UC-NRLF 
 
 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 ; RUTH McENERY STUART 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
I WONDER EF DAT COULD BE DE SAME OLE STAli! 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 AND OTHER STORIES 
 
 BY 
 
 EUTH McENEEY STUART 
 
 Author of "Sonny," "Moriah s Mourning," "In 
 Simpkinsville," "A Golden Wedding," etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE CENTURY CO. 
 
 1899 
 
Copyright, 1898, 1899, by 
 THE CENTURY Co. 
 
 Copyright, 1899, by 
 FBAXK I., -I.IK PUBLISHINO HOUSK (Incorporated) 
 
 Copyright, 1899, by 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 THE DE VINNE PRESS. 
 
A 
 
 LOVING TRIBUTE 
 IN HER OLD AGE 
 
 TO 
 MY MOTHER 
 
 WHOSE UNSELFISH LIFE, WHOSE TRUST IN 
 GOD, WHOSE STUBBORN FAITH IN HUMANITY, 
 AND WHOSE UNCOMPROMISING INTEGRITY 
 HAVE EVER BEEN MY WONDER, MY INSPI 
 RATION, MY DESPAIR, AND MY STANDARD 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 HOLLY AND PIZEN 1 
 
 QUEEN o SHEBA S TRIUMPH 48 
 
 A NOTE OF SCARLET 93 
 
 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS WEATHER PREDIC 
 TION 159 
 
 PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY . 192 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "I WONDER EF DAT COULD BE DE SAME 
 OLE STAR!" Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MENDING THE NET IN THE AUTUMN AFTER 
 NOONS 19 
 
 "I M A-SUFFERIN FROM A CASE O GEN 
 ERAL SWELLIN " 25 
 
 " Do You MEAN TO SAY THAT You REALLY 
 DO TAKE PEOPLE S DISEASES FROM THEM 1 " 39 
 
 SHE HAD DROPPED HER KNITTING IN HER 
 LAP 121 
 
 "ARE You SHORE You DOUBT?" .... 155 
 
 APOLLO TRIED TO SPEAK, BUT HE COULD 
 NOT . 185 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 [OLE RIAH WASHINGTON was 
 
 a healer of diseases on the planta 
 tion, and although he practised his 
 profession without degree or license, the peo 
 ple believed in him ; and the fact that he 
 " did n t know B from a bull s foot " was 
 rather in his favor with his unlettered con 
 stituency. 
 
 It is something, surely, to receive one s 
 authority directly from on high, without the 
 inadequate and ofttimes unfaithful medium 
 of books. So they thought, and so assented 
 Uncle Riah ; " for," he argued, " who knows 
 whether all deze heah book-writers is got de 
 divine license or not, an ain t jes a-makin 
 up as dey go along ? Dey say de devil don t 
 want no better tool n a pen to work wid, 
 nohow jes git some po fool-human simple 
 enough to sign what he choose to signify." 
 
;2 ; HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 This was a brave defense, but it only voiced 
 the faith of his simple followers. 
 
 Of course Riah had never hung out a sign, 
 nor had he been known to present bills for 
 services. Even had he been inclined to re 
 duce his benefactions to terms of money, 
 and able to cast them in the ordinary offen 
 sive form, the offended parties would have 
 needed interpreters to discover the extent 
 of their injuries. Riah did not even call 
 himself a doctor, and although the " chimbly 
 end " of his one-roomed cabin was a sort of 
 home-made pharmacy, redolent of the fra 
 grant herbs that dried in bunches about his 
 mantel or were brewing in the numerous 
 tomato-cans that dotted his hearth, he sel 
 dom administered physic to a patient. His 
 system of medicine was his own, and it 
 seems to have been this : 
 
 Seeing disease with his mind s eyes within 
 the body of a sufferer, he " opened the doors 
 of his own life to it," inviting it in, and leaving 
 the patient to go on his way rejoicing. This, 
 he explained, he could not have dared but 
 for the fact that, when God had given him 
 " the eye of insight," he had also bestowed a 
 body of exceptional " robustiousness." 
 
