Of course no one expected anything like that. You never knew what
might happen when Leon did anything. He must have been about sixteen.
He was a slender lad, having almost sandy hair, like his English
grandfather. He wore a white ruffled shirt with a broad collar, and
cuffs turning back over his black jacket, and his trousers fitted his
slight legs closely. The wind whipped his soft black tie a little and
ruffled the light hair where it was longest and wavy above his
forehead. Such a perfect picture of innocence you never saw. There
was one part of him that couldn't be described any better than the way
Mr. Rienzi told about his brother in his "Address to the Romans," in
McGuffey's Sixth. "The look of heaven on his face" stayed most of the
time; again, there was a dealish twinkle that sparkled and flashed
while he was thinking up something mischievous to do. When he was
fighting angry, and going to thrash Absalom Saunders or die trying, he
was plain white and his eyes were like steel. Mother called him
"Weiscope," half the time. I can only spell the way that sounds, but
it means "white-head," and she always used that name when she loved him
most. "The look of heaven" was strong on his face now.
"One," said the recording secretary.
"Jesus wept," answered Leon promptly.
There was not a sound in the church. You could almost hear the
butterflies pass. Father looked down and laid his lower lip in folds
with his fingers, like he did sometimes when it wouldn't behave to suit
him.
"Two," said the secretary after just a breath of pause.
Leon looked over the congregation easily and then fastened his eyes on
Abram Saunders, the father of Absalom, and said reprovingly: "Give not
sleep to thine eyes nor slumber to thine eyelids."
Abram straightened up suddenly and blinked in astonishment, while
father held fast to his lip.
"Three," called the secretary hurriedly.
Leon shifted his gaze to Betsy Alton, who hadn't spoken to her next
door neighbour in five years.
"Hatred stirreth up strife," he told her softly, "but love covereth all
sins."
Things were so quiet it seemed as if the air would snap.
"Four."
The mild blue eyes travelled back to the men's side and settled on
Isaac Thomas, a man too lazy to plow and sow land his father had left
him. They were not so mild, and the voice was touched with command:
"Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise."
Still that silence.
"Five," said the secretary hurriedly, as if he wished it were over.
Back came the eyes to the women's side and past all question looked
straight at Hannah Dover.
"As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman without
discretion."
"Six," said the secretary and looked appealingly at father, whose face
was filled with dismay.
Again Leon's eyes crossed the aisle and he looked directly at the man
whom everybody in the community called "Stiff-necked Johnny."
I think he was rather proud of it, he worked so hard to keep them doing
it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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