The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Colonel's Dream, by Charles W. Chesnutt
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Title: The Colonel's Dream
Author: Charles W. Chesnutt
Release Date: November 9, 2006 [eBook #19746]
Language: English
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THE COLONEL'S DREAM
A Novel
by
CHARLES W. CHESNUTT
Harlem Moon
Broadway Books
New York
Published in 1905 by
Doubleday, New York.
THE COLONEL'S DREAM
DEDICATION
_To the great number of those who are seeking, in whatever manner or
degree, from near at hand or far away, to bring the forces of
enlightenment to bear upon the vexed problems which harass the South,
this volume is inscribed, with the hope that it may contribute to the
same good end._
_If there be nothing new between its covers, neither is love new, nor
faith, nor hope, nor disappointment, nor sorrow. Yet life is not the
less worth living because of any of these, nor has any man truly lived
until he has tasted of them all._
LIST OF CHARACTERS
_Colonel Henry French_, A RETIRED MERCHANT
_Mr. Kirby_, }
_Mrs. Jerviss_, } HIS FORMER PARTNERS
_Philip French_, THE COLONEL'S SON
_Peter French_, HIS OLD SERVANT
_Mrs. Treadwell_, AN OLD LADY
_Miss Laura Treadwell_, HER DAUGHTER
_Graciella Treadwell_, HER GRANDDAUGHTER
_Malcolm Dudley_, A TREASURE-SEEKER
_Ben Dudley_, HIS NEPHEW
_Viney_, HIS HOUSEKEEPER
_William Fetters_, A CONVICT LABOUR CONTRACTOR
_Barclay Fetters_, HIS SON
_Bud Johnson_, A CONVICT LABOURER
_Caroline_, HIS WIFE
_Henry Taylor_, A NEGRO SCHOOLMASTER
_William Nichols_, A MULATTO BARBER
_Haynes_, A CONSTABLE
One
Two gentlemen were seated, one March morning in 189--, in the private
office of French and Company, Limited, on lower Broadway. Mr. Kirby,
the junior partner--a man of thirty-five, with brown hair and
mustache, clean-cut, handsome features, and an alert manner, was
smoking cigarettes almost as fast as he could roll them, and at the
same time watching the electric clock upon the wall and getting up now
and then to stride restlessly back and forth across the room.
Mr. French, the senior partner, who sat opposite Kirby, was an older
man--a safe guess would have placed him somewhere in the debatable
ground between forty and fifty; of a good height, as could be seen
even from the seated figure, the upper part of which was held erect
with the unconscious ease which one associates with military training.
His closely cropped brown hair had the slightest touch of gray. The
spacious forehead, deep-set gray eyes, and firm chin, scarcely
concealed by a light beard, marked the thoughtful man of affairs. His
face indeed might have seemed austere, but for a sensitive mouth,
which suggested a reserve of humour and a capacity for deep feeling. A
man of well-balanced character, one would have said, not apt to
undertake anything lightly, but sure to go far in whatever he took in
hand; quickly responsive to a generous impulse, and capable of a
righteous indignation; a good friend, a dangerous enemy; more likely
to be misled by the heart than by the head; of the salt of the earth,
which gives it savour.
Mr. French sat on one side, Mr. Kirby on the other, of a handsome,
broad-topped mahogany desk, equipped with telephones and push buttons,
and piled with papers, account books and letter files in orderly
array. In marked contrast to his partner's nervousness, Mr. French
scarcely moved a muscle, except now and then to take the cigar from
his lips and knock the ashes from the end.
"Nine fifty!" ejaculated Mr. Kirby, comparing the clock with his
watch. "Only ten minutes more."
Mr. French nodded mechanically. Outside, in the main office, the same
air of tense expectancy prevailed. For two weeks the office force had
been busily at work, preparing inventories and balance sheets. The
firm of French and Company, Limited, manufacturers of crashes and
burlaps and kindred stuffs, with extensive mills in Connecticut, and
central offices in New York, having for a long time resisted the siren
voice of the promoter, had finally faced the alternative of selling
out, at a sacrifice, to the recently organised bagging trust, or of
meeting a disastrous competition. Expecting to yield in the end, they
had fought for position--with brilliant results. Negotiations for a
sale, upon terms highly favourable to the firm, had been in progress
for several weeks; and the two partners were awaiting, in their
private office, the final word. Should the sale be completed, they
were richer men than they could have hoped to be after ten years more
of business stress and struggle; should it fail, they were heavy
losers, for their fight had been expensive. They were in much the same
position as the player who had staked the bulk of his fortune on the
cast of a die. Not meaning to risk so much, they had been drawn into
it; but the game was worth the candle.
"Nine fifty-five," said Kirby. "Five minutes more!"
He strode over to the window and looked out. It was snowing, and the
March wind, blowing straight up Broadway from the bay, swept the white
flakes northward in long, feathery swirls. Mr. French preserved his
rigid attitude, though a close observer might have wondered whether it
was quite natural, or merely the result of a supreme effort of will.
Work had been practically suspended in the outer office. The clerks
were also watching the clock. Every one of them knew that the board of
directors of the bagging trust was in session, and that at ten o'clock
it was to report the result of its action on the proposition of French
and Company, Limited. The clerks were not especially cheerful; the
impending change meant for them, at best, a change of masters, and for
many of them, the loss of employment. The firm, for relinquishing its
business and good will, would receive liberal compensation; the
clerks, for their skill, experience, and prospects of advancement,
would receive their discharge. What else could be expected? The
principal reason for the trust's existence was economy of
administration; this was stated, most convincingly, in the prospectus.
There was no suggestion, in that model document, that competition
would be crushed, or that, monopoly once established, labour must
sweat and the public groan in order that a few captains, or
chevaliers, of industry, might double their dividends. Mr. French may
have known it, or guessed it, but he was between the devil and the
deep sea--a victim rather than an accessory--he must take what he
could get, or lose what he had.
"Nine fifty-nine!"
Kirby, as he breathed rather than spoke the words, threw away his
scarcely lighted cigarette, and gripped the arms of his chair
spasmodically. His partner's attitude had not varied by a hair's
breadth; except for the scarcely perceptible rise and fall of his
chest he might have been a wax figure. The pallor of his countenance
would have strengthened the illusion.
Kirby pushed his chair back and sprung to his feet. The clock marked
the hour, but nothing happened. Kirby was wont to say, thereafter,
that the ten minutes that followed were the longest day of his life.
But everything must have an end, and their suspense was terminated by
a telephone call. Mr. French took down the receiver and placed it to
his ear.
"It's all right," he announced, looking toward his partner. "Our
figures accepted--resolution adopted--settlement to-morrow. We
are----"
The receiver fell upon the table with a crash. Mr. French toppled
over, and before Kirby had scarcely realised that something was the
matter, had sunk unconscious to the floor, which, fortunately, was
thickly carpeted.
It was but the work of a moment for Kirby to loosen his partner's
collar, reach into the recesses of a certain drawer in the big desk,
draw out a flask of brandy, and pour a small quantity of the burning
liquid down the unconscious man's throat. A push on one of the
electric buttons summoned a clerk, with whose aid Mr. French was
lifted to a leather-covered couch that stood against the wall. Almost
at once the effect of the stimulant was apparent, and he opened his
eyes.
"I suspect," he said, with a feeble attempt at a smile, "that I must
have fainted--like a woman--perfectly ridiculous."
"Perfectly natural," replied his partner. "You have scarcely slept for
two weeks--between the business and Phil--and you've reached the end
of your string. But it's all over now, except the shouting, and you
can sleep a week if you like. You'd better go right up home. I'll send
for a cab, and call Dr. Moffatt, and ask him to be at the hotel by the
time you reach it. I'll take care of things here to-day, and after a
good sleep you'll find yourself all right again."
"Very well, Kirby," replied Mr. French, "I feel as weak as water, but
I'm all here. It might have been much worse. You'll call up Mrs.
Jerviss, of course, and let her know about the sale?"
When Mr. French, escorted to the cab by his partner, and accompanied
by a clerk, had left for home, Kirby rang up the doctor, and requested
him to look after Mr. French immediately. He then called for another
number, and after the usual delay, first because the exchange girl was
busy, and then because the line was busy, found himself in
communication with the lady for whom he had asked.
"It's all right, Mrs. Jerviss," he announced without preliminaries.
"Our terms accepted, and payment to be made, in cash and bonds, as
soon as the papers are executed, when you will be twice as rich as you
are to-day."
"Thank you, Mr. Kirby! And I suppose I shall never have another happy
moment until I know what to do with it. Money is a great trial. I
often envy the poor."
Kirby smiled grimly. She little knew how near she had been to ruin.
The active partners had mercifully shielded her, as far as possible,
from the knowledge of their common danger. If the worst happened, she
must know, of course; if not, then, being a woman whom they both
liked--she would be spared needless anxiety. How closely they had
skirted the edge of disaster she did not learn until afterward;
indeed, Kirby himself had scarcely appreciated the true situation, and
even the senior partner, since he had not been present at the meeting
of the trust managers, could not know what had been in their minds.
But Kirby's voice gave no hint of these reflections. He laughed a
cheerful laugh. "If the world only knew," he rejoined, "it would
cease to worry about the pains of poverty, and weep for the woes of
wealth."
"Indeed it would!" she replied, with a seriousness which seemed almost
sincere. "Is Mr. French there? I wish to thank him, too."
"No, he has just gone home."
"At this hour?" she exclaimed, "and at such a time? What can be the
matter? Is Phil worse?"
"No, I think not. Mr. French himself had a bad turn, for a few
minutes, after we learned the news."
Faces are not yet visible over the telephone, and Kirby could not see
that for a moment the lady's grew white. But when she spoke again the
note of concern in her voice was very evident.
"It was nothing--serious?"
"Oh, no, not at all, merely overwork, and lack of sleep, and the
suspense--and the reaction. He recovered almost immediately, and one
of the clerks went home with him."
"Has Dr. Moffatt been notified?" she asked.
"Yes, I called him up at once; he'll be at the Mercedes by the time
the patient arrives."
There was a little further conversation on matters of business, and
Kirby would willingly have prolonged it, but his news about Mr. French
had plainly disturbed the lady's equanimity, and Kirby rang off, after
arranging to call to see her in person after business hours.
Mr. Kirby hung up the receiver with something of a sigh.
"A fine woman," he murmured, "I could envy French his chances, though
he doesn't seem to see them--that is, if I were capable of envy toward
so fine a fellow and so good a friend. It's curious how clearsighted a
man can be in some directions, and how blind in others."
Mr. French lived at the Mercedes, an uptown apartment hotel
overlooking Central Park. He had scarcely reached his apartment, when
the doctor arrived--a tall, fair, fat practitioner, and one of the
best in New York; a gentleman as well, and a friend, of Mr. French.
"My dear fellow," he said, after a brief examination, "you've been
burning the candle at both ends, which, at your age won't do at all.
No, indeed! No, indeed! You've always worked too hard, and you've been
worrying too much about the boy, who'll do very well now, with care.
You've got to take a rest--it's all you need. You confess to no bad
habits, and show the signs of none; and you have a fine constitution.
I'm going to order you and Phil away for three months, to some mild
climate, where you'll be free from business cares and where the boy
can grow strong without having to fight a raw Eastern spring. You
might try the Riviera, but I'm afraid the sea would be too much for
Phil just yet; or southern California--but the trip is tiresome. The
South is nearer at hand. There's Palm Beach, or Jekyll Island, or
Thomasville, Asheville, or Aiken--somewhere down in the pine country.
It will be just the thing for the boy's lungs, and just the place for
you to rest. Start within a week, if you can get away. In fact, you've
_got_ to get away."
Mr. French was too weak to resist--both body and mind seemed strangely
relaxed--and there was really no reason why he should not go. His work
was done. Kirby could attend to the formal transfer of the business.
He would take a long journey to some pleasant, quiet spot, where he
and Phil could sleep, and dream and ride and drive and grow strong,
and enjoy themselves. For the moment he felt as though he would never
care to do any more work, nor would he need to, for he was rich
enough. He would live for the boy. Phil's education, his health, his
happiness, his establishment in life--these would furnish occupation
enough for his well-earned retirement.
It was a golden moment. He had won a notable victory against greed and
craft and highly trained intelligence. And yet, a year later, he was
to recall this recent past with envy and regret; for in the meantime
he was to fight another battle against the same forces, and others
quite as deeply rooted in human nature. But he was to fight upon a new
field, and with different weapons, and with results which could not be
foreseen.
But no premonition of impending struggle disturbed Mr. French's
pleasant reverie; it was broken in a much more agreeable manner by the
arrival of a visitor, who was admitted by Judson, Mr. French's man.
The visitor was a handsome, clear-eyed, fair-haired woman, of thirty
or thereabouts, accompanied by another and a plainer woman, evidently
a maid or companion. The lady was dressed with the most expensive
simplicity, and her graceful movements were attended by the rustle of
unseen silks. In passing her upon the street, any man under ninety
would have looked at her three times, the first glance instinctively
recognising an attractive woman, the second ranking her as a lady;
while the third, had there been time and opportunity, would have been
the long, lingering look of respectful or regretful admiration.
"How is Mr. French, Judson?" she inquired, without dissembling her
anxiety.
"He's much better, Mrs. Jerviss, thank you, ma'am."
"I'm very glad to hear it; and how is Phil?"
"Quite bright, ma'am, you'd hardly know that he'd been sick. He's
gaining strength rapidly; he sleeps a great deal; he's asleep now,
ma'am. But, won't you step into the library? There's a fire in the
grate, and I'll let Mr. French know you are here."
But Mr. French, who had overheard part of the colloquy, came forward
from an adjoining room, in smoking jacket and slippers.
"How do you do?" he asked, extending his hand. "It was mighty good of
you to come to see me."
"And I'm awfully glad to find you better," she returned, giving him
her slender, gloved hand with impulsive warmth. "I might have
telephoned, but I wanted to see for myself. I felt a part of the blame
to be mine, for it is partly for me, you know, that you have been
overworking."
"It was all in the game," he said, "and we have won. But sit down and
stay awhile. I know you'll pardon my smoking jacket. We are partners,
you know, and I claim an invalid's privilege as well."
The lady's fine eyes beamed, and her fair cheek flushed with pleasure.
Had he only realised it, he might have claimed of her any privilege a
woman can properly allow, even that of conducting her to the altar.
But to him she was only, thus far, as she had been for a long time, a
very good friend of his own and of Phil's; a former partner's widow,
who had retained her husband's interest in the business; a wholesome,
handsome woman, who was always excellent company and at whose table he
had often eaten, both before and since her husband's death. Nor,
despite Kirby's notions, was he entirely ignorant of the lady's
partiality for himself.
"Doctor Moffatt has ordered Phil and me away, for three months," he
said, after Mrs. Jerviss had inquired particularly concerning his
health and Phil's.
"Three months!" she exclaimed with an accent of dismay. "But you'll be
back," she added, recovering herself quickly, "before the vacation
season opens?"
"Oh, certainly; we shall not leave the country."
"Where are you going?"
"The doctor has prescribed the pine woods. I shall visit my old home,
where I was born. We shall leave in a day or two."
"You must dine with me to-morrow," she said warmly, "and tell me about
your old home. I haven't had an opportunity to thank you for making me
rich, and I want your advice about what to do with the money; and I'm
tiring you now when you ought to be resting."
"Do not hurry," he said. "It is almost a pleasure to be weak and
helpless, since it gives me the privilege of a visit from you."
She lingered a few moments and then went. She was the embodiment of
good taste and knew when to come and when to go.
Mr. French was conscious that her visit, instead of tiring him, had
had an opposite effect; she had come and gone like a pleasant breeze,
bearing sweet odours and the echo of distant music. Her shapely hand,
when it had touched his own, had been soft but firm; and he had almost
wished, as he held it for a moment, that he might feel it resting on
his still somewhat fevered brow. When he came back from the South, he
would see a good deal of her, either at the seaside, or wherever she
might spend the summer.
When Mr. French and Phil were ready, a day or two later, to start upon
their journey, Kirby was at the Mercedes to see them off.
"You're taking Judson with you to look after the boy?" he asked.
"No," replied Mr. French, "Judson is in love, and does not wish to
leave New York. He will take a vacation until we return. Phil and I
can get along very well alone."
Kirby went with them across the ferry to the Jersey side, and through
the station gates to the waiting train. There was a flurry of snow in
the air, and overcoats were comfortable. When Mr. French had turned
over his hand luggage to the porter of the Pullman, they walked up and
down the station platform.
"I'm looking for something to interest us," said Kirby, rolling a
cigarette. "There's a mining proposition in Utah, and a trolley
railroad in Oklahoma. When things are settled up here, I'll take a run
out, and look the ground over, and write to you."
"My dear fellow," said his friend, "don't hurry. Why should I make any
more money? I have all I shall ever need, and as much as will be good
for Phil. If you find a good thing, I can help you finance it; and
Mrs. Jerviss will welcome a good investment. But I shall take a long
rest, and then travel for a year or two, and after that settle down
and take life comfortably."
"That's the way you feel now," replied Kirby, lighting another
cigarette, "but wait until you are rested, and you'll yearn for the
fray; the first million only whets the appetite for more."
"All aboard!"
The word was passed along the line of cars. Kirby took leave of Phil,
into whose hand he had thrust a five-dollar bill, "To buy popcorn on
the train," he said, kissed the boy, and wrung his ex-partner's hand
warmly.
"Good-bye," he said, "and good luck. You'll hear from me soon. We're
partners still, you and I and Mrs. Jerviss."
And though Mr. French smiled acquiescence, and returned Kirby's hand
clasp with equal vigour and sincerity, he felt, as the train rolled
away, as one might feel who, after a long sojourn in an alien land, at
last takes ship for home. The mere act of leaving New York, after the
severance of all compelling ties, seemed to set in motion old currents
of feeling, which, moving slowly at the start, gathered momentum as
the miles rolled by, until his heart leaped forward to the old
Southern town which was his destination, and he soon felt himself
chafing impatiently at any delay that threatened to throw the train
behind schedule time.
"He'll be back in six weeks," declared Kirby, when Mrs. Jerviss and he
next met. "I know him well; he can't live without his club and his
counting room. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks."
"And I'm sure he'll not stay away longer than three months," said the
lady confidently, "for I have invited him to my house party."
"A privilege," said Kirby gallantly, "for which many a man would come
from the other end of the world."
But they were both mistaken. For even as they spoke, he whose future
each was planning, was entering upon a new life of his own, from which
he was to look back upon his business career as a mere period of
preparation for the real end and purpose of his earthly existence.
_Two_
The hack which the colonel had taken at the station after a two-days'
journey, broken by several long waits for connecting trains, jogged in
somewhat leisurely fashion down the main street toward the hotel. The
colonel, with his little boy, had left the main line of railroad
leading north and south and had taken at a certain way station the one
daily train for Clarendon, with which the express made connection.
They had completed the forty-mile journey in two or three hours,
arriving at Clarendon at noon.
It was an auspicious moment for visiting the town. It is true that the
grass grew in the street here and there, but the sidewalks were
separated from the roadway by rows of oaks and elms and china-trees in
early leaf. The travellers had left New York in the midst of a
snowstorm, but here the scent of lilac and of jonquil, the song of
birds, the breath of spring, were all about them. The occasional
stretches of brick sidewalk under their green canopy looked cool and
inviting; for while the chill of winter had fled and the sultry heat
of summer was not yet at hand, the railroad coach had been close and
dusty, and the noonday sun gave some slight foretaste of his coming
reign.
The colonel looked about him eagerly. It was all so like, and yet so
different--shrunken somewhat, and faded, but yet, like a woman one
loves, carried into old age something of the charm of youth. The old
town, whose ripeness was almost decay, whose quietness was scarcely
distinguishable from lethargy, had been the home of his youth, and he
saw it, strange to say, less with the eyes of the lad of sixteen who
had gone to the war, than with those of the little boy to whom it had
been, in his tenderest years, the great wide world, the only world he
knew in the years when, with his black boy Peter, whom his father had
given to him as a personal attendant, he had gone forth to field and
garden, stream and forest, in search of childish adventure. Yonder was
the old academy, where he had attended school. The yellow brick of its
walls had scaled away in places, leaving the surface mottled with pale
splotches; the shingled roof was badly dilapidated, and overgrown here
and there with dark green moss. The cedar trees in the yard were in
need of pruning, and seemed, from their rusty trunks and scant
leafage, to have shared in the general decay. As they drove down the
street, cows were grazing in the vacant lot between the bank, which
had been built by the colonel's grandfather, and the old red brick
building, formerly a store, but now occupied, as could be seen by the
row of boxes visible through the open door, by the post-office.
The little boy, an unusually handsome lad of five or six, with blue
eyes and fair hair, dressed in knickerbockers and a sailor cap, was
also keenly interested in the surroundings. It was Saturday, and the
little two-wheeled carts, drawn by a steer or a mule; the pigs
sleeping in the shadow of the old wooden market-house; the lean and
sallow pinelanders and listless negroes dozing on the curbstone, were
all objects of novel interest to the boy, as was manifest by the light
in his eager eyes and an occasional exclamation, which in a clear
childish treble, came from his perfectly chiselled lips. Only a glance
was needed to see that the child, though still somewhat pale and
delicate from his recent illness, had inherited the characteristics
attributed to good blood. Features, expression, bearing, were marked
by the signs of race; but a closer scrutiny was required to discover,
in the blue-eyed, golden-haired lad, any close resemblance to the
shrewd, dark man of affairs who sat beside him, and to whom this
little boy was, for the time being, the sole object in life.
But for the child the colonel was alone in the world. Many years
before, when himself only a boy, he had served in the Southern army,
in a regiment which had fought with such desperate valour that the
honour of the colonelcy had come to him at nineteen, as the sole
survivor of the group of young men who had officered the regiment. His
father died during the last year of the Civil War, having lived long
enough to see the conflict work ruin to his fortunes. The son had been
offered employment in New York by a relative who had sympathised with
the South in her struggle; and he had gone away from Clarendon. The
old family "mansion"--it was not a very imposing structure, except by
comparison with even less pretentious houses--had been sold upon
foreclosure, and bought by an ambitious mulatto, who only a few years
before had himself been an object of barter and sale. Entering his
uncle's office as a clerk, and following his advice, reinforced by a
sense of the fitness of things, the youthful colonel had dropped his
military title and become plain Mr. French. Putting the past behind
him, except as a fading memory, he had thrown himself eagerly into the
current of affairs. Fortune favoured one both capable and energetic.
In time he won a partnership in the firm, and when death removed his
relative, took his place at its head.
He had looked forward to the time, not very far in the future, when he
might retire from business and devote his leisure to study and travel,
tastes which for years he had subordinated to the pursuit of wealth;
not entirely, for his life had been many sided; and not so much for
the money, as because, being in a game where dollars were the
counters, it was his instinct to play it well. He was winning already,
and when the bagging trust paid him, for his share of the business, a
sum double his investment, he found himself, at some years less than
fifty, relieved of business cares and in command of an ample fortune.
This change in the colonel's affairs--and we shall henceforth call him
the colonel, because the scene of this story is laid in the South,
where titles are seldom ignored, and where the colonel could hardly
have escaped his own, even had he desired to do so--this change in the
colonel's affairs coincided with that climacteric of the mind, from
which, without ceasing to look forward, it turns, at times, in wistful
retrospect, toward the distant past, which it sees thenceforward
through a mellowing glow of sentiment. Emancipated from the counting
room, and ordered South by the doctor, the colonel's thoughts turned
easily and naturally to the old town that had given him birth; and he
felt a twinge of something like remorse at the reflection that never
once since leaving it had he set foot within its borders. For years he
had been too busy. His wife had never manifested any desire to visit
the South, nor was her temperament one to evoke or sympathise with
sentimental reminiscence. He had married, rather late in life, a New
York woman, much younger than himself; and while he had admired her
beauty and they had lived very pleasantly together, there had not
existed between them the entire union of souls essential to perfect
felicity, and the current of his life had not been greatly altered by
her loss.
Toward little Phil, however, the child she had borne him, his feeling
was very different. His young wife had been, after all, but a sweet
and pleasant graft upon a sturdy tree. Little Phil was flesh of his
flesh and bone of his bone. Upon his only child the colonel lavished
all of his affection. Already, to his father's eye, the boy gave
promise of a noble manhood. His frame was graceful and active. His
hair was even more brightly golden than his mother's had been; his
eyes more deeply blue than hers; while his features were a duplicate
of his father's at the same age, as was evidenced by a faded
daguerreotype among the colonel's few souvenirs of his own childhood.
Little Phil had a sweet temper, a loving disposition, and endeared
himself to all with whom he came in contact.
The hack, after a brief passage down the main street, deposited the
passengers at the front of the Clarendon Hotel. The colonel paid the
black driver the quarter he demanded--two dollars would have been the
New York price--ran the gauntlet of the dozen pairs of eyes in the
heads of the men leaning back in the splint-bottomed armchairs under
the shade trees on the sidewalk, registered in the book pushed forward
by a clerk with curled mustaches and pomatumed hair, and accompanied
by Phil, followed the smiling black bellboy along a passage and up one
flight of stairs to a spacious, well-lighted and neatly furnished
room, looking out upon the main street.
_Three_
When the colonel and Phil had removed the dust and disorder of travel
from their appearance, they went down to dinner. After they had eaten,
the colonel, still accompanied by the child, left the hotel, and
following the main street for a short distance, turned into another
thoroughfare bordered with ancient elms, and stopped for a moment
before an old gray house with high steps and broad piazza--a large,
square-built, two-storied house, with a roof sloping down toward the
front, broken by dormer windows and buttressed by a massive brick
chimney at either end. In spite of the gray monotone to which the
paintless years had reduced the once white weatherboarding and green
Venetian blinds, the house possessed a certain stateliness of style
which was independent of circumstance, and a solidity of construction
that resisted sturdily the disintegrating hand of time. Heart-pine and
live-oak, mused the colonel, like other things Southern, live long
and die hard. The old house had been built of the best materials, and
its woodwork dowelled and mortised and tongued and grooved by men who
knew their trade and had not learned to scamp their work. For the
colonel's grandfather had built the house as a town residence, the
family having owned in addition thereto a handsome country place upon
a large plantation remote from the town.
The colonel had stopped on the opposite side of the street and was
looking intently at the home of his ancestors and of his own youth,
when a neatly dressed coloured girl came out on the piazza, seated
herself in a rocking-chair with an air of proprietorship, and opened
what the colonel perceived to be, even across the street, a copy of a
woman's magazine whose circulation, as he knew from the advertising
rates that French and Co. had paid for the use of its columns, touched
the million mark. Not wishing to seem rude, the colonel moved slowly
on down the street. When he turned his head, after going a rod or two,
and looked back over his shoulder, the girl had risen and was
re-entering the house. Her disappearance was promptly followed by the
notes of a piano, slightly out of tune, to which some one--presumably
the young woman--was singing in a high voice, which might have been
better had it been better trained,
_"I dreamt that I dwe-elt in ma-arble halls
With vassals and serfs at my si-i-ide."_
The colonel had slackened his pace at the sound of the music, but,
after the first few bars, started forward with quickened footsteps
which he did not relax until little Phil's weight, increasing
momentarily, brought home to him the consciousness that his stride was
too long for the boy's short legs. Phil, who was a thoroughbred, and
would have dropped in his tracks without complaining, was nevertheless
relieved when his father's pace returned to the normal.
Their walk led down a hill, and, very soon, to a wooden bridge which
spanned a creek some twenty feet below. The colonel paused for a
moment beside the railing, and looked up and down the stream. It
seemed narrower and more sluggish than his memory had pictured it.
Above him the water ran between high banks grown thick with underbrush
and over-arching trees; below the bridge, to the right of the creek,
lay an open meadow, and to the left, a few rods away, the ruins of the
old Eureka cotton mill, which in his boyhood had harboured a
flourishing industry, but which had remained, since Sherman's army
laid waste the country, the melancholy ruin the colonel had seen it
last, when twenty-five years or more before, he left Clarendon to seek
a wider career in the outer world. The clear water of the creek
rippled harmoniously down a gentle slope and over the site where the
great dam at the foot had stood, while birds were nesting in the vines
with which kindly nature had sought to cloak the dismantled and
crumbling walls.
Mounting the slope beyond the bridge, the colonel's stride now
carefully accommodated to the child's puny step, they skirted a low
brick wall, beyond which white headstones gleamed in a mass of
verdure. Reaching an iron gate, the colonel lifted the latch, and
entered the cemetery which had been the object of their visit.
"Is this the place, papa?" asked the little boy.
"Yes, Phil, but it is farther on, in the older part."
They passed slowly along, under the drooping elms and willows, past
the monuments on either hand--here, resting on a low brick wall, a
slab of marble, once white, now gray and moss-grown, from which the
hand of time had well nigh erased the carved inscription; here a
family vault, built into the side of a mound of earth, from which only
the barred iron door distinguished it; here a pedestal, with a
time-worn angel holding a broken fragment of the resurrection trumpet;
here a prostrate headstone, and there another bending to its fall;
and among them a profusion of rose bushes, on some of which the early
roses were already blooming--scarcely a well-kept cemetery, for in
many lots the shrubbery grew in wild unpruned luxuriance; nor yet
entirely neglected, since others showed the signs of loving care, and
an effort had been made to keep the walks clean and clear.
Father and son had traversed half the width of the cemetery, when they
came to a spacious lot, surrounded by large trees and containing
several monuments. It seemed less neglected than the lots about it,
and as they drew nigh they saw among the tombs a very black and
seemingly aged Negro engaged in pruning a tangled rose tree. Near him
stood a dilapidated basket, partially filled with weeds and leaves,
into which he was throwing the dead and superfluous limbs. He seemed
very intent upon his occupation, and had not noticed the colonel's and
Phil's approach until they had paused at the side of the lot and stood
looking at him.
When the old man became aware of their presence, he straightened
himself up with the slow movement of one stiff with age or rheumatism
and threw them a tentatively friendly look out of a pair of faded
eyes.
"Howdy do, uncle," said the colonel. "Will you tell me whose graves
these are that you are caring for?"
"Yas, suh," said the old man, removing his battered hat
respectfully--the rest of his clothing was in keeping, a picturesque
assortment of rags and patches such as only an old Negro can get
together, or keep together--"dis hyuh lot, suh, b'longs ter de fambly
dat I useter b'long ter--de ol' French fambly, suh, de fines' fambly
in Beaver County."
"Why, papa!" cried little Phil, "he means----"
"Hush, Phil! Go on, uncle."
"Yas, suh, de fines' fambly in Cla'endon, suh. Dis hyuh headstone
hyuh, suh, an' de little stone at de foot, rep'esents de grave er ol'
Gin'al French, w'at fit in de Revolution' Wah, suh; and dis hyuh one
nex' to it is de grave er my ol' marster, Majah French, w'at fit in
de Mexican Wah, and died endyoin' de wah wid de Yankees, suh."
"Papa," urged Phil, "that's my----"
"Shut up, Phil! Well, uncle, did this interesting old family die out,
or is it represented in the present generation?"
"Lawd, no, suh, de fambly did n' die out--'deed dey did n' die out!
dey ain't de kind er fambly ter die out! But it's mos' as bad,
suh--dey's moved away. Young Mars Henry went ter de Norf, and dey say
he's got rich; but he ain't be'n back no mo', suh, an' I don' know
whether he's ever comin' er no."
"You must have been very fond of them to take such good care of their
graves," said the colonel, much moved, but giving no sign.
"Well, suh, I b'longed ter de fambly, an' I ain' got no chick ner
chile er my own, livin', an' dese hyuh dead folks 'pears mo' closer
ter me dan anybody e'se. De cullud folks don' was'e much time wid a
ole man w'at ain' got nothin', an' dese hyuh new w'ite folks wa't is
come up sence de wah, ain' got no use fer niggers, now dat dey don'
b'long ter nobody no mo'; so w'en I ain' got nothin' e'se ter do, I
comes roun' hyuh, whar I knows ev'ybody and ev'ybody knows me, an'
trims de rose bushes an' pulls up de weeds and keeps de grass down
jes' lak I s'pose Mars Henry'd 'a' had it done ef he'd 'a' lived hyuh
in de ole home, stidder 'way off yandah in de Norf, whar he so busy
makin' money dat he done fergot all 'bout his own folks."
"What is your name?" asked the colonel, who had been looking closely
at the old man.
"Peter, suh--Peter French. Most er de niggers change' dey names after
de wah, but I kept de ole fambly name I wuz raise' by. It wuz good
'nuff fer me, suh; dey ain' none better."
"Oh, papa," said little Phil, unable to restrain himself longer, "he
must be some kin to us; he has the same name, and belongs to the same
family, and you know you called him 'Uncle.'"
The old Negro had dropped his hat, and was staring at the colonel and
the little boy, alternately, with dawning amazement, while a look of
recognition crept slowly into his rugged old face.
"Look a hyuh, suh," he said tremulously, "is it?--it can't be!--but
dere's de eyes, an' de nose, an' de shape er de head--why, it _must_
be my young Mars Henry!"
"Yes," said the colonel, extending his hand to the old man, who
grasped it with both his own and shook it up and down with
unconventional but very affectionate vigour, "and you are my boy
Peter; who took care of me when I was no bigger than Phil here!"
This meeting touched a tender chord in the colonel's nature, already
tuned to sympathy with the dead past of which Peter seemed the only
survival. The old man's unfeigned delight at their meeting; his
retention of the family name, a living witness of its former standing;
his respect for the dead; his "family pride," which to the
unsympathetic outsider might have seemed grotesque; were proofs of
loyalty that moved the colonel deeply. When he himself had been a
child of five or six, his father had given him Peter as his own boy.
Peter was really not many years older than the colonel, but prosperity
had preserved the one, while hard luck had aged the other prematurely.
Peter had taken care of him, and taught him to paddle in the shallow
water of the creek and to avoid the suck-holes; had taught him simple
woodcraft, how to fish, and how to hunt, first with bow and arrow, and
later with a shotgun. Through the golden haze of memory the colonel's
happy childhood came back to him with a sudden rush of emotion.
"Those were good times, Peter, when we were young," he sighed
regretfully, "good times! I have seen none happier."
"Yas, suh! yas, suh! 'Deed dem wuz good ole times! Sho' dey wuz, suh,
sho' dey wuz! 'Member dem co'n-stalk fiddles we use' ter make, an' dem
elderberry-wood whistles?"
"Yes, Peter, and the robins we used to shoot and the rabbits we used
to trap?"
"An' dem watermillions, suh--um-m-m, um-m-m-m!"
"_Y-e-s_," returned the colonel, with a shade of pensiveness. There
had been two sides to the watermelon question. Peter and he had not
always been able to find ripe watermelons, early in the season, and at
times there had been painful consequences, the memory of which came
back to the colonel with surprising ease. Nor had they always been
careful about boundaries in those early days. There had been one
occasion when an irate neighbour had complained, and Major French had
thrashed Henry and Peter both--Peter because he was older, and knew
better, and Henry because it was important that he should have
impressed upon him, early in life, that of him to whom much is given,
much will be required, and that what might be lightly regarded in
Peter's case would be a serious offence in his future master's. The
lesson had been well learned, for throughout the course of his life
the colonel had never shirked responsibility, but had made the
performance of duty his criterion of conduct. To him the line of least
resistance had always seemed the refuge of the coward and the
weakling. With the twenty years preceding his return to Clarendon,
this story has nothing to do; but upon the quiet background of his
business career he had lived an active intellectual and emotional
life, and had developed into one of those rare natures of whom it may
be truly said that they are men, and that they count nothing of what
is human foreign to themselves.
But the serenity of Peter's retrospect was unmarred by any passing
cloud. Those who dwell in darkness find it easier to remember the
bright places in their lives.
"Yas, suh, yas, suh, dem watermillions," he repeated with unction, "I
kin tas'e 'em now! Dey wuz de be's watermillions dat evuh growed,
suh--dey doan raise none lack 'em dese days no mo'. An' den dem
chinquapin bushes down by de swamp! 'Member dem chinquapin bushes,
whar we killt dat water moccasin dat day? He wuz 'bout ten foot
long!"
"Yes, Peter, he was a whopper! Then there were the bullace vines, in
the woods beyond the tanyard!"
"Sho' 'nuff, suh! an' de minnows we use' ter ketch in de creek, an'
dem perch in de mill pon'?"
For years the colonel had belonged to a fishing club, which preserved
an ice-cold stream in a Northern forest. For years the choicest fruits
of all the earth had been served daily upon his table. Yet as he
looked back to-day no shining trout that had ever risen to his fly had
stirred his emotions like the diaphanous minnows, caught, with a
crooked pin, in the crooked creek; no luscious fruit had ever matched
in sweetness the sour grapes and bitter nuts gathered from the native
woods--by him and Peter in their far-off youth.
"Yas, suh, yas, suh," Peter went on, "an' 'member dat time you an'
young Mars Jim Wilson went huntin' and fishin' up de country
tergether, an' got ti'ed er waitin' on yo'se'ves an' writ back fer me
ter come up ter wait on yer and cook fer yer, an' ole Marster say he
did n' dare ter let me go 'way off yander wid two keerliss boys lak
you-all, wid guns an' boats fer fear I mought git shot, er drownded?"
"It looked, Peter, as though he valued you more than me! more than his
own son!"
"Yas, suh, yas, suh! sho' he did, sho' he did! old Marse Philip wuz a
monstus keerful man, an' _I_ wuz winth somethin', suh, dem times; I
wuz wuth five hundred dollahs any day in de yeah. But nobody would n'
give five hundred cents fer me now, suh. Dey'd want pay fer takin' me,
mos' lakly. Dey ain' none too much room fer a young nigger no mo', let
'lone a' ol' one."
"And what have you been doing all these years, Peter?" asked the
colonel.
Peter's story was not a thrilling one; it was no tale of inordinate
ambition, no Odyssey of a perilous search for the prizes of life, but
the bald recital of a mere struggle for existence. Peter had stayed by
his master until his master's death. Then he had worked for a
railroad contractor, until exposure and overwork had laid him up with
a fever. After his recovery, he had been employed for some years at
cutting turpentine boxes in the pine woods, following the trail of the
industry southward, until one day his axe had slipped and wounded him
severely. When his wound was healed he was told that he was too old
and awkward for the turpentine, and that they needed younger and more
active men.
"So w'en I got my laig kyo'ed up," said the old man, concluding his
story, "I come back hyuh whar I wuz bo'n, suh, and whar my w'ite folks
use' ter live, an' whar my frien's use' ter be. But my w'ite folks wuz
all in de graveya'd, an' most er my frien's wuz dead er moved away,
an' I fin's it kinder lonesome, suh. I goes out an' picks cotton in de
fall, an' I does arrants an' little jobs roun' de house fer folks w'at
'll hire me; an' w'en I ain' got nothin' ter eat I kin gor oun' ter de
ole house an' wo'k in de gyahden er chop some wood, an' git a meal er
vittles f'om ole Mis' Nichols, who's be'n mighty good ter me, suh.
She's de barbuh's wife, suh, w'at bought ouah ole house. Dey got mo'
dan any yuther colored folks roun' hyuh, but dey he'ps de po', suh,
dey he'ps de po'."
"Which speaks well for them, Peter. I'm glad that all the virtue has
not yet gone out of the old house."
The old man's talk rambled on, like a sluggish stream, while the
colonel's more active mind busied itself with the problem suggested by
this unforeseen meeting. Peter and he had both gone out into the
world, and they had both returned. He had come back rich and
independent. What good had freedom done for Peter? In the colonel's
childhood his father's butler, old Madison, had lived a life which,
compared to that of Peter at the same age, was one of ease and luxury.
How easy the conclusion that the slave's lot had been the more
fortunate! But no, Peter had been better free. There were plenty of
poor white men, and no one had suggested slavery as an improvement of
their condition. Had Peter remained a slave, then the colonel would
have remained a master, which was only another form of slavery. The
colonel had been emancipated by the same token that had made Peter
free. Peter had returned home poor and broken, not because he had been
free, but because nature first, and society next, in distributing
their gifts, had been niggardly with old Peter. Had he been better
equipped, or had a better chance, he might have made a better showing.
The colonel had prospered because, having no Peters to work for him,
he had been compelled to work for himself. He would set his own
success against Peter's failure; and he would take off his hat to the
memory of the immortal statesman, who in freeing one race had
emancipated another and struck the shackles from a Nation's mind.
_Four_
While the colonel and old Peter were thus discussing reminiscences in
which little Phil could have no share, the boy, with childish
curiosity, had wandered off, down one of the shaded paths. When, a
little later, the colonel looked around for him, he saw Phil seated on
a rustic bench, in conversation with a lady. As the boy seemed
entirely comfortable, and the lady not at all disturbed, the colonel
did not interrupt them for a while. But when the lady at length rose,
holding Phil by the hand, the colonel, fearing that the boy, who was a
child of strong impulses, prone to sudden friendships, might be
proving troublesome, left his seat on the flat-topped tomb of his
Revolutionary ancestor and hastened to meet them.
"I trust my boy hasn't annoyed you," he said, lifting his hat.
"Not at all, sir," returned the lady, in a clear, sweet voice, some
haunting tone of which found an answering vibration in the colonel's
memory. "On the contrary, he has interested me very much, and in
nothing more than in telling me his name. If this and my memory do not
deceive me, _you_ are Henry French!"
"Yes, and you are--you are Laura Treadwell! How glad I am to meet you!
I was coming to call this afternoon."
"I'm glad to see you again. We have always remembered you, and knew
that you had grown rich and great, and feared that you had forgotten
the old town--and your old friends."
"Not very rich, nor very great, Laura--Miss Treadwell."
"Let it be Laura," she said with a faint colour mounting in her cheek,
which had not yet lost its smoothness, as her eyes had not faded, nor
her step lost its spring.
"And neither have I forgotten the old home nor the old friends--since
I am here and knew you the moment I looked at you and heard your
voice."
"And what a dear little boy!" exclaimed Miss Treadwell, looking down
at Phil. "He is named Philip--after his grandfather, I reckon?"
"After his grandfather. We have been visiting his grave, and those of
all the Frenches; and I found them haunted--by an old retainer, who
had come hither, he said, to be with his friends."
"Old Peter! I see him, now and then, keeping the lot in order. There
are few like him left, and there were never any too many. But how have
you been these many years, and where is your wife? Did you bring her
with you?"
"I buried her," returned the colonel, "a little over a year ago. She
left me little Phil."
"He must be like her," replied the lady, "and yet he resembles you."
"He has her eyes and hair," said his father. "He is a good little boy
and a lad of taste. See how he took to you at first sight! I can
always trust Phil's instincts. He is a born gentleman."
"He came of a race of gentlemen," she said. "I'm glad it is not to
die out. There are none too many left--in Clarendon. You are going to
like me, aren't you, Phil?" asked the lady.
"I like you already," replied Phil gallantly. "You are a very nice
lady. What shall I call you?"
"Call her Miss Laura, Phil--it is the Southern fashion--a happy union
of familiarity and respect. Already they come back to me, Laura--one
breathes them with the air--the gentle Southern customs. With all the
faults of the old system, Laura--it carried the seeds of decay within
itself and was doomed to perish--a few of us, at least, had a good
time. An aristocracy is quite endurable, for the aristocrat, and
slavery tolerable, for the masters--and the Peters. When we were
young, before the rude hand of war had shattered our illusions, we
were very happy, Laura."
"Yes, we were very happy."
They were walking now, very slowly, toward the gate by which the
colonel had entered, with little Phil between them, confiding a hand
to each.
"And how is your mother?" asked the colonel. "She is living yet, I
trust?"
"Yes, but ailing, as she has been for fifteen years--ever since my
father died. It was his grave I came to visit."
"You had ever a loving heart, Laura," said the colonel, "given to duty
and self-sacrifice. Are you still living in the old place?"
"The old place, only it is older, and shows it--like the rest of us."
She bit her lip at the words, which she meant in reference to herself,
but which she perceived, as soon as she had uttered them, might apply
to him with equal force. Despising herself for the weakness which he
might have interpreted as a bid for a compliment, she was glad that he
seemed unconscious of the remark.
The colonel and Phil had entered the cemetery by a side gate and their
exit led through the main entrance. Miss Laura pointed out, as they
walked slowly along between the elms, the graves of many whom the
colonel had known in his younger days. Their names, woven in the
tapestry of his memory, needed in most cases but a touch to restore
them. For while his intellectual life had ranged far and wide, his
business career had run along a single channel, his circle of
intimates had not been very large nor very variable, nor was his
memory so overlaid that he could not push aside its later impressions
in favour of those graven there so deeply in his youth.
Nearing the gate, they passed a small open space in which stood a
simple marble shaft, erected to the memory of the Confederate Dead.
A wealth of fresh flowers lay at its base. The colonel took off his
hat as he stood before it for a moment with bowed head. But for the
mercy of God, he might have been one of those whose deaths as well as
deeds were thus commemorated.
Beyond this memorial, impressive in its pure simplicity, and between
it and the gate, in an obtrusively conspicuous spot stood a florid
monument of granite, marble and bronze, of glaring design and
strangely out of keeping with the simple dignity and quiet restfulness
of the surroundings; a monument so striking that the colonel paused
involuntarily and read the inscription in bronze letters on the marble
shaft above the granite base:
"'_Sacred to the Memory of
Joshua Fetters and Elizabeth Fetters, his Wife._
"'_Life's work well done,
Life's race well run,
Life's crown well won,
Then comes rest._'"
"A beautiful sentiment, if somewhat trite," said the colonel, "but an
atrocious monument."
"Do you think so?" exclaimed the lady. "Most people think the monument
fine, but smile at the sentiment."
"In matters of taste," returned the colonel, "the majority are always
wrong. But why smile at the sentiment? Is it, for some reason,
inappropriate to this particular case? Fetters--Fetters--the name
seems familiar. Who was Fetters, Laura?"
"He was the speculator," she said, "who bought and sold negroes, and
kept dogs to chase runaways; old Mr. Fetters--you must remember old
Josh Fetters? When I was a child, my coloured mammy used him for a
bogeyman for me, as for her own children."
"'Look out, honey,' she'd say, 'ef you ain' good, ole Mr. Fettuhs 'll
ketch you.'"
Yes, he remembered now. Fetters had been a character in Clarendon--not
an admirable character, scarcely a good character, almost a bad
character; a necessary adjunct of an evil system, and, like other
parasites, worse than the body on which he fed; doing the dirty work
of slavery, and very naturally despised by those whose instrument he
was, but finding consolation by taking it out of the Negroes in the
course of his business. The colonel would have expected Fetters to lie
in an unmarked grave in his own back lot, or in the potter's field.
Had he so far escaped the ruin of the institution on which he lived,
as to leave an estate sufficient to satisfy his heirs and also pay for
this expensive but vulgar monument?
"The memorial was erected, as you see from the rest of the
inscription, 'by his beloved and affectionate son.' That either loved
the other no one suspected, for Bill was harshly treated, and ran away
from home at fifteen. He came back after the war, with money, which he
lent out at high rates of interest; everything he touched turned to
gold; he has grown rich, and is a great man in the State. He was a
large contributor to the soldiers' monument."
"But did not choose the design; let us be thankful for that. It might
have been like his father's. Bill Fetters rich and great," he mused,
"who would have dreamed it? I kicked him once, all the way down Main
Street from the schoolhouse to the bank--and dodged his angry mother
for a whole month afterward!"
"No one," suggested Miss Laura, "would venture to cross him now. Too
many owe him money."
"He went to school at the academy," the colonel went on, unwinding the
thread of his memory, "and the rest of the boys looked down on him and
made his life miserable. Well, Laura, in Fetters you see one thing
that resulted from the war--the poor white boy was given a chance to
grow; and if the product is not as yet altogether admirable, taste and
culture may come with another generation."
"It is to be hoped they may," said Miss Laura, "and character as well.
Mr. Fetters has a son who has gone from college to college, and will
graduate from Harvard this summer. They say he is very wild and spends
ten thousand dollars a year. I do not see how it can be possible!"
The colonel smiled at her simplicity.
"I have been," he said, "at a college football game, where the gate
receipts were fifty thousand dollars, and half a million was said to
have changed hands in bets on the result. It is easy to waste money."
"It is a sin," she said, "that some should be made poor, that others
may have it to waste."
There was a touch of bitterness in her tone, the instinctive
resentment (the colonel thought) of the born aristocrat toward the
upstart who had pushed his way above those no longer strong enough to
resist. It did not occur to him that her feeling might rest upon any
personal ground. It was inevitable that, with the incubus of slavery
removed, society should readjust itself in due time upon a democratic
basis, and that poor white men, first, and black men next, should
reach a level representing the true measure of their talents and their
ambition. But it was perhaps equally inevitable that for a generation
or two those who had suffered most from the readjustment, should
chafe under its seeming injustice.
