I understood it entirely. They named him after the man who had done most for them in their lives. He had been a Colonel in the Confederate army, and after the war became a clergyman of the Episcopal Church, and their desire was to name the baby after the Colonel and not after the priest.
Poor Colonel Ben has had a hard, limited life, but has worked faithfully tilling the soil on his father's large farm. The unwonted excitement of a visit to the county-seat to hear a man tell him how to do what he'd been doing all his life was most astounding. As they tiptoed behind D. into the rather dark room filled with people I think it would have taken little to make them turn and run to the shelter of the woods.
However, they settled down and after furtive looks around devoted themselves to trying to make out what the speaker was saying. For a long time it seemed to me they were getting nothing. It was all a confused talk to them, and then he said something which roused them to interest: "And now I will tell you how to get the greatest amount of good from your barn-yard manure," and he proceeded to urge them to haul it on to the fields as fast as it accumulated.
Both Colonel Ben and Solomon leaned further and further forward in their desire not to lose one of the precious words of wisdom. It was lucky that the two seats in front of them were vacant, for the long arms were far over the seat, while the eager faces tried to bring the huge hearing members nearer to the speaker. I felt quite delighted that they had found something available, something they could carry home.
It is hard for an educated speaker to realize how his fluent speech slips off the rustic brain like water flowing over a rock. They cannot absorb it; it is all over before they have caught on.
After it was all over I met Colonel Ben, Solomon, and their father wandering along the street. I stopped and spoke, asked them if they were going to the banquet which had been prepared for the audience.
No, they reckoned they'd be gittin' on home.
But I urged them, saying I felt sure R. L. A. expected them and would be looking for them.
"Wall, he's the one got me en the boys into this trouble; he wouldn't take no, we jest had to cum, en hare we is."
I started them on the way to the hall and hope they got there and enjoyed the substantial lunch provided. No doubt these meetings do an immense deal of good if as in this instance the local director is a man of enthusiasm and able to throw it into the work and take an interest in all the individual farmers who are so cut off from the interests of the rest of the world.