"Grate King," shouted Clarissa. "Wuz yu sho nuff drounded to def, brudder Joshaway?"
"Und den when I seed dat n.i.g.g.e.rs too eyes of hissen und--ugh-h-h-h!"
"Hung to de hook!" shrieked Clarissa interrogatively.
"To be sho, to be sho," replied Joshua with irritation; "Duz yu spishun hit wur hung to de gallus? Und ez I drapped missis, ez I drapped," he continued, "I flung out dese too hands jess so missis, und kotched holt of er nudder n.i.g.g.e.r drounded to def by er sarc.u.mstance dat haint neber been skivvered."
"Und den yer c.u.m too ergin?" queried Clarissa shaking with excitement.
"Naw chile," Joshua answered with gravity, "I haint neber c.u.m too no mo, dat I haint."
Jake had another delusion--that to do your work without makin mistakes "yer must obsarve the consequences."
The old Colonel after he had finished his toilet walked out into the verandah where he observed Jake ambling toward the house and singing in a monotone an old army doggerel of questionable merit,
"He who fights and runs away, Will live to fight another day, But he who is in battle slain: Will never live to fight again."
The regulator walked up the stone steps into the verandah with a leer in his countenance, satan-like in its expression.
Old Jube slunk away with a sidelong glance at the regulator as if he quite agreed with Clarissa that "He wus not a humans, nohow," and coiled himself up for the nap that had been needlessly interrupted at the other end of the verandah.
"Now then sir, how do you propose to proceed in this business?"
"I aint er going to proceed, the percession c.u.ms at the latter eend. Now yer just hold yer breath, mister, twill I fix my curlecules, and then you can crack your whip and the percession will start to the cemetery with music by the band."
The regulator filled a doubled barrel army canteen full of gunpowder, and attached to it a fuse that would burn half an hour before exploding.
After doing this he said to the Colonel,
"When yer sees the Yankee school-marm er coming just call off the cussed n.i.g.g.e.rs, twill I can plant hit."
Colonel Seymour drew from his pocket a dozen or more pennies as he caught sight of the school marm riding down the road in her dogcart.
"Here, ye varmints!" he cried, and he threw one piece of money at the time in the gra.s.s and the negroes scrambled for it like a flock of geese over scattered grains of corn.
Simultaneously with the stroke of the old-fashioned clock, came an explosion that recalled the Crater with all its horrors to the regulator.
Clarissa ran out of the kitchen screaming, "Murder! Fire! the Yankees is er comin. Great king, mars Jon, de ruf and de chimney on de offis is dun blowed clean erway. In de name of Gord, what wus dat, ole marsa? Grate Jerusalam! which er way did dat harrykin c.u.m from? De road is fairly er workin wid yung n.i.g.g.e.rs widdout arms or legs ergwine er bellering every which erway. Fo Gord, de last time I seed dat er Yankee wumun she wus er flying fru de medder lak er white herrun!"
After the smoke of battle had cleared the regulator sneaked up to the Colonel with a broad grin upon his face with the enquiry, "Did I do that er job kerrect, mister?"
[Ill.u.s.tration: "I"m ergwine back lak dat prodigle man dat et up dem corn cobs way out yander to de tuther eend o" de yearth."]
CHAPTER XIV.
THE OATH OF FEALTY.
Since the death of Mrs. Seymour the negroes had been busily plying their offensive vocation filling to the very brim the vat of vicious fermentation. The air at night was laden with ribaldry and the sounds of guns. The old master"s labors were greatly multiplied too, since the negroes were all the while in some exasperating way or other celebrating the "Emanc.i.p.ation Proclamation," the dawn of freedom. Their presence had become a serious menace, an ever recurring cause of alarm. His resources, too, were almost gone--the cattle had been slaughtered in the range, the horses appropriated and returned when convenient, and he dared not ask why this spoliation of his property.
Ned would occasionally announce his arrival upon the plantation by furious blasts from a great cracked horn. He would be dressed from head to foot in a blue uniform with bright bra.s.s b.u.t.tons and yellow cords upon the revers and sleeves of his jacket, and a coa.r.s.e slouched hat with crossed swords in front, a huge yellow cord with ta.s.sels around the crown, and it surmounted by a peac.o.c.k"s feather. The old master saw with disgust the foolish negro from the verandah, marching up and down the carriage way with his bright musket, going through the manual of arms, "Sport Harms! Horder arms! Charge bagonets!" Aleck and Ephraim and Henry were dressed in the same fashion and going through the same evolutions on another part of the plantation. Now and then a discharge from the guns accompanied by demoniacal yells would frighten poor Alice almost to death. In the dead hours of night these brutal negroes to terrify her and her father would drill in the front yard of Ingleside with vulgar and boisterous commands, and before breaking ranks they would discharge their muskets with horrifying screams--"Jess immitatin de brav sojer boys at Fort Piller," they said. Ingleside was virtually a camp of military instruction!
"Clarissa," Alice exclaimed, "we must go away from here. We will be murdered if we do not get away from these horrid negroes, I shall die with fright if I remain here any longer. They can come at any hour of the day or night and kill us. Father is old and feeble and cannot protect me, and you know, Clarissa, I cannot protect him. Please go to him and tell him we must get away this very day."
