Alf was still asleep when I arose from my bed the next morning. I stood
at the head of the stairs and looked back at his handsome, though
sun-browned face, and I felt a strange and strong sympathy for him, but
I had not begun to agonize in my love; it was so new that I was dazzled.
When I went down stairs Guinea was feeding the chickens from the kitchen
window, and the old man was walking about the yard, with his slouch hat
pulled down to shut out the slanting glare of the sun. But he saw me
and, calling me, said that he would now show me his beauties. And just
then I heard Guinea's voice: "If he starts to make them fight you come
right away and leave him, Mr. Hawes," she said. "We don't allow him to
fight them on Sunday."
"Miss Smartjacket," the old man spoke up, "I hadn't said a word about
makin' 'em fight. Hawes, these women folks don't want a man to have no
fun at all. As long as a man is at work it's all right with the women;
they can stand to see him delve till he drops, but the minit he wants to
have a little fun, why, they begin to mowl about it. Of course, I'm not
goin' to let 'em fight on Sunday. But a preacher would eat one of 'em
on Sunday. All days belong to 'em. It's die dog or eat the hatchet when
they come round. And yet, as I tell you, I believe in the Book from
kiver to kiver. Step out here, Hawes."
I thought that I received from Guinea a smile of assent, and I followed
him. The enclosure wherein he kept his chickens was almost as strong as
a "stockade." The old man unfastened a padlock and bade me enter. I
stepped inside, and when the master had followed me he was greeted with
many a cluck and scratching, the welcome of two game cocks in a wire
coop, divided into two apartments by a solid board partition. "I jest
wanted you to look at 'em and size 'em merely for your own
satisfaction," said the old man, fondly looking upon his shimmering
pets. "This red one over here is Sam, and that dominecker rascal is Bob.
Ah, Lord, you don't know what comfort there is in a chicken, and how a
preacher can eat a game rooster is beyond my understandin'. But I'm with
him, you understand, from kiver to kiver. Keep quiet there, boys; no
fight to-day. Must have some respect, you know."
He took a grain of corn from his pocket, placed it between his teeth,
and with a grin on his face got down on his knees and held his mouth
near the bars of Sam's cage. The rooster plucked out the grain of corn,
and Bob, watching the performance, began to prance about in jealous
rage. "Never you mind, Bob," said the old man, getting up and dusting
his knees. "I know your tricks. Held one out to you that way not long
ago, and I wish I may never stir agin if you didn't take a crack at my
eye, and if I hadn't ducked I'd be one-eyed right now. But they are
callin' us to breakfust. Bound to interfere with a man one way or
another."
It was with great care that Alf prepared himself to go with me to the
General's house. Out under a tree in the yard he placed a mirror on a
chair and there he sat and shaved himself. Then he went upstairs to put
on a suit of clothes which never had been worn, and anon I heard him
calling his mother to help him find buttons and neckwear that had been
misplaced. And he shouted to me not to be impatient, that he was doing
the best he could. Impatient! I was sitting in the passage, leaning back
against the wall, and near the steps Guinea stood, looking far out over
the ravine. She had donned a garb of bright calico, with long,
green-stemmed flowers stamped upon it, and I thought that of all the
dresses I had ever beheld this was the most beautiful and becoming. She
hummed a tune and looking about pretended to be surprised to see me
sitting there, and for aught I know the astonishment might have been
real, for I had made no noise in placing my chair against the wall.
"I ought not to be humming a dance tune on Sunday," she said, stepping
back and standing against the opposite wall, with her hands behind her.
"I don't see how the day can make music harmful," I replied.
"The day can't make music harmful," she rejoined. "But I can't sing.
Sometimes when I can't express what I am thinking about I hum it. How
long are you and Alf going to be away?"
"As long as it suits him," I answered. "I have decided to have no voice
as to the length of our stay."
"Then you are simply going to accommodate him. How kind of you. And have
you always so much consideration for others? If you have you may find
your patience strained if you stay here."
"To stand any strain that may be placed upon our patience is a virtue,"
I remarked--sententious pedagogue--and she lifted her hands, clasped
them behind her head, looked at me and laughed, a music sweet and low.
