On the Little Moccasin prairie the excitement and enjoyment of the
negroes were at their greatest height.
The feeling of awe toward the airplane had passed away. One by one they
had climbed up into the seat. After a while they seated Skeeter Butts
and Vinegar Atts in the machine, and every man that had paid his dollar
and wore his feather in his cap took his turn at helping to push the
airplane over the ground. It was followed by all the other negroes who
shouted and whooped as it bumped along over the prairie like some
awkward, stiff-legged, ridiculous bird which spurned the earth and felt
like it was a disgrace to be upon the ground.
In the midst of this excitement, with its noise of laughter and the
shouting, James Gannaway appeared at the edge of the swamp and looked
out over the field with a real fear that he had never felt, even in the
most dangerous situations in the air.
What he saw filled his heart with joy. No more fear that scouting planes
had found the lost machine. All that the feathers in the hats of the
negroes meant was that the blacks of Tickfall had found the hidden
airplane. He waited until they had pushed the machine near to where he
stood concealed in the dense foliage of the swamp. At that moment
Vinegar Atts and Skeeter stood up from their seats in the machine and
began to sing. It was one of the best-loved songs among the negroes, and
that great crowd sent it echoing through the majestic forest with their
mighty organ tones until James Gannaway wondered that the human voice
could express such music.
“O come, angel band!
Come, an’ aroun’ me stand!
O bear me away on yo’ snowy wings
To my immortal home;
O bear me away on yo’ snowy wings
To my immortal home.”
At the conclusion of the song, for some reason, both Vinegar and Skeeter
climbed out of the machine. Then Gannaway stepped forth, waved a
dispersing hand, and exclaimed:
“You niggers, get to hell away from here!”
Nothing could have surprised the negroes more than the appearance of
this white man. Up to that very moment they had never questioned that
the machine belonged to the negro, Red Cutt. When they heard that voice
of command and turned their startled eyes to Gannaway, they pushed
backward in their fright and scattered across the prairie like so many
chickens.
Gannaway sprang lightly into the machine and started the engine. Three
times in rapid succession the engine back-fired, and the sound was so
similar to the explosion of a big army pistol that the negroes believed
the white man was shooting at them. Then came the steady exhaust of the
engine, cracking like a rapid-fire machine-gun, and every negro fell
flat on his face to dodge the bullets he thought were flying all around
him.
The machine went hopping awkwardly across the long level stretch of
ground, and the negroes raised their heads like so many black lizards,
watching to see if the white man was shooting toward them.
A moment later five hundred negroes gave utterance to an astounded “Ah!”
Of that great crowd, Vinegar Atts and Red Cutt had seen the airplane
land; if Skeeter Butts was not lying, he was the third of the crowd who
had seen an airplane in the air. Not one of the others had ever
witnessed such a flight, and this universal exclamation emerged from
their throats when they saw the machine rise from the ground like a wild
goose and go sailing over the tops of the trees.
Five hundred negroes lying flat upon the ground, with their noses almost
touching the dirt, put their hands on the feathers in their hats, to be
sure that their insignia of office had not departed with the machine,
and repeated their exclamation: “Ah!”
Suddenly the entire forest seemed to become vocal and scream in fright.
Thousands of birds rose from the trees and circled round and round in
the air as if they were intoxicated. The smaller birds flew from tree to
tree, moving in a straight line, all going in the same direction, as
they do when fleeing before a cyclone. The pigeons and hawks shot
straight up in the air and then tumbled over and over as they came down,
as if both wings were broken. The great eagles rose like the fighting
creatures they are and threshed madly about high up in the heavens,
sending their ugly snarl-like cries down to the earth, while from
countless pools in the swamp every sort of water fowl rose with hoarse
croaking voices and added to the aerial tumult.
To the negroes it seemed that the very skies were dropping down upon
them every feathered creature God had ever made. They saw fowls of the
air that they did not know existed under the heavens, and they heard
bird-voices expressing fright which possibly had never been heard by
human beings before.
Somewhere outside of their range of vision the airplane was still
moving, for they could hear the exhaust like a steady purr in the
distance. Everywhere that the machine went it caused the same excitement
among the birds, so that a great multitude of these winged creatures
were in terrified flight.
The terror laid hold upon the animals in the swamp, for there suddenly
rose in a mighty chorus the scream of the panther and the wailing bark
of the wolf and the angry, frightened roar of the bear. All the animals
in the vicinity of the Little Moccasin prairie very naturally ran toward
that open space; if rapid flight was necessary, any land animal could
travel faster where there were no vines or stumps or trees or marshy
places to hinder flight.
A drove of wild hogs, numbering several hundred, traveling with the
speed and noise of an express train, and, like the exhaust of an
automobile, uttering at every jump their frightened exclamation: “Whoof,
whoof, whoof!” swept across that prairie, and every negro flattened
himself upon the ground where he was lying and bawled aloud his
supplication to the Almighty: “Dat He wouldn’t let no wild hawg step on
him!” The drove of hogs passed without damage.
