He had himself taken no part in the new impulses that
had come upon the town, except that he had taken advantage of the failure
of the town's first industrial effort to roar insults at those of his
townsmen who had lost their money. One evening he and Ed Hall had got
into a fight about the matter on Main Street, and the blacksmith had been
compelled to pay another fine. Now he wondered what was the matter with
him. He had evidently made a mistake about his son. Had he made a mistake
about Tom Butterworth and Steve Hunter?
The perplexed man went back to his shop and all the afternoon worked in
silence. His heart had been set on the creation of a dramatic scene on Main
Street, when he openly attacked the two most prominent men of the town,
and he even pictured himself as likely to be put in the town jail where
he would have an opportunity to roar things through the iron bars at the
citizens gathered in the street. In anticipation of such an event, he had
prepared himself to attack the reputation of other people. He had never
attacked women but, if he were locked up, he intended to do so. John May
had once told him that Tom Butterworth's daughter, who had been away to
college for a year, had been sent away because she was in the family way.
John May had claimed he was responsible for her condition. Several of Tom's
farm hands he said had been on intimate terms with the girl.
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