillar ? " 
 " Oh, you know what I mean. You enjoy the 
 estimation in which you are held by Miss 
 Samantha, Mahala Plyley, and the rest of the 
 good people. You 've earned it. At least, I 
 mean you try to make them think you 've 
 earned it." 
 
 " You 've chopped that up fine. Just listen to 
 her. Aunt Kiz ! " 
 
 Jack was sitting on the corner of the table, 
 swinging a slender leg. Lucy came up and 
 stood before him. Both hands clasped the 
 
90 JACK RACER 
 
 broom-handle and her chin rested on her hands. 
 One slippered foot crossed the other and stood 
 on its toe, in a manner quite captivating to Jack, 
 who at first gave less heed to her words. 
 " This is what I mean," said Lucy, speaking 
 very slowly, and with a thoughtful look directed 
 toward some far-away source, where her ideas 
 seemed to be stored, " when you talk to them 
 you make your words very meek and humble, 
 and then you put an expression on your 
 face which takes all the humility out of the 
 words." 
 
 " Well, now ! You know I did n't think I was 
 that kind of a fellow — to have everything so 
 cut and dried, I mean. I 'd really like to see 
 that expression." 
 
 "•' Jack," cried Aunt Kiz, " get a fan like Laury 
 Francis's, with a looking-glass in the stick. I 
 see her in church looking after her crinkles. 
 You could keep it in your pistol pocket." 
 "Do! One with white feathers," laughed 
 Lucy, and went back to her corners. 
 
RELATIONS WITH LADIES 91 
 This did not please Jack, who was thinking it 
 a fine thing to be lectured by a slip of a girl. 
 " But, seriously, Lucy, I 'm not conscious of 
 what you say. It is n't my words, but my face ? 
 That comes of having no whiskers to hide be- 
 hind," he added, ruefully. " And it won't rub 
 off." He drew out a fine cambric handker- 
 chief, which was also one of his affectations, 
 and showed her no results of vigorous polishing. 
 But Lucy did not seem sufficiently amused. 
 " If you could only describe it," he said. 
 " Will Triplow would call it ' slightly supe- 
 rior.'" 
 
 " Heaven knows, I don't feel it. Well, yes, 
 I do, in a sort of way," he added, with mild 
 conceit. 
 
 " Yes, you are superior in some things. It 's 
 a question of values." And Lucy returned to 
 her work. 
 
 Jack was alarmed lest he was not going to hear 
 any more about himself. 
 " Now, that is n't fair, Lucy. You bring an 
 
92 JACK RACER 
 
 awful charge against me, and then go oft' calmly 
 
 to grub for a little soulless dirt." 
 
 Lucy apparently gave no attention. Suddenly 
 
 she looked up. 
 
 " I 'ra not sorry I 'm a woman, but I think it 
 
 would be a great thing to be a man. Men are 
 
 so big and strong that the whole world belon2;s 
 
 to them. A man can go anywhere he chooses 
 
 and he can do anything he wants." 
 
 Jack nodded to Aunt Kiz, as much as to say 
 
 " That's all she knows about it," but he was 
 
 careful to interrupt with no comments. Lucy 
 
 did not pause. 
 
 " When he knows what he wants to do most, 
 
 he can give all his life solidly to it, until it goes 
 
 through and through him and gets to be a part 
 
 of him. 
 
 "Jack," she said, dragging her broom after her, 
 
 for she had got up as she spoke, and coming up 
 
 again before him, "you remember what a low, 
 
 miserable fellow Jake Raum was before his 
 
 brother was killed by the hay press and left the 
 
RELATIONS WITH LADIES 93 
 
 care of his old mother to Jake ? Do you re- 
 member how he went to work and stinted him- 
 self for his mother, because people would n't 
 trust him and he could n't earn much ? Now, 
 that devotion and that self-denial shine all over 
 his face. Everybody sees it and respects him. 
 I think it was a fine thing for a man to really 
 make himself over out of a noble purpose." 
 Jack hopped down from the table. 
 " You 're a brick, Lucy. Good-bye. Good- 
 bye, Aunt Kiz." 
 
 " Where ye goin'. Jack Racer ? You 're drag- 
 gin' my yarn after ye." 
 
 " To clean my face. Lucy 's been telling me 
 how." 
 
 Lucy resumed her work with less alacrity. 
 Sweeping seemed a tamer occupation than she 
 had thought it some minutes before. 
 " Jack thinks I was lecturing him. I wish I 'd 
 held my tongue," she said to herself. 
 Jack went down the street to his room with 
 less than his usual jaunty air. 
 
94 JACK RACER 
 
 " She hit it off pretty neatly," he finally ex- 
 claimed ; then added, more cheerfully, " I like 
 to see a girl twirl herself about so daintily." 
 From which it was evident that Jack's mind 
 had veered toward its usual bearings, and he 
 went whistling to his room. 
 
CHAPTER SEVEN 
 
VII 
 
 A Thrilling Catastrophe Breaks Down 
 
 'ACK'S room was in the upper story 
 of Lawyer George's office, which 
 was a small frame building in the 
 corner of his yard, opening directly 
 on the street. It was chosen by 
 Jack that neither tobacco smoke nor boots 
 might defile Aunt George's carpets and cur- 
 tains. It was pre-eminently the room of 
 a young gentleman of liberal tastes. One 
 corner was burdened with a variety of hunt- 
 ing implements. A rack of pipes ornamented 
 one side. The broad top of an old-fashioned 
 bureau that once belonged to his mother served 
 as a buffet. On this were several decanters, 
 with attendant glasses. These had been bought 
 with great circumstance by Jack at county fairs, 
 and of glass peddlers, and always before an au- 
 7 
 
98 JACK RACER 
 
 dience which had spread each purchase far and 
 wide. 
 
 Jack's works of art consisted of numerous 
 highly-colored pictures of famous race-horses 
 and of portraits of famous danseuses in phenom- 
 enal attitudes. Of the famous danseuses Jack 
 knew little and cared less ; but they belonged 
 to the ostentatious character of the room. 
 There were many young men in Pekin who 
 would not have been seen coming out of Jack 
 Racer's room in daylight. Jack remarked, with 
 some satisfaction, that this saved him from 
 intrusion. Amzi, Sam Limecooly, and Will 
 Triplow had more courage. But they were 
 always prepared to defend themselves from 
 the assumption that they had been having a 
 private orgy in Jack Racer's " scan'lous room, 
 hung round with awful pictures an' a barrel 
 of whiskey in the corner." 
 Jack took much delight in his room. There 
 were outside stairs in the rear. But Jack had 
 now come through the office, and brought up 
 
THRILLING CATASTROPHE 99 
 
 with him several large books. Throwing him- 
 self on the lounge, he opened one of the books 
 and read with apparent interest for some time, 
 until he heard a scratching of gravel outside, 
 interrupted by a dry cough. 
 " Bv Jove ! " Jack jumped up and the books 
 tumbled behind the lounge. " I promised 
 Aunt George to help her with the beds. Well, 
 ' Story on Equity' can wait. I've got enough 
 for one dose. My mind is n't hefty." 
 " I 'm coming. Aunt George," He ran down 
 the rear stairs. " Why did n't you wait for 
 me ? My memory runs away, but it comes 
 back, like Bo Peep's sheep, sooner or later, 
 with all its appurtenances." 
 " I did n't know you were there, Jack, or I 
 would have called. Idle fellow ! I suppose 
 you have been asleep. I should think you 'd 
 need it." 
 
 " Ground in," thought Mr. Racer, Outwardly, 
 he rubbed his eyes, as if to get thoroughly 
 awake for the business in hand. 
 
100 JACK RACER 
 
 Mrs. George, his uncle's wife, was a childless 
 woman addicted to neatness and the keeping 
 of flowers. She was considered aristocratic in 
 Pekin, inasmuch as an asthmatic tendency kept 
 her from much visiting, and also necessitated 
 plenty of help ; and by the further fact that 
 she had her dresses made in Chicago. This 
 was merely a matter of convenience, as her 
 sister, having her own seamstress, took 
 the burden of deciding the fashions for 
 Mrs. George and, in this way, also mitigated 
 her own expenses. But Mrs. George, be- 
 ing a reticent woman, had never gone into 
 these details, and with this Pekin was unac- 
 quainted. 
 
 She was very fond of her husband's nephew, 
 but this was rather by way of her husband, the 
 latchets of whose ties she adored. Her hus- 
 band responded with a tenderness of manner 
 and an ample weekly allowance. But further 
 than the vestibule of his heart Mrs. George 
 did not seem to have entered. Of this she 
 
THRILLING CATASTROPHE loi 
 
 was ignorant, and was well content with his 
 consideration and her spending-money. 
 Really, taking things matrimonial by and 
 large, she might well be content ; for, while 
 most of the married women in Pekin had the 
 average amount of affection from faithful hus- 
 bands, they usually did their own work, made 
 their own dresses, had no private purses, and 
 received scant conjugal courtesy. 
 "Jack, I want to sink this pot of amaryllis. 
 The bloom shows so finely it seemed a pity 
 not to bring it out. Your uncle thought so, 
 too. It's usually such a shy bloomer." 
 " *• Shy bloomer. ' That 's a good way to de- 
 scribe a girl I know." 
 
 "Who is it, Jack ? " Mrs. George, like most 
 childless women, had much interest in affairs 
 of the heart, and her conversation with Jack 
 usually ran on some phase of love, as exem- 
 plified by different Pekin couples. Jack him- 
 self would have preferred wider generaliza- 
 tions. 
 
I02 JACK RACER 
 
 " You 're not going to have any secrets from 
 your old aunt ? " Not that Mrs. George con- 
 sidered herself old, but she regarded the ad- 
 jective as peculiarly coaxing. 
 " Celia Blagden. You don't know her." This 
 was by no means the truth. But Jack had 
 found he could bridge an emergency in this way 
 much more safely than he could evade pressing 
 questions. His ready mind easily created Miss 
 CeliaBlagden,and he rather enjoyed her prompt 
 existence. 
 
 " Did you get acquainted with her at Springfield, 
 when you were reading with Squire Edwards ? 
 Do tell me about it," Mrs. George asked with 
 active sympathy. But this Jack pretended not 
 to hear. Though his conscience was of an 
 elastic sort, he could not stretch it to give a lie 
 its circumstance. Such subtle distinctions in- 
 here in every one's morality and create indi- 
 vidual standards which would be difficult of 
 ethical explanation. 
 Instead of answering Jack stretched out his 
 
THRILLING CATASTROPHE 103 
 
 arm, buried the tips of his fingers in the soft 
 mold, and drew them along. 
 " Look, Aunt George, what a capital weeder 
 mv hand would make," imitating the little iron 
 implement his aunt wielded. 
 " You have long, slim fingers, like your uncle. 
 Your uncle has beautiful hands, but he 's very 
 modest about them. I've admired them so 
 much he has stopped making gestures when he 
 talks." 
 
 While Mrs. George and her nephew were en- 
 tertaining one another thus placidly, more ex- 
 citing events were taking place elsewhere. 
 Miss Burke and Anna Ross, coming out of the 
 milliner's, met Billy Campbell running down 
 the street. 
 
 " Have you seen Bob Wally ? " 
 "No." 
 
 " Then he must be drowned. Boy drowned ! " 
 Billv began to shout and run. " Boy drowned ! " 
 Anna caught him by the shoulders. 
 « Billy, where ? " 
 
104 JACK RACER 
 
 " Jones's mill. I 'II go show you." 
 
 " No. Go give the alarm, and wc '11 run to 
 
 the mill." 
 
 The girls started to run. Miss Samantha saw 
 
 them from her window and ran across. 
 
 " What is it, girls ? Has Billy Campbell been 
 
 hookin' anything ? " 
 
 " Bob Wally 's in the branch." 
 
 " Goodness gracious ! " Miss Samantha twisted 
 
 up her hair and ran after the girls as fast as her 
 
 carpet-slippers would allow. 
 
 " Mis' Bergan," she screamed over a back fence 
 
 where that lady was washing, " Bob Wally 's 
 
 in the branch ! " 
 
 Mrs. Bergan dropped her clothes and wiping 
 
 the suds from her arms with her apron, climbed 
 
 over the fence. 
 
 " Wait, can't ye, Samanthy ? Mussy, 1 ain't 
 
 got no bunnit." Mrs. Bergan untied her apron 
 
 as she ran, and tied it over her head. 
 
 " In the branch. Mussy me ! How we are 
 
 snatched. Oh, Mis' Cain, Mis' Cain ! Bob 
 
THRILLING CATASTROPHE 105 
 
 Wally 's drowned in the branch." Mrs. Cain 
 was trying on a dress body, but she snatched 
 a shawl, buttoning her dress as she ran, and 
 her daughter, ironing in the back room, joined 
 the procession with her iron-holder in her hand. 
 Down the side streets people ran, not knowing 
 what was the matter, but confident that any- 
 thing was worth running after, since stirring 
 events were few. In a little while half the pop- 
 ulation of Pekin was on its way to Jones's mill. 
 " If I was Mis' Wally," said Miss Samantha, 
 " I 'd put off the funeral until Sunday. Mr. 
 Sparkins might let up on Sunday school. Bob 
 was a member, I suppose." 
 " I don't know. Mis' Wally was n't very con- 
 scientious in her trainin'. The children always 
 went nearin' Christmas and festivals, an' Mis' 
 Wally made as much fuss as them that went 
 reg'lar if her children did n't git as much as 
 other people's. It's fort'nit she got her new 
 rag carpet home from Nance Weaver's. You 
 an' me, S'manth', might help her git it down 
 for the funeral." 
 
io6 JACK RACER 
 
 "What in mercy's name are you luggin' that 
 board for, Mis' Bergan ? " 
 *' I thought it might do to throw to the little 
 feller." 
 
 " They 've got more boards than water at the 
 mill, I'd have thought you 'd a-known that." 
 Jack threw up the handful of dirt he had gath- 
 ered. " Look at the people, Aunt George. 
 What's up?" Mrs. George shook the dirt 
 from her dress and ran to the fence. 
 "Where are those people running to, Mr. Lime- 
 cooly ? " she asked of Sam hurrying past. 
 " Somebody says Billy Campbell has fallen into 
 the water at Jones's mill." 
 Jack gave a leap across the fence. 
 *' I 'm ofF, Limecooly." 
 
 With long strides Jack gained on the crowd, 
 and hurried past. By this time Irene and Anna 
 had reached the spot with Billy Campbell, who 
 alone caught Jack's attention. 
 " Billy Campbell, you limb, are you safe ? I 
 came to fish you out." 
 
THRILLING CATASTROPHE 107 
 
 " Jack," said Billv, with long breaths, for he 
 
 was very tired, " I thinic Bob Wally must be 
 
 drowned." 
 
 " How, Billy ? Tell me, this instant ! " 
 
 " Bob Wallv an' me was playin' on that very 
 
 log. An' I went into the field to git a pole 
 
 an' when I come back Bob was n't there, an' 
 
 I guessed he's drowned." 
 
 " What in, you little imp ? There is n't water 
 
 enough, or I 'd duck you." 
 
 Irene and Anna looked at the dried-up stream, 
 
 then at the procession hurrying pellmell up the 
 
 street, and sat down on the log, weak with 
 
 hysterical laughter. 
 
 In the rear of all came Bob Wally, his freckled 
 
 face streaming with perspiration. 
 
 " Why, Billy Campbell ! " he cried. " They 
 
 telled me you was drownded." 
 
 Down one street came the Campbells and up 
 
 another ran the Wallys, and fell upon the 
 
 children with kisses and blows. 
 
 " Billy, you precious limb ! " said Aunt Kiz, 
 
 weeping over him, after a final spank. 
 
io8 JACK RACER 
 
 " What are you making such a fuss over 
 Bob Wally's drowning ? " inquired Billy, 
 with some severity, after struggling to free 
 himself. " Bob's got a lot of folks to cry for 
 him." 
 
 " I thought it was you, Billy," answered the old 
 woman, humbly. 
 
 " Oh, is that all ? " said Billy, mollified. " I 
 would n't have drowned. I 'd a just struck 
 out for shore." 
 
 The crowd now slowly sauntered back to town, 
 full of lively talk, but with an unavowed sense 
 ot disappointment. A break in the montony 
 of so small a town is too grateful to be relin- 
 quished without regret. If the unhappy acci- 
 dent had really occurred, both the Wallys and 
 the Campbells would have had the unstinted 
 sympathy and assistance of the whole town in 
 accompanying it to its inevitable end. But 
 even these sad services would have carried with 
 them over several days an agreeable and stimu- 
 lating excitement. 
 
THRILLING CATASTROPHE 109 
 
 " What shall we do with ourselves ? " cried 
 Anna. " I 'm as limp as a rag. I can't go back 
 to my sewing." 
 Jack had joined the two girls. 
 Irene slowly raised her beautiful eyes to the 
 young man standing before her, while a lovely, 
 mysterious smile hovered on her lips. 
 " Have pity on us, Jack," continued Anna. 
 " Our occupation 's gone. I 'd nerved myself 
 to break the sad news to Mrs. Wally, and I 
 can't think of anything that will let me down 
 safely but a dish of ice cream." 
 "Amzi's rig is hitched at Sam Limecooly's 
 store and we '11 find him somewhere near. Sup- 
 pose we capture him ; I '11 get Fancy, and we 'U 
 go over to Sparta, have supper, and come home 
 by moonlight. How will that compensate for 
 Mrs. Wally's affliction ? " • 
 Jack turned to Anna, for, although he had been 
 talking to her, his gaze had not left Irene's 
 face. 
 Anna knew that she was destined to Amzi's 
 
no JACK RACER 
 
 companionship, but in any case she felt a sense 
 of rescue, and gave a glad submission to Jack's 
 proposition. With but little delay the two 
 buggies were whirling along the Sparta road,and 
 at midnight, under the white moonlight, with 
 loosened rein. Fancy came slowly home. 
 
CHAPTER EIGHT 
 
VIII 
 
 The Campbell Family's Views of Current Events 
 
 HE Campbells' supper was 
 late. Air. Campbell had 
 gone over to Sparta to sup- 
 ply a missing piece of the 
 hay press, and the B. M. 
 & H., as it was familiarly called, took no ac- 
 count of Pekin's six o'clock supper. It was, 
 accordingly, set for so late an hour as half-past 
 seven, for in Pekin " men folks " are regarded 
 as the only convincing reason for heating a 
 kitchen stove. If Mr. Campbell had stayed 
 one night in Sparta, his wife. Aunt Kiz, and 
 Lucy would have taken their supper from their 
 hands on the back steps, Billy being not yet 
 old enough to require a table set. 
 The supper table was more than usually laden, 
 the lateness of the hour and Mr. Campbell's 
 s 
 
114 JACK RACER 
 
 trip making it a special occasion. There 
 were ham and eggs and fried potatoes, cold 
 corn and beans left from dinner, hot biscuit, 
 smear case, pickles, blackberry jam and water- 
 melon preserves, two kinds of cake, and 
 coffee. 
 
 The late supper was freely partaken of by 
 Billy, who prospered under it to the extent 
 of a second cup of coffee to finish his third 
 piece of cake. 
 
 It was not usual to talk much at the Camp- 
 bells' table until the close of the meal. Mr. 
 Campbell, now taking up a piece of cake, was 
 conversationally inclined. Tipping his chair 
 back against the wall, he ate leisurely, lapping 
 up the crumbs, as they fell on his shirt-front, 
 with his tongue. 
 
 Billy watched him closely. Then, making, 
 with difficulty, a crumb lodge on his calico 
 blouse, endeavored to imitate his father's skill 
 in removing it to his mouth. 
 Aunt Kiz pointed at him, and chuckled silently. 
 
THE CAMPBELL FAMILY 115 
 
 " Sho, Billy, you '11 have to wait until you 're 
 
 a man to do that," said his father. 
 
 Billy made another supreme effort, turning his 
 
 eyes almost out in order to see his tongue. 
 
 " Father, can you see your tongue ? " he 
 
 panted. 
 
 " Pretty near a'most." 
 
 " Aunt Kiz says God can see everything, so I 
 
 reckon he can see his tongue ; but I bet he 
 
 can't see his own ears." 
 
 Mrs. Campbell, holding one hand to her cheek, 
 
 walked around and gave Billy a box on the ear. 
 
 Billv started up, but found the pain mitigated 
 
 in seeing Aunt Kiz laugh silently and observ- 
 
 ing the drawn lines about his father's mouth. 
 
 " Billy," said Lucy, severely, " you are a 
 
 naughty, irreverent boy." 
 
 " What 's that long word ? " 
 
 " Something not very good." 
 
 " Did you get it out of the Bible ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Then T 'm not afraid of it." 
 
ii6 jack: racer 
 
 " Billy ! " It was now Aunt Kiz's turn, for in 
 Pekin admonition was handed around the cir- 
 cle, as a part of domestic etiquette. " Do you 
 know what '11 become of vou if you don't mend 
 your wavs ? " 
 
 " Yes. I '11 have to go to church twice on Sun- 
 days." 
 
 " That won't save vou. You Ml go straight 
 down to the bottomless pit." 
 " Pooh ! " said Billv, in some contempt. " That 
 won't hurt. There 's nothing there to strike 
 against." 
 
 Mr. Campbell slapped his knee with such force 
 that his chair came down with a thud, and set 
 the dishes jumping ; but Mrs. Campbell made 
 the tour of the table again, with uplifted ma- 
 ternal hand. 
 
 " None of vou talk to this bad, bad boy any 
 more. D' ve hear ? Billy, not another word 
 out of vour mouth." 
 
 Billy remained silent, but he knew he was mas- 
 ter of the occasion. 
 
THE CAMPBELL FAMILY 117 
 " What 's Jack Racer doin' so much down 
 at Sparty, nowadays ? I saw him gallivantin' 
 Irene Burke into an ice-cream parlor as I was 
 goin' around the Palace Block." 
 " It seems to me I heard Irene had music 
 scholars twice a week over there," replied Mrs. 
 Campbell. 
 
 "Ho, ho! Then that settles it. Jack ain't 
 got anything better to do than dangle around 
 fine lookin' wimmen." 
 
 "I have n't seen Jack Racer for a month of 
 Sundays." 
 
 " Who 'd a thought you were so vain, Sally ! " 
 '*• You 're pokin' fun at me, Sam, but I 've a 
 healed jaw, and I 'm thankful I don't know 
 what it 's about, for I can't laugh." 
 " Lucy," said Aunt Kiz, having stolen a guilty 
 look at her niece, on whose face the red was 
 creeping up to supplant the white, " fly around 
 and clear the table. Let 's git these dishes put 
 away afore midnight. Let Jack Racer alone, 
 Sam Campbell, he '11 come around all right." 
 
ii8 JACK RACER 
 
 " Kcziah 's allays for Jack Racer, since he was 
 a little fellow." 
 
 " He never mocked my gray hairs." 
 "O, Aunt Kiz ! And your hair is as black as 
 a sloe." Lucy affectionately parted the black 
 locks in which Aunt Kiz took secret pride. 
 " Well, he would n't have mocked them if 
 they 'd a been there. Jack allays had nice ways 
 with old wimmen." 
 
 *' Young ones, too, I take it, if the way the 
 gals run after him is true," Mr. Campbell 
 added, replacing his chair for a gossip, while 
 Aunt Kiz and Lucy washed the dishes. 
 *' You would n't go to the temperance rally- 
 last night, Sam, and you missed more fun than 
 you could shake a stick at." Aunt Kiz 
 paused, dishrag in hand. 
 
 " The Methodis' church was packed. I went 
 with Loizy Merchant, and we set on the pul- 
 pit steps. Such a talker! Talked too much ! 
 Like molasses in winter, steady stream, no stop 
 to it. He had a feller with him that spoke 
 
THE CAMPBELL FAMILY 119 
 a piece pretendin' to be a man with snakes, but 
 rhymin' at every line. * Laws,' says Loizy 
 to me, ' I did n't know they talked potry when 
 they had snakes.' She 's such a simple-minded 
 creatur'. Finally, the fellow gave a whoop that 
 would raise the dead, an' jumped right over 
 Loizy's sunbonnet, and went screechin' down 
 the aisle. ' Gone to perdition,' says the per- 
 fessor. ' Behold the way of a man given to 
 drinkin' an' wine-bibbin'. Who do you sup- 
 pose is the master hand in workin' all this 
 wretchedness in your homes. It is a woman,' 
 says he. ' Yes, sisters, yes, brethren, a woman. 
 The Widder Clikott comes a-dashin' along in 
 her coach with her prancin' steeds. She trips 
 up the steps of her brownstone palace on 
 Fifth Avenue, and every stone has been 
 bought with the price of a soul ! ' Oh, you 
 never heard anything like the way he went 
 on, Sam." 
 
 " Like as not it ain't true." 
 *' Jus' wait. ' Sisters,' he says, ' arise an' con- 
 
120 JACK RACER 
 
 dcmn that woman ! ' An', would you believe 
 it, Samantha Dyer began to hiss, an' fur a minit 
 you 'd s'posed there was a hundred thousand 
 snakes in that room." 
 
 " Ye don't mean it ! Was n't S'mantha Dyer 
 cavortin' around old Jones, the distiller, at the 
 Limy Fair ? " 
 
 " Well, sayin' as that woman, the Widder 
 Clikott, is all he says she is, I really felt sorry 
 for her, and I do hope to goodness she '11 never 
 hear it." 
 
 " Like enough she will. They telegraph every- 
 thing nowadays, since lines is let into every 
 huddle of shanties." 
 
 " But that was n't what I was goin' to tell you 
 when I set out. The perfessor had a big dic- 
 tionary book longside of him, and a lot of bot- 
 tles. ' Now,' says he, ' I 'm agoin' to make 
 every sort of wine that 's drunk, out of them 
 ingredjents, and you can see for yourselves jus' 
 what sort of poison you 're takin' into your- 
 selves.' " 
 
THE CAMPBELL FAMILY 121 
 " He mus' think everybody in Pekin has a 
 wine cave." 
 
 " So he read out of his book, an' mixed an' 
 talked. ' There,' said he, ' this is port, an' this 
 is claret wine,' an' he named a lot more drinks. 
 Then the young chap that went to perdition, 
 an' had come back to take up the collection, 
 passed the cups around the side seats. There 
 sat Squire Martin, an' Doc Dennis, Lawyer 
 Green, an' a lot of old coots. Sam, you 'd a 
 died laughin' if you 'd a seen them cockin' their 
 heads on one side, smackin' their lips, an' 
 tryin' to look as if they knowed what port an' 
 the rest of them tasted like." 
 " I don't believe they ever tasted anything 
 stronger than hard cider in their lives," grunted 
 Mr. Campbell. 
 
 " Just then Jack Racer come in, lookin' as 
 peart an' sassy as ever you see him. He had 
 on a new black an' white check suit, an' he 
 might have been melted an' poured into it. 
 ' Pass them to that gentleman,' said the per- 
 
122 JACK RACER 
 
 fessor, not kiiowin'. Everybody snickered. 
 Jack tasted them all, jus' as cool, an' then sang 
 out clear as a bell, ' They all taste like drug- 
 store whiskey.' " 
 
 " That was a double-header, Kiz. How 'd 
 Doc Dennis like that ? " 
 " He fired right up an' everybody laughed." 
 " Served him right. Doc Dennis got the local 
 option bill passed that took the trade in spirits 
 away from Sam Limecooly, and gave it to his 
 nephew's drug store. They do say that Doc 's 
 a half partner." 
 
 " Well, this I know, my balsams ain't worth 
 shucks for sprains this year all along of his 
 worthless whiskey. Laws, Lucy, that boy 's 
 noddin' his head off. Carry him upstairs." 
 
>• -^-v-' 
 
 
 CHAPTER NINE 
 
IX 
 
 Lucy and Aunt Kiz Get Acquainted 
 
 ILLY had been fast asleep 
 for some time, but he braced 
 himself against the accusa- 
 tion. 
 
 " I heard every word you 
 said. You 're talkin' about Jack Racer." 
 Billy's young but nimble reasoning powers had 
 acted on the last word of Aunt Kiz's that he 
 had heard, and immediately felt warranted in 
 the statement, which proved to be correct. 
 " I tell you, Jack Racer thinks a lot of us." 
 " What makes you think so, Billy ? " asked his 
 father, looking at his wife for appreciation of 
 their son's keen wit. 
 
 " He 's allays askin' how we are. ' How 's 
 your father, Billy ? ' 'Is your mother well to- 
 day ? ' 'How 's your good Aunt Kiz ? ' All 
 
126 JACK RACER 
 
 except Lucy, he never asks for her, but I allays 
 
 tell him. I ain't goin' to have Lucy left out 
 
 of this family." 
 
 Aunt Kiz, who was gazing admiringly at the 
 
 boy, sprang upon him with fervor. 
 
 "The dear lamb, the sweetest, best little boy 
 
 in the world. Aunt Kiz will carry him up to 
 
 bed. Lucy, get the candle." 
 
 Billy struggled manfully against the caresses, 
 
 but consented to be carried upstairs. 
 
 " You was mad at me, wasn't you, to-night ? " 
 
 he asked, one arm around Aunt Kiz's neck, 
 
 on the way upstairs. 
 
 "Well, yes, a little." 
 
 " But we 've made up now, ain't we ? " 
 
 "Yes," giving him a squeeze. " You know 
 
 the Bible says we must n't let the sun go down 
 
 on our wrath." 
 
 " Oh, it was long after dark. It was after supper 
 
 that you all fought with me. But you liked it, 
 
 did n't you, when I told you Jack Racer called 
 
 you 'good Aunt Kiz ' ? And it was all just 
 
LUCY AND AUNT KIZ 127 
 guesswork with him. He docs n't begin to 
 know how goody, good, good you are." 
 Billy ended by throwing both arms around 
 Aunt Kiz's neck, in one of his rare fits of 
 demonstration. 
 
 Aunt Kiz pressed him to her breast, too much 
 touched to speak. 
 
 Billy climbed down from her lap and began to 
 undress. 
 
 " Come. Let me undo your galluses." 
 " I can undo them myself, or how 'd I get to 
 bed if you had gone on the cars to New York? " 
 " But I 'm not goin' to New York." 
 *'Well, s'posin'. You might, you know. Then 
 I 'd have to unbuckle my galluses myself." 
 " There 's Lucy." 
 
 " Lucy 's a girl. Girls don't know about such 
 things. But you can untie my shoe." 
 " I '11 bet it "s in a hard knot. I thought so. 
 Now, say your prayers." 
 
 Billy knelt down and was silent a long time. 
 When hegot up he explained, apologetically, — 
 
128 JACK RACER 
 
 " It takes a long time to take in all the rela- 
 tions, I tell you. Bob Wally ain't down but 
 a minit, an' then whips into bed. He never 
 takes in his cousins. He says they can do their 
 own prayin'." 
 
 " Well, I 'm glad you 're a better boy." 
 " But I ain't, you know. He says he 'd rather 
 be a child of grace than spend the hours in idle 
 play. That 's what the teacher asked, an' I said 
 I 'd rather play! " 
 « Oh, Billy ! " 
 
 " Which would you rather be ? " 
 " A child of grace, of course." 
 " That 's because you never played shinny. 
 Now I'm ready for bed. Yes, if you want to, 
 kiss me good-night; but we 've kissed a good 
 deal this evening." 
 
 " That's because we had a little difference, you 
 know." 
 
 " Sure enough. Well, that 's the last. You're 
 a bully old Aunt Kiz," Billy shouted at her, 
 from the bedclothes, as she went out the door. 
 
LUCY AND AUNT KIZ 129 
 
 Lucy was in an adjoining room, seated before 
 an open bureau drawer. She had balanced her 
 candle on the corner of the drawer and was 
 pulling over her ribbons and trinkets, girl- 
 fashion, and folding and putting them away 
 again in highly-colored paper-boxes. Aunt 
 Kiz came up behind her. 
 " Oh ! Aunt Kiz, you startled me." 
 " What are you doin', child ? Sortin' over 
 your purties ? That 's a cute thing," picking 
 up a wooden shoe, gayly painted and adorned 
 with ribbons, for the decorative fever had 
 set in at Pekin, and its first evidence is the 
 diverting of everything from its original pur- 
 pose. 
 
 " Yes," said Lucy, absently, " Amzi gave me 
 that at the Baptist fair." 
 "How is it Amzi ain't comin' here nowa- 
 days ? " 
 
 " He 's going to see Laura Francis." 
 "What do you keep them things fur? " 
 " Why, Aunt, they 're my earthly all. There 's 
 9 
 
130 JACK RACER 
 
 the locket Uncle brought me, and the bead- 
 cushion you made me, and the melon-seed bag 
 of Cousin Martha Bliss — " 
 " Nonsense. I know 'em as well as I know 
 you. I mean them stones and pebbles litterin' 
 up your drawer." 
 
 Lucy was idly twisting around her finger a yel- 
 low string run through a hole in a shell. 
 "Amzi would have been comin' here yet, if 
 you 'd pitch away a lot of that trash and for- 
 get you ever had it." 
 
 Lucy looked up reproachfully, and her eyes 
 filled with tears. 
 
 " Lucy, darling, forgive me. I did n't mean 
 to speak rough. But I want to see you well 
 off and happy, and sometimes it's just the 
 thoughts that stick to stones, and dried flowers, 
 and simple things, that make us let our real 
 happiness go by without knowing it. You 've 
 always been such a good child, doin' your duty 
 in season and — " 
 " That 's just it." Lucy shut the drawer and 
 
LUCY AND AUNT KIZ 131 
 
 stood up. " Tell me how to keep from doing 
 my duty. I hate my duty." 
 "Why, Lucy ! " Aunt Kiz started back. J ust 
 then two girls passed under the window, laugh- 
 ing loudly, one tossing a saucy answer to a 
 voice up the street. 
 
