David Fleming's Forgiveness Part 22

"Don't you fret about that. You'll have the whole neighbourhood here looking on, and I don't suppose they'll stand still and do it. I'll risk the making of the hay that'll be cut to-morrow."

The idea of the whole neighbourhood looking on, or even helping to make hay, was not so agreeable to Mr Fleming as Mr Hemmenway might have supposed, and Davie hastened to suggest that Ben Holt and two or three others who had not yet commenced in their own fields might give help for one day, and so the matter was arranged. Mr Hemmenway lost no time.

The machine was brought to Ythan that night, and when Mr Fleming came out in the morning operations had long been commenced in Mr Hemmenway's best style, and Davie was occupying his place on the high seat of the machine, and driving "the team" steadily round the great square, which was growing beautifully less at every turn.

Not quite the whole neighbourhood came to look on, but a good many did.

Among the rest was Deacon Scott, who was almost as much averse to "new-fangled" notions as was Mr Fleming. But he engaged the machine for the next day, and paid a good price for it--which was all clear gain, Mr Hemmenway admitted to Davie in confidence. Going about from field to field for a few days in a neighbourhood was the company's way of advertising. If it did not pay this year it would next, for half the farmers in the country would have a machine by another year.

"And I don't say it is any way among the impossibles that we should conclude to give your little town a lift, by establis.h.i.+ng a branch factory in it. You've got a spry little stream here, and some good land, and there'll be some handsome fields for the Eureka to operate upon when the stumps get cleared out. But you are considerably behind the times in the way of implements. You want to be put up to a dodge or two, and we are the folks to do it, in the way of machinery," and so on.

Two more days of the Eureka at Ythan laid low the gra.s.s in every field, and within eight days of the time when Mr Hemmenway made his appearance there, all the hay was well made and safely housed, without a drop of rain having fallen upon it.

Davie was tired, but triumphant. "Providence is ay kind," said grannie softly, and grandfather's a.s.sent, though silent as usual, was pleased and earnest, and he was "in better heart" than he had been for a while.

Davie had some good hard work in other hay-fields in return for the help they had had at Ythan, and it was done gratefully and heartily.

And when most of the hay-fields in Gershom were bare and brown, waiting for the showers that were to make them green and beautiful for the fall pasture, in the short "resting-spell" that usually comes in this part of Canada between the hay and grain harvest, thoughts of pleasure seemed to take possession of young and old in Gershom.

It would be impossible to say to whom was due the honour of originating the idea of a.s.sembling for a grand pleasure party of some sort, all the people of Gershom "and vicinity." A good many people claimed it, and it is probable they all had a right to do so. For so natural and agreeable a plan might well suggest itself to several minds at the same time. It took different forms in different minds, however. All were for pleasure, but there were various opinions as to how it could best be secured.

The young people generally were in favour of an expedition to Hawk's Head, or to the more distant, but more accessible wonders of Clough's Chasm, where in a sudden deep division of the hills lay a clear, still lake, whose depths it was said had never yet been sounded. Others approved rather of some plan that would allow a far larger number to partic.i.p.ate in it, than such an expedition would allow. And while this was being discussed in a manner that threatened the falling through of the whole affair, it was taken up by that part of the community who considered themselves chiefly responsible for the well-being of the body politic, and who considered themselves also, on the whole, eminently qualified to perform the duties which the responsibilities implied. And by them it was declared that a great temperance demonstration was at this time desirable.

Such a demonstration would do good in many ways. It would revive the drooping spirits of those who were inclined to despond as to the prosperity of the cause. It would rouse from slumber the consciences of some who had once been its active friends, and it would strengthen the hands of all faithful workers; it would bring on the field all the best speakers of the country, and give an impulse to the cause generally.

All this was said with much energy and reiteration, and a good deal of it was believed; at any rate, all other plans for pleasure were made to give way before it. It did not so much matter what might be made the occasion of the gathering, so that folks got together to have a good time, said the young and foolish, who thought much of whatever would give enjoyment for the time, and little of anything else. As to listening to speech-making--there need be no more of that than each might choose; so in the end almost all fell in with the idea of the great temperance demonstration, and notice was given to the country at large accordingly.

