Shavings | Page 7

of the draft age, became once more an ardent, if a little
more careful, conscientious objector.
He discovered that the war was a profiteering enterprise engineered by
capital and greed for the exploiting of labor and the common people.
Whenever he thought it safe to do so he aired these opinions and, as
there were a few of what Captain Hunniwell called "yellow-backed
swabs" in Orham or its neighborhood, he occasionally had sympathetic
listeners. Phineas, it is only fair to say, had never heretofore shown any

marked interest in labor except to get as much of it for as little money
as possible. If his son, Leander, shared his father's opinions, he did not
express them. In fact he said very little, working steadily in the store all
day and appearing to have something on his mind. Most people liked
Leander.
Then came the draft and Leander was drafted. He said very little about
it, but his father said a great deal. The boy should not go; the affair was
an outrage. Leander wasn't strong, anyway; besides, wasn't he his
father's principal support? He couldn't be spared, that's all there was
about it, and he shouldn't be. There was going to be an Exemption
Board, wasn't there? All right--just wait until he, Phineas, went before
that board. He hadn't been in politics all these years for nothin'. Sam
Hunniwell hadn't got all the pull there was in the county.
And then Captain Sam was appointed a member of that very board. He
had dropped in at the windmill shop the very evening when he decided
to accept and told Jed Winslow all about it. There never were two
people more unlike than Sam Hunniwell and Jed Winslow, but they had
been fast friends since boyhood. Jed knew that Phineas Babbitt had
been on a trip to Boston and, therefore, had not heard of the captain's
appointment. Now, according to Gabriel Bearse, he had returned and
had heard of it, and according to Bearse's excited statement he had
"gone on" about it.
"Leander's been drafted," repeated Gabe. "And that was bad enough for
Phineas, he bein' down on the war, anyhow. But he's been cal'latin', I
cal'late, to use his political pull to get Leander exempted off. Nine
boards out of ten, if they'd had a man from Orham on 'em, would have
gone by what that man said in a case like Leander's. And Phineas, he
was movin' heavens and earth to get one of his friends put on as the
right Orham man. And now--NOW, by godfreys domino, they've put
on the ONE man that Phin can't influence, that hates Phin worse than a
cat hates a swim. Oh, you ought to heard Phineas go on when I told
him. He'd just got off the train, as you might say, so nobody'd had a
chance to tell him. I was the fust one, you see. So--"
"Was Leander there?"

"No, he wan't. There wan't nobody in the store but Susie Ellis, that
keeps the books there now, and Abner Burgess's boy, that runs errands
and waits on folks when everybody else is busy. That was a funny thing,
too--that about Leander's not bein' there. Susie said she hadn't seen him
since just after breakfast time, half past seven o'clock or so, and when
she telephoned the Babbitt house it turned out he hadn't been there,
neither. Had his breakfast and went out, he did, and that's all his
step-ma knew about him. But Phineas, he. . . . Eh? Ain't that the bell?
Customer, I presume likely. Want me to go see who 'tis, Shavin's--Jed,
I mean?"
CHAPTER II
But the person who had entered the outer shop saved Mr. Bearse the
trouble. He, too, disregarded the "Private" sign on the door of the inner
room. Before Gabriel could reach it that door was thrown open and the
newcomer entered. He was a big man, gray-mustached, with hair a
grizzled red, and with blue eyes set in a florid face. The hand which
had opened the door looked big and powerful enough to have knocked
a hole in it, if such a procedure had been necessary. And its owner
looked quite capable of doing it, if he deemed it necessary, in fact he
looked as if he would rather have enjoyed it. He swept into the room
like a northwest breeze, and two bundles of wooden strips, cut to the
size of mill arms, clattered to the floor as he did so.
"Hello, Jed!" he hailed, in a voice which measured up to the rest of him.
Then, noticing Mr. Bearse for the first time, he added: "Hello, Gabe,
what are you doin' here?"
Gabriel hastened to explain. His habitual desire to please and humor
each person he met--each person of