“Shhoo, shhoo, shhoo, you good-for-nothing thing, we don’t want any
company to-day,” shouted the large, ruddy-faced lady of the Parks Big
House, to a handsome, red and black game cock that jumped upon the walk
in front of the porch, flapped his glossy wings and started to crow.
“Who you reckon’s comin’ here dis time uv de week, an’ we so busy, Miss
Jule?” asked old Matt Miller, the family servant, as she came around the
corner of the house, from the kitchen, on her way to the well, carrying
two water buckets, with her sleeves rolled to her elbows, showing a pair
of lithe, black arms, well muscled and hard.
“I don’t know, Matt, but that rooster persists in crowing in front of the
door, and that is a mighty good sign that some stranger’s coming for a
meal,” declared Miss Jule.
“Yes’m, an’ I’se done drap de dish rag twice dis mornin’ an’ dat’s er
sign dat don’t fail, an’ de pusson whut comes is mos’ lakly to be hongry,
too.
“Maybe hits de new preacher?”
“No, Matt, I don’t think so, he’s never said anything about coming, and
he will go and see all of the elders and deacons before he starts around
among the common folks. He hasn’t been to see the Graves yet, and they
are pillars in Sharon.”
“Humph, Miss Jule, you don’t know dese young preachers lak I doos. Hit
ain’t de elders an’ de deekins deyer arter so much as hit’s de mens wid
de money.
“Leastwise, dat de way hit is wid our people, an’ human natur’ is ’bout
de same whether de skin’s white or black. I knows dis, ef you hain’t gut
de spondulicks you don’t git de preacher.
“Ef hit ain’t de rocks hit’s de weemens dat de young preachers is gut on
deyer minds dese days. Dat sho’ is de truf.
“Dat young feller, he’s done heered dat Marse George’s gut las’ year’s
cotton in de shed, dat ain’t never been sold, an’ he’s des ’bout comin’
to spend de day.”
“What about our new preacher, Matt, do you like his looks?” asked the
lady of the house, as she knitted.
“I ain’t seed ’im right good, but I don’t lak de lef’ eye.”
“What’s the matter with it?”
“Yo’ maw, Miss Nancy, an’ she wuz er pow’ful smart ’oman too, used
to say: ‘Matt, don’t you marry no cock-eye man, ef you do you’ll git
cheated.’”
“And you believe it?”
“’Cose I do. Look at Marse George, one uv de bestes’ horse traders in
dese parts! Whut do he say? ‘Don’t buy no white foot horse or trade wid
er cock-eye man.’
“But, Miss Jule, I ain’t sayin’ nothin’ ergin yo’ preacher. I don’t lak
to think bad ’bout de men uv de pulpit, but I ain’t gut de faith dat I
used to have. No, chile, de older I gits de wuss I is.”
Matt moved on, leaving her mistress to think over what she had said.
Mrs. George Parks, although corpulent, and misshapen, had pretty white
hands, neat and dainty feet and small, aristocratic ankles, pretty soft,
iron-gray hair, and bright, keen gray eyes. Her every feature bespoke a
warm heart, a gentle and refined nature. As she sat there that morning,
in her own low rocking chair, knitting away at a cotton sock, she was a
perfect picture of health and happiness. She had put her house in shape
for the day, fed the early biddies just from the eggshells, looked over
her garden and was resting on the long, cool front porch, overspread by
the limbs of two magnificent white oaks.
After Matt had drawn the water and returned to the kitchen, Charlie, the
baby boy of the Parks home, came running in from the shop with a hoe in
his hand, and dashed up the steps, intending to go through the house to
the field in the rear, but was halted by his mother, who said sharply:
“Child, don’t bring that hoe in here, it is bad luck to carry a hoe in a
house where one lives.”
The boy hurried back down the steps and around the house.
The reader may imagine that he is at this prosperous country home, in the
Piedmont region of the South, where cotton is king, and hog and hominy
the staff of life, and view the scene.
