Uncle Billy Makes a Call
Judith and her mother were also the victims of the morning after. Mrs.
Buck was pale and listless, complaining of shortness of breath, while
Judith felt it impossible to accomplish the many duties she had
planned for Saturday forenoon.
"The truth of the matter is I can't stop dancing. If I only had some
quick music I could work to it. I wonder if Cinderella swept the
hearth clean the morning after the ball. Mumsy, do you think the
prince was there last night?" she asked.
"Prince! What prince?"
"Oh, just any old prince! Prince Charming! I think--in fact I am
sure--I liked my Cousin Jeff Bucknor better than any of the men who
danced with me."
"Now, Judith, please don't start up that foolishness. Jeff Bucknor may
dance with you because everybody else wanted to, but he would be very
much astonished if he heard you calling him cousin."
"Well, he heard me last night, but he started it. He wanted to boss
me, because he said he was my nearest of kin. I just laughed at him
and called out, 'Good-bye, Cousin!' Mr. Big Josh Bucknor almost
claimed kin with me, too. Wouldn't it be funny, Mumsy, if all of them
got to doing it? It would be kind of nice to have some kinfolks who
knew they were kin. I know you think I am conceited, but somehow I
believe the men would be more pleased about it than the women. Maybe
the women are afraid I'd take to visiting them like poor Cousin Ann!"
"Humph! Cousin Ann indeed!"
"But, Mumsy, she was real cousinish last night. There was a look in
her eyes that made me feel that she was almost claiming relationship.
She squeezed my hand in the quadrille, and when she came up to speak
to me after the darling old men let the cat out of the bag about its
being my debut party she was very near to kissing me."
"Well, I don't hold much to kissing strangers."
Mother and daughter were on the side porch, engaged in various
household duties, while this desultory discussion was going on.
Suddenly there appeared at the corner of the house old Uncle Billy. In
his hand he carried a small package wrapped in newspaper. He bowed and
bowed, wagging his head like a mechanical toy.
"You mus' 'scuse me, ladies, fer a walkin' up on you 'thout no
warnin', but I got a little comin' out gif fer the young lady, if she
don't think ol' Billy air too bold an' resumtious. It air jes' a bit
er jewilry what air been, so's ter speak, in my fambly fer goin' on a
hun'erd or so years. Ol' Mis, the gran'maw er my Miss Ann--Miss
Elizabeth Bucknor as was--gib it to ter my mammy fer faithfulness in
time er stress. It were when smallpox done laid low the white folks
an' my mammy nuss 'em though the trouble when ev'ybody, white and
black, wa' so scairt they runned off an' hid."
"Why, Uncle Billy, I think you are too lovely to give it to me. But
you ought to keep it."
"Well, it ain't ever been much use ter me, seein' as I can't wear a
locket, but I reckon you mought hang it roun' yo' putty neck
sometime."
He took off the newspaper wrapping, disclosing a flat velvet box much
rubbed and soiled. Touching a spring the lid flew open, disclosing a
large cameo of rare and intricate workmanship, with a gold filigree
border and gold back.
"I'd like ter give it ter you, if you won't be a thinkin' it's
free-niggerish of me."
"Why, I think it is perfectly lovely of you. It is a beautiful
locket--the most beautiful I ever saw. See, Mumsy, I can put it on my
little gold chain."
"No doubt!" Mrs. Buck looked distrustfully at Billy, but the old man
held himself so meekly and his manner was so respectful that her heart
was somewhat softened.
"You sho' air got a pleasant place here. I allus been holdin' th'ain't
no place so peaceful an' homelike as a shady side po'ch, with plenty
er scrubbery an' chickens a scratchin' under 'em. I'd be proud to have
a po'ch er my own, with a box er portulac a bloomin' in front er it
an' plenty er nice red jewraniums sproutin' 'roun' in ol' mattersies
cans--but, you see, me'n Miss Ann air allus on the jump--what with all
the invites we gits ter visitate."
"Let me show you what a nice vegetable garden I have planted, Uncle
Billy, and what a lovely well we have, with the coldest water in the
county. Maybe you would like a drink of cold water, or perhaps you
would like some fresh buttermilk. I have just churned and the
buttermilk is splendid," said Judith.
"Thankee, thankee kindly, missy! I's a great han' fo' buttermilk." The
old man followed Judith to the dairy and watched with admiring eyes as
she dipped the creamy beverage from the great stone jar and poured it
into a big glass mug.
"This was Grandfather Buck's mug. He liked to drink buttermilk from
it, but he always called it a schooner. That was his house, back
there. He never lived in it after Grandfather Knight died, so my
mother tells me, but we always have called it his house. It still has
his furniture in it, but nobody stays there."
"I hearn my Miss Ann a talkin' bout yo' fambly not so long ago. She
say the Bucks an' Bucknors were one an' the same in days gone by but
one er yo' forebears done mislaid the tail en' of his name. But Miss
Ann say that don't make no mind ter her--that you is of one blood jes'
the same. She even done up an' state that you air as clost kin ter her
as the Buck Hill folks air. She air allus been a gret han' for geology
an' tracin' back whar folks comed from."
"She--she didn't tell you to tell me that, did she, Uncle Billy?"
Judith looked piercingly at the old man. He tried to say Miss Ann knew
he was going to tell the girl of their kinship but her clear gaze
confused him.
"Well, well, no'm, she didn't 'zactly tell me, but--No'm, she don't
even know I done come a' callin'. She jes' thinks I'm out a exercisin'
of Puck an' Coopid. Them's the names er my hosses."
"Perhaps she would not like your telling me this," persisted Judith.
"Well, missy, if you ain't a mindin' I believe I'll arsk you not ter
mention what I done let slip. I ain't ter say sho' what the fambly air
gonter do 'bout the matter. I done hear tell they air gonter hab a
meetin' er the whole bilin' an' decide."
"Do!" fired Judith. "They will do nothing. You can tell them for me
that I don't give a hang whether they want to claim kin with me or
not. They did not have the making of me and I am what I am regardless
of them. I know perfectly well that I am descended from the same
original Bucknors but I'm glad my ancestor mislaid part of the name
and I wouldn't have the last syllable back for anything in the
world."
"Yassum!" gasped Billy.
"Uncle Billy, I didn't mean to be cross with you," laughed Judith, her
anger gone as quickly as it had come, "but it does rile me for the
family to think themselves so important and to feel they can have a
meeting and make me kin to them or not as they please."
Billy, mounted on Cupid and leading Puck, rode slowly off. He wagged
his great beard and talked solemnly to himself.
"Well now, you ol' fool nigger, you done broke yo' 'lasses pitcher.
Whe'fo' you so nimble-come-trimble ter tell little missy 'bout the
fambly confab? 'Cause you done hearn Marse Big Josh 'sputin' with
Marse Bob Bucknor at the ball consarnin' the Bucks an' Bucknors ain't
no reason whe'fo' you gotta be so bigity. Ain't yo' mammy done tell
you, time an' agin, that ain't no flies gonter crawl in a shet mouf?
All you had ter do wa' ter go an' give Miss Judy Buck the trinket an'
kinder git mo' 'quainted an', little by little, git her ter look at
things yo' way. You could er let drop kinder accidental like that she
wa' kinfolks 'thout bein' so 'splicit. She done got her back up now
an' I ain't a blamin' her. She sho' did put me in min' er my Miss Ann
when she wa' a gal, the way she hilt up her haid an' jawed back at the
fambly. An' she would er talked the same way if Marse Big Josh an'
Marse Little Josh an' Marse Bob Bucknor theyselves had 'a' been there
an' all the women folk besides. That little gal ain't feared er
nobody. She done tol' me ter say she wouldn't have back that extry
syllabub on her name fer nothin'. I reckon if I'd tell Marse Jeff that
he'd go up in the air for fair. But this nigger is done talkin'--done
talkin'."
He rode on, his brown old face furrowed with trouble. His bowed legs
stuck out comically and the long tails of his blue coat spread
themselves out on Cupid's broad back.
"An' that putty little cabin in the back, with po'ch an' all, an'
little missy done say it got furnisher in it too," he murmured
plaintively.