Just then Alf came out upon the passage, looking down at himself, first
one side and then the other; and it was with a feeling of close kinship
to envy that I regarded his new clothes. He apologized for having kept
me waiting so long, but in truth I could have told him that I should
have liked to wait there for hours, looking at the graceful figure of
that girl, standing with her hands clasped behind her brown head.
The distance was not great and we had decided to walk, and across a
meadow, purpling with coming bloom, we took a nearer way. I said to Alf
that one might think that he was a stranger at the General's house, and
he replied: "In one way I am. I have been there many a time, it is true,
but always to help do something."
"Is the family so exclusive, then?" I asked.
"Oh, they are as friendly as any people you ever saw, but, of course, I
naturally place them high above me. The old General doesn't appear to
know that I have grown to be a man; always talks to me as if I were a
boy--wants to know what father's doing and all that sort of thing. He
doesn't give a snap what father's doing."
"And the girl. How does she talk to you?" It was several moments before
he answered me.
"I was just trying to think," he said. "To tell you the truth, I don't
know how she talks to me. I can't recall anything she has ever said to
me. She calls me Alf and I call her Miss Millie, and we laugh at some
fool thing and that's about all there is to it. But I know that the old
man would never be willing for me to marry her. He is looking pretty
high for her or he wouldn't have spent so much money on her education."
"But, of course, the girl will have something to say," I suggested.
"I don't know as to that," he replied; "but, of course, I hope so. You
can't tell about girls--at least, I can't. The old General married
rather late in life and has but two children. His wife died several
years ago. Chydister, the boy, or, rather, the man--for he's about my
age--is off at a medical college. He doesn't strike me as being so
alfired smart, but they say that he's got learning away up in G. The old
man says that he is going to make him the best doctor in the whole
country, if colleges can do it, and I reckon they can. He and I have
always got along pretty well; he used to stay at our house a good deal."
We crossed the creek, by leaping from one stone to another, and pursued
a course along a rotting rail fence, covered with vines. And from over
in the low ground came the "sqush" of the cows as they strode through
the rank and sappy clover. We crossed a hill whereon stood a deserted
negro "quarter"--the moldering mark of a life that is now dreamy and
afar off--and after crossing another valley slowly ascended the rounding
bulge of ground, capped by the home of the General. Alf had begun to
falter and hang back, and when I sought gently to encourage him he
remarked: "But you must remember that this is the first time that I have
ever been here with new clothes on, and I want to tell you that this
makes a big difference."
"It has been some time since I went anywhere with new clothes on," I
replied, which set him laughing; but his merriment was shut off when I
opened the gate. Behind the house, where the ground sloped toward the
orchard, there were a number of cabins, old, but not deserted, for negro
children were playing about the doors and from somewhere within came the
low drone of a half-religious, half-cornshucking melody. An old dog got
up from under a tree, but, repenting of the exertion, lay down again; a
turkey loudly gobbled, a peacock croaked, and a tall, bulky, old man
came out upon the porch.
"Walk right in," he called, and shouting back into the hallway he
commanded some one to bring out three chairs. And even before we had
ascended the stone steps the command had been obeyed by a negro boy.
"Glad to meet you, sir," he said when Alf had introduced me. "You have
come to teach the school, I believe. Old man Perdue was over and told me
about it. Sit down. What's your father doing, Alf?"
"Can't do anything to-day," Alf answered, glancing at me.
"I suppose not. All the folks well? Glad to hear it," he added before
Alf could answer him. "It's been pretty wet, but it's drying up all
right."
He wore a dressing gown, befigured with purple gourds, was bare-headed
and I thought that he wore a wig, for his hair was thick and was curled
under at the back of his neck. His face, closely shaved, was full and
red; his lips were thick and his mouth was large. I could see that he
was of immense importance, a dominant spirit of the Old South, and my
reading told me that his leading ancestor had come to America as the
master of a Virginia plantation.
"Henry!" the old General called. "Fetch me my pipe. Henry!"
"Comin'," a voice cried from within. His pipe was brought and when it
had been lighted with a coal which Henry carried in the palm of his
hand, rolling it about from side to side, the General puffed for a few
moments and then, looking at me, asked if I found school-teaching to be
a very profitable employment.
"The money part of it has been but of minor consideration," I answered.
"My aim is to become a lawyer, and I am teaching school to help me
toward that end."