 " Listen to that. They are happy. What 
 would I give to laugh out free and careless like 
 that ! " 
 
 " Fine time of night to be traipsin' around. 
 Purty mothers they must have." 
 " But they are happy, Aunt Kiz. That 's the 
 chief thing;. I would be willino- to be scolded 
 by you, to have Uncle swear at me, and Aunt 
 Sally cry over me, to be happy and laugh like 
 that." 
 
 Lucy had caught her aunt's arm in her vehe- 
 mence, holding the candle in her other hand. 
 As its flickering light chased the shadows over 
 her face. Aunt Kiz realized for the first time 
 that her niece had beauty. The girl had al- 
 ways been too near to her. Now, her face 
 
r32 JACK RACER 
 
 alive with emotion, an unknown fire shining 
 in her eyes, Lucy impressed Aunt Kiz like a 
 new person. She was too intent on the strange- 
 ness of this thought to reply at first. 
 " Tell me, Aunt Kiz, how not to do my duty." 
 "I can't, Lucy. It is in you. You can't 
 get away from it." 
 
 " Then I will never be happy," she said in de- 
 spairing tones, and, releasing her aunt's arm, 
 sat down again. 
 
 "What is the matter, child? Why do you 
 look at things in that way ? " 
 "Can I not see. Aunt Kiz? It is to the thought- 
 less, the careless, the selfish, that everything 
 comes." 
 
 " Everything what, child ? " 
 " Everything worth having. Oh, I 've thought 
 it all out. I 've tried, too. I left the milk pans 
 unwashed the other evening, and went out to 
 walk. I never made my bed yesterday ; I just 
 spread it over until evening. But what good 
 did it do ? " She laughed hysterically, " I was 
 
LUCY AND AUNT KIZ 133 
 
 only wretched. I came upstairs every little 
 while, to make it ; and then went down again. 
 I was bound to give it a good trial." And Lucy 
 laughed again with such lack of mirth that the 
 tears came to Aunt Kiz's eyes, and, throwing 
 her arms around Lucy's neck, she sobbed on 
 her shoulder. 
 
 " Lucy," she said, wiping her eyes, "you are 
 your mother's child. Whatever is right for you 
 to do, you will do ; that, bless God, is your fate, 
 struggle against it as you will. Listen, Lucy. 
 I was strong-willed and high-strung,! went and 
 came, nothing stood in the way of my pleasure. 
 Your mother was all that I was not, — a good 
 daughter, a loving sister. Lucy, she died young, 
 but before she left us she had been a happy wife 
 and mother. Child, child, I would sell all the 
 years of my life to have had one sip of the brief 
 joys of your mother." 
 
 Aunt Kiz was on her knees before Lucy, her 
 slim form bolt upright. Lucy got down be- 
 side her. 
 
134 JACK RACER 
 
 " Dear Aunt Kiz," she murmured, " we love 
 
 you so much," stroking her hand. 
 
 " Let me alone, Lucy." Lucy set the candle 
 
 on the chair, and sank back on the floor: Aunt 
 
 Kiz got up and began to pace the room. 
 
 " Yes, I would sell my soul to have been a wife 
 
 and had babies about my knee. I was all for 
 
 pleasure ; I played with the love of good and 
 
 honest men, and then threw my own into the 
 
 dirt. Now, what have I left? A lonely life, 
 
 a hungrv heart, a bitter tongue ! " 
 
 " No, no. Aunt Kiz ! Don't ! " Lucy put 
 
 her hands before her eyes. 
 
 Her aunt came up before her. 
 
 " Put down your hands, Lucy. For the first 
 
 time in my life, I am showing these bleeding 
 
 wounds, and because I hope the sight may help 
 
 you. Courage ! Look, child. I never see a 
 
 child clinging to its mother's skirts, that they 
 
 do not bleed afresh. I never see a wife look 
 
 into her husband's eyes that they do not sting. 
 
 Even when I see Aunt Chloe and Uncle Jack 
 
LUCY AND AUNT KIZ 135 
 warming their tobacco side by side, I want to 
 wring my hands and gnash my teeth, for black 
 or white, rich or poor, the sweetness of affection 
 is the same. O God, the years that I have 
 borne it ! But it is not all in vain, if I can only 
 serve you. Look, child, look, and if your life 
 seems homely and your duty a burden, remem- 
 ber me as you see me to-night, and as, please 
 God, no one shall ever see me again." 
 Aunt Kiz sank into her chair, faint from emo- 
 tion, and burst into bitter weeping. Lucy crept 
 up to her, fearing to speak, but pressing her 
 cheek against her aunt's knee. 
 They sat silent thus for some time, p'inally. 
 Aunt Kiz grew calmer. 
 
 " There, dear, we was strangers, after all, until 
 to-night ; was n't we ? Now, let us go to bed." 
 Lucv still clung to her. 
 
 " Aunt Kiz, you have crucified yourself for me, 
 and I thought I was not selfish." 
 "• You are a dear, precious girl. Not a word 
 now. Go to bed." 
 
136 JACK RACER 
 
 The two women separated without any more 
 words. After their lights were long out, Aunt 
 Kiz cried from her room : 
 " Lucy, if we was two men, we 'd take two 
 stiff' whiskey toddies and go to sleep like babes. 
 But we 're only wimmen, and we '11 have to 
 wrastle it out." 
 
CHAPTER TEN 
 
X 
 
 A Fire Gives Opportunity for More than Heroism 
 
 T last they slept. When 
 tear-worn women have at 
 last found peace in the 
 blessed oblivion of sleep, 
 all earth should conspire 
 to keep silence. And so it seemed. Pekin 
 now lay motionless under the dark blue 
 sky. Not a light glimmered, not a footstep 
 sounded in the street. There is no stillness 
 more profound than that of a slumbering 
 village. 
 
 At length, far up the street, a hoarse voice 
 shouted " Fire ! " The sound came nearer, 
 and a man rushed by, still shouting " Fire ! 
 Fire ! " Windows were thrown up ; heads 
 thrust out. But the man paused for no ques- 
 tions. 
 
HO JACK RACER 
 
 Lights glimmered here, there, and now from 
 every house. Doors slammed, men hurried 
 forth, taking up the fearful cry. 
 Then came the clangor of bells. The Baptist, 
 the Methodist, — quick, rapid strokes, ceasing 
 only when the hand on the rope paused to gain 
 strength to begin again. 
 
 Heavy sleepers, fresh from dreams, sprang up 
 in the darkness at the frantic sound, and wo- 
 men groped the way to their children's beds. 
 All Pekin was now aroused. Every man was 
 a member of one of the two fire companies. 
 Trousers and boots made a toilet. Women 
 hurried into their clothes, fastening them in 
 the street. Children followed them, clad in 
 what they could find, crying, *' Mother, mo- 
 ther, wait for me! " as they dressed themselves 
 on the way. 
 
 The whole town was now on the street, the 
 church bells pealing, men shouting, the engine 
 and hose bells clanging as they rolled through 
 the town, drawn by the long lines of men ; 
 
MORE THAN HEROISM 141 
 
 women and children now running in their trail 
 toward a faint yellow light creeping up the 
 blue sky. 
 
 Aunt Kiz put her head out of the window. 
 " Where is it, Samuel ? " calling to Mr. Camp- 
 bell, hurrying out, buckling 'his suspenders as 
 he went. 
 
 " It looks over Wally's way." 
 " Lucy and I '11 go. Sally can mind the house." 
 They soon had joined the hurrying crowd, run- 
 ning as they went, and pausing only to take 
 breath, 
 
 " Keziar, d' ye s'pose it was set afire ? " panted 
 Mrs. Bergan, behind them, her nightcap sur- 
 mounting a toilet consisting of a short gown 
 and quilted skirt. 
 
 " I don't know yet what it is, Mrs. Bergan." 
 " Why, it 's Wally's new house. Like enough, 
 like a lot of shiftless people, they take up their 
 ashes o' nights, an' I should n't be surprised 
 if they emptied 'em into a bar'l settin' close 
 up to the summer kitchen," said Miss Dyer. 
 
142 JACK RACER 
 
 " I allays use an iron pot ; it 's temptin' Prov- 
 idence to use wooden vessels for ashes." 
 " As if Providence was a-firin' the roofs over 
 our heads, in the night too ! " exclaimed Miss 
 Samantha, with pardonable contempt. 
 " But does n't that spile 'em for soap ? Cer- 
 tingly, if they 're put fust in a bar'l, there 
 they are, needin' only to be histed to run 
 ofF the lye. I s'pose that was Mis' Wally's 
 idee." 
 
 "The people that goes for savin' trouble has 
 the worst of it, mark my words." 
 Lucy and Aunt Kiz began to run again, and 
 the ladies followed them. 
 It proved to be the Wally residence. The 
 back part of the house was in flames and their 
 glare irradiated the neighborhood. Neighbors 
 were carrying out the furniture, and tearing up 
 the carpets. While the men bore the heavier 
 articles, the women carried the dishes, orna- 
 ments, chairs, and lighter furniture to a secure 
 place across the street. 
 
MORE THAN HEROISM 143 
 Here Mrs. Wally sat, crying and wringing her 
 hands, on a pile of feather-beds. 
 On the adjacent houses, men climbed along 
 ridge-poles in their stocking-feet, spreading 
 blankets which they kept wet with the water 
 that women handed up to them. 
 There were no public cisterns. Fences were 
 levelled, and the hose was carried over bushes 
 and garden beds to the neighboring wells and 
 cisterns. 
 
 The elder men worked in lines at the engines, 
 and the younger men carried the hose, scaled 
 the porches, climbed through windows, and 
 their dark forms could be seen outlined against 
 the fierce, roaring background of flame, and 
 dimly seen among the chimneys of the roof. 
 No better spectacular arena could be desired 
 for the display of personal courage. The con- 
 ditions were all picturesque, the flaming back- 
 ground and eddying clouds of smoke, the 
 costume, the white glazed hat with its gayly- 
 painted ornament and sheltering back, the flan- 
 
144 JACK RACER 
 
 nel shirt and black belt with its gilded fastenings, 
 the high-topped boots, into which the trousers 
 were thrust ; and below, the eager, excited au- 
 dience noting every movement. 
 A fire was, in fact, recognized as the great 
 opportunity for the Pekin young men ; and 
 they vied with each other in deeds of daring. 
 At each fire the generous rivalry between the 
 two fire companies grew afresh. Jack Racer 
 commanded "The Dreadnought," a trim little 
 engine with its inspiring legend, " We fly to 
 save." The older, more sedate engine, with 
 its Latin motto, " Forthudo inspirit spem^' 
 was commanded by Horace Morton, a young 
 married man, who now felt new duties toward 
 himself, being an even younger father. 
 The fire had crept steadily over the roof in 
 the face of a steady stream from The "Dread- 
 nought," while " The Reliance " charged in- 
 side. The men were driven back, pace by pace, 
 until only Jack and Sam Limecooly remained 
 on the roof. Sam supported the hose, bracing 
 
MORE THAN HEROISM 145 
 himself against the chimney, and Jack, aban- 
 doning his trumpet, held the nozzle, one foot 
 against the eaves trough, and kneeling on the 
 steep gable. 
 
 Below, women were shrieking, and men cry- 
 ing,— 
 
 " Come down,, boys ! Save yourselves ! " 
 " How d'ye feel, Limecooly ? " asked Jack. 
 " Warmish. We might as well git." 
 " Scoot, then. I '11 follow. There 's a fiery 
 serpent nibbling at my boot." 
 Sam climbed down the waterpipe on to the 
 trellis, and leaped to the ground. Jack let 
 himself down to the veranda roof, yet un- 
 touched ; ever\'one breathed freely. Then, 
 suddenly, he darted through a window into 
 the burning house. A wild cry of horror went 
 up below. But it was only for a moment. 
 Jack reappeared with a bundle in his arms, 
 followed by the flames from the roof, which 
 fell in with a crash, and sent a stream of sparks 
 and burning bits skyward. 
 
146 JACK RACER 
 
 His burden was Billy Campbell, whom he 
 had seen, in night-drawers and boots, calmly 
 walking around looking for something. " My 
 God !" he exclaimed,and jumped into the room. 
 He still held Billy with one hand, and with 
 the other climbed down the frail ornaments 
 of the pillars. 
 
 A crowd ran to meet them. 
 " Never mind. It 's all right," waving it off. 
 And he hurried away. 
 
 " Jack, what did you hurry me so for ? " Billy 
 asked, finding his breath once more. 
 " You imp, what were you doing there ? " 
 " I was huntin' that Sparkins boy's velocipede. 
 I let Bob Wally have it ; and I was 'sponsi- 
 ble. Sparkins asked me how much money I 
 had in my savings bank, and I told him, five 
 dollars and fifty-six cents and a fi'penny bit ; 
 and he said then he'd lend me his velocipede, 
 coz if I broke it I could buy him another. 
 So I was 'sponsible. My, but you 're nasty 
 and wet ! An' I let Bob Wally have it. I 
 
MORE THAN HEROISM 147 
 did n't know he 'd go an' burn it up. I was 
 savin' that money to git me a gold watch an' 
 chain." 
 
 Aunt Kiz was working at one of the engines, 
 the women having replaced the now exhausted 
 men. Screened by the lilac bushes, she had 
 seen nothing of the excitement, where all was 
 excitement. 
 Jack called to her, — 
 " Come, Aunt Kiz, I want to unload." 
 " Billy Campbell, as I 'm a livin' sinner ! " She 
 let go of the pump and ran. 
 " He's been hunting his velocipede in Wally's 
 house, and stayed so long he had to scale the 
 clapboards." 
 
 Aunt Kiz fell upon Billy with expostulations 
 and kisses, and interrupted Billy's explanations 
 by turning him over and upside down to see 
 if he was hurt. 
 
 Jack found her a wrecked sofa, and, putting 
 Billy in her lap, escaped the throng of women 
 gathering about them. 
 
148 JACK RACER 
 
 Part of the established routine of a fire of im- 
 portance at Pekin was coffee for the worn-out 
 men. This duty fell to the girls. They had 
 accordingly hung a gypsy kettle. Anna Ross 
 was tending the fire and Irene Burke grinding 
 the coffee. Lucy had been sent to hunt up 
 some of the Wally cups to serve the occasion. 
 Wrapping her red knit shawl over her head to 
 guard against the burning shower, she started 
 toward the rescued furniture on which Mrs. 
 Wally still sat enthroned, weeping, and sur- 
 rounded by sympathizing friends. The fire was 
 now past danger, but the falling timbers and 
 the roar of escaping flames, the flying sparks 
 and clouds of smoke, made it seem even more 
 terrible. 
 
 Lucy shuddered, and drew her shawl closer as 
 she ran past it toward the Wally cairn. 
 "Lucy, is that you .? " said Miss Dyer. " I 'd 
 a-thought you 'd been supportin' your Aunt 
 Kiz." 
 " Aunt Kiz is working at the ' Reliance.' " 
 
MORE THAN HEROISM 149 
 " Indeed she 's not. She 's shudderin' Hke a 
 fit of agur. Did n't ye hear ? " 
 " Hearwhat ? " half turning her head, and look- 
 ing up from the basket she was filling with the 
 cups strewing the ground. 
 " How Jack Racer jumped into that burnin' 
 gulf after poor little Billy ? " 
 Lucy heard no more. 
 
 "There, she's forgotten them cups, gal-like. 
 Gals is hasty. I '11 take 'em an' git a cup my- 
 self. I 've an awful gone feelin'." 
 Lucy ran, without seeing or caring, toward 
 the burning house, leaping the hose, splashing 
 through sheets of water. As she turned the 
 veranda column, there stood Jack. 
 " Jack! Billy ! " she cried, and fell senseless in 
 his arms. 
 
 Jack lifted her up and carried her away from the 
 burning house to the shelter of the lilacs. There 
 he held her for a moment to his breast, and bent 
 his head toward hers. 
 " No," he said, shutting his lips tightly; and, 
 
150 JACK RACER 
 
 with head erect, he bore the unconscious girl 
 to Aunt Kiz, still sitting with Billy in her arms, 
 and placed Lucy by her side. 
 " Some fool 's been frightening her," he said, 
 roughly. 
 
 Aunt Kiz looked up at his white face and shin- 
 ing eyes. In spite of his tone, she caught a new 
 note in his voice. 
 
 " Take care of her, Aunt Kiz," he said, ten- 
 derly, with shaken voice. 
 The old woman caught his hand and pressed it. 
 "Jack," she said, as he turned, " if you can 
 only find Samuel and carry him here, I '11 have 
 the whole family. Sally 's home with abealed 
 jaw. 
 
 They both laughed, and Jack walked oft'. 
 Lucy lay with her head pillowed against Aunt 
 Kiz's shoulder. Presently she stirred, and fi- 
 nally, coming to herself, she felt a sweet con- 
 tent, and tried to remember how it came 
 about. When she remembered, she hid her 
 face again, lest even in the now waning light 
 
MORE THAN HEROISM 151 
 of the burning house. Aunt Kiz should see 
 her joy. 
 
 " Come, Lucy, we might as well get home. 
 This bad, bad boy has gone to sleep." 
 Lucy turned her head ; and, as she turned, she 
 saw by a leaping flame, Irene Burke handing 
 Jack a cup of coffee, the girl blushing and hand- 
 some beneath his gaze. 
 She turned cold and sick again. 
 " Yes, Aunt Kiz. Let us go home." 
 A well-conducted fire at Pekin concludes very 
 much like a picnic. This of the Wally house 
 was one of the best of its kind. The tired men 
 hurried home to catch some sleep before day- 
 light. The women, now at leisure to coax and 
 cuff, gathered their broods together and drove 
 them before them, as they gossiped on the 
 way. The small boys stole away one by one 
 to help drag the engines and hose-carts back to 
 the engine-houses. 
 
 A few firemen kept watch over the dying rem- 
 nants burstino; out now and then in sudden 
 
152 JACK RACER 
 
 flashes, and still capable of mischief if neglected, 
 in the rising wind. The young people sat and 
 made merry over their coffee until the morn- 
 ing began to dawn, when theyoung men walked 
 home with the girls, and Jack Racer lingered 
 over the gate with Irene Burke. 
 " You are better looking than ever by the dawn, 
 Irene, I believe this is the only time of day 
 that I have n't inspected you by before." 
 " And you are flattering as ever. Really, there 
 is very little variety in your comments on my 
 personal appearance." 
 
 " That is scarcely my fault. But you look as 
 fresh as if you had n't been up half the night." 
 He leaned back, holding her off with both hands 
 and scanning her close-fitting dress, every de- 
 tail of toilet complete. 
 
 " Everything is so trim and taut about you." 
 " One need n't go to a fire like a drab." 
 " Yes, you are one of those women that would 
 have a hanging dress, if they were going to be 
 hanged." 
 
MORE THAN HEROISM 153 
 Then, looking off where the sun was rising, a 
 golden ball above the billowy grass of the prairie, 
 he murmured to himself, — 
 " ' The sweet disorder of her dress,' " and, turn- 
 ing, peered into Irene's face with all the force 
 of his gaze. 
 
 " Why do you look at me that way. Jack ? " 
 Irene asked. 
 
 " I am trying to quench a memory." 
 " Your speech bewrayeth you. You 've been 
 handling the hose," turning up toward him her 
 smiling face. 
 
 For answer, he gave her a long, lingering kiss. 
 " Did you quench it ? " she murmured. 
 " Damn it ! No," he said, and strode away. 
 " Jack," she called after him, " remember, at 
 eight o'clock to-night, I want you to teach 
 me poker," then went, well satisfied, into the 
 house. 
 
CHAPTER ELEVEN 
 
XI 
 
 And Leaves Jack Racer Unaccountably 
 Capricious 
 
 F Jack Racer had not been a 
 privileged person, he would 
 have gone back to the engine- 
 house after the fire, as did the 
 other members of the company. 
 Instead, he went to his room over the office 
 and threw himself, in his wet clothes, across 
 the bed. At length, after much tossing and 
 swearing, he went to sleep. 
 It was nine o'clock when he awoke, a "■ scan'- 
 lous" hour in the opinion of Pekin, and only to 
 be tolerated in emergencies such as that of the 
 night before. Jack got up and made his usual 
 careful toilet. This attention to his person, as 
 well as his late hours, was one of thegrievances 
 against him in some circles in Pekin, where a 
 hasty wash of the face and a rapid brush of the 
 
158 JACK RACER 
 
 hair sufficed until evening, when everybody was 
 supposed to " dress up." 
 Mrs. George, with her usual indulgence,always 
 kept Jack's breakfast until he was ready for it. 
 This morning, in view of the events of the 
 night before, she attended him in person. She 
 saw, as he came in, that he was not in a com- 
 municative mood, but she felt by judicious ques- 
 tions, such as a lawyer's wife would put, that 
 she might elicit something of interest. 
 " Ann and Caroline can talk about nothing but 
 the fire this morning," she began, while daintily 
 serving his coffee. 
 " I don't doubt." 
 
 " Poor Mrs. Wally ! She must have felt aw- 
 fully at having her new house burned down." 
 Jack looked up, and saw he was expected to 
 answer. 
 
 " Yes, she did take it pretty hard. If she had 
 only begun soon enough her tears might have 
 put out the fire." 
 " Ann says you acted liked a hero ; and as for 
 
LEAVES JACK CAPRICIOUS 159 
 
 Caroline — " Mrs. George clasped her hands 
 
 expressively. 
 
 " Ann and Caroline are two gabblers." 
 
 " Jack, you know they both adore you. Now, 
 
 for all you take it so, you know it is a great 
 
 thins: to have saved a human life." 
 
 " Bother, Aunt ! I beg pardon. It was only 
 
 Billy Campbell." 
 
 "Well, Jack, even he 's human. Of course you 
 
 could n't know it was only that bad little boy." 
 
 u Oh — oh, no — o," said Jack, significantly. 
 
 « I thought it was the Reverend Mr. Sparkins's 
 
 son." 
 
 " He 's in Chicago, with his mother. I thought 
 
 you knew that, Jack." 
 
 As she spoke, Mrs. George got up, and, going 
 
 to Jack, began to examine him critically. 
 
 " What 's the matter. Aunt George ? A 
 
 smooch ? " 
 
 " Ah ! " She gave a sigh of relief. " I am so 
 
 glad you are not disfigured in any way." But 
 
 he reassured her. 
 
i6o JACK RACER 
 
 " Of course, Aunt, when I 'm saving lives, as 
 a rule I always think about that first. I '11 take 
 care not to spoil my phiz, you may be sure of 
 that." 
 
 Mrs. George shook her head doubtfully, as if, 
 in the reckless enthusiasm of youth, he might 
 forget. 
 
 Jack himself knew he would very much dis- 
 like getting disfigured in any way, but he did 
 not say so ; and, touching lightly his aunt's 
 forehead, left the room. 
 
 Jack went back to his own room, pulled down 
 some large books bound in yellow calf, and, 
 resting his head on his hands, with his feet 
 stretched out under the table, he was soon ap- 
 parently absorbed. He did not read long, but, 
 quite involuntarily, found himself standing be- 
 fore a picture in the gallery of celebrities he 
 so ostentatiously displayed, criticising a certain 
 curve of outline. 
 
 " Ugh ! " he said, shivering, when he came to 
 himself; and roughly turned the picture to the 
 
LEAVES JACK CAPRICIOUS i6i 
 
 wall. He went back to his reading and for 
 some minutes was attentively engaged. Sud- 
 denly he exclaimed, — 
 
 " The Lord have mercy on my soul ! " Jump- 
 ing up, he walked around the room quickly, 
 looking for something, he knew not what. 
 Presently his eye caught the well-filled decan- 
 ters and handsome appointments. He poured 
 out a finger of whiskey and put it to his 
 lips. 
 
 " No, I '11 be hanged," he said. " I 'd moon 
 all day." 
 
 He threw himself on the lounge for an instant. 
 " It 's no use," he exclaimed. " I can do noth- 
 ing here. I '11 put the distance to Sparta be- 
 tween." 
 
 He went to the stable. Fancy neighed softly 
 as he came in, and rubbed his shoulder. He 
 gave her some lumps of sugar from his pocket, 
 and the mare rubbed with her nose again, in- 
 viting new caresses. He quickly harnessed her 
 to his trotting buggy, and was off. 
 
i62 JACK RACER 
 
 The road lay a dead level. Jack braced his 
 
 feet against the dashboard and pulled his cap 
 
 over his eyes. Fancy was used to her master's 
 
 whims, but she was never harder pressed. 
 
 Jack came into Sparta with his usual dash. 
 
 The women ran to the windows. The girls 
 
 on the street plumed themselves, and looked 
 
 to see if he noted them. The men commented 
 
 with more or less friendliness. The small boys 
 
 regarded him with appreciation, and felt that to 
 
 grow up like Jack Racer ought to satisfy any 
 
 mother's ambition. 
 
 He drew his mare up before a drab-colored 
 
 office-door, at its side a dingy sign. 
 
 " Hi, Jack ! " a portly man greeted him. "• I 
 
 did n't expect you. I heard you had a frolic 
 
 last night." 
 
 " Bit of a blaze. I 've come for work." 
 
 " You '11 have the afternoon clear. I '11 be in 
 
 court." 
 
 Jack went in, found the book he wanted, sat 
 
 down in the Judge's chair, with his feet on the 
 
LEAVES JACK CAPRICIOUS 163 
 
 table, and began to read. He was elated with 
 his success. 
 
 >■' Can't do anything at home," he muttered. 
 Apparently his success did not bear contem- 
 plating. He grew restless, and finally per- 
 suaded himself he was hungry. 
 Putting aside the book, he went out on the 
 sidewalk and delighted old Jake Durstine with 
 stories while he ate a watermelon with him, on 
 a store-box. 
 
 " But I can't swap lies here with you, Jake. 
 I 've got work to do." 
 
 " Fust time I ever heerd on it," Jake grunted. 
 Jack felt that this conversation had, at last, 
 freed him from his persistent thoughts. He 
 now not only read with interest, but made 
 some notes and hunted out a reference or two. 
 But in time this zeal flagged. 
 " I am hungry," he said. "Watermelon is not 
 filling for the price, as we say in the classics." 
 Closing the books, he went over to the Grand 
 Union Hotel in the Palace Block. He looked 
 
104 JACK RACER 
 
 in the dining-room. A small girl sat at the 
 end of a long table filled with people. Pulling 
 a string, she set in motion a row of wire tra- 
 pezes ; from these fluttered banners that once 
 were white, but which still kept up a gentle 
 breeze while they waved away the flies, swarm- 
 ing elsewhere, from a double row of men and 
 women hastily devouring their dinners. 
 Jack watched the small girl with some amuse- 
 ment. As she pulled her banners with one 
 hand, with the other she held surreptitiously 
 below the table a story paper she was endeav- 
 oring to read. Occasionally, absorbed in her 
 story, she forgot her string. The breeze died 
 away ; the flies sallied in ; and the heads down 
 the long line looked up, missing something, 
 and finding much. Then, recalled to herself, 
 the girl jerked the string violently to make 
 amends, and the women's frizzes and the locks 
 of the men waved to and fro until she relaxed 
 again into a steady swing. 
 " Old Heliogabalus feeding was n't a patch to 
 
LEAVES JACK CAPRICIOUS 165 
 Sparta for luxury," Jack said to himself, "but 
 I'm not old Heliogab." And he turned on 
 his heel and went out. 
 
 The " Home Circle " was near, the saloon of 
 the highest ton in Sparta, and he went in there 
 and began to rattle the balls about the crazy 
 billiard table. Then, more disgusted than 
 ever, he went back and settled himself to his 
 work. 
 
 At intervals he groaned, but kept his chair per- 
 sistently. Then suddenly, in the midst of a 
 long sentence on torts^ without any consulta- 
 tion with himself,the book was shut. Jack Racer 
 stood up, put his hat on, and was at the door. 
 He did not stop, but hurr^'ing to the shady side 
 of the street, where Fancy was tied, he un- 
 loosed her halter, and before he had communed 
 with himself he was speeding homeward as fast 
 as he came. When at last he took thought, he 
 said, — 
 
 " It 's only for once," begging concession to 
 his own weakness. 
 
CHAPTER TWELVE 
 
XII 
 
 Aunt.Kiz Invites Him In and Then Invites 
 Him Out 
 
 'HEN Jack reached Pekin 
 lie turned Fancy's head to 
 M the Campbell door. Fasten- 
 ing her to a locust-tree, he 
 knocked and then, with scant ceremony, en- 
 tered. Finding no one, he pursued his way 
 through the house into the kitchen, where, 
 hearing voices without, he poked his head 
 through the kitchen window. " Jack Racer ! " 
 screamed Aunt Kiz. 
 
 " Yes, I 've called to get my thanks for saving 
 that boy of yours. You did n't pay me that 
 civility last night. I suppose it 's a mere form, 
 but in any case I would like it." 
 " Sally 's gone to the dentist. If she was here 
 she 'd throw her arms around you. As it is, 
 if you '11 come out hyar I '11 do my best." 
 
I70 JACK RACER 
 
 '■^ May I ? " He turned to Lucy with unsus- 
 pected shyness. 
 
 "Yes, you are just in time. Aunt Kiz and I 
 have seen so much of one another to-day, we 
 were about to quarrel for a change." 
 Jack caught the mutual look of love and con- 
 fidence between the aunt and niece, and for 
 the moment felt very lonely. 
 " What a jolly place this is ! " he exclaimed, 
 as he got himself through the window, so as 
 not to disarrange its fringe of pans. 
 The Campbells' back-yard was an attractive 
 spot. The summer kitchen was a roughly- 
 boarded afterthought, but it was overhung with 
 hop-vines swinging their golden bells in per- 
 petual call. The surrounding area was paved 
 with flags, kept clean as a kitchen floor. These 
 enclosed an old apple-tree, which brought such 
 protecting shade that half the household duties 
 were performed here. 
 
 Aunt Kiz now sat in a low rocking-chair, 
 peeling apples to stew for supper, and Lucy 
 
INVITED IN AND OUT 171 
 
 stood under the apple-tree, churning. No de- 
 tail escaped the notice of so accomplished an 
 observer of women and their setting as Jack 
 Racer. 
 
 Her print dress was turned up over a white 
 skirt neatly frilled. A white fichu crossed on 
 her breast and a blue silk handkerchief was 
 bound turban-wise about her hair, in view of 
 the particular work in which she was engaged. 
 Behind her was the grass plot, with its fruit 
 all gathered but the russet pears ; the old well, 
 mossy and weatherstained ; the hollyhocks mar- 
 shalled against the fence ; and still beyond, the 
 garden with its flaming dahlias and marigolds 
 against the yellow corn. 
 
 Jack flung himself on an old settee placed 
 against the house. As he watched the dasher 
 dancing up and down, and saw the flashing 
 of white arms, and heard the gentle plash, 
 plash, so soothing to his lately perturbed spirit, 
 he patted his self-indulgence lovingly, and was 
 very content. 
 
172 JACK RACER 
 
 " But how busy you are! Can't 1 dandle that 
 
 thing up and down ? " 
 
 Aunt Kiz raised a warning hand. 
 
 " Butter is like women and mares, they know 
 
 the touch of their master." 
 
 " Would it get skittish if I took a hand ? Now, 
 
 Fancy — " 
 
 " Lucy woos the butter right out of the cream, 
 
 sir. If you want to do the proper thing, you 'd 
 
 read to us out of some improvin' book." 
 
 " And keep my eyes glued on to the page ? No, 
 
 I thank you." 
 
 " Then you can put a stick of wood in the stove 
 
 to keep the fire in." 
 
 Jack flew to obey her. As he reappeared, she 
 
 said, — 
 
 " You 'd be always in the kitchen if you had a 
 
 wife." 
 
 " That would depend on who the wife was." 
 
 " For ail your wild doin's, you 're a reg'lar 
 
 Betty." 
 
 " I '11 swear to one thing. At the risk of being 
 
INVITED IN AND OUT 173 
 
 unfashionable in Pekin, if my wife cooked the 
 breakfast I 'd chop the wood and make the fire." 
 " Pekin wives don't have the heartache." 
 "• No, but they all have the backache." 
 " T' other 's worse." 
 
 " Look here. Does n't it occur to you that if 
 a man looks after his wife's back, that it is a 
 sort of collateral evidence that he cares for her 
 heart ? " 
 
 " You talk very fine," she smiled, grimly. 
 The consideration of matrimony was always an 
 agreeable subject in Pekin, as in other towns, 
 small and large, and Jack was quite willing to 
 continue it. Lucy did not take part in the con- 
 versation. Notwithstanding her cordial wel- 
 come, there was a shyness in her manner 
 that impressed Jack. But he felt he had gained 
 much if he might sit there where he could 
 watch her movements not too obviously. 
 It was very cunning, he thought, to see her peer 
 into the half-opened churn, and, with her head 
 poised on one side, consider judicially the situ- 
 
174 JACK RACER 
 
 ation within. Her whole attention was ap- 
 parently contained in the area of her churn. 
 He watched to see some trace of interest in her 
 face, and did not despair of bringing smiles by 
 some happy audacity that he might safely prac- 
 tise with Aunt Kiz. 
 
 Thus, all the time he was so merrily talking, 
 he was thinking of Lucy, likening her to this, 
 that, and the other. 
 
 "She is like a young pine," bethought, " slender 
 and straight from the ground up, — so pliant and 
 yet so strong. 
 
 " She 's like a snowdrop, — modest, shy, and 
 pure. 
 
 "She's like a snowbird, — so brave, hardv, so 
 grateful for a few little crumbs, — and so cold. 
 But I would n't have her otherwise. Oh, no, 
 no ! 
 
 Jack's thoughts did not get beyond conven- 
 tional comparisons. But he was not a young 
 man who in such matters strove for originality. 
 He used his mental powers in the easiest way. 
 
