the future. And tell Him I'll see that the Widow Green's spring
plowing is done sooner after this. It was a darn shame her being left
last like that but that she never asked me, me being so easy-going and
she so neat, until the rest of them left her in the lurch. And tell
Him I'll take the sheriff's job, though if there's one thing I can't do
it's watching people and jumping on them. Just talk to Him that way,
Hank. Put in any little thing you happen to think of and go as far as
you like in promises and subscriptions. The business is moving and
what promises you and I can't keep She'll find a way to pay off. And
here's a ten-dollar gold piece to drop in the hat when it comes around.
You--"

But Hank was standing now and looking at his employer with such terror
in every line of his weather-beaten face that Billy paused again.

"My God--Billy! You ain't asking me--_me_--to--to--to--to go to
_church_?" Hank's voice fairly squeaked and stuttered with the horror
that clutched him.

"Hank, if there was any one else--"

But Hank, shaking in every joint and muscle of his still flabby body,
wagged his head in utter misery.

"Billy, I'll do anything else for you and Mrs. Evans and little
Billy--anything but that. I'll jump into Wimple's pond, get drunk,
sign the pledge--anything but that. What you're a-wanting, Billy,
ain't to be thought of. You're forgetting, Billy, what I was and what
I am. Why, Billy, that there church belongs to the best people in this
town and it ain't for the likes of me to go into such vallyable places,