The Man Who Stole A Meeting-House | Page 7

I can preach myself and save the
expense.'
"Of course, neither sarcasm nor argument could have any effect on
such a man. As the neighbors were going away, Jedwort shouted after
'em: 'Call agin. Glad to see ye. There'll be more sport in a few days,
when I take the dumbed thing away.' (The dumbed thing was the
meeting-house.) 'I invite ye all to see the show. Free gratis. It'll be good
as a circus, and a 'tarnal sight cheaper. The women can bring their
knittin', and the gals their everlastin' tattin'. As it'll be a pious kind o'
show, bein' it's a meetin'-house, guess I'll have notices gi'n out from the
pulpits the Sunday afore.'
"The common was fenced in by sundown; and the next day Jedwort had
over a house-mover from the North Village to look and see what could
be done with the building. 'Can ye snake it over, and drop it back of my
house?' says he.
"It'll be a hard job,' says old Bob, 'without you tear down the steeple
fust.'
"But Jedwort said, 'What's a meetin'-house 'thout a steeple? I've got my
heart kind o' set on that steeple, and I'm bound to go the hull hog on
this 'ere concern, now I've begun.'
"'I vow,' says Bob, examining the timbers, 'I won't warrant but the old
thing'll all tumble down.'
"'I'll resk it.'

"'Yes; but who'll resk the lives of me and my men?'
"'O, you'll see if it's re'ly goin' to tumble, and look out. I'll engage 't me
and my boys'll do the most dangerous part of the work. Dumbed if I
wouldn't agree to ride in the steeple and ring the bell if there was one.'
"I've never heard that the promised notices were read from the pulpits;
but it wasn't many days before Bob came over again, bringing with him
this time his screws and ropes and rollers, his men and timbers, horse
and capstan; and at last the old house might have been seen on its
travels.
"It was an exciting time all around. The societies found that Jedwort's
fence gave him the first claim to house and land unless a regular siege
of the law was gone through to beat him off--and then it might turn out
that he would beat them. Some said fight him; some said let him
be--the thing a'n't worth going to law for; and so, as the leading men
couldn't agree as to what should be done, nothing was done. That was
just what Jedwort had expected, and he laughed in his sleeve while Bob
and his boys screwed up the old meeting-house, and got their beams
under it, and set it on rollers, and slued it around, and slid it on the
timbers laid for it across into Jedwort's field, steeple foremost, like a
locomotive on a track.
"It was a trying time for the women folks at home. Maria had declared
that, if her father did persist in stealing the meeting-house, she would
not stay a single day after it, but would follow Dave.
"That touched me pretty close, for, to tell the truth, it was rather more
Maria than her mother that kept me at work for the old man. 'If you go,'
says I, 'then there is no object for me to stay; I shall go too.'
"'That's what I supposed,' says she; 'for there's no reason in the world
why you should stay. But then Dan will go; and who'll be left to take
sides with mother? That's what troubles me. Oh, if she could only go
too! But she won't; and she couldn't if she would, with the other
children depending on her. Dear, dear! what shall we do?'

"The poor girl put her head on my shoulder, and cried; and if I should
own up to the truth, I suppose I cried a little too. For where's the man
that can hold a sweet woman's head on his shoulder, while she sobs out
her trouble, and he hasn't any power to help her--who, I say, can do any
less, under such circumstances, than drop a tear or two for company?
"'Never mind; don't hurry,' says Mrs. Jed-wort. 'Be patient, and wait a
while, and it'll all turn out right, I'm sure.'
"'Yes, you always say, "Be patient, and wait!"' says Maria, brushing
back her hair. 'But, for my part, I'm tired of waiting, and my patience
has given out long ago. We can't always live in this way, and we may
as well make a change now as ever. But I can't bear the thought of
going and leaving you.'
"Here the two younger girls came in; and, seeing that crying was the
order of the day, they began to cry; and when they heard Maria talk