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DADDY JAKE
THE RUNAWAY
[Illustration: JUDGE RABBIT AND THE FAT MAN.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
DADDY JAKE
THE RUNAWAY
And Short Stories Told after Dark
by
“UNCLE REMUS”
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
[Illustration]
New York
The Century Co.
1898
Copyright, 1889, by
Joel Chandler Harris.
The De Vinne Press, New York.
CONTENTS
PAGE
DADDY JAKE, THE RUNAWAY:
CHAPTER I 1
CHAPTER II 28
CHAPTER III 53
HOW A WITCH WAS CAUGHT 83
THE LITTLE BOY AND HIS DOGS 93
HOW BLACK SNAKE CAUGHT THE WOLF 108
WHY THE GUINEAS STAY AWAKE 118
HOW THE TERRAPIN WAS TAUGHT TO FLY 123
THE CREATURE WITH NO CLAWS 134
UNCLE REMUS’S WONDER STORY 139
THE RATTLESNAKE AND THE POLECAT 149
HOW THE BIRDS TALK 152
THE FOOLISH WOMAN 165
THE ADVENTURES OF SIMON AND SUSANNA 171
BROTHER RABBIT AND THE GINGERCAKES 183
BROTHER RABBIT’S COURTSHIP 188
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
JUDGE RABBIT AND THE FAT MAN, FRONTISPIECE
“THE YOUNGSTERS SAW DADDY JAKE, AND WENT RUNNING AFTER
HIM.” 9
“THE FIELD-HANDS WERE SINGING AS THEY PICKED THE OPENING
COTTON.” 19
“‘MAYBE HE KNOWS WHERE DADDY JAKE IS,’ SAID LILLIAN.” 25
“THE FIELD-HANDS DISCUSSED THE MATTER.” 29
THE MILLER AND HIS CHILDREN. 41
“AN’ OLE MAN JAKE, HE DAR TOO.” 49
“LUCIEN SAW HIM, AND RUSHED TOWARD HIM.” 57
POOR OLD SUE TELLS HER STORY. 63
“MR. RABBIT SQUALL OUT, ‘COON DEAD!’” 71
“DEN DE FROGS DEY WENT TO WORK SHO NUFF.” 75
“THE OLD NEGRO PUT HIS HANDS TO HIS MOUTH AND CALLED.” 79
“SHE STOOD DAR A MINIT, DAT OLE BLACK CAT DID.” 87
“‘ALL READY, NOW. STICK YO’ HEAD IN.’” 105
“EN EVE’Y TIME HE SWUNG MR. BLACK SNAKE TUCK ’N LASH ’IM
WID HE TAIL.” 115
“‘BRER TARRYPIN, HOW YOU FEEL?’” 127
BILLY BIG-EYE AND TOMMY LONG-WING. 159
SIMON SHAKES THE PEBBLES. 175
DADDY JAKE
THE RUNAWAY
DADDY JAKE, THE RUNAWAY
CHAPTER I
One fine day in September, in the year 1863, there was quite an uproar
on the Gaston plantation, in Putnam County, in the State of Georgia.
Uncle Jake, the carriage-driver, was missing. He was more than fifty
years old, and it was the first time he had been missing since his
mistress had been big enough to call him. But he was missing now. Here
was his mistress waiting to order the carriage; here was his master
fretting and fuming; and here were the two little children, Lucien and
Lillian, crying because they didn’t know where Uncle Jake was—“Daddy
Jake,” who had heretofore seemed always to be within sound of their
voices, ready and anxious to amuse them in any and every way.
Then came the news that Daddy Jake had actually run away. This was,
indeed, astounding news, and although it was brought by the son of the
overseer, none of the Gastons would believe it, least of all Lucien and
Lillian. The son of the overseer also brought the further information
that Daddy Jake, who had never had an angry word for anybody, had struck
the overseer across the head with a hoe-handle, and had then taken to
the woods. Dr. Gaston was very angry, indeed, and he told the overseer’s
son that if anybody was to blame it was his father. Mrs. Gaston, with
her eyes full of tears, agreed with her husband, and Lucien and Lillian,
when they found that Daddy Jake was really gone, refused to be
comforted. Everybody seemed to be dazed. As it was Saturday, and
Saturday was a holiday, the negroes stood around their quarters in
little groups discussing the wonderful event. Some of them went so far
as to say that if Daddy Jake had taken to the woods it was time for the
rest of them to follow suit; but this proposition was hooted down by the
more sensible among them.