 It is one thing to take a disease, and quite 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 3 
 
 another for a disease to take you, or, to bor 
 row his own figure, " hit 7 s all right to take 
 boa ders, jes so you don t let emkeep house." 
 
 When he had once received a disease into 
 his own body, there to await elimination by 
 the ordinary processes of medicine and sani 
 tation, he held it as a thing apart, at arm s- 
 length, so to speak, and no matter how 
 many of these guests there might happen to 
 be living, or dying, in his hospitable frame, 
 there was never for a moment a question as to 
 who was master. Neither was there a differ 
 ence between charity-patients and others, in 
 this regard. It is only fair to say, however, 
 that most of his were not charity-patients 
 that is, not in any offensive sense. 
 
 When there was much sickness on the 
 bayou, Riah was usually a groaning, limp 
 ing embodiment of assorted ills, many of 
 which would seem to have been essentially 
 incompatible, as, for instance, a chill and a 
 fever, both of which he did not hesitate to 
 declare raging within him at the same time. 
 Of course they were of " different sets," as 
 he expressed it, that is to say, no chill came 
 at the same time with its own particular 
 fever, but this did not prevent the crossing 
 of separate attacks, and although it may at 
 
4 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 first appear that such a combination would 
 be disastrous, the reverse seems to have been 
 the case, and the old man would suffer only to 
 the degree that Tom s chill was harder than 
 Dick s fever, or the reverse; and, indeed, 
 there were times when they so nearly bal 
 anced that he would not have known " when 
 they het up or cooled off " but for the brief 
 periods of heat or chill at the beginning and 
 the end. As he said himself, "dey can t no 
 mo n cancellize so fur as dey laps," and, of 
 course, they rarely struck at precisely the 
 same moment. Manifestly Uriah s periods 
 of greatest affliction were those of his finest 
 triumphs, as for every ill he endured there 
 was presumably a prisoner of pain set free. 
 
 In such a system as this it was particularly 
 essential that there should be living witnesses 
 to attest its efficacy. Nor were they want 
 ing. For example, when he sat within his 
 front door with his swollen leg wrapped in 
 flannels and raised to a chair for support, 
 and declared with groans that he was " suf- 
 ferin wid Aunt Salina Sue s milk-leg," and 
 everybody knew that the hitherto limping 
 Salina had the w r eek before actually thrown 
 her baby into a neighbor s lap and danced at 
 her own wedding 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 5 
 
 Well, seeing is believing. 
 
 It was but natural that the ailment in 
 question should have been somewhat exag 
 gerated in the transfer, and for several rea 
 sons. In the first place, it was one that could 
 hardly have been indigenous, and any exotic 
 takes time to adjust itself to new conditions. 
 In this instance, too, the difficulties of read 
 justment were no doubt further heightened 
 by the fact that it was grafted on to a case 
 of dropsy that Uriah had taken from the 
 Baptist minister. And even back of this 
 were further complications, for, as he would 
 have told you himself, he was already " suf- 
 ferin wid information o de lungs an 7 pleurisy 
 o de breath " before he relieved the Baptist 
 man, and for some of these affections he was 
 constrained to employ remedies distinctly at 
 war with the milk-leg. 
 
 The doctor who could exhibit half a dozen 
 diseases in his own body at the same time, 
 and combat them without confusion by the 
 employment of such simples as he culled 
 from the wood, seems to have merited all 
 the respect he enjoyed, and, indeed, there 
 were some who, knowing the old man s pov 
 erty, felt that he was inadequately paid for a 
 life so freely shared with his fellow-man. 
 
