A MOST UNREASONABLE BROTHER
Titus Lyon dropped into his seat once more when Levi approached. He
scowled at the manager as he swept by with a bow to his employer. He had
been talking very loud about what was fair and right, and he could not
deny that the expense of supporting the orphans ought to be divided
among the three brothers. According to Noah's calculation, the boot had
been transferred to the other leg, and he owed his brother something on
this account if the matter was to be equitably adjusted.
Titus could not gainsay the position of the planter, and he tried to
choke down his wrath; and just then he would have vented it upon the
innocent overseer if he had not flown like the wind across the bridge,
making the planks dance a hornpipe under the feet of his steed. As the
malcontent was silent for the want of an argument with which to combat
that of his brother, Noah went over the subject, and clinched the nail
he had driven in before.
"I'll look the thing over again when I go home, for I want to be fair
and right in everything I do," said Titus, after he had sought in vain
for an argument with which he could upset the theory of Noah. "I only
claimed that you owed me half of the ten thousand; I didn't ask for the
whole on't."
"You never asked for even half of it before; you only told others that I
owed you that sum," replied Noah.
"Well, I believed it."
"In that case neither you nor the colonel would pay anything towards the
support of the children for ten years, for the law would divide the
property equally between us," replied Noah. "I can't tell exactly how
the matter stands till I figure it up; but I think you will owe me
something if we settle it on the basis you suggest."
"I guess we'd better drop the subject till we have both looked it over
agin," added Titus, utterly disgusted with the result of the argument.
"I don't say that Dunk hadn't a right to dispose of his property as he
pleased; but jest s'pose'n he had left it all to me and gi'n you
nothin'--would that been right?"
"If he had had any reason for doing so, it would have been his right to
do so; but I should say I should not be in condition to be an impartial
judge in the matter," said Noah with a smile.
"Did he have any reason for treating me any wus than he did you?" asked
Titus sharply, as he sprang to his feet again. "Dunk wa'n't no
abolitionist, and went with the folks round here on politics. He 'n' I
agreed, and never had no dispute on these things."
"I don't think the colonel did treat you any worse than he did me. He
chose to pay for supporting the orphans, though I never asked him to do
so, or hinted at any such thing. We have talked that over, and nothing
more need be said about it now. I have indicated how that thing might be
fairly settled, and we will let it rest there."
"But I still say Dunk used me wus 'n he did you; and as a brother you
are in duty bound to set me right, as you said one of the same blood
should do."
"I don't understand you, Brother Titus; for I am not aware that the
colonel treated me any better in his will than he did you," replied
Noah, wondering what further complaint his brother could make.
"Didn't he give five thousand dollars to that cuss that just rid over
the bridge?" demanded Titus with a sort of triumphant tone and manner,
as though he had the planter where no argument could avail him. "That
was just the same as taking twenty-five hundred dollars out of my
pocket, as well as out of yours."
"But you don't bear in mind, my dear brother, that the colonel was
disposing of his own property, and not yours or mine," said Noah with a
pronounced laugh at the absurdity of the other's position.
"Don't go to dearin' me, Noah; it will be time enough for that sort of
thing when you've done me justice," snarled Titus.
"When I've done you justice!" exclaimed the planter, rising from his
seat again to vent his mirth. "I must do you justice because your
brother and mine gave Levi Bedford five thousand dollars! Must I pay you
twenty-five hundred dollars on this account?"
"I didn't say so."
"But you implied it; for you were trying to prove that the colonel used
me better than he did you. It seems to me that you ought to make your
claim on Levi, if anybody."
"You git ahead faster'n I do. I only meant to say that Dunk didn't use
me right when he gave his money to this mean whelp; but he treated you
as bad as he did me, Noah."
"I have no complaint whatever to make, and I am glad the colonel
remembered Levi handsomely; he deserved it, for he had always been a
useful and faithful overseer," added Noah very decidedly.
"Let that rest," said Titus when he found that he made no headway in the
direction he had chosen. "I s'pose you won't agree with me, but I say
Dunk ought to have left this place to me instid of you. I was his oldest
brother, and I have lived here eight years, and know all about the
plantation, while you never saw it till after Dunk was dead."
"I am inclined to think the colonel knew what he was about, and he made
his will to suit himself," answered Noah.
"I should think he made it to suit you. Of course I know it's law, but
it wa'n't right," growled Titus.
"If you think it was not right, why don't you contest the will, and have
it set aside?"
"Don't I say it was law; and I suppose it can't be helped now," and the
injured man tried to put on an air of resignation. "But I ain't done."
"I should say you had said enough; for there seems to be no foundation
for any of your complaints. I think the colonel meant to be fair and
just, and make an equal distribution of his property between you and me.
Taking out fifteen thousand dollars he gave to charity and his
friends"--
"That was giving away what belonged to you and me," interposed the
objector.
"You are as unreasonable as a pig in a cornfield, Brother Titus!"
exclaimed Noah, whose abundant patience was on the verge of exhaustion.
"Duncan was giving away his own property, and not yours or mine, as you
appear to think he was, especially yours; for I believe he did just
right. Taking out the fifteen thousand and the ten he paid for the
support of the orphans,--which I suppose you mean to have settled up in
another way,--there was seventy-five thousand dollars left, which he
divided equally among his brothers and the representatives of the one
who died over ten years ago. That is according to the valuation annexed
to the will."
