Transcript for:
Exploring Race and Identity in Chesnutt's Work

section one of the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by James K White the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line by Charles Waddell Chestnut the wife of his youth chapter 1. Mr Ryder was going to give a ball there were several reasons why this was an opportune time for such an event Mr Ryder might aptly be called the dean of the blue veins the original blue veins were a little Society of colored persons organized in a certain Northern City shortly after the war its purpose was to establish and maintain correct social standards among a people whose social condition presented almost unlimited room for improvement by accident combined perhaps with some natural Affinity the society consisted of individuals who were generally speaking more white than black some envious Outsider made the suggestion that no one was eligible for membership who was not wide enough to show blue veins the suggestion was readily adopted by those who were not of the favored few and since that time the society though possessing a longer and more pretentious name had been known far and wide as the blue vein society and its members as the blue veins the blue veins did not allow that any such requirement existed for admission to their Circle but on the contrary declared that character and culture were the only things considered and that if most of their members were light-colored it was because such persons as a rule had had better opportunities to qualify themselves for membership opinions differed too as to the usefulness of the society there were those who had been known to assail it violently as a glaring example of the very Prejudice from which the colored race had suffered most and later when such critics had succeeded in getting on the inside they had been heard to maintain with Zeal and earnestness that the society was a Lifeboat an anchor a bulwark and a shield a pillar of cloud by day and a fire by night to guide their people through the social wilderness another alleged prerequisite for blue vein membership was that a free birth and while there was really no such requirement it is doubtless true that very few of the members would have been unable to meet it if there had been if there were one or two of the older members who had come up from the south and From Slavery their history presented enough romantic circumstances to rob their servile origin of its grosser aspects while there were no such tests of Eligibility it is true that the blue veins had their Notions on these subjects and that not all of them were equally liberal in regard to the things they collectively disclaimed Mr Ryder was one of the most conservative though he had not been among the founders of the society but had come in some years later his genius for social leadership was such that he had speedily become its recognized advisor and head the custodian of its standards and the preserver of its traditions he shaped its social policy was active in providing for its entertainment and when the interest fell off as it sometimes did he found the Embers until they burst again into a cheerful Flame there were still other reasons for his popularity while he was not as white as some of the blue veins his appearance was such as to confer distinction upon them his features were of a refined type his hair was almost straight he was always neatly dressed his manners were irreproachable and his morals above suspicion he had come to Groveland a young man and obtaining employment in the office of a railroad company as messenger had in time worked himself up to the position of stationary clerk having charge of the distribution of the office supplies for the whole company although the lack of early training had hindered the orderly development of a naturally fine mind it had not prevented him from doing a great deal of reading or from forming decidedly literary tastes poetry was his passion he could repeat whole pages of the great English poets and if his pronunciation was sometimes faulty his eye his voice his gestures would respond to the changing sentiment with a Precision that revealed a poetic soul and disarmed criticism he was economical and had saved money he owned and occupied a very comfortable house on a respectable Street his residence was handsomely furnished containing among other things a good Library especially rich in poetry a piano and some Choice Engravings he generally shared his house with some young couple who looked after his once and were company for him for Mr Ryder was a single man in the early days of his connection with the blue veins he had been regarded as quite a catch and young ladies and their mothers had maneuvered with much Ingenuity to capture him not however until Mrs Molly Dixon visited Groveland had any woman ever made him wish to change his condition to that of a married man Mrs Dixon had come to Groveland from Washington in the spring and before the summer was over she had won Mr Rider's heart she possessed many attractive qualities she was much younger than he in fact he was old enough to have been her father though no one knew exactly how old he was she was whiter than he and better educated she had moved in the best colored Society of the country at Washington and had taught in the schools of that City such a superior person had been eagerly welcomed to the blue vein society and had taken a leading part in its activities Mr Ryder had it first been attracted by her charms of person for she was very good looking and not over 25. then by her refined manners and the vivacity of her wit her husband had been a government Clerk and at his death had left a considerable life insurance she was visiting friends in Groveland and finding the town and the peoples who were liking had prolonged her stay indefinitely she had not seemed displeased at Mr Ryder's attentions but on the contrary had given him every proper encouragement indeed a younger and less cautious man would long since have spoken but he had made up his mind and it only to determine the time when he would ask her to be his wife he decided to give a ball in her honor and at some time during the evening of the ball to offer her his heart and hand he had no special fears about the outcome but with a little Touch of Romance he wanted the surroundings to be in harmony with his own feelings when he should have received the answer he expected Mr writer resolved that this ball should Mark an epic in the social history of Groveland he knew of course no one could know better the entertainments that had taken place in past years and what must be done to surpass them his ball must be worthy of the lady in whose honor it was to be given and must by the quality of its guests set an example for the future he had observed of late a growing liberality almost a laxity in Social matters even among members of his own set and had several times been forced to meet in a social way persons whose complexions and callings in life were hardly up to the standard which he considered proper for the society to maintain he had a theory of his own I have no race Prejudice he would say but we people of mixed blood are ground between the upper and the nether Millstone Our Fate lies between absorption by the white race and Extinction in the black the one doesn't want us yet but may take us in time the other would welcome us but it would be for us a backward step with malice towards none with charity for all we must do the best we can for ourselves and those who are to follow us self-preservation is the first law of nature his ball would serve by its exclusiveness to counteract leveling tendencies in his marriage with Mrs Dixon would help to further the upward process of absorption he had been wishing and waiting for chapter 2. the ball was to take place on Friday night the house had been put in order the carpets covered with canvas the halls and stairs decorated with palms and potted plants and in the afternoon Mr Ryder sat on his front porch which the shade of a Vine running up over a wire netting made a cool and pleasant lounging place he expected to respond to the toast the ladies at the supper and from a volume of Tennyson his favorite poet was fortifying himself with apt quotations the volume was open at a dream of fair women his eyes fell on these lines and he read them aloud to judge better of their effect at length I saw a lady within call Stiller then chiseled marble standing there a daughter of the Gods divinely tall and most divinely Fair he marked the verse and turning the page read the stanza beginning oh sweet pale Margaret o rare pale Margaret he weighed the passage a moment and decided that it would not do Mrs Dixon was the palest lady he expected at the ball and she was of a rather ready complexion and of lively disposition and Buxom build so he ran over the leaves until his eyes rested on the description of Queen Guinevere she seemed a part of joyous spring a gown of grass green silk she wore buckled with golden clasps before a light green tuft of plumes she bore closed in a golden ring she looks so lovely as she swayed the rain with dainty fingertips a man had given all other Bliss and all his worldly worth for this to waste his whole heart in one kiss upon her perfect lips as Mr Ryder murmured these words audibly with an appreciative thrill he heard the latch of his gate click and a light footfall sounding on the steps he turned his head and saw a woman standing before his door she was a little woman not five feet tall and proportioned to her height although she stood erect and looked around her with very bright and Restless eyes she seemed quite old for her face was crossed and re-crossed with a hundred wrinkles and around the edges of her Bonnet could be seen protruding here and there a tuft of short gray wool she wore a blue Calico gown of ancient cut a little red shawl fastened around her shoulders with an old-fashioned brass brooch and a large Bonnet profusely ornamented with faded red and yellow artificial flowers and she was very black so black that her toothless gums revealed when she opened her mouth to speak were not red but blue she looked like a bit of the old plantation life summoned up from the past by the wave of a magician's wand as the poet's fancy had called into being the gracious shapes of which Mr Ryder had just been reading he rose from his chair and came over to where she stood good afternoon Madam he said good evening sir she answered ducking suddenly with a quaint curtsy her voice was shrill and piping but softened somewhat by age is this yeah well Mr Right alibza she asked looking around her doubtfully and glancing into the open Windows through which some of the preparations for the evening were visible yes he replied with an air of kindly patronage unconsciously flattered by her manner I am Mr writer did you want to see me yes sir if I ain't stubborn of you too much not at all have a seat over here behind the vine where it is cool what can I do for you excuse me sir she continued when she had sat down on the edge of a chair excuse me sir I was looking for my husband I heard you was a big man and had lived here a long time and I allowed you wouldn't mind if I'd come around and ask you if you'd ever heard about me a lot of Man by the name of Sam Taylor quiring around the churches among the people for his wife Liza Jane Mr writer seemed to think for a moment there used to be many such cases right after the war he said but it has been so long that I have forgotten them there are very few now but tell me your story and it may refresh my memory she sat back farther in her chair so as to be more comfortable and folded her withered hands in her lap my name's lazy she began blaza Jane when I was young I used to belong to Ma's Bob Smith down in Old Missouri I was born down there when I was a gal I was married to a man named Jim but Jim died and after that I met a lot of Man Named Sam Taylor Sam was freeboned but his mommy and daddy died and the white folks premised him to my master for the work for him until he was grown up Sam worked in the field and I was the cook one day man oh Mrs Mead came rushing out the kitchen and said she Eliza Jane oh my's gonna sell Sam down the river go away from here says I my husband is free don't make no difference I hit old must tell Ole Miss he's gonna take Sam way with him to ma but he needed money and he know where he could get a thousand dollars for Sam and no questions asked when Sam come home from the field at night I told him about old mosque going to steal him and Sam run away his time was most up and he swore that when he was 21 he would come back and help me run away or else save up the money to buy my freedom and I know he'd have done it but he thought a heap of me Sam did but when he come back he didn't find me if I wasn't there almost here that I want Sam so he had me Whip and sold down the river then the wall broke out and when it was over the color folks was scattered I went back to the old home but Sam wasn't there and I couldn't learn nothing about him but I know he'd been there to look for me and hadn't found me and had gone away to hunt for me I've been looking for him ever since she had it simply as though 25 years were but a couple of weeks and I know it's been looking for me for he sought a heap of Stowe By Me Sam did and I know he's been hunting for me all these years lesson he's been sick or something so it couldn't work right in his head so he couldn't remember his promise I went back down to the river for a lot he gone down there looking for me I've been to New Orleans and Atlanta and Charleston and Richmond and when I'd been all over the South I come to the north if I knows I'll find him some of these days she had it softly or he'll find me and then we'll both be as happy and freedom as we was in old days before the war a smile stole over her withered countenance as she paused a moment and her Bright Eyes softened into a far away look this was the substance of the old woman's story she had wandered a little here and there Mr Ryder was looking at her curiously when she finished how have you lived all these years he asked cooking sir as a good cook if you know anybody who needs a good cook sir I stop him with a colored family around the corner Yonder till I can get a place do you really expect to find your husband he may be dead long ago she shook her head emphatically oh no he ain't dead the signs and the tokens tells me I dreamed three nights running only this last week that I found him he may have married another woman your slave marriage would not have prevented him for you never lived with him after the war and without that your marriage doesn't count wouldn't make no difference with Sam he wouldn't marry No Other Woman till he found out about me I knows it she added something's been telling me all these years that I was gonna find Sam before I dies perhaps he's outgrown you and climbed up in the world where he wouldn't care to have you find him no indeed sir she replied Sammy that kind of man he was good to me Sam was but he wasn't much good to nobody else but he was one of the traveling his hands on the plantation I expect to have to support him when I find him but he never would work less than he had to but then he was free and he didn't get no pay for his work and I don't blame him much maybe he's done better since he run away but I inspect him much you may have passed him on the street a hundred times during the 25 years and not have known him time works great changes she smiled incredulously I'd know him amongst a hundred men but there was nowhere a lot of man like my son and I couldn't be mistook I just toted his picture around women 25 years may I see it asked Mr writer it might help me to remember whether I have seen the original as she drew a small parcel from her bosom she saw that it was fastened to a string that went around her neck removing several wrappers she brought to light an old-fashioned daguerreotype in a black case he looked long and intently at the portrait it was faded with time but the features were still distinct and it was easy to see what manner of man it had represented he closed the case and with a slow movement handed it back to her I don't know of any man in town who goes by that name he said nor have I heard of anyone making such inquiries but if you will leave me your address I will give the matter some attention and if I find anything I will let you know she gave him the number of a house in the neighborhood and went away after thanking him warmly he wrote the address on the fly leaf of the volume of Tennyson and when she had gone Rose to his feet and stood looking after her curiously as she walked down the street with mincing step he saw several persons whom she passed turned and looked back at her with a smile of kindly amusement when she had turned the corner he went upstairs to his bedroom and stood for a long time before the mirror of his dressing case gazing thoughtfully at the reflection of his own face chapter 3. at eight o'clock the ballroom was a blaze of light and the guests had begun to assemble for there was a literary program and some routine business of the society to be gone through with before the dancing a black servant in evening dress waited at the door and directed the guests to the dressing rooms the occasion was long memorable among the colored people of the city not alone for the dress and display but for the high average of intelligence and culture that distinguished the Gathering as a whole there were a number of school teachers several young doctors three or four lawyers some professional singers an editor a lieutenant in the United States Army spending his furlough in the city and others in various polite callings these were colored though most of them would not have attracted even a casual glance because of Any marked difference from white people most of the ladies were in evening costume and dress coats and dancing pumps were the rule among the men a band of string music stationed in an Alcove behind a row of Palms played popular heirs while the guests were gathering the dancing began at half past nine at 11 o'clock supper was served Mr Ryder had left the ballroom some little time before the intermission but reappeared at the supper table the spread was worthy of the occasion and the guests did full Justice to it when the coffee had been served the Toastmaster Mr Solomon Sadler wrapped for order he made a brief introductory speech complementing host and guests and then presented in their order the toasts of the evening they were responded to with a very fair display of after dinner wit the last toast said the Toastmaster when he reached the end of the list is one which must appeal to us all there is no one of us of the Sterner six who was not at some time dependent upon woman in infancy for protection in manhood for companionship in old age for care and comforting our good host has been trying to live alone but the fair faces I see around me tonight prove that he too is largely dependent upon the gentler sex for most that makes life worth living the society and love of friends and rumor is at fault if he does not soon yield entire subjection to one of them Mr Ryder will now respond to the toast the ladies there was a pensive look in Mr Ryder's eyes as he took the floor and adjusted his eyeglasses he began by speaking of woman as the gift of Heaven to man and after some general observations on the relations of the Sexes he said but perhaps the quality which most distinguishes woman is her Fidelity and Devotion to those she loves history is full of examples but has recorded none more striking than one which only today came under my notice he then related simply but effectively the story told by his visitor of the afternoon he gave it in the same soft dialect which came readily to his lips while the company listened attentively and sympathetically for the story had awakened a responsive thrill in many hearts there were some present who had seen and others who had heard their fathers and grandfathers tell the wrongs and sufferings of this past generation and all of them still felt in their darker moments the shadow hanging over them Mr Ryder went on such devotion and confidence are rare even among women there are many who would have searched a year some who would have waited five years a few who might have hoped 10 years but for 25 years this woman has retained her affection for and her faith in a man she has not seen or heard of in all that time she came to me today in the hope that I might be able to help her find this long-lost husband and when she was gone I gave my fancy Reign and imagined a case I will put to you suppose that this husband soon after his Escape had learned that his wife had been sold away and that such inquiries as he could make brought no information of her whereabouts suppose that he was young and she much older than he that he was a light and she was black that their marriage was a slave marriage and legally binding only if they chose to make it so after the war supposed to that he made his way to the north as some of us have done and there where he had larger opportunities had improved them and had in the course of all these years grown to be as different from the ignorant boy who ran away from fear of slavery as the day is from the night suppose even that he had qualified himself by industry by Thrift and by study to win the friendship and be considered worthy the Society of such people as these I see around me tonight gracing my board and filling my heart with gladness for I am old enough to remember the day when such a gathering would not have been possible in this land supposed to that as the years went by this man's memory of the past grew more and more indistinct until at last it was rarely except in his dreams that any image of this bygone period Rose before his mind and then suppose that accidents should bring to his knowledge the fact that the wife of his youth the wife he had left behind not one who had walked by his side and kept pace with him in his upward struggle but one upon whom advancing gears and a laborious life had set their Mark was alive and seeking him but that he was absolutely safe from recognition or Discovery unless he chose to reveal himself my friends what would the man do I will presume that he was one who loved honor and tried to deal justly with all men I will even carry the case further and suppose that perhaps he had set his heart upon another whom he had hoped to call his own what would he do or rather what ought he to do in such a crisis of a lifetime it seemed to me that he might hesitate and I imagine that I was an old friend a near friend and that he had come to me for advice and I argued the case with him I tried to discuss it impartially after we had looked upon the matter from every point of view I said to him in words that we all know this above all to thine own self be true and it must follow as the night the day thou canst not then be false to any man then finally I put the question to him shall you acknowledge her and Now ladies and gentlemen friends and companions I ask you what should he have done there was something in Mr Ryder's voice that stirred the hearts of those who sat around him it suggested more than mere sympathy with an imaginary situation it seemed rather in the nature of a personal appeal it was observed too that his look rested more especially upon Mrs Dixon with a mingled expression of renunciation and inquiry she had listened with parted lips and streaming eyes she was the first to speak he should have acknowledged her yes they all echoed he should have acknowledged her my friends and companions responded Mr Ryder I thank you one and all it is the answer I expected for I knew your hearts he turned and walked toward the closed door of an adjoining room while every eye followed him in wandering curiosity he came back in a moment leading by the hand his visitor of the afternoon who stood startled and trembling at the sudden plunge into the scene of brilliant gaiety she was neatly dressed in Gray and wore the White Cap of an elderly woman ladies and gentlemen he said this is the woman and I am the man whose story I have told you permit me to introduce to you the wife of my youth end of section one recording by James K white Chula Vista the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by James K White the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line by Charles Waddell Chestnut her Virginia Mammy chapter 1. The Pianist had struck up a lively two-step and soon the floor was covered with couples each turning on its own axis and all revolving around a Common Center in obedience perhaps to the same law of motion that governs the planetary systems the dancing Hall was a long room with a waxed floor that glistened with the reflection of the lights from the chandeliers the walls were hung in paper of blue and white above a varnished hardwood wainscoting the monotony of surface being broken by numerous Windows draped with curtains of dotted muslin and by occasional Engravings and colored pictures representing the dances of various Nations judiciously selected the rows of chairs along the two sides of the room were left unoccupied by the time the music was well underway for The Pianist a tall colored woman with long fingers and a muscular wrist played with a Verve and a swing that set the feet of the listeners involuntarily in motion the dance was sure to occupy the class for a quarter of an hour at least and the little dancing mistress took the opportunity to slip away to her own sitting room which was on the same floor of the block for a few minutes of rest her day had been a hard one there had been a matinee at two o'clock a children's class at four and at eight o'clock the class now on the floor had assembled when she reached the sitting room she gave a start of pleasure a young man Rose at her entrance in advance with both hands extended a tall broad-shouldered fair-haired young man with a Frank and kindly countenance now lit up with the animation of pleasure he seemed about 26 or 27 years old his face was of the type 1 instinctively Associates with intellect and character and it gave the impression besides of that intangible something which we call Race he was neatly and carefully dressed though his clothing was not without indications that he found it necessary or expedient to practice economy good evening Clara he said taking her hands in his I've been waiting for you five minutes I supposed you would be in but if you had been a moment later I was going to the hall to look you up you seem tired tonight he added drawing her nearer to him and scanning her features at short range this work is too hard you are not fitted for it when are you going to give it up the season is almost over she answered and then I shall stop for the summer he drew her closer still and kissed her lovingly tell me Clara he said looking down into her face he was at least a foot taller than she when I am to have my answer will you take the answer you can get tonight she asked with a wand smile I will take but one answer Clara but do not make me wait too long for that why just think of it I have known you for six months that is an extremely long time said Clara as they sat down side by side it has been an age he rejoined for a fortnight of it too which seems longer than all the rest I have been waiting for my answer I am turning gray under the suspense seriously Clara dear what shall it be or rather when shall it be for to the other question there is but one answer possible he looked into her eyes which slowly filled with tears she repulsed him gently as he bent over to kiss them away you know I love you John and why I do not say what you wish you must give me a little more time to make up my mind before I can consent to burden you with a nameless wife one who does not know who her mother was she was a good woman and beautiful if you are at all like her or her father he was a gentleman and a scholar If you inherited from him your mind or your manners it is good of you to say that and I try to believe it but it is a serious matter it is a Dreadful thing to have no name you are known by a worthy one which was freely given you and is legally yours I know and I am grateful for it after all though it is not my real name and since I have learned that it was not it seems like a garment something external accessory and not a part of myself it does not mean what one's own name would signify take mine Clara and make it yours I lay it at your feet some honored men have borne it ah yes and that is what makes my position harder your great-grandfather was governor of Connecticut I have heard my mother say so and one of your ancestors came over in the Mayflower in some capacity I have never been quite clear whether as ships cook or before the mast now you are insincere John but you cannot deceive me you never spoken that way about your ancestors until you learned that I had none I know you are proud of them and that the memory of the governor and the judge and the Harvard professor and the Mayflower Pilgrim makes you strive to excel in order to prove yourself worthy of them it did Until I Met You Clara now the one inspiration of my life is the hope to make you mine and your profession it will furnish me the means to take you out of this you are not fit for toil and your book your treaty that is to make you famous I have worked twice as hard on it and accomplished twice as much since I have hoped that you might share my success oh we have five but knew the truth she sighed or could find it out I realize that I am absurd that I ought to be happy I love my parents my foster parents dearly I owe them everything mother poor dear mother could not have loved me better or cared for me more Faithfully had I been her own child yet I am ashamed to say it I always felt that I was not like them that there was a subtle difference between us they were contented in prosperity resigned in misfortune I was ever restless and filled with vague Ambitions they were good but dull they loved me but they never said so I feel that there is warmer richer blood coursing in my veins than the Placid stream that crept through theirs there will never be any such people to me as they were said her lover for they took you and brought you up for me sometimes she went on dreamily I feel sure that I am of good family and the blood of my ancestors seems to call to me in clear in certain tones then again when my mood changes I am all at sea I feel that even if I had but simply to turn my hand to learn who I am and once I came I should shrink from taking the step for fear that what I might learn would leave me forever unhappy dearest he said taking her in his arms while from the hall and down the corridor came the softened strains of music put aside these unwholesome fancies your past is shrouded in mystery take my name as you have taken my love and I'll make your future so happy that you won't have time to think of the past what are a lot of musty moldy old grandfathers compared with life and love and happiness it's hardly good form to mention one's ancestors nowadays and what's the use of them at all if one can't boast of them it's all very well of you to talk that way she rejoined but suppose you should marry me and when you become famous and Rich and patience flock to your office and fashionable people to your home and everyone wants to know who you are and once you came you'll be obliged to bring out the governor and the judge and the rest of them if you should refrain in order to forestall embarrassing inquiries about my ancestry I should have deprived you of something you are entitled to something which has a real social value and when people found out all about you as they eventually would from some Source they would want to know we Americans are curious people who your wife was and you could only say the best and sweetest woman on earth whom I love unspeakably you know that is not what I mean you could only say amidst nobody from nowhere a Miss hohlfelder from Cincinnati the only child of worthy German parents who fled from their own country in 49 to escape political persecution and ancestry that one surely need not be ashamed of no but the Consciousness that it was not true would be always with me poisoning my mind and darkening my life and yours your views of Life are entirely too tragic Clara the young man argued soothingly we are all worms of the dust and if we go back far enough each of us has had millions of ancestors peasants and serfs most of them thieves murderers and vagabonds many of them no doubt and therefore the best of us have but little to boast of yet we are all made after God's Own image and formed by his hand for his ends and therefore not to be lightly despised even the humblest of us least of all by ourselves for the past we can claim no credit for those who made it died with it our destiny lies in the future yes she sighed I know all that but I'm not like you a woman is not like a man she cannot lose herself in theories and generalizations and there are tests that even all your philosophy could not endure suppose you should marry me and then sometime by the merest accident you should learn that my origin was the worst it could be that I not only had no name but was not entitled to one I cannot believe it he said and from what we do know of your history it is hardly possible if I learned it I should forget it unless perchance it should enhance your value in my eyes by stamping you as a rare work of nature an exception to the law of heredity a Triumph of pure beauty and goodness over the grosser limitations of matter I cannot imagine now that I know you anything that could make me love you less I would marry you just the same even if you were one of your dancing class tonight I must go back to them said Clara as the music ceased my answer he urged give me my answer not tonight John she pleaded grant me a little longer to make up my mind for your sake not for my sake Clara no well for mine she let him take her in his arms and kiss her again I have a patient yet to see tonight he said as he went out if I am not detained too long I may come back this way if I see the lights in the hall still burning do not wonder if I ask you again for my answer for I shall be unhappy until I get it chapter 2. a stranger entering the hall with Miss holfelder would have seen at first glance only a company of well-dressed people with nothing to specially distinguish them from ordinary Humanity in temperate climates after the eye had rested for a moment and begun to separate the mass into its component parts one or two dark faces would have arrested its attention and with the suggestion thus offered a closer inspection would have revealed that they were nearly all a little less than white with most of them this fact would not have been noticed while they were alone or in company with one another though if a fair white person had gone among them it would perhaps have been more apparent from the few who were undistinguishable from Pure White the colors ran down the scale by minute gradations to the two or three Brown faces at the other extremity it was Miss hohlfelder's first colored class she had been somewhat startled when first asked to take it no person of color had ever applied to her for lessons and while a woman of that race had played the piano for her for several months she had never thought of colored people as possible pupils so when she was asked if she would take a class of 20 or 30 she had hesitated and begged for time to consider the application she knew that several of the more fashionable dancing schools tabood all pupils singly or in classes who labored under social disabilities and this included the people of at least one other race who were vastly farther along in the world than the colored people of the community where Miss holfelder lived personally she had no such Prejudice except perhaps a little shrinking at the thought of personal contact with the dark faces of whom Americans always think when colored people are spoken of again a class of 40 pupils was not to be despised for she taught for money which was equally current and desirable regardless of its color she had consulted her foster parents and after them her lover her foster parents who were german-born and had never become thoroughly Americanized saw no objection as for her lover he was indifferent do as you please he said it may drive away some other pupils if it should break up the business entirely perhaps you might be willing to give me a chance so much the sooner she mentioned the matter to one or two other friends who expressed conflicting opinions she decided at length to take the class and take the consequences I don't think it would be either right or kind to refuse them for any such reason and I don't believe I shall lose anything by it she was somewhat surprised and pleasantly so when her class came together for their first lesson and not finding them darker and more uncouth her pupils were mostly people whom she would have passed on the street without a Second Glance and among them were several of whom she had known by sight for years but had never dreamed of as being colored people Their Manners were good they dressed quietly and as a rule with good taste avoiding rather than choosing bright colors and striking combinations whether from natural preference or because of a slightly morbid shrinking from criticism of course she could not say among them the dancing mistress soon learned they were lawyers and doctors teachers Telegraph operators clerks milliners and dressmakers students of the local college and scientific school and somewhat to her awe at the first meeting even a member of the legislature they were mostly young although a few lighthearted older people joined the class as much for company as for the dancing of course miss hohlfelder explained Mr Solomon Sadler to whom the teacher had paid a compliment on the quality of the class the more advanced of us are not numerous enough to make the fine distinctions that are possible among white people and of course as we rise in life we can't get entirely away from our brothers and our sisters and our cousins who don't always keep abreast of us we do however draw certain lines of character and manners and occupation you see the sort of people we are of course we have no prejudice against color and we regard all labor as honorable provided a man does the best he can but we must have standards that will give our people something to Aspire to the class was not a difficult one as many of the members were already fairly good dancers indeed the class had been formed as much for pleasure as for instruction music and Hall rent and a knowledge of the latest dances could be obtained cheaper in this way than in any other the peoples had made rapid progress displaying in fact a natural aptitude for rhythmic motion and a keen susceptibility to musical sounds as their race had never been criticized for these characteristics they gave them full play and soon developed most of them into graceful and indefatigable dancers they were now almost at the end of their course and this was the evening of the last lesson but won Miss hohlfelder had remarked to her lover more than once that it was a pleasure to teach them they enter into the spirit of it so thoroughly and they seem to enjoy themselves so much one would think he suggested that the whitest of them would find their position painful and more or less pathetic to be so white and yet to be classed as black so near and yet so far they don't accept our classification blindly they do not acknowledge any inferiority they think they are a great deal better than any but the best white people replied Miss holfelder and since they have been coming here do you know she went on I hardly think of them as any different from other people I feel perfectly at home among them it is a great thing to have faith in one's self he replied it is a fine thing too to be able to enjoy the passing moment one of your greatest charms in my eyes Clara is that in your lighter moods you have this faculty you sing because you love to sing you find pleasure in dancing even by way of work you feel the joie de vivre the joy of living you are not always so but when you are so I think you most delightful Miss hohlfelder upon entering the hall spoke to The Pianist and then exchanged a few words with various members of the class The Pianist began to play a dreamy Strauss Waltz when the dance was well underway Miss hohlfelder left the hall again and stepped into the ladies dressing room there was a woman seated quietly on a couch in a corner her hands folded on her lap good evening Miss holdfelder you do not seem as bright as usual tonight Miss hohlfelder felt a sudden yearning for sympathy perhaps it was the gentle tones of the greeting perhaps the kindly expression of the soft though faded eyes that were scanning Miss holfelder's features the woman was of the indefinite age between 40 and 50. there were lines on her face which if due to years might have carried her even past the half century mark But if caused by trouble or ill health might leave her somewhat below it she was quietly dressed in black and wore her slightly wavy hair low over her ears where it lay naturally in the ripples which some others of her sex so sedulously seek by art a little woman of clear Olive complexion and regular features her face was almost a perfect oval except as time had marred its outline she had been in the habit of coming to the class with some young women of the family she lived with part border part seamstress and friend of the family sometimes while waiting for her young charges the music would jar her nerves and she would seek the comparative quiet of the dressing room oh I'm all right Mrs Harper replied the dancing mistress with a brave attempt at cheerfulness