INVITED IN AND OUT 175 
 These similes expressed his feelings, and that 
 was all he required of them. 
 " It has come," said Lucy, gravely, taking off 
 the lid of the churn. She lifted the butter in 
 a mass into a wooden bowl, twirling the dasher 
 around dexterously, to catch the floating bits. 
 " Give Jack some of the buttermilk, Lucy." 
 " Do you like buttermilk. Jack ? " 
 " I was brought up on it." 
 " That accounts," said Aunt Kiz. 
 " For what ? " 
 
 " A sort of frothiness I 've noticed — " 
 '' And elasticity, and vivacity, and wholesome- 
 ness in my character. Ouiteright," hefinished 
 for her. 
 
 Lucy stooped to lift the churn and Jack sprang 
 to his feet. 
 
 " Not when I am here," he said, decisively, and 
 sent the foaming mass, like a cataract, into a 
 cool stone jar. When this was done he re- 
 sumed his lazy attitude, and received a glass 
 from Lucy's hands, like a pasha. 
 
174 JACK RACER 
 
 atioii within. Her whole attention was ap- 
 parently contained in the area of her churn. 
 He watched to see some trace of interest in her 
 face, and did not despair of bringing smiles by 
 some happy audacity that he might safely prac- 
 tise with Aunt Kiz. 
 
 Thus, all the time he was so merrily talking, 
 he was thinking of Lucy, likening her to this, 
 that, and the other. 
 
 "Sheislikea youngpine," he thought, " slender 
 and straight from the ground up,- — so pliant and 
 yet so strong. 
 
 " She 's like a snowdrop, — modest, shy, and 
 pure. 
 
 "She's like a snowbird, — so brave, hardy, so 
 grateful for a few little crumbs, — and so cold. 
 But I would n't have her otherwise. Oh, no, 
 no ! " 
 
 Jack's thoughts did not get beyond conven- 
 tional comparisons. But he was not a young 
 man who in such matters strove for originality. 
 He used his mental powers in the easiest way. 
 
INVITED IN AND OUT 175 
 These similes expressed his feelings, and that 
 was all he required of them. 
 *' It has come," said Lucy, gravely, taking off 
 the lid of the churn. She lifted the butter in 
 a mass into a wooden bowl, twirling the dasher 
 around dexterously, to catch the floating bits. 
 " Give Jack some of the buttermilk, Lucy." 
 " Do you like buttermilk. Jack ? " 
 " I was brought up on it." 
 " That accounts," said Aunt Kiz. 
 " For what .? " 
 
 " A sort of frothiness I 've noticed — " 
 " And elasticity, and vivacity, and wholesome- 
 ness in my character. Quite right," he finished 
 for her. 
 
 Lucy stooped to lift the churn and Jack sprang 
 to his feet. 
 
 " Not when I am here," he said, decisively, and 
 sent the foaming mass, like a cataract, into a 
 cool stone jar. When this was done he re- 
 sumed his lazy attitude, and received a glass 
 from Lucy's hands, like a pasha. 
 
176 JACK RACER 
 
 " Ye gods ! What a drink ! " 
 He quaffed again and again, partly for a love of 
 the buttermilk, which is a worthy motive, but 
 chiefly to be so served, — to have Lucy stand 
 before him, to watch her raise her pitcher aloft, 
 and, bending toward him, fill his glass with such 
 dainty precision. There was a proud humility 
 in her mien- that delighted him ; and he pro- 
 longed the situation as long as his capacity for 
 buttermilk held out, and then relinquished it 
 with a sigh. 
 
 Released, Lucy went back to her butter. She 
 wielded now a short wooden paddle, pressing 
 it to and fro against the yellow mass. 
 There is muscular force in this as well as deft- 
 ness, — asort of concentrated energy quite dis- 
 proportioned to the apparent motion, and which 
 sends the blood leaping through the veins like 
 a young race-horse. 
 
 Jack watched the rise and fall of the muscles 
 in the firm white arm with the admiration of 
 an expert, but soon found more bewitching the 
 
INVITED IN AND OUT 177 
 advent of a little brown ring creeping out from 
 under the blue turban. 
 
 It is an unwritten law that the hair must not 
 be touched during this household rite. So the 
 crisp little ring strayed away down Lucy's neck 
 and curled around her ear. A slight movement 
 of the head at length showed consciousness, and 
 then a gentle toss, as the audacious curl ven- 
 tured into her ear. Jack watched it with a 
 fascinated gaze. The lock was more insistent, 
 the maiden more uneasy. 
 Jack was trying to parry Aunt Kiz's merry 
 sallies, but was consumed within with a frantic 
 desire to touch that curl. Could he not offer to 
 tuck it back ? That was only kindness. Dared 
 he ? He braced himself for the offer, and then 
 backed down. He rallied, and then retreated. 
 He reasoned, he argued. He called himself 
 unpleasant names. The idea ! A slip of a 
 girl, and he, Jack Racer. 
 
 Meanwhile the curl wandered at will. It waved 
 
 to and fro ; it beckoned and then mocked him. 
 
 12 
 
178 JACK RACER 
 
 Thusgoaded, Jackmadeasudden move. There 
 was a sound in his throat. But he coughed and 
 settled himself again. 
 Aunt Kiz looked up. 
 
 " Are ye sittin' on a bumble-bee's nest, Jack 
 Racer ? " 
 
 For a moment her keen eyes were fixed on 
 him. Then she arose and went over to her 
 niece. 
 
 " I '11 tuck yer hair in, child. It 's botherin' 
 ye." Then she went to her apples, looking 
 at Jack with a grim smile. 
 Jack met her gaze bravely. 
 "You remind me of Beelzebub's wife," he said. 
 " I know she smiles just like you." 
 " Then Mrs. Bel is a mighty smart old woman." 
 She nodded, decisively. 
 
 Unconscious of the cause of her aunt's and 
 Jack's passage at arms, Lucy finished her but- 
 ter and packed it away in a httle tin pail. Then 
 she took from a nail a coil of rope and, with 
 the pail in her hand, started to the well. 
 
INVITED IN AND OUT 179 
 " You shan't prevent me now," Jack said de- 
 fiantly to Aunt Kiz, and followed her. 
 Lucy swung the pail on the side of the well. 
 " This is our ice-house, you know." 
 " And what a pretty looking-glass ! " Jack 
 stood by her and saw their two faces in the cool 
 depths of the water. 
 
 " There we are, Lucy, we two away off in a 
 little round world by ourselves." 
 He bit his lips and stopped. 
 " See here. Don't you get enamored some day 
 of your own face in the water, like that heathen 
 chap, and fall in." He spoke lightly, but the 
 tension of his voice revealed the pressure put 
 upon it. 
 
 Lucy did not answer, but leaned over the well 
 to adjust and fasten her pail. The worn boards 
 gave a warning sound beneath her weight. 
 " My God ! " cried Jack, with all the possi- 
 bilities flashing before him, and, throwing his 
 arm around her, held her fast. 
 " It is nothing. Jack," Lucy said, when she 
 
i8o JACK racp:r 
 
 could speak ; but as she looked up her eyes were 
 filled with tears ; not from fright, but from the 
 sweet, rare sense of protection. 
 " It is something," said Jack, angrily. " Why 
 don't Sam Campbell have a decent well ? Billy 
 will fall in some day." 
 
 " Billy is n't allowed to come about the well. 
 He knows if he should get drowned, he would 
 be whipped." Lucy laughed through her tears, 
 but her serenity was gone. Jack, with his mind 
 troubled and his soul stirred, went back to Aunt 
 Kiz and expended himself abusing Sam Camp- 
 bell and his well. 
 
 " Ye talk like the agent of a new-fangled 
 pump," she responded, dryly. 
 "You mean like a member of the Humane 
 Society." 
 
 " Lucy ! " she called, " it 's time to be gittin' 
 supper. Come," to Jack, " I 'm goin' in now. 
 No, this way." 
 
 " I suppose I am not to be invited to tea ? " 
 "Jack, ye could make vour livin' guessin'." 
 
INVITED IN AND OUT i8i 
 
 She started for a side-door. 
 '^ Good-bye, Lucy," Jack called, as he fol- 
 lowed Aunt Kiz. 
 
 " Good-bye, Jack," she answered, without re- 
 appearing. 
 
 Aunt Kiz followed theyoung man to the street- 
 door and shut herself out on the doorstep with 
 him. 
 
 " Look hyar. Jack Racer," she said, " I don't 
 want you comin' round hyar any more after- 
 noons." He looked at her. " Young men 
 like you ought to be at work," she added, as 
 an afterthought. 
 
 " Aunt Kiz, you know you don't care two pins 
 whether I work or play. Is there anybody else 
 vou would rather come here ? " 
 " Yes," she laughed, " if that 's it. Amzi." 
 Jack sobered. 
 
 " If Amzi's company is wanted here, he shall 
 come, I promise you that. But who wants him 
 to come? " 
 " I do. That 's enough." 
 
i82 JACK RACER 
 
 " That 's not enough," said Jack, positively. 
 " I say it is n't enough, Aunt Kiz. Does any- 
 body else want him to come? " 
 " That 's none of your affair. I want him." 
 " Plainly it is my affair, if I am not to come. 
 And I tell you now, he shan't come. That 's 
 flat." 
 
 " You young dook of Pekin, I '11 be even with 
 ye." 
 
 "What is more, I want you to remember that 
 you have turned me out of the house and if I 
 go to the devil it is your fault." 
 " I wash my hands of you," she retorted, turn- 
 ing to so in. 
 
 " Aunt Kiz ! " Jack stopped her. " I 'm go- 
 ing to tell you something. You're a woman 
 though, I don't suppose you '11 understand it." 
 " I '11 listen, at least," she replied. 
 " I came to your house this afternoon just as 
 a man who is going to reform takes his good-bye 
 dram, — a long one and a strong one. Now 
 I 'm going to swear off." 
 
INVITED IN AND OUT 183 
 " I'm sure we're mighty obleeged to ye for 
 the comparison," she answered, indignantly. 
 " I knew you would n't understand," said Jack, 
 sadly, and went his way. 
 As he went he mused, — 
 " If I was willing to undertake the risk of 
 spoiling her life, I 'd have to court Aunt Kiz 
 first — grim dragon that guards the entrance 
 to the enchanted castle." The fancy seemed 
 to please him. " Bally old girl."' 
 
CHAPTER THIRTEEN 
 
XIII 
 
 The Professor and the Cantata of Esther 
 
 HE announcement that the Can- 
 tata of Esther was to be given in 
 Pekin became at once the absorb- 
 ing topic of conversation. 
 Professor Perry Stivers had been 
 for some time overlooking the field, as he 
 called it. 
 
 Professor Stivers was a slight man with a sal- 
 low complexion suggesting malaria and coffee. 
 He had beady black eyes, curly black hair, and 
 a profusion of whiskers. The discrimination 
 between beards and whiskers is not recognized 
 in polite circles in some parts of the country. 
 But although fine distinctions were not usually 
 observed in Pekin, this was in force. 
 Professor Stivers had whiskers. These were 
 long and flowing, and in moments of preoccu- 
 
i88 JACK RACER 
 
 pation he assisted liis mental processes by di- 
 vidintr them into two strands and knottin<r them 
 together. 
 
 Professor Stivers always wore broadcloth, and 
 both his clothing and mien were related to 
 what is termed "the cloth." In fact, although 
 primarily a singing teacher, he was also a com- 
 poser of hymns. Both of these occupations 
 gave him a claim on churches and their con- 
 gregations and obviated the necessity of hiring 
 halls or undergoing the expense of a hotel. 
 But few of what are generally called " amuse- 
 ments " ever visited Pekin. In the first place, 
 it was too small to tempt them. And in the 
 second place, Pekin held positive views on the 
 right and wrong of worldly amusements, — by 
 which is to be understood that interesting 
 quadrilateral, the theatre, the opera, dancing, 
 and card-playing. 
 
 Occasionally some passing *' Swiss Bell Ring- 
 ers," or " Old Folks' Concert " gave an en- 
 tertainment in one of the churches. The 
 
CANTATA OF ESTHER 189 
 "dressin' up" in the latter was at first held 
 to be debatable, seeming to suggest the theatre. 
 But the matter was settled by a general under- 
 standing that the clothes had been handed down 
 from past grand-relations, which made it a 
 family matter. As for the " Swiss Bell Ring- 
 ers," everybody knew they dressed in that 
 foolish fashion " to home." 
 It was not that Pekin lacked that refreshment 
 of spirit that amusements are expected else- 
 where to give. On the contrary, small places 
 are at a less disadvantage than would appear, 
 since, thrown on their own resources for en- 
 tertainment, they unite the pleasures of the 
 performers to the delights of the performances. 
 There were such social occasions as " spend- 
 ing the day," a method of passing pleasantly 
 the time of which older and larger communi- 
 ties know nothing. This consisted of several 
 ladies combining to descend upon a friend at 
 ten o'clock in the morning, taking their work 
 and those children, picked out of the united 
 
igo JACK RACER 
 
 families, that either could not be left at home, 
 or would find companions in the house to 
 which they were bent. There they remained 
 for dinner and stayed for tea. 
 Such visitations entailed an enormous amount 
 of labor, and until dinner was served the host- 
 ess was rarely visible. After dinner, however, 
 when the dishes had been washed — some ot 
 the guests usually assisting and all offering their 
 services — visiting set in fast and furious, and 
 tea was but a slight interruption. Spending 
 the day had this advantage : when it was over, 
 it was over for a long time. The hostess, 
 meanwhile, had grounds of retaliation on each 
 of her guests in the same manner, before they 
 could with propriety spend the day with her 
 again. 
 
 There were also tea-drinkings, and evening 
 parties christened after whatever fruit, melon, 
 berry, or other form of tempting the appetite, 
 happened to be in .season, as if the meeting 
 was only called to allure the palate. It was 
 
CANTATA OF ESTHER 191 
 
 really the same old game of men and maids, 
 and as perennially attractive in its humble cele- 
 bration at Pekin, as in the more sophisticated 
 ways of more pretentious places. 
 There were fairs for the firemen and fairs for 
 the Pekin band, fairs for the church carpets 
 and fairs for the heathen. There were, as we 
 know, camp-meetings and other occasions for 
 picnicking; there were temperance orations 
 and missionary meetings, Sunday School cele- 
 brations and donation parties. 
 Every event in Pekin proved a diversion. Even 
 the occasional auctions, and immersions in 
 Martin's pond gave occasion for assembly and 
 comment. 
 
 The Cantata of Esther was quite outside of 
 these. For a time Pekin was off its reckon- 
 ing. The name, in the first place, was puz- 
 
 zling. 
 
 In order to get the Methodist church, which 
 was the largest in Pekin, it was necessary to 
 have the good-will of the congregation. There 
 
192 JACK RACER 
 
 were, of course, certain nominal heads, but 
 these would never think of acting against the 
 consent of the congregation, or even without 
 its assent. The matter was accordingly gen- 
 erally canvassed, and nowhere more exhaus- 
 tively than in Mrs. Bergan's back-yard, where 
 she and Miss Samantha Dyer were making 
 soap on the " sheers," Mrs. Bergan furnishing 
 the lye and Miss Dyer the grease, the kettle 
 having been borrowed. 
 
 As Mrs. Bergan and Miss Dyer were sisters 
 in the church, they had a right to their "say," 
 and were now in the full plenitude of their 
 powers. 
 
 " Folks is purty bad," said Miss Dyer, chasing 
 a piece of ham-rind around the kettle with her 
 stick, " but I did n' think they would be so 
 blasphernious as to write an opery about Scrip- 
 tur'." 
 
 " But they tell me it ain't an opery. It 's a 
 cantaty." 
 " 'T ain't a hair's-breadth difference 'tween 
 
CANTATA OF ESTHER 193 
 them. Both of 'em is caperin' roun' in false 
 clothes. Throw in another handful, will ye ? " 
 " As fur caperin'," Mrs. Bergan said, as she 
 obeyed, " I heerd the perfessor say they jus' 
 held up their hands now an' then, an' walked 
 roun' singin' the very Bible words. 'T is n't as 
 if they throw'd themselves roun' in a furrin 
 tongue sayin' nobody knows what at ye, like 
 enough things yoi^ '^ blush to hear, an' you 
 innercent an' helpless-like sittin' there." 
 " Well, my opinion is, an' I 'd say it if it was 
 the last words given me to speak, that if the 
 Good Man meant us to sing Scriptur' He 'd 
 a-set it to a sol-fa-do book." 
 '' But I ain't got it clear in my mind about the 
 Psalms, Sister Dyer." 
 
 "I ain't no use for Psalm-singers, either," not 
 catching Mrs. Bergan's thought, which referred 
 to David and his harp of solemn sound, and not 
 to a neighboring sect. " Psalm-singers have 
 onnateral ways. There was Eliza Ann Mc- 
 Caskey, she was a seceder, an' she allays would 
 13 
 
194 JACK RACER 
 
 have salt-raisin' bread, even when hops vi^as 
 plenty." 
 
 " The perfessor says Solomon's Song was on- 
 doubtedly meant to be sung, else it would be 
 Solomon's something else," suggested Mrs. 
 Bergan, who, having a daughter who sang sec- 
 ond in church, was inclined somewhat toward 
 the new prophet. 
 
 " Oh, the perfessor ! " said Miss Dyer, who, 
 not being prepared to answer this, prudently 
 made her views a mere matter of emphasis. 
 " Myry says the clothes they 're to wear are 
 the wonderfullest things, all velvet an' span- 
 gles, an' not a scissors set in 'em, as she could 
 see. Jus' hang on some way, as if you was a 
 
 peg." 
 
 " An' flyin' open, I make no doubt. Such con- 
 ductions ! Nobody need n't tell me that dressin' 
 up an' actin' out of theirselves ain't goin' to 
 work the devil's way in this community. It 
 Stan's to reason that it encourages vain an' de- 
 ceitful ways." 
 
CANTATA OF ESTHER 195 
 
 " Well, well. There 's truth in what you say, 
 I don't deny." 
 
 "You know yourself. Sister Bergan," said Miss 
 Samantha, sitting down on the woodpile while 
 Mrs. Bergan relieved her of the soap stick, 
 ^' that perfessor, as you are, in good an' reg'lar 
 standin', ef you was to put on hity-tity clothes 
 an' go cavortin' roun', you'd git very light- 
 mannered." 
 
 " As ef I 'd do sech a thing I Me wearin' 
 mournin' fur Bergan now this ten year ! " Mrs. 
 Bergan exclaimed, with some hauteur. 
 " Ef^ I said ; not meanin' you would ever 
 bemean yourself that a-way, an' we neighbors 
 boilin' soap together." 
 
 " Well, it won't be so bad for them that 's per- 
 tendin' Esther and her uncle. Maybe it might 
 be a means of grace to some. But I would n't 
 be in that old Haman's or his wife's shoes fur 
 a purty." 
 
CHAPTER FOURTEEN 
 
XIV 
 
 Mrs. George is More Biddable than She Knows 
 
 N higher circles the discussion 
 was as animated, if different. 
 Mrs. George never mingled 
 in the affairs of Pekin, but she 
 would have taken it hard not 
 to have known how they prospered. 
 Now, seated at her window with her needle- 
 work, this mild October afternoon, she looked 
 out from the dying clematis, still bravely try- 
 ing to wreathe the window, as if unwilling to 
 acknowledge that its reign was over and sum- 
 mer gone, and saw Jack coming in the gate. 
 She had seen very little of him of late. He 
 spent his days in Sparta, coming home late ; 
 when, after some hasty refreshment, he was off" 
 about his lighter affairs. To make up for this 
 apparent desertion. Jack was more than usu- 
 
200 JACK RACER 
 
 allv tciulcr and thoughtful of his aunt when he 
 was with her. He was especially considerate 
 of her health. 
 
 "You aren't in the open air enough, Aunt 
 George," he said one day. "• Your cheeks are 
 paler than I like," stooping to give each a gen- 
 tle kiss, which brought to them a gratified flush. 
 " Those horses are eating their heads off. Old 
 Pomp is as gentle as a baby, why don't you have 
 him in the phaeton every afternoon and take 
 a ride ? " 
 
 " Your uncle, you know, can never go with 
 me, and I don't like to drive," she plaintively 
 answered. 
 
 " Get some women, they 're a great deal nicer 
 than men. There isn't one of your kind in 
 town that can't drive. But you 're such a proud 
 body. You 're gracious, but you have a stand- 
 off way that makes everybody stand off — ex- 
 cept me, who am a burr on the hem of your 
 dress. Why don't you get thick with some of 
 the Pekin feminines ^ I should think you 'd 
 
MRS. GEORGE 201 
 
 like to have some nice girl looking up to you, 
 and petting you. There 's nothing prettier than 
 to see two women cooing. Of course, from 
 your position, you'd have to make the advances. 
 They would n't presume. Now, there 's Laura 
 Francis — " 
 
 Jack looked up, for while he was getting oft 
 this speech he was sitting on a stool at his aunt's 
 feet, plucking at her dress like a schoolboy. 
 " Jack, I can't stand that girl. She puts on so 
 many airs since she 's been at boarding-school 
 in Chicago." 
 
 " Then we '11 try another. Give them all a 
 turn and then pick out your girl. That 's the 
 way I do." 
 
 "You ? " said his aunt, secretly flattered by his 
 well-directed words ; and, bending over him, 
 gave him a little prick on the nose with her 
 cambric needle. 
 
 " Yes. I 've had experience. I 'm a judge. 
 Give me the commission,"dodging her aim and 
 imprisoning her hands. " I 'U hold until you 
 
202 JACK RACER 
 
 heed. Let me choose a group for you. There's 
 Miss Burke — " 
 
 " Oh, that 's a girl I don't think I like. She's 
 a man's woman. She overpowers me." 
 Jack bent over and kissed her hands. 
 "As if you little women couldn't hold your 
 own anywhere, and did n't command the tall- 
 est Goliaths of us all. Well, there 's Anna 
 Ross." 
 
 " Yes," said his aunt, " there 's Anna." 
 " And there 's Mr. Campbell's niece." 
 " Yes, she 's pleasant-spoken and modest." 
 " Then why not try her?" said Mr. Jack, jump- 
 ing to his aunt's conclusion. " Of course, you 
 know, you could take her first, and then ask 
 some one else if you find — that is, if you don't 
 want to be too particular in your attentions. 
 It would n't do, of course, to make the rest of 
 them jealous," he concluded, less fluently. 
 " I suppose not," agreed his aunt, amiably. 
 " Now, Aunt George, say you '11 go this after- 
 noon," said Jack, eager that she should com- 
 
MRS. GEORGE 203 
 
 mit herself. " Jake 's gone to the farm, but I '11 
 hitch up. We can't begin too soon to woo 
 those roses back," concluded this politic young 
 nephew. Thus it had been settled. 
 Now she called to him, and he came bounding 
 over the still blooming beds of asters and 
 made a place for himself among the vines. 
 " Are they going to get the Methodist church. 
 Jack ? " 
 
 " Yes. I knew they would. Did you have a 
 nice ride. Aunt George ? " he asked with flat- 
 tering interest. 
 
 " Yes,very. Then I suppose Mr. Sparkins has 
 given in." 
 
 " He always meant to. How far did you go. 
 Auntie ? " 
 
 "As far as the camp-meeting ground. Jack, 
 who 's going to be Esther ? " 
 " Thatwill depend on the girls' lungs. They're 
 going to speed them to-morrow. Did you find 
 it very dusty ? " 
 
 " Oh, so-so. I suppose Irene Burke will have 
 one of the best parts ? " 
 
204 JACK RACER 
 
 " I suppose so. Anna was in her usual gale 
 to-day ? " 
 
 " Oh, I did n't take her. By the way, Jack, 
 if Anna does n't get a good part, there '11 be 
 trouble." 
 
 " I don't doubt the fur will fly before they get 
 through. And so you had courage enough to 
 drive alone. Brava, Aunt George," said Jack, 
 returning to his charge. 
 
 " I certainly did n't. But, Jack, are you going 
 to have anything to do with the Cantata ? " 
 " I suppose I '11 fetch and carry for them. I 
 certainly don't suppose I '11 have a tenor solo." 
 " Oh, Will Triplow will get that. See here. 
 Jack, I did n't know you were so fond of music. 
 The other evening your uncle and I saw you 
 at Mrs. Maule's window. Miss Burke was 
 playing then,andwhen we came back, although 
 we didn't see you, she was still at the piano." 
 " Yes, and if you had come in, you would have 
 found me lying on the sofa on my face. Music 
 is very good to think by." 
 
MRS. GEORGE 205 
 
 " Does Miss Burke allow you to stretch your- 
 self so ? " 
 
 " Oh, Irene 's kind," he drawled, lazily. "But 
 tell me, Aunt George, are you feeUng better ? 
 I prescribed, you know, and I have something 
 at stake. Your eyes are bright. There 's noth- 
 ing like the open air and good company." 
 Jack worked himself up to quite a pitch of en- 
 thusiasm. 
 
 " Yes, I 've enjoyed it very much, and espe- 
 cially to-day. But tell me. Jack, is Professor 
 Stivers a married man ? 
 
 " Confound the whole business ! " muttered 
 Jack, kicking the dry earth with his heel. 
 "Aunt George, I'll come in and tell you every- 
 thing I know." 
 
 Jack went in, and taking the straightest-backed 
 chair he could find, he placed it before his aunt 
 and sat down erect and with folded hands. 
 " Professor Stivers is a married man and a con- 
 foundcdly familiar one, too. His wife will be 
 here to-morrow. I don't know her maiden 
 
2o6 JACK RACER 
 
 name. The Cantata of Esther is a musical 
 drama written by some musician who was pre- 
 sumably a good man. It is in great repute 
 among people who won't go to the theatre. 
 But there are others, notably Miss Dyer, who 
 regard it as the cloak of heaven worn to play the 
 devil in. The performance will take place 
 October 15th, and will be held at early candle- 
 lighting in the Methodist church. Miss Burke 
 will undoubtedly appear as Zeresh, and Mr. 
 Triplow as the mournful Mordecai. The pro- 
 fessor himself will be Haman. For Esther 
 there are several candidates, chiefly Miss Anna 
 Ross. 
 
 " The chorus will include everv one who is 
 young, pretty, and can sing. Even I have been 
 invited. Considering the high character of the 
 performance, the tickets will be placed at fifty 
 cents, children half price. I don 't know that 
 I can think of anything else." Jack paused, 
 Mrs. George looked up inquiringly, and Jack 
 went on : 
 
MRS. GEORGE 207 
 
 " That is, about the Cantata. But I 've heard 
 something else. Sarah Boice, it seems, loaned 
 Jane Maybury a sample of goods that she got 
 from Chicago, and Malvina Pryor borrowed it 
 from Jane Maybury and took it to Sam Lime- 
 cooly's store to see if he could get her some 
 at the same price. Then Sam took the sample 
 and sent it to St. Louis. So when Sarah asked 
 Jane Mayburv for the sample, Jane sent to Mal- 
 vina Pryor, and Malvina had to confess that 
 she had given it to Sam Limecooly, and Sam 
 sent it to St. Louis. Now Sarah had not wanted 
 Sam to know that she had sent in a free and 
 easy way to Chicago for samples, for the Lime- 
 coolys and the Boices belong to the same class- 
 meeting. So she upbraided Jane Maybury, and 
 Jane Maybury reproached Malvina Pryor, and 
 Malvina sassed them both. Each lady then left 
 in tears, and now they don't speak. As for Sam, 
 he says nothing, but I know he feels deeply." 
 " Those women are always quarrelling," said 
 Mrs. George, deeply interested. 
 
2o8 JACK RACER 
 
 "Now, Aunt George," said Jack, springing 
 
 up, and with a certain definiteness in his tones, 
 
 " whom did you take riding to-day ? " 
 
 " Why, Lucy. I thought I told you before." 
 
 " Sure enough," answered the young hypocrite. 
 
 " You take her all the time, don't you ? " he 
 
 asked, with evident satisfaction. 
 
 " Yes, she is a real nice little thing, so merry 
 
 in a quiet way, and has such a pretty, grateful 
 
 manner that it's a pleasure to do anything for 
 
 her." 
 
 Jack put his arms caressingly about her. 
 
 " What a good little woman you are ! I don't 
 
 fancy that girl has any too much pleasure in 
 
 life, and it is mighty fortunate for her she has 
 
 found such a friend. One can feel so safe 
 
 about a girl in your hands," he mumbled, with 
 
 his head on his aunt's shoulder, feeling that 
 
 a somewhat arduous task had at last been 
 
 crowned with success. 
 
CHAPTER FIFTEEN 
 
XV 
 
 The Cantata Proves the Mother of Discord 
 
 ROFESSOR STIVERS'S 
 wife came the next day. She 
 was a meek little woman with 
 small, straw-colored curls in 
 front of her ears. Her eyes 
 seemed to have been originally blue, as now 
 seen under a cloud of yellow film. She was 
 accustomed to follow her husband whenever 
 he had secured a field for labor in any of 
 his various capacities. In the Cantata she 
 performed the manual labor, the unfolding and 
 refolding of the costumes, the taking in and the 
 letting out, the unpacking and the repacking. 
 Her husband did not encourage her coming; 
 on the contrary, he spoke of it in conjugal con- 
 versation as "tagging on." He would have 
 willingly hired a substitute, or risked enlisting 
 
212 JACK RACER 
 
 some of those ladies whose voices the Cantata 
 did not require. 
 
 Mrs. Stivers was not offended at her husband's 
 plain speech ; in fact, she supposed it to be that 
 usually current between husbands and wives. 
 She liked going about and meeting new people. 
 She was proud of the triumphs of the Can- 
 tata ; and above all she delighted in seeing her 
 husband in the rich robes of the haughty Ha- 
 man. He was her ideal prince, and she was 
 very happy to be the wife of a man who in his 
 gilt crown and velvet clothes might have well 
 consorted with Queen Victoria. 
 The day of the voice trial, as it was called, 
 came off. The choruses had been learned by 
 all the available singers in Pekin, and had oc- 
 cupied the leisure evenings for two weeks. 
 The difficulty of casting the Cantata arose from 
 the competition between the different choirs, 
 each feeling that if it secured the best or the 
 greatest number of parts its future superiority 
 would be established. 
 
MOTHER OF DISCORD 213 
 To Miss Burke came the easy conquest which 
 usually falls to persons of large and luxurious 
 personality Bv common consent she was 
 given the part of Zeresh. Will Triplow 
 seemed equally foreordained for the plaintive 
 Mordecai. Haman belonged to the professor. 
 It was not so easy to dispose of Esther. Anna 
 Ross wanted the part and meant to have it ; 
 meanwhile there were several other girls who 
 might reasonablv indulge a hope. There w^ere 
 also several smaller parts, — handmaidens, her- 
 alds, captains of the guard, with their various 
 attendants. For each of these there were sev- 
 eral candidates. 
 
 But the first thing was to dispose of Esther. 
 The professor knew of Anna Ross's expec- 
 tations. He had no objection to her voice, 
 which was the largest and clearest in Pekin, 
 but her vivacious manners did not accord with 
 the professor's idea of the gentle Esther. In 
 this he was correct, for an Esther of Anna's 
 temperament would readily have disposed of 
 
2X4 JACK RACER 
 
 the recalcitrant Vashti. But to himself the 
 professor confided the fact that he did not take 
 to Anna Ross, and as there was a good deal of 
 rehearsing, he preferred to have somebody 
 agreeable to himself. 
 
 He was immensely satisfied with Aliss Burke, 
 with whom, in the Cantata, he was especially 
 allied. But that was no reason he should not 
 have another pleasing person in the cast. For 
 this reason he had instituted his voice trial, that 
 he might inspect the possible Esthers critically 
 with his black and beady eyes. 
 Anna Ross did not mind all this preliminary. 
 She was perfectly sure of her own mind 
 and if the professor wanted " to fool round, 
 and the girls were silly enough to think 
 they had a chance," as she put it, she did n't 
 care. 
 
 Now, in the middle of a group which included 
 Irene Burke and Jack Racer sitting lazily in 
 the end of a pew, Anna was in high spirits, 
 commenting on everything that went on, and 
 
MOTHER OF DISCORD 215 
 freely on the essays that were taking place at 
 the cabinet organ, 
 
 Lucy was seated by Mrs. Stivers, who was 
 taking in the neck of Mordecai's robe of woe, 
 to meet the slender demands of Will Triplow's 
 neck ; even here she did not escape the pro- 
 fessor's searching glance. 
 "■ We are not through with our gentle friends 
 yet," he said in a manner which if not arch 
 failed in its intention. " Our nest is full of 
 song-birds this year," expending on Lucy his 
 most winning glance. " And not one shy 
 warbler shall escape," he continued, directing 
 his words to her more expressly. 
 "Come, Miss Lucy. No hiding behind our 
 wife's skirts. Our eyes are sharp and our ears 
 are quick to hear the sound of music in a 
 maiden's voice," he persisted, in a style formed 
 on his familiarity with the language of the 
 Cantata. 
 
 Professor Stivers's speech did not fail to arrest 
 the attention of the room. The girls ceased 
 
2i6 JACK RACER 
 
 talking. Jack Racer moved uneasily in his 
 seat. 
 
 " Make him stop ! Oh, do make him stop ! " 
 Lucy whispered to Mrs. Stivers. " I can't bear 
 to have him talk and look at me that way." 
 " Make him stop ? " said Mrs. Stivers, in a be- 
 wildered way, not knowing how to receive the 
 inference of authority on her part. 
 "Yes. Everybody's looking. Tell him to 
 hush." 
 
 " Tell him to hush ? " murmured Mrs. Stivers. 
 " Yes, quick ! Tell him to shut up ! " insisted 
 poor Lucy. 
 
 " Oh, but you must go. You must go when 
 bespeaks. He '11 stop then." 
 At length, under all this distressing attention, 
 Lucy went blushing down the aisle. 
 " Alleluia ! We have won her ! " cried the 
 professor in high glee, circling his hand in 
 the air as he had taught his chorus to do in 
 the grand march, and as Lucy passed around 
 the cabinet organ he put his arm around her 
 
MOTHER OF DISCORD 217 
 
 waist in his semi-parental and professional 
 manner. 
 
