Org walked back to the bayou under the escort of Mustard Prophet. He
seemed unable to take his eyes off of Little Bit’s shiny black skin. He
was slow to overcome his amazement at his discovery that a negro was
black all over.
When they were riding home in big Mustard’s farm-wagon, he referred to
it again.
“You’re a negro, ain’t you, Little Bit?” he asked, speaking in a softly
apologetic tone, as if fearing to cause offense.
“Suttin!” Little Bit laughed. “I’s a black Affikin nigger. Anybody dat
looks how dark complected I is kin see dat.”
“I never saw many colored persons in my life,” Org explained.
“You ain’t had no eyes ef you ain’t seed no niggers,” Little Bit
chuckled. “Niggers is eve’ywhar. Gawd made ’em in de night, made ’em in
a hurry an’ fergot to make ’em white. Dar’s niggers in heaven, an’ dars
even plenty niggers in hell.”
At the Shin Bone eating-house, Mustard helped Popsy Spout down from the
wagon and the two boys jumped to the ground. Popsy entered the
restaurant, walked feebly over to a table and seated himself with a
thankful sigh. He took out his pipe and placed it upon the table at his
elbow, then spread a red bandana handkerchief over his head to keep the
flies from disturbing him. Then he sank into a restful state of dreamy
inanity, his mind just as near empty as it is possible for anything to
be, considering the fact that nature abhors a vacuum.
In one corner of the room, the proprietor, Shin Bone, was engaged in
some interesting experiments with loaded dice. He seemed never weary of
his task as he rolled the cubes across the table, retrieved them again,
and repeated. He tried to familiarize himself with their vagaries, to
study their oddities and eccentricities, and in his imagination he
planned many victories and great winnings through the aid of these pet
bones.
The process was absorbing to him. His eyes popped out, the whites
showing in a wide ring. His breathing was quick and husky as he shook
the dice, and he muttered prayers and imprecations and incantations.
Sometimes he threw the dice with one hand, sometimes with the other; he
used certain luck charms, changing them from one pocket to the other,
practising and experimenting with every sort of “conjure,” for he
expected those little white cubes with the black spots to bring him the
money with which to make a loud noise in Tickfall colored society.
Popsy roused himself from his dreamy vacuity and felt in his pocket for
his tobacco-pouch. He would take a little smoke before dinner. He found
the tobacco-pouch, also something else.
He brought forth a green-plush box and looked at it curiously. He opened
it with hands which shook from senile palsy and examined its contents.
It was a rabbit-foot surmounted with a silver cap on one end. He
wondered where he had acquired the thing.
“Come here, Shinny!” he called. “Look whut I done found on myse’f.”
Shin Bone crossed the room, gazed at the treasure for a moment, and gave
a surprised grunt.
“Whar did you git dis rabbit-foot?” he inquired suspiciously.
“I dunno, Shinny,” the old man replied in a complaining voice. “Whut is
it fur?”
“Lots of folks has rabbit-foots,” Shin said. “I don’t b’lieve in ’em. I
got four, an’ dey don’t fotch me no luck. Whar did you git dis’n?”
“I dunno.”
“Whar you been at to-day?” Shin asked.
“Well, suh, early dis mawnin’ I went to de Shoofly chu’ch an’ conversed
de Revun Vinegar Atts a little; atter dat, I went out to de Nigger-Heel
wid Mustard Prophet—ah—dat’s whar I got dis here foot. Mustard gib it to
me. He esplained a whole lot about it an’ tole me dat Marse Tom gib it
to him, an’ he passed it on.”
“Whut yo gwine do wid it?” Shin asked.
“’Tain’t no good to me,” Popsy whined, working at his tobacco-pouch and
shaking some tobacco in his hand. “De only luck-charm I b’lieves in is
de chu’ch. Ef de good Lawd is on yo’ side, who kin be agin you?”