The colonel was himself a gentleman, and the descendant of a long line
of gentlemen. But he had lived too many years among those who judged
the tree by its fruit, to think that blood alone entitled him to any
special privileges. The consciousness of honourable ancestry might
make one clean of life, gentle of manner, and just in one's dealings.
In so far as it did this it was something to be cherished, but
scarcely to be boasted of, for democracy is impatient of any
excellence not born of personal effort, of any pride save that of
achievement. He was glad that Fetters had got on in the world. It
justified a fine faith in humanity, that wealth and power should have
been attained by the poor white lad, over whom, with a boy's
unconscious brutality, he had tyrannised in his childhood. He could
have wished for Bill a better taste in monuments, and better luck in
sons, if rumour was correct about Fetters's boy. But, these, perhaps,
were points where blood _did_ tell. There was something in blood,
after all, Nature might make a great man from any sort of material:
hence the virtue of democracy, for the world needs great men, and
suffers from their lack, and welcomes them from any source. But fine
types were a matter of breeding and were perhaps worth the trouble of
preserving, if their existence were compatible with the larger good.
He wondered if Bill ever recalled that progress down Main Street in
which he had played so conspicuous a part, or still bore any
resentment toward the other participants?
"Could your mother see me," he asked, as they reached the gate, "if I
went by the house?"
"She would be glad to see you. Mother lives in the past, and you would
come to her as part of it. She often speaks of you. It is only a short
distance. You have not forgotten the way?"
They turned to the right, in a direction opposite to that from which
the colonel had reached the cemetery. After a few minutes' walk, in
the course of which they crossed another bridge over the same winding
creek, they mounted the slope beyond, opened a gate, climbed a short
flight of stone steps and found themselves in an enchanted garden,
where lilac bush and jessamine vine reared their heads high, tulip and
daffodil pushed their way upward, but were all dominated by the
intenser fragrance of the violets.
Old Peter had followed the party at a respectful distance, but, seeing
himself forgotten, he walked past the gate, after they had entered it,
and went, somewhat disconsolately, on his way. He had stopped, and was
looking back toward the house--Clarendon was a great place for looking
back, perhaps because there was little in the town to which to look
forward--when a white man, wearing a tinned badge upon his coat, came
up, took Peter by the arm and led him away, despite some feeble
protests on the old man's part.
_Five_
At the end of the garden stood a frame house with a wide, columned
porch. It had once been white, and the windows closed with blinds that
still retained a faded tint of green. Upon the porch, in a comfortable
arm chair, sat an old lady, wearing a white cap, under which her white
hair showed at the sides, and holding her hands, upon which she wore
black silk mits, crossed upon her lap. On the top step, at opposite
ends, sat two young people--one of them a rosy-cheeked girl, in the
bloom of early youth, with a head of rebellious brown hair. She had
been reading a book held open in her hand. The other was a
long-legged, lean, shy young man, of apparently twenty-three or
twenty-four, with black hair and eyes and a swarthy complexion. From
the jack-knife beside him, and the shavings scattered around, it was
clear that he had been whittling out the piece of pine that he was
adjusting, with some nicety, to a wooden model of some mechanical
contrivance which stood upon the floor beside him. They were a
strikingly handsome couple, of ideally contrasting types.
"Mother," said Miss Treadwell, "this is Henry French--Colonel
French--who has come back from the North to visit his old home and the
graves of his ancestors. I found him in the cemetery; and this is his
dear little boy, Philip--named after his grandfather."
The old lady gave the colonel a slender white hand, thin almost to
transparency.
"Henry," she said, in a silvery thread of voice, "I am glad to see
you. You must excuse my not rising--I can't walk without help. You are
like your father, and even more like your grandfather, and your little
boy takes after the family." She drew Phil toward her and kissed him.
Phil accepted this attention amiably. Meantime the young people had
risen.
"This," said Miss Treadwell, laying her hand affectionately on the
girl's arm, "is my niece Graciella--my brother Tom's child. Tom is
dead, you know, these eight years and more, and so is Graciella's
mother, and she has lived with us."
Graciella gave the colonel her hand with engaging frankness. "I'm sure
we're awfully glad to see anybody from the North," she said. "Are you
familiar with New York?"
"I left there only day before yesterday," replied the colonel.
"And this," said Miss Treadwell, introducing the young man, who, when
he unfolded his long legs, rose to a rather imposing height, "this is
Mr. Ben Dudley."
"The son of Malcolm Dudley, of Mink Run, I suppose? I'm glad to meet
you," said the colonel, giving the young man's hand a cordial grasp.
"His nephew, sir," returned young Dudley. "My uncle never married."
"Oh, indeed? I did not know; but he is alive, I trust, and well?"
"Alive, sir, but very much broken. He has not been himself for years."
"You find things sadly changed, Henry," said Mrs. Treadwell. "They
have never been the same since the surrender. Our people are poor now,
right poor, most of them, though we ourselves were fortunate enough to
have something left."
"We have enough left for supper, mother," interposed Miss Laura
quickly, "to which we are going to ask Colonel French to stay."
"I suppose that in New York every one has dinner at six, and supper
after the theatre or the concert?" said Graciella, inquiringly.
"The fortunate few," returned the colonel, smiling into her eager
face, "who can afford a seat at the opera, and to pay for and digest
two meals, all in the same evening."
"And now, colonel," said Miss Treadwell, "I'm going to see about the
supper. Mother will talk to you while I am gone."
"I must be going," said young Dudley.
"Won't you stay to supper, Ben?" asked Miss Laura.
"No, Miss Laura; I'd like to, but uncle wasn't well to-day and I must
stop by the drug store and get some medicine for him. Dr. Price gave
me a prescription on my way in. Good-bye, sir," he added, addressing
the colonel. "Will you be in town long?"
"I really haven't decided. A day or two, perhaps a week. I am not
bound, at present, by any business ties--am foot-loose, as we used to
say when I was young. I shall follow my inclinations."
"Then I hope, sir, that you'll feel inclined to pay us a long visit
and that I shall see you many times."
As Ben Dudley, after this courteous wish, stepped down from the
piazza, Graciella rose and walked with him along the garden path. She
was tall as most women, but only reached his shoulder.
"Say, Graciella," he asked, "won't you give me an answer."
"I'm thinking about it, Ben. If you could take me away from this dead
old town, with its lazy white people and its trifling niggers, to a
place where there's music and art, and life and society--where there's
something going on all the time, I'd _like_ to marry you. But if I did
so now, you'd take me out to your rickety old house, with your daffy
old uncle and his dumb old housekeeper, and I should lose my own mind
in a week or ten days. When you can promise to take me to New York,
I'll promise to marry you, Ben. I want to travel, and to see things,
to visit the art galleries and libraries, to hear Patti, and to look
at the millionaires promenading on Fifth Avenue--and I'll marry the
man who'll take me there!"
"Uncle Malcolm can't live forever, Graciella--though I wouldn't wish
his span shortened by a single day--and I'll get the plantation. And
then, you know," he added, hesitating, "we may--we may find the
money."
Graciella shook her head compassionately. "No, Ben, you'll never find
the money. There isn't any; it's all imagination--moonshine. The war
unsettled your uncle's brain, and he dreamed the money."
"It's as true as I'm standing here, Graciella," replied Ben,
earnestly, "that there's money--gold--somewhere about the house. Uncle
couldn't imagine paper and ink, and I've seen the letter from my
uncle's uncle Ralph--I'll get it and bring it to you. Some day the
money will turn up, and then may be I'll be able to take you away.
Meantime some one must look after uncle and the place; there's no one
else but me to do it. Things must grow better some time--they always
do, you know."
"They couldn't be much worse," returned Graciella, discontentedly.
"Oh, they'll be better--they're bound to be! They'll just have to be.
And you'll wait for me, won't you, Graciella?"
"Oh, I suppose I'll have to. You're around here so much that every one
else is scared away, and there isn't much choice at the best; all the
young men worth having are gone away already. But you know my
ultimatum--I must get to New York. If you are ready before any one
else speaks, you may take me there."
"You're hard on a poor devil, Graciella. I don't believe you care a
bit for me, or you wouldn't talk like that. Don't you suppose I have
any feelings, even if I ain't much account? Ain't I worth as much as a
trip up North?"
"Why should I waste my time with you, if I didn't care for you?"
returned Graciella, begging the question. "Here's a rose, in token of
my love."
She plucked the flower and thrust it into his hand.
"It's full of thorns, like your love," he said ruefully, as he picked
the sharp points out of his fingers.
"'Faithful are the wounds of a friend,'" returned the girl. "See
Psalms, xxvii: 6."
"Take care of my cotton press, Graciella; I'll come in to-morrow
evening and work on it some more. I'll bring some cotton along to try
it with."
"You'll probably find some excuse--you always do."
"Don't you want me to come?" he asked with a trace of resentment. "I
can stay away, if you don't."
"Oh, you come so often that I--I suppose I'd miss you, if you didn't!
One must have some company, and half a loaf is better than no bread."
He went on down the hill, turning at the corner for a lingering
backward look at his tyrant. Graciella, bending her head over the
wall, followed his movements with a swift tenderness in her sparkling
brown eyes.
"I love him better than anything on earth," she sighed, "but it would
never do to tell him so. He'd get so conceited that I couldn't manage
him any longer, and so lazy that he'd never exert himself. I must get
away from this town before I'm old and gray--I'll be seventeen next
week, and an old maid in next to no time--and Ben must take me away.
But I must be his inspiration; he'd never do it by himself. I'll go
now and talk to that dear old Colonel French about the North; I can
learn a great deal from him. And he doesn't look so old either," she
mused, as she went back up the walk to where the colonel sat on the
piazza talking to the other ladies.
_Six_
The colonel spent a delightful evening in the company of his friends.
The supper was typically Southern, and the cook evidently a good one.
There was smothered chicken, light biscuit, fresh eggs, poundcake and
tea. The tablecloth and napkins were of fine linen. That they were
soft and smooth the colonel noticed, but he did not observe closely
enough to see that they had been carefully darned in many places. The
silver spoons were of fine, old-fashioned patterns, worn very thin--so
thin that even the colonel was struck by their fragility. How
charming, he thought, to prefer the simple dignity of the past to the
vulgar ostentation of a more modern time. He had once dined off a
golden dinner service, at the table of a multi-millionaire, and had
not enjoyed the meal half so much. The dining-room looked out upon the
garden and the perfume of lilac and violet stole in through the open
windows. A soft-footed, shapely, well-trained negro maid, in white
cap and apron, waited deftly upon the table; a woman of serious
countenance--so serious that the colonel wondered if she were a
present-day type of her race, and if the responsibilities of freedom
had robbed her people of their traditional light-heartedness and
gaiety.
After supper they sat out upon the piazza. The lights within were
turned down low, so that the moths and other insects might not be
attracted. Sweet odours from the garden filled the air. Through the
elms the stars, brighter than in more northern latitudes, looked out
from a sky of darker blue; so bright were they that the colonel,
looking around for the moon, was surprised to find that luminary
invisible. On the green background of the foliage the fireflies glowed
and flickered. There was no strident steam whistle from factory or
train to assault the ear, no rumble of passing cabs or street cars.
Far away, in some distant part of the straggling town, a sweet-toned
bell sounded the hour of an evening church service.
"To see you is a breath from the past, Henry," said Mrs. Treadwell.
"You are a fine, strong man now, but I can see you as you were, the
day you went away to the war, in your new gray uniform, on your fine
gray horse, at the head of your company. You were going to take Peter
with you, but he had got his feet poisoned with poison ivy, and
couldn't walk, and your father gave you another boy, and Peter cried
like a baby at being left behind. I can remember how proud you were,
and how proud your father was, when he gave you his sword--your
grandfather's sword, and told you never to draw it or sheath it,
except in honour; and how, when you were gone, the old gentleman shut
himself up for two whole days and would speak to no one. He was glad
and sorry--glad to send you to fight for your country, and sorry to
see you go--for you were his only boy."
The colonel thrilled with love and regret. His father had loved him,
he knew very well, and he had not visited his tomb for twenty-five
years. How far away it seemed too, the time when he had thought of
the Confederacy as his country! And the sword, his grandfather's
sword, had been for years stored away in a dark closet. His father had
kept it displayed upon the drawing-room wall, over the table on which
the family Bible had rested.
Mrs. Treadwell was silent for a moment.
"Times have changed since then, Henry. We have lost a great deal,
although we still have enough--yes, we have plenty to live upon, and
to hold up our heads among the best."
Miss Laura and Graciella, behind the colonel's back, exchanged meaning
glances. How well they knew how little they had to live upon!
"That is quite evident," said the colonel, glancing through the window
at the tasteful interior, "and I am glad to see that you have fared so
well. My father lost everything."
"We were more fortunate," said Mrs. Treadwell. "We were obliged to let
Belleview go when Major Treadwell died--there were debts to be paid,
and we were robbed as well--but we have several rentable properties in
town, and an estate in the country which brings us in an income. But
things are not quite what they used to be!"
Mrs. Treadwell sighed, and nodded. Miss Laura sat in silence--a
pensive silence. She, too, remembered the time gone by, but unlike her
mother's life, her own had only begun as the good times were ending.
Her mother, in her youth, had seen something of the world. The
daughter of a wealthy planter, she had spent her summers at Saratoga,
had visited New York and Philadelphia and New Orleans, and had taken a
voyage to Europe. Graciella was young and beautiful. Her prince might
come, might be here even now, if this grand gentleman should chance to
throw the handkerchief. But she, Laura, had passed her youth in a
transition period; the pleasures neither of memory nor of hope had
been hers--except such memories as came of duty well performed, and
such hopes as had no root in anything earthly or corruptible.
Graciella was not in a reflective mood, and took up the burden of the
conversation where her grandmother had dropped it. Her thoughts were
not of the past, but of the future. She asked many eager questions of
New York. Was it true that ladies at the Waldorf-Astoria always went
to dinner in low-cut bodices with short sleeves, and was evening dress
always required at the theatre? Did the old Knickerbocker families
recognise the Vanderbilts? Were the Rockefellers anything at all
socially? Did he know Ward McAllister, at that period the Beau Brummel
of the metropolitan smart set? Was Fifth Avenue losing its
pre-eminence? On what days of the week was the Art Museum free to the
public? What was the fare to New York, and the best quarter of the
city in which to inquire for a quiet, select boarding house where a
Southern lady of refinement and good family might stay at a reasonable
price, and meet some nice people? And would he recommend stenography
or magazine work, and which did he consider preferable, as a career
which such a young lady might follow without injury to her social
standing?
The colonel, with some amusement, answered these artless inquiries as
best he could; they came as a refreshing foil to the sweet but
melancholy memories of the past. They were interesting, too, from this
very pretty but very ignorant little girl in this backward little
Southern town. She was a flash of sunlight through a soft gray cloud;
a vigorous shoot from an old moss-covered stump--she was life, young
life, the vital principle, breaking through the cumbering envelope,
and asserting its right to reach the sun.
After a while a couple of very young ladies, friends of Graciella,
dropped in. They were introduced to the colonel, who found that he had
known their fathers, or their mothers, or their grandfathers, or their
grandmothers, and that many of them were more or less distantly
related. A little later a couple of young men, friends of Graciella's
friends--also very young, and very self-conscious--made their
appearance, and were duly introduced, in person and by pedigree. The
conversation languished for a moment, and then one of the young ladies
said something about music, and one of the young men remarked that he
had brought over a new song. Graciella begged the colonel to excuse
them, and led the way to the parlour, followed by her young friends.
Mrs. Treadwell had fallen asleep, and was leaning comfortably back in
her armchair. Miss Laura excused herself, brought a veil, and laid it
softly across her mother's face.
"The night air is not damp," she said, "and it is pleasanter for her
here than in the house. She won't mind the music; she is accustomed to
it."
Graciella went to the piano and with great boldness of touch struck
the bizarre opening chords and then launched into the grotesque words
of the latest New York "coon song," one of the first and worst of its
kind, and the other young people joined in the chorus.
It was the first discordant note. At home, the colonel subscribed to
the opera, and enjoyed the music. A plantation song of the olden time,
as he remembered it, borne upon the evening air, when sung by the
tired slaves at the end of their day of toil, would have been
pleasing, with its simple melody, its plaintive minor strains, its
notes of vague longing; but to the colonel's senses there was to-night
no music in this hackneyed popular favourite. In a metropolitan music
hall, gaudily bedecked and brilliantly lighted, it would have been
tolerable from the lips of a black-face comedian. But in this quiet
place, upon this quiet night, and in the colonel's mood, it seemed
like profanation. The song of the coloured girl, who had dreamt that
she dwelt in marble halls, and the rest, had been less incongruous; it
had at least breathed aspiration.
Mrs. Treadwell was still dozing in her armchair. The colonel,
beckoning Miss Laura to follow him, moved to the farther end of the
piazza, where they might not hear the singers and the song.
"It is delightful here, Laura. I seem to have renewed my youth. I
yield myself a willing victim to the charm of the old place, the old
ways, the old friends."
"You see our best side, Henry. Night has a kindly hand, that covers
our defects, and the starlight throws a glamour over everything. You
see us through a haze of tender memories. When you have been here a
week, the town will seem dull, and narrow, and sluggish. You will find
us ignorant and backward, worshipping our old idols, and setting up no
new ones; our young men leaving us, and none coming in to take their
place. Had you, and men like you, remained with us, we might have
hoped for better things."
"And perhaps not, Laura. Environment controls the making of men. Some
rise above it, the majority do not. We might have followed in the
well-worn rut. But let us not spoil this delightful evening by
speaking of anything sad or gloomy. This is your daily life; to me it
is like a scene from a play, over which one sighs to see the curtain
fall--all enchantment, all light, all happiness."
But even while he spoke of light, a shadow loomed up beside them. The
coloured woman who had waited at the table came around the house from
the back yard and stood by the piazza railing.
"Miss Laura!" she called, softly and appealingly. "Kin you come hyuh a
minute?"
"What is it, Catherine?"
"Kin I speak just a word to you, ma'am? It's somethin'
partic'lar--mighty partic'lar, ma'am."
"Excuse me a minute, Henry," said Miss Laura, rising with evident
reluctance.
She stepped down from the piazza, and walked beside the woman down one
of the garden paths. The colonel, as he sat there smoking--with Miss
Laura's permission he had lighted a cigar--could see the light stuff
of the lady's gown against the green background, though she was
walking in the shadow of the elms. From the murmur which came to him,
he gathered that the black woman was pleading earnestly, passionately,
and he could hear Miss Laura's regretful voice, as she closed the
interview:
"I am sorry, Catherine, but it is simply impossible. I would if I
could, but I cannot."
The woman came back first, and as she passed by an open window, the
light fell upon her face, which showed signs of deep distress,
hardening already into resignation or despair. She was probably in
trouble of some sort, and her mistress had not been able, doubtless
for some good reason, to help her out. This suspicion was borne out by
the fact that when Miss Laura came back to him, she too seemed
troubled. But since she did not speak of the matter, the colonel gave
no sign of his own thoughts.
"You have said nothing of yourself, Laura," he said, wishing to divert
her mind from anything unpleasant. "Tell me something of your own
life--it could only be a cheerful theme, for you have means and
leisure, and a perfect environment. Tell me of your occupations, your
hopes, your aspirations."
"There is little enough to tell, Henry," she returned, with a sudden
courage, "but that little shall be the truth. You will find it out, if
you stay long in town, and I would rather you learned it from our lips
than from others less friendly. My mother is--my mother--a dear, sweet
woman to whom I have devoted my life! But we are not well off, Henry.
Our parlour carpet has been down for twenty-five years; surely you
must have recognised the pattern! The house has not been painted for
the same length of time; it is of heart pine, and we train the flowers
and vines to cover it as much as may be, and there are many others
like it, so it is not conspicuous. Our rentable property is three
ramshackle cabins on the alley at the rear of the lot, for which we
get four dollars a month each, when we can collect it. Our country
estate is a few acres of poor land, which we rent on shares, and from
which we get a few bushels of corn, an occasional load of firewood,
and a few barrels of potatoes. As for my own life, I husband our small
resources; I keep the house, and wait on mother, as I have done since
she became helpless, ten years ago. I look after Graciella. I teach in
the Sunday School, and I give to those less fortunate such help as the
poor can give the poor."
"How did you come to lose Belleview?" asked the colonel, after a
pause. "I had understood Major Treadwell to be one of the few people
around here who weathered the storm of war and emerged financially
sound."
"He did; and he remained so--until he met Mr. Fetters, who had made
money out of the war while all the rest were losing. Father despised
the slavetrader's son, but admired his ability to get along. Fetters
made his acquaintance, flattered him, told him glowing stories of
wealth to be made by speculating in cotton and turpentine. Father was
not a business man, but he listened. Fetters lent him money, and
father lent Fetters money, and they had transactions back and forth,
and jointly. Father lost and gained and we had no inkling that he had
suffered greatly, until, at his sudden death, Fetters foreclosed a
mortgage he held upon Belleview. Mother has always believed there was
something wrong about the transaction, and that father was not
indebted to Fetters in any such sum as Fetters claimed. But we could
find no papers and we had no proof, and Fetters took the plantation
for his debt. He changed its name to Sycamore; he wanted a post-office
there, and there were too many Belleviews."
"Does he own it still?"
"Yes, and runs it--with convict labour! The thought makes me shudder!
We were rich when he was poor; we are poor and he is rich. But we
trust in God, who has never deserted the widow and the fatherless. By
His mercy we have lived and, as mother says, held up our heads, not
in pride or haughtiness, but in self-respect, for we cannot forget
what we were."
"Nor what you are, Laura, for you are wonderful," said the colonel,
not unwilling to lighten a situation that bordered on intensity. "You
should have married and had children. The South needs such mothers as
you would have made. Unless the men of Clarendon have lost their
discernment, unless chivalry has vanished and the fire died out of the
Southern blood, it has not been for lack of opportunity that your name
remains unchanged."
Miss Laura's cheek flushed unseen in the shadow of the porch.
"Ah, Henry, that would be telling! But to marry me, one must have
married the family, for I could not have left them--they have had only
me. I have not been unhappy. I do not know that I would have had my
life different."
Graciella and her friends had finished their song, the piano had
ceased to sound, and the visitors were taking their leave. Graciella
went with them to the gate, where they stood laughing and talking. The
colonel looked at his watch by the light of the open door.
"It is not late," he said. "If my memory is true, you too played the
piano when you--when I was young."
"It is the same piano, Henry, and, like our life here, somewhat thin
and weak of tone. But if you think it would give you pleasure, I will
play--as well as I know how."
She readjusted the veil, which had slipped from her mother's face, and
they went into the parlour. From a pile of time-stained music she
selected a sheet and seated herself at the piano. The colonel stood at
her elbow. She had a pretty back, he thought, and a still youthful
turn of the head, and still plentiful, glossy brown hair. Her hands
were white, slender and well kept, though he saw on the side of the
forefinger of her left hand the telltale marks of the needle.
The piece was an arrangement of the well-known air from the opera of
_Maritana_:
_"Scenes that are brightest,
May charm awhile,
Hearts which are lightest
And eyes that smile.
Yet o'er them above us,
Though nature beam,
With none to love us,
How sad they seem!"_
Under her sympathetic touch a gentle stream of melody flowed from the
old-time piano, scarcely stronger toned in its decrepitude, than the
spinet of a former century. A few moments before, under Graciella's
vigorous hands, it had seemed to protest at the dissonances it had
been compelled to emit; now it seemed to breathe the notes of the old
opera with an almost human love and tenderness. It, too, mused the
colonel, had lived and loved and was recalling the memories of a
brighter past.
The music died into silence. Mrs. Treadwell was awake.
"Laura!" she called.
Miss Treadwell went to the door.
"I must have been nodding for a minute. I hope Colonel French did not
observe it--it would scarcely seem polite. He hasn't gone yet?"
"No, mother, he is in the parlour."
"I must be going," said the colonel, who came to the door. "I had
almost forgotten Phil, and it is long past his bedtime."
Miss Laura went to wake up Phil, who had fallen asleep after supper.
He was still rubbing his eyes when the lady led him out.
"Wake up, Phil," said the colonel. "It's time to be going. Tell the
ladies good night."
Graciella came running up the walk.
"Why, Colonel French," she cried, "you are not going already? I made
the others leave early so that I might talk to you."
"My dear young lady," smiled the colonel, "I have already risen to go,
and if I stayed longer I might wear out my welcome, and Phil would
surely go to sleep again. But I will come another time--I shall stay
in town several days."
"Yes, _do_ come, if you _must_ go," rejoined Graciella with emphasis.
"I want to hear more about the North, and about New York society
and--oh, everything! Good night, Philip. _Good_ night, Colonel
French."
"Beware of the steps, Henry," said Miss Laura, "the bottom stone is
loose."
They heard his footsteps in the quiet street, and Phil's light patter
beside him.
"He's a lovely man, isn't he, Aunt Laura?" said Graciella.
"He is a gentleman," replied her aunt, with a pensive look at her
young niece.
"Of the old school," piped Mrs. Treadwell.
"And Philip is a sweet child," said Miss Laura.
"A chip of the old block," added Mrs. Treadwell. "I remember----"
"Yes, mother, you can tell me when I've shut up the house,"
interrupted Miss Laura. "Put out the lamps, Graciella--there's not
much oil--and when you go to bed hang up your gown carefully, for it
takes me nearly half an hour to iron it."
"And you are right good to do it! Good night, dear Aunt Laura! Good
night, grandma!"
Mr. French had left the hotel at noon that day as free as air, and he
slept well that night, with no sense of the forces that were to
constrain his life. And yet the events of the day had started the
growth of a dozen tendrils, which were destined to grow, and reach
out, and seize and hold him with ties that do not break.
_Seven_
The constable who had arrested old Peter led his prisoner away through
alleys and quiet streets--though for that matter all the streets of
Clarendon were quiet in midafternoon--to a guardhouse or calaboose,
constructed of crumbling red brick, with a rusty, barred iron door
secured by a heavy padlock. As they approached this structure, which
was sufficiently forbidding in appearance to depress the most
lighthearted, the strumming of a banjo became audible, accompanying a
mellow Negro voice which was singing, to a very ragged ragtime air,
words of which the burden was something like this:
_"W'at's de use er my wo'kin' so hahd?
I got a' 'oman in de white man's yahd.
W'en she cook chicken, she save me a wing;
W'en dey 'low I'm wo'kin', I ain' doin' a thing!"_
The grating of the key in the rusty lock interrupted the song. The
constable thrust his prisoner into the dimly lighted interior, and
locked the door.
"Keep over to the right," he said curtly, "that's the niggers' side."
"But, Mistah Haines," asked Peter, excitedly, "is I got to stay here
all night? I ain' done nuthin'."
"No, that's the trouble; you ain't done nuthin' fer a month, but loaf
aroun'. You ain't got no visible means of suppo't, so you're took up
for vagrancy."
"But I does wo'k we'n I kin git any wo'k ter do," the old man
expostulated. "An' ef I kin jus' git wo'd ter de right w'ite folks,
I'll be outer here in half a' hour; dey'll go my bail."
"They can't go yo' bail to-night, fer the squire's gone home. I'll
bring you some bread and meat, an' some whiskey if you want it, and
you'll be tried to-morrow mornin'."
Old Peter still protested.
"You niggers are always kickin'," said the constable, who was not
without a certain grim sense of humour, and not above talking to a
Negro when there were no white folks around to talk to, or to listen.
"I never see people so hard to satisfy. You ain' got no home, an' here
I've give' you a place to sleep, an' you're kickin'. You doan know
from one day to another where you'll git yo' meals, an' I offer you
bread and meat and whiskey--an' you're kickin'! You say you can't git
nothin' to do, an' yit with the prospect of a reg'lar job befo' you
to-morrer--you're kickin'! I never see the beat of it in all my bo'n
days."
When the constable, chuckling at his own humour, left the guardhouse,
he found his way to a nearby barroom, kept by one Clay Jackson, a
place with an evil reputation as the resort of white men of a low
class. Most crimes of violence in the town could be traced to its
influence, and more than one had been committed within its walls.
"Has Mr. Turner been in here?" demanded Haines of the man in charge.
The bartender, with a backward movement of his thumb, indicated a door
opening into a room at the rear. Here the constable found his man--a
burly, bearded giant, with a red face, a cunning eye and an
overbearing manner. He had a bottle and a glass before him, and was
unsociably drinking alone.
"Howdy, Haines," said Turner, "How's things? How many have you got
this time?"
"I've got three rounded up, Mr. Turner, an' I'll take up another befo'
night. That'll make fo'--fifty dollars fer me, an' the res' fer the
squire."
"That's good," rejoined Turner. "Have a glass of liquor. How much do
you s'pose the Squire'll fine Bud?"
"Well," replied Haines, drinking down the glass of whiskey at a gulp,
"I reckon about twenty-five dollars."
"You can make it fifty just as easy," said Turner. "Niggers are all
just a passell o' black fools. Bud would 'a' b'en out now, if it
hadn't be'n for me. I bought him fer six months. I kept close watch of
him for the first five, and then along to'ds the middle er the las'
month I let on I'd got keerliss, an' he run away. Course I put the
dawgs on 'im, an' followed 'im here, where his woman is, an' got you
after 'im, and now he's good for six months more."
"The woman is a likely gal an' a good cook," said Haines. "_She'd_ be
wuth a good 'eal to you out at the stockade."
"That's a shore fact," replied the other, "an' I need another good
woman to help aroun'. If we'd 'a' thought about it, an' give' her a
chance to hide Bud and feed him befo' you took 'im up, we could 'a'
filed a charge ag'inst her for harborin' 'im."
"Well, I kin do it nex' time, fer he'll run away ag'in--they always
do. Bud's got a vile temper."
"Yes, but he's a good field-hand, and I'll keep his temper down. Have
somethin' mo'?"
"I've got to go back now and feed the pris'ners," said Haines, rising
after he had taken another drink; "an' I'll stir Bud up so he'll raise
h--ll, an' to-morrow morning I'll make another charge against him
that'll fetch his fine up to fifty and costs."
"Which will give 'im to me till the cotton crop is picked, and several
months more to work on the Jackson Swamp ditch if Fetters gits the
contract. You stand by us here, Haines, an' help me git all the han's
I can out o' this county, and I'll give you a job at Sycamo' when yo'r
time's up here as constable. Go on and feed the niggers, an' stir up
Bud, and I'll be on hand in the mornin' when court opens."
When the lesser of these precious worthies left his superior to his
cups, he stopped in the barroom and bought a pint of rotgut whiskey--a
cheap brand of rectified spirits coloured and flavoured to resemble
the real article, to which it bore about the relation of vitriol to
lye. He then went into a cheap eating house, conducted by a Negro for
people of his own kind, where he procured some slices of fried bacon,
and some soggy corn bread, and with these various purchases, wrapped
in a piece of brown paper, he betook himself to the guardhouse. He
unlocked the door, closed it behind him, and called Peter. The old man
came forward.
"Here, Peter," said Haines, "take what you want of this, and give some
to them other fellows, and if there's anything left after you've got
what you want, throw it to that sulky black hound over yonder in the
corner."
He nodded toward a young Negro in the rear of the room, the Bud
Johnson who had been the subject of the conversation with Turner.
Johnson replied with a curse. The constable advanced menacingly, his
hand moving toward his pocket. Quick as a flash the Negro threw
himself upon him. The other prisoners, from instinct, or prudence, or
hope of reward, caught him, pulled him away and held him off until
Haines, pale with rage, rose to his feet and began kicking his
assailant vigorously. With the aid of well-directed blows of his fists
he forced the Negro down, who, unable to regain his feet, finally,
whether from fear or exhaustion, lay inert, until the constable,
having worked off his worst anger, and not deeming it to his advantage
seriously to disable the prisoner, in whom he had a pecuniary
interest, desisted from further punishment.
"I might send you to the penitentiary for this," he said, panting for
breath, "but I'll send you to h--ll instead. You'll be sold back to
Mr. Fetters for a year or two tomorrow, and in three months I'll be
down at Sycamore as an overseer, and then I'll learn you to strike a
white man, you----"
The remainder of the objurgation need not be told, but there was no
doubt, from the expression on Haines's face, that he meant what he
said, and that he would take pleasure in repaying, in overflowing
measure, any arrears of revenge against the offending prisoner which he
might consider his due. He had stirred Bud up very successfully--much
more so, indeed, than he had really intended. He had meant to procure
evidence against Bud, but had hardly thought to carry it away in the
shape of a black eye and a swollen nose.
_Eight_
When the colonel set out next morning for a walk down the main street,
he had just breakfasted on boiled brook trout, fresh laid eggs, hot
muffins and coffee, and was feeling at peace with all mankind. He was
alone, having left Phil in charge of the hotel housekeeper. He had
gone only a short distance when he reached a door around which several
men were lounging, and from which came the sound of voices and loud
laughter. Stopping, he looked with some curiosity into the door, over
which there was a faded sign to indicate that it was the office of a
Justice of the Peace--a pleasing collocation of words, to those who
could divorce it from any technical significance--Justice, Peace--the
seed and the flower of civilisation.
An unwashed, dingy-faced young negro, clothed in rags unspeakably
vile, which scarcely concealed his nakedness, was standing in the
midst of a group of white men, toward whom he threw now and then a
shallow and shifty glance. The air was heavy with the odour of stale
tobacco, and the floor dotted with discarded portions of the weed. A
white man stood beside a desk and was addressing the audience:
"Now, gentlemen, here's Lot Number Three, a likely young nigger who
answers to the name of Sam Brown. Not much to look at, but will make a
good field hand, if looked after right and kept away from liquor; used
to workin', when in the chain gang, where he's been, off and on, since
he was ten years old. Amount of fine an' costs thirty-seven dollars
an' a half. A musical nigger, too, who plays the banjo, an' sings jus'
like a--like a blackbird. What am I bid for this prime lot?"
The negro threw a dull glance around the crowd with an air of
detachment which seemed to say that he was not at all interested in
the proceedings. The colonel viewed the scene with something more than
curious interest. The fellow looked like an habitual criminal, or at
least like a confirmed loafer. This must be one of the idle and
worthless blacks with so many of whom the South was afflicted. This
was doubtless the method provided by law for dealing with them.
"One year," answered a voice.
"Nine months," said a second.
"Six months," came a third bid, from a tall man with a buggy whip
under his arm.
"Are you all through, gentlemen? Six months' labour for thirty-seven
fifty is mighty cheap, and you know the law allows you to keep the
labourer up to the mark. Are you all done? Sold to Mr. Turner, for Mr.
Fetters, for six months."
The prisoner's dull face showed some signs of apprehension when the
name of his purchaser was pronounced, and he shambled away uneasily
under the constable's vigilant eye.
"The case of the State against Bud Johnson is next in order. Bring in
the prisoner."
The constable brought in the prisoner, handcuffed, and placed him in
front of the Justice's desk, where he remained standing. He was a
short, powerfully built negro, seemingly of pure blood, with a
well-rounded head, not unduly low in the brow and quite broad between
the ears. Under different circumstances his countenance might have
been pleasing; at present it was set in an expression of angry
defiance. He had walked with a slight limp, there were several
contusions upon his face; and upon entering the room he had thrown a
defiant glance around him, which had not quailed even before the stern
eye of the tall man, Turner, who, as the agent of the absent Fetters,
had bid on Sam Brown. His face then hardened into the blank expression
of one who stands in a hostile presence.
"Bud Johnson," said the justice, "you are charged with escaping from
the service into which you were sold to pay the fine and costs on a
charge of vagrancy. What do you plead--guilty or not guilty?"
The prisoner maintained a sullen silence.
"I'll enter a plea of not guilty. The record of this court shows that
you were convicted of vagrancy on December 26th, and sold to Mr.
Fetters for four months to pay your fine and costs. The four months
won't be up for a week. Mr. Turner may be sworn."
Turner swore to Bud's escape and his pursuit. Haines testified to his
capture.
"Have you anything to say?" asked the justice.
"What's de use er my sayin' anything," muttered the Negro. "It won't
make no diff'ence. I didn' do nothin', in de fus' place, ter be fine'
fer, an' run away 'cause dey did n' have no right ter keep me dere."
"Guilty. Twenty-five dollars an' costs. You are also charged with
resisting the officer who made the arrest. Guilty or not guilty? Since
you don't speak, I'll enter a plea of not guilty. Mr. Haines may be
sworn."
Haines swore that the prisoner had resisted arrest, and had only been
captured by the display of a loaded revolver. The prisoner was
convicted and fined twenty-five dollars and costs for this second
offense.
The third charge, for disorderly conduct in prison, was quickly
disposed of, and a fine of twenty-five dollars and costs levied.
"You may consider yo'self lucky," said the magistrate, "that Mr.
Haines didn't prefer a mo' serious charge against you. Many a nigger
has gone to the gallows for less. And now, gentlemen, I want to clean
this case up right here. How much time is offered for the fine and
costs of the prisoner, Bud Johnson, amounting to seventy-five dollars
fine and thirty-three dollars and fifty-fo' cents costs? You've heard
the evidence an' you see the nigger. Ef there ain't much competition
for his services and the time is a long one, he'll have his own
stubbornness an' deviltry to thank for it. He's strong and healthy and
able to do good work for any one that can manage him."
There was no immediate response. Turner walked forward and viewed the
prisoner from head to foot with a coldly sneering look.
"Well, Bud," he said, "I reckon we'll hafter try it ag'in. I have
never yet allowed a nigger to git the better o' me, an', moreover, I
never will. I'll bid eighteen months, Squire; an' that's all he's
worth, with his keep."
There was no competition, and the prisoner was knocked down to Turner,
for Fetters, for eighteen months.
"Lock 'im up till I'm ready to go, Bill," said Turner to the
constable, "an' just leave the irons on him. I'll fetch 'em back next
time I come to town."
The unconscious brutality of the proceeding grated harshly upon the
colonel's nerves. Delinquents of some kind these men must be, who were
thus dealt with; but he had lived away from the South so long that so
sudden an introduction to some of its customs came with something of a
shock. He had remembered the pleasant things, and these but vaguely,
since his thoughts and his interests had been elsewhere; and in the
sifting process of a healthy memory he had forgotten the disagreeable
things altogether. He had found the pleasant things still in
existence, faded but still fragrant. Fresh from a land of labour
unions, and of struggle for wealth and power, of strivings first for
equality with those above, and, this attained, for a point of vantage
to look down upon former equals, he had found in old Peter, only the
day before, a touching loyalty to a family from which he could no
longer expect anything in return. Fresh from a land of women's clubs
and women's claims, he had reveled last night in the charming
domestic, life of the old South, so perfectly preserved in a quiet
household. Things Southern, as he had already reflected, lived long
and died hard, and these things which he saw now in the clear light of
day, were also of the South, and singularly suggestive of other things
Southern which he had supposed outlawed and discarded long ago.
"Now, Mr. Haines, bring in the next lot," said the Squire.
The constable led out an old coloured man, clad in a quaint assortment
of tattered garments, whom the colonel did not for a moment recognise,
not having, from where he stood, a full view of the prisoner's face.
"Gentlemen, I now call yo'r attention to Lot Number Fo', left over
from befo' the wah; not much for looks, but respectful and obedient,
and accustomed, for some time past, to eat very little. Can be made
useful in many ways--can feed the chickens, take care of the children,
or would make a good skeercrow. What I am bid, gentlemen, for ol'
Peter French? The amount due the co't is twenty-fo' dollahs and a
half."
There was some laughter at the Squire's facetiousness. Turner, who had
bid on the young and strong men, turned away unconcernedly.
"You'd 'a' made a good auctioneer, Squire," said the one-armed man.
"Thank you, Mr. Pearsall. How much am I offered for this bargain?"
"He'd be dear at any price," said one.
"It's a great risk," observed a second.
"Ten yeahs," said a third.
"You're takin' big chances, Mr. Bennet," said another. "He'll die in
five, and you'll have to bury him."
"I withdraw the bid," said Mr. Bennet promptly.
"Two yeahs," said another.
The colonel was boiling over with indignation. His interest in the
fate of the other prisoners had been merely abstract; in old Peter's
case it assumed a personal aspect. He forced himself into the room and
to the front.
"May I ask the meaning of this proceeding?" he demanded.
"Well, suh," replied the Justice, "I don't know who you are, or what
right you have to interfere, but this is the sale of a vagrant nigger,
with no visible means of suppo't. Perhaps, since you're interested,
you'd like to bid on 'im. Are you from the No'th, likely?"
"Yes."
"I thought, suh, that you looked like a No'the'n man. That bein' so,
doubtless you'd like somethin' on the Uncle Tom order. Old Peter's
fine is twenty dollars, and the costs fo' dollars and a half. The
prisoner's time is sold to whoever pays his fine and allows him the
shortest time to work it out. When his time's up, he goes free."
"And what has old Peter done to deserve a fine of twenty dollars--more
money than he perhaps has ever had at any one time?"
"'Deed, it is, Mars Henry, 'deed it is!" exclaimed Peter, fervently.
"Peter has not been able," replied the magistrate, "to show this co't
that he has reg'lar employment, or means of suppo't, and he was
therefore tried and convicted yesterday evenin' of vagrancy, under our
State law. The fine is intended to discourage laziness and to promote
industry. Do you want to bid, suh? I'm offered two yeahs, gentlemen,
for old Peter French? Does anybody wish to make it less?"
"I'll pay the fine," said the colonel, "let him go."
"I beg yo' pahdon, suh, but that wouldn't fulfil the requi'ments of
the law. He'd be subject to arrest again immediately. Somebody must
take the responsibility for his keep."
"I'll look after him," said the colonel shortly.
"In order to keep the docket straight," said the justice, "I should
want to note yo' bid. How long shall I say?"
"Say what you like," said the colonel, drawing out his pocketbook.
"You don't care to bid, Mr. Turner?" asked the justice.
"Not by a damn sight," replied Turner, with native elegance. "I buy
niggers to work, not to bury."
"I withdraw my bid in favour of the gentleman," said the two-year
bidder.
"Thank you," said the colonel.
"Remember, suh," said the justice to the colonel, "that you are
responsible for his keep as well as entitled to his labour, for the
period of your bid. How long shall I make it?"
"As long as you please," said the colonel impatiently.
"Sold," said the justice, bringing down his gavel, "for life, to--what
name, suh?"
"French--Henry French."
There was some manifestation of interest in the crowd; and the colonel
was stared at with undisguised curiosity as he paid the fine and
costs, which included two dollars for two meals in the guardhouse, and
walked away with his purchase--a purchase which his father had made,
upon terms not very different, fifty years before.
"One of the old Frenches," I reckon, said a bystander, "come back on a
visit."
"Yes," said another, "old 'ristocrats roun' here. Well, they ought to
take keer of their old niggers. They got all the good out of 'em when
they were young. But they're not runnin' things now."
An hour later the colonel, driving leisurely about the outskirts of
the town and seeking to connect his memories more closely with the
scenes around him, met a buggy in which sat the man Turner. After the
buggy, tied behind one another to a rope, like a coffle of slaves,
marched the three Negroes whose time he had bought at the constable's
sale. Among them, of course, was the young man who had been called Bud
Johnson. The colonel observed that this Negro's face, when turned
toward the white man in front of him, expressed a fierce hatred, as of
some wild thing of the woods, which finding itself trapped and
betrayed, would go to any length to injure its captor.
Turner passed the colonel with no sign of recognition or greeting.
Bud Johnson evidently recognised the friendly gentleman who had
interfered in Peter's case. He threw toward the colonel a look which
resembled an appeal; but it was involuntary, and lasted but a moment,
and, when the prisoner became conscious of it, and realised its
uselessness, it faded into the former expression.
What the man's story was, the colonel did not know, nor what were his
deserts. But the events of the day had furnished food for reflection.
Evidently Clarendon needed new light and leading. Men, even black men,
with something to live for, and with work at living wages, would
scarcely prefer an enforced servitude in ropes and chains. And the
punishment had scarcely seemed to fit the crime. He had observed no
great zeal for work among the white people since he came to town; such
work as he had seen done was mostly performed by Negroes. If idleness
were a crime, the Negroes surely had no monopoly of it.
_Nine_
Furnished with money for his keep, Peter was ordered if again molested
to say that he was in the colonel's service. The latter, since his own
plans were for the present uncertain, had no very clear idea of what
disposition he would ultimately make of the old man, but he meant to
provide in some way for his declining years. He also bought Peter a
neat suit of clothes at a clothing store, and directed him to present
himself at the hotel on the following morning. The interval would give
the colonel time to find something for Peter to do, so that he would
be able to pay him a wage. To his contract with the county he attached
little importance; he had already intended, since their meeting in the
cemetery, to provide for Peter in some way, and the legal
responsibility was no additional burden. To Peter himself, to whose
homeless old age food was more than philosophy, the arrangement seemed
entirely satisfactory.
Colonel French's presence in Clarendon had speedily become known to
the public. Upon his return to the hotel, after leaving Peter to his
own devices for the day, he found several cards in his letter box,
left by gentlemen who had called, during his absence, to see him.
The daily mail had also come in, and the colonel sat down in the
office to read it. There was a club notice, and several letters that
had been readdressed and forwarded, and a long one from Kirby in
reference to some detail of the recent transfer. Before he had
finished reading these, a gentleman came up and introduced himself. He
proved to be one John McLean, an old schoolmate of the colonel, and
later a comrade-in-arms, though the colonel would never have
recognised a rather natty major in his own regiment in this shabby
middle-aged man, whose shoes were run down at the heel, whose linen
was doubtful, and spotted with tobacco juice. The major talked about
the weather, which was cool for the season; about the Civil War, about
politics, and about the Negroes, who were very trifling, the major
said. While they were talking upon this latter theme, there was some
commotion in the street, in front of the hotel, and looking up they
saw that a horse, attached to a loaded wagon, had fallen in the
roadway, and having become entangled in the harness, was kicking
furiously. Five or six Negroes were trying to quiet the animal, and
release him from the shafts, while a dozen white men looked on and
made suggestions.
"An illustration," said the major, pointing through the window toward
the scene without, "of what we've got to contend with. Six niggers
can't get one horse up without twice as many white men to tell them
how. That's why the South is behind the No'th. The niggers, in one way
or another, take up most of our time and energy. You folks up there
have half your work done before we get our'n started."
The horse, pulled this way and that, in obedience to the conflicting
advice of the bystanders, only became more and more intricately
entangled. He had caught one foot in a manner that threatened, with
each frantic jerk, to result in a broken leg, when the colonel,
leaving his visitor without ceremony, ran out into the street, leaned
down, and with a few well-directed movements, released the threatened
limb.
"Now, boys," he said, laying hold of the prostrate animal, "give a
hand here."
The Negroes, and, after some slight hesitation, one or two white men,
came to the colonel's aid, and in a moment, the horse, trembling and
blowing, was raised to its feet. The driver thanked the colonel and
the others who had befriended him, and proceeded with his load.
When the flurry of excitement was over, the colonel went back to the
hotel and resumed the conversation with his friend. If the new
franchise amendment went through, said the major, the Negro would be
eliminated from politics, and the people of the South, relieved of the
fear of "nigger domination," could give their attention to better
things, and their section would move forward along the path of
progress by leaps and bounds. Of himself the major said little except
that he had been an alternate delegate to the last Democratic National
Nominating Convention, and that he expected to run for coroner at the
next county election.
"If I can secure the suppo't of Mr. Fetters in the primaries," he
said, "my nomination is assured, and a nomination is of co'se
equivalent to an election. But I see there are some other gentlemen
that would like to talk to you, and I won't take any mo' of yo' time
at present."
"Mr. Blake," he said, addressing a gentleman with short side-whiskers
who was approaching them, "have you had the pleasure of meeting
Colonel French?"
"No, suh," said the stranger, "I shall be glad to have the honour of
an introduction at your hands."
"Colonel French, Mr. Blake--Mr. Blake, Colonel French. You gentlemen
will probably like to talk to one another, because you both belong to
the same party, I reckon. Mr. Blake is a new man roun' heah--come down
from the mountains not mo' than ten yeahs ago, an' fetched his
politics with him; but since he was born that way we don't entertain
any malice against him. Mo'over, he's not a 'Black and Tan
Republican,' but a 'Lily White.'"
"Yes, sir," said Mr. Blake, taking the colonel's hand, "I believe in
white supremacy, and the elimination of the nigger vote. If the
National Republican Party would only ignore the coloured politicians,
and give all the offices to white men, we'll soon build up a strong
white Republican party. If I had the post-office here at Clarendon,
with the encouragement it would give, and the aid of my clerks and
subo'dinates, I could double the white Republican vote in this county
in six months."
The major had left them together, and the Lily White, ere he in turn
made way for another caller, suggested delicately, that he would
appreciate any good word that the colonel might be able to say for him
in influential quarters--either personally or through friends who
might have the ear of the executive or those close to him--in
reference to the postmastership. Realising that the present
administration was a business one, in which sentiment played small
part, he had secured the endorsement of the leading business men of
the county, even that of Mr. Fetters himself. Mr. Fetters was of
course a Democrat, but preferred, since the office must go to a
Republican, that it should go to a Lily White.
