"Well, eh--not offm--ve'y seldom. 'Caze ef I do that, you know, then,
here, fus' thing, he be a-callin' me C'nelius."
"I think C'nelius sounds sweet'n--" The speaker clapped a hand to her
mouth. "Escuse me! O, Mr. Leggett, _kin_ you escuse me?"
"Escuse you?"--his sidelong glance was ravishing--"yo' beauty mo'n
escuse you."
The maiden dropped her lashes and drew her feet out of her protector's
way. "An' you an' Mr. Mahch is frien's! How nice dat is!"
"Yass, it nice faw him. An' it useful faw me. We in cahoots in dis-yeh
lan' boom. O, yass, me an' him an' Gyarnit an' Gamble, all togetheh like
fo' brethers. I plays the fife, Johnnie beats the drum, Gyarnit wear the
big hat an' flerrish the stick, an' Gamble, he tote the ice-wateh!" The
two laughed so heartily as to swing against each other.
"Escuse me!" said Mr. Leggett, with great fondness of tone.
"You ve'y escusable," coyly replied the damsel. "Mr. Leggett, in what
similitude does you means you plays de fife?"
"Why in the s'militude o' legislation, you know. But Law'! Johnnie
wouldn't neveh had the sense to 'range it that-a way if it hadn't been
faw my dea' ole-time frien' an' felleh sodjer, Gyarnit."
"Is dat so? Well, well! Maajo' Gyarnit! You used to cook faw him in camp
di'n' you? How much good sense he got, tubbe sho'!" A mixture of
roguishness spoiled the pretence of wonder.
"Good sense? Law'! 'twant good sense in Gyarnit nuther. It was jess my
pow' ove' him! my stra-ange, masmaric poweh! You know, the arrangements
is jess this! Gyarnit got th'ee hund'ed sheers, I got fawty; yit I the
poweh behime the th'one. Johnnie, he on'y sec'ta'y an' 'ithout a salary
as yit, though him an' his maw got--oh! I dunno--but enough so he kin
sell it faw all his daddy could 'a' sole the whole track faw--that is,
perwidin' he kin fine a buyeh. Champion, Shotwell, the Graveses--all
that crowd, they jess on'y the flies 'roun' the jug; bymeby they find
theyse'ves onto the fly-papeh." The pair laughed again, and----
"Oh! escuse me!"
"My acci_dent_, seh. Mr. Leggett, hoccum you got all dat poweh?"
"Ah!" said the smiling gallant, "you wants to know the secret o' my
poweh, do you? Well, that interjuce the ezacly question I'm jess
a-honin' to ass you. You ass me the secret o' my poweh. Don't you know
thass the ve'y thing what Delijah ass Saampson?"
"Yass, seh. I knows. Dass in de Bible, ain't it?"
"It is. It in the sacred scripters, which I hope that, like myseff, fum
a chile thou hass known them, ain't you? Yass, well, thass right. I
loves to see a young lady pious. I'm pious myseff. Ef I wan't a
legislater _I'd_ be a preacher. Now, you ass me the same riddle what
Delijah ass Saampson. An' you know how he anseh her? He assed a riddle
to her. An' likewise this my sweet riddle to you: Is I the Saampson o'
yo' hope an' dream an' will you be my Deli----Aw! now, don't whisk away
like that an' gag yo'seff with yo' handkercher! I's a lawful widoweh,
dearess."
The maiden quenched her mirth and put on great dignity. "Mr. Leggett,
will you please to teck yo' ahm fum roun' my wais'?" She glanced back
with much whiteness of eyes. "Teck it off, seh; I ain't aansw'ed you
yit."
The arm fell away, but his whispering lips came close. "Ain't I yo'
Saampson, dearess o' the dear? Ain't you the Delijah o' my haht? Answeh
me, my julepina, an' O, I'll reply you the secret o' my poweh aw any
otheh question in the wide, wide worl'!"