He cleared his throat with a loud rasp. "I remember," said he, "that a
man came here once from the North with pretty much the same idea. It was
before the war. We got him up a school, and by the black ooze in the
veins of old Satan, it wasn't long before he was trying to persuade the
negroes to run away from us. I had a feather bed that wasn't in use at
the time, and old Mills over here had a first-rate article of tar on
hand, and when we got through with the gentleman he looked like an
arctic explorer. Where are you from, sir?"
I told him, and then he asked: "The name is all right, and the location
is good. My oldest brother knew a Captain Hawes in the Creek war."
"He was my grandfather," I replied. He looked at me, still pulling at
his pipe, and said: "Then, sir, I am, indeed, glad to see you. Alf,
what's your father doing?"
"Nothing, sir; it's Sunday," Alf answered, blushing. The old General
looked at him, cleared his throat and said: "Yes, yes. Folks all well?"
I heard the door open and close and I saw Alf move, even as his father
had moved when he came upon me in the road. I heard light foot-falls in
the hall, and then out stepped a girl. She smiled and nodded at Alf and
the General introduced me to her. Alf got up, almost tumbled out of his
chair and asked her to sit down. "Oh, no, keep your seat," she said.
"I'm not going to stay but a minute." She walked over to a post and,
leaning against it, turned and looked back at us. She wore a flower in
her hair, and in her hand she held a calacanthus bud. She was rather
small, with a petulant sort of beauty, but I did not think that she
could be compared with Guinea, for all of Alf's raving over her. Her
cheeks were dimpled, and well she knew it, for she smiled whenever
anything was said, and when no word had been spoken she smiled at the
silence.
"Alf, what has become of Guinea?" she asked. "It seems an age since I
saw her."
"She was over here last, I think," Alf answered.
"Ahem--m--" came from the General. "You'll be counting meals on each
other, like the Yankees, after a while," he said. "Why don't you quit
your foolishness; and if you want to see each other, go and see. I don't
know what your feelings are in the matter, sir," he added, turning to
me, "but I don't see much good in this so-called public school system.
And of all worthless things under heaven it is a negro that has caught
up a smattering of education. God knows he's trifling enough at best,
but teach him to read and he's utterly worthless. I sent a negro to the
postoffice some time ago, and he came along back with my newspaper
spread out before him, reading it on the horse. And if it hadn't been
for Millie I would have ripped the hide off him."
"He didn't know any better," the girl spoke up. "Poor thing, you scared
him nearly to death."
"Yes, and I immediately gave him the best coat I had to square myself,
not with him, but with myself," said the old man. "But I hold that if
the negro, or anyone else, for that matter, is to be a servant, let him
be a servant. I don't want a man to plow for me simply because he can
read. Confound him, I don't care whether he can read or not. I want him
to plow. When I choose my friends it is another matter. Your father go
to church to-day, Alf?"
"I don't know, sir," Alf answered, moving about in his chair, and then
in his embarrassment he got up and stammeringly begged the girl to sit
down.
"Why, what's all this trouble and nonsense about," the General asked,
looking first at the girl and then at Alf. "'Od zounds, there oughtn't
to be any trouble about a chair. Fifty of them back in there."
Alf dropped back and the girl laughed with such genuine heartiness that
I thought much better of her, but still I did not think that she was at
all to be compared with Guinea. The General yelled for Henry to bring
him another coal, and when his pipe had been relighted he turned to me
and said: "You don't find the old North State as she once was, sir. Ah,
Lord, the ruin that has gone on in this world since I can remember. And
yet they say we are becoming more civilized. Zounds, sir, do you call it
civilization to see hundreds of fields turned out to persimmon bushes
and broom sedge? Look over there," he added, waving his hand. "I have
seen the time when that was almost a garden. What do you want?" The last
remark was addressed to the negro boy who had suddenly appeared.
"Dinner? Yes, yes. Come, Mr. Hawes, and you, Alf. This way. Get out!" A
dog had come between him and the door. "Devilish dogs are about to take
the place, but they are no account, not one of them. Lie around here and
let the rabbits eat up the pea vines. Even the dogs have degenerated
along with everything else."