6 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 Indeed, there seems to have been no limit 
 to his generosity in assuming pain, for did 
 he not once even intercept a case of fever on 
 its way to a neighboring well-digger, taking 
 it thus in all its malignity, wholly unspent, 
 and incurring a six weeks case which nearly 
 got the better of him, according to the re 
 ports of such as saw him in its toils. There 
 is no reason to doubt this statement, and, 
 indeed, the only man who had the temerity 
 to do so was even the ungrateful neighbor 
 whose very immunity made good the claim 
 of the vicarious sufferer. This was, of all his 
 cases, the one that put the old man s robus- 
 tiousness to the severest test ; but although 
 he came out of it gray about the lips and with 
 trembling hands, his invincible spirit was in 
 no wise disturbed. Even before he had been 
 able to rise from his bed, he had assumed the 
 " seven years shortness of breath " of the 
 man who sat up with him, and taken the 
 wasp-sting from yellow Frances s cow after it 
 had "traveled round in her circulation" all 
 day, the only thing he required of her being 
 to cover the stung spot with mud compounded 
 of earth and tobacco- juice, "to keep de pizen 
 f om gittin into de milk." 
 
 It did not get into the milk, and this late in- 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 7 
 
 terception was considered almost as wonder 
 ful as his cure of Slim Sam s little Sam of 
 lockjaw. The junior Sam had always been 
 subject to spells of unconsciousness when 
 things went wrong with him, and these gener 
 ally set them right ; but after a time he felt 
 himself losing ground, when he recovered his 
 sway through the lockjaw development. 
 
 On the occasion in question, the little fellow 
 professed to have trodden on a thorn ; but of 
 this some were skeptical until Uriah, after 
 sitting in stiff-jawed silence for nine days, 
 drew the thorn from the sole of his own foot, 
 and not until it lay in his trembling palm 
 was his speech restored. This story, thorn 
 and all, was vouched for by seven witnesses, 
 two of whom, at least, would not exaggerate, 
 and all the seven agreed furthermore that 
 the thorn was blunted in the point and twice 
 bent. 
 
 Of course there were some who, in spite of 
 everything, refused to believe in the old man 
 Uriah ; but we find skeptics even in matters 
 of religion. We are all skeptical of some 
 things a terrible fact to realize. Uriah s 
 followers were all of his own race that is, 
 all excepting one family of poor whites who 
 lived beyond the palmetto marsh, in the bot- 
 
8 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 torn-lands ; but the Buttons were clay-eaters, 
 and had n t blood enough in their bodies to 
 disbelieve anything. It is certainly true that 
 when Button s wife had what Uriah diag 
 nosed as " scoldin hysterics an mor bun ap 
 petites/ and had grown so bad that even her 
 husband could hardly live with her, he did 
 fetch her to the old " yarb-kyorer," and she 
 went home quieted down and in a submissive 
 state of mind, while Riah took such a spell of 
 scolding that nothing but a basket of fresh 
 mushrooms, gathered from Button s field 
 while the dew lay on them, and brought to 
 him daily by the ailing woman, kept the dis 
 ease in check until he could " git it subjuded 
 down an broke up." 
 
 If it was true that prior to his treatment 
 the lady Button did nothing but "set in de 
 door an eat dirt," as he affirmed, it is pos 
 sible that the daily walk of two miles in the 
 sun had something to do with her restoration. 
 At any rate, there is no question of her suc 
 cessful treatment, for she told it herself, con 
 fessing every detail of her implied ailment 
 excepting one. It was said that, when the 
 old man took her tantrums, he threw knives 
 and forks about promiscuously, and this, she 
 protested, " if he did it, it was n t on account 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 9 
 
 of Tier hysterics, for the only knife she ever 
 th owed was n t to say no mo n a handle, 
 the blade bein that wore away." 
 
