"
"What have they got thar, a mortgage?" Jasper inquired of Mrs. Mayfield.
"The beginning of many a mortgage, Mr. Starbuck; some verses."
"Huh," grunted the old man, "I don't reckon they are like some verses I
had not long ago. Had a lawsuit befo' a jestice of the peace and they
called it Starbuck verses Brown."
Margaret ceased her work of mixing corn pone and looked round at him.
"Jasper, anybody to hear you talk would think you don't know nuthin'."
"Well," Starbuck replied, "that's the way to find out that a man don't
know nuthin'--by hearin' him talk. Feller over the mountains had a son
that was deef and dumb for twenty-odd year. Everybody lowed he was the
smartest one of the fam'ly. But finally a doctor teached him how to talk
and then they found out that he wan't nuthin' but a damned fool."
The profane twist of the old man's defense amused Mrs. Mayfield. And Jim
smiled. It was not only in keeping with the old man's half innocent
character--it was the honest spurt of sinful Adam, remaining with the
most of us--which the devout preacher may deplore for the sake of
example and yet inwardly accept because he is human.
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