Then three young deer came galloping across the field, leaping over
those prostrated bodies and dancing among the men, women, and children
like so many pet rabbits. Behind them two panthers slung across the open
space, spitting venomously at something they thought they had left in
the woods.
After that something arrived upon the scene which brought every negro to
his feet. Four black bears came out of the woods and lumbered over and
joined the terrified negroes. The black bear of Louisiana is small and
harmless. But to a negro he always looks extremely large and very
ferocious. The other wild animals that had crossed the prairie seemed to
have a destination, and they went on across.
When the black bears came they seemed to have arrived at the place they
were going and appeared to be delighted at finding five or six hundred
black folks at the same place to receive them and protect them. But the
negroes sprang upon their feet with five or six hundred assorted yells
of terror, and were getting ready to scatter out into the woods when a
sound above their heads caused them to look up, and lo! the airplane had
returned and was now three thousand feet above them.
It was the gloriously beautiful hour of sunset. The sky was clear and
the air was still. In a little while the moon, which was even then
visible in the sky, would shine in full effulgence, and would make an
ideal night for the return of the airplane to the aviation field.
James Gannaway was feeling fine, and he showed it by giving the negroes
an exhibition of stunt-flying. If he had known that the negroes did not
appreciate this exhibition for what it was worth, he doubtless would
have done the kindly thing and gone on his way. But when the negroes
looked up in the air and saw the machine not much larger in their sight
than a toy, they forgot all about the frolicking bears and were
petrified by terror at the vision above them.
The machine turned upside down, then righted itself, then began to
ascend in long, spiral glides; then turned upside down, and the aviator
flew in that position for some moments. Again the machine righted itself
and began to mount upward until it was hardly more than a tiny speck in
the sky. Hovering directly above them it dived and seemed to drop with
the rapidity of a falling star.
Every negro nerved himself to see the machine crash down upon the
ground, when suddenly it turned and once more began its beautiful
flight, up above the birds that screamed and circled and tumbled in the
air like circus performers.
Vinegar Atts dropped upon his knees and lifted up two black hands in the
direction of the ascending machine which now looked not much larger than
a wasp and bawled aloud:
“O Lawd, ef you got any pity on dis pore nigger, jes’ keep dat machine a
gwine up!”
“Keep her gwine up, Lawd!” five hundred voices wailed in a mighty chorus
of endorsement.
“O Lawd, Thou hast told us dat de early bird ketches de worm. Us is pore
worms of de dust! Perteck us from dat cherubim of de sky wid de hands of
a man under its wings!” Vinegar whooped.
“Perteck us, Lawd; hab mussy on us wormes!” answered the frightened
negroes in a mighty chorus.
“Keep dese here ole hawgs an’ bears an’ deerses offen us, too, good
Lawd!” Vinegar wailed. “We don’t wanter ax too much of you-alls, but
dese here is perilous times fer pore he’pless niggers!”
“Us pore niggers!” the chorus howled. “O Gawd, de birds of de air an’ de
beasts of de field is sot ag’in’ us, an’ ef you don’t he’p us, we is
blowed up blacks!”
“Dar won’t be nothin’ left of us but remainders!” Vinegar amended. “Some
of us ain’t never axed you fer nothin’ befo’, an’ we ain’t never aimin’
to pester you agin. But we needs you now, Lawd—dis here is a groun’-hawg
case!”
“A groun’-hawg—case!” the negroes wailed.
“O Lawd, she’s a gittin’ littler an’ littler!” Vinegar whooped. “She’s
gwine up—gwine up—gwine up! Don’t go back on us now an’ let her drap
down no more! Keep her gwine up!”
“Keep her gwine up!” the mob pleaded.
The animal noises in the swamp had ceased. The wild flight of the birds
had taken them somewhere else. The airplane was a tiny speck in the
sunset sky. But the mighty emotional crisis through which the negroes
had passed left them raving in a delirium and acting like maniacs.
Vinegar Atts was temporarily insane. The other negroes were as crazy as
bats. So, as they knelt upon the grass of the prairie, they began a
mighty antiphony of Biblical quotations, Vinegar leading the
vociferation with a voice which shall never be excelled in volume until
the angel of time shall stand with one foot on the land and the other on
the sea and swear that time shall be no longer.
“I seed a mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed wid a cloud, an’ a
rainbow wus upon his head—” Vinegar roared.
“An his face wus as de sun an’ his foots wus pillars of fire!” the crowd
answered.
“An’ he helt in his hand a little book—” Vinegar screamed.
“An he sot his right foot in de sea an’ his left foot on de yearth!” the
mob responded.
“An’ cried wid a loud voice as when a lion roars!” Vinegar vociferated.
“An’ when he had cried seben thunders uttered deir voices!” the people
whooped.
They seemed to think that all of this was efficacious in expediting the
ascent of the airplane, for as long as they kept it up the machine kept
climbing.
In a moment it disappeared from their sight.
“She’s gone!” they howled in a mighty chorus of relief. “Bless Gawd,
she’s done went up outen our sight ferever!”