 Of course, in a position so unique as that 
 of the old man Uriah, there were trials other 
 than those legitimately belonging to his pro 
 fession. Sometimes the young men along 
 the bayou that is to say, the white men- 
 thought it would be fun to tease him j but 
 they were generally worsted in the encoun 
 ters, for although he was of lowly mind and 
 a bearer of ills galore, Uriah was a wielder 
 of two-edged words on provocation, and of 
 personal fear he had no knowledge. Indeed, 
 he had no need of it, really; for there was 
 something in his age and isolation that estab 
 lished relations that were kindly, even though 
 they were slight, between him and such of 
 the better class as passed his door, and nearly 
 all the small coins that crossed his old palm 
 were their gratuities. But without these 
 trifling benefactions, which were indeed too 
 insignificant to be taken into account at all 
 excepting as an indication of feeling, there 
 was no danger of the old healer s ever 
 being in want so long as he had a patient. 
 
 A fundamental thought in Uriah s system 
 was that, in case he should ever die with any 
 
10 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 of their discarded diseases in him, they would 
 instantly return to their original possessors. 
 It became Salina Sue s care, therefore, to see 
 that he was duly nourished through the slow 
 process of treatment for her discarded lame 
 ness ; and, as he generally entertained several 
 resident ailments at the same time, and each 
 had its. guardian angel, he was blessed with 
 a protective body-guard quite adequate to the 
 modest needs of his simple life. There were 
 some diseases that required warm clothing 
 and occasionally a bit of stimulant, and while 
 he asked outright for nothing, it was but fair 
 to his patients to let them know the only 
 means by which their relief might become 
 permanent. 
 
 When he took a disease home and boarded 
 it, he could look after it properly. While 
 some things needed discipline, there were 
 others, as, for instance, the morbid appetite, 
 that required "satisfaction," and the same 
 intelligently administered. 
 
 Of course there were times when he was 
 unfortunate, as when he took panting Pol 
 ly s palpitations the week before she was 
 drowned, and had to struggle along with 
 them alone until some one else brought him 
 a similar case the needs of which about cov- 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 11 
 
 ered the ground. And, as in all relations in 
 life, there were a few cases of forgetfulness 
 and ingratitude. One of these, indeed, was 
 so flagrant that Uriah, after struggling awhile 
 with the forgotten malady, sent it flying back 
 home, and when he was induced to assume it 
 a second time, there was no further cause for 
 complaint. Who would not, if he could, 
 send his rheumatism out to board rather 
 than entertain it in his own body? 
 
 From the fact of his isolation it may ap 
 pear that the old man Uriah was by choice a 
 hermit, yet such is by no means the truth. 
 The fact is, he had been three times married 
 twice in his early life, when he was widow- 
 ered, so to speak, in the best way, even though 
 it be the saddest, and a third time, when his 
 bereavement was less regular and was at 
 tended by circumstances which in a commu 
 nity of greater sensitiveness in such matters 
 might have been embarrassing. 
 
 The mate of his maturity was fully his 
 age, and, it does seem, ought to have known 
 her own mind. However, after struggling for 
 several winters with the diseases of the com 
 munity as they were brought home to her, she 
 finally grew weary, and one day she quietly 
 walked off and left her lord alone, declaring 
 
12 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 simply that she " had done lost her taste for 
 him." 
 
 This was bad enough; but when it is 
 known that she did not go alone, but was 
 ably escorted by the bronze-colored half-In 
 dian who left his phthisic with the deserted 
 husband, it is hard to forgive her. Even 
 had there been no other man in the case, it 
 would seem that her excuse was inadequate 
 to the crime of doubly breaking her regis 
 tered vow to stand by him of her choice " in 
 sickness and in health." Manifestly the man 
 of always ultimate robustiousness, who enter 
 tained all manners of sicknesses, was peren 
 nially in both conditions, " in sickness and in 
 health," and a more sensitive soul than she 
 would have realized herself thus twice bound. 
 