 " Impudent puppy ! " Jack muttered, and 
 springing from his seat, walked over to a small 
 footstool and kicked it viciously. Then he 
 went outdoors, where his foot recorded in vio- 
 lent twinges the excess of his rage. 
 "So help me, how I hate music," he said, as 
 he walked rapidly down the street, until the 
 sweet sounds that came floating through the 
 church windows could no longer be heard. 
 Irene Burke was not unconscious of the cause 
 of Jack's sudden flight. For some time she 
 had understood that young gentleman's moods 
 and vagaries, spasmodic devotion and coldness, 
 more clearly than he admitted to himself. She 
 knew perfectly well her own power over him, 
 and how to exercise it. She knew why at 
 times he yielded so willingly and again why he 
 resisted. She looked now at Anna's clouding 
 brow. 
 For the first time Anna Ross felt doubtful of 
 
2i8 JACK RACER 
 
 the easy success of her plans. Lucy had fin- 
 ished, and the professor, patting her on the 
 shoulder as she hastily moved away, exclaimed 
 unctuously : 
 
 " We will see, ah ! we will see. This voice 
 needs a little strengthening here, a little urging 
 there, but the jewel is in the casket, the bird 
 is in the cage. Shall we let it out, shall we 
 allow it to try its wings ? Ah, that is the 
 question." 
 
 " Lucy has n't much voice, but she would look 
 the part." Irene turned to Anna. 
 " It is n't that at all. Professor Stivers wants 
 her. He knows very well that my voice is a 
 thousand times better. But he wants her." 
 Lucy had gone back to her seat and the pro- 
 fessor stood looking after her. 
 As Anna said, he wanted her. There would 
 be a satisfaction in training this shy young 
 thing that he could not hope to find with Miss 
 Ross, who very likely would undertake to train 
 him. 
 
MOTHER OF DISCORD 219 
 "• He does not know her position at Camp- 
 bells'," suggested Irene. 
 
 " Well, we all wash, iron, and cook, except 
 you." 
 
 " But we don't take money for it. That makes 
 all the difference in the world between a lady 
 and a hired girl." 
 
 Anna did not answer, but stood in moody si- 
 lence. 
 
 "Professor," called Irene, with an imperative 
 nod of the head, such as is not unbecoming a 
 pretty woman. 
 
 ••'My spouse calls, I must obey," cried the pro- 
 fessor gallantly appearing before her with a 
 low salaam. 
 
 " Really, we ought to get to work. I am fright- 
 ened already," she said, with a becoming little 
 shiyer. 
 
 " What, the haughty Zeresh knoweth fear ? " 
 throwing up his hands in eloquent appeal to 
 heayen to sustain his incredulity. 
 " I suppose," said Anna, " when you 've been 
 
220 JACK RACER 
 
 through all the kitchens and stahleyards you'll 
 be ready to go on." 
 
 The professor understood nothing more than 
 that his hour had apparently come. 
 "Oh, Haman and Esther is only another ver- 
 sion of King Cophetua and the beggar maid," 
 laughed Irene. " Miss Ross is alluding to your 
 last candidate." 
 The professor rallied. 
 
 " Really, that little lady has quite a good voice. 
 I consider it particularly. Miss Burke, because 
 it would blend so admirably with your rich alto 
 in that elegant quartette, 'What shall be done 
 with the man whom the king delighteth to hon- 
 or ? ' I have to think of the ensemble^ as every 
 man must do that gives up his life to his art." 
 The professor congratulated himself that this 
 was a very neat way to clinch his determina- 
 tion, which was now clearly formed. But the 
 professor did not estimate rightly the resources 
 of women who also have their minds clearly 
 formed. Irene felt her domination threatened 
 
MOTHER OF DISCORD 221 
 
 in two directions. The professor's view of his 
 art had not deceived her. 
 
 " Well, you see Lucy is n't exactly one of us, 
 and it seems sort of funny, if you want the 
 Cantata to go off with eclat^ to give her one 
 of the best parts." 
 
 " You grieve me, really," said the professor, 
 more determined than before. " She seems 
 very decent behaved." 
 Anna laughed contemptuously. 
 " Irene talks too fine for you. Professor. She 
 only means Lucy is a hired girl, and Miss 
 Burke is n't accustomed to singing with peo- 
 ple who wash dishes for a living." 
 " Stop that ! " said a quick, rough voice behind 
 them, where Jack Racer stood with Will Trip- 
 low. "Fine womanly sort of talk ! But don't 
 let us have any more of it." 
 " Indeed, Jack, it was n't I. It was Anna," 
 said Irene hastily, crimsoning under Jack's 
 rebuke. 
 " You lie, Irene Burke ! " And Anna, at bay. 
 
222 JACK RACER 
 
 Jack 's blazing eyes confronting her, raised her 
 hand and brought it down in a resounding slap 
 on Irene's cheek. 
 
 The significant sound called the attention of 
 the entire room. The sudden silence became 
 appalling. The tears rolled down Irene's 
 cheeks. Jack was stony, but the sympathetic 
 glance of the professor met her eye, and she 
 laid her head like a child on his shoulder and 
 sobbed away. 
 
 Still no one spoke, until Will Triplow heroic- 
 ally cast himself into the yawning gulf of 
 silence. 
 
 " Ahem ! Don't you think we are going to 
 have rain. Professor ? As I came in just now 
 I thought I saw clouds in the sky." 
 Jack turned on his heel, with a short, brutal 
 laugh, that caused Will to gaze with wonder- 
 ing reproach after him, as he moved away. 
 But Will's honest endeavor had performed its 
 mission. The silence was broken and the noise 
 of many voices arose, discussing the situation. 
 
MOTHER OF DISCORD 223 
 Jack Racer walked down the aisle to where 
 Lucy and Mrs. Stivers sat. 
 " Why is Miss Burke crying on my husband's 
 shoulder ? " 
 
 Mrs. Stivers asked, not because she thought 
 of objecting to Miss Burke's crying on her 
 husband's shoulder, but onlv stating it as a part 
 of the fact, and with that insistence on details 
 which some people observe. 
 "Oh, some woman's row. It will soon blow 
 over." 
 
 "Lucy," said he, " I met Billy Campbell just 
 now, and he told me that his cousin Sarah 
 Jackson and three other cousins have come 
 over from Lima, and Aunt Kiz said she did n't 
 know what she would give them to eat. So 
 I've brought the news to you, for I fancied 
 Aunt Kiz wanted you." 
 
 " Oh, poor Aunt Kiz, she is all alone. Aunt 
 Sally is laid up with her jaw. I '11 go right 
 away. I 've been gone so long," she added re- 
 proachfully, gathering up her needles and thread. 
 
224 JACK RACER 
 
 Jack felt satisfied, but not wholly satisfied. 
 He meant to see her safely out of the door, 
 at least. 
 
 " Lucy," he said, as they walked to the door, 
 "you don't care about this thing — the Can- 
 tata — do you ? " 
 
 " Why, no. I only fill in. I thought I 'd help 
 that poor Mrs. Stivers, she has such a lot to 
 do." 
 
 "I wish you'd help me. You see, I've let 
 Aunt George in for a lot of work. I 've prom- 
 ised she shall make the colored paper rosettes 
 to trim the church, and I know she depends 
 on you to help her. I can't bear to have her 
 disappointed, because she seems to have taken 
 a sort of fancy to you." 
 "Jack, she's been so kind." 
 " But, you see, if you help her you can't be at 
 rehearsals." 
 
 " I don't care. I'll be glad to get out of it." 
 " Then I know she has been rather depending 
 on you to go to the performance with her. 
 
MOTHER OF DISCORD 225 
 
 Log chains and oxen would n't get Uncle 
 George there, and of course I have to be 
 snuffing candles and turning down smoking 
 lamps all evening." Jack laughed in an un- 
 naturally hilarious manner. 
 '^ How nice of your aunt to think of me ! Of 
 course I '11 only be too glad to go." 
 " Then good-by. It 's all settled.' 
 " Yes. Good-by." 
 
 " Geewhillikins, won't I have to manage Aunt 
 George about those rosettes ! " said Mr. Racer 
 to himself, as he ceased from watching a blithe 
 step around the corner. 
 
 15 
 
CHAPTER SIXTEEN 
 
XVI 
 
 A Situation More Perilous Than it Seems 
 
 I H E performance of the Cantata 
 surpassed expectations. Noth- 
 '''^ ing that compared with it had 
 ever before been seen in Pckin. 
 The little disturbance that for 
 a time threatened the harmony of the occasion 
 was easily allayed by giving Anna Ross the part 
 of Esther. To this, after Lucy's withdrawal, 
 the professor had no objections. 
 Now that Anna had gained her end, the tem- 
 porary check to her plans and some shame at 
 her exhibition of temper,made her quite charm- 
 ing. She gracefullvconsented to speak first to 
 Irene, a thing which from childhood she had 
 vowed never to do, and her degree of amiability 
 must be estimated from her previous standpoint 
 on the etiquette of making up. 
 
230 JACK RACER 
 
 During the rest of the rehearsals the two girls 
 were ever seen with their arms around one an- 
 other's waists. As Esther, Anna now showed 
 a chastened demeanor that accorded well with 
 the character,and might easily have been taken 
 for acting. 
 
 Anna had a conscious feeling that she was not 
 quite herself, and enjoyed the sensation. In 
 truth, all the performers began to suspect in 
 themselves newly awakening talent that only 
 needed exercise and encouragement to bring 
 fame within easy reach. Such belief in pos- 
 sibilities contained for them greater sources of 
 comfort than anyfulfilment can ever hold, since 
 all chances of failure have first been eliminated. 
 The Cantata was given several times. Many 
 people came even from Sparta, where there 
 is an opera house in the Palace Block, which, 
 being attached to the Indianapolis amusement 
 circuit, was in the track of performances on the 
 road. 
 This was an honor that no one had anticipated 
 
A PERILOUS SITUATION 231 
 
 and set the final seal of approval on the per- 
 formances at Pekin. 
 
 The delights of wearing false clothes had not 
 been exaggerated by Miss Dyer. Charades 
 were revived and flourished as never before, 
 until an ambitious attempt to get up a charade, 
 published with stage instructions in the Lady's 
 Book, was begun. 
 
 In the professional '■^asides" " exits," and mys- 
 terious initals, some discriminating souls found 
 sources of danger that did not exist in the go- 
 as-you-please charades to which Pekin society 
 was accustomed, and the town was soon in- 
 volved in a new discussion of niorals. That 
 they were not wholly wrong was seen in the 
 fact that occasional barnstormers now came 
 to Pekin and found audiences respectable in 
 size, which listened to them with cold and 
 critical expressions of approval and disapproval. 
 Jack Racer had resumed his daily journeys to 
 Sparta after the quarrel of the girls, keeping 
 out of the wav with that discretion which many 
 
232 JACK RACER 
 
 a man has learned before Mr. Racer, and which 
 all men find easy to practise. 
 But Jack did not fail to be on hand when his 
 services were needed. On the evening of the 
 performance his zeal for the lamps, his manage- 
 ment of windows, his gallantry in piloting ma- 
 trons up the crowded aisles, in tucking away 
 children, his cleverness in finding seats for late 
 comers, his ready tongue and ready smiles, per- 
 formed valuable service in keeping the house 
 in good humor until the usual vicissitudes on 
 the stage finally allowed the curtain to go up. 
 After the Cantata was over, it really seemed 
 that Jack Racer had, as it were, carried the 
 whole performance on his shoulders. Cer- 
 tainly, his share in the success was out of all 
 proportion to that of those who had borne the 
 heat and burden of theoccasion,and especially to 
 that of Will Triplow,who had nearly smothered 
 under the weight of Mordecai's neckcloth. 
 Irene Burke kept up her lessons atSparta and,as 
 usual, came home with Jack in the cars, or be- 
 
A PERILOUS SITUATION 233 
 hind Fancy. But at Pekin Jack's absence had 
 left the professor an easy field. 
 One warm afternoon shortly after the perform- 
 ance,as Irene came bythe Palace Block she saw 
 Jack coming out of the court-house door. Lin- 
 gering, ostensibly to inspect the festooned rib- 
 bons, chains of collars, and boxes of ruchingand 
 other feminine gear in the broad and imposing 
 windows of the " New York Store," in order 
 that Jack might see and overtake her, she saw 
 him joined by a group of lawyers, each of whom 
 shook hands with him amid a general air of 
 good fellowship. 
 
 When released. Jack hurried across the street. 
 There was a smile on his face and less of his 
 usual alertness of manner. Evidently he did 
 not see her. Irene watched him with some 
 curiosity as he came toward her, and felt a cer- 
 tain and unusual remoteness. 
 "Jack!" She placed herself in his path. "Come 
 down from the clouds." 
 "You, Rene.?" the smile flitting. "Clouds.? 
 
234 JACK RACER 
 
 No." 
 
 " It is Thursday." 
 
 " Sure enough. I was n't thinking of it by that 
 name. I suppose you are ready to go home." 
 "Yes, I hurried. Have you Fancy .'' I want 
 you to take me the old road." 
 They went silently to the shed where Fancy 
 was stalled, and Jack handed her into the buggy. 
 "Jack," she asked, "what was all that hand- 
 shaking about in the court-house yard ? " 
 " Congratulations," he answered briefly, snap- 
 ping the purple blossoms from the dusty iron- 
 weed. 
 
 "On what ? " 
 
 " On my having swallowed a certain amount 
 of law without perceptible injury." 
 " Is that what you 've been coming to Sparta 
 for? " She looked at him as if prompted by 
 a sudden thought. 
 Jack nodded. 
 
 " You have kept your secret well," she said, 
 with some bitterness. 
 
A PERILOUS SITUATION 235 
 
 " You would n't want mc to advertise probable 
 
 failure or possible collapse ? " 
 
 " Oh, you '11 never fail. You '11 always get 
 
 what you want." Irene looked away. 
 
 "I hope so, for I'm conscious of several 
 
 wants." 
 
 " Have you had them long ? " She turned again. 
 
 "They 're young still, but they 're growing," 
 
 throwing up his head joyfully. 
 
 "Jack, Professor Stivers thinks I 'm foolish to 
 
 give lessons," she said, after a time. 
 
 " What does he suggest ? Cantatas ? Your 
 
 Zeresh to his Haman ? " 
 
 " What do you think of it ? " 
 
 " The question is what do you think of it — 
 
 of how much you can stand." Jack, who was 
 
 bending over, his arms on his knees, turned and 
 
 looked up into her face. 
 
 " It would be easier than hammering music 
 
 into louts of children. Besides, Jack, it might 
 
 be a stepping-stone." 
 
 " Oh, I don't care a fig for your cold-blooded 
 
236 JACK RACER 
 
 arguments. Your instincts ought to be suffi- 
 cient." 
 
 " My instincts ! What have they got to do with 
 it ? " 
 
 " That can't be argued. If you don't feel the 
 truth of what I say, all my newly-acquired right 
 to plead can't convince you." 
 Irene bent forward. Beneath his gaze were 
 her beautiful eves, her full, rosy lips. She laid 
 her hand on his arm. 
 "Try, Jack." 
 Jack raised his head. 
 
 " You 'II soil your glove. My arm is covered 
 with dust." Their eyes met, and Jack's serene 
 face left Irene with a cold, sickening sense of 
 failure. 
 
 As Jack turned away, pretending some need 
 of Fancy's, the blood crept into his face. He 
 felt as if he had been using a dagger and shrank 
 guiltily from the sight of the wound. 
 But Irene mistook his manner and her courage 
 revived. 
 
A PERILOUS SITUATION 237 
 " Jack, you did n't approve of the professor's 
 devotion to us girls." She laughed lightly. 
 " It did n't seem to be so much a question of 
 morals as of taste." 
 " Oh, you 're a man." 
 " Yes, at last," he said, as if to himself. 
 Irene turned and gave him a quick look, but 
 Jack was dislodging a horsefly from Fancy's 
 flank. She sank back again into her seat, and 
 a look of determination brought out unsus- 
 pected lines about her pleasure-loving mouth. 
 " Jack, what is the matter with you ? Are you 
 jealous of the professor ? " 
 Jack laughed a low laugh. 
 " By Heaven, you do him too much honor." 
 " You are very arrogant. The girls all wanted 
 his notice." 
 
 " How could that concern me? " 
 Irene bit her lips, and impotent tears rushed to 
 her eyes. 
 
 " It was you who got Lucy to withdraw," she 
 said, making blindly for her fate. 
 
238 JACK RACER 
 
 "Yes." 
 « Why ? " 
 
 " Because," Jack sat up once more and looked 
 at her. " Because I did n't mean she should 
 stand the insolence of you girls, or be pawed 
 over by that greasy Stivers." 
 " If you are so awfully careful of her, I sup- 
 pose you mean to marry her ? " 
 " I think too much of her for that," Jack an- 
 swered, leaning again on his knees. 
 Irene began to cry silently. Jack did not look 
 up. He heard no sound, but he felt her silence 
 was being employed in that way. It was not 
 a comfortable position. Jack had a shivering 
 dread of tears but none of the impatience at their 
 gentle flow that is supposed to be a characteris- 
 tic of his sex. 
 
 Bent over, he could almost realize their soft 
 patter on his back. He wished she would n't, 
 but his ear was alert to catch the faintest sob, 
 although he knew it would oblige him to take 
 more obvious notice of their fall. 
 
A PERILOUS SITUATION 239 
 He felt her grope for her pocket, and knew why 
 she required her handkerchief. It seemed to 
 mark a stage in her grief. He felt like a 
 hypocrite, and called himself a spy, scorn- 
 ing the ridiculous thought that he was spy- 
 ing with his ears. They caught a hasty 
 swallow, a significant sound in Irene's 
 throat. 
 
 " You made me say it, Irene. I never admitted 
 as much to myself before. But I 've said it. 
 It stands." 
 
 Irene's silent tears broke into low sobs. Jack 
 could stand it no longer. He turned to her 
 tenderly. 
 
 " Don't cry, Irene. The — the occasion is n't 
 worth a tear," he said modestly. 
 She did not answer, but put up her hands to 
 screen her face. 
 
 Jack drew them gently down. The quivering 
 mouth, the teardrops hanging from her long 
 lashes, her brilliant eyes shining through their 
 veil of tears, gave Irene a more entrancing 
 
240 JACK RACER 
 
 beautv than she had ever possessed in her more 
 confident moods. 
 
 Jack realized this as in a swift vision, but it left 
 him unmoved. As he stroked softly her im- 
 prisoned hands, Irene's head fell on his shoulder 
 and she broke into violent vi^eeping. 
 He took up her handkerchief, now moist with 
 tears, and laid it reverently down. He then 
 drew out his own and tenderly dried her eyes. 
 Irene submitted for a moment to his soothing 
 touch. Then the scarcely perceptible fra- 
 grance of Jack's handkerchief recalled associa- 
 tions, and a wave of emotion swept over her. 
 She snatched the handkerchief from his hand 
 and pressed it violently to her lips. Jack raised 
 his hand in deprecation, the blood rushed to his 
 face and he blushed like a girl. 
 They were approaching the cross-roads, the 
 sparse wood half screening, but only half 
 screening them. As they turned. Fancy tak- 
 ing her own gait, some people with curious eyes 
 drove by them in a buggy from the Lima road. 
 
A PERILOUS SITUATION 241 
 
 " Who was that, Jack ? Did they sec mc cry- 
 ing ? " 
 
 " It was Jimmy Bergan's rig." 
 " It was Samantha Dyer's bonnet," added 
 Irene. " Let us hurry, Jack. I want to send 
 a letter on the five-forty-nine." 
 Jack took up his lines and with no more words 
 they sped into Pekin. 
 
 16 
 
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 
 
XVII 
 
 The Squire Plans a Campaign and a Career 
 
 |HE news that Jack Racer had 
 been admitted to the bar shook 
 Pekin to its centre. It was wholly 
 outside of the probabilities. It 
 was well known that Jack Racer 
 cared onl)- for his pleasures and was incapable 
 of persistence. Yet no one could count read- 
 ing law a pleasure, and it appeared that he had 
 been " at it " some time. This last fact,indeed, 
 evokedsome resentment, for no one had known 
 it, although Jack's comings and goings were 
 matters of common repute. 
 Punning was not disdained at Pekin, so that 
 there was scarcely a household in which some 
 one had not remarked : "To the bar ? Yes, at 
 the Home Circle," alluding to the well-known 
 
246 JACK RACER 
 
 saloon in the Palace Block. But as incre- 
 dulity was forced finally to give way to belief, 
 the news became truly marvellous and excluded 
 all other topics of discussion. 
 Even Squire George found it difficult to rec- 
 oncile with his previous knowledge of Jack's 
 character. He was fond of the boy ; for one 
 reason, he was a favorite sister's child. But 
 also because Jack possessed some winning 
 traits that had surely found a way to the legal 
 heart. But he had long since ceased to expect 
 anything serious of his nephew. 
 Since Jack had told him the evening before, he 
 had thought a good deal about it, and before 
 morning had carried his nephew in his mind 
 through a long and highly prosperous career. 
 This morning he felt so committed to it that 
 he was impatient of delay,and now after break- 
 fast he ascended the light outside stairs to Jack's 
 den, a place he rarely frequented, being averse 
 to stairs and particularly to the frail structure 
 which easily bore Jack's slim figure. 
 
THE SQUIRE 247 
 
 He had not consulted with himself as to how 
 he should introduce Jack to the future he had 
 arranged for him with such affectionate care, 
 and now felt somewhat appalled at the pros- 
 pect. If Squire George had not been such a 
 large man, and the stairs had not given such 
 warning creaks in his ascent, probably he would 
 have turned and incontinently fled. But this 
 everything rendered impossible, and fortifying 
 himsel f with fresh courage, he entered the room . 
 " Good ! " Jack exclaimed, sweeping off the 
 papers from an easy chair. " Sit down. Uncle. 
 You don't often visit me." 
 Squire George sat down in the chair. 
 " Pretty comfortable," he said, looking around 
 him, and adjusting himself. "We don't seem 
 to have anything in the house that fits a man 
 as well as this. Jack, you know how to keep 
 things pretty well cushioned," he said, falling 
 into his old view of his nephew's character. 
 " Yes, sir. I try to make it as easy for my- 
 self as I can." 
 
248 JACK RACER 
 
 Squire George cast a glance about the room. 
 It did not appear to be that pi' a man who 
 burned the midnight oil, except to get him to 
 bed. There were certainly no evidences that 
 even a comparatively serious law student was 
 its inmate. After this scrutiny he picked up 
 a paper and became apparently engrossed in its 
 contents. 
 
 Jack left him to his reading and moved around 
 the room, putting away "his things " like a girl. 
 Over the top of the paper his uncle's eyes fol- 
 lowed him. Jack was not unconscious of this 
 scrutiny, and partially divined his uncle's state of 
 mind. With some mischief he turned suddenly 
 now and then toward him, when Squire George 
 as suddenly resumed his reading with great zeal. 
 As Jack stopped for a moment to finger over 
 a bowl of late roses, his uncle threw down the 
 paper. 
 
 " Jack, your aunt was palavering so at the break- 
 fast table, I did n't say much. I'm free to con- 
 fess I did n't think it was in you." 
 
THE SQUIRE 249 
 
 Jack turned, leaning on his bureau. 
 
 '• Thanks, Uncle. I 'm trying to think you 've 
 
 complimented me, and, true to my instincts, I 
 
 appropriate it. But frankness for frankness, 
 
 I was n't sure of myself." 
 
 " I suppose you have some sort of plans for the 
 
 future in your head ? "the squire ventured, with 
 
 a timidity comical to the young man, if he had 
 
 not been touched by it. " Of course, I don't 
 
 want to bother you, or hurry you — " 
 
 " Yes," said Jack, dropping into a chair. " But 
 
 have a cigar. Uncle." He sprang up and handed 
 
 a box to choose from, drawing up a table with 
 
 some luxurious bronze equipments. The squire 
 
 chose his cigar with care and surveyed Jack's 
 
 conveniences with hesitation, then used them 
 
 with lingering curiosity. 
 
 " 'Pon my word. Jack, you do make yourself 
 
 pretty comfortable. Do you get these cigars 
 
 from Limecooly ? " 
 
 " Prime, ain't they ? Sam gets them for me 
 
 at St. Louis." 
 
250 JACK RACER 
 
 The squire leaned back in his chair puffing his 
 cigar leisurely, and Jack pushed a foot-rest un- 
 der his feet. 
 
 " Jack, this is lamentable," the squire suddenly 
 said, after enjoying for a moment his position. 
 " If you go on like this you '11 never need a 
 wife. That 's bad — bad." 
 Jack laughed lazily. 
 
 " That is n't mv view, sir, I 'm not such a 
 selfish brute. I 'd like to share things." 
 " O Lord, this is all woman's business," push- 
 ing away the stool with his foot, and then 
 recalling it with both feet. "If you take it 
 away from 'em you '11 ruin the profession of 
 wives." 
 
 " Oh, I see. You take a disinterested view, 
 also." 
 
 " Yes, we 've got to have an excuse for them, 
 poor things, or how 'd they ever get married ? " 
 " Sure enough, Uncle. I see my duty." Jack 
 threw himself on the lounge and retired his face 
 behind a cloud of smoke. 
 
THE SOUIRE 251 
 
 "That's right. Don't shirk your responsi- 
 bilities. Women are kittle cattle, but they 're 
 worth their keep. That recalls me, what did 
 you say your plans were. Jack, for I take it you 
 have n't been digging for nothing ? " 
 " They 're not very definite." Jack straight- 
 ened himself. " But having got a lot of law 
 into me, I suppose the next thing is to find an 
 excuse for getting it out, as luckily as I can. 
 Judge Bowen said if nothing better offered he 'd 
 take me in at Sparta." 
 
 " A country lawyer has pretty poor pickings. 
 Like as not you 'd have to take your fees in 
 apples or potatoes." 
 
 " Uncle, you seem to have made a tidy thing 
 out of it." 
 
 " Indirectly, yes. Law has one advantage. 
 It aflx)rds you a pretty good idea of your neigh- 
 bor's affairs, and if you combine it judiciously 
 with business you can sometimes turn his mis- 
 fortunes that are inevitable into your probable 
 good. I 've made lucky investments in that 
 
252 JACK RACER 
 
 way. But, Jack, you haven't the necessary tem- 
 peramental hang for that sort of thing." 
 " I don't believe I have. The only hold the 
 law has over me is a different sort. Now I can 
 conceive of an unholy zeal in provingthat black 
 is white, but the recompense of the reward 
 does n't seem to stir me greatly. But," Jack 
 laughed, " I suppose I 'd acquire nerve for my 
 bills." 
 
 "The worst of it is," said the squire, helping 
 himself to another cigar," the material we have 
 to work with is so damned uninteresting." 
 " The crimes are not engaging ? " queried 
 Jack. 
 
 " And no audience. No, Jack, you 'd waste 
 a lifetime. Law is all very well, but make it 
 a stepping-stone. Combine it with something 
 else — politics, for example." 
 " Politics ! " cried Jack, with an accent of dis- 
 gust. 
 
 " Oh, you 've got the cut, young man. Don't 
 fly in the face of nature." 
 
THE SQUIRE 253 
 
 " Do I look like a fellow to loaf around the 
 
 doors of the county offices ? " 
 
 " That 's a low view of the situation. When 
 
 you are member for this district, or nominated 
 
 forgovernor, you won't hold the means in such 
 
 scorn." 
 
 " Oh, I 'm to fly high, am I ? " 
 
 " I have n't thought of you as a fellow to fly 
 
 low ! But you 've got to begin somewhere. 
 
 Take the first thing that offers. The main 
 
 thing is to get people in the habit of voting for 
 
 you. They '11 keep it up, whether it 's for 
 
 governor or coroner. I know a dozen men 
 
 that are always on the ticket." 
 
 " And you 'd like me to be the thirteenth .? " 
 
 Jack was resting his head on his hands, his 
 
 elbows on his knees. He lifted his eyes to his 
 
 uncle's face. 
 
 " I know all you 'd say and perhaps I 'd agree 
 
 with you. But if you are the thirteenth, you 
 
 are also the exception. I don't fancy you '11 
 
 have to go shinning around forwhatyou want." 
 
254 JACK RACER 
 
 " Go on, Uncle. I rather like talking about 
 myself when I 'm once at it." 
 "You sec, Jack, things always come easy for 
 you." 
 
 "That's encouraging, but I 've been thinking 
 differently." 
 
 " Yes, they do, particularly things that depend 
 on other people. That 's why I want you to 
 go into politics. If it was a question of your 
 own doings, that would be another thing." 
 " 'Pon my word. Uncle ! You temper what 
 you have to say pretty well," Jack said, with 
 a comical grin. 
 
 " With you, Jack, it 's a question of being rather 
 than doing, lucky dog. It 's natural for you to 
 fool with babies and palaver women — " 
 " Oh, if that 's all," said the young man. 
 "It is n't all. I've noticed, too, that you al- 
 ways have a lot of lieutenants. There 's 
 Limecooly, Amzi, and that singing fellow, 
 Triplow — I've seen you loafing on corners 
 by the hour — " 
 
THE SQUIRE 255 
 
 " Oh, Uncle ! " 
 
 u — ami never alone. Jake Durstine's nag 
 kicks himself out of his harness waiting for you 
 to finish your yarns. Now all that is material 
 which you might as well put to use." 
 " No convictions, norany of that sort of lumber 
 necessary ? " 
 
 " They '11 develop in time," said the squire, care- 
 fully knocking off the ashes from his cigar. 
 " But don't hurry. Let 'em ripen. They 're 
 more agreeable when they 're mellow." 
 "Then it's the business of politics you ad- 
 vise, instead of pressing hay or raising 
 stock." 
 
 " Precisely, and a business for which you have 
 some natural advantages." 
 His uncle paused for a reply, while Jack was 
 tying knots in a string as if that were after all 
 the most important thing. At last he spoke 
 slowly and reluctantly, — 
 " You see, Uncle, you put everything in a new 
 light, and I 've got to accustom my eyes. There 
 
256 JACK RACER 
 
 was sometliing more than law in my read- 
 ing law. A lot of things were mixed up 
 with it." 
 
 "Well?" said the squire, impatiently. 
 " It was a sort of test. If I succeeded in that 
 I might succeed in other things, that is, I 
 might be fit to succeed — " 
 The squire straightened himself in his chair. 
 "Jack, I don't understand in the least what 
 you 're talking about — succeeding and fit to 
 succeed — for God's sake don't drag sentiment 
 into this business." 
 
 Jack colored, but his facile expression readily 
 presented his usual careless face. 
 "Uncle, you discourage me. I'm not much 
 used to fooling with motives and I confess they 
 interested me." 
 
 Squire George shook his head mournfully. 
 "The long and short of it is. Uncle, having 
 learned my trade, I 'd like to follow it. I 've 
 a half an idea that if I can keep myself pegging 
 away for a year or so, I might build up a prac- 
 
THE SQUIRE 257 
 
 tice and, who knows, turn out a respectable 
 member of society." 
 " Of Pekin ? You 'd die of dry rot." 
 " I had n't come down to particulars. But why 
 not ? " 
 
 The squire saw the pleasing fabric he had built 
 during the night falling before his eyes. Jack, 
 a one-horse country lawyer, a little white office, 
 a cannon stove, boxes filled with sawdust, 
 shambling farmers wanting papers drawn up, 
 a little pettifogging over at the Sparta court- 
 house. The tears almost reached his eyes, for 
 his disappointment was from the heart and 
 very great. 
 
 " Jack, Hsten. I never had a child of my own. 
 When you were a little fellow, if you had been 
 mine I could not have loved you better. I com- 
 forted myself for some other things in a good 
 many silly dreams about you in those days." 
 There was a quavering note in thesquire's voice 
 that Jack never remembered to have heard be- 
 fore. " But you did n't show much disposition 
 17 
 
258 JACK RACER 
 
 to go my way, and you '11 admit, Jack, I never 
 attempted to constrain you." 
 " And you cared, Uncle ? " Jack dropped his 
 string and sprang to his feet. 
 *' Cared, boy ? " The squire smiled sadly. 
 " But a man gets used to seeing his illusions 
 fade. I 've reached the point where I say to 
 myself, ' I told you so,' with a mournful laugh. 
 Jack, you were one of my illusions." 
 Jack paced the room softly to and fro, stopping 
 now and then to gaze vacantly over the Widow 
 Mallon's chimneys opposite. 
 The squire continued : 
 
 " After a while I stopped creeping to vour bed- 
 side to see if you had been drinking, and went 
 to sleep myself like a baby, leaving the front 
 door unlocked." He gave a perfunctory laugh. 
 " But last night after you told me of this new — " 
 even now the squire could think of no other word 
 than caprice — " this caprice of yours, the mag- 
 got got into my brain again and I had no sleep 
 until morning. By Zux, I thought those old 
 
THE SQUIRE 259 
 
 hopes were all dead, Jack, and here they are 
 alive and kicking." The squire looked wist- 
 fully at his nephew. 
 
 Jack came from the window and stood before 
 his uncle. 
 
 " Why did n't you let me know all this when I 
 wasa little fellow — that you cared, I mean ? " 
 There was a suspicious tugging at his throat. 
 " I always thought Mother's death thrust me 
 under your roof. I used to envy Sam Lime- 
 cooly because his mother whipped him, for she 
 coddled him afterward. I thought whipping 
 and coddling went together. I got neither. 
 Uncle, if you had spanked me I would have 
 known you loved me." 
 
 They each gave a precarious laugh and fell into 
 silence. Jack still standing before his uncle with 
 abstracted gaze at his locked hands, and his 
 uncle with his chin on his breast. 
 At last Jack spoke in a low voice. 
 " What do you want me to do, Uncle ? " 
 *' I don't want to force your inclinations. Jack." 
 
26o JACK RACER 
 
 " Never mind that. I 'm willing to start out 
 under your flag." 
 " D' ye mean it ? " 
 Jack nodded. 
 
