Faithful Unto Death

Henry's Trial

job; Sheriff Chandler was already looking for a replacement for Papa. Meanwhile, Ralph was trying to keep the farm work up while asking around for extra work. Odd, when she thought about it. Ralph was the head of the house now, and not Papa, and certainly not Roy, the eldest. Roy was rarely at home. Roy, their mother’s pride, with his music lessons and good school ratings, Roy had left school and was seen, too often, with that dreadful Lannon boy and Joe Beals. Lottie didn’t know what they did together, but she noticed that Roy’s clothes, in the laundry basket, often had a skunky, burnt-toast smell. She suspected, but didn’t like to say to Ralph, that they smoked when they were away together. None of the family went to church now. She and Ralph had taken the children twice, after the arrest. She didn’t know which was worse, the smirks or embarrassed looks from her friends or the pitying ones of the teachers. The second time there, in the Little Friends Sundayschool class, Will had struck his little friend Geordie “for saying something nasty about Papa” and had had to stand in the corner.The Sunday after that, they had all just stayed home. Ralph had tried to put a good face on it.“At least we don’t have to sit still and read the Bible all afternoon, eh?” Oh, but if Mother could only be alive again, and Papa properly at home with them, how happily she would sit still on Sundays! And besides, painting lacked joy for her just now, somehow. After the children were in bed, there were always more chores awaiting her, and if there weren’t obvious ones, her mind would scurry in little circles, like a one-eyed mouse, looking for things that she probably should be doing. Her paints lay untouched on the bureau top in her room, the cakes of bright color cracked and dry. She willed her lip to stop trembling, took a deep breath, and began to scrub the next plate. Henry’s Trial henry’s trial began at the Benzie County Circuit Court on July 12, 1894. “Why does it take so long to select a jury?” sighed Lottie. “When do they start the important part of the trial, so Papa can come back home?” Ralph’s mind had often wandered during civics class, and now he 143 wished he’d paid more attention. “It’s important to get people who will be fair,” he recalled. “If everyone in a town thinks the person is guilty,” he noticed Lottie’s frown and added, “or everyone thinks he’s innocent, they have to go out of town to ‹nd people whose minds aren’t already made up. That’s something called ‘change of venue.’” Lottie looked doubtful, and Ralph sighed. “We’ll ask Mr. Covell when he’s not so busy.” By the time all was settled, the jury consisted of men from Elmira, Crystal Lake, Inland, Joy‹eld, Platte, and Weldon. Ralph knew several of them, including Arthur J. Hamlin, George Tennant, and Mr. Paradise, because how would anybody forget a man named Paradise once he’d met him, even to deliver a load of oats to him? Lottie also thought it auspicious to have Mr. Charles C. Marrigold on the jury, because how could anybody with such a ›oral name think ill of Papa? The jury was housed in the former Walter Randall house on Grand Traverse Street. By this time, the temperatures had soared into the nineties. On the ‹rst evening of the jurors’ sequestration, the entire panel’s complaints had become so audible that Judge Aldrich relented and allowed the twelve an excursion to the beach for an evening dip. Ralph, returning home from that same errand after sweating through the day’s ‹eldwork, smiled to himself. They’d looked so solemn and serious , even pompous, those twelve men, but walking single ‹le behind Sheriff Chandler they also put him in mind of a row of goslings, but panting instead of peeping. He ‹nished the milking, brushed a mosquito from the back of his hand, and picked up the two pails. Approaching the back door, he heard Will’s angry voice: “Won’t! Won’t, neither!” “Either!” corrected Lottie sharply. Ralph smiled again. They might be the children of the worst criminal in Benzonia’s history, but by George, they’d speak correctly or Lottie would know why...