i
to be sure john rawn had a mother, but that is merely an incidental matter for one who really was brooded among the spheres, and who accepted a mother only as a necessary means to incarnation. we need accord no more than scant time to a mere mother.
there was in the character of the elder rawn's wife little to offset the tendencies transmitted by the father. had she herself been a trace further removed from the blind submission of a jungle past in womanhood, it might have been that the offspring of these two had been accorded a better insight into the real situation of mankind, might perhaps even have been given a saving sense of humor, a better valuation of human affairs as pertaining to himself, and of himself as related to human affairs. the truth, however, is that mrs. rawn, the preacher's wife, was simply a preacher's wife. she was a machine for gratifying a certain part of her husband's nature, a well-nigh apogamic contrivance for rearing children, an appliance for tending tables and sweeping carpets, and going to prayer meetings, or perhaps—on rare and much-coveted occasions—for acting as witness in parsonage marriage ceremonies, the which might haply produce a fee from the bridegroom, temporarily generous; which fee, in a moment of aberration, might even pass from parson to parson's wife. it is decreed that the background of a ministerial life shall be of neutral hue, in order that the more brilliantly shall shine the central figure of the scheme. the minister himself, unctuous, bland, grows less unctuous and bland as he turns from some comelier sister to his own partner in life, colorless, silent, dutiful, devoted. there is but one family perihelion, and he is the one planet thereat. at most a pale and distant moon may circle about him, perhaps concerned with domestic tides, but not admittedly related to the affairs of night and day.
it is not known, nor is it important, whence mrs. rawn came, or how she happened to marry her lord, john rawn, senior, the methodist preacher in the little texas town. they were married when they arrived at this place, and had been for some years. no one knows whence they came, no man can tell whither they have gone. john was the first child granted to them as answer to his father's grumbling; the latter, very nobly and righteously, dreading what calamity the world must suffer did none come to perpetuate his race. he was a great preacher. he had swayed his multitudes. he had seen a hundred souls, as he termed them, grovelling upon the floor in the height of some revival when the grace of the lord had moved itself mightily upon the people, thanks to him, partner upon the ground, whose voice had prevailed thereabout. it would cause any just man to shudder—the mere thought of such merit lacking progeny. but the prayers of the righteous avail much. he had, at last, a son, our hero; none less.
ii
these necessary and essential preliminaries now all stand adjusted; and we are able finally to say that john rawn at least and at last was born, silently, quietly, with small rebellion on the part of his mother. he lay there in his first cradle, silent, a trifle red, a slight frown upon his face, a trace of gravity in his features, as he ventured an introspective look within the confines of his couch, and for the first time discovered that wholly interesting, remarkable, indeed wonderful human being, himself.
having assured himself that he was here, john rawn sighed, turned over in his cradle, and presently fell asleep, well assured that, although he had selected texas for this event, god after all was in his heaven, and that, in the circumstance, all in due time would be well with the world. could any hero of his years have acted with a finer, a larger generosity?
