"'But how about this swap to the Baptist church?' I asks. 'I thought
you tells me how the Methodist religion is full of sunshine that a-
way.'
"'So I does, sah,' says Tom; 'so I does, word for word, like you
remembers it. But I don't know d' entire story then. The objections
I has to d' Mefodis' is them 'sperience meetin's they holds. They
'spects you to stan' up an' tell 'em about all yo' sins, an 'fess
all you've been guilty of endoorin' yo' life! Now, sech doin's tu'ns
out mighty embarrassin' for a boy like Tom, who's been a-livin' sort
o' loose an' lively for a likely numbah of years, sah, an' I
couldn't stan' it, sah! I'm too modes' to be a Mefodis'. So I
explains an' 'pologizes to d' elders, then I shins out for d'
Baptis' folks next door. An' it's all right. I'm at peace now: I'm
in d' Baptis' chu'ch, sah. You go inter d' watah, kersause! an' that
sets yo' safe in d' love of d' Lamb.'"
Following these revelations of my friend concerning the jaunty
fashion in which the "boy Tom" wore his religion as well as his
name, I maintained a respectful silence for perhaps a minute, and
then ventured to seek a new subject. I had been going over the
vigorous details of a Western robbery in the papers. After briefly
telling the story as I remembered it, in its broader lines at least,
I carried my curiosity to that interesting body politic, the town of
Wolfville.
"In the old days," I asked, "did Wolfville ever suffer from stage
robberies, or the operations of banditti of the trail?"
"Wolfville," responded my friend, "goes ag'inst the hold-up game so
often we lose the count. Mostly, it don't cause more'n a passin'
irr'tation. Them robberies an' rustlin's don't, speakin' general,
mean much to the public at large. The express company may gnash its
teeth some, but comin' down to cases, what is a Wells-Fargo grief to
us? Personal, we're out letters an' missifs from home, an' I've
beheld individooals who gets that heated about it you don't dar' ask
'em to libate ontil they cools, but as'a common thing, we-all don't
suffer no practical set-backs. We're shy letters, but sech wounds is
healed by time an' other mails to come. We gains what comfort we can
from sw'arin' a lot, an' turns to the hopeful footure for the rest.
Thar's one time, however, when Wolfville gets wrought up.
"Which the Wolfville temper, usual, is ca'm an' onperturbed that a-
way. Thar's a steadiness to Wolfville that shows the camp has depth;
it can lose without thinkin' of sooicide, it can win an' not get
drunk. The Wolfville emotions sets squar' an' steady in the saddle,
an' it takes more than mere commonplace buckin' to so much as throw
its foot loose from a stirrup, let alone send it flyin' from its
seat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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