The Green caldron - University Library

October, 1958
THE
Old John and Man
Sue Divan
Rhetoric 102, Final theme
DAY WAS HOT—STEAMING HOT—AND SULTRY AS
only a late spring afternoon in a small Southern town can be. My
starched, white collar irritated my neck, and the light, black suit seemed
warm and heavy—suddenly unbearable in the heat. I had walked from the
cemetery at the edge of town, and I was tired ; I longed to reach my cool, quiet,
comforting destination. I walked along the narrow, tree-shaded sidewalk,
staring at the crooked, spider-web cracks in the old cement, but not really
seeing them. I was thinking—thinking about the funeral at which I had been
present earlier in the afternoon. The man who died and had been buried
today was old John, the village conversation piece, an eccentric old man whom
the town had jokingly called its "mayor."
John was eighty-seven years old and had lived alone, apparently with no
living relatives and only his pension for support, in a squalid little frame house
turned black from years of weathering and patched here and there with un-
painted boards. The little black house stood just two doors down from the
main business district, and the town council had begged John to sell. At
first they offered him a reasonable price, then a fabulous sum, for the dirty
little house and the grass-barren lot. But John would not sell. He was old,
he said, and would not be happy if he died anywhere else but right there in
his little house, just two doors down from the business district.
So John was taunted, belittled, hated. The school boys, flying by on bicycles,
would sneer at him and call him names. The little girls would cross the street
to avoid walking in front of "that house." And the townspeople put into
effect a policy of ignoring him. No one talked to him and he was left alone.
But what the townspeople did not notice, or did not bother to notice, was
the look in John's eyes—the patient, knowing, waiting look—a look so beautiful
it made me turn away whenever I visited John and talked to him. And
what they did not see was inside John's house—the old, dog-eared books on
the board shelves, and the worn Bible on the table by the rocking chair. And
outside John's house, they did not see the tulips and early roses blooming in
the back yard, nor did they see, tied to the back fence, the dogs which he kept
and fed and loved, with infinite kindness and patience. The townspeople had
passed judgment on old John, but now someone else, someone better, was
passing His judgment.
I looked up and saw that I was nearing home. I saw the little white church
at the end of the street, shaded by the tall, green elms on either side. I saw
above the leaves the slim, white steeple and the silent bell in the belfry. I
walked up the steps and into the cool, quiet sanctuary. Making my way up
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