Page:Poor White.djvu/131

buy the machine, yes. They'll spend their money. They'll put in plants. The plants'll die. The mon- ey'll be wasted. There'll be no crop." Old men, who had been cabbage farmers in the country north of Bid- well all their lives, and whose bodies were all twisted out of shape by the terrible labor of the cabbage fields, came hobbling into town to look at the model of the new machine. Their opinions were anxiously sought by the merchant, the carpenter, the artisan, the doctor by all the townspeople. Almost without exception they shook their heads in doubt. Standing on the side- walk before the jeweler's window, they stared at the machine and then, turning to the crowd that had gathered about, they shook their heads in doubt. " Huh," they exclaimed, " a thing of wheels and cogs, eh? Well, so young Hunter expects that thing to take the place of a man. He's a fool. I always said that boy was a fool." The merchants and townspeo- ple, their ardor a little dampened by the adverse de- cision of the men who knew plant-setting, went off by themselves. They went into Birdie Spinks' drug- store, but did not listen to the talk of Judge Hanby. " If the machine works, the town'll wake up," some one declared. " It means factories, new people com- ing in, houses to be built, goods to be bought." Visions of suddenly acquired wealth began to float in their minds. Young Ed Hall, apprentice to Ben Peeler the carpenter, grew angry. " Hell," he ex- claimed, " why listen to a lot of damned old calamity howlers? It's the town's duty to get out and plug for that machine. We got to wake up here. We got to forget what we used to think about Steve Hunter. Anyway, he saw a chance, didn't he? and he took it.