I walked with the General, and, looking back, I was pleased to see that
Alf had summoned courage enough to follow along beside the girl. We were
shown into a long dining-room, with a great height of ceiling. The house
had been built in a proud old day, and all about me I noted a dim and
faded elegance. The General bade us sit down, and I noticed that his
tone was softened. He mumbled a blessing over a great hunk of mutton
and, broadly smiling upon me, told me that he was glad to welcome me to
his board. "The school-teacher," said he, "modifies and refines our
native crudeness. Yes, sir, you have a great work, a work that you may
be proud of. Had education more broadly prevailed, had the people North
and South better understood one another, there would have been no bloody
disruption. Now, gentlemen, I must request you to help yourselves,
remembering that such as I have is freely yours. When age comes on apace
there is nothing more inspiring than to see the young and the vigorous
gathered about us. And it is thus that the evening of live is
brightened. Henry, pass the bread to Mr. Jucklin, and the peas, the very
first of this backward season, I assure you. Mr. Hawes, can you recall
the face of your noble grandfather?"
"No, General; he died many years before I can remember."
"A pity, I assure you, for what is more spurring to our ambition than to
recall the features of a noted relative. Some of this lettuce, Mr.
Hawes? A sleepy, but withal a soothing, dish. My daughter, I must
request you to help yourself. Charming weather we have, Mr. Hawes, with
the essence of youth and hope in the air."
How completely had his manner changed. His eyes, which had seemed hard
and cold when he had waved his hand and looked out over the yellow sedge
grass, were beaming now with kindly light, and his voice, which I had
thought was coarse and gruff, was vibrant with notes of stirring
sympathy. Alf, heartened by the old gentleman's streaming courtesy,
spoke a low word to the girl who sat beside him, and she nodded,
smiling, but with one ear politely lent to the familiar talk of her
father.
After dinner we were shown into the library, wherein were many law
books, and the General, catching the longing glance that I shot at them,
turned with bewitching patronage, bowed and said:
"You have expressed your determination to become acquainted with the law
and to practice the wiles of its logic; and so, if you can make no
better arrangements, I pray, sir, that you make this room your office."
Alf's eyes bulged out at this, doubtless looking upon me as the most
fortunate man alive, and in my country bluntness I blurted: "You are the
kindest man I ever saw."
In this room we talked for two hours or more, and the afternoon--or the
evening, as we say in the South--was well pronounced when I declared
that it was time for us to go. Alf looked up surprised, and in a voice
sad with appeal, he asked if it were very late. I could have given him
the exact time, but was afraid to take out my grandfather's
watch--afraid that the General and his daughter might think that I was
seeking to make a display, so I simply said: "Yes, time that we were
going."
"Don't be in a hurry, gentlemen," the General protested; "don't let a
trivial matter rob us of your society."
Alf pulled back, but I insisted, and so we took our leave. The old
gentleman came out upon the porch with us. "Henry!" he yelled, turning
about, "who the devil left that gate open? Go and shut it, you lazy
scoundrel. Those infamous new-comers over on the creek take my place for
a public highway. And I hope to be hung up by the heels if I don't fill
the last one of them full of shot."
"I'll never forget you," Alf remarked as we walked along, down through
the meadow. "You have stood by me, and you bet your life I don't forget
such things. Of course, I have known the old man ever since I can
remember, but he never treated me so well before. And when the time
comes, if I can get him in that dining-room I don't believe he'll refuse
me. It's a blamed big pity that I can't talk as you can, but you just
stick to me and I will talk all right after a while."
"Oh, I'll stick to you," I replied, "but I didn't notice that I talked
in a way to amount to anything. I felt as stupid as an ass looks. What
did the girl say? You were talking to her very earnestly over by the
window."
"To save my life, I can't recall anything she said, Bill, but I know
that every word she spoke was dripped honey. I'd almost give my life to
take her in my arms and hug her just once. Ever feel that way about a
girl?"
I was beginning to feel just exactly that way, but I told him no,
whereupon he said: "But you may one of these days, and whenever you do,
you call on me to help you, and I'll do it, I don't care who the girl is
or how high up she may stand. Many a night I have lain in bed and wished
that Millie might be going along the road by herself and that about
three men would come up and say something out of the way to her, just so
I could spring out and wipe the face of the earth with them. I'm not as
big as you are, but for her I'll bet I can whip any three men you ever
saw. By the way, don't even speak Millie's name at home. The folks don't
know that I'm in love with her. There's one thing that stands in my
favor."
