The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-08-20
THE ELDERS BACKSLIDE
His Trip to Macon and What Be-
fell Him on the Journey.

fell Him on the Journey.
Elder Brown told his wife goodbye at
the farm house door as mechanically as
though his proposed trip to Macon, ten
miles away, was an everyday affair,
while, as matter of fact, many years had
elapsed since, unaocompanied, he set foot in
the city. He did lot kiss her. Many very
good men never kiss their wives. But
small blame attaches to the elder for his
omission on this occasion, since his wife
had long ago discouraged all amorous
demonstrations on the part of her lege
lord, and at this particular moment was
filling the parting moments with a rafting
list of directions concerning thread, but
tons, hooks, needles and all the many
etceteras of an industrious housewives
basket. The elder was laboriously assort-
ing these postscript commissions in his
memory, well knowing that to return with
any one of them neglected would cause
trouble in the family circle.
Elder Brown mounted his patient steed
that stood sleepily motionless in the warm
sunlight, with his great pointed ears dis
played to the right and left, as though
their owner had grown tired of the life
burden their weight inflicted upon him,
and was, old soldier fashion, ready to
forego the once rigid alertness of early
training for the pleasures of frequent rest
on arms.
''And, elder, don't you forgit them cal
iker scraps, or you'll be wantin' kiver soon
an no kiver will be a-comin'."
Elder Brown did not turn his head, but
merely let the whip hand, which had been
checked Units backward motion, fall as he
answered mechanically. The beast he be-
strobe responded with a rapid whisking of
its tail and great show of effort, as it
amhled off down the sandy road, the riders
long legs seeming now and then to touch
the ground.
But as the zigzag panels of the rail fence
crept behind him, and he felt the freedom
of the morning beginning to act upon his
we'll trained blood, the mechanical man
ner of the old mans mind gave place to a
mild exuberance. A weight seemed to be
lifting from it ounce by ounce as the fence
panels, the weedy corners, the persimmon
sprouts and sassafraS bushes, crept
away behind him, so that by the time a
mile lay between him and the life partner
of his joys and sorrows he was in reason
ably cOntented frame of mind, and still
improving.
1t was a queer figure that crept along
the road that CHEEKY May morning. 1t was
tall and gaunt, and had been for thirty
years or more. The long head, bald on top,
covered behind with iron-gray hair, and in
front with a short tangled growth that
curled and kinked in every direction, was
surmounted by an old-faShioned stove-pipe
hat, worn and stained, but emiuently i'm
pressive. An old-fashioned Henry Clay
cloth coat, stained and threadbare, divided
itself impartially over the donkey'S back
and dangled on his sides. This was all
that remained of the elders wedding suit
of fnrtxy
and use of late years limited to extra Occa-
sionS, had preserved it so long. The
trousers had soon parted company with
their friends. The substitutes were red
jeans, which, while they did not well
match his court costume. were better
abuse, for if, in addition to his
frequent religious excursions astride his
beast, there ever was a man who was fond
of sitting down with his feet higher than
his head, it was this self-same Elder
Brown.
The morning expanded, and the old man
expanded with it; for while q vigorous
leader in his church, the elder at home was,
it must be admitted, an accomplishing
slave. To the intense aStonishment of the
beast he rode, there came new vigor into
the whacks which fell upon his TANKS; and
the beast allowed establishment to surprise
him into real life and decided motion.
tune had begun to ring. Possibly he took
up the far faint tune that came from the
struggling gang of negroes away off in the
field, as they slowly chopped amid the
thread-like rows of cotton plants which
lined the level ground, for the melody he
hummed softly and then sang strongly, in
the quavering, catchy tones of a good old
country churchman, was: Pm glad SAL
vation'S free"
1t was during the singing of this hymn
that Elder Browns regular motion -inspir-
ing strokes were for the first time varied.
He began TO hold his hickory up at certain
pauses in the melody, and beat the changes
upon the sides of his astonished steed
The chorus under this arrangement was,
I'm glad salvation's free,
I'm glad salvation's free,
I'm glad Salvation's free for du
I'm glad salvation's free"
Wherever there is an italic, the hickory
descended. 1t fell about as regularly and
after the fashion of the stick beating upon
the bass drum during a funeral march.
But the beast, although convinced that
something serious was impending, did
not consider a funeral march appro-
pirate for the occasion. He pro-
tested, at first, with vigorous whisk-
ings of his tail and a rapid shifting
of his ears. Finding these demonstrations
unavailing, and convinced that some ur-
gent cause for hurry had suddenly invaded
the elders serenity, as it had his own, he
began to cover the ground with frantic
leaps that would have surprised his owner
could he have realized what was going on.
But Elder Browns eyes were half closed,
and he was singing at the top of his voice.
Lost in a trance of divine exulGation, for
he felt the effects of the invigorating mo-
tion, bent only on making the air ring with
the lines which he dimly imagined
were drawing upon him the ewes
of the whole female congregation, he was
supremacy unconscious that his beast was
hurrying.
And thus the excursion proceeded, until
suddenly a shote, surprised in his calm
search for roots in a fence corner, darted
into the road, and stood for an instant
gazing upon the newcomers with that
idiotic stare which only pig can initiate.
The sudden appearance of this unlocked
for apparition acted strongly upon the
donkey. With one supreme effort he COL
lected himself into a motionless mass of
matter, bracing his front legs wide apart;
that is to say, he stopped short. There he
stood, returning the pigs idiotic stare
with an interest which must have led to
the presumption that never before in all
his varied life had he seen such a singular