第4章

When the Kaiser and von Tirpitz issued their final ultimatum, however, and the President called America to arms, Phineas, in company with others of his breed, appeared to have experienced a change of heart.At all events he kept his anti-war opinions to himself and, except that his hatred for the captain was more virulent than ever since the affair of the postmastership, he found little fault with the war preparations in the village, the organizing of a Home Guard, the raising of funds for a new flag and flagpole and the recruiting meeting in the town hall.

At that meeting a half dozen of Orham's best young fellows had expressed their desire to fight for Uncle Sam.The Orham band--minus its first cornet, who was himself one of the volunteers--had serenaded them at the railway station and the Congregational minister and Lawyer Poundberry of the Board of Selectmen had made speeches.Captain Sam Hunniwell, being called upon to say a few words, had said a few--perhaps, considering the feelings of the minister and the feminine members of his flock present, it is well they were not more numerous.

"Good luck to you, boys," said Captain Sam."I wish to the Almighty I was young enough to go with you.And say, if you see that Kaiser anywheres afloat or ashore give him particular merry hell for me, will you?"And then, a little later, came the news that the conscription bill had become a law and that the draft was to be a reality.And with that news the war itself became a little more real.And, suddenly, Phineas Babbitt, realizing that his son, Leander, was twenty-five years old and, therefore, within the limits of the draft age, became once more an ardent, if a little more careful, conscientious objector.

He discovered that the war was a profiteering enterprise engineered by capital and greed for the exploiting of labor and the common people.Whenever he thought it safe to do so he aired these opinions and, as there were a few of what Captain Hunniwell called "yellow-backed swabs" in Orham or its neighborhood, he occasionally had sympathetic listeners.Phineas, it is only fair to say, had never heretofore shown any marked interest in labor except to get as much of it for as little money as possible.If his son, Leander, shared his father's opinions, he did not express them.In fact he said very little, working steadily in the store all day and appearing to have something on his mind.Most people liked Leander.

Then came the draft and Leander was drafted.He said very little about it, but his father said a great deal.The boy should not go;the affair was an outrage.Leander wasn't strong, anyway; besides, wasn't he his father's principal support? He couldn't be spared, that's all there was about it, and he shouldn't be.There was going to be an Exemption Board, wasn't there? All right--just wait until he, Phineas, went before that board.He hadn't been in politics all these years for nothin'.Sam Hunniwell hadn't got all the pull there was in the county.

And then Captain Sam was appointed a member of that very board.He had dropped in at the windmill shop the very evening when he decided to accept and told Jed Winslow all about it.There never were two people more unlike than Sam Hunniwell and Jed Winslow, but they had been fast friends since boyhood.Jed knew that Phineas Babbitt had been on a trip to Boston and, therefore, had not heard of the captain's appointment.Now, according to Gabriel Bearse, he had returned and had heard of it, and according to Bearse's excited statement he had "gone on" about it.

"Leander's been drafted," repeated Gabe."And that was bad enough for Phineas, he bein' down on the war, anyhow.But he's been cal'latin', I cal'late, to use his political pull to get Leander exempted off.Nine boards out of ten, if they'd had a man from Orham on 'em, would have gone by what that man said in a case like Leander's.And Phineas, he was movin' heavens and earth to get one of his friends put on as the right Orham man.And now--NOW, by godfreys domino, they've put on the ONE man that Phin can't influence, that hates Phin worse than a cat hates a swim.Oh, you ought to heard Phineas go on when I told him.He'd just got off the train, as you might say, so nobody'd had a chance to tell him.

I was the fust one, you see.So--"

"Was Leander there?"

"No, he wan't.There wan't nobody in the store but Susie Ellis, that keeps the books there now, and Abner Burgess's boy, that runs errands and waits on folks when everybody else is busy.That was a funny thing, too--that about Leander's not bein' there.Susie said she hadn't seen him since just after breakfast time, half past seven o'clock or so, and when she telephoned the Babbitt house it turned out he hadn't been there, neither.Had his breakfast and went out, he did, and that's all his step-ma knew about him.But Phineas, he....Eh? Ain't that the bell? Customer, I presume likely.Want me to go see who 'tis, Shavin's--Jed, I mean?"