just a little tired after A Hard Day's Work she sat down on the couch by the older woman's side Mrs Harper took her hand and stroked it gently and Clara felt soothed and quieted by her touch there are tears in your eyes and trouble in your face I know it for I have shed the one and known the other tell me child what ails you I am older than you and perhaps I have learned some things in the hard School of life that may be of comfort or service to you such a request coming from a comparative stranger might very properly have been resented or lightly parried but Clara was not what would be called self-contained her griefs seemed lighter when they were shared with others even in spirit there was in her nature a childish strain that craved sympathy and comforting she had never known or if so it was only in a dim and dreamlike past the tender brooding care that was her conception of a mother's love Mrs hohlfelder had been fond of her in a Placid way and had given her every comfort and luxury her means permitted Clara's ideal of maternal love had been of another and more romantic type she had thought of a fond impulsive mother to whose bosom she could fly when in trouble or distress and to whom she could communicate her sorrows and trials who would dry her tears and soothe her with caresses now when even her kind Foster mother was gone she felt still more the need of sympathy and companionship with her own sex and when this little Mrs Harper spoke to her so gently she felt her heart respond instinctively yes Mrs Harper replied Clara with a sigh I am in trouble but it is trouble that you nor anyone else can heal you do not know child a simple remedy can sometimes cure a very grave complaint tell me your trouble if it is something you are at Liberty to tell I have a story said Clara and it is a strange one a story I have told to but one other person one very dear to me he must be dear to you indeed from the tone in which you speak of him your very accents breathed love yes I love him and if you saw him perhaps you have seen him for he has looked in here once or twice during the dancing lessons you would know why I love him he is handsome he is learned he is ambitious he is brave he is good he is poor but he will not always be so and he loves me oh so much The Other Woman smiled it is not so strange to love nor yet to be loved and all lovers are handsome and brave and fond that is not all of my story he wants to marry me Clara paused as if to let this statement impress itself upon the other true lovers always do said the older woman but sometimes you know there are circumstances which prevent them ah yes murmured the other reflectively and looking at the girl with deeper interest circumstances which prevent them I have known of such a case the circumstance which prevents us from marrying is my story tell me your story child and perhaps if I cannot help you otherwise I can tell you one that will make yours seem less sad you know me said the young woman as Miss hohlfelder but that is not actually my name in fact I do not know my real name for I am not the daughter of Mr and Mrs holfelder but only an adopted child while Mrs holfelder lived I never knew that I was not her child I knew I was very different from her and father I mean Mr holfelder I knew they were fair and I was dark they were Stout and I was Slender they were slow and I was quick but of course I never dreamed of the true reason of this difference when mother Mrs holfelder died I found among her things one day a little packet carefully wrapped up containing a child's slip in some trinkets the paper wrapper of the packet bore an inscription that awakened my curiosity I asked father holfelder who's the things had been and then for the first time I learned my real story I was not their own daughter he stated but an adopted child 23 years ago when he had lived in St Louis a steamboat explosion had occurred up the river and on a piece of wreckage floating Downstream a girl baby had been found there was nothing on the child to give a hint of its home or parentage and no one came to claim it though the fact that a child had been found was advertised All Along The River it was believed that the infant's parents must have perished in the wreck and certainly no one of those who were saved could identify the child there had been a passenger list on board the steamer but the list with the officer who kept it had been lost in the accident the child was turned over to an orphan Asylum from which within a year it was adopted by the two kind-hearted and childless German people who brought it up as their own I was that child the woman seated by Clara's side had listened with strained attention did you learn the name of the steamboat she asked quietly but quickly when Clara paused the pride of Saint Louis answered Clara she did not look at Mrs Harper but was gazing dreamily toward the front and therefore did not see the expression that sprang into the other's face a look in which hope struggled with fear and yearning love with both nor the strong effort with which Mrs Harper controlled herself and moved not one muscle while the other went on I was never sought Clara continued and the good people who brought me up gave me every care father and mother I can never train my tongue to call them anything else were very good to me when they adopted me they were poor he was a pharmacist with a small shop later on he moved to Cincinnati where he made and sold a popular patent medicine and a master Fortune then I went to a fashionable school was taught French and deportment and dancing father holfelder made some bad Investments and lost most of his money the patent medicine fell off in popularity a year or two ago we came to this city to live father bought this block and opened the little drugstore below we moved into the rooms upstairs the business was poor and I felt that I ought to do something to earn money and help support the family I could dance we had this Hall and it was not rented all the time so I opened a dancing school tell me child said the other woman would restrain eagerness what were the things found upon you when you were taken from the river yes answered the girl I will but I have not told you all my story for this is but the prelude about a year ago a young doctor rented an office in our block we met each other at first only now and then and afterwards oftener and six months ago he told me that he loved me she paused and sat with half open lips and dreamy eyes looking back into the past six months and the things found upon you yes I will show them to you when you have heard all my story he wanted to marry me and has asked me every week since I have told him that I love him but I have not said I would marry him I don't think it would be right for me to do so unless I could clear up this mystery I believe he is going to be great and Rich and Famous and there might come a time when he would be ashamed of me I don't say that I shall never marry him for I have hoped I have a presentment that in some strange way I shall find out who I am and who my parents were it may be mere imagination on my part but somehow I believe it is more than that are you sure there was no mark on the things that were found upon you said the Elder woman ah yes site Clara I am sure for I have looked at them a hundred times they tell me nothing and yet they suggest to me many things come she said taking the other by the hand and I will show them to you she led the way along the hall to her sitting room and to her bed chamber Beyond it was a small room hung with paper showing a pattern of morning glories on a light ground with dotted muslin curtains a white iron bedstead a few prints on the wall a rocking chair a very dainty room she went to the maple dressing case and opened one of the drawers as they stood for a moment the mirror reflecting and framing their image more than one point of resemblance between them was emphasized it was something of the same oval face and in Clara's hair a faint suggestion of the wave in the older woman's and though Clara was fairer of complexion and her eyes were gray and the others black there was visible under the influence of the momentary excitement one of those indefinable likenesses which are at times encountered sometimes marking blood relationship sometimes the impress of a common training in one case perhaps a mere earmark of temperament and in another the index of a type except for the difference in color one might imagine that if the younger women were 20 years older the resemblance would be still more apparent Clara reached her hand into the drawer and Drew out a folded packet which she unwrapped Mrs Harper following her movements meanwhile with a suppressed intensity of Interest which Clara had she not been absorbed in her own thoughts could not have failed to observe when the last fold of paper was removed there lay revealed a child's muslin slip Clara lifted it and shook it gently until it was unfolded before their eyes the lower half was delicately worked in a lace-like pattern revealing an immense amount of patient labor the Elder woman sees the slip with hands which could not disguise their trembling scanning the Garment carefully she seemed to be noting the pattern of the needlework and then pointing to a certain spot exclaimed I thought so I was sure of it do you not see the letters MS oh how wonderful Clara sees the slip and turn and scan the monogram how strange that you should see that at once and that I should not have discovered it who have looked at it a hundred times and here she added opening a small package which had been enclosed in the other is my Coral necklace perhaps your Keen eyes can find something in that it was a simple trinket at which the older woman gave but a glance a glance that added to her emotion listen child she said laying her trembling hand on the other's arm it is all very strange and wonderful for that slip and necklace and now that I have seen them your face and your voice and your ways all tell me who you are your eyes are your father's eyes your voice is your father's voice the slip was worked by your mother's hand oh cried Clara and for a moment the whole world swam before her eyes I was on the pride of Saint Louis and I knew your father and your mother Clara pale with excitement burst into tears and would have fallen had not the other woman caught her in her arms Mrs Harper placed her on the couch and seated by her side supported her head on her shoulder her hands seemed to caress the young woman with every touch tell me oh tell me all Clara demanded when the first wave of emotion had subsided who were my father and my mother and who am I the older woman restrained her emotion with an effort and answered as composedly as she could there were several hundred passengers on the pride of Saint Louis when she left Cincinnati on that fateful day on her regular trip to New Orleans your father and mother were on the boat and I was on the boat we were going down the river to take ship at New Orleans for France a country which your father loved who was my father as Clara the woman's words fell upon her ear like water on a thirsty soil your father was a Virginia gentleman and belonged to one of the first families the staffords of Melton County Clara Drew herself up unconsciously and into her face there came a Frank expression of Pride which became it wonderfully setting off a beauty that needed only this to make it all but perfect of its type I knew it must be so she murmured I have often felt it blood will always tell and my mother your mother also belonged to one of the first families of Virginia and in her veins flowed some of the best blood of the Old Dominion what was her maiden name Mary Fairfax as I was saying your father was a Virginia gentleman he was as handsome a man as ever lived and proud oh so proud and good and kind he was a graduate of the university and had studied abroad my mother was she beautiful she was much admired and your father loved her from the moment he first saw her your father came back from Europe upon his father's sudden death and entered upon his inheritance but he had been away from Virginia so long and had read so many books that he had outgrown his home he did not believe that slavery was right and one of the first things he did was to free his slaves his views were not popular and he sold out his lands a year before the war with the intention of moving to Europe in the meantime he had met and loved and married my mother in the meantime he had met and loved your mother my mother was a Virginia Bell was she not the fairfax's answered Mrs Harper where the first of the first families The Bluest of the Blue Bloods the Miss fairfaxes were all beautiful and all social favorites what did my father do then when he had sold out in Virginia he went with your mother and you and you were then just a year old to Cincinnati to settle up some business connected with his estate when he had completed his business he embarked on the pride of Saint Louis with you and your mother and a colored nurse and how did you know about them ask Clara I was one of the party I was you were the colored nurse my Mammy they would have called you in my old Virginia home yes child I was your Mammy upon my bosom you have rested my breasts once gave you nourishment my hands once ministered to you my arms sheltered you and my heart loved you and mourned you like a mother loves and Mourns her firstborn oh how strange how delightful exclaimed Clara now I understand why you clasped me so tightly and we're so agitated when I told you my story it is too good for me to believe I am of good blood of an old and aristocratic family my presentiment has come true I can marry my lover and I shall owe all my happiness to you how can I ever repay you you can kiss me child kiss your Mammy their lips met and they were clasped in each other's arms one put into the embrace all of her Newfound Joy the other all the suppressed feeling of the last half hour which in turn embodied the unsatisfied yearning of many years the music had ceased and the pupils had left the hall Mrs Harper's charges had supposed her gone and had left for home without her but the two women sitting in Clara's chamber hand in hand were oblivious to external things and noticed neither the hour nor the cessation of the music why dear Mammy said the young woman musingly did you not find me and restore me to my people the last child I was not white and when I was picked up from the water after floating miles down the river the man who found me kept me prisoner for a time and there being no inquiry for me pretended not to believe that I was free and took me down to New Orleans and sold me as a slave a few years later the war set me free I went to St Louis but could find no trace of you I had hardly dared to hope that a child had been saved when so many grown men and women had lost their lives I made such inquiries as I could but all in vain did you go to the orphan Asylum the orphan Asylum had been burned and with it all the records the war had scattered the people so that I could find no one who knew about a Lost Child saved from a river wreck there were many orphans in those days and one more or less was not likely to dwell in the public mind did you tell my people in Virginia they too were scattered by the war your uncles lost their lives on the battlefield the family Mansion was burned to the ground your father's remaining relatives were reduced to poverty and moved away from Virginia one of my mother's people they are all dead God punished them they did not love your father and did not wish him to marry your mother they helped to drive him to his death I am alone in the world then without kith or kin murmured Clara and yet strange to say I am happy if I had known my people and lost them I should be sad they are gone but they have left me their name in their blood I would weep for my poor father and mother if I were not so glad just then someone struck a cord upon the piano in the hall and the sudden breaking of the Stillness recalled Clara's attention to the lateness of the hour I had forgotten about the class she exclaimed I must go and attend to them they walked along the corridor and entered the hall Dr Winthrop was seated at the piano drumming idly on the keys I did not know where you had gone he said I knew you would be around of course since the lights were not out and so I came in here to wait for you listen John I have a wonderful story to tell you then she told Mrs Harper's story he listened attentively and sympathetically at certain points taking his eyes from Clara's face and glancing keenly at Mrs Harper who was listening intently as he looked from one to the other he noticed the resemblance between them and something in his expression caused Mrs Harper's eyes to fall and then glance up appealingly and now said Clara I am happy I know my name I am a Virginia Stafford I belong to one yes to two of what were the first families of Virginia John my family is as good as yours if I remember my history correctly the Cavaliers looked down upon the round heads I admit my inferiority he replied if you are happy I am glad Clara Stafford use the girl it is a pretty name you will never have to use it her lover declared for now you will take mine then I shall have nothing left of all that I have found except your husband asserted Dr Winthrop putting his arm around her with an air of assured possession Mrs Harper was looking at them with moistened eyes in which joy and sorrow love and gratitude were strangely Blended Clara put out her hand to her impulsively and my Mammy she cried my dear Virginia Mammy end of section 2 recording by James K white Chula Vista Section 3 of the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by James K White the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line by Charles Waddell Chestnut section 3. the Sheriff's Children Branson County North Carolina is in a sequestered District of one of the statist and most conservative states of the Union Society in Branson county is almost primitive in its simplicity most of the white people own the Farms they till and even before the war there were no very wealthy families to force their neighbors by comparison into the category of poor whites to Branson County as to most rural communities in the South the war is the one historical event that overshadows all others it is the era from which all local Chronicles are dated births deaths marriages storms freshettes no description of the life of any Southern Community would be perfect that failed to emphasize the all-pervading influence of the great conflict yet the fierce tide of war that had rushed through the cities and along the great highways of the country had comparatively speaking but slightly Disturbed the sluggish current of life in this region remote from railroads and navigable streams to the north and Virginia to the West in Tennessee and all along the Seaboard the war had raged but the Thunder of its Canon had not Disturbed The Echoes of Branson County where the loudest sounds heard were the crack of some Hunter's rifle the bang of some deep-mouthed Hound or the yodel of some tuneful negro on his way through the Pine Forest to the east Sherman's Army had passed on its march to the sea but no straggling band of bummers had penetrated the confines of Branson County the war it is true had robbed the county of the flower of its Young Manhood but the burden of Taxation the doubt and uncertainty of the conflict and the sting of ultimate defeat had been borne by the people with an apathy that robbed Misfortune Of Half its sharpness the nearest approach to town life afforded by Branson county is found in the little village of Troy the county seat A Hamlet with a population of four or five hundred 10 years make little difference in the appearance of these remote Southern towns if a railroad is built through one of them it infuses some Enterprise the social corpses galvanized by the fresh blood of civilization that pulses along the farthest ramifications of our great system of commercial highways at the period of which I write no railroad had come to Troy if a traveler accustomed to the bustling life of cities could have ridden through Troy on a summer day he might easily have fancied himself in a deserted village around him he would have seen weather beaten houses innocent of paint the shingled roofs in many instances covered with a rich growth of moss here and there he would have met a razor-backed hog lazily rooting his way along the principal thoroughfare and more than once he would probably have had to disturb the Slumbers of some yellow dog dozing away the hours in the Ardent sunshine and reluctantly yielding up his place in the middle of the dusty road on Saturdays The Village presented a somewhat livelier appearance and the shade trees around the courthouse square and along Front Street served as hitching posts for a goodly number of horses and mules and stunted oxen belonging to the farmer folk who had come in to trade at the two or three local stores a murder was a rare event in Branson County every well-informed citizen could tell the number of homicides committed in the county for 50 years back and whether the Slayer in any given instance had escaped either by flight or acquittal or had suffered the penalty of the law so when it became known in Troy early one Friday morning and summer about 10 years after the war that old Captain Walker who had served in Mexico under Scott and had left an arm on the field of Gettysburg had been foully murdered during the night there was intense excitement in the village business was practically suspended and the citizens gathered in little groups to discuss the murder and speculate upon the identity of the murderer it transpired from testimony at the coroner's inquest held during the morning that a strange mulatto had been seen going in the direction of Captain Walker's house the night before and had been met going away from Troy early Friday morning by a farmer on his way to town other circumstances seemed to connect the stranger with the crime the sheriff organized a posse to search for him and early in the evening when most of the citizens of Troy were at supper the suspected man was brought in and lodged in the county jail by the following morning the news of the capture had spread to the farthest limits of the county a much larger number of people than usual came to town that Saturday bearded men in straw hats and blue home sponge shirts and butternut trousers of great amplitude of material and vagueness of outline women in home spun frocks and sled bonnets with faces as expressionless as the dreary Sandhills which gave them a meager sustenance the murder was almost the sole topic of conversation a steady stream of curious observers visited the house of morning and gazed upon the rugged face of the old veteran now stiff and cold in death and more than one eye dropped a tear at the remembrance of the Cheery smile and the joke sometimes superannuated generally feeble but always good-natured with which the captain had been want to greet his acquaintances there was a growing sentiment of anger among these Stern men toward the murderer who had thus cut down their friend and a strong feeling that ordinary Justice was too slight a punishment for such a crime toward noon there was an informal Gathering of citizens in Dan Tyson's store I hear it loud that square cattas too sick to hold Court this evening said one and that the preliminary hidden I'll have to go over to next week a look of disappointment went round the crowd his sedunda's meanest murder ever committed in this County said another with Moody emphasis I suppose a La the captain had some greenbacks observed a third speaker the captain said another with an air of superior information has left two bears of Confederate money which expected to be good someday another this statement gave rise to a discussion of the speculative value of Confederate money but in a little while the conversation returned to the murder hanging there to good for the murder said one he ought to be burnt instead of being hung there was an impressive pause at this point during which a jug of moonlight whiskey went the round of the crowd well said a round shouldered farmer who in spite of his Peaceable expression and Faded gray eye was known to have been one of the most daring followers of a rebel Guerrilla Chieftain what are you gonna do about it if you feel it's gonna sit down and let a worthless kill the best white man in Branson and not say nothing to do nothing I'll move out in the county this speech gave tone and direction to the rest of the conversation whether the fear of losing the round shouldered farmer operated to bring about the result or not is immaterial to this narrative but at all events the crowd decided to Lynch the Negro they agreed that this was the least that could be done to avenge the death of their murdered friend and that it was a becoming way in which to honor his memory they had some vague Notions of the Majesty of the law and the rights of the citizen but in The Passion of the moment these sunk into Oblivion a white man had been killed by a negro the captain was an old Saga said one of his friends solemnly he'll sleep better when he knows that a cult Marshal has been helped and just as done by agreement the lynchers were to meet at Tyson's store at five o'clock in the afternoon and proceed thence to the jail which was situated down the Lumberton dirt road as the old Turnpike anti-dating The Plank Road was called about half a mile south of the courthouse when the preliminaries of the lynching had been arranged and a committee appointed to manage the affair the crowd dispersed some to go to their dinners and some to secure recruits for the lynching party it was 20 minutes to five o'clock when an excited negro panting and perspiring rushed up to the back door of sheriff Campbell's dwelling which stood at a little distance from the jail and somewhat farther than the ladder building from the courthouse a turban colored woman came to the door in response to the negro's knock s how to Bro Sam is the sheriff in inquired the Negro yes bro Sam he's eating his dinner was the answer well you asked him to step to the door a minute just Nance the woman went into the dining room and a moment later the sheriff came to the door he was a tall muscular man of a readier complexion than as usual among Southerners a pair of keen deep set gray eyes looked out from under bushy eyebrows and about his mouth was a masterful expression which a full beard once Sandy in color but now profusely sprinkled with gray could not entirely conceal the day was hot the sheriff had discarded his code invest and had his white shirt open at the throat what do you want Sam he inquired of the Negro who stood head in hand wiping the moisture from his face with a ragged shirt sleeve Chef they gonna hang the prisoner was locked up into jail they're coming this way now I was laying down on a sack of cone down at the store behind a pile of flower Bells when I heard doc Kane and Colonel Wright talking about it I slip out in the back door and run here as fast as I could I heard you say down to the store once that you wouldn't let nobody take a prison away from you without walking over your dead body and I thought I'd let you know before they come so you could protect the prisoner the sheriff listened calmly but his face grew firmer and they determined gleam lit up his gray eyes his frame grew more erect and he unconsciously assumed the attitude of a soldier who momentarily expects to meet the enemy face to face much obliged Sam he answered I'll protect the prisoner who's coming I don't know who all is coming replied the Negro there's Miss McSwain and Doc Kane major McDonald and Colonel Wright and a heap of others I was so scared I don't forgot more than half of them I suspect they must be most here by this time so I'll get out in the way but I don't want nobody for the think I was mixed up in this business the Negro glanced nervously down the road toward the town and made a movement as if to go away won't you have some dinner first ask the sheriff the Negro looked longingly in at the open door and sniffed the appetizing odor of boiled pork and collards I ain't got no time for the terror Chef he said but CIS and asked Montgomery something I could care in my hand and eat on the way a moment later Nancy brought him a huge sandwich of split corn pone with a thick slice of fat bacon inserted between the halves and a couple of baked yams the Negro hastily replaced his ragged hat on his head dropped the yams in the pocket of his capacious trousers and taking the sandwich in his hand hurried across the road and disappeared in the woods Beyond the sheriff re-entered the house and put on his coat and hat he then took down a double-barreled shotgun and loaded it with buckshot filling the chambers of a revolver with fresh cartridges He Slipped it into the pocket of the sack coat which he wore a comely young woman in a Calico dress watched these proceedings with anxious surprise where are you going father she asked she had not heard the conversation with the Negro I'm going over to the jail respond to the sheriff there's a mob coming this way to Lynch the we've got locked up but they won't do it he added with emphasis oh Father don't go pleaded the girl clinging to his arm they'll shoot you if you don't give him up you never mind me Polly said her father reassuringly as he gently unclasped her hands from his arm I'll take care of myself and the Prisoner too there ain't a man in Branson County that would shoot me besides I have faced fire too often to be scared away from my duty you keep close in the house he continued and if anyone disturbs you just use the old horse pistol in the top Bureau drawer it's a little old-fashioned but it did good work a few years ago the young girl shuddered at this sanguinary illusion but made no further objection to her father's departure the sheriff of Branson was a man far above the average of the community in wealth education and social position his had been one of the few families in the county that before the war had owned large Estates and numerous slaves he had graduated at the State University at Chapel Hill and had kept up some acquaintance with current literature and advanced thought he had traveled some in his Youth and was looked up to in the county as an authority on all subjects connected with the outer world at first an Ardent supporter of the union he had opposed the secession movement in his native state as long as opposition availed to stem the tide of public opinion yielding at last to the force of circumstances he had entered the Confederate service rather late in the war and served with distinction through several campaigns rising in time to the rank of Colonel after the war he had taken the oath of Allegiance and had been chosen by the people as the most available candidate for the office of sheriff to which he had been elected without opposition he had filled the office for several terms and was universally popular with his constituents Colonel or Sheriff Campbell as he was indifferently called as the military or civil title happened to be most important in the opinion of the person addressing him had a high sense of the responsibility attaching to his office he had sworn to his duty faithfully and he knew what his duty was as Sheriff perhaps more clearly than he had apprehended it in other passages of his life it was therefore with no uncertainty in regard to his course that he prepared his weapons and went over to the jail he had no fears for Paulie's safety the sheriff had just locked the heavy front door of the jail behind him when a half dozen Horsemen followed by a crowd of men on foot came round a bend in the road and Drew near the jail they halted in front of the picket fence that surrounded the building while several of the committee of Arrangements wrote on a few rods farther to the sheriff's house one of them dismounted and wrapped on the door with his riding whip is the sheriff at home he inquired no he has just gone out replied Polly who had come to the door we want the jail keys he continued they are not here said Paulie the sheriff has them himself then she added with assumed indifference he is at the jail now the man turned away and Polly went into the front room from which she peered anxiously between the slats of the green blinds of a window that looked toward the jail meanwhile the messenger returned to his companions and announced his discovery it looked as though the sheriff had learned of their design and Was preparing to resist it one of them stepped forward and wrapped on the jail door well what is it said the sheriff from within we want to talk to you Sheriff replied the spokesman there was a little Wicked in the door this the sheriff opened and answered through it all right boys talk away you are all strangers to me and I don't know what business you can have the sheriff did not think it necessary to recognize anybody in particular on such an occasion the question of identity sometimes comes up in the investigation of these extrajudicial executions we're a committee of citizens and we want to get into the jail what for it ain't much trouble to get into jail most people want to keep out the mob was in no humor to appreciate a joke and the sheriff's witticism fell dead upon an unresponsive audience we want to have a talk with the that killed Captain Walker you can talk to that in the courthouse when he's brought out for trial Court will be in session here next week I know what you fellows want but you can't get my prisoner today do you want to take the bread out of a poor man's mouth I get 75 cents a day for keeping this prisoner and he's the only one in jail I can't have my family suffer just to please you fellows one or two young men in the crowd laughed at the idea of sheriff Campbell's suffering for want of 75 cents a day but they were frowned into Silence by those who stood near them if you don't let us in cry to voice we'll bust the doe open bust away answered the sheriff raising his voice so that all could hear but I give you fair warning the first man that tries it will be filled with buckshot I'm Sheriff of this County I know my duty and I mean to do it what's the use of kick and Sheriff argued one of the leaders of the mob the is sure to hang anyhow he richly deserves it and we've got to do something to teach the their places but white people won't be able to live in the county there's no use talking boys responded to sheriff I'm a white man outside but in this jail I'm sheriff and if this to be hung in this County I propose to do the hanging so you fellas might as well write about face and March back to Troy you've had a pleasant trip and the exercise will be good for you you know me I've got powder and ball and I've faced fire before now with nothing between me and the enemy and I don't mean to surrender this jail while I'm able to shoot having thus announced his determination the sheriff closed and fastened the wicked and looked around for the best position from which to defend the building the crowd Drew off a little and the leaders conversed together in low tones the Branson County Jail was a small two-story brick building strongly constructed with no attempted architectural ornamentation each story was divided into two large cells by a passage running from front to rear a graded iron door gave entrance from the passage to each of the four cells the jail seldom had many prisoners in it and the lower Windows had been boarded up when the sheriff had closed the wicked he ascended the Steep wooden stairs to the Upper Floor there was no window at the front of the upper passage and the most available position from which to watch the movements of the crowd below was the front window of the cell occupied by the solitary prisoner the sheriff unlocked the door and entered the cell The Prisoner was crouched in a corner his yellow face blanched with Terror looking ghastly in the semi-darkness of the room a cold perspiration had gathered on his forehead and his teeth were chattering with a fright for God's sake Sheriff he murmured hoarsely don't let him Lynch me I didn't kill the old man the sheriff glanced at the cowering wretch with a look of mingled contempt and loathing get up he said sharply you will probably be hung sooner or later but it shall not be today if I can help it I'll unlock your Fitters and if I can't hold a jail you'll have to make the best fights you can if I'm shot I'll consider my responsibility at an end there were iron Fitters on the prisoners ankles and handcuffs on his wrists these the sheriff unlocked and they fell clanking to the floor keep back from the window said the sheriff they might shoot if they saw you the sheriff Drew toward the window a pine bench which formed a part of the scanty Furniture of the cell and laid his revolver upon it then he took his gun in hand and took his stand at the side of the window where he could with least exposure of himself watch the movements of the crowd below the lynchers had not anticipated any determined resistance of course they had looked for a formal protest and perhaps a sufficient show of opposition to excuse the sheriff in the eye of any stickler for legal formalities they had not however come prepared to fight a battle and no one of them seemed willing to lead an attack upon the jail the leaders of the party conferred together with a good deal of animated gesticulation which was visible to the sheriff from his Outlook though the distance was too great for him to hear what was said at length one of them broke away from the group and rode back to the main body of the lynchers who were restlessly awaiting orders well boys said the messenger we'll have to let it go for the present the sheriff says he'll shoot and he's got the drop on us this time there ain't any of us that want to follow Captain Walker just yet besides the sheriff is a good fellow and we don't want to hurt him but he added as if to reassure the crowd which began to show signs of disappointment the might as well say his prayers for he ain't got long to live there was a murmur of dissent From the Mob and several voices insisted that an attack be made on the jail but Pacific councils finally prevailed and the mob sullenly withdrew the sheriff stood at the window until they had disappeared around the bend in the road he did not relax his watchfulness when the last one was out of sight their withdrawal might be a mere faint to be followed by a further attempt so closely indeed was his attention drawn to the outside that he neither saw nor heard the prisoner creeped stealthily across the floor reach out his hand and secure the revolver which lay on the bench behind the sheriff and creep as noiselessly back to his place in the corner of the room a moment after the last of the lynching party had disappeared there was a shot fired from the woods across the road a bullet whistled by the window and buried itself in the wooden casing a few inches from where the sheriff was standing quickest thought with the Instinct born of a semi-gorilla army experience he raised his gun and fired twice at the point from which a faint puff of smoke showed the Hostile bullet to have been sent he stood a moment watching and then rested his gun against the window and reached behind him mechanically for the other weapon it was not on the bench as the sheriff realized this fact he turned his head and looked into the muzzle of the revolver stay where you are Sheriff said the prisoner his eyes glistening his face almost ready with excitement the sheriff mentally cursed his own carelessness for allowing him to be caught in such a predicament he had not expected anything of the kind he had relied on the negro's cowardice and subordination in the presence of an armed white man as a matter of course the sheriff was a brave man but realized that the prisoner had him at an immense disadvantage the two men stood thus for a moment fighting a harmless duel with their eyes well what do you mean to do ask the sheriff with a parent calmness to get away of course said the prisoner in a tone which caused the sheriff to look at him more closely and with an involuntary feeling of apprehension if the man was not mad he was in a state of mind akin to Madness and quite as dangerous the sheriff felt that he must speak the prisoner fair and watched for a chance to turn the tables on him the Kenai desperate man before him was a different being altogether from the groveling Rich who had begged so piteously for Life a few minutes before at length the sheriff spoke is this your gratitude to me for saving your life at the risk of my own if I had not done so you would now be swinging from the limb of some neighboring tree said the prisoner you saved my life but for how long when you came in you said Court would sit next week when the crowd went away they said I had not longed to live it is merely a choice of two ropes while there's life There's Hope replied the sheriff he uttered this commonplace mechanically while his brain was busy in trying to think out some way of Escape if you are innocent you can prove it the mulatto kept his eye upon the sheriff I didn't kill the old man he replied but I shall never be able to clear myself I was at his house at nine o'clock I stole from it the coat that was on my back when I was taken I would be convicted even with a fair trial unless the real murderer were discovered beforehand the sheriff knew this only too well while he was thinking what argument next to use the prisoner continued throw me the keys No unlock the door the sheriff stood a moment to resolute the milado's eyes glittered ominously the sheriff crossed the room and unlocked the door leading into the passage now go down and unlock the outside door the heart of the sheriff leaped within him perhaps he