Prairie Folks | Page 7

his huge eyebrows with some
curiosity. As he drew near, the pedestrian ceased to whistle, and, just as
the farmer expected him to pass, he stopped and said, in a free and easy
style:
"How de do? Give me a chaw t'baccer. I'm Pill, the new minister. I take
fine-cut when I can get it," he said, as Bacon put his hand into his
pocket. "Much obliged. How goes it?"
"Tollable, tollable," said the astounded farmer, looking hard at Pill as
he flung a handful of tobacco into his mouth.
"Yes, I'm the new minister sent around here to keep you fellows in the
traces and out of hell-fire. Have y' fled from the wrath?" he asked, in a
perfunctory way.
"You are, eh?" said Bacon, referring back to his profession.
"I am just! How do you like that style of barb fence? Ain't the twisted
wire better?"
"I s'pose they be, but they cost more."
"Yes, costs more to go to heaven than to hell. You'll think so after I
board with you a week. Narrow the road that leads to light, and broad
the way that leads--how's your soul anyway, brother?"
"Soul's all right. I find more trouble to keep m' body go'n'."
"Give us your hand; so do I. All the same we must prepare for the next
world. We're gettin' old; lay not up your treasures where moth and rust
corrupt and thieves break through and steal."
Bacon was thoroughly interested in the preacher, and was studying him
carefully. He was tall, straight, and superbly proportioned;
broad-shouldered, wide-lunged, and thewed like a Greek racer. His
rather small steel-blue eyes twinkled, and his shrewd face and small
head, set well back, completed a remarkable figure. He wore his

reddish beard in the usual way of Western clergymen, with mustache
chopped close.
Bacon spoke slowly:
"You look like a good, husky man to pitch in the barnyard; you've too
much muscle f'r preachun'."
"Come and hear me next Sunday, and if you say so then, I'll quit,"
replied Mr. Pill, quietly. "I give ye my word for it. I believe in
preachers havin' a little of the flesh and the devil; they can sympathize
better with the rest of ye." The sarcasm was lost on Bacon, who
continued to look at him. Suddenly he said, as if with an involuntary
determination:
"Where ye go'n' to stay t'night?"
"I don' know; do you?" was the quick reply.
"I reckon ye can hang out with me, 'f ye feel like ut. We ain't very purty,
ol' woman an' me, but we eat. You go along down the road and tell 'er I
sent yeh. Y'll find an' ol' dusty Bible round some'rs--I s'pose ye spend
y'r spare time read'n about Joshua an' Dan'l"----
"I spend more time reading men. Well, I'm off! I'm hungrier 'n a gray
wolf in a bear-trap."
And off he went as he came. But he did not whistle; he chewed.
Bacon felt as if he had made too much of a concession, and had a
strong inclination to shout after him, and retract his invitation; but he
did not, only worked on, with an occasional bear-like grin. There was
something captivating in this fellow's free and easy way.
When he came up to the house an hour or two later, in singular good
humor for him, he found the Elder in the creamery, with "the old
woman" and Marietta. Marietta was not more won by him than was
Jane Bacon, he was so genial and put on so few religious frills.

Mrs. Bacon never put on frills of any kind. She was a most frightful
toiler, only excelled (if excelled at all) by her husband. She was still
muscular in her age and shapelessness. Unlovely at her best, when
about her work in her faded calico gown and flat shoes, hair wisped
into a slovenly knot, she was depressing. But she was a good woman,
of sterling integrity, and ambitious for her girl.
Marietta was as attractive as her mother was depressing. She was very
young at this time and had the physical perfection--at least as regards
body--that her parents must have had in youth. She was above the
average height of woman, with strong swell of bosom and glorious,
erect carriage of head. Her features were coarse, but regular and
pleasing, and her manner boyish.
Elder Pill was on the best of terms with them as he watched the milk
being skimmed out of the "submerged cans" ready for the "caaves and
hawgs," as Mrs. Bacon called them.
"Dad told you t' come here 'nd stay t' supper, did he? What's come over
him?" said the girl, with a sort of audacious humor.
"Dad has an awful grutch agin preachers," said Mrs. Bacon, as she
wiped