We ate breakfast early the next morning, while the game cocks were yet
crowing in their coop. When I went down I heard the jingling of trace
chains, and I knew that the old man was making ready to plow the young
corn. I had insisted upon walking to the school-house, telling Alf that
all I wanted was to know the direction, but he declared that it was no
more than just that I should be driven over the first morning of the
session. So, together we went on the buck-board. Guinea had laughingly
told me not to be afraid of the creek, that the large boys were at home,
plowing, and as we were skirting the gullied hill I glanced back and saw
her standing in the yard, looking after us. The road lay mostly through
the woods, with many a turn and dip down among thick bushes to cross a
crooked stream. Sometimes we came upon small clearings, where
tired-looking men were grubbing new-land for tobacco, and I remember
that a half-grown boy, with a sullen look, threw a chunk at us and
viciously shouted that if we would stop a minute he would whip both of
us. I imagined that he was kept from school by the imperious demand of
the tobacco patch, and I sympathized with him in his wrath against
mankind. A little further along we came within sight of an old log
house, and then the laughter of children reached our ears. We had
arrived at the place where my work was to begin. Alf put me down, and,
saying that he must get back home, drove away; and a hush fell upon the
children as I turned toward the house. Inside I found a cow-bell, and
when I had rung the youngsters to their duties, I made them a short
speech, telling them that I was sure we should become close friends. I
had some difficulty in arranging them into classes, for it appeared that
each child had brought an individual book. But I was glad to see that
old McGuffy's readers prevailed, for in many parts of the South they had
been supplanted by books of flimsy text, and now to see them cropping up
gave me great pleasure. There they were, with the same old lessons that
had fired me with ambition, the words of Shakspeare and the speeches of
great Americans.
By evening my work was well laid out, and as I took my way homeward,
with Guinea in my mind, there was a strong surge within my breast, the
leaping of a determination to win her.
As I neared home, coming round by the spring, I saw the girl running
down the path, the picture of a young deer, and how that picture did
remain with me, and how on an occasion held by the future, it was to be
vivified.
"Oh, you have got back safe and dry," she cried, halting upon seeing me.
"Why, I thought you would come back dripping. No, I didn't," she quickly
added. "Don't you know I told you that all the large boys were at work?
Wait until I get the jar of butter and I'll go to the house with you."
"Let me get it for you," I replied, turning back with her.
"You can't get it," she said, laughing; "you'll fall into the spring.
But, then, you might hold it as a remembrance to temper the severity of
the ducking yet to come."
"Miss Guinea," I made bold to say, standing at the door of the
spring-house, "do you know that you talk with exceeding readiness?"
"Oh, do you mean that I am always ready to talk? I didn't think that of
you."
I reached out and took the jar from her. "You know I didn't mean that,"
I said; and, looking up, with her eyes full of mischief, she asked:
"What did you mean, then?"
"I mean that you talk easily and brightly--like a book."
"You'd better let me have the jar," she said, holding out her hands.
"I'm afraid that you'll fall and break it, after that. You know that a
man is never so likely to slip as he is when he's trying to compliment a
woman."
"No, I don't know that, but I do know that a Southern woman ought to
know the difference between flattery and a real compliment."
"Why a Southern woman?" she asked. She looked to me as if she were
really in earnest and I strove to answer her earnestly.
"Because Southern women are not given to flirting; because they place
more reliance in what a man says, and----"
"I think you've got yourself tangled up," she said, laughing at me, and
I could but acknowledge that I had; and then it was, in the sweetest of
tones, that she said: "But if I had thought you really were tangled I
would not have spoken of it. Now tell me what you were going to say, and
I promise to listen like a mouse in a corner."
"No, I'm afraid to attempt it again." I was in advance of her, for the
path was narrow and the dew was now gathering on the grass, but she shot
past me, and, looking back, said beseechingly: "Won't you, please?" The
sun was long since down and the twilight was darkening, but I could see
the eagerness on her face. "Do, please, for I like to hear such things.
