Terrapin River flows through the northern part of Arkansas. It is a
small stream, winding its way among hills, which here with graceful
slope, and there with rugged brows, overlook the smooth and gliding
water. The water, when the current is not swollen, is so clear that the
stream suggests the blended flow of countless dewdrops. The brooks that
flow into Terrapin River seem to float down sun-beams, gathered in the
hill-tops. Up the "hollow," the cow-bell's mellow clang floats away
in slowly dying echo. The spring frog struggles through a miniature
forest of rank ferns; the dew that has gathered on the rugged cliffs,
trickles slowly down at the rising sun's command, like tears flowing
along the wrinkles of a time-worn face. The soft air plays in gentle
hide-and-seek, and the wild rose, leaning over, bathes its blushing
face in the mirroring stream.
The country through which Upper Terrapin River flows is slow of
agricultural development. Wild hogs abound in the cane-brakes, and
on the hill-sides, where the dogwood saplings tangle their blooming
boughs in perfumed network, the bristling deer kills the rattlesnake,
and the wild turkey-gobbler struts in barbaric vanity. The shriek of
the steam-whistle has never disturbed the blue jay's noontide nap, but
the water-mill, with its rhythmic splash, grinds the corn which the
whistling boy, barefoot and astride the sack, brings from over the
hills.
The rankest of corn grows in the "bottoms," and on the uplands the
passing breezes steal the fragrance of the mellowest of horse-apples.
The people, the most of them at least, are rude of speech. To them
the smooth sentences of culture are as over-ripe strawberries--unfit
for use. The popular estimate of a man's mental strength in this
neighborhood is based upon the roughness of his expressions. There
are schools, but, save in the winter, they are ill attended, for the
children, so soon as they are old enough to study, are also large
enough to lend important aid to the cultivation of the crops. Among
those people there are many peculiar characters. They know of no
country but America, and are therefore strictly American. They have
a half-formed idea that there is an outside world, and that Andrew
Jackson whipped it; and tradition tells them that George Washington
became involved in a quarrel with a king, an awful monster with
horns of gold, boxed his jaws, knocked off his horns, and sent him
howling home. Their ignorance is not of the pernicious sort, but of
that humorous kind which finds bright laughter clinging to the very
semblance of a joke.
One afternoon a boy was plowing corn in a field not far from the river.
He was apparently about sixteen years old. Under the sunburn on his
face there could be seen the soft color of sadness. He was tall and
well formed, and his eyes, when he looked up to tell the time of day by
the sun, showed, by their wide-open earnestness--if there be anything
in such surmises--that his nature was deep and his disposition frank.
He had reached the end of the row, near a rail fence along whose
zig-zag way there ran a road half overgrown with briers, and, after
turning his horse about, was fanning himself with his broad-brim straw
hat, when someone called out:
"Halloa, young man!"
The plowboy looked around and saw a man standing on the road-side, with
his arms resting on the top rail of the fence. The man was of uncommon
height, and his hair and bushy beard were of such fiery red as they
caught a sunbeam that came down through the wavering boughs of an oak,
that the boy, bursting into a laugh, cried out: "Ef you ain't on fire,
I never seed er bresh heap a burnin'."
"Well," the man replied, with a smile of good nature, "I'm not exactly
burning, but I am pretty warm. Drive your horse up there in the shade,
and come over and sit down awhile. You look as if you are tired, and
besides, I feel disposed to talk to someone."
"I am tired," the boy rejoined, "but ef my uncle wuz ter ketch me er
settin' erroun', he mout norate it about that I'm lazy.
"The fresh-stirred soil shows that you have plowed many furrows to day.
If your uncle should circulate such a report," he added, with another
good-natured smile, "I will go with you about the neighborhood, and
assist you in correcting it. Come, for I know that in talking with me,
you would not be ill-spending your time."
"Then I reckon you air a school-teacher."
"No, I am nothing--nothing but an everyday sort of wayward man."
"B'l'eve I'll jine you wunst jest fur luck."
He drove his horse into a fence-corner, where the tall alder bushes
cast an inviting shadow, and joined the man, who had sat down with his
back against a tree.
"What is your name?" the man asked.
"John Lucas. What's yo'n?"
"Sam Potter."