It is springtime, a beautiful fair morning in early June, and the
grandfather clock, one that had been in the family for several
generations, had just struck nine. Mrs. Parks was at peace with the
world. She had helped to red up the house, to feed the poultry, strain
the fresh milk, churn and put away the butter and written a letter to her
oldest son, who was off at college.
Old Matt, who served as cook, chambermaid, milkmaid, dairymaid, and
errand runner, was preparing dinner.
“Have you put on your greens, Matt?” asked Mrs. Parks, throwing back her
head, and calling over her shoulder.
“Yes’m, long ’go,” responded the faithful Matt.
“What do you think about killing a chicken? Do you reckon we’ll have
company?”
“Des as shore, Miss Jule, as I’se livin’; I’se done drap de dish rag
ergin. Ef I wuz you, I’d be skeered to risk it.”
“Well, I think so myself, for George took butter this morning when he had
butter on his plate, and that is a pretty sure sign. When the rooster
crows in front of the house, and the cook drops the dish rag three times,
and the head of the family takes butter when he’s got butter, all of the
signs point one way.
“I expect you had better call Charlie and catch that little red rooster
that stays in the Irish potato patch, back of the garden.”
Mrs. Parks continued to knit, and ponder. Her mind went from one thing to
another. One moment she was thinking of her dear Tom, who would soon be
home from the University, and the next of Ned, who had gone to Charlotte
to get a new mowing machine. Most of her thoughts were of her children.
Matt and Charlie chased the little red rooster through Marse George’s
prize cotton patch, under the barn and out again, over the fence, around
the carriage house, finally hemming him in a corner and catching him.
Matt put him in a pie and Charlie went to carry water to the field hands,
in response to Big John Ardrey’s call: “Sonny, sonny, sonny, ain’t you
gwine to fetch de ole nigger no water to-day? He’s so thirsty!”
The cotton and corn were beginning to show well in the more fertile
fields. Every available man and woman on the place was at work, either
plowing or hoeing, thinning the young truck to a stand, and making war on
General Green, the farmer’s faithful enemy. Many fields were green with
waving grain. Here and there wheat was turning yellow and would soon be
ready for the reaper.
To the right of the Big House, far out in the twenty-four acre field,
eight plows, drawn by as many sturdy mules, still thin from hard spring
plowing, breaking lands, and brown from the first scorching rays of
the sun, manned by lusty negroes, black and glossy from eating rich
Western-grown meat, were going, running around the cotton, thinned to a
stand.
“Lawdy, lawdy, lawdy, lawdy,
It’s almos’ pay day, pay day,
An’ I’se gwine to git my honey er hat,”
sang Jerry, a loud-mouthed, animated young negro, who plowed Kit, a
four-year-old mule, fifteen hands high, and valued by Squire Parks at
one-seventy-five. There was no meter to his song, but it sounded well to
him, and the neighbors for two miles around could hear it.
“Listen, Miss Jule,” said Matt, to Mrs. Parks, who had gone to the
kitchen to see about dinner. “Dat big mouf Jerry can’t keep quiet.
“Hear ’im singin’ ’bout his honey?
“He rakes ’roun’ all night, an’ hollers all day ’bout his honey? He
better be givin’ dat Runt somefin’, dat chile uv Mary’s.”
“Is that his child, Matt?”
“’Cose hit’s his’n.
“An’ he ain’t never as much as give it a moufful uv nothin’--no, not nary
moufful!
“De po’ little chile des runs ’roun’ while Mary wuks, des lak it wuz er
dog or hog. I ain’t never seed sich neglect. But Mary can’t hep it now;
she’s gut to wuck fur er livin’.”
“Well, I didn’t know that Runt was Jerry’s child before.”
“Yon he is now!” exclaimed Matt, as she turned and looked out of the
window, toward the hands, who were hoeing cotton in the Clay Field, back
of the orchard.
“Yes’m, Mary’s des hoein’ an’ wuckin’ lak er dog, an’ keepin’ dat chile,
while Jerry’s spendin’ money on dat yaller Rose whut come here wid dat
nigger Rufus, who de pleesmens tuck back to town an’ put on de chain-gang
fur stealin’ er cow.