I'm nothing but the simplest sort of a girl, as easy to amuse as a
child, and you must remember that you are a great big man, from out in
the world."
"Come on with that butter!" the old man shouted, and with a laugh the
girl ran away from me. I wondered whether she were playing with me, but
I could not believe that she was. In those eyes there might be mischief,
but there could not be deceit.
Bed time came immediately after supper. The old man did not go out to
look after his chickens, so tired was he, and there was no song in the
sitting-room. I sat in the passage, where the moonlight fell, and hoped
that the girl might join me, but she did not, and I went to my room,
where I found Alf, half undressed, sitting on the edge of the bed. I had
sat down and had filled my pipe before he took notice of me, but when I
began to search about for a light he looked up and remarked: "Matches on
the corner of your library."
"Here's one," I replied, and had lighted the pipe when he said: "Saw her
to-day, Bill--saw her riding along the road with Dan Stuart. She didn't
even look over in the field toward me, but he waved his hand, and I saw
more hatred than friendship in it. Blame it all, Bill, I'm not going to
follow a plow through the dirt all the time. I can do something better,
and after this crop's laid by I'm going to do it. I don't think that she
wants to marry a farmer."
"What does Stuart do?" I asked. "How can he afford to be riding about
when other men are at work?"
"Oh, I guess he's pretty well fixed. He's got a lot of negroes working
for him and he raises a good deal of tobacco. No, sir, she didn't even
look toward me."
"But haven't you passed her house when you were almost afraid to look
toward the porch when you knew that she was standing there?"
"Of course I have!" he cried. "Yes, sir, I've done that many a
time--just pretended that I had business everywhere else but on that
porch. Ain't it strange how love does take hold of a fellow? It gets
into his heart and his heart shoots it to the very ends of his fingers;
it gets into his eyes, and he can't see anything but love, love
everywhere. It may catch you one of these days, Bill, and when it does,
you'll know just how I feel."
I looked at this strong and honest man, this man idolizing an image that
he had enshrined in his soul, and I thought to tell him that, with my
forehead touching the ground, I had worshiped his sister, but no, it was
too delicate a confidence--I would keep it to myself.
We were astir in the dawn the next day, ate breakfast by the light of a
lamp, but Guinea was not at the table, and I loitered there after the
others were gone out, hoping to see her, but she did not come, and then
I remembered that Mrs. Jucklin was also absent, and that the services of
the meal had been performed by a negro woman.
When I returned at evening, with the droning of the children's voices
echoing in my ears, it seemed to me that I had been gone an age. I came
again by the spring, but Guinea was not there, but I heard her singing
as I drew near to the house. She was in the passage, gleefully dancing,
with a broom for a partner. When she saw me she threw down the broom and
ran away, laughing; but she came back when she found that I had really
discovered her. "You must think that I am the silliest creature in the
world," she said, "and I don't know that I can dispute you. Millie
Lundsford has just gone home. She and I have been going through with our
old-time play, when, with window curtains wound about us to represent
long dresses, and with brooms to personate the brave knights who had
rescued us from the merciless Turks, we danced in the castle. And I was
just taking a turn with a duke when you came. What a knight you would
have been."
"And what an inspiration I should have had to drive me onward and to set
my soul aflame with ambition," I replied, looking into her eyes.
It must have been my look rather than my words that threw a change over
her; my manner must have told her that I was becoming too serious for
one who had known her so short a time, but be that as it may, a change
had come upon her. She was no longer a girl, gay and airy, with a
romping spirit, but a woman, dignified.
"Has your work been hard to-day?" she asked.
"It has been more or less stupid, as it always is," I answered, slowly
walking with her toward the dining-room.
When we had sat down to the table Alf came in with his new clothes on,
and whispering to me when his sister had turned to say something to her
mother, he said: "Got something to tell you when we go up stairs."
