Shavings | Page 9

his face assumed a troubled expression.
"Jed," he ordered, "leave off daubin' at that wooden doll baby for a
minute, will you? I want to talk to you. I want to ask you what you
think I'd better do. I know what Gab Bearse-- Much obliged for that
name, Jed; 'Gab's' the best name on earth for that critter--I know what
Gab came in here to talk about. 'Twas about me and my bein' put on the
Exemption Board, of course. That was it, wan't it? Um-hm, I knew
'twas. I was the 'this' in his 'this and that.' And Phin Babbitt was the
'that'; I'll bet on it. Am I right?"
Winslow nodded.
"Sure thing!" continued the captain. "Well, there 'tis. What am I goin' to
do? When they wanted me to take the job in the first place I kind of
hesitated. You know I did. 'Twas bound to be one of those thankless
sort of jobs that get a feller into trouble, bound to be. And yet--and
yet--well, SOMEBODY has to take those kind of jobs. And a man

hadn't ought to talk all the time about how he wishes he could do
somethin' to help his country, and then lay down and quit on the first
chance that comes his way, just 'cause that chance ain't--ain't eatin' up
all the pie in the state so the Germans can't get it, or somethin' like that.
Ain't that so?"
"Seems so to me, Sam."
"Yes. Well, so I said I'd take my Exemption Board job. But when I said
I'd accept it, it didn't run across my mind that Leander Babbitt was
liable to be drafted, first crack out of the box. Now he IS drafted, and, if
I know Phin Babbitt, the old man will be down on us Board fellers the
first thing to get the boy exempted. AND, I bein' on the Board and
hailin' from his own town, Orham here, it would naturally be to me that
he'd come first. Eh? That's what he'd naturally do, ain't it?"
His friend nodded once more. Captain Sam lost patience.
"Gracious king!" he exclaimed. "Jed Winslow, for thunder sakes say
somethin'! Don't set there bobbin' your head up and down like one of
those wound-up images in a Christmas-time store window. I ask you if
that ain't what Phin Babbitt would do? What would you do if you was
in his shoes?"
Jed rubbed his chin.
"Step out of 'em, I guess likely," he drawled.
"Humph! Yes--well, any self-respectin' person would do that, even if
he had to go barefooted the rest of his life. But, what I'm gettin' at is
this: Babbitt'll come to me orderin' me to get Leander exempted. And
what'll I say?"
Winslow turned and looked at him.
"Seems to me, Sam," he answered, "that if that thing happened there'd
be only one thing to say. You'd just have to tell him that you'd listen to
his reasons and if they seemed good enough to let the boy off, for your

part you'd vote to let him off. If they didn't seem good enough--why--"
"Well--what?"
"Why, then Leander'd have to go to war and his dad could go to--"
"Eh? Go on. I want to hear you say it. Where could he go?"
Jed wiped the surplus paint from his brush on the edge of the can.
"To sellin' hardware," he concluded, gravely, but with a twinkle in his
eye.
Captain Sam sniffed, perhaps in disappointment. "His hardware'd melt
where I'D tell him to go," he declared. "What you say is all right, Ed.
It's an easy doctrine to preach, but, like lots of other preacher's
doctrines, it's hard to live up to. Phin loves me like a step-brother and I
love him the same way. Well, now here he comes to ask me to do a
favor for him. If I don't do it, he'll say, and the whole town'll say, that
I'm ventin' my spite on him, keepin' on with my grudge, bein' nasty,
cussed, everything that's mean. If I do do it, if I let Leander off, all
hands'll say that I did it because I was afraid of Phineas and the rest
would say the other thing. It puts me in a devil of a position. It's all
right to say, 'Do your duty,' 'Stand up in your shoes,' 'Do what you
think's right, never mind whose boy 'tis,' and all that, but I wouldn't
have that old skunk goin' around sayin' I took advantage of my position
to rob him of his son for anything on earth. I despise him too much to
give him that much satisfaction. And yet there I am, and the case'll
come up afore me. What'll I do, Jed? Shall I resign? Help me out.