"What is it?" I asked. He looked up at me, but was silent, and becoming
interested by his manner I was about to repeat the question, when he
said: "I'm not at liberty to speak of it yet. You've noticed that
Guinea has more education than I have. Well, her education has something
to do with the point that's in my favor, but I've said too much already
and we'd better drop the subject."
I was burning to know more, for I recalled the change of manner that had
come over Mr. Jucklin at the time he spoke of having sent his daughter
away to school, and I was turning this over and over in my mind, when
Alf said: "A young fellow named Dan Stuart often goes to see Millie, and
I don't know how much she thinks of him, but some of his people are high
flyers, and that may have an influence in his favor. Doc Etheredge, out
here, is his cousin, and old man Etheredge owned nearly a hundred and
fifty negroes at one time. But when that girl stands up at the altar to
marry some one else, they will find me there putting in my protest."
When we reached home I found Guinea sitting under a tree, reading, and I
had joined her when the old man called me. Looking about I saw him
standing at the end of the house, beckoning to me. "I want to see you a
minute," he said, as I approached him. I wondered whether he was again
going to show me his chickens, and it was a relief when he conducted me
in an opposite direction. He looked back to see if we were far enough
away, and then, coming closer to me, he said: "This is the way I came to
do it."
"Do what?" I asked, not over pleased that he should have called upon me
to leave the girl.
"Wallow him, the old General. He claimed that my hogs had been gettin'
into his field, and I told him that I didn't feel disposed to keep my
hogs up when everybody else's were runnin' at large, and then he called
me a scoundrel and we clinched. I took him so quick that he wasn't
prepared for me, and I give a sort of a hem stich and down he went,
right in the middle of the road. And there I was right on top of him. He
didn't say a word, while I was wallowin' him, but when I let him up, he
looked all round and then said: 'Lim Jucklin, if I thought anybody was
lookin' I'd kill you right here. You are the first man that ever
wallowed a Lundsford and lived, and the novelty of the thing sorter
appeals to me. You know that I'm not afraid of the devil, and keep your
mouth shut about this affair, and we'll let it drap.' And he meant just
what he said, and I did keep my mouth shut, not because I was afraid of
his hurtin' me, but because I was sorry to humiliate him. Ever hear of
John Mortimer Lacey? Well, shortly after that him and Lundsford fit a
duel and Lacey went to New Orleans and died there. So, don't say
anything about it."
"About what? Lacey's going to New Orleans and dying there?"
"No, cadfound it all, about my wallerin' the General."
"I won't," I answered, and then I thought to touch upon a question that
had taken a fast hold upon me. "By the way, you spoke of having sent
your daughter to school at Raleigh----"
"The devil I did! Well, what's that got to do with you or with anyone
else, for that matter? I'll be--you must excuse me, sir," he quickly
added, bowing. "I'm not right bright in my mind at times. Pecked right
at my eye, and if I hadn't dodged I'd be one-eyed this minute--yes, I
would, as sure as you are born. But here, let us drop that wallowin'
business and that other affair with it, and not mention it again. Don't
know why I done it in the first place, but I reckon it was because I'm
not right bright in my mind at times. You'll excuse my snap and snarl,
won't you? Go on back there, now, and talk about your books."
"I am the one to ask pardon, Mr. Jucklin. I ought to have had better
sense than to touch upon something that didn't concern me. I guess there
must be a good deal of the brute in me, and it seems to me that I spend
nearly half my time regretting what I did the other half."
"Why, Lord love your soul, man, you haven't done nothin'. But you draw
me close to you when you talk of regrettin' things. I have spent nearly
all my life in putty much that fix. After you've lived in this
neighborhood a while you'll hear that old Lim has been in many a fight,
but you'll never hear that anybody has ever whupped him. You may hear,
though, that he has rid twenty mile of a cold night to beg the pardon of
a man that he had thrashed. We'll shake hands right here, and if you say
the word we'll go right now and make them chickens fight. No, it's
Sunday. Kiver to kiver, you understand. Go on back there, now."
With Guinea I sat and saw the sun go down behind a yellow gullied hill.
From afar up and down the valley came the lonesome "pig-oo-ee!" of the
farmers, calling their hogs for the evening's feed. We heard the flutter
of the chickens, flying to roost, and the night hawk heard them, too,
for his eager, hungry scream pierced the still air. On a smooth old rock
at the verge of the ravine the girl's brother stood, arms folded,
looking out over the darkening low land, and from within the house,
where Mrs. Jucklin sat alone, there came a sad melody: "Come, thou fount
of every blessing."