 The squire straightened himself in his chair, 
 his eye alert, his voice assured, and his tender 
 memories gone like a flight of birds. 
 " Look here. Jack. There are few ins and 
 outs of this business I don't know." 
 Jack laughed furtively at his uncle's change 
 of demeanor and tone. 
 
 " Sam Maginnis is going to give up the justice- 
 ship, to accept a position as deputy under 
 Knowles, if Knowles is elected. Sam need n't 
 wait. He can resign now. You shall be nomi- 
 nated to fill his term which ends in the spring. 
 Meanwhile you 've got into traces and have 
 pipes laid for something juicier. Let 's see, we 
 will call a primary and force the election at the 
 same tim.e of the state and county ticket." 
 " But is n't all this rather high-handed ? " 
 " Pooh ! " answered the squire. 
 
THE SQUIRE 261 
 
 " But suppose Knovvles is n't elected, where 's 
 Sam ? " 
 
 " Fortunes of war." 
 
 " But suppose Sam. foresees the fortunes of war 
 and won't resign ? " 
 
 " Knowles will make him. He '11 refuse him 
 the appointment if he does n't. Knowles 
 knows he 's as strong again if he has my in- 
 fluence, which he '11 have if you run. Knowles 
 knows which side of his bread 's buttered." 
 The squire rubbed his hands gleefully. 
 "Old Martin had hiseyes on that squire's office 
 for his shiftless son-in-law. But I haven 't 
 forgotten how he euchered me out of that 
 judgment in the Longacre case. Turn about, 
 
 old man, turn about." 
 
 Jack was still thinking of Maginnis. 
 
 " How many kids has that man ? " 
 
 " What man f " 
 
 "Sam." 
 
 "1 never counted them. They can't vote." 
 
 " His salary stops, of course, if he resigns." 
 
262 JACK RACER 
 
 '•'Salary ! " exclaimed the squire in some dis- 
 gust. " He has his fees."' 
 " Same thing, whatever he lives on." 
 The squire eyed his nephew with distrust. 
 " Look here, Jack, don't make a mistake in the 
 beginning by thinking of the other fellow. In 
 politics it 's Number One." 
 
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 
 
XVIII 
 
 Pekin Ladies Awake to an Interest in Politics 
 
 'ACK had accepted his uncle's prop- 
 osition in good faith, but he felt as 
 if he had on cap and bells at a mas- 
 querade. Notwithstanding, he kept 
 a sober front and endeavored to at- 
 tune himself to his new part. The offensive 
 white hat was laid aside as unbehtting the sea- 
 son. But the purchase of a slouch hat, the 
 common head-covering of the male inhabit- 
 ants of that part of the country, instead of a 
 smart Derby, showed Jack's dawning appre- 
 ciation of the arts of the politician, and that the 
 campaign was to be serious. 
 Sam Maginnis had promptly resigned, as the 
 squire predicted, although with many inward 
 misgivings. But these were allayed after a 
 private interview with Jack, which had not been 
 
266 JACK RACER 
 
 considered by the squire as a necessary feature 
 of Jack's candidacy. 
 
 Notices had beenprintedannounciiigthat"John 
 Georp-e Racer offered himself to the citizens 
 of the town of Pekin for the nomination of 
 Justice of the Peace made vacant by the resig- 
 nation of Samuel Maginnis, Esq." There 
 were a few lines appended in which Mr. Racer 
 stated that his chief aim would be to serve the 
 citizens of Pekin to the best of his ability and 
 to deserve the confidence placed in him by their 
 suffrages, if elected. 
 
 The squire suggested some additional lines, and 
 Will Triplow composed some telling sentences 
 over its preparation in Jack's room, but Jack 
 insisted that the Pekin folks would see through 
 any attempt at palaver. 
 
 These notices were posted in all public places, 
 and adorned the most venerable trees in the 
 town. 
 
 The sensation they created surpassed even that 
 of the Cantata. All day long each notice had 
 
PEKIN LADIES 267 
 
 a rapidlydissolvinggroup of people,eachhurry- 
 ing away to carry the news. Xhe campaign 
 for the state and countv offices had been lan- 
 guid, but this gave them new zest. 
 The call for the primary was quite unnecessary, 
 but belonged to the squire's neatly conceived pro- 
 gramme. It was no part of his plan that Jack 
 should quietly ride into office through the gen- 
 eral elections, but that he should make a gal- 
 lant fight for it. Opposition was necessary in 
 the first place to throw him into prominence 
 politically, since the justiceship was not an ex- 
 alted position. It was even more necessary 
 to put the young man himself on his mettle, 
 for the squire well understood the grounds of 
 Jack's complaisance, and that his heart, wher- 
 ever it might be, was not set on the squire's 
 office. 
 
 Squire Martin, he knew, could be depended on 
 for the opposition. Squire Martin was his rival 
 at the bar — the euphemism employed at Pekin, 
 where law was less a profession than a busi- 
 
268 JACK RACER 
 
 ncss, being largely intermingled with advances 
 on hay and grain and the absorption of heavily 
 morto;aged acres. 
 
 lliere was much controversy in Pekin as to 
 which was the richer man. The Methodist 
 church held to Squire Martin, who was a pro- 
 minent member and its financial mainstay. But 
 the other denominations inclined to Squire 
 George, leaves from whose check book had 
 fluttered about in times of need. The decision 
 was of no real value, " the richest man in 
 town " being a sort of brevet-rank convenient 
 to use when speaking to strangers, and for that 
 reason highly esteemed in small towns like 
 Pekin. 
 
 Thus from every point of view it was inevi- 
 table that Squire Martin should furnish the op- 
 position. Accordingly another primary was 
 called, and the trees blossomed anew with candi- 
 dates. 
 
 Squire George was a man of too much dignity 
 and discrimination to use the methods of an 
 
PEKIN LADIES 269 
 
 ordinary village politician. The subjectcould 
 not be avoided. That would have been foolish, 
 since Jack was his nephew. Naturally he had 
 his interests at heart. But his procedure was 
 simple and casual. 
 
 He had a good deal to say about it, but in an 
 offhand way. This was not a party matter, 
 strictly. Town offices have no business to lie 
 in party lines. There are no national questions 
 involved. It is simply a question of the best 
 man for the place. His nephew Jack, he ad- 
 mitted, had n't distinguished himself as an up- 
 holder of law and order. But he had turned over 
 a new leaf, as anybody could see. He had just 
 finished a severe course of study at Sparta, and 
 as for mental equipment, he had the whole 
 digest at his finijers' ends. "What we want 
 now is young blood, the old party hacks are 
 going down hill, plaved out, sir. When 
 a young fellow of the ability of Jack shows 
 an inclination to go into politics, and to serve 
 his fellow townsmen, by George, he ought 
 
270 JACK RACER 
 
 to be encouraged, if he is my nephew, / say 
 
 it." 
 
 But Squire George's most effective work was 
 
 of another sort. Meeting Jennings Bierbohm, 
 
 after a lew considerate inquiries after Mrs. 
 
 Bierbohm and the children, and while Jennings 
 
 was waiting with cold chills down his spine 
 
 for the squire to present his bill for defending 
 
 the weights of his hay-press scales against the 
 
 charges of a Chicago firm, the squire casually 
 
 remarked : 
 
 " By the way, Jennings, I have n't sent in my 
 
 bill, for I heardyou werealittlepressedjust now. 
 
 Have you heard the news ? My nephew Jack's 
 
 in training for the justiceship ; if you can put 
 
 in a word for him, it won't be amiss." 
 
 And Jennings Bierbohm, becoming warm and 
 
 enthusiastic in his respite, and with the further 
 
 chance of the squire's gratitude showing itself in 
 
 his bill, hurried home and immediately addressed 
 
 his employees with much more directness and 
 
 explicitness than the squire employed. 
 
PEKIN LADIES 271 
 
 In his legal and business capacity Squire George 
 occupied various relations to different fellow- 
 citizens and these in one way or another were 
 brought into Jack's service. 
 A more subtle move even was the purchase of 
 a new carved pearl cardcase for his wife in 
 Chicago, which inspired Mrs. George togo out 
 calling, as in Pekin that peculiarly feminine 
 form of paying visits was known. As Mrs. 
 George rarely made visits, when she did it be- 
 came a personal compliment and was much 
 prized. At this moment she was eagerly wel- 
 comed, bringing, as it were, the latest news from 
 headquarters. 
 
 No one In Pekin was more earnestly and viva- 
 ciously interested in Jack's candidacy than the 
 female "sect," as Miss Dyer called her kind. 
 Thiswasnotduealone tothe interest that Jack's 
 movements always inspired, but to the fact that 
 the women in small towns of the west have a 
 lively concern in affairs of every sort. They 
 go to political gatherings with the same una- 
 
272 JACK RACER 
 
 nimitv that thev attend camp-meetings. Thev 
 crusade, as well as take part in tea-diinkings, 
 and have been known to show considerable 
 muscle and directness of aim in knocking in 
 whiskey and beer barrels. Thev speak in prayer- 
 meeting and exhort at revivals. They are nei- 
 ther afraid nor ashamed to go about town at 
 night ; nor to stand on the corners, if need be, 
 and talk to the men. This freedom of move- 
 ment only indicates that in the affairs of life, 
 except in such matters as voting, jury duty, 
 and holding office, they are much nearer on 
 planes of equality with men than women simi- 
 larly situated in the east. To assert that for 
 this reason they are less devoted or less worthv 
 in their purely feminine capacity than women 
 elsewhere, would be a statement that could be 
 made with greater freedom elsewhere. In 
 Pekin it would be bitterly resented by every 
 man in the place. 
 
 To Mrs. George had not been confided the 
 secrets of the campaign, but her nearness to the 
 
PEKIN LADIES 273 
 
 principal actor seemed to make her in a sense 
 a public character, and her vague and ami- 
 able allusions, for the subject was uppermost 
 in every house, were received with flattering 
 interest. After these visits even those ladies 
 of severer turn of mind, who had heard with 
 scorn of Jack Racer as an administrator of peace 
 and justice, were free to confess that hecould n't 
 go far wrong with such a polite and well-dressed 
 woman for his aunt. 
 
CHAPTER NINETEEN 
 
XIX 
 
 Jack Racer Wins the Nomination 
 
 HE interest in Jack Racer's pri- 
 mary, as it was called in defiance 
 of all the principles of democracy, 
 dwarfed all previous political gath- 
 erings. It was announced in con- 
 sequence that it would be held in the school- 
 house, instead of as usual in Reason Adsit's 
 shoe-shop. Squire Martin had exceeded Squire 
 George's expectations as leader of the opposi- 
 tion. Not only had he arranged for a primary 
 that should nominate his son-in-law, not car- 
 ing to pit him directly against Squire George's 
 combination, but he had stimulated Dobyns 
 Beesley,a crude young notary, to contest Jack's 
 popularity at his own primary, a piece of rash- 
 ness the youth would never have ventured on 
 unsupported. 
 
278 JACK RACER 
 
 Dobyns Beesley's candidacy had in turn sug- 
 gested to Abner Goby, an elderly man, that his 
 chance might lie between the two youths. All 
 this was more inspiring than the squire could 
 have hoped. Primaries were usually attended 
 in Pelcin by seven or eight men who arranged 
 things amicably as agreed. But this evening 
 the available friends of each man were present, 
 and the school-house was crowded. The women 
 had scurried through their dishes and were 
 grouped about the streets, or pacing up and down 
 bonnetless in the moonlight and mild air, A 
 fringe of small boys hung about the door, or 
 pressed theirnoses and cheeks againstthe school- 
 house windows. The town was alive with the 
 excitement. Even the Martin men hung about 
 with curious air, backed up against fences and 
 trees, hands in their pockets, discussing the 
 probabilities. 
 
 Inside, Will Triplow, Sam Limecooly, and 
 Amzi were promptly on hand, and Jake Dur- 
 stine, shaved and in his Sunday coat. 
 
WINS THE NOMINATION 279 
 
 " It ought to be against etiquette for a man to 
 come to his own funeral," said Jack, "easy and 
 impident," as was his wont. 
 There was a stir on his entrance. Men nudged 
 one another and poked fingers in their neigh- 
 bors' sides. Then a moment of suspense. 
 Whatever young Mr. Racer may have felt of 
 unworthiness or embarrassment at being the 
 cause of this assemblage of citizens it did not 
 appear. He still wore his conquering hero air, 
 and it sent a sickening thrill through Dobyns 
 Beesley, who now execrated himself at having 
 pitted his less showy person against a young man 
 to whom, as his uncle and Miss Burke truth- 
 fully said, " things seemed to come easy." 
 Jack sat down, not wisely, his uncle thought, 
 by Jake Durstine, and thev fell to telling stories, 
 laughing immoderately, as i f graver matters were 
 not imminent. Even Sam and Amzi, who were 
 prepared to stand by Jack to the last, felt some- 
 thing of the gravity of the occasion, while Will 
 Triplow was already popping up and down 
 
28o JACK RACER 
 
 among the audience, putting in, as he said, a 
 word in season. 
 
 But Jack's accustomed and light-hearted de- 
 meanor served him quite as well. Only the 
 invincible, it appeared, could be so indifferent. 
 " I suppose it 's the polite thing to shake hands 
 with my opponents," said Jack, rising. " I 've 
 never been here before, but that 's what Sullivan 
 did before he thrashed Tug Wilson at St. 
 Louis." 
 
 Jack shook himself and went with easy grace 
 across the room. 
 
 Dobyns's unwarranted aspirations had seemed 
 to Jack's friends the sort of insolence that 
 needed rebuke. It would have been quite with- 
 in the understanding of the rank and file if Jack 
 had refused to speak to Dobyns. In Pekin the 
 sight of opposing lawyers hobnobbing after 
 court hours at Sparta had always been a scandal 
 and a reflection on the morals of Sparta ; for if, 
 in the revision of the Scriptures prepared for the 
 American public, a Democrat or Republican 
 
WINS THE NOiMINATION 281 
 could have been substituted for the rich man, 
 in Pekin it would have thrown a flood of light 
 on the passage of the camel through the eye of 
 the needle, so strong was party feeling. 
 This explains the momentarv paralvsisof every 
 one in the room, as Jack advanced in friendly 
 fashion and took Dobyns's hand. 
 As for Dobvns himself, when Jack's cheerful 
 " Hillo, Dob ! " met his ear, he would have felt 
 more at ease if Jack had taken him by the col- 
 lar and propelled him with the toe of a polished 
 boot to the door. 
 
 But the amenities of politics thus introduced 
 were not fruitless. 
 
 If Dobyns had consulted his feelings he would 
 have delivered himself over to Jack then and 
 there, but he was aware that the occasion 
 merited some dignity. Instead, he straightened 
 himself and cleared his throat. 
 " Mr. Racer, we are not enemies, I hope." 
 " Bless your heart, no. I expect you to vote 
 for me." 
 
282 JACK RACER 
 
 Dobyns smiled faintly, still feeling that nothing 
 but a sense of duty could induce him to pro- 
 long the situation. 
 
 " Of course, we '11 go through this preliminary 
 fuss and feathers — balloting, you and I. But 
 — Dob, who persuaded you to throw your- 
 self into the breach like this? " 
 " Well, upwards of several people spoke to me. 
 I 've been qualifying myself with Squire Martin 
 and he thought it a good time — " 
 " You know he means to run his son-in-law. 
 However, I am very much obliged to him for 
 selecting to oppose me here a gentleman for 
 whom I have as much esteem as yourself, and 
 whichever way the tide turns we remain good 
 friends ? " Jack smiled graciously and extended 
 his hand asain. 
 
 A trained politician could not have accom- 
 plished more thoroughly Dobyns's demorali- 
 zation. He clutched Jack's hand. 
 " Jack, help me out of this," he said in a hoarse 
 and agonized whisper. " I don't want to run. 
 
WINS THE NOMINATION 283 
 If anybody puts me up, I 'II holler. Tell me 
 what to do." 
 
 " Dob, that 's scarcely my business. Consult 
 your friends, and then do as you please. That 
 is the best way to take advice. It 's a com- 
 pliment to me, you know, for you to run." 
 Reasoningof this sort was out of Dobyns's com- 
 prehension. Feeling more abject than ever, he 
 went hastily in search of some friendly adviser 
 on whom he could cast himself, and the young 
 politician passed on. 
 
 "Oh, is that you, Mr. Goby?" cried Jack, with 
 pleased surprise. He stopped before a group 
 of men in their shirtsleeves, with gray, stubbly 
 chins, to one of whom he held out his hand. 
 '' I feel that I ought to apologize to your gray 
 hairs," pleased with his own sense of humor. 
 *' The atrocious crime of being a young man, 
 you know," he added, with vague reminiscence. 
 "That'll mend, aswe was a-sayin', but. Jack, you 
 ain't got the experience for the squire's office." 
 " Experience, my dear sir, is two-edged," said 
 
284 JACK RACER 
 
 Jack, resting his foot on the desk bench and 
 letting one arm hang idly over his knee, an at- 
 titude that impressed the boys pressing their 
 faces against the window-panes, and also the 
 Pekin youth, for whom legs and arms were still 
 appendages and often in the way. 
 " Now here's Mr. Goby who never broke any- 
 thing in his life but colts, and here I am, who 
 have been shaving the law ever since I was 
 knee-high. Why, I know every legal clap- 
 board of the squire's office, and every knothole, 
 too," Jack grinned. 
 The men broke into loud laughter. 
 "Set a thief to catch a thief, eh. Jack ? " 
 " That 's about the size of it," answered Jack 
 good-humoredly, amid loud guffaws. " You 
 know yourself, Squills, you would n't trust your 
 best razor to a man who did n't know how easy 
 it was to ruin it." 
 
 The laugh was transferred to Squills who had n't 
 shaved since the sixties, bound by some polit- 
 ical vow. 
 
WINS THE NOMINATION 285 
 " Here 's Mr. Goby," continued Jack, " the 
 best-natured man alive. How can you expect 
 him to deal with cases of' provoke ' ? Now I — " 
 Jack felt his smooth chin with a thoughtful air. 
 The men roared again. 
 
 *■'■ There 's nothin' of the hy-pocrite about 
 Jack," one whispered, and another: 
 " With all his vain, idle ways, Jack never was 
 stuck-up." 
 
 " Mr. Racer ! " A young man approached Jack 
 with a conscious air of importance,anda husky 
 voice. 
 
 " Mr. Beesley desired me to present you with 
 this." 
 
 Jack opened a folded paper and glanced within. 
 " My good fellow, I can't take charge of this. 
 It 's all out of order. You must give it to the 
 chair. Where is Mr. Beesley ? " 
 " Gone home, sir, to bed. He says nobody 
 need n't come after him, for he '11 be asleep 
 and would n't wish to be disturbed." 
 Jack turned with ready formality. 
 
286 JACK RACER 
 
 "Will you convey to Mr. Beesley my regrets 
 thathesees fit to withdraw ; and also my thanks 
 for the cordial support he offers. You 'd better 
 lay the paper on the table, Bud," as he took 
 Mr. Beesley's formal withdrawal and tender 
 ofsupportfromMr. Goby, demoralized in turn 
 by its contents. 
 
 " That floors me. Jack," he whispered. " I 
 meant to come in a-tween you." 
 "Brace up, Goby. Brace up," said Jack, ab- 
 sently. " I don't want to support the honor 
 of this contest alone." 
 
 " I 'd jes' as leave you 'd have it as me. Jack. 
 I don't know but I 'd leaver." 
 The chair rapped for order, and Jack went back 
 to his seat by Jake Durstine. 
 During the final confusion Abner Goby scram- 
 bled out of his seat between the desks and hurried 
 over to Sam Limecooly. Wedging himself in 
 between Sam and Will, he wound one arm af- 
 fectionately around Sam's neck, and lifted his 
 mouth to Sam's ear. 
 
WINS THE NOMINATION 287 
 
 " Who 's goin' to give in Jack's name, Sam ? " 
 "They 've put that on me. What'sup,Goby ?" 
 " Lemme, Sam. Jack 's such a friendly cuss, 
 an' since Dob Beesley's moseyed, I ain't no 
 chance. Ye see, I 'd like to do the p'lite thing 
 now by Jack." 
 
 Thus the amenities of the campaign prospered. 
 The pretence of business fell flat. The read- 
 ing of Dobyns Beesley's withdrawal was al- 
 ready an old story. 
 
 The sensation arrived when Abner Goby, who 
 had not sat down again in his eagerness to do 
 the " han'some thing," announced that he would 
 like to present the name of a gentleman well 
 known in this 'ere community for the nomina- 
 tion of Justice of the Peace, — Mr, Jack Racer, 
 Esquire. 
 
 It was a great moment. Everybody appreci- 
 ated the courtesy of the occasion. Before 
 Abner, with a wave of the hand and a scrape 
 of the foot, could sit down, before Sam could 
 get up and support Abncr's nomination, a great 
 
288 JACK RACER 
 
 shout went up, echoed by all the boys outside. 
 Jack's eyes grew moist. He had been con- 
 fident enough, but he was not prepared for this. 
 He turned to Jake Durstine, who was beating 
 him with affectionate vigor on the back. 
 " I could have cheeked it through, Jake, but 
 this — " Jack could say no more. 
 The squire hurried to him, striving to appear 
 merely dignified and benevolent. 
 " Bravo, Jack. Done without striking a blow. 
 You can give me points, boy. Jake, don't you 
 believe this youngster can walk alone? " turn- 
 ing to Jake with the familiarity he had dis- 
 couraged in Jack. 
 
 The crowd trooped out in high humor, men 
 wringing Jack's hand as they passed. 
 Jack felt very humble, for a rising young poli- 
 tician. He wanted to get away from it all. 
 Sam and Will Triplow waited until he could 
 disengage himself. The janitor was turning 
 down the lights when the threeyoung men went 
 out into the street. 
 
WINS THE NOA4INATION 289 
 A group of girls under a tree challenged them 
 as they passed, 
 " Congratulations, Jack ! " 
 " You don't know what a comfort it is to know 
 I 'vea friend at court," chimed in Anna Ross. 
 *' Jack, I hope you '11 bind Sam Limecooly over 
 to keep the peace. Sam, you tease ! " And 
 she gave him a push off the plank sidewalk. 
 " Jack, I 'm so glad you 're goin' to be squire. 
 I 'm dying to sass Samantha Dyer, an' she '11 
 have me up for provoke. But you '11 let me 
 off easy, won't you ? " 
 "I '11 go your bail myself, Alice." 
 Then Aunt Kiz appeared, bareheaded, and with 
 her arm about her niece. 
 
 "Stopaminit, Aunt Kiz, and we '11 introduce 
 you to the new squire," Anna cried. 
 " Can't ; I 'm afraid of the neuraligy." 
 Jack caught a glimpse of a fair young face in 
 the moonlight as Aunt Kiz hurried by, throw- 
 ing a mocking voice over her shoulder : 
 " Girls, there '11 be no more skylarkin' evcn- 
 19 
 
290 JACK RACER 
 
 ill's, no more night-prowlin's. New brooms 
 sweep clean. I 'm goin' tobegin layin'by fines 
 in a stockin' leg." 
 
 Jack felt a sudden imperative need for sympathy, 
 for the sound of a soft voice, a gentle touch, 
 instead of all this gay, mocking friendliness. 
 He turned helplessly to Anna. 
 " Anna, if you are going home I '11 walk with 
 you. Will, you and Sam go to my room, and 
 1 '11 meet you there directly." 
 It had been a long time since Anna had strolled 
 in the moonlight with Jack. In her elation, 
 as she took his arm she felt a new sense of 
 embarrassment. Jack was silent, and she could 
 think of nothing to say. Suddenly, with that 
 utter lackofdiscernmentwhich often trips wom- 
 en acute by nature, she thought of a topic. 
 " Jack ! " 
 
 " Yes," taking his eyes down from the moon. 
 " When is Rene coming back ? " 
 Yes, he was on the earth once more. He did 
 not answer for a moment. 
 
WINS THE NOMINATION 291 
 
 " Back ? Where has she gone ? " with sudden 
 recollection. 
 
 " Did n't you know it ? " Anna leaned forward 
 doubtfully to look him in the face. 
 " You know I 've been busy with these af- 
 fairs," he mumbled. 
 
 " She 's been gone a week. Mrs. Maule told 
 me to-night." 
 
 " Where has she gone ? " with faint interest. 
 "Home, — Peru. She went very suddenly. 
 I think it 's awful queer she did n't let a body 
 know. Don't you ? " 
 
 " Isuppose. Butwomenhavetheir own ways." 
 " Well, it is n't her way. You know that. 
 She usually holds a levee at the cars and you 're 
 master of ceremonies, Jack Racer." 
 Jack laughed aloud, not at Anna's wit, but at 
 his own futile cravings. Truly, Anna had not 
 the sovereign gift. 
 
 Jack bade her good night and wandered down 
 the Sparta road to soothe his restless spirit. The 
 night was balmy and the moon rode high among 
 
292 JACK RACER 
 
 the clouds. The spicy odors from the burning 
 brush, from the twigs of currant, the branches 
 of peach and plum, the broken bits of sweet- 
 briar and roseof Sharon gathered from the paths 
 by careful housewives, stirred his senses. He 
 felt a sense of exaltation that was not born out 
 of the lighted schoolroom and the shouts of 
 the men. Memories sprang into life, a crowd 
 of recollections pressed upon him, of his child- 
 hood, his mother. He felt once more a boy's 
 hope, courage, faith. He walked rapidly on 
 with a boy's blithe step, until he came to the 
 cross roads. Here, Fancy, the buggy, Irene, 
 passed before him like an eclipse. He uttered 
 an oath, and turned on his heel, his face no 
 longer uplifted to the moon. 
 How long he walked and where, he did not 
 know. 
 
 But while he walked Will Triplow and Sam 
 waited patiently in his room, accustomed to 
 Jack's vagrant ways. 
 " He 's probably supporting Ross's gatepost," 
 
WINS THE NOMINATION 293 
 said Sam, making himself comfortable on the 
 lounge. 
 
 Will Triplow had already planned a Campaign 
 Glee Club, and now took out a pencil and a 
 sheet of Jack's legal cap over which he busied 
 himself, speaking only at intervals. 
 " How is this, Sam ? 
 
 " Oh, Pekin 's the gem of the prairie, 
 The home of the brave and the free. " 
 
 " Good, Will. Go it," answered Sam, sleep- 
 ily, but with appreciation. 
 "Sam, what rhymes with prairie ? " 
 " Mary, Sary, dairy, fairy." 
 " Fair>' ; let me see, — fairy, fairy. No, you 
 can't make it come in." Will scribbled again 
 in silence. 
 " How is this, Sam ? — 
 
 *' Jack Racer Its standard will carry 
 In triumph from mountain to sea. " 
 
 " Couldn't bebeat,"saidSam, with hiseyesshut. 
 Will returned tohis labors with enthusiasm, and 
 
294 JACK RACER 
 
 Sam slept the sleep of neither politician nor 
 poet. 
 
 At length Jack stopped, foot-sore and weary, 
 and sat down on a doorstep with his head on 
 his hands. 
 
 " Oh,IwishI hadamother,"hegroaned. "Here 
 I am creeping like a beggar through the town, 
 hungering and thirsting like any other unfor- 
 tunate devil." 
 
 He lifted his head. Before him were a row of 
 familiar locust trees, one a huge, lofty-bodied 
 tree with a well-remembered shelf-shaped knot. 
 The moon was low and half hidden. He sprang 
 up and looked about him. He was in front at 
 the Campbells' house. He threw up his head 
 and laughed gleefully. 
 
 " By Jupiter, I '11 have it, I '11 have it." The 
 weariness of his spirit left him. The shouts 
 of the men echoed joyfully once more. He 
 felt the strong flow of manhood in his veins — 
 of achievement, of happiness. " Why not," 
 he said, with upward glance at the silent win- 
 
WINS THE NOMINATION 295 
 dows, " why not for me ? What should there 
 be on earth that I want, and I not have it ? " 
 He clung, like a drunken man, to the tree, his 
 head pillowed serenely on the rough-barked 
 knot, drunk indeed with his new hopes. 
 Footsteps sounded up the street. He moved 
 further into the shadow, A man passed, look- 
 ing suspiciously about him. 
 " This won't do," he said, as the man turned 
 the corner. " My constituents expect me to 
 be in bed betimes." And he sighed, realizing 
 that the fine edge of his freedom was already 
 gone. 
 
CHAPTER TWENTY 
 
XX 
 
 But the Barbecue Makes Him Happier Still 
 
 NOWLES, the candidate for 
 sheriff, as Squire George predic- 
 ted was glad to avail himself of 
 the George influence. Having 
 performed his part of the agree- 
 ment in impressing Mr. Maginnis with the pru- 
 dence that lav in prompt resignation, Knowles 
 in turn claimed the squire's aid in the northern 
 part of the county, where his own merits were 
 not so well understood. From here it was de- 
 cided there would be more extended raids 
 in behalf of the state ticket, and in view of suc- 
 ceeding campaigns. 
 
 Work of this sort Squire George felt to be just 
 the preliminary training Jack needed. He was 
 also glad to put him in the hands of a practical 
 
300 JACK RACER 
 
 politician like Knowles, who was one of the 
 men the squire alluded to as being always on 
 the ticket, and no dashed nonsense about him. 
 Jack himself, in his new-born zeal, was not 
 averse. He was prepared to go into the cam- 
 paign with animation. Notwithstanding his ef- 
 forts to take the situation seriously, its novelty 
 amused him. For one thing, he was not only 
 as usual the centre of attention, but he found 
 himself approved. He seemed to have a new 
 group of virtues and, at least until his opponents 
 got under way, his detrim.ental features ap- 
 peared tobe effaced orforgotten. Campaigning, 
 moreover, was something of a lark. Different, 
 of course, from his usual round of neighboring 
 races, yet in many features the same. 
 There were ten days until the election. 
 These were passed in the company of men who 
 spent money freely, stopped at the best hotels, 
 and dined with the local magnates. When they 
 joined the men on the state ticket, there were 
 receptions after the evening speeches, and Jack 
 
THE BARBECUE 301 
 
 found himself, as always, among the prettiest 
 girls and most vivacious women. 
 " If it was left to the women," said the govern- 
 or good-naturedly, " Racer would sweep the 
 state." 
 
 " Yes," said Knowles, " he worked his passage 
 cross country carrying water and wood for the 
 wimmen. Blamed ef I did n't see him once 
 at a woodpile." 
 
 But Jack had also his share of the burden of the 
 day. His maiden speeches were neither models 
 of profundity nor of eloquence. But his ready 
 tongue, infinite tact, and sense of humor served 
 him quite as well. The listeners often yawned 
 under the governor's ponderous arguments, 
 and were too accustomed to Knowles's pictur- 
 esque vituperation and broad stories to appre- 
 ciate their artistic character. But Jack's brisk 
 sallies, piquant comment, light touch, and un- 
 failing courtesy of speech combined into a 
 species of oratory new to the prairie, and sof- 
 tened the asperities of the campaign. 
 
302 JACK RACER 
 
 But some credit must be placed to his slim 
 figure and well-fitting clothes, to the disposal 
 of his legs and the use of his arms, all of which 
 appeared so knowing that from them might 
 justly be argued the possession of certain in- 
 alienable truths. 
 
 To Jack himself, although freely spoken of and 
 described in the local papers as a rising young 
 politician, all this was merely " trying it on the 
 dog." As has been intimated, he was not a 
 young gentleman to go out of his way for an 
 illustration. 
 
 Squire George's practised hand had arranged 
 that the final rally of the campaign was to take 
 place at Pekin. This was to consist of a bar- 
 becue, which would require the united forces of 
 the state and county tickets. Pekin, as the 
 smallest town in the county, had no right to 
 this honor in the teeth of Sparta, Lima, and 
 Rome city. But after much growling and sar- 
 castic comment, public and private, as the roads 
 were fine and Indian summer had begun to 
 
THE BARBECUE 303 
 
 hover in all its loveliness over the prairie, the 
 county acquiesced, and local pride yielded to 
 personal pleasure. To the occasion the squire 
 sacrificed one of his finest cattle. According 
 to traditional rites, the great ox had been roast- 
 ing since early morning on a burning bed of 
 crab-apple boughs, where it was attended by a 
 devoted band of men and boys. 
 The barbecue was to take place in a grove of 
 buckeyes at the edge of town. The speakers' 
 stand was made of rough planks, raised and 
 fenced in. But the Stars and Stripes hid their 
 ugliness and made a flamboyant background 
 draped from the low branches of the overhang- 
 incT trees. In front and on every side were low 
 plank seats precariously raised on blocks from 
 Jones's mill. In the vernacular, these seats 
 were inclined "to teeter," but no disaster could 
 be dangerous since they were scarcely a foot 
 from the soft, dry prairie sward. On one side 
 wasa space reserved for the Sparta band, which 
 of itself would have dignified any occasion. 
 
304 JACK RACER 
 
 On the other side were the seats for Will Trip- 
 low's Glee Club, young men and maids wear- 
 ing blue badges. 
 
 Squire George, although his skill had managed 
 all the details of these scenes in which his 
 nephew played so prominent a part, kept him- 
 self as discreetly as possible in the background. 
 The dearest wish of his heart was that honors 
 should heap high on Jack. Jack, he knew, 
 needed only opportunity. This he took care 
 he should have. 
 