"Mr. Leggett, ef you crowds me any wuss on dis-yeh buggy seat I--I'll
give you--I'll give you a unfavo'able answeh! Mr. Leggett"--she
sniggered--"you don't gimme no chaynce to think o' no objections even ef
I had any! Will you please to keep yo' foot where yo' foot belong, seh?
Mr. Leggett----"
"What is it, my sweet spirit o' nightshade?"
"Mr. Leggett"--the eyes sparkled with banter--"I'll tell you ef you'll
fus' aansweh _me_ a riddle; will you? 'Caze ef you don't I won't tell
you. Will you?"
"Lawd! I'll try! On'y ass it quick befo' my haht bus' wide opm. Ass it
quick!"
"Well, you know, I cayn't ass it so scan'lous quick, else I run de
dangeh o' gettin' it wrong. Now, dis is it: When is--hol' on, lemme
see--yass, dass it. When is two--aw! pshaw! you make me laaugh so I
can't ax it at all! When is two raace hawses less'n one?"
"Aw, sheh! I kin ans' that in five minutes! I kin ans' it in one minute!
I kin ans' it now! Two hosses is--"
"Hol' on! I said raace hawses! Two raace hawses, I said, seh!"
"Well, dass all right, race hosses! Two race hosses less'n one when they
reti-ud into the omlibus business."
"No, seh! no seh!" The maiden cackled till the forest answered back.
"No, _seh_! two raace hawses less'n one when each one on'y jess abreas'
o' the otheh!"
--"'Breas' o'--aw pshaw! you tuck the words right out'n my mouth! I seed
the answeh to it fum the fus; I made a wrong espunction the fus time
on'y jess faw a joke! Now, you ans' my question, dearess."
But the dearest had become grave and stately. "Mr. Leggett, befo' I
comes to dat finality, I owes it to myseff an' likewise to my pa'ents to
git yo' respondence to, anyhow, one question, an' ef you de man o' poweh
you say you is, y' ought to be highly fitt'n' to give de correc' reply."
"Espoun' your question, miss! Espoun' yo' question!"
"Well, seh, de question is dis: Why is de--? No, dat ain't it. Lemme
see. O yass, whass de diff'ence 'twix' de busy blacksmiff an' de loss
calf? Ans' me dat, seh! Folks say C'nelius Leggett a pow'ful smaht maan!
How I gwine to know he a smaht maan ef he cayn't evm ans' a
riddle-diddle-dee?"
"I kin ans' it! I's ans'ed bushels an' ba'ls o' riddles! Now that riddle
is estremely simple, an' dis is de inte'p'etation thereof! The diff'ence
betwix' a busy blacksmiff an' a loss ca-alf--thass what you said, ain't
it?--Yass, well, it's because--O thass too easy! I dislikes to occupy my
facilities with sich a trifle! It's jess simply because they both git so
hawngry they cross-eyed! Thass why they alike!"
"No, seh! no, seh! miss it ag'in! O fie, fo' shaame! a man o' sich
mind-powehs like you! Didn't you neveh know de blacksmiff fill de air
full o' bellows whilce de loss calf--aw shucks! you done made me fo'git
it! Now, jess hesh up, you smaht yalleh niggeh! try in' to meek out like
you done guess it! Dis is it; de blacksmiff he fill de caalf full o'
bellows, whilce----"
They both broke into happy laughter and he toyed innocently with one of
her pinchbeck ear-rings.
"O! my sweet familiarity! you knows I knows it! But yo' sof' eyes is
shot me th'oo to that estent that I don't know what I does know! I jess
sets here in the emba'ssment o' my complacency a won'de'n' what you
takes me faw!"
"How does you know I's tuck you at all yit; is I said so, Mr.
Saampson?--Don't you tetch me, seh! right here in full sight o' de
house! You's too late, seh! too late! Come roun' here, C'nelius Leggett,
an' he'p me out'n dis-yeh buggy, else I dis'p'int you yit wid my
aansweh.--No, seh! you please to take jess de tips o' my fingehs. Now,
gimme my bundle o' duds!" the voice rose and fell in coquettish
undulations--"now git back into de buggy--yass, seh; dass right. Thaank
yo ve'y much, seh. Good-by. Come ag'in."