“Po’ Runt, he don’t git much ’tenshun! Dey never thought enough uv ’im to
name ’im, an’ de foks, seein’ how little he wuz, called ’im ‘Runt’ an’
‘Runt’ he is. Ef anybudy wanted him dey coul’ steal ’im an’ nobudy woul’
make much fuss ’bout it. Ef it wuz slavry time ergin, an’ Ole Brickhouse
Jim wuz livin’, he’d git ’im ’fo’ Sadday night. Mary tote’s ’im to de
fiel’ in de mornin’ an’ puts ’im down in de shade uv er tree an’ lets
’im stay dere.”
This same little negro, four years old, bow-legged, flat-nosed,
onery-looking and dirty, clad in a single garment, which was torn, and
without buttons to hold it in place, was at that very moment rambling
about in the weeds in the orchard, far from his mother, who, with a dozen
other hands, were chopping cotton. If a dog or a calf or anything else
came along and toppled him over he cried until he was exhausted, fell
asleep and waked up refreshed. No one seemed to love or care for him; he
weeded his own row.
Taking pity on him, on various and sundry occasions, Miss Jule had sent
Charlie with buttered biscuits or pieces of pie to the four-year-old.
Although Runt was afraid of Charlie, who often slipped up behind him,
turned his little shirt over his head and ran, he was thankful for the
hand-outs, without knowing just where they came from. If he saw the white
boy coming he wanted to hide, but was afraid to lest he miss a sweet
morsel for his tongue.
“Look, Miss Jule, don’t it beat all how boys do? See Charlie teasing dat
po’ little nigger,” old Matt would say.
“Charlie! Charlie! You little scamp, you! Quit worrying that child!”
would follow, and the youngster would laugh and run, leaving Runt to
think it over.
“Shhoo, shhoo, shhoo!
“There’s that old rooster again,” said Mrs. Parks, as she turned and
started for the front porch again.
“We don’t want any company to-day.”
“Miss Jule, don’t you speck you’d better spruce up er little, so ef de
preacher do come you’ll be ready fur ’im?”
“I will put on my new dress, I want George to see it anyhow, and I can
take it off after dinner if nobody comes.”
“I speck you better.”
After the mistress of the house had resumed her seat on the porch, having
arrayed herself in her pretty calico frock, Matt called out: “Miss Jule,
who is dat comin’ ’roun’ de fiel’ on dat big white hoss?”
“It looks like Capt. Brown, on old Roy,” said Mrs. Parks.
“Yes’m, hit do, but he woul’n’t be comin’ here fur dinner, ’ceptin’ Miss
Jane’s erway,” declared Matt.
Sure enough, it was Capt. Brown, and he rode up to the front gate.
“The tip of the day to you, Mrs. Parks!” said the gallant fellow, lifting
his hat.
“Good morning, Capt. Brown; won’t you light?”
“No, thank you; I haven’t time.”
“You all well?”
“We’re up an’ about, but I’m not feeling well. I have had a pain in my
head for several days.”
“Listen at Miss Jule,” said old Matt to herself, as she peeped around
the honeysuckle vine, at the end of the porch to catch what was said. “I
ain’t never seed her look better nor puttier.”
“How are you all, Capt. Brown?”
“Just tollerbly well, only; the old woman is grunting a little this
morning.”
“Which way is the ’Squire?”
“He’s in the Clay Field, back of the house, where the hoe hands are at
work.”
“Have you heard from Mrs. Marler to-day?”
“No, but Sam came by there last night, late, on his way from the post
office, and Reuben told him that she was no better. I guess she’s in a
right bad way.”
“Yes, poor woman, she’s been a great sufferer for a long time. I have
been wanting to go to see her, but the stock is busy now, and then, too,
I have not felt like riding. I get dizzy every time I get in a buggy.”
“You heard about Mrs. Bill McGregor, Mrs. Parks?”
“No; is it a boy or girl?”
“A ten-pound boy.”
“That’s fine! Five girls and three boys.
“Tell Mollie to come over. She needn’t wait on me. I’m getting too old to
travel about much.”
“Thank you. You and George come.
“Well, I want to see the old man on a little business; I will just ride
around there.”