"I hope to see mo' of you, sir," he said, "and I take pleasure in
introducing the Honourable Henry Clay Appleton, editor of our local
newspaper, the _Anglo-Saxon_. He and I may not agree on free silver
and the tariff, but we are entirely in harmony on the subject
indicated by the title of his newspaper. Mr. Appleton not only
furnishes all the news that's fit to read, but he represents this
county in the Legislature, along with Mr. Fetters, and he will no
doubt be the next candidate for Congress from this district. He can
tell you all that's worth knowin' about Clarendon."
The colonel shook hands with the editor, who had come with a twofold
intent--to make the visitor's acquaintance and to interview him upon
his impressions of the South. Incidentally he gave the colonel a great
deal of information about local conditions. These were not, he
admitted, ideal. The town was backward. It needed capital to develop
its resources, and it needed to be rid of the fear of Negro
domination. The suffrage in the hands of the Negroes had proved a
ghastly and expensive joke for all concerned, and the public welfare
absolutely demanded that it be taken away. Even the white Republicans
were coming around to the same point of view. The new franchise
amendment to the State constitution was receiving their unqualified
support.
"That was a fine, chivalrous deed of yours this morning, sir," he
said, "at Squire Reddick's office. It was just what might have been
expected from a Southern gentleman; for we claim you, colonel, in
spite of your long absence."
"Yes," returned the colonel, "I don't know what I rescued old Peter
from. It looked pretty dark for him there for a little while. I
shouldn't have envied his fate had he been bought in by the tall
fellow who represented your colleague in the Legislature. The law
seems harsh."
"Well," admitted the editor, "I suppose it might seem harsh, in
comparison with your milder penal systems up North. But you must
consider the circumstances, and make allowances for us. We have so
many idle, ignorant Negroes that something must be done to make them
work, or else they'll steal, and to keep them in their place, or they
would run over us. The law has been in operation only a year or two,
and is already having its effect. I'll be glad to introduce a bill for
its repeal, as soon as it is no longer needed.
"You must bear in mind, too, colonel, that niggers don't look at
imprisonment and enforced labour in the same way white people do--they
are not conscious of any disgrace attending stripes or the ball and
chain. The State is poor; our white children are suffering for lack of
education, and yet we have to spend a large amount of money on the
Negro schools. These convict labour contracts are a source of
considerable revenue to the State; they make up, in fact, for most of
the outlay for Negro education--which I approve of, though I'm frank
to say that so far I don't see much good that's come from it. This
convict labour is humanely treated; Mr. Fetters has the contract for
several counties, and anybody who knows Mr. Fetters knows that there's
no kinder-hearted man in the South."
The colonel disclaimed any intention of criticising. He had come back
to his old home for a brief visit, to rest and to observe. He was
willing to learn and anxious to please. The editor took copious notes
of the interview, and upon his departure shook hands with the colonel
cordially.
The colonel had tactfully let his visitors talk, while he listened, or
dropped a word here and there to draw them out. One fact was driven
home to him by every one to whom he had spoken. Fetters dominated the
county and the town, and apparently the State. His name was on every
lip. His influence was indispensable to every political aspirant. His
acquaintance was something to boast of, and his good will held a
promise of success. And the colonel had once kicked the Honourable Mr.
Fetters, then plain Bill, in presence of an admiring audience, all the
way down Main Street from the academy to the bank! Bill had been, to
all intents and purposes, a poor white boy; who could not have named
with certainty his own grandfather. The Honourable William was
undoubtedly a man of great ability. Had the colonel remained in his
native State, would he have been able, he wondered, to impress himself
so deeply upon the community? Would blood have been of any advantage,
under the changed conditions, or would it have been a drawback to one
who sought political advancement?
When the colonel was left alone, he went to look for Phil, who was
playing with the children of the landlord, in the hotel parlour.
Commending him to the care of the Negro maid in charge of them, he
left the hotel and called on several gentlemen whose cards he had
found in his box at the clerk's desk. Their stores and offices were
within a short radius of the hotel. They were all glad to see him, and
if there was any initial stiffness or shyness in the attitude of any
one, it soon became the warmest cordiality under the influence of the
colonel's simple and unostentatious bearing. If he compared the cut of
their clothes or their beards to his own, to their disadvantage, or if
he found their views narrow and provincial, he gave no sign--their
hearts were warm and their welcome hearty.
The colonel was not able to gather, from the conversation of his
friends, that Clarendon, or any one in the town--always excepting
Fetters, who did not live in the town, but merely overshadowed it--was
especially prosperous. There were no mills or mines in the
neighbourhood, except a few grist mills, and a sawmill. The bulk of
the business consisted in supplying the needs of an agricultural
population, and trading in their products. The cotton was baled and
shipped to the North, and re-imported for domestic use, in the shape
of sheeting and other stuffs. The corn was shipped to the North, and
came back in the shape of corn meal and salt pork, the staple articles
of diet. Beefsteak and butter were brought from the North, at
twenty-five and fifty cents a pound respectively. There were cotton
merchants, and corn and feed merchants; there were dry-goods and
grocery stores, drug stores and saloons--and more saloons--and the
usual proportion of professional men. Since Clarendon was the county
seat, there were of course a court house and a jail. There were
churches enough, if all filled at once, to hold the entire population
of the town, and preachers in proportion. The merchants, of whom a
number were Jewish, periodically went into bankruptcy; the majority of
their customers did likewise, and thus a fellow-feeling was promoted,
and the loss thrown back as far as possible. The lands of the large
farmers were mostly mortgaged, either to Fetters, or to the bank of
which he was the chief stockholder, for all that could be borrowed on
them; while the small farmers, many of whom were coloured, were
practically tied to the soil by ropes of debt and chains of contract.
Every one the colonel met during the afternoon had heard of Squire
Reddick's good joke of the morning. That he should have sold Peter to
the colonel for life was regarded as extremely clever. Some of them
knew old Peter, and none of them had ever known any harm of him, and
they were unanimous in their recognition and applause of the colonel's
goodheartedness. Moreover, it was an index of the colonel's views. He
was one of them, by descent and early associations, but he had been
away a long time, and they hadn't really known how much of a Yankee he
might have become. By his whimsical and kindly purchase of old Peter's
time--or of old Peter, as they smilingly put it, he had shown his
appreciation of the helplessness of the Negroes, and of their proper
relations to the whites.
"What'll you do with him, Colonel?" asked one gentleman. "An ole
nigger like Peter couldn't live in the col' No'th. You'll have to buy
a place down here to keep 'im. They wouldn' let you own a nigger at
the No'th."
The remark, with the genial laugh accompanying it, was sounding in the
colonel's ears, as, on the way back to the hotel, he stepped into the
barber shop. The barber, who had also heard the story, was bursting
with a desire to unbosom himself upon the subject. Knowing from
experience that white gentlemen, in their intercourse with coloured
people, were apt to be, in the local phrase; "sometimey," or uncertain
in their moods, he first tested, with a few remarks about the weather,
the colonel's amiability, and finding him approachable, proved quite
talkative and confidential.
"You're Colonel French, ain't you, suh?" he asked as he began applying
the lather.
"Yes."
"Yes, suh; I had heard you wuz in town, an' I wuz hopin' you would
come in to get shaved. An' w'en I heard 'bout yo' noble conduc' this
mawnin' at Squire Reddick's I wanted you to come in all de mo', suh.
Ole Uncle Peter has had a lot er bad luck in his day, but he has fell
on his feet dis time, suh, sho's you bawn. I'm right glad to see you,
suh. I feels closer to you, suh, than I does to mos' white folks,
because you know, colonel, I'm livin' in the same house you wuz bawn
in."
"Oh, you are the Nichols, are you, who bought our old place?"
"Yes, suh, William Nichols, at yo' service, suh. I've own' de ole
house fer twenty yeahs or mo' now, suh, an' we've b'en mighty
comfo'table in it, suh. They is a spaciousness, an' a air of elegant
sufficiency about the environs and the equipments of the ed'fice, suh,
that does credit to the tas'e of the old aristocracy an' of you-all's
family, an' teches me in a sof' spot. For I loves the aristocracy; an'
I've often tol' my ol' lady, 'Liza,' says I, 'ef I'd be'n bawn white I
sho' would 'a' be'n a 'ristocrat. I feels it in my bones.'"
While the barber babbled on with his shrewd flattery, which was
sincere enough to carry a reasonable amount of conviction, the colonel
listened with curiously mingled feelings. He recalled each plank, each
pane of glass, every inch of wall, in the old house. No spot was
without its associations. How many a brilliant scene of gaiety had
taken place in the spacious parlour where bright eyes had sparkled,
merry feet had twinkled, and young hearts beat high with love and hope
and joy of living! And not only joy had passed that way, but sorrow.
In the front upper chamber his mother had died. Vividly he recalled,
as with closed eyes he lay back under the barber's skilful hand, their
last parting and his own poignant grief; for she had been not only his
mother, but a woman of character, who commanded respect and inspired
affection; a beautiful woman whom he had loved with a devotion that
bordered on reverence.
Romance, too, had waved her magic wand over the old homestead. His
memory smiled indulgently as he recalled one scene. In a corner of the
broad piazza, he had poured out his youthful heart, one summer
evening, in strains of passionate devotion, to his first love, a
beautiful woman of thirty who was visiting his mother, and who had
told him between smiles and tears, to be a good boy and wait a little
longer, until he was sure of his own mind. Even now, he breathed, in
memory, the heavy odour of the magnolia blossoms which overhung the
long wooden porch bench or "jogging board" on which the lady sat,
while he knelt on the hard floor before her. He felt very young indeed
after she had spoken, but her caressing touch upon his hair had so
stirred his heart that his vanity had suffered no wound. Why, the
family had owned the house since they had owned the cemetery lot! It
was hallowed by a hundred memories, and now!----
"Will you have oil on yo' hair, suh, or bay rum?"
"Nichols," exclaimed the colonel, "I should like to buy back the old
house. What do you want for it?"
"Why, colonel," stammered the barber, somewhat taken aback at the
suddenness of the offer, "I hadn' r'ally thought 'bout sellin' it. You
see, suh, I've had it now for twenty years, and it suits me, an' my
child'en has growed up in it--an' it kind of has associations, suh."
In principle the colonel was an ardent democrat; he believed in the
rights of man, and extended the doctrine to include all who bore the
human form. But in feeling he was an equally pronounced aristocrat. A
servant's rights he would have defended to the last ditch; familiarity
he would have resented with equal positiveness. Something of this
ancestral feeling stirred within him now. While Nichols's position in
reference to the house was, in principle, equally as correct as the
colonel's own, and superior in point of time--since impressions, like
photographs, are apt to grow dim with age, and Nichols's were of much
more recent date--the barber's display of sentiment only jarred the
colonel's sensibilities and strengthened his desire.
"I should advise you to speak up, Nichols," said the colonel. "I had
no notion of buying the place when I came in, and I may not be of the
same mind to-morrow. Name your own price, but now's your time."
The barber caught his breath. Such dispatch was unheard-of in
Clarendon. But Nichols, a keen-eyed mulatto, was a man of thrift and
good sense. He would have liked to consult his wife and children about
the sale, but to lose an opportunity to make a good profit was to fly
in the face of Providence. The house was very old. It needed shingling
and painting. The floors creaked; the plaster on the walls was loose;
the chimneys needed pointing and the insurance was soon renewable. He
owned a smaller house in which he could live. He had been told to name
his price; it was as much better to make it too high than too low, as
it was easier to come down than to go up. The would-be purchaser was a
rich man; the diamond on the third finger of his left hand alone would
buy a small house.
"I think, suh," he said, at a bold venture, "that fo' thousand dollars
would be 'bout right."
"I'll take it," returned the colonel, taking out his pocket-book.
"Here's fifty dollars to bind the bargain. I'll write a receipt for
you to sign."
The barber brought pen, ink and paper, and restrained his excitement
sufficiently to keep silent, while the colonel wrote a receipt
embodying the terms of the contract, and signed it with a steady hand.
"Have the deed drawn up as soon as you like," said the colonel, as he
left the shop, "and when it is done I'll give you a draft for the
money."
"Yes, suh; thank you, suh, thank you, colonel."
The barber had bought the house at a tax sale at a time of great
financial distress, twenty years before, for five hundred dollars. He
had made a very good sale, and he lost no time in having the deed
drawn up.
When the colonel reached the hotel, he found Phil seated on the
doorstep with a little bow-legged black boy and a little white dog.
Phil, who had a large heart, had fraternised with the boy and fallen
in love with the dog.
"Papa," he said, "I want to buy this dog. His name is Rover; he can
shake hands, and I like him very much. This little boy wants ten cents
for him, and I did not have the money. I asked him to wait until you
came. May I buy him?"
"Certainly, Phil. Here, boy!"
The colonel threw the black boy a silver dollar. Phil took the dog
under his arm and followed his father into the house, while the other
boy, his glistening eyes glued to the coin in his hand, scampered off
as fast as his limbs would carry him. He was back next morning with a
pretty white kitten, but the colonel discouraged any further purchases
for the time being.
* * * * *
"My dear Laura," said the colonel when he saw his friend the same
evening, "I have been in Clarendon two days; and I have already bought
a dog, a house and a man."
Miss Laura was startled. "I don't understand," she said.
The colonel proceeded to explain the transaction by which he had
acquired, for life, the services of old Peter.
"I suppose it is the law," Miss Laura said, "but it seems hardly
right. I had thought we were well rid of slavery. White men do not
work any too much. Old Peter was not idle. He did odd jobs, when he
could get them; he was polite and respectful; and it was an outrage to
treat him so. I am glad you--hired him."
"Yes--hired him. Moreover, Laura. I have bought a house."
"A house! Then you are going to stay! I am so glad! we shall all be so
glad. What house?"
"The old place. I went into the barber shop. The barber complimented
me on the family taste in architecture, and grew sentimental about
_his_ associations with the house. This awoke _my_ associations, and
the collocation jarred--I was selfish enough to want a monopoly of the
associations. I bought the house from him before I left the shop."
"But what will you do with it?" asked Miss Laura, puzzled. "You could
never _live_ in it again--after a coloured family?"
"Why not? It is no less the old house because the barber has reared
his brood beneath its roof. There were always Negroes in it when we
were there--the place swarmed with them. Hammer and plane, soap and
water, paper and paint, can make it new again. The barber, I
understand, is a worthy man, and has reared a decent family. His
daughter plays the piano, and sings:
_'I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls,
With vassals and serfs by my side.'_
I heard her as I passed there yesterday."
Miss Laura gave an apprehensive start.
"There were Negroes in the house in the old days," he went on
unnoticing, "and surely a good old house, gone farther astray than
ours, might still be redeemed to noble ends. I shall renovate it and
live in it while I am here, and at such times as I may return; or if I
should tire of it, I can give it to the town for a school, or for a
hospital--there is none here. I should like to preserve, so far as I
may, the old associations--_my_ associations. The house might not fall
again into hands as good as those of Nichols, and I should like to
know that it was devoted to some use that would keep the old name
alive in the community."
"I think, Henry," said Miss Laura, "that if your visit is long enough,
you will do more for the town than if you had remained here all your
life. For you have lived in a wider world, and acquired a broader
view; and you have learned new things without losing your love for the
old."
_Ten_
The deed for the house was executed on Friday, Nichols agreeing to
give possession within a week. The lavishness of the purchase price
was a subject of much remark in the town, and Nichols's good fortune
was congratulated or envied, according to the temper of each
individual. The colonel's action in old Peter's case had made him a
name for generosity. His reputation for wealth was confirmed by this
reckless prodigality. There were some small souls, of course, among
the lower whites who were heard to express disgust that, so far, only
"niggers" had profited by the colonel's visit. The _Anglo-Saxon_,
which came out Saturday morning, gave a large amount of space to
Colonel French and his doings. Indeed, the two compositors had
remained up late the night before, setting up copy, and the pressman
had not reached home until three o'clock; the kerosene oil in the
office gave out, and it was necessary to rouse a grocer at midnight to
replenish the supply--so far had the advent of Colonel French
affected the life of the town.
The _Anglo-Saxon_ announced that Colonel Henry French, formerly of
Clarendon, who had won distinction in the Confederate Army, and since
the war achieved fortune at the North, had returned to visit his
birthplace and his former friends. The hope was expressed that Colonel
French, who had recently sold out to a syndicate his bagging mills in
Connecticut, might seek investments in the South, whose vast
undeveloped resources needed only the fructifying flow of abundant
capital to make it blossom like the rose. The New South, the
_Anglo-Saxon_ declared, was happy to welcome capital and enterprise,
and hoped that Colonel French might find, in Clarendon, an agreeable
residence, and an attractive opening for his trained business
energies. That something of the kind was not unlikely, might be
gathered from the fact that Colonel French had already repurchased,
from William Nichols, a worthy negro barber, the old French mansion,
and had taken into his service a former servant of the family, thus
foreshadowing a renewal of local ties and a prolonged residence.
The conduct of the colonel in the matter of his old servant was warmly
commended. The romantic circumstances of their meeting in the
cemetery, and the incident in the justice's court, which were matters
of public knowledge and interest, showed that in Colonel French,
should he decide to resume his residence in Clarendon, his fellow
citizens would find an agreeable neighbour, whose sympathies would be
with the South in those difficult matters upon which North and South
had so often been at variance, but upon which they were now rapidly
becoming one in sentiment.
The colonel, whose active mind could not long remain unoccupied, was
busily engaged during the next week, partly in making plans for the
renovation of the old homestead, partly in correspondence with Kirby
concerning the winding up of the loose ends of their former business.
Thus compelled to leave Phil to the care of some one else, he had an
excellent opportunity to utilise Peter's services. When the old man,
proud of his new clothes, and relieved of any responsibility for his
own future, first appeared at the hotel, the colonel was ready with a
commission.
"Now, Peter," he said, "I'm going to prove my confidence in you, and
test your devotion to the family, by giving you charge of Phil. You
may come and get him in the morning after breakfast--you can get your
meals in the hotel kitchen--and take him to walk in the streets or the
cemetery; but you must be very careful, for he is all I have in the
world. In other words, Peter, you are to take as good care of Phil as
you did of me when I was a little boy."
"I'll look aftuh 'im, Mars Henry, lak he wuz a lump er pyo' gol'. Me
an' him will git along fine, won't we, little Mars Phil?"
"Yes, indeed," replied the child. "I like you, Uncle Peter, and I'll
be glad to go with you."
Phil and the old man proved excellent friends, and the colonel,
satisfied that the boy would be well cared for, gave his attention to
the business of the hour. As soon as Nichols moved out of the old
house, there was a shaking of the dry bones among the mechanics of the
town. A small army of workmen invaded the premises, and repairs and
improvements of all descriptions went rapidly forward--much more
rapidly than was usual in Clarendon, for the colonel let all his work
by contract, and by a system of forfeits and premiums kept it going at
high pressure. In two weeks the house was shingled, painted inside and
out, the fences were renewed, the outhouses renovated, and the grounds
put in order.
The stream of ready money thus put into circulation by the colonel,
soon permeated all the channels of local enterprise. The barber, out
of his profits, began the erection of a row of small houses for
coloured tenants. This gave employment to masons and carpenters, and
involved the sale and purchase of considerable building material.
General trade felt the influence of the enhanced prosperity.
Groceries, dry-goods stores and saloons, did a thriving business. The
ease with which the simply organised community responded to so slight
an inflow of money and energy, was not without a pronounced influence
upon the colonel's future conduct.
When his house was finished, Colonel French hired a housekeeper, a
coloured maid, a cook and a coachman, bought several horses and
carriages, and, having sent to New York for his books and pictures and
several articles of furniture which he had stored there, began
housekeeping in his own establishment. Succumbing willingly to the
charm of old associations, and entering more fully into the social
life of the town, he began insensibly to think of Clarendon as an
established residence, where he would look forward to spending a
certain portion of each year. The climate was good for Phil, and to
bring up the boy safely would be henceforth his chief concern in life.
In the atmosphere of the old town the ideas of race and blood attained
a new and larger perspective. It would be too bad for an old family,
with a fine history, to die out, and Phil was the latest of the line
and the sole hope of its continuance.
The colonel was conscious, somewhat guiltily conscious, that he had
neglected the South and all that pertained to it--except the market
for burlaps and bagging, which several Southern sales agencies had
attended to on behalf of his firm. He was aware, too, that he had felt
a certain amount of contempt for its poverty, its quixotic devotion to
lost causes and vanished ideals, and a certain disgusted impatience
with a people who persistently lagged behind in the march of progress,
and permitted a handful of upstart, blatant, self-seeking demagogues
to misrepresent them, in Congress and before the country, by
intemperate language and persistent hostility to a humble but large
and important part of their own constituency. But he was glad to find
that this was the mere froth upon the surface, and that underneath it,
deep down in the hearts of the people, the currents of life flowed, if
less swiftly, not less purely than in more favoured places.
The town needed an element, which he could in a measure supply by
residing there, if for only a few weeks each year. And that element
was some point of contact with the outer world and its more advanced
thought. He might induce some of his Northern friends to follow his
example; there were many for whom the mild climate in Winter and the
restful atmosphere at all seasons of the year, would be a boon which
correctly informed people would be eager to enjoy.
Of the extent to which the influence of the Treadwell household had
contributed to this frame of mind, the colonel was not conscious. He
had received the freedom of the town, and many hospitable doors were
open to him. As a single man, with an interesting little motherless
child, he did not lack for the smiles of fair ladies, of which the
town boasted not a few. But Mrs. Treadwell's home held the first place
in his affections. He had been there first, and first impressions are
vivid. They had been kind to Phil, who loved them all, and insisted on
Peter's taking him there every day. The colonel found pleasure in Miss
Laura's sweet simplicity and openness of character; to which
Graciella's vivacity and fresh young beauty formed an attractive
counterpart; and Mrs. Treadwell's plaintive minor note had soothed and
satisfied Colonel French in this emotional Indian Summer which marked
his reaction from a long and arduous business career.
_Eleven_
In addition to a pronounced attractiveness of form and feature, Miss
Graciella Treadwell possessed a fine complexion, a clear eye, and an
elastic spirit. She was also well endowed with certain other
characteristics of youth; among them ingenuousness, which, if it be a
fault, experience is sure to correct; and impulsiveness, which even
the school of hard knocks is not always able to eradicate, though it
may chasten. To the good points of Graciella, could be added an
untroubled conscience, at least up to that period when Colonel French
dawned upon her horizon, and for some time thereafter. If she had put
herself foremost in all her thoughts, it had been the unconscious
egotism of youth, with no definite purpose of self-seeking. The things
for which she wished most were associated with distant places, and her
longing for them had never taken the form of envy of those around her.
Indeed envy is scarcely a vice of youth; it is a weed that flourishes
best after the flower of hope has begun to wither. Graciella's views
of life, even her youthful romanticism were sane and healthful; but
since she had not been tried in the furnace of experience, it could
only be said of her that she belonged to the class, always large, but
shifting like the sands of the sea, who have never been tempted, and
therefore do not know whether they would sin or not.
It was inevitable, with such a nature as Graciella's, in such an
embodiment, that the time should come, at some important crisis of her
life, when she must choose between different courses; nor was it
likely that she could avoid what comes sometime to all of us, the
necessity of choosing between good and evil. Her liking for Colonel
French had grown since their first meeting. He knew so many things
that Graciella wished to know, that when he came to the house she
spent a great deal of time in conversation with him. Her aunt Laura
was often busy with household duties, and Graciella, as the least
employed member of the family, was able to devote herself to his
entertainment. Colonel French, a comparatively idle man at this
period, found her prattle very amusing.
It was not unnatural for Graciella to think that this acquaintance
might be of future value; she could scarcely have thought otherwise.
If she should ever go to New York, a rich and powerful friend would be
well worth having. Should her going there be delayed very long, she
would nevertheless have a tie of friendship in the great city, and a
source to which she might at any time apply for information. Her
fondness for Colonel French's society was, however, up to a certain
time, entirely spontaneous, and coloured by no ulterior purpose. Her
hope that his friendship might prove valuable was an afterthought.
It was during this happy period that she was standing, one day, by the
garden gate, when Colonel French passed by in his fine new trap,
driving a spirited horse; and it was with perfect candour that she
waved her hand to him familiarly.
"Would you like a drive?" he called.
"Wouldn't I?" she replied. "Wait till I tell the folks."
She was back in a moment, and ran out of the gate and down the steps.
The colonel gave her his hand and she sprang up beside him.
They drove through the cemetery, and into the outlying part of the
town, where there were some shaded woodland stretches. It was a
pleasant afternoon; cloudy enough to hide the sun. Graciella's eyes
sparkled and her cheek glowed with pleasure, while her light brown
hair blown about her face by the breeze of their rapid motion was like
an aureole.
"Colonel French," she said as they were walking the horse up a hill,
"are you going to give a house warming?"
"Why," he said, "I hadn't thought of it. Ought I to give a house
warming?"
"You surely ought. Everybody will want to see your house while it is
new and bright. You certainly ought to have a house warming."
"Very well," said the colonel. "I make it a rule to shirk no plain
duty. If I _ought_ to have a house warming, I _will_ have it. And you
shall be my social mentor. What sort of a party shall it be?"
"Why not make it," she said brightly, "just such a party as your
father would have had. You have the old house, and the old furniture.
Give an old-time party."
* * * * *
In fitting up his house the colonel had been animated by the same
feeling that had moved him to its purchase. He had endeavoured to
restore, as far as possible, the interior as he remembered it in his
childhood. At his father's death the furniture had been sold and
scattered. He had been able, through the kindly interest of his
friends, to recover several of the pieces. Others that were lost past
hope, had been reproduced from their description. Among those
recovered was a fine pair of brass andirons, and his father's
mahogany desk, which had been purchased by Major Treadwell at the sale
of the elder French's effects.
Miss Laura had been the first to speak of the desk.
"Henry," she had said, "the house would not be complete without your
father's desk. It was my father's too, but yours is the prior claim.
Take it as a gift from me."
He protested, and would have paid for it liberally, and, when she
would take nothing, declared he would not accept it on such terms.
"You are selfish, Henry," she replied, with a smile. "You have brought
a new interest into our lives, and into the town, and you will not let
us make you any return."
"But I am taking from you something you need," he replied, "and for
which you paid. When Major Treadwell bought it, it was merely
second-hand furniture, sold under the hammer. Now it has the value of
an antique--it is a fine piece and could be sold in New York for a
large sum."
"You must take it for nothing, or not at all," she replied firmly.
"It is highway robbery," he said, and could not make up his mind to
yield.
Next day, when the colonel went home, after having been down town an
hour, he found the desk in his library. The Treadwell ladies had
corrupted Peter, who had told them when the colonel would be out of
the house and had brought a cart to take the desk away.
When the house was finished, the interior was simple but beautiful. It
was furnished in the style that had been prevalent fifty years before.
There were some modern additions in the line of comfort and
luxury--soft chairs, fine rugs, and a few choice books and
pictures--for the colonel had not attempted to conform his own tastes
and habits to those of his father. He had some visitors, mostly
gentlemen, and there was, as Graciella knew, a lively curiosity among
the ladies to see the house and its contents.
The suggestion of a house warming had come originally from Mrs.
Treadwell; but Graciella had promptly made it her own and conveyed it
to the colonel.
* * * * *
"A bright idea," he replied. "By all means let it be an old-time
party--say such a party as my father would have given, or my
grandfather. And shall we invite the old people?"
"Well," replied Graciella judicially, "don't have them so old that
they can't talk or hear, and must be fed with a spoon. If there were
too many old, or not enough young people, I shouldn't enjoy myself."
"I suppose I seem awfully old to you," said the colonel,
parenthetically.
"Oh, I don't know," replied Graciella, giving him a frankly critical
look. "When you first came I thought you _were_ rather old--you see,
you are older than Aunt Laura; but you seem to have grown
younger--it's curious, but it's true--and now I hardly think of you as
old at all."
The colonel was secretly flattered. The wisest man over forty likes to
be thought young.
"Very well," he said, "you shall select the guests."
"At an old-time party," continued Graciella, thoughtfully, "the guests
should wear old-time clothes. In grandmother's time the ladies wore
long flowing sleeves----"
"And hoopskirts," said the colonel.
"And their hair down over their ears."
"Or in ringlets."
"Yes, it is all in grandmother's bound volume of _The Ladies' Book_,"
said Graciella. "I was reading it only last week."
"My mother took it," returned the colonel.
"Then you must have read 'Letters from a Pastry Cook,' by N.P. Willis
when they came out?"
"No," said the colonel with a sigh, "I missed that. I--I wasn't able
to read then."
Graciella indulged in a brief mental calculation.
"Why, of course not," she laughed, "you weren't even born when they
came out! But they're fine; I'll lend you our copy. You must ask all
the girls to dress as their mothers and grandmothers used to dress.
Make the requirement elastic, because some of them may not have just
the things for one particular period. I'm all right. We have a cedar
chest in the attic, full of old things. Won't I look funny in a hoop
skirt?"
"You'll look charming in anything," said the colonel.
It was a pleasure to pay Graciella compliments, she so frankly enjoyed
them; and the colonel loved to make others happy. In his New York firm
Mr. French was always ready to consider a request for an advance of
salary; Kirby had often been obliged to play the wicked partner in
order to keep expenses down to a normal level. At parties débutantes
had always expected Mr. French to say something pleasant to them, and
had rarely been disappointed.
The subject of the party was resumed next day at Mrs. Treadwell's,
where the colonel went in the afternoon to call.
"An old-time party," declared the colonel, "should have old-time
amusements. We must have a fiddler, a black fiddler, to play
quadrilles and the Virginia Reel."
"I don't know where you'll find one," said Miss Laura.
"I'll ask Peter," replied the colonel. "He ought to know."
Peter was in the yard with Phil.
"Lawd, Mars Henry!" said Peter, "fiddlers is mighty sca'ce dese days,
but I reckon ole 'Poleon Campbell kin make you shake yo' feet yit, ef
Ole Man Rheumatiz ain' ketched holt er 'im too tight."
"And I will play a minuet on your new piano," said Miss Laura, "and
teach the girls beforehand how to dance it. There should be cards for
those who do not dance."
So the party was arranged. Miss Laura, Graciella and the colonel made
out the list of guests. The invitations were duly sent out for an
old-time party, with old-time costumes--any period between 1830 and
1860 permissible--and old-time entertainment.
The announcement created some excitement in social circles, and, like
all of Colonel French's enterprises at that happy period of his
home-coming, brought prosperity in its train. Dressmakers were kept
busy making and altering costumes for the ladies. Old Archie
Christmas, the mulatto tailor, sole survivor of a once flourishing
craft--Mr. Cohen's Universal Emporium supplied the general public with
ready-made clothing, and, twice a year, the travelling salesman of a
New York tailoring firm visited Clarendon with samples of suitings,
and took orders and measurements--old Archie Christmas, who had not
made a full suit of clothes for years, was able, by making and
altering men's garments for the colonel's party, to earn enough to
keep himself alive for another twelve months. Old Peter was at
Archie's shop one day, and they were talking about old times--good old
times--for to old men old times are always good times, though history
may tell another tale.
"Yo' boss is a godsen' ter dis town," declared old Archie, "he sho'
is. De w'ite folks says de young niggers is triflin' 'cause dey don'
larn how to do nothin'. But what is dere fer 'em to do? I kin 'member
when dis town was full er black an' yaller carpenters an' 'j'iners,
blacksmiths, wagon makers, shoemakers, tinners, saddlers an' cab'net
makers. Now all de fu'nicher, de shoes, de wagons, de buggies, de
tinware, de hoss shoes, de nails to fasten 'em on wid--yas, an' fo' de
Lawd! even de clothes dat folks wears on dere backs, is made at de
Norf, an' dere ain' nothin' lef' fer de ole niggers ter do, let 'lone
de young ones. Yo' boss is de right kin'; I hopes he'll stay 'roun'
here till you an' me dies."
"I hopes wid you," said Peter fervently, "I sho' does! Yas indeed I
does."
Peter was entirely sincere. Never in his life had he worn such good
clothes, eaten such good food, or led so easy a life as in the
colonel's service. Even the old times paled by comparison with this
new golden age; and the long years of poverty and hard luck that
stretched behind him seemed to the old man like a distant and
unpleasant dream.
* * * * *
The party came off at the appointed time, and was a distinct success.
Graciella had made a raid on the cedar chest, and shone resplendent in
crinoline, curls, and a patterned muslin. Together with Miss Laura and
Ben Dudley, who had come in from Mink Run for the party, she was among
the first to arrive. Miss Laura's costume, which belonged to an
earlier date, was in keeping with her quiet dignity. Ben wore a suit
of his uncle's, which the care of old Aunt Viney had preserved
wonderfully well from moth and dust through the years. The men wore
stocks and neckcloths, bell-bottomed trousers with straps under their
shoes, and frock coats very full at the top and buttoned tightly at
the waist. Old Peter, in a long blue coat with brass buttons, acted as
butler, helped by a young Negro who did the heavy work. Miss Laura's
servant Catherine had rallied from her usual gloom and begged the
privilege of acting as lady's maid. 'Poleon Campbell, an old-time
Negro fiddler, whom Peter had resurrected from some obscure cabin,
oiled his rheumatic joints, tuned his fiddle and rosined his bow, and
under the inspiration of good food and drink and liberal wage, played
through his whole repertory, which included such ancient favourites
as, "Fishers' Hornpipe," "Soldiers' Joy," "Chicken in the Bread-tray,"
and the "Campbells are Coming." Miss Laura played a minuet, which the
young people danced. Major McLean danced the highland fling, and some
of the ladies sang old-time songs, and war lyrics, which stirred the
heart and moistened the eyes.
Little Phil, in a child's costume of 1840, copied from _The Ladies'
Book_, was petted and made much of for several hours, until he became
sleepy and was put to bed.
"Graciella," said the colonel to his young friend, during the evening,
"our party is a great success. It was your idea. When it is all over,
I want to make you a present in token of my gratitude. You shall
select it yourself; it shall be whatever you say."
Graciella was very much elated at this mark of the colonel's
friendship. She did not dream of declining the proffered token, and
during the next dance her mind was busily occupied with the question
of what it should be--a ring, a bracelet, a bicycle, a set of books?
She needed a dozen things, and would have liked to possess a dozen
others.
She had not yet decided, when Ben came up to claim her for a dance. On
his appearance, she was struck by a sudden idea. Colonel French was a
man of affairs. In New York he must have a wide circle of influential
acquaintances. Old Mr. Dudley was in failing health; he might die at
any time, and Ben would then be free to seek employment away from
Clarendon. What better place for him than New York? With a position
there, he would be able to marry her, and take her there to live.
This, she decided, should be her request of the colonel--that he
should help her lover to a place in New York.
Her conclusion was really magnanimous. She might profit by it in the
end, but Ben would be the first beneficiary. It was an act of
self-denial, for she was giving up a definite and certain good for a
future contingency.
She was therefore in a pleasant glow of self-congratulatory mood when
she accidentally overheard a conversation not intended for her ears.
She had run out to the dining-room to speak to the housekeeper about
the refreshments, and was returning through the hall, when she stopped
for a moment to look into the library, where those who did not care to
dance were playing cards.
Beyond the door, with their backs turned toward her, sat two ladies
engaged in conversation. One was a widow, a well-known gossip, and the
other a wife known to be unhappily married. They were no longer young,
and their views were marked by the cynicism of seasoned experience.
"Oh, there's no doubt about it," said the widow. "He came down here to
find a wife. He tried a Yankee wife, and didn't like the breed; and
when he was ready for number two, he came back South."
"He showed good taste," said the other.
"That depends," said the widow, "upon whom he chooses. He can probably
have his pick."
"No doubt," rejoined the married lady, with a touch of sarcasm, which
the widow, who was still under forty, chose to ignore.
"I wonder which is it?" said the widow. "I suppose it's Laura; he
spends a great deal of time there, and she's devoted to his little
boy, or pretends to be."
"Don't fool yourself," replied the other earnestly, and not without a
subdued pleasure in disabusing the widow's mind. "Don't fool yourself,
my dear. A man of his age doesn't marry a woman of Laura Treadwell's.
Believe me, it's the little one."
"But she has a beau. There's that tall nephew of old Mr. Dudley's.
He's been hanging around her for a year or two. He looks very handsome
to-night."
"Ah, well, she'll dispose of him fast enough when the time comes. He's
only a poor stick, the last of a good stock run to seed. Why, she's
been pointedly setting her cap at the colonel all the evening. He's
perfectly infatuated; he has danced with her three times to once with
Laura."
"It's sad to see a man make a fool of himself," sighed the widow, who
was not without some remnants of beauty and a heart still warm and
willing. "Children are very forward nowadays."
"There's no fool like an old fool, my dear," replied the other with
the cheerful philosophy of the miserable who love company. "These fair
women are always selfish and calculating; and she's a bold piece. My
husband says Colonel French is worth at least a million. A young wife,
who understands her business, could get anything from him that money
can buy."
"What a pity, my dear," said the widow, with a spice of malice, seeing
her own opportunity, "what a pity that you were older than your
husband! Well, it will be fortunate for the child if she marries an
old man, for beauty of her type fades early."
Old 'Poleon's fiddle, to which one of the guests was improvising an
accompaniment on the colonel's new piano, had struck up "Camptown
Races," and the rollicking lilt of the chorus was resounding through
the house.
_"Gwine ter run all night,
Gwine ter run all day,
I'll bet my money on de bobtail nag,
Oh, who's gwine ter bet on de bay?"_
Ben ran out into the hall. Graciella had changed her position and was
sitting alone, perturbed in mind.
"Come on, Graciella, let's get into the Virginia reel; it's the last
one."
Graciella obeyed mechanically. Ben, on the contrary, was unusually
animated. He had enjoyed the party better than any he had ever
attended. He had not been at many.
Colonel French, who had entered with zest into the spirit of the
occasion, participated in the reel. Every time Graciella touched his
hand, it was with the consciousness of a new element in their
relations. Until then her friendship for Colonel French had been
perfectly ingenuous. She had liked him because he was interesting, and
good to her in a friendly way. Now she realised that he was a
millionaire, eligible for marriage, from whom a young wife, if she
understood her business, might secure the gratification of every wish.
The serpent had entered Eden. Graciella had been tendered the apple.
She must choose now whether she would eat.
When the party broke up, the colonel was congratulated on every hand.
He had not only given his guests a delightful evening. He had restored
an ancient landmark; had recalled, to a people whose life lay mostly
in the past, the glory of days gone by, and proved his loyalty to
their cherished traditions.
Ben Dudley walked home with Graciella. Miss Laura went ahead of them
with Catherine, who was cheerful in the possession of a substantial
reward for her services.
"You're not sayin' much to-night," said Ben to his sweetheart, as they
walked along under the trees.
Graciella did not respond.
"You're not sayin' much to-night," he repeated.
"Yes," returned Graciella abstractedly, "it was a lovely party!"
Ben said no more. The house warming had also given him food for
thought. He had noticed the colonel's attentions to Graciella, and had
heard them remarked upon. Colonel French was more than old enough to
be Graciella's father; but he was rich. Graciella was poor and
ambitious. Ben's only assets were youth and hope, and priority in the
field his only claim.
Miss Laura and Catherine had gone in, and when the young people came
to the gate, the light still shone through the open door.
"Graciella," he said, taking her hand in his as they stood a moment,
"will you marry me?"
"Still harping on the same old string," she said, withdrawing her
hand. "I'm tired now, Ben, too tired to talk foolishness."
"Very well, I'll save it for next time. Good night, sweetheart."
She had closed the gate between them. He leaned over it to kiss her,
but she evaded his caress and ran lightly up the steps.
"Good night, Ben," she called.
"Good night, sweetheart," he replied, with a pang of foreboding.
In after years, when the colonel looked back upon his residence in
Clarendon, this seemed to him the golden moment. There were other
times that stirred deeper emotions--the lust of battle, the joy of
victory, the chagrin of defeat--moments that tried his soul with tests
almost too hard. But, thus far, his new career in Clarendon had been
one of pleasant experiences only, and this unclouded hour was its
fitting crown.
_Twelve_
Whenever the colonel visited the cemetery, or took a walk in that
pleasant quarter of the town, he had to cross the bridge from which
was visible the site of the old Eureka cotton mill of his boyhood, and
it was not difficult to recall that it had been, before the War, a
busy hive of industry. On a narrow and obscure street, little more
than an alley, behind the cemetery, there were still several crumbling
tenements, built for the mill operatives, but now occupied by a
handful of abjectly poor whites, who kept body and soul together
through the doubtful mercy of God and a small weekly dole from the
poormaster. The mill pond, while not wide-spreading, had extended back
some distance between the sloping banks, and had furnished swimming
holes, fishing holes, and what was more to the point at present, a
very fine head of water, which, as it struck the colonel more forcibly
each time he saw it, offered an opportunity that the town could ill
afford to waste. Shrewd minds in the cotton industry had long ago
conceived the idea that the South, by reason of its nearness to the
source of raw material, its abundant water power, and its cheaper
labour, partly due to the smaller cost of living in a mild climate,
and the absence of labour agitation, was destined in time to rival and
perhaps displace New England in cotton manufacturing. Many Southern
mills were already in successful operation. But from lack of capital,
or lack of enterprise, nothing of the kind had ever been undertaken in
Clarendon although the town was the centre of a cotton-raising
district, and there was a mill in an adjoining county. Men who owned
land mortgaged it for money to raise cotton; men who rented land from
others mortgaged their crops for the same purpose.
It was easy to borrow money in Clarendon--on adequate security--at ten
per cent., and Mr. Fetters, the magnate of the county, was always
ready, the colonel had learned, to accommodate the needy who could
give such security. He had also discovered that Fetters was acquiring
the greater part of the land. Many a farmer imagined that he owned a
farm, when he was, actually, merely a tenant of Fetters. Occasionally
Fetters foreclosed a mortgage, when there was plainly no more to be
had from it, and bought in the land, which he added to his own
holdings in fee. But as a rule, he found it more profitable to let the
borrower retain possession and pay the interest as nearly as he could;
the estate would ultimately be good for the debt, if the debtor did
not live too long--worry might be counted upon to shorten his
days--and the loan, with interest, could be more conveniently
collected at his death. To bankrupt an estate was less personal than
to break an individual; and widows, and orphans still in their
minority, did not vote and knew little about business methods.
To a man of action, like the colonel, the frequent contemplation of
the unused water power, which might so easily be harnessed to the car
of progress, gave birth, in time, to a wish to see it thus utilised,
and the further wish to stir to labour the idle inhabitants of the
neighbourhood. In all work the shiftless methods of an older
generation still survived. No one could do anything in a quarter of an
hour. Nearly all tasks were done by Negroes who had forgotten how to
work, or by white people who had never learned. But the colonel had
already seen the reviving effect of a little money, directed by a
little energy. And so he planned to build a new and larger cotton mill
where the old had stood; to shake up this lethargic community; to put
its people to work, and to teach them habits of industry, efficiency
and thrift. This, he imagined, would be pleasant occupation for his
vacation, as well as a true missionary enterprise--a contribution to
human progress. Such a cotton mill would require only an
inconsiderable portion of his capital, the body of which would be left
intact for investment elsewhere; it would not interfere at all with
his freedom of movement; for, once built, equipped and put in
operation under a competent manager, it would no more require his
personal oversight than had the New England bagging mills which his
firm had conducted for so many years.
From impulse to action was, for the colonel's temperament, an easy
step, and he had scarcely moved into his house, before he quietly set
about investigating the title to the old mill site. It had been
forfeited many years before, he found, to the State, for non-payment
of taxes. There having been no demand for the property at any time
since, it had never been sold, but held as a sort of lapsed asset,
subject to sale, but open also, so long as it remained unsold, to
redemption upon the payment of back taxes and certain fees. The amount
of these was ascertained; it was considerably less than the fair value
of the property, which was therefore redeemable at a profit.
The owners, however, were widely scattered, for the mill had belonged
to a joint-stock company composed of a dozen or more members. Colonel
French was pleasantly surprised, upon looking up certain musty public
records in the court house, to find that he himself was the owner, by
inheritance, of several shares of stock which had been overlooked in
the sale of his father's property. Retaining the services of Judge
Bullard, the leading member of the Clarendon bar, he set out quietly
to secure options upon the other shares. This involved an extensive
correspondence, which occupied several weeks. For it was necessary
first to find, and then to deal with the scattered representatives of
the former owners.
_Thirteen_
In engaging Judge Bullard, the colonel had merely stated to the lawyer
that he thought of building a cotton-mill, but had said nothing about
his broader plan. It was very likely, he recognised, that the people
of Clarendon might not relish the thought that they were regarded as
fit subjects for reform. He knew that they were sensitive, and quick
to resent criticism. If some of them might admit, now and then, among
themselves, that the town was unprogressive, or declining, there was
always some extraneous reason given--the War, the carpetbaggers, the
Fifteenth Amendment, the Negroes. Perhaps not one of them had ever
quite realised the awful handicap of excuses under which they
laboured. Effort was paralysed where failure was so easily explained.
That the condition of the town might be due to causes within
itself--to the general ignorance, self-satisfaction and lack of
enterprise, had occurred to only a favoured few; the younger of these
had moved away, seeking a broader outlook elsewhere; while those who
remained were not yet strong enough nor brave enough to break with the
past and urge new standards of thought and feeling.
So the colonel kept his larger purpose to himself until a time when
greater openness would serve to advance it. Thus Judge Bullard, not
being able to read his client's mind, assumed very naturally that the
contemplated enterprise was to be of a purely commercial nature,
directed to making the most money in the shortest time.
"Some day, Colonel," he said, with this thought in mind, "you might
get a few pointers by running over to Carthage and looking through the
Excelsior Mills. They get more work there for less money than anywhere
else in the South. Last year they declared a forty per cent. dividend.
I know the superintendent, and will give you a letter of introduction,
whenever you like."
The colonel bore the matter in mind, and one morning, a day or two
after his party, set out by train, about eight o'clock in the morning,
for Carthage, armed with a letter from the lawyer to the
superintendent of the mills.
The town was only forty miles away; but a cow had been caught in a
trestle across a ditch, and some time was required for the train crew
to release her. Another stop was made in the middle of a swamp, to put
off a light mulatto who had presumed on his complexion to ride in the
white people's car. He had been successfully spotted, but had
impudently refused to go into the stuffy little closet provided at the
end of the car for people of his class. He was therefore given an
opportunity to reflect, during a walk along the ties, upon his true
relation to society. Another stop was made for a gentleman who had
sent a Negro boy ahead to flag the train and notify the conductor that
he would be along in fifteen or twenty minutes with a couple of lady
passengers. A hot journal caused a further delay. These interruptions
made it eleven o'clock, a three-hours' run, before the train reached
Carthage.
The town was much smaller than Clarendon. It comprised a public square
of several acres in extent, on one side of which was the railroad
station, and on another the court house. One of the remaining sides
was occupied by a row of shops; the fourth straggled off in various
directions. The whole wore a neglected air. Bales of cotton goods were
piled on the platform, apparently just unloaded from wagons standing
near. Several white men and Negroes stood around and stared listlessly
at the train and the few who alighted from it.
Inquiring its whereabouts from one of the bystanders, the colonel
found the nearest hotel--a two-story frame structure, with a piazza
across the front, extending to the street line. There was a buggy
standing in front, its horse hitched to one of the piazza posts. Steps
led up from the street, but one might step from the buggy to the floor
of the piazza, which was without a railing.
The colonel mounted the steps and passed through the door into a small
room, which he took for the hotel office, since there were chairs
standing against the walls, and at one side a table on which a
register lay open. The only person in the room, beside himself, was a
young man seated near the door, with his feet elevated to the back of
another chair, reading a newspaper from which he did not look up.
The colonel, who wished to make some inquiries and to register for the
dinner which he might return to take, looked around him for the clerk,
or some one in authority, but no one was visible. While waiting, he
walked over to the desk and turned over the leaves of the dog-eared
register. He recognised only one name--that of Mr. William Fetters,
who had registered there only a day or two before.
No one had yet appeared. The young man in the chair was evidently not
connected with the establishment. His expression was so forbidding,
not to say arrogant, and his absorption in the newspaper so complete,
that the colonel, not caring to address him, turned to the right and
crossed a narrow hall to a room beyond, evidently a parlour, since it
was fitted up with a faded ingrain carpet, a centre table with a red
plush photograph album, and several enlarged crayon portraits hung
near the ceiling--of the kind made free of charge in Chicago from
photographs, provided the owner orders a frame from the company. No
one was in the room, and the colonel had turned to leave it, when he
came face to face with a lady passing through the hall.
"Are you looking for some one?" she asked amiably, having noted his
air of inquiry.
"Why, yes, madam," replied the colonel, removing his hat, "I was
looking for the proprietor--or the clerk."
