"You know very well that you and your family lived usually on less
than three dollars a week, and now that Dr. Trescott pays you five
dollars a week for Johnson's board, you live like millionaires. You
haven't done a stroke of work since Johnson began to board with
you--everybody knows that--and so what are you kicking about?"
The judge sat in his chair on the porch, fondling his cane, and gazing
down at old Williams, who stood under the lilac-bushes. "Yes, I know,
jedge," said the negro, wagging his head in a puzzled manner. "Tain't
like as if I didn't 'preciate what the docteh done, but--but--well,
yeh see, jedge," he added, gaining a new impetus, "it's--it's hard
wuk. This ol' man nev' did wuk so hard. Lode, no."
"Don't talk such nonsense, Alek," spoke the judge, sharply. "You have
never really worked in your life--anyhow, enough to support a family
of sparrows, and now when you are in a more prosperous condition than
ever before, you come around talking like an old fool."
The negro began to scratch his head. "Yeh see, jedge," he said at
last, "my ol' 'ooman she cain't 'ceive no lady callahs, nohow."
"Hang lady callers'" said the judge, irascibly. "If you have flour in
the barrel and meat in the pot, your wife can get along without
receiving lady callers, can't she?"
"But they won't come ainyhow, jedge," replied Williams, with an air of
still deeper stupefaction. "Noner ma wife's frien's ner noner ma
frien's 'll come near ma res'dence."
"Well, let them stay home if they are such silly people."
The old negro seemed to be seeking a way to elude this argument, but
evidently finding none, he was about to shuffle meekly off. He halted,
however. "Jedge," said he, "ma ol' 'ooman's near driv' abstracted."
"Your old woman is an idiot," responded the judge.
Williams came very close and peered solemnly through a branch of
lilac. "Judge," he whispered, "the chillens."
"What about them?"
Dropping his voice to funereal depths, Williams said, "They--they
cain't eat."
"Can't eat!" scoffed the judge, loudly. "Can't eat! You must think I
am as big an old fool as you are. Can't eat--the little rascals!
What's to prevent them from eating?"
In answer, Williams said, with mournful emphasis, "Hennery." Moved
with a kind of satisfaction at his tragic use of the name, he remained
staring at the judge for a sign of its effect.
The judge made a gesture of irritation. "Come, now, you old scoundrel,
don't beat around the bush any more. What are you up to? What do you
want? Speak out like a man, and don't give me any more of this
tiresome rigamarole."
"I ain't er-beatin' round 'bout nuffin, jedge," replied Williams,
indignantly. "No, seh; I say whatter got to say right out. 'Deed I
do."
"Well, say it, then."
"Jedge," began the negro, taking off his hat and switching his knee
with it, "Lode knows I'd do jes 'bout as much fer five dollehs er week
as ainy cul'd man, but--but this yere business is awful, jedge. I
raikon 'ain't been no sleep in--in my house sence docteh done fetch
'im."
"Well, what do you propose to do about it?"
Williams lifted his eyes from the ground and gazed off through the
trees. "Raikon I got good appetite, an' sleep jes like er dog, but
he--he's done broke me all up. 'Tain't no good, nohow. I wake up in
the night; I hear 'im, mebbe, er-whimperin' an' er-whimperin', an' I
sneak an' I sneak until I try th' do' to see if he locked in. An' he
keep me er-puzzlin' an' er-quakin' all night long. Don't know how'll
do in th' winter. Can't let 'im out where th' chillen is. He'll done
freeze where he is now." Williams spoke these sentences as if he were
talking to himself. After a silence of deep reflection he continued:
"Folks go round sayin' he ain't Hennery Johnson at all. They say he's
er devil!"
"What?" cried the judge.
"Yesseh," repeated Williams, in tones of injury, as if his veracity
had been challenged. "Yesseh. I'm er-tellin' it to yeh straight,
jedge. Plenty cul'd people folks up my way say it is a devil."
"Well, you don't think so yourself, do you?"
"No. 'Tain't no devil. It's Hennery Johnson."
"Well, then, what is the matter with you? You don't care what a lot of
foolish people say. Go on 'tending to your business, and pay no
attention to such idle nonsense."
"'Tis nonsense, jedge; but he _looks_ like er devil."
"What do you care what he looks like?" demanded the judge.
"Ma rent is two dollehs and er half er month," said Williams, slowly.
"It might just as well be ten thousand dollars a month," responded the
judge. "You never pay it, anyhow."
"Then, anoth' thing," continued Williams, in his reflective tone. "If
he was all right in his haid I could stan' it; but, jedge, he's
crazier 'n er loon. Then when he looks like er devil, an' done skears
all ma frien's away, an' ma chillens cain't eat, an' ma ole 'ooman jes
raisin' Cain all the time, an' ma rent two dollehs an' er half er
month, an' him not right in his haid, it seems like five dollehs er
week--"
The judge's stick came down sharply and suddenly upon the floor of the
porch. "There," he said, "I thought that was what you were driving
at."
Williams began swinging his head from side to side in the strange
racial mannerism. "Now hol' on a minnet, jedge," he said, defensively.
"'Tain't like as if I didn't 'preciate what the docteh done. 'Tain't
that. Docteh Trescott is er kind man, an' 'tain't like as if I didn't
'preciate what he done; but--but--"
"But what? You are getting painful, Alek. Now tell me this: did you
ever have five dollars a week regularly before in your life?"
Williams at once drew himself up with great dignity, but in the pause
after that question he drooped gradually to another attitude. In the
end he answered, heroically: "No, jedge, I 'ain't. An' 'tain't like as
if I was er-sayin' five dollehs wasn't er lot er money for a man like
me. But, jedge, what er man oughter git fer this kinder wuk is er
salary. Yesseh, jedge," he repeated, with a great impressive gesture;
"fer this kinder wuk er man oughter git er Salary." He laid a terrible
emphasis upon the final word.
The judge laughed. "I know Dr. Trescott's mind concerning this affair,
Alek; and if you are dissatisfied with your boarder, he is quite ready
to move him to some other place; so, if you care to leave word with me
that you are tired of the arrangement and wish it changed, he will
come and take Johnson away."
Williams scratched his head again in deep perplexity. "Five dollehs is
er big price fer bo'd, but 'tain't no big price fer the bo'd of er
crazy man," he said, finally.
"What do you think you ought to get?" asked the judge.
"Well," answered Alek, in the manner of one deep in a balancing of the
scales, "he looks like er devil, an' done skears e'rybody, an' ma
chillens cain't eat, an' I cain't sleep, an' he ain't right in his
haid, an'--"
"You told me all those things."
After scratching his wool, and beating his knee with his hat, and
gazing off through the trees and down at the ground, Williams said, as
he kicked nervously at the gravel, "Well, jedge, I think it is wuth--"
He stuttered.
"Worth what?"
"Six dollehs," answered Williams, in a desperate outburst.
The judge lay back in his great arm-chair and went through all the
motions of a man laughing heartily, but he made no sound save a slight
cough. Williams had been watching him with apprehension.
"Well," said the judge, "do you call six dollars a salary?"
"No, seh," promptly responded Williams. "'Tain't a salary. No, 'deed!
'Tain't a salary." He looked with some anger upon the man who
questioned his intelligence in this way.
"Well, supposing your children can't eat?"
"I--"
"And supposing he looks like a devil? And supposing all those things
continue? Would you be satisfied with six dollars a week?"
Recollections seemed to throng in Williams's mind at these
interrogations, and he answered dubiously. "Of co'se a man who ain't
right in his haid, an' looks like er devil--But six dollehs--" After
these two attempts at a sentence Williams suddenly appeared as an
orator, with a great shiny palm waving in the air. "I tell yeh, jedge,
six dollehs is six dollehs, but if I git six dollehs for bo'ding
Hennery Johnson, I uhns it! I uhns it!"
"I don't doubt that you earn six dollars for every week's work you
do," said the judge.
"Well, if I bo'd Hennery Johnson fer six dollehs er week, I uhns it! I
uhns it!" cried Williams, wildly.
[Illustration: "'If I Get Six Dollehs for Bo'ding Hennery Johnson, I
Uhns It'"]