might make a dash for Liberty and gain the outside he descended the narrow stairs The Prisoner keeping close behind him the sheriff inserted the huge Iron Key into the lock the rusty bolt yielded slowly it still remained for him to pull the door open stop thundered the milado who seemed to Divine the sheriff's purpose move a muscle and I'll blow your brains out the sheriff obeyed he realized that his chance had not yet come now keep on that side of the passage and go back upstairs keeping the sheriff under cover of the revolver the milado followed him up the stairs the sheriff expected the prisoner to lock him into the cell and make his own Escape he had about come to the conclusion that the best thing he could do under the circumstances was to submit quietly and take his chances of recapturing the prisoner after the alarm had been given the sheriff had faced death more than once upon the battlefield a few minutes before well armed and with a brick wall between him and them he had dared a hundred men to fight but he felt instinctively that the desperate man confronting him was not to be trifled with and he was too prudent to man to risk his life against such heavy odds he had Polly to look after and there was a limit Beyond which Devotion to duty would be quixotic and even foolish I want to get away said the prisoner and I don't want to be captured for if I am I know I will be hung on the spot I am afraid he added somewhat reflectively that in order to save myself I shall have to kill you good God exclaimed the sheriff in involuntary Terror you would not kill the man to whom you owe your life you speak more truly than you know replied to me Lotto I indeed owe my life to you the sheriff started he was capable of surprise even in that moment of extreme peril who are you he asked in amazement Tom Sicily's son returned the other he had closed the door and stood talking to the sheriff through the graded opening don't you remember Sicily Sicily whom you sold with her child to the Speculator on his way to Alabama the sheriff did remember he had been sorry for it many a times since it had been the old story of debts mortgages and bad crops he had quarreled with the mother the price offered for her and her child had been unusually large and he had yielded to the combination of anger and pecuniary stress good God he gasped you would not murder your own father my father replied to milado it were well enough for me to claim the relationship but it comes with poor Grace from you to ask anything by reason of it what father's Duty have you ever performed for me did you give me your name or even your protection other white men gave their colored Sons freedom and money and sent them to the free states you sold me to the rice swamps I at least gave you the life you cling to murmured the sheriff life said the prisoner with a sarcastic laugh what kind of a life you gave me your own blood your own features no man need look at us together twice to see that and you gave me a black mother poor wretch she died under the Lash because she had enough Womanhood to call her soul her own you gave me a white man's spirit and you made me a slave and crushed it out but you are free now said the sheriff he had not doubted could not doubt the mulatto's word he knew whose passions course beneath that swarthy skin and burned and the black eyes opposite his own he saw in this mulatto what he himself might have become had not the safeguards of Parental restraint and public opinion been thrown around him free to do what replied to milado free in name but despised and scorned and set aside by the people to whose race I belong far more than to my mother's there are schools said the sheriff you have been to school he had noticed that the mulatto spoke more eloquently and used better language than most Branson County people I have been to school and dreamed when I went that it would work some marvelous change in my condition but what did I learn I learned to feel that no degree of learning or wisdom will change the color of my skin and that I shall always wear what in my country is a badge of degradation when I think about it seriously I do not care particularly for such a life it is the animal in me not the man that flees The Gallows I owe you nothing he went on and expect nothing of you and it would be no more than Justice if I should avenge upon you my mother's wrongs and my own but still I hate to shoot you I have never taken human life for I did not kill the old captain will you promise to give no alarm and make no attempt to capture me until morning if I do not shoot so absorbed were the two men in their colloquy and their own tumultuous thoughts that neither of them had heard the door below move upon attenches neither of them had heard a light step come stealthily up the stairs nor seen a slender form creep along the darkening passage toward the milado the sheriff hesitated the struggle between his love of life and his sense of Duty was a terrific one it may seem strange that a man who could sell his own child into slavery should hesitate at such a moment when his life was trembling in the balance but the baleful influence of human slavery poisoned the very Fountains of life and created new standards of right the sheriff was conscientious his conscience had merely been warped by his environment let no one ask what his answer would have been he was spared the necessity of a decision stop said the milado you need not promise I could not trust you if you did it is Your Life For Mine there is but one safe way for me you must die he raised his arm to fire when there was a flash a report from the passage behind him his arm fell heavily at his side and the pistol dropped at his feet the sheriff recovered first from his surprise and throwing open the door secured the Fallen weapon then seizing the prisoner he thrust him into the cell and locked the door upon him after which he turned to Paulie who leaned half fainting against the wall her hands clasped over her heart oh Father I was just in time she cried hysterically and wildly sobbing threw herself into her father's arms I watched until they all went away she said I heard the shot from the woods and I saw you shoot then when you did not come out I feared something had happened that perhaps you had been wounded I got out the other pistol and ran over here when I found the door open I knew something was wrong and when I heard voices I crept upstairs and reached the top just in time to hear him say he would kill you oh it was a narrow Escape when she had grown somewhat calmer the sheriff left her standing there and went back into the cell the prisoner's arm was bleeding from a flesh wound his bravado had given place to a Stony apathy there was no sign in his face of fear or disappointment or feeling of any kind the sheriff sent Paulie to the house for cloth and bound up the prisoner's wound with a rude skill acquired during his army life I'll have a doctor come and dress the wound in the morning he said to the prisoner it will do very well until then if you will keep quiet if the doctor asks you how the wound was caused you can say that you were struck by the bullet fired from the woods it would do you no good to have known that you were shut while attempting to escape The Prisoner uttered no words of thanks or apology but sat in sullen's silence when the wounded arm had been bandaged Paulie and her father returned to the house the sheriff was in an unusually thoughtful mood that evening he put salt in his coffee at supper and poured vinegar over his pancakes to many of Paulie's questions he returned random answers when he had gone to bed he lay awake for several hours in the silent watches of the night when he was alone with God there came into his mind a flood of unaccustomed thoughts an hour or two before standing face to face with death he had experienced a sensation similar to that which drowning men are said to feel a kind of clarifying of the moral faculty in which the veil of the flesh with its obscuring passions and prejudices is pushed aside for a moment and all the acts of one's life stand out in the clear light of Truth in their correct proportions and relations a state of mind in which one sees himself as God may be supposed to see him in the reaction following his rescue this feeling had given place for a time to far different emotions but now in the Silence of midnight something of this clearness of spirit returned to the sheriff he saw that he had owed some duty to this son of his that neither law nor custom could destroy a responsibility inherent in the nature of mankind he could not thus in the eyes of God at least shake off the consequences of his sin had he never sinned this Wayward Spirit would never have come back from the vanished past to haunt him as these thoughts came his anger against the mulatto died away and in its place there sprang up a great pity the hand of Parental Authority might have restrained the passions he had seen burning in the prisoner's eyes when the desperate man spoke The Words which had seemed to Doom his father to death the sheriff felt that he might have saved this fiery Spirit from the sloth of slavery that he might have sent him to the free North and given him there or in some other land an opportunity to turn to usefulness and honorable Pursuits the talents that had run to Crime perhaps to Madness he might still less have given this son of his the poor simulacrum of Liberty which men of his cast could possess in a slave holding community or least of all but still something he might have kept the boy on the plantation where the burdens of slavery would have fallen lightly upon him the sheriff recalled his own youth he had inherited an honored name to keep untarnished he had had a future to make the picture of a fair Young Bride had beckoned him on to happiness the poor Rich now stretched upon a pallet of straw between the brick walls of the jail had had none of these things no name no father no mother in the true meaning of motherhood and until the past few years no possible future and then one vague and shadowy in its outline and dependent for form and substance upon the slow solution of a problem in which there were many unknown quantities from what he might have done to what he might yet do was an easy transition for the awakened conscience of the sheriff it occurred to him purely as a hypothesis that he might permit his prisoner to escape but his oath of office his duty as Sheriff stood in the way of such a course and the sheriff dismissed the idea from his mind he could however investigate the circumstances of the murder and move Heaven and Earth to discover the real criminal for he no longer doubted the prisoner's innocence he could employ counsel for the accused and perhaps influence public opinion in his favor an acquittal once secured some plan could be devised by which the sheriff might in some degree atoned for his crime against this son of his against Society against God when the sheriff had reached this conclusion he fell into an unquiet Slumber from which he awoke late the next morning he went over to the jail before breakfast and found the prisoner lying on his pallet his face turned to the wall he did not move when the sheriff rattled the door good morning said the latter in a tone intended to awaken the prisoner there was no response the sheriff looked more keenly at the recumbent figure there was an unnatural rigidity about its attitude he hastily unlocked the door and entering the cell bent over the prostrate form there was no sound of breathing he turned the body over it was cold and stiff The Prisoner had torn the bandage from his wound and bled to death during the night he had evidently been dead several hours end of section 3. recording by James K white Chula Vista section 4 of the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by James K White the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line by Charles Waddell Chestnut section 4 a matter of principle chapter one what our country needs most in its treatment of the race problem observed Mr Cicero Clayton at one of the monthly meetings of the blue vein Society of which he was a prominent member is a clearer conception of the Brotherhood of Man the same sentiment in much the same words had often fallen from Mr Clayton's lips so often in fact that the younger members of the society sometimes spoke of him among themselves of course as Brotherhood Clayton the sober kit derived its point from the application he made of the principle involved in this oft repeated proposition the fundamental article of Mr Clayton's social Creed was that he himself was not a negro I know he would say that the white people lump us all together as Negroes and condemn us all to the same social ostracism but I don't accept this classification for my part and I imagine that as the chief party in interest I have a right to my opinion people who Belong by half or more of their blood to the most viral and Progressive race of modern times have as much right to call themselves white as others have to call them Negroes Mr Clayton spoke warmly for he was well informed and had thought much upon the subject too much indeed for he had not been able to escape entirely the tendency of too much concentration upon one subject to make even the clearest Minds morbid of course we can't enforce our claims or protect ourselves from being robbed of our Birthright but we can at least have principles and try to live up to them the best we can if we are not accepted as white we can at any rate make it clear that we object to being called Black our protest cannot fail in time to impress itself upon the better class of white people for the Anglo-Saxon race loves Justice and will eventually do it where it does not conflict with their own interests whether or not the fact that Mr Clayton meant no sarcasm and was conscious of no inconsistency in this eulogy tended to establish the racial identity he claimed May safely be left to the Discerning reader in living up to his Creed Mr Clayton declined to associate to any considerable extent with black people this was sometimes a little inconvenient and occasionally involved a sacrifice of some pleasure for himself and his family because they would not attend entertainments where many black people were likely to be present but they had a social refuge in a little Society of people like themselves they attended to a church of which nearly all the members were white and they were connected with a number of the religious and benevolent associations open to all good citizens where they came into contact with the better class of white people and were treated in their capacity of members with a courtesy and consideration scarcely different from that accorded to other citizens Mr Clayton's racial theory was not only logical enough but was in his own case backed up by substantial arguments he had begun life with a small patrimony and had invested his money in a restaurant which by careful and judicious attention had grown from a cheap eating house into the most popular and successful confectionary and Catering establishment in Groveland his business occupied a double store on Oakwood Avenue he owned houses and lots and stocks and bonds had good credit at the banks and lived in a style befitting his income and business standing in person he was of olive complexion with slightly curly hair his features approached the Cuban or Latin American type rather than the familiar broad characteristics of the mulatto this suggestion of something foreign being heightened by a van Dyke beard and a carefully waxed and pointed mustache when he walked to church on Sunday mornings with his daughter Alice they were a couple of such striking appearance as Shirley to attract attention Miss Alice Clayton was Queen of her social set she was young she was handsome she was nearly White she frankly confessed her sorrow that she was not entirely so she was accomplished and amiable dressed in Good Taste and had for her father by All Odds the richest colored man the term is used with apologies to Mr Clayton explaining that it does not necessarily mean a negro in Groveland so pronounced was her superiority that really she had but one social rival worthy of the name Miss Laura Watkins whose father kept a prosperous Livery stable and lived in almost as good style as the claytons Miss Watkins while good looking enough was not so young nor quite so white as Miss Clayton she was popular however among their mutual acquaintances and there was a good-natured race between the two as to which should make the first and best marriage marriage is among Miss Clayton said were serious affairs of course marriage is always a serious matter whether it be a success or a failure and there are those who believe that any marriage is better than no marriage but among Miss Clayton's friends and Associates matrimony took on and added seriousness because of the very narrow limits within which it could take place Miss Clayton and her friends by reason of their assumed superiority to black people or perhaps as much by reason of a somewhat morbid shrinking from the Curiosity manifested toward married people of strongly contrasting colors would not marry black men and except in rare instances white men would not marry them they were therefore restricted for a choice to the young men of their own complexion but these unfortunately for the girls had a wider choice in any state where the laws permit freedom of the marriage contract a man by virtue of his six can find a wife of whatever complexion he prefers of course he must not always ask too much in other respects for most women like to better their social position when they marry in the number thus lost by going on the other side as the phrase went add the worthless contingent whom no self-respecting woman would marry and the choice was still further restricted so that it had become fashionable when the supply of eligible men ran short for those of Miss Clayton said who could afford it to go traveling ostensibly for pleasure but with the serious hope that they might meet their fate away from home Miss Clayton had perhaps a larger option than any of her Associates among such men as there were she could have taken her choice her beauty her position her accomplishments her father's wealth all made her imminently desirable but on the other hand the same things rendered her more difficult to reach and harder to please to get access to her heart too it was necessary to run the gauntlet of her parents which until she had reached the age of 23 no one had succeeded in doing safely many had called but none had been chosen there was however one spot left unguarded and through it Cupid a veteran Sharpshooter sent a dart Mr Clayton had taken into his service and into his household a poor relation a sort of cousin several times removed this boy his name was Jack had gone into Mr Clayton's service at a very youthful age 12 or 13. he had helped about the housework washed the dishes swept the floors taken care of the lawn in the stable for three or four years while he attended School his cousin had then taken him into the store where he had swept the floor washed the windows and done a class of work that kept fully impressed upon him the fact that he was a poor dependent nevertheless he was a cheerful lad who took what he could get and was properly grateful but always meant to get more by sheer force of industry and affability and shrewdness he forced his employer to promote him in time to a position of recognized Authority in the establishment anyone outside of the family would have perceived in him a very suitable husband for Miss Clayton he was of about the same age or a year or two older was as Fair of complexion as she when she was not powdered and was passively good looking with a bearing of which the natural manliness had been no more warped than his training and racial status had rendered inevitable for he had early learned the law of growth that to bend is better than to break he was sometimes sent to accompany Miss Clayton to places in the evening when she had no other escort and it is quite likely that she discovered his good points before her parents did they should in time perceive them was inevitable but even then so a custom were they to looking down upon the object of their former Bounty that they only spoke of the matter jocularly well Alice her father would say in his bluff way you'll not be absolutely obliged to die an old maid if we can't find anything better for you there's always Jack as long as he doesn't take to some other girl you can fall back on him as a last chance he'd be glad to take you to get into the business Alice had considered the joke a very poor one when first made but by occasional repetition she became somewhat familiar with it in time it got around to Jack himself to whom it seemed no joke at all he had long considered it a consummation devoutly to be wished and when he became aware that the possibility of such a match had occurred to the other parties in interest he made up his mind that the idea should in due course of time become an accomplished fact he had even suggested as much to Alice in a casual way to feel his ground and while she had treated the matter lightly he was not without hope that she had been impressed by the suggestion before he had had time however to follow up this lead Miss Clayton in the spring of 1870 blank went away on a visit to Washington the occasion of her visit was a presidential inauguration the new president owed his nomination mainly to the votes of the Southern delegates in the convention and was believed to be correspondingly well disposed to the race from which the southern delegates were for the most part recruited friends of rival and unsuccessful candidates for the nomination had more than hinted that the southern delegates were very substantially rewarded for their support at the time when it was given whether this was true or not the party's concerned know best at any rate the colored politicians did not see it in that light for they were gathered from near and far to press their claims for recognition and patronage on the evening following the White House inaugural ball the colored people of Washington gave an inaugural ball at a large public hall it was under the management of their leading citizens among them several High officials holding over from the last Administration and a number of professional and businessmen this ball was the most noteworthy social event that colored circles up to that time had ever known there were many visitors from various parts of the country Miss Clayton attended the ball the honors of which she carried away easily she danced with several partners and was introduced to innumerable people whom she had never seen before and whom she hardly expected ever to meet again she went away from the ball at four o'clock in the morning in a glow of Triumph and with a confused impression of senators and representatives and lawyers and doctors of all shades who had sought an introduction led her through the dance and overwhelmed her with compliments she returned home the next day but won after the most delightful week of her life chapter 2 one afternoon about three weeks after her return from Washington Alice received a letter through the mail the envelope bore the words House of Representatives printed in one corner and in the opposite corner in a bold running hand a congressman's Frank Hamilton m brown M.C the letter read as follows House of Representatives Washington D.C March 30 1870 blank Miss Alice Clayton Groveland dear friend if I may be permitted to call you so after so brief an acquaintance I remember with sincerest pleasure our recent meeting at the inaugural ball and The Sensation created by your beauty your amiable manners and your graceful dancing time has so strengthened the impression I then received that I should have felt inconsolable had I thought it impossible ever to again behold the charms which had brightened the occasion of our meeting and eclipsed by their brilliancy the leading bells of the capital I had hoped however to have the pleasure of meeting you again and circumstances have fortunately placed it in my power to do so at an early date you have doubtless learned that the contest over the election in the 6th congressional district of South Carolina has been decided in my favor and that I now have the honor of representing my native state at the national capital I have just been appointed a member of a special committee to visit and inspect the Salt River and the Straits of Mackinac with reference to the needs of Lake navigation I have made arrangements to start a week ahead of the other members of the committee whom I am to meet in Detroit on the 20th I shall leave here on the second and will arrive in Groveland on the 3rd by the 7 30 Evening Express I shall remain in Groveland several days in the course of which I shall be pleased to call and renew the acquaintance so auspiciously begun in Washington which it is my fondest hope May ripen into a warmer friendship if you do not regard my visit as presumptuous and do not write me in the meanwhile forbidding it I shall do myself the pleasure of waiting on you the morning after my arrival in Groveland with renewed expressions of my sincere admiration and profound esteem I remain sincerely yours Hamilton m brown M.C to Alice and especially to her mother this bold and Flowery letter had very nearly the force of a formal declaration they read it over again and again and spent most of the afternoon discussing it there were few young men in Groveland eligible as husbands for so Superior a person as Alice Clayton and in addition to the number would be very acceptable but the mere fact of his being a congressman was not sufficient to qualify him there were other considerations I've never heard of this honorable Hamilton m brown said Mr Clayton the letter had been laid before him at the supper table it's strange Alice that you haven't said anything about him before you must have met lots of swell folks not to recollect a congressman but he wasn't a congressman then answered Alice he was only a claimant I remember Senator Bruce and Mr Douglas but there were so many doctors and lawyers and politicians that I couldn't keep track of them all still I have a faint impression of a Mr Brown who danced with me she went into the Parlor and brought out the dancing program she had used at the Washington ball she had decorated it with a bow of blue ribbon and preserved it as a souvenir of her visit yes she said after examining it I must have danced with him here are the initials hmb what color is he asked Mr Clayton as he plied his knife and fork I have a notion that he was rather dark darker than anyone I had ever danced with before why did you dance with him asked her father you weren't obliged to go back on your principles because you were away from home well father when you're in Rome you know the rest Mrs clearweather introduced me to several Dark Men to him among others they were her friends and common decency required me to be courteous if this man is black we don't want to encourage him if he's the right sort we'll invite him to the house and make him feel at home added Mrs Clayton on hospitable thoughts intent we must ask Sadler about him tomorrow said Mr Clayton when he had drunk his coffee and lighted his cigar if he's the right man we shall have cause to remember his visit to Groveland we'll show him that Washington is not the only town on Earth the uncertainty of the family with regard to Mr Brown was soon removed Mr Solomon Sadler who was supposed to know everything worth knowing concerning the colored race and everybody of importance connected with it dropped in after supper to make an evening call Sadler was familiar with the history of every man of negro ancestry who had distinguished himself in any Walk of Life he could give the pedigree of Alexander Pushkin the titles of scores of dumas's novels even Sadler had not time to learn them all and could recite the whole of Wendell Phillips lecture on Tucson lovertier he claimed a personal acquaintance with Mr Frederick Douglass and had been often in Washington where he was well known and well received in good colored Society let me see he said reflectively when asked for information about The Honorable Hamilton m brown yes I think I know him he studied at Oberlin just after the war he was about leaving there when I entered there were two hm Browns there a Hamilton m brown and a Henry M brown one was Stout and dark and the other was slim and quite light you could scarcely tell him from a dark white man they used to call them light brown and dark brown I didn't know either of them except by sight for they were there only a few weeks after I went in as I remember them Hamilton was the Fair one a very good looking gentlemanly fellow and as I heard a good student and a fine speaker do you remember what kind of hair he had asked Mr Clayton very good indeed straight As I remember it he looks something like a Spaniard or a Portuguese now that you describe him Sid Alice I remember quite well dancing with such a gentleman and I'm wrong about my hmb the dark man must have been someone else there were two others on my card that I can't remember distinctly and he was probably one of those I guess he's all right Alice said her father when Sadler had gone away he evidently means business and we must treat him White of course he must stay with us there are no hotels in Groveland while he is here let's see he'll be here in three days that isn't very long but I guess we can get ready I'll write a letter this afternoon or you write it and invite him to the house and say I'll meet him at the Depot and you may have carte blanche for making the preparations we must have some people to meet him certainly a reception is the proper thing sit down immediately and write the letter and I'll mail it first thing in the morning so he'll get it before he has time to make other arrangements and you and your mother put your heads together and make out a list of guests and I'll have the invitations printed tomorrow we will show the of Groveland how to entertain a congressman it will be noted that in moments of abstraction or excitement Mr Clayton sometimes relapsed into forms of speech not entirely consistent with his principles but some allowance must be made for his atmosphere he could no more escape from it than the leopard can change his spots or the blank in deference to Mr Clayton's feelings the quotation will be left incomplete Alice wrote the letter on the spot and it was duly mailed and sped on its winged way to Washington the preparations for the reception were made as thoroughly and elaborately as possible on so short a notice the invitations were issued the house was clean from attic to Cellar an orchestra was engaged for the evening elaborate floral decorations were planned and the flower is ordered even the refreshments which ordinarily in the household of a caterer would be mere matter of familiar detail became a subject of serious consultation and study the approaching event was a matter of very much interest to the fortunate ones who were honored with invitations and this for several reasons they were anxious to meet this sole representative of their race in the blank Congress and as he was not one of the old line colored leaders but a new star risen on the political Horizon there was a special curiosity to see who he was and what he looked like moreover the claytons did not often entertain a large company but when they did it was on a scale commensurate with their means and position and to be present on such an occasion was a thing to remember and to talk about and most important consideration of all some remarks dropped by members of The Clayton family had given rise to the rumor that the congressman was seeking a wife this invested his visit with a romantic interest and gave the reception a practical value for there were other marriageable girls besides Miss Clayton and if one was left another might be taken chapter 3. on the evening of April 3rd at 15 minutes of six o'clock Mr Clayton accompanied by Jack entered the Livery Carriage waiting at his gate and ordered The Coachman to drive to the Union Depot he had taken Jack along partly for company and partly that Jack might relieve the congressman of any trouble about his baggage and make himself useful in case of emergency Jack was willing enough to go for he had foreseen in the visitor a rival for Alice's hand indeed he had heard more or less of the subject for several days and was glad to make a reconnaissance before the enemy arrived upon the field of battle he had made at least he had thought so considerable progress with Alice during the three weeks since her return from Washington and once or twice Alice had been perilously near the tender stage this visit had Disturbed the situation and threatened to ruin his chances but he did not mean to give up without a struggle arrived at the main entrance Mr Clayton directed The Carriage to wait and entered the station with Jack the Union Depot at Groveland was an immense oblong structure covering a dozen parallel tracks and Furnishing terminal passenger facilities for half a dozen railroads the tracks ran east and west and the depot was entered from the south at about the middle of the building on either side of the entrance The Waiting rooms refreshment rooms baggage and express departments and other administrative offices extended in a row for the entire length of the building and Beyond them in parallel with them stretched a long open space separated from the tracks by an iron fence or grill there were two entrance gates in the fence at which tickets must be shown before access could be had to trains and two other Gates by which arriving passengers came out Mr Clayton looked at the Blackboard on the wall underneath the station clock and observed that the 730 train from Washington was five minutes late accompanied by Jack he walked up and down the platform until the train with the usual accompaniment of panting Steam and clinging Bell and rumbling trucks pulled into the station and Drew up on the third or fourth track from the iron railing Mr Clayton stationed himself at the gate nearest the rear end of the train reasoning that the congressman would ride in a parlor car and would naturally come out by the gate nearest the point at which he left the train you'd better go and stand by the other gate Jack he said to His companion and stop him if he goes out that way the train was well filled and a stream of passengers poured through Mr Clayton scanned the crowd carefully as they approached the gate and scrutinized each passenger as he came through without seeing anyone that met the description of Congressman Brown as given by Sadler or anyone that could in his opinion be the gentleman for whom he was looking when the last one had passed through he was left to the conclusion that his expected guest had gone out by the other gate Mr Clayton hasten vither didn't he come out this way Jack he asked no sir replied the young man I haven't seen him that's strange mused Mr Clayton somewhat anxiously he would hardly fail to come without giving us notice surely we must have missed him we'd better look around a little you go that way and I'll go this Mr Clayton turned and walked several rods along the platform to the men's waiting room and standing near the door glanced around to see if he could find the object of his search the only colored person in the room was a stout and very black man wearing a broadcloth suit and a silk hat and seated a short distance from the door on the seat by his side stood a couple of releases on one of them the one nearest him on which his arm rested was written in white letters plainly legible h m brown MC Washington D.C Mr Clayton's feelings at this discovery can Better Be Imagined than described he hastily left the waiting room before the black gentleman who was looking the other way was even aware of his presence and walking rapidly up and down the platform communed with himself upon what course of action the situation demanded he had invited to his house had come down to meet had made elaborate preparations to entertain on the following evening a light-colored man a white man by his theory an acceptable guest a possible husband for his daughter and a vowed Suitor for her hand if the congressman had turned out to be brown even dark brown with fairly good hair though he might not have desired him as a son-in-law yet he could have welcomed him as a guest but even this softening of the blow was denied him for the man in the waiting room was palpably aggressively black with pronounced African features in woolly hair without apparently a single drop of redeeming white blood could he in the face of his well-known principles his lifelong rule of conduct take this Negro into his home and introduce him to his friends could he subject his wife and daughter to the rude shock of such a disappointment it would be bad enough for them to learn of the ghastly mistake but to have him in the house would be twisting the arrow in the wound Mr Clayton had the instincts of a gentleman and realized the delicacy of the situation but to get out of his difficulty without wounding the feelings of the congressman required not only diplomacy but dispatch whatever he did must be done promptly for if he waited many minutes the congressman would probably take a carriage and be driven to Mr Clayton's residence a ray of Hope Came for a moment to illumine the Gloom of the situation perhaps the black man was merely sitting there and not the owner of the Belize for there were two releases one on each side of these supposed congressmen for obvious reasons he did not care to make the inquiry himself so he looked around for His companion who came up a moment later Jack he exclaimed excitedly I'm afraid we're in the worst kind of a hole unless there's some mistake run down to the men's waiting room and you'll see a man and a Belize and you'll understand what I mean ask that if he is The Honorable Mr Brown congressman from South Carolina if he says yes come back right away and let me know without giving him time to ask any questions and put your wits to work to help me out of the scrape I wonder what's the matter said Jack to himself but did as he told in a moment he came running back yes sir he announced he says he's the man Jack said Mr Clayton desperately if you want to show your appreciation of what I've done for you you must suggest some way out of this I'd never dare to take that negro to my house and yet I'm obliged to treat him like a gentleman Jack's eyes had worn a somewhat reflective look since he had gone to make the inquiry suddenly his face brightened with intelligence and then as a Newsboy ran into the station calling his Wares hardened into determination Clarion special extradition all about the epidemic of the theria clamored the Newsboy with shrill childish trouble as he made his way toward the waiting room Jack darted after him and saw the man to whom he had spoken by a paper he ran back to his employer and dragged him over toward the ticket sellers window I have it sir he exclaimed seizing a telegraph blank and writing rapidly and reading aloud as he wrote how's this for a way out dear sir I write you this note here in the depot to inform you of an unfortunate event which has interfered with my plans and those of my family For Your Entertainment while in Groveland yesterday my daughter Alice complained of a sore throat which by this afternoon had developed into a case of malignant diphtheria in consequence our house has been quarantined and while I have felt myself obliged to come down to the depot I do not feel that I ought to expose you to the possibility of infection and I therefore send you this by another hand the bearer will conduct you to a carriage which I have ordered placed at your service and unless you should prefer some other Hotel you will be driven to the Forest Hill house where I beg you will consider yourself my guest during your stay in the city and make the fullest use of every convenience it may offer from present indications I fear no one of our family will be able to see you which we shall regret Beyond expression as we have made elaborate Arrangements For Your Entertainment I still hope however that you may enjoy your visit as there are many places of interest in the city and many friends will doubtless be glad to make your acquaintance with assurances of my profound regret I am sincerely yours Cicero Clayton it's Blended cried Mr Clayton you've helped me out of a horrible scrape now go and take him to the hotel and see him comfortably located and tell them to charge the bill to me I suspect sir suggested Jack that I'd better not go up to the house and you'll have to stay in yourself for a day or two to keep up appearances I'll sleep on the lounge at the store and we can talk business over the telephone all right jack we'll arrange the details later but For Heaven's Sake get him started or he'll be calling a hack to drive up to the house I'll go home on A Streetcar so far so good side Mr Clayton to himself as he escaped from the station Jack is a deuced clever fellow and I'll have to do something more for him but the tug of war is yet to come I've got to bribe a doctor shut up the house for a day or two and have all the ill humor of two disappointed women to endure until this Negro leaves town well I'm sure my wife in Dallas will back me up at any cost No sacrifice is too great to escape having to entertain him of course I have no prejudice against his color he can't help that but it is the principle of the thing if we received him it would be a concession fatal to All My Views and theories and I am really doing him a kindness for I'm sure that all the world could not make Alice and her mother treat him with anything but cold politeness it'll