"Why," she replied, smiling, "that's the proprietor sitting there in
the office. I'm going in to speak to him, and you can get his
attention at the same time."
Their entrance did not disturb the young man's reposeful attitude,
which remained as unchanged as that of a graven image; nor did he
exhibit any consciousness at their presence.
"I want a clean towel, Mr. Dickson," said the lady sharply.
The proprietor looked up with an annoyed expression.
"Huh?" he demanded, in a tone of resentment mingled with surprise.
"A clean towel, if you please."
The proprietor said nothing more to the lady, nor deigned to notice
the colonel at all, but lifted his legs down from the back of the
chair, rose with a sigh, left the room and returned in a few minutes
with a towel, which he handed ungraciously to the lady. Then, still
paying no attention to the colonel, he resumed his former attitude,
and returned to the perusal of his newspaper--certainly the most
unconcerned of hotel keepers, thought the colonel, as a vision of
spacious lobbies, liveried porters, and obsequious clerks rose before
his vision. He made no audible comment, however, but merely stared at
the young man curiously, left the hotel, and inquired of a passing
Negro the whereabouts of the livery stable. A few minutes later he
found the place without difficulty, and hired a horse and buggy.
While the stable boy was putting the harness on the horse, the colonel
related to the liveryman, whose manner was energetic and
business-like, and who possessed an open countenance and a sympathetic
eye, his experience at the hotel.
"Oh, yes," was the reply, "that's Lee Dickson all over. That hotel
used to be kep' by his mother. She was a widow woman, an' ever since
she died, a couple of months ago, Lee's been playin' the big man,
spendin' the old lady's money, and enjoyin' himself. Did you see that
hoss'n'-buggy hitched in front of the ho-tel?"
"Yes."
"Well, that's Lee's buggy. He hires it from us. We send it up every
mornin' at nine o'clock, when Lee gits up. When he's had his breakfas'
he comes out an' gits in the buggy, an' drives to the barber-shop nex'
door, gits out, goes in an' gits shaved, comes out, climbs in the
buggy, an' drives back to the ho-tel. Then he talks to the cook, comes
out an' gits in the buggy, an' drives half-way 'long that side of the
square, about two hund'ed feet, to the grocery sto', and orders half a
pound of coffee or a pound of lard, or whatever the ho-tel needs for
the day, then comes out, climbs in the buggy and drives back. When the
mail comes in, if he's expectin' any mail, he drives 'cross the square
to the post-office, an' then drives back to the ho-tel. There's other
lazy men roun' here, but Lee Dickson takes the cake. However, it's
money in our pocket, as long as it keeps up."
"I shouldn't think it would keep up long," returned the colonel. "How
can such a hotel prosper?"
"It don't!" replied the liveryman, "but it's the best in town."
"I don't see how there could be a worse," said the colonel.
"There couldn't--it's reached bed rock."
The buggy was ready by this time, and the colonel set out, with a
black driver, to find the Excelsior Cotton Mills. They proved to be
situated in a desolate sandhill region several miles out of town. The
day was hot; the weather had been dry, and the road was deep with a
yielding white sand into which the buggy tires sank. The horse soon
panted with the heat and the exertion, and the colonel, dressed in
brown linen, took off his hat and mopped his brow with his
handkerchief. The driver, a taciturn Negro--most of the loquacious,
fun-loving Negroes of the colonel's youth seemed to have
disappeared--flicked a horsefly now and then, with his whip, from the
horse's sweating back.
The first sign of the mill was a straggling group of small frame
houses, built of unpainted pine lumber. The barren soil, which would
not have supported a firm lawn, was dotted with scraggy bunches of
wiregrass. In the open doorways, through which the flies swarmed in
and out, grown men, some old, some still in the prime of life, were
lounging, pipe in mouth, while old women pottered about the yards, or
pushed back their sunbonnets to stare vacantly at the advancing buggy.
Dirty babies were tumbling about the cabins. There was a lean and
listless yellow dog or two for every baby; and several slatternly
black women were washing clothes on the shady sides of the houses. A
general air of shiftlessness and squalor pervaded the settlement.
There was no sign of joyous childhood or of happy youth.
A turn in the road brought them to the mill, the distant hum of which
had already been audible. It was a two-story brick structure with many
windows, altogether of the cheapest construction, but situated on the
bank of a stream and backed by a noble water power.
They drew up before an open door at one corner of the building. The
colonel alighted, entered, and presented his letter of introduction.
The superintendent glanced at him keenly, but, after reading the
letter, greeted him with a show of cordiality, and called a young man
to conduct the visitor through the mill.
The guide seemed in somewhat of a hurry, and reticent of speech; nor
was the noise of the machinery conducive to conversation. Some of the
colonel's questions seemed unheard, and others were imperfectly
answered. Yet the conditions disclosed by even such an inspection
were, to the colonel, a revelation. Through air thick with flying
particles of cotton, pale, anæmic young women glanced at him
curiously, with lack-luster eyes, or eyes in which the gleam was not
that of health, or hope, or holiness. Wizened children, who had never
known the joys of childhood, worked side by side at long rows of
spools to which they must give unremitting attention. Most of the
women were using snuff, the odour of which was mingled with the flying
particles of cotton, while the floor was thickly covered with
unsightly brown splotches.
When they had completed the tour of the mills and returned to the
office, the colonel asked some questions of the manager about the
equipment, the output, and the market, which were very promptly and
courteously answered. To those concerning hours and wages the replies
were less definite, and the colonel went away impressed as much by
what he had not learned as by what he had seen.
While settling his bill at the livery stable, he made further
inquiries.
"Lord, yes," said the liveryman in answer to one of them, "I can tell
you all you want to know about that mill. Talk about nigger
slavery--the niggers never were worked like white women and children
are in them mills. They work 'em from twelve to sixteen hours a day
for from fifteen to fifty cents. Them triflin' old pinelanders out
there jus' lay aroun' and raise children for the mills, and then set
down and chaw tobacco an' live on their children's wages. It's a sin
an' a shame, an' there ought to be a law ag'inst it."
The conversation brought out the further fact that vice was rampant
among the millhands.
"An' it ain't surprisin'," said the liveryman, with indignation
tempered by the easy philosophy of hot climates. "Shut up in jail all
day, an' half the night, never breathin' the pyo' air, or baskin' in
God's bright sunshine; with no books to read an' no chance to learn,
who can blame the po'r things if they have a little joy in the only
way they know?"
"Who owns the mill?" asked the colonel.
"It belongs to a company," was the reply, "but Old Bill Fetters owns a
majority of the stock--durn, him!"
The colonel felt a thrill of pleasure--he had met a man after his own
heart.
"You are not one of Fetters's admirers then?" he asked.
"Not by a durn sight," returned the liveryman promptly. "When I look
at them white gals, that ought to be rosy-cheeked an' bright-eyed an'
plump an' hearty an' happy, an' them po' little child'en that never
get a chance to go fishin' or swimmin' or to learn anything, I allow I
wouldn' mind if the durned old mill would catch fire an' burn down.
They work children there from six years old up, an' half of 'em die of
consumption before they're grown. It's a durned outrage, an' if I ever
go to the Legislatur', for which I mean to run, I'll try to have it
stopped."
"I hope you will be elected," said the colonel. "What time does the
train go back to Clarendon?"
"Four o'clock, if she's on time--but it may be five."
"Do you suppose I can get dinner at the hotel?"
"Oh, yes! I sent word up that I 'lowed you might be back, so they'll
be expectin' you."
The proprietor was at the desk when the colonel went in. He wrote his
name on the book, and was served with an execrable dinner. He paid his
bill of half a dollar to the taciturn proprietor, and sat down on the
shady porch to smoke a cigar. The proprietor, having put the money in
his pocket, came out and stepped into his buggy, which was still
standing alongside the piazza. The colonel watched him drive a stone's
throw to a barroom down the street, get down, go in, come out a few
minutes later, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, climb into
the buggy, drive back, step out and re-enter the hotel.
It was yet an hour to train time, and the colonel, to satisfy an
impulse of curiosity, strolled over to the court house, which could be
seen across the square, through the trees. Requesting leave of the
Clerk in the county recorder's office to look at the records of
mortgages, he turned the leaves over and found that a large proportion
of the mortgages recently recorded--among them one on the hotel
property--had been given to Fetters.
The whistle of the train was heard in the distance as the colonel
recrossed the square. Glancing toward the hotel, he saw the landlord
come out, drive across the square to the station, and sit there until
the passengers had alighted. To a drummer with a sample case, he
pointed carelessly across the square to the hotel, but made no
movement to take the baggage; and as the train moved off, the colonel,
looking back, saw him driving back to the hotel.
Fetters had begun to worry the colonel. He had never seen the man, and
yet his influence was everywhere. He seemed to brood over the country
round about like a great vampire bat, sucking the life-blood of the
people. His touch meant blight. As soon as a Fetters mortgage rested
on a place, the property began to run down; for why should the nominal
owner keep up a place which was destined in the end to go to Fetters?
The colonel had heard grewsome tales of Fetters's convict labour
plantation; he had seen the operation of Fetters's cotton-mill, where
white humanity, in its fairest and tenderest form, was stunted and
blighted and destroyed; and he had not forgotten the scene in the
justice's office.
The fighting blood of the old Frenches was stirred. The colonel's
means were abundant; he did not lack the sinews of war. Clarendon
offered a field for profitable investment. He would like to do
something for humanity, something to offset Fetters and his kind, who
were preying upon the weaknesses of the people, enslaving white and
black alike. In a great city, what he could give away would have been
but a slender stream, scarcely felt in the rivers of charity poured
into the ocean of want; and even his considerable wealth would have
made him only a small stockholder in some great aggregation of
capital. In this backward old town, away from the great centres of
commerce, and scarcely feeling their distant pulsebeat, except when
some daring speculator tried for a brief period to corner the cotton
market, he could mark with his own eyes the good he might accomplish.
It required no great stretch of imagination to see the town, a few
years hence, a busy hive of industry, where no man, and no woman
obliged to work, need be without employment at fair wages; where the
trinity of peace, prosperity and progress would reign supreme; where
men like Fetters and methods like his would no longer be tolerated.
The forces of enlightenment, set in motion by his aid, and supported
by just laws, should engage the retrograde forces represented by
Fetters. Communities, like men, must either grow or decay, advance or
decline; they could not stand still. Clarendon was decaying. Fetters
was the parasite which, by sending out its roots toward rich and poor
alike, struck at both extremes of society, and was choking the life of
the town like a rank and deadly vine.
The colonel could, if need be, spare the year or two of continuous
residence needed to rescue Clarendon from the grasp of Fetters. The
climate agreed with Phil, who was growing like a weed; and the colonel
could easily defer for a little while his scheme of travel, and the
further disposition of his future.
So, when he reached home that night, he wrote an answer to a long and
gossipy letter received from Kirby about that time, in which the
latter gave a detailed account of what was going on in the colonel's
favourite club and among their mutual friends, and reported progress
in the search for some venture worthy of their mettle. The colonel
replied that Phil and he were well, that he was interesting himself in
a local enterprise which would certainly occupy him for some months,
and that he would not visit New York during the summer, unless it were
to drop in for a day or two on business and return immediately.
A letter from Mrs. Jerviss, received about the same time, was less
easily disposed of. She had learned, from Kirby, of the chivalrous
manner in which Mr. French had protected her interests and spared her
feelings in the fight with Consolidated Bagging. She had not been
able, she said, to thank him adequately before he went away, because
she had not known how much she owed him; nor could she fittingly
express herself on paper. She could only renew her invitation to him
to join her house party at Newport in July. The guests would be
friends of his--she would be glad to invite any others that he might
suggest. She would then have the opportunity to thank him in person.
The colonel was not unmoved by this frank and grateful letter, and he
knew perfectly well what reward he might claim from her gratitude. Had
the letter come a few weeks sooner, it might have had a different
answer. But, now, after the first pang of regret, his only problem was
how to refuse gracefully her offered hospitality. He was sorry, he
replied, not to be able to join her house party that summer, but
during the greater part of it he would be detained in the South by
certain matters into which he had been insensibly drawn. As for her
thanks, she owed him none; he had only done his duty, and had already
been thanked too much.
So thoroughly had Colonel French entered into the spirit of his yet
undefined contest with Fetters, that his life in New York, save when
these friendly communications recalled it, seemed far away, and of
slight retrospective interest. Every one knows of the "blind spot" in
the field of vision. New York was for the time being the colonel's
blind spot. That it might reassert its influence was always possible,
but for the present New York was of no more interest to him than
Canton or Bogota. Having revelled for a few pleasant weeks in memories
of a remoter past, the reaction had projected his thoughts forward
into the future. His life in New York, and in the Clarendon of the
present--these were mere transitory embodiments; he lived in the
Clarendon yet to be, a Clarendon rescued from Fetters, purified,
rehabilitated; and no compassionate angel warned him how tenacious of
life that which Fetters stood for might be--that survival of the
spirit of slavery, under which the land still groaned and
travailed--the growth of generations, which it would take more than
one generation to destroy.
In describing to Judge Bullard his visit to the cotton mill, the
colonel was not sparing of his indignation.
"The men," he declared with emphasis, "who are responsible for that
sort of thing, are enemies of mankind. I've been in business for
twenty years, but I have never sought to make money by trading on the
souls and bodies of women and children. I saw the little darkies
running about the streets down there at Carthage; they were poor and
ragged and dirty, but they were out in the air and the sunshine; they
have a chance to get their growth; to go to school and learn
something. The white children are worked worse than slaves, and are
growing up dulled and stunted, physically and mentally. Our folks down
here are mighty short-sighted, judge. We'll wake them up. We'll build
a model cotton mill, and run it with decent hours and decent wages,
and treat the operatives like human beings with bodies to nourish,
minds to develop; and souls to save. Fetters and his crowd will have
to come up to our standard, or else we'll take their hands away."
Judge Bullard had looked surprised when the colonel began his
denunciation; and though he said little, his expression, when the
colonel had finished, was very thoughtful and not altogether happy.
_Fourteen_
It was the week after the colonel's house warming.
Graciella was not happy. She was sitting, erect and graceful, as she
always sat, on the top step of the piazza. Ben Dudley occupied the
other end of the step. His model stood neglected beside him, and he
was looking straight at Graciella, whose eyes, avoiding his, were bent
upon a copy of "Jane Eyre," held open in her hand. There was an
unwonted silence between them, which Ben was the first to break.
"Will you go for a walk with me?" he asked.
"I'm sorry, Ben," she replied, "but I have an engagement to go driving
with Colonel French."
Ben's dark cheek grew darker, and he damned Colonel French softly
beneath his breath. He could not ask Graciella to drive, for their old
buggy was not fit to be seen, and he had no money to hire a better
one. The only reason why he ever had wanted money was because of her.
If she must have money, or the things that money alone would buy, he
must get money, or lose her. As long as he had no rival there was
hope. But could he expect to hold his own against a millionaire, who
had the garments and the manners of the great outside world?
"I suppose the colonel's here every night, as well as every day," he
said, "and that you talk to him all the time."
"No, Ben, he isn't here every night, nor every day. His old darky,
Peter, brings Phil over every day; but when the colonel comes he talks
to grandmother and Aunt Laura, as well as to me."
Graciella had risen from the step, and was now enthroned in a
splint-bottomed armchair, an attitude more in keeping with the air of
dignity which she felt constrained to assume as a cloak for an uneasy
conscience.
Graciella was not happy. She had reached the parting of the ways, and
realised that she must choose between them. And yet she hesitated.
Every consideration of prudence dictated that she choose Colonel
French rather than Ben. The colonel was rich and could gratify all her
ambitions. There could be no reasonable doubt that he was fond of her;
and she had heard it said, by those more experienced than she and
therefore better qualified to judge, that he was infatuated with her.
Certainly he had shown her a great deal of attention. He had taken her
driving; he had lent her books and music; he had brought or sent the
New York paper every day for her to read.
He had been kind to her Aunt Laura, too, probably for her niece's
sake; for the colonel was kind by nature, and wished to make everyone
about him happy. It was fortunate that her Aunt Laura was fond of
Philip. If she should decide to marry the colonel, she would have her
Aunt Laura come and make her home with them: she could give Philip the
attention with which his stepmother's social duties might interfere.
It was hardly likely that her aunt entertained any hope of marriage;
indeed, Miss Laura had long since professed herself resigned to old
maidenhood.
But in spite of these rosy dreams, Graciella was not happy. To marry
the colonel she must give up Ben; and Ben, discarded, loomed up larger
than Ben, accepted. She liked Ben; she was accustomed to Ben. Ben was
young, and youth attracted youth. Other things being equal, she would
have preferred him to the colonel. But Ben was poor; he had nothing
and his prospects for the future were not alluring. He would inherit
little, and that little not until his uncle's death. He had no
profession. He was not even a good farmer, and trifled away, with his
useless models and mechanical toys, the time he might have spent in
making his uncle's plantation productive. Graciella did not know that
Fetters had a mortgage on the plantation, or Ben's prospects would
have seemed even more hopeless.
She felt sorry not only for herself, but for Ben as well--sorry that
he should lose her--for she knew that he loved her sincerely. But her
first duty was to herself. Conscious that she possessed talents,
social and otherwise, it was not her view of creative wisdom that it
should implant in the mind tastes and in the heart longings destined
never to be realised. She must discourage Ben--gently and gradually,
for of course he would suffer; and humanity, as well as friendship,
counselled kindness. A gradual breaking off, too, would be less
harrowing to her own feelings.
"I suppose you admire Colonel French immensely," said Ben, with
assumed impartiality.
"Oh, I like him reasonably well," she said with an equal lack of
candour. "His conversation is improving. He has lived in the
metropolis, and has seen so much of the world that he can scarcely
speak without saying something interesting. It's a liberal education
to converse with people who have had opportunities. It helps to
prepare my mind for life at the North."
"You set a great deal of store by the North, Graciella. Anybody would
allow, to listen to you, that you didn't love your own country."
"I love the South, Ben, as I loved Aunt Lou, my old black mammy. I've
laid in her arms many a day, and I 'most cried my eyes out when she
died. But that didn't mean that I never wanted to see any one else.
Nor am I going to live in the South a minute longer than I can help,
because it's too slow. And New York isn't all--I want to travel and
see the world. The South is away behind."
She had said much the same thing weeks before; but then it had been
spontaneous. Now she was purposely trying to make Ben see how
unreasonable was his hope.
Ben stood, as he obscurely felt, upon delicate ground. Graciella had
not been the only person to overhear remarks about the probability of
the colonel's seeking a wife in Clarendon, and jealousy had sharpened
Ben's perceptions while it increased his fears. He had little to offer
Graciella. He was not well educated; he had nothing to recommend him
but his youth and his love for her. He could not take her to Europe,
or even to New York--at least not yet.
"And at home," Graciella went on seriously, "at home I should want
several houses--a town house, a country place, a seaside cottage. When
we were tired of one we could go to another, or live in hotels--in the
winter in Florida, at Atlantic City in the spring, at Newport in the
summer. They say Long Branch has gone out entirely."
Ben had a vague idea that Long Branch was by the seaside, and exposed
to storms. "Gone out to sea?" he asked absently. He was sick for love
of her, and she was dreaming of watering places.
"No, Ben," said Graciella, compassionately. Poor Ben had so little
opportunity for schooling! He was not to blame for his want of
knowledge; but could she throw herself away upon an ignoramus? "It's
still there, but has gone out of fashion."
"Oh, excuse me! I'm not posted on these fashionable things."
Ben relapsed into gloom. The model remained untouched. He could not
give Graciella a house; he would not have a house until his uncle
died. Graciella had never seemed so beautiful as to-day, as she sat,
dressed in the cool white gown which Miss Laura's slender fingers had
done up, and with her hair dressed after the daintiest and latest
fashion chronicled in the _Ladies' Fireside Journal_. No wonder, he
thought, that a jaded old man of the world like Colonel French should
delight in her fresh young beauty!
But he would not give her up without a struggle. She had loved him;
she must love him still; and she would yet be his, if he could keep
her true to him or free from any promise to another, until her deeper
feelings could resume their sway. It could not be possible, after all
that had passed between them, that she meant to throw him over, nor
was he a man that she could afford to treat in such a fashion. There
was more in him than Graciella imagined; he was conscious of latent
power of some kind, though he knew not what, and something would
surely happen, sometime, somehow, to improve his fortunes. And there
was always the hope, the possibility of finding the lost money.
He had brought his great-uncle Ralph's letter with him, as he had
promised Graciella. When she read it, she would see the reasonableness
of his hope, and might be willing to wait, at least a little while.
Any delay would be a point gained. He shuddered to think that he might
lose her, and then, the day after the irrevocable vows had been taken,
the treasure might come to light, and all their life be spent in vain
regrets. Graciella was skeptical about the lost money. Even Mrs.
Treadwell, whose faith had been firm for years, had ceased to
encourage his hope; while Miss Laura, who at one time had smiled at
any mention of the matter, now looked grave if by any chance he let
slip a word in reference to it. But he had in his pocket the outward
and visible sign of his inward belief, and he would try its effect on
Graciella. He would risk ridicule or anything else for her sake.
"Graciella," he said, "I have brought my uncle Malcolm's letter along,
to convince you that uncle is not as crazy as he seems, and that
there's some foundation for the hope that I may yet be able to give
you all you want. I don't want to relinquish the hope, and I want you
to share it with me."
He produced an envelope, once white, now yellow with time, on which
was endorsed in ink once black but faded to a pale brown, and hardly
legible, the name of "Malcolm Dudley, Esq., Mink Run," and in the
lower left-hand corner, "By hand of Viney."
The sheet which Ben drew from this wrapper was worn at the folds, and
required careful handling. Graciella, moved by curiosity, had come
down from her throne to a seat beside Ben upon the porch. She had
never had any faith in the mythical gold of old Ralph Dudley. The
people of an earlier generation--her Aunt Laura perhaps--may once have
believed in it, but they had long since ceased to do more than smile
pityingly and shake their heads at the mention of old Malcolm's
delusion. But there was in it the element of romance. Strange things
had happened, and why might they not happen again? And if they should
happen, why not to Ben, dear old, shiftless Ben! She moved a porch
pillow close beside him, and, as they bent their heads over the paper
her hair mingled with his, and soon her hand rested, unconsciously,
upon his shoulder.
"It was a voice from the grave," said Ben, "for my great-uncle Ralph
was dead when the letter reached Uncle Malcolm. I'll read it
aloud--the writing is sometimes hard to make out, and I know it by
heart:
_My Dear Malcolm:
I have in my hands fifty thousand dollars of government money,
in gold, which I am leaving here at the house for a few days.
Since you are not at home, and I cannot wait, I have confided
in our girl Viney, whom I can trust. She will tell you, when
she gives you this, where I have put the money--I do not write
it, lest the letter should fall into the wrong hands; there are
many to whom it would be a great temptation. I shall return in
a few days, and relieve you of the responsibility. Should
anything happen to me, write to the Secretary of State at
Richmond for instructions what to do with the money. In great
haste_,
_Your affectionate uncle,_
RALPH DUDLEY"
Graciella was momentarily impressed by the letter; of its reality
there could be no doubt--it was there in black and white, or rather
brown and yellow.
"It sounds like a letter in a novel," she said, thoughtfully. "There
must have been something."
"There must _be_ something, Graciella, for Uncle Ralph was killed the
next day, and never came back for the money. But Uncle Malcolm,
because he don't know where to look, can't find it; and old Aunt
Viney, because she can't talk, can't tell him where it is."
"Why has she never shown him?" asked Graciella.
"There is some mystery," he said, "which she seems unable to explain
without speech. And then, she is queer--as queer, in her own way, as
uncle is in his. Now, if you'd only marry me, Graciella, and go out
there to live, with your uncommonly fine mind, _you'd_ find it--you
couldn't help but find it. It would just come at your call, like my
dog when I whistle to him."
Graciella was touched by the compliment, or by the serious feeling
which underlay it. And that was very funny, about calling the money
and having it come! She had often heard of people whistling for their
money, but had never heard that it came--that was Ben's idea. There
really was a good deal in Ben, and perhaps, after all----
But at that moment there was a sound of wheels, and whatever
Graciella's thought may have been, it was not completed. As Colonel
French lifted the latch of the garden gate and came up the walk toward
them, any glamour of the past, any rosy hope of the future, vanished
in the solid brilliancy of the present moment. Old Ralph was dead, old
Malcolm nearly so; the money had never been found, would never come to
light. There on the doorstep was a young man shabbily attired, without
means or prospects. There at the gate was a fine horse, in a handsome
trap, and coming up the walk an agreeable, well-dressed gentleman of
wealth and position. No dead romance could, in the heart of a girl of
seventeen, hold its own against so vital and brilliant a reality.
"Thank you, Ben," she said, adjusting a stray lock of hair which had
escaped from her radiant crop, "I am not clever enough for that. It is
a dream. Your great-uncle Ralph had ridden too long and too far in the
sun, and imagined the treasure, which has driven your Uncle Malcolm
crazy, and his housekeeper dumb, and has benumbed you so that you sit
around waiting, waiting, when you ought to be working, working! No,
Ben, I like you ever so much, but you will never take me to New York
with your Uncle Ralph's money, nor will you ever earn enough to take
me with your own. You must excuse me now, for here comes my cavalier.
Don't hurry away; Aunt Laura will be out in a minute. You can stay and
work on your model; I'll not be here to interrupt you. Good evening,
Colonel French! Did you bring me a _Herald_? I want to look at the
advertisements."
"Yes, my dear young lady, there is Wednesday's--it is only two days
old. How are you, Mr. Dudley?"
"Tol'able, sir, thank you." Ben was a gentleman by instinct, though
his heart was heavy and the colonel a favoured rival.
"By the way," said the colonel, "I wish to have an interview with your
uncle, about the old mill site. He seems to have been a stockholder in
the company, and we should like his signature, if he is in condition
to give it. If not, it may be necessary to appoint you his guardian,
with power to act in his place."
"He's all right, sir, in the morning, if you come early enough,"
replied Ben, courteously. "You can tell what is best to do after
you've seen him."
"Thank you," replied the colonel, "I'll have my man drive me out
to-morrow about ten, say; if you'll be at home? You ought to be there,
you know."
"Very well, sir, I'll be there all day, and shall expect you."
Graciella threw back one compassionate glance, as they drove away
behind the colonel's high-stepping brown horse, and did not quite
escape a pang at the sight of her young lover, still sitting on the
steps in a dejected attitude; and for a moment longer his reproachful
eyes haunted her. But Graciella prided herself on being, above all
things, practical, and, having come out for a good time, resolutely
put all unpleasant thoughts aside.
There was good horse-flesh in the neighbourhood of Clarendon, and the
colonel's was of the best. Some of the roads about the town were
good--not very well kept roads, but the soil was a sandy loam and was
self-draining, so that driving was pleasant in good weather. The
colonel had several times invited Miss Laura to drive with him, and
had taken her once; but she was often obliged to stay with her mother.
Graciella could always be had, and the colonel, who did not like to
drive alone, found her a vivacious companion, whose naïve comments
upon life were very amusing to a seasoned man of the world. She was as
pretty, too, as a picture, and the colonel had always admired
beauty--with a tempered admiration.
At Graciella's request they drove first down Main Street, past the
post-office, where she wished to mail a letter. They attracted much
attention as they drove through the street in the colonel's new trap.
Graciella's billowy white gown added a needed touch of maturity to her
slender youthfulness. A big straw hat shaded her brown hair, and she
sat erect, and held her head high, with a vivid consciousness that she
was the central feature of a very attractive whole. The colonel shared
her thought, and looked at her with frank admiration.
"You are the cynosure of all eyes," he declared. "I suppose I'm an
object of envy to every young fellow in town."
Graciella blushed and bridled with pleasure. "I am not interested in
the young men of Clarendon," she replied loftily; "they are not worth
the trouble."
"Not even--Ben?" asked the colonel slyly.
"Oh," she replied, with studied indifference, "Mr. Dudley is really a
cousin, and only a friend. He comes to see the family."
The colonel's attentions could have but one meaning, and it was
important to disabuse his mind concerning Ben. Nor was she the only
one in the family who entertained that thought. Of late her
grandmother had often addressed her in an unusual way, more as a woman
than as a child; and, only the night before, had retold the old story
of her own sister Mary, who, many years before, had married a man of
fifty. He had worshipped her, and had died, after a decent interval,
leaving her a large fortune. From which the old lady had deduced that,
on the whole, it was better to be an old man's darling than a young
man's slave. She had made no application of the story, but Graciella
was astute enough to draw her own conclusions.
Her Aunt Laura, too, had been unusually kind; she had done up the
white gown twice a week, had trimmed her hat for her, and had worn
old gloves that she might buy her niece a new pair. And her aunt had
looked at her wistfully and remarked, with a sigh, that youth was a
glorious season and beauty a great responsibility. Poor dear, good old
Aunt Laura! When the expected happened, she would be very kind to Aunt
Laura, and repay her, so far as possible, for all her care and
sacrifice.
_Fifteen_
It was only a short time after his visit to the Excelsior Mills that
Colonel French noticed a falling off in the progress made by his
lawyer, Judge Bullard, in procuring the signatures of those interested
in the old mill site, and after the passing of several weeks he began
to suspect that some adverse influence was at work. This suspicion was
confirmed when Judge Bullard told him one day, with some
embarrassment, that he could no longer act for him in the matter.
"I'm right sorry, Colonel," he said. "I should like to help you put
the thing through, but I simply can't afford it. Other clients, whose
business I have transacted for years, and to whom I am under heavy
obligations, have intimated that they would consider any further
activity of mine in your interest unfriendly to theirs."
"I suppose," said the colonel, "your clients wish to secure the mill
site for themselves. Nothing imparts so much value to a thing as the
notion that somebody else wants it. Of course, I can't ask you to act
for me further, and if you'll make out your bill, I'll hand you a
check."
"I hope," said Judge Bullard, "there'll be no ill-feeling about our
separation."
"Oh, no," responded the colonel, politely, "not at all. Business is
business, and a man's own interests are his first concern."
"I'm glad you feel that way," replied the lawyer, much relieved. He
had feared that the colonel might view the matter differently.
"Some men, you know," he said, "might have kept on, and worked against
you, while accepting your retainer; there are such skunks at the bar."
"There are black sheep in every fold," returned the colonel with a
cold smile. "It would be unprofessional, I suppose, to name your
client, so I'll not ask you."
The judge did not volunteer the information, but the colonel knew
instinctively whence came opposition to his plan, and investigation
confirmed his intuition. Judge Bullard was counsel for Fetters in all
matters where skill and knowledge were important, and Fetters held his
note, secured by mortgage, for money loaned. For dirty work Fetters
used tools of baser metal, but, like a wise man, he knew when these
were useless, and was shrewd enough to keep the best lawyers under his
control.
The colonel, after careful inquiry, engaged to take Judge Bullard's
place, one Albert Caxton, a member of a good old family, a young man,
and a capable lawyer, who had no ascertainable connection with
Fetters, and who, in common with a small fraction of the best people,
regarded Fetters with distrust, and ascribed his wealth to usury and
to what, in more recent years, has come to be known as "graft."
To a man of Colonel French's business training, opposition was merely
a spur to effort. He had not run a race of twenty years in the
commercial field, to be worsted in the first heat by the petty boss of
a Southern backwoods county. Why Fetters opposed him he did not know.
Perhaps he wished to defeat a possible rival, or merely to keep out
principles and ideals which would conflict with his own methods and
injure his prestige. But if Fetters wanted a fight, Fetters should
have a fight.
Colonel French spent much of his time at young Caxton's office,
instructing the new lawyer in the details of the mill affair. Caxton
proved intelligent, zealous, and singularly sympathetic with his
client's views and plans. They had not been together a week before the
colonel realised that he had gained immensely by the change.
The colonel took a personal part in the effort to procure signatures,
among others that of old Malcolm Dudley and on the morning following
the drive with Graciella, he drove out to Mink Run to see the old
gentleman in person and discover whether or not he was in a condition
to transact business.
Before setting out, he went to his desk--his father's desk, which Miss
Laura had sent to him--to get certain papers for old Mr. Dudley's
signature, if the latter should prove capable of a legal act. He had
laid the papers on top of some others which had nearly filled one of
the numerous small drawers in the desk. Upon opening the drawer he
found that one of the papers was missing.
The colonel knew quite well that he had placed the paper in the drawer
the night before; he remembered the circumstance very distinctly, for
the event was so near that it scarcely required an exercise, not to
say an effort, of memory. An examination of the drawer disclosed that
the piece forming the back of it was a little lower than the sides.
Possibly, thought the colonel, the paper had slipped off and fallen
behind the drawer.
He drew the drawer entirely out, and slipped his hand into the cavity.
At the back of it he felt the corner of a piece of paper projecting
upward from below. The paper had evidently slipped off the top of the
others and fallen into a crevice, due to the shrinkage of the wood or
some defect of construction.
The opening for the drawer was so shallow that though he could feel
the end of the paper, he was unable to get such a grasp of it as would
permit him to secure it easily. But it was imperative that he have the
paper; and since it bore already several signatures obtained with some
difficulty, he did not wish to run the risk of tearing it.
He examined the compartment below to see if perchance the paper could
be reached from there, but found that it could not. There was
evidently a lining to the desk, and the paper had doubtless slipped
down between this and the finished panels forming the back of the
desk. To reach it, the colonel procured a screw driver, and turning
the desk around, loosened, with some difficulty, the screws that
fastened the proper panel, and soon recovered the paper. With it,
however, he found a couple of yellow, time-stained envelopes,
addressed on the outside to Major John Treadwell.
The envelopes were unsealed. He glanced into one of them, and seeing
that it contained a sheet, folded small, presumably a letter, he
thrust the two of them into the breast pocket of his coat, intending
to hand them to Miss Laura at their next meeting. They were probably
old letters and of no consequence, but they should of course be
returned to the owners.
In putting the desk back in its place, after returning the panel and
closing the crevice against future accidents, the colonel caught his
coat on a projecting point and tore a long rent in the sleeve. It was
an old coat, and worn only about the house; and when he changed it
before leaving to pay his call upon old Malcolm Dudley, he hung it in
a back corner in his clothes closet, and did not put it on again for a
long time. Since he was very busily occupied in the meantime, the two
old letters to which he had attached no importance, escaped his memory
altogether.
The colonel's coachman, a young coloured man by the name of Tom, had
complained of illness early in the morning, and the colonel took
Peter along to drive him to Mink Run, as well as to keep him company.
On their way through the town they stopped at Mrs. Treadwell's, where
they left Phil, who had, he declared, some important engagement with
Graciella.
The distance was not long, scarcely more than five miles. Ben Dudley
was in the habit of traversing it on horseback, twice a day. When they
had passed the last straggling cabin of the town, their way lay along
a sandy road, flanked by fields green with corn and cotton, broken by
stretches of scraggy pine and oak, growing upon land once under
cultivation, but impoverished by the wasteful methods of slavery; land
that had never been regenerated, and was now no longer tilled. Negroes
were working in the fields, birds were singing in the trees. Buzzards
circled lazily against the distant sky. Although it was only early
summer, a languor in the air possessed the colonel's senses, and
suggested a certain charity toward those of his neighbours--and they
were most of them--who showed no marked zeal for labour.
"Work," he murmured, "is best for happiness, but in this climate
idleness has its compensations. What, in the end, do we get for all
our labour?"
"Fifty cents a day, an' fin' yo'se'f, suh," said Peter, supposing the
soliloquy addressed to himself. "Dat's w'at dey pays roun' hyuh."
When they reached a large clearing, which Peter pointed out as their
destination, the old man dismounted with considerable agility, and
opened a rickety gate that was held in place by loops of rope.
Evidently the entrance had once possessed some pretensions to
elegance, for the huge hewn posts had originally been faced with
dressed lumber and finished with ornamental capitals, some fragments
of which remained; and the one massive hinge, hanging by a slender
rust-eaten nail, had been wrought into a fantastic shape. As they
drove through the gateway, a green lizard scampered down from the top
of one of the posts, where he had been sunning himself, and a
rattlesnake lying in the path lazily uncoiled his motley brown
length, and sounding his rattle, wriggled slowly off into the rank
grass and weeds that bordered the carriage track.
The house stood well back from the road, amid great oaks and elms and
unpruned evergreens. The lane by which it was approached was partly
overgrown with weeds and grass, from which the mare's fetlocks swept
the dew, yet undried by the morning sun.
The old Dudley "mansion," as it was called, was a large two-story
frame house, built in the colonial style, with a low-pitched roof, and
a broad piazza along the front, running the full length of both
stories and supported by thick round columns, each a solid piece of
pine timber, gray with age and lack of paint, seamed with fissures by
the sun and rain of many years. The roof swayed downward on one side;
the shingles were old and cracked and moss-grown; several of the
second story windows were boarded up, and others filled with sashes
from which most of the glass had disappeared.
About the house, for a space of several rods on each side of it, the
ground was bare of grass and shrubbery, rough and uneven, lying in
little hillocks and hollows, as though recently dug over at haphazard,
or explored by some vagrant drove of hogs. At one side, beyond this
barren area, lay a kitchen garden, enclosed by a paling fence. The
colonel had never thought of young Dudley as being at all energetic,
but so ill-kept a place argued shiftlessness in a marked degree.
When the carriage had drawn up in front of the house, the colonel
became aware of two figures on the long piazza. At one end, in a
massive oaken armchair, sat an old man--seemingly a very old man, for
he was bent and wrinkled, with thin white hair hanging down upon his
shoulders. His face, of a highbred and strongly marked type,
emphasised by age, had the hawk-like contour, that is supposed to
betoken extreme acquisitiveness. His faded eyes were turned toward a
woman, dressed in a homespun frock and a muslin cap, who sat bolt
upright, in a straight-backed chair, at the other end of the piazza,
with her hands folded on her lap, looking fixedly toward her
_vis-à-vis_. Neither of them paid the slightest attention to the
colonel, and when the old man rose, it was not to step forward and
welcome his visitor, but to approach and halt in front of the woman.
"Viney," he said, sharply, "I am tired of this nonsense. I insist upon
knowing, immediately, where my uncle left the money."
The woman made no reply, but her faded eyes glowed for a moment, like
the ashes of a dying fire, and her figure stiffened perceptibly as she
leaned slightly toward him.
"Show me at once, you hussy," he said, shaking his fist, "or you'll
have reason to regret it. I'll have you whipped." His cracked voice
rose to a shrill shriek as he uttered the threat.
The slumbrous fire in the woman's eyes flamed up for a moment. She
rose, and drawing herself up to her full height, which was greater
than the old man's, made some incoherent sounds, and bent upon him a
look beneath which he quailed.
"Yes, Viney, good Viney," he said, soothingly, "I know it was wrong,
and I've always regretted it, always, from the very moment. But you
shouldn't bear malice. Servants, the Bible says, should obey their
masters, and you should bless them that curse you, and do good to them
that despitefully use you. But I was good to you before, Viney, and I
was kind to you afterwards, and I know you've forgiven me, good Viney,
noble-hearted Viney, and you're going to tell me, aren't you?" he
pleaded, laying his hand caressingly upon her arm.
She drew herself away, but, seemingly mollified, moved her lips as
though in speech. The old man put his hand to his ear and listened
with an air of strained eagerness, well-nigh breathless in its
intensity.
"Try again, Viney," he said, "that's a good girl. Your old master
thinks a great deal of you, Viney. He is your best friend!"
Again she made an inarticulate response, which he nevertheless seemed
to comprehend, for, brightening up immediately, he turned from her,
came down the steps with tremulous haste, muttering to himself
meanwhile, seized a spade that stood leaning against the steps, passed
by the carriage without a glance, and began digging furiously at one
side of the yard. The old woman watched him for a while, with a
self-absorption that was entirely oblivious of the visitors, and then
entered the house.
The colonel had been completely absorbed in this curious drama. There
was an air of weirdness and unreality about it all. Old Peter was as
silent as if he had been turned into stone. Something in the
atmosphere conduced to somnolence, for even the horses stood still,
with no signs of restlessness. The colonel was the first to break the
spell.
"What's the matter with them, Peter? Do you know?"
"Dey's bofe plumb 'stracted, suh--clean out'n dey min's--dey be'n dat
way fer yeahs an' yeahs an' yeahs."
"That's Mr. Dudley, I suppose?"
"Yas, suh, dat's ole Mars Ma'com Dudley, de uncle er young Mistah Ben
Dudley w'at hangs 'roun Miss Grac'ella so much."
"And who is the woman?"
"She's a bright mulattah 'oman, suh, w'at use' ter b'long ter de
family befo' de wah, an' has kep' house fer ole Mars' Ma'com ever
sense. He 'lows dat she knows whar old Mars' Rafe Dudley, _his_ uncle,
hid a million dollahs endyoin' de wah, an' huh tongue's paralyse' so
she can't tell 'im--an' he's be'n tryin' ter fin' out fer de las'
twenty-five years. I wo'ked out hyuh one summer on plantation, an' I
seen 'em gwine on like dat many 'n' many a time. Dey don' nobody roun'
hyuh pay no 'tention to 'em no mo', ev'ybody's so use' ter seein'
'em."
The conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Ben Dudley, who
came around the house, and, advancing to the carriage, nodded to
Peter, and greeted the colonel respectfully.
"Won't you 'light and come in?" he asked.
The colonel followed him into the house, to a plainly furnished
parlour. There was a wide fireplace, with a fine old pair of brass
andirons, and a few pieces of old mahogany furniture, incongruously
assorted with half a dozen splint-bottomed chairs. The floor was bare,
and on the walls half a dozen of the old Dudleys looked out from as
many oil paintings, with the smooth glaze that marked the touch of the
travelling artist, in the days before portrait painting was superseded
by photography and crayon enlargements.
Ben returned in a few minutes with his uncle. Old Malcolm seemed to
have shaken off his aberration, and greeted the colonel with grave
politeness.
"I am glad, sir," he said, giving the visitor his hand, "to make your
acquaintance. I have been working in the garden--the flower-garden--for
the sake of the exercise. We have negroes enough, though they are very
trifling nowadays, but the exercise is good for my health. I have
trouble, at times, with my rheumatism, and with my--my memory." He
passed his hand over his brow as though brushing away an imaginary
cobweb.
"Ben tells me you have a business matter to present to me?"
The colonel, somewhat mystified, after what he had witnessed, by this
sudden change of manner, but glad to find the old man seemingly
rational, stated the situation in regard to the mill site. Old Malcolm
seemed to understand perfectly, and accepted with willingness the
colonel's proposition to give him a certain amount of stock in the new
company for the release of such rights as he might possess under the
old incorporation. The colonel had brought with him a contract,
properly drawn, which was executed by old Malcolm, and witnessed by
the colonel and Ben.
"I trust, sir," said Mr. Dudley, "that you will not ascribe it to any
discourtesy that I have not called to see you. I knew your father and
your grandfather. But the cares of my estate absorb me so completely
that I never leave home. I shall send my regards to you now and then
by my nephew. I expect, in a very short time, when certain matters
are adjusted, to be able to give up, to a great extent, my arduous
cares, and lead a life of greater leisure, which will enable me to
travel and cultivate a wider acquaintance. When that time comes, sir,
I shall hope to see more of you."
The old gentleman stood courteously on the steps while Ben accompanied
the colonel to the carriage. It had scarcely turned into the lane when
the colonel, looking back, saw the old man digging furiously. The
condition of the yard was explained; he had been unjust in ascribing
it to Ben's neglect.
"I reckon, suh," remarked Peter, "dat w'en he fin' dat million
dollahs, Mistah Ben'll marry Miss Grac'ella an' take huh ter New
Yo'k."
"Perhaps--and perhaps not," said the colonel. To himself he added,
musingly, "Old Malcolm will start on a long journey before he finds
the--million dollars. The watched pot never boils. Buried treasure is
never found by those who seek it, but always accidentally, if at all."
On the way back they stopped at the Treadwells' for Phil. Phil was not
ready to go home. He was intensely interested in a long-eared
mechanical mule, constructed by Ben Dudley out of bits of wood and
leather and controlled by certain springs made of rubber bands, by
manipulating which the mule could be made to kick furiously. Since the
colonel had affairs to engage his attention, and Phil seemed perfectly
contented, he was allowed to remain, with the understanding that Peter
should come for him in the afternoon.
_Sixteen_
Little Phil had grown very fond of old Peter, who seemed to lavish
upon the child all of his love and devotion for the dead generations
of the French family. The colonel had taught Phil to call the old man
"Uncle Peter," after the kindly Southern fashion of slavery days,
which, denying to negroes the forms of address applied to white
people, found in the affectionate terms of relationship--Mammy, Auntie
and Uncle--designations that recognised the respect due to age, and
yet lost, when applied to slaves, their conventional significance.
There was a strong, sympathy between the intelligent child and the
undeveloped old negro; they were more nearly on a mental level,
leaving out, of course, the factor of Peter's experience, than could
have been the case with one more generously endowed than Peter, who,
though by nature faithful, had never been unduly bright. Little Phil
became so attached to his old attendant that, between Peter and the
Treadwell ladies, the colonel's housekeeper had to give him very
little care.
On Sunday afternoons the colonel and Phil and Peter would sometimes
walk over to the cemetery. The family lot was now kept in perfect
order. The low fence around it had been repaired, and several leaning
headstones straightened up. But, guided by a sense of fitness, and
having before him the awful example for which Fetters was responsible,
the colonel had added no gaudy monument nor made any alterations which
would disturb the quiet beauty of the spot or its harmony with the
surroundings. In the Northern cemetery where his young wife was
buried, he had erected to her memory a stately mausoleum, in keeping
with similar memorials on every hand. But here, in this quiet
graveyard, where his ancestors slept their last sleep under the elms
and the willows, display would have been out of place. He had,
however, placed a wrought-iron bench underneath the trees, where he
would sit and read his paper, while little Phil questioned old Peter
about his grandfather and his great-grandfather, their prowess on the
hunting field, and the wars they fought in; and the old man would
delight in detailing, in his rambling and disconnected manner, the
past glories of the French family. It was always a new story to Phil,
and never grew stale to the old man. If Peter could be believed, there
were never white folks so brave, so learned, so wise, so handsome, so
kind to their servants, so just to all with whom they had dealings.
Phil developed a very great fondness for these dead ancestors, whose
graves and histories he soon knew as well as Peter himself. With his
lively imagination he found pleasure, as children often do, in looking
into the future. The unoccupied space in the large cemetery lot
furnished him food for much speculation.
"Papa," he said, upon one of these peaceful afternoons, "there's room
enough here for all of us, isn't there--you, and me and Uncle Peter?"
"Yes, Phil," said his father, "there's room for several generations of
Frenches yet to sleep with their fathers."
Little Phil then proceeded to greater detail. "Here," he said, "next
to grandfather, will be your place, and here next to that, will be
mine, and here, next to me will be--but no," he said, pausing
reflectively, "that ought to be saved for my little boy when he grows
up and dies, that is, when I grow up and have a little boy and he
grows up and grows old and dies and leaves a little boy and--but where
will Uncle Peter be?"
"Nem mine me, honey," said the old man, "dey can put me somewhar e'se.
Hit doan' mattuh 'bout me."
"No, Uncle Peter, you must be here with the rest of us. For you know,
Uncle Peter, I'm so used to you now, that I should want you to be near
me then."
Old Peter thought to humour the lad. "Put me down hyuh at de foot er
de lot, little Mars' Phil, unner dis ellum tree."
"Oh, papa," exclaimed Phil, demanding the colonel's attention, "Uncle
Peter and I have arranged everything. You know Uncle Peter is to stay
with me as long as I live, and when he dies, he is to be buried here
at the foot of the lot, under the elm tree, where he'll be near me all
the time, and near the folks that he knows and that know him."
"All right, Phil. You see to it; you'll live longer."
"But, papa, if I should die first, and then Uncle Peter, and you last
of all, you'll put Uncle Peter near me, won't you, papa?"
"Why, bless your little heart, Phil, of course your daddy will do
whatever you want, if he's here to do it. But you'll live, Phil,
please God, until I am old and bent and white-haired, and you are a
grown man, with a beard, and a little boy of your own."
"Yas, suh," echoed the old servant, "an' till ole Peter's bones is
long sence crumble' inter dus'. None er de Frenches' ain' never died
till dey was done growed up."
On the afternoon following the colonel's visit to Mink Run, old Peter,
when he came for Phil, was obliged to stay long enough to see the
antics of the mechanical mule; and had not that artificial animal
suddenly refused to kick, and lapsed into a characteristic balkiness
for which there was no apparent remedy, it might have proved difficult
to get Phil away.
"There, Philip dear, never mind," said Miss Laura, "we'll have Ben
mend it for you when he comes, next time, and then you can play with
it again."
