Star whinnied a mild
remonstrance at the long desertion. The Preacher mounted and as he swung
lightly down the wagon trail, he had a sense of joy, of triumph, of
uplift that had seldom been his. Here for the first time he had put his
great physical strength to the service of the new life. It was a
consecration, so to speak, of his bodily powers. And overtopping this
was another happiness, which, he was just beginning to realize,
completely filled his thoughts these days: the prospect of crowning each
day's adventures by telling them all to Belle.

CHAPTER XVI

The New Insurance Agents

Woman's suffrage was a disturbing question in the West of the '80's and
it had not by any means passed Cedar Mountain by. There was more than
one fiery dispute among the "perchers" of Shives's shop, where Jim was
very fond of dropping in. Indeed the smithy was the public forum of the
town.

Hartigan had very strong views, of the oldest and most conservative
type, on the sphere of woman--notwithstanding the fact that his mother
had been the capable leader of men. He did not say much about this; but
he assumed that the absence of his father was the sole cause of his
mother's dominance. He was fond of quoting St. Paul: "Let your women
keep silence in the churches ... it is a shame for women to speak in the
church" (I Cor. XIV:34-35), and from this he argued that silence was
woman's only duty in all public matters of administration, because it
accorded with her limitations.

Shives, being twice as old, was much less certain. He could cite
Cleopatra, Catherine of Russia, Catherine de' Medici, and other familiar
names to prove the woman's power; to which Hartigan replied:

"And a fine moral lot they were! Was ever power put to more devilish
use?"

This was a jibe and not an answer. But it caused a laugh, and that
always counts in debate. Then, with singular blindness to the fact that
he himself was at the time being guided by a certain young woman, Jim
issued his challenge:

"If you can show me a couple that started fair and square together on
equal footing and didn't end with the man as head and leader in
everything to do with fighting the battle of life, I'll give in--I'm
licked."

Two mornings later, Dr. Carson was standing outside his office door,
when he heard a quick stride on the boardwalk and the gay voice of the
Preacher singing "Roy's Wife of Aldivallock."

"The top of the morning to ye, Doc," was his cheery gree