Mrs. Jucklin was afraid that I did not eat enough; she had heard that
brain workers required much food; her uncle, who had been a justice of
the peace, had told her that it made but small difference what he ate
while engaged in getting out saw logs, but that when he began to
meditate over a case in court he required the most stimulating
provender. "And now," she said, "if there's anything that I can fix for
you, do, please, let me know what it is. Now, Guinea, what are you
titterin' at? And that negro woman doesn't half do her work, either. I
declare to goodness I'd rather do everything on the place than to see
her foolin' round as if she's afraid to take hold of anything; and her
fingers full of brass rings, too. I jest told her that she'd have to
take 'em off, that I didn't want to eat any brass. Laws a massy, niggers
are jest as different from what they was as day is from night. Talk to
me about freedom helpin' 'em. But the Lord knows best," she added, with
a sigh of resignation. "If He wants 'em to be free, why, no one ought to
complain, and goodness knows I don't. Yes, they ought to be free," she
went on after a moment of reflection. "Oh, it was a sin and a shame to
sell 'em away from their children. But it's all over now, thank God.
Now, I wonder where your father is, Alf. Never saw sich a man in my
life. Looks jest like he begrudges time enough to eat. There he comes
now."
The old man came in, covered with dirt. "Alf, is the shot gun loaded?"
he asked, brushing himself.
"Yes, sir. Why?" We looked at the old fellow, wondering what he meant,
but he made no explanation. Alf repeated his question. "Why?" And the
old man exclaimed: "Oh, nothin'. Jest goin' to blow that red steer's
head off, that's all. Confound his hide. I wish I may die this minute if
I ever had sich a jolt in my life. Went along by him, not sayin' a word
to him, and if he didn't up and let me have both heels I'm the biggest
liar that ever walked a log. Hadn't done a thing to him, mind you;
walkin' along 'tendin' to my own business, when both of his heels flew
at me. And I'll eat a bite and then go and blow his head off."
"Oh, Limuel," his wife protested; "a body to hear you talk would think
that you don't do anything at all but thirst for blood. If the Lord puts
it in the mind of a steer to kick you, why, it ain't the poor creeter's
fault."
The old man snorted. "And if the Lord puts it in my mind to kill the
steer it ain't my fault, muther. Conscience alive, what are we all
dressed up so about?" he added, looking at Alf. "So much stile goin' on
that a body don't know whuther he's a shuckin' corn or is at a picnic.
Blow his head off as soon as I eat a bite."
I could see that Alf was anxious to tell me something, and immediately
after supper I went up stairs with him. He took off his coat, and after
dusting it carefully hung it up and sat down. He looked at me as if he
were delighted with the curiosity that I was showing, and then as he
reached for his pipe he began: "I was a-plowing out in the field about
three hours by sun, when I saw Millie come out of the valley like a
larkspur straightening up in the spring of the year, and after waiting a
while, but always with my eye on the house, I quit work, slipped up here
and dressed myself so as to be ready to walk home with her. I was rather
afraid to ask her at first, knowing that this was breaking away from all
my former strings and announcing my determination of keeping company
with her, out and out, and I don't know exactly how I got at it, but I
did, and the first thing I knew I was walking down the road with her.
And this time I do remember what she said, but there wasn't anything so
encouraging in it. The fact is she had something to tell me about you."
"About me? What can she know about me? Probably she was giving you her
father's estimate of me."
"No, but somebody else's estimate," he replied. "You recollect a fellow
named Bentley?"
"Bentley? Of course, I do. We lived on adjoining farms, and I have a
sore cause to remember him. But how could she have heard anything about
him?"