Peter had brought with him some hooks and lines, and, he and Phil,
after leaving the house, followed the bank of the creek, climbing a
fence now and then, until they reached the old mill site, upon which
work had not yet begun. They found a shady spot, and seating
themselves upon the bank, baited their lines, and dropped them into a
quiet pool. For quite a while their patience was unrewarded by
anything more than a nibble. By and by a black cat came down from the
ruined mill, and sat down upon the bank at a short distance from them.
"I reckon we'll haf ter move, honey," said the old man. "We ain't
gwine ter have no luck fishin' 'g'ins' no ole black cat."
"But cats don't fish, Uncle Peter, do they?"
"Law', chile, you'll never know w'at dem critters _kin_ do, 'tel you's
watched 'em long ez I has! Keep yo' eye on dat one now."
The cat stood by the stream, in a watchful attitude. Suddenly she
darted her paw into the shallow water and with a lightning-like
movement drew out a small fish, which she took in her mouth, and
retired with it a few yards up the bank.
"Jes' look at dat ole devil," said Peter, "playin' wid dat fish jes'
lack it wuz a mouse! She'll be comin' down heah terreckly tellin' us
ter go 'way fum her fishin' groun's."
"Why, Uncle Peter," said Phil incredulously, "cats can't talk!"
"Can't dey? Hoo said dey couldn'? Ain't Miss Grac'ella an' me be'n
tellin' you right along 'bout Bre'r Rabbit and Bre'r Fox an de yuther
creturs talkin' an' gwine on jes' lak folks?"
"Yes, Uncle Peter, but those were just stories; they didn't really
talk, did they?"
"Law', honey," said the old man, with a sly twinkle in his rheumy eye,
"you is de sma'tes' little white boy I ever knowed, but you is got a
monst'us heap ter l'arn yit, chile. Nobody ain' done tol' you 'bout de
Black Cat an' de Ha'nted House, is dey?"
"No, Uncle Peter--you tell me."
"I didn' knowed but Miss Grac'ella mought a tole you--she knows mos'
all de tales."
"No, she hasn't. You tell me about it, Uncle Peter."
"Well," said Peter, "does you 'member dat coal-black man dat drives de
lumber wagon?"
"Yes, he goes by our house every day, on the way to the sawmill."
"Well, it all happen' 'long er him. He 'uz gwine long de street one
day, w'en he heared two gent'emen--one of 'em was ole Mars' Tom
Sellers an' I fuhgot de yuther--but dey 'uz talkin' 'bout dat ole
ha'nted house down by de creek, 'bout a mile from hyuh, on de yuther
side er town, whar we went fishin' las' week. Does you 'member de
place?"
"Yes, I remember the house."
"Well, as dis yer Jeff--dat's de lumber-wagon driver's name--as dis
yer Jeff come up ter dese yer two gentlemen, one of 'em was sayin,
'I'll bet five dollahs dey ain' narry a man in his town would stay in
dat ha'nted house all night.' Dis yer Jeff, he up 'n sez, sezee,
'Scuse me, suh, but ef you'll 'low me ter speak, suh, I knows a man
wat'll stay in dat ole ha'nted house all night.'"
"What is a ha'nted house, Uncle Peter?" asked Phil.
"W'y. Law,' chile, a ha'nted house is a house whar dey's ha'nts!"
"And what are ha'nts, Uncle Peter?"
"Ha'nts, honey, is sperrits er dead folks, dat comes back an' hangs
roun' whar dey use' ter lib."
"Do all spirits come back, Uncle Peter?"
"No, chile, bress de Lawd, no. Only de bad ones, w'at has be'n so
wicked dey can't rest in dey graves. Folks lack yo' gran'daddy and yo'
gran'mammy--an' all de Frenches--dey don' none er _dem_ come back, fer
dey wuz all good people an' is all gone ter hebben. But I'm fergittin'
de tale.
"'Well, hoo's de man--hoo's de man?' ax Mistah Sellers, w'en Jeff tol'
'im dey wuz somebody wat 'ud stay in de ole ha'nted house all night.
"'I'm de man,' sez Jeff. 'I ain't skeered er no ha'nt dat evuh walked,
an' I sleeps in graveya'ds by pref'ence; fac', I jes nach'ly lacks ter
talk ter ha'nts. You pay me de five dollahs, an' I'll 'gree ter stay
in de ole house f'm nine er clock 'tel daybreak.'
"Dey talk' ter Jeff a w'ile, an' dey made a bahgin wid 'im; dey give
'im one dollah down, an' promus' 'im fo' mo' in de mawnin' ef he
stayed 'tel den.
"So w'en he got de dollah he went uptown an' spent it, an' 'long 'bout
nine er clock he tuk a lamp, an' went down ter de ole house, an' went
inside an' shet de do'.
"Dey wuz a rickety ole table settin' in de middle er de flo'. He sot
de lamp on de table. Den he look 'roun' de room, in all de cawners an'
up de chimbly, ter see dat dey wan't nobody ner nuthin' hid in de
room. Den he tried all de winders an' fastened de do', so dey couldn'
nobody ner nuthin' git in. Den he fotch a' ole rickety chair f'm one
cawner, and set it by de table, and sot down. He wuz settin' dere,
noddin' his head, studyin' 'bout dem other fo' dollahs, an' w'at he
wuz gwine buy wid 'em, w'en bimeby he kinder dozed off, an' befo' he
knowed it he wuz settin' dere fast asleep."
"W'en he woke up, 'long 'bout 'leven erclock, de lamp had bu'n' down
kinder low. He heared a little noise behind him an' look 'roun', an'
dere settin' in de middle er de flo' wuz a big black tomcat, wid his
tail quirled up over his back, lookin' up at Jeff wid bofe his two big
yaller eyes.
"Jeff rub' 'is eyes, ter see ef he wuz 'wake, an w'iles he sot dere
wond'rin' whar de hole wuz dat dat ole cat come in at, fus' thing he
knowed, de ole cat wuz settin' right up 'side of 'im, on de table, wid
his tail quirled up roun' de lamp chimbly.
"Jeff look' at de black cat, an' de black cat look' at Jeff. Den de
black cat open his mouf an' showed 'is teef, an' sezee----"
"'Good evenin'!'
"'Good evenin' suh,' 'spon' Jeff, trimblin' in de knees, an' kind'er
edgin' 'way fum de table.
"'Dey ain' nobody hyuh but you an' me, is dey?' sez de black cat,
winkin' one eye.
"'No, suh,' sez Jeff, as he made fer de do', _'an' quick ez I kin git
out er hyuh, dey ain' gwine ter be nobody hyuh but you!_'"
"Is that all, Uncle Peter?" asked Phil, when the old man came to a
halt with a prolonged chuckle.
"Huh?"
"Is that all?"
"No, dey's mo' er de tale, but dat's ernuff ter prove dat black cats
kin do mo' dan little w'ite boys 'low dey kin."
"Did Jeff go away?"
"Did he go 'way! Why, chile, he jes' flew away! Befo' he got ter de
do', howsomevuh, he 'membered he had locked it, so he didn' stop ter
try ter open it, but went straight out'n a winder, quicker'n
lightnin', an' kyared de sash 'long wid 'im. An' he'd be'n in sech
pow'ful has'e dat he knock' de lamp over an' lack ter sot de house
afire. He nevuh got de yuther fo' dollahs of co'se, 'ca'se he didn't
stay in de ole ha'nted house all night, but he 'lowed he'd sho'ly
'arned de one dollah he'd had a'ready."
"Why didn't he want to talk to the black cat, Uncle Peter?"
"Why didn' he wan' ter talk ter de black cat? Whoever heared er sich a
queshtun! He didn' wan' ter talk wid no black cat, 'ca'se he wuz
skeered. Black cats brings 'nuff bad luck w'en dey doan' talk, let
'lone w'en dey does."
"I should like," said Phil, reflectively, "to talk to a black cat. I
think it would be great fun."
"Keep away f'm 'em, chile, keep away f'm 'em. Dey is some things too
deep fer little boys ter projec' wid, an' black cats is one of 'em."
They moved down the stream and were soon having better luck.
"Uncle Peter," said Phil, while they were on their way home, "there
couldn't be any ha'nts at all in the graveyard where my grandfather is
buried, could there? Graciella read a lot of the tombstones to me one
day, and they all said that all the people were good, and were resting
in peace, and had gone to heaven. Tombstones always tell the truth,
don't they, Uncle Peter?"
"Happen so, honey, happen so! De French tombstones does; an' as ter de
res', I ain' gwine to 'spute 'em, nohow, fer ef I did, de folks under
'em mought come back an' ha'nt me, jes' fer spite."
_Seventeen_
By considerable effort, and a moderate outlay, the colonel at length
secured a majority of interest in the Eureka mill site and made
application to the State, through Caxton, for the redemption of the
title. The opposition had either ceased or had proved ineffective.
There would be some little further delay, but the outcome seemed
practically certain, and the colonel did not wait longer to set in
motion his plans for the benefit of Clarendon.
"I'm told that Fetters says he'll get the mill anyway," said Caxton,
"and make more money buying it under foreclosure than by building a
new one. He's ready to lend on it now."
"Oh, damn Fetters!" exclaimed the colonel, elated with his victory. He
had never been a profane man, but strong language came so easy in
Clarendon that one dropped into it unconsciously. "The mill will be
running on full time when Fetters has been put out of business. We've
won our first fight, and I've never really seen the fellow yet."
As soon as the title was reasonably secure, the colonel began his
preparations for building the cotton mill. The first step was to send
for a New England architect who made a specialty of mills, to come
down and look the site over, and make plans for the dam, the mill
buildings and a number of model cottages for the operatives. As soon
as the estimates were prepared, he looked the ground over to see how
far he could draw upon local resources for material.
There was good brick clay on the outskirts of the town, where bricks
had once been made; but for most of the period since the war such as
were used in the town had been procured from the ruins of old
buildings--it was cheaper to clean bricks than to make them. Since the
construction of the railroad branch to Clarendon the few that were
needed from time to time were brought in by train. Not since the
building of the Opera House block had there been a kiln of brick made
in the town. Inquiry brought out the fact that in case of a demand for
bricks there were brickmakers thereabouts; and in accordance with his
general plan to employ local labour, the colonel looked up the owner
of the brickyard, and asked if he were prepared to take a large
contract.
The gentleman was palpably troubled by the question.
"Well, colonel," he said, "I don't know. I'd s'posed you were goin' to
impo't yo' bricks from Philadelphia."
"No, Mr. Barnes," returned the colonel, "I want to spend the money
here in Clarendon. There seems to be plenty of unemployed labour."
"Yes, there does, till you want somethin' done; then there ain't so
much. I s'pose I might find half a dozen niggers round here that know
how to make brick; and there's several more that have moved away that
I can get back if I send for them. If you r'al'y think you want yo'r
brick made here, I'll try to get them out for you. They'll cost you,
though, as much, if not more than, you'd have to pay for machine-made
bricks from the No'th."
The colonel declared that he preferred the local product.
"Well, I'm shore I don't see why," said the brickmaker. "They'll not
be as smooth or as uniform in colour."
"They'll be Clarendon brick," returned the colonel, "and I want this
to be a Clarendon enterprise, from the ground up."
"Well," said Barnes resignedly, "if you must have home-made brick, I
suppose I'll have to make 'em. I'll see what I can do."
Colonel French then turned the brick matter over to Caxton, who, in
the course of a week, worried Barnes into a contract to supply so many
thousand brick within a given time.
"I don't like that there time limit," said the brickmaker, "but I
reckon I can make them brick as fast as you can get anybody roun' here
to lay 'em."
When in the course of another week the colonel saw signs of activity
about the old brickyard, he proceeded with the next step, which was to
have the ruins of the old factory cleared away.
"Well, colonel," said Major McLean one day when the colonel dropped
into the hotel, where the Major hung out a good part of the time, "I
s'pose you're goin' to hire white folks to do the work over there."
"Why," replied the colonel, "I hadn't thought about the colour of the
workmen. There'll be plenty, I guess, for all who apply, so long as it
lasts."
"You'll have trouble if you hire niggers," said the major. "You'll
find that they won't work when you want 'em to. They're not reliable,
they have no sense of responsibility. As soon as they get a dollar
they'll lay off to spend it, and leave yo' work at the mos' critical
point."
"Well, now, major," replied the colonel, "I haven't noticed any
unnatural activity among the white men of the town. The Negroes have
to live, or seem to think they have, and I'll give 'em a chance to
turn an honest penny. By the way, major, I need a superintendent to
look after the work. It don't require an expert, but merely a good
man--gentleman preferred--whom I can trust to see that my ideas are
carried out. Perhaps you can recommend such a person?"
The major turned the matter over in his mind before answering. He
might, of course, offer his own services. The pay would doubtless be
good. But he had not done any real work for years. His wife owned
their home. His daughter taught in the academy. He was drawn on jury
nearly every term; was tax assessor now and then, and a judge or clerk
of elections upon occasion. Nor did he think that steady employment
would agree with his health, while it would certainly interfere with
his pleasant visits with the drummers at the hotel.
"I'd be glad to take the position myself, colonel," he said, "but I
r'aly won't have the time. The campaign will be hummin' in a month or
so, an' my political duties will occupy all my leisure. But I'll bear
the matter in mind, an' see if I can think of any suitable person."
The colonel thanked him. He had hardly expected the major to offer his
services, but had merely wished, for the fun of the thing, to try the
experiment. What the colonel really needed was a good foreman--he had
used the word "superintendent" merely on the major's account, as less
suggestive of work. He found a poor white man, however, Green by name,
who seemed capable and energetic, and a gang of labourers under his
charge was soon busily engaged in clearing the mill site and preparing
for the foundations of a new dam. When it was learned that the colonel
was paying his labourers a dollar and a half a day, there was
considerable criticism, on the ground that such lavishness would
demoralise the labour market, the usual daily wage of the Negro
labourer being from fifty to seventy-five cents. But since most of the
colonel's money soon found its way, through the channels of trade,
into the pockets of the white people, the criticism soon died a
natural death.
_Eighteen_
Once started in his career of active benevolence, the colonel's
natural love of thoroughness, combined with a philanthropic zeal as
pleasant as it was novel, sought out new reforms. They were easily
found. He had begun, with wise foresight, at the foundations of
prosperity, by planning an industry in which the people could find
employment. But there were subtler needs, mental and spiritual, to be
met. Education, for instance, so important to real development,
languished in Clarendon. There was a select private school for young
ladies, attended by the daughters of those who could not send their
children away to school. A few of the town boys went away to military
schools. The remainder of the white youth attended the academy, which
was a thoroughly democratic institution, deriving its support partly
from the public school fund and partly from private subscriptions.
There was a coloured public school taught by a Negro teacher. Neither
school had, so far as the colonel could learn, attained any very high
degree of efficiency. At one time the colonel had contemplated
building a schoolhouse for the children of the mill hands, but upon
second thought decided that the expenditure would be more widely
useful if made through the channels already established. If the old
academy building were repaired, and a wing constructed, for which
there was ample room upon the grounds, it would furnish any needed
additional accommodation for the children of the operatives, and avoid
the drawing of any line that might seem to put these in a class apart.
There were already lines enough in the town--the deep and distinct
colour line, theoretically all-pervasive, but with occasional curious
exceptions; the old line between the "rich white folks" or
aristocrats--no longer rich, most of them, but retaining some of their
former wealth and clinging tenaciously to a waning prestige--and the
"poor whites," still at a social disadvantage, but gradually evolving
a solid middle class, with reinforcements from the decaying
aristocracy, and producing now and then some ambitious and successful
man like Fetters. To emphasise these distinctions was no part of the
colonel's plan. To eradicate them entirely in any stated time was of
course impossible, human nature being what it was, but he would do
nothing to accentuate them. His mill hands should become, like the
mill hands in New England towns, an intelligent, self-respecting and
therefore respected element of an enlightened population; and the
whole town should share equally in anything he might spend for their
benefit.
He found much pleasure in talking over these fine plans of his with
Laura Treadwell. Caxton had entered into them with the enthusiasm of
an impressionable young man, brought into close contact with a
forceful personality. But in Miss Laura the colonel found a sympathy
that was more than intellectual--that reached down to sources of
spiritual strength and inspiration which the colonel could not touch
but of which he was conscious and of which he did not hesitate to
avail himself at second hand. Little Phil had made the house almost a
second home; and the frequent visits of his father had only
strengthened the colonel's admiration of Laura's character. He had
learned, not from the lady herself, how active in good works she was.
A Lady Bountiful in any large sense she could not be, for her means,
as she had so frankly said upon his first visit, were small. But a
little went a long way among the poor of Clarendon, and the life after
all is more than meat, and the body more than raiment, and advice and
sympathy were as often needed as other kinds of help. He had offered
to assist her charities in a substantial way, and she had permitted it
now and then, but had felt obliged at last to cease mentioning them
altogether. He was able to circumvent this delicacy now and then
through the agency of Graciella, whose theory was that money was made
to spend.
"Laura," he said one evening when at the house, "will you go with me
to-morrow to visit the academy? I wish to see with your eyes as well
as with mine what it needs and what can be done with it. It shall be
our secret until we are ready to surprise the town."
They went next morning, without notice to the principal. The school
was well ordered, but the equipment poor. The building was old and
sadly in need of repair. The teacher was an ex-Confederate officer,
past middle life, well taught by the methods in vogue fifty years
before, but scarcely in harmony with modern ideals of education. In
spite of his perfect manners and unimpeachable character, the
Professor, as he was called, was generally understood to hold his
position more by virtue of his need and his influence than of his
fitness to instruct. He had several young lady assistants who found in
teaching the only career open, in Clarendon, to white women of good
family.
The recess hour arrived while they were still at school. When the
pupils marched out, in orderly array, the colonel, seizing a moment
when Miss Treadwell and the professor were speaking about some of the
children whom the colonel did not know, went to the rear of one of the
schoolrooms and found, without much difficulty, high up on one of the
walls, the faint but still distinguishable outline of a pencil
caricature he had made there thirty years before. If the wall had been
whitewashed in the meantime, the lime had scaled down to the original
plaster. Only the name, which had been written underneath, was
illegible, though he could reconstruct with his mind's eye and the aid
of a few shadowy strokes--"Bill Fetters, Sneak"--in angular letters in
the printed form.
The colonel smiled at this survival of youthful bigotry. Yet even then
his instinct had been a healthy one; his boyish characterisation of
Fetters, schoolboy, was not an inapt description of Fetters,
man--mortgage shark, labour contractor and political boss. Bill,
seeking official favour, had reported to the Professor of that date
some boyish escapade in which his schoolfellows had taken part, and it
was in revenge for this meanness that the colonel had chased him
ignominiously down Main Street and pilloried him upon the schoolhouse
wall. Fetters the man, a Goliath whom no David had yet opposed, had
fastened himself upon a weak and disorganised community, during a
period of great distress and had succeeded by devious ways in making
himself its master. And as the colonel stood looking at the picture he
was conscious of a faint echo of his boyish indignation and sense of
outraged honour. Already Fetters and he had clashed upon the subject
of the cotton mill, and Fetters had retired from the field. If it were
written that they should meet in a life-and-death struggle for the
soul of Clarendon, he would not shirk the conflict.
"Laura," he said, when they went away, "I should like to visit the
coloured school. Will you come with me?"
She hesitated, and he could see with half an eye that her answer was
dictated by a fine courage.
"Why, certainly, I will go. Why not? It is a place where a good work
is carried on."
"No, Laura," said the colonel smiling, "you need not go. On second
thought, I should prefer to go alone."
She insisted, but he was firm. He had no desire to go counter to her
instincts, or induce her to do anything that might provoke adverse
comment. Miss Laura had all the fine glow of courage, but was secretly
relieved at being excused from a trip so unconventional.
So the colonel found his way alone to the schoolhouse, an unpainted
frame structure in a barren, sandy lot upon a street somewhat removed
from the centre of the town and given over mainly to the humble homes
of Negroes. That his unannounced appearance created some embarrassment
was quite evident, but his friendliness toward the Negroes had already
been noised abroad, and he was welcomed with warmth, not to say
effusion, by the principal of the school, a tall, stalwart and dark
man with an intelligent expression, a deferential manner, and shrewd
but guarded eyes--the eyes of the jungle, the colonel had heard them
called; and the thought came to him, was it some ancestral jungle on
the distant coast of savage Africa, or the wilderness of another sort
in which the black people had wandered and were wandering still in
free America? The attendance was not large; at a glance the colonel
saw that there were but twenty-five pupils present.
"What is your total enrolment?" he asked the teacher.
"Well, sir," was the reply, "we have seventy-five or eighty on the
roll, but it threatened rain this morning, and as a great many of them
haven't got good shoes, they stayed at home for fear of getting their
feet wet."
The colonel had often noticed the black children paddling around
barefoot in the puddles on rainy days, but there was evidently some
point of etiquette connected with attending school barefoot. He had
passed more than twenty-five children on the streets, on his way to
the schoolhouse.
The building was even worse than that of the academy, and the
equipment poorer still. Upon the colonel asking to hear a recitation,
the teacher made some excuse and shrewdly requested him to make a few
remarks. They could recite, he said, at any time, but an opportunity
to hear Colonel French was a privilege not to be neglected.
The colonel, consenting good-humouredly, was introduced to the school
in very flowery language. The pupils were sitting, the teacher
informed them, in the shadow of a great man. A distinguished member of
the grand old aristocracy of their grand old native State had gone to
the great North and grown rich and famous. He had returned to his old
home to scatter his vast wealth where it was most needed, and to give
his fellow townsmen an opportunity to add their applause to his
world-wide fame. He was present to express his sympathy with their
feeble efforts to rise in the world, and he wanted the scholars all to
listen with the most respectful attention.
Colonel French made a few simple remarks in which he spoke of the
advantages of education as a means of forming character and of fitting
boys and girls for the work of men and women. In former years his
people had been charged with direct responsibility for the care of
many coloured children, and in a larger and indirect way they were
still responsible for their descendants. He urged them to make the
best of their opportunities and try to fit themselves for useful
citizenship. They would meet with the difficulties that all men must,
and with some peculiarly their own. But they must look up and not
down, forward and not back, seeking always incentives to hope rather
than excuses for failure. Before leaving, he arranged with the
teacher, whose name was Taylor, to meet several of the leading
coloured men, with whom he wished to discuss some method of improving
their school and directing their education to more definite ends. The
meeting was subsequently held.
"What your people need," said the colonel to the little gathering at
the schoolhouse one evening, "is to learn not only how to read and
write and think, but to do these things to some definite end. We live
in an age of specialists. To make yourselves valuable members of
society, you must learn to do well some particular thing, by which
you may reasonably expect to earn a comfortable living in your own
home, among your neighbours, and save something for old age and the
education of your children. Get together. Take advice from some of
your own capable leaders in other places. Find out what you can do for
yourselves, and I will give you three dollars for every one you can
gather, for an industrial school or some similar institution. Take
your time, and when you're ready to report, come and see me, or write
to me, if I am not here."
The result was the setting in motion of a stagnant pool. Who can
measure the force of hope? The town had been neglected by mission
boards. No able or ambitious Negro had risen from its midst to found
an institution and find a career. The coloured school received a
grudging dole from the public funds, and was left entirely to the
supervision of the coloured people. It would have been surprising had
the money always been expended to the best advantage.
The fact that a white man, in some sense a local man, who had yet come
from the far North, the land of plenty, with feelings friendly to
their advancement, had taken a personal interest in their welfare and
proved it by his presence among them, gave them hope and inspiration
for the future. They had long been familiar with the friendship that
curbed, restricted and restrained, and concerned itself mainly with
their limitations. They were almost hysterically eager to welcome the
co-operation of a friend who, in seeking to lift them up, was obsessed
by no fear of pulling himself down or of narrowing in some degree the
gulf that separated them--who was willing not only to help them, but
to help them to a condition in which they might be in less need of
help. The colonel touched the reserves of loyalty in the Negro nature,
exemplified in old Peter and such as he. Who knows, had these reserves
been reached sooner by strict justice and patient kindness, that they
might not long since have helped to heal the wounds of slavery?
"And now, Laura," said the colonel, "when we have improved the schools
and educated the people, we must give them something to occupy their
minds. We must have a library, a public library."
"That will be splendid!" she replied with enthusiasm.
"A public library," continued the colonel, "housed in a beautiful
building, in a conspicuous place, and decorated in an artistic
manner--a shrine of intellect and taste, at which all the people, rich
and poor, black and white, may worship."
Miss Laura was silent for a moment, and thoughtful.
"But, Henry," she said with some hesitation, "do you mean that
coloured people should use the library?"
"Why not?" he asked. "Do they not need it most? Perhaps not many of
them might wish to use it; but to those who do, should we deny the
opportunity? Consider their teachers--if the blind lead the blind,
shall they not both fall into the ditch?"
"Yes, Henry, that is the truth; but I am afraid the white people
wouldn't wish to handle the same books."
"Very well, then we will give the coloured folks a library of their
own, at some place convenient for their use. We need not strain our
ideal by going too fast. Where shall I build the library?"
"The vacant lot," she said, "between the post-office and the bank."
"The very place," he replied. "It belonged to our family once, and I
shall be acquiring some more ancestral property. The cows will need to
find a new pasture."
The announcement of the colonel's plan concerning the academy and the
library evoked a hearty response on the part of the public, and the
_Anglo-Saxon_ hailed it as the dawning of a new era. With regard to
the colonel's friendly plans for the Negroes, there was less
enthusiasm and some difference of opinion. Some commended the
colonel's course. There were others, good men and patriotic, men who
would have died for liberty, in the abstract, men who sought to walk
uprightly, and to live peaceably with all, but who, by much brooding
over the conditions surrounding their life, had grown hopelessly
pessimistic concerning the Negro.
The subject came up in a little company of gentlemen who were gathered
around the colonel's table one evening, after the coffee had been
served, and the Havanas passed around.
"Your zeal for humanity does you infinite credit, Colonel French,"
said Dr. Mackenzie, minister of the Presbyterian Church, who was one
of these prophetic souls, "but I fear your time and money and effort
will be wasted. The Negroes are hopelessly degraded. They have
degenerated rapidly since the war."
"How do you know, doctor? You came here from the North long after the
war. What is your standard of comparison?"
"I voice the unanimous opinion of those who have known them at both
periods."
"_I_ don't agree with you; and I lived here before the war. There is
certainly one smart Negro in town. Nichols, the coloured barber, owns
five houses, and overreached me in a bargain. Before the war he was a
chattel. And Taylor, the teacher, seems to be a very sensible fellow."
"Yes," said Dr. Price, who was one of the company, "Taylor is a very
intelligent Negro. Nichols and he have learned how to live and prosper
among the white people."
"They are exceptions," said the preacher, "who only prove the rule.
No, Colonel French, for a long time _I_ hoped that there was a future
for these poor, helpless blacks. But of late I have become profoundly
convinced that there is no place in this nation for the Negro, except
under the sod. We will not assimilate him, we cannot deport him----"
"And therefore, O man of God, must we exterminate him?"
"It is God's will. We need not stain our hands with innocent blood. If
we but sit passive, and leave their fate to time, they will die away
in discouragement and despair. Already disease is sapping their
vitals. Like other weak races, they will vanish from the pathway of
the strong, and there is no place for them to flee. When they go
hence, it is to go forever. It is the law of life, which God has given
to the earth. To coddle them, to delude them with false hopes of an
unnatural equality which not all the power of the Government has been
able to maintain, is only to increase their unhappiness. To a doomed
race, ignorance is euthanasia, and knowledge is but pain and sorrow.
It is His will that the fittest should survive, and that those shall
inherit the earth who are best prepared to utilise its forces and
gather its fruits."
"My dear doctor, what you say may all be true, but, with all due
respect, I don't believe a word of it. I am rather inclined to think
that these people have a future; that there is a place for them here;
that they have made fair progress under discouraging circumstances;
that they will not disappear from our midst for many generations, if
ever; and that in the meantime, as we make or mar them, we shall make
or mar our civilisation. No society can be greater or wiser or better
than the average of all its elements. Our ancestors brought these
people here, and lived in luxury, some of them--or went into
bankruptcy, more of them--on their labour. After three hundred years
of toil they might be fairly said to have earned their liberty. At any
rate, they are here. They constitute the bulk of our labouring class.
To teach them is to make their labour more effective and therefore
more profitable; to increase their needs is to increase our profits in
supplying them. I'll take my chances on the Golden Rule. I am no lover
of the Negro, _as_ Negro--I do not know but I should rather see him
elsewhere. I think our land would have been far happier had none but
white men ever set foot upon it after the red men were driven back.
But they are here, through no fault of theirs, as we are. They were
born here. We have given them our language--which they speak more or
less corruptly; our religion--which they practise certainly no better
than we; and our blood--which our laws make a badge of disgrace.
Perhaps we could not do them strict justice, without a great sacrifice
upon our own part. But they are men, and they should have their
chance--at least _some_ chance."
"I shall pray for your success," sighed the preacher. "With God all
things are possible, if He will them. But I can only anticipate your
failure."
"The colonel is growing so popular, with his ready money and his
cheerful optimism," said old General Thornton, another of the guests,
"that we'll have to run him for Congress, as soon as he is reconverted
to the faith of his fathers."
Colonel French had more than once smiled at the assumption that a mere
change of residence would alter his matured political convictions. His
friends seemed to look upon them, so far as they differed from their
own, as a mere veneer, which would scale off in time, as had the
multiplied coats of whitewash over the pencil drawing made on the
school-house wall in his callow youth.
"You see," the old general went on, "it's a social matter down here,
rather than a political one. With this ignorant black flood sweeping
up against us, the race question assumes an importance which
overshadows the tariff and the currency and everything else. For
instance, I had fully made up my mind to vote the other ticket in the
last election. I didn't like our candidate nor our platform. There was
a clean-cut issue between sound money and financial repudiation, and
_I_ was tired of the domination of populists and demagogues. All my
better instincts led me toward a change of attitude, and I boldly
proclaimed the fact. I declared my political and intellectual
independence, at the cost of many friends; even my own son-in-law
scarcely spoke to me for a month. When I went to the polls, old Sam
Brown, the triflingest nigger in town, whom I had seen sentenced to
jail more than once for stealing--old Sam Brown was next to me in the
line.
"'Well, Gin'l,' he said, 'I'm glad you is got on de right side at
las', an' is gwine to vote _our_ ticket.'"
"This was too much! I could stand the other party in the abstract, but
not in the concrete. I voted the ticket of my neighbours and my
friends. We had to preserve our institutions, if our finances went to
smash. Call it prejudice--call it what you like--it's human nature,
and you'll come to it, colonel, you'll come to it--and then we'll send
you to Congress."
"I might not care to go," returned the colonel, smiling.
"You could not resist, sir, the unanimous demand of a determined
constituency. Upon the rare occasions when, in this State, the office
has had a chance to seek the man, it has never sought in vain."
_Nineteen_
Time slipped rapidly by, and the colonel had been in Clarendon a
couple of months when he went home one afternoon, and not finding Phil
and Peter, went around to the Treadwells' as the most likely place to
seek them.
"Henry," said Miss Laura, "Philip does not seem quite well to-day.
There are dark circles under his eyes, and he has been coughing a
little."
The colonel was startled. Had his growing absorption in other things
led him to neglect his child? Phil needed a mother. This dear,
thoughtful woman, whom nature had made for motherhood, had seen things
about his child, that he, the child's father, had not perceived. To a
mind like Colonel French's, this juxtaposition of a motherly heart and
a motherless child seemed very pleasing.
He despatched a messenger on horseback immediately for Dr. Price. The
colonel had made the doctor's acquaintance soon after coming to
Clarendon, and out of abundant precaution, had engaged him to call
once a week to see Phil. A physician of skill and experience, a
gentleman by birth and breeding, a thoughtful student of men and
manners, and a good story teller, he had proved excellent company and
the colonel soon numbered him among his intimate friends. He had seen
Phil a few days before, but it was yet several days before his next
visit.
Dr. Price owned a place in the country, several miles away, on the
road to Mink Run, and thither the messenger went to find him. He was
in his town office only at stated hours. The colonel was waiting at
home, an hour later, when the doctor drove up to the gate with Ben
Dudley, in the shabby old buggy to which Ben sometimes drove his one
good horse on his trips to town.
"I broke one of my buggy wheels going out home this morning,"
explained the doctor, "and had just sent it to the shop when your
messenger came. I would have ridden your horse back, and let the man
walk in, but Mr. Dudley fortunately came along and gave me a lift."
He looked at Phil, left some tablets, with directions for their use,
and said that it was nothing serious and the child would be all right
in a day or two.
"What he needs, colonel, at his age, is a woman's care. But for that
matter none of us ever get too old to need that."
"I'll have Tom hitch up and take you home," said the colonel, when the
doctor had finished with Phil, "unless you'll stay to dinner."
"No, thank you," said the doctor, "I'm much obliged, but I told my
wife I'd be back to dinner. I'll just sit here and wait for young
Dudley, who's going to call for me in an hour. There's a fine mind,
colonel, that's never had a proper opportunity for development. If
he'd had half the chance that your boy will, he would make his mark.
Did you ever see his uncle Malcolm?"
The colonel described his visit to Mink Run, the scene on the piazza,
the interview with Mr. Dudley, and Peter's story about the hidden
treasure.
"Is the old man sane?" he asked.
"His mind is warped, undoubtedly," said the doctor, "but I'll leave it
to you whether it was the result of an insane delusion or not--if you
care to hear his story--or perhaps you've heard it?"
"No, I have not," returned the colonel, "but I should like to hear
it."
This was the story that the doctor told:
* * * * *
When the last century had passed the half-way mark, and had started
upon its decline, the Dudleys had already owned land on Mink Run for a
hundred years or more, and were one of the richest and most
conspicuous families in the State. The first great man of the family,
General Arthur Dudley, an ardent patriot, had won distinction in the
War of Independence, and held high place in the councils of the infant
nation. His son became a distinguished jurist, whose name is still a
synonym for legal learning and juridical wisdom. In Ralph Dudley, the
son of Judge Dudley, and the immediate predecessor of the demented old
man in whom now rested the title to the remnant of the estate, the
family began to decline from its eminence. Ralph did not marry, but
led a life of ease and pleasure, wasting what his friends thought rare
gifts, and leaving his property to the management of his nephew
Malcolm, the orphan son of a younger brother and his uncle's
prospective heir. Malcolm Dudley proved so capable a manager that for
year after year the large estate was left almost entirely in his
charge, the owner looking to it merely for revenue to lead his own
life in other places.
The Civil War gave Ralph Dudley a career, not upon the field, for
which he had no taste, but in administrative work, which suited his
talents, and imposed more arduous tasks than those of actual warfare.
Valour was of small account without arms and ammunition. A
commissariat might be improvised, but gunpowder must be manufactured
or purchased.
Ralph's nephew Malcolm kept bachelor's hall in the great house. The
only women in the household were an old black cook, and the
housekeeper, known as "Viney"--a Negro corruption of Lavinia--a tall,
comely young light mulattress, with a dash of Cherokee blood, which
gave her straighter, blacker and more glossy hair than most women of
mixed race have, and perhaps a somewhat different temperamental
endowment. Her duties were not onerous; compared with the toiling
field hands she led an easy life. The household had been thus
constituted for ten years and more, when Malcolm Dudley began paying
court to a wealthy widow.
This lady, a Mrs. Todd, was a war widow, who had lost her husband in
the early years of the struggle. War, while it took many lives, did
not stop the currents of life, and weeping widows sometimes found
consolation. Mrs. Todd was of Clarendon extraction, and had returned
to the town to pass the period of her mourning. Men were scarce in
those days, and Mrs. Todd was no longer young, Malcolm Dudley courted
her, proposed marriage, and was accepted.
He broke the news to his housekeeper by telling her to prepare the
house for a mistress. It was not a pleasant task, but he was a
resolute man. The woman had been in power too long to yield
gracefully. Some passionate strain of the mixed blood in her veins
broke out in a scene of hysterical violence. Her pleadings,
remonstrances, rages, were all in vain. Mrs. Todd was rich, and he was
poor; should his uncle see fit to marry--always a possibility--he
would have nothing. He would carry out his purpose.
The day after this announcement Viney went to town, sought out the
object of Dudley's attentions, and told her something; just what, no
one but herself and the lady ever knew. When Dudley called in the
evening, the widow refused to see him, and sent instead, a curt note
cancelling their engagement.
Dudley went home puzzled and angry. On the way thither a suspicion
flashed into his mind. In the morning he made investigations, after
which he rode round by the residence of his overseer. Returning to the
house at noon, he ate his dinner in an ominous silence, which struck
terror to the heart of the woman who waited on him and had already
repented of her temerity. When she would have addressed him, with a
look he froze the words upon her lips. When he had eaten he looked at
his watch, and ordered a boy to bring his horse round to the door. He
waited until he saw his overseer coming toward the house, then sprang
into the saddle and rode down the lane, passing the overseer with a
nod.
Ten minutes later Dudley galloped back up the lane and sprang from his
panting horse. As he dashed up the steps he met the overseer coming
out of the house.
"You have not----"
"I have, sir, and well! The she-devil bit my hand to the bone, and
would have stabbed me if I hadn't got the knife away from her. You'd
better have the niggers look after her; she's shamming a fit."
Dudley was remorseful, and finding Viney unconscious, sent hastily for
a doctor.
"The woman has had a stroke," said that gentleman curtly, after an
examination, "brought on by brutal treatment. By G--d, Dudley, I
wouldn't have thought this of you! I own Negroes, but I treat them
like human beings. And such a woman! I'm ashamed of my own race, I
swear I am! If we are whipped in this war and the slaves are freed, as
Lincoln threatens, it will be God's judgment!"
Many a man has been shot by Southern gentlemen for language less
offensive; but Dudley's conscience made him meek as Moses.
"It was a mistake," he faltered, "and I shall discharge the overseer
who did it."
"You had better shoot him," returned the doctor. "He has no soul--and
what is worse, no discrimination."
Dudley gave orders that Viney should receive the best of care. Next
day he found, behind the clock, where she had laid it, the letter
which Ben Dudley, many years after, had read to Graciella on Mrs.
Treadwell's piazza. It was dated the morning of the previous day.
An hour later he learned of the death of his uncle, who had been
thrown from a fractious horse, not far from Mink Run, and had broken
his neck in the fall. A hasty search of the premises did not disclose
the concealed treasure. The secret lay in the mind of the stricken
woman. As soon as Dudley learned that Viney had eaten and drunk and
was apparently conscious, he went to her bedside and took her limp
hand in his own.
"I'm sorry, Viney, mighty sorry, I assure you. Martin went further
than I intended, and I have discharged him for his brutality. You'll
be sorry, Viney, to learn that your old Master Ralph is dead; he was
killed by an accident within ten miles of here. His body will be
brought home to-day and buried to-morrow."
Dudley thought he detected in her expressionless face a shade of
sorrow. Old Ralph, high liver and genial soul, had been so indulgent a
master, that his nephew suffered by the comparison.
"I found the letter he left with you," he continued softly, "and must
take charge of the money immediately. Can you tell me where it is?"
One side of Viney's face was perfectly inert, as the result of her
disorder, and any movement of the other produced a slight distortion
that spoiled the face as the index of the mind. But her eyes were not
dimmed, and into their sombre depths there leaped a sudden fire--only
a momentary flash, for almost instantly she closed her lids, and when
she opened them a moment later, they exhibited no trace of emotion.
"You will tell me where it is?" he repeated. A request came awkwardly
to his lips; he was accustomed to command.
Viney pointed to her mouth with her right hand, which was not
affected.
"To be sure," he said hastily, "you cannot speak--not yet."
He reflected for a moment. The times were unsettled. Should a wave of
conflict sweep over Clarendon, the money might be found by the enemy.
Should Viney take a turn for the worse and die, it would be impossible
to learn anything from her at all. There was another thought, which
had rapidly taken shape in his mind. No one but Viney knew that his
uncle had been at Mink Run. The estate had been seriously embarrassed
by Roger's extravagant patriotism, following upon the heels of other
and earlier extravagances. The fifty thousand dollars would in part
make good the loss; as his uncle's heir, he had at least a moral claim
upon it, and possession was nine points of the law.
"Is it in the house?" he asked.
She made a negative sign.
"In the barn?"
The same answer.
"In the yard? the garden? the spring house? the quarters?"
No question he could put brought a different answer. Dudley was
puzzled. The woman was in her right mind; she was no liar--of this
servile vice at least she was free. Surely there was some mystery.
"You saw my uncle?" he asked thoughtfully.
She nodded affirmatively.
"And he had the money, in gold?"
Yes.
"He left it here?"
Yes, positively.
"Do you know where he hid it?"
She indicated that she did, and pointed again to her silent tongue.
"You mean that you must regain your speech before you can explain?"
She nodded yes, and then, as if in pain, turned her face away from
him.
Viney was carefully nursed. The doctor came to see her regularly. She
was fed with dainty food, and no expense was spared to effect her
cure. In due time she recovered from the paralytic stroke, in all
except the power of speech, which did not seem to return. All of
Dudley's attempts to learn from her the whereabouts of the money were
equally futile. She seemed willing enough, but, though she made the
effort, was never able to articulate; and there was plainly some
mystery about the hidden gold which only words could unravel.
If she could but write, a few strokes of the pen would give him his
heart's desire! But, alas! Viney may as well have been without hands,
for any use she could make of a pen. Slaves were not taught to read or
write, nor was Viney one of the rare exceptions. But Dudley was a man
of resource--he would have her taught. He employed a teacher for her,
a free coloured man who knew the rudiments. But Viney, handicapped by
her loss of speech, made wretched progress. From whatever cause, she
manifested a remarkable stupidity, while seemingly anxious to learn.
Dudley himself took a hand in her instruction, but with no better
results, and, in the end, the attempt to teach her was abandoned as
hopeless.
Years rolled by. The fall of the Confederacy left the slaves free and
completed the ruin of the Dudley estate. Part of the land went, at
ruinous prices, to meet mortgages at ruinous rates; part lay fallow,
given up to scrub oak and short-leaf pine; merely enough was
cultivated, or let out on shares to Negro tenants, to provide a living
for old Malcolm and a few servants. Absorbed in dreams of the hidden
gold and in the search for it, he neglected his business and fell yet
deeper into debt. He worried himself into a lingering fever, through
which Viney nursed him with every sign of devotion, and from which he
rose with his mind visibly weakened.
When the slaves were freed, Viney had manifested no desire to leave
her old place. After the tragic episode which had led to their mutual
undoing, there had been no relation between them but that of master
and servant. But some gloomy attraction, or it may have been habit,
held her to the scene of her power and of her fall. She had no kith
nor kin, and her affliction separated her from the rest of mankind.
Nor would Dudley have been willing to let her go, for in her lay the
secret of the treasure; and, since all other traces of her ailment had
disappeared, so her speech might return. The fruitless search was
never relinquished, and in time absorbed all of Malcolm Dudley's
interest. The crops were left to the servants, who neglected them. The
yard had been dug over many times. Every foot of ground for rods
around had been sounded with a pointed iron bar. The house had
suffered in the search. No crack or cranny had been left unexplored.
The spaces between the walls, beneath the floors, under the
hearths--every possible hiding place had been searched, with little
care for any resulting injury.
* * * * *
Into this household Ben Dudley, left alone in the world, had come when
a boy of fifteen. He had no special turn for farming, but such work as
was done upon the old plantation was conducted under his supervision.
In the decaying old house, on the neglected farm, he had grown up in
harmony with his surroundings. The example of his old uncle, wrecked
in mind by a hopeless quest, had never been brought home to him as a
warning; use had dulled its force. He had never joined in the search,
except casually, but the legend was in his mind. Unconsciously his
standards of life grew around it. Some day he would be rich, and in
order to be sure of it, he must remain with his uncle, whose heir he
was. For the money was there, without a doubt. His great-uncle had hid
the gold and left the letter--Ben had read it.
The neighbours knew the story, or at least some vague version of it,
and for a time joined in the search--surreptitiously, as occasion
offered, and each on his own account. It was the common understanding
that old Malcolm was mentally unbalanced. The neighbouring Negroes,
with generous imagination, fixed his mythical and elusive treasure at
a million dollars. Not one of them had the faintest conception of the
bulk or purchasing power of one million dollars in gold; but when one
builds a castle in the air, why not make it lofty and spacious?
From this unwholesome atmosphere Ben Dudley found relief, as he grew
older, in frequent visits to Clarendon, which invariably ended at the
Treadwells', who were, indeed, distant relatives. He had one good
horse, and in an hour or less could leave behind him the shabby old
house, falling into ruin, the demented old man, digging in the
disordered yard, the dumb old woman watching him from her inscrutable
eyes; and by a change as abrupt as that of coming from a dark room
into the brightness of midday, find himself in a lovely garden, beside
a beautiful girl, whom he loved devotedly, but who kept him on the
ragged edge of an uncertainty that was stimulating enough, but very
wearing.
_Twenty_
The summer following Colonel French's return to Clarendon was
unusually cool, so cool that the colonel, pleasantly occupied with his
various plans and projects, scarcely found the heat less bearable than
that of New York at the same season. During a brief torrid spell he
took Phil to a Southern mountain resort for a couple of weeks, and
upon another occasion ran up to New York for a day or two on business
in reference to the machinery for the cotton mill, which was to be
ready for installation some time during the fall. But these were brief
interludes, and did not interrupt the current of his life, which was
flowing very smoothly and pleasantly in its new channel, if not very
swiftly, for even the colonel was not able to make things move swiftly
in Clarendon during the summer time, and he was well enough pleased to
see them move at all.
Kirby was out of town when the colonel was in New York, and therefore
he did not see him. His mail was being sent from his club to Denver,
where he was presumably looking into some mining proposition. Mrs.
Jerviss, the colonel supposed, was at the seaside, but he had almost
come face to face with her one day on Broadway. She had run down to
the city on business of some sort. Moved by the instinct of defense,
the colonel, by a quick movement, avoided the meeting, and felt safer
when the lady was well out of sight. He did not wish, at this time, to
be diverted from his Southern interests, and the image of another
woman was uppermost in his mind.
One moonlight evening, a day or two after his return from this brief
Northern trip, the colonel called at Mrs. Treadwells'. Caroline opened
the door. Mrs. Treadwell, she said, was lying down. Miss Graciella had
gone over to a neighbour's, but would soon return. Miss Laura was
paying a call, but would not be long. Would the colonel wait? No, he
said, he would take a walk, and come back later.
The streets were shady, and the moonlight bathed with a silvery glow
that part of the town which the shadows did not cover. Strolling
aimlessly along the quiet, unpaved streets, the colonel, upon turning
a corner, saw a lady walking a short distance ahead of him. He thought
he recognised the figure, and hurried forward; but ere he caught up
with her, she turned and went into one of a row of small houses which
he knew belonged to Nichols, the coloured barber, and were occupied by
coloured people. Thinking he had been mistaken in the woman's
identity, he slackened his pace, and ere he had passed out of hearing,
caught the tones of a piano, accompanying the words,
_"I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls,
With vassals and serfs at my s-i-i-de."_
It was doubtless the barber's daughter. The barber's was the only
coloured family in town that owned a piano. In the moonlight, and at a
distance of some rods, the song sounded well enough, and the colonel
lingered until it ceased, and the player began to practise scales,
when he continued his walk. He had smoked a couple of cigars, and was
returning toward Mrs. Treadwells', when he met, face to face, Miss
Laura Treadwell coming out of the barber's house. He lifted his hat
and put out his hand.
"I called at the house a while ago, and you were all out. I was just
going back. I'll walk along with you."
Miss Laura was visibly embarrassed at the meeting. The colonel gave no
sign that he noticed her emotion, but went on talking.
"It is a delightful evening," he said.
"Yes," she replied, and then went on, "you must wonder what I was
doing there."
"I suppose," he said, "that you were looking for a servant, or on some
mission of kindness and good will."
Miss Laura was silent for a moment and he could feel her hand tremble
on the arm he offered her.
"No, Henry," she said, "why should I deceive you? I did not go to find
a servant, but to serve. I have told you we were poor, but not how
poor. I can tell you what I could not say to others, for you have
lived away from here, and I know how differently from most of us you
look at things. I went to the barber's house to give the barber's
daughter music lessons--for money."
The colonel laughed contagiously.
"You taught her to sing--
_'I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls?'_"
"Yes, but you must not judge my work too soon," she replied. "It is
not finished yet."
"You shall let me know when it is done," he said, "and I will walk by
and hear the finished product. Your pupil has improved wonderfully. I
heard her singing the song the day I came back--the first time I
walked by the old house. She sings it much better now. You are a good
teacher, as well as a good woman."
Miss Laura laughed somewhat excitedly, but was bent upon her
explanation.
"The girl used to come to the house," she said. "Her mother belonged
to us before the war, and we have been such friends as white and black
can be. And she wanted to learn to play, and offered to pay me well
for lessons, and I gave them to her. We never speak about the money at
the house; mother knows it, but feigns that I do it out of mere
kindness, and tells me that I am spoiling the coloured people. Our
friends are not supposed to know it, and if any of them do, they are
kind and never speak of it. Since you have been coming to the house,
it has not been convenient to teach her there, and I have been going
to her home in the evening."