Shin Bone knew better than to get Popsy started in a discussion of
religion. His conversation on that theme was interminable. Besides, the
plush box lying on the table between them had awakened several
interesting trains of thought:
First, he knew Popsy had a trick of putting things into his pocket and
walking off with them, forgetting where he acquired them, and even
failing to remember what they were for. Second, he remembered that
Mustard Prophet had often attributed much of his good fortune to the
possession of a rabbit-foot. Thirdly, he knew that Colonel Gaitskill
also had a rabbit-foot, for he had often heard him refer to it in his
hearing and in the presence of the other negroes.
Now, did Popsy inadvertently take possession of Gaitskill’s rabbit-foot?
Or did he absent-mindedly walk off with Mustard’s foot? Or did Mustard
give his famous luck-charm away? Shin doubted this last supposition. If
a luck-charm is good, it is very, very good. Or did Mustard steal
Gaitskill’s rabbit-foot and Popsy take it from Mustard?
Popsy lighted his pipe and began to smoke. Shin Bone decided that he
could make nothing of the mystery. A rabbit-foot was no good to him. He
had tried them before. But loaded dice, now—he pulled the “bones” from
his pocket and renewed his former operations.
In the kitchen a bell rang. A number of patrons who had been lingering
outside came through the door and seated themselves at the table. Shin
Bone arose to bring in the dinner. Popsy knocked the ashes from his pipe
and got ready to eat.
As for Org and Little Bit, they did not get back to the Gaitskill home
until the sun had sunk below the line of the tree-tops. And not until
Orren Randolph Gaitskill beheld his sister sitting upon the porch did he
think of the errand on which she had sent him ten hours before.
His small hand investigated his trouser-pocket, to see if he was still
in possession of the fifty-cent piece. He might have lost it when he
tossed aside his garments on the banks of the Cooley bayou.
“Org!” Virginia called sharply. “Where are those stamps?”
Org’s nervous fingers caressed the half-dollar in his pocket. His mind
reached out like the tentacles of an octopus, grasping after an excuse.
“Where are my stamps?” she repeated.
“Er—ah—I went down-town,” Org began. “I went down-town—and—er—ah—Miss
Paunee, that mustang woman in the post-office—she told me—she said——”
“Well?” Virginia’s tone was icy.
“Miss Paunee—she told me—ah—she said she didn’t have no two-cent stamps;
she had sold out.”
If the glance of a sister’s eye could kill, most brothers would now be
dead. Org survived the look she gave him, and sheepishly offered her the
fifty-cent piece.
“You don’t need no stamps, Gince,” Org said soothingly. “Them guys you
left behind ain’t worth writing letters to.”
“Please keep your opinions to yourself,” his sister advised. “Where have
you spent the day?”
“I have been to the Nigger-Heel plantation with Little Bit. Little Bit
is a colored person and a very good friend. A colored man named Mustard
took me out in a wagon and brought me back,” Org informed her. Then
eagerly: “Say, Gince, do you know that a negro is black all over his
body, even under his clothes?”
“Where did you meet these blacks?” Virginia asked, avoiding Org’s
question as to the color-line.
“I met Little Bit at the foot of the hill. He told me he was the
captain’s white negro. I met Mustard Prophet in front of the Hen-Scratch
saloon in Dirty-Six. We picked up Popsy Spout at Shin Bone’s hot-cat
stand in Hell’s Half-Acre!”
Under this appalling summary of information, Miss Virginia reeled back
in dismay.
“No doubt,” she said weakly.
“If you want to save stamps, Gince,” Org suggested eagerly, “you better
write to Little Bit’s captain and let me carry the notes for you. I saw
the captain when we were coming home. He’s got a’ automobile as big as a
street-car. He was in the army and a German shot him——”
A slight flush appeared on Miss Virginia’s cheek. It spread slowly, like
the unfurling of some flag—the star-spangled banner for instance.
“I don’t care to hear the personal history of the acquaintances you have
made to-day,” Miss Virginia interrupted.
“His name is Captain Kerley Kerlerac, Gince,” Org persisted. “Little Bit
told me. Little Bit, my colored friend, is the captain’s pet coon.”