"Miss Daphne, y' ain't ans' my interrogutive yit."
"Yass, I is. Dass my answeh--come ag'in."
"Is dat all de respondence my Delijah got faw her Saampson?"
"Mr. Leggett, I ain't yo' Delijah! Thass fix! I ain't read the scripters
in relations to dat young lady faw nuthin! Whetheh you my Saampson
remain"--the smile and tone grew bewitching--"faw me to know an faw you
to fine out."
"Shell I come soon?" murmured Mr. Leggett, for the old field hand and
his wife were in sight; and the girl answered in full voice, but
winsomely:
"As to dat, seh, I leaves you to de freedom o' yo' own compulsions."
He moved slowly away, half teased, half elated. At the last moment he
cast a final look backward, and Daphne Jane, lagging behind the old
couple, tossed him a kiss.
* * * * *
Quite satisfied to be idle, but not to be alone, the maiden so early
contrived with her Leggettstown vivacity to offend the old field hands,
that the night found her with only herself and her cogitations for
company.
However, the house was still new to her, if not in its pantry, at least
in its bureaus and wardrobes, and when she had spent the first evening
hour counterfeiting the softly whimpered quavers of a little screech-owl
that snivelled its woes from a tree in the back-yard, the happy thought
came to her innocent young mind to try on the best she could find of her
mistress's gowns and millinery. By hook and by crook, combined with a
blithe assiduity, she managed to open doors and drawers, and if mimicry
is the heaven of aspiring laziness, the maid presently stood
unchallenged on the highest plateau of a sluggard's bliss. She minced
before the mirror, she sank into chairs, she sighed and whined, took the
attitudes given or implied by the other Daphne's portrait down-stairs,
and said weary things in a faint, high key.
And then--whether the contagion was in the clothing she had put on, or
whether her make-up and her acting were so good as to deceive Calliope
herself--inspiration came; the lonely reveler was moved to write.
Poetry? No! "Miss it ag'n!" She began a letter intended to inform "Mr.
S. Cunnelius Leggett," that while alike by her parents and by Mrs. March
she was forbidden to see "genlmun frens," an unannounced evening
visitor's risks of being shot by Mr. March first, and the question of
his kinship to the late Enos settled afterward, were probably--in the
popular mind--exaggerated. The same pastime enlivened the next evening
and the next. She even went farther and ventured into verse. Always as
she wrote she endeavored to impersonate in numerous subtleties of
carriage the sweet songstress whose gowns she had contrived--albeit
whose shoes she still failed--to get into. And so, with a conscience
void of offence, she was preparing herself to find out, what so many of
us already know, that playing even with the muse's fire is playing with
fire, all the same.
XLIX.
MEETING OF STOCKHOLDERS
At sunrise of the twenty-second, Barbara started from her pillow, roused
by the jarring thunder of a cannon. As it pealed a second time Fannie
drew her down.
"It's only Charlie Champion in the square firing a salute. Go to sleep
again."
As they stepped out after breakfast for a breath of garden air, they saw
John March a short way off, trying to lift the latch of Parson Tombs's
low front gate. He tried thrice and again, but each time he bent down
the beautiful creature he rode would rear until it seemed as if she must
certainly fall back upon her rider. The pastor had come out on his
gallery, where he stood, all smiles, waiting for John to win in the
pretty strife, which the rider presently did, and glanced over to the
Halliday garden, more than ready to lift his hat. But Fannie and Barbara
were busy tiptoeing for peach blossoms.
"Good-morning, Brother March; won't you 'light? I declare I don't know
which you manage best, yo' horse aw yo' tempeh!" The parson laughed
heartily to indicate that, however doubtful the compliment, his
intentions were kind.
"Good-morning, sir," said John in the gateway as his pastor came
bareheaded toward him; and after a word or two more of greeting--"Mr.
Tombs, there's to be a meeting of stockholders in the parlor of the
hotel at ten o'clock. My friend, Mr. Fair, got here yesterday evening,
and we want him to see that we mean business and hope he does."