Capt. Brown and Squire Parks were the best of neighbors and friends.
Both were influential in political affairs and substantial business men.
That morning they talked over a private matter and Capt. Brown turned and
went back.
Dinner time came and no company arrived. The greens, the chicken and
strawberry pies were all ready, but there was no one outside of the
family circle to eat them.
“I don’t believe in your signs, anyhow,” declared Mr. Parks, “for, this
morning, as I went to the field, a red bird, a pretty one, flew across
the road in front of me, and I have heard it said that that is the sign
that you are going to see your sweetheart, dressed in her best clothes,
and I know I haven’t seen any sweetheart to-day.”
“O, yes, you is, Marse George,” said Matt, as she handed him the greens
for a second help.
“Who? Where?”
“Here she is, Miss Jule, de onlies’ sweetheart dat you ever had.”
“Don’t you believe that, Matt,” said Mrs. Parks, fishing for a
compliment.
“I guess you are right, Matt, and she’s got on a new dress,” conceded the
lord and master of the Parks Big House.
Dinner and the hour of rest over, the hands started for the field.
Everybody, save Mary, the mother of Runt, had gone, and she hunted
everywhere for the fatherless waif, but could not find him. Squire
Parks, Miss Jule, and Matt organized themselves into a searching party,
but hunt where they would they could not find the little negro. The big
bell that hung on the red oak in front of the lot gate was sounded, and
all the workmen came in, knowing that the ringing of it meant a general
alarm, and were formed into groups and sent to the fields to look for the
missing child. Aunt Matt took a mirror and reflected the sun in the well,
thinking that he might have tumbled in there. Every nook and corner about
the barn and every wash, or gulley, or weed patch about the place was
examined, but no trace of Runt was found.
“Somebudy done tuck an’ stole dat chile,” said Matt. “Told you so. I
knowed dat de Lawd wuz gwine to let somebudy have ’im dat woul’ care fur
’im.
“Po’ little chile, I hope dat nothin’ ain’t happen to ’im.”
For two hours the hunt continued. Mary was wailing and shouting like
one possessed. Jerry, the wayward negro of the plantation, was racing
everywhere, looking. When all had about concluded that the boy had been
kidnaped, Miss Jule, who had become hot and tired, moving about in the
broiling sun, and returned to the house, discovered a pair of little
black, dirty feet sticking out from under a large hall table and, on
making a closer examination, found that Runt had stolen in, crawled under
the table and gone to sleep on the floor. Having put a pillow under the
knappy head she notified the hunters and told Mary to go to her work and
leave the child to her.
Matt was very much disappointed, for she had looked into the well until
she believed that she could see the body of a child on the bottom, and
when Miss Jule called she was preparing to announce that she had found
the little fellow; but, after seeing the feet and bowlegs, as they
protruded from the table, was convinced that she was wrong.
“Yes, Miss Jule, an’ de signs done come true,” declared the old darkey.
“Dat’s de hongry pusson dat wuz comin’; dat chile des gut so hongry dat
he couln’t stand hit no longer an’ come in. Po’ little thing.”
“I am glad he made himself at home, Matt, I will adopt him.”
“One thing, Miss Jule, I wuz glad to see dat Jerry lookin’ sad-lak ’bout
his boy. He may not be so bad arter all. De Lawd put good in everybudy.”
“Yes, and Jerry and Mary may marry some day, and make Runt a home; you
can’t tell,” added Mrs. Parks.
Runt was treated as a guest of the house. He slept unmolested for an
hour, and when he waked he was taken to the kitchen and given the best
the larder afforded. For a month he remained there, waxing fat and black
and strong. Mary was delighted to be rid of him under the circumstances.
The rooster had not given the clarion call in vain.
One day two weeks later, Miss Jule sent for Jerry, and they talked on
the front steps. The next day the young negro said to Squire Parks:
“Say, Marse George, I want’s you to marry me an’ Mary. I’se done gut de
licenses.”
“Where did you get money to get license, this time of year?” asked the
justice of the peace.
“Miss Jule give it to me.”
That was the day the signs failed not.