be a great mortification to Alice but I don't see how else I could have got out of it he boarded the first car that left the depot and soon reached home the house was lighted up and through the lace curtains of the Parlor Windows he could see his wife and daughter elegantly dressed waiting to receive their distinguished visitor he rang the bell impatiently and a servant opened the door the gentleman didn't come ask the maid no he said as he hung up his hat this brought the ladies to the door he didn't come they exclaimed what's the matter I'll tell you he said Mary this to the servant a white girl who stood an open-eyed curiosity we shouldn't need you anymore tonight then he went into the Parlor and closing the door told his story when he reached the point where he had discovered the color of the honorable Mr Brown Miss Clayton caught her breath and was on the verge of collapse that said Mrs Clayton indignantly can never set foot in this house but what did you do with him Mr Clayton quickly unfolded his plan and described the disposition he had made of the congressman it's an awful shame said Mrs Clayton just think of the trouble and expense we have gone to and poor Alice will never get over it for everybody knows he came to see her and that he's smitten with her but you've done just right we never would have been able to hold up our heads again if we had introduced a black man even a congressman to the people that are invited here tomorrow night as a sweetheart of Alice why she wouldn't marry him if he was President of the United States and pleated with gold an inch thick the very idea well said Mr Clayton then we've got to act quick Alice must wrap up her throat by the way Alice how is your throat it's sore SOB Dallas who had been in tears almost from her father's return and I don't care if I do have diphtheria and die no I don't and she wept on wrap up your throat and go to bed and I'll go over to Dr pillsbury's and get a diphtheria card to nail up on the house in the morning first thing we'll have to write notes recalling the invitations for tomorrow evening and have them delivered by messenger boys we were fools for not finding out all about this man from someone who knew before we invited him here Sadler don't know more than half he thinks he does anyway and we'll have to do this thing thoroughly or our motives will be misconstrued and people will say we are prejudiced in all that when it is only a matter of principle with us the program outlined above was carried out to the letter the invitations were recalled to the great disappointment of the invited guests the family physician called several times during the day Alice remained in bed and the maid left without notice in such a hurry that she forgot to take her best clothes Mr Clayton himself remained at home he had a telephone in the house and was therefore in Easy communication with his office so that the business did not suffer materially by reason of his absence from the store about 10 o'clock in the morning a note came up from the hotel expressing Mr Brown's regrets and sympathy toward noon Mr Clayton picked up the morning paper which he had not there to forehead time to read and was glancing over it casually when his eye fell Upon A column-headed a colored congressman he read the article with astonishment that rapidly turned to Chagrin and dismay it was an interview describing the congressman as a tall and shapely man about 35 years old with an olive complexion not noticeably darker than many a white men's straight hair and eyes as black as slows the bearing of this son of South Carolina reveals the polished manners of the Southern gentleman and neither from his appearance nor his conversation would one suspect that the white blood which Flows In His veins in such prepondering measure had ever been crossed by that of a darker race wrote the reporter who had received instructions at the office that for Urgent business considerations the lake shipping interest wanted representative Brown treated with marked consideration there was more of the article but the introductory portion left Mr Clayton in such a state of bewilderment that the paper fell from his hand what was the meaning of it had he been mistaken obviously so or else the reporter was wrong which was manifestly improbable when he had recovered himself somewhat he picked up the newspaper and began reading where he had left off representative Brown traveled to Groveland in company with Bishop Jones of the African Methodist Jerusalem Church who was in route to attend the General Conference of his denomination at Detroit next week the bishop who came in while the writer was interviewing Mr Brown is a splendid type of the pure negro he is said to be a man of great power among his people which may easily be believed after one is looked upon his expressive countenance and heard him discuss the questions which affect the welfare of his church and his race Mr Clayton stared at the paper the bishop he repeated is a splendid type of the pure negro I must have mistaken the bishop for the congressman but how in the world did Jack get the thing balled up I'll call up the store and demand an explanation of them Jack he asked what kind of a looking man was the fella you gave the note to at the Depot he was a very Wicked looking fellow sir came back the answer he had a bad eye looked like a gambler sir I am not surprised that you didn't want to entertain him even if he was a congressman what color was he that's what I want to know and what kind of hair did he have why he was about my complexion sir and had straight black hair the rules of the telephone company did not permit swearing Over The Line Mr Clayton broke the rules was there anyone else with him he asked when he had relieved his mind yes sir Bishop Jones of the African Methodist Jerusalem Church was sitting there with him they had traveled from Washington together I drove the bishop to his stopping place after I had left Mr Brown at the hotel I didn't suppose you'd mind Mr Clayton fell into a chair and indulged in thoughts unutterable he folded up the paper and slipped it under the Family Bible where it was least likely to be soon discovered I'll hide the paper anyway he groaned I'll never hear the last of this till my dying day so I may as well have a few hours respite it's too late to go back and we've got to play the farce out Alice is really sick with disappointment and to let her know this now would only make her worse maybe he'll leave town in a day or two and then she'll be in condition to stand it such luck is enough to disgust a man with trying to do right and live up to his principles time hung a little heavy on Mr Clayton's hands during the day his wife was busy with the housework he answered several telephone calls about Alice's health and called up the store occasionally to ask how the business was getting on after lunch he laid down on a sofa and took a nap from which he was aroused by the sound of the doorbell he went to the door the evening paper was lying on the porch and the Newsboy who had not observed the diphtherius sign until after he had rung was hurrying away as fast as his legs would carry him Mr Clayton opened the paper and looked it through to see if there was any reference to the visiting congressman he found what he sought and more an article on the local page contained a resume of the information given in the morning paper with the following additional paragraph a reporter who called at the Forest Hill this morning to interview representative Brown was informed that the congressman had been invited to spend the remainder of his time in Groveland as the guest of Mr William Watkins the proprietor of the popular Livery establishment on Main Street Mr Brown will remain in the city several days and a reception will be tendered him at Mr Watkins on Wednesday evening that ends it side Mr Clayton the dove of Peace will never again rest on my roof tree but why dwell longer on the sufferings of Mr Clayton or attempt to describe the feelings or Chronicle the remarks of his wife and daughter when they learned the facts in the case as to representative Brown he was made welcome in the hospitable home of Mr William Watkins there was a large and Brilliant assemblage at the party on Wednesday evening at which were displayed the costumes prepared for the Clayton reception Mr Brown took a fancy to miss Laura Watkins to whom before the week was over he became engaged to be married meantime poor Alice the innocent victim of circumstances and principles lay sick a bed with a super suspicious case of malignant diphtheria and a real case of acute disappointment and Chagrin oh Jack exclaimed Alice a few weeks later on the way home from evening church and Company with the young men what a Dreadful thing it all was and to think of that hateful Laura Watkins marrying the congressman the street was shaded by trees at the point where they were passing and there was no one in sight Jack put his arm around her waist and leaning over kissed her never mind dear he said soothingly you still have your last chance left and I'll prove myself a better man than the congressman occasionally at Social meetings when the vexed question of the future of the colored race comes up as it often does for discussion Mr Clayton may still be heard to remark sententiously what the white people of the United States need most in dealing with this problem is a higher conception of the Brotherhood of Man for of one blood God made all the nations of the Earth end of section 4 recording by James K white Chula Vista Section 5 of the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by James K White the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line by Charles woodell Chestnut Section 5 Sicily's dream chapter 1. the old woman stood at the back door of the cabin shading her eyes with her hand and looking across the vegetable garden that ran up to the very door Beyond The Garden she saw bathed in the sunlight a field of corn just in the air stretching for half a mile its yellow pollen Laden tassels over topping the dark green mass of broad glistening blades and in the distance through the faint morning Haze of evaporating dew the line of the woods of a still darker green meeting the clear blue of the summer sky old dinosaur going down the path a tall brown girl in a home spun frock swinging a Bonnet in one hand and a splint Basket in the other oh Sicily she called the girl turned and answered in a resonant voice vibrating with youth and life yes granny be sure and pick a good mess of peas child for your granddad is going to be home to dinner today the old woman stood a moment longer and then turned to go into the house what she had not seen was that the girl was not only young but lied and shapely as a sculptor's model that her bare feet seemed to spurn the Earth as they Struck it that though Brown she was not so Brown that her cheek was Darkly red with the blood of another race than that which gave her her name and stationed in life and the old woman did not see that Sicily's face was as comely as her figure was superb and that her eyes were dreamy with vague yearnings Sicily climbed the low fence between the garden and the cornfield and started down one of the long rows leading directly away from the house old Needham was a good Plowman and straight as an arrow ran the furrow between the rows of corn until it vanished in the distant perspective the peas were planted beside alternate Hills of corn the corn stalks serving as supports for the climbing P Vines The Vines nearest the house had been picked more or less clear of the long green pods and Sicily walked down the road for a quarter of a mile to where the peas were more plentiful and as she walked she thought of her dream of the night before she had Dreamed a beautiful dream the fact that it was a beautiful dream a delightful dream her memory retained very vividly she was troubled because she could not remember just what her dream had been about of one other fact she was certain that in her dream she had found something and that her happiness had been bound up with the things she had found as she walked down the cornrow she ran over in her mind the various things with which she had always Associated happiness had she found a gold ring no it was not a gold ring of that she felt sure was it a soft curly plume for her hat she had seen Town people with them and had indulged in Daydreams on the subject but it was not a feather was it a bright colored silk dress no as much as she had always wanted one it was not a silk dress for an instant in a dream she had tasted some great and novel happiness and when she awoke it was dashed from her lips and she could not even enjoy the memory of it except in a vague indefinite and tantalizing way Sicily was troubled too because dreams were serious things dreams had certain meanings most of them and some dreams went by contraries if her dream had been a prophecy of some good thing she had by forgetting it lost the pleasure of anticipation if her dream had been one of those that go by contraries the warning would be in vain because she would not know against what evil to provide so with acai Sicily said to herself that it was a troubled World more or less and having come to a promising Point began to pick the tenderest pea pods and throw them into her basket by the time she had reached the end of the line the basket was nearly full glancing toward the Pine Woods Beyond The Rail fins she saw a briar Bush loaded with large luscious blackberries Sicily was fond of blackberries so she set her basket down climbed the fence and was soon busily engaged in gathering the fruit delicious even in its wild state she had soon eaten all she cared for but the berries were still numerous and it occurred to her that her granddaddy would like a Blackberry pudding for dinner catching up her apron and using it as a receptacle for the berries she had gathered scarcely more than a handful when she heard a groan Sicily was not timid and her curiosity being aroused by the sound she stood erect and remained in a listening attitude in a moment the sound was repeated engaging the point from which it came she plunged resolutely into the thick underbrush of the forest she had gone but a few yards when she stopped short with an exclamation of surprise and concern upon the ground under the shadow of the Towering Pines a man lay at full length a young man several years under 30 apparently so far as his age could be guessed from a face that wore a short soft beard and was so begrimed with dust and encrusted with blood that little could be seen of the underlying integument what was visible showed a skin Brown by nature or by exposure his hands were of even a darker brown almost as dark as Sicily's own a tangled mass of very curly black hair matted with burrs dank with Dew and cluttered with blood fell partly over his forehead on the edge of which extending back into the hair an ugly scalp wound was gaping and though apparently not just inflicted was still bleeding slowly as though reluctant to stop in spite of the coagulation that it almost closed it Sicily with a glance took in all this and more but first of all she saw the man was wounded and bleeding and the nurse latent in all womankind awoken her to the requirements of the situation she knew there was a spring a few rods away and ran swiftly to it there was usually a gourd at the spring but now it was gone pouring out the blackberries in a little heat where they could be found again she took off her apron dipped one end of it into the spring and ran back to the wounded man the apron was clean and she squeezed a little stream of water from it into the man's mouth he swallowed it with avidity Sicily then knelt by his side and with the wet end of her apron washed the blood from the wound lightly and the dust from the man's face then she looked at her apron a moment debating whether she should tear it or not I'm feared granny will be mad she said to herself I reckon I'll just use the whole apron so she bound the apron around his head as well as she could and then sat down a moment on a fallen tree trunk to think what she should do next the man already seemed more comfortable he had ceased moaning and lay quiet though Breathing heavily what shall I do with that man she reflected I don't know whether he's a white man or a black man if he's a white man I ought to go and tell the white folks up at the big house and they'd take care of him if he's a black man ought to go tell Granny he don't look like a black man somehow or another and yet he don't look like a white man he's too dark and his hair is too curly but I must do something with him he can't be left here to die in the woods all by itself reckon I'll go tell Granny she scaled the fence caught up the basket of peas from where she had left it and ran lightly and swiftly as a deer toward the house her short skirt did not impede her progress and in a few minutes she had covered the half mile and was at the cabin door a slight heaving of her full and yet youthful breast being the only sign of any unusual exertion her story was told in a moment the old woman took down a black bottle from a high shelf and set out with Sicily across the cornfield toward the wounded man as they went through the corn Sicily recalled part of her dream she had dreamed that under some strange circumstances what they had been was still obscure she had met a young man a young man whiter than she and yet not all white and that he had loved her and courted her and married her her dream had been all the sweeter because in it she had first tasted the sweetness of love and she had not recalled it before because only in Her Dream had she known or thought of love as something supremely desirable with the memory of her dream however her fears revived dreams were solemn things to Sicily the fabric of a vision was by no means baseless her trouble arose from her not being able to recall though she was well-versed in dream lore just what event was foreshadowed by a dream of finding a wounded man if the wounded man were of her own race her dream would thus far have been realized and having met the young man the other Joys might be expected to follow if he should turn out to be a white man then her dream was clearly one of the kind that go by contraries and she could expect only sorrow and trouble and pain as the proper sequences of this fateful discovery chapter 2 the two women reached the fence that separated the cornfield from the Pine Woods how is I gonna get over that fence cha ask the old woman wait a minute granny said Sicily I'll take it down it was only an eight rail fence and it was a matter of but a few minutes for the girl to lift down and lay to either side the ends of the Rails that formed one of the angles this done the old woman easily stepped across the remaining two or three rails it was only a moment before they stood by the wounded man he was lying still breathing regularly and seemingly asleep what is he Granny asked the girl anxiously a white man or not old Dinah pushed back the matted hair from the wounded man's brow and looked at the skin beneath it was fairer there but yet of a decided Brown she raised his hand pushed back the tattered sleeve from his wrist and then she laid his hand down gently most likely he's a melata man from up to Country somewhere he don't look like these here around here near yet like a white man but the Po Boys in a bad fix whatever he is and I expect we better do what we can for him and when he comes to he'll tell us what he is or what he calls himself hold his head up child and I'll pull a drop of his head liquor down his throat that'll bring him too quicker than anything else I knows Sicily lifted the sick man's head and Dinah poured a few drops of the whiskey between his teeth he swallowed it readily enough in a few minutes he opened his eyes and stared blankly at the two women Sicily saw that his eyes were large and black and glistening with fever how you feeling sir ask the old woman there was no answer is you feeling better now the wounded man kept on Staring blankly suddenly he essayed to put his hand to his head gave a deep moan and fell back again unconscious he's gone again said Dinah I reckon we'll have to tote him up to the house and take care of him there why folks wouldn't want a fool with a man and we don't know who his folks is out of his head and we'll be for some time yet and we can't tell nothing about him until he comes to his senses Sicily lifted the wounded man by the arms and shoulders she was strong with the strength of Youth and a sturdy race the man was pitifully emaciated how much the two women had not suspected until they raised him they had no difficulty whatever except for the awkwardness of such a burden in lifting him over the fence and carrying him through the cornfield to the cabin they laid him on Sicily's bed in the little lean-to shed that formed a room separate from the main apartment of the cabin the old woman sent Sicily to cook the dinner while she gave her own attention exclusively to the still unconscious men she brought water and washed him as though he were a child poor boy she said he don't feel like he's been eating enough to feed a sparrow he appears to be most starved to death she washed his wound more carefully made some lint the art was well known in the 60s and dressed his wound with a fair degree of skill somebody must have been trying to put your light out child she muttered to herself as she adjusted the bandage around his head a little higher a little lower and you wouldn't have been here to tell a tale them clothes she argued lifting the tattered garments she had removed from her patient don't belong around yeah that kind of weaving come from down to a South Carolina I wish Needham would come along he can tell who this man is and all about him she made a bowl of gruel and fed it drop by drop to the sick man this roused him somewhat from his stupor but when Dinah thought he had enough of the gruel and stopped feeding him he closed his eyes again and relapsed into a heavy sleep that was so closely akin to unconsciousness as to be scarcely distinguishable from it when old Needham came home at noon his wife who had been anxiously awaiting his return told him in a few words the story of Sicily's Discovery and of these subsequent events Needham inspected the stranger with a professional eye he had been something of a plantation doctor in his day and was known far and wide for his knowledge of simple remedies the knee Grows All Around as well as many of the poorer white people came to him for the treatment of common ailments he's got a fever he said after feeling the patient's pulse and laying his hand on his brow and we'll have to give him some Yeti nurse him until the fever wears off I suspect he added that I knows where this boy come from he's most likely one of them bright miladas from Robeson County some of them call theirselves crotan engines what's been conscripted and is sent to work on the fortifications down at Wilmington though somehows another and don't escape and got most killed in the way and wasn't none too well fed before and not about starved to death since we'll have to hide this man as we as likely to get into trouble ourselves by hobbing them if they catch him here then he's liable to take him out and shoot him and just as likely as too Sisley was listening with baited breath oh granddaddy she cried with trembling voice don't let him catch him hide him somewhere I reckon we'll leave him here for a day or so if you come from around here I'd be scared to keep him for the white folks would probably be looking for him but I noticed everybody what's been scripted for 10 miles around and this year boy don't belong in this neighborhood when it gets so he can help himself we'll put him up in the Loft and hide until the Yankees come for their coming show I dreamed last night they was close to hand and I hear is the white folks talking to themselves about it and the time is coming when a good load going to set his people free and it ain't gonna be long neither Needham's prophecy proved true in less than a week the Confederate Garrison evacuated the Arsenal in the neighboring town of patesville blew up the buildings destroyed the ordinance in stores and retreated across the Cape Fear River burning the river bridge behind them two acts of War afterwards unjustly attributed to General Sherman's Army which followed close upon the heels of the retreating Confederates when there was no longer any fear for the stranger's safety no more pains were taken to conceal him his wound had healed rapidly and in a week he had been able with some help to climb up the ladder into the loft in all this time however though apparently conscious he had said no word to anyone nor had he seemed to comprehend a word that was spoken to him Sicily had been his constant attendant after the first day during which her granny had nursed him she had sat by his bedside had found his fevered brow had held food and water and medicine to his lips when it was safe for him to come down from The Loft and sit in a chair under a spreading Oak Sicily supported him until he was strong enough to walk about the yard when his strength had increased sufficiently to permit of Greater exertion she accompanied him on Long Rambles in the fields and woods in spite of his gain and physical strength the newcomer changed very little in other respects for a long time he neither spoke nor smiled to questions put to him he simply gave no reply but looked at his questioner with the blank unconsciousness of an infant by and by he began to recognize Sicily and to smile at her approach the next step in returning Consciousness was but another manifestation of the same sentiment when Sicily would leave him he would look his regret and be restless and uneasy until she returned the family were at a loss what to call him to any inquiry as to his name he answered no more than two other questions he come just before Shaman said Needham after a few weeks like John the Baptist before the Lord I reckon we better call him John so they called him John he soon learned the name as time went on Cecily found that he was quick at learning things she taught him to speak her own negro English which he pronounced with absolute Fidelity to her intonations so that barring the quality of his voice his speech was an echo of Sicily's own the summer wore away and the Autumn came John and Sicily wandered in the woods together and gathered walnuts and chinkapins and wild grapes when Harvest Time came they worked in the fields side by side plucked the corn pulled the fodder and gathered the dried peas from the yellow pea Vines Sicily was a phenomenal cotton picker and John accompanied her to the fields and stayed by her hours at a time though occasionally he would complain of his head and sit under a tree and rest part of the day while Sicily worked the two keeping one another always in sight they did not have a great deal of intercourse with other people young men came to the cabin sometimes to see Sicily but when they found her entirely absorbed in the stranger they ceased their visits for a Time Sicily kept him away as much as possible from others because she did not wish them to see that there was anything wrong about him this was her motive at first but after a while she kept him to herself simply because she was happier so he was hers hers alone she had found him as Pharaoh's daughter had found Moses in the bull rushes she had taught him to speak to think to love she had not taught him to remember she would not have wished him to she would have been jealous of any past to which he might have proved Bound by other ties her dream so far had come true she had found him he loved her the rest of it would just surely follow and that before long for dreams were serious things and time had proved hers to have been not a presage of Misfortune but one of the beneficient visions that are sent that we may enjoy by anticipation the good things that are in store for us chapter 3. but a short interval of time elapsed after the passage of the warlike host that swept through North Carolina until they are appeared upon the scene the Vanguard of a second Army which came to bring light and the fruits of Liberty to a land which slavery and the Havoc of War had brought to ruin it is fashionable to assume that those who undertook the political Rehabilitation of the southern states merely rounded out the ruin that the war had wrought merely plowed up the desolate land and sowed it with salt perhaps the gentler judgments of the future may recognize that their task was a difficult one and that wiser and honestar Men might have failed as egregiously it may even in time be considered that some good came out of the carpetbag governments as for instance the establishment of a system of popular education in the former slave states where it had been a crime to teach people to read or write a Schoolhouse dotted every Hillside and the state provided education for rich and poor for white and black alike let us lay at least this token upon the grave of The Carpetbaggers the evil they did lives after them and the statute of limitations does not seem to run against it it is but just that we should not forget the good long however before the work of political Reconstruction had begun a brigade of Yankee School Masters and school mems had invaded Dixie and one of the latter had opened a Friedman's Bureau School in the town of patesville about four miles from Needham Green's cabin on the neighboring Sand Hills it had been quite a surprise to miss Chandler's Boston friends when she had announced her intention of going south to teach the freedmen Rich accomplished beautiful and a social favorite she was giving up the Comforts and luxuries of Northern life to go among hostile strangers where her Associates would be mostly ignorant Negroes perhaps she might meet occasionally an officer of some federal Garrison or a traveler from the north but to all intents and purposes her friends considered her as going into voluntary exile but heroism was not rare in those days and Martha Chandler was only one of the great multitude whose Hearts went out toward an oppressed race and who freely poured out their talents their money their lives whatever God had given them in the sublime and not unfruitful effort to transform three millions of slaves into intelligent Freeman Miss Chandler's friends knew too that she had met a great sorrow and more than suspected that out of it had grown her determination to go south when Sisley green heard that a school for colored people had been opened at patesville she combed her hair put on her Sunday frock and such bits of finery as she possessed and set out for town early the next Monday morning there were many who came to learn the new gospel of Education which was to be the cure for all the Freedmen's ills the old and gray-haired the full-grown man and woman the toddling infant they came to acquire the new and wonderful learning that was to make them the equals of the white people it was the teacher's task by no means an easy one to select from this incongruous Mass the most promising material and to distribute among them the second-hand books and clothing that were sent largely by her Boston friends to Aid her in her work to find out what they knew to classify them by their intelligence rather than by their knowledge for they were all lamentably ignorant some among them were the children of parents who had been free before the war and of these some few could read and one or two could write one Paragon who could repeat the multiplication table was immediately promoted to the position of pupil teacher Miss Chandler took a liking to the tall girl who had come so far to sit under her instruction there was a fine free air in her bearing a lightness in her step a sparkle in her eye that spoke of good blood whether fused by nature in its own alembic out of material despised and spurned of men or whether some obscure ancestral strain the teacher could not tell the girl proved intelligent and learned rapidly indeed seemed almost feverishly anxious to learn she was quiet and was though utterly untrained instinctively polite and profited from the first day by the example of her teacher's quiet Elegance the teacher dressed in simple black when Sicily came back to school the second day she had left off her glass beads and her red ribbon and had arranged her hair as neatly like the teachers as her skill and its quality would permit the teacher was touched by these efforts at imitation and by the intense devotion Sicily soon manifested toward her it was not a sycophantic Troublesome devotion that made itself a burden to its object it found expression and little things done rather than in any words the girl said to the degree that the attraction was Mutual Martha recognized in it a sort of Freemasonry of temperament that Drew them together in spite of the differences between them Martha felt sometimes in the vague way that one speculates about the impossible that if she were Brown and had been brought up in North Carolina she would be like Sicily and that if Sicily's ancestors had come over in the Mayflower and Sicily had been reared on Beacon Street in the shadow of the State House Dome Sicily would have been very much like herself Miss Chandler was lonely sometimes her duties kept her occupied all day on Sundays she taught a Bible class in the school room correspondence with Bureau officials and friends at home furnished her with additional occupation at times nevertheless she felt a longing for the company of women of her own race but the white ladies of the town did not call even in the most formal way upon the Yankee school teacher Miss Chandler was therefore feigned to do the best she could with such companionship as was available she took Sicily to her home occasionally and asked her once to stay all night thinking however that she detected a reluctance on the girl's part to remain away from home she did not repeat her invitation Sicily indeed was filling a double role the learning acquired from Miss Chandler she imparted to John at home every evening by the Light of the pine knots blazing on Needham's ample Hearth she taught John to read the simple words she had learned during the day why she did not take him to school she had never asked herself there were several other pupils as old as he seemed to be perhaps she still thought it necessary to protect him from Curious remark he worked with Needham by day and she could see him at night and all of Saturdays and Sundays perhaps it was the jealous selfishness of love she had found him he was hers in the spring when school was over her granny had said that she might marry him till then her dream would not yet have come true and she must keep him to herself and yet she did not wish him to lose this golden key to the Avenues of opportunity she would not take him to school but she would teach him each day all that she herself had learned he was not difficult to teach but learned indeed with what seemed to Sicily marvelous ease always however by her lead and never of his own initiative for while he could do a man's work he was in most things but a child without a child's curiosity his love for Sicily appeared the only thing for which he needed no suggestion and even that possessed an element of childish dependence that would have seemed to mind's trained to thoughtful observation infinitely pathetic the spring came and cotton planting time the children began to drop out of Miss Chandler's school one by one as their services were required at home Sicily was among those who intended to remain in school until the term closed with the exhibition in which she was assigned a leading part she had selected her recitation or speech from among half a dozen poems that her teacher had suggested and to memorizing it she devoted considerable time and study the exhibition as the first of its kind was sure to be a notable event the parents and Friends of the children were invited to attend and a colored Church recently erected the largest available building was secured as the place where the exercises should take place on the morning of the eventful day Uncle Needham assisted by John harnessed the mule to the two-wheel cart on which a couple of splint bottom chairs were fastened to accommodate Dinah and Sicily John put on his best clothes an ill-fitting suit of blue jeans a round wool hat a pair of course brogans a home sponge shirt and a bright blue necktie Sicily wore her best frock a red ribbon at her throat another in her hair and carried a bunch of Flowers in her hand Uncle Needham and Aunt Dinah were also in Holiday array Needham and John took their seats on opposite sides of the cart frame with their feet dangling down and thus the aquippage set out leisurely for the town Sicily had long looked forward impatiently to this day she was going to marry John the next week and then her dream would have come entirely true but even this anticipated happiness did not overshadow the importance of the present occasion which would be an epic in her life a day of joy and Triumph she knew her speech perfectly and timidity was not one of her weaknesses she knew that the red ribbons set off her dark Beauty effectively and that her dress fitted neatly the curves of her shapely figure she confidently expected to win the first prize a large Morocco covered Bible offered by Miss Chandler for the best exercise Sicily and her companions soon arrived at patesville their entrance into the church made quite a sensation for Sicily was not only an acknowledged Bell but a general favorite and to John they're attached to tinge of mystery which inspired a respect not bestowed upon those who had grown up in the neighborhood Sicily secured a seat in the front part of the church next to the aisle in the place reserved for the pupils as the house was already partly filled by townspeople when the party from the country arrived Needham and his wife and John were forced to content themselves with places somewhat in the rear of the room from which they could see and hear what took place on the platform but where they were not at all conspicuously visible to those at the front of the church the school mistress had not yet arrived and order was preserved in the audience by two of the Elder pupils adorned with large rosettes of red white and blue who ushered the most important visitors to the seats reserved for them a national flag was gracefully draped over the platform and under it hung a lithograph of the great emancipator for it was thus these people thought of him he had saved the union but the union had never meant anything good to them he had proclaimed Liberty to the captive which meant all of them and to them he was and would ever be the great emancipator the school mistress came in at a rear door and took her seat upon the platform Martha was dressed in white for once she had laid aside the somber Garb in which alone she had been seen since her arrival at patesville She Wore a Yellow Rose at her throat a bunch of jasmine in her belt a sense of responsibility for the success of the exhibition had deepened the habitual seriousness of her face yet she greeted the audience with a smile don't miss Chandler look sweet whispered the little girls to one another devouring her beauty with sparkling eyes their lips parted over a wealth of ivory the law will breast that child said one old woman in soliloquy I think the good Masters lived to see this day even Envy could not hide its noiseome head a pretty quadrone whispered to her neighbor I don't believe she's naturally as white as that I suspect she's been pottering and I know all that hair can't be heard she's got on a switch shows you Bond you knows that ain't so may Liza Smith rejoin the other with the look of stern disapproval you knows that ain't so you give your Everlasting Soul if you was white as Miss Chandler and you'll hear was as long as him by Joe Maxwell exclaimed a young officer who belonged to the federal Garrison stationed in the town but that girl is a beauty the speaker and a companion were in fatigue uniform and had merely dropped in for an hour between Garrison Duty the ushers had wished to give them seats on the platform but they had declined thinking that perhaps their presence there might embarrass the teacher they sought rather to avoid observation by sitting behind a pillar in the rear of the room around which they could see without attracting undue attention to think the lieutenant went on of that genonian figure those lustrous orbs that golden coronal that flower of Northern civilization being wasted on these barbarians the speaker uttered an exaggerated but suppressed groan His companion a young man of clean shaven face and serious aspect not a descent but whispered reprovingly someone will hear you the exercises are going to begin When Miss Chandler stepped forward to announce the hymn to be sung by the school as the first exercise every eye in the room was fixed upon her except John's which saw only Sicily when the teacher had uttered a few words he looked up to her and from that moment did not take his eyes off Martha's face after the singing a little girl dressed in white crossed by ribbons of red and blue recited with much Spirit a patriotic poem when Martha announced the third exercise John's face took on a more than usually animated expression and there was a perceptible deepening of the troubled look in his eyes never entirely absent since Sicily had found him in the woods a little yellow boy with long curls and a frightened Heir next ascended the platform now Jimmy be a man and speak right out whispered as teacher tapping his arm reassuringly with her fan as he passed her Jimmy is saved to recite the lines so familiar to a past generation of school children I knew a widow very poor who four small children had the eldest was