Published by Good Press, 2021

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      EAN 4057664575234

Table of Contents

       I

       ENTER CHORUS

       II

       A RESCUE

       III

       OLD HOPES

       IV

       THE DISASTER

       V

       BEAVER BEACH

       VI

       YE'LL TAK' THE HIGH ROAD AND I'LL TAK' THE LOW ROAD

       VII

       GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME

       VIII

       A BAD PENNY TURNS UP

       IX

       "OUTER DARKNESS"

       X

       THE TRYST

       XI

       WHEN HALF-GODS GO

       XII

       TO REMAIN ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE IS NOT ALWAYS A VICTORY

       XIII

       THE WATCHER AND THE WARDEN

       XIV

       WHITE ROSES IN A LAW-OFFICE

       XV

       HAPPY FEAR GIVES HIMSELF UP

       XVI

       THE TWO CANAANS

       XVII

       MR. SHEEHAN'S HINTS

       XVIII

       IN THE HEAT OF THE DAY

       XIX

       ESKEW ARP

       XX

       THREE ARE ENLISTED

       XXI

       NORBERT WAITS FOR JOE

       XXII

       MR. SHEEHAN SPEAKS

       XXIII

       JOE WALKS ACROSS THE COURT-HOUSE YARD

       XXIV

       MARTIN PIKE KEEPS AN ENGAGEMENT

       XXV

       THE JURY COMES IN

       XXVI

       ANCIENT OF DAYS

I

      ENTER CHORUS

       Table of Contents

      A dry snow had fallen steadily throughout the still night, so that when a cold, upper wind cleared the sky gloriously in the morning the incongruous Indiana town shone in a white harmony—roof, ledge, and earth as evenly covered as by moonlight. There was no thaw; only where the line of factories followed the big bend of the frozen river, their distant chimneys like exclamation points on a blank page, was there a first threat against the supreme whiteness. The wind passed quickly and on high; the shouting of the school-children had ceased at nine o'clock with pitiful suddenness; no sleigh-bells laughed out on the air; and the muffling of the thoroughfares wrought an unaccustomed peace like that of Sunday. This was the phenomenon which afforded the opening of the morning debate of the sages in the wide windows of the "National House."

      Only such unfortunates as have so far failed to visit Canaan do not know that the "National House" is on the Main Street side of the Court-house Square, and has the advantage of being within two minutes' walk of the railroad station, which is in plain sight of the windows—an inestimable benefit to the conversation of the aged men who occupied these windows on this white morning, even as they were wont in summer to hold against all comers the cane-seated chairs on the pavement outside. Thence, as trains came and went, they commanded the city gates, and, seeking motives and adding to the stock of history, narrowly observed and examined into all who entered or departed. Their habit was not singular. He who would foolishly tax the sages of Canaan with a bucolic light-mindedness must first walk in Piccadilly in early June, stroll down the Corso in Rome before Ash Wednesday, or regard those windows of Fifth Avenue whose curtains are withdrawn of a winter Sunday; for in each of these great streets, wherever the windows, not of trade, are widest, his eyes must behold wise men, like to those of Canaan, executing always their same purpose.

      The difference is in favor of Canaan; the "National House" was the club, but the perusal of traveller or passer by was here only the spume blown before a stately ship of thought; and you might hear the sages comparing the Koran with the speeches of Robert J. Ingersoll.

      In the days of board sidewalks, "mail-time" had meant a precise moment for Canaan, and even now, many years after the first postman, it remained somewhat definite to the aged men; for, out of deference to a pleasant, olden custom, and perhaps partly for an excuse to "get down to the hotel" (which