Benefits Forgot | Page 7

a passion. But the
young men on the rear seat were unimpressed. One of them snored.
Brother Wilkins stopped his sermon.
"Be silent, ye sons of Satan," he thundered. There was silence and he
took up the thread of his talk. A low cat call interrupted him. The
minister stopped and slipped off his coat, folding it carefully as he laid
it on his desk. It was old and the seams would not stand strain. He
rolled up his cuffs as he descended from the pulpit, the congregation
watching him spell-bound. Jason had seen his father in action before
and was deeply embarrassed but not surprised.
Brother Wilkins strode up to the pew where the offenders sat and
seized by the ear the largest of the group, a hulk of twenty-one or so,
larger than the minister. He led the young man into the aisle and
reached up and boxed his ears, with the sound of impact of a club on an
empty barrel.
"Now leave this house of God," roared the minister. The young fellow
sneaked out the door. Brother Wilkins turned back to the pew.
"Don't you tech me or I'll brain ye," cried the youth who was about
Brother Wilkins' own size.
"Hah!" snorted the minister. There was the sound of blows, a quick
scuffling of feet and the second offender was booted out of the door.
The remaining two made a quick and unassisted exit. Breathing a little
heavily, Brother Wilkins returned to his sermon; and to his hypnotized
and immensely regaled congregation it seemed that the rest of his
preaching was as from one inspired by God.
Jason sat brooding deeply. Something within him revolted at the
spectacle of his father descending from the pulpit to beat recalcitrant
members of his congregation. An old and familiar sense of shame

enveloped him, and he was thankful when once again darkness had
enveloped them and they were traveling rapidly along the mountain
road. They were to have a late supper and spend the night at a cabin
well along the road they must travel on the morrow.
Brother Wilkins was in the abstracted state that always followed his
preaching and Jason was glad to respect his silence, until it had lasted
so long that he became uneasy.
"Father, didn't you say that Herd's was five miles beyond the church?"
The minister pulled up his horse. In the darkness Jason could barely see
the outlines of his body.
"Heavens, Jason! Why didn't you rouse me sooner? This isn't the main
traveled road. When did we leave it?"
"I don't know, sir. I thought you knew this part of the country so well--"
"So I do, ordinarily. But I can't recognize by-paths on a night like this.
Wait, isn't that a light up the mountainside yonder? Come along, my
boy, we'll find out where we are."
The light glowed only faintly from the open door of a cabin. An old
woman, with a pipe in her mouth, sat crooning over a little fire in the
crude fireplace. She looked up in astonishment when the two appeared
in the doorway.
"Why, it's Brother Wilkins!" she cackled. "Lord's sake, what you doin'
clar up hyar!"
"Why, Sister Clark! I am glad to see you," exclaimed Jason's father,
shaking one of the old woman's hands, and shouting into her other,
which she cupped round her ear. "My son and I must have got off the
main road five miles back. We're on our way to Milton."
Sister Clark was visibly excited. "Ye ain't going on a step tonight. I can
fix a shake-down for ye. Thing like this don't happen to a lone old

woman twice in a lifetime. Bring in your saddle-bags--but Lord!" she
stopped aghast. "I ain't got a bit of pork in the house, nor there ain't a
chicken on the place. All I got is corn-meal and molasses."
"Plenty, Sister Clark! Plenty! Get the saddle-bags, Jason, and tie the
horses to graze."
They ate their supper by candle-light after their hostess had cooked the
mush in a kettle hanging from the crane. Brother Wilkins had a violent
choking fit during the meal and Sister Clark pounded him on the back,
apologizing as she did so for her familiarity with the minister.
Jason slept profoundly on his share of the shake-down that night, and at
dawn, after more mush, they were up and away.
Twice on this day, Sunday, Brother Wilkins held service in the
mountains and it was nine o'clock at night when they started toward the
Ohio again. It was not until they had reached the river at dawn and had
roused the ferryman that the minister recovered from his Sunday
abstraction.
"Did you have a pleasant trip, Jason?" he asked as they led the horses
into the boat.