But it is only as far as two or three people concerned themselves with it that we have anything to do with the matter, either as an occasion for amus.e.m.e.nt or as a demonstration of principle. Davie brought home to Katie the news of all that was intended, and added a good deal as to his opinion of it, which he acknowledged he would have liked to give at a meeting called to make arrangements, which he and Ben had just attended.

"You should have heard them, grannie, and then you would shake your head at them and not at me."

And Davie gave them a specimen of the remarks that had been made and the manner of them, that made even his grandfather smile. There had been a great deal of inconsequent talking, as is usual on such occasions, and the chances were that the meeting would have come to an end without having definitely settled a single point which they had met for the purpose of settling, if it had not happened that Clifton Holt--at home for his vacation, he said--strayed into the school-house toward the end.

"And it must be acknowledged that Clif has a head," said Davie discontentedly. "He is a conceited fellow but he is smart. In ten minutes they had decided on the place, the grove above Varney's place, and had appointed committees for all manner of things. And he made them all believe that the meeting had settled the whole and not himself. You should have heard John McNider 'moving,' and Sam Green 'seconding,' and Jim Scott 'suggesting,' and every one of them believing that he was doing it out of his own head. It is a good thing that Clif thinks Gershom too small a place for him. He'd play the old squire in a new way. He's got more gumption in his little finger than Jacob has in his whole body;" and remembering that his grandfather was present, he paused, and then added: "He'll make a spoon or spoil a horn, will Clif.

And, grannie, I'm hungry."

"Well, there is milk and bread in the pantry. Bring it to your brother, Katie, as he's tired. And we'll hope, Davie lad, that the spoon will be made and the horn no' spoiled. You're over ready with your judgments, I doubt."

When Katie brought the bread and milk she ventured to ask some further particulars as to arrangements.

"Oh, you'll hear all about it. You are on two or three committees at least. No, I don't remember what they are. Setting tables, I think.

You'll hear all about it, and if you don't, then all the better," said Davie shortly.

"And what have they given you to do? Surely they didna neglect the general interest so far as to overlook you."

For when Davie took that line with Katie, grannie considered that he needed to be put down a bit. Davie laughed. He understood it quite well.

"No, grannie dear, I'm on two or three of their committees as well as Katie--and so is half the town for that matter. And they think they are doing it for 'the cause,'" added Davie, laughing. "Grannie, I would give something if I could write down every word just as it was spoken.

I never read anything half so ridiculous in a book."

"My lad, things are just as folk look at them. I daresay your friends Ben, and Sam and Jim Scott saw nothing ridiculous about it till you made them see it. And the master was there, and John McNider--"

"But the master didna bide long; and as for John--if you give him a chance to make a speech, that is all he needs--"

"Whisht, Davie lad, and take the good of things. It is a good cause anyway."

"Oh, grannie, grannie! as though the cause had anything to do with it, at least with the most of them!"

"Well, never mind. You can take the good of the play without making folk think it's for the cause. And you'll need to help the preparations. As for Katie, I doubt I canna so well spare her--except for the day itself."

The last few words had been between these two when the others had gone out of the room. Grannie had a little of the spirit of which Katie had a good deal. She was sociably inclined, and, though it troubled her little that she or those belonging to her should be called odd, she know it troubled Katie, and she wanted her to have the harmless enjoyment that other young girls had, and to take the good of them. And she desired for Davie, also, that he should be able to do and to enjoy something else besides the work of the farm, which was certainly his first duty. But she knew that his grandfather's desire to keep him from evil companions.h.i.+p might keep him also from such companions.h.i.+p as might correct some faults into which he was in danger of falling, being left too much to himself, and might do him good in other ways. So, whenever a fair opportunity occurred to give the young people a taste of amus.e.m.e.nt which seemed harmless and enjoyable, she quietly gave her voice in favour of it. And in her opinion this was one of the occasions.

"If we are to refuse to put a hand to any good work till all who wish to help are models of discretion, we'll do little in this world, Davie lad.

And you'll do what you can to make the occasion what it ought to be for the honour of the town, since it is to be in Gershom."

