With a sigh of disappointment she placed the tumbler upon the mantelpiece. "Where"s Alf?" the old man asked.
"Gone over to the General"s to help about something."
"Where"s Guinea?"
"She"s about somewhere. That"s her in the pa.s.sage, I think. Guinea?"
There was no reply, save of hastening footsteps, and a moment later a young woman entered the room. She was not very tall, but she was graceful, and her dark eyes were dashed with mischief. She reminded me of the woman whom I had seen on the train; her smile was the same, but her eyes were brighter. She had a peculiar laugh, a musical cluck, and at first sight I was glad that I had met her, but a moment later I was afraid that she was going to laugh at me. The old man did not introduce me; his wife did not know my name, and I sought to speak my name, but had lost it just at that moment and could merely splutter something. I was not much embarra.s.sed, though; I recalled what I had heard the two men say, and behind me was the strong brace of a woman"s kindly regard.
"We are glad to see you," said the girl, looking straight at me. I replied that I was glad to see her, and then we both laughed; she with her musical cluck and I with a goat-like rasp, it seemed to me. We all drew up about the fire-place, a habit in the country, and it was then that I thought of the open-handed graciousness of the household. Had I correctly caught this girl"s name, Guinea? And with a countryman"s frankness I asked if that were her name.
"Well, no," said Mrs. Jucklin, speaking for her, "it ain"t her sure enough name, but it"s all that she goes by. And it came about in this way: A long time ago, when she was a little bit of a girl, she was toddlin" about the yard with a checked dress on, and one of the neighbors lookin" at her said that she looked exactly like a little guinea chicken, and ever since then we have called her Guinea. Her right name is Angeline."
"Her right name is what?" the old man asked, looking up.
"Angeline," I said.
"Well, it"s the first time I ever heard of it."
"Now, Limuel, why do you want to act that way? A body would think that you don"t know anything about your own family."
"Never heard of it before," said the old man.
"You are surely the most provokin" man I ever saw, Limuel. You know the very day we named the child, and now you pretend----"
"Pretend? I don"t pretend nothin". Can"t blame a man for never hearin"
of the name, can you?"
"Mister," she said, turning to me, "please don"t pay any attention to him. He"d pester me nearly to death if I"d let him. But come, Guinea, we must stir about and get something to eat."
The mother and the daughter went out into a kitchen detached from the main part of the house, and the old man looked at me and laughed. And after a moment of chuckling he said: "I reckon that I"ve got two of the finest in the world."
"Children?" I asked.
"No, game roosters. One"s named Sam and the other"s named Bob."
"I thought you said that Sam had been eaten by the preacher."
"Oh, that Sam was, but I"ve got another one. I always have a Sam and a Bob. When a Sam dies I get another Sam, and likewise with a Bob. But you know what"s a fact? I never allow "em to fight to a finish. If I did the sport would be gone. You must never let one rooster know that the other one can whip him, for if you do there won"t be any fight after that--you must always keep each one believin" that he is the best man. I reckon I"ve had more than a hundred, but I never let "em fight to a finish. My folks here don"t care nothin" about fun--they even frown on it, Alf with the rest, and I hold that he ought to know better, bein" a man, but so it is. I"ve got a chicken house back here, with a high picket fence around it, and I keep it locked, I tell you. Have to, or the preachers would eat up my sport, and this ain"t findin" no fault with their doctrine, for I believe the Book from kiver to kiver. After we get a snack we"ll slip off and have a set-to. What do you say?"
I hardly knew what to say. I was afraid to decline, lest I might lose his good opinion, and I was loth to accept the invitation, fearing that I might lower myself in the estimation of the women; but while I was casting about the old man relieved me by saying: "However, we"ve got plenty of time before us. It"s always well to hold a good thing in reserve, you know. After dinner we"ll go over and see Old Perdue and find out if you can arrange with him about the school. He"s got the whole thing in charge. General Lundsford has charge of nearly everything else, but he don"t take much stock in free schools. He argues that nothin" that"s free is any good, and in the main he"s about right; but we"ve had some pretty good schools here, the only trouble bein" to keep the teachers out of the creek. What education my son Alf has he picked up about home, here, but Guinea was sent off to school, way over at Raleigh."
"I am glad to see that you thought so much of the importance of training her mind," I remarked.
He gave me a troubled look, moved uneasily, as I had seen him move when I told him that I was burying a rabbit, ran his fingers through his upright, bristling hair and for a long time was silent. And as I looked at him I fancied that he was trying to think of something to say, something to lead my mind away from what he had already said. I had seen the quaint, half-comical side of his nature, and now I saw that he could be thoughtful, and in his serious mood his face was strong and rugged.
