why old bunley had made barton his place of residence nobody knew. the most plausible theory ever advanced on the subject came from the former proprietor of the barton house, who said that bunley, happening to be traveling that way, had found the brandy at the barton house so good that he hadn’t the heart to leave it. the brandy lasted so long that old bunley—then twenty years younger—while consuming it became acquainted with nearly everybody in the town; and as he had no engagements that restrained him from making himself agreeable, he found himself well liked, and entreated to make his home at barton. he reported—and his report was afterward verified—that he was the son of a virginia planter, and was unpopular at home because he had made a runaway match with a splendid girl, whose only fault was that her family did not rank very high. bunley’s father had cut his son off with a thousand dollars,[47] but had considerately sent the money with the letter of dismissal; so the happy couple were leisurely spending the money and waiting for the old gentleman to relent, as irate fathers always do in books. but while bunley was enjoying the hospitalities of barton, annoyed only by the fact that his purse was growing light, he heard of his father’s sudden death and of the inheritance by an unloving brother of the entire estate. then the young bridegroom attempted to obtain money by borrowing, for this was the only method of money-getting he understood; but the small success which attended his efforts did not pay for the annoyance which his soulless creditors gave him. then he tried gambling, and, by devoting his mind to it, succeeded so well that no one but an occasional commercial traveler, to whom bunley’s ways were unknown, would play with him. then, under the guise of being clerk of the barton house, he became its actual barkeeper, and attracted so much custom away from the other liquor-sellers that the grateful proprietor took him into partnership, and, dying a year later, bequeathed the whole business to him. but the good brandy which had first persuaded bunley to stop at barton continued its fascinations, and the new proprietor of[48] the barton house, while liked by all travelers, grew so unpopular with purveyors of flour, meat, and other hotel necessities that the sheriff was finally called upon to settle the differences between them by disposing of the hotel property at auction.
after that bunley ran to seed, to use an expression common in barton. how he lived during the twenty years which followed was not well understood. his wife died, and it was understood that he married some money the second time; but it was none the less whispered about town that bunley had been seen at night to borrow at woodpiles whose owners he had not consulted. he went upon mighty sprees, and carried the bouquet of liquor wherever he went. he started a small groggery of his own, in which many bright boys learned to drink. he had long since ruined the credit which he obtained on the strength of his second wife’s property, for he never paid an account.
and yet the most aggrieved of bunley’s creditors could not help being soft-hearted when they saw the old man in church, as he was every sunday morning with his two boys. the gentleman which was in old bunley then showed itself in his face and manner, and it did seem too bad that any one who[49] could look and act so much like a man should not be trusted to the extent of a dollar’s worth of sugar or a hundred pounds of flour. squire tomple had thought so one sunday, and as the squire strove to keep worldly thoughts out of his mind on the lord’s day, his mind became filled with old bunley—so much so, that on the following monday he decoyed bunley into his store, and talked so pleasantly to him that the old gentleman actually made the request for which the squire hoped. he bought rather more than the squire had meant to sell him on credit, but his promise of early payment was so distinct and emphatic that the squire’s doubt was not fairly established for many months. this story in all its details was told by the squire to mr. crupp, after that gentleman announced to him that something should be done for old bunley.
“that was because you didn’t go about the job in the right way,” said crupp. “he’s got just enough conceit to suppose that he’s going to pay all his bills some day, and he feels that when the time comes your profit’ll pay for your kindness. that conceit of his is just what needs to be taken down—it’s got to be done kindly—so that he understands that whatever he gets comes out of pure[50] charity and the desire to make him comfortable, even at a loss. now, he and his little family can live on about a dollar a day. i’ll stand half the expense of supporting him for three months if you’ll do the other half, and we’ll talk plain, good-natured english to him, and let him understand he’s a pauper. that’ll put him on his mettle. what do you say?”
the squire looked grave at once—as grave as he had appeared when an uninsured hogshead of sugar belonging to him had fallen from a steamboat gang-plank into the river, and melted. the proposition seemed to take his breath away, in fact; but in a moment or two he regained it.
