How hallowed and sun-glinted that school life now seems to me. Many a
grave has been opened and closed, the roots of many a greenbriar is
embedded in the ashes of a heart that was once alive with fire, the
fierce passion of life. The sun is still shining, and the arch of God's
many-hued lithograph is still seen in the sky, and hearts have fire
shut within them, but I wonder if the sun is as bright as it was in the
long ago, if the rain-bow is as purple, if the fire in the heart is as
glowing. Ah, and I know that my grand-children, in the far-away years
to come, will lean feebly upon the gate and wonder if the world is as
full of light as it was. Every emotion you have felt you may know has
been felt by other men. It is this that makes nearly all poetry seem
old; it is this that sends true poetry to the human heart.
I will not linger over those days at school. I have sought thus far to
picture my early life, not that it held incident, but that it revealed
a condition. Time has been so sweeping, the hot blast that blew from
the North was so scorching, and left such dried and brittle stems
where green memories grew, that the youth of to-day can scarcely bring
himself to comprehend that strange democratic absolutism which once
existed in the South. And I wonder now that it could have lasted so
long, though for years the wonder was that it could so soon have been
broken up. How odd now it would seem to point out a man and say, "He
once owned, in this land of freedom, a hundred human beings--owned
them in body, but Christian-like yielded to God the direction of their
souls."
During the regular sessions, until he had reached his eighteenth year,
my young master attended the Layfield Academy, and then he was entered
at Center College. I had kept well up with him, a dead secret between
us, for Old Mistress had more than once made him promise that I should
be kept down upon the servants' proper level. But the secret was
discovered and once it was held threateningly over me.
Bob and I were home to spend the Christmas holidays. On the plantation
was an Ethiopian Lothario, named Steve, and one evening in his cabin he
asked me if I would write for him a letter to a mulatto girl who lived
on a distant farm. "I want you," said he, "ter fling in jest ez much
sweet pizen ez you kin, caze I lubs dat lady an' her head is monstus
high. I yered de white preacher say sumfin dat he 'lowed wuz frum de
dead language. An' kain't you lash in er little o' dat dead talk? I
know it'll fetch her caze dat preacher's dead talk fotch me."
"How do you know I can write?" I asked, for I had curbed the pedantic
instinct of the negro blood within me and except to a few trusted
friends had dropped no hint that I could even read.
"Oh, I 'lowed dat ez smart er boy ez you gwine off ter school an'
college wid his young marster oughter larn how ter do dat. Will you
write de letter fur me?"
I wrote him a screed that made his eyes snap when I read it to him. It
was a mixture of cold Latin grammar and warm persuasion. "Ah, Lawd,"
he said as he sat, tallowing his Sunday shoes, "ef dat doan fetch her
she ain't ter be fotch." He folded the letter, and when he had put it
into his pocket he turned upon me. "Oh, yas, you goes off ter school
an' l'arns dead talk an' de rest o' us hatter sweat in de fiel'. An' de
fust thing we knows you'll be crossin' de Ohio riber ter make speeches
'mong dem 'litionists. I'm gwine tell Ole Miss."
"What!" I cried, "after I have written a letter for you?"
"Oh, I kain't hep de letter. Dat wuz er--wuz er matter o' fack. But it
ain't er matter o' fack dat you'se been trying ter put yo-se'f up 'mong
de white fo'ks, er turnin' up yo' nose at us caze you'se whiter an' got
mo' dead talk den we has."
"Steve," I pleaded, "please don't tell her. I couldn't help learning
something, and I pledge you my word that I don't know much. Why, there
are hundreds of negroes all about here that can read as well as I can
and their masters think nothing of it."
"Doan you fool yo'se'f 'bout dat, honey. Dar's er heap said erbout it.
Da reads dem little flat books ter de uder niggers an' da gits whupped
fur it, too. And de fust thing we knows you'll be readin' trouble on
dis plan'ation. I'm gwine ter de house in de mornin' an' tell Ole Miss."
"Yes, and if you do, I'll have you whipped. Young Master won't put up
with such an interference with his affairs. I belong to him and not to
Old Miss."
"Ah, hah, but whut Ole Miss say comes mighty nigh bein' law sometimes.
I'se had my eye on you fur er laung time, an' I'd like might'ly ter see
you out yander in de fiel' er brilin' er laung side o' me."
I argued with him, threatened him, but it was of no use. He shook his
head and declared that he would tell Old Miss. And the next day he
proved his mean nature. I kept a close watch on him and saw him start
toward the house just as Old Miss stepped out upon the veranda. I can
see him now, wool hat under arm, bowing to her. I knew that he expected
a reward and I wondered what it would be. She listened and greatly
to my surprise replied: "Well, I hope he'll learn enough to behave
himself."
"But goodness me, Ole Miss, ain't you gwine gib me suthin' fur all
dis?" the rascally tell-tale pleaded.
She took out a small piece of money, tossed it to him and said: "There.
And now I want you to remember one thing--don't come to me with any
more stories."
She saw me as I dodged behind a corner of the dairy, and called me to
her. "Dan," she said as I came up the steps, "I thought you had more
sense than to create jealousies by exhibiting the crumbs of knowledge
your master has permitted you to pick from under his table?"
I looked at her in surprise; surely the idea was not her own, but in
her expression of it there was almost a majestic rebuke. I can see her
now as she stood, her gray eyes fixed upon me, her silver-streaked hair
parted flat, a bunch of authoritative keys hanging from her girdle.
I gave her the all effective knee-bend of submission, and recounted
briefly the manner in which the black rascal had snared me. This amused
her and she laughed with a cold cackle, but she did not strike me
with her keys, as I had feared she would, though the memory of that
feelingless laugh lived with me longer than the ache of a blow would
have lasted on my head. Old Master came walking slowly out of the hall,
with his spectacles on and with a letter in his hand. "Madam," he said,
"Doctor Bates is coming back. Dan, saddle the sorrel horse and bring
him round to the front gate."
I hastened to the stable, musing upon the return of that
trouble-brewing man. He had been home a number of times while Bob and I
were off at school, but I had not seen him. More than once I had half
suspected that he sought to marry Miss May, to fasten another grip upon
the estate, but it did not seem possible that so gentle a woman could
marry so hard a man. Yet, I was wise enough to know that we can never
tell. A woman's heart is like a bird, beating upon the window at night,
dazzled by the promise of a warmth within a glowing room, and seeing
not an icy cruelty sitting beside the fire, lying in wait for a tender
victim.
While I was holding the horse, waiting for Master to mount, he paused,
with his hand on the horn of the saddle and said: "Dan, when your
Mars. George gets here, I want you to treat him with the greatest
respect. Do you hear?"
"Master," I replied grandiloquently, "I might fail to hear it thunder,
but I cannot fail to hear what you say."
He looked at me and remarked: "Look here, you are getting to be a good
deal of a d--d fool." But I saw him chuckling as he turned his head
away, and I knew that he was pleased. Masters liked the flattery of
their slaves, and this is the reason that there is so much cozenage,
even in the negro of to-day.
"Do you know why he is coming back?" I ventured to ask.
"Coming back because this is his home, sir. And I don't want you to
presume to ask such questions, sir. Well," he said, noticing that I was
still holding the bridle, "are you going to let me go, or must I stand
here until you are ready to release me?"
"I beg your pardon," I replied, stepping back.
"All right," he said as he rode away, and looking back he added:
"Remember that I want you to treat him with the greatest of respect."