Part 46 (1/2)

”Good-morning, Brother March; won't you 'light? I declare I don't know which you manage best, yo' horse aw yo' tempeh!” The parson laughed heartily to indicate that, however doubtful the compliment, his intentions were kind.

”Good-morning, sir,” said John in the gateway as his pastor came bareheaded toward him; and after a word or two more of greeting--”Mr.

Tombs, there's to be a meeting of stockholders in the parlor of the hotel at ten o'clock. My friend, Mr. Fair, got here yesterday evening, and we want him to see that we mean business and hope he does.”

”I see,” said Parson Tombs, with a momentous air. ”And I'll come. I may be a little late in gett'n' there, faw I've got to hitch up aft' a while and take Mother Tombs to spend the day, both of us, with our daughters, Mrs. Hamlet and Lazarus Graves. I don't reckon anybody else has noticed it but them, but, John, my son, Mother Tombs an' I will be married jess fifty years to-night! However that's neither here nor there; I'll come.

If I'm half aw three-quarters of an hour late, why, I reckon that's no mo'n the rest of 'em will be, is it?”

John smiled and said he feared it wasn't. As his mare leaped from the sidewalk to the roadway he noted the younger pastor going by on the other side, evidently on a reconnoisance. For the committee on decorations was to come with evergreens to begin to deck the Tombs parsonage the moment the aged pair should get out of sight of it.

Three persons were prompt to the moment at the meeting of stockholders: Garnet, Gamble, and Jonas Crickwater, the new clerk of Swanee Hotel and a subscriber for one share--face value one hundred dollars, cash payment ten. A moment later Cornelius entered, and with a peering smile.

”Howdy, Leggett?” said Garnet, affably; but when the tawny statesman moved as though he might offer to shake hands, the Major added with increased cordiality, ”take a seat,” and waved him to a chair against the wall; then, turning his back, he resumed conversation with the railroad president. Presently John March arrived, with a dignity in his gait and an energy in his eye that secretly amused the president of the road. John looked at his watch with an apologetic smile.

”I supposed you had gone some place to get Mr. Fair,” said Garnet.

”He's in Jeff-Jack's office; they're coming over together.” John busied himself with his papers to veil his immense satisfaction. Looking up from them he saw Leggett. ”Oh!” he exclaimed, stepped forward, and, with a constrained bow, for the first time in his life gave him his hand. The mulatto bowed low and smiled eruptively, too tickled to speak.

At the end of half an hour the gathering numbered nine, and everybody was in conversation with somebody. Mr. Crickwater, after three gay but futile attempts to tell Gamble that they were from the same State in the North, leaned against a wall with anguish in his every furtive glance, hopelessly b.u.t.ton-holed by Leggett.

”Ah!” cried Garnet, as Jeff-Jack and Fair entered together. The Major laughed out for joy. In a moment it was--”Mr. Fair, this man, and Mr.

Fair, that one--you remember President Gamble, of course?--and Captain Champion? Mr. Fair, let me make you acquainted with Mr. Hersey. Mr. Weed I think you met the last time you were here. No! this is Mr. Weed, that's our colored representative, Mr. Leggett. He'd like to shake hands with you, too, sir.”

”Mr. Fair,” said Cornelius, ”seh, to you; ya.s.s, I likes to get my sheer o' whateveh's a-goin'.”

He was about to say much more, but Garnet purposely drowned his voice.

”Gentlemen, we'll proceed to business. Mr. Crickwater, will you act as doorkeeper?” Mr. Crickwater a.s.sumed that office.

Secretary March having occasion to mention the number of subscribed shares represented by those present as six hundred and eleven, Garnet explained that besides his own subscription he represented one of fifteen shares and another of ten for two ladies, and Champion unintentionally uttered a lurid monosyllable as Shotwell stuck him under the leg with a pin. They were the shares, Garnet added, that General Halliday had failed to take.

Business went on. When, by and by, Mr. Crickwater admitted Parson Tombs, the pastor found the company listening to the Honorable Cornelius Leggett as he expounded the reasons for, and the purposes of, the various provisions of An Act to authorize the Counties of Blackland, Clearwater, and Sandstone to subscribe to the capital stock of the Three-Counties Land and Improvement Company, Limited, and to declare said counties to be bodies politic and corporate for the purposes therein mentioned.

”You see, gentlemen,” interposed Garnet, ”we make Mr. Leggett one of the princ.i.p.al advocates of this bill in order to secure the support of those, both in the Legislature and at the polls, who are likely to vote as he votes on the question of the three counties subscribing to this other thousand shares, the half of our capital stock reserved for the purpose.”

Mr. Weed asked how many shares offered to voluntary subscribers on the ten-dollar instalment plan had been taken, and Garnet replied, ”All.

Those, together with the shares a.s.signed me in exchange for the mortgages I hold on Widewood and propose to surrender, the forty for which Mr. Leggett pays five hundred dollars, and the two hundred retained by Mr. March and his mother, make six hundred and forty, leaving three hundred and sixty to be placed with capitalists willing to pay their face value. We have to-day an increased confidence that these reinforcements”--he smiled--”are not far off. When this is done we shall have raised the three-eighths of the face value of the one thousand private shares, as required, before the three counties' subscription to the other thousand shares can become effective. I have to state, gentlemen, that General Halliday has been compelled by the weight of other burdens to resign the treasurers.h.i.+p; but on the other hand I have the pleasure to announce that Captain Charles Champion has consented to act as treasurer, and _also_, that Colonel Ravenel expresses his willingness to serve as one of the two trustees for the three counties on the--(applause)--on the very reasonable condition that he be allowed to name the other trustee. I believe there's no other formal business before the meeting, but before we adjourn I think a few brief remarks from one or two gentlemen who have not yet spoken will be worth far more than the time they occupy. I'll call on our vice-president, Mr. Gamble.”

(Applause.)

Gamble said his father used to tell him a man of words and not of deeds was like a garden full of weeds. Here he was silent so long that Champion whispered to Shotwell, ”He's stuck!”

But at length he resumed, that he attributed his own success in life to his always having believed in deeds!

”Indeed!” echoed Shotwell in so audible a whisper that half the group smiled.

Gamble replied that his statement might surprise some that had been asleep for the last twenty years, but he guessed there wasn't any such person in this crowd. (Laughter.) However, he proposed to say in a few words, which should be as much like deeds as he could make 'em, what he was willing to do. He paused so long again that Champion winked at John and was afraid to look at Shotwell.

He remembered, the speaker finally began again, another good saying--couldn't seem to be sure whether it was from Shakespeare or the Bible--that ”a fool and his money are soon parted.” Now, he was far from intending that for anyone present----

”No-o,” slowly interrupted Hersey, turning from a large spittoon, ”we ain't any of us got any money to part with.”

”Well, I haven't mistook any of you for fools, neither. But I think that proverb, or whatever you call it, is as much's to say just like this, that if a man ain't a fool, 'tain't easy to part him from his money!”

(Applause.)