The Bishop of Cottontown: A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Bishop of Cottontown: A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills
John Stuart Mill · en
There was the sound of voices behind him and the squirrels vanished.
Archie B. stood up and saw an old man and some children gathering
nuts.
"It's the Bishop an' the little mill-mites. I'll bet they've brought
their dinner."
This was the one thing Archie B. needed to make his day in the woods
complete.
"Hello," he shouted, coming up to them.
"Why, it's Archie B.," said Shiloh, delighted.
"Why, it is," said her grandfather. "What you doin', Archie B.?"
"Studyin' squirrels right now. What you all doin'?"
"I've tuck the kids out of the mill an' I'm givin' 'em their fus' day
in the woods. Shiloh, there, has been mighty sick and is weak yet, so
we're goin' slow. Mighty glad to run upon you, Archie B. Can't you
sho' Shiloh the squirrels? She's never seed one yet, have you, pet?"
"No," said Shiloh thoughtfully. "Is they like them little jorees that
say _Wake-up, pet! Wake-up, pet?_ Oh, do sho' me the squirrel!
Mattox, ain't this jes' fine, bein' out of the mill?"
Archie B.'s keen glance took in the well-filled lunch basket. At once
he became brilliantly entertaining. In a few minutes he had Shiloh
enraptured at the wood-lore he told her,--even Bull Run and Seven
Days, Atlanta and Appomattox were listening in amazement, so
interesting becomes nature's story when it finds a reader.
And so all the morning Archie B. went with them, and never had they
seen so much and enjoyed a day as they had this one.
And the lunch--how good it tasted! It was a new life to them.
Shiloh's color came in the healthful exercise, and even Bull Run
began to look out keenly from his dull eyes.
After lunch Shiloh went to sleep on a soft carpet of Bermuda grass
with the old man's coat for a blanket, while the other children waded
in the branch, and gathered nuts till time to go back home.
It was nearly sun-down when they reached the gate of the little hut
on the mountain.
"We must do this often, Archie B.," said the Bishop, as the children
went in, tired and hungry, leaving him and Archie B. at the gate.
"I've never seed the little 'uns have sech a time, an' it mighty nigh
made me young ag'in."
All afternoon Archie B. had been thinking. All day he had felt the
lumpy, solid thing in the innermost depths of his jeans pocket, which
told him one hundred dollars in gold lay there, and that it would
need an explanation when he reached home or he was in for the worst
whipping he ever had. Knowing this, he had not been thinking all the
afternoon for nothing. The old man bade him good-night, but still
Archie B. lingered, hesitated, hung around the gate.
"Won't you come in, Archie B.?"
"No-o--thank you, Bishop, but I'd--I'd like to, really tho', jes' to
git a little spirt'ul g'idance"--a phrase he had heard his father use
so often.
"Why, what's the matter, Archie B.?"
Archie B. rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I'm--I'm--thinkin' of
j'inin' the church, Bishop."