but six years old a gentle modest lad he ducked his head hurriedly in a futile attempt at a bow then following instructions previously given him fixed His Eyes Upon a large cardboard motto hanging on the rear wall of the room which admonished him in bright red letters to always speak the truth and started off with assumed confidence I knew a widow very poor who at this point drawn by an irresistible impulse his eyes sought the level of the audience ah fatal blunder he stammered but with an effort raised his eyes and began again I knew a widow very poor who four again his treacherous eyes fell and his little remaining self-possession utterly forsook him he made one more despairing effort I knew a widow very poor who four small and then bursting into tears turned and fled amid a murmur of sympathy Jimmy's Inglorious retreat was covered by the singing and chorus of The Star-Spangled Banner after which Sicily green came forward to recite her poem bye jove Maxwell whispered the young officer who was evidently a connoisseur of female Beauty that isn't bad for a bronze Venus I'll tell you said the other keep still when Sicily finished her recitation the young officers began to applaud but stop suddenly in some confusion as they realized that they were the only ones in the audience so engaged the colored people had either not learned how to express their approval in Orthodox fashion or else their respect for the sacred character of the edifice forbade any such demonstration their enthusiasm found vent however in a subdued murmur emphasized by numerous nods and winks and suppressed exclamations during the singing that followed Sicily's recitation the two officers quietly withdrew their duties calling them away at this hour at the close of the exercises a committee on prizes met in the vestibule and unanimously decided that Sicily green was entitled to the first prize proudly erect with sparkling eyes and cheeks flushed With Victory Sicily Advanced to the platform to receive the coveted reward as she turned away her eyes shining with gratified vanity sought those of her lover John set bent slightly forward in an attitude of strained attention and Sicily's Triumph lost half its value when she saw that it was not at her but at Miss Chandler that his look was directed though she watched him thence forward not one glance did he vouch safe to his jealous sweetheart and never for an instant withdrew his eyes from Martha or relax the unnatural intentness of his gaze the imprisoned mind stirred to unwanted effort was struggling for Liberty and from Martha had come the first Ray of outer light that had penetrated its dungeon before the audience was dismissed the teacher Rose to bid her school farewell her intention was to take a vacation of three months but what might happen in that time she did not know and there were duties at home of such apparent urgency as to render her return to North Carolina at least doubtful so that in her own heart her au revoir sounded very much like a farewell she spoke to them of the hopeful progress they had made and praised them for their eager desire to learn she told them of the serious duties of life and of the use they should make of their requirements with prophetic finger she pointed them to the upward way which they must climb with patient feet to raise themselves out of the depths then an unusual thing with her she spoke of herself her heart was full it was with difficulty that she maintained her composure for the faces that confronted her were kindly faces and not critical and some of them she had learned to love right well I am going away from you my children she said but before I go I want to tell you how I came to be in North Carolina so that if I have been able to do anything here among you for which you might feel inclined in your good nature to thank me you may think not me alone but another who came before me and whose work I have but taken up where he laid it down I had a friend a dear friend why should I be ashamed to see it a lover to whom I was to be married as I hope all you girls May someday be happily married his country needed him and I gave him up he came to fight for the union and for freedom for he believed that all men are brothers he did not come back again he gave up his life for you could I do less than he I came to the land that he Sanctified by his death and I have tried in my weak way to tend the plant he watered with his blood and which in the fullness of time will Blossom forth into the perfect flower of Liberty she could say no more and as the whole audience thrilled in sympathy with her emotion there was a horse cry from the men's side of the room and John forced his way to the aisle and rushed forward to the platform Martha Martha Arthur oh Arthur pent up love burst the floodgates of Despair and Oblivion and caught these two young hearts in its torrent Captain Arthur Kerry of the first Massachusetts long since reported missing and mourned as dead was restored to reason and to his world it seemed to him but yesterday that he had escaped from the Confederate prison at Salisbury that in an encounter with a guard he had received a wound in the head that he had wandered on in the woods keeping himself Alive by means of wild berries with now and then a piece of bread or a potato from a friendly negro it seemed but the night before that he had laid himself down tortured with fever weak from loss of blood and with no hope that he would ever rise again from that moment his memory of the past was a blank until he recognized Martha on the platform and took up again the thread of his former existence where it had been broken off and Sicily well there is often another woman and Sicily all unwittingly to carry or to Martha had been The Other Woman for after all her beautiful dream had been one of the kind that go by contraries end of Section 5 recording by James K white Chula Vista section 6 of the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by James K White the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line by Charles woodell Chestnut the passing of grandison chapter 1. when it is said that it was done to please a woman there ought perhaps to be enough said to explain everything for what a man will not do to please a woman is yet to be discovered nevertheless it might be well to State a few preliminary facts to make it clear why young dick Owens tried to run one of his father's negro men off to Canada in the early 50s when the growth of anti-slavery sentiment and the constant drain of fugitive slaves into the North had so alarmed the slaveholders of the border state says to lead to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law a young white man from Ohio moved by compassion for the sufferings of a certain bondman who happened to have a hard Master is said to help the slave to Freedom the attempt was discovered and frustrated the abductor was tried and convicted for slave stealing and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the penitentiary his death after the expiration of only a small part of the sentence from cholera contracted while nursing stricken fellow prisoners lent to the case a Melancholy interest that made it famous in anti-slavery annals dick Owens had attended the trial he was a youth of about 22 intelligent handsome and amiable but extremely indolent in a graceful and gentlemanly way or as Old Judge Fenderson put it more than once he was lazy as the devil a mere figure of speech of course and not one that did Justice to the enemy of mankind when asked why he never did anything serious dick would good-naturedly reply with a well-modulated draw that he didn't have to his father was rich there was but one other child an unmarried daughter who because of poor health would probably never marry and dick was therefore heir presumptive to a large estate wealth or social position he did not need to seek for he was born to both charity Lomax had shamed him into studying law but notwithstanding an hour or so a day spent at Old Judge fenderson's Office he did not make remarkable Headway in his legal studies what dick needs said the judge who was fond of tropes as became a scholar and of horses as was befitting a Kentuckian is the whip of necessity or the spur of ambition if he had either he would soon need the snaffle to hold him back but all dick required in fact to prompt him to the most remarkable thing he accomplished before he was 25 was a mere suggestion from charity Lomax the story was never really known to but two persons until after the war when it came out because it was a good story and there was no particular reason for its concealment young Owens had attended the trial of this slave stealer or martyr either or both and when it was over had gone to call on charity Lomax and while they sat on the veranda after Sundown had told her all about the trial he was a good talker as his career in later years disclosed and described the proceedings very graphically I confess he admitted that while my principles were against the prisoner my sympathies were on his side it appeared that he was of good family and that he had an old father and mother respectable people depended upon him for support and comfort in their declining years he had been led into the matter by pity for a negro whose Master ought to have been run out of the county long ago for abusing his slaves if it had been merely a question of old Sam briggs's negro nobody would have cared anything about it but father and the rest of them stood on the principle of the thing and told the judge so and the fellow was sentenced to three years in the penitentiary Miss Lomax had listened with Lively interest I've always hated old Sam Briggs she said emphatically ever since the time he broke a negro's leg with a piece of cord wood when I hear of a cruel deed it makes the quicker blood that came from my grandmother assert itself personally I wish that all Sam briggs's Negroes would run away as for the young men I regard him as a hero he dared something for Humanity I could love a man who would take such chances for the sake of others could you love me charity if I did something heroic you never will dick you're too lazy for any use you'll never do anything harder than playing cards or fox hunting oh come now sweetheart I've been courting you for a year and it's the hardest work imaginable are you never going to love me he pleaded his hand sought hers but she drew it back Beyond his reach I'll Never Love You dick Owens until you have done something when that time comes I'll think about it but it takes so long to do anything worth mentioning and I don't want to wait one must read two years to become a lawyer and work five more to make a reputation we shall both be gray by then oh I don't know she rejoined it doesn't require a lifetime for a man to prove that he is a man this one did something or at least tried to well I'm willing to attempt as much as any other man what do you want me to do sweetheart give me a test oh dear me said charity I don't care what you do so you do something really come to think of it why should I care whether you do anything or not I'm sure I don't know why you should charity rejoin dick humbly for I'm aware that I'm not worthy of it except that I do hate she added relenting slightly to see a really clever man so utterly lazy and good for nothing thank you my dear a word of Praise from you has sharpened my wits already I have an idea will you love me if I run a negro off to Canada what nonsense said charity scornfully you must be losing your wits steal another man's slave indeed while your father owns a hundred oh there will be no trouble about that responded dick lightly I'll run off one of the old man's we've got too many anyway it may not be quite as difficult as the other man found it but it will be just as unlawful and will demonstrate what I am capable of seeings believing replied charity of course what you are talking about now is merely absurd I'm going away for three weeks to visit my aunt in Tennessee if you're able to tell me when I returned that you've done something to prove your quality I'll well you may come and tell me about it chapter 2. young Owens got up about nine o'clock next morning and while making his toilet put some questions to his personal attendant a rather bright looking young mulatto of about his own age Tom said dick yes my dick responded the servant I'm going on a trip North would you like to go with me now if there was anything that Tom would have liked to make it was a trip North it was something he had long contemplated in the abstract but had never been able to muster up sufficient courage to attempt in the concrete he was prudent enough however to dissemble his feelings I wouldn't mind it Mazda dick as long as you take care of him and fetch my home all right Tom's eyes belied his words however and his young Master felt well assured that Tom needed only a good opportunity to make him run away having a comfortable home and a dismal Prospect in case of failure Tom was not likely to take any desperate chances but young Owens was satisfied that in a free state but little persuasion would be required to lead Thomas stray with a very logical and characteristic desire to gain his end with the least necessary expenditure of effort he decided to take Tom with him if his father did not object Colonel Owens had left the house when Dick went to breakfast so dick did not see his father till luncheon father he remarked casually to the colonel over the fried chicken I'm feeling a trifle run down I imagine my health would be improved somewhat by a little travel and change of scene why don't you take a trip North suggested his father the colonel added to paternal affection a considerable respect for his son as the heir of a large estate he himself had been raised in comparative poverty and had laid the foundations of his fortune by hard work and while he despised the latter by which he had climbed he could not entirely forget it and unconsciously manifested in his intercourse with his son some of the Poor Man's deference toward the wealthy and well-born I think I'll adopt your suggestion sir replied the Sun and run up to New York and after I've been there a while I may go on to Boston for a week or so I've never been there you know there are some matters you can talk over with my factor in New York rejoin the colonel and while you are up there among the Yankees I hope you'll keep your eyes and ears open to find out what the rascally abolitionists are saying and doing they're becoming altogether too active for our comfort and entirely too many ungrateful are running away I hope the conviction of that fellow yesterday May discourage the rest of the breed I'd just like to catch anyone trying to run off one of my he'd get short shrift I don't think any Court would have a chance to try them they are a pestiferous lot a scented dick and dangerous to our institutions but say father if I go north I shall want to take Tom with me now the kernel while a very indulgent father had pronounced views on the subject of negroes having studied them as he often said for a great many years and as he asserted often or still understanding them perfectly it is scarcely worthwhile to say either that he valued more highly than if he had inherited them the slaves he had toiled and schemed for I don't think it's safe to take Tom up north he declared with promptness and decision he's a good enough boy but too smart to trust among those low down abolitionists I strongly suspect him of Having learned to read though I can't imagine how I saw him with a newspaper the other day and while he pretended to be looking at a woodcut I'm almost sure he was reading the paper I think it by no means safe to take him dick did not insist because he knew it was useless the colonel would have obliged his son in any other matter but his Negroes were the outward and visible sign of his wealth and station and therefore sacred to him whom do you think it's safe to take ask dick I suppose I'll have to have a body servant what's the matter with grandison suggested the colonel he's handy enough and I reckon we can trust him he's too fond of good eating to risk losing his regular meals besides he's sweet on your mother's maid Betty and I've promised to let him get married before long I'll have grandison up and we'll talk to him here you boy Jack call the colonel to a yellow youth in the Next Room who was catching flies and pulling their wings off to pass the time go down to the barn and tell grandison to come here grandison said the colonel when the Negro stood before him had in hand yes Masa haven't I always treated you right yes Mazza haven't you always got all you wanted to eat yes Massa and as much whiskey and tobacco as was good for you granison yes Massa I should just like to know grandison whether you don't think yourself a great deal better off than those poor free Negroes Down By The Plank Road with no kind Master to look after them and no mistress to give them medicine when they're sick and and well I should just recognize better officer than them low down free huh if anybody asks them who they belong to they has to say nobody else lie about it anybody ask me who I belongs to I ain't got no occasion to be ashamed to tell him no sir did I ain't sir the colonel was beaming this was true gratitude and his feudal heart thrilled at such appreciative homage what cold-blooded heartless monsters they were who would break up this Blissful relationship of kindly protection on the one hand of wise subordination and loyal dependence on the other the colonel always became indignant at the mere thought of such wickedness grenison the colonel continued your young Master dick is going north for a few weeks and I am thinking of letting him take you along I shall send you on this trip grandison in order that you may take care of your young master he will need someone to wait on him and no one can ever do it so well as one of the boys brought up with him on the old plantation I am going to trust him in your hands and I'm sure you'll do your duty faithfully and bring him back home safe and sound to Old Kentucky grandison grinned oh yes master I'll take care of young Moss dick I want to warn you though grandison continued the kernel impressively against these cust abolitionists who try to entice servants from their comfortable homes and their indulgent masters from the blue skies the green fields and the warm sunlight of their southern home and send them away off Yonder to Canada a dreary country where the woods are full of wildcats and wolves and bears where the snow lies up to the eaves of the houses for six months of the year and the cold is so severe that it freezes your breath and curdles your blood and where when runaway get sick and can't work they are turned out to starve and die unloved and uncared for I reckon grandison that you have too much sense to permit yourself to be led astray by any such foolish and wicked people deed sir I wouldn't allow none of them cussed low down abolitionists to come not me sir I'd I'd would I be allowed to hit him sir certainly grandison replied to Colonel chuckling hit him as hard as you can I reckon they'd rather like it be glad I believe they would it would serve him right to be hit by a if I didn't hit him sir continued grandison reflectively I'd tell my's dick and he'd fix them he'd smashed a face off in him sir I just knows he would oh yes Granderson your young Master will protect you you need fear no harm while he is near they won't try to steal me would they Masa ask the Negro with sudden alarm I don't know grandison replied to Colonel lighting a fresh cigar they are a desperate set of lunatics and there's no telling what they may resort to but if you stick close to your young master and remember all ways that he is your best friend and understands your real needs and has your true interests at heart and if you will be careful to avoid strangers who try to talk to you you'll stand a fair chance of getting back to your home and your friends and if you please your master dick he'll buy you a present and a string of beads for Betty to wear when you and she get married in the fall thank you master thank you sir replied grandison oozing gratitude at every poor he was a good Master to be show sir yes deed you is you can just bet me and Ma's gonna get along just like I was on board of my stick and it won't be my fault if you don't want me for this boy all the time when we come back home again all right grandison you may go now you needn't work anymore today and here's a piece of tobacco for you off my own plug thank you Mazda thank you master use the best monster any ever had in this world and grandison bowed and scraped and disappeared Round the Corner his Jaws closing around a large section of the Colonel's best tobacco you may take grandison said the colonel to his son I allow his abolitionist proof chapter 3. Richard Owens Esquire and servant from Kentucky registered at the fashionable New York hostel review for southerners in those days a hotel where an atmosphere congenial to Southern institutions was schedulelessly maintained but there were negro waiters in the dining room and milato Bell boys and Dick had no doubt that grandison with the native gregariousness and garrilousness of his race would for gather and palabber with them sooner or later and Dick hoped that they would speedily inoculate him with the virus of freedom for it was not Dick's intention to say anything to his servant about his plan to free him for obvious reasons to mention one of them if grandison should go away and by legal process be recaptured his young Master's part in the matter would doubtless become known which would be embarrassing to dick to say the least if on the other hand he should merely give grandison sufficient latitude he had no doubt he would eventually lose him for well not exactly skeptical about grandison's preferred loyalty Dick had been a somewhat Keen Observer of human nature in his own indolent way and based his expectations upon the force of the example and argument that his servant could scarcely fail to encounter grandison should have a fair chance to become free by his own initiative if it should become necessary to adopt other measures to get rid of him it would be time enough to act when the necessity arose and Dick Owens was not the youth to take needless trouble the young Master renewed some acquaintances and made others and spent a week or two very pleasantly in the best Society of the Metropolis easily accessible to a wealthy well-bred young Southerner with proper introductions young women smiled on him and young men of convivial habits pressed their hospitalities but the memory of Charity's sweet strong face and clear blue eyes made him proof against the blandishments of the one sex and The Persuasions of the other meanwhile he kept grenison supplied with pocket money and left him mainly to his own devices every night when Dick came in he hoped he might have to wait upon himself and every morning he looked forward with pleasure to the prospect of making his toilet unaided his hopes however were doomed to disappointment for every night when he came in grandison was on hand with a boot Jack and a night cap mixed for his young Master as the colonel had taught him to mix it and every morning grandison appeared with his Masters boots blacked and his clothes brushed and laid his linen out for the day grandison said dick one morning after finishing his toilet this is the chance of your life to go around among your own people and see how they live have you met any of them yes sir I've seen some of them but I don't care enough informed sir they're different from the down our way they allows their free but they ain't got sense enough to know they ain't half as well off as they will be down south would they be appreciated when two weeks had passed without any apparent effective evil example upon grandison Nick resolved to go on to Boston where he thought the atmosphere might prove more favorable to his ends after he had been at the Revere house for a day or two without losing granison he decided upon slightly different tactics having ascertained from a city directory the addresses of several well-known abolitionists he wrote the major letter something like this dear friend and brother a wicked slaveholder from Kentucky stopping at the Revere house has dared to insult the liberty-loving people of Boston by bringing his slave into their midst shall this be tolerated or shell steps be taken in the name of Liberty to rescue a fellow man from bondage for obvious reasons I can only sign myself a friend of humanity that his letter might have an opportunity to prove effective dick made it a point to sin grandison away from the hotel on various errands on one of these occasions dick watched him for quite a distance down the street grandison had scarcely left the hotel when a long-haired sharp featured man came out behind him followed him soon overtook him and kept along beside him until they turned the next corner Dick's hopes were roused by this spectacle but sank correspondingly when grenison returned to the hotel as grandison said nothing about the encounter dick hoped there might be some self-consciousness behind this unexpected reticence the results of which might develop later on but grandison was on hand again when his master came back to the hotel at night and was in attendance again in the morning with hot water to assist at his master's toilet dick sent him on further errands from day to day and upon one occasion came squarely up to him inadvertently of course while grandison was engaged in conversation with a young white man in clerical garb when grandison saw dick approaching he edged away from the preacher and hastened toward his master with a very evident expression of relief upon his countenance he said DC abolitionist is just pesting the life out of me trying to get me to run away I don't pay no attention to him but they rise me so sometimes that I'm fit I'll hit some of them some of these days and that might get me into trouble I ain't said nothing to you about it miles dick but I didn't want to stub your mind but I don't like it sir no sir I don't it's been going back home for long my dick yeah we'll be going back soon enough replied dick somewhat shortly while he inwardly cursed the stupidity of a slave who could be free and would not and registered a secret vow that if he were unable to get rid of grandison without assassinating him and we're therefore compelled to take him back to Kentucky he would see that granison got a taste of an article of slavery that would make him regret his wasted opportunities meanwhile he determined to tempt his servant yet more strongly grandison he said next morning I'm going away for a day or two but I shall leave you here I shall lock up a hundred dollars in this drawer and give you the key if you need any of it use it and enjoy yourself spend it all if you like for this is probably the last chance you'll have for some time to be in a free state and you'd better enjoy your Liberty while you may when he came back a couple of days later and found the faithful grandison at his post and the hundred dollars intact dick felt seriously annoyed his vexation was increased by the fact that he could not express his feelings adequately he did not even scold grenison how could he indeed find fault with one who so sensibly recognized his true place in the economy of civilization and kept it with such touching fidelity I can't say a thing to him grown dick he deserves a leather medal made out of his own hide tanned I reckon I'll write to father and let him know what a model servant he has given me he wrote his father a letter which made the colonel swell with pride and pleasure I really think the colonel observed to one of his friends that dick got to have the interviewed by the Boston papers so that they may see how contented and happy our really are dick also wrote a long letter to charity Lomax in which he said among many other things that if she knew how hard he was working and under what difficulties to accomplish something serious for her sake she would no longer keep him in suspense but overwhelm him with love and admiration having thus exhausted without result the more obvious methods of getting rid of grandison and diplomacy having also proved a failure dick was forced to consider more radical measures of course he might run away himself and abandon grandison but this would be merely to leave him in the United States where he was still a slave and where with his Notions of loyalty he would speedily be reclaimed it was necessary in order to accomplish the purpose of his trip to the north to leave grandison permanently in Canada where he would be legally free I might extend my trip to Canada he reflected but that would be too palpable I have it I'll visit Niagara Falls on the way home and lose him on the Canada side when he once realizes that he is actually free I'll warrant that he'll stay so the next day saw them Westward bound and in due course of time by the somewhat slow conveyances of the period they found themselves at Niagara dick walked and drove about the falls for several days taking grandison along with him on most occasions one morning they stood on the Canadian side watching the wild world of the waters below them grandison said dick raising his voice above the Roar of the cataract do you know where you are now as would you must dick that's all I kiss you are now in Canada grandison where your people go when they run away from their masters if you wished grandison you might walk away from me this very minute and I could not lay my hand upon you to take you back grandison looked around uneasily let's go back over the river my dick I spit I lose you over here and then I won't have no Masa and we'll never be able to get back home no more discouraged but not yet hopeless dick said a few minutes later granison I'm going up the road a bit to the end Over Yonder you stay here until I return I'll not be gone a great while grenison's eyes opened wide he looks somewhat fearful is day any of them dead blasted abolitionists around here my dick I don't imagine that there are replied his master hoping there might be but I'm not afraid of your running away grandison I only wish I were he added to himself dick walked leisurely down the road to where the white washed in built of stone with true British solidity loomed up through the trees by the roadside arrived there he ordered a glass of Ale and a sandwich and took a seat at a table by a window from which he could see grandison in the distance for a while he hoped that the seed he had sown might have fallen on fertile ground and that grandison relieved from the restraining power of a master's eye and finding himself in a free country might get up and walk away but the Hope was vain for grandison remained Faithfully at his post awaiting his master's return he had seated himself on a broad flat stone and turning his eyes away from the Grand and awe-inspiring spectacle that lay close at hand was looking anxiously toward the Inn where his master set cursing his ill-time fidelity by and by a girl came into the room to serve his order and Dick very naturally glanced at her and as she was young and pretty and remained in attendance it was some minutes before he looked for grenison when he did so his faithful servant had disappeared to pray his Reckoning and go away without the change was a matter quickly accomplished retracing his footsteps toward the Falls he saw to his great disgust as he approached the spot where he had left grandison the familiar form of his servant stretched out on the ground his face to the sun his mouth opened sleeping the time away oblivious alike in the Grandeur of the scenery the thunderous Roar of the Cataract or the Insidious voice of sentiment grandison soliloquized his master as he stood gazing down at his ebony encumbrance I do not deserve to be an American citizen I ought not to have the advantages I possess over you and I certainly am not worthy of Charity Lomax if I am not smart enough to get rid of you I have an idea you shall yet be free and I will be the instrument of your deliverance sleep on faithful and affectionate servitor and dream of the Bluegrass and the bright Skies of Old Kentucky for it is only in your dreams that you will ever see them again dick retraced his footsteps towards the end the young woman chanced to look out of the window and saw the handsome young gentleman she had waited on a few minutes before standing in the road a short distance away apparently engaged in Earnest conversation with a colored man employed as hosteler for the end she thought she saw something pass from the white man to the other but at that moment her duties called her away from the window and when she looked out again the young gentleman had disappeared and the hostler with two other young men of the neighborhood one white and one colored were walking rapidly towards the falls chapter 4. dick made the journey Homeward alone and as rapidly as the conveyances of the day would permit as he drew near home his conduct in going back without grandison took on a more serious aspect than it had borne at any previous time and although he had prepared the colonel by a letter sent several days ahead there was still the prospect of a bad quarter of an hour with him not indeed that his father would upgrade him but he was likely to make searching inquiries and notwithstanding the vein of quiet recklessness that had carried dick through his Preposterous scheme he was a very poor liar having rarely had occasion or inclination to tell anything but the truth any reluctance to meet his father was more than offset however by a stronger Force drawing him Homeward for charity Lomax must long sense of return from her visit to her aunt in Tennessee dick got off easier than he had expected he told a straight story and a truthful one so far as it went the colonel raged at first but rage soon subsided into anger and anger moderated into annoyance and annoyance into a sort of garrulous sense of injury the colonel thought he had been hardly used he had trusted this Negro and he had broken faith yet after all he did not blame grandison so much as he did the abolitionists who were undoubtedly at the bottom of it as for charity Lomax dick told her privately of course that he had run his father's man grandison off to Canada and left him there oh dick she had said with shuddering alarm what have you done if they knew it they'd send you to the penitentiary like they did that Yankee but they don't know it he had replied seriously adding with an injured tone you don't seem to appreciate my heroism like you did that of the Yankee perhaps it's because I wasn't caught and sent to the penitentiary I thought you wanted me to do it why dick Owens she exclaimed you know I never dreamed of any such outrageous proceeding but I presume I'll have to marry you she concluded after some insistence on Dick's part if only to take care of you were too Reckless for anything and a man who goes chasing all over the north being entertained by New York and Boston society and having Negroes to throw away needs someone to look after him it's a most remarkable thing replied dick fervently that your views correspond exactly with my profoundest convictions it proves Beyond question that we were made for one another they were married three weeks later as each of them had just returned from a journey they spent their honeymoon at home a week after the wedding they were seated one afternoon on The Piazza of the Colonel's house where Dick had taken his bride when a negro from the yard round down the lane and threw open the big gate for the Colonel's buggy to enter the colonel was not alone beside him ragged and travel stained bowed with weariness and upon his face a Haggard look that told of hardship and privation set the Lost grandison the colonel alighted at the steps take the lines Tom he said to the man who had opened the gate and drive round to the barn help grandison down poor Devil he's so stiff he can hardly move and get a tub of water and wash him and rub him down and feed him and give him a big drink of whiskey and then let him come round and see his young master and his new mistress the colonels face War an expression compounded of joy and indignation Joy at the restoration of a valuable piece of property indignation for reasons he proceeded to state it's astounding the depths of depravity the human heart is capable of I was coming along the road three miles away when I heard someone call me from the roadside I pulled up the mayor and who should come out of the woods but grandison the poor could hardly crawl along with the help of a broken limb I was never more astonished in my life you could have knocked me down with a feather he seemed pretty far gone he could hardly talk above a whisper and I had to give him a mouthful of whiskey to brace him up so he could tell his story it's just as I thought from the beginning Dick grandison had no notion of running away he knew when he was well off and where his friends were All The Persuasions of abolition liars and runaway did not move him but the desperation of those Fanatics knew no bounds their guilty consciences gave them no rest they got the notion somehow that granison belonged to a catcher and had been brought North as a spy to help capture ungrateful runaway servants they actually kidnapped him just think of it and gagged him and bound him and threw him rudely into a wagon and carried him into the gloomy depths of a Canadian forest and locked him in a lonely Hut and fed him on bread and water for three weeks one of the Scoundrels wanted to kill him and persuaded the others that it ought to be done but they got to quarreling about how they should do it and before they had their minds made up grandison escaped and keeping his back steadily to the north star made his way after suffering incredible hardships back to the old plantation back to his master his friends and his home why it's as good as one of Scott's novels Mr Sims or some other one of our Southern authors ought to write it up don't you think sir suggested dick who had calmly smoked his cigar throughout the Colonel's animated recital that that kidnapping yarn sounds a little improbable isn't there some more likely explanation nonsense dick it's the gospel truth those infernal abolitionists are capable of anything everything just think of their locking the poor faithful up beating him kicking him depriving him of his Liberty keeping him on bread and water for three long Lonesome weeks and he all the time pining for the old plantation there were almost tears in the Colonel's eyes at the picture of grandison's sufferings that he conjured up dick still professed to be slightly skeptical and met Charities severely questioning I with Bland unconsciousness the colonel killed the fetid calf for grandison and for two or three weeks The Returned wanderer's life was a slave's dream of pleasure his Fame spread throughout the county and the colonel gave him a permanent place among the house servants where he could always have him conveniently at hand to relate his adventures to admiring visitors about three weeks after grandison's return the Colonel's faith and Sable Humanity was rudely shaken and its foundations almost broken up he came near losing his belief in the Fidelity of the Negro to his master the servile of virtue most highly prized and most sedulously cultivated by the colonel and His Kind one Monday morning grandison was missing and not only grandison but his wife Betty the maid his mother Aunt Eunice his father Uncle Ike his brothers Tom and John and his little sister Elsie were likewise absent from the plantation and A hurried search and inquiry in the neighborhood resulted in no information as to their whereabouts so much valuable property could not be lost without an effort to recover it and the wholesale nature of the transaction carried consternation to the hearts of those whose ledgers were chiefly Bound in Black extremely energetic measures were taken by the colonel and his friends the fugitives were traced and followed from point to point on their northward run through Ohio several times the hunters were close upon their heels but the magnitude of the escaping party begot unusual vigilance on the part of those who sympathized with the fugitives and strangely enough the Underground Railroad seemed to have had its tracks cleared and signals set for this particular train once twice the colonel thought he had them but they slipped through his fingers one last Glimpse he caught of his Vanishing property as he stood accompanied by a United States Marshal on a wharf at a port on the south shore of Lake Erie on the stern of a small Steamboat which was receding rapidly from The Wharf with her nose pointing toward Canada there stood a group of familiar dark faces and the look they cast backward was not one of longing for the flesh pots of Egypt the colonel saw grandison Point him out to one of the crew of The Vessel who waved his hand derisively toward the colonel the latter shook his fist impotently and the incident was closed end of section 6 recording by James K white Chula Vista section 7 of the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by James K White the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line by Charles Waddell Chestnut Uncle Wellington's wives chapters 1 and 2. chapter 1. Uncle Wellington brayboy was so deeply absorbed and thought as he walked slowly Homeward from the weekly meeting of the Union League that he let his pipe go out a fact of which he remained oblivious until he had reached the little frame house in the suburbs of patesville where he lived with Aunt Millie his wife on this particular occasion the club had been addressed by a visiting brother from the north Professor Patterson a tall well-formed mulatto