"Oh, grannie, grannie! What would folk say to hear you? As though the whole town werena agog for the fun of it, and as though I could make a straw's difference."

"You can make a difference to your mother and Katie and the bairns. And I dinna like to hear you laughing at folk, as though you didna believe in them and their doing. We canna all be among the wise of the earth, and I would like Katie to get the good of this--she who gets so little in the way of pleasure."

"Oh, Katie! She's better at home than holding sham committee meetings with a parcel of idle folk. There's plenty to do it all without her."

"Oh, as to committee meetings, I doubt she could be ill spared to many of them, but for the day itself, to hear the speaking and see the show like the rest. And you are not to spoil it to her beforehand, Davie."

"Well, I winna, grannie. It will be great fun I dare say."

"And as it's a leisure time, you must do what you can to help with the rest, and all the more as I canna spare Katie. And she will have preparations to make at home. But we'll hear more about it, it is likely."

"Plenty more, grannie. Oh, yes; I'll help. It is to be a grand occasion."

"But the preparing beforehand is the best of all, they say," said Katie.

But even her grandmother was as well pleased that Katie should have nothing to do with general preparations. All sorts of young people were to help, and it could hardly be but that some foolish things should be said and done where there was so much to excite and nothing to restrain, and her Katie's name was as well to be kept out of it all. But she put no limit as to the preparations that were to be made at home in the way of cakes and tartlets and little pats of b.u.t.ter, for it was to be a great occasion for Gershom.

There had been demonstrations of this kind before in Gershom and the vicinity. Indeed, this was a favourite way of promoting the cause of temperance, as it has more recently become the favourite way of promoting other causes in Canada. In some spot chosen for general convenience a great many people a.s.sembled. The greater the number the greater the good accomplished, it was supposed. The usual plan was for parties of friends to keep together, and either before or after the speech-making--which was supposed to be the chief interest of the day-- to seek some suitable spot in field or grove for the enjoyment in common of the many nice things stored in the baskets with which all were supplied.

But Gershom folk aimed at something beyond the usual way. In Finlay Grove, which had been chosen as the place of meeting, tables were to be set up and covered for--

"Well--we'll say five hundred people," Clifton Holt suggested at one of the meetings for the settling of preliminaries. "And let us show them what Gershom can do."

Of course he did not know in the least what he was undertaking for Gershom in this off-hand way, nor did any one else till it was too late to change the plan. Not that there was any serious thought of changing it. The honour of Gershom was at stake, and "to spend and be spent" for this--to say nothing of "the cause"--seemed to be the general desire.

Davie Fleming did his part well. He drew loads of boards from the saw-mill, and loads of crockery from the various village stores. He helped to fix the tables and many seats, and to build the platform for "the speakers from a distance," vaguely promised as a part of the day's feast. Indeed, he distinguished himself by his zeal and efficiency, and was in such request that he was obliged to promise that he would be on the ground early in the morning of the day to help about whatever might still have to be done.

He had got quite into the spirit of it by this time. It was great fun, he said, and he was a little ashamed of the part he had taken in keeping Katie out of it all. So he proposed that she should go with him that morning and stay for an hour or two. She could go quite easily, he said, for he could put her over the river on a raft which he had made for his own convenience, to save the walk round by the bridge. But Katie could not be spared. The children were all expected to go with the Scott's Corner Sunday-school to the High-School, from thence to walk with several other Sunday-schools in procession to the Grove, and Katie must help to get them ready and see them off. When Davie came back at noon he had some news to give her.

"The squire and Miss Elizabeth have come home, and they have company at Jacob's--friends of Mr Maxwell's, they say; but it is likely they would be staying at the parsonage if they were. They have come at a good time. They'll see folks enough in their meeting-clothes for once."

Davie had come home to put on his own "meeting-clothes," and declined his dinner in his hurry to get away again. Katie took it more quietly.

In her joy at the prospect of seeing Miss Elizabeth again, the prospect of seeing so many people "in their meeting-clothes" seemed a secondary matter, and this was too openly acknowledged to please her brother.

"Katie," said he discontentedly, "I think the less we have to do with the Holts to-day the better."