Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 2 — page 91: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE PROGRESS John Bunyan to the garden? Was she aware that he would meet this man and . not herself? If so, to what purpose? It would be rather far-fetched to believe that Mistress Joyce hoped, through Ruth Prynne, to convert Jack Bunyan to her religious and political sympathies in order that he might turn his physical arm to her service. If that had been the plan, then I also should have been included in the scheme of proselyting. I laughed to myself, imagining John Bunyan apostate! But that the encounter was accident, and a very serious one te the ladies of the manor, became clear when presently I saw Ruth come from the house, glance to right and left, and run rapidly toward the rustic bower where John thundered and Eveleigh skilfully fenced with witty parry and caustic thrust. For a moment she hid in the wild-rose bushes. Then she must have discovered that there was at least one other person besides John Bunyan in the summer-house. Her face, when she parted the bushes for an instant, was stamped with utter: dismay and terror. Swiftly she let the parted bushes come together. As I did not see her retreat from them I knew that the argument now had an audience of two. By this time Bunyan and Eveleigh had argued in a circle backs to religious differ- ences. I could not make up my mind what Eve- leigh’s views were. I doubt if he had any, or held any very seriously. Rather. he seemed merely to delight in making fun of Bunyan’s, ever taking the opposite side, even when he had to contradict things he had previously contended. “Tf, then,”’ thundered John, “there are questions in men’s minds as to how, there being but one God, He doth wish His chil- dren to conduct themselves, how He would they should worship Him, should not His children do according to their own light and conviction?” “Nay,” said Eveleigh. “Then do we add chaos to confusion. There being such questions in men’s minds.it behooves such as have learning to decide and set forth agreements and manners of worship. For there be those who, half learned and taking OF J. BUNYAN. 293 full license, would falsify God, deny His Son, even argue the Holy Scripture but one of many fables devised by ancient men. “For, mark ye, Master Bigot, the Turk doth claim his Koran as good a scripture, and his Mahomet the only savior. And every race—Jews, Moors, and the swart Paynims—think their own deities and gos- pels the most righteous. So it behooves a king who hath his England’s soul to save to decide these questions for his people, rather than have his subjects slitting each other’s gizzards like Christian and Saracen, believer and infidel.’ “ As all England is doing at this hour,”’ said John. But then a kind of despair settled down upon him. He shook his great, red head gloomily, clasped his rugged hands behind his back, and began to stride back and forth before the summer-house. By his feverish pace I knew that that great imagination Was again weighted with his “ great bur- den ” of doubt. “Oh!” he groaned audibly ‘I am sorry Heaven created me a _ two-legged beast. Were I a thing of feathers, or fins, or wool, I had not a sinful nature to contend.” Eveleigh was eying him with quizzical amusement. But John seemed to have for- gotten him for the moment, striding about with his chin on his breast, muttering to himself the while. Joyce’s uncle, perceiving his abstraction, seized his opportunity. He picked up the pistol from the table, thrust it under his coat, and quietly slipped around the edge of the summer-house. I saw him disappear among the rose- bushes as John’s back was turned. For a moment I expected some outcry from Ruth. He must have stumbled upon her in hiding there. But no. The bushes stirred for a moment, and I thought I heard faint whis- pering. Then the bushes became still, and I did not see Joyce’s uncle emerge from them either. He was there with Ruth Prynne, and Hobgoblin had the field all to himself. For a few moments more John Bunyan strode up and down. Then he began to speak, without lifting his head. ‘““A two-legged beast — aye! Even to the very crows that perch upon the plow- COnmiCcloo SS (C@