who wore a perfectly fitting suit of broadcloth a shiny silk hat and linen of dazzling whiteness in short a gentleman of such distinguished appearance that the doors and windows of the offices and stores on Front Street were filled with curious observers as he passed through that thoroughfare in the early part of the day this polished stranger was a traveling organizer of masonic lodges but he also claimed to be a high officer in the Union League and had been invited to lecture before the local chapter of that organization at patesville the lecture had been largely attended and Uncle Wellington brayboy had occupied a seat just in front of the platform the subject of the lecture was the mental moral physical political social and financial Improvement of the Negro race in America a theme much dwelt upon with slight Variations by colored orders for to this struggling people then is now the problem of their uncertain present and their doubtful future was the chief concern of life the period was the hopeful one the federal government retained some Vestige of authority in the South and the newly emancipated race cherished the delusion that under the Constitution that enduring rock on which our liberties are founded and under the Equal laws it purported to guarantee they would enter upon the era of freedom and opportunity which their Northern friends had inaugurated with such solemn sanctions the speaker pictured an eloquent language the state of Ideal equality and happiness enjoyed by colored people at the North how they sent their children to school with the white children how they set by white people in the churches and theaters ate with them in the public restaurants and buried their dead in the same cemeteries the professor waxed eloquent with the development of his theme and as a Finishing Touch to an alluring picture assured the excited audience that the intermarriage of the races was common and that he himself had espoused a white woman Uncle Wellington brayboy was a deeply interested listener he had heard something of these facts before but his information had always come in such vague and questionable shape that he had paid little attention to it he knew that the Yankees had freed the slaves and that runaway Negroes had always gone to the north to seek Liberty any such equality however as the visiting brother had depicted was more than Uncle Willington had ever conceived as actually existing anywhere in the world at first he felt inclined to doubt the truth of the speaker's statements but the cut of his clothes the eloquence of his language and the flowing length of his whiskers were so far superior to anything Uncle Wellington had ever met among the colored people of his native state that he felt irresistibly impelled to the conviction that nothing less than the advantages claimed for the north by the visiting brother could have produced such an Exquisite flower of civilization any lingering doubts Uncle Wellington may have felt were entirely dispelled by the courtly bow and cordial grasp of the hand with which the visiting brother acknowledged thee congratulations showered upon him by the audience at the close of his address the more Uncle Wellington's mind dwelt upon the professor's speech the more attractive seemed the picture of Northern life presented Uncle Wellington possessed in large measure the imaginative faculty so freely bestowed by Nature upon the race from which the darker half of his blood was drawn he had indulged in occasional Daydreams of an ideal state of social equality but as wild as Flights of Fancy had never located it nearer than heaven and he had felt some misgivings about its practical working even there its desirability he had never doubted and the speech of the evening before had given a local habitation and a name to the forms his imagination had bodied forth giving full Reign to his fancy he saw in the north a land flowing with milk and honey a land people by noble men and beautiful women among whom colored men and women move with the ease and Grace of acknowledged right then he placed himself in the foreground of the picture What a fine figure he would have made in the world if he had been born at the free North he imagined himself dressed like the professor and passing the contribution box in a white church and most Pleasant of his dreams and the hardest to realize is possible was that of the gracious white lady he might have called wife Uncle Wellington was a mulatto and his features were those of his white father though tinged with the Hue of his mother's race and as he lifted the kerosene lamp at evening and took a long look at his image in the little mirror over the mantle piece he said to himself that he was a very good looking man and could have adorned a much higher sphere in life than that in which the accident of birth had placed him he fell asleep and dreamed that he lived in a two-story brick house with a spacious flower garden in front the hole enclosed by a high iron fence that he kept a carriage and servants and never did a stroke of work this was the highest style of living in patesville and he could conceive of nothing finer Uncle Wellington slept later than usual the next morning and the sunlight was pouring in at the open window of the bedroom when his dreams were interrupted by the voice of his wife in tones meant to be harsh but which No Ordinary degree of passion could Rob of their native anxiousness up from there you lazy good for nothing is you going to sleep all the morning I was tired of this running around all night and then sleeping all day you won't get that Tater Patch hold over today letting you get up from there and get at it Uncle Wellington rolled over yawned cavernously stretched himself and with a muttered protest got out of bed and put on his clothes Aunt Millie had prepared a smoking breakfast of hominy and fried bacon the odor of which was very grateful to his nostrils is breakfast done ready he inquired tentatively as he came into the kitchen and glanced at the table no it ain't ready and it ain't gonna be ready till you tote that wooden water in replied Aunt Millie severely as she poured two teacups of boiling water on two tablespoonfuls of ground coffee Uncle Wellington went down to the spring and got a pail of water after which he brought in some oak logs for the fireplace and some light wood for kindling then he drew a chair towards the table and started to sit down wonder what's the matter with you this morning anyhow remarked Aunt Millie you must have been up to some devilment last night for your recommendence is so poor that you first forget to get up and then forget to wash your face and hands before you sit down to the table I don't allow nobody to eat at my table that way I don't see no use of washing them so much replied Wellington wearily it gets dirty again right off and then you got to wash and move again it's just piling up work but don't fetch in nothing the dirt don't show no how and I don't see no advantage in being black if you got to keep on washing your face and hands just like why folks he nevertheless performed his ablutions in a perfunctory way and resumed his seat at The Breakfast Table oh woman he asked after the edge of his appetite had been taken off how would you like to live at the North I don't know nothing about the north replied Aunt Millie it's hard enough to get along here well he knows all about it the brother would address the meeting last night say that the wages at the north is twice as big as they is here you could make a site more wages here if you tend to your work better replied Aunt Millie Uncle Wellington ignored this personality and continued and they say the color folks got all the Privileges of the white folks that they chill and go to school together and they sits on same seats in church and says on jury and rise on the cars and steamboats with the white folks and he's at the first table that'd suit you chuckled Aunt Millie and you stay there for the second table too how does man know about all this foolishness she asked incredulously he come from the north said Uncle Wellington and dispensed it all itself well he can't make me believe it she rejoined with a shake of her head and you wouldn't like to go up there and enjoy all these privileges asked Uncle Wellington with some degree of earnestness the old woman laughed until her side shook who gonna take me up there she inquired you got the money yourself I ain't got no money for the waste she replied shortly becoming serious at once and with that the subject was dropped Uncle Wellington pulled a hole from under the house and took his way wearily to the Potato Patch he did not feel like working but aunt Millie was the Undisputed head of the establishment and he did not dare to openly neglect his work in fact he regarded work at any time as a disagreeable necessity to be avoided as much as possible his wife was cast in a different mold externally she would have impressed the Casual Observer as a neat well-preserved and good-looking black woman of middle age every curve of whose ample figure and her figure was all curves was suggestive of repose so far from being indolent or even deliberate in her movements she was the most active and energetic woman in the town she went through the physical exercises of a prayer meeting with astonishing Vigor it was exhilarating to see her wash a shirt and a study to watch her do it up a quick jerk shook out the dampened garment one pass of her ample Palm spread it over the ironing board and a few well-directed Strokes with the iron accomplished what would have occupied the ordinary laundress for half an hour to this uncommon and in Uncle Wellington's opinion unnecessary and unnatural activity his own habits were a steady protest if Aunt Millie had been willing to support him in idleness he would have acquiesced without a murmur in her habits of Industry this she would not do and moreover insisted on his working at least half the time if she had invested the proceeds of her labor in rich food and fine clothing he might have endured it better but to her passion for work was added a most detestable Thrift she absolutely refused to pay for Wellington's clothes and required him to furnish a certain proportion of the family supplies her savings were carefully put by and with them she had bought and paid for the modest cottage which she and her husband occupied under her careful hand it was always neat and clean in summer the little yard was gay with bright colored flowers and woe to the heedless piccaninny who should stray into her yard and pluck a rose or a verbena in a stout Oaken chest under her bed she kept a capacious stocking into which flowed a steady stream of fractional currency she carried the key to this chest in her pocket a proceeding regarded by Uncle Wellington with no little disfavor he was of the opinion an opinion he would not have dared to assert in her presence that his wife's earnings were his own property and he looked upon this stocking as a drunkard's wife might regard the saloon which absorbed her husband's wages Uncle Wellington hurried over the Potato Patch on the morning of the conversation above recorded and as soon as he saw Aunt Millie go away with a basket of clothes on her head returned to the house put on his coat and went uptown he directed his steps to a small frame building fronting on the Main Street of The Village at a point where the street was intersected by one of the several Creeks Meandering through the town cooling the air providing numerous swimming holes for the amphibious small boy and Furnishing water power for Grist Mills and sawmills the rear of the building rested on Long brick pillars built up from the bottom of the Steep Bank of the creek while the front was level with the street this was the office of Mr Matthew Wright the sole representative of the colored race at the bar of chinkapin County Mr Wright came of an old issue free-colored family in which though the Negro blood was present in an attenuated strain a line of free ancestry could be traced beyond the Revolutionary War he had enjoyed exceptional opportunities and enjoyed the distinction of being the first and for a long time the only colored lawyer in North Carolina his Services were frequently called into requisition by impecunious people of his own race when they had money they went to White lawyers who they shrewdly conjectured would have more influence with judge or jury than a colored lawyer however able Uncle Wellington found Mr Wright in his office having inquired after the health of the lawyer's family and all his relations in detail Uncle Wellington asked for a professional opinion Mr Wright if a man's wife got money whose money is that before the law his and a hun the lawyer put on his professional Heir and replied under the common law which in default of special legislative enactment is the law of North Carolina the personal property of the wife belongs to her husband but Dad don't just touch the point sir I was asking about money you see Uncle Wellington your education has not rendered you familiar with legal phraseology the term personal property or estate Embraces according to Blackstone all property other than land and therefore includes money any money a man's wife has is his constructively and will be recognized as his actually as soon as he can secure possession of it that is to say sir my education don't quite allow me to understand that that is to say that is to say it's yours when you get it it isn't yours so that the law will help you get it but on the other hand when you once lay your hands on it it is yours so that the law won't take it away from you Uncle Wellington nodded to express his full comprehension of the law as expounded by Mr Wright but scratched his head in a way that expressed some disappointment the law seemed to wobble instead of enabling him to stand up fearlessly and demand his own it threw him back upon his own efforts and the prospect of his being able to overpower or outwit Aunt Millie by any ordinary means was very poor he did not leave the office but hung around a while as though there were something further he wished to speak about finally after some discursive remarks about the crops and politics he asked in an offhand disinterested manner as though the thought had just occurred to him Mr Wright whilst we talking about law matters what does it cost to get a defose that depends upon circumstances it isn't altogether a matter of expense have you and Aunt Millie been having trouble oh no sir I was just wondering you see continued the lawyer who was fond of talking and had nothing else to do for the moment a divorce is not an easy thing to get in this state under any circumstances it used to be the law that divorce could be granted only by special Act of the legislature and it is but recently that the subject has been relegated to the jurisdiction of the Courts Uncle Wellington understood a part of this but the answer had not been exactly to the point in his mind suppose and then just for the argument me and my old woman should fall out and want to separate how could I get a divorce that would depend on what you quarreled about it's pretty hard work to answer general questions in a particular way if you merely wish to separate it wouldn't be necessary to get a divorce but if you should want to marry again you would have to be divorced or else you would be guilty of bigamy and could be sent to the penitentiary but by the way Uncle Wellington when were you married I got mad for the wall when I was living down on Rockfish Creek when you were in slavery yes sir did you have your marriage registered after the surrender no sir never know nothing about that after the war in North Carolina and other states the freed people who had sustained to each other the relation of husband and wife as it existed among slaves were required by law to register their consent to continue in the marriage relation by this simple expedient their former marriages of convenience received the sanction of Law and their children the Seal of legitimacy in many cases however where the parties lived in districts remote from the larger towns the ceremony was neglected or never heard of by the freedmen well said the lawyer if that is the case and you and Aunt Millie should disagree it wouldn't be necessary for you to get a divorce even if you should want to marry again you were never legally married so Millie ain't my lawful wife then she may be your wife in one sense of the word but not in such a sense as to render you liable to punishment for bigamy if you should marry another woman but I hope you will never want to do anything of the kind for you have a very good wife now Uncle Wellington went away thoughtfully but with a feeling of unaccustomed lightness and freedom he had not felt so free since the memorable day when he had first heard of the Emancipation Proclamation on leaving the lawyer's office he called at the workshop of one of his friends Peter Williams a Shoemaker by trade who had a brother living in Ohio is yuhan from Sam lately Uncle Wellington inquired after the conversation had drifted through the usual generalities his mama got a letter from him last week he's living in a town of Groveland now how's he getting on he says he's getting all monsters well he lies how you make five dollars a day whitewashing and have all he can do the Shoemaker related various details of his brother's prosperity and Uncle Wellington returned home in a very thoughtful mood revolving in his mind a plan of future action this plan had been vaguely assuming form ever since the professor's lecture and the events of the morning had brought out the detail in bold relief two days after the conversation with the Shoemaker Aunt Millie went in the afternoon to visit a sister of hers who lived several miles out in the country during her absence which lasted until Nightfall Uncle Wellington went Uptown and purchased a cheap oil cloth valise from a shrewd son of Israel who had penetrated to this locality with a stock of Notions and cheap clothing Uncle Wellington had his purchase done up in brown paper and took the parcel under his arm arrived at home he unwrapped the police and threw into its capacious Jaws his best suit of clothes some underwear and a few other small articles for personal use and adornment then he carried the police out into the yard and first looking cautiously around to see if there was anyone in sight concealed it in a clump of bushes in a corner of the yard it may be inferred from this proceeding that Uncle Wellington Was preparing for a step of some consequence in fact he had fully made up his mind to go to the north but he still lacked the most important requisite for traveling with Comfort namely the money to pay his expenses the idea of tramping the distance which separated him from the promised land of liberty and equality had never occurred to him when a slave he had several times been importuned by fellow servants to join them in the attempt to escape from bondage but he had never wanted his freedom badly enough to walk a thousand miles for it if he could have gone to Canada by Stagecoach or by rail or on Horseback with stops for regular meals he would probably have undertaken the trip the funds he now needed for his journey were in Aunt Millie's chest he had thought a great deal about his right to this money it was his wife's savings and he had never dared to dispute openly her right to exercise exclusive control over what she earned but the lawyer had assured him of his right to the money of which he was already constructively in possession and he had therefore determined to possess himself actually of the coveted stocking it was Impractical for him to get the key of the chest Aunt Millie kept it in her pocket by day and under her pillow at night she was a light sleeper and if not awakened by the abstraction of the key would certainly have been disturbed by the unlocking of the chest but one alternative remained and that was to break open the chest in her absence there was a Revival in progress at the colored Methodist Church Aunt Millie was as energetic in her religion as in other respects and had not missed a single one of the meetings she returned at nightfall from her visit to the country and prepared a Frugal supper Uncle Wellington did not eat as hardly as usual Aunt Millie perceived his want of appetite and spoke of it he explained it by saying that he did not feel very well is you going to church tonight inquired his wife I reckon I'll stay home and go to bed he replied I ain't been feeling well this evening and I suspect I better get a good night's rest well you can stay of your mind to God preaching and make you feel better but if you ain't going don't forget to tow in some wood and light it before you go to bed the Moon is shining bright and you can't have no excuse by not being able to see Uncle Wellington followed her out to the gate and watched her receding form until it disappeared in the distance then he re-entered the house with a quick step and taking a hatchet from a corner of the room drew the chest from under the bed as he applied the hatchet to the fastenings the thought struck him and by the flickering light of the pine not blazing on the Hearth a look of hesitation might have been seen to take the place of the determined expression his face had worn up to that time he had argued himself into the belief that his present action was lawful and justifiable though this conviction had not prevented him from trembling in every limb as though he were committing a mere vulgar theft it had still nerved him to the deed now even his moral courage began to weaken the lawyer had told him that his wife's property was his own in taking it he was therefore only exercising his lawful right but at the point of breaking open the chest it occurred to him that he was taking this money in order to get away from Aunt Millie and that he justified his desertion of her by the lawyer's opinion that she was not his lawful wife if she was not his wife then he had no right to take the money if she was his wife he had no right to Desert her and would certainly have no right to marry another woman his scheme was about to go to shipwreck on this rock when another idea occurred to him the lawyer stated in one sense that a word the woman is my wife and in another sense of the word she ain't my wife if I goes to the north and marry a white woman I ain't committing no Brigham because in that sense of the word she ain't my wife but if I takes this money I ain't stealing it because in that sense of the word she is my wife that explains all the trouble way having reached this ingenious conclusion Uncle Wellington applied the hatchet vigorously soon loosening the fastenings of the chest and with Trembling Hands extracted from its depths a capacious blue cotton stocking he emptied the stocking on the table his first impulse was to take the hole but again there arose in his mind a doubt a very obtrusive Unreasonable Doubt but a doubt nevertheless of the absolute rectitude of his conduct and after a moment's hesitation he hurriedly counted the money it was in bills of small denominations and found it to be about 250 dollars he then divided it into two piles of one hundred and twenty five dollars each he put one pile into his pocket returned the remainder to the stocking and replaced it where he had found it he then closed the chest and shoved it under the bed after having arranged the fire so that it could safely be left burning he took a last look around the room and went out into the Moonlight locking the door behind him and hanging the key on a nail in the wall where his wife would be likely to look for it he then secured his release from behind the bushes and left the yard as he passed by the wood pile he said to himself well I declare if I ain't done forgot to tote in that lighted I reckon old woman had to fetch it in himself this time he hastened through the quiet streets avoiding the few people who were abroad at that hour and soon reached the railroad station from which a Northbound train left at nine o'clock he went around to the dark side of the train and climbed into a second class car where he shrank into the darkest corner and turned his face away from the dim light of the single dirty lamp there were no passengers in the car except one or two sleeping Negroes who had got on at some other station and a white man who had gone into the car to smoke accompanied by a gigantic bloodhound finally the train crept out of the station from the window Uncle Wellington looked out upon the familiar cabins in turpentine Stills the new Barrel Factory the Brickyard where he had once worked for some time and as the train rattled through the outskirts of the town he saw gleaming in the Moonlight the white headstones of the colored Cemetery where his only daughter had been buried several years before presently the conductor came around Uncle Wellington had not bought a ticket and the conductor collected a cash fare he was not acquainted with Uncle Wellington but it just had a drink at the saloon near the depot and felt at peace with all mankind where are you going Uncle he inquired carelessly Uncle Wellington's face assumed the Ashen Hue which does Duty for pallor in Dusky countenances and his knees began to tremble controlling his voice as well as he could he replied that he was going up to Jonesboro the Terminus of the railroad to work for a gentleman at that place he felt immensely relieved when the conductor pocketed the fare picked up his Lantern and moved away it was very unphilosophical and very absurd that a man who was only doing right should feel like a thief shrink from the sight of other people and lie instinctively fine distinctions were not in Uncle Wellington's line but he was struck by the unreasonableness of his feelings and still more by the discomfort they caused him by and by however the motion of the train made him drowsy his thoughts all ran together in confusion and he fell asleep with his hit on his voice and one hand in his pocket clasped tightly around the role of money chapter 2. the train from Pittsburgh grew into the Union Depot at Groveland Ohio one morning in the spring of 1870 blank with bell ringing and engine puffing and from a smoking car emerged the form of Uncle Wellington brayboy a little Dusty and travel stained and with a sleepy look about his eyes he mingled in the crowd and valise in hand moved toward the main exit from the depot there were several tracks to be crossed and more than once a Watchman snatched him out of the way of a baggage truck or a train backing into the depot he at length reached the door Beyond which and as near as the regulations would permit stood a number of hack men vociferously soliciting patronage one of them a colored man soon secured several passengers as he closed the door after the last one he turned to Uncle Wellington who stood near him on the sidewalk looking about irresolutely is you going uptown ask the Hackman as he prepared to mount the Box yes sir I'll take you up for a quota if you want to get up here and ride in a box with me Uncle Wellington accepted the offer and mounted the Box the Hackman whipped up his Horses The Carriage climbed the Steep Hill leading up to the town and the passengers inside were soon deposited at their hotels where abouts do you want to go ask the Hackman of Uncle Wellington when the carriage was emptied of its last passengers I want to go to Brother Sam Williams's said Wellington what's his street and number Uncle Wellington did not know the street in number and the Hackman had to explain to him the mystery of numbered houses to which he was a total stranger where's he from ask the Hackman and what is his business he is from North Carolina replied Uncle Wellington and makes a living whitewashing I reckon I knows the man said the Hackman I expect he's changed his name the man I knows is named Johnson he belongs to my church I'm going out that way to get a passenger for the 10 o'clock train and I'll take you by there they followed one of the least handsome streets of the city for more than a mile turned into a cross street and Drew up before a small frame house from the front of which a sign painted in white upon a black background announced to the reading public in letters inclined to each other at various angles that whitewashing and call something were done there a knock at the door brought out a Slatterly looking colored woman she had evidently been Disturbed at her toilet for she held a comb in one hand and the hair on one side of her head stood out Loosely while on the other side it was braided close to her head she called her husband to prove to be the patesville shoemaker's brother the Hackman introduced The Traveler whose name he had learned on the way out collected his quarter and drove away Mr Johnson the shoemaker's brother welcomed Uncle Wellington to Groveland and listened with eager Delight to the news of the old town from which he himself had run away many years before and followed the North Star to Groveland he had changed his name from Williams to Johnson on account of the Fugitive Slave Law which at the time of his escape from bondage had rendered it advisable for runaway slaves to court obscurity after the war he had retained the adopted name Mrs Johnson prepared breakfast for her guest who waited with an appetite sharpened by his journey after breakfast he went to bed and slept until late in the afternoon after supper Mr Johnson took Uncle Wellington to visit some of the neighbors who had come from North Carolina before the war they all expressed much pleasure at meeting Mr Brave boy a title which at first sounded a little odd to Uncle Wellington at home he had been Wellington bro Wellington or Uncle Wellington it was a novel experience to be called Mr and he set it down with secret satisfaction as one of the first fruits of Northern Liberty would you like to look around to town a little asked Mr Johnson at breakfast next morning I ain't got no job this morning and I can show you some of the sights Uncle Wellington acquiesced in this Arrangement and they walked up to the corner to the streetcar line in a few moments a car passed Mr Johnson jumped on the moving car and Uncle Wellington followed his example at the risk of life or limb as it was his first experience of street cars there was only one vacant seat in the car and that was between two white women in the forward end Mr Johnson motioned to the seat but Wellington shrank from walking between those two rows of white people to say nothing of sitting between the two women so he remained standing in the rear part of the car a moment later as the car rounded a short curve he was pitched sideways into the lap of a stout woman magnificently attired in a ruffled blue Calico gown the lady colored up and Uncle Wellington as he struggled to his feet amid the laughter of the passengers was absolutely helpless with embarrassment until the conductor came up behind him and pushed him toward the vacant place sit down will you he said and before Uncle Wellington could collect himself he was seated between the two white women everybody in the car seemed to be looking at him but he came to the conclusion after he had pulled himself together and reflected a few moments that he would find this method of locomotion pleasanter when he got used to it and then he could score one more glorious privilege gained by his change of residence they got off at the Public Square in the Heart of the City where there were flowers and statues and fountains playing Mr Johnson pointed out the courthouse the post office the jail and other public buildings fronting on the square they visited the market nearby and from an elevated Point looked down upon the extensive lumber yards and factories that were the chief sources of the city's prosperity Beyond these they could see the fleet of ships that lined the coal and iron ore docks of the harbor Mr Johnson who was quite a fluent talker enlarged upon the wealth and prosperity of the city and Wellington who had never before been in a town of more than 3 000 inhabitants manifested sufficient interest and wonder to satisfy the most exacting cicerone they called at the office of a colored lawyer and member of the legislature formerly from North Carolina who senting a new constituent and a possible client greeted The Stranger warmly and in flowing speech pointed out the superior advantages of Life at the North citing himself as an illustration of the possibilities of life in a country really free as they winded their way Homeward to dinner Uncle Wellington with Quicken pulse and Rising hopes felt that this was indeed the promised land and that it must be flowing with milk and honey Uncle Wellington remained at the residence of Mr Johnson for several weeks before making any effort to find employment he spent this period in looking about the city the most commonplace things possessed for him the charm of novelty and he had come prepared to admire shortly after his arrival he had offered to pay for his board intimating at the same time that he had plenty of money Mr Johnson declined to accept anything from him for board and expressed himself as being only too proud to have Mr Brave boy remain in the house on the footing of an honored guest until he had settled himself he lightened in some degree however the burden of obligation under which a prolonged stay on these terms would have placed his guest by soliciting from the latter occasional small loans until Uncle Wellington's role of money began to lose its plumpness and with an empty pocket staring him in the face he felt the necessity of finding something to do during his residence in the city he had met several times his first acquaintance Mr Peterson the Hackman who from time to time inquired how he was getting along on one of these occasions Wellington mentioned his willingness to accept employment as good luck would have it Mr Peterson knew of a vacant situation he had formerly been Coachmen for a wealthy gentleman residing on Oakwood Avenue but had resigned the situation to go into business for himself his place had been filled by an Irishman who had just been discharged for drunkenness and the gentleman that very day had sent word to Mr Peterson asking him if he could recommend a competent and trustworthy Coachman does you know anything about Hoss's ask Mr Peterson yes indeed I does said Wellington I was raised amongst horses I told my old boss I'd look out for a man and if you reckon you can feel the requirements of the situation I'll take you around there tomorrow morning he wants to put on your best clothes and Slick up for their particular people if you get the place I expect you to pay me for the time I lost and turn into your business for time is money in this country and folks don't do much for nothing next morning Wellington blacked his shoes carefully put on a clean collar and with the aid of Mrs Johnson tied his cravat in a jaunty bow which gave him quite a sprightly air and a much younger look than his years warranted Mr Peterson called for him at eight o'clock after traversing several cross streets they turned into Oakwood Avenue and walked along the finest part of it for about half a mile the handsome houses of this famous Avenue the stately trees the wide spreading Lawns dotted with flower beds fountains and statuary made up a picture so far surpassing anything in Wellington's experience as to fill him with an almost oppressive sense of its beauty he looks like heaven he said Softly it's a put a fine Street rejoined His companion with the judicial heir but I don't like them big Lawns it's too much trouble to keep the grass down one of them Lawns is big enough to pass you a couple of cows they went down the street running at right angles to the Avenue and turned into the rear of the corner lot a large building of pressed brick trim with stone loomed up before them do the gentlemen live in this house asked Wellington gazing with awe at the front of the building no that's the bond said Mr Peterson with good-natured contempt and leading the way past a clump of Shrubbery to the dwelling house he went up the back steps and rang the doorbell the ring was answered by a buxom Irish woman of a natural freshness of complexion deepened to a fiery Red by the heat of a kitchen range Wellington thought he had seen her before but his mind had received so many New Impressions lately that it was a minute or two before he recognized in her the lady whose lap he had involuntarily occupied for a moment on his first day in Groveland faith she exclaimed as she admitted them and it's mighty glad I am to see you again Mr Patterson and how have you been Mr Patterson since I see you last Midland where Miss Flanagan Midland well except in the touch of the room it is supposing you've been doing well as usual or yes as well as a decent woman could do with the broken Beast about the place like the last Coachman or Mr Peterson it would make your heart bleed to see the way the spell being caught upper Saturday but Mr Todd discharged him the same evening without a character bad says to him and we've had no Coachman since at all at all and it's sorry I am the ladies flow of eloquence was interrupted at this point by the appearance of Mr Todd himself who had been informed of the men's arrival he asked some questions in regard to Wellington's qualifications and former experience and in view of his recent arrival in the city was willing to accept Mr Peterson's recommendation instead of a reference he said a few words about the nature of the work and stated his willingness to pay Wellington the wages formerly allowed Mr Peterson thirty dollars a month and board in lodging this handsome offer was eagerly accepted and it was agreed that Wellington's term of service should begin immediately Mr Peterson being familiar with the work and financially interested conducted the new Coachman through the stables and showed him what he would have to do the silver mounted harness the variety of carriages the names of which he learned for the first time the arrangements for feeding and watering the horses these appointments of a rich man's stable impressed Wellington very much and he wondered that so much luxury should be wasted on mere horses the room assigned to him in the second story of the barn was a finer apartment than he had ever slept in and the salary attached to the situation was greater than the combined monthly earnings of himself and Aunt Millie in their southern home surely he thought his lines had fallen in Pleasant places under the stimulus of new surroundings Wellington applied himself diligently to work and with the occasional advice of Mr Peterson soon mastered the details of his employment he found the female servants with whom he took his meals very amiable ladies the cook Mrs Katie Flanagan was a widow her husband the Sailor had been lost at sea she was a woman of many words and when she was not lamenting the late Flanagan's loss according to her story he had been a model of all the virtues she would turn the batteries of her tongue against the former Coachman this gentleman as Wellington gathered from frequent remarks dropped by Mrs Flanagan had paid her attentions clearly susceptible of a serious Construction these attentions had not borne their legitimate fruit and she was still a widow unconsoled hence Mrs Flanagan's tears the housemaid was a plump good-natured German girl with a pronounced German accent the presence on wash days of a Bohemian laundress of recent importation added another to the variety of ways in which the English tongue was mutilated in Mr Todd's kitchen association with the white women Drew out all the native gallantry of the mulatto and Wellington developed quite a helpful turn his politeness his willingness to lend a hand in kitchen or laundry and the fact that he was the only male servant on the place combined to make him a prime favorite in the servant's quarters it was the General opinion among Wellington's acquaintances that he was a single man he had come to the city alone had never been heard to speak of a wife and to personal questions bearing upon the subject of matrimony had always returned evasive answers though he had never questioned the correctness of the lawyer's opinion in regard to his slave marriage his conscience had never been entirely at ease since his departure from the south and any positive denial of his married condition would have stuck in his throat the inference naturally drawn from his reticence in regard to the Past coupled with his expressed intention of settling permanently in Groveland was that he belonged in the ranks of the unmarried and was therefore legitimate game for any widow or Old Maid who could bring him down as such game is bagged easiest at short range he received numerous invitations to tea parties where he feasted on unlimited chicken and pound cake he used to compare these vions with the plane fare often served by Aunt Millie and the result of the comparison was another item to the credit of the north upon his mental Ledger several of the colored ladies who smiled upon him were blessed with good looks and Uncle Wellington naturally of a susceptible temperament as people of lively imagination are apt to be would probably have fallen a victim to the charms of some woman of his own race had it not been for a strong counter-attraction in the person of Mrs Flanagan the attentions of the lately discharged Coachman had lighted Anew the smoldering fires of her widowed heart and awakened longings which still remained unsatisfied she was 35 years old and felt the need of someone else to love she was not a woman of lofty ideals with her a man was a man for that and of that and aside from the accident of color Uncle Wellington was as personable a man as any of her acquaintance some people might have objected to his complexion but then Mrs Flanagan argued he was at least half