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“Say, there’ll be fun over that yet, won’t they,” said one of the fellows, with a grin.

“Well, Ike better keep out of Bill’s way, that’s all.”

“Well–I ain’t takin’ sides. Some young’un may have took it.”

“Well, let’s go in, boys; I see the Elder’s come. By gum, there’s Harkey!” They all looked toward Harkey, who had just driven up to the door.

Harkey came into church holding his smooth, serious face a little one side, in his usual way, quiet and dignified, as if he were living up to his Sunday suit of clothes. He seemed to be unconscious of the attitude in which he stood toward most of his neighbors.

Bill and Sarah were not present, and that gave additional color to the story of trouble between the sisters.

After the sermon Deacon Harkey led the Sunday School, and the critics of his action were impressed more than usual with his smooth and quiet utterance. Emma seemed more than ordinarily worn and dispirited.

It was perfectly natural that Mrs. Gray should be the last person to know of the division which had slowly set in between the two sisters and their factions. Charitable and guileless herself, it was difficult for her to conceive of slander and envy.

Nevertheless, a division had come about, slowly, but decisively. The entire Coolly was involved in the discussion before Mrs. Gray gave it any serious attention, but one day, when Sarah came in upon her and poured out a mingled flood of sorrow and invective, the good soul was aghast.

“Well, well, I swan! There, there! I wouldn’t make so much fuss over it!” she said, stripping her hands out of the biscuit dough in order to go over and pat Sarah on the shoulder. “After all that to-do gettin’ settled, seems ‘s if you ought ‘o stay settled. Good land! It ain’t anything to have a fuss over, anyway!”

“But it is our cow-bell. It belonged on the black farrer cow, that Jim turned his nose up at, and he sneaked around and got it just to spite us.”

“Oh, I guess not,” she replied incredulously.

“Well, he did; and Emmy put him up to it, and I know she did,” said Sarah in a lamentable voice.

“Sary Ann,” said Mrs. Gray, as sharply as any one ever heard her speak, “that’s a pretty way to talk about your sister, ain’t it?”

“Well, Mrs. Jim Harkey said–“

“You never mind what Mrs. Jim Harkey said; she’s a snoop and everybody knows it.”

“But she wouldn’t tell that, if it weren’t so.”

“Well, I tell you, I wouldn’t pay no attention to what she said, and I wouldn’t make such a fuss over an old cow-bell, anyway.”

“But the cow-bell is only the starting point; she ain’t been near the house since, and she says all kinds of mean, nasty things about us.”

“All comes through Mrs. Jim, I suppose,” said Mrs. Gray, with some sarcasm.

“No, it don’t. She told Dade Walker that I got all the biggest flat-irons, when she knows I offered her the bureau. I did everything I could to make her feel satisfied.”

“I know you did, and now you must just keep cool till I see Emmy myself.”

When Mrs. Gray started out on her mission of pacification, she found it to be entirely out of her control. The Coolly was actively partisan. One party stood by the Harkeys, and another took Sarah’s part, while the tertium quid said it was “all darn foolishness.”

Mrs. Gray was appalled at the state of affairs, but struggled to maintain a neutral position. In May, when Bill and Sarah were married, things had reached such a stage that Emma was not invited to the wedding supper. Nothing could have cut deeper than this neglect, and thereafter adherents of the third remove declined to speak when passing; some even refused to nod. The Harkey faction also condemned the early marriage of Bill and Sarah as unseemly.

Soon after, Emma came again to see Mrs. Gray, salty with tears, and crushed with the slight Sarah had put upon her. She was a plain pale woman, anyway, and weeping made her pitiable. She explained the situation with her head on Mrs. Gray’s lap:–