"Bress yo deer life, Miss Alice, ef yu seed how dis po ole heart was a flip flappin, fust peert und den slow, lak a yaller hammer beatin ergen er dedded gum, fust on wun side und den on de tuther, yu"d say ter yosef, "po Clarsy!" Fo de Lawd, I"m skeert mo wusser dan yu is, und ef dis heer fl.u.s.trashun is ergwine on much fudder de Lawd is gwine ter rane down fire und brimstone on dese n.i.g.g.e.rs lak he dun on dem Mallyskites, und I specks er grate big hunk is ergwine to hit Ned und Joshaway too, rite slam twixt de eyeb.a.l.l.s. Dem dare n.i.g.g.e.rs, jamby granddaddies of Methuserlum, lookin lak hants in all dem fethers and bra.s.s b.u.t.tons, er heppin all ober de taters und de korn und de cotton, und bress de Lawd, ef I must tell de truf, dey is as perished up ez a mash hen er settin on turkle eggs. Yu needn"t larf lak dat, Miss Alice; de Lawd is gwine ter show dese n.i.g.g.e.rs whos er totin de biggest strane, und when he sez de wurd, dey"s ergwine ter be dedder dan last yur"s G.o.de wines, und--"
"Perhaps, Clarissa," interrupted Alice, "these troublous times are but mercies in disguise?"
"Oh, my King!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Clarissa in alarm, "Murder"s gwine ter rise, yu sez? Oh, my hebbens! Is yu aiming fur dem kallamities tu c.u.m immegiate, missis?"
Alice laughed away the old negress" fears and replied in explanation:
"I said they were mercies--mercies in disguise."
"Dat is mo better, Miss Alice," observed Clarissa, slightly mollified.
"Kase I knoed ef dat tuther fing wuz ergwine ter hap"n, me und yu und ole ma.r.s.er mout git kilt fo enybody but de n.i.g.g.e.rs spishuned er resurreckshun. Ole Clarsy"s skin is powerful black missis, und dis kinky hed is pided lak dat ole wether"s in de medder, but I"m ergwine ter stan by yu und ole ma.r.s.er twell de eend, und when Ole Ma.r.s.er up yander sez de word, I"m ergwine ter ax yu ter berry Clarsy at ole missis" feet; und den ef she heers de trumpet fust she"ll call Clarsy, und ef I heers it fust I"m ergwine ter call her, und den me und her will jine hans und fly erway ter glory."
The pathos of this affectionate speech brought tears to the eyes of her young mistress, and the thought came out of her great sympathetic nature:
"Reconstruction so far has been a great smelting furnace--it has separated the pure from the impure, and with its refining heat has grappled with hooks of steel the hearts of mistress and servant. Would that I could dictate a fitting eulogium for the faithful negroes; for those who are groping still amid the shadows of an epoch that seems obedient to no law but of caprice and change."
If I get to Heaven, Clarissa will be at the portal with some such expression upon her tongue as this: "Bress yer hart, missis, I"ve been waitin right here fur yer ever since I heard yer wus er c.u.mmin. Come wid me, young missis, und let me show yer dis beautifullest city in de hole wurrel."
"Sixty days within which to prove your loyalty!" "Sixty days" were coming upon tireless pinions. Are the mills of the G.o.ds still grinding?
Is there yet water in the flume to run the heavy wheel? Is there still grist to feed the stones?
"To prove your loyalty" ran the judgment. What badinage to toss into the face of a man who had braved death upon a hundred battle-fields and all for "loyalty!" He had proved it by great scarifications that would have appalled every carpet-bagger in the South. Loyalty is the counterpart of honor--the collaborator with duty, and the old soldier for sixty five years had maintained and performed his part in his particular sphere of life; yea out of the crucible of h.e.l.l he had rescued his loyalty--his character as pure as the untrodden snow.
Another sunrise shoots its gleams into the cribbed heart of Old Ingleside, and Clarissa has not returned to prepare breakfast; what can be the matter? "Perhaps she is unwell. I am sure she cannot be faithless," argued Alice with herself. "I will go and see." As she entered the door of the cabin she saw Ned rolling and tossing upon the bed in wild delirium and she asked Clarissa what was the matter with her husband.
"Don"t know, Miss Alice," replied Clarissa, "epseps he is tuck wurser wid wun ob dem bad spells agin; dey is c.u.mmin und agwine ebery now and den, und he gits rite foolish und komikell."
Alice drew her chair closely to the bedside and felt of the old negro"s head and it was very hot; she felt his pulse and it was beating like a triphammer. He was groaning, too, as if in great pain, crying out in delirium occasionally "Charge bagonet! Sport harms! hep! hep! hep!" as if drilling and going through the manual of the soldier. Alice saw that something must be done and very quickly, and she said to Clarissa.
"I will run for the doctor."
"Lor, missis, yer a gwine a trapesing away over yander fur de doctur by your lone lorn sef? I specks. .h.i.ts er mile ur too ef its ary step."
Within an hour the physician was at the bedside of the sick negro, diagnosing the case and prescribing medicine.
"He is not in immediate danger," observed the physician to Alice, "But he must be watched."
"I want to put him under your care and whatever your charge may be I will pay it."
"Thank you, miss," replied the physician with a smile. "I will see that he does not suffer for the want of medical treatment. By the way, how is your father"s health now, Miss Alice?" he asked.
"I think I can see that he is failing, sir," the girl replied sadly.