“look here, crupp,” said he, “temperance is all very well; but i don’t think it’s my business to stand part of the expenses of reforming everybody, when i haven’t had anything to do with making drunkards. with you the case is different. you say your liquors were always good; but, like enough, that made men all the fonder of drinking the infernal things. you’re a public-spirited citizen, but you can’t deny that you’ve had a thousand times more to do with making drunkards than i have. the very fact that you are a decent fellow yourself[51] has made drinking halfway respectable in barton. the crime’s right at your own door, and you ought to pay for it. you——”
the squire paused. mr. crupp’s face was very white and his teeth were tightly set. mr. crupp had been known to throw a disorderly visitor at his bar halfway across the street; and although the squire knew that his own avoirdupois was too great to be treated so contemptuously, he had no desire to feel the weight of crupp’s fist. besides, crupp was a customer who bought a great deal and paid promptly, and the squire did not like to offend him and lose his custom. so the squire paused.
“go right on,” said mr. crupp very quietly. “i’ll not bear any malice. i’ve said a great many worse things to myself. don’t hold in anything you’ve got on your mind.”
“i’m done,” said the squire, looking relieved and extending his hand. “crupp, i think a good deal of you, and i’m ashamed of myself for boiling over as i did. but folks talk to me as if i was made of money. i paid out a good deal on the expense of the meeting; the parson’s been at me to help every lazy drunkard to get work; george doughty wants more pay or less work, so he won’t have such[52] a hankering after liquor; and now to be asked to help old bunley, that’s owed me money a long time and never paid it, that came near helping one of my boys to a taste for liquor, that helps himself at my woodpile—it’s too much, that’s all.”
“squire,” said crupp, “isn’t there something in your bible that’s not complimentary to men who say to the needy, ‘depart: be ye warmed and fed,’ but don’t put their hands into their pockets to help the poor wretches along? i tell you that a man that’s got the love of drink fixed in every muscle in his body and every drop of his blood is worse off than any cold and hungry man you ever saw. such men sometimes help themselves out of their trouble, and stick to cold water; but the man that does it is more of a hero, and he’s got better stuff in him, than any other sort of sinner that ever repents. he’s got to be helped just like drowning men have to be, and you’ve got to take hold of him just as you do of a drowning man, by whatever part you can get the tightest grip on. bunley’s pride’s the only handle you can find on him, and you can’t get at that except by showing that you think enough of him to sink money in him.”
the squire cast about in his mind for some argument[53] in defense of his money; but, as he found none, he acted like a good diplomatist, and started to talk against time by uttering some promising generalizations.
“i always meant, and i still mean,” said he, “to do good with my money. that’s what it was given me for. i’m only the lord’s steward——”
“and right here in barton is where the lord put you to do it,” said crupp. “here’s where you made your money; here are the people who know you and don’t suspect you of caring any less for your money than other folks do for theirs; here are the people you know all about; you know their weaknesses and their good points, and every dollar you spend on them you can watch, and see that it does its duty.”
“when i know that helping a man will be sure to reform him,” began the squire, when again his companion interrupted him:
“did you ever read of christ’s letting a man suffer for fear that if he cured him or fed him he might get sick or hungry again? if i read straight, he helped everybody that came to him, and everybody that needed help. i suppose loafers were as thick in judæa as they are in barton; why, when he[54] healed those ten lepers there was only one of them decent enough to come back and say “thank you.” i’ve got money enough to take bunley on my own shoulders for a little while, and i’m going to spend a good deal on such fellows; but they want to see that they’re thought something of by men who never sold whisky, who never made anything out of them, who are enough in earnest to do something for them that costs more than talk does. i know it isn’t easy, but it’s got to be done—that is, if christianity is true.”
