Part 10 (1/2)
”Yes, that's who I am,” was the reply. ”But how in the world did you hear about our wrestling match?”
”Oh, news travels fast in Rixton, especially if Empty Dempster is the carrier.”
Douglas sat down upon a bench and observed Joe intently, as he gave the final touch to a shoe in his lap. Many years had pa.s.sed since he had watched such work, and he recalled the old shoe-maker he used to know when a lad.
”Can you fix the traces to-day?” he enquired. ”If so, I might as well wait for them.”
”Yes, I'll mend them at once,” and Joe put the finished shoe carefully down by its mate. ”I'm not rushed this afternoon.”
”You are kept busy as a rule, I suppose?”
”Yes, always mending something. I have been doing it for over thirty years now, and there is never any let-up.”
”You must get very tired of it at times.”
”No, I can't say I do. It gives me plenty of time to think as I sit here alone in my little shop. I often wish that I could mend everything in life as easily as I can a pair of shoes.”
”Why, do you find things out of joint?” Douglas queried. ”You haven't seen much of the world, I suppose?”
”I don't have to travel to see the world, sir,” and Joe paused in his work and looked earnestly into his visitor's face. ”I can see the world right in this parish; that is, as much as I want to see of it.”
”And you think there are many things here which need to be mended?”
”I certainly do. My heart is heavy all the time over the sad condition of this parish. The church is closed; the bell is never rung; and the rectory is falling into decay. But they are merely outward signs of the real state of the community. The people do not wors.h.i.+p any more, and the children never go to Sunday school. With this spiritual sloth has come a great moral decline, and there are all kinds of sins and evil things committed of which we, as a rule, were free years ago.”
”What is the cause of all this?” Douglas enquired.
”There are various reasons. The most important, I suppose, is the lack of the right kind of a clergyman, who would understand the people, and be a real leader. If he could win the sympathy of the majority in this parish, the rest might be overcome.”
”But didn't you have good men in the past?”
”Oh, yes, we've always had good men in a way. But of late years the ones we had, as I said, didn't understand the people, and as far as I could see didn't try. They knew nothing about the country ways, and considered themselves above their people. They were always looking for some better field, and made no bones of saying so. They used no tact at all.”
”But didn't the people try to help and encourage them?” Douglas asked.
He was beginning to feel that Joe was looking all on one side.
”Most of the people did at first, sir, and I think that things would have come around all right if they had been let alone.” Joe paused and examined the st.i.tches he had just put in the trace. ”But,” he continued, ”there's an influence in this parish which has to be reckoned with. I'm not going to say what it is, but if you stay here long enough you'll soon find out for yourself.”
”And that influence, whatever it is, would make it hard, then, for any clergyman to work here? Is that what I gather from your words?”
”That's just it.”
Douglas longed to know what this influence really was, but he felt it would be better not to enquire further just then. No doubt the shoe-maker had some good reason for not telling what he knew. The only thing, therefore, was for him to find out for himself.
”You must miss the services of the Church very much,” he at length remarked.
”I do, I certainly do,” Joe emphatically replied. ”Though I have service in my own house every Sunday morning, yet it doesn't seem just the same as in the House of G.o.d.”
”Do any of the neighbours come?”