"I see," said Parson Tombs, with a momentous air. "And I'll come. I may
be a little late in gett'n' there, faw I've got to hitch up aft' a while
and take Mother Tombs to spend the day, both of us, with our daughters,
Mrs. Hamlet and Lazarus Graves. I don't reckon anybody else has noticed
it but them, but, John, my son, Mother Tombs an' I will be married jess
fifty years to-night! However that's neither here nor there; I'll come.
If I'm half aw three-quarters of an hour late, why, I reckon that's no
mo'n the rest of 'em will be, is it?"
John smiled and said he feared it wasn't. As his mare leaped from the
sidewalk to the roadway he noted the younger pastor going by on the
other side, evidently on a reconnoisance. For the committee on
decorations was to come with evergreens to begin to deck the Tombs
parsonage the moment the aged pair should get out of sight of it.
* * * * *
Three persons were prompt to the moment at the meeting of stockholders:
Garnet, Gamble, and Jonas Crickwater, the new clerk of Swanee Hotel and
a subscriber for one share--face value one hundred dollars, cash payment
ten. A moment later Cornelius entered, and with a peering smile.
"Howdy, Leggett?" said Garnet, affably; but when the tawny statesman
moved as though he might offer to shake hands, the Major added with
increased cordiality, "take a seat," and waved him to a chair against
the wall; then, turning his back, he resumed conversation with the
railroad president. Presently John March arrived, with a dignity in his
gait and an energy in his eye that secretly amused the president of the
road. John looked at his watch with an apologetic smile.
"I supposed you had gone some place to get Mr. Fair," said Garnet.
"He's in Jeff-Jack's office; they're coming over together." John busied
himself with his papers to veil his immense satisfaction. Looking up
from them he saw Leggett. "Oh!" he exclaimed, stepped forward, and, with
a constrained bow, for the first time in his life gave him his hand. The
mulatto bowed low and smiled eruptively, too tickled to speak.
At the end of half an hour the gathering numbered nine, and everybody
was in conversation with somebody. Mr. Crickwater, after three gay but
futile attempts to tell Gamble that they were from the same State in the
North, leaned against a wall with anguish in his every furtive glance,
hopelessly button-holed by Leggett.
"Ah!" cried Garnet, as Jeff-Jack and Fair entered together. The Major
laughed out for joy. In a moment it was--"Mr. Fair, this man, and Mr.
Fair, that one--you remember President Gamble, of course?--and Captain
Champion? Mr. Fair, let me make you acquainted with Mr. Hersey. Mr. Weed
I think you met the last time you were here. No! this is Mr. Weed,
that's our colored representative, Mr. Leggett. He'd like to shake hands
with you, too, sir."
"Mr. Fair," said Cornelius, "seh, to you; yass, I likes to get my sheer
o' whateveh's a-goin'."
He was about to say much more, but Garnet purposely drowned his voice.
"Gentlemen, we'll proceed to business. Mr. Crickwater, will you act as
doorkeeper?" Mr. Crickwater assumed that office.
Secretary March having occasion to mention the number of subscribed
shares represented by those present as six hundred and eleven, Garnet
explained that besides his own subscription he represented one of
fifteen shares and another of ten for two ladies, and Champion
unintentionally uttered a lurid monosyllable as Shotwell stuck him under
the leg with a pin. They were the shares, Garnet added, that General
Halliday had failed to take.
Business went on. When, by and by, Mr. Crickwater admitted Parson Tombs,
the pastor found the company listening to the Honorable Cornelius
Leggett as he expounded the reasons for, and the purposes of, the
various provisions of An Act to authorize the Counties of Blackland,
Clearwater, and Sandstone to subscribe to the capital stock of the
Three-Counties Land and Improvement Company, Limited, and to declare
said counties to be bodies politic and corporate for the purposes
therein mentioned.