"My dear Laura," said the colonel, remorsefully, "I have driven you
away from your own home, and all unwittingly. I applaud your
enterprise and your public spirit. It is a long way from the banjo to
the piano--it marks the progress of a family and foreshadows the
evolution of a race. And what higher work than to elevate humanity?"
They had reached the house. Mrs. Treadwell had not come down, nor had
Graciella returned. They went into the parlour. Miss Laura turned up
the lamp.
* * * * *
Graciella had run over to a neighbour's to meet a young lady who was
visiting a young lady who was a friend of Graciella's. She had
remained a little longer than she had meant to, for among those who
had called to see her friend's friend was young Mr. Fetters, the son
of the magnate, lately returned home from college. Barclay Fetters was
handsome, well-dressed and well-mannered. He had started at one
college, and had already changed to two others. Stories of his
dissipated habits and reckless extravagance had been bruited about.
Graciella knew his family history, and had imbibed the old-fashioned
notions of her grandmother's household, so that her acknowledgment of
the introduction was somewhat cold, not to say distant. But as she
felt the charm of his manner, and saw that the other girls were vieing
with one another for his notice, she felt a certain triumph that he
exhibited a marked preference for her conversation. Her reserve
gradually broke down, and she was talking with animation and listening
with pleasure, when she suddenly recollected that Colonel French would
probably call, and that she ought to be there to entertain him, for
which purpose she had dressed herself very carefully. He had not
spoken yet, but might be expected to speak at any time; such marked
attentions as his could have but one meaning; and for several days she
had had a premonition that before the week was out he would seek to
know his fate; and Graciella meant to be kind.
Anticipating this event, she had politely but pointedly discouraged
Ben Dudley's attentions, until Ben's pride, of which he had plenty in
reserve, had awaked to activity. At their last meeting he had demanded
a definite answer to his oft-repeated question.
"Graciella," he had said, "are you going to marry me? Yes or no. I'll
not be played with any longer. You must marry me for myself, or not at
all. Yes or no."
"Then no, Mr. Dudley," she had replied with spirit, and without a
moment's hesitation, "I will not marry you. I will never marry you,
not if I should die an old maid."
She was sorry they had not parted friends, but she was not to blame.
After her marriage, she would avoid the embarrassment of meeting him,
by making the colonel take her away. Sometime she might, through her
husband, be of service to Ben, and thus make up, in part at least, for
his disappointment.
As she ran up through the garden and stepped upon the porch--her
slippers were thin and made no sound--she heard Colonel French's voice
in the darkened parlour. Some unusual intonation struck her, and she
moved lightly and almost mechanically forward, in the shadow, toward a
point where she could see through the window and remain screened from
observation. So intense was her interest in what she heard, that she
stood with her hand on her heart, not even conscious that she was
doing a shameful thing.
* * * * *
Her aunt was seated and Colonel French was standing near her. An open
Bible lay upon the table. The colonel had taken it up and was reading:
"'Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. She will do him
good and not evil all the days of her life. Strength and honour are
her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come.'
"Laura," he said, "the proverb maker was a prophet as well. In these
words, written four thousand years ago, he has described you, line for
line."
The glow which warmed her cheek, still smooth, the light which came
into her clear eyes, the joy that filled her heart at these kind
words, put the years to flight, and for the moment Laura was young
again.
"You have been good to Phil," the colonel went on, "and I should like
him to be always near you and have your care. And you have been kind
to me, and made me welcome and at home in what might otherwise have
seemed, after so long an absence, a strange land. You bring back to me
the best of my youth, and in you I find the inspiration for good
deeds. Be my wife, dear Laura, and a mother to my boy, and we will try
to make you happy."
"Oh, Henry," she cried with fluttering heart, "I am not worthy to be
your wife. I know nothing of the world where you have lived, nor
whether I would fit into it."
"You are worthy of any place," he declared, "and if one please you
more than another, I shall make your wishes mine."
"But, Henry, how could I leave my mother? And Graciella needs my
care."
"You need not leave your mother--she shall be mine as well as yours.
Graciella is a dear, bright child; she has in her the making of a
noble woman; she should be sent away to a good school, and I will see
to it. No, dear Laura, there are no difficulties, no giants in the
pathway that will not fly or fall when we confront them."
He had put his arm around her and lifted her face to his. He read his
answer in her swimming eyes, and when he had reached down and kissed
her cheek, she buried her head on his shoulder and shed some tears of
happiness. For this was her secret: she was sweet and good; she would
have made any man happy, who had been worthy of her, but no man had
ever before asked her to be his wife. She had lived upon a plane so
simple, yet so high, that men not equally high-minded had never
ventured to address her, and there were few such men, and chance had
not led them her way. As to the others--perhaps there were women more
beautiful, and certainly more enterprising. She had not repined; she
had been busy and contented. Now this great happiness was vouchsafed
her, to find in the love of the man whom she admired above all others
a woman's true career.
"Henry," she said, when they had sat down on the old hair-cloth sofa,
side by side, "you have made me very happy; so happy that I wish to
keep my happiness all to myself--for a little while. Will you let me
keep our engagement secret until I--am accustomed to it? It may be
silly or childish, but it seems like a happy dream, and I wish to
assure myself of its reality before I tell it to anyone else."
"To me," said the colonel, smiling tenderly into her eyes, "it is the
realisation of an ideal. Since we met that day in the cemetery you
have seemed to me the embodiment of all that is best of my memories of
the old South; and your gentleness, your kindness, your tender grace,
your self-sacrifice and devotion to duty, mark you a queen among
women, and my heart shall be your throne. As to the announcement, have
it as you will--it is the lady's privilege."
"You are very good," she said tremulously. "This hour repays me for
all I have ever tried to do for others."
* * * * *
Graciella felt very young indeed--somewhere in the neighbourhood of
ten, she put it afterward, when she reviewed the situation in a calmer
frame of mind--as she crept softly away from the window and around the
house to the back door, and up the stairs and into her own chamber,
where, all oblivious of danger to her clothes or her complexion, she
threw herself down upon her own bed and burst into a passion of tears.
She had been cruelly humiliated. Colonel French, whom she had imagined
in love with her, had regarded her merely as a child, who ought to be
sent to school--to acquire what, she asked herself, good sense or
deportment? Perhaps she might acquire more good sense--she had
certainly made a fool of herself in this case--but she had prided
herself upon her manners. Colonel French had been merely playing with
her, like one would with a pet monkey; and he had been in love, all
the time, with her Aunt Laura, whom the girls had referred to
compassionately, only that same evening, as a hopeless old maid.
It is fortunate that youth and hope go generally hand in hand.
Graciella possessed a buoyant spirit to breast the waves of
disappointment. She had her cry out, a good, long cry; and when much
weeping had dulled the edge of her discomfiture she began to reflect
that all was not yet lost. The colonel would not marry her, but he
would still marry in the family. When her Aunt Laura became Mrs.
French, she would doubtless go often to New York, if she would not
live there always. She would invite Graciella to go with her, perhaps
to live with her there. As for going to school, that was a matter
which her own views should control; at present she had no wish to
return to school. She might take lessons in music, or art; her aunt
would hardly care for her to learn stenography now, or go into
magazine work. Her aunt would surely not go to Europe without inviting
her, and Colonel French was very liberal with his money, and would
deny his wife nothing, though Graciella could hardly imagine that any
man would be infatuated with her Aunt Laura.
But this was not the end of Graciella's troubles. Graciella had a
heart, although she had suppressed its promptings, under the influence
of a selfish ambition. She had thrown Ben Dudley over for the colonel;
the colonel did not want her, and now she would have neither. Ben had
been very angry, unreasonably angry, she had thought at the time, and
objectionably rude in his manner. He had sworn never to speak to her
again. If he should keep his word, she might be very unhappy. These
reflections brought on another rush of tears, and a very penitent,
contrite, humble-minded young woman cried herself to sleep before Miss
Laura, with a heart bursting with happiness, bade the colonel
good-night at the gate, and went upstairs to lie awake in her bed in a
turmoil of pleasant emotions.
Miss Laura's happiness lay not alone in the prospect that Colonel
French would marry her, nor in any sordid thought of what she would
gain by becoming the wife of a rich man. It rested in the fact that
this man, whom she admired, and who had come back from the outer world
to bring fresh ideas, new and larger ideals to lift and broaden and
revivify the town, had passed by youth and beauty and vivacity, and
had chosen her to share this task, to form the heart and mind and
manners of his child, and to be the tie which would bind him most
strongly to her dear South. For she was a true child of the soil; the
people about her, white and black, were her people, and this marriage,
with its larger opportunities for usefulness, would help her to do
that for which hitherto she had only been able to pray and to hope.
To the boy she would be a mother indeed; to lead him in the paths of
truth and loyalty and manliness and the fear of God--it was a
priceless privilege, and already her mother-heart yearned to begin the
task.
And then after the flow came the ebb. Why had he chosen her? Was it
_merely_ as an abstraction--the embodiment of an ideal, a survival
from a host of pleasant memories, and as a mother for his child, who
needed care which no one else could give, and as a helpmate in
carrying out his schemes of benevolence? Were these his only motives;
and, if so, were they sufficient to ensure her happiness? Was he
marrying her through a mere sentimental impulse, or for calculated
convenience, or from both? She must be certain; for his views might
change. He was yet in the full flow of philanthropic enthusiasm. She
shared his faith in human nature and the triumph of right ideas; but
once or twice she had feared he was underrating the power of
conservative forces; that he had been away from Clarendon so long as
to lose the perspective of actual conditions, and that he was
cherishing expectations which might be disappointed. Should this ever
prove true, his disillusion might be as far-reaching and as sudden as
his enthusiasm. Then, if he had not loved her for herself, she might
be very unhappy. She would have rejoiced to bring him youth and
beauty, and the things for which other women were preferred; she would
have loved to be the perfect mate, one in heart, mind, soul and body,
with the man with whom she was to share the journey of life.
But this was a passing thought, born of weakness and self-distrust,
and she brushed it away with the tear that had come with it, and
smiled at its absurdity. Her youth was past; with nothing to expect
but an old age filled with the small expedients of genteel poverty,
there had opened up to her, suddenly and unexpectedly, a great avenue
for happiness and usefulness. It was foolish, with so much to be
grateful for, to sigh for the unattainable. His love must be all the
stronger since it took no thought of things which others would have
found of controlling importance. In choosing her to share his
intellectual life he had paid her a higher compliment than had he
praised the glow of her cheek or the contour of her throat. In
confiding Phil to her care he had given her a sacred trust and
confidence, for she knew how much he loved the child.
_Twenty-one_
The colonel's schemes for the improvement of Clarendon went forward,
with occasional setbacks. Several kilns of brick turned out badly, so
that the brickyard fell behind with its orders, thus delaying the work
a few weeks. The foundations of the old cotton mill had been
substantially laid, and could be used, so far as their position
permitted for the new walls. When the bricks were ready, a gang of
masons was put to work. White men and coloured were employed, under a
white foreman. So great was the demand for labour and so stimulating
the colonel's liberal wage, that even the drowsy Negroes around the
market house were all at work, and the pigs who had slept near them
were obliged to bestir themselves to keep from being run over by the
wagons that were hauling brick and lime and lumber through the
streets. Even the cows in the vacant lot between the post-office and
the bank occasionally lifted up their gentle eyes as though wondering
what strange fever possessed the two-legged creatures around them,
urging them to such unnatural activity.
The work went on smoothly for a week or two, when the colonel had some
words with Jim Green, the white foreman of the masons. The cause of
the dispute was not important, but the colonel, as the master,
insisted that certain work should be done in a certain way. Green
wished to argue the point. The colonel brought the discussion to a
close with a peremptory command. The foreman took offense, declared
that he was no nigger to be ordered around, and quit. The colonel
promoted to the vacancy George Brown, a coloured man, who was the next
best workman in the gang.
On the day when Brown took charge of the job the white bricklayers, of
whom there were two at work, laid down their tools.
"What's the matter?" asked the colonel, when they reported for their
pay. "Aren't you satisfied with the wages?"
"Yes, we've got no fault to find with the wages."
"Well?"
"We won't work under George Brown. We don't mind working _with_
niggers, but we won't work _under_ a nigger."
"I'm sorry, gentlemen, but I must hire my own men. Here is your
money."
They would have preferred to argue their grievance, and since the
colonel had shut off discussion they went down to Clay Jackson's
saloon and argued the case with all comers, with the usual distortion
attending one-sided argument. Jim Green had been superseded by a
nigger--this was the burden of their grievance.
Thus came the thin entering wedge that was to separate the colonel
from a measure of his popularity. There had been no objection to the
colonel's employing Negroes, no objection to his helping their
school--if he chose to waste his money that way; but there were many
who took offense when a Negro was preferred to a white man.
Through Caxton the colonel learned of this criticism. The colonel
showed no surprise, and no annoyance, but in his usual good-humoured
way replied:
"We'll go right along and pay no attention to him. There were only two
white men in the gang, and they have never worked under the Negro;
they quit as soon as I promoted him. I have hired many men in my time
and have made it an unvarying rule to manage my own business in my own
way. If anybody says anything to you about it, you tell them just
that. These people have got to learn that we live in an industrial
age, and success demands of an employer that he utilise the most
available labour. After Green was discharged, George Brown was the
best mason left. He gets more work out of the men than Green did--even
in the old slave times Negroes made the best of overseers; they knew
their own people better than white men could and got more out of them.
When the mill is completed it will give employment to five hundred
white women and fifty white men. But every dog must have his day, so
give the Negro his."
The colonel attached no great importance to the incident; the places
of the workmen were filled, and the work went forward. He knew the
Southern sensitiveness, and viewed it with a good-natured tolerance,
which, however, stopped at injustice to himself or others. The very
root of his reform was involved in the proposition to discharge a
competent foreman because of an unreasonable prejudice. Matters of
feeling were all well enough in some respects--no one valued more
highly than the colonel the right to choose his own associates--but
the right to work and to do one's best work, was fundamental, as was
the right to have one's work done by those who could do it best. Even
a healthy social instinct might be perverted into an unhealthy and
unjust prejudice; most things evil were the perversion of good.
The feeling with which the colonel thus came for the first time
directly in contact, a smouldering fire capable always of being fanned
into flame, had been greatly excited by the political campaign which
began about the third month after his arrival in Clarendon. An
ambitious politician in a neighbouring State had led a successful
campaign on the issue of Negro disfranchisement. Plainly
unconstitutional, it was declared to be as plainly necessary for the
preservation of the white race and white civilisation. The example had
proved contagious, and Fetters and his crowd, who dominated their
State, had raised the issue there. At first the pronouncement met with
slight response. The sister State had possessed a Negro majority,
which, in view of reconstruction history was theoretically capable of
injuring the State. Such was not the case here. The State had survived
reconstruction with small injury. White supremacy existed, in the
main, by virtue of white efficiency as compared with efficiency of a
lower grade; there had been places, and instances, where other methods
had been occasionally employed to suppress the Negro vote, but, taken
as a whole, the supremacy of the white man was secure. No Negro had
held a State office for twenty years. In Clarendon they had even
ceased to be summoned as jurors, and when a Negro met a white man, he
gave him the wall, even if it were necessary to take the gutter to do
so. But this was not enough; this supremacy must be made permanent.
Negroes must be taught that they need never look for any different
state of things. New definitions were given to old words, new pictures
set in old frames, new wine poured into old bottles.
"So long," said the candidate for governor, when he spoke at Clarendon
during the canvas, at a meeting presided over by the editor of the
_Anglo-Saxon_, "so long as one Negro votes in the State, so long are
we face to face with the nightmare of Negro domination. For example,
suppose a difference of opinion among white men so radical as to
divide their vote equally, the ballot of one Negro would determine the
issue. Can such a possibility be contemplated without a shudder? Our
duty to ourselves, to our children, and their unborn descendants, and
to our great and favoured race, impels us to protest, by word, by
vote, by arms if need be, against the enforced equality of an inferior
race. Equality anywhere, means ultimately, equality everywhere.
Equality at the polls means social equality; social equality means
intermarriage and corruption of blood, and degeneration and decay.
What gentleman here would want his daughter to marry a blubber-lipped,
cocoanut-headed, kidney-footed, etc., etc., nigger?"
There could be but one answer to the question, and it came in thunders
of applause. Colonel French heard the speech, smiled at the old
arguments, but felt a sudden gravity at the deep-seated feeling which
they evoked. He remembered hearing, when a boy, the same arguments.
They had served their purpose once before, with other issues, to
plunge the South into war and consequent disaster. Had the lesson been
in vain? He did not see the justice nor the expediency of the proposed
anti-Negro agitation. But he was not in politics, and confined his
protests to argument with his friends, who listened but were not
convinced.
Behind closed doors, more than one of the prominent citizens admitted
that the campaign was all wrong; that the issues were unjust and
reactionary, and that the best interests of the State lay in uplifting
every element of the people rather than selecting some one class for
discouragement and degradation, and that the white race could hold its
own, with the Negroes or against them, in any conceivable state of
political equality. They listened to the colonel's quiet argument that
no State could be freer or greater or more enlightened than the
average of its citizenship, and that any restriction of rights that
rested upon anything but impartial justice, was bound to re-act, as
slavery had done, upon the prosperity and progress of the State. They
listened, which the colonel regarded as a great point gained, and they
agreed in part, and he could almost understand why they let their
feelings govern their reason and their judgment, and said no word to
prevent an unfair and unconstitutional scheme from going forward to a
successful issue. He knew that for a white man to declare, in such a
community, for equal rights or equal justice for the Negro, or to take
the Negro's side in any case where the race issue was raised, was to
court social ostracism and political death, or, if the feeling
provoked were strong enough, an even more complete form of extinction.
So the colonel was patient, and meant to be prudent. His own arguments
avoided the stirring up of prejudice, and were directed to the higher
motives and deeper principles which underlie society, in the light of
which humanity is more than race, and the welfare of the State above
that of any man or set of men within it; it being an axiom as true in
statesmanship as in mathematics, that the whole is greater than any
one of its parts. Content to await the uplifting power of industry and
enlightenment, and supremely confident of the result, the colonel went
serenely forward in his work of sowing that others might reap.
_Twenty-two_
The atmosphere of the Treadwell home was charged, for the next few
days, with electric currents. Graciella knew that her aunt was engaged
to Colonel French. But she had not waited, the night before, to hear
her aunt express the wish that the engagement should be kept secret.
She was therefore bursting with information of which she could
manifest no consciousness without confessing that she had been
eavesdropping--a thing which she knew Miss Laura regarded as
detestably immoral. She wondered at her aunt's silence. Except a
certain subdued air of happiness there was nothing to distinguish Miss
Laura's calm demeanor from that of any other day. Graciella had
determined upon her own attitude toward her aunt. She would kiss her,
and wish her happiness, and give no sign that any thought of Colonel
French had ever entered her own mind. But this little drama,
rehearsed in the privacy of her own room, went unacted, since the
curtain did not rise upon the stage.
The colonel came and went as usual. Some dissimulation was required on
Graciella's part to preserve her usual light-hearted manner toward
him. She may have been to blame in taking the colonel's attentions as
intended for herself; she would not soon forgive his slighting
reference to her. In his eyes she had been only a child, who ought to
go to school. He had been good enough to say that she had the making
of a fine woman. Thanks! She had had a lover for at least two years,
and a proposal of marriage before Colonel French's shadow had fallen
athwart her life. She wished her Aunt Laura happiness; no one could
deserve it more, but was it possible to be happy with a man so lacking
in taste and judgment?
Her aunt's secret began to weigh upon her mind, and she effaced
herself as much as possible when the colonel came. Her grandmother had
begun to notice this and comment upon it, when the happening of a
certain social event created a diversion. This was the annual
entertainment known as the Assembly Ball. It was usually held later in
the year, but owing to the presence of several young lady visitors in
the town, it had been decided to give it early in the fall.
The affair was in the hands of a committee, by whom invitations were
sent to most people in the county who had any claims to gentility. The
gentlemen accepting were expected to subscribe to the funds for hall
rent, music and refreshments. These were always the best the town
afforded. The ball was held in the Opera House, a rather euphemistic
title for the large hall above Barstow's cotton warehouse, where
third-class theatrical companies played one-night stands several times
during the winter, and where an occasional lecturer or conjurer held
forth. An amateur performance of "Pinafore" had once been given there.
Henry W. Grady had lectured there upon White Supremacy; the Reverend
Sam Small had preached there on Hell. It was also distinguished as
having been refused, even at the request of the State Commissioner of
Education, as a place for Booker T. Washington to deliver an address,
which had been given at the town hall instead. The Assembly Balls had
always been held in the Opera House. In former years the music had
been furnished by local Negro musicians, but there were no longer any
of these, and a band of string music was brought in from another town.
So far as mere wealth was concerned, the subscribers touched such
extremes as Ben Dudley on the one hand and Colonel French on the
other, and included Barclay Fetters, whom Graciella had met on the
evening before her disappointment.
The Treadwell ladies were of course invited, and the question of ways
and means became paramount. New gowns and other accessories were
imperative. Miss Laura's one party dress had done service until it was
past redemption, and this was Graciella's first Assembly Ball. Miss
Laura took stock of the family's resources, and found that she could
afford only one gown. This, of course, must be Graciella's. Her own
marriage would entail certain expenses which demanded some present
self-denial. She had played wall-flower for several years, but now
that she was sure of a partner, it was a real sacrifice not to attend
the ball. But Graciella was young, and in such matters youth has a
prior right; for she had yet to find her mate.
Graciella magnanimously offered to remain at home, but was easily
prevailed upon to go. She was not entirely happy, for the humiliating
failure of her hopes had left her for the moment without a recognised
admirer, and the fear of old maidenhood had again laid hold of her
heart. Her Aunt Laura's case was no consoling example. Not one man in
a hundred would choose a wife for Colonel French's reasons. Most men
married for beauty, and Graciella had been told that beauty that
matured early, like her own, was likely to fade early.
One humiliation she was spared. She had been as silent about her hopes
as Miss Laura was about her engagement. Whether this was due to mere
prudence or to vanity--the hope of astonishing her little world by
the unexpected announcement--did not change the comforting fact that
she had nothing to explain and nothing for which to be pitied. If her
friends, after the manner of young ladies, had hinted at the subject
and sought to find a meaning in Colonel French's friendship, she had
smiled enigmatically. For this self-restraint, whatever had been its
motive, she now reaped her reward. The announcement of her aunt's
engagement would account for the colonel's attentions to Graciella as
a mere courtesy to a young relative of his affianced.
With regard to Ben, Graciella was quite uneasy. She had met him only
once since their quarrel, and had meant to bow to him politely, but
with dignity, to show that she bore no malice; but he had
ostentatiously avoided her glance. If he chose to be ill-natured, she
had thought, and preferred her enmity to her friendship, her
conscience was at least clear. She had been willing to forget his
rudeness and be a friend to him. She could have been his true friend,
if nothing more; and he would need friends, unless he changed a great
deal.
When her mental atmosphere was cleared by the fading of her dream, Ben
assumed larger proportions. Perhaps he had had cause for complaint; at
least it was only just to admit that he thought so. Nor had he
suffered in her estimation by his display of spirit in not waiting to
be jilted but in forcing her hand before she was quite ready to play
it. She could scarcely expect him to attend her to the ball; but he
was among the subscribers, and could hardly avoid meeting her, or
dancing with her, without pointed rudeness. If he did not ask her to
dance, then either the Virginia reel, or the lancers, or quadrilles,
would surely bring them together; and though Graciella sighed, she did
not despair. She could, of course, allay his jealousy at once by
telling him of her Aunt Laura's engagement, but this was not yet
practicable. She must find some other way of placating him.
Ben Dudley also had a problem to face in reference to the ball--a
problem which has troubled impecunious youth since balls were
invented--the problem of clothes. He was not obliged to go to the
ball. Graciella's outrageous conduct relieved him of any obligation to
invite her, and there was no other woman with whom he would have cared
to go, or who would have cared, so far as he knew, to go with him. For
he was not a lady's man, and but for his distant relationship would
probably never have gone to the Treadwells'. He was looked upon by
young women as slow, and he knew that Graciella had often been
impatient at his lack of sprightliness. He could pay his subscription,
which was really a sort of gentility tax, the failure to meet which
would merely forfeit future invitations, and remain at home. He did
not own a dress suit, nor had he the money to spare for one. He, or
they, for he and his uncle were one in such matters, were in debt
already, up to the limit of their credit, and he had sold the last
bale of old cotton to pay the last month's expenses, while the new
crop, already partly mortgaged, was not yet picked. He knew that some
young fellows in town rented dress suits from Solomon Cohen, who,
though he kept only four suits in stock at a time, would send to New
York for others to rent out on this occasion, and return them
afterwards. But Ben would not wear another man's clothes. He had borne
insults from Graciella that he never would have borne from any one
else, and that he would never bear again; but there were things at
which his soul protested. Nor would Cohen's suits have fitted him. He
was so much taller than the average man for whom store clothes were
made.
He remained in a state of indecision until the day of the ball. Late
in the evening he put on his black cutaway coat, which was getting a
little small, trousers to match, and a white waistcoat, and started to
town on horseback so as to arrive in time for the ball, in case he
should decide, at the last moment, to take part.
_Twenty-three_
The Opera House was brilliantly lighted on the night of the Assembly
Ball. The dancers gathered at an earlier hour than is the rule in the
large cities. Many of the guests came in from the country, and
returned home after the ball, since the hotel could accommodate only a
part of them.
When Ben Dudley, having left his horse at a livery stable, walked up
Main Street toward the hall, carriages were arriving and discharging
their freight. The ladies were prettily gowned, their faces were
bright and animated, and Ben observed that most of the gentlemen wore
dress suits; but also, much to his relief, that a number, sufficient
to make at least a respectable minority, did not. He was rapidly
making up his mind to enter, when Colonel French's carriage, drawn by
a pair of dashing bays and driven by a Negro in livery, dashed up to
the door and discharged Miss Graciella Treadwell, radiantly beautiful
in a new low-cut pink gown, with pink flowers in her hair, a thin
gold chain with a gold locket at the end around her slender throat,
white slippers on her feet and long white gloves upon her shapely
hands and wrists.
Ben shrank back into the shadow. He had never been of an envious
disposition; he had always looked upon envy as a mean vice, unworthy
of a gentleman; but for a moment something very like envy pulled at
his heartstrings. Graciella worshipped the golden calf. _He_
worshipped Graciella. But he had no money; he could not have taken her
to the ball in a closed carriage, drawn by blooded horses and driven
by a darky in livery.
Graciella's cavalier wore, with the ease and grace of long habit, an
evening suit of some fine black stuff that almost shone in the light
from the open door. At the sight of him the waist of Ben's own coat
shrunk up to the arm-pits, and he felt a sinking of the heart as they
passed out of his range of vision. He would not appear to advantage by
the side of Colonel French, and he would not care to appear otherwise
than to advantage in Graciella's eyes. He would not like to make more
palpable, by contrast, the difference between Colonel French and
himself; nor could he be haughty, distant, reproachful, or anything
but painfully self-conscious, in a coat that was not of the proper
cut, too short in the sleeves, and too tight under the arms.
While he stood thus communing with his own bitter thoughts, another
carriage, drawn by a pair of beautiful black horses, drew up to the
curb in front of him. The horses were restive, and not inclined to
stand still. Some one from the inside of the carriage called to the
coachman through the open window.
"Ransom," said the voice, "stay on the box. Here, you, open this
carriage door!"
Ben looked around for the person addressed, but saw no one near but
himself.
"You boy there, by the curb, open this door, will you, or hold the
horses, so my coachman can!"
"Are you speaking to me?" demanded Ben angrily.
Just then one of the side-lights of the carriage flashed on Ben's
face.
"Oh, I beg pardon," said the man in the carriage, carelessly, "I took
you for a nigger."
There could be no more deadly insult, though the mistake was not
unnatural. Ben was dark, and the shadow made him darker.
Ben was furious. The stranger had uttered words of apology, but his
tone had been insolent, and his apology was more offensive than his
original blunder. Had it not been for Ben's reluctance to make a
disturbance, he would have struck the offender in the mouth. If he had
had a pistol, he could have shot him; his great uncle Ralph, for
instance, would not have let him live an hour.
While these thoughts were surging through his heated brain, the young
man, as immaculately clad as Colonel French had been, left the
carriage, from which he helped a lady, and with her upon his arm,
entered the hall. In the light that streamed from the doorway, Ben
recognised him as Barclay Fetters, who, having finished a checkered
scholastic career, had been at home at Sycamore for several months.
Much of this time he had spent in Clarendon, where his father's wealth
and influence gave him entrance to good society, in spite of an
ancestry which mere character would not have offset. He knew young
Fetters very well by sight, since the latter had to pass Mink Run
whenever he came to town from Sycamore. Fetters may not have known
him, since he had been away for much of the time in recent years, but
he ought to have been able to distinguish between a white man--a
gentleman--and a Negro. It was the insolence of an upstart. Old Josh
Fetters had been, in his younger days, his uncle's overseer. An
overseer's grandson treated him, Ben Dudley, like dirt under his feet!
Perhaps he had judged him by his clothes. He would like to show
Barclay Fetters, if they ever stood face to face, that clothes did
not make the man, nor the gentleman.
Ben decided after this encounter that he would not go on the floor of
the ballroom; but unable to tear himself away, he waited until
everybody seemed to have gone in; then went up the stairs and gained
access, by a back way, to a dark gallery in the rear of the hall,
which the ushers had deserted for the ballroom, from which he could,
without discovery, look down upon the scene below. His eyes flew to
Graciella as the needle to the pole. She was dancing with Colonel
French.
The music stopped, and a crowd of young fellows surrounded her. When
the next dance, which was a waltz, began, she moved out upon the floor
in the arms of Barclay Fetters.
Ben swore beneath his breath. He had heard tales of Barclay Fetters
which, if true, made him unfit to touch a decent woman. He left the
hall, walked a short distance down a street and around the corner to
the bar in the rear of the hotel, where he ordered a glass of whiskey.
He had never been drunk in his life, and detested the taste of liquor;
but he was desperate and had to do something; he would drink till he
was drunk, and forget his troubles. Having never been intoxicated, he
had no idea whatever of the effect liquor would have upon him.
With each succeeding drink, the sense of his wrongs broadened and
deepened. At one stage his intoxication took the form of an intense
self-pity. There was something rotten in the whole scheme of things.
Why should he be poor, while others were rich, and while fifty
thousand dollars in gold were hidden in or around the house where he
lived? Why should Colonel French, an old man, who was of no better
blood than himself, be rich enough to rob him of the woman whom he
loved? And why, above all, should Barclay Fetters have education and
money and every kind of opportunity, which he did not appreciate,
while he, who would have made good use of them, had nothing? With this
sense of wrong, which grew as his brain clouded more and more, there
came, side by side, a vague zeal to right these wrongs. As he grew
drunker still, his thoughts grew less coherent; he lost sight of his
special grievance, and merely retained the combative instinct.
He had reached this dangerous stage, and had, fortunately, passed it
one step farther along the road to unconsciousness--fortunately,
because had he been sober, the result of that which was to follow
might have been more serious--when two young men, who had come down
from the ballroom for some refreshment, entered the barroom and asked
for cocktails. While the barkeeper was compounding the liquor, the
young men spoke of the ball.
"That little Treadwell girl is a peach," said one. "I could tote a
bunch of beauty like that around the ballroom all night."
The remark was not exactly respectful, nor yet exactly disrespectful.
Ben looked up from his seat. The speaker was Barclay Fetters, and his
companion one Tom McRae, another dissolute young man of the town. Ben
got up unsteadily and walked over to where they stood.
"I want you to un'erstan'," he said thickly, "that no gen'l'man would
mensh'n a lady's name in a place like this, or shpeak dissuspeckerly
'bout a lady 'n any place; an' I want you to unerstan' fu'thermo' that
you're no gen'l'man, an' that I'm goin' t' lick you, by G--d!"
"The hell you are!" returned Fetters. A scowl of surprise rose on his
handsome face, and he sprang to an attitude of defence.
Ben suited the action to the word, and struck at Fetters. But Ben was
drunk and the other two were sober, and in three minutes Ben lay on
the floor with a sore head and a black eye. His nose was bleeding
copiously, and the crimson stream had run down upon his white shirt
and vest. Taken all in all, his appearance was most disreputable. By
this time the liquor he had drunk had its full effect, and complete
unconsciousness supervened to save him, for a little while, from the
realisation of his disgrace.
"Who is the mucker, anyway?" asked Barclay Fetters, readjusting his
cuffs, which had slipped down in the melee.
"He's a chap by the name of Dudley," answered McRae; "lives at Mink
Run, between here and Sycamore, you know."
"Oh, yes, I've seen him--the 'po' white' chap that lives with the old
lunatic that's always digging for buried treasure----
_'For my name was Captain Kidd,
As I sailed, as I sailed.'_
But let's hurry back, Tom, or we'll lose the next dance."
Fetters and his companion returned to the ball. The barkeeper called a
servant of the hotel, with whose aid, Ben was carried upstairs and put
to bed, bruised in body and damaged in reputation.
_Twenty-four_
Ben's fight with young Fetters became a matter of public comment the
next day after the ball. His conduct was cited as sad proof of the
degeneracy of a once fine old family. He had been considered shiftless
and not well educated, but no one had suspected that he was a drunkard
and a rowdy. Other young men in the town, high-spirited young fellows
with plenty of money, sometimes drank a little too much, and
occasionally, for a point of honour, gentlemen were obliged to attack
or defend themselves, but when they did, they used pistols, a
gentleman's weapon. Here, however, was an unprovoked and brutal attack
with fists, upon two gentlemen in evening dress and without weapons to
defend themselves, "one of them," said the _Anglo-Saxon_, "the son of
our distinguished fellow citizen and colleague in the legislature, the
Honourable William Fetters."
When Colonel French called to see Miss Laura, the afternoon of next
day after the ball, the ladies were much concerned about the affair.
"Oh, Henry," exclaimed Miss Laura, "what is this dreadful story about
Ben Dudley? They say he was drinking at the hotel, and became
intoxicated, and that when Barclay Fetters and Tom McRae went into the
hotel, he said something insulting about Graciella, and when they
rebuked him for his freedom he attacked them violently, and that when
finally subdued he was put to bed unconscious and disgracefully
intoxicated. Graciella is very angry, and we all feel ashamed enough
to sink into the ground. What can be the matter with Ben? He hasn't
been around lately, and he has quarrelled with Graciella. I never
would have expected anything like this from Ben."
"It came from his great-uncle Ralph," said Mrs. Treadwell. "Ralph was
very wild when he was young, but settled down into a very polished
gentleman. I danced with him once when he was drunk, and I never knew
it--it was my first ball, and I was intoxicated myself, with
excitement. Mother was scandalised, but father laughed and said boys
would be boys. But poor Ben hasn't had his uncle's chances, and while
he has always behaved well here, he could hardly be expected to carry
his liquor like a gentleman of the old school."
"My dear ladies," said the colonel, "we have heard only one side of
the story. I guess there's no doubt Ben was intoxicated, but we know
he isn't a drinking man, and one drink--or even one drunk--doesn't
make a drunkard, nor one fight a rowdy. Barclay Fetters and Tom McRae
are not immaculate, and perhaps Ben can exonerate himself."
"I certainly hope so," said Miss Laura earnestly. "I am sorry for Ben,
but I could not permit a drunken rowdy to come to the house, or let my
niece be seen upon the street with him."
"It would only be fair," said the colonel, "to give him a chance to
explain, when he comes in again. I rather like Ben. He has some fine
mechanical ideas, and the making of a man in him, unless I am
mistaken. I have been hoping to find a place for him in the new cotton
mill, when it is ready to run."
They were still speaking of Ben, when there was an irresolute knock at
the rear door of the parlour, in which they were seated.
"Miss Laura, O Miss Laura," came a muffled voice. "Kin I speak to you
a minute. It's mighty pertickler, Miss Laura, fo' God it is!"
"Laura," said the colonel, "bring Catharine in. I saw that you were
troubled once before when you were compelled to refuse her something.
Henceforth your burdens shall be mine. Come in, Catharine," he called,
"and tell us what's the matter. What's your trouble? What's it all
about?"
The woman, red-eyed from weeping, came in, wringing her apron.
"Miss Laura," she sobbed, "an' Colonel French, my husban' Bud is done
gone and got inter mo' trouble. He's run away f'm Mistah Fettuhs, w'at
he wuz sol' back to in de spring, an' he's done be'n fine' fifty
dollahs mo', an' he's gwine ter be sol' back ter Mistah Fettuhs in de
mawnin', fer ter finish out de ole fine and wo'k out de new one. I's
be'n ter see 'im in de gyard house, an' he say Mistah Haines, w'at
use' ter be de constable and is a gyard fer Mistah Fettuhs now, beat
an' 'bused him so he couldn' stan' it; an' 'ceptin' I could pay all
dem fines, he'll be tuck back dere; an'he say ef dey evah beats him
ag'in, dey'll eithuh haf ter kill him, er he'll kill some er dem. An'
Bud is a rash man, Miss Laura, an' I'm feared dat he'll do w'at he
say, an' ef dey kills him er he kills any er dem, it'll be all de same
ter me--I'll never see 'm no mo' in dis worl'. Ef I could borry de
money, Miss Laura--Mars' Colonel--I'd wuk my fingers ter de bone 'tel
I paid back de las' cent. Er ef you'd buy Bud, suh, lack you did Unc'
Peter, he would n' mind wukkin' fer you, suh, fer Bud is a good wukker
we'n folks treats him right; an' he had n' never had no trouble nowhar
befo' he come hyuh, suh."
"How did he come to be arrested the first time?" asked the colonel.
"He didn't live hyuh, suh; I used ter live hyuh, an' I ma'ied him
down ter Madison, where I wuz wukkin'. We fell out one day, an' I got
mad and lef' 'im--it wuz all my fault an' I be'n payin' fer it evuh
since--an' I come back home an' went ter wuk hyuh, an' he come aftuh
me, an de fus' day he come, befo' I knowed he wuz hyuh, dis yer Mistah
Haines tuck 'im up, an' lock 'im up in de gyard house, like a hog in
de poun', an' he didn' know nobody, an' dey didn' give 'im no chanst
ter see nobody, an' dey tuck 'im roun' ter Squi' Reddick nex' mawnin',
an' fined 'im an' sol' 'im ter dis yer Mistuh Fettuhs fer ter wo'k out
de fine; an' I be'n wantin' all dis time ter hyuh fum 'im, an' I'd
done be'n an' gone back ter Madison to look fer 'im, an' foun' he wuz
gone. An' God knows I didn' know what had become er 'im, 'tel he run
away de yuther time an' dey tuck 'im an' sent 'im back again. An' he
hadn' done nothin' de fus' time, suh, but de Lawd know w'at he won' do
ef dey sen's 'im back any mo'."
Catharine had put her apron to her eyes and was sobbing bitterly. The
story was probably true. The colonel had heard underground rumours
about the Fetters plantation and the manner in which it was supplied
with labourers, and his own experience in old Peter's case had made
them seem not unlikely. He had seen Catharine's husband, in the
justice's court, and the next day, in the convict gang behind Turner's
buggy. The man had not looked like a criminal; that he was surly and
desperate may as well have been due to a sense of rank injustice as to
an evil nature. That a wrong had been done, under cover of law, was at
least more than likely; but a deed of mercy could be made to right it.
The love of money might be the root of all evil, but its control was
certainly a means of great good. The colonel glowed with the
consciousness of this beneficent power to scatter happiness.
"Laura," he said, "I will attend to this; it is a matter about which
you should not be troubled. Don't be alarmed, Catharine. Just be a
good girl and help Miss Laura all you can, and I'll look after your
husband, and pay his fine and let him work it out as a free man."
"Thank'y, suh, thank'y, Mars' Colonel, an' Miss Laura! An' de Lawd is
gwine bless you, suh, you an' my sweet young lady, fuh bein' good to
po' folks w'at can't do nuthin' to he'p deyse'ves out er trouble,"
said Catharine backing out with her apron to her eyes.
* * * * *
On leaving Miss Laura, the colonel went round to the office of Squire
Reddick, the justice of the peace, to inquire into the matter of Bud
Johnson. The justice was out of town, his clerk said, but would be in
his office at nine in the morning, at which time the colonel could
speak to him about Johnson's fine.
The next morning was bright and clear, and cool enough to be bracing.
The colonel, alive with pleasant thoughts, rose early and after a cold
bath, and a leisurely breakfast, walked over to the mill site, where
the men were already at work. Having looked the work over and given
certain directions, he glanced at his watch, and finding it near nine,
set out for the justice's office in time to reach it by the appointed
hour. Squire Reddick was at his desk, upon which his feet rested,
while he read a newspaper. He looked up with an air of surprise as the
colonel entered.
"Why, good mornin', Colonel French," he said genially. "I kind of
expected you a while ago; the clerk said you might be around. But you
didn' come, so I supposed you'd changed yo' mind."
"The clerk said that you would be here at nine," replied the colonel;
"it is only just nine."
"Did he? Well, now, that's too bad! I do generally git around about
nine, but I was earlier this mornin' and as everybody was here, we
started in a little sooner than usual. You wanted to see me about Bud
Johnson?"
"Yes, I wish to pay his fine and give him work."
"Well, that's too bad; but you weren't here, and Mr. Turner was, and
he bought his time again for Mr. Fetters. I'm sorry, you know, but
first come, first served."
The colonel was seriously annoyed. He did not like to believe there
was a conspiracy to frustrate his good intention; but that result had
been accomplished, whether by accident or design. He had failed in the
first thing he had undertaken for the woman he loved and was to marry.
He would see Fetters's man, however, and come to some arrangement with
him. With Fetters the hiring of the Negro was purely a commercial
transaction, conditioned upon a probable profit, for the immediate
payment of which, and a liberal bonus, he would doubtless relinquish
his claim upon Johnson's services.
Learning that Turner, who had acted as Fetters's agent in the matter,
had gone over to Clay Johnson's saloon, he went to seek him there. He
found him, and asked for a proposition. Turner heard him out.
"Well, Colonel French," he replied with slightly veiled insolence, "I
bought this nigger's time for Mr. Fetters, an' unless I'm might'ly
mistaken in Mr. Fetters, no amount of money can get the nigger until
he's served his time out. He's defied our rules and defied the law,
and defied me, and assaulted one of the guards; and he ought to be
made an example of. We want to keep 'im; he's a bad nigger, an' we've
got to handle a lot of 'em, an' we need 'im for an example--he keeps
us in trainin'."
"Have you any power in the matter?" demanded the colonel, restraining
his contempt.
"Me? No, not _me_! I couldn't let the nigger go for his weight in
gol'--an' wouldn' if I could. I bought 'im in for Mr. Fetters, an'
he's the only man that's got any say about 'im."
"Very well," said the colonel as he turned away, "I'll see Fetters."
"I don't know whether you will or not," said Turner to himself, as he
shot a vindictive glance at the colonel's retreating figure. "Fetters
has got this county where he wants it, an' I'll bet dollars to bird
shot he ain't goin' to let no coon-flavoured No'the'n interloper come
down here an' mix up with his arrangements, even if he did hail from
this town way back yonder. This here nigger problem is a South'en
problem, and outsiders might's well keep their han's off. Me and
Haines an' Fetters is the kind o' men to settle it."
The colonel was obliged to confess to Miss Laura his temporary
setback, which he went around to the house and did immediately.
"It's the first thing I've undertaken yet for your sake, Laura, and
I've got to report failure, so far."
"It's only the first step," she said, consolingly.
"That's all. I'll drive out to Fetters's place to-morrow, and arrange
the matter. By starting before day, I can make it and transact my
business, and get back by night, without hurting the horses."
Catharine was called in and the situation explained to her. Though
clearly disappointed at the delay, and not yet free of apprehension
that Bud might do something rash, she seemed serenely confident of the
colonel's ultimate success. In her simple creed, God might sometimes
seem to neglect his black children, but no harm could come to a Negro
who had a rich white gentleman for friend and protector.
_Twenty-five_
It was not yet sunrise when the colonel set out next day, after an
early breakfast, upon his visit to Fetters. There was a crisp
freshness in the air, the dew was thick upon the grass, the clear blue
sky gave promise of a bright day and a pleasant journey.
The plantation conducted by Fetters lay about twenty miles to the
south of Clarendon, and remote from any railroad, a convenient
location for such an establishment, for railroads, while they bring in
supplies and take out produce, also bring in light and take out
information, both of which are fatal to certain fungus growths, social
as well as vegetable, which flourish best in the dark.
The road led by Mink Run, and the colonel looked over toward the house
as they passed it. Old and weather-beaten it seemed, even in the
distance, which lent it no enchantment in the bright morning light.
When the colonel had travelled that road in his boyhood, great
forests of primeval pine had stretched for miles on either hand,
broken at intervals by thriving plantations. Now all was changed. The
tall and stately growth of the long-leaf pine had well nigh
disappeared; fifteen years before, the turpentine industry, moving
southward from Virginia, along the upland counties of the Appalachian
slope, had swept through Clarendon County, leaving behind it a trail
of blasted trunks and abandoned stills. Ere these had yielded to
decay, the sawmill had followed, and after the sawmill the tar kiln,
so that the dark green forest was now only a waste of blackened stumps
and undergrowth, topped by the vulgar short-leaved pine and an
occasional oak or juniper. Here and there they passed an expanse of
cultivated land, and there were many smaller clearings in which could
be seen, plowing with gaunt mules or stunted steers, some heavy-footed
Negro or listless "po' white man;" or women and children, black or
white. In reply to a question, the coachman said that Mr. Fetters had
worked all that country for turpentine years before, and had only
taken up cotton raising after the turpentine had been exhausted from
the sand hills.
He had left his mark, thought the colonel. Like the plague of locusts,
he had settled and devoured and then moved on, leaving a barren waste
behind him.
As the morning advanced, the settlements grew thinner, until suddenly,
upon reaching the crest of a hill, a great stretch of cultivated
lowland lay spread before them. In the centre of the plantation, near
the road which ran through it, stood a square, new, freshly painted
frame house, which would not have seemed out of place in some Ohio or
Michigan city, but here struck a note alien to its surroundings. Off
to one side, like the Negro quarters of another generation, were
several rows of low, unpainted cabins, built of sawed lumber, the
boards running up and down, and battened with strips where the edges
met. The fields were green with cotton and with corn, and there were
numerous gangs of men at work, with an apparent zeal quite in contrast
with the leisurely movement of those they had passed on the way. It
was a very pleasing scene.
"Dis yer, suh," said the coachman in an awed tone, "is Mistah
Fetters's plantation. You ain' gwine off nowhere, and leave me alone
whils' you are hyuh, is you, suh?"
"No," said the colonel, "I'll keep my eye on you. Nobody'll trouble
you while you're with me."
Passing a clump of low trees, the colonel came upon a group at sight
of which he paused involuntarily. A gang of Negroes were at work. Upon
the ankles of some was riveted an iron band to which was soldered a
chain, at the end of which in turn an iron ball was fastened.
Accompanying them was a white man, in whose belt was stuck a revolver,
and who carried in one hand a stout leather strap, about two inches in
width with a handle by which to grasp it. The gang paused momentarily
to look at the traveller, but at a meaning glance from the overseer
fell again to their work of hoeing cotton. The white man stepped to
the fence, and Colonel French addressed him.
"Good morning."
"Mornin', suh."
"Will you tell me where I can find Mr. Fetters?" inquired the colonel.
"No, suh, unless he's at the house. He may have went away this
mornin', but I haven't heard of it. But you drive along the road to
the house, an' somebody'll tell you."
The colonel seemed to have seen the overseer before, but could not
remember where.
"Sam," he asked the coachman, "who is that white man?"
"Dat's Mistah Haines, suh--use' ter be de constable at Cla'endon, suh.
I wouldn' lak to be in no gang under him, suh, sho' I wouldn', no,
suh!"
After this ejaculation, which seemed sincere as well as fervent, Sam
whipped up the horses and soon reached the house. A Negro boy came out
to meet them.
"Is Mr. Fetters at home," inquired the colonel?
"I--_I_ don' know, suh--I--I'll ax Mars' Turner. _He's_ hyuh."
He disappeared round the house and in a few minutes returned with
Turner, with whom the colonel exchanged curt nods.
"I wish to see Mr. Fetters," said the colonel.
"Well, you can't see him."
"Why not?"
"Because he ain't here. He left for the capital this mornin', to be
gone a week. You'll be havin' a fine drive, down here and back."
The colonel ignored the taunt.
"When will Mr. Fetters return?" he inquired.
