“‘I mean the preacher,’ she answers.
“‘Mary,’ I sais, ‘ef the parson heard you a callin’ him sech
new-fandangled names, he’d hev you up before the session.’
“She was quiet a piece, for she seen I was in a wery sewere turn o’ mind.
I didn’t pay no more attention tell I was jest about gittin’ up from the
table ’hen she spoke up agin.
“‘Uncle,’ she sais, ‘I hope you won’t mind, but that’s what we
Piscopaleens calls preachers--rectors. Mr. Dawson is a rector.’
“Well, sirs, I was so took back, I jest set down an’ gasped. I thot I
was goin’ to hev a stroke. Here was one o’ my blood, my own brother’s
dotter, raised on the milk o’ Presbyter’anism, fergittin’ the precepts
o’ her youth, strayin’ out o’ the straight an’ narrow way an’ takin’ up
with the new-fandangled idees o’ the Piscopaleens. An’ why? Because she
liked the singin’! ’Hen I heard that I rose in my wrath an’ started down
here to cool off. On reachin’ the apple tree be the bend in the road,
I set down on the grassy bank to rest a leetle an’ look ’round. Pretty
soon I see a man comin’ over the medder, an’ ez he got close I knowd be
the cut o’ his coat an’ the flatness o’ his black slouch that it was the
preacher hisself. ’Hen he reached the creek he give a run an’ jump an’
went flyin’ over it in the most ondignifiedest way I ever seen. ‘It seems
like he thinks he’s an angel a’ready an’ is spreadin’ his wings,’ I sais
to meself. Then he puts both hands on the top o’ the six-rail fence an’
waults over it like a circus performer, landin’ almost at me feet.
“‘Hello,’ he sais.
“‘Hello,’ sais I, never liftin’ me eyes offen the wheat field acrosst the
road.
“‘Fine day,’ sais he.
“‘I was jest tryin’ to make up me mind whether it was or not,’ sais I.
“I thot that ’ud settle him, but I mistook me man. He were the thickest
headedest, forwardest felly I ever laid eyes on. He jest laughed. Now I
admits that ’hen he laughed he ’peared a tol’able pleasant enough sort o’
a leetle person, but I wasn’t in no frame o’ mind fer jollyin’.
“‘I was jest on me way up to your placet to see ye,’ he sais.
“‘Was ye?’ I answers. ‘Well--I heard ye was comin’. I’m jest on me way to
store.’
“It almost seemed I could see that gentle hint comin’ outen his one ear
after it hed gone in the other.
“‘So ye waited here fer me,’ sais he. ‘How nice of ye! We’ll jest stroll
down to the willage together.’
“‘Well,’ sais I, ‘I’ve changed me mind. I’m goin’ to stay where I am.’
“‘Ye couldn’t a picked a nicer placet,’ he sais.
“An’ with that he set right down be me side. Mad? Why, I was jest
bubblin’. An’ I hed a right to be, fixed ez I was with a Piscopaleen
preacher stickin’ to me closer then a burdock burr to a setter dog’s
tail. I didn’t say a word, but jest set there with me eyes on the
mo’ntain like he wasn’t about.
“By an’ by he speaks. ‘Mr. Huckin, that’s a nice mule you hev runnin’
’round the pasture adjoinin’ our church.’
“‘So,’ sais I.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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