crupp’s last shot told. squire tomple was orthodox, but he was not without reflective capacity, and many had been his twinges of conscience at his practical rejection of undoubted deductions which he had drawn from christ’s teachings and example. but on this particular occasion, as on many others, he was not defeated; he was only temporarily demoralized. in a moment he was on the defensive again, and suddenly raised his head and opened his lips; but, whatever his idea was, it remained unspoken; for in the eye of crupp, which had been intently scrutinizing his face and through it his heart, he detected a softness and haziness unusual in the eyes of men. the squire, not without a[55] struggle, became at once shamefaced and obedient, and said hurriedly,
“crupp, you’re a good, square man; i’m proud to know you, and i’ll do what you like—for old bunley, that is.”
great was the surprise of bunley himself, when he answered a knock at his door a few minutes later, to find squire tomple and mr. crupp upon his front stoop, both of them looking and acting as if extremely embarrassed. but old bunley never forgot his virginia breeding, not even before a couple of creditors; so he invited both gentlemen to seats on the top step, and then sat down between them.
the squire looked appealingly at crupp; crupp winked encouragingly at the squire; the squire coughed feebly; crupp plucked a stem of timothy grass, and gazed at it as if he had never seen such a thing before; the squire took out a pocket-knife, and began to scrape his finger-nails, and then crupp remarked that it was a fine day. bunley having cheerfully assented to this expression of opinion, there was a moment or two of awkward silence, which was finally relieved by bunley, who drew from his pocket a plug of tobacco, from which he took a bite, after first offering it to his visitors. a little more facial[56] pantomime went on between tomple and crupp, and then the squire spoke.
“bunley,” said he, “you don’t seem to get along very fast in the world.”
“that’s a fact,” answered bunley with hearty emphasis. “luck seems to go against me, no matter how i lay myself out. there ain’t a man in this town that wants to do the right thing any more than i do, but somehow i don’t get the chance. i signed the pledge t’other night at the meetin’; but how i’m goin’ to stick to it, with all the trouble i’m in, is more than i can see through.”
“we’ve come down to help you do it,” said the squire.
“to help you with money—not talk,” supplemented crupp.
bunley looked at both men quickly, from under the extreme inner edge of his upper eyelid.
“we propose, between us, to show you that we’re in dead earnest to help you keep the pledge,” continued the squire. “we’re going to give you, week after week, whatever you need to live on for the next three months, so you won’t have any excuse for drinking to drown trouble, and so you’ll have a chance to find something to do.”
[57]
old bunley sprang to his feet. “gentlemen,” said he, “you’re—you’re gentlemen. it’s the first time in my life that anybody ever cared that much for me, though. you shan’t lose anything by it, i promise you that; i’ll pay you back again the first chance i get to make anything.”
“we don’t want it back,” said crupp. “we won’t take it back. we want to give it to you, out and out——”
“to show you that it’s you that we’re interested in, not ourselves,” interrupted the squire.
then old virginia came to the surface again; bunley seemed to grow an inch or two, and to swell several more as he replied,
“i’m not a pauper, gentlemen.”
“certainly not,” said the squire hastily; “but you can’t pay your debts nor your current expenses, and crupp and i are a little ahead in the world, and willing to give you a hundred, say—a little at a time.”
“you’ve got a couple of boys to bring up, you know, bunley,” suggested crupp.
“and they ought to go among the best people, [58]too,” said the squire. “you came of a good family——”
“and their mother was a lady, too—every inch of her!” exclaimed bunley.
“of course she was,” said crupp. “but, to come back to business, we don’t want you to have any excuse to touch whisky again, and we want you to live on us for the next three months as a personal favor. after that, if you make any money, i s’pose the squire’ll be glad to sell you anything he keeps in his store; i know i will, if i’m in business then. but you mustn’t talk about paying now, ’cause it’s all nonsense. come up to the squire’s store when you want anything. good-by.”
bunley drew himself up with great solemnity and old-time courtesy as he shook hands with both men. when his visitors reached the friendly angle of an old, abandoned barn, both turned hastily, gazed through cracks between the boards, and saw the old man sitting in a meditative attitude, with his lower jaw in both his hands.
“don’t that look good?” whispered crupp, his face all animation.
“it does that,” replied the squire; “there’s no dodging the question; it does look good.”