"I'm shore I don't know. He don't tell me his secrets. But I'll tell
_you_, Colonel French, that if you're after that nigger, you're
wastin' your time. He's in Haines's gang, and Haines loves him so well
that Mr. Fetters has to keep Bud in order to keep Haines. There's no
accountin' for these vi'lent affections, but they're human natur', and
they have to be 'umoured."
"I'll talk to your _master_," rejoined the colonel, restraining his
indignation and turning away.
Turner looked after him vindictively.
"He'll talk to my _master_, like as if I was a nigger! It'll be a long
time before he talks to Fetters, if that's who he means--if I can
prevent it. Not that it would make any difference, but I'll just keep
him on the anxious seat."
It was nearing noon, but the colonel had received no invitation to
stop, or eat, or feed his horses. He ordered Sam to turn and drive
back the way they had come.
As they neared the group of labourers they had passed before, the
colonel saw four Negroes, in response to an imperative gesture from
the overseer, seize one of their number, a short, thickset fellow,
overpower some small resistance which he seemed to make, throw him
down with his face to the ground, and sit upon his extremities while
the overseer applied the broad leathern thong vigorously to his bare
back.
The colonel reached over and pulled the reins mechanically. His
instinct was to interfere; had he been near enough to recognise in the
Negro the object of his visit, Bud Johnson, and in the overseer the
ex-constable, Haines, he might have yielded to the impulse. But on
second thought he realised that he had neither authority nor strength
to make good his interference. For aught he knew, the performance
might be strictly according to law. So, fighting a feeling of nausea
which he could hardly conquer, he ordered Sam to drive on.
The coachman complied with alacrity, as though glad to escape from a
mighty dangerous place. He had known friendless coloured folks, who
had strayed down in that neighbourhood to be lost for a long time; and
he had heard of a spot, far back from the road, in a secluded part of
the plantation, where the graves of convicts who had died while in
Fetters's service were very numerous.
_Twenty-six_
During the next month the colonel made several attempts to see
Fetters, but some fatality seemed always to prevent their meeting. He
finally left the matter of finding Fetters to Caxton, who ascertained
that Fetters would be in attendance at court during a certain week, at
Carthage, the county seat of the adjoining county, where the colonel
had been once before to inspect a cotton mill. Thither the colonel
went on the day of the opening of court. His train reached town toward
noon and he went over to the hotel. He wondered if he would find the
proprietor sitting where he had found him some weeks before. But the
buggy was gone from before the piazza, and there was a new face behind
the desk. The colonel registered, left word that he would be in to
dinner, and then went over to the court house, which lay behind the
trees across the square.
The court house was an old, square, hip-roofed brick structure, whose
walls, whitewashed the year before, had been splotched and discoloured
by the weather. From one side, under the eaves, projected a beam,
which supported a bell rung by a rope from the window below. A hall
ran through the centre, on either side of which were the county
offices, while the court room with a judge's room and jury room,
occupied the upper floor.
The colonel made his way across the square, which showed the usual
signs of court being in session. There were buggies hitched to trees
and posts here and there, a few Negroes sleeping in the sun, and
several old coloured women with little stands for the sale of cakes,
and fried fish, and cider.
The colonel went upstairs to the court room. It was fairly well
filled, and he remained standing for a few minutes near the entrance.
The civil docket was evidently on trial, for there was a jury in the
box, and a witness was being examined with some prolixity with
reference to the use of a few inches of land which lay on one side or
on the other of a disputed boundary. From what the colonel could
gather, that particular line fence dispute had been in litigation for
twenty years, had cost several lives, and had resulted in a feud that
involved a whole township.
The testimony was about concluded when the colonel entered, and the
lawyers began their arguments. The feeling between the litigants
seemed to have affected their attorneys, and the court more than once
found it necessary to call counsel to order. The trial was finished,
however, without bloodshed; the case went to the jury, and court was
adjourned until two o'clock.
The colonel had never met Fetters, nor had he seen anyone in the court
room who seemed likely to be the man. But he had seen his name freshly
written on the hotel register, and he would doubtless go there for
dinner. There would be ample time to get acquainted and transact his
business before court reassembled for the afternoon.
Dinner seemed to be a rather solemn function, and except at a table
occupied by the judge and the lawyers, in the corner of the room
farthest from the colonel, little was said. A glance about the room
showed no one whom the colonel could imagine to be Fetters, and he was
about to ask the waiter if that gentleman had yet entered the dining
room, when a man came in and sat down on the opposite side of the
table. The colonel looked up, and met the cheerful countenance of the
liveryman from whom he had hired a horse and buggy some weeks before.
"Howdy do?" said the newcomer amiably. "Hope you've been well."
"Quite well," returned the colonel, "how are you?"
"Oh, just tol'able. Tendin' co't?"
"No, I came down here to see a man that's attending court--your friend
Fetters. I suppose he'll be in to dinner."
"Oh, yes, but he ain't come in yet. I reckon you find the ho-tel a
little different from the time you were here befo'."
"This is a better dinner than I got," replied the colonel, "and I
haven't seen the landlord anywhere, nor his buggy."
"No, he ain't here no more. Sad loss to Carthage! You see Bark
Fetters--that's Bill's boy that's come home from the No'th from
college--Bark Fetters come down here one day, an' went in the ho-tel,
an' when Lee Dickson commenced to put on his big airs, Bark cussed 'im
out, and Lee, who didn't know Bark from Adam, cussed 'im back, an'
then Bark hauled off an' hit 'im. They had it hot an' heavy for a
while. Lee had more strength, but Bark had more science, an' laid Lee
out col'. Then Bark went home an' tol' the ole man, who had a mortgage
on the ho-tel, an' he sol' Lee up. I hear he's barberin' or somethin'
er that sort up to Atlanta, an' the hotel's run by another man.
There's Fetters comin' in now."
The colonel glanced in the direction indicated, and was surprised at
the appearance of the redoubtable Fetters, who walked over and took
his seat at the table with the judge and the lawyers. He had expected
to meet a tall, long-haired, red-faced, truculent individual, in a
slouch hat and a frock coat, with a loud voice and a dictatorial
manner, the typical Southerner of melodrama. He saw a keen-eyed,
hard-faced small man, slightly gray, clean-shaven, wearing a
well-fitting city-made business suit of light tweed. Except for a few
little indications, such as the lack of a crease in his trousers,
Fetters looked like any one of a hundred business men whom the colonel
might have met on Broadway in any given fifteen minutes during
business hours.
The colonel timed his meal so as to leave the dining-room at the same
moment with Fetters. He went up to Fetters, who was chewing a
toothpick in the office, and made himself known.
"I am Mr. French," he said--he never referred to himself by his
military title--"and you, I believe, are Mr. Fetters?"
"Yes, sir, that's my name," replied Fetters without enthusiasm, but
eyeing the colonel keenly between narrowed lashes.
"I've been trying to see you for some time, about a matter," continued
the colonel, "but never seemed able to catch up with you before."
"Yes, I heard you were at my house, but I was asleep upstairs, and
didn't know you'd be'n there till you'd gone."
"Your man told me you had gone to the capital for two weeks."
"My man? Oh, you mean Turner! Well, I reckon you must have riled
Turner somehow, and he thought he'd have a joke on you."
"I don't quite see the joke," said the colonel, restraining his
displeasure. "But that's ancient history. Can we sit down over here in
the shade and talk by ourselves for a moment?"
Fetters followed the colonel out of doors, where they drew a couple of
chairs to one side, and the colonel stated the nature of his business.
He wished to bargain for the release of a Negro, Bud Johnson by name,
held to service by Fetters under a contract with Clarendon County. He
was willing to pay whatever expense Fetters had been to on account of
Johnson, and an amount sufficient to cover any estimated profits from
his services.
Meanwhile Fetters picked his teeth nonchalantly, so nonchalantly as to
irritate the colonel. The colonel's impatience was not lessened by the
fact that Fetters waited several seconds before replying.
"Well, Mr. Fetters, what say you?"
"Colonel French," said Fetters, "I reckon you can't have the nigger."
"Is it a matter of money?" asked the colonel. "Name your figure. I
don't care about the money. I want the man for a personal reason."
"So do I," returned Fetters, coolly, "and money's no object to me.
I've more now than I know what to do with."
The colonel mastered his impatience. He had one appeal which no
Southerner could resist.
"Mr. Fetters," he said, "I wish to get this man released to please a
lady."
"Sorry to disoblige a lady," returned Fetters, "but I'll have to keep
the nigger. I run a big place, and I'm obliged to maintain discipline.
This nigger has been fractious and contrary, and I've sworn that he
shall work out his time. I have never let any nigger get the best of
me--or white man either," he added significantly.
The colonel was angry, but controlled himself long enough to make one
more effort. "I'll give you five hundred dollars for your contract,"
he said rising from his chair.
"You couldn't get him for five thousand."
"Very well, sir," returned the colonel, "this is not the end of this.
I will see, sir, if a man can be held in slavery in this State, for a
debt he is willing and ready to pay. You'll hear more of this before
I'm through with it."
"Another thing, Colonel French," said Fetters, his quiet eyes
glittering as he spoke, "I wonder if you recollect an incident that
occurred years ago, when we went to the academy in Clarendon?"
"If you refer," returned the colonel promptly, "to the time I chased
you down Main Street, yes--I recalled it the first time I heard of
you when I came back to Clarendon--and I remember why I did it. It is
a good omen."
"That's as it may be," returned Fetters quietly. "I didn't have to
recall it; I've never forgotten it. Now you want something from me,
and you can't have it."
"We shall see," replied the colonel. "I bested you then, and I'll best
you now."
"We shall see," said Fetters.
Fetters was not at all alarmed, indeed he smiled rather pityingly.
There had been a time when these old aristocrats could speak, and the
earth trembled, but that day was over. In this age money talked, and
he had known how to get money, and how to use it to get more. There
were a dozen civil suits pending against him in the court house there,
and he knew in advance that he should win them every one, without
directly paying any juryman a dollar. That any nigger should get away
while he wished to hold him, was--well, inconceivable. Colonel French
might have money, but he, Fetters, had men as well; and if Colonel
French became too troublesome about this nigger, this friendship for
niggers could be used in such a way as to make Clarendon too hot for
Colonel French. He really bore no great malice against Colonel French
for the little incident of their school days, but he had not forgotten
it, and Colonel French might as well learn a lesson. He, Fetters, had
not worked half a lifetime for a commanding position, to yield it to
Colonel French or any other man. So Fetters smoked his cigar
tranquilly, and waited at the hotel for his anticipated verdicts. For
there could not be a jury impanelled in the county which did not have
on it a majority of men who were mortgaged to Fetters. He even held
the Judge's note for several hundred dollars.
The colonel waited at the station for the train back to Clarendon.
When it came, it brought a gang of convicts, consigned to Fetters.
They had been brought down in the regular "Jim Crow" car, for the
colonel saw coloured women and children come out ahead of them. The
colonel watched the wretches, in coarse striped garments, with chains
on their legs and shackles on their hands, unloaded from the train and
into the waiting wagons. There were burly Negroes and flat-shanked,
scrawny Negroes. Some wore the ashen hue of long confinement. Some
were shamefaced, some reckless, some sullen. A few white convicts
among them seemed doubly ashamed--both of their condition and of their
company; they kept together as much as they were permitted, and looked
with contempt at their black companions in misfortune. Fetters's man
and Haines, armed with whips, and with pistols in their belts, were
present to oversee the unloading, and the colonel could see them point
him out to the State officers who had come in charge of the convicts,
and see them look at him with curious looks. The scene was not
edifying. There were criminals in New York, he knew very well, but he
had never seen one. They were not marched down Broadway in stripes and
chains. There were certain functions of society, as of the body, which
were more decently performed in retirement. There was work in the
State for the social reformer, and the colonel, undismayed by his
temporary defeat, metaphorically girded up his loins, went home, and,
still metaphorically, set out to put a spoke in Fetters's wheel.
_Twenty-seven_
His first step was to have Caxton look up and abstract for him the
criminal laws of the State. They were bad enough, in all conscience.
Men could be tried without jury and condemned to infamous punishments,
involving stripes and chains, for misdemeanours which in more
enlightened States were punished with a small fine or brief detention.
There were, for instance, no degrees of larceny, and the heaviest
punishment might be inflicted, at the discretion of the judge, for the
least offense.
The vagrancy law, of which the colonel had had some experience, was an
open bid for injustice and "graft" and clearly designed to profit the
strong at the expense of the weak. The crop-lien laws were little more
than the instruments of organised robbery. To these laws the colonel
called the attention of some of his neighbours with whom he was on
terms of intimacy. The enlightened few had scarcely known of their
existence, and quite agreed that the laws were harsh and ought to be
changed.
But when the colonel, pursuing his inquiry, undertook to investigate
the operation of these laws, he found an appalling condition. The
statutes were mild and beneficent compared with the results obtained
under cover of them. Caxton spent several weeks about the State
looking up the criminal records, and following up the sentences
inflicted, working not merely for his fee, but sharing the colonel's
indignation at the state of things unearthed. Convict labour was
contracted out to private parties, with little or no effective State
supervision, on terms which, though exceedingly profitable to the
State, were disastrous to free competitive labour. More than one
lawmaker besides Fetters was numbered among these contractors.
Leaving the realm of crime, they found that on hundreds of farms,
ignorant Negroes, and sometimes poor whites, were held in bondage
under claims of debt, or under contracts of exclusive employment for
long terms of years--contracts extorted from ignorance by craft, aided
by State laws which made it a misdemeanour to employ such persons
elsewhere. Free men were worked side by side with convicts from the
penitentiary, and women and children herded with the most depraved
criminals, thus breeding a criminal class to prey upon the State.
In the case of Fetters alone the colonel found a dozen instances where
the law, bad as it was, had not been sufficient for Fetters's purpose,
but had been plainly violated. Caxton discovered a discharged guard of
Fetters, who told him of many things that had taken place at Sycamore;
and brought another guard one evening, at that time employed there,
who told him, among other things, that Bud Johnson's life, owing to
his surliness and rebellious conduct, and some spite which Haines
seemed to bear against him, was simply a hell on earth--that even a
strong Negro could not stand it indefinitely.
A case was made up and submitted to the grand jury. Witnesses were
summoned at the colonel's instance. At the last moment they all
weakened, even the discharged guard, and their testimony was not
sufficient to justify an indictment.
The colonel then sued out a writ of habeas corpus for the body of Bud
Johnson, and it was heard before the common pleas court at Clarendon,
with public opinion divided between the colonel and Fetters. The court
held that under his contract, for which he had paid the consideration,
Fetters was entitled to Johnson's services.
The colonel, defeated but still undismayed, ordered Caxton to prepare
a memorial for presentation to the federal authorities, calling their
attention to the fact that peonage, a crime under the Federal
statutes, was being flagrantly practised in the State. This allegation
was supported by a voluminous brief, giving names and dates and
particular instances of barbarity. The colonel was not without some
quiet support in this movement; there were several public-spirited men
in the county, including his able lieutenant Caxton, Dr. Price and old
General Thornton, none of whom were under any obligation to Fetters,
and who all acknowledged that something ought to be done to purge the
State of a great disgrace.
There was another party, of course, which deprecated any scandal which
would involve the good name of the State or reflect upon the South,
and who insisted that in time these things would pass away and there
would be no trace of them in future generations. But the colonel
insisted that so also would the victims of the system pass away, who,
being already in existence, were certainly entitled to as much
consideration as generations yet unborn; it was hardly fair to
sacrifice them to a mere punctilio. The colonel had reached the
conviction that the regenerative forces of education and
enlightenment, in order to have any effect in his generation, must be
reinforced by some positive legislative or executive action, or else
the untrammelled forces of graft and greed would override them; and he
was human enough, at this stage of his career to wish to see the
result of his labours, or at least a promise of result.
The colonel's papers were forwarded to the proper place, whence they
were referred from official to official, and from department to
department. That it might take some time to set in motion the
machinery necessary to reach the evil, the colonel knew very well, and
hence was not impatient at any reasonable delay. Had he known that his
presentation had created a sensation in the highest quarter, but that
owing to the exigencies of national politics it was not deemed wise,
at that time, to do anything which seemed like an invasion of State
rights or savoured of sectionalism, he might not have been so serenely
confident of the outcome. Nor had Fetters known as much, would he have
done the one thing which encouraged the colonel more than anything
else. Caxton received a message one day from Judge Bullard,
representing Fetters, in which Fetters made the offer that if Colonel
French would stop his agitation on the labour laws, and withdraw any
papers he had filed, and promise to drop the whole matter, he would
release Bud Johnson.
The colonel did not hesitate a moment. He had gone into this fight for
Johnson--or rather to please Miss Laura. He had risen now to higher
game; nothing less than the system would satisfy him.
"But, Colonel," said Caxton, "it's pretty hard on the nigger. They'll
kill him before his time's up. If you'll give me a free hand, I'll get
him anyway."
"How?"
"Perhaps it's just as well you shouldn't know. But I have friends at
Sycamore."
"You wouldn't break the law?" asked the colonel.
"Fetters is breaking the law," replied Caxton. "He's holding Johnson
for debt--and whether that is lawful or not, he certainly has no right
to kill him."
"You're right," replied the colonel. "Get Johnson away, I don't care
how. The end justifies the means--that's an argument that goes down
here. Get him away, and send him a long way off, and he can write for
his wife to join him. His escape need not interfere with our other
plans. We have plenty of other cases against Fetters."
Within a week, Johnson, with the connivance of a bribed guard, a
poor-white man from Clarendon, had escaped from Fetters and seemingly
vanished from Beaver County. Fetters's lieutenants were active in
their search for him, but sought in vain.
_Twenty-eight_
Ben Dudley awoke the morning after the assembly ball, with a violent
headache and a sense of extreme depression, which was not relieved by
the sight of his reflection in the looking-glass of the bureau in the
hotel bedroom where he found himself.
One of his eyes was bloodshot, and surrounded by a wide area of
discolouration, and he was conscious of several painful contusions on
other portions of his body. His clothing was badly disordered and
stained with blood; and, all in all, he was scarcely in a condition to
appear in public. He made such a toilet as he could, and, anxious to
avoid observation, had his horse brought from the livery around to the
rear door of the hotel, and left for Mink Run by the back streets. He
did not return to town for a week, and when he made his next
appearance there, upon strictly a business visit, did not go near the
Treadwells', and wore such a repellent look that no one ventured to
speak to him about his encounter with Fetters and McRae. He was
humiliated and ashamed, and angry with himself and all the world. He
had lost Graciella already; any possibility that might have remained
of regaining her affection, was destroyed by his having made her name
the excuse for a barroom broil. His uncle was not well, and with the
decline of his health, his monomania grew more acute and more
absorbing, and he spent most of his time in the search for the
treasure and in expostulations with Viney to reveal its whereabouts.
The supervision of the plantation work occupied Ben most of the time,
and during his intervals of leisure he sought to escape unpleasant
thoughts by busying himself with the model of his cotton gin.
His life had run along in this way for about two weeks after the
ball, when one night Barclay Fetters, while coming to town from his
father's plantation at Sycamore, in company with Turner, his father's
foreman, was fired upon from ambush, in the neighbourhood of Mink
Run, and seriously wounded. Groaning heavily and in a state of
semi-unconsciousness he was driven by Turner, in the same buggy in
which he had been shot, to Doctor Price's house, which lay between
Mink Run and the town.
The doctor examined the wound, which was serious. A charge of buckshot
had been fired at close range, from a clump of bushes by the wayside,
and the charge had taken effect in the side of the face. The sight of
one eye was destroyed beyond a peradventure, and that of the other
endangered by a possible injury to the optic nerve. A sedative was
administered, as many as possible of the shot extracted, and the
wounds dressed. Meantime a messenger was despatched to Sycamore for
Fetters, senior, who came before morning post-haste. To his anxious
inquiries the doctor could give no very hopeful answer.
"He's not out of danger," said Doctor Price, "and won't be for several
days. I haven't found several of those shot, and until they're located
I can't tell what will happen. Your son has a good constitution, but
it has been abused somewhat and is not in the best condition to throw
off an injury."
"Do the best you can for him, Doc," said Fetters, "and I'll make it
worth your while. And as for the double-damned scoundrel that shot him
in the dark, I'll rake this county with a fine-toothed comb till he's
found. If Bark dies, the murderer shall hang as high as Haman, if it
costs me a million dollars, or, if Bark gets well, he shall have the
limit of the law. No man in this State shall injure me or mine and go
unpunished."
The next day Ben Dudley was arrested at Mink Run, on a warrant sworn
out by Fetters, senior, charging Dudley with attempted murder. The
accused was brought to Clarendon, and lodged in Beaver County jail.
Ben sent for Caxton, from whom he learned that his offense was not
subject to bail until it became certain that Barclay Fetters would
recover. For in the event of his death, the charge would be murder; in
case of recovery, the offense would be merely attempted murder, or
shooting with intent to kill, for which bail was allowable. Meantime
he would have to remain in jail.
In a day or two young Fetters was pronounced out of danger, so far as
his life was concerned, and Colonel French, through Caxton, offered to
sign Ben's bail bond. To Caxton's surprise Dudley refused to accept
bail at the colonel's hands.
"I don't want any favours from Colonel French," he said decidedly. "I
prefer to stay in jail rather than to be released on his bond."
So he remained in jail.
Graciella was not so much surprised at Ben's refusal to accept bail.
She had reasoned out, with a fine instinct, the train of emotions
which had brought her lover to grief, and her own share in stirring
them up. She could not believe that Ben was capable of shooting a man
from ambush; but even if he had, it would have been for love of her;
and if he had not, she had nevertheless been the moving cause of the
disaster. She would not willingly have done young Mr. Fetters an
injury. He had favoured her by his attentions, and, if all stories
were true, he had behaved better than Ben, in the difficulty between
them, and had suffered more. But she loved Ben, as she grew to
realise, more and more. She wanted to go and see Ben in jail but her
aunt did not think it proper. Appearances were all against Ben, and he
had not purged himself by any explanation. So Graciella sat down and
wrote him a long letter. She knew very well that the one thing that
would do him most good would be the announcement of her Aunt Laura's
engagement to Colonel French. There was no way to bring this about,
except by first securing her aunt's permission. This would make
necessary a frank confession, to which, after an effort, she nerved
herself.
"Aunt Laura," she said, at a moment when they were alone together, "I
know why Ben will not accept bail from Colonel French, and why he will
not tell his side of the quarrel between himself and Mr. Fetters. He
was foolish enough to imagine that Colonel French was coming to the
house to see me, and that I preferred the colonel to him. And, Aunt
Laura, I have a confession to make; I have done something for which I
want to beg your pardon. I listened that night, and overheard the
colonel ask you to be his wife. Please, dear Aunt Laura, forgive me,
and let me write and tell Ben--just Ben, in confidence. No one else
need know it."
Miss Laura was shocked and pained, and frankly said so, but could not
refuse the permission, on condition that Ben should be pledged to keep
her secret, which, for reasons of her own, she was not yet ready to
make public. She, too, was fond of Ben, and hoped that he might clear
himself of the accusation. So Graciella wrote the letter. She was no
more frank in it, however, on one point, than she had been with her
aunt, for she carefully avoided saying that she _had_ taken Colonel
French's attentions seriously, or built any hopes upon them, but
chided Ben for putting such a construction upon her innocent actions,
and informed him, as proof of his folly, and in the strictest
confidence, that Colonel French was engaged to her Aunt Laura. She
expressed her sorrow for his predicament, her profound belief in his
innocence, and her unhesitating conviction that he would be acquitted
of the pending charge.
To this she expected by way of answer a long letter of apology,
explanation, and protestations of undying love.
She received, instead, a brief note containing a cold acknowledgment
of her letter, thanking her for her interest in his welfare, and
assuring her that he would respect Miss Laura's confidence. There was
no note of love or reproachfulness--mere cold courtesy.
Graciella was cut to the quick, so much so that she did not even
notice Ben's mistakes in spelling. It would have been better had he
overwhelmed her with reproaches--it would have shown at least that he
still loved her. She cried bitterly, and lay awake very late that
night, wondering what else she could do for Ben that a self-respecting
young lady might. For the first time, she was more concerned about Ben
than about herself. If by marrying him immediately she could have
saved him from danger and disgrace she would have done so without one
selfish thought--unless it were selfish to save one whom she loved.
* * * * *
The preliminary hearing in the case of the State _vs._ Benjamin Dudley
was held as soon as Doctor Price pronounced Barclay Fetters out of
danger. The proceedings took place before Squire Reddick, the same
justice from whom the colonel had bought Peter's services, and from
whom he had vainly sought to secure Bud Johnson's release.
In spite of Dudley's curt refusal of his assistance, the colonel, to
whom Miss Laura had conveyed a hint of the young man's frame of mind,
had instructed Caxton to spare no trouble or expense in the prisoner's
interest. There was little doubt, considering Fetters's influence and
vindictiveness, that Dudley would be remanded, though the evidence
against him was purely circumstantial; but it was important that the
evidence should be carefully scrutinised, and every legal safeguard
put to use.
The case looked bad for the prisoner. Barclay Fetters was not present,
nor did the prosecution need him; his testimony could only have been
cumulative.
Turner described the circumstances of the shooting from the trees by
the roadside near Mink Run, and the driving of the wounded man to
Doctor Price's.
Doctor Price swore to the nature of the wound, its present and
probable consequences, which involved the loss of one eye and perhaps
the other, and produced the shot he had extracted.
McRae testified that he and Barclay Fetters had gone down between
dances, from the Opera Ball, to the hotel bar, to get a glass of
seltzer. They had no sooner entered the bar than the prisoner, who had
evidently been drinking heavily and showed all the signs of
intoxication, had picked a quarrel with them and assaulted Mr.
Fetters. Fetters, with the aid of the witness, had defended himself.
In the course of the altercation, the prisoner had used violent and
profane language, threatening, among other things, to kill Fetters.
All this testimony was objected to, but was admitted as tending to
show a motive for the crime. This closed the State's case.
Caxton held a hurried consultation with his client. Should they put in
any evidence, which would be merely to show their hand, since the
prisoner would in any event undoubtedly be bound over? Ben was unable
to deny what had taken place at the hotel, for he had no distinct
recollection of it--merely a blurred impression, like the memory of a
bad dream. He could not swear that he had not threatened Fetters. The
State's witnesses had refrained from mentioning the lady's name; he
could do no less. So far as the shooting was concerned, he had had no
weapon with which to shoot. His gun had been stolen that very day, and
had not been recovered.
"The defense will offer no testimony," declared Caxton, at the result
of the conference.
The justice held the prisoner to the grand jury, and fixed the bond at
ten thousand dollars. Graciella's information had not been without its
effect, and when Caxton suggested that he could still secure bail, he
had little difficulty in inducing Ben to accept Colonel French's
friendly offices. The bail bond was made out and signed, and the
prisoner released.
Caxton took Ben to his office after the hearing. There Ben met the
colonel, thanked him for his aid and friendship, and apologised for
his former rudeness.
"I was in a bad way, sir," he said, "and hardly knew what I was doing.
But I know I didn't shoot Bark Fetters, and never thought of such a
thing."
"I'm sure you didn't, my boy," said the colonel, laying his hand, in
familiar fashion, upon the young fellow's shoulder, "and we'll prove
it before we quit. There are some ladies who believe the same thing,
and would like to hear you say it."
"Thank you, sir," said Ben. "I should like to tell them, but I
shouldn't want to enter their house until I am cleared of this charge.
I think too much of them to expose them to any remarks about
harbouring a man out on bail for a penitentiary offense. I'll write to
them, sir, and thank them for their trust and friendship, and you can
tell them for me, if you will, that I'll come to see them when not
only I, but everybody else, can say that I am fit to go."
"Your feelings do you credit," returned the colonel warmly, "and
however much they would like to see you, I'm sure the ladies will
appreciate your delicacy. As your friend and theirs, you must permit
me to serve you further, whenever the opportunity offers, until this
affair is finished."
Ben thanked the colonel from a full heart, and went back to Mink Run,
where, in the effort to catch up the plantation work, which had
fallen behind in his absence, he sought to forget the prison
atmosphere and lose the prison pallor. The disgrace of having been in
jail was indelible, and the danger was by no means over. The sympathy
of his friends would have been priceless to him, but to remain away
from them would be not only the honourable course to pursue, but a
just punishment for his own folly. For Graciella, after all, was only
a girl--a young girl, and scarcely yet to be judged harshly for her
actions; while he was a man grown, who knew better, and had not acted
according to his lights.
Three days after Ben Dudley's release on bail, Clarendon was treated
to another sensation. Former constable Haines, now employed as an
overseer at Fetters's convict farm, while driving in a buggy to
Clarendon, where he spent his off-duty spells, was shot from ambush
near Mink Run, and his right arm shattered in such a manner as to
require amputation.
_Twenty-nine_
Colonel French's interest in Ben Dudley's affairs had not been
permitted to interfere with his various enterprises. Work on the chief
of these, the cotton mill, had gone steadily forward, with only
occasional delays, incident to the delivery of material, the weather,
and the health of the workmen, which was often uncertain for a day or
two after pay day. The coloured foreman of the brick-layers had been
seriously ill; his place had been filled by a white man, under whom
the walls were rising rapidly. Jim Green, the foreman whom the colonel
had formerly discharged, and the two white brick-layers who had quit
at the same time, applied for reinstatement. The colonel took the two
men on again, but declined to restore Green, who had been discharged
for insubordination.
Green went away swearing vengeance. At Clay Johnson's saloon he hurled
invectives at the colonel, to all who would listen, and with anger
and bad whiskey, soon worked himself into a frame of mind that was
ripe for any mischief. Some of his utterances were reported to the
colonel, who was not without friends--the wealthy seldom are; but he
paid no particular attention to them, except to keep a watchman at the
mill at night, lest this hostility should seek an outlet in some
attempt to injure the property. The precaution was not amiss, for once
the watchman shot at a figure prowling about the mill. The lesson was
sufficient, apparently, for there was no immediate necessity to repeat
it.
The shooting of Haines, while not so sensational as that of Barclay
Fetters, had given rise to considerable feeling against Ben Dudley.
That two young men should quarrel, and exchange shots, would not
ordinarily have been a subject of extended remark. But two attempts at
assassination constituted a much graver affair. That Dudley was
responsible for this second assault was the generally accepted
opinion. Fetters's friends and hirelings were openly hostile to young
Dudley, and Haines had been heard to say, in his cups, at Clay
Jackson's saloon, that when young Dudley was tried and convicted and
sent to the penitentiary, he would be hired out to Fetters, who had
the country contract, and that he, Haines, would be delighted to have
Dudley in his gang. The feeling against Dudley grew from day to day,
and threats and bets were openly made that he would not live to be
tried. There was no direct proof against him, but the moral and
circumstantial evidence was quite sufficient to convict him in the
eyes of Fetter's friends and supporters. The colonel was sometimes
mentioned, in connection with the affair as a friend of Ben's, for
whom he had given bail, and as an enemy of Fetters, to whom his
antagonism in various ways had become a matter of public knowledge and
interest.
One day, while the excitement attending the second shooting was thus
growing, Colonel French received through the mail a mysteriously
worded note, vaguely hinting at some matter of public importance which
the writer wished to communicate to him, and requesting a private
interview for the purpose, that evening, at the colonel's house. The
note, which had every internal evidence of sincerity, was signed by
Henry Taylor, the principal of the coloured school, whom the colonel
had met several times in reference to the proposed industrial school.
From the tenor of the communication, and what he knew about Taylor,
the colonel had no doubt that the matter was one of importance, at
least not one to be dismissed without examination. He thereupon
stepped into Caxton's office and wrote an answer to the letter, fixing
eight o'clock that evening as the time, and his own library as the
place, of a meeting with the teacher. This letter he deposited in the
post-office personally--it was only a step from Caxton's office. Upon
coming out of the post-office he saw the teacher standing on an
opposite corner. When the colonel had passed out of sight, Taylor
crossed the street, entered the post-office, and soon emerged with the
letter. He had given no sign that he saw the colonel, but had looked
rather ostentatiously the other way when that gentleman had glanced in
his direction.
At the appointed hour there was a light step on the colonel's piazza.
The colonel was on watch, and opened the door himself, ushering Taylor
into his library, a very handsome and comfortable room, the door of
which he carefully closed behind them.
The teacher looked around cautiously.
"Are we alone, sir?"
"Yes, entirely so."
"And can any one hear us?"
"No. What have you got to tell me?"
"Colonel French," replied the other, "I'm in a hard situation, and I
want you to promise that you'll never let on to any body that I told
you what I'm going to say."
"All right, Mr. Taylor, if it is a proper promise to make. You can
trust my discretion."
"Yes, sir, I'm sure I can. We coloured folks, sir, are often accused
of trying to shield criminals of our own race, or of not helping the
officers of the law to catch them. Maybe we does, suh," he said,
lapsing in his earnestness, into bad grammar, "maybe we does
sometimes, but not without reason."
"What reason?" asked the colonel.
"Well, sir, fer the reason that we ain't always shore that a coloured
man will get a fair trial, or any trial at all, or that he'll get a
just sentence after he's been tried. We have no hand in makin' the
laws, or in enforcin' 'em; we are not summoned on jury; and yet we're
asked to do the work of constables and sheriffs who are paid for
arrestin' criminals, an' for protectin' 'em from mobs, which they
don't do."
"I have no doubt every word you say is true, Mr. Taylor, and such a
state of things is unjust, and will some day be different, if I can
help to make it so. But, nevertheless, all good citizens, whatever
their colour, ought to help to preserve peace and good order."
"Yes, sir, so they ought; and I want to do just that; I want to
co-operate, and a whole heap of us want to co-operate with the good
white people to keep down crime and lawlessness. I know there's good
white people who want to see justice done--but they ain't always
strong enough to run things; an' if any one of us coloured folks tells
on another one, he's liable to lose all his frien's. But I believe,
sir, that I can trust you to save me harmless, and to see that nothin'
mo' than justice is done to the coloured man."
"Yes, Taylor, you can trust me to do all that I can, and I think I
have considerable influence. Now, what's on your mind? Do you know who
shot Haines and Mr. Fetters?"
"Well, sir, you're a mighty good guesser. It ain't so much Mr. Fetters
an' Mr. Haines I'm thinkin' about, for that place down the country is
a hell on earth, an' they're the devils that runs it. But there's a
friend of yo'rs in trouble, for something he didn' do, an' I wouldn'
stan' for an innocent man bein' sent to the penitentiary--though many
a po' Negro has been. Yes, sir, I know that Mr. Ben Dudley didn' shoot
them two white men."
"So do I," rejoined the colonel. "Who did?"
"It was Bud Johnson, the man you tried to get away from Mr.
Fetters--yo'r coachman tol' us about it, sir, an' we know how good a
friend of ours you are, from what you've promised us about the school.
An' I wanted you to know, sir. You are our friend, and have showed
confidence in us, and I wanted to prove to you that we are not
ungrateful, an' that we want to be good citizens."
"I had heard," said the colonel, "that Johnson had escaped and left
the county."
"So he had, sir, but he came back. They had 'bused him down at that
place till he swore he'd kill every one that had anything to do with
him. It was Mr. Turner he shot at the first time and he hit young Mr.
Fetters by accident. He stole a gun from ole Mr. Dudley's place at
Mink Run, shot Mr. Fetters with it, and has kept it ever since, and
shot Mr. Haines with it. I suppose they'd 'a' ketched him before, if
it hadn't be'n for suspectin' young Mr. Dudley."
"Where is Johnson now," asked the colonel.
"He's hidin' in an old log cabin down by the swamp back of Mink Run.
He sleeps in the daytime, and goes out at night to get food and watch
for white men from Mr. Fetters's place."
"Does his wife know where he is?"
"No, sir; he ain't never let her know."
"By the way, Taylor," asked the colonel, "how do _you_ know all this?"
"Well, sir," replied the teacher, with something which, in an
uneducated Negro would have been a very pronounced chuckle, "there's
mighty little goin' on roun' here that I _don't_ find out, sooner or
later."
"Taylor," said the colonel, rising to terminate the interview, "you
have rendered a public service, have proved yourself a good citizen,
and have relieved Mr. Dudley of serious embarrassment. I will see that
steps are taken to apprehend Johnson, and will keep your participation
in the matter secret, since you think it would hurt your influence
with your people. And I promise you faithfully that every effort shall
be made to see that Johnson has a fair trial and no more than a just
punishment."
He gave the Negro his hand.
"Thank you, sir, thank you, sir," replied the teacher, returning the
colonel's clasp. "If there were more white men like you, the coloured
folks would have no more trouble."
The colonel let Taylor out, and watched him as he looked cautiously up
and down the street to see that he was not observed. That coloured
folks, or any other kind, should ever cease to have trouble, was a
vain imagining. But the teacher had made a well-founded complaint of
injustice which ought to be capable of correction; and he had
performed a public-spirited action, even though he had felt
constrained to do it in a clandestine manner.
About his own part in the affair the colonel was troubled. It was
becoming clear to him that the task he had undertaken was no light
one--not the task of apprehending Johnson and clearing Dudley, but
that of leavening the inert mass of Clarendon with the leaven of
enlightenment. With the best of intentions, and hoping to save a life,
he had connived at turning a murderer loose upon the community. It was
true that the community, through unjust laws, had made him a murderer,
but it was no part of the colonel's plan to foster or promote evil
passions, or to help the victims of the law to make reprisals. His aim
was to bring about, by better laws and more liberal ideas, peace,
harmony, and universal good will. There was a colossal work for him to
do, and for all whom he could enlist with him in this cause. The very
standards of right and wrong had been confused by the race issue, and
must be set right by the patient appeal to reason and humanity.
Primitive passions and private vengeance must be subordinated to law
and order and the higher good. A new body of thought must be built up,
in which stress must be laid upon the eternal verities, in the light
of which difficulties which now seemed unsurmountable would be
gradually overcome.
But this halcyon period was yet afar off, and the colonel roused
himself to the duty of the hour. With the best intentions he had let
loose upon the community, in a questionable way, a desperate
character. It was no less than his plain duty to put the man under
restraint. To rescue from Fetters a man whose life was threatened, was
one thing. To leave a murderer at large now would be to endanger
innocent lives, and imperil Ben Dudley's future.
The arrest of Bud Johnson brought an end to the case against Ben
Dudley. The prosecuting attorney, who was under political obligations
to Fetters, seemed reluctant to dismiss the case, until Johnson's
guilt should have been legally proved; but the result of the Negro's
preliminary hearing rendered this position no longer tenable; the case
against Ben was nolled, and he could now hold up his head as a free
man, with no stain upon his character.
Indeed, the reaction in his favour as one unjustly indicted, went far
to wipe out from the public mind the impression that he was a drunkard
and a rowdy. It was recalled that he was of good family and that his
forebears had rendered valuable service to the State, and that he had
never been seen to drink before, or known to be in a fight, but that
on the contrary he was quiet and harmless to a fault. Indeed, the
Clarendon public would have admired a little more spirit in a young
man, even to the extent of condoning an occasional lapse into license.
There was sincere rejoicing at the Treadwell house when Ben, now free
in mind, went around to see the ladies. Miss Laura was warmly
sympathetic and congratulatory; and Graciella, tearfully happy, tried
to make up by a sweet humility, through which shone the true
womanliness of a hitherto undeveloped character, for the past stings
and humiliations to which her selfish caprice had subjected her lover.
Ben resumed his visits, if not with quite their former frequency, and
it was only a day or two later that the colonel found him and
Graciella, with his own boy Phil, grouped in familiar fashion on the
steps, where Ben was demonstrating with some pride of success, the
operation of his model, into which he was feeding cotton when the
colonel came up.
The colonel stood a moment and looked at the machine.
"It's quite ingenious," he said. "Explain the principle."
Ben described the mechanism, in brief, well-chosen words which
conveyed the thought clearly and concisely, and revealed a fine mind
for mechanics and at the same time an absolute lack of technical
knowledge.
"It would never be of any use, sir," he said, at the end, "for
everybody has the other kind. But it's another way, and I think a
better."
"It is clever," said the colonel thoughtfully, as he went into the
house.
The colonel had not changed his mind at all since asking Miss Laura to
be his wife. The glow of happiness still warmed her cheek, the spirit
of youth still lingered in her eyes and in her smile. He might go a
thousand miles before meeting a woman who would please him more, take
better care of Phil, or preside with more dignity over his household.
Her simple grace would adapt itself to wealth as easily as it had
accommodated itself to poverty. It would be a pleasure to travel with
her to new scenes and new places, to introduce her into a wider world,
to see her expand in the generous sunlight of ease and freedom from
responsibility.
True to his promise, the colonel made every effort to see that Bud
Johnson should be protected against mob violence and given a fair
trial. There was some intemperate talk among the partisans of Fetters,
and an ominous gathering upon the streets the day after the arrest,
but Judge Miller, of the Beaver County circuit, who was in Clarendon
that day, used his influence to discountenance any disorder, and
promised a speedy trial of the prisoner. The crime was not the worst
of crimes, and there was no excuse for riot or lynch law. The accused
could not escape his just punishment.
As a result of the judge's efforts, supplemented by the colonel's and
those of Doctor Price and several ministers, any serious fear of
disorder was removed, and a handful of Fetters's guards who had come
up from his convict farm and foregathered with some choice spirits of
the town at Clay Jackson's saloon, went back without attempting to do
what they had avowedly come to town to accomplish.
_Thirty_
One morning the colonel, while overseeing the work at the new mill
building, stepped on the rounded handle of a chisel, which had been
left lying carelessly on the floor, and slipped and fell, spraining
his ankle severely. He went home in his buggy, which was at the mill,
and sent for Doctor Price, who put his foot in a plaster bandage and
ordered him to keep quiet for a week.
Peter and Phil went around to the Treadwells' to inform the ladies of
the accident. On reaching the house after the accident, the colonel
had taken off his coat, and sent Peter to bring him one from the
closet off his bedroom.
When the colonel put on the coat, he felt some papers in the inside
pocket, and taking them out, recognised the two old letters he had
taken from the lining of his desk several months before. The
housekeeper, in a moment of unusual zeal, had discovered and mended
the tear in the sleeve, and Peter had by chance selected this
particular coat to bring to his master. When Peter started, with Phil,
to go to the Treadwells', the colonel gave him the two letters.
"Give these," he said, "to Miss Laura, and tell her I found them in
the old desk."
It was not long before Miss Laura came, with Graciella, to call on the
colonel. When they had expressed the proper sympathy, and had been
assured that the hurt was not dangerous, Miss Laura spoke of another
matter.
"Henry," she said, with an air of suppressed excitement, "I have made
a discovery. I don't quite know what it means, or whether it amounts
to anything, but in one of the envelopes you sent me just now there
was a paper signed by Mr. Fetters. I do not know how it could have
been left in the desk; we had searched it, years ago, in every nook
and cranny, and found nothing."
The colonel explained the circumstances of his discovery of the
papers, but prudently refrained from mentioning how long ago they had
taken place.
Miss Laura handed him a thin, oblong, yellowish slip of paper, which
had been folded in the middle; it was a printed form, upon which
several words had been filled in with a pen.
"It was enclosed in this," she said, handing him another paper.
The colonel took the papers and glanced over them.
"Mother thinks," said Miss Laura anxiously, "that they are the papers
we were looking for, that prove that Fetters was in father's debt."
The colonel had been thinking rapidly. The papers were, indeed, a
promissory note from Fetters to Mr. Treadwell, and a contract and
memorandum of certain joint transactions in turpentine and cotton
futures. The note was dated twenty years back. Had it been produced at
the time of Mr. Treadwell's death, it would not have been difficult
to collect, and would have meant to his survivors the difference
between poverty and financial independence. Now it was barred by the
lapse of time.
Miss Laura was waiting in eager expectation. Outwardly calm, her eyes
were bright, her cheeks were glowing, her bosom rose and fell
excitedly. Could he tell her that this seemingly fortunate accident
was merely the irony of fate--a mere cruel reminder of a former
misfortune? No, she could not believe it!
"It has made me happy, Henry," she said, while he still kept his eyes
bent on the papers to conceal his perplexity, "it has made me very
happy to think that I may not come to you empty-handed."
"Dear woman," he thought, "you shall not. If the note is not good, it
shall be made good."
"Laura," he said aloud, "I am no lawyer, but Caxton shall look at
these to-day, and I shall be very much mistaken if they do not bring
you a considerable sum of money. Say nothing about them, however,
until Caxton reports. He will be here to see me to-day and by
to-morrow you shall have his opinion."
Miss Laura went away with a radiantly hopeful face, and as she and
Graciella went down the street, the colonel noted that her step was
scarcely less springy than her niece's. It was worth the amount of
Fetters's old note to make her happy; and since he meant to give her
all that she might want, what better way than to do it by means of
this bit of worthless paper? It would be a harmless deception, and it
would save the pride of three gentlewomen, with whom pride was not a
disease, to poison and scorch and blister, but an inspiration to
courtesy, and kindness, and right living. Such a pride was worth
cherishing even at a sacrifice, which was, after all, no sacrifice.
He had already sent word to Caxton of his accident, requesting him to
call at the house on other business. Caxton came in the afternoon, and
when the matter concerning which he had come had been disposed of,
Colonel French produced Fetters's note.
"Caxton," he said, "I wish to pay this note and let it seem to have
come from Fetters."
Caxton looked at the note.
"Why should you pay it?" he asked. "I mean," he added, noting a change
in the colonel's expression, "why shouldn't Fetters pay it?"
"Because it is outlawed," he replied, "and we could hardly expect him
to pay for anything he didn't have to pay. The statute of limitations
runs against it after fifteen years--and it's older than that, much
older than that."
Caxton made a rapid mental calculation.
"That is the law in New York," he said, "but here the statute doesn't
begin to run for twenty years. The twenty years for which this note
was given expires to-day."
"Then it is good?" demanded the colonel, looking at his watch.
"It is good," said Caxton, "provided there is no defence to it except
the statute, and provided I can file a petition on it in the county
clerk's office by four o'clock, the time at which the office closes.
It is now twenty minutes of four."
"Can you make it?"
"I'll try."
Caxton, since his acquaintance with Colonel French, had learned
something more about the value of half an hour than he had ever before
appreciated, and here was an opportunity to test his knowledge. He
literally ran the quarter of a mile that lay between the colonel's
residence and the court house, to the open-eyed astonishment of those
whom he passed, some of whom wondered whether he were crazy, and
others whether he had committed a crime. He dashed into the clerk's
office, seized a pen, and the first piece of paper handy, and began to
write a petition. The clerk had stepped into the hall, and when he
came leisurely in at three minutes to four, Caxton discovered that he
had written his petition on the back of a blank marriage license. He
folded it, ran his pen through the printed matter, endorsed it,
"Estate of Treadwell _vs._ Fetters," signed it with the name of Ellen
Treadwell, as executrix, by himself as her attorney, swore to it
before the clerk, and handed it to that official, who raised his
eyebrows as soon as he saw the endorsement.
"Now, Mr. Munroe," said Caxton, "if you'll enter that on the docket,
now, as of to-day, I'll be obliged to you. I'd rather have the
transaction all finished up while I wait. Your fee needn't wait the
termination of the suit. I'll pay it now and take a receipt for it."
The clerk whistled to himself as he read the petition in order to make
the entry.
"That's an old-timer," he said. "It'll make the old man cuss."
"Yes," said Caxton. "Do me a favour, and don't say anything about it
for a day or two. I don't think the suit will ever come to trial."
_Thirty-one_
On the day following these events, the colonel, on the arm of old
Peter, hobbled out upon his front porch, and seating himself in a big
rocking chair, in front of which a cushion had been adjusted for his
injured ankle, composed himself to read some arrears of mail which had
come in the day before, and over which he had only glanced casually.
When he was comfortably settled, Peter and Phil walked down the steps,
upon the lowest of which they seated themselves. The colonel had
scarcely begun to read before he called to the old man.
"Peter," he said, "I wish you'd go upstairs, and look in my room, and
bring me a couple of light-coloured cigars from the box on my
bureau--the mild ones, you know, Peter."
"Yas, suh, I knows, suh, de mil' ones, dem wid de gol' ban's 'roun'
'em. Now you stay right hyuh, chile, till Peter come back."
Peter came up the steps and disappeared in the doorway.
The colonel opened a letter from Kirby, in which that energetic and
versatile gentleman assured the colonel that he had evolved a great
scheme, in which there were millions for those who would go into it.
He had already interested Mrs. Jerviss, who had stated she would be
governed by what the colonel did in the matter. The letter went into
some detail upon this subject, and then drifted off into club and
social gossip. Several of the colonel's friends had inquired
particularly about him. One had regretted the loss to their whist
table. Another wanted the refusal of his box at the opera, if he were
not coming back for the winter.
"I think you're missed in a certain quarter, old fellow. I know a lady
who would be more than delighted to see you. I am invited to her house
to dinner, ostensibly to talk about our scheme, in reality to talk
about you.