 To-day the hospitality of his house claimed the 
 prominent speakers, chief of whom was the 
 governor. Carriages, carts, wagons, filled with 
 people, came from the Sparta and Lima roads 
 past the house. The street was a continual 
 procession of foot-passengers on their way to 
 the barbecue. Groups of Pekin idlers hung 
 about the gate, and observed the distinguished 
 guests through the doors and windows, and 
 among them Jack," chipper with the governor 
 as with me," said Jake Durstine, with pride 
 
THE BARBECUE 305 
 
 equally distributed between Jack and himself. 
 The squire reserved his carriage for Mrs. 
 George's use, and sent to Sparta for the 
 barouche. This was an imposing affair with 
 a great deal of nickel plating. It was never 
 out except on special occasions, such as fu- 
 neralsand weddings. In fact,ithad been bought 
 with a view to those bridal couples who in such 
 busy seasons as having and harvest could only 
 snatch moments, as it were, for marrying, 
 ) and rode round town, in the barouche, a 
 
 wedding tour much in vogue. With the top 
 thrown back and a driver on the box, in a 
 country where every man and every woman 
 drove, it was altogether unique. 
 As it drove up now before the George gate, 
 the crowd pressed closer. Jack came down the 
 walk with the governor and the two members 
 of the state ticket, and handed them in. 
 "Jack, I 'mgoin' to vote for you," cried a small 
 boy. As Jack sprang into the empty seat a 
 shout went up, "Hurrah for Racer!" and Beezy 
 
3o6 JACK RACER 
 
 Lemmons, the driver, cracking his whip, the 
 barouche moved off in fine style. 
 As theydrove along, the girls waved their hand- 
 kerchiefs to the young man on the front seat, 
 and here and there a voice cried out," Hurrah 
 for Racer ! " 
 
 " Youseem tobeprettystronghere,Mr.Racer," 
 said the governor. 
 
 " They 've lately taken to it, sir. They '11 have 
 to do pretty well to make up for lost time." 
 The advent of the barouche created the sen- 
 sation the squire had planned. Jack jumped 
 out, and led the gentlemen to the speakers' stand, 
 where the committee awaited them, resplen- 
 dent in large rosettes of ribbon. The Sparta 
 band struck up " Hail to the Chief," a compli- 
 ment intended for the governor, for Sparta could 
 not be expected to champion Jack Racer as 
 did Pekin. 
 
 There was a rush for the ice-cream and peanut 
 stands. The squire's ox, on which the crowd 
 had been feasting, was forsaken. The car- 
 
THE BARBECUE 307 
 
 riages and wagons pressed closer. Men, 
 women, and children strove for the front seats. 
 Political wisdom and prairie oratory appeared 
 to be the two things most to be desired. The 
 condescending periods of the candidate for 
 auditor were listened to with flattering atten- 
 tion. At length the novelty wore off. The 
 restless children climbed over knees and stum- 
 bled over feet, to get back to candy and lemon- 
 ade. The young boys and girls slipped away 
 to sit together under remote trees. 
 Then the auditor wiped his brow and sat down, 
 and the band played again. 
 The governor stood up, amid lusty cheers. Men 
 left yellow spaces of plank to press nearer the 
 speakers' stand, where they listened attentively 
 to his heavy-weighted oratory. But the out- 
 side crowd grew apace. The women fell to 
 gossiping. The babies slid down from their 
 mothers'laps and supported their toddling ven- 
 tures by holding on to the empty seats, or crept 
 underneath on exploring tours among strange 
 
3o8 JACK RACER 
 
 ankles. Now and then some startled foot dis- 
 covered them, and dragged forth by strange 
 hands, surrounded by strange faces, they set up 
 loud shrieks, in which various mothers heard 
 familiar notes and rushed to the rescue. 
 Then the governor wiped his brow and sat 
 down, amid loud applause, and the band played 
 again. When the last note had shrunk into 
 silence, the chairman rose and presented to 
 his fellow-townsmen "a gentleman whom you 
 know, Mr. Racer." There was a wild shout. 
 The children scampered back pellmell over 
 the seats. The girls and boys under the trees 
 ceased their cooing, and ran with the children. 
 The women snapped the thread of talk. The 
 empty patches of yellow plank disappeared 
 under the kaleidoscopic colors of the prairie 
 finery. For a few moments the whole mass 
 was in movement. There was a general and 
 flattering interval of readjustment — what the 
 children call " getting a good ready." 
 Meanwhile Jack, on his feet, waited. 
 
THE BARBECUE 309 
 
 The governor leaned back and whispered to 
 the auditor: 
 
 " It looks like the machinery of the state had 
 only been put in motion to make this young 
 man a squire." 
 
 "• It is n't the first case I 've seen, Governor, 
 of the tail wagging the dog," laughed Mullinex. 
 And Jack! Never had the situation so closely 
 touched him. Beneath all this restless curi- 
 V osity,he felt the friendly interest, the throb of 
 
 ) local pride. His old self-sufficiency did not 
 
 seem adequate support. He welcomed this re- 
 sponse. They were his friends after all. 
 He looked down upon the upturned faces. Billy 
 Campbell stood directly beneath him, his hands 
 in his pockets and head almost resting on his 
 back. At one side was Squire George, leaning 
 forward in his carriage; on the other, Will 
 Triplow, proud and important, at the head of 
 his singing legion. A few seats away sat Jake 
 Durstine, his face aglow and both hands be- 
 hind his ears. And back, skirting the crowd, 
 
310 JACK RACER 
 
 Aunt Kiz with Lucy under her fierce and pro- 
 tecting wing. He recognized them one by 
 one, and his eyes grew moist. 
 At last the great throng settled ; the rustling 
 ceased. It could scarcely be expected that more 
 fastidiouscommunities would have been equally 
 interested in young Mr. Racer's speech. Its se- 
 ductive humor and courteous tone struck a new 
 note at Pekin. But Jack was stirred with a 
 new impulse. His heart spoke, touched by a 
 strange warmth. And Pekin, that Pekin he 
 had so consistently snubbed during his checkered 
 career, listened with wondering surprise and 
 hearts touched in return. 
 
 When Jack sat down, the grove rang and rang 
 again. The hard-faced and unshaven menshook 
 hands with one another. Women laughed and 
 cried, and Will Triplow's "Glee Club" broke 
 into the triumphant strain he had polished and 
 rehearsed with such care. 
 More clearly than ever the governor and his 
 companions realized that they were but train- 
 
THE BARBECUE 311 
 
 bearers, as it were, to this young man ; but 
 they shook him cordially by the hand. The 
 squire pressed forward, but had no words. 
 Jack knew his uncle's vigils were more than 
 repaid. 
 
 As he came down the steps men gathered about 
 him, and Jake Durstine, on tiptoe, shouted 
 over Sam's shoulder : 
 
 " Jack, you've growed two inches since I saw 
 you last." 
 
 Jack made his way through the crowd, which 
 gave way before him with a deference due his 
 new distinction, and a train of small boys filled 
 up the gap. The Pekin girls all twisted their 
 heads to speak to him as they passed, and the 
 Sparta girls looked on to envy and admire. 
 But Jack did not stop. 
 
 Because he had set himself to his law books ; 
 and from the standpoint of that early deter- 
 mination which he had expressed with some 
 stammering to his uncle when his present po- 
 litical enterprise was proposed, he felt that he 
 
312 JACK RACER 
 
 had now earned the right to give way to his 
 own inclinations. 
 
 Yet it was with some modest misgivings and 
 a still humble sense of unworthiness that he 
 pressed forward to the seats where Aunt Kiz 
 sat with Lucy at her side. His heart yet 
 glowed with its late emotion and newly-kin- 
 dled friendliness for Pekin, but he could 
 not rest until it assumed more personal 
 form. 
 
 He paused for a moment in the crowd which 
 quickly gathered about him, to watch the two. 
 Aunt Kiz was listening, while Lucy talked 
 rapidly with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes. 
 " How happy she looks," Jack thought. " If 
 I could keep her so, I'd turn on my heel and 
 go to Kamtschatka. But why not happy for 
 me ? " The question he had asked himself so 
 often of late came back. He threw up his 
 head and plunged through the crowd again, 
 until he stood with folded hands like a school- 
 boy before them. 
 
THE BARBECUE 313 
 
 Lucy ceased her chatter and looked up with a 
 proud smile. 
 
 " I believe it is for me," Jack thought, but did 
 not speak. 
 
 " Makin' believe you love us an' pretty near 
 persuadin' us," said Aunt Kiz. 
 " I 've been at your feet ever since I can re- 
 member." 
 
 " Oh, I haven't any vote," with a toss of her 
 head. 
 
 " But don't prejudice Billy, I 'm a young man 
 with aforethought." 
 
 " Well, now you 've got Pekin at last under 
 them shiny boots, be good to it." 
 "If you could only see the goodness stored up 
 in me, spoiling for an occasion." 
 " Are we an occasion, Lucy, that we 're 
 gettin' so much of the young man's no- 
 tice?" 
 
 Lucy laid her hand on her aunt's arm involun- 
 tarily. This accustomed badinage did not 
 seem fitted to Jack's new mood. 
 
314 JACK RACER 
 
 He still stood before them with unwonted hu- 
 mility and gentle deference. 
 "I'm sure I'd like to bask in his presence 
 longer," continued the willful old woman, "but 
 Sam Campbell wants his supper. Come, Lucy." 
 Jack turned to Lucy. 
 
 " Have n't you a word for me, Lucy ? " he 
 asked, in gentle reproach. 
 " Words ! " said Aunt Kiz. " She has talked 
 me stun deaf." 
 
 Lucy put out her hand. A restless child 
 jumped from its seat and Jack sat down by 
 her side. 
 
 " You are the only one who has n't given me 
 a word," he said again in a low voice. 
 " Oh, Jack, you have made us so happy. Aunt 
 Kiz, for all her saucy talk, cried when you 
 were talking." 
 " But you — you ? " 
 
 "Ah, I was only glad I knew that that was 
 really you," she answered softly. 
 " You had that much faith in me ? " 
 
THE BARBECUE 315 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "That makes me very happy," he said, his 
 shining eyes bent upon the ground. 
 But among the rear seats was commotion. 
 " Mrs. Maule ! Where is Mrs. Maule ? Here 
 is a telegraph fellow huntin'you, Mrs. Maule." 
 Mrs. Maule was seated with Mrs. Stivers, who 
 had found the societv of Pelcin congenial, and 
 whose husband had been perfectly willing to 
 find a substitute for her duties toward the Can- 
 tata. 
 
 Mrs. Maule, who had never received a tele- 
 gram in her life before, was much flustered. 
 She now held it at arms' length like an ex- 
 plosive, and surveyed it with her head thrown 
 back, while sympathizing friends drew near. 
 " You 'd better open it and break it to her," 
 suggested one. 
 
 But Mrs. Maule held on to the straw-colored 
 envelope. Trembling and nervous as she was, 
 she determined to make the most of it. 
 Feeling in her dress for a pin, and finally dis- 
 
3i6 JACK RACER 
 
 lodging one from the rear of her collar, she 
 inserted it in the envelope. 
 " That is n't the way they do it nowadays," ex- 
 plained an eager and more experienced friend. 
 "They just rip away at the ends." 
 But Mrs. Maule felt the proper way would be 
 to get into the envelope the way the telegraph 
 company got into it, and with her pin carefully 
 ploughed the path of the mucilage while the 
 surrounding company watched her breathlessly. 
 Slowly she unfolded the yellow slip. The 
 speaker who was now giving potent reasons 
 why his term of office should be prolonged 
 was not attracting more attention. 
 "Why, she's gone," exclaimed a more ready 
 scholar in the group, peering over her shoulder 
 while Mrs. Maule was cautiously threading her 
 way among the words. 
 "Who's gone?" 
 
 " Rene Burke. She 's been gone these two 
 week." 
 Mrs. Maule turned, with a sense of injury. 
 
THE BARBECUE 317 
 
 She herself had not yet made out the contents 
 of her telegram, and there seemed to be some- 
 thing almost indecent in forestalling her, and 
 her name written on the back of it. How- 
 ever, it assisted her somewhat, and she was 
 shortly after able to read it aloud in careful, 
 distinct tones. 
 
 '"Don't frighten Irene Burke,' Massy me! 
 who 's a-scarin' her ? She never was scared 
 of me." Mrs. Maule stopped reading to make 
 solemn asseveration. " She carried on as she 'd 
 a mind to ! " 
 
 " Go on, Mrs. Maule," exclaimed an impa- 
 tient listener. " There 's more." 
 " ' Don't frighten Irene Burke ! Her mother 
 sick. Come home.' Sich shiftless way of writ- 
 in' ! Who 's come home ? I 'm goin' right 
 down to that derspatch office an' sass that boy 
 for not puttin' the words in, an' he paid to 
 do it, too. Who's come home?" 
 "Sho', now, Mrs. Maule. That 's always the 
 way they do it. You've got to put in the lit- 
 
3i8 JACK RACER 
 
 tie words yourself. They can't be foolin' with 
 
 the wires for the 'if's' an' ' an's,' It 's trouble 
 
 enough gittin' the big words along." 
 
 " But Rene has gone home, has n't she, Mrs. 
 
 Maule?" 
 
 " Two weeks ago, and suddent enough." 
 
 " That 's mighty funny." 
 
 " Funny ! My room empty a whole week till 
 
 little Mis' Stivers come ? Funny, that ain't 
 
 my word for it ! " 
 
 " But she is n't home. Her mother is sick 
 
 an' they want her to come home. ' Don't 
 
 frighten' means break it to her easy." 
 
 " How doyou make all that out ? " Mrs. Maule 
 
 puzzled again over her telegram, and before it 
 
 was clear to her mind the word had gone abroad. 
 
 " What are yegoin'to do about it, Mrs. Maule? 
 
 You 've got to despatch 'em back," said the 
 
 friend who had undertaken to pilot Mrs. Maule 
 
 through these troubled waters. 
 
 " Shucks ! Rene 's got home by this time." 
 
 " This beats all. How long, Mrs. Maule, 
 
THE BARBECUE 319 
 
 d' ye suppose that despatch has been com- 
 in' ? " 
 
 " But Rene went two weeks ago," persisted the 
 perplexed Mrs. Maule. 
 
 "MrsMaule, them words was histed on to the 
 wires this dav." 
 " Massy me ! Where is she ? " 
 " That 's the question." 
 
 Aunt Kiz sat silent and uneasy. At last she 
 caught sight of a sunburned head peering up 
 from among the planks. It was Billy, prone 
 on the ground, making his way under the seats, 
 and lifting his head now and then to get his 
 bearings. 
 
 " Billy," she called, feeling that his presence 
 would, as always, bringsome change of position 
 or conversation. 
 
 Billy wriggled himself out from among the 
 boards. Seeing Jack, he bounded on top of 
 the planks, jumping from one to the other. 
 The planks bounded in turn, and the dis- 
 turbed audience turned angrily, but ineffec- 
 
320 JACK RACER 
 
 tually, toward l^illy, who presented to them 
 only a lively back and a pair of sturdy lea;s. 
 His eyes were fixed on Jack. 
 " Jack," he said, breathlessly, "Jack, I heard 
 every wordyou said, I was lookin' right straight 
 up at you, and your chin went this way," tak- 
 ing his own chin in his fingers and applying it 
 to violent exercise. " Let me sit 'tween you 
 an' Lucy." 
 
 " There isn't room, Billy, I thoughtyou were 
 listening to me." 
 
 ^' Well, I could n't always understand you. 
 You said them big words to show off before 
 that big, fat man, did n't you ? " 
 Billy was now trying to wedge himself in be- 
 tween Jack and Lucy. 
 
 " It 's a good thing you 're grown up. Jack," 
 he continued, " for if the boys call you smarty 
 or proudy, you can lick 'em." 
 " That I can, easily." Jack lifted Billy up 
 summarily and sat him down on the opposite 
 plank. 
 
THE BARBECUE 321 
 
 " Lucy 'd ruther have me next her. Would n't 
 you, Lucy ? " 
 
 " I don't doubt, youngster. But to-day is my 
 day," said the young man in a low voice, but 
 exultant. 
 
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 
 
XXI 
 
 It is Again Evidenced that Pride Goes Before 
 a Fall 
 
 [HE next day was Sunday. The 
 excitement of the barbecue was 
 almost effaced by the later news 
 of Irene Burke's disappearance. 
 The practised and nimble mind 
 of a little country town disposes of circum- 
 stances and manufactures facts with a neat- 
 ness and skill of which larger places with 
 events occupying a wider area can have no 
 idea. Already the details of Miss Burke's dis- 
 appearance, its cause and its object, presented 
 a coherent and exciting story. 
 Of this nothino; was known at the George resi- 
 dence. The sovernor had staved one night. The 
 squire's carefully arranged programme included 
 morning serviceatthe Presbyterian church. To 
 
326 JACK RACER 
 
 this Jack would cheerfully go in attendance on 
 the governor. To have sent Jack alone would 
 have been too flagrant an electioneering ma- 
 ncEuvre, even if Jack had been amenable, as the 
 squire was very sure he would not be, Jack not 
 being a church-going young man, differing in 
 this respect, as in others, from the Pekin youth. 
 The report that the governor would attend 
 church would nqt only insure the full attendance 
 of Presbyterians, but of that mobile church-go- 
 ing element which in every place has a keen 
 scent for ecclesiastical attractions not in the 
 strict line of piety or dogma. 
 The governor carrying Mrs, George's hymn- 
 book, and Mrs. George in her best Chicago 
 toilet, did not fail to create an impression as they 
 moved up the aisle. Jack preceded them, and 
 did the honors with his usual freedom from em- 
 barrassment. To a large part of the audience 
 — the women — Mrs. George did seem truly an 
 enviable person as the two distinguished gentle- 
 men stepped asidethat she might enter her pew. 
 
PRIDE BEFORE A FALL 327 
 While the governor received momentary con- 
 sideration, lasting w^hile he adjusted his eye- 
 glasses and politely found the hymn for Mrs. 
 George, Jack was the object of curious eyes. 
 He leaned back in the pew^, apparently uncon- 
 scious of attention, as became the young duke 
 of Pekin. A slight smile lingered on his face, 
 which was not born of the sermon. This was 
 indeed grave, and its note of warning, its hints 
 of the trials and temptations to which youth is 
 exposed, ought to have caught the ear of a 
 thoughtful and earnest young man. 
 Although his attitude was one of flattering at- 
 tention to the preacher. Jack sat there, lost, 
 drunken, in an enchanted island of his own hopes 
 and dreams. Occasionally his eyes wandered ; 
 and his smile broadened as Billy Campbell, 
 peacefully dozing in oneof the side seats, kicked 
 the little wooden footstool with a loud noise. 
 " I dreamed I was on a fence and the board 
 broke," he said, audibly and in self-defence. 
 After church, contrary to the customs of Pekin, 
 
328 JACK RACER 
 
 Jack accompanied Mrs. George and the 
 governor directly home. It was never Mrs. 
 George's inclination to stop, and Jack felt it 
 scarcely due the governor to separate himself 
 from the church party. 
 
 Thecrowd lingering about the church door was 
 even larger than usual, and the hum of conver- 
 sation louder. The " Gossip Exchange," as 
 Jack himself called it, was confined to one ab- 
 sorbing topic, Irene Burke and her mysterious 
 disappearance, for it appeared Mrs. Maule had, 
 with much persuasion and wear and tear of 
 mind, answered her telegram, and further ad- 
 vices had made it plain that Irene's family knew 
 nothing of her movements. 
 Mrs. Maule was thrust into sudden prominence 
 by her connection with the event. Heretofore 
 she had been a rusty widow on the outskirts of 
 every group. Now she was the centre. She en- 
 joyed her position, although not quite at home 
 in it. She had told the story of Irene's going 
 in every possible light, and had answered every 
 
PRIDE BEFORE A FALL 329 
 
 conceivable question. But, like most unimpor- 
 tant people, she could not discriminate between 
 her own accidental connection with them and 
 the dramatic events which she was called upon 
 to relate. 
 
 This was felt even in Pekin, where artistic and 
 dramatic narrative has never been a matter of 
 consideration, and some impatience was un- 
 gratefully felt at Mrs. Maule's manner. 
 " Jack Racer druv her home,an' she was scarcely 
 indoor, when she called me an' dove for her 
 clothes. Quicker 'n you could shake a stick, 
 she had every whipstitch in, roUin' up her dresses 
 so fashion, puttin' in white an' colored, as may 
 be. It certainly was a sin an' shame. Hurry 's 
 worry, say I." 
 
 " But what did she say, Mrs. Maule ? " 
 ^' ' I 'm agoin' away,' says she, ' Mrs. Maule. 
 It 's very suddent. But I must be off this very 
 night!'" 
 
 " Did n't she tell you why ? " 
 " Therewas no satisfaction to get anything out 
 
330 JACK RACER 
 
 of her, she was a dashin' away in an' out, with 
 her hairbrush in her hand." 
 " Did n't you ast her pintedly ? " 
 " I knew it was nothin' agin me, nor the room. 
 Goodness knows, I 'd given her the best I had 
 as I do this minit to little Mis' Stivers, so I 
 ain't lost much by Rene playin' off that way." 
 " Did Jack Racer come back for her .'' " 
 " No, she said she 'd go to the depot and send 
 a push cart for her trunk." 
 " I made brother Bill go down and ask the ticket- 
 man whereto she 'd bought her ticket, but he 'd 
 gone to Lima that day an' his cousin peddled 
 out the tickets for him," contributed one of the 
 group. 
 
 " It would n't be past my guessin'," added an- 
 other, " if 't was only make believe, an' Rene 
 was in Pekin this blessed day." 
 "Where, where? "exclaimed the eager listeners. 
 " I 'm a thinkin' she knows sumpin. Oh, tell 
 us, Mandy ! " 
 " There 's places an' places," said the speaker. 
 
PRIDE BEFORE A FALL 331 
 nodding her head and shutting her thin lips 
 tightly, as if the secret might escape. 
 " An' that 's a purty tale," said Mrs. Maule 
 indignantly. " Rene had no call to leave me. 
 The table stood an' waited for her many 's the 
 time, while she was collogin' at the gate, an' I 
 never opened my head, an' never once did she 
 offer to help wash the dishes — " 
 Mrs. Maule's indignation was cut short by the 
 appearanceof the Alethodist congregation. This 
 was the signal for a rearrangement of the groups. 
 Miss Samantha Dyer was one of the last per- 
 sons to see Miss Burke, as we know, on the oc- 
 casion of her return from Sparta with Jack Racer 
 behind Fancy. Those who had listened with 
 patient interest to Mrs. Maule, now gathered 
 about Miss Dyer, and the Methodist sisters cir- 
 cled about Mrs. Maule. Still the mystery of 
 Irene's disappearance did not seem as inexpli- 
 cable to Mrs. A4aule as the way she packed her 
 trunk. To her going away in the cars was a 
 matter ofdeliberation, and the packing of a trunk 
 
332 JACK RACER 
 
 a ceremony that began a week before the ap- 
 pointed time for setting forth, by putting aside 
 the spare room for the collection of wearing 
 apparel and the devotion of spare moments to 
 experimenting on their proper adjustment in the 
 trunk. It was impossible to get into the heart 
 of the matter without entering into this subject 
 and Mrs. Maule was now launched. 
 Miss Dyer's story was much more meaty and 
 satisfying. 
 
 "Leastwise, that 'salll know," said Miss Dyer, 
 modestly deprecating that she had not fuller ad- 
 vices, when her audience was on tiptoe all about 
 her, after a free recital of all she had observed 
 from the Lima road. 
 
 " An' that 's the end of it. Rene Burke was 
 a cryin' away with her head on Jack Racer's 
 shoulder." 
 
 " Jack Racer ! " exclaimed the crowd, with the 
 precision of a stage chorus. 
 " Him, an' none other, I said,' Jimmy, looky.' 
 But he's so mortial unsuspectin', he turned the 
 
PRIDE BEFORE A FALL 333 
 
 wrong way, an' only got their backs which was 
 straightforad enough. But he knew Jack's rig." 
 A momentary silence fell on the listeners. At 
 length a hesitating voice spoke : 
 " A body might know Jack Racer 's at the bot- 
 tom of it." That was conclusive. 
 The tide of popular favor yesterday setting so 
 exultantly toward the young man, now turned 
 with more than equal swiftness and swept Jack 
 with it along that hypothetical course Pekin had 
 for so long marked out for him. 
 And this while Jack was holding open the gate 
 for Mrs. George and the governor, the serene 
 smile still on his lips and a merry tune in his 
 heart. 
 
 "A pretty justice indeed, an'a human soul asked 
 of him this day," said one of the finally dis- 
 solving crowd, for Irene's fate seemed to have 
 been at last determined. 
 
 This was partly but the exaggerated language 
 of the country, but proved quite true. 
 
334 JACK RACER 
 
 After their respective dinners, Sam Limecooly 
 and Will Triplow, as agreed, went slowly and 
 thoughtfully up to the George mansion. 
 They had discussed with some earnestness the 
 best mannerof approaching Jack onthesubject. 
 Intimate as they were with Jack, he was not a 
 young man whose more personal affairs were 
 apt to be a matter of conversation in his pres- 
 ence. 
 
 " It is n't a question of the girl, but of the elec- 
 tion," Sam had wisely urged. " Put at him polit- 
 ically, it 's as much our business as his." 
 Will would have preferred to take a more ro- 
 mantic view of the situation. Miss Dyer's story 
 had contributed the essential element to Irene's 
 disappearance. Will had not even confided to 
 Sam the story as it rose to conclusive propor- 
 tions in his own mind. 
 
 Jack met them at the door. He was surprised, 
 for midday visiting was a form of Sunday-break- 
 ing not in vogue at Pekin. But he was just as 
 p-lad to see them. 
 
PRIDE BEFORE A FALL 335 
 
 " Not come in ? " for Will was making silent 
 but emphatic objections, not wishing to be heard 
 inside, and as he felt became the mystery of the 
 occasion. 
 
 " No, Jack, I want to talk to you about the 
 election. Let 's go up to your den," said 
 Sam. 
 
 " All right, but you need n't be so eloquently 
 solemn about it." 
 
 They climbed up the outside stairs. 
 " It must be very pressing," Jack said, over his 
 shoulder. " Have you had your dinners ? I '11 
 ask Aunt George to set you a couple of plates. 
 The exigencies of the campaign excuse every- 
 thing in Aunt George's eye. No? There's 
 your mistake. The dinner is got up to meet 
 the governor's appetite, and that 's a noble one. 
 Now, fire away." Jack motioned to seats and 
 tossed himself on the lounge. 
 Sam felt the difficulties increase. He plunged 
 his hands in his pockets, as if he might find his 
 missing diplomacy there. 
 
336 JACK RACER 
 
 "Jack, do you know where 's Irene Burke ? " 
 he asked, bluntly. 
 
 *' What has that to do with the election ? " Jack 
 returned, with equal bluntness. 
 " Everything, perhaps." 
 " I don't see it." 
 
 '' Never mind, answer my question. Where 's 
 Irene Burke ? Do you know ? " 
 " No. Yes, and it 's none of your blamed busi- 
 ness." 
 
 " It is your business." 
 
 " I don't see that," said Jack, still on his back. 
 " Well, I '11 make it plain to you, and there 's 
 no use in your getting hufFy about it." 
 " Yes, Jack, it is really quite serious. Much 
 depends on your answer," ventured Will. 
 « Bah ! " 
 
 " Where have your eyes and ears been all morn- 
 ing ? " asked Sam. " Have n't you seen every- 
 body staring at you ? " 
 
 Jack colored. He felt he might justly be ac- 
 cused of vanity. 
 
PRIDE BEFORE A FALL 337 
 " There 's nothing new in that." 
 " It's funny you did n't see the difference," 
 said Sam, thoughtfully, reading Jack's mind. 
 Jack colored again, and got on his feet. He 
 could not lie still with those fellows looking 
 into his face. He remembered his complacent 
 thoughts as he sat in church. How little it mat- 
 tered to him that people stared. What better 
 could they find to look at ? He felt a burn- 
 ing sense of humiliation as he recalled his gratifi- 
 cation at the situation. He cursed his conceit. 
 He realized now that he wanted, craved, the 
 good opinion of humble Pekin. It all passed 
 through his mind like a flash. 
 ''Tell me plumply what all this means." 
 " Irene Burke can't be found." 
 " You mean she is n't in Pekin," said Jack, im- 
 patiently walking up and down the floor. 
 " She told Mrs.Mauleshewas going home, and 
 she is n't at home." 
 
 " She did n't confide in Mrs. Maule. That 's 
 plain, but of no importance," he interrupted. 
 
338 JACK RACER 
 
 " But she is wanted at home, her mother 
 is at the point of death, and she can't be 
 found." 
 
 " Why did n't you say that before ? You pre- 
 tended you wanted to talk about the election." 
 " Then you can find her ? " 
 "I don't know whether I can or not, but drop 
 it now." 
 
 "I '11 be hanged if I do. I haven't worked, 
 pulled wires, and lied foryou to have it go for 
 nothing. You 've got to clear this thing up for 
 your own sake. That Dyer woman 's spread- 
 ing a pretty story, and the Martin people have 
 hooked on to it." 
 
 " I don't want to hear her accursed story." 
 " You know it, do you ? Very well. After 
 that ride with you, Rene went home, slung 
 her things in a trunk and went away. She 
 has n't been heard of since. There 's where 
 you come in." 
 
 Jack kept up his tramp across the floor. Sam 
 waited for a moment. 
 
PRIDE BEFORE A FALL 339 
 
 " A young man who expects to be made an 
 overseer of the law can't afford to have the 
 disappearance of a young woman on his hands, 
 and that's just where it is." 
 Still Jack said nothing. 
 
 "If you can tell where Irene Burke is, it's 
 all right. But if you don't, I would n't give 
 a picayune for your chances." 
 Again Sam paused. 
 
 " The town seems very much aroused," in- 
 sinuated Will. 
 
 "Will you tell ? Will you explain ? I can 
 easily make it all right for you, if you will." 
 " I '11 be essentially damned if I do ! " roared 
 Jack, planting himself in front of them. 
 When the two disgusted and disappointed young 
 men had gone. Jack went to the stables, put 
 Fancy in harness, and started for Sparta. How 
 odious was the well-known road. He hated 
 it, every turn. He drove into Sparta in his 
 accustomed manner, effective on weekdays, 
 but now, on Sunday, to the orderly church- 
 
340 JACK RACER 
 
 going people on their way to afternoon service 
 the flying wheels and sharp click of Fancy's 
 feet seemed an impudent disregard of the laws 
 of God and man. But Jack was thinking of 
 neither. 
 
 He drove up to the telegraph office, but found 
 it closed. He jumped in the buggy and went 
 to the station. That, too, was locked. He 
 drew out a time-table. " Two hours. I '11 be 
 dashed if I wait." 
 
 Fancy sped again, and Jack sprang out and 
 knocked peremptorily at a white frame house. 
 A girl came around the corner from the kitchen 
 door. Such a response indicated the absence 
 of all the principals. Jack execrated his luck. 
 Leaving Fancy, he walked up the street to a 
 brown house with a verandah, and pulled the 
 bell loud enough to overcome the sounds of a 
 cabinet organ within. The door opened and 
 he disappeared, to reappear with a sullen- 
 looking young man who went with him to the 
 telegraph office. There Jack wrote three tele- 
 
PRIDE BEFORE A FALL 341 
 grams addressed to Miss Camille Lamar, and 
 sent them to three different towns. To the 
 youth who sent them they seemed unimpor- 
 tant, and warranted no such pressing haste. 
 He resented more than ever being dragged 
 away from the cabinet organ and the young 
 ladv who presided there. 
 But the service rendered, Jack took him over to 
 the Palace Hotel, where, descending an inside 
 staircase they found entrance to the ^' Home 
 Circle," inhabited now by a few commercial 
 travellers. Here they smoked several cigars. 
 The commercial men relieved Jack of further 
 burden of entertainment, and Jack left the 
 vouth listening to strange tales of a far 
 city. 
 
 When Jack finally drove through the darkened 
 streets of Pekin, light streamed from the church 
 windows, and the Rev. Mr. Sparkins was making 
 a personal appeal in the interests of public mo- 
 rality and decency that the light and unworthy 
 might be signally discomfited. 
 
342 JACK RACER 
 
 The light and unworthy, in the light of recent 
 events, everyone understood to be Jack Racer, 
 and that the influence of the congregation was 
 to be directed toward making Squire Martin's 
 son-in-law a squire. 
 
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO 
 
XXII 
 
 The Squire is Awakened to the Hour's Perils 
 
 F this new element in the 
 campaign Squire George 
 knew nothing. While fur- 
 thering Jack's interest, he 
 had done it in his own way. 
 Personally he maintained a discreet and dig- 
 nified attitude. Moreover, he inspired a cer- 
 tain awe. Being a large, well-dressed man, 
 with a bank account and outside interests as 
 far away as New Orleans, he would not be 
 addressed by everyone on such a subject. The 
 Governor had left on the Sunday night train. 
 Sunday travelling was not favorably regarded at 
 Pekin, but executed in the twilight it seemed 
 far less heinous than in the broad light of 
 afternoon. 
 
346 JACK RACER 
 
 The squire had not seen his nephew since 
 dinner, for when Jack came home from Sparta 
 he sought the solitude of his own room. When 
 he appeared late at breakfast the next morn- 
 ing, the squire felt too well satisfied with the 
 way things were going to reproach the young 
 man for habits that so little became a candi- 
 date the day before election. 
 The squire's respect for Jack had increased 
 immensely. He was prepared for the easy 
 way in which he walked into people's affec- 
 tions. He expected to see men working for 
 him, and hallooing their throats hoarse ; but 
 the young man had shown a strength of men- 
 tal fibre he had not suspected, and a disposition 
 to cut out new paths for himself that seemed 
 to sustain his fondest hopes. 
 As the squire looked at his nephew this morn- 
 ing he was more clearly than ever convinced he 
 was right. Jack was unusually grave and with 
 a gravity that became a future legislator. The 
 squire got up from the table in a serene mood. 
 
THE HOUR'S PERILS 347 
 "What is the programme to-day, Jack? " 
 " I 'm going with Knowles to McCormick's 
 Run. That will about finish the business," 
 applying himself to another egg. 
 " You and Knowles make a pretty good team. 
 I should say Knowles had modeled his oratory 
 on the lines of a cyclone. But it tells. Your 
 own wav is n't bad, young man. But did you 
 ever see anybody so elementary and conde- 
 scending as the governor ? Now, you don't 
 know more than everybody else." 
 Jack gave a short laugh. 
 