 ABOUT a quarter of a mile from Riah s cabin, 
 beyond the Cherokee hedge that marked the 
 turn of the road, was the Bradshaw place. 
 Here lived the brothers Teddy and Tim Brad 
 shaw, two manly but mischievous young 
 scamps, aged respectively about seventeen 
 and nineteen. They had been away at school 
 for several seasons, returning only for vaca 
 tions and holidays, when they usually brought 
 several of their schoolmates home with them ; 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 13 
 
 and when they were "in town/ 7 which is to 
 say, on the bayou, there was a general feeling* 
 in the community that there was no knowing 
 what a day would bring forth. The old man 
 Uriah had once been the property of a re 
 mote connection of the Bradshaw family, and 
 though the thread was slight which thus con 
 nected him with the past regime, it was strong 
 enough to establish relations with traditions 
 that counted for much in his scant estate. 
 
 The Christmas eve of the year of the mem 
 orable freeze which killed nearly all the 
 orange-trees in Louisiana was a bleak day on 
 Cherokee Bayou. Even at the " white end," 
 around the turn, where conditions were bet 
 ter, it was a day to remember, and many an 
 old resident who never thought of such a 
 thing as keeping a diary took out his account- 
 book and " put it down " in marginal notes. 
 In the negro settlement, for the first time in 
 the history of things, the cabin doors were 
 kept more or less closed, and the inhabitants 
 went about wrapped in gray blankets bor 
 rowed from their beds, and were gray about 
 their steaming lips, while they chaffed one 
 another in the road. There were Christmas 
 preparations going on in most of the cabins 
 to-day, and from more than one emanated the 
 
14 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 odor of burning feathers. There had been 
 other times when, for prudential reasons, the 
 Christmas turkeys had been plucked indoors 
 and their feathers burned as they fell, even 
 when there was nothing wrong with the mer 
 cury ; but the burning of witnesses is nothing 
 new in Christendom. 
 
 Whether it were in the heavy odor of 
 smoking feathers, or the sweet scent of mo 
 lasses cooking itself into holiday shape, or the 
 even more suggestive composite fragrance of 
 frying-pan and oven, all but one of the bayou 
 chimneys bore witness to the anticipation of 
 the day of days. 
 
 Only in Uncle Riah s cabin was there no 
 thing discernible by the olfactory sense to 
 mark the season and for very comfortable 
 reasons. If the good man had " loaded up " 
 beyond his habit with maladies just before 
 the Christmas season, his policy seems to have 
 been as provisional as it was kindly, for 
 there was not a delicacy known to the South 
 ern table none, that is, that was in any way 
 available that was not assured by the crying 
 demands of his sometimes exacting ills ; and 
 the habit of trusting this sort of providence 
 was so strong that he did not even speculate, 
 while he sat alone in the gathering twilight, 
 as to what the season would bring. 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 15 
 
 It is even possible that lie had worn the 
 edge off the enjoyment of such delicacies as 
 calf s-foot jelly and " floating island/ 7 for in 
 stance, in his recent entertainment of the 
 malady the guardian angel of which was the 
 famous cook, Salina Sue. 
 
 But none of these things was on the old 
 healer s mind to-day. Indeed, he had even 
 neglected his case of " mor bun appetites," 
 as he sat at his window waiting until he was 
 weary. 
 
 It was cold in the little cabin when the 
 sun was low, and the old man realized it. He 
 even turned more than once and glanced 
 toward the pile of fire-wood, a supply that 
 was kept up by his consumption cases, and 
 which there was no need of his spar 
 ing, and he wished that some of its best 
 logs were on the hungry coals; yet he did 
 not move. The day had been long and dis 
 appointing. He had heard the familiar 
 laughter of the Bradshaw boys when the car 
 riage whizzed past his cabin at midnight the 
 night before, and so he knew that they had 
 come home ; and he had been looking for them 
 all day. He had even swept his cabin before 
 the sun was up, and reddened his hearth, in 
 anticipation of their coming. 
 