Nevertheless, the excitement on the Gaston plantation ran very high when
it was discovered that a negro so trusted and so trustworthy as Daddy
Jake had actually run away; and it was not until all the facts were
known that the other negroes became reconciled to Daddy Jake’s absence.
What were the facts? They were very simple, indeed; and yet, many lads
and lasses who read this may fail to fully comprehend them.
In the first place, the year in which Daddy Jake became a fugitive was
the year 1863, and there was a great deal of doubt and confusion in the
South at that time. The Conscription Act and the Impressment Law were in
force. Under the one, nearly all the able-bodied men and boys were
drafted into the army; and under the other, all the corn and hay and
horses that the Confederacy needed were pressed into service. This state
of things came near causing a revolt in some of the States, especially
in Georgia, where the laws seemed to bear most heavily. Something of
this is to be found in the history of that period, but nothing
approaching the real facts has ever been published. After the
Conscription Act was passed the planters were compelled to accept the
services of such overseers as they could get, and the one whom Dr.
Gaston had employed lacked both experience and discretion. He had never
been trained to the business. He was the son of a shoemaker, and he
became an overseer merely to keep out of the army. A majority of those
who made overseeing their business had gone to the war either as
volunteers or substitutes, and very few men capable of taking charge of
a large plantation were left behind.
At the same time overseers were a necessity on some of the plantations.
Many of the planters were either lawyers or doctors, and these, if they
had any practice at all, were compelled to leave their farming interests
to the care of agents; there were other planters who had been reared in
the belief that an overseer was necessary on a large plantation; so
that, for one cause and another, the overseer class was a pretty large
one. It was a very respectable class, too; for, under ordinary
circumstances, no person who was not known to be trustworthy would be
permitted to take charge of the interests of a plantation, for these
were as varied and as important as those of any other business.
But in 1863 it was a very hard matter to get a trustworthy overseer; and
Dr. Gaston, having a large practice as a physician, had hired the first
person who applied for the place, without waiting to make any inquiries
about either his knowledge or his character; and it turned out that his
overseer was not only utterly incompetent, but that he was something of
a rowdy besides. An experienced overseer would have known that he was
employed, not to exercise control over the house-servants, but to look
after the farm-hands; but the new man began business by ordering Daddy
Jake to do various things that were not in the line of his duty.
Naturally, the old man, who was something of a boss himself, resented
this sort of interference. A great many persons were of the opinion that
he had been spoiled by kind treatment; but this is doubtful. He had been
raised with the white people from a little child, and he was as proud in
his way as he was faithful in all ways. Under the circumstances, Daddy
Jake did what other confidential servants would have done; he ignored
the commands of the new overseer, and went about his business as usual.
This led to a quarrel—the overseer doing most of the quarreling. Daddy
Jake was on his dignity, and the overseer was angry. Finally, in his
fury, he struck the old negro with a strap which he was carrying across
his shoulders. The blow was a stinging one, and it was delivered full in
Uncle Jake’s face. For a moment the old negro was astonished. Then he
became furious. Seizing an ax-handle that happened to be close to his
hand, he brought it down upon the head of the overseer with full force.
There was a tremendous crash as the blow fell, and the overseer went
down as if he had been struck by a pile-driver. He gave an awful groan,
and trembled a little in his limbs, and then lay perfectly still. Uncle
Jake was both dazed and frightened. He would have gone to his master,
but he remembered what he had heard about the law. In those days a negro
who struck a white man was tried for his life, and if his guilt could be
proven, he was either branded with a hot iron and sold to a speculator,
or he was hanged.