 "And you don't pretend to. Pshaw, there 
 are fashions in all things as much as in your 
 aunt's bonnets. It made me laugh to hear 
 that old cock's pump-handle eloquence," sit- 
 ting down to discuss his late guest more com- 
 fortably. 
 
 " It was pretty dry, all the same." 
 " You see, the governor's getting a leetle past 
 his prime. When he is n't soft-soaping, he's 
 browbeating. Now that's passy^ as the novel- 
 
348 JACK RACER 
 
 writers say. The people are n't fools, and they 
 know when a man 's talking from the outside 
 or from the inside. There's just where you 
 got the handle. You put it to 'em straight. 
 If you'd laid awake nights, you couldn't have 
 hit anything neater than that easy, man-to-man 
 style of yours." 
 
 "I believe, Uncle, you think I selected it out 
 of a sample lot," poking holes in the table- 
 cloth with his fork, as he spoke. 
 " Not at all. It 's temperamental. I told you 
 in the beginning you were cut out for this sort 
 of thing." 
 
 Jack ground his teeth together. 
 " But here 's where I was wrong. I thought 
 your success would be merely personal — ad- 
 dress, magnetism, dash — " 
 " Cheek ? " queried Jack. 
 "If you like. You said it. I didn't. What 
 I did n't think was that you had such a grip in 
 larger matters." 
 " It all depends. Uncle, on which way you 
 
THE HOUR'S PERILS 349 
 switch your thoughts — a question of direc- 
 tion." 
 
 " Politics, not pool, eh ? Well, the chief 
 thing is, you got hold of something vital. The 
 people here don't care two pins about civil 
 service reform and all such abstractions, but 
 they're touched mightily when the boxing and 
 freight cost more than they can realize on the 
 fruit, and sweat like horses over local rates 
 that they have to pay for the infernal cut- 
 throat competition on the through lines. I've 
 thought all the time it would be well for you 
 to take up a specialty. There it is." 
 ''But aren't you a sort of attorney for the 
 road ? " 
 
 "A bit of pettifogging. But that's all the' 
 better for you, see ? Independence and all 
 that. It'll railroad you into the governor's 
 chair — well managed. Besides, in the long 
 run it pays to be on the side of the people, and 
 your career, if I 'm a judge, is n't going to be 
 snuffed out in a jiffy." 
 
350 JACK RACER 
 
 "But, Uncle, does n't it occur to you that I 
 may get left ? " He straightened his legs un- 
 der the table and looked up under his eye- 
 brows. 
 
 " Left, your granny ! If there ever was any 
 doubt, on Saturday it flew to the winds. By 
 Zux," he exclaimed, with sudden reminiscence, 
 "with tears in my eyes, I couldn't quite credit 
 it." 
 
 " Credit what ? " 
 
 The squire got up from his chair. 
 " That was a touch, Jack. I never came so 
 near thinking you weren't genuine through and 
 through. But I believe you are, boy, I believe 
 you are." 
 
 'A shadow passed across the young man's face. 
 The rack, he thought, was nothing to this. 
 " Now there 's another point in your favor. 
 You 're sympathetic. Now you 're not the sort 
 of fellow to hang out your emotion, but when 
 you do, it tells. Now there," with a wave of 
 his hand and resting one foot on a chair," merely, 
 
THE HOUR'S PERILS 351 
 
 you know, merely as an appropriate element, 
 in a maiden speech, among old friends, among 
 familiar faces, nothing could have been better. 
 It polished off the whole business." 
 Jack opened his lips, but, growing in wisdom, 
 he changed his position and did not speak. 
 "Bless my soul, it's nearly ten o'clock. By 
 the way, Jack" — the squire turned at the 
 door — "if you are going out to the Run, I 
 would n't say much about law, order, and that 
 sort of thing. Old McCormick himself was 
 once collared bytheVigilantsfor horse-stealing; 
 but just whoop it up on the railroads." 
 When his uncle had gone. Jack sat still, his 
 legs under the table and his chin on his breast, 
 until he was recalled by the manoeuvres of 
 Margaret peeping in at him through the door, 
 and in terror lest the neighbors catch her 
 breakfast table standing at so unholy an hour. 
 " Come, Margaret," he called. " You and I 
 have both got to get through this day somehow. 
 Heaven help you if Samantha Dyer catches 
 
352 JACK RACER 
 
 your dishes unwashed, and as for me, well, 
 I've got to go it alone," 
 
 Squire George went about his affairs assured 
 that Jack needed no further help from him. 
 It was an inward source of joy that while old 
 Martin's coat-tails were flying around every 
 corner, he could leave Jack's affairs to take 
 care of themselves. Of what other fellow, he 
 asked himself, could that be said on the day 
 before election ? It justified all the hopes he 
 had placed on the boy. Outwardly the squire 
 was ostentatiously indifferent. His walk was 
 slower, his manner more reserved than usual. 
 He spoke to several men as he went along, 
 but on remote topics, — the price of wheat in 
 the east and the prospect of war in Europe. 
 Sam Limecooly was not in the mood to talk 
 about Bulgaria and the Czar. 
 "Where is Jack this morning?" he asked, 
 with some abruptness, after listening to the 
 squire on the decline of England as a factor in 
 international affairs. 
 
THE HOUR'S PERILS 353 
 " Jack? Jaclc,oh,he'sdawdIingover hisbrealc- 
 fast," pride struggling through his assumed in- 
 difference. " If you want to see him, you 'd 
 best hurry. I remember he 's going to get 
 Knowles out of a sort of coil at McCormick's 
 Run. What do you say to that for a begin- 
 ner ? " 
 
 " Say ? Why, that charity begins at home." 
 " Oh, he 's all safe. Sam, has n't Jack sur- 
 prised you out of your boots ? " 
 " Then he has — " but the squire did not 
 wait for interruptions. 
 
 " He '11 sweep the town. No doubt about 
 it. Then next year we '11 give him to the 
 county." 
 
 Sam groaned ; evidently, Jack had n't. 
 " Hold on. Squire, there 's a little complication. 
 That 's what I want to talk to you about." 
 " Complication ? There 's where you 're off. 
 I never saw a cleaner furrow." 
 " It 's an outside matter," Sam mumbled, " but 
 it 's playing hob generally." 
 23 
 
354 JACK RACER 
 
 The squire smiled benevolently at fears so 
 little befitting young blood. 
 " Very well. Come, Sam, let us go back to 
 the office, and we '11 talk it over. Good morn- 
 ing, Doctor; fine day. I was on my way to 
 see you about that bay of yours, but it will 
 hold over. Limecooly has a little legal point 
 he wants me to settle for him." 
 The squire let no little artistic touches be want- 
 ing to the part he had marked out for himself. 
 The two men said no more until they got into 
 the office. 
 
 " The long and short of it is, Jack is going to 
 be defeated unless he '11 set a matter straight. 
 He can do it ; but he won't." 
 " Pooh, pooh, Limecooly ! What is it ? I '11 
 attend to it myself," 
 
 " That is the worst of it ; you can't, that is, 
 unless you can influence Jack. 1 can't." 
 "I '11 do that," said the squire, airily, "but 
 unload, man." 
 " You know Miss Burke ? " 
 
THE HOUR'S PERIJ.S 355 
 " A woman, eh ? Yes, I know her. One of 
 Jack's flames." 
 
 " She 's missing, and Jack knows where she 
 is." 
 
 " And won't tell ! A woman's secret ; Jack 's 
 a gentleman." 
 
 " Look here. Squire, to put it in plain English, 
 a feeling 's got abroad that Jack is responsible, 
 and that there is something pretty black about 
 the whole business." 
 
 " Now, Sam, for a sober-headed fellow," said 
 the squire, blandly, "aren't you putting it 
 pretty strong ? " 
 
 Sam felt his tale was befitting that romantic 
 youth. Will Triplow, and blushed rosily. 
 " That 's neither here nor there; of course, you 
 and I know it 's all poppycock." 
 " I should say Jack is a philandering sort of 
 fellow, but he would n't harm a fly, much less 
 anything that wears petticoats." 
 " But don't you see, Squire, the handle it gives. 
 The preachers had him for a text last night 3 
 
356 JACK RACER 
 
 you know what that means. The whole 
 
 town 's in a ferment. Look ! " Sam sprang 
 
 to the window ; the squire followed him, but 
 
 Sam pressed him back. 
 
 " Don't give them that satisfaction." A crowd 
 
 of men, women and boys were passing, who 
 
 looked curiously at the office, scanning the 
 
 upper windows. " Do you take in the sense 
 
 of that ? They pretend to be hunting Rene 
 
 Burke. They 're going to drag Martin's pond, 
 
 and another gang is beating the timber." 
 
 " Drag Martin's pond ! The whelps ! " The 
 
 squire watched from his retreat until the last 
 
 boy had turned the corner. 
 
 " That was the reason old Martin was flying 
 
 around allmorning like a hen on a hot griddle," 
 
 Sam nodded. 
 
 " They don't believe it, themselves, but it will 
 
 lay Jack out just as hard — that is, unless he 
 
 explains. A word from him would settle it. 
 
 Jerusalem Crickets ! " said Sam, waxing angry 
 
 as he spoke. " He owes it to us, if he don't 
 
THE HOUR'S PERILS 357 
 to himself or the girl, but he 's obstinate as a 
 mule." 
 
 The squire's face had lost its mask of indiffer- 
 ence. He was white with rage. 
 " The thing is serious, I see that, Sam. Now 
 tell me the whole story." 
 
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE 
 
XXIII 
 
 Curious Social Attentions Follow Unpopularity 
 
 FTER his midday dinner the 
 squire set out for McCor- 
 mick's Run. He had never 
 meddled in Jack's feminine 
 affairs and he now felt Hke 
 a coward ; but he was a coward pursued by a 
 still greater danger. So he pushed on. He 
 meditated on what he should say. Just how 
 much lay underneath this story that was con- 
 vulsing the little town, he did not know. That 
 there was enough to warrant his approaching 
 Jack as the uncle of his nephew, he believed. 
 He thought of several ways of opening the con- 
 versation, but each seemed alike too serious 
 and too impertinent. Finally, as did Sam, he 
 concluded to keep the matter purely political. 
 
362 JACK RACER 
 
 From afar he saw the little red schoolhouse 
 in which the meeting was held, and his heart 
 sank. As he approached, the men leaning 
 against the fences and grouped about the door- 
 way suddenly vanished into the house and a 
 couple of girls in sun-bonnets scurried across 
 the meadow. 
 
 " Jack 's speaking," he said, with a complacent 
 smile. 
 
 Jack was speaking. As Squire George tied 
 his horse he heard the crowd laugh, and Jack's 
 insinuating tones. 
 
 " I won't go in," he thought. " He '11 know 
 why I came." 
 
 He saw a knothole in one of the red boards, 
 and, leaning by its side, he applied there his 
 eye. Standing on a level he could see Jack's 
 knowing legs. He watched them curiously 
 and with admiration. On their changing and 
 easy movement he predicated the young man's 
 upward and more important half. 
 Finally, his curiosity getting more insistent, he 
 
UNPOPULARITY 363 
 
 stooped until he could get the range of Jack's 
 face. He could not hear what he said, but 
 watched, in a way entranced, the play of Jack's 
 features, the comical glance, the upward turn 
 of the mouth. Thus he anticipated the sug- 
 gestive epithet, the pointed phrase, and Jack's 
 pause of half surprise when the liberal guffaws 
 interrupted his speech. 
 
 '■'■ Was there ever such a boy ? " he thought, 
 then groaned. 
 
 For a man of the squire's parts, peeping through 
 a knotholewas not a dignifiedposition. When 
 a boy came out to look after a restless horse, 
 he realized this, and straightened himself with 
 alacrity. 
 
 "When Mr. Racer is through speaking, will 
 you hand him my card .? " he took occasion 
 to say. 
 
 The boy eyed the card with awe, then stretched 
 forth a dirty little paw. 
 
 The house broke into applause and presently 
 Jack came forth. 
 
364 JACK RACER 
 
 "You, Uncle George? The boy said, 'a 
 
 gentleman.' I supposed I 'd find a girf-hand." 
 
 Jack laughed, and the squire pointed to the 
 
 card in his hand, which the young man, in his 
 
 exhilaration, had not noticed. 
 
 " Jack, you know why I 'm here. Oh, boy ! " 
 
 dropping his voice. 
 
 " Yes, I know." His face sobered. " I 'm 
 
 sorry. Uncle, but it can't be helped." 
 
 " Don't say that. Jack. Tell me the trouble, 
 
 Jack, I '11 set it straight." 
 
 "There's nothing to tell — only they think 
 
 differently in Pekin." 
 
 " What has become of that girl, Jack ? " 
 
 Jack blushed, 
 
 " I can't say, Uncle." 
 
 " Won't, you mean." 
 
 "If you care to put it that way." 
 
 " Don't you think you owe it to the girl to 
 
 stop that howling mob over there ? " 
 
 Jack put his hands in his pockets and dug his 
 
 heels in the turf. 
 
UNPOPULARITY 365 
 
 " Do vou know that thev 're dredging Martin's 
 pond and ransacking the timber ? " 
 Jack gave an insolent laugh. 
 " Don't laugh, Jack. It 's too horrible. But 
 don't think, bov, I don't trust you." 
 " Uncle, listen. The thing has got to go on 
 for all I can do. What I most feel is your 
 disappointment ; for, of course, I know the up- 
 shot of the whole matter. Put Pekin on a 
 moral scent, and she '11 bury her nose in mire. 
 Very well, let them have it." 
 " What do you mean to do ? " 
 "Just what I would have done in any case, 
 no more, no less." 
 
 Jack was not a person who needed to reiterate 
 his position. The squire urged no more. 
 "Very well. Jack. You know best," he said, 
 meekly. 
 
 "Don't think I 'm insensible to your coming 
 out here," Jack said, in a low voice, following 
 his uncle to the hitching-post. 
 His tone gave the squire new courage. 
 
366 JACK RACER 
 
 " Jack, if you have got into any sort of trouble — 
 that young woman — " falling into new em- 
 barrassment, " young men will be young 
 men — " 
 
 " If I get into a hole, Uncle, I '11 claim your 
 hand," the young man answered, calmly. 
 " You may be sure of that." 
 The squire jumped into his buggy and drove 
 away, feeling an untoward sense of shame. 
 To relieve himself he fell to abusing Pekin — 
 its rival lawyers and candidates, its finely-scented 
 nose for scandal, its unholy zeal in discovering 
 wrongdoing, its peculiar methods of punish- 
 ment. "Damned curious, hypocritical, co- 
 horting — " but there can be no profit in 
 following out the squire's train of thought, 
 although it was sweetly satisfactory and calm- 
 ing to his ruffled spirit. 
 
 Knowles preferred to remain behind and take 
 supper with young McCormick, who was still 
 on the fence ; and left Jack to go home alone. 
 Fancy took her own leisurely way, and Jack 
 
UNPOPULARITY 367 
 
 was not averse. The day had given him 
 sufficient food for thought. The squire had 
 refrained from telling Jack the details of the 
 uproar in town, but Jack had heard something 
 of it from a returned farmer. But as McCor- 
 mick's Run had no voice in the selection of a 
 justice, the story had not greatly appealed to 
 that neighborhood. 
 
 Jack felt it first like the lash of a whip. Chaff- 
 ing- with the farmers and mill-hands, a tumult 
 of thoughts raged through his brain. While 
 he was speaking, his manner still easy and 
 self-possessed, his speech clear-cut, his humor 
 adapting itself to the situation, above all he felt 
 his anger beat and rage, and finally sink into 
 weakness and silence. 
 
 When his uncle came. Jack was calm ; his 
 mind accepted the situation ; his anger was 
 gone. He now felt sad, inexpressibly sad, as 
 he drove slowly home. 
 
 As we know, he was not a young man 
 much given to retrospection, but he looked 
 
368 JACK RACER 
 
 back now and felt himself truly a creature of 
 fate. 
 
 Was this what he had intended ? He had set 
 about making himself worthy a bright young 
 creature, who some way had found a place in 
 his heart, and whom he now felt necessary to 
 any future he could conceive for himself. What 
 better motive could inspire any man ? he asked 
 himself; and at the thought he felt a warm 
 current thrill his body and illumine his face. 
 Then he had performed an act of self-sacrifice 
 to please his uncle. No one knew how great 
 a sacrifice it had been. But he had found a 
 certain pleasure in it, after all, and certainly 
 what appeared to be its results were gratifying. 
 And now this was the outcome. Pah ! A 
 vulgar story. He felt his new life defiled. He 
 had never troubled himself much before about 
 what people said of him. Now he felt stained. 
 "And others — what did they think?" 
 "She has heard it all. She has had to think — " 
 New ano-er stirred within him. He threw 
 
UNPOPULARITY 369 
 
 out his hand as if to ward oft' something, with 
 a man's manly impulse to shield those who are 
 dear to him from even the knowledge of evil — 
 to preserve the blush to the rose, the bloom 
 to the plum. He groaned in his impotence. 
 With a movement of despair he threw up his 
 head and afar, at the side of the road, saw two 
 figures. One, stift", elderly, carrying a basket, 
 walked sedately forward. The other, young 
 and lithe, swinging a tin pail, darted from side 
 to side among the brown grasses. 
 " A robin among the stubble," said Jack, and 
 quickly gathered up the idle lines. Fancy 
 bounded forward. As he approached. Jack 
 felt that he had yielded to a reckless impulse. 
 Why did he not stay in the background where 
 he belonged ? 
 
 Aunt Kiz turned her head. 
 " Oh ! It 's you," she said dryly. 
 " Yes. Can't I give you a lift ? " 
 " Well, no, hardly," she said, with a quick 
 resentment against Jack's buggy, which, as the 
 24 
 
370 JACK RACER 
 
 sceneof Miss Burke's tears, had figured some- 
 what largely, as we know, in the public mind. 
 "We 'rehuntin' butter and nestin' for eggs," 
 she said, recovering herself. Then, again with 
 her old wilfulness, — 
 
 " It seemed a good afternoon to come to the 
 country." 
 Jack flushed. 
 
 " At least, let me take your baskets, if you 
 won't come with me. They 're heavy. I 
 think you can trust me that far," not caring 
 to ignore her meaning. 
 
 Lucy was in advance, her arms full of the rich 
 spoils of the wayside, brown, red, purple, and 
 gold. Her heart was sore and she had not 
 cared to turn around. But now Aunt Kiz's 
 sharp words fell on her ear. 
 "Thank ye, all the same. Lucy and I can 
 carry our own burdens." 
 
 Going directly toward the buggy, Lucy held 
 up her bundle of grasses. 
 "If Jack will take these, I'm sure I'll be 
 
UNPOPULARITY 371 
 
 awfully obliged. Jack, will you ? " and con- 
 fidently laid her treasures at his feet. 
 Jack did not speak, but drewwells of comfort 
 from one downward glance into her eyes. 
 " You know I can send Billy to the stable 
 afterthem," she said, rejoining Aunt Kiz. And 
 he left them. 
 
 When Fancy was stalled Jack went directly to 
 his room. He had lost the exhilaration that 
 sustained the remainder of his drive. He had 
 never troubled himself deeply about his Aunt 
 George, but it seemed a sort of degradation 
 that even she might have heard the gossip of 
 Pekin. Many things had been kept from her, 
 he knew. He felt now no more fit to present 
 himself before her than if he had had on muddy 
 boots and Splashed trousers. " Mire is mire," 
 he said to himself. 
 
 Nor did he care to listen to the details of the 
 dragging of Martin's pond, prattled possibly by 
 his aunt in an unaccustomed attempt to be 
 angry. Without making a light he tossed him- 
 
372 JACK RACER 
 
 self on the lounge and bui'ied his face in the 
 pillows. 
 
 How long he lay there he did not know, evi- 
 dently he had been asleep. Now he heard a 
 creaking on the stairs; then the rustle of petti- 
 coats and an ominous scratch across the sole 
 of a shoe. A faint flicker, and the tiny flame 
 of a tallow candle sprang into life. 
 " Women, as I 'm a sinner." Jack, all his 
 senses now alert, sank back on the lounge, and 
 fortified his position bv the pillows behind which 
 he distinguished Miss Dyer and the faithful 
 Bergan. 
 
 Jack's sense of humor revived as he watched 
 them tiptoeing about his room, peering into 
 the closets, and — 
 
 " By Jove, under the bed ! After burglars ? " 
 he queried gleefully to himself. 
 All this time they had not spoken. Mrs. Ber- 
 gan had essayed several attempts, but Miss 
 Dyer held up a warning finger, and she swal- 
 lowed her words with a curious gurgle. 
 
UNPOPULARITY 373 
 
 At last they rested in their search, and sat 
 down in Jack's comfortable chairs. Miss 
 Dyer sniffed audibly at the luxury they repre- 
 sented, but Mrs. Bergan bounded up and down 
 in great contentment, then, flinging her body 
 around, buried her nose in the depths of her 
 chair. 
 
 "Leather!" she made silently with a great, 
 round mouth. 
 
 "Why don't ye speak out. Mis' Bergan, a- 
 makin' faces that 's redikilous to see." 
 " But ye tol' me not. I never met up with a 
 woman, S'manth, as is as onreasonable — " 
 " Tut ! There 's nobody here, as I 'd thought 
 you 'd a-seed. Wherever that poor girl may 
 be, if she 's on top of this yearth, she ain't 
 hyar." 
 
 Jack gave a prolonged, but silent, Oh-h-h ! 
 " As for him," Miss Dyer said, with emphasis, 
 " he 's soft-sawderin' up to McCormick's." 
 "Then I'd like to peek round a little, seein' 
 as we 're here." 
 
374 JACK RACER 
 
 "Ye '11 be none the better for it, Mis' Bergan, 
 
 mark my words," answered Miss Dyer, while 
 
 Mrs. Bergan was snuffing the waning candle 
 
 with her fingers. 
 
 " Well, I 've been a married woman, S'manth," 
 
 answered Mrs. Bergan, rising to those heights 
 
 which a married woman can always command, 
 
 "an' what mightn't be right or maidenly in a 
 
 girl like you, ain't goin' t' phase me." 
 
 " Rubbitch," answered Miss Dyer. " Bergan 's 
 
 been dead twenty year." 
 
 But Mrs. Bergan was on her way, tiptoeing 
 
 with a fine sense of fitness, her candle snuffed 
 
 and burning. Before Jack's well-fitted buffet 
 
 she paused and put down her light. Then, 
 
 taking out the stoppers she buried her nose in 
 
 each decanter, emitting at each a significant 
 
 and varied sniff. 
 
 " If ary one of us had a pain we could take a 
 
 nip," she said. 
 
 " I believe you 've a hankerin', Mis' Bergan," 
 
 Miss Dyer said sternly, from her chair. 
 
UNPOPULARITY 375 
 
 "Well, I 'm dry enough to dreen Jordan. I 'd 
 like to find a drink of water." 
 " Humph ! I don't s'pose Jack Racer ever 
 teches water. They do say Mis' George don't 
 drink it without a lump of ice. I know she's 
 got a big silver pitcher." 
 With a final sniff, iMrs. Bergan reluctantly 
 passed on, pausing to finger a silk quilt on the 
 foot of Jack's bed. Then she brought both 
 her eyes and candle to bear. 
 " Lined with Mis' George's secon' day dress. 
 You remember that sheeny yallerated purple 
 Turk satin, S'manth." 
 
 Carefully she steered her way among the chairs, 
 making side excursions to the wall where Jack's 
 highly-colored pictures made themselves seen 
 even in the light of a solitary tallow dip. 
 "Humph! I'll be bound, racin' critters goin' 
 lickety split." 
 
 She lifted her head, and, as if by a magnet, she 
 bore toward the adjoining wall, ashy horror 
 overspreading her face. 
 
376 JACK RACER 
 
 A glance, then she dashed toward Miss Dyer 
 musing in the depths of the leather chair, and 
 clutched her shoulder. 
 " It 's all true, every word of it 's true ! " 
 Miss Dyer sprang up. 
 
 " What is it ye 've found. Mis' Bergan ? Tell 
 me. Is it — is it — Blood?" Her voice sank 
 into a husky whisper. 
 
 Mrs. Bergan had hold of her arm, pulling 
 her to the wall, while the wobbling candle 
 in the other hand was dropping streams of 
 grease. 
 
 "Or is it a bit of one of her gyarments ? " 
 " It 's a shameless female, with nigh to nothin' 
 on, pintin' her leg most unnatcheral." 
 " An' you 've given me sich a start for a pict- 
 chur ? You are the beatenest woman ! " ex- 
 claimed Miss Dyer,justly angry at being jerked 
 back from the heels of a tragedy in such a 
 frivolous manner. 
 
 " But only look at her, S'manth, a-pintin' her 
 toe as easy as you 'd pint your ring finger." 
 
UNPOPULARITY 377 
 
 " It's nothin' but an ornen' circus woman." 
 " She 's a purty young thing, too." Mrs. Ber- 
 gan held the candle nearer. " May be she ain't 
 no mother. I s'pose she had to dress that way 
 or she could n't manage her toe." 
 " Mebbe, you '11 say, she had to have her 
 photograph took for Jack Racers to buy. Sich 
 conductions ! " 
 
 Mrs. Bergan became tenderly reminiscent. 
 " Many 's a time at home we girls tried to 
 touch the mantelpiece with our feet. Elviry 
 could do it easy, but I was allays stiff-knit. 
 Now I shouldn't be surprised if this girl thought 
 the photograph man had his head under the 
 black cloth an' did n't see her." 
 " An' he lookin' through the peep-hole all the 
 time, as she ought to a know'd." 
 A scratch of a match, a sudden light, and Jack 
 came forward with a lamp. The two women 
 were so absorbed that they heard nothing until 
 he stood by their side. The lamp seemed to 
 have the light of a central sun. 
 
378 JACK RACER 
 
 " Land a massy ! " exclaimed Mrs. Bergan, 
 letting her candle fall. 
 
 "Never mind," said Jack. "The lamp's 
 worth twenty candles. I 'm glad you find my 
 picture worth your notice. It 's Fanny Ellsler, 
 a famous dancer, you know, before you and I 
 were born, Miss Dyer." He bowed gallantly. 
 " But come, I have several other things quite 
 worth seeing. I don't often have ladies to 
 visit me and I 'm disposed to make the most 
 of it. Be careful of that stool, Mrs. Bergan." 
 The women, still too astonished to speak, fol- 
 lowed him silently. 
 
 "This is Eclipse, a famous racer. But — I 
 can't expect you to be interested in the turf. 
 Let me show you something better worth 
 your attention. Here is a sampler my grand- 
 mother worked. It was almost in tatters, 
 but I 've had it framed. Look at those funny 
 flower-pots. Here is her name. Step up 
 on the sofa, Mrs. Bergan ; you too. Miss 
 Dyer." 
 
UNPOPULARITY 379 
 
 The women climbed up obediently and bent 
 their noses to the faded stitches. 
 " Can you read it ? ' Elizabeth Campbell is 
 my name. Clermont County is my Dwelling 
 Place.' I can just remember her. I know 
 she saved me many a spanking. But perhaps 
 you think if I had had more spankings I 'd 
 have been a better chap." Miss Dyer essayed 
 to speak. " What, you must go ? Oh, don't 
 apologize. I am only too proud to have ladies 
 visit me under any circumstances. Let me 
 light you down." 
 
 In spite of Mrs. Bergan's waving hand, for she 
 had not yet found her tongue. Jack stepped 
 before them, lamp in hand, and preceded them 
 down the stairs. 
 
 He opened the door of the office and the women 
 stepped out. He followed them to the step. 
 The light of his lamp held high in his hand, 
 fell on a crowd of men, women, and children, 
 who had been waiting: there to hear the women 
 report. 
 
380 JACK RACER 
 
 Jack's eyes flashed fire. 
 
 " If any of you curs will come up into my 
 
 room, I will be glad to extend its hospitalities 
 
 to you — and then to pitch you out of the 
 
 window." 
 
 The men shrank back into the darkness and 
 
 he shut the door. 
 
CHAPTER TWENTY -FOUR 
 
XXIV 
 
 The Campbell Family " Stands By " Nobly 
 
 HE next morningushered in elec- 
 tion dav. Thehouseholderswere 
 up betimes. The men hurried 
 through their breakfasts to be 
 off, get their shutters opened, 
 shops swept, and goods disposed for thccountry 
 trade, which was always lively and matinal on 
 election day. 
 
 The women were no less in haste, darting in 
 and out of doors with pails of water which 
 they dashed over the front doorsteps and stone 
 flags. This was an essential ceremony. Here 
 they would in all probability sit and catch the 
 floating gossip of the street when obliged to 
 be at home. For, as has been intimated, there 
 was no etiquette in Pekin which forbade women 
 sallying forth on election day to learn what 
 
384 JACK RACER 
 
 was abroad. This, it seems, in a republic is 
 quite an ideal state of affairs. 
 To this early stir the George household was 
 an exception. After the cordial invitation 
 given to the men waiting for the descent of 
 Mrs. Bergan and Miss Dyer, Jack went up- 
 stairs in lighter spirits. He had filliped a stone. 
 He hoped it hurt somebody. The whole affair, 
 by his light, was so ridiculous that he longed 
 to share it with somebody. No, he could wait. 
 At least he would tell Sam and Will of the 
 women's visit. So he plunged his head in cold 
 water, refreshed his toilet, and sallied out into 
 the darkness as fresh and smiling as the morn 
 he would probably greet before he found his 
 bed. 
 
 Sam roared lustily over Jack's description of 
 the tiptoeing Bergan and the results of her 
 tour about his room. But Will, who we know 
 was a student of human nature, was more 
 than ever secretly impressed with Jack's char- 
 acter. In his view. Jack was dancing on the 
 
"STANDS BY" NOBLY 385 
 brink of a volcano. It interested him to see 
 this perilous feat. To be one of the intimates 
 of a fellow who could do this sort of thing 
 was a matter for gratulation. 
 The next morning Jack was not so mirthful. 
 He came in languidly to the late breakfast. 
 The squire wondered silently how Jack would 
 comport himself. Of course the game was 
 up, but would Jack admit it ? Again he was 
 at sea regarding his nephew, who appeared to 
 have springs of action altogether out of his 
 experience, which gave him a feeling of help- 
 lessness quite unusual to the masterful squire. 
 Mrs. George perceived nothing unusual in the 
 situation. 
 
 " ' Lo, the conquering hero comes,' " she said, 
 reaching for the coffee-pot. 
 Jack grimaced, and gave his uncle a comical 
 smile. 
 
 " Aunt George, if I 'm not elected I 'm com- 
 ing home to bury my face and cry in your 
 apron, as I used to when I stubbed my toe." 
 
 25 
 
386 JACK RACER 
 
 "Jack, you never were a boy to whimper! 
 Have you forgotten Amelia Maria ? " 
 " The squirrel ? Never." 
 " When Amelia Maria ran back to the timber 
 you did come in with big tears and laid your head 
 in my lap. I tried to cheer you, and you said: 
 ' It did n't love me, or it would n't have run 
 away,' then burst into tears." 
 " Poor little chap. 1 'm sensitive to that sort 
 of thing now." 
 
 Mrs. George easily strayed along by any con- 
 versational thread. As Jack seemed disposed 
 to encourage her, the squire got up from the 
 table. In the face of staring facts he was in 
 no mood for such fooling. 
 " Jack, where will I meet you ? " he asked, 
 thinking he might venture that far to discover 
 his nephew's intentions. 
 
 " I '11 be about as usual. Uncle," answering 
 what he understood to be his uncle's desire. 
 " I '11 lend the moral support of my presence. 
 That seems about all that can be done." 
 
"STANDS BY" NOBLY 387 
 The squire took his resolution by both hands. 
 " It isn't too late yet, Jack, to — " 
 Jack held up one hand, and averted his face. 
 The squire said no more, but started down the 
 walk, wishing he had held his speech. 
 Jack's intentions were, in fact, not clearly out- 
 lined in his own mind. He knew he meant 
 to be about as usual. That of course. But 
 he felt unusually shy at exposing his presence 
 in the Pekin streets. He sat still for some 
 minutes ; then rose hastily with a cheery word, 
 and bent his brow to his aunt's lips. 
 " For good luck," he said. 
 " What can a woman's kiss do. Jack ? " she 
 asked, with a gratified flush. 
 "What?" exclaimed the young man, in genuine 
 astonishment. " It can make the world go 
 round. Unluckily, you little women don't 
 know it." 
 
 At length he sauntered forth, stopping to put 
 a late-blooming aster in his buttonhole. In 
 Pekin a man did not wear flowers in his but- 
 
388 JACK RACER 
 
 tonhole unless he was going to be married or 
 to assist at some such festal occasion. Jack's 
 posy now gave the usual jaunty air to his ap- 
 pearance. But, in fact, his mood was quite 
 subdued. 
 
 As he walked along, he saw without looking, 
 women run to the windows, peep out curiously, 
 and draw hastily back behind the altheas and 
 sweetbriers. The children stopped playing and 
 looked at him silently, then began to whisper 
 behind their hands. The girls going home 
 from early shopping, with cambric or beef- 
 steak in brown paper parcels, nodded shyly 
 and passed on. He felt sure they turned and 
 looked at him, and felt shivering chills run up 
 his spine. 
 
 " I feel as if I had lost my wife or had just 
 come home from New York," he laughed to 
 himself. 
 
 The polls had long been open. Groups of 
 men stood on the corners and upheld the trees. 
 Attached to one of these was Jake Durstine, 
 
''STANDS BY" NOBLY 389 
 
 who, seeing Jack approach, hastily came for- 
 ward. 
 
 Jack was touched bv Jake's eager effort to 
 show his friendship. The other men looked 
 shamefaced and Jack knew he had been under 
 discussion. Embarrassment sat even on Jake's 
 face, red with the combined efforts of the 
 weather and many juleps, and standing out 
 against the background of sallow faces of Pekin 
 proper. 
 