"You air a mighty big man, Mr. Potter, an' I reckon you'd be a powerful
fine han' ter break a yoke uv steers. Peers ter me like ef I wuz
ez strong ez you air, I'd go roun' the country an' grab er-holt uv
cattle, an' hold em' jest fur the fun uv seein' 'em kick." He laughed
boisterously, and then, when his many shouts had ceased, Potter saw the
soft color of sadness, under the sunburn on his face.
"Just now you spoke of your uncle," said Potter; "do you live with him?"
"Yes, sir. My daddy an' mammy wuz drownded a long time ergo, in the
river up yander at the fo'd. Did you come that er way?"
"Yes."
"Did you see er tall rock stickin' up outen the groun'?"
"I think I did."
"Wall, I put that rock thar when I got big ernuff. It's ther tombstone."
"Are they buried there?"
"No; they wuz washed erway, an' never wuz found, an' I put that
rock thar becaze it is the place whar they wuz last seed. Thar's a
caterpiller on yo' neck. Let me bresh him off."
"John, I rather like you."
"Much erbleeged ter you, sir."
"And I think that there is about you excellent material for the making
of a man."
"I dunno; but that's what old Alf says."
"Who is old Alf?"
"He's a nigger; but lemme tell you thar ain't no whiter man nowhar than
he is. He works fur my uncle, ur ruther sorter craps it on the sheers.
He don't peer to kere fur nobody much but me an' his daughter, that's
all crippled up with the rheumatiz, an' when she cries in the night
with her pains, it don't make no diffunce how hard he has worked durin'
the day, he takes her up in his arms, an' walks erbout with her till
she hushes. That's what I call a white man. Whar air you frum, Mr.
Potter?"
"From almost everywhere."
"Whar do you live?"
"Nearly everywhere."
"Ain't you got nothin' ter bind you down ter one place?"
"No."
"Then you ain't ez well off ez old Alf, fur he has got that little
crippled-up gal."
Potter bent upon the boy a look of contemplation, and addressing
himself more than his companion, said: "Ah, young man, you do not know
the force of your own philosophy. From the woods there often come
the simple words of truest wisdom. Any tie of life that holds us to
someone, although at times its straining may fall little short of
agony, is better far than slip-shod freedom from responsibilty."
"You talk like er preacher," said the boy. "Air you one?"
"No. As I told you, I am not anything, except a tramp. I used to be a
sort of lawyer, but my neglect of law texts and love for other books
drove my clients away. What's that noise?"
"It's the dinner ho'n, an' I ain't sorry ter hear it, nuther. Won't
you come ter the house, an' take pot-luck with us? Ain't fur. See," he
added; "its right over yander on the hill."
"I will go with you, John, for to tell the truth, I am as hungry as a
bear. Wait a moment until I get my carpet-bag. There is nothing in it
but a shirt and a few old books--nothing in it to eat, I well know."
When they reached the stable, Potter climbed up into the loft, to throw
down some corn and fodder, while John was taking the gear off of the
horse.
"Now we'll go ter the house," said John, when Potter had come down,
"but ez we walk erlong lemme tell you suthin'. No matter whut Aunt
Liz says, don't pay no ertention to her. Mebbe she won't say nuthin'
much, but ef she's on one uv her tantrums, ez Uncle Jeff calls 'em,
she's mighty ap' ter make you bat yo' eyes like dust wuz er-blowin'
yo' way, but keep on er battin' an' don't say nuthin'. You mout think
that she is the audationist woman you ever seed, an' it mout 'pear like
she's goin' ter eat you bodatiously up, but ez I said befo' keep on e'
battin' an' don't say nuthin'!"
Just as they were entering the yard, a woman's shrill voice cried out:
"My stairs, John, who on the top uv the yeth have you picked up this
time? Wall, ef he ain't er sight fur ter see I wish I may never stir
agin."
"Keep on er battin'," John whispered.
"Fur pity sake," the woman continued, "is he er red shanghai ur old
Satan's whut not? John, I oughter bump yo' head ergin the wall fur
pickin' up ever rag-tag an' bob-tail that comes erlong."
"Madam," said Potter, making a profound bow, "I hope I do not intrude."
"Lissen at him! My stairs, he's the biggest thing I ever seed lessen it
wuz on wheels."
"Hush, an' keep on er battin'," whispered John.