"You see, gentlemen," interposed Garnet, "we make Mr. Leggett one of the
principal advocates of this bill in order to secure the support of
those, both in the Legislature and at the polls, who are likely to vote
as he votes on the question of the three counties subscribing to this
other thousand shares, the half of our capital stock reserved for the
purpose."
Mr. Weed asked how many shares offered to voluntary subscribers on the
ten-dollar instalment plan had been taken, and Garnet replied, "All.
Those, together with the shares assigned me in exchange for the
mortgages I hold on Widewood and propose to surrender, the forty for
which Mr. Leggett pays five hundred dollars, and the two hundred
retained by Mr. March and his mother, make six hundred and forty,
leaving three hundred and sixty to be placed with capitalists willing to
pay their face value. We have to-day an increased confidence that these
reinforcements"--he smiled--"are not far off. When this is done we shall
have raised the three-eighths of the face value of the one thousand
private shares, as required, before the three counties' subscription to
the other thousand shares can become effective. I have to state,
gentlemen, that General Halliday has been compelled by the weight of
other burdens to resign the treasurership; but on the other hand I have
the pleasure to announce that Captain Charles Champion has consented to
act as treasurer, and _also_, that Colonel Ravenel expresses his
willingness to serve as one of the two trustees for the three counties
on the--(applause)--on the very reasonable condition that he be allowed
to name the other trustee. I believe there's no other formal business
before the meeting, but before we adjourn I think a few brief remarks
from one or two gentlemen who have not yet spoken will be worth far more
than the time they occupy. I'll call on our vice-president, Mr. Gamble."
(Applause.)
Gamble said his father used to tell him a man of words and not of deeds
was like a garden full of weeds. Here he was silent so long that
Champion whispered to Shotwell, "He's stuck!"
But at length he resumed, that he attributed his own success in life to
his always having believed in deeds!
"Indeed!" echoed Shotwell in so audible a whisper that half the group
smiled.
Gamble replied that his statement might surprise some that had been
asleep for the last twenty years, but he guessed there wasn't any such
person in this crowd. (Laughter.) However, he proposed to say in a few
words, which should be as much like deeds as he could make 'em, what he
was willing to do. He paused so long again that Champion winked at John
and was afraid to look at Shotwell.
He remembered, the speaker finally began again, another good
saying--couldn't seem to be sure whether it was from Shakespeare or the
Bible--that "a fool and his money are soon parted." Now, he was far from
intending that for anyone present----
"No-o," slowly interrupted Hersey, turning from a large spittoon, "we
ain't any of us got any money to part with."
"Well, I haven't mistook any of you for fools, neither. But I think that
proverb, or whatever you call it, is as much's to say just like this,
that if a man ain't a fool, 'tain't easy to part him from his money!"
(Applause.)
"How about a fool and his land?" asked John, with a genial countenance.
"O _you're_ all right," eagerly replied Gamble, and smiled inquiringly
as the company roared with laughter. "Why, gentlemen, our able and
efficient secretary is all right! Land ain't always money, and the fool
is the man who won't let his land go when he's got too much of it.
(Applause.) But that's not what I was driving at. What I was driving at
was this: that if we want to get any man or men to put big money into
this thing out o' their own pockets, we've got to make 'em officers of
the company an' give'em control of it. Of course, our secretary is in to
stay; that's part of his pay for the land he gives; but except as to
him, gentlemen, there'll have to be a new slate. How's that, Mr.
President?"
"Certainly; we're all pro tern, except Mr. March--and Colonel Ravenel."
"Yes, Colonel Ravenel, of course; but the man he selects for the other
trustee must be someone satisfactory to the men on the new slate, eh,
Colonel?"
Ravenel smiled, nodded, and as Gamble still looked at him, said, "All
right."
"Now, gentlemen, if any of you don't agree to these things, now is the
time to say it." A long pause. "If we are all agreed, then all I've got
to add, Mr. President, is just this: you say there's three hundred and
sixty shares for sale at their face value; I'll take two hundred when
anybody else will take the balance." (Applause.)
As Gamble sank down Garnet glanced over to Fair, who was sitting next to
Jeff-Jack; but Fair began to read some of the company's printed matter
and the whole gathering saw Ravenel give Garnet a faint shake of the
head.
