Hubert"s Wife.
by Minnie Mary Lee.
CHAPTER I.
A BLACK CONFERENCE.
It was the night after the funeral. Ellice Lisle, the loving wife, devoted mother, kind mistress, and generous friend, had been laid away to rest; over her pulseless bosom had been thrown the red earth of her adopted Virginia, and, mingled with its mocking freshness, was the bitter rain of tears from the eyes of all who had known the lowly sleeper. Even Nature joined the general weeping; for, though the early morning had been bright and beautiful, ere the mourners" feet had left the new-made grave, the skies had lowered, and a gentle rain descended.
"_You_ have pity upon me, O Heaven, and you weep for me, O earth," had exclaimed Duncan Stuart Lisle, as, leading his little Hubert by the hand, he turned away from his lost Ellice.
As night deepened, the rain increased, and the darkness became intense.
The house-servants, timid and superst.i.tious, had all congregated in Aunt Amy"s cabin. Amidst their grief, sincere and profound, was yet a subject of indignation, which acted as a sort of safety-valve to their over-much sorrowing.
"A nice, pretty piece of impudence it was, to be sure, when she hadn"t been in the house for five year, to "trude herself the minute Miss Ellice"s breath had left her precious body, the poor dear!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Chloe, the cook, who was intensely black, and fat to immensity.
"Much as ever Ma.s.sa Duncan "peared to notice her, not"standing she make herself so "ficious," said Amy, who looked more the Indian than African.
"He never set eyes on her but once," said young China, the favorite housemaid, whose dialect and manners were superior to those of the other servants, "only just once, and that was when she looked at him so long and fierce-like he couldn"t actually keep his eyes down."
"I see it my own self," added Chloe, whose small orbs were almost buried beneath overhanging cliffs of brow and uprising mountains of cheek, "and I"ll tell you what I tinks: I tinks just den and dere, dat if we"s meet de ole one hisself he wouldn"t hab no eyes, cause Misses Rusha Rush jes done gone an" stole "em."
This dark reference caused a closer grouping of the sable dames and damsels. Trembling hands drew small plaid shawls closer about the shoulders, while one bolder than the rest cast a huge pine-knot upon the glowing coals.
Amy was first to break the brief silence.
"Mighty pity Jude Rush ever fell off "Big Thunderbolt" and broke his slim neck! But Ma.s.sa Duncan knew nuf once to let Miss Rusha "lone; he"s not gwine to be "veigled by none o" her hilofical airs--you may "pend on dat; "specially when he"s had dat sweet saint all to hisself now dese so many year--no, neber."
And Amy reiterated this over and over, as if to kill the secret thought which haunted her against her will.
"She persume to come here and order you dis way an" I dat way, an" all us all "round ebry which way--oo--but I gived her a piece o" my mind,"
spake Margery, the weaver, very irate.
"Umph! I never seed ye speak to her," said Amy, doubtingly.
"Not wid my tongue, mind ye. I knows better den dat. But I jes spit fire at her out of my eyes."
"Fire neber burn Miss Rusha; she too ugly for dat. S"pose fire burn de ole Nick? Den he be done dead and gone, which ain"t so; derefore nuthin"
ever fall Miss Rusha; she never sick, nor die, nor drown, nor burn up.
Miss Ellice she sick, she die, "cause she be an angel; she go home to glory; but Miss Rusha she live, jes to trouble white folks, jes to torment n.i.g.g.e.rs."
Wrathful Amy, as she said this, glanced triumphantly at Margery, who was about to speak, when Chloe took the floor, figuratively.
"Tank de Lord, we ain"t de n.i.g.g.e.rs what she"s got to torment; and she needn"t be setting her cap for our own good Ma.s.sa Duncan; she may jes hang up high her fiddle on de willows o" Bab"lon; she sit down an" weep on de streams; she neber hab good Ma.s.sa Duncan; neber while de trees on Kennons grow and de stars "bove Kennons shine."
Kennons was the name of the Lisle plantation.
"She"d like to jine the two plantations. One is too little for her to rule. She"s allus wanted our south "bacco patch. Her hundred n.i.g.g.e.rs and Ma.s.sa"s hundred would make a crew. O, she"s a shrewd one; she sees further than her nose. She"d make my shettle fly fast as Aunt Kizzie"s."
"Somebody ought to make your shuttle fly faster than is its habit, Margery," returned China, usually quiet and gentle. "But what if you are all mistaken, and Mistress Rush has no idea of making a rush upon Kennons and our good master."
"O, you poor innocent," quoth Chloe and Amy at the same time. "Haven"t we eyes? What"s they for if not to see with? They ain"t in the backs of our heads neither. We"ve got ears too; we don"t hear with our elbows.
What for did she bring nice things and pretties for Hubert? and what for did she take such a wonderful interest in de poor baby? Bress us, is de baby wake or sleep, or what is come of it? We"s all forgettin" de dear precious objec. Sakes alive, an" its nearly smuddered in its soft blankets, worked so beau"fully wid its own moder"s hand."
