A Quaker’s Gun

Snow was coming down. Just a light dusting, a spring storm, snow swirling around as two men approached the cabin. They knocked and waited. It was dusk. They shook the snow off their boots and entered when Jacob opened the door to them.

“Greetings, friends,” Jacob said. “Come in and warm yourselves.” The two men walked into the warm room but not far. They looked around at the table set for supper, the kerosene lamp, the fire in the fireplace, Sally cooking, the rifle next to the door, and two children playing with a baby on the floor. The men took off their crumpled, brown hats and held them in their hands, looking uncomfortable in their homespun clothes.

“What brings you out on this cold night, Robert and Silas?” Jacob asked.

They looked awkwardly at each other; then Silas said, “We’ve come for your gun, Jacob. We know you won’t join us, and we respect that, but we need more weapons to fight the British.”

Jacob stepped back as he heard this and looked over to Sally; the children stopped playing and looked at their parents. Sally, cooking at the stove, stopped stirring the stew pot and gazed at the visitors, “Robert, thee knows we need it for hunting,” she said.

Robert studied his feet avoiding their eyes on him. He scuffled his feet, kept his head down, and  focused his eyes on the floor.

“I know ma-am,” Silas said. “We’re sorry; we’ll bring it back when these battles are over. We mean you no harm; we just need to stop the British. They will be at Guilford any day now.”

The two men put on their hats, turned, and left. Silas’s hand reached out, grabbing the gun at the last, just as he went out the door.

Sally looked at Jacob and asked, “What will we do for meat now?”

Their son piped up, “I can set traps, Mother, and catch rabbits.”

“That’s the idea,” Jacob said and smiled at him. “Don’t worry; we’ll get by,” he told his family.

A week later, once more at supper time, Robert returned to the cabin and knocked. Jacob opened the door, and Robert entered with the gun.

“Greetings, friend,” Jacob said.

“I’ve brought back your gun,” Robert said, and he sat it down next to the door where it had stood before.

Jacob looked at the gun and looked at Robert. “I thank thee,” he said.

“You’re welcome,” the man said, as he turned and quickly left, avoiding eye contact again.

The family sat down to eat. They held hands and bowed their heads in a silent prayer of thanks. After the meal, Sally and the children cleared the table and set up the tubs for washing dishes.

Her son turned around and asked her, “Where’s Father?”

His sister who was watching the baby looked up to ask, “Where’s his gun?”

They all paused in their work and listened. A bang and then a repeating whacking sound came from outside. After a while, Jacob returned without the gun. He took off his coat and hat, sat down, and gazed into the fire. Sally picked up the baby and went to stand near him, and the children gathered around. He looked up from the fire at them and slowly said, “I couldn’t keep a gun that was used to slay my fellow man.”