white and this being the case there was no good reason why he should be regarded as black Uncle Wellington was not slow to perceive Mrs Flanagan's charms of person and appreciated to the full the skill that prepared the choice tidbits reserved for his plate at dinner the prospect of securing a white wife had been one of the principal inducements offered by a life at the North but the awe of white people in which he had been reared was still too strong to permit his taking any active steps toward the object of his secret desire had not the lady herself come to his assistance with a little of the Native coca tree of her race ah Mr Brave boy she said one evening when they sat at the supper table alone it was the second girl's afternoon off and she had not come home to supper it must be an awful lonesome life you've been at the laden as a single man with no one to cook for you or look after you it all kind of Lonesome laugh Miss Flanagan and that's a fact but since I had the privilege of eating your cooking and join your Society I ain't felt a bit lonesome you're flattering me Mr Brave boy and even if you mean it means if it would have been miss Flanagan and even if you mean it's Mr Brave boy the time is liable to come when things will be different if your service is uncertain Mr Brave boy and then you'd wish you'd had some nice clean women at no doubt to cook and wash an iron to look after you and make your life comfortable Uncle Wellington sighed and looked at her languishingly it'd all be well enough Miss Flanagan if I hadn't met you but I don't know where I was to find a color lady would have begin to suit me after having lived in the same house with you Colored Lady indeed why Mr Brave boy you don't need to demand Yourself by marrying a colored lady not but they're as good as anybody is so long as they behave themselves there's many a white woman would be glad to get his final looking man is yeah now your flirting with me Miss Flanagan said Wellington but he felt a sudden and substantial increase in Courage when she had spoken and it was with astonishing ease that he found himself saying damn but one lady Miss Flanagan naked inches media want to change the lonesomeness of my singleness for the responsibilities of matrimony and I'm feared she'd say no if I'd ask her you'd better ask Mr Brave boy and not to be wasting time of wondering do I know the laity you knows are better than anybody else Miss Flanagan you is the only lady I'd be satisfied to marry after knowing you if you cast me off I'll spend the rest of my days in lonesomeness and misery Mrs Flanagan affected much surprise and embarrassment of this bold declaration oh Mr Brave boy she said covering him with a koi glance and it's a real shame I am to have been talking to you as I have it looks as though I'd been doing the Corton I didn't dream that I'd be able to draw your affections to myself as loved you ever since I fell in your lap On A Streetcar the first day I was in Groveland he said as he moved his chair up closer to hers one evening in the following week they went out after supper to the residents of Reverend Caesar Williams pastor of the colored Baptist Church and after the usual preliminaries were pronounced man and wife end of section 7 recording by James K white Chula Vista Section 8 of the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by James K White the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line by Charles Waddell Chestnut chapters 3 and 4. chapter 3. according to all his preconceived notions this marriage ought to have been the Acme of Uncle Wellington's Felicity but he soon found that it was not without its drawbacks on the following morning Mr Todd was informed of the marriage he had no special objection to it or interest in it except that he was opposed on principle to having husband and wife in his employment at the same time as a consequence Mrs braboy whose Place could be more easily filled than that of her husband received notice that her Services would not be required after the end of the month her husband was retained in his place as Coachman upon the loss of her situation Mrs brayboy decided to exercise the married woman's prerogative of letting her husband support her she rented the Upper Floor of a small house in an Irish neighborhood the newly wedded pair furnished their rooms on the installment plan and began housekeeping there was one little circumstance however that interfered slightly with their enjoyment of that perfect freedom from care which ought to characterize a honeymoon the people who own the house and occupied the lower floor had rented the upper part to Mrs brayboy in person it never occurring to them that her husband could be other than a white man when it became known that he was colored the landlord Mr Dennis O'Flaherty felt that he had been imposed upon and at the end of the first month served notice upon his tenants to leave the premises when Mrs brayboy with characteristic impetuosity inquired the meaning of this proceeding she was informed by Mr O'Flaherty that he did not care to live in the same house with nagis Mrs Brave boy resented the epithet with more warmth than dignity and for a brief space of time the air was green with Choice specimens of brogue the altercation barely ceasing before it had reached the point of blows it was quite clear that the brave boys could no longer live comfortably in Mr o'flaherty's house and they soon vacated the premises first letting the rent get a couple of weeks in arrears as a punishment to the two fastidious landlord they moved to a small house on Hackman Street a favorite locality with colored people for a while Affairs ran smoothly in the new home the colored people seemed at first well enough disposed toward Mrs Brave boy and she made quite a large acquaintance among them it was difficult however for Mrs brayboy to divest herself of the Consciousness that she was white and therefore Superior to her neighbors occasional words and acts by which she manifested this feeling were noticed and resented by her kenied and sensitive colored Neighbors the result was a slight coolness between them that her few white neighbors did not visit her she naturally and no doubt correctly imputed to disapproval of her matrimonial relations under these circumstances Mrs braboy was left a good deal to her own company owing to lack of opportunity in early life she was not a woman of many resources either mental or moral it is therefore not strange that in order to relieve her loneliness she should occasionally have recourse to a glass of beer and as the Habit grew upon her to still stronger stimulants Uncle Wellington himself was no teetotaler and did not interpose any objection so long as she kept her quotations within reasonable limits and was apparently none the worst for them indeed he sometimes joined her in a glass on one of these occasions he drank a little too much and while driving the ladies of Mr Todd's family to the Opera ran against a Lamppost and overturned the carriage to the serious discomposure of the lady's nerves and at the cost of his situation a Coachman discharged under such circumstances is not in the best position for procuring employment at his calling and Uncle Wellington under the pressure of need was obliged to seek some other means of livelihood at the suggestion of his friend Mr Johnson he bought a whitewash brush a peck of lime a couple of pails and a hand card and began work as a whitewasher his first efforts were very crude and for a while he lost a customer in every person he worked for he nevertheless managed to pick up a living during the spring and summer months and to support his wife and himself in comparative comfort the approach of winter put an end to the white washing season and left Uncle Wellington dependent for support upon occasional jobs of unskilled labor the income derived from these was very uncertain and Mrs brayboy was at length driven by a stress of circumstances to the wash tub that last Refuge of honest able-bodied poverty in all countries where the use of clothing is conventional the last state of Uncle Wellington was Now worse than the first under the soft firmness of Aunt Millie's rule he had not been required to do a great deal of work prompt and cheerful obedience being chiefly what was expected of him but matters were very different here he had not only to bring in the coal and water but to rub the clothes and turn the ringer and to humiliate himself before the public by emptying the tubs and hanging out the wash in full view of the neighbors and he had to deliver the clothes when laundered at times Wellington found himself wondering if his second marriage had been a wise one other circumstances combined a change in some degree his once rose-colored conception of Life at the North he had believed that all men were equal in this favored locality but he discovered more degrees of inequality than he had ever perceived at the South a colored man might be as good as a white man in theory but neither of them was of any special consequence without money or Talent or position Uncle Wellington found a great many privileges open to him at the north but he had not been educated to the point where he could appreciate them or take advantage of them and the enjoyment of them was expensive and for that reason alone as far beyond his reach as they had ever been when he once began to admit even the possibility of a mistake on his part these considerations presented themselves to his mind with increasing Force on occasions when Mrs brayboy would require of him some unusual physical exertion or when two frequent applications to the bottle had loosened her tongue Uncle Wellington's mind would revert with a remorseful twinge of conscience to the Dolce of his Southern home a film would come over his eyes and brain and instead of the red-faced Irish woman opposite him he could see the black but comely disc of Aunt Millie's countenance bending over the washtub the elegant brogue of Mrs braboy would deliquest into the soft dialect of North Carolina and he would only be aroused from this Blissful reverie by a wet shirt or a handful of Suds thrown into his face with which gentle reminder his wife would recall his attention to the duties of the moment there came a time one day in spring when there was no longer any question about it Uncle Wellington was desperately homesick Liberty equality privileges all were but as dust in the balance when weighed against his longing for old scenes and faces it was the natural reaction in the mind of a middle-aged man who had tried to force the current of a sluggish existence into a new and radically different Channel an active industrious man making the change in early life while there was time to spare for the waste of adaptation might have found in the new place more favorable conditions than in the old in Wellington age and temperament combined to prevent the success of the experiment the spirit of Enterprise and ambition into which he had been temporarily galvanized could no longer Prevail against the inertia of old habits of life and thought one day when he had been sent to deliver clothes he performed his errand quickly and boarding a passing streetcar paid one of his very few five cent pieces to ride down to the office of The Honorable Mr Brown the colored lawyer whom he had visited when he first came to the city and who was well known to him by sight and reputation Mr Brown he said I ain't getting along very well with my old woman what's the trouble ask the lawyer with business-like curtiness for he did not sent much of a fee well the main trouble is she don't treat me right and then she gets drunk and wasn't that She lays violent hands on me I cares the mocks of that woman on my face now he showed the lawyer a long scratch on the neck why don't you defend yourself you don't know Miss Bray boy sir you don't know that woman he replied with a shake of the head somebody's here white women is monstrous strong and there is well Mr Brave boy it's what you might have expected when you turned your back on your own people and married a white woman you weren't content with being a slave to the white folks once but you must try it again some people never know when they've got enough I don't see that there's any help for you unless he added suggestively you had a good deal of money appears to me he had somebody say since I've been up here that it was getting a lot for white folks and colored folks to marry that was once the law though it has always been a dead letter in Groveland in fact it was the law when you got married and until I introduced a bill in the legislature last fall to repeal it but even that law didn't hit cases like yours it was unlawful to make such a marriage but it was a good marriage when Once made I don't just get that through my head said Wellington scratching that member as though to make a hole for the idea to enter it's quite plain Mr Brave boy it's unlawful to kill a man but when he's killed he's just as dead as though the law permitted it I'm afraid you haven't much of a case but if you'll go to work and get 25 together I'll see what I can do for you we may be able to pull a case through on the ground of extreme cruelty I might even start the case if you brought in ten dollars Willington went away sorrowfully the laws of Ohio were very little more satisfactory than those of North Carolina and as for the ten dollars the lawyer might as well have told him to bring in the moon or a deed for the Public Square he felt very very low as he hurried back home to supper which he would have to go without if he were not on hand at the usual supper time but just when his spirits were lowest and his outlook for the future most hopeless a measure of relief was at hand he noticed when he reached home that Mrs braboy was a little preoccupied and did not abuse him as vigorously as he expected after so long in absence he also perceived the smell of strange tobacco in the house of a better grade than he could afford to use he thought perhaps someone had come in to see about the washing but he was too glad of a respite from Mrs braboy's rhetoric to imperil it by Indiscreet questions next morning she gave him 50 cents Brave boy she said you've been helping me nicely with the washing and I'm going to give you a holiday you can take your hook in line and go fishing in the brick water I'll fix your lunch and you needn't come back till night and there's half a dollar you can buy yourself a piper tobacco but be careful and don't waste it she added for fear she was overdoing the thing Uncle Wellington was overjoyed at this change of front on the part of Mrs brayboy if she would make it permanent he did not see why they might not live together comfortably the day passed pleasantly down on the Breakwater the weather was agreeable and the fish bit freely towards evening Wellington started home with a bunch of fish that no angler need have been ashamed of he looked forward to a good warm supper for even if something should have happened during the day to alter his wife's mood for the worse any ordinary variation would be more than balanced by the substantial addition of food to their Larder his mouth watered at the thought of Finney Beauties sputtering in the frying pan he noted as he approached the house that there was no smoke coming from the chimney this only Disturbed him in connection with the matter of supper when he entered the gate he observed further that the window shades had been taken down specto woman's been house cleaning he said to himself I wonder she didn't make mistay and help her he went round to the rear of the house and tried the kitchen door it was locked this was somewhat of a surprise and Disturbed still further his expectations in regard to supper when he had found the key and opened the door the gravity of his next Discovery drove away for the time being all thoughts of eating the kitchen was empty stove table chairs wash tubs pots and pans had vanished as if Into Thin Air for the Lord's sake he murmured an open mouth astonishment he passed into the other room they had only two which had served as bedroom and sitting room it was as bare as the first except that in the middle of the floor were piled Uncle Wellington's clothes it was not a large pile and on the top of it lay a folded piece of yellow wrapping paper Wellington stood for a moment as if petrified then he rubbed his eyes and looked around him what do this mean he said is I Dreaming but as I see what I appears to see he glanced down at the bunch of fish which he still held here's the fish his the house here he is where's the woman and where's the furniture can't figure out what this year all means he picked up the piece of paper and unfolded it it was written on one side here was the obvious solution of the mystery that is it would have been obvious if he could have read it but he could not and so as fancy continued to play upon the subject perhaps the house had been robbed or the furniture taken back by the seller for it had not been entirely paid for finally he went across the street and called to a boy in a neighbor's yard did you read writing Johnny yes sir I'm in the seventh grade read to see a paper for me the youngster took the note and with much labor read the following Mr braboy in living I have to say that my first husband has turned up unexpected having been saved unbeknownst to me from a watering grave and all the money wasted I spent for masses soul and I wish I had it back I feel it my duty to go and live with him again I take the furniture because I bought it your Clues is yours I leave them in wishing you the best of luck I remain once your wife but now again Mrs Katie Flanagan in B I'm leaving town today so it won't be no use looking for me on inquiry Uncle Wellington learned from the boy that shortly after his departure in the morning a white man had appeared on the scene followed a little later by a moving van into which the furniture had been loaded and carried away Mrs Brave boy clad in her best clothes had locked the door and gone away with the strange white man the news was soon noised about the street Wellington swapped his fish for supper and a bed at a neighbors and during the evening learn from several sources that the strange white men had been at his house the afternoon and the day before his neighbors intimated that they thought Mrs braboy's departure a good riddance of bad rubbish and Wellington did not dispute the proposition thus ended the second chapter of Wellington's matrimonial experiences his wife's departure had been the one thing needful to convince him Beyond a doubt that he had been a great fool remorse and homesickness forced him to the further conclusion that he had been naive as well as fool and had treated Aunt Millie shamefully he was not altogether a bad old man though very weak and airing and his better nature now gained the ascendancy of course his disappointment had a great deal to do with his remorse most people did not perceive the hideousness of sin until they began to reap its consequences instead of the beautiful Northern life he had dreamed of he found himself stranded penniless in a Strange Land among people whose sympathy he had forfeited with no one to lean upon and no refuge from the storms of life his Outlook was very dark and there sprang up within him a wild longing to get back to North Carolina back to the little whitewashed cabin shaded with China and mulberry trees back to the wood pile and the garden back to the old cronies with whom he had swept lies and tobacco for so many years he longed to kiss the rod of Aunt Millie's domination he had purchased his Liberty at too great a price the next day he disappeared from Groveland he had announced his departure only to Mr Johnson who sent his love to his relations in patesville it would be painful to record in detail the return journey of Uncle Wellington Mr brayboy no longer to his native town how many weary miles he walked how many times he risked his life on railroad trucks and between Freight cars how he depended for sustenance on the grudging hand of backdoor charity nor would it be profitable or delicate to mention any slight deviations from the path of rectitude as judged by conventional standards to which he may occasionally have been driven by a two insistent hunger or to refer in the remotest degree to a compulsory sojourn of 30 days in a city where he had no references and could show no visible means of support true charity will let these purely personal matters remain locked in the bosom of him who suffered them chapter 4. just 15 months after the date when Uncle Wellington had left North Carolina a weather beaten figure entered the town of patesville after Nightfall following the railroad track from the north few would have recognized in the hungry looking old brown clad and Dusty rags and limping along with bare feet the trim looking middle-aged mulatto who so few months before had taken the train from patesville for the distant North so if he had but known it there was no necessity for him to avoid the main streets and sneak around by unfrequented paths to reach the old place on the other side of the town he encountered nobody that he knew and soon The Familiar shape of the little cabin Rose before him it stood distinctly outlined against the sky and the light streaming from the half open shutters showed it to be occupied as he drew nearer every familiar detail of the place appealed to his memory and to his affections and his heart went out to the old home and the old wife as he came nearer still the odor of fried chicken floated out upon the air and set his mouth to watering and awakened unspeakable longings in his half-starved stomach at this moment however a fearful thought struck him suppose the old woman had taken legal advice and married again during his absence turnabout would have been only fair play he opened the gate softly and with his heart in his mouth approached the window on tiptoe and looked in a cheerful fire was Blazing on the Hearth in front of which set the familiar form of Aunt Millie and another at the site of whom Uncle Wellington's heart sank within him he knew the other person very well he had sat there more than once before Uncle Wellington went away it was the minister of the church to which his wife belonged the preacher's former visits however had signified nothing more than pastoral courtesy or appreciation of good eating his presence now was of serious portent for Wellington recalled with acute alarm that the Elder's wife had died only a few weeks before his own departure for the North what was the occasion of his presence this evening was it merely a pastoral call or was he courting Warhead ant really taken legal advice and married the Elder Wellington remembered a crack in the wall at the back of the house through which he could see and hear and quietly stationed himself there that chicken smells mighty good says Millie the Elder was saying I can't put a life of me see why that low-down husband yon could ever run away from a cook like you it's one of the beatenest things I ever heard how he could live with you and not appreciate you I can't understand no indeed I can't Aunt Millie's side the trouble with Wellington was she replied and he didn't know when he was well off he was always wishing for change a stunned by something new as for me responded the Elder earnestly I likes things but has been proven tried and stood to test and I can't imagine how anybody could expect to find a better housekeeper cook than you is Sister Millie how am I getting Mighty Lonesome since my wife died the good books say it is not good for man to live alone and appears to me that you and me might get along together monstrous well ington's heart stood still while he listened with strained attention Aunt Millie sighed I ain't denying Elder but what I've been kind of Lonesome myself for quite a while and I don't doubt that what the good books say applies to women as well as to men you can be sure do avir the Elder with professional authoritativeness yesm you can be certain show but of course Aunt Millie went on haven't lost my old man the way I did it has took me some time for to get my feelings straightened out like they ought to be I can imagine your feelings this Millie chimed in the older sympathetically when you come home that night and found your chest broke open and your money gone that you'd worked in the slave for from morning to night in and year out and when you found that no count gone with his clothes and you left all alone in the world to scuff Along by yourself yes Elder responded Aunt Millie I wasn't used right and then when I heard about his going to the law to find out about a divorce and when I heard what the Lord said about my not being his wife less he wanted me it made me so mad I made up my mind that if he ever put his foot on my door sail again I shut the door in his face and tell him to go back where he come from to Wellington on the outside the cabin had never seemed so comfortable and Millie never so desirable chicken never so appetizing as at this moment when they seemed slipping away from his grasp forever your feelings does your credit sister Millie said the Elder taking her hand which for a moment she did not withdraw and a way for you to close your door tights against them is to take me in his place he ain't got no claim on you no mo he took his choice according to what the Lord told him and determined that he wasn't your husband if he wasn't your husband he had no right to take your money and if it come back here again you can have him took up and sent to the penitentiary for stealing it Uncle Wellington's knee is already weak from fasting trembled violently beneath him the worst that he had feared was now likely to happen his only hope for safety lay in flight and yet the scene within so fascinated him that he could not move a step it'd serve him right exclaimed Aunt Millie indignantly if he was sent to the penitentiary for life they ain't nothing to mean to be done to him what did I ever do that he should use me like he did the recital of her wrongs had wrought upon Aunt Millie's feelings so that her voice broke and she wiped her eyes with her apron the Elder looks serenely confident and moved his chair nearer hers and ordered the better to play the role of comforter Wellington on the outside felt so mean that the darkness of the night was scarcely sufficient to hide him it would be no more than right if the Earth were to open and swallow him up and yet after all Elda said Millie with a sob though I know she was a better man and would treat me right I was so used to that old and lived with him so long that if he'd opened that notice minute and walk in I'm fit I'd be foolish enough and weak enough to forgive him and take him back again with a bound Uncle Wellington was away from the crack in the wall as he ran round the house he passed the wood pile and snatched up an arm full of pieces a moment later he threw open the door oh woman he exclaimed his dad wood you told me to fetch in why Elder he said to the preacher who had started from his seat with surprise what's your hurry won't you stay and have some supper with us end of Section 8 recording by James K white Chula Vista section 9 of the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by James K White the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line by Charles Waddell Chestnut the bouquet Mary my Rover's friends were somewhat surprised when she began to teach a colored School miss my Rover's friends are mentioned here because nowhere more than in a southern town is public opinion of force which cannot be lightly contravened public opinion however did not oppose miss my Rover's teaching colored children in fact all the colored public schools in town and there were several were taught by white teachers and had been so taught since the state had undertaken to provide free public instruction for all children within its boundaries previous to that time there had been a Freedmen's Bureau school and a presbyterian missionary School but these had been withdrawn when the need for them became less pressing the colored people of the Town had been for some time agitating their right to teach their own schools but as yet the claim had not been conceded the reason miss my Rover's course created some surprise was not therefore the fact that a southern white woman should teach a colored School it lay in the fact that up to this time no woman of just her quality had taken up such work most of the teachers of colored schools were not of those who had constituted the aristocracy of the old regime they might be said rather to represent the New Order of Things in which labor was in time to become honorable and men were after a somewhat longer time to depend for their place in society upon themselves rather than upon their ancestors Mary myrover belonged to one of the proudest of the old families her ancestors had been people of Distinction in Virginia before a collateral branch of the main stock had settled in North Carolina before the war they had been able to live up to their pedigree but the war brought sad changes miss my Rover's father the colonel my Rover who led a gallant but desperate charge at Vicksburg had fallen on the battlefield and his tomb in the White Cemetery was a shrine for the family on the confederate memorial day no other grave was so profusely decorated with flowers and in the oration pronounced the name of Colonel my Rover was always used to illustrate the highest type of patriotic devotion and self-sacrifice miss my Rover's brother too had fallen in the conflict but his bones lay in some unknown trench with those of a thousand others who had fallen on the same field I more her lover who had hoped to come home in the full tide of Victory and claim his bride as a reward for gallantry had shared the fate of her father and brother when the war was over the remnant of the family found itself involved in the common ruin more deeply involved indeed than some others for Colonel my Rover had believed in the ultimate Triumph of his cause and had invested most of his wealth in Confederate bonds which were now only so much waste paper there had been a little left Mrs myrover was Thrifty and had laid by a few hundred dollars which she kept in the house to meet unforeseen contingencies there remained two their home with an ample garden and A well-stocked Orchard besides a considerable tract of country land partly cleared but productive of very little Revenue with their shrunken resources miss my Rover and her mother were able to hold up their heads without embarrassment for some years after the close of the war but when things were adjusted to the change conditions and the stream of life began to flow more vigorously in the new channels they saw themselves in danger of dropping behind unless in some way they could add to their meager income miss my Rover looked over the field of employment never very wide for women in the South and found it occupied the only available position she could be supposed prepared to fill and which she could take without distinct loss of caste was that of a teacher and there was no vacancy except in one of the colored schools even teaching was a doubtful experiment it was not what she would have preferred but it was the best that could be done I don't like it Mary said her mother it's a long step from owning such people to teaching them what do they need with education it will only make them unfit for work they're free now mother and perhaps they'll work better if they're taught something besides it's only a business Arrangement and doesn't involve any closer contact than we have with our servants well I should say not sniff the old lady not one of them will ever dare to presume on your position to take any liberties with us I'll see to that miss my Rover began her work as a teacher in the Autumn at the opening of the school year it was a novel experience at first though there had always been negro servants in the house and though on the streets colored people were more numerous than those of her own race and though she was so familiar with their dialect that she might almost be said to speak it barring certain characteristic grammatical inaccuracies she had never been brought in personal contact with so many of them at once as when she confronted the 50 or 60 faces of colors ranging from a white almost as clear as their own to the darkest Livery of the sun which were gathered in the school room one the morning when she began her duties some of the inherited Prejudice of her cast too made itself felt though she tried to repress any outward sign of it and she could perceive that the children were not altogether responsive they likewise were not entirely free from antagonism the work was unfamiliar to her she was not physically very strong and at the close of the first day went home with a splitting headache if she could have resigned then and there without causing comment or annoyance to others she would have felt it a privilege to do so but a night's rest banished her headache and improved her spirits and the next morning she went to her work with renewed Vigor fortified by the experience of the first day miss my Rover's second day was more satisfactory she had some natural talent for organization though hitherto unaware of it and in the course of the day she got her classes formed and lessons underway in a week or two she began to classify her pupils in her own mind as bright or stupid mischievous or well-behaved lazy or industrious as the case might be and to regulate her discipline accordingly that she had come of a long line of ancestors who had exercised Authority and mastership was perhaps not without its effect upon her character and enabled her more readily to maintain good order in the school when she was fairly broken in she found the work rather to her liking and derived much pleasure from such success as she achieved as a teacher it was natural that she should be more attracted to some of the pupils than to others perhaps her favorite or rather the one she liked best for she was too fair and just for conscious favoritism was Sophie Tucker just the ground for the teacher's liking for Sophie might not at first be a parent the girl was far from the widest of miss my Rover's pupils in fact she was one of the darker ones she was not the brightest in intellect though she always tried to learn her lessons she was not the best dressed for her mother was a poor Widow who went out washing and scrubbing for a living perhaps the real tie between them was Sophie's intense Devotion to the teacher it had manifested itself almost from the first day of the school in the wrapped look of admiration miss my Rover always saw on the little black face turned toward her in it there was nothing of Envy nothing of regret nothing but worship for the beautiful white lady she was not especially handsome but to Sophie her beauty was almost divine who had come to teach her if miss my Rover dropped a book Sophie was the first to Spring and pick it up if she wished a chair moved Sophie seemed to anticipate her wish and so of all the numberless little services that can be rendered in a school room miss my Rover was fond of flowers and liked to have them about her the children soon learned of this taste of hers and kept the vases on her desk filled with blossoms during their season Sophie was perhaps the most active in providing them if she could not get garden flowers she would make excursions to the woods in the early morning and bring in great Dew Laden Bunches of bay or Jasmine or some other fragrant Forest flower which she knew the teacher loved when I die Sophie miss my Rover said to the child one day I want to be covered with roses and when they bury me I'm sure I shall rest better if my grave is banked with flowers and roses are planted at my head and at my feet miss my Rover was at first amused at Sophie's devotion but when she grew more accustomed to it she found it rather to her liking it had a sort of Flavor of the old regime and she felt when she bestowed her kindly notice upon her little black attendant some of the feudal condescension of the mistress toward the slave she was kind to Sophie and permitted her to play the role she had assumed which caused sometimes a little jealousy among the other girls once she gave Sophie a yellow ribbon which she took from her own hair the child carried it home and cherished it as a Priceless treasure to be worn only on the greatest occasions Sophie had a rival in her attachment to the teacher but the Rivalry was altogether friendly miss my Rover had a little dog a white spaniel answering to the name of Prince was a dog of high degree and would have very little to do with the children of the school he made an exception however in the case of Sophie whose devotion for his mistress he seemed to comprehend he was a clever dog and could Fetch and carry sit up on his haunches extend his paw to shake hands and possess several other canine accomplishments he was very fond of his mistress and always unless shut up at home accompanied her to school where he spent most of his time lying under the teacher's desk or in cold weather by the stove except when he would go out now and then and Chase an imaginary rabbit round the yard presumably for exercise at school Sophie and Prince vibed with each other and their attentions to miss my Rover but when school was over Prince went away with her and Sophie stayed behind for miss my Rover was white and Sophie was black which they both understood perfectly well miss my Rover taught the colored children but she could not be seen with them in public if they occasionally met her on the street they did not expect her to speak to them unless she happened to be alone and no other white person was in sight if any of the children felt slighted she was not aware of it for she intended no slight she had not been brought up to speak to Negroes on the street and she could not act differently from other people and though she was a woman of sentiment and capable of deep feeling her training had been such that she hardly expected to find in those of Darker Hue than herself the same susceptibility varying in degree perhaps but yet the same in kind that gave to her own life the alternations of feeling that made it most worth living once Miss myrover wished to carry home a parcel of books she had the bundle in her hand when Sophie came up let me touch your bundle for you miss my she asked eagerly I'm going your way thank you Sophie was the reply I'll be glad if you will Sophie followed the teacher at a respectful distance when they reached miss my Rover's home Sophie carried the bundle to the doorstep where miss my Rover took it and thanked her Mrs myrover came out on the Piazza as Sophie was moving away she said in the child's hearing and perhaps with the intention that she should hear Mary I wish you wouldn't let those little follow you to the house I don't want them in the yard I should think you'd have enough of them all day very well mother replied her daughter I won't bring any more of them the child was only doing me a favor Mrs myrover was an invalid and opposition or irritation of any kind brought on nervous peroxisms that made her miserable and made life a burden to the rest of the household so that Mary seldom crossed her whims she did not bring Sophie to the house again nor did Sophie again offer her Services as Porter one day in Spring Sophie brought her teacher a bouquet of yellow roses they come off in my own Bush miss my she said proudly and I didn't let nobody else pull him but saved them all for you because I know you like roses so much I'm gonna bring them all to you as long as they last thank you Sophie said the teacher you are a very good girl for another year Mary my Rover taught the colored school and did excellent service the children made rapid progress under her tuition and learned to love her well for they saw and appreciated as well as children could her Fidelity to a trust that she might have slided as some others did without much fear of criticism toward the end of her second year she sickened and after a brief illness died old Mrs myrover was inconsolable she ascribed her daughter's death to her labors as teacher of negro children just how the color of the pupils had produced the Fatal effects she did not stop to explain but she was too old and had suffered too deeply from the war in body and mind and estate ever to reconcile herself to the changed Order of Things following the return of peace and with an unsound yet perfectly explainable logic she visited some of her displeasure upon those who had profited most though passively by her losses I always feared something would happen to Mary she said it seemed unnatural for her to be wearing herself out teaching little Negroes who ought to have been working for her but the world has hardly been a fit place to live in since the war and when I follow her as I must before long I shall not be sorry to go she gave strict orders that no colored people should be admitted to the house some of her friends heard of this and remonstrated they knew the teacher was loved by the pupils and felt that sincere respect from The Humble would be a worthy tribute to the proudest but Mrs myrover was obdurate they had my daughter when she was alive she said and they've killed her but she's mine now and I won't have them come near her I don't want one of them at the funeral or anywhere around for a month before miss my Rover's death Sophie had been watching her rose bush the one that bore the yellow roses for the first buds of spring and when these appeared had awaited impatiently their gradual unfolding but not until her teacher's death had they become full-blown roses when miss my Rover died Sophie determined to pluck the roses and lay them on her coffin perhaps she thought they might even put them in her hand or on