human
Land of mercy! Oh, law, the Mist'ess'll be terrible put out! Why, 'tis old Plum.
gpt
Yes, he came with us from Deerfield. He must have been trying to reach the stable, find some way to get in where it was warm without troubling my grandmother. Fell and couldn't rise with the liquor in him--oh, when the singing stopped I did think some friend----
human
Singing? Ooh!--he done all that commotion last night? Ben did not answer; she seemed useless, not open to communication, like a tiresome dog.
gpt
Must call the Mist'ess immediate. She'll be terrible put out--well, it a'n't _my_ fault, no one can say....
human
Benjamin!
gpt
Yes, Grandmother.
human
I suppose you can stand up when spoken to?
gpt
I was feeling sick. Grandmother, I ought to have gone out last night--to find out----
human
You knew, last night, you _knew_ it was that fellow Plum making that foul commotion, knew and would not tell me. Benjamin, I marvel at you, I do marvel.
gpt
But I thought----
human
You thought! She was dressed for the day; haggard, the mark of a pillow fading on her cheek.
gpt
Well, well--you thought what?
human
When he stopped, I thought some friend must have taken him away, so you needn't to trouble about him.
gpt
Benjamin, I am not troubled about him. I knew him long before you were born, and why my husband saw fit to tolerate him I shall never know--excess of charity perhaps.
human
He saved our lives.
gpt
Indeed?
human
He got us over the palisade when the village was burning.
gpt
Indeed? Any oaf can have a good impulse now and then. Someone else would have lent a hand if not he. You're not beholden.
human
There was no one else. Jesse was ever friendly to Ru and me. I never knew him unkind, Grandmother.
gpt
What? What? No unkindness to himself and others to live with the conversation of a hog, to spend all the years God gave him in utter blasphemy? Her voice climbed.
human
Blasphemy, swinish drunkenness, sin and corruption, knowing the truth--why, he was instructed; your grandfather and I saw to that--knowing it and rejecting it, knowing his steps went down to Hell and heedless continually. No unkindness?
gpt
He was not like that, Grandmother.
human
You contradict me?... Benjamin, go in the parlor. I'll come to you presently.
gpt
Jonas! When the big man tiptoed in she said:
human
Open the shutters. Thin light brought no comfort.
gpt
Light the fire--boy appears to be cold. Nay, first go wake that child upstairs if he's slept through all this--I wonder he could.
human
Oh, he could! Ben snatched clumsily for something harmless to ease the tension.
gpt
Wide awake one minute and then----
human
Benjamin, do please to be quiet. Jonas, bring Reuben down. He is to stay with Anna; he is not to come in here. Ben saw Jonas' witch-wife join him in the hallway and they went upstairs together.
gpt
Ah, Benjamin!--about your miserable clothes, I had hoped to employ part of this day in buying suitable garments for you and your brother, but now I suppose the time must be spent otherwise--and Lecture Day at that, when I must be at meeting after the noon hour. And you and Reuben ought to go too, but of course I cannot take you to the meeting-house looking like beggar boys and very likely lousy.
human
We are not! Grandmother, I----
gpt
You won't find me failing in understanding, Benjamin, but pray understand this once and for all: your failure last night to tell me about that fellow Plum was a lie--a lie of silence.... Oh, when word came yesterday I did pray that you and your brother might be brands from the burning. I do pray for it yet. I made plans for you, I searched my heart, I sought guidance, I even trusted I had found it. D'you think me cold, unnatural? D'you imagine I don't love you, my grandson? She brushed with dry impatience at sudden tears. Footsteps sounded on the stairs. Ben tried to catch a glimpse of Reuben, but the bulk of the Lloyds hid him as they passed the doorway.
human
Benjamin, what am I to do with you? What do you yourself think would be right for me to do with you, a liar, a wilderness child who hath something like the conversation of a savage?
gpt
Grandmother, about Jesse----
human
Plum again! And thus I'm answered! Why, the constable will see after all that.
gpt
Constable?
human
Town authorities, boy. Burial. Is that what you meant?
gpt
A pauper's burial.
human
Thankful heart, boy, I can't understand you. You wish the creature buried among the Saints?
gpt
No, I.... Ben searched his mind hopelessly. During the night many polite convincing speeches had been prepared--scattered, one and all. He blurted the one thought his mind could hold:
human
Reuben and I must go to Uncle John Kenny at Roxbury.
gpt
What! She was whitely horrified.
human
You don't know what you say.
gpt
Why, Grandmother, he was a friend to my father. They wrote to one another. Once Uncle John sent me a book.
human
He did? She sat down slowly, little white hands stiff as ivory on the arms of the chair.
gpt
That may serve to explain much.... Benjamin, I require you to listen to me if only this once. I have reason to believe that my poor brother John is an atheist. I will trust you did not know this; now you do. He is an old man--as I'm old--and hardened, corrupt with false learning, evil conversation, a blasphemer, often fuddled with drink, a--a fornicator. He hath kept a mistress, at Roxbury, quite openly, under the name of housekeeper--for all I know the whore is there yet. Being wealthy, with friends in high places, none dares deal with him--that's the pass our colony hath arrived at. We builded a Zion; it becometh an abomination, a pen of swine, a nest of adulterers, blasphemers, sodomites, worshippers of the golden calf--vipers.... And now you wish me to allow you and that poor child your brother to go into that--that filthiness. Benjamin, I will hear nothing more about going to my brother at Roxbury. I will not send you to an even worse darkness than you dwelt in at Deerfield.
human
We dwelt in no darkness there!
gpt
Benjamin, be careful!
human
You have no right to speak so of my father! We _will_ go to Roxbury!
gpt
Benjamin, stop!
human
And you'll bury Jesse like a dead dog--your Christian charity! Judgments--my father--you lie, lie!
gpt
Jonas!
human
Wasn't he your son? I believe nothing.
gpt
Jonas! Jonas!
human
I won't bear it!
gpt
Jonas, lock him in his room. Here! She fumbled a bunch of keys from her belt, with difficulty, for doubtless she could not see plainly.
human
Here, take it, Jonas! The boy is possessed!