 It does not seem much to wait for, really, 
 
16 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 all day " Christmas eve," the trivial visit of 
 two teasing boys who had never in their 
 lives held him in their thoughts for an hour 
 at a time, probably ; but it was all there was. 
 It is something to " belong" to the same 
 family as another, even when the "belong 
 ing" be as this a variable and attenuated 
 relation. Last things are apt to count for 
 more than their abstract value, especially in 
 matters of the affections. 
 
 When in the gathering darkness the nar 
 row vista beyond the Cherokee hedge began 
 to fade, the old man turned away with a sigh. 
 He knew the bo} r s would not come to-night. 
 And yet the sigh went out in a low chuckle, 
 as he muttered, " Reckon dey so tooken up 
 wid Christmas, dey forgits." 
 
 He hobbled to the fire then, and after cast 
 ing on the best of his pine-knots and watch- 
 ing them blaze and flare, he reached up to 
 the mantel, seized the knife and plate there, 
 uncovered a pan of food sitting in the warm 
 ashes, and began looking after his cases. 
 First there were those that needed strong 
 food, then came a case to be " pampered," 
 one the condition of which called for a mod 
 erate draught from a thick black bottle, and 
 finally there were the lingering remains of 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 17 
 
 the " mor bun 7 appetites," which were put to 
 rest by a general picking here and there, in 
 a sort of dilettante fashion, from the several 
 paper sacks upon his table. 
 
 By this time the old man himself was 
 growing sleepy j but he had no disposition to 
 go to bed, and as he raked the coals and cov 
 ered such exposed parts of his fire as were 
 wasting heat, he talked to himself about the 
 boys. No doubt they would rush in the first 
 thing in the morning, and almost certainly 
 they " would n t half behave/ 7 they never 
 did, but when they should show the first 
 signs of " uppishness," they would have to be 
 " tooken down," as usual ; but no matter : it 
 made the coming all the sweeter that he 
 dared reprove them. There was always a 
 kindliness about their visits that he loved to 
 recall even in certain situations evoking his 
 resentment. During the vacations they had 
 always bothered him in a thousand trivial 
 ways. Many a time, for example, the only way 
 he knew that they had borrowed his crawfish- 
 net was that he had found it wet. And yet 
 this happened the last time they had used it, 
 just at the end of the summer vacation when 
 they were so unfortunate as to tear it badly, 
 they had tied in its meshes a little parcel 
 
18 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 that evidently contained the best contribu 
 tions of their pockets. Here were two or 
 three bits of tobacco, four nickels, an old 
 silk handkerchief, an odd mitten, a pen 
 knife with a single broken blade, and a box 
 of matches. This was such a note of repara 
 tion and apology as the old man could read, 
 and as he opened it, scolding all the while 
 over "de rascality o dem no- count boys," 
 he more than once chuckled as he wiped his 
 eyes with the crumpled silk handkerchief. 
 Mending the net in the autumn afternoons 
 after the boys had gone sweetened many a 
 lonely hour for him, and even while he 
 looked at the setting sun and complained of 
 the shortening days, he was glad to carry 
 the work over. 
 
 The boys had no doubt forgotten the inci 
 dent before they reached school. Indeed, their 
 inadequate reparation had been made as 
 much in a spirit of deviltry as anything else 
 a daring confession from a distance where 
 the merited scolding could not reach them. 
 But the old man remembered, and often, as 
 he sat waiting to-day, he had chuckled softly 
 as he cast his eyes up to the rafters where 
 the mended net hung. 
 
 Bedtime came and went, even Christmas 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 21 
 
 bedtime, which is not exactly an affair of the 
 clock, but still Riah nodded in his chair, 
 and although he would start up when the 
 wind whirled bits of branches from the trees 
 against his roof, or the shutters rattled sud 
 denly, it was only to drop back into a happy 
 semi-consciousness of warmth and content 
 ment, to which blissful state he even nodded 
 a stupid assent again and again. So he told 
 the fire that all was well with him, and the 
 fire, glowing with a sense of its own comfort, 
 smiled back as it dropped its gray lashes and 
 fell half asleep, too. 
 
