The Glass Village by Ellery Queen Read Free Book Online

Waters from the Town Hall, three rows of them in the road, while trestles bearing warning signs guarded them from a traffic that never came; and Judge Shinn mounted the pedestal of the monument and took off his Panama hat in the burning July sun and wiped his scalp with a handkerchief. And everyone grew quiet, even the youngest children.
    And the Judge said, “We will begin our annual exercises in the usual way, with a salute to the flag.”
    And turned and faced the flagpole, and Shinn Corners got up from the campchairs and all the men’s hats came off and all right arms came up, and the Judge led his village in pledging allegiance to the flag of the United States, “one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
    And there was a rustle as all took seats again, and then the Judge said, “And now we will render unto God. Our pastor will lead us in prayer.”
    And Samuel Sheare took his spare body up onto the pedestal, and he no longer wore the troubled smile but a look of solemn responsibility; and he bowed his head, and the Judge bowed his head, and all the people below bowed their heads; and the minister said a prayer in a loud clear voice, as if he had authority to speak without fear at last. And it was a prayer to the Heavenly Father to preserve our liberties as He had bestowed them, to send us rain so that the fruits of our fields might multiply, and to send peace to our aged, and health to our sick, and good will toward all men high or humble. And Mr. Sheare prayed for the security of our country, that it might prevail over its enemies; and for wisdom on the part of the President of the United States and his counselors; and for peace wheresoever on earth. And the people of Shinn Corners murmured, “Amen,” and raised their heads obediently as their pastor stepped down to resume his seat and his troubled smile.
    And the Judge said with a smile, “Judy Scott, who constitutes in her lone majesty next year’s graduating class of our grade school, will now read the Declaration of Independence.”
    And Mathilda Scott’s Judy, her yellow braids shining in the sun, her cheeks pink with excitement, marched stiffly up to stand beside Judge Shinn, and she held up a white scroll printed in rather blurry blue printing with a red border around it, and the scroll shook a little, at which she frowned and began to read in a high tight voice with an occasional squeak in it the Declaration of Independence. …
    Johnny glanced about him at the Judge’s fellow townsmen. It seemed to him that with the exception of Fanny Adams he had never seen a more uniform vacancy. The noble-sounding words flowed over them like a spring tide over stones. Nothing soaked in; and in a little while the stones would be dry again. Well, Johnny thought, why not? What were words but the lawyer’s delusion, mockery, and snare? Who but a few old men like Lewis Shinn listened to them any more?
    He noticed that when Judy Scott stepped down with relief, to have her shoulder squeezed by Elizabeth Sheare and receive the misty love-glance of her mother, Judge Shinn was silent for a space, as if even he had been impressed by their vacuity.
    Then the Judge began his speech.
    He began by addressing them as neighbors and saying that he well remembered the village’s Independence Day exercises when he was a small boy, and some of them remembered, too. “The river ran through Shinn Corners then. All the houses were white as the Monday wash, and there were lots of fine old shade trees. The dirt roads were rutted and dusty from all the rigs and surreys and farm wagons driving in for the celebration. And the crowds—of purely Shinn Corners folks—spread all over the Four Corners and up and down these roads, there were so many of us. We had a fife-and-drum corps for stirring us up, and it made good loud music. The militia company of our district fired off muskets in a salute, to start things