XIII
"You know very well that you and your family lived usually on less than three dollars a week, and now that Dr. Trescott pays you five dollars a week for Johnson"s board, you live like millionaires. You haven"t done a stroke of work since Johnson began to board with you--everybody knows that--and so what are you kicking about?"
The judge sat in his chair on the porch, fondling his cane, and gazing down at old Williams, who stood under the lilac-bushes. "Yes, I know, jedge," said the negro, wagging his head in a puzzled manner. "Tain"t like as if I didn"t "preciate what the docteh done, but--but--well, yeh see, jedge," he added, gaining a new impetus, "it"s--it"s hard wuk. This ol" man nev" did wuk so hard. Lode, no."
"Don"t talk such nonsense, Alek," spoke the judge, sharply. "You have never really worked in your life--anyhow, enough to support a family of sparrows, and now when you are in a more prosperous condition than ever before, you come around talking like an old fool."
The negro began to scratch his head. "Yeh see, jedge," he said at last, "my ol" "ooman she cain"t "ceive no lady callahs, nohow."
"Hang lady callers"" said the judge, irascibly. "If you have flour in the barrel and meat in the pot, your wife can get along without receiving lady callers, can"t she?"
"But they won"t come ainyhow, jedge," replied Williams, with an air of still deeper stupefaction. "Noner ma wife"s frien"s ner noner ma frien"s "ll come near ma res"dence."
"Well, let them stay home if they are such silly people."
The old negro seemed to be seeking a way to elude this argument, but evidently finding none, he was about to shuffle meekly off. He halted, however. "Jedge," said he, "ma ol" "ooman"s near driv" abstracted."
"Your old woman is an idiot," responded the judge.
Williams came very close and peered solemnly through a branch of lilac. "Judge," he whispered, "the chillens."
"What about them?"
Dropping his voice to funereal depths, Williams said, "They--they cain"t eat."
"Can"t eat!" scoffed the judge, loudly. "Can"t eat! You must think I am as big an old fool as you are. Can"t eat--the little rascals!
What"s to prevent them from eating?"
In answer, Williams said, with mournful emphasis, "Hennery." Moved with a kind of satisfaction at his tragic use of the name, he remained staring at the judge for a sign of its effect.
The judge made a gesture of irritation. "Come, now, you old scoundrel, don"t beat around the bush any more. What are you up to? What do you want? Speak out like a man, and don"t give me any more of this tiresome rigamarole."
"I ain"t er-beatin" round "bout nuffin, jedge," replied Williams, indignantly. "No, seh; I say whatter got to say right out. "Deed I do."
"Well, say it, then."
"Jedge," began the negro, taking off his hat and switching his knee with it, "Lode knows I"d do jes "bout as much fer five dollehs er week as ainy cul"d man, but--but this yere business is awful, jedge. I raikon "ain"t been no sleep in--in my house sence docteh done fetch "im."
"Well, what do you propose to do about it?"
Williams lifted his eyes from the ground and gazed off through the trees. "Raikon I got good appet.i.te, an" sleep jes like er dog, but he--he"s done broke me all up. "Tain"t no good, nohow. I wake up in the night; I hear "im, mebbe, er-whimperin" an" er-whimperin", an" I sneak an" I sneak until I try th" do" to see if he locked in. An" he keep me er-puzzlin" an" er-quakin" all night long. Don"t know how"ll do in th" winter. Can"t let "im out where th" chillen is. He"ll done freeze where he is now." Williams spoke these sentences as if he were talking to himself. After a silence of deep reflection he continued: "Folks go round sayin" he ain"t Hennery Johnson at all. They say he"s er devil!"
"What?" cried the judge.
"Yesseh," repeated Williams, in tones of injury, as if his veracity had been challenged. "Yesseh. I"m er-tellin" it to yeh straight, jedge. Plenty cul"d people folks up my way say it is a devil."
"Well, you don"t think so yourself, do you?"
"No. "Tain"t no devil. It"s Hennery Johnson."
"Well, then, what is the matter with you? You don"t care what a lot of foolish people say. Go on "tending to your business, and pay no attention to such idle nonsense."
""Tis nonsense, jedge; but he _looks_ like er devil."
"What do you care what he looks like?" demanded the judge.
"Ma rent is two dollehs and er half er month," said Williams, slowly.
"It might just as well be ten thousand dollars a month," responded the judge. "You never pay it, anyhow."
"Then, anoth" thing," continued Williams, in his reflective tone. "If he was all right in his haid I could stan" it; but, jedge, he"s crazier "n er loon. Then when he looks like er devil, an" done skears all ma frien"s away, an" ma chillens cain"t eat, an" ma ole "ooman jes raisin" Cain all the time, an" ma rent two dollehs an" er half er month, an" him not right in his haid, it seems like five dollehs er week--"
The judge"s stick came down sharply and suddenly upon the floor of the porch. "There," he said, "I thought that was what you were driving at."
Williams began swinging his head from side to side in the strange racial mannerism. "Now hol" on a minnet, jedge," he said, defensively.
""Tain"t like as if I didn"t "preciate what the docteh done. "Tain"t that. Docteh Trescott is er kind man, an" "tain"t like as if I didn"t "preciate what he done; but--but--"
"But what? You are getting painful, Alek. Now tell me this: did you ever have five dollars a week regularly before in your life?"
Williams at once drew himself up with great dignity, but in the pause after that question he drooped gradually to another att.i.tude. In the end he answered, heroically: "No, jedge, I "ain"t. An" "tain"t like as if I was er-sayin" five dollehs wasn"t er lot er money for a man like me. But, jedge, what er man oughter git fer this kinder wuk is er salary. Yesseh, jedge," he repeated, with a great impressive gesture; "fer this kinder wuk er man oughter git er Salary." He laid a terrible emphasis upon the final word.
The judge laughed. "I know Dr. Trescott"s mind concerning this affair, Alek; and if you are dissatisfied with your boarder, he is quite ready to move him to some other place; so, if you care to leave word with me that you are tired of the arrangement and wish it changed, he will come and take Johnson away."
Williams scratched his head again in deep perplexity. "Five dollehs is er big price fer bo"d, but "tain"t no big price fer the bo"d of er crazy man," he said, finally.
"What do you think you ought to get?" asked the judge.
"Well," answered Alek, in the manner of one deep in a balancing of the scales, "he looks like er devil, an" done skears e"rybody, an" ma chillens cain"t eat, an" I cain"t sleep, an" he ain"t right in his haid, an"--"
"You told me all those things."
After scratching his wool, and beating his knee with his hat, and gazing off through the trees and down at the ground, Williams said, as he kicked nervously at the gravel, "Well, jedge, I think it is wuth--"
He stuttered.
"Worth what?"
"Six dollehs," answered Williams, in a desperate outburst.
The judge lay back in his great arm-chair and went through all the motions of a man laughing heartily, but he made no sound save a slight cough. Williams had been watching him with apprehension.
"Well," said the judge, "do you call six dollars a salary?"
"No, seh," promptly responded Williams. ""Tain"t a salary. No, "deed!
"Tain"t a salary." He looked with some anger upon the man who questioned his intelligence in this way.
"Well, supposing your children can"t eat?"
"I--"