The certainty of these punishments had no doubt been exaggerated by
rumor, but even the rumor was enough to frighten the negroes. Daddy Jake
looked at the overseer a moment, and then stopped and felt of him. He
was motionless and, apparently, he had ceased to breathe. Then the old
negro went to his cabin, gathered up his blanket and clothes, put some
provisions in a little bag, and went off into the woods. He seemed to be
in no hurry. He walked with his head bent, as if in deep thought. He
appeared to understand and appreciate the situation. A short time ago he
was the happy and trusted servant of a master and mistress who had
rarely given him an unkind word; now he was a fugitive—a runaway. As he
passed along by the garden palings he heard two little children playing
and prattling on the other side. They were talking about him. He paused
and listened.
“Daddy Jake likes me the best,” Lucien was saying, “because he tells me
stories.”
“No,” said Lillian, “he likes me the best, ’cause he tells me all the
stories and gives me some gingercake, too.”
The old negro paused and looked through the fence at the little
children, and then he went on his way. But the youngsters saw Daddy
Jake, and went running after him.
“Let me go, Uncle Jake!” cried Lucien. “Le’ me go, too!” cried Lillian.
But Daddy Jake broke into a run and left the children standing in the
garden, crying.
It was not very long after this before the whole population knew that
Daddy Jake had knocked the overseer down and had taken to the woods. In
fact, it was only a few minutes, for some of the other negroes had seen
him strike the overseer and had seen the overseer fall, and they lost no
time in raising the alarm. Fortunately the overseer was not seriously
hurt. He had received a blow severe enough to render him unconscious for
a few minutes,—but this was all; and he was soon able to describe the
fracas to Dr. Gaston, which he did with considerable animation.
“And who told you to order Jake around?” the doctor asked.
“Well, sir, I just thought I had charge of the whole crowd.”
“You were very much mistaken, then,” said Doctor Gaston, sharply; “and
if I had seen you strike Jake with your strap, I should have been
tempted to take my buggy-whip and give you a dose of your own medicine.”
As a matter of fact, Doctor Gaston was very angry, and he lost no time
in giving the new overseer what the negroes called his “walking-papers.”
He paid him up and discharged him on the spot, and it was not many days
before everybody on the Gaston plantation knew that the man had fallen
into the hands of the Conscription officers of the Confederacy, and that
he had been sent on to the front.
At the same time, as Mrs. Gaston herself remarked, this fact, however
gratifying it might be, did not bring Daddy Jake back. He was gone, and
his absence caused a great deal of trouble on the plantation. It was
found that half-a-dozen negroes had to be detailed to do the work which
he had voluntarily taken upon himself—one to attend to the
carriage-horses, another to look after the cows, another to feed the
hogs and sheep, and still others to look after the thousand and one
little things to be done about the “big house.” But not one of them, nor
all of them, filled Daddy Jake’s place.
[Illustration: “THE YOUNGSTERS SAW DADDY JAKE, AND WENT RUNNING AFTER
HIM.”]
Many and many a time Doctor Gaston walked up and down the veranda
wondering where the old negro was, and Mrs. Gaston, sitting in her
rocking-chair, looked down the avenue day after day, half expecting to
see Daddy Jake make his appearance, hat in hand and with a broad grin on
his face. Some of the neighbors, hearing that Uncle Jake had become a
fugitive, wanted to get Bill Locke’s “track-dogs” and run him down, but
Doctor Gaston and his wife would not hear to this. They said that the
old negro wasn’t used to staying in the woods, and that it wouldn’t be
long before he would come back home.
Doctor Gaston, although he was much troubled, looked at the matter from
a man’s point of view. Here was Daddy Jake’s home; if he chose to come
back, well and good; if he didn’t, why, it couldn’t be helped, and that
was an end of the matter. But Mrs. Gaston took a different view. Daddy
Jake had been raised with her father; he was an old family servant; he
had known and loved her mother, who was dead; he had nursed Mrs. Gaston
herself when she was a baby; in short, he was a fixture in the lady’s
experience, and his absence worried her not a little. She could not bear
to think that the old negro was out in the woods without food and
without shelter. If there was a thunderstorm at night, as there
sometimes is in the South during September, she could hardly sleep for
thinking about the old negro.
Thinking about him led Mrs. Gaston to talk about him very often,
especially to Lucien and Lillian, who had been in the habit of running
out to the kitchen while Daddy Jake was eating his supper and begging
him to tell a story. So far as they were concerned, his absence was a
personal loss. While Uncle Jake was away they were not only deprived of
a most agreeable companion, but they could give no excuse for not going
to bed. They had no one to amuse them after supper, and, as a
consequence, their evenings were very dull. The youngsters submitted to
this for several days, expecting that Daddy Jake would return, but in
this they were disappointed. They waited and waited for more than a
week, and then they began to show their impatience.
“I used to be afraid of runaways,” said Lillian one day, “but I’m not
afraid now, ’cause Daddy Jake is a runaway.” Lillian was only six years
old, but she had her own way of looking at things.
“Pshaw!” exclaimed Lucien, who was nine, and very robust for his age; “I
never was afraid of runaways. I know mighty well they wouldn’t hurt me.
There was old Uncle Fed; he was a runaway when Papa bought him. Would he
hurt anybody?”
“But there might be some bad ones,” said Lillian, “and you know Lucinda
says Uncle Fed is a real, sure-enough witch.”
“Lucinda!” exclaimed Lucien, scornfully. “What does Lucinda know about
witches? If one was to be seen she wouldn’t stick her head out of the
door to see it. She’d be scared to death.”
“Yes, and so would anybody,” said Lillian, with an air of conviction. “I
know I would.”
“Well, of course,—a little girl,” explained Lucien. “Any little girl
would be afraid of a witch, but a great big double-fisted woman like
Lucinda ought to be ashamed of herself to be afraid of witches, and
that, too, when everybody knows there aren’t any witches at all, except
in the stories.”
“Well, I heard Daddy Jake telling about a witch that turned herself into
a black cat, and then into a big black wolf,” said Lillian.
“Oh, that was in old times,” said Lucien, “when the animals used to talk
and go on like people. But you never heard Daddy Jake say he saw a
witch,—now, did you?”
“No,” said Lillian, somewhat doubtfully; “but I heard him talking about
them. I hope no witch will catch Daddy Jake.”
“Pshaw!” exclaimed Lucien. “Daddy Jake carried his rabbit-foot with him,
and you know no witch can bother him as long as he has his rabbit-foot.”
“Well,” said Lillian, solemnly, “if he’s got his rabbit-foot and can
keep off the witches all night, he won’t come back any more.”
“But he _must_ come,” said Lucien. “I’m going after him. I’m going down
to the landing to-morrow, and I’ll take the boat and go down the river
and bring him back.”
“Oh, may I go, too?” asked Lillian.
“Yes,” said Lucien, loftily, “if you’ll help me get some things out of
the house and not say anything about what we are going to do.”
Lillian was only too glad to pledge herself to secrecy, and the next day
found the two children busily preparing for their journey in search of
Daddy Jake.
The Gaston plantation lay along the Oconee River in Putnam County, not
far from Roach’s Ferry. In fact, it lay on both sides of the river, and,
as the only method of communication was by means of a bateau, nearly
everybody on the plantation knew how to manage the boat. There was not
an hour during the day that the bateau was not in use. Lucien and
Lillian had been carried across hundreds of times, and they were as much
at home in the boat as they were in a buggy. Lucien was too young to
row, but he knew how to guide the bateau with a paddle while others used
the oars.
This fact gave him confidence, and the result was that the two children
quietly made their arrangements to go in search of Daddy Jake. Lucien
was the “provider,” as he said, and Lillian helped him to carry the
things to the boat. They got some meal-sacks, two old quilts, and a good
supply of biscuits and meat. Nobody meddled with them, for nobody knew
what their plans were, but some of the negroes remarked that they were
not only unusually quiet, but very busy—a state of things that is looked
upon by those who are acquainted with the ways of children as a very bad
sign, indeed.
The two youngsters worked pretty much all day, and they worked hard; so
that when night came they were both tired and sleepy. They were tired
and sleepy, but they managed to cover their supplies with the
meal-sacks, and the next morning they were up bright and early. They
were up so early, indeed, that they thought it was a very long time
until breakfast was ready; and, at last, when the bell rang, they
hurried to the table and ate ravenously, as became two travelers about
to set out on a voyage of adventure.
It was all they could do to keep their scheme from their mother. Once
Lillian was on the point of asking her something about it, but Lucien
shook his head, and it was not long before the two youngsters embarked
on their journey. After seating Lillian in the bateau, Lucien unfastened
the chain from the stake, threw it into the boat, and jumped in himself.
Then, as the clumsy affair drifted slowly with the current, he seized
one of the paddles, placed the blade against the bank, and pushed the
bateau out into the middle of the stream.
It was the beginning of a voyage of adventure, the end of which could
not be foretold; but the sun was shining brightly, the mocking-birds
were singing in the water-oaks, the blackbirds were whistling blithely
in the reeds, and the children were light-hearted and happy. They were
going to find Daddy Jake and fetch him back home, and not for a moment
did it occur to them that the old negro might have gone in a different
direction. It seemed somehow to those on the Gaston plantation that
whatever was good, or great, or wonderful had its origin “down the
river.” Rumor said that the biggest crops were grown in that direction,
and that there the negroes were happiest. The river, indeed, seemed to
flow to some far-off country where everything was finer and more
flourishing. This was the idea of the negroes themselves, and it was
natural that Lucien and Lillian should be impressed with the same
belief. So they drifted down the river, confident that they would find
Daddy Jake. They had no other motive—no other thought. They took no
account of the hardships of a voyage such as they had embarked on.
Lazily, almost reluctantly as it seemed, the boat floated down the
stream. At first, Lucien was inclined to use the broad oar, but it
appeared that when he paddled on one side the clumsy boat tried to turn
its head up stream on the other side, and so, after a while, he dropped
the oar in the bottom of the boat.
The September sun was sultry that morning, but, obeying some impulse of
the current, the boat drifted down the river in the shade of the
water-oaks and willows that lined the eastern bank. On the western bank
the Gaston plantation lay, and as the boat floated lazily along the
little voyagers could hear the field-hands singing as they picked the
opening cotton. The song was strangely melodious, though the words were
ridiculous.
My dog’s a ’possum dog,
_Here, Rattler! here!_
He cross de creek upon a log,
_Here, Rattler! here!_
He run de ’possum up a tree,
_Here, Rattler! here!_
He good enough fer you an’ me,
_Here, Rattler! here!_
Kaze when it come his fat’nin time,
_Here, Rattler! here!_
De ’possum eat de muscadine,
_Here, Rattler! here!_
He eat till he kin skacely stan’,
_Here, Rattler! here!_
An’ den we bake him in de pan,
_Here, Rattler! here!_
[Illustration: “THE FIELD-HANDS WERE SINGING AS THEY PICKED THE OPENING
COTTON.”]
It was to the quaint melody of this song that the boat rocked and
drifted along. One of the negroes saw the children and thought he knew
them, and he called to them, but received no reply; and this fact was so
puzzling that he went back and told the other negroes that there was
some mistake about the children. “Ef dey’d ’a’ bin our chillun,” he
said, “dey’d ’a’ hollered back at me, sho’.” Whereupon the field-hands
resumed their work and their song, and the boat, gliding southward on
the gently undulating current, was soon lost to view.
To the children it seemed to be a very pleasant journey. They had no
thought of danger. The river was their familiar friend. They had crossed
and recrossed it hundreds of times. They were as contented in the bateau
as they would have been in their mother’s room. The weather was warm,
but on the river and in the shade of the overhanging trees the air was
cool and refreshing. And after a while the current grew swifter, and the
children, dipping their hands in the water, laughed aloud.
Once, indeed, the bateau, in running over a long stretch of shoals, was
caught against a rock. An ordinary boat would have foundered, but this
boat, clumsy and deep-set, merely obeyed the current. It struck the
rock, recoiled, touched it again, and then slowly turned around and
pursued its course down the stream. The shoals were noisy but harmless.
