Irving Bacheller

“ The false god is in our midst. Many here, within the sound of my voice, have a god suited to their own tastes and sins—an obedient, tractable, boneless god. It is my deliberate opinion that the dances and costumes and moving pictures we have seen in Bingville are doing more injury to Civilization than all the guns of Germany. My friends, you can do nothing worse for my daughter than deprive her of her modesty and I would rather, far rather, see you slay my son than destroy his respect for law and virtue and decency. ”

“ The sons and daughters and even the young children of the best families in the village were there. Scenes from the shady side of the great cities, bar-room adventures with pugilists and porcelain-faced women, the thin-ice skating of illicit love succeeded one another on the screen. The tender souls of the young received the impression that life in [Pg 31] the great world was mostly drunkenness, violence, lust, and Great White Waywardness of one kind or another.
Judge Crooker shook his head and his fist as he went out and expressed his view to Phyllis and her mother in the lobby. ”

“ First, there is the despotism of your business in making you a slave—so much of a slave that you haven't time to be human; second, there is the despotism of the labor union in discouraging individual excellence, in demanding equal pay for the faithful man and the slacker, and in denying the right of free men to labor when and where they will. ”

“ But Mamie Bing had asked too much. Moreover, always it had been understood between them that these half playful oaths were not to be taken too seriously. Of course, "the fish had to be fed," as Judge Crooker had once put it. By "the fish," he meant that curious under-life of the village—the voracious, silent, merciless, cold-blooded thing which fed on the sins and follies of men and women and which rarely came to the surface to bother any one.
"The fish are very wise," Judge Crooker used to say. "They know the truth about every one and it's well that they do. ”

“ CHAPTER NINE Which Tells of a Merry Christmas Day in the Little Cottage of the Widow Moran
Night and Silence are a stern test of wisdom. For years, the fun loving, chattersome Blenkinsop had been their enemy and was not yet at peace with them. But Night and Silence had other enemies in the village—ancient and inconsolable enemies, it must be said. They were the cocks of Bingville. Every morning they fell to and drove Night and Silence out of the place and who shall say that they did not save it from being hopelessly overwhelmed. ”

“ Their success had wrought a curious devastation in the village and countryside. The young moved out heading for the paths of glory. Many a sturdy, stupid person who might have made an excellent plumber, or carpenter, or farmer, or cook, armed with a university degree and a sense of superiority, had gone forth in quest of fame and fortune prepared for nothing in particular and achieving firm possession of it. ”

“ Idleness is just another form of destruction. Why could you not have listened to the counsel of Reason in June instead of in September, and thus have saved these long months of loss and hardship and bitter violence? It was because the spirit of Tyranny had entered your heart and put your judgment in chains. It had blinded you to honor also, for your men were working under contract. If the union is to command the support of honest men, it must be honest. It was Tyranny that turned the treaty with Belgium into a scrap of paper. ”

“ There's a new look in the faces of the young. Every variety of evil is spread before them on the stage of our little theater. They see it while their characters are in the making, while their minds are like white wax. Everything that touches them leaves a mark or a smirch. ”

“ When the widow had gone to her room for the night and Bob was thinking it over, Mr. Bloggs remarked that in his opinion [Pg 12] they should keep up their courage for it was a very grand thing to be a priest after all.
Winters he spent deep in books out of Judge Crooker's library and tending his potted plants and painting them and the thick blanket of snow in the garden. Among the happiest moments of his life were those that followed his mother's return from the post-office with The Bingville Sentinel. Then, as the widow was wont to say, he was like a dog with a bone. ”

“ The boy always had time to pet him and play with him. He was never fooling the days away with an axe and a saw in the cold wind. Christmas admired his master's ability to pick up logs of wood and heave them about and to make a great noise with an axe but, in cold weather, all that was a bore to him. When he had been missing, Hiram Blenkinsop found him, always, at the day's end lying comfortably on Bob Moran's bed. ”

“ Some had complained of paternal strictness.
"Men are terrible! They make so much trouble," said Frances Smith. "It seems as if they hated to see anybody have a good time."
"Mother and I do as we please and say nothing," said Phyllis. "We never tell father anything. Men don't understand."
Some of the girls smiled and looked into one another's eyes.
There had been a curious undercurrent in the party. It did not break the surface of the stream until Mrs. Bing asked Mrs. Pendleton Ames, "Where is Susan Baker?" ”

“ Bing answered with a laugh, as they went down-stairs with Judge Crooker, followed by the dog Christmas, who scampered around them on the street with a merry growl of challenge, as if the spirit of the day were in him.
"What is it that makes the boy so appealing?" Mr. Bing asked of the Judge.
"He has a wonderful personality," Mrs. Bing remarked.
"Yes, he has that. But the thing that underlies and shines through it is his great attraction."
"What do you call it?" Mrs. Bing asked.
"A clean and noble spirit! Is there any [Pg 176] other thing in this world that, in itself, is really worth having?" ”

“ Do you know that unfortunate son of the Widow Moran known as the Shepherd of the Birds?"
"I have heard much about him," Mr. Bing answered.
"Do you know him?"
"No. I have had letters from him acknowledging favors now and then, but I do not know him."
"We have hit at once the source of your trouble," the Judge went on. "The Shepherd is a representative person. He stands for the poor and the unfortunate in this village. ”

“ Mrs. Bing was admirably cool. In her manner there was little to indicate that she had seen the unusual and highly festive accessories. She sat down beside them [Pg 60] and said, "My dear, I was very lonely and thought I would come and look you up. Is your luncheon finished?"
"Yes," said Phyllis.
"Then let us go and get into the car. We'll drop Mr. King at his home."
When at last they were seated in the limousine, the angry lady lifted the brakes in a way of speaking.
"I am astonished that you would go to luncheon with this young man who has insulted you," she said. ”

“ The ancient roof of its respectability had begun to leak. The beams and rafters in [Pg 48] the house of its spirit were rotting away. Many of the inhabitants of the latter regarded the great J. Patterson Bing with a kind of awe—like that of the Shepherd of the Birds. He was the leading citizen. He had done things. When J. Patterson Bing decided that rest or fresh air was better for him than bad music and dull prayers and sermons, and that God was really not much concerned as to whether a man sat in a pew or a rocking chair or a motor-car on Sunday, he was, probably, quite right. ”

“ Bloggs and the rubber tree and the little pine bureau and the round nickel clock—had all voted for Mr. Bing. But he had never seen the great man.
Mr. Bing sent Mrs. Moran a check every Christmas and, now and then, some little gift to Bob, but his charities were strictly impersonal. He used to say that while he was glad to help the poor and the sick, he hadn't time to call on them. Once, Mrs. Bing promised the widow that she and her husband would go to see Bob on Christmas Day. The little Shepherd asked his mother to hang his best pictures on the walls and to decorate them with sprigs of cedar. ”

“ If America is to survive, we must set our faces against every form of tyranny. The remedy for all our trouble and bitterness is real democracy which is nothing more or less than the love of men—the love of justice and fair play for each and all. ”

“ Baker brought her daughter Pauline with her—a pretty blue-eyed girl with curly blonde hair, four years older than Bob, who was thirteen when his painting began. The Shepherd looked at her with an exclamation of delight; until then he had never seen a beautiful young maiden. Homely, ill-clad daughters of the working folk had come to his room with field flowers now and then, but no one like Pauline. He felt her hair and looked wistfully into her face and said that she was like pink and white and yellow roses. She was a discovery—a new [Pg 10] kind of human being. ”

“ But an irreligious mob is a different and highly serious matter, believe me. Away back in the seventeenth century, John Dryden wrote a wise sentence. It was this:
"'I have heard, indeed, of some very virtuous persons who have ended unfortunately but never of a virtuous nation; Providence is engaged too deeply when the cause becomes general.
"'If virtue is the price of a nation's life, let us try to keep our own nation virtuous.'"
Mr. Bing and his men left the Judge's [Pg 159] office in a thoughtful mood. The next day, Judge Crooker met the mill owner on the street. ”

“ Bob Moran took out the little drawer and gave it a shaking as he looked down at the gold piece.
"Don't get rattled," said the redoubtable Mr. Bloggs, who had a great contempt for cowards.
It was just after the Shepherd of the [Pg 69] Birds had heard of a poor widow who was the mother of two small children and who had fallen sick of the influenza with no fuel in her house.
"I am cold, too!" said the Shepherd.
"Why, of course you are," the coin answered. "That's the reason I'm cold. A coin is never any warmer than the heart of its owner. ”

“ Israel Sneed, the plumber, was working with his men on a job at Millerton, but he took on the plumbing for the Bing house extension, at prices above all precedent, to be done as soon as he could get to it on [Pg 42] his return. The butcher and grocer had improved the opportunity to raise their prices for Bing never questioned a bill. He set the pace. Prices stuck where he put the peg. So, unwittingly, the millionaire had created conditions of life that were extremely difficult.
Since prices had gone up the village of Bingville had been running down at the heel. ”

“ Bing could never forgive him.
In June, there had been a public meeting in the Town Hall addressed by Judge Crooker and the Reverend Mr. Singleton. The Judge had spoken of the grinding of the mills of God that was going on the world over.
"Our civilization has had its time of trial not yet ended," he began. "Its enemies have been busy in every city and village. Not only in the cities and villages of France and Belgium have they been busy, but in those of our own land. ”

“ We are looking for the cause of a certain result and I can help you only by being frank. With all your generosity you have never given your heart to this village. Some unkind people have gone so far as to say that you have no heart. ”

“ Phyllis answered. "He's just the most adorable creature I ever saw in my life."
"For goodness' sake! What is the matter of you? Why don't you brace up?" Mrs. Bing asked with a note of impatience in her tone. "You act like a dead fish." ”

“ The tendency of all this is to put the stamp of luxury upon the commonest needs of man. The time seems to be near when a boiled egg and a piece of buttered bread will be luxuries and a family of children an unspeakable extravagance. Let us face the facts. It is up to Vanity to moderate its demands upon the industry of man. What we need is more devotion to simple living and the general welfare. ”

“ Bob answered cheerfully.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" the minister went on. "I'm a regular Santa Claus this morning. I've got a thousand dollars that Mr. Bing sent me. It's for any one that needs help."
"We'll be all right as soon as our load of wood comes. It will be here to-morrow morning," said the Shepherd.
"I'll come and cut and split it for you," the minister proposed. "The eloquence of the axe is better than that of the tongue these days. ”

“ Here at last was a human being with a quiver of sympathy in his voice.
"I thought I would come home, but [Pg 133] when I got here I was afraid," the girl moaned. "I wish I could die."
"No, ye don't neither!" said Hiram Blenkinsop. "Sometimes, I've thought that I hadn't no friends an' wanted to die, but I was just foolin' myself. To be sure, I ain't had no baby on my hands but I've had somethin' just as worrisome, I guess. Folks like you an' me has got friends a-plenty if we'll only give 'em a chance. I've found that out. You let me take that baby an' come with me. ”

“ Baker asked.
"Well, a daughter has to be prepared to deal with men," the Judge went on. "The masculine temperament is involved in all the critical problems of her life. Naturally the average man is pretty well informed on the subject of men. You have prospered these late years. You have been so busy getting rich that you have just used your home to eat and sleep in. You can't do a home any good by eating and snoring and reading a paper in it." ”

“ I am going to find work for you and there's a room over my garage with a stove in it which will make a very snug little home for you and Christmas."
That evening, as the dog and his master were sitting comfortably by the stove in their new home, there came a rap at the door. In a moment, Judge Crooker entered the room.
"Mr. Blenkinsop," said the Judge as he held out his hand, "I have heard of your new plans and I want you to know that I am very glad. Every one will be glad." ”