"Ravenel!" suggested Champion, but Jeff-Jack quietly replied, "Father
Tombs," and five or six others repeated the call. The pastor rose.
"I'm most afraid, my dea' friends an' brethren, I oughtn't to try to
speak to this crowd. I'm a man of words and not of deeds, an' yet I'm
'fraid I shan't evm say the right thing. I belong to the past. I've been
thinkin' of the past every minute I've been a-sitt'n' here. Yo' faces ah
all turned to the future an' ah lighted"--he lifted his arm and waggled
his hand--"by the beams of a risin' sun reflected from the structu'es o'
yo' golden dreams. As I look back down the long an' shining stair-steps
o' the years I count seventy-two of 'em in the clear sight o' memory's
eye besides fo' or five that lie shrouded in the silve'y mist of
earliest childhood." The pastor, ceased and his hearers were very still.
"I don't tell my age to brag of it, but if I remind you-all that I've
baptized mo' Suez babies than there are now Suez men an' women alive,
an' have seen jest about eve'y cawnehstone laid in this town that's ever
been laid, I needn't say my heart's in yo' fawtunes whether faw this
world aw the next.
"An' I don't doubt you goin' to be prospe'd. What I'm bound to tell you
I've my private fears of, an' yet what I'm hopin' an' trustin' and
prayin' the Lord will deliveh you fum--evm as a cawp'ate company--is the
debasin' sin o' money greed. Gentle_men_, an' dea' friends an' breth'en,
may Gawd save you fum that as he saved the two Ezra Jaspehs, the foundeh
o' Suez an' his cousin, the grantee of Widewood, fum the folly o' Ian'
greed. For I tell you they may not 'a' managed either tract as well as
some otheh men think they might 'a' done it, but they were saved the
folly whereof I speak. They's been some talk an' laugh here this mawnin'
about John March a-partin' with so much o' his lan'. Well, if that makes
him a fool, he's a fool by my advice! Faw when he come to me with his
plans all in the bud, so to speak, I said to him there an' then, an'
he'll remembeh: Johnnie, s'I, I've set on the knees of both Ezra
Jaspehs, an' I'm tellin' you what I know of the one that was yo'
fatheh's grand-fatheh, as you say you know it of yo' own sainted fatheh:
that if the time had eveh come in his life when paht'n' with Widewood
tract would of seemed any ways likely to turn it into sco'es an'
hund'eds o' p'osp'ous an' pious homes he would 'a' givm ninety-nine
hund'edths away faw nothin' rather than not see that change; yes, an'
had mo' joy oveh the one-hund'edth left to him than oveh the ninety an'
nine to 'a' kep' 'em as the lan's of on'y one owneh an' one home.
"Gentlemen, I'm free to allow, as I heah the explanations o' all the
gue-ards an' counteh-gue-ards o' this beautiful scheme--schools faw the
well-to-do an' the ill-to-do, imperatively provided as fast as toil is
provided faw the toiler and investments faw the investor--I have cause
to rejoice an' be glad. An' yet! It oughtn't to seem strange to you-all
if an' ole man, a man o' the quiet ole ploughin' an' plantin',
fodder-pullin', song-singin', cotton-pickin', Christmas-keepin' days,
the days o' wide room an' easy goin', should feel right smaht o'
solicitude an' tripidation when he sees the red an' threatenin' dawn of
anotheh time, a time o' mines an' mills an' fact'ries an' swarmin'
artisans' an' operatives an' all the concomitants o' crowded an'
complicated conditions, an' that he should fall to prayin' aloud in the
very highways an' hotels, like some po' benighted believer in printed
prayehs an' litanies, the petition: Fum all Ole Worl' sins an' New Worl'
fanaticisms, fum all new-comers, whetheh immigrants aw capitalists, with
delete'ious politics at va'iance fum ow own, which, heavm knows, ah
delete'ious enough, an' most of all fum the greed o' money, good Lawd
deliv' us!