The water foamed and roared over the rocks, but the current was deep
enough to carry the bateau safely down. It was not often that a boat
took that course, but Lucien and Lillian had no sense of fear. The
roaring and foaming of the water pleased them, and the rushing and
whirling of the boat, as it went dashing down the rapids, appeared to be
only part of a holiday frolic. After they had passed the shoals, the
current became swifter, and the old bateau was swept along at a rapid
rate. The trees on the river bank seemed to be running back toward home,
and the shadows on the water ran with them.
Sometimes the boat swept through long stretches of meadow and marsh
lands, and then the children were delighted to see the sandpipers and
killdees running along the margin of the water. The swallows, not yet
flown southward, skimmed along the river with quivering wing, and the
kingfishers displayed their shining plumage in the sun. Once a moccasin,
fat and rusty, frightened by the unexpected appearance of the young
voyagers, dropped into the boat; but, before Lucien could strike him
with the unwieldy oar, he tumbled overboard and disappeared. Then the
youngsters ate their dinner. It was a very dry dinner; but they ate it
with a relish. The crows, flying lazily over, regarded them curiously.
“I reckon they want some,” said Lucien.
“Well, they can’t get mine,” said Lillian, “’cause I _jest_ about got
enough for myself.”
They passed a white man who was sitting on the river bank, with his coat
off, fishing.
“Where under the sun did you chaps come from?” he cried.
“Up the river,” replied Lucien.
“Where in the nation are you going?”
“Down the river.”
“Maybe he knows where Daddy Jake is,” said Lillian. “Ask him.”
“Why, he wouldn’t know Daddy Jake from a side of sole leather,”
exclaimed Lucien.
By this time the boat had drifted around a bend in the river. The man on
the bank took off his hat with his thumb and forefinger, rubbed his head
with the other fingers, drove away a swarm of mosquitoes, and muttered,
“Well, I’ll be switched!” Then he went on with his fishing.
Meanwhile the boat drifted steadily with the current. Sometimes it
seemed to the children that the boat stood still, while the banks, the
trees, and the fields moved by them like a double panorama.
Queer-looking little birds peeped at them from the bushes; fox-squirrels
chattered at them from the trees; green frogs greeted them by plunging
into the water with a squeak; turtles slid noiselessly off the banks at
their approach; a red fox that had come to the river to drink
disappeared like a shadow before the sun; and once a great white crane
rose in the air, flapping his wings heavily.
Altogether it was a very jolly journey, but after a while Lillian began
to get restless.
“Do you reckon Daddy Jake will be in the river when we find him?” she
asked.
Lucien himself was becoming somewhat tired, but he was resolved to go
right on. Indeed, he could not do otherwise.
“Why, who ever heard of such a thing?” he exclaimed. “What would Daddy
Jake be doing in the water?”
“Well, how are we’s to find him?”
“Oh, we’ll find him.”
“But I want to find him right now,” said Lillian, “and I want to see
Mamma, and Papa, and my dollies.”
“Well,” said Lucien with unconscious humor, “if you don’t want to go,
you can get out and walk back home.” At this Lillian began to cry.
[Illustration: “‘MAYBE HE KNOWS WHERE DADDY JAKE IS,’ SAID LILLIAN.”]
“Well,” said Lucien, “if Daddy Jake was over there in the bushes and was
to see you crying because you didn’t want to go and find him, he’d run
off into the woods and nobody would see him any more.”
Lillian stopped crying at once, and, as the afternoon wore on, both
children grew more cheerful; and even when twilight came, and after it
the darkness, they were not very much afraid. The loneliness—the sighing
of the wind through the trees, the rippling of the water against the
sides of the boat, the hooting of the big swamp-owl, the cry of the
whippoorwill, and the answer of its cousin, the chuck-will’s-widow—all
these things would have awed and frightened the children. But, shining
steadily in the evening sky, they saw the star they always watched at
home. It seemed to be brighter than ever, this familiar star, and they
hailed it as a friend and fellow-traveler. They felt that home couldn’t
be so far away, for the star shone in its accustomed place, and this was
a great comfort.
After a while the night grew chilly, and then Lucien and Lillian wrapped
their quilts about them and cuddled down in the bottom of the boat.
Thousands of stars shone overhead, and it seemed to the children that
the old bateau, growing tired of its journey, had stopped to rest; but
it continued to drift down the river.