They were all conscious, too, that the clerk had been acutely receptive of Judge Pike's reading of them; that he was reviving from his own squelchedness through the later snubbing of the colonel;also that he might further seek to recover his poise by an attack on them for cluttering up the office.
Naturally, Jonas Tabor was the first to speak.
"Judge Pike's lookin' mighty well," he said, admiringly.
"Yes, he is," ventured Squire Buckalew, with deference; "mighty well.""Yes, sir," echoed Peter Bradbury; "mighty well.""He's a great man," wheezed Uncle Joe Davey;"a great man, Judge Martin Pike; a great man!""I expect he has considerable on his mind,"said the Colonel, who had grown very red."Inoticed that he hardly seemed to see us.""Yes, sir," Mr.Bradbury corroborated, with an attempt at an amused laugh."I noticed it, too.
Of course a man with all his cares and interests must git absent-minded now and then.""Of course he does," said the colonel."Aman with all his responsibilities ""Yes, that's so," came a chorus of the brethren, finding comfort and reassurance as their voices and spirits began to recover from the blight.
"There's a party at the Judge's to-night," said Mr.Bradbury--" kind of a ball Mamie Pike's givin'
for the young folks.Quite a doin's, I hear.""That's another thing that's ruining Canaan,"Mr.Arp declared, morosely."These entertainments they have nowadays.Spend all the money out of town--band from Indianapolis, chicken salad and darkey waiters from Chicago! And what I want to know is, What's this town goin' to do about the nigger question?""What about it?" asked Mr.Davey, belligerently.
"What about it?" Mr.Arp mocked, fiercely.
"You better say, `What about it?' "
"Well, what?" maintained Mr.Davey, steadfastly.
"I'll bet there ain't any less than four thousand niggers in Canaan to-day!" Mr.Arp hammered the floor with his stick."Every last one of 'em criminals, and more comin' on every train.""No such a thing," said Squire Buckalew, living up to his bounden duty."You look down the street.There's the ten-forty-five comin' in now.