"It's mighty strange, Noah, that you can't see nothin' when it's p'inted
out to you," stormed Titus, his wrath rising to the boiling point at his
repeated defeats; for, "though vanquished, he could argue still."
"I don't believe at all in your pointing, Brother Titus."
"You talk about that valuation; but it was a fraud, and it was meant to
cheat me out of eight or ten thousand dollars!" roared the malcontent,
gesticulating violently. "It ought to been thirty thousand dollars
more'n 'twas! I say it out loud; and I know what I'm talkin' about!"
"I don't think you do, Brother Titus. I think you had better stop
drinking whiskey for a week, and then we can talk this subject over more
satisfactorily."
"Do you mean to accuse me of bein' drunk, Noah Lyon?" demanded Titus,
shaking his fist in the face of his brother; and at this moment that
colt was dashing over the bridge at a dead run, with Levi on his back.
"I don't think you are drunk, Brother Titus, as tipplers understand the
word, but you are under the influence of liquor, and it affects your
judgment," replied Noah as gently as though he had been speaking in a
prayer-meeting.
"Then you mean that I _am_ drunk!"
[Illustration: "THEN YOU MEAN I AM DRUNK."]
Both of his fists were clinched, and he was shaking one in the face of
the planter, when the bay colt dashed in between them, Noah falling back
before the menacing demonstration of Titus. Levi had dismounted at the
end of the bridge, and seated himself in the arbor where he could still
see the two men. When Titus shook his fist in the face of the planter,
he leaped upon the colt as though he had been fifty pounds lighter, and
galloped to the scene of the wordy contest.
"What do you want here?" demanded the visitor, with a very unnecessary
expletive.
"What is it, Levi?" asked Noah.
"I didn't know but you might want me," replied the manager; but the
demonstrative person was his employer's brother, and he refrained from
using the strong language that came to his tongue's end.
"I don't want you for anything just now, Levi," replied the planter,
sorry that there should have been a witness to the stormy interview with
his brother; and he wondered if he had not been too plain-spoken, mild
and dignified as he had been.
"What do you mean, you scoundrel, by stickin' your nose in where you're
not wanted?" demanded Titus savagely, as he shook his fist, relieved
from duty before the planter, in the direction of the overseer.
Levi wheeled his horse so that he crowded the angry man out of his
place, and made him spring to keep out of the way of the fiery animal;
but he made no reply to the abuse cast upon him. Noah nodded his head in
the direction of the mansion, and the manager rode off, though it was
evident to his employer that he was itching to lay hands on the
turbulent visitor.
"I hate that villain!" gasped Titus.
"And he despises you as thoroughly as you hate him; so there is no love
lost. But I think you had better conduct yourself a little more
peaceably, Titus; for I do not like to have the people on the plantation
see that there is any difficulty between us, for we are brothers, I wish
you to remember. Perhaps we had better drop the subject where it is, for
it is almost suppertime," said Noah with the most conciliatory tone and
manner.
"Not jest yet," returned Titus warmly. "I said that valuation was a
fraud, meant to cheat me out of my rightful due; and you told me I was
drunk, which ain't no kind of an argument."
"I did not say that exactly; but if it was an argument for anything, it
was that we should talk this matter over some time when you had not
drunk anything."
"I drink something everyday; and I have a perfect right to do so."
"I don't dispute it."
"Dunk gave you all the niggers, and did not put them in the valuation.
Wasn't that cheating me out of my share of the thirty thousand they
would bring even in these shaky times?"
"I don't think it was. I repeat that the colonel had a perfect right,
just as good a right as you have to drink whiskey, though I don't do so,
to dispose of his property as he pleased," added Noah, looking down at
the planks of the bridge, and remaining for a minute in deep thought.
"That ain't no argument!" blustered Titus. "The law gives a man's
property to his brothers and sisters when he leaves no parents or
children; and every honest and just man does the same thing."
"I did not mean to say anything to anybody about the servants on the
place; but I feel obliged to speak to you about them so far as to tell
the facts relating to them," said Noah when he had come to this
conclusion.
"I cal'late you better speak out if you've got anything to say, or else
pay me over fifteen thousand dollars for my share in the value of them
niggers," replied Titus with a triumphant air, for he believed he had
gained a point.
"When I was at Colonel Cosgrove's house on the day of our arrival, he
handed me a letter, heavily sealed with red wax, from our deceased
brother. This letter contained another. I have both of these letters in
the safe in the library. Now, if you will go to the house with me, I
will show you both of these letters," continued the planter,
disregarding the tone and manner of his irate brother.
Titus was curious to know what the colonel had to say in defence of his
conduct, and he assented to the visit to the library. Noah produced the
two letters, handing the opened one to his brother, and showing the
heavily sealed one to him but not permitting it to pass out of his
hands. The malcontent read the opened one.
"Not to sell one of the niggers for five years!" he exclaimed when he
had finished it. "That is another outrage! And you are not to open that
other letter for the same time. Give it to me, Noah, and I will open it
now!"
"It shall not be opened till the five years have expired," answered the
planter firmly, as he returned both of the epistles to the safe and
locked the door of it.
Titus was more violent than ever, for he had been defeated in his last
and most promising stronghold, as he regarded it. He stormed like a
madman, and kept it up for nearly an hour. He made so much noise that
Mrs. Noah knocked at the door to learn what was the matter. At the same
time she called them to supper; but Titus was so angry that he rushed
out of the house, called for his team, and left with his wife at once.