The Man Who Stole A Meeting-House | Page 9

to make up its mind to
freeze, when a little jar will set the crystals forming, and in a minute
what was liquid is ice. It was the shock of events that night that touched
my life into crystals--not of ice, gentlemen, by any manner of means.
"After the fire had got along so far that the meeting-house was a gone
case, an alarm was given probably by the very fellows that set it, and a
hundred people were on the spot before the thing had done burning.
"Of course these circumstances put an end to the breaking up of the
family. Dave was sent for, and came home. Then, as soon as we saw
that the old man's brain was injured so that he wasn't likely to recover
his mind, the boys and I went to work and put that farm through a
course of improvement it would have done your eyes good to see. The
children were sent to school, and Mrs. Jedwort had all the money she
wanted now to clothe them, and to provide the house with comforts,
without stealing her own butter. Jedwort was a burden; but, in spite of
him, that was just about the happiest family, for the next four years,
that ever lived on this planet.
"Jedwort soon got his bodily health, but I don't think he knew one of us
again after his hurt. As near as I could get at his state of mind, he

thought he had been changed into some sort of animal. He seemed
inclined to take me for a master, and for four years he followed me
around like a dog. During that time he never spoke, but only whined
and growled. When I said, 'Lie down,' he'd lie down; and when I
whistled he'd come.
"I used sometimes to make him work; and certain simple things he
would do very well, as long as I was by. One day I had a jag of hay to
get in; and, as the boys were away, I thought I'd have him load it. I
pitched it on to the wagon about where it ought to lie, and looked to
him only to pack it down. There turned out to be a bigger load than I
had expected, and the higher it got, the worse the shape of it, till finally,
as I was starting it toward the barn, off it rolled, and the old man with it,
head foremost.
"He struck a stone heap, and for a moment I thought he was killed. But
he jumped up and spoke for the first time. 'I'll blow it,' says he,
finishing the sentence he had begun four years before, when he called
for the horn to be passed up to him.
"I couldn't have been much more astonished if one of the horses had
spoken. But I saw at once that there was an expression in Jedwort's face
that hadn't been there since his tumble in the belfry; and I knew that, as
his wits had been knocked out of him by one blow on the head, so
another blow had knocked 'em in again.
"'Where's Bob?' says he, looking all round.
"'Bob?' says I, not thinking at first who he meant. Oh, Bob is dead--he
has been dead these three years.'
"Without noticing my reply, he exclaimed: 'Where did all that hay
come from? Where's the old meetin'-house?'
"'Don't you know?' says I. 'Some rogues set fire to it the night after you
got hurt, and burnt it up.'
"He seemed then just beginning to realize that something extraordinary

had happened.
"'Stark,' says he, 'what's the matter with ye? You're changed.'
"'Yes,' say I, 'I wear my beard now, and I've grown older!'
"'Dumbed if 'ta'n't odd!' says he. 'Stark, what in thunder's the matter
with me?
"'You've had meeting-house on the brain for the past four years,' says I;
'that's what's the matter.'
"It was some time before I could make him understand that he had been
out of his head, and that so long a time had been a blank to him.
"Then he said, 'Is this my farm?'
"'Don't you know it?' says I.
"'It looks more slicked up than ever it used to,' says he.
"'Yes,' says I; 'and you'll find everything else on the place slicked up in
about the same way.'
"'Where's Dave?' says he.
"'Dave has gone to town to see about selling the wool.'
"'Where's Dan?'
"'Dan's in college. He takes a great notion to medicine; and we're going
to make a doctor of him.'
"'Whose house is that?' says he, as I was taking him home.
"'No wonder you don't know it,' says I. 'It has been painted, and
shingled, and had new blinds put on; the gates and fences are