"I never seed the like in my borned days," the woman went on. "The
shotes got in the garden, an' momoxed up the cabbages, an' now the
fetchtaked bucket had to git off down in the well. Pap, he's gone ter
the blacksmith shop, an' old Alf is er-pokin' roun' summers, an' thar
aint er body on the place ter do nothin'. Shew thar! The fetchtaked
hens is boun' ter scratch up the red pepper, an' the red ca'f has run
agin the corner uv the fence an' mighty nigh killed hisse'f. Laws er
massy, it do 'pear like eve'thing is goin' ter rack and ruin."
Potter, as he stood looking at her, thought that he had never before
seen so strange a creature. She was angular, and, using a country
expression descriptive of extreme leanness, was rawboned. Her iron-gray
hair stood out in frowsy fierceness, and her fading black eyes seemed
never to have been lighted with a glow of gentleness. She had a
snarling habit of wrinkling her long, sharp nose, and at times all her
ill-nature would apparently find settlement on a hair-covered mole that
grew on her chin.
"Madam," said Potter, "I don't think that I can repair all the damage
that has been done, but if you will show me the well I will make an
effort to get the bucket."
"Yander," she replied, pointing.
He went to the well, climbed down the rough stones of the wall by
placing his feet on each side, and soon came up with the bucket.
"Wall, ef he ain't got it, hope I may never stir agin," the woman
exclaimed. "Yander is pap."
A man well advanced in years dismounted from a swayback horse at the
gate, threw a plow point on the ground and came forward. So far from
being ill-looking, there was something comical about him.
"Uncle Jeff," said the boy, "this here man's name is Potter. I met him
over at the fiel' an' axed him ter come ter dinner with me, an' he
'lowed he wuz as hungry as a b'ar."
"How air you, sir? Glad to make yo' 'quaintance. We ain't got no great
show uv suthin' ter eat, but I reckin we kin sorter dam up yo' appetite
er leetle."
"Pap," said the woman, "erbody ter hear you talk would think that we
never did have nuthin' ter eat. I spize ter see er man ack like he
didn't have no raisin'."
"Yas," the old fellow replied, "but I'd ruther see that than ter see er
woman with the tanterums."
She cast a quick glance at him, wrinkled her nose, and then turning
away, said:
"Come on in now, an' let yo vidults stop yo' mouth."
During the meal, Potter talked with the spirit of such entertainment,
that at times the old man sat in open-mouth heed of his words; and
the old woman, forgetful of her snappishness, bestowed upon him many
glances of not unkind attention. After dinner, as they sat under the
trees in the yard, the old man, addressing John, said:
"Ez it is Saturday evenin', you mout ez well knock off yo' plowin' fur
the balunce uv the day. Me an' yo' aunt Liz is goin' over ter Frazier's
ter stay all night, an' go frum thar ter meetin' ter-mor'. Thar's
plenty ter eat cooked, an' ef yo' frien' wants ter stay here with you,
all right."
The boy's face lighted up with a smile, and turning to Potter, he said:
"Wish you would stay."
"I will," replied Potter.
When old Jeff and his wife had gone, when the horses' hoofs, rattling
over the flinty road, were no longer heard, John, awakening from a
seeming reverie, arose, placed his hands with a sort of tender touch
on the back of Potter's chair, and said:
"I am powerful glad you air goin' to stay, for you air the first great
big man that ever tuck the trouble ter talk much ter me. I aint never
been cuffed erroun' none, but thar is a heap er ways to make er boy
feel bad without cuffin' him erroun'. Not understandin' him is er putty
sho way uv hurtin' his feelin's."
"You are right, and I wonder that a boy of your surroundings should
have such ripe conclusions--I mean that I am surprised at your good
sense."
"I hope I don't look like er fool."
"Oh, no," Potter quickly rejoined; "there is at times about your face
a glow of struggling inspiration--I mean that I like your face. If we
were together very long I think I could teach you to understand my odd
expressions."
"It would be ez good ez understandin' uv er book, wouldn't it?"
"Well, I could help you to understand books, and books would help you
to understand me."
John sat down, and Potter, glancing at him, saw that on his face there
lay a strange expression--that through the soft color of sadness a ray
of hope was shining. At length the boy said:
"Uncle Jeff told me the other day that the best way fur er boy ter make
er man outen hisse'f is ter git out an' hussle. He ken git ernuther boy
ter plow for his vidults an' clothes. Let me go with you."
"What, do you mean that you really want to go with me?"
"Yas."
"Let me lie down under this tree and sleep a little while, John. When I
awake we will talk over the matter. The fact is I have been walking all
day and am very tired."