"But this is all by the way. The business is the thing. Take my
proposition under advisement. We all made money together before; we
can make it again. My option has ten days to run. Wire me before it is
up what reply to make. I know what you'll say, but I want your 'ipse
dixit.'"
The colonel knew too what his reply would be, and that it would be
very different from Kirby's anticipation. He would write it, he
thought, next day, so that Kirby should not be kept in suspense, or so
that he might have time to enlist other capital in the enterprise. The
colonel felt really sorry to disappoint his good friends. He would
write and inform Kirby of his plans, including that of his approaching
marriage.
He had folded the letter and laid it down, and had picked up a
newspaper, when Peter returned with the cigars and a box of matches.
"Mars Henry?" he asked, "w'at's gone wid de chile?"
"Phil?" replied the colonel, looking toward the step, from which the
boy had disappeared. "I suppose he went round the house."
"Mars Phil! O Mars Phil!" called the old man.
There was no reply.
Peter looked round the corner of the house, but Phil was nowhere
visible. The old man went round to the back yard, and called again,
but did not find the child.
"I hyuhs de train comin'; I 'spec's he's gone up ter de railroad
track," he said, when he had returned to the front of the house. "I'll
run up dere an' fetch 'im back."
"Yes, do, Peter," returned the colonel. "He's probably all right, but
you'd better see about him."
Little Phil, seeing his father absorbed in the newspaper, and not
wishing to disturb him, had amused himself by going to the gate and
looking down the street toward the railroad track. He had been doing
this scarcely a moment, when he saw a black cat come out of a
neighbour's gate and go down the street.
Phil instantly recalled Uncle Peter's story of the black cat. Perhaps
this was the same one!
Phil had often been warned about the railroad.
"Keep 'way f'm dat railroad track, honey," the old man had repeated
more than once. "It's as dange'ous as a gun, and a gun is dange'ous
widout lock, stock, er bairl: I knowed a man oncet w'at beat 'is wife
ter def wid a ramrod, an' wuz hung fer it in a' ole fiel' down by de
ha'nted house. Dat gun couldn't hol' powder ner shot, but was
dange'ous 'nuff ter kill two folks. So you jes' better keep 'way f'm
dat railroad track, chile."
But Phil was a child, with the making of a man, and the wisest of men
sometimes forget. For the moment Phil saw nothing but the cat, and
wished for nothing more than to talk to it.
So Phil, unperceived by the colonel, set out to overtake the black
cat. The cat seemed in no hurry, and Phil had very nearly caught up
with him--or her, as the case might be--when the black cat, having
reached the railroad siding, walked under a flat car which stood
there, and leaping to one of the truck bars, composed itself,
presumably for a nap. In order to get close enough to the cat for
conversational purposes, Phil stooped under the overhanging end of the
car, and kneeled down beside the truck.
"Kitty, Kitty!" he called, invitingly.
The black cat opened her big yellow eyes with every evidence of lazy
amiability.
Peter shuffled toward the corner as fast as his rickety old limbs
would carry him. When he reached the corner he saw a car standing on
the track. There was a brakeman at one end, holding a coupling link in
one hand, and a coupling pin in the other, his eye on an engine and
train of cars only a rod or two away, advancing to pick up the single
car. At the same moment Peter caught sight of little Phil, kneeling
under the car at the other end.
Peter shouted, but the brakeman was absorbed in his own task, which
required close attention in order to assure his own safety. The
engineer on the cab, at the other end of the train, saw an old Negro
excitedly gesticulating, and pulled a lever mechanically, but too late
to stop the momentum of the train, which was not equipped with air
brakes, even if these would have proved effective to stop it in so
short a distance.
Just before the two cars came together, Peter threw himself forward to
seize the child. As he did so, the cat sprang from the truck bar; the
old man stumbled over the cat, and fell across the rail. The car moved
only a few feet, but quite far enough to work injury.
A dozen people, including the train crew, quickly gathered. Willing
hands drew them out and laid them upon the grass under the spreading
elm at the corner of the street. A judge, a merchant and a Negro
labourer lifted old Peter's body as tenderly as though it had been
that of a beautiful woman. The colonel, somewhat uneasy, he scarcely
knew why, had started to limp painfully toward the corner, when he was
met by a messenger who informed him of the accident. Forgetting his
pain, he hurried to the scene, only to find his heart's delight lying
pale, bleeding and unconscious, beside the old Negro who had
sacrificed his life to save him.
A doctor, who had been hastily summoned, pronounced Peter dead. Phil
showed no superficial injury, save a cut upon the head, from which the
bleeding was soon stanched. A Negro's strong arms bore the child to
the house, while the bystanders remained about Peter's body until the
arrival of Major McLean, recently elected coroner, who had been
promptly notified of the accident. Within a few minutes after the
officer's appearance, a jury was summoned from among the bystanders,
the evidence of the trainmen and several other witnesses was taken,
and a verdict of accidental death rendered. There was no suggestion of
blame attaching to any one; it had been an accident, pure and simple,
which ordinary and reasonable prudence could not have foreseen.
By the colonel's command, the body of his old servant was then
conveyed to the house and laid out in the front parlour. Every honour,
every token of respect, should be paid to his remains.
_Thirty-two_
Meanwhile the colonel, forgetting his own hurt, hovered, with several
physicians, among them Doctor Price, around the bedside of his child.
The slight cut upon the head, the physicians declared, was not, of
itself, sufficient to account for the rapid sinking which set in
shortly after the boy's removal to the house. There had evidently been
some internal injury, the nature of which could not be ascertained.
Phil remained unconscious for several hours, but toward the end of the
day opened his blue eyes and fixed them upon his father, who was
sitting by the bedside.
"Papa," he said, "am I going to die?"
"No, no, Phil," said his father hopefully. "You are going to get well
in a few days, I hope."
Phil was silent for a moment, and looked around him curiously. He gave
no sign of being in pain.
"Is Miss Laura here?"
"Yes, Phil, she's in the next room, and will be here in a moment."
At that instant Miss Laura came in and kissed him. The caress gave him
pleasure, and he smiled sweetly in return.
"Papa, was Uncle Peter hurt?"
"Yes, Phil."
"Where is he, papa? Was he hurt badly?"
"He is lying in another room, Phil, but he is not in any pain."
"Papa," said Phil, after a pause, "if I should die, and if Uncle Peter
should die, you'll remember your promise and bury him near me, won't
you, dear?"
"Yes, Phil," he said, "but you are not going to die!"
But Phil died, dozing off into a peaceful sleep in which he passed
quietly away with a smile upon his face.
It required all the father's fortitude to sustain the blow, with the
added agony of self-reproach that he himself had been unwittingly the
cause of it. Had he not sent old Peter into the house, the child would
not have been left alone. Had he kept his eye upon Phil until Peter's
return the child would not have strayed away. He had neglected his
child, while the bruised and broken old black man in the room below
had given his life to save him. He could do nothing now to show the
child his love or Peter his gratitude, and the old man had neither
wife nor child in whom the colonel's bounty might find an object. But
he would do what he could. He would lay his child's body in the old
family lot in the cemetery, among the bones of his ancestors, and
there too, close at hand, old Peter should have honourable sepulture.
It was his due, and would be the fulfilment of little Phil's last
request.
The child was laid out in the parlour, amid a mass of flowers. Miss
Laura, for love of him and of the colonel, with her own hands prepared
his little body for the last sleep. The undertaker, who hovered
around, wished, with a conventional sense of fitness, to remove old
Peter's body to a back room. But the colonel said no.
"They died together; together they shall lie here, and they shall be
buried together."
He gave instructions as to the location of the graves in the cemetery
lot. The undertaker looked thoughtful.
"I hope, sir," said the undertaker, "there will be no objection. It's
not customary--there's a coloured graveyard--you might put up a nice
tombstone there--and you've been away from here a long time, sir."
"If any one objects," said the colonel, "send him to me. The lot is
mine, and I shall do with it as I like. My great-great-grandfather
gave the cemetery to the town. Old Peter's skin was black, but his
heart was white as any man's! And when a man reaches the grave, he is
not far from God, who is no respecter of persons, and in whose
presence, on the judgment day, many a white man shall be black, and
many a black man white."
The funeral was set for the following afternoon. The graves were to be
dug in the morning. The undertaker, whose business was dependent upon
public favour, and who therefore shrank from any step which might
affect his own popularity, let it be quietly known that Colonel French
had given directions to bury Peter in Oak Cemetery.
It was inevitable that there should be some question raised about so
novel a proceeding. The colour line in Clarendon, as in all Southern
towns, was, on the surface at least, rigidly drawn, and extended from
the cradle to the grave. No Negro's body had ever profaned the sacred
soil of Oak Cemetery. The protestants laid the matter before the
Cemetery trustees, and a private meeting was called in the evening to
consider the proposed interment.
White and black worshipped the same God, in different churches. There
had been a time when coloured people filled the galleries of the white
churches, and white ladies had instilled into black children the
principles of religion and good morals. But as white and black had
grown nearer to each other in condition, they had grown farther apart
in feeling. It was difficult for the poor lady, for instance, to
patronise the children of the well-to-do Negro or mulatto; nor was the
latter inclined to look up to white people who had started, in his
memory, from a position but little higher than his own. In an era of
change, the benefits gained thereby seemed scarcely to offset the
difficulties of readjustment.
The situation was complicated by a sense of injury on both sides.
Cherishing their theoretical equality of citizenship, which they could
neither enforce nor forget, the Negroes resented, noisly or silently,
as prudence dictated, its contemptuous denial by the whites; and
these, viewing this shadowy equality as an insult to themselves, had
sought by all the machinery of local law to emphasise and perpetuate
their own superiority. The very word "equality" was an offence.
Society went back to Egypt and India for its models; to break caste
was a greater sin than to break any or all of the ten commandments.
White and coloured children studied the same books in different
schools. White and black people rode on the same trains in separate
cars. Living side by side, and meeting day by day, the law, made and
administered by white men, had built a wall between them.
And white and black buried their dead in separate graveyards. Not
until they reached God's presence could they stand side by side in any
relation of equality. There was a Negro graveyard in Clarendon, where,
as a matter of course the coloured dead were buried. It was not an
ideal locality. The land was low and swampy, and graves must be used
quickly, ere the water collected in them. The graveyard was unfenced,
and vagrant cattle browsed upon its rank herbage. The embankment of
the railroad encroached upon one side of it, and the passing engines
sifted cinders and ashes over the graves. But no Negro had ever
thought of burying his dead elsewhere, and if their cemetery was not
well kept up, whose fault was it but their own?
The proposition, therefore, of a white man, even of Colonel French's
standing, to bury a Negro in Oak Cemetery, was bound to occasion
comment, if nothing more. There was indeed more. Several citizens
objected to the profanation, and laid their protest before the mayor,
who quietly called a meeting of the board of cemetery trustees, of
which he was the chairman.
The trustees were five in number. The board, with the single exception
of the mayor, was self-perpetuating, and the members had been chosen,
as vacancies occurred by death, at long intervals, from among the
aristocracy, who had always controlled it. The mayor, a member and
chairman of the board by virtue of his office, had sprung from the
same class as Fetters, that of the aspiring poor whites, who, freed
from the moral incubus of slavery, had by force of numbers and
ambition secured political control of the State and relegated not only
the Negroes, but the old master class, to political obscurity. A
shrewd, capable man was the mayor, who despised Negroes and distrusted
aristocrats, and had the courage of his convictions. He represented in
the meeting the protesting element of the community.
"Gentlemen," he said, "Colonel French has ordered this Negro to be
buried in Oak Cemetery. We all appreciate the colonel's worth, and
what he is doing for the town. But he has lived at the North for many
years, and has got somewhat out of our way of thinking. We do not want
to buy the prosperity of this town at the price of our principles. The
attitude of the white people on the Negro question is fixed and
determined for all time, and nothing can ever alter it. To bury this
Negro in Oak Cemetery is against our principles."
"The mayor's statement of the rule is quite correct," replied old
General Thornton, a member of the board, "and not open to question.
But all rules have their exceptions. It was against the law, for some
years before the war, to manumit a slave; but an exception to that
salutary rule was made in case a Negro should render some great
service to the State or the community. You will recall that when, in a
sister State, a Negro climbed the steep roof of St. Michael's church
and at the risk of his own life saved that historic structure, the
pride of Charleston, from destruction by fire, the muncipality granted
him his freedom."
"And we all remember," said Mr. Darden, another of the trustees, "we
all remember, at least I'm sure General Thornton does, old Sally, who
used to belong to the McRae family, and was a member of the
Presbyterian Church, and who, because of her age and infirmities--she
was hard of hearing and too old to climb the stairs to the
gallery--was given a seat in front of the pulpit, on the main floor."
"That was all very well," replied the mayor, stoutly, "when the
Negroes belonged to you, and never questioned your authority. But
times are different now. They think themselves as good as we are. We
had them pretty well in hand until Colonel French came around, with
his schools, and his high wages, and now they are getting so fat and
sassy that there'll soon be no living with them. The last election did
something, but we'll have to do something more, and that soon, to keep
them in their places. There's one in jail now, alive, who has shot and
disfigured and nearly killed two good white men, and such an example
of social equality as burying one in a white graveyard will demoralise
them still further. We must preserve the purity and prestige of our
race, and we can only do it by keeping the Negroes down."
"After all," said another member, "the purity of our race is not apt
to suffer very seriously from the social equality of a graveyard."
"And old Peter will be pretty effectually kept down, wherever he is
buried," added another.
These sallies provoked a smile which lightened the tension. A member
suggested that Colonel French be sent for.
"It seems a pity to disturb him in his grief," said another.
"It's only a couple of squares," suggested another. "Let's call in a
body and pay our respects. We can bring up the matter incidentally,
while there."
The muscles of the mayor's chin hardened.
"Colonel French has never been at my house," he said, "and I shouldn't
care to seem to intrude."
"Come on, mayor," said Mr. Darden, taking the official by the arm,
"these fine distinctions are not becoming in the presence of death.
The colonel will be glad to see you."
The mayor could not resist this mark of intimacy on the part of one of
the old aristocracy, and walked somewhat proudly through the street
arm in arm with Mr. Darden. They paid their respects to the colonel,
who was bearing up, with the composure to be expected of a man of
strong will and forceful character, under a grief of which he was
exquisitely sensible. Touched by a strong man's emotion, which nothing
could conceal, no one had the heart to mention, in the presence of the
dead, the object of their visit, and they went away without giving the
colonel any inkling that his course had been seriously criticised. Nor
was the meeting resumed after they left the house, even the mayor
seeming content to let the matter go by default.
_Thirty-three_
Fortune favoured Caxton in the matter of the note. Fetters was in
Clarendon the following morning. Caxton saw him passing, called him
into his office, and produced the note.
"That's no good," said Fetters contemptuously. "It was outlawed
yesterday. I suppose you allowed I'd forgotten it. On the contrary,
I've a memorandum of it in my pocketbook, and I struck it off the list
last night. I always pay my lawful debts, when they're properly
demanded. If this note had been presented yesterday, I'd have paid it.
To-day it's too late. It ain't a lawful debt."
"Do you really mean to say, Mr. Fetters, that you have deliberately
robbed those poor women of this money all these years, and are not
ashamed of it, not even when you're found out, and that you are going
to take refuge behind the statute?"
"Now, see here, Mr. Caxton," returned Fetters, without apparent
emotion, "you want to be careful about the language you use. I might
sue you for slander. You're a young man, that hopes to have a future
and live in this county, where I expect to live and have law business
done long after some of your present clients have moved away. I didn't
owe the estate of John Treadwell one cent--you ought to be lawyer
enough to know that. He owed me money, and paid me with a note. I
collected the note. I owed him money and paid it with a note. Whoever
heard of anybody's paying a note that wasn't presented?"
"It's a poor argument, Mr. Fetters. You would have let those ladies
starve to death before you would have come forward and paid that
debt."
"They've never asked me for charity, so I wasn't called on to offer
it. And you know now, don't you, that if I'd paid the amount of that
note, and then it had turned up afterward in somebody else's hands,
I'd have had to pay it over again; now wouldn't I?"
Caxton could not deny it. Fetters had robbed the Treadwell estate, but
his argument was unanswerable.
"Yes," said Caxton, "I suppose you would."
"I'm sorry for the women," said Fetters, "and I've stood ready to pay
that note all these years, and it ain't my fault that it hasn't been
presented. Now it's outlawed, and you couldn't expect a man to just
give away that much money. It ain't a lawful debt, and the law's good
enough for me."
"You're awfully sorry for the ladies, aren't you?" said Caxton, with
thinly veiled sarcasm.
"I surely am; I'm honestly sorry for them."
"And you'd pay the note if you had to, wouldn't you?" asked Caxton.
"I surely would. As I say, I always pay my legal debts."
"All right," said Caxton triumphantly, "then you'll pay this. I filed
suit against you yesterday, which takes the case out of the statute."
Fetters concealed his discomfiture.
"Well," he said, with quiet malignity, "I've nothing more to say till
I consult my lawyer. But I want to tell you one thing. You are ruining
a fine career by standing in with this Colonel French. I hear his son
was killed to-day. You can tell him I say it's a judgment on him; for
I hold him responsible for my son's condition. He came down here and
tried to demoralise the labour market. He put false notions in the
niggers' heads. Then he got to meddling with my business, trying to
get away a nigger whose time I had bought. He insulted my agent
Turner, and came all the way down to Sycamore and tried to bully me
into letting the nigger loose, and of course I wouldn't be bullied.
Afterwards, when I offered to let the nigger go, the colonel wouldn't
have it so. I shall always believe he bribed one of my men to get the
nigger off, and then turned him loose to run amuck among the white
people and shoot my boy and my overseer. It was a low-down
performance, and unworthy of a gentleman. No really white man would
treat another white man so. You can tell him I say it's a judgment
that's fallen on him to-day, and that it's not the last one, and that
he'll be sorrier yet that he didn't stay where he was, with his
nigger-lovin' notions, instead of comin' back down here to make
trouble for people that have grown up with the State and made it what
it is."
Caxton, of course, did not deliver the message. To do so would have
been worse taste than Fetters had displayed in sending it. Having got
the best of the encounter, Caxton had no objection to letting his
defeated antagonist discharge his venom against the absent colonel,
who would never know of it, and who was already breasting the waves of
a sorrow so deep and so strong as almost to overwhelm him. For he had
loved the boy; all his hopes had centred around this beautiful man
child, who had promised so much that was good. His own future had been
planned with reference to him. Now he was dead, and the bereaved
father gave way to his grief.
_Thirty-four_
The funeral took place next day, from the Episcopal Church, in which
communion the little boy had been baptised, and of which old Peter had
always been an humble member, faithfully appearing every Sunday
morning in his seat in the gallery, long after the rest of his people
had deserted it for churches of their own. On this occasion Peter had,
for the first time, a place on the main floor, a little to one side of
the altar, in front of which, banked with flowers, stood the white
velvet casket which contained all that was mortal of little Phil. The
same beautiful sermon answered for both. In touching words, the
rector, a man of culture, taste and feeling, and a faithful servant of
his Master, spoke of the sweet young life brought to so untimely an
end, and pointed the bereaved father to the best source of
consolation. He paid a brief tribute to the faithful servant and
humble friend, to whom, though black and lowly, the white people of
the town were glad to pay this signal tribute of respect and
appreciation for his heroic deed. The attendance at the funeral, while
it might have been larger, was composed of the more refined and
cultured of the townspeople, from whom, indeed, the church derived
most of its membership and support; and the gallery overflowed with
coloured people, whose hearts had warmed to the great honour thus paid
to one of their race. Four young white men bore Phil's body and the
six pallbearers of old Peter were from among the best white people of
the town.
The double interment was made in Oak Cemetery. Simultaneously both
bodies were lowered to their last resting-place. Simultaneously ashes
were consigned to ashes and dust to dust. The earth was heaped above
the graves. The mound above little Phil's was buried with flowers, and
old Peter's was not neglected.
Beyond the cemetery wall, a few white men of the commoner sort watched
the proceedings from a distance, and eyed with grim hostility the
Negroes who had followed the procession. They had no part nor parcel
in this sentimental folly, nor did they approve of it--in fact they
disapproved of it very decidedly. Among them was the colonel's
discharged foreman, Jim Green, who was pronounced in his denunciation.
"Colonel French is an enemy of his race," he declared to his
sympathetic following. "He hires niggers when white men are idle; and
pays them more than white men who work are earning. And now he is
burying them with white people."
When the group around the grave began to disperse, the little knot of
disgruntled spectators moved sullenly away. In the evening they might
have been seen, most of them, around Clay Jackson's barroom. Turner,
the foreman at Fetters's convict farm, was in town that evening, and
Jackson's was his favourite haunt. For some reason Turner was more
sociable than usual, and liquor flowed freely, at his expense. There
was a great deal of intemperate talk, concerning the Negro in jail for
shooting Haines and young Fetters, and concerning Colonel French as
the protector of Negroes and the enemy of white men.
_Thirty-five_
At the same time that the colonel, dry-eyed and heavy-hearted, had
returned to his empty house to nurse his grief, another series of
events was drawing to a climax in the dilapidated house on Mink Run.
Even while the preacher was saying the last words over little Phil's
remains, old Malcolm Dudley's illness had taken a sudden and violent
turn. He had been sinking for several days, but the decline had been
gradual, and there had seemed no particular reason for alarm. But
during the funeral exercises Ben had begun to feel uneasy--some
obscure premonition warned him to hurry homeward.
As soon as the funeral was over he spoke to Dr. Price, who had been
one of the pallbearers, and the doctor had promised to be at Mink Run
in a little while. Ben rode home as rapidly as he could; as he went up
the lane toward the house a Negro lad came forward to take charge of
the tired horse, and Ben could see from the boy's expression that he
had important information to communicate.
"Yo' uncle is monst'ous low, sir," said the boy. "You bettah go in an'
see 'im quick, er you'll be too late. Dey ain' nobody wid 'im but ole
Aun' Viney."
Ben hurried into the house and to his uncle's room, where Malcolm
Dudley lay dying. Outside, the sun was setting, and his red rays,
shining through the trees into the open window, lit the stage for the
last scene of this belated drama. When Ben entered the room, the sweat
of death had gathered on the old man's brow, but his eyes, clear with
the light of reason, were fixed upon old Viney, who stood by the
bedside. The two were evidently so absorbed in their own thoughts as
to be oblivious to anything else, and neither of them paid the
slightest attention to Ben, or to the scared Negro lad, who had
followed him and stood outside the door. But marvellous to hear, Viney
was talking, strangely, slowly, thickly, but passionately and
distinctly.
"You had me whipped," she said. "Do you remember that? You had me
whipped--whipped--whipped--by a poor white dog I had despised and
spurned! You had said that you loved me, and you had promised to free
me--and you had me whipped! But I have had my revenge!"
Her voice shook with passion, a passion at which Ben wondered. That
his uncle and she had once been young he knew, and that their
relations had once been closer than those of master and servant; but
this outbreak of feeling from the wrinkled old mulattress seemed as
strange and weird to Ben as though a stone image had waked to speech.
Spellbound, he stood in the doorway, and listened to this ghost of a
voice long dead.
"Your uncle came with the money and left it, and went away. Only he
and I knew where it was. But I never told you! I could have spoken at
any time for twenty-five years, but I never told you! I have
waited--I have waited for this moment! I have gone into the woods and
fields and talked to myself by the hour, that I might not forget how
to talk--and I have waited my turn, and it is here and now!"
Ben hung breathlessly upon her words. He drew back beyond her range of
vision, lest she might see him, and the spell be broken. Now, he
thought, she would tell where the gold was hidden!
"He came," she said, "and left the gold--two heavy bags of it, and a
letter for you. An hour later _he came back and took it all away_,
except the letter! The money was here one hour, but in that hour you
had me whipped, and for that you have spent twenty-five years in
looking for nothing--something that was not here! I have had my
revenge! For twenty-five years I have watched you look for--nothing;
have seen you waste your time, your property, your life, your
mind--for nothing! For ah, Mars' Ma'colm, you had me whipped--_by
another man_!"
A shadow of reproach crept into the old man's eyes, over which the
mists of death were already gathering.
"Yes, Viney," he whispered, "you have had your revenge! But I was
sorry, Viney, for what I did, and you were not. And I forgive you,
Viney; but you are unforgiving--even in the presence of death."
His voice failed, and his eyes closed for the last time. When she saw
that he was dead, by a strange revulsion of feeling the wall of
outraged pride and hatred and revenge, built upon one brutal and
bitterly repented mistake, and labouriously maintained for half a
lifetime in her woman's heart that even slavery could not crush,
crumbled and fell and let pass over it in one great and final flood
the pent-up passions of the past. Bursting into tears--strange tears
from eyes that had long forgot to weep--old Viney threw herself down
upon her knees by the bedside, and seizing old Malcolm's emaciated
hand in both her own, covered it with kisses, fervent kisses, the
ghosts of the passionate kisses of their distant youth.
With a feeling that his presence was something like sacrilege, Ben
stole away and left her with her dead--the dead master and the dead
past--and thanked God that he lived in another age, and had escaped
this sin.
As he wandered through the old house, a veil seemed to fall from his
eyes. How old everything was, how shrunken and decayed! The sheen of
the hidden gold had gilded the dilapidated old house, the neglected
plantation, his own barren life. Now that it was gone, things appeared
in their true light. Fortunately he was young enough to retrieve much
of what had been lost. When the old man was buried, he would settle
the estate, sell the land, make some provision for Aunt Viney, and
then, with what was left, go out into the world and try to make a
place for himself and Graciella. For life intrudes its claims even
into the presence of death.
When the doctor came, a little later, Ben went with him into the death
chamber. Viney was still kneeling by her master's bedside, but
strangely still and silent. The doctor laid his hand on hers and old
Malcolm's, which had remained clasped together.
"They are both dead," he declared. "I knew their story; my father told
it to me many years ago."
Ben related what he had overheard.
"I'm not surprised," said the doctor. "My father attended her when she
had the stroke, and after. He always maintained that Viney could
speak--if she had wished to speak."
_Thirty-six_
The colonel's eyes were heavy with grief that night, and yet he lay
awake late, and with his sorrow were mingled many consoling thoughts.
The people, his people, had been kind, aye, more than kind. Their warm
hearts had sympathised with his grief. He had sometimes been impatient
of their conservatism, their narrowness, their unreasoning pride of
opinion; but in his bereavement they had manifested a feeling that it
would be beautiful to remember all the days of his life. All the
people, white and black, had united to honour his dead.
He had wished to help them--had tried already. He had loved the town
as the home of his ancestors, which enshrined their ashes. He would
make of it a monument to mark his son's resting place. His fight
against Fetters and what he represented should take on a new
character; henceforward it should be a crusade to rescue from
threatened barbarism the land which contained the tombs of his loved
ones. Nor would he be alone in the struggle, which he now clearly
foresaw would be a long one. The dear, good woman he had asked to be
his wife could help him. He needed her clear, spiritual vision; and in
his lifelong sorrow he would need her sympathy and companionship; for
she had loved the child and would share his grief. She knew the people
better than he, and was in closer touch with them; she could help him
in his schemes of benevolence, and suggest new ways to benefit the
people. Phil's mother was buried far away, among her own people; could
he consult her, he felt sure she would prefer to remain there. Here
she would be an alien note; and when Laura died she could lie with
them and still be in her own place.
"Have you heard the news, sir," asked the housekeeper, when he came
down to breakfast the next morning.
"No, Mrs. Hughes, what is it?"
"They lynched the Negro who was in jail for shooting young Mr. Fetters
and the other man."
The colonel hastily swallowed a cup of coffee and went down town. It
was only a short walk. Already there were excited crowds upon the
street, discussing the events of the night. The colonel sought Caxton,
who was just entering his office.
"They've done it," said the lawyer.
"So I understand. When did it happen?"
"About one o'clock last night. A crowd came in from Sycamore--not all
at once, but by twos and threes, and got together in Clay Johnson's
saloon, with Ben Green, your discharged foreman, and a lot of other
riffraff, and went to the sheriff, and took the keys, and took Johnson
and carried him out to where the shooting was, and----"
"Spare me the details. He is dead?"
"Yes."
A rope, a tree--a puff of smoke, a flash of flame--or a barbaric orgy
of fire and blood--what matter which? At the end there was a lump of
clay, and a hundred murderers where there had been one before.
"Can we do anything to punish _this_ crime?"
"We can try."
And they tried. The colonel went to the sheriff. The sheriff said he
had yielded to force, but he never would have dreamed of shooting to
defend a worthless Negro who had maimed a good white man, had nearly
killed another, and had declared a vendetta against the white race.
By noon the colonel had interviewed as many prominent men as he could
find, and they became increasingly difficult to find as it became
known that he was seeking them. The town, he said, had been disgraced,
and should redeem itself by prosecuting the lynchers. He may as well
have talked to the empty air. The trail of Fetters was all over the
town. Some of the officials owed Fetters money; others were under
political obligations to him. Others were plainly of the opinion that
the Negro got no more than he deserved; such a wretch was not fit to
live. The coroner's jury returned a verdict of suicide, a grim joke
which evoked some laughter. Doctor McKenzie, to whom the colonel
expressed his feelings, and whom he asked to throw the influence of
his church upon the side of law and order, said:
"It is too bad. I am sorry, but it is done. Let it rest. No good can
ever come of stirring it up further."
Later in the day there came news that the lynchers, after completing
their task, had proceeded to the Dudley plantation and whipped all the
Negroes who did not learn of their coming in time to escape, the claim
being that Johnson could not have maintained himself in hiding without
their connivance, and that they were therefore parties to his crimes.
The colonel felt very much depressed when he went to bed that night,
and lay for a long time turning over in his mind the problem that
confronted him.
So far he had been beaten, except in the matter of the cotton mill,
which was yet unfinished. His efforts in Bud Johnson's behalf--the
only thing he had undertaken to please the woman he loved, had proved
abortive. His promise to the teacher--well, he had done his part, but
to no avail. He would be ashamed to meet Taylor face to face. With
what conscience could a white man in Clarendon ever again ask a Negro
to disclose the name or hiding place of a coloured criminal? In the
effort to punish the lynchers he stood, to all intents and purposes,
single-handed and alone; and without the support of public opinion he
could do nothing.
The colonel was beaten, but not dismayed. Perhaps God in his wisdom
had taken Phil away, that his father might give himself more
completely and single-mindedly to the battle before him. Had Phil
lived, a father might have hesitated to expose a child's young and
impressionable mind to the things which these volcanic outbursts of
passion between mismated races might cause at any unforeseen moment.
Now that the way was clear, he could go forward, hand in hand with the
good woman who had promised to wed him, in the work he had laid out.
He would enlist good people to demand better laws, under which Fetters
and his kind would find it harder to prey upon the weak.
Diligently he would work to lay wide and deep the foundations of
prosperity, education and enlightenment, upon which should rest
justice, humanity and civic righteousness. In this he would find a
worthy career. Patiently would he await the results of his labours,
and if they came not in great measure in his own lifetime, he would be
content to know that after years would see their full fruition.
So that night he sat down and wrote a long answer to Kirby's letter,
in which he told him of Phil's death and burial, and his own grief.
Something there was, too, of his plans for the future, including his
marriage to a good woman who would help him in them. Kirby, he said,
had offered him a golden opportunity for which he thanked him
heartily. The scheme was good enough for any one to venture upon. But
to carry out his own plans, would require that he invest his money in
the State of his residence, where there were many openings for capital
that could afford to wait upon development for large returns. He sent
his best regards to Mrs. Jerviss, and his assurance that Kirby's plan
was a good one. Perhaps Kirby and she alone could handle it; if not,
there must be plenty of money elsewhere for so good a thing.
He sealed the letter, and laid it aside to be mailed in the morning.
To his mind it had all the force of a final renunciation, a severance
of the last link that bound him to his old life.
Long the colonel lay thinking, after he retired to rest, and the
muffled striking of the clock downstairs had marked the hour of
midnight ere he fell asleep. And he had scarcely dozed away, when he
was awakened by a scraping noise, as though somewhere in the house a
heavy object was being drawn across the floor. The sound was not
repeated, however, and thinking it some trick of the imagination, he
soon slept again.
As the colonel slept this second time, he dreamed of a regenerated
South, filled with thriving industries, and thronged with a prosperous
and happy people, where every man, having enough for his needs, was
willing that every other man should have the same; where law and order
should prevail unquestioned, and where every man could enter, through
the golden gate of hope, the field of opportunity, where lay the
prizes of life, which all might have an equal chance to win or lose.
For even in his dreams the colonel's sober mind did not stray beyond
the bounds of reason and experience. That all men would ever be equal
he did not even dream; there would always be the strong and the weak,
the wise and the foolish. But that each man, in his little life in
this our little world might be able to make the most of himself, was
an ideal which even the colonel's waking hours would not have
repudiated.
Following this pleasing thread with the unconscious rapidity of
dreams, the colonel passed, in a few brief minutes, through a long and
useful life to a happy end, when he too rested with his fathers, by
the side of his son, and on his tomb was graven what was said of Ben
Adhem: "Here lies one who loved his fellow men," and the further
words, "and tried to make them happy."
* * * * *
Shortly after dawn there was a loud rapping at the colonel's door:
"Come downstairs and look on de piazza, Colonel," said the agitated
voice of the servant who had knocked. "Come quick, suh."
There was a vague terror in the man's voice that stirred the colonel
strangely. He threw on a dressing gown and hastened downstairs, and to
the front door of the hall, which stood open. A handsome mahogany
burial casket, stained with earth and disfigured by rough handling,
rested upon the floor of the piazza, where it had been deposited
during the night. Conspicuously nailed to the coffin lid was a sheet
of white paper, upon which were some lines rudely scrawled in a
handwriting that matched the spelling:
_Kurnell French_:
_Take notis. Berry yore ole nigger somewhar else. He can't stay
in Oak Semitury. The majority of the white people of this town,
who dident tend yore nigger funarl, woant have him there.
Niggers by there selves, white peepul by there selves, and them
that lives in our town must bide by our rules._
_By order of_
CUMITTY.
The colonel left the coffin standing on the porch, where it remained
all day, an object of curious interest to the scores and hundreds who
walked by to look at it, for the news spread quickly through the town.
No one, however, came in. If there were those who reprobated the
action they were silent. The mob spirit, which had broken out in the
lynching of Johnson, still dominated the town, and no one dared to
speak against it.
As soon as Colonel French had dressed and breakfasted, he drove over
to the cemetery. Those who had exhumed old Peter's remains had not
been unduly careful. The carelessly excavated earth had been scattered
here and there over the lot. The flowers on old Peter's grave and that
of little Phil had been trampled under foot--whether wantonly or not,
inevitably, in the execution of the ghoulish task.
The colonel's heart hardened as he stood by his son's grave. Then he
took a long lingering look at the tombs of his ancestors and turned
away with an air of finality.
From the cemetery he went to the undertaker's, and left an order;
thence to the telegraph office, from which he sent a message to his
former partner in New York; and thence to the Treadwells'.
_Thirty-seven_
Miss Laura came forward with outstretched hands and tear-stained eyes
to greet him.
"Henry," she exclaimed, "I am shocked and sorry, I cannot tell you how
much! Nor do I know what else to say, except that the best people do
not--cannot--could not--approve of it!"
"The best people, Laura," he said with a weary smile, "are an
abstraction. When any deviltry is on foot they are never there to
prevent it--they vanish into thin air at its approach. When it is
done, they excuse it; and they make no effort to punish it. So it is
not too much to say that what they permit they justify, and they
cannot shirk the responsibility. To mar the living--it is the history
of life--but to make war upon the dead!--I am going away, Laura, never
to return. My dream of usefulness is over. To-night I take away my
dead and shake the dust of Clarendon from my feet forever. Will you
come with me?"
"Henry," she said, and each word tore her heart, "I have been
expecting this--since I heard. But I cannot go; my duty calls me here.
My mother could not be happy anywhere else, nor would I fit into any
other life. And here, too, I am useful--and may still be useful--and
should be missed. I know your feelings, and would not try to keep you.
But, oh, Henry, if all of those who love justice and practise humanity
should go away, what would become of us?"
"I leave to-night," he returned, "and it is your right to go with me,
or to come to me."
"No, Henry, nor am I sure that you would wish me to. It was for the
old town's sake that you loved me. I was a part of your dream--a part
of the old and happy past, upon which you hoped to build, as upon the
foundations of the old mill, a broader and a fairer structure. Do you
remember what you told me, that night--that happy night--that you
loved me because in me you found the embodiment of an ideal? Well,
Henry, that is why I did not wish to make our engagement known, for I
knew, I felt, the difficulty of your task, and I foresaw that you
might be disappointed, and I feared that if your ideal should be
wrecked, you might find me a burden. I loved you, Henry--I seem to
have always loved you, but I would not burden you."
"No, no, Laura--not so! not so!"
"And you wanted me for Phil's sake, whom we both loved; and now that
your dream is over, and Phil is gone, I should only remind you of
where you lost him, and of your disappointment, and of--this other
thing, and I could not be sure that you loved me or wanted me."
"Surely you cannot doubt it, Laura?" His voice was firm, but to her
sensitive spirit it did not carry conviction.
"You remembered me from my youth," she continued tremulously but
bravely, "and it was the image in your memory that you loved. And now,
when you go away, the old town will shrink and fade from your memory
and your heart and you will have none but harsh thoughts of it; nor
can I blame you greatly, for you have grown far away from us, and we
shall need many years to overtake you. Nor do you need me, Henry--I am
too old to learn new ways, and elsewhere than here I should be a
hindrance to you rather than a help. But in the larger life to which
you go, think of me now and then as one who loves you still, and who
will try, in her poor way, with such patience as she has, to carry on
the work which you have begun, and which you--Oh, Henry!"
He divined her thought, though her tear-filled eyes spoke sorrow
rather than reproach.
"Yes," he said sadly, "which I have abandoned. Yes, Laura, abandoned,
fully and forever."
The colonel was greatly moved, but his resolution remained unshaken.
"Laura," he said, taking both her hands in his, "I swear that I should
be glad to have you with me. Come away! The place is not fit for you
to live in!"
"No, Henry! it cannot be! I could not go! My duty holds me here! God
would not forgive me if I abandoned it. Go your way; live your life.
Marry some other woman, if you must, who will make you happy. But I
shall keep, Henry--nothing can ever take away from me--the memory of
one happy summer."
"No, no, Laura, it need not be so! I shall write you. You'll think
better of it. But I go to-night--not one hour longer than I must, will
I remain in this town. I must bid your mother and Graciella good-bye."
He went into the house. Mrs. Treadwell was excited and sorry, and
would have spoken at length, but the colonel's farewells were brief.
"I cannot stop to say more than good-bye, dear Mrs. Treadwell. I have
spent a few happy months in my old home, and now I am going away.
Laura will tell you the rest."
Graciella was tearfully indignant.
"It was a shame!" she declared. "Peter was a good old nigger, and it
wouldn't have done anybody any harm to leave him there. I'd rather be
buried beside old Peter than near any of the poor white trash that dug
him up--so there! I'm so sorry you're going away; but I hope,
sometime," she added stoutly, "to see you in New York! Don't forget!"
"I'll send you my address," said the colonel.
_Thirty-eight_
It was a few weeks later. Old Ralph Dudley and Viney had been buried.
Ben Dudley had ridden in from Mink Run, had hitched his horse in the
back yard as usual, and was seated on the top step of the piazza
beside Graciella. His elbows rested on his knees, and his chin upon
his hand. Graciella had unconsciously imitated his drooping attitude.
Both were enshrouded in the deepest gloom, and had been sunk, for
several minutes, in a silence equally profound. Graciella was the
first to speak.
"Well, then," she said with a deep sigh, "there is absolutely nothing
left?"
"Not a thing," he groaned hopelessly, "except my horse and my clothes,
and a few odds and ends which belong to me. Fetters will have the
land--there's not enough to pay the mortgages against it, and I'm in
debt for the funeral expenses."
"And what are you going to do?"
"Gracious knows--I wish I did! I came over to consult the family. I
have no trade, no profession, no land and no money. I can get a job at
braking on the railroad--or may be at clerking in a store. I'd have
asked the colonel for something in the mill--but that chance is gone."
"Gone," echoed Graciella, gloomily. "I see my fate! I shall marry you,
because I can't help loving you, and couldn't live without you; and I
shall never get to New York, but be, all my life, a poor man's wife--a
poor white man's wife."
"No, Graciella, we might be poor, but not poor-white! Our blood will
still be of the best."
"It will be all the same. Blood without money may count for one
generation, but it won't hold out for two."
They relapsed into a gloom so profound, so rayless, that they might
almost be said to have reveled in it. It was lightened, or at least a
diversion was created by Miss Laura's opening the garden gate and
coming up the walk. Ben rose as she approached, and Graciella looked
up.
"I have been to the post-office," said Miss Laura. "Here is a letter
for you, Ben, addressed in my care. It has the New York postmark."
"Thank you, Miss Laura."
Eagerly Ben's hand tore the envelope and drew out the enclosure.
Swiftly his eyes devoured the lines; they were typewritten and easy to
follow.
"Glory!" he shouted, "glory hallelujah! Listen!"
He read the letter aloud, while Graciella leaned against his shoulder
and feasted her eyes upon the words. The letter was from Colonel
French:
_"My dear Ben_:
_I was very much impressed with the model of a cotton gin and
press which I saw you exhibit one day at Mrs. Treadwells'. You
have a fine genius for mechanics, and the model embodies, I
think, a clever idea, which is worth working up. If your
uncle's death has left you free to dispose of your time, I
should like to have you come on to New York with the model, and
we will take steps to have the invention patented at once, and
form a company for its manufacture. As an evidence of good
faith, I enclose my draft for five hundred dollars, which can
be properly accounted for in our future arrangements._"
"O Ben!" gasped Graciella, in one long drawn out, ecstatic sigh.
"O Graciella!" exclaimed Ben, as he threw his arms around her and
kissed her rapturously, regardless of Miss Laura's presence. "Now you
can go to New York as soon as you like!"
_Thirty-nine_
Colonel French took his dead to the North, and buried both the little
boy and the old servant in the same lot with his young wife, and in
the shadow of the stately mausoleum which marked her resting-place.
There, surrounded by the monuments of the rich and the great, in a
beautiful cemetery, which overlooks a noble harbour where the ships of
all nations move in endless procession, the body of the faithful
servant rests beside that of the dear little child whom he unwittingly
lured to his death and then died in the effort to save. And in all the
great company of those who have laid their dead there in love or in
honour, there is none to question old Peter's presence or the
colonel's right to lay him there. Sometimes, at night, a ray of light
from the uplifted torch of the Statue of Liberty, the gift of a free
people to a free people, falls athwart the white stone which marks his
resting place--fit prophecy and omen of the day when the sun of
liberty shall shine alike upon all men.
When the colonel went away from Clarendon, he left his affairs in
Caxton's hands, with instructions to settle them up as expeditiously
as possible. The cotton mill project was dropped, and existing
contracts closed on the best terms available. Fetters paid the old
note--even he would not have escaped odium for so bare-faced a
robbery--and Mrs. Treadwell's last days could be spent in comfort and
Miss Laura saved from any fear for her future, and enabled to give
more freely to the poor and needy. Barclay Fetters recovered the use
of one eye, and embittered against the whole Negro race by his
disfigurement, went into public life and devoted his talents and his
education to their debasement. The colonel had relented sufficiently
to contemplate making over to Miss Laura the old family residence in
trust for use as a hospital, with a suitable fund for its maintenance,
but it unfortunately caught fire and burned down--and he was hardly
sorry. He sent Catherine, Bud Johnson's wife, a considerable sum of
money, and she bought a gorgeous suit of mourning, and after a decent
interval consoled herself with a new husband. And he sent word to the
committee of coloured men to whom he had made a definite promise, that
he would be ready to fulfil his obligation in regard to their school
whenever they should have met the conditions.
* * * * *
One day, a year or two after leaving Clarendon, as the colonel, in
company with Mrs. French, formerly a member of his firm, now his
partner in a double sense--was riding upon a fast train between New
York and Chicago, upon a trip to visit a western mine in which the
reorganised French and Company, Limited, were interested, he noticed
that the Pullman car porter, a tall and stalwart Negro, was watching
him furtively from time to time. Upon one occasion, when the colonel
was alone in the smoking-room, the porter addressed him.
"Excuse me, suh," he said, "I've been wondering ever since we left New
York, if you wa'n't Colonel French?"
"Yes, I'm Mr. French--Colonel French, if you want it so."
"I 'lowed it must be you, suh, though you've changed the cut of your
beard, and are looking a little older, suh. I don't suppose you
remember me?"
"I've seen you somewhere," said the colonel--no longer the colonel,
but like the porter, let us have it so. "Where was it?"
"I'm Henry Taylor, suh, that used to teach school at Clarendon. I
reckon you remember me now."
"Yes," said the colonel sadly, "I remember you now, Taylor, to my
sorrow. I didn't keep my word about Johnson, did I?"
"Oh, yes, suh," replied the porter, "I never doubted but what you'd
keep your word. But you see, suh, they were too many for you. There
ain't no one man can stop them folks down there when they once get
started."
"And what are you doing here, Taylor?"
"Well, suh, the fact is that after you went away, it got out somehow
that I had told on Bud Johnson. I don't know how they learned it, and
of course I knew you didn't tell it; but somebody must have seen me
going to your house, or else some of my enemies guessed it--and
happened to guess right--and after that the coloured folks wouldn't
send their children to me, and I lost my job, and wasn't able to get
another anywhere in the State. The folks said I was an enemy of my
race, and, what was more important to me, I found that my race was an
enemy to me. So I got out, suh, and I came No'th, hoping to find
somethin' better. This is the best job I've struck yet, but I'm hoping
that sometime or other I'll find something worth while."
"And what became of the industrial school project?" asked the colonel.
"I've stood ready to keep my promise, and more, but I never heard from
you."
"Well, suh, after you went away the enthusiasm kind of died out, and
some of the white folks throwed cold water on it, and it fell through,
suh."
When the porter came along, before the train reached Chicago, the
colonel offered Taylor a handsome tip.
"Thank you, suh," said the porter, "but I'd rather not take it. I'm a
porter now, but I wa'n't always one, and hope I won't always be one.
And during all the time I taught school in Clarendon, you was the only
white man that ever treated me quite like a man--and our folks just
like people--and if you won't think I'm presuming, I'd rather not take
the money."
The colonel shook hands with him, and took his address. Shortly
afterward he was able to find him something better than menial
employment, where his education would give him an opportunity for
advancement. Taylor is fully convinced that his people will never get
very far along in the world without the good will of the white people,
but he is still wondering how they will secure it. For he regards
Colonel French as an extremely fortunate accident.
* * * * *
And so the colonel faltered, and, having put his hand to the plow,
turned back. But was not his, after all, the only way? For no more now
than when the Man of Sorrows looked out over the Mount of Olives, can
men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. The seed which the
colonel sowed seemed to fall by the wayside, it is true; but other
eyes have seen with the same light, and while Fetters and his kind
still dominate their section, other hands have taken up the fight
which the colonel dropped. In manufactures the South has gone forward
by leaps and bounds. The strong arm of the Government, guided by a
wise and just executive, has been reached out to crush the poisonous
growth of peonage, and men hitherto silent have raised their voices to
commend. Here and there a brave judge has condemned the infamy of the
chain-gang and convict lease systems. Good men, North and South, have
banded themselves together to promote the cause of popular education.
Slowly, like all great social changes, but visibly, to the eye of
faith, is growing up a new body of thought, favourable to just laws
and their orderly administration. In this changed attitude of mind
lies the hope of the future, the hope of the Republic.
But Clarendon has had its chance, nor seems yet to have had another.
Other towns, some not far from it, lying nearer the main lines of
travel, have been swept into the current of modern life, but not yet
Clarendon. There the grass grows thicker in the streets. The
meditative cows still graze in the vacant lot between the post-office
and the bank, where the public library was to stand. The old academy
has grown more dilapidated than ever, and a large section of plaster
has fallen from the wall, carrying with it the pencil drawing made in
the colonel's schooldays; and if Miss Laura Treadwell sees that the
graves of the old Frenches are not allowed to grow up in weeds and
grass, the colonel knows nothing of it. The pigs and the
loafers--leaner pigs and lazier loafers--still sleep in the shade,
when the pound keeper and the constable are not active. The limpid
water of the creek still murmurs down the slope and ripples over the
stone foundation of what was to have been the new dam, while the birds
have nested for some years in the vines that soon overgrew the
unfinished walls of the colonel's cotton mill. White men go their way,
and black men theirs, and these ways grow wider apart, and no one
knows the outcome. But there are those who hope, and those who pray,
that this condition will pass, that some day our whole land will be
truly free, and the strong will cheerfully help to bear the burdens of
the weak, and Justice, the seed, and Peace, the flower, of liberty,
will prevail throughout all our borders.
* * * * *
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