Billy closed his eyes for a moment. He felt it wasn't quite square to
see into his friend's soul that way when he was off his guard, but he
understood. He had passed that way himself. It came to him that nothing
he could say would make any difference. He would have liked to tell of
his own experience in the court room and how he had suddenly known that
all his efforts to right his wrong had been failures, that there was
only One who could do it, but there were no words in a boy's vocabulary
to say a thing like that. It sounded unreal. It had to be felt,
and he found his heart kept saying over and over as he lay there
waiting with closed eyes for Mark to speak: "Oh, God! Why'n'tchoo show
him Yerself? Why'n'tchoo show him Yerself?" He wondered if Miss Lynn
couldn't have shown Mark if he had only gone and talked it over with
her. But Mark said it was too late, "Well, Why'n'tchoo show him
Yerself, then? Why'n'tchoo show him Yerself, God,--please!"
Mark got up with a long sigh: "Well, s'long, Kid, till I see you again. And I won't forget Kid, you
know I won't forget! And Kid, I'm leaving my gun with you. I know
you'll take good care of it and not let it do any damage. You might
need it you know to take care of your Aunt, or--or--Miss Severn--or!"
"Sure!" said Billy with shining eyes clasping the weapon that had been
Mark's proud possession for several years. "Aw Gee! Ya hadn't oughtta
give me this! You might need it yourself."
"No, Kid, I'd rather feel that you have it. I want to leave someone
here to kind of take my place--watching--you know. There'll be
times--!"
"Sure!" said Billy, a kind of glory overspreading his thin eager face.
"Aw Gee! Mark!"
And long after Mark had gone, and the sound of his purring engine had
died away in the distance, Billy lay back with the weapon clasped to
his heart, and a weird kind of rhythm repeating itself over and over
somewhere in his spirit: "Why'n'tchoo show him Yerself, God?
Why'n'tchoo show him Yerself? You will! I'll bet You will! yet!"
And was that anything like the prayer of faith translated into
theological language?
Aunt Saxon went up tiptoe with the broth and thought he was asleep and
tiptoed down again to keep it warm awhile. But Billy lay there and felt
like Elisha after the mantle of the prophet Elijah had fallen upon him.
It gave him a grand solemn feeling, God and he were somehow taking
Mark's place till Mark got ready to come back and do it himself. He was
to take care of Sabbath Valley as far as in him lay, but more
particularly of Miss Marilyn Severn.