Deacon Billington's Downfall
There was no doubt about it that Deacon Billington was an old pinch penny. He had the reputation of being the meanest man in the county and the county was not particularly famous for its generosity. On account of his meanness, everybody was glad when George Splan's mare beat the deacon's in a trotting race. George and the deacon were not very good friends anyway, because George happened to be in love with the deacon's daughter. His defeat aroused the deacon to such a rage that he positively refused to allow his daughter to have anything more to do with George. The deacon's prohibition did not bother his daughter and George to any alarming extent. They saw about as much of each other as they ever had. The deacon did not notice their disobedience because he himself was in the midst of an exciting romance. Engaged one day in the pursuit of an office boy and a black cat who between them had scattered inky cat-tracks over some of his important papers, the deacon had entered the yard of the Widow Divine. His heart was taken captive, and he who came to storm remained to woo. In this tender pastime, he found a dangerous rival in a certain Si Higgins. The widow listening, as was her custom, to conversation on the telephone one day, heard George and the deacon's daughter planning an elopement. Naturally enough, she told the deacon. The deacon at that time was under a slight cloud. He had been engaged to deliver a temperance lecture, but, on account of the unfortunate discovery of a secret bottle of rum on the part of a tramp which served to apprise the shocked village that it had been sheltering a wolf in sheep's clothing, his moral authority suffered severely. The deacon returned home, and threw Splan out. His utter rage may be imagined when, a few days later, Splan eloped with the girl. The deacon chased them to the parsonage and arrived only to find them married. But what hurt him even more than that was the fact that he also arrived just in time to greet the new Mrs. Higgins, formerly the widow Divine. The deacon stormed and raged until Splan showed him a certain paper the deacon's former office boy had brought him. It dealt with a rather shady mortgage transaction, and on sight of it the deacon subsided immediately. His reputation had suffered too much of late to risk any further blows.
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