The girl's eyes were upward turned. "Every evening comes with a new
mystery," she said. "We think we know what to expect, but when the
evening comes it is different from what it was yesterday."
"And it is thus that we are enabled to live without growing tired of the
world and of ourselves," I replied. "And I wish that I had come like the
evening--with a mystery," I added.
I heard her musical cluck and even in the dusk I could see the light of
her smile. "But why should you want to come with a mystery?" she asked.
"To inspire those about me with an interest regarding me. Even the stray
dog is more interesting than the dog that is vouched for by the
appearance of his master. I never saw a pack-peddler that I did not long
to know something of his life, his emotions, the causes that sent him
adrift, but I can't find this interest in a man whom I understand."
She laughed again. "But haven't you some little mystery connected with
your life?" she asked.
"None. I have read myself into a position a few degrees above the
clod-hopper, but that's all. If there were a war, I would be a soldier,
but as there is no war, I am going to be a lawyer."
"It would be nice, I should think, to stand up and make speeches," she
said. "But wouldn't you rather be a doctor?"
I don't know why I said it, but I replied that I hated doctors, and she
did not laugh at this, but was silent. I waited for her to say
something, but she uttered not a word. It was now dark, and I could just
discern Alf's figure, standing on the rock. The song in the house was
hushed.
"I don't really mean that I hate doctors," I said, seeking to right
myself, if, indeed, I had made a mistake; and she simply replied: "Oh."
"I mean that I should not like to practice medicine," I added, and again
she said: "Oh." A lamp had been lighted in the sitting-room, and thither
we went, to join Old Lim and his wife, who were warm in the discussion
of a religious question. The Book said that whatever a man's hands found
to do he must do, and, therefore, he held that it was right to do almost
anything on Sunday.
"Even unto the fighting of chickens?" his wife asked.
"Oh, I knowed what you was a-gittin' at. Knowed it while you was
a-beatin' the bush all round. When a woman begins to beat the bush, it's
time to look out, Mr. Hawes. I came in here just now, and I knowed in a
minute that wife, there, was goin' to accuse me of havin' a round with
Sam and Bob, but I pledge you my word that I didn't. Just went in and
exchanged a few words with 'em. Man's got a right to talk to his
friends, I reckon; but if he ain't, w'y, it's time to shut up shop."
Alf came in and, with Guinea, sang an old song, and their father sat
there with the tears shining in his eyes. He leaned over, and I heard
him whisper to his wife: "Did have just a mild bit of a round, Susan,
and I hope that you and the Lord will forgive me for it. If you do I
know the Lord will. I'm an old liar, Susan."
"No, you are not, Lemuel," she answered, in a low voice. "You are the
best man in the world, and everybody loves you."
I saw him squeeze her wrinkled hand.
I could not sleep, but in a strange disturbance tossed about. Alf was
talking in a dream. I got up and sat for a time at the window, looking
out toward the gullied hill that had turned out the light of the sun. On
the morrow my work was to begin. And what was to be the result? Was it
intended that I should reach the bar and win renown, or had I been
listed for the life of a pedagogue? Was my love for the girl so new that
it dazzled me? No, it was now a passion, wounded and sore. But why? By
that little word, "Oh." I put on my clothes, tip-toed down stairs and
walked about the yard. The moon was full, low above the scrub oaks. A
streak of shimmering light ran down toward the spring, and over it I
slowly strode. I heard the water gurgling from under the moss-covered
spring-house, and I saw the leaf-shadow patch-work moving to and fro
over the smooth slabs of stone. Long I stood there, looking at the
pictures, listening to the music; and turning back toward the house, I
had gone some distance when I chanced to look up, and then, thrilled, I
slowly sank upon my knees. At one of the large windows, in the northeast
end of the house, stood Guinea, in a loose, white robe, the light of the
full moon falling upon her. Behind her head her hands were clasped, and
she stood there like a marble cross. Her face was upward turned, and the
low yellow moon was bronzing her brown hair--a glorified marble cross,
with a crown of gold, I thought, as I bowed in my worship. My forehead
touched the path, and when I lifted my head--the cross was gone.