"Well, I'll tell you. Mrs. Bentley is old man Aimes' sister, and she's
over here now on a visit, and when she heard that you were teaching
school in the neighborhood she declared that it would be a mercy if you
didn't kill somebody before you got through. And then she told that you
had waylaid her son one night and come mighty nigh killing him. She said
that she was perfectly willing to forgive you until she saw the scar
left on her son's forehead, and a woman can't very well forgive a scar,
you know. Old Aimes and all his sons are slaughter-house dogs, and they
appeared to take up a hatred against you at once. Don't you remember as
we drove to the school a boy threw a chunk at us as we were passing a
clearing and swore that he could whip us both? Well, that was the
youngest Aimes, and the trick now is, as I understand it, to send him to
school with instructions to do pretty much as he pleases and to take
revenge on you in case you whip him. Millie said that her father swore
that it was a shame and that if you wanted any help from him you could
get it. Nobody likes the Aimes family. Came in here several years ago,
and have been kicking up disturbances ever since."
I told Alf why I had snatched Bentley off his horse, nor in the least
did I shield myself. I even called myself a brute. But I told him of the
season of sorrow and humiliation through which I had passed, that I had
insisted upon giving Bentley the only valuable thing I possessed, that
against his mother's command I had striven to work for him during the
time he was laid up, and that I had even plowed his field at night.
"I don't know that you were so far wrong in beating him in the first
place," said Alf, "but if you were, your course afterward should have
more than atoned for it. By gracious, I feel that if some one would plow
for me I'd let him maul me until he got tired. Millie said that she was
afraid that something might happen to get you into trouble. She seemed a
good deal concerned about it, for I reckon she's got the noblest and
purest heart of any human being now in the world, and she said that she
thought that if you were to give up the school her father could make
some arrangements for you to study law in Purdy, the county seat. I told
her that you would be delighted to quit teaching under ordinary
circumstances, but that just at present you'd teach or die. Was I
right?"
"Surely, and I thank you for having defined my position. I wonder if we
can commit an innocent error, an error that will lie asleep and never
rise up to confront us? Now, I shall have a fine reputation in this
neighborhood."
"Oh, don't let that worry you, Bill. It'll come out all right. I'd be
willing to have almost any sort of name if it would influence that girl
to talk in my favor as she did in yours. I don't know what to think;
somehow I can't find out her opinion of me. I slily spoke about that
fellow, Dan Stuart, but she didn't say a word. Confound it, Bill, can't
a woman see that she's got a fellow on the gridiron? They can't even
bear to see a hog suffer, but they can smile and look unconcerned while
a man is writhing over the coals. I don't understand it."
"Nor do I, Alf, but I've been over the coals--I mean that I can well
imagine what it is to be there."
He lay down, and with his head far back on the pillow, looked upward as
if with his gaze he would bore through the roof and reach the stars. He
was silent for a long time, but when I had blown out the light and had
gone to bed, thinking that he was asleep, I heard him muttering.
"Talking to me, Alf?" He turned over with a sigh and answered: "No, not
particularly. I was just wondering whether a man ought to try to outlive
a disappointment in love or kill himself and end the matter. We are told
that God is love, and if God is denied to a man, what's the use of
trying to struggle on? I suppose the advantage of knowledge is that it
enables a man to settle such questions at once, but as I am not learned,
having grabbed but a little here and there, I have to worry along with a
thing that another man might dismiss at once. What's your idea, Bill?"
"My idea is that a man ought never to give up; but, of course, there are
times when he is so completely beaten that to fight longer is worse than
useless. But learning cannot settle questions wherein the heart is
involved. The philosopher may kill himself in despair, while the
ignorant man may continue to fight and may finally win. The other day
you spoke of something that was in your favor--something that has to do
with your sister's education. Would you think it impertinent if I ask
you what that something is?"
"No, I'd not think that," he answered. I had risen up in bed and was
straining my eyes, trying to find his face, to study his expression, but
darkness lay between us. "Not impertinent in the least, but I can't tell
you just now. After a while, if you stay here long enough, you'll know
all about it. Bill, if that young Aimes comes to school and begins any
of his pranks, take him down and I'll stand by you, and people that know
me well will tell you that I mean what I say. The old man has never been
whipped yet, I mean my father, and nobody ever saw his son knock
under."