 " Good morning, Jake. Good morning, gentle- 
 men." 
 
 « Mornin', Jack." 
 
 "Mornin'." The men shuffled further back, 
 and two edged behind the tree. 
 " Voting pretty brisk ? " 
 
 " Lively a poll as ever I see. Limecooly's 
 peddlin' out your tickets." 
 "I'm safer in Sam's hands than my own. 
 I've washed mine," with an airy gesture. 
 The men looked at the white, slim, well-kept 
 hands, until Jack stowed them in his pockets 
 to cut off their oraze. 
 
390 JACK RACER 
 
 "Old Martin's buzzin' about since five 
 
 o'clock." 
 
 " He'll get the shakes, and want me to pay 
 
 his doctor bills," said Jack. 
 
 " There 's his shay now," exclaimed one of 
 
 the men. 
 
 "Who's he got?" 
 
 " It 's ol' Jess Lemmons. He 's been down 
 
 two months with neurology of the nerves." 
 
 " Why, Jess, he 's a psalm-singer. They don't 
 
 take no interest in politics." 
 
 •■'It's the wimmen, his sisters. They wuship 
 
 with the Methodis'. The parson teched up 
 
 their duties Sunday night." 
 
 "So Lizy Ann said. I stayed home with the 
 
 children. She 's all full of it." 
 
 "Females come out strong in a moral crisis." 
 
 " My ol' woman 's druv me nearly wild 'bout 
 
 the ' responsibilities of householders.' It 's my 
 
 opinion them preachers lie awake to git hold 
 
 o' catchin' words to hook in the wimmen's 
 
 ears like earbobs." 
 
"STANDS BY" NOBLY 391 
 
 The two men defended by the tree regained 
 
 their speech, and in the fertility of the subject 
 
 forgot Jack's presence. 
 
 " The vvimmen are dead agin you, Jack," said 
 
 Jake. 
 
 "Yes. That's what hits me, Jake. I'd rather 
 
 be laid out by the men." 
 
 " 'Zactly. No man wants to be kicked by a 
 
 mule," answered Jake, who was a bachelor. 
 
 Jack laughed. 
 
 "That was n't mv idea, Jake. As thev know 
 
 the course, a string of women will run pretty 
 
 straight." 
 
 The two men, perceiving thev were overheard, 
 
 sidled away with vague excuses of haste. 
 
 " Pore creeturs. Ain't either of 'em wuth 
 
 shucks. They say Ab buttons the children's 
 
 clothes mornin's. I see him myself milkin'," 
 
 concluded Jake, with a sniff of scorn for such 
 
 unmanly acts. 
 
 Jack walked along the street in a leisurely way, 
 
 and saw with amusement, tempered by various 
 
392 JACK RACER 
 
 and less exhilarating emotions, how quickly his 
 presence scattered a knot of men. 
 He felt himself to be in quite his usual man- 
 ner. His cheery voice, his readiness to allude 
 to the business and probabilities of the day, 
 struck him as the right note. 
 "What the hang do they slink away for? I 
 don't care a picayune how they voted." 
 It was this cheerful acceptance of the situation 
 that was most embarrassing. In Pekin it was 
 not customary to conceal one's feelings. Dif- 
 ferences of opinion were likely to become 
 personal grievances, and to be followed by or- 
 ganized silence. Who should speak first was 
 left to accident, sometimes long delayed after 
 the smart had healed. 
 
 Jack's conduct threw Pekin out of its reckon- 
 ing, and placed it, although acting from a high 
 moral standpoint, somehow unaccountably in 
 the wrong. The men commented on it after 
 they left him, and began to make excuses one 
 to another for their actions. These sounded 
 
"STANDS BY" NOBLY 393 
 nobly, but each went his way dissatisfied and 
 unconvinced. 
 
 Jack now sat on a store box alone, cutting into 
 it with great zeal and a show of absorbing 
 occupation. 
 
 A small boy stood off a short distance, looking 
 at him. Still without Jack's seeing him, he 
 came up closer. Wrenching off a piece of a 
 root he was chewing, he held it out in a friendly 
 way. 
 
 " Have a piece of lickerish root. Jack ? " 
 " Billy Campbell ! " the young man exclaimed, 
 with an odd gulp in his throat. For an instant 
 he realized his isolation. 
 
 " Come." He stuck out his boot and swune 
 Billy on to the box beside him. 
 There seemed to be a moment of embarrass- 
 ment for both. Jack went on with his whittling, 
 but his heart felt cheerier. 
 Billy watched him silently for some minutes. 
 " I know that letter you 're makin'. It 's L." 
 Jack gave a wide sweep with his knife. 
 
394 JACK RACER 
 
 " It 's going to be a B for Billy." 
 
 " An' if the boys say ' Fools' names, ' you 
 
 know, to me, I '11 kick 'em." 
 
 " Oh, I mus'n't help to break the peace," Jack 
 
 laughed, and shaved away the letter. 
 
 Billy looked at him anxiously for someminutes, 
 
 then spoke. 
 
 " Jack, we voted your ticket this mornin'." 
 
 " I knew I could depend on you every time." 
 
 " But it was a squally time, I can tell you," 
 
 he said, confidentially. " Aunt Kiz has jus' 
 
 been churnin' aroun' the house for two days. 
 
 An' this mornin' she tol' father he 'd got to 
 
 go an' vote for Jack Racer, or she 'd know 
 
 the reason why. Father said he allays meant 
 
 to, but he was n't goin' to be bullyragged by a 
 
 woman, an' he did n't know whether he would 
 
 or not. Then mother tried to dast him, but 
 
 her jaws was tied up so tight she could n' 
 
 speak." 
 
 " And Lucy, what did she say ? " Jack dug 
 
 harder into the wood than ever. 
 
"STANDS BY" NOBLY 395 
 " Oh, Lucy ain't any account in a row," said 
 Billy, with some contempt. "She jus' opens 
 her eyes an' looks at you like our old cow. 
 But, Jack, I went with father to see what he 'd 
 do, an' he jus' sung out : ' Give me Racer's 
 ticket,' an' chucked it into the box." 
 " Then I 'm as good as elected, Billy." 
 Billy looked grave. 
 
 " You don' want to be squire very bad, do 
 you. Jack ? " 
 
 " Why not, Billy ? " Billy thought a moment. 
 " You '11 have to hear a lot of cussin' from 
 bad men." 
 Jack laughed. 
 
 " You are letting me down easily, Billy." 
 Billy did not understand, but he was not a 
 boy to announce the fact. His face sobered 
 again. Jack returned to his knife, and Billy 
 lifted his eyes and appeared to study the young 
 man curiously, stretching his neck to see Jack's 
 back, and running his eyes down Jack's trouser- 
 legs. 
 
396 JACK RACER 
 
 Finally, impelled by some underlying curiosity, 
 he spoke. 
 
 "Jack, when men don't like ladies what do 
 they do with them ? " 
 
 " Billy, men always like ladies," Jack an- 
 swered, gravely. 
 Billy hesitated a moment. 
 "Bob Wally says they cut 'em up, and — " 
 " Good God ! " Jack sprang off the box. 
 " Shut up, you imp. At least the babes and 
 sucklings might be spared," he exclaimed, des- 
 perately. " Billy, look at me. Look at me 
 straight in the eyes." The boy lifted his 
 freckled face, his stubbed nose, and honest gray 
 eyes. "There, now. Go about your busi- 
 ness." 
 
 Billy stole his hand into Jack's palm. The 
 young man smiled, but his eyes grew misty. 
 " It 's all right, Billy. Now, skip." 
 Billybounded away, assured andlighterof heart. 
 Jack watched him, his mobile features now 
 grown hard. Then, shaking himself with an 
 
"STANDS BY" NOBLY 397 
 oath, he went to Sam's room over the store, 
 which had served him as political headquarters 
 during this momentous campaign. 
 He sat down at a table and pulled over the 
 electioneering documents — the political tracts 
 and the flaming handbillsbearing his own name. 
 Strewn about were clippings from the country 
 newspapers. He read with new interest ac- 
 counts of his impressive oratory, of his distin- 
 guished appearance, of the importance of his 
 family, of his wealth, his social attractions. 
 Adjectives were truly not spared to set him 
 forth. Sitting now here alone, having dis- 
 solved every group that he had come in con- 
 tact with that day with the rapidity of an active 
 chemical, the contrast struck him like a blow. 
 Then he burst into a loud laugh. 
 " Bv Zux, if I am so soon done for, I wonder 
 why I was begun for." 
 
 He jumped up and strode up and down the 
 room. 
 " Fate seems to be making a highly distin- 
 
398 JACK RACER 
 
 guished fool of herself," he said, with unusual 
 discourtesy to the sex. "I'd like to see her 
 photograph when she comes to her senses," 
 His face cleared, he began to whistle " Wait 
 Till The Clouds Roll By," and went again 
 into the street. 
 
 " I verily believe I 'm hungry," feeling himself 
 normal again. He looked at his watch. The 
 George dinner hour had gone by. 
 "First I '11 pay myself the compliment of vot- 
 ing and then I '11 invade an oyster parlor." 
 
CHAPTER TWENTY- FIVE 
 
XXV 
 
 Important News Comes Too Late 
 
 HERE were but few loiterers 
 around the polls. The busi- 
 ness of voting had been done 
 I early in the morning. Then 
 ' the air was full of excitement. 
 Now, perhaps aided by the noon dinner, — heavy 
 dumplings and unlimited pie, — a languid and 
 depressing calmness hung over the scene. 
 The men giving out the ballots seemed to be 
 too busy with their affairs inside to look upas 
 Jack passed by. 
 
 He smiled softly to himself, and did not dis- 
 turb them. 
 
 As he slipped his ballot in the box, one of the 
 inspectors took occasion to remark politely ; 
 " We are having fine weather. Jack," 
 26 
 
402 JACK RACER 
 
 " Yes," answered Jack. " But I should n't 
 be surprised if the weather changed." 
 Their voices seemed phenomenally clear, and 
 their remarks full of weight. 
 Jack smiled again to himself, and went out 
 into the street. 
 
 The dishes were washed, and women in after- 
 noon calicoes and clean white aprons came 
 sallying out of gates. Up the street a group 
 of girls were talking in the shadow of a tree. 
 Among them Jack recognized Anna Ross. 
 They had seen him and were in animated and, 
 as he approached them, embarrassingdiscussion. 
 Two of the girls hastened away. Anna's face 
 was red. 
 
 "Blood on the moon ! She has been giving 
 somebody a dressing," Jack thought. 
 The girls drew shyly back against the fence, 
 but Anna intercepted him. 
 " How lucky, Jack. I'm going your way." 
 Jack lifted his hat, but Anna, deigning no 
 word of farewell to her companions, marched 
 at his side. 
 
IMPORTANT NEWS 403 
 They walked on for some mijiutes without 
 speaking, Jack too languid, Anna too intent on 
 her intentions. She had the step of a grenadier 
 and carried her head at an angle eloquent of 
 defiance and disdain. 
 
 " I want to go down pumpway and see if my 
 ' Designer ' has come," alluding to a gazette 
 of fashion by which the Pekin styles were reg- 
 ulated. 
 
 When this was accomplished she again broke 
 silence. 
 
 " If you have n't anything better to do, Jack, 
 come help me do my errands." 
 " Yours," he said. " I don't seem to be in 
 demand." 
 
 Anna's errands cropped up like dragon's teeth. 
 Jack found himself strolling through all the 
 worthier parts of the town. The women sit- 
 ting on the steps found sudden calls indoors 
 as they approached. At such moments, Anna 
 broke into sudden gayety andheld herheadaloft. 
 " I feel like a dancing bear," thought Jack. 
 
404 JACK RACER 
 
 " I seem to scare the children," but he was at the 
 same time amused and touched at Anna's pluck. 
 " I 'm going now to Sam Limecooly's store to 
 buy mc a gingham apron." 
 " I '11 help you to choose it. Sam will con- 
 sider it a delicate attention if I drop in and 
 ask how the election is going. Headquarters 
 are in his loft." 
 
 Anna hesitated, but did not venture to speak. 
 Instead, she was glad to cry out : 
 " There comes Amzi. He has his linen duster 
 on. He must have been on the cars." 
 Amzi waved a carpet-bag and hurried to meet 
 them. His face shone with heat and anticipa- 
 tion. 
 
 '' Howdy, both of you ? " 
 ''Where 've you been, Amzi?" Anna de- 
 manded. 
 
 "■ Just from Potsdam. Jack, I mean to get 
 one in for you yet." 
 
 " There 's no hurry, my boy. The rush is 
 over." 
 
IMPORTANT NEWS 405 
 " What did you go to Potsdam for, Amzi ? " 
 Anna returned to the charge. 
 " A matter of business. I just clipped over 
 on the owl, Saturday night." 
 " You went to take some girl to meetin'." 
 " I carried mother's hymn-book then. She 's 
 visitin' Peninnah Lewis there. But if you 
 want news, Anna, I've brung it." 
 The irradiation of Amzi's face increased. 
 There was no doubt about the importance 
 of his tidings. He could afford to delay a 
 little. 
 
 " Yes," he said, sitting on the edge of a store 
 box, braced by his feet, and carefully wrapping 
 his long linen duster around his legs. " Yes, 
 siree, I 'm the man in possession of news. 
 Now where do you think I was last night ? 
 Put on your guessin' caps now, will you?" 
 slapping his right leg and readjusting his dust- 
 coat. 
 
 " Wait a minute, Amzi. Here come Sam 
 and Will. Paralyze us altogether." 
 
4o6 JACK RACER 
 
 The two young men came out of the store 
 
 with melancholy step. 
 
 " Hurry, boys. Amzi 's got a bomb, an' we '11 
 
 all go off together." 
 
 "Hurryyourgreat-grandmother,"growledSam. 
 
 " News, Amzi ? " Will's face brightened. 
 
 " I was at Potsdam last night, boys, and where 
 
 do you think I went ? " Amzi looks all around, 
 
 in smiling defiance. 
 
 " I went to the Cantata." 
 
 " Ah — h — h ! " groaned his audience, and 
 
 Jack shifted his position. 
 
 '*• Oh, I 'm not done. Who do you think I 
 
 saw there ? " 
 
 " Old Stivers." 
 
 "The Haughty Haman." 
 
 " Yes," exclaimed Amzi, nodding his head, 
 
 " and I saw somebody else — Miss Camille 
 
 Lamar." This with the air of a man who 
 
 has yet in reserve. 
 
 " By Zux ! Then that telegram did n't catch 
 
 her," Jack exclaimed. 
 
IMPORTANT NEWS 407 
 The threeturned to him. His face was clouded 
 with anxiety. 
 
 " But," continued Amzi, not pleased with the 
 interruption, " who is Aliss Camille Lamar ? 
 There I have you." 
 
 " The prettiest girl in Potsdam," said Will. 
 " And old Stivers had his arm around her," 
 Sam added. 
 
 " Rene Burke." Amzi's bomb had exploded. 
 Anna gave a little cry. To Amzi's surprise, 
 his audience wheeled around to Jack, who was 
 grinding his heel in thought. 
 " You knew this ? " asked Sam. 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Why in the dickens did n't you tell it ? " 
 " It did n't occur to me." 
 Amzi was aggrieved. He knew his news was 
 interesting, and he had rehearsed the telling of 
 it in the cars. To be thus despoiled of his 
 triumph was bitter. He began to grow 
 sullen. 
 
 " Oh," said he to the group still absorbed in 
 
4o8 JACK RACER 
 
 the silent youngman, "if youall know so much, 
 
 I'd a' better — " 
 
 " Don't be a fool," said Anna, amicably, 
 
 "Why in the name of common sense did n't 
 
 you come home last night on the owl ? " Sam 
 
 turned to him angrily. 
 
 " Yes, Amzi, you should have come home last 
 
 night ; then we could have struck off posters," 
 
 added Will. 
 
 Jack laughed aloud at this. 
 
 " Will, I 'd have given a dollar to have read 
 
 one." 
 
 " Well, if I 'm to be bullied and kept out of 
 
 all this — " 
 
 Amzi took his legs from out his duster. 
 
 " Sit down, silly." Anna pushed him gently. 
 
 " Hold, Amzi. Was there anybody with you 
 
 when you saw Miss Burke ? " asked Jack. 
 
 "Yes. Doc Dennis, and if you don't believe 
 
 me, you can ask him." 
 
 " Amzi, you are old Truth from Truthville. 
 
 We can't head Doc off. I 've no more to say." 
 
IMPORTANT NEWS 409 
 " Jack, you don't mean to screen her anv 
 longer ? " 
 
 " I don't mean anything, Anna. The em- 
 bar2;o's raised, whether I will or no." 
 " Now, fellows, this ain't fair. I 've told you 
 everything." Amzi rose to demand his rights. 
 "Stay, I don't want to hear it. Sam, this has 
 been hard on you, old fellow. I 'm not insen- 
 sible." And Jack ran upstairs, leaving Will 
 agape with admiration, and Amzi and Anna 
 confidentiallv seated on the store box. 
 Jack felt relieved. He walked briskly about 
 the lonelv headquarters and among the mock- 
 ing campaign documents, whistling a merry 
 tune. Then he checked himself. 
 " I 'd have kept it if I could," he said, as if in 
 reproach. 
 
 As he mused, his uncle entered. Jack awaited 
 him with a smile, but the squire's brow was 
 heavy. 
 
 " They tell me that Burke girl has run off with 
 that singing jack." 
 
410 JACK RACER 
 
 "That's putting it rather steep." 
 " And you knew it all the time ! " 
 " Not all the time." 
 
 " Well, what part of the time ? — If you '11 be 
 good enough to explain." 
 "When Knowles and I were campaigning, I 
 saw Stivers's posters. From — from something 
 I knew," — the young man hesitated — "I 
 concluded Miss Camille Lamar was one of 
 Rene's whims. It wasn't my place to sow it 
 broadcast." 
 
 "But when that telegram came, sir, it was your 
 duty to her mother." 
 
 " I did all I could. I drove to Sparta and tele- 
 graphed her on Sunday, but I 'm deucedly afraid 
 she did n't get it. By the way, have you heard 
 how her mother is ? " 
 
 " I don't know and I don't care. Jack, you 've 
 sacrificed us all. As pretty an election as ever 
 I saw has been thrown away for that hussy." 
 " Don't call names. Rene 's a good enough 
 sort, Uncle. But she can take care of her- 
 
IMPORTANT NEWS 4TI 
 self. I don't know but she'd enjoy this breeze. 
 I did n't hold mv tongue for her." 
 " Then will you please to tell me the mean- 
 ing of all this quixotic business.'' I 'm blamed 
 if I know." 
 
 " This freak of Rene's may all come to an end, 
 and Stivers's wife is in town. It would be rather 
 hard on her, you see." 
 " \Vhat ! " roared the squire. 
 He could understand some sacrifice for that 
 handsome creature, Miss Burke. 
 "What! For that little, washed-out, straw- 
 colored woman ! Oh, Jack," he groaned in 
 disgust. Then without further words, he 
 turned on his heel and left the room. 
 Jack was once more alone. 
 
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 
 
XXVI 
 
 Pekin Changes Its Mind and Lucy Discloses 
 Hers 
 
 (HERE was to be a bonfire that 
 evening in front of the Martin 
 residence to celebrate the tri- 
 umph of the Martin son-in-law. 
 I The Martin residence was at 
 the edge of town, the farm 
 stretching backward. In that direction all 
 Pekin streamed after supper was over, and bv 
 seven o'clock the town was silent and deserted. 
 This argued nothing so far as Jack was con- 
 cerned. Partisanship in Pekin could never 
 have gone that far. If the feather of fortune 
 had waved the other way and Squire George 
 had built the bonfire, possibly the immediate 
 Martin family might not have basked in its 
 light, but the cousins and outer circle of rela- 
 
4i6 JACK RACER 
 
 tives, and all the voters of the Martin ticket, 
 would have been just as promptly on hand. 
 The turn of the tide in Jack's favor had been 
 immediate. AsSam had intimated, if Amzi had 
 come home on an earlier train, Jack would 
 have swept the town. As it was, before the 
 kettles were put on for the early Pekin supper, 
 the town was in possession of the facts. Men 
 dropped in the stores and stood on corners to 
 discuss them. Women made excuses to bor- 
 row eggs and tea of their neighbors to get a 
 word, and to compare intelligence. 
 As Jack went home to supper he perceived 
 that Pekin no longer averted its face. People 
 went out of their way to speak to him. Men 
 tried to be jocular, as if nothing had happened. 
 The girls nodded shyly but eagerly, and with 
 smiles. The women ran to the windows and 
 pushed aside the sweetbriers and multiflora. 
 Jack was amused, but presented the same ap- 
 pearance of easy unconcern. 
 He had much coddling at home from his Aunt 
 
PEKIN CHANGES ITS MIND 417 
 George. She knew nothing of the Miss Burke 
 episode, it not being the custom of cither Squire 
 George or Jack to acquaint her with the un- 
 fragrant gossip of the place. But she knew 
 that Jack had run behind his ticket. From 
 having a husband in politics, she had long known 
 that to run behind the ticket was an unspeak- 
 able disgrace. Squire George had language 
 scarcely strong enough, in her presence, to ex- 
 press his contempt for such a man. He had 
 not so expressed himself to-day, but his reti- 
 cence, she believed, was due to the nearness of 
 the connection. The truth was that Squire 
 George, on reflection, felt this to be atoned for 
 by Jack's attitude. He saw in it a certain 
 heroic aspect, although it was prompted by 
 meek little Mrs. Stivers instead of the hand- 
 some Miss Burke. 
 
 Mrs. George's tender ministrations were more 
 than usually grateful to Jack. The day had 
 told on his spirits. The sense of isolation 
 which he had felt, he seemed now to feel even 
 27 
 
4i8 JACK RACER 
 
 more keenly that it was past. After all, he 
 had been acting a part. He had cared. His 
 unconcern was assumed. Although he knew 
 it would come right in the end, his philosophy 
 had been pumped from unwilling depths, and 
 his constitution felt the strain. 
 He had no resentment, but his soul was weary. 
 The patter, patter, of his aunt's placid sym- 
 pathy fell on his heart like honey-dew. 
 " Oh, Aunt George, why can't women learn 
 what they might be to men ! " 
 He lifted his head and looked into her face, 
 his eyes shining through their mists. 
 A deep, unsatisfied thirst sprang up in his heart. 
 Then a blinding hope passed over him. 
 He sprang up, and laid his lips on his aunt's 
 brow. 
 
 " How sweet and good you are," he said, and 
 went out. 
 
 Moved to action by his vague longings, Jack 
 believed himself to be wandering aimlessly 
 through the silent streets, now lighted only by 
 
PEKIN CHANGES ITS MIND 419 
 the stars set in the deep blue of the November 
 night. But these, as hunger and thirst to an 
 animal, guided him with the directness of a 
 conscious purpose. 
 
 Among the apple-boughs still waving a few 
 withered leaves in the soft breeze, he saw a 
 ruddy glow. Nearer it showed in bars of 
 light through the cracks of a fence. 
 The fence was high, but not unkind. Look- 
 ing through its rifts, Jack saw a large copper 
 kettle swung across a pole from tree to tree. 
 Under the kettle was a fire of chips and broken 
 boughs, light wood that leaped into flame and 
 with long tongues licked the kettle's sides. 
 Before the kettle, like a young priestess, Lucy 
 stood. She held in her hand a long stick, 
 making magic circles in the kettle's depths. 
 Then, resting the stick, she fed the fire with 
 heaping hands from a basket standing near. 
 The flames lighted up her face and disco\ered 
 its happy, peaceful smiles. 
 Jack leaped the fence and went towards her. 
 
420 JACK RACER 
 
 She dropped her stick with a little start, and 
 
 came forward. 
 
 " Ah, you are smiling, Lucy. You are happy 
 
 — and to-day," he exclaimed in reproach which 
 
 his face denied. 
 
 '*You are smiling yourself. Jack." 
 
 He took her hand, and they walked slowly 
 
 back to the radius of the fire. 
 
 " Then you are not assisting at the Martin 
 
 jubilee ? " 
 
 " No," she exclaimed, indignantly, with a flash 
 
 of her blue eyes. 
 
 Jack laughed with glee. 
 
 " Oh, I 'm a vain wretch," he said. 
 
 *■'■ Besides, I have to finish the apple butter," 
 
 she added. 
 
 " Hail apple butter, ambrosia of my days of 
 
 innocence ! But must you stir it all the time ? " 
 
 questioned the young man, dragging up the 
 
 old settee. 
 
 " All the time. This is the anxious moment. 
 
 You can feed the fire." 
 
PEKIN CHANGES ITS MIND 421 
 Jack brought the basket of chips in front of 
 him, and began to supply the fire with measured 
 hand, while the wand revolved in Lucy's hand. 
 Such is the transforming effect of states of 
 mind on any employment that to Jack this 
 throwing chips on a fire seemed an occupation 
 full of idyllic charm. Under its soothing in- 
 fluence his worn and perturbed spirit gathered 
 new strength and definite self-assertion. 
 " I wish I had four legs, like a cow." A small 
 figure loomed up in the firelight. " Then I 
 would n't get so tired. Jack, sit over a little, 
 won't you ? " 
 
 " Oh, it 's you, is it ? " said Jack, severely. 
 "■' Where have you been ? " 
 Billy looked at him cautiously out of the cor- 
 ner of his eye, and answered with reluctance : 
 " Well, I 've been up to see the bonfire." 
 " I thought as much." 
 
 " It was an ugly old bonfire anyway. Jus' 
 some old ramshackle barrels, and green w^ood 
 and dirty boards." 
 
422 JACK RACER 
 
 " I don't think it 's very polite of you, after 
 
 enjoying Squire Martin's blaze, to talk about 
 
 it in that way," continued Jack, with unabated 
 
 severity. 
 
 " ' Little boys,' that 's what Squire Martin said, 
 
 ' you can jus' run round to the barnyard and 
 
 bring more boards ! ' Well, I was n't carryin' 
 
 boards for Martin's bonfire, so I jus' struck off 
 
 for home." 
 
 " Lucy and I have a little bonfire of our own. 
 
 Shall we share it with Billy ? " 
 
 Lucy nodded. 
 
 " That means you can stir the apple butter," 
 
 said the astute young man. 
 
 "No, no ! " cried Lucy. 
 
 " Oh, let me help, Lucy ! " — Billy slipped 
 
 down from his seat. " I 'm not a bit tired." 
 
 " No, you 'II burn it." 
 
 " Burn it ! I would n't burn it for a party. 
 
 I 've got to eat a lot of that apple butter this 
 
 winter and I jus' guess 1 'm not going to let 
 
 it burn. Please, Lucy." 
 
PEKIN CHANGES ITS xMIND 423 
 " Please Lucv," pleaded Jack. 
 " Then, Lucy, you can set down like a queen. 
 Jack, do queens speak to people ? " Billy 
 asked, with sudden thirst for information. 
 " People, what people ? " making way forLucy, 
 still hesitating, while Billy held her stick. 
 " Oh, people like you and Lucy." 
 " They always speak to me. As for Lucy, 
 she speaks first." 
 
 " Billy, you can't reach the bottom standing 
 on the ground," said Lucy, still anxious. 
 " I '11 stand on the bucket." 
 " No. I '11 run and get a soap box." She 
 ran quickly down the path to the house. 
 " It always takes two to get a soap box,"Jack 
 said, and followed her, a gleam of white among 
 the shadows. He leaned against a tree inter- 
 cepting the path, to watch her. She had 
 missed her search, and with a light, darting 
 movement, came toward him, unawares. Jack 
 opened his arms and she was imprisoned in 
 his embrace. 
 
424 JACK RACER 
 
 " Ah ! " he exclaimed, with a note of triumph 
 as of joy, " You came to me yourself, Lucy. 
 After all, you came to me yourself. My love, 
 my love ! " 
 
 For the moment she remained motionless, like 
 a bird imprisoned in the hand, then moved in 
 his arms as v^ith softly fluttering wings. 
 " For months I have circled about you, long- 
 ing but not daring to touch the hem of your 
 garment," pressing her against his breast. 
 " Mine ? mine? " she murmured. 
 " Ah, dear, you cannot think how humble a 
 man feels in the presence of adorable woman- 
 hood. But you have come to me yourself. I 
 hold you in my arms at last, at last, oh, my 
 dear love ! " 
 
 Still struggling to release herself, she said : 
 " I came to you by chance, but it is you who 
 detain me." 
 His arms fell. 
 
 " Dear, I obey your lightest breath. But you 
 cannot leave me now. It is not for this I have 
 
PEKIN CHANGES ITS MIND 425 
 
 pressed you against my heart. I have longed 
 for you so. You will not leave me now," he 
 entreated. 
 
 She stood before him with clasped hands, ir- 
 resolute. 
 
 " Is it because you don't trust me ? You have 
 believed what they said ? " 
 " No, no. Jack. I knew you. It was impos- 
 sible," she smiled, with half-closed eyes. 
 " It was impossible, Lucy, because I lovedyou." 
 "You loved me, Jack, then ? " 
 " I cannot tell when I did not love you. 
 But how could I disturb your sweet serenity ? 
 I loved vou so I would not trust you with my- 
 self. If I could not make you happy, I would 
 not make you unhappy." 
 
 She came toward him now, and, taking his 
 arms, wound them about her. 
 " Jack, how little men know women. We 
 would rather suffer near than be happy afar." 
 She turned her sweet face up towards his and 
 he covered it with kisses. 
 
426 JACK RACER 
 
 " My darling, my darling ! If I had been scal- 
 ing the ramparts of heaven I could not have had 
 a diviner impulse than when I climbed that 
 fence." 
 
 Billy, who had stood manfully at his post on 
 the upturned bucket, had realized the necessity 
 of feeding the waning fire. He had done this 
 with his usual zeal, and the flames shot high. 
 " Oh, Jack, the apple butter ! I forgot ! " 
 " I love you all the more, dear, for remember- 
 ing the apple butter," answered Jack ecstatic- 
 ally, and with his arm about her they sped 
 down the path. 
 
 Billy was on his pail again, but the wavering 
 movement of the stick was eloquent of his 
 tired arms. This he would not admit. 
 " I ain't a bit tired. But you look mighty 
 funny. I wasn't a hurryin' you," he said, 
 glancing at Jack's misplaced arm. 
 Jack threw his head back and laughed. 
 " Billy, Lucy is mine now." 
 " For never 'n' never? " 
 
PEKIN CHANGES ITS MIND 427 
 
 " For good and aye." 
 
 " Why could n't you have asked her before 
 me ? " 
 
 " I was afraid she would n't have me." 
 " Yes, she would," he said confidently. 
 " How do you know ? " 
 " Because she always stuck up for you so." 
 " What did she say ? Tell me every word 
 Billy." 
 
 " She did n't say anything. She jus' stuck. 
 You always did like our family purty well, 
 did n't you ? " 
 
 "Yes, Lucy first, and you next. We'll be 
 like brothers now." 
 
 "No. Lucy is my cousin. You'll be my 
 cousin. Cousinscangit purty thick — and drive 
 one another's horses," added Billy, thought- 
 fully. 
 
 " Sure enough, and you must have a pony," re- 
 plied Jack, in the generosity of his happiness. 
 " There, it is done," said Lucy. Together 
 thev swung the pot from its moorings. 
 
428 JACK RACER 
 
 " You owe no divided allegiance now. Come." 
 
 Jack led her to the settee and sat down on the 
 
 upturned pail at her feet. 
 
 Billy was stretched out on the settee at full 
 
 length, but he carefully got himself down. 
 
 " You an' Lucy can hoi' hands and I '11 burn 
 
 up the rest of the chips," he said politely, and 
 
 with consideration. 
 
 Jack took both of her hands in his and bent 
 
 over them. 
 
 " Will you have to do whatever she asks ? " 
 
 inquired Billy, intent on piling up the blazing 
 
 chips, and without turning. 
 
 " Yes, and I expect you to do it." 
 
 " Oh, that 's nothing. She does n't ask much." 
 
 " There you are, you limb," exclaimed a voice 
 
 from the kitchen door. "You 've scared me 
 
 out of a year's growth. Oh, an' you 're here 
 
 too," Aunt Kiz said to Jack, who rose from 
 
 his low seat. 
 
 " Yes. I could n't support the thought of you 
 
 and Miss Dyer and Sister Bergan dancing a 
 
PEKIN CHANGES ITS M'IND 429 
 
 war dance around the Martin bonfire over my 
 discomfiture. But Lucy has comforted me." 
 "I only went to take Billy, en' you know it. 
 But, Jack, it was as good as a theayter. It 
 was your bonfire as much as if you 'd built it." 
 " That 's a nice way out." 
 " In fac' it 's a good thing I went, or I 'd 
 never a known what a fine young man you 
 are. It was as good as readin' your obituary. 
 Everybody was a-talkin'. Anna was there, 
 sassin' right an' left, and Will Triplow started 
 up that campaign song of his, an' the whole 
 crowd joined in. But I don' believe you care." 
 Jack was looking down into Lucy's eyes. 
 " What does it mean ? " Aunt Kiz gazed 
 about her. " There 's somethin' more here 
 than kittles of apple butter." 
 " Dear Aunt Kiz," said Lucy, nestling under 
 her arm. 
 
 Jack bent down and drew Lucy toward him. 
 "She is mine now; mine to protect and de- 
 fend." He closed his arms around her. 
 
430 JACK RACER 
 
 " Lucy ! " she exclaimed. 
 
 Lucy did not answer, but folded her hands 
 
 confidently around Jack's arm. 
 
 The old woman's eyes swam with tears. 
 
 " Yes," said Billy, " and I kept the apple butter 
 
 from burning while Jack kissed her." 
 
 Aunt Kiz turned, and swooping down upon 
 
 Billy, clasped him in her arms and covered him 
 
 with caresses. 
 
 THE END 
 
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