A sleeping-powder, administered to the three days" old infant had, for a time, quieted its incessant cries. This sudden mention brought every dark face to bend low over the cradle, which Bessie, the nurse, had brought hither from the house, that she might share the gossip of her companions.
Worn out with weeping and watching, Bessie lay p.r.o.ne and sleeping upon the floor at the cradle"s side. Satisfied that the baby still breathed, Chloe, Amy, Margery, China and Dinah settled back into their seats, like so many crows upon a branch.
Dinah, the last-named, had been thus far fast asleep; and provoked with herself that she had lost a share of the gossip, she gave Bessie a vigorous push with her foot as she pa.s.sed her, not through charity, nor yet through malice, but through a sudden spasm of ill-nature.
Bessie gave a groan and sat up. She gazed around wildly--slowly comprehended the scene, the present, the past, and, with another groan, flung herself upon the floor again.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Dinah, to disturb Bessie in that way," said China, between whom and Bessie was a warm friendship. "She has cried so, and broken her heart."
"She needn"t be in people"s way, then--who"s going "round Robinhood"s barn for sake o" likes o" her?" said Dinah, complainingly.
"Shut your mouth, black Dinah," cried Amy authoritatively. "Ye"s a pretty one to knock around a sleepin" n.i.g.g.e.r. You"s been asleep yourself the last hour. S"pose we"d all been like you--you"d been kicked into a heap--but we ain"t--and you never _did_ have a drop o" human kindness."
"O, go "way wid your quarreling. Dinah is jis like a firebran"; let her "lone. What she got to do wid dis subjec-matter in han", I like a-know?"
queried Aunt Chloe, swaying up to the mantle, filling her pipe with tobacco, and adding thereto the smallest glowing coal upon the hearth.
Meantime, while she is preparing for a smoke, her companions have taken from their pockets, each a tin snuff-box and a mop, which mop consists of a small twig, chewed at the end into threads or fibers. This mop, wet with saliva, is thrust into the box of Scotch snuff, thence thrust into the mouth, and worked around upon the teeth much to the delight and constant spitting of the performer. This operation, so prevalent both among white and black women of the South, is called "_dipping_ snuff."
Having followed our sable friends from grief to indignation, and from indignation to the charming amus.e.m.e.nt of snuff-dipping, we will enter the house and make acquaintance with its master.
CHAPTER II.
THE MASTER"S CONFERENCE WITH HIMSELF.
It was late in September, and chilly for the season. A bright fire glowed upon the hearth in the "lady"s chamber" at Kennons. Red curtains shaded the windows, and drooped in folds to the floor. Roses and green leaves seemed springing up out of the carpet to meet the light and warmth that radiated from the small semicircle behind the glittering fender. A bed hung with white curtains, a dressing bureau, with its fancy pincushion, and numerous cut-gla.s.s bottles of perfumery, a lounge covered with bright patchwork, and furnished with log-cabin cushions, easy-chairs and ottomans, together with the workstand and its inseparable little basket filled with every indispensable for needlework--all, all bore the trace of woman"s hand.
For nine years this had been the loved family-room of Duncan and Ellice Lisle.
Now, Ellice was forever gone. Her foot had pa.s.sed the threshold, to come in, to go out, no more. Her canary hung in the window; how could he sing on the morrow, missing _her_ accustomed voice? Her picture hung over the mantle, looking down with the old-time brightness upon the the solitary figures beforefire--Duncan and his child.
Hubert, the son, in his eighth year, sitting clasped in his father"s arms, had pierced anew that tortured heart by asking questions about his mother and the mystery of death, which no human mind can answer. The child was in a vortex of wonder, grief and speculation. It was the first great lesson of his life, and he would learn it well, the more that it was so severe and incomprehensible. But sleep and fatigue overcame Hubert at length. The light from the fire no more danced with his shifting curls, but settled down in a steady golden glow over the ma.s.s that mingled its yellow-brown with the black beard of the stricken man.
For the father would not lay away his sleeping child. He held him close, as the something, the all that was left to him of his lost love. His head drooped low and his lips rested in a long embrace of the child"s soft wealth of hair.
Mayhap some watching spirit took pity upon the man bereaved; for while he gazed into the fire, the heavy pressure of the present yielded to a half-conscious memory of the past, and a dream-like reverie brightened and darkened, flickered and burned in and out with the red of the flame, and the white of the ashes.
Duncan Lisle was a boy again. With two little brothers and a half-dozen black child-retainers, he hunted in the woods of Kennons, sailed boats on the red waters of the Roanoke, rode break-neck races over the old fields, despising fences high, and ditches deep, and vigorously sought specimens of uncouth, out-of-the-way beast, bird and insect. He studied mathematics and cla.s.sics, played pranks upon one tutor, and did loving reverence to another. He planted flowers upon his own mother"s grave, and filled the vases of his stepmother with her own favorite lilacs and roses. He made houses, carriages, swings, sets of furniture, and all sorts of constructions for his half-sister Della, who was his junior by ten years at least.
He edified, not to say terrified, the dusky crowd of juveniles with jack-o"-lanterns, impromptu giants and brigands, false faces, fire crackers, ventriloquism and sleight-of-hand performances.