her breast for Sophie remembered Miss myrover's thanks and praise when she had brought her the yellow roses to Spring before on the morning of the day set for the funeral Sophie washed her face until it's shown combed and brushed her hair with painful conscientiousness put on her best frock plucked her yellow roses and tying them with a treasured ribbon her teacher had given her set out for miss my Rover's home she went round to the side gate the house stood on a corner and stole up the path to the kitchen a colored woman whom she did not know came to the door what you want child she inquired can I see Miss Mai ask Sophie timidly I don't know honey Ole Miss myrova says she don't want no colored folks around the house and join his funeral I'll look and see she's around the front room where the corpse is you sit down here and keep still and if she's upstairs maybe I can get you in there a minute if I can't I can put your bouquet amongst the rest where she won't know nothing about it a moment after she had gone there was a step in the hall and old Mrs my Rover came into the kitchen Dinah she said in a peevish tone Diner receiving no answer Mrs my Rover peered around the kitchen and caught sight of Sophie what are you doing here she demanded uh I'm waiting to see to cook ma'am stammered Sophie the cook isn't here now I don't know where she is besides my daughter is to be buried today and I won't have anyone visiting the servants until the funeral is over come back some other day or see the cook at her own home in the evening she stood waiting for the child to go and under the Keen glance of her eyes Sophie feeling as though she had been caught in some disgraceful act hurried down the walk and out of the gate with her bouquet in her hand Dinah said Mrs Meyer over when the cook came back I don't want any strange people admitted here today the house will be full of our friends and we have no room for others yes him said the cook she understood perfectly what her mistress meant and what the cook thought about her mistress was a matter of no consequence the funeral services were held at Saint Paul's Episcopal Church where the myrovers had always worshiped quite a number of miss my Rover's pupils went to the church to attend the services the building was not a large one there was a small Gallery at the rear to which colored people were admitted if they chose to come at ordinary services and those who wish to be present at the funeral supposed that the usual custom would prevail they were therefore surprised when they went to the side entrance by which colored people gained access to the gallery stairs to be met by an usher who barred their Passage I'm sorry he said but I have had orders to admit no one until the friends of the family have all been seated if you wish to wait until the white people have all gone in and there is any room left you may be able to get into the back part of the gallery of course I can't tell yet whether there'll be any room or not now the statement of the Usher was a very reasonable one but strange to say none of the colored people chose to remain except Sophie she still hoped to use her floral offering for its destined end in some way though she did not know just how she waited in the yard until the church was filled with white people and a number who could not gain admittance were standing about the doors then she went round to the side of the church and depositing her bouquet carefully on an old Mossy gravestone climbed up on the projecting sill of a window near the chancel the window was of stained glass of somewhat ancient make the church was old had indeed been built in colonial times and the stained glass had been brought from England the design of the window showed Jesus blessing little children time had dealt gently with the window but just at the feet of the figure of Jesus a small triangular piece of glass had been broken out to this aperture Sophie applied her eyes and through it saw and heard what she could of the services within before the chancel on trestles draped in Black stood the somber casket in which lay all that was Mortal of her dear teacher the top of the casket was covered with flowers and lying stretched out underneath it she saw miss my Rover's little white dog Prince he had followed the body to the church and slipping in unnoticed among the mourners had taken his place from which no one had the heart to remove him the white robed Rector read the solemn service for the dead and then delivered a brief address in which he dwelt upon the uncertainty of life and to the believer the certain blessedness of Eternity he spoke of miss my Rover's kindly spirit and as an illustration of her love and self-sacrifice for others referred to her labors as a teacher of the poor ignorant Negroes who had been placed in their midst by an all-wise Providence and whom it was their duty to guide and Direct in the station in which God had put them then the organ peeled a prayer was said and the long Cortez moved from the church to the cemetery about half a mile away where the body was to be interred when the services were over Sophie sprang down from her perch and taking her flowers followed the procession he did not walk with the rest but at a proper and respectful distance from the last mourner no one noticed the little black girl with the bunch of yellow flowers or thought of her as interested in the funeral the Cortez reached the cemetery and filed slowly through the gate but Sophie stood outside looking at a small sign in white letters on a black background notice this cemetery is for white people only others please keep out Sophie thanks to miss my Rover's painstaking instruction could read this sign very distinctly in fact she had often read it before Sophie was a child who loved Beauty in a blind groping sort of way and had sometimes stood by the fence of the cemetery and looked through at the green mounds and shaded walks and blooming flowers within and wished that she might walk among them she knew too that the little sign on the gate though so courteously worded was no mere formality for she had heard how a colored man who had wandered into the cemetery on a hot night and fallen asleep on the flat top of a tomb had been arrested as a vagrant and fined five dollars which he had worked out on the streets with a ball and chain attachment at 25 cents a day since that time the cemetery gate had been locked at night so Sophie stayed outside and looked through the fence her poor bouquet had begun to droop by this time and the yellow ribbon had lost some of its freshness Sophie could see the Rector standing by the grave the mourners gathered round she could faintly distinguish the solemn words with which ashes were committed to ashes and dust to dust she heard the hollow thud of the earth falling on the coffin and she leaned against the iron fence sobbing softly until the grave was filled and rounded off and the wreaths and other floral pieces were disposed upon it when the mourners began to move toward the gate Sophie walked slowly down the street in the direction opposite to that taken by most of the people who came out when they had all gone away and the sexton had come out and locked the gate behind him Sophie crept back her roses were faded now and from some of them the petals had fallen she stood there irresolute loathed to leave with her heart's desire unsatisfied when as her eyes sought again the teacher's last resting place she saw lying beside the new maid grave what looked like a small bundle of white wool Sophie's eyes light it up with a sudden glow Prince here Prince she called the little dog Rose and trotted down to the gate Sophie pushed the poor bouquet between the iron bars take that to miss my prince she said that's a good doggy the dog wagged his tail intelligently took the bouquet carefully in his mouth carried it to his mistress's grave and laid it among the other flowers the bunch of roses was so small that from where she stood Sophie could see only a dash of yellow against the white background of the mass of flowers when Prince had performed his mission he turned his eyes towards Sophie inquiringly and when she gave him a nod of approval lay down and resumed his watch by the graveside Sophie looked at him a moment with a feeling very much like envy and then turned and moved slowly away end of section 9 recording by James K white Chula Vista section 10 of the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by James K White the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line by Charles Waddell Chestnut section 10. the web of circumstance chapter 1. within a low clapboard HUD with an open front a forge was glowing in front a blacksmith was shoeing a horse a Sleek well-kept animal with the signs of good blood and breeding a young yulado stood by and handed the blacksmith such tools as he needed from time to time a group of negroes were sitting around some in the shadow of the shop one in the full glare of the sunlight a gentleman was seated in a buggy a few yards away in the shade of a spreading Elm the horse had loosened a shoe and Colonel Thornton who was a lover of fine horse flesh and careful of it had stopped at Ben Davis's blacksmith shop as soon as he discovered the loose shoe to have it fastened on all right Colonel the blacksmith called out Tom he said addressing the young men help me hitch up Colonel Thornton alighted from the buggy looked at the shoe signified his approval of the job and stood looking on while the blacksmith and his assistant harnessed the horse to the buggy that's a modifying whip you got there Colonel said Ben while the young man was tightening the straps of the harness on the opposite side of the horse I wish I had one like it where can you get them whips my brother brought me this from New York said the colonel you can't buy them down here the whip in question was a handsome One the handle was wrapped with interlacing threads of variegated colors forming an elaborate pattern the Lash being dark green an octagonal ornament of glass was set in the end of the handle it certainly is fine said Ben I wish I had one like it he looked at the whip longingly as Colonel Thornton drove away pissed at me being getting might have blooded said one of the bystanders driving a horse and buggy and wanting a whip like Colonel thumps what's the reason I can't have a horse and buggy and a whip like Kevin Thorntons if I pay for them ask Ben we colored folks never had no chance to get nothing before the wall but if every in this town had took care of his money since the wall like I had and bought as much land as I has the might have got half the land by this time he went on giving a finishing blow to a horseshoe and throwing it on the ground to cool Carried Away by his own eloquence he did not notice the approach of two white men who came up the street from behind him and a few he continued raking the coals together over a fresh bar of iron would stop wasting your money on Excursion to put money in white folks pockets and stop building fine churches and build houses for yourselves you get along much faster you're talking since Ben said one of the white men your people will never be respected till they've got property the conversation took another turn the white man transacted their business and went away the whistle of a neighboring steam Sawmill blew a raucous Blast for the hour of noon and the loafers shuffled away in different directions you can go to dinner Tom said to blacksmith and stop at the gate when you go by my house and tell Nancy I'll be there in about 20 minutes I got to finish this here A plow Pond first the young man walked away one would have supposed from the rapidity with which he walked that he was very hungry a quarter of an hour later the blacksmith dropped his hammer pulled off his leather apron shut the front door of the shop and went home to dinner he came into the house out of the fervent heat and throwing off his Straw Hat wiped his brow vigorously with a red cotton handkerchief them College smells good he said sniffing the odor that came in through the kitchen door as his good-looking yellow wife opened it to enter the room where he was I've got a monstrous good appetite today that feels good too I paid major Ransom the interest on the mortgage this morning and a hundred dollars besides and I expect to have the balance ready by the first of next January and then we won't owe nobody a cent I tell you it ain't nothing like profit and make a person feel like a man but what's the matter with you Nancy is something schedule the woman did seem excited and Ill at ease there was a heaving of the full bust a quickened breathing that batoken suppressed excitement I I just seen a rattlesnake out in a garden she stammered the blacksmith ran to the door which way where was he he cried he heard a rustling in the bushes at one side of the garden and the sound of a breaking twig and ceasing a hoe which stood by the door he sprang toward the point from which the sound came no no said woman heardley it was over here and she directed her husband's attention to the other side of the garden the blacksmith with the uplifted hoe its sharp blade gleaming in the sunlight appeared cautiously among the collards and tomato plants listening all the while for the ominous rattle but found nothing I reckon he's got away he said as he set the hoe up again by the door where's the chilling he asked with some anxiety is they playing in the woods no answered his wife they've gone to the spring the spring was on the opposite side of the garden from that on which the snake was said to have been seen so the blacksmith sat down and fanned himself with a palm leaf fan until the dinner was served you ain't quite on time today Nancy he said glancing up at the clock on the mantle after the edge of his appetite had been taken off got to make time if you want to make money didn't Tom tell you I'd be here in 20 minutes no she said I seen him going past he didn't say nothing I don't know what's the matter with that boy Muse the blacksmith over his apple dumpling he's getting Mada careless here lately must have something on his mind some gal I reckon the children had come in while he was speaking a slender shapely boy yellow like his mother a girl several years younger dark like her father both bright looking children and neatly dressed I seen cousin Tom down by the spring said the little girl as she lifted off the pail of water that had been balanced on her head he'd come out of the woods just as we was filling out buckets yes insisted the blacksmith he's got some gal on his mind chapter 2. the case of the state of North Carolina versus Ben Davis was called the accused was led into court and took his seat in the prisoner's dock prisoner at the bar stand up The Prisoner pale and anxious stood up the clerk read the indictment in which it was charged that the defendant by force and arms had entered the barn of one g w Thornton and feloniously taken there from one whip of the value of fifteen dollars are you guilty or not guilty ask the judge not guilty Jana not guilty judge I never took the whip the state's attorney opened the case he was young and zealous recently elected to the office this was his first batch of cases and he was anxious to make as good a record as possible he had no doubt of the prisoner's Guild there had been a great deal of petty thieving in the county and several gentlemen had suggested to him the necessity for greater severity in punishing it the jury were all white men the prosecuting attorney stated the case we expect to show Gentlemen of the jury the facts set out in the indictment not all together by direct proof but by a chain of circumstantial evidence which is stronger even than the testimony of eyewitnesses men might lie but circumstances cannot we expect to show that the defendant is a man of dangerous character a surly impudent fellow a man whose views of property are prejudicial to the welfare of society and who has been heard to assert that half the property which is owned in this county has been stolen and that if Justice were done the white people ought to divide up the land with the Negroes in other words a negro nihilist a communist a secret devotee of Tom Payne and Voltaire a pupil of the anarchist propaganda which if not checked by the stern hand of the law will fasten its Insidious fangs in our social system and drag it down to ruin we object may it please your honor said the defendant's attorney the prosecutor should defer his argument until the testimony is in confine yourself to the facts major said the court mildly the prisoners sat with half open mouth overwhelmed by this flood of eloquence he had never heard of Tom Payne or Voltaire he had no conception of what a nihilist or an anarchist might be and could not have told the difference between a propaganda and a potato we expect to show May it please the court that the prisoner had been employed by Colonel Thornton to shoe a horse that the horse was taken to the prisoner's blacksmith shop by a servant of Colonel Thorntons that this servant expressing a desire to go somewhere on an errand before the horse had been shot the prisoner volunteered to return the horse to Colonel Thornton's stable that he did so and the following morning the whip in question was missing that from circumstances suspicion naturally fell upon the prisoner and a search was made of his shop where the whip was found secreted that the prisoner denied that the whip was there but when confronted with the evidence of his crime showed by his confusion that he was guilty Beyond a per Adventure The Prisoner looked more anxious so much eloquence could not but be effective with the jury the attorney for the defendant answered briefly denying the defendant's guilt dwelling upon his previous good character for honesty and begging the jury not to prejudge the case but to remember that the law is merciful and that the benefit of the doubt should be given to the prisoner The Prisoner glanced nervously at the jury there was nothing in their faces to indicate the effect upon them of the opening statements it seemed to the disinterested listeners as if the defendant's attorney had little confidence in his clients cause Colonel Thornton took the stand and testified to his ownership of the whip the place where it was kept its value and the fact that it had disappeared the whip was produced in court and identified by the witness he also testified to the conversation at the blacksmith shop in the course of which The Prisoner had expressed a desire to possess a similar whip the cross-examination was brief and no attempt was made to shake the Colonel's testimony the next witness was the Constable who had gone with a warrant to search Ben's shop he testified to the circumstances under which the whip was found he was Brazen as a mule at first and wanted to get mad about it but when we began to turn over that pile of truck in the corner he kind of begun to tremble when the whip handle stuck out his eyes commenced to grow big and when will Hall to whip out he turned pale as ashes and begun to swear he didn't take the Whip and didn't know how it got there you may cross-examine said the prosecuting attorney triumphantly The Prisoner felt the weight of the testimony and glanced furtively at the jury and then appealingly at his lawyer you say that Ben denied that he had stolen the whip said the prisoner's attorney on cross-examination did it not occur to you that what you took for Brazen impudence might have been but the evidence of conscious innocence the witness grinned incredulously revealing thereby a few blackened fragments of teeth I took up more than 100 for stealing kennel and I never seen one yet that didn't deny it to the last answer my question might not the witness's indignation have been a manifestation of conscious innocence yes or no yes it might and the moon might fall but it didn't further cross-examination did not weaken the witness's testimony which was very damaging and everyone in the courtroom felt instinctively that a strong defense would be required to break down the state's case the state rests said the prosecuting attorney with a ring in his voice which spoke of certain victory there was a temporary Lull in the proceedings during which a bailiff passed a pitcher of water and a glass along the line of juryman the defense was then begun the law in its wisdom did not permit the defendant to testify in his own behalf there were no witnesses to the facts but several were called to testify to Ben's good character the colored Witnesses made him out possessed of all the virtues one or two white men testified that they had never known anything against his reputation for honesty the defendant rested his case and the state called its Witnesses in rebuttal they were entirely on the point of character one testified that he had heard the prisoner say that if the Negroes had their rights they would own at least half the property another testified that he had heard the defendant say that the Negroes spent too much money on churches and that They Carried a good deal more for God than God ever seemed to care for them Ben Davis listened to this testimony with half open mouth and staring eyes now and then he would lean forward and speak perhaps a word when his attorney would shake a warning finger at him and he would fall back helplessly as if abandoning himself to fate but for a moment only when he would resume his puzzled look the arguments followed the prosecuting attorney briefly summed up the evidence and characterized it as almost a mathematical proof of the prisoner's guilt he reserved his eloquence for the closing argument the defendant's attorney had a headache and secretly believed his client guilty his address sounded more like an appeal for Mercy than a demand for justice then the state's attorney delivered the maiden argument of his office the speech that made his reputation as an order and opened up to him a successful political career the judges charged to the jury was a plain simple statement of the law as applied to circumstantial evidence and the mere statement of the law foreshadowed the verdict the eyes of the prisoner were glued to the jury box and he looked more and more like a hunted animal in the rear of the crowd of blacks who filled the back part of the room partly concealed by the projecting angle of the fireplace stood Tom the blacksmith's assistant if the face is the mirror of the Soul then this man's Soul taken off its guard in this moment of excitement was full of lust and envy and all evil Passions the jury filed out of their box and entered the Jury Room behind the judges stand there was a moment of relaxation in the courtroom the lawyers fell into conversation across the table the judge beckoned to Colonel Thornton who stepped forward and they conversed together a few moments The Prisoner was all eyes and ears in this moment of waiting and from an involuntary gesture on the part of the judge he defined that they were speaking of him it is a Pity he could not hear what was said how do you feel about the case Colonel ask the judge let him off easy replied Colonel Thornton he's the best blacksmith in the county the business of the Court seemed to have halted by a tacit consent in anticipation of a quick verdict the suspense did not last long scarcely 10 minutes had elapsed when there was a wrap on the door the officer opened it and the jury came out The Prisoner his soul in his eyes sought their faces but met no reassuring glance they were all looking away from him Gentlemen of the jury have you agreed upon a verdict we have responded the foreman the clerk of the court stepped forward and took the Fateful slip from the Foreman's hand the clerk read the verdict we the jury impaneled and sworn to try the issues in this case do find the prisoner guilty as charged in the indictment there was a moment of breathless silence then a wild burst of grief from the prisoner's wife to which his two children not understanding at all but vaguely conscious of some Calamity added their voices in two long discordant whales which would have been ludicrous had they not been heart-rending the face of the young man in the back of the room expressed relief and badly concealed satisfaction The Prisoner fell back upon the seat from which he had half risen in his anxiety and his dark face assumed an ashen hue what he thought could only be surmised perhaps knowing his innocence he had not believed conviction possible perhaps conscious of guilt he dreaded the punishment the extent of which was optional with the judge within very wide limits only one other person present knew whether or not he was guilty and that other had slunk furtively from the courtroom some of the spectators wondered why there should be so Much Ado About convicting a negro of stealing a buggy whip they had forgotten their own interest of the moment before they did not realize out of what Trifles grow the tragedies of life it was four o'clock in the afternoon the hour for adjournment when the verdict was returned the judge nodded to the bailiff this court is now adjourned until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning cried the bailiff in a sing-song voice the judge left the bench the jury filed out of the box and a buzz of conversation filled the courtroom brace up Ben price up my boy said the defendant's lawyer half apologetically I did what I could for you but you could never tell what a jury will do you won't be sentenced till tomorrow morning in the meantime I'll speak to the judge and try to get him to be easy with you he may let you off with a light fine the Negro pulled himself together and by an effort listened thank you major was all he said he seemed to be thinking of something far away he barely spoke to his wife when she frantically threw herself on him and clung to his neck as he passed through the side room on his way to jail he kissed his children mechanically and did not reply to the soothing remarks made by the jailer chapter 3. there was a good deal of excitement in town the next morning two white men stood by the post office talking did you hear the news no what was it Ben Davis tried to break jail last night you don't say so what a fool he ain't been sentenced yet well now said the other I've known been a long time and he was a right good I kind of find it hard to believe he did steal that whip but what's a man's Feeling Again the proof they spoke on a while using the past tense as if they were speaking of a dead man if I know judge hot benna wish he'd slept last night instead of trying to break out in jail at 10 o'clock The Prisoner was brought into court he walked with shambling gate bent at the shoulders hopelessly with downcast eyes and took his seat with several other prisoners who had been brought in for the sentence his wife accompanied by the children waited behind him and a number of his friends were gathered in the courtroom the first prisoner sentenced was a young white Man convicted several days before of manslaughter the deed was done in the heat of passion under circumstances of great provocation during a quarrel about a woman The Prisoner was admonished of the sanctity of human life and sentenced to one year in the penitentiary the next case was that of a young clerk 18 or 19 years of age who had committed a forgery in order to procure the means to buy lottery tickets he was well connected and the case would not have been prosecuted if the judge had not refused to allow it to be knulled and once brought to trial a conviction could not have been avoided you are a young man said the judge Gravely yet not unkindly and your life is yet before you I regret that you should have been led into evil courses by the Lust For speculation so dangerous in its Tendencies so fruitful of crime and misery I am led to believe that you are sincerely penitent and that after such punishment as the law cannot remit without bringing itself into contempt you will see the error of your ways and follow the strict path of rectitude your fault has entailed distress not only upon yourself but upon your relatives people of good name and good family who suffer as keenly from your disgrace says you yourself partly out of consideration for their feelings and partly because I feel that under the circumstances the law will be satisfied by the penalty I shall inflict I sentence you to imprisonment in the county jail for six months and a fine of one hundred dollars and the costs of this action the church talks well don't he whispered one spectator to another yes and kind of likes to hear self-talk answered the other Ben Davis stand up ordered the judge he might have said Ben Davis wake up for the Jailer had to touch the prisoner on the shoulder to Rouse him from his stupor he stood up and something of the hunted look came again into his eyes which shifted under the stern glance of the judge Ben Davis you have been convicted of larceny after a fair trial before 12 Good Men of this County under the testimony there can be no doubt of your guilt the case is an aggravated one you are not an ignorant shiftless fellow but a man of more than ordinary intelligence among your people and one who ought to know better you have not even the poor excuse of having stolen to satisfy hunger or a physical appetite your conduct is Holy without excuse and I can only regard your crime as the result of a tendency to offenses of this nature a tendency which is only too common among your people a tendency which is a menace to civilization a menace to society itself for society rests upon the sacred right of property your opinions too have been given a wrong turn you have been heard to utter sentiments which if disseminated among an ignorant people would breed discontent and give rise to strained relations between them and their best friends their Old Masters who understand their real nature and their real needs and to whose Justice and enlightened guidance they can safely Trust have you anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon you nothing sir something that I didn't take to whip the law largely I think in view of the peculiar circumstances of your unfortunate race has vested a large discretion in court says to the extent of the punishment for offenses of this kind taking your case as a whole I am convinced that it is one which for the sake of the example deserves a severe punishment nevertheless I do not feel disposed to give you the full extent of the law which would be 20 years in the penitentiary but considering the fact that you have a family and have heretofore born a good reputation in the community I will impose upon you the light sentence of imprisonment for five years in the penitentiary at hard labor and I hope that this will be a warning to you and others who may be similarly disposed and that after your sentence has expired you may lead the life of a law-abiding citizen footnote there are no degrees of larceny in North Carolina and the penalty for any offense lies in the discretion of the judge to the limit of 20 years end of footnote oh Ben oh my husband oh God moan the poor wife and tried to press forward to her husband's side keep back Nancy keep back said the Jailer you can see him in jail several people were looking at Ben's face there was one flash of Despair and then nothing but a Stony blank behind which he masked his real feelings whatever they were human character is a compound of Tendencies inherited and habits acquired in the anxiety the fear of disgrace spoke the 19th century civilization with which Ben Davis had been more or less closely untouched during 20 years of slavery and 15 years of freedom in the solidity with which he received this sentence for a crime which he had not committed spoke who knows what trait of inherited savagery for stoicism is a Savage virtue chapter 4. one morning in June five years later a black man limped slowly along the old Lumberton Plank Road a tall man whose bowed shoulders made him seem shorter than he was and a face from which it was difficult to guess his years for in it the wrinkles and flabbiness of age were found side by side with firm white teeth and eyes not sunken eyes bloodshot and burning with something either fever or passion though he limped painfully with one foot the other hit the ground impatiently like the good horse in a poorly matched team as he walked along he was talking to himself I wonder what they'll do when I get back I wonder how Nance is supported the family all these years took in washing I suppose she was a monstrous good washer and iron I wonder if the children to be too proud to recognize their daddy come back from the penitentiary suspect Billy must be a big boy by this time he won't believe his daddy ever stole anything I'm going to slip around and surprise him five minutes later a face peered cautiously into the window of what had once been Ben Davis's cabin at first an eager face its coarseness lit up with the fire of Hope a moment later a puzzled phase then an anxious fearful phase as the man stepped away from the window and wrapped at the door is Miss Davis home he asked of the woman who opened the door Miss Davis don't live here you're mistook in the house whose house is this it belongs to my husband Mr Smith Prima Smith excuse me but I know to how some years ago when I was here watched on a visit and it belonged to a man named Ben Davis Ben Davis Ben Davis oh yes I remember now that was the gentleman what was sent to the penitentiary for something another sheep still and I believe frame us she called what was Ben Davis what used to own this house sent to the penitentia full all stealing came back the reply and sleepy accents from the man seated by the fireplace The Traveler went on to the next house a neat looking yellow woman came to the door when he rattled the gate and stood looking suspiciously at him what you won't she asked please ma'am will you tell me whether a man named Ben Davis used to live in his neighborhood used to live in the next house was sent to the penitentiary for killing a man can you tell me what went with Miss Davis hmm as a spectable woman I is and don't mix with them kind of people she wasn't no better than her husband she took up what a man that used to work for Ben and they're living down by the wagon yard with no spectable woman ever puts a foot and the chilling the gal's dead wasn't no better than she oughta been she fell in the creek and got drowned some folks say she wasn't sober when it happened the boy took out this Pappy he was arrested last week for shooting a white man and was lynched the same night there wasn't none of no count after their Pepe went to the penitentiary what went with the property it was sold for the mortgage for the taxes or the lawyer or something I don't know what a white man got it the man with the bundle went on until he came to a creek that crossed the road he descended the sloping bank and sitting on a stone in the shade of a water Oak took off his coarse brogans Unwound the rags that served him in lieu of stockings and laved in the cool water the feet that were chafed with many a weary mile of travel after five years of unrequited toil and unspeakable hardship in convict camps five years of slaving by the site of human brutes and of nightly hurting with them in Vermin haunted Huts Ben Davis had become like them for a while he had received occasional letters from home but in the shifting life of the convict Camp they had long since ceased to reach him if indeed they had been written for a year or two the consciousness of his innocence had helped to make him resist the debasing influences that surrounded him the hope of shortening his sentence by good behavior 2 had worked a similar end but the transfer from one contractor to another each interested in keeping as long as possible a good worker had speedily dissipated any such hope When Hope took flight its place was not long vacant despair followed and black hatred of all kind hatred especially of the man to whom he attributed all his misfortunes one who is suffering unjustly is not apt to indulge in fine abstractions nor to balance probabilities by long brooding over his wrongs his mind became if not unsettled at least warped and he imagined that Colonel Thornton had deliberately set a trap into which he had fallen the colonel he convinced himself had disapproved of his prosperity and had schemed to destroy it he reasoned himself into the belief that he represented in his person the accumulated wrongs of a whole race and Colonel Thornton the race who had oppressed them a burning desire for Revenge sprang up in him and he nursed it until his sentence expired and he was set at Liberty what he had learned since reaching home had changed his desire into a deadly purpose when he had again bandaged his feet and slipped them into his shoes he looked around him and selected a stout sapling from among the undergrowth that covered the bank of the Stream taking from his pocket a huge clasp knife he cut off the length of an ordinary walking stick and trimmed it the result was an ugly looking bludgeon a dangerous weapon when in the grasp of a strong man with the stick in his hand he went on down the road until he approached a large White House standing some distance back from the street the grounds were filled with a profusion of shrubbery the Negro entered the gate and secreted himself in the bushes at a point where he could hear anyone that might approach it was near midday and he had not eaten he had walked all night and had not slept the hope of meeting his loved ones had been meat and drink and rest for him but as he sat waiting outraged nature asserted itself and he fell asleep with his head on the rising root of a tree and his face upturned and as he slept he dreamed of his childhood of an old black Mammy taking care of him in the daytime and of a younger face with soft eyes which bent over him sometimes at night and a pair of arms which clasped him closely he dreamed of his past of his young wife of his bright children somehow his dreams all ran to Pleasant themes for a while then they changed again he dreamed that he was in the convict camp and by an easy transition that he was in Hell consumed with Hunger burning with thirst suddenly the grinning devil who stood over him with a barbed whip faded away and the little white angel came and handed him a drink of water as he raised it to his lips the glass slipped and he struggled back to consciousness Poe man pole man sick and sleepy ballet bring flowers to cover pole man up pole man must be hungry when Dollar get him covered up she gonna bring pole man some cake a sweet little child as beautiful as a cherub escaped from Paradise was standing over him at first he scarcely comprehended the words the baby babbled out but as they became clear to him a novel feeling crept slowly over his heart it had been so long since he had heard anything but curses and Stern words of command or the ribald songs of obscene merriment that the clear tones of this voice from Heaven cooled his calloused heart as the water of the brook had soothed his blistered feet it was so strange so unwanted a thing that he lay there with half-closed eyes while the child brought leaves and flowers and laid them on his face and on his breast and arranged them with little caressing taps she moved away and plucked a flower and then she spied another farther on and then another and as she gathered them kept increasing the distance between herself and the man lying there until she was several rods away Ben Davis watched her through eyes over which had come an unfamiliar softness under the lingering spell of his dream her Golden Hair which fell in Rippling curls seemed like a Halo of Purity and innocence and peace irradiating the atmosphere around her it is true the thought occurred to Ben vaguely that through harm to her he might inflict the greatest punishment upon her father but the idea came like a dark shape that faded away and vanished into nothingness as soon as it came within the Nimbus that surrounded the child's person the child was moving on to pluck still another flower when there came a sound of hoof beats and Ben was aware that a Horseman visible through the Shrubbery was coming along the curved path that led from the gate to the house it must be the man he was waiting for and now was the time to wreak his vengeance he sprang to his feet grasped his club and stood for a moment irresolute but either the Instinct of the convict beaten driven and debased or the influence of the child which was still strong upon him impelled him after the first momentary pause to flee as though seeking safety his flight led him toward the little girl whom he must pass in order to make his Escape and as Colonel Thornton turned the corner of the path he saw a desperate looking negro clad and filthy rags and carrying in his hand a murderous bludgeon running toward the child who startled by the sound of footsteps had turned and was looking toward the approaching man with wondering eyes a sickening fear came over the Father's Heart and drawing the ever-ready revolver which according to the southern custom he carried always upon his person he fired with unerring aim Ben Davis ran a few yards farther faltered threw out his hands and fell dead at the child's feet sometime we are told when the cycle of years has rolled around there is to be another golden age when all men will dwell together in love and harmony and when peace and righteousness shall Prevail for a thousand years godspeed the day and let not The Shining thread of Hope become so enmeshed in the web of circumstance that we lose sight of it but give us here and there and now and then some little foretaste of this golden age that we may the more patiently and hopefully await its coming end of section 10 recording by James K white Chula Vista end of the wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the color line by Charles Waddell Chestnut