His beard, cropped close, reminded me of sc.r.a.ps of wire, some of them rusted; and when he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand I wondered that he did not scratch the skin off.
Guinea came to the door and told us that the meal was ready. The old man got up, with a return of his comical air, and told me to follow him. The girl continued to stand near the threshold and as I drew near unto her she said: "This door wasn"t cut quite high enough for you, was it? Look, father, he has to duck his head. The boys may have a time putting him into the creek." She was now talking to her father, but was looking at me, so I took it upon myself to answer her. "Yes, for you have called attention to the fact that my legs are long and the rascals may have hard running with trying to catch me."
"Oh," she replied, "but I was thinking of your strength rather than your swiftness. Come this way. Father has run off and left you."
The old man had stepped down out of the pa.s.sage and had gone some distance toward a small house surrounded by a picket fence.
"You go with her," he called, looking back, "and I"ll be there pretty soon."
"No telling when he will come now," the girl remarked, walking close beside me. "He"s got two of the most spiteful chickens out there you ever saw, and whenever anything goes wrong with him he bolts right out there, no matter who is here, and makes those vicious things peck at each other. Mother and I try hard to reform him, but we can"t."
It was Mrs. Jucklin"s time-grayed privilege to apologize for the scantiness of her fare, and this she did with becoming modesty and regret. She had not expected company; the regular dinner hour was over long ago, and somehow she never could understand why she couldn"t get a meal out of the regular time. But if I would only give her a chance she would reclaim herself. She called my attention to the corn bread; declared that it was not fit to be eaten, and she didn"t know what made the stove act that way. But the milk she knew was good. Oh, she had forgotten that I didn"t drink milk. Guinea smiled at me and clucked at her mother. "Don"t pretend that you like anything just to please her,"
she said, when Mrs. Jucklin had turned about to keep a hoe-cake from burning. "All you"ve got to do is to say nothing until she gets through--that, and simply to remember that she enjoys it."
While we were eating we heard a voice crying: "Hike, there, Sam; get him down, Bob! Hike there!"
"They are warming up to their work," Guinea remarked, and her mother sighed; and then she began to talk louder than was her wont, striving to drown the old man"s voice. "It isn"t any use, mother," said the girl.
"The gentleman will find it out sooner or later."
"And I suppose," said I, "that you think that you may find out my name sooner or later. Please pardon me for not introducing myself. My name is----"
"Hike, there, Bob! Get him down, Sam! Now you are at it! Hike, there!"
"My name is Hawes, William Hawes, and I am from Alabama."
"And you have come to teach the school?" said the girl.
"Yes, if I can make the arrangements."
"But is there anything very satisfying in such an occupation?" she asked.
I felt then that she placed no very high estimate upon my worth, and on her part this was but natural, for among country people school-teaching is looked upon as a lazy calling.
"I have not chosen teaching as my real vocation," I answered.
"Hike, there, I tell you! Hike!"
"It is my aim to be a lawyer, to be eloquent, to stir emotions, to be strong in the presence of men. My earlier advantages, no matter how I sought to turn them about, gave me no promise of reaching the bar; I had good primary training, but in reality I had to educate myself, and in the work of a teacher I saw a hope to lead me onward."
"Came within one of letting them fight to a finish," said the old man, stepping into the room.
"Limuel, why will you always humiliate me?" his wife asked, placing a chair for him.
"Humiliate you! Bless your life, I wouldn"t humiliate you. The only trouble is that you are tryin" to make me fit a garment you"ve got, ruther than to make the garment fit me. I ain"t doin" no harm, Susan, and it"s my way, and you can"t very well knock the spots off"en a leopard nur skin an Etheopian. Here comes Alf."
The son was a young fellow of good size, shapely, and with his mother"s black eyes. Guinea introduced me to him, and at once I felt that I should like to win his friendship. The old man explained my presence there. "And now," said he, "I want you to go over to old Perdue"s with him after dinner and see if any arrangements can be made. He"s goin" to board with us, and I want to tell you right now that he is from good stock; his grandaddy was the captain of the company that my daddy fit in durin" the Creek war, and from what I learn I don"t reckon there was ever sich fightin" before nor since. What are they doin" over at the General"s?"
"Nothing much," Alf answered. "They started to plow this morning, but it is still most too wet."
"Was Millie at home?" Guinea asked.
"I think so, but I suppose you know that Chid isn"t."