 Thus fire and man dozed for a while, when 
 a slight noise, less than that of the wind, but 
 different, made the man open his eyes. But 
 the stillness within and the recurring outside 
 disturbances were reassuring, and he nodded 
 again, but only for a moment. Three times 
 he was suddenly wakened before a thumping 
 sound brought him to his feet, and he ex 
 claimed, seeing no sign of anything wrong, 
 "Wonder ef Skittish Kate s nightmares is 
 a-comin on me ag in," and, standing alone in 
 the half-light, he felt his own pulse, in lieu 
 of hers. " No, dat ain t no nightmare pulse," 
 he muttered ; " hit ain t a thing but loss o de 
 bed. I forgits all about ole Uncle Si s weak 
 back, settin up heah half de night." He 
 
22 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 turned to go to bed, but had taken only a 
 single step when there came a timid knock 
 at the door. Midnight though it was, he 
 thought only of the Bradshaw boys as he 
 strode forward to open the door. 
 
 But he was disappointed, for the figure 
 that entered at his bidding was that of an 
 old woman. A first glimpse was enough to 
 awaken the professional instinct in the old 
 host, and, as he motioned her to a chair, he 
 said: 
 
 " Howdy, lady ! Howdy, ma am ! I hope I 
 fin you sanitary an salubrious." 
 
 This was his favorite form of greeting. 
 The visitor, who seemed to be a very old, very 
 black woman, courtesied deeply, and, shading 
 her eyes with her hand, drew her chair so 
 that its back was toward the fire. 
 
 " No, sah," she began, as she sat down, and 
 her voice was cracked and high ; " I ain t to 
 say neither sanitary nur salub ious, an dat s 
 what fetched me heah. I se a-sufferin might 
 ily wid my eyesight, an I come to pray you 
 to lay de hand o healin on me." 
 
 Her host laboriously lifted his ailing leg 
 with both hands and placed it on the stool 
 before him. Then he coughed and wheezed 
 a little, and closed his eyes as if in thought. 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 23 
 
 " Yas, ma am," lie said in a minute ; " I see 
 you in half-darkness." He raised his hand 
 and thrust it forward with a sort of groping 
 movement. " I see you pickin yo way along 
 de road an feelin fer de do -latch befo you 
 find it ain t dat so?" 
 
 " Yas, sah, dat s so. An I got consider ble 
 in ard mis ry, too." 
 
 The old man kept his eyes shut, speaking 
 as if from mental sight alone. 
 
 "Yas," he repeated, "yas; I feels yo 
 afflicti6n an I see it, too. You got consid 
 er ble bilious bile on yo stomick, an an 
 you got a floatin liver same as a boat wid- 
 out a rudder, an yo lights is all extinguished. 
 De wonder to me is dat you kin see at all? 
 
 He opened his eyes now and looked at his 
 patient. 
 
 "I got a lot o cases on han at present," 
 he said in a moment, and his voice was quite 
 business-likealtogether unlike the mysteri 
 ous tones of the diagnostician. " Dis leg, now ; 
 de lady dat had it, she tampered wid it so 
 long befo I took it, it s purty nigh wo e me 
 out. An ole man Colbert s heart-disease it s 
 about kyored, but it s lef me wid a sort 
 o palpitation o de sperit, an But ef you 11 
 tek good keer o yo case yo se f eat a-plenty 
 
24 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 fresh aigs an cream, an drink a little good 
 wine, an poultice de back o yo head good 
 wid three-times-sifted-meal poultice two de 
 grees below de simmerin -p int, an - 
 
 He would have gone on, but she inter 
 rupted him. 
 
 " Hold on, please, sir," she began ; " hold 
 on ! How you spec me to git a poultice an 
 do all you sayin , when I bleege to work in de 
 fiel ? I wants to be Ityored now. Dat what 
 fetched me heah, in all dis win an col ." 
 
 The old man cleared his throat and looked 
 important. 
 
 " Well, lady, of co se yo case is got to be 
 tooken keer of, don keer who teks it. Ef 
 I teks it, I got to be shore it 11 have proper 
 nour slmiint an usage. You see, ef I m a- 
 settin in half-darkness whiles I m a-doctorin 
 it, I mus have 
 
 The interview was interrupted here by a 
 loud rap at the door, and, without waiting 
 for an invitation, a huge fat man came in. 
 He seemed to breathe with difficulty, and 
 with each step he panted woefully. 
 
 Seeing him in more pain than she, the old 
 woman rose as he entered, and offered to re 
 tire to "the other room" until he should be 
 first served. 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 27 
 
 The newcomer moved slowly, and after a 
 swift glance at the chairs in the room, he 
 took from under the shawl with which he was 
 enveloped a piece of plank, and laying it upon 
 a stool sat upon it. 
 
 The plank was at least three feet long, 
 but when he was seated there was little of it 
 to spare. 
 
 "I m a-sufferin from a case o general 
 swelling" he began, as he fanned himself 
 with a huge palmetto fan, " an I come to be 
 reduced down." 
 
 The old man regarded him askance over the 
 rim of his spectacles. 
 
 " Well, I should say you is," he said pres 
 ently " I should say you sho is. An 7 what 
 you needs is a life-size poultice, to git you 
 reduced down even. T would n t do to re 
 duce you down in spots, noways. You d look 
 wuss n ole man Bible-Job wid all his biles 
 you sho would. But huccome you fans yo se f 
 so ? Is you hot F 
 
 " My insides is het up yit f om las summer. 
 I m cool enough outside. I m jest a-fannin 
 my breath." And with this he flourished the 
 palmetto swiftly. 
 
 " I spec you feels like I does sometimes 
 wid two seasons ragin in you at once-t when 
 
28 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 I has two chills to one fever, or, maybe, dis- 
 gus for victuals an mor bun appetites bofe 
 ragin in me at de same time. Ef I was n t 
 so nachelly robustious as I is, I d bre k down 
 sometimes wid all de contrarinesses I has to 
 deal wid" 
 
 A loud thumping sound at the door at this 
 point, as if some one were falling against it, 
 startled the old doctor so that he involun 
 tarily rose to his feet. It began to seem as if 
 strange things were happening. But his 
 patient appeared in no wise disturbed. He 
 continued his fanning, and did not even turn 
 his head until a tall, slim man passed before 
 him, bearing a pack upon his back. Then 
 the fat man complained that the fire was 
 oppressive, and, with more alacrity than he 
 seemed capable of, retired to the other room. 
 It was a common thing for his patients to 
 wait in this other chamber that is, behind 
 the curtain that screened the old man s bed 
 in the opposite end of his cabin while an 
 other was served. 
 
 If Uriah had been a hospitable host up to 
 this moment, his manners failed him some 
 what now, for he did not like the peddler s 
 looks. Indeed, the old negro shared the 
 popular mistrust of peddlers in general, and 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 29 
 
 especially of such as were belated on stormy 
 nights. For a moment he stood and looked 
 at his third guest in embarrassed silence, even 
 moving back a step or two as he measured 
 him with his eye, before he found voice to 
 say: "I I don t keer bout buyin nothin 
 dis evenin , thank you, sah, an an I I 
 spec you better be a-moving on " 
 
 Even while he was speaking, there came a 
 terrific gust of wind, slamming the shutters 
 noisily, while it whistled around the mud 
 chimney like a voice of warning. Uriah was 
 superstitious, and in these manifestations of 
 the infinite he felt himself challenged. He 
 could not turn a brother man from his door 
 on such a night as this. 
 
 "An yit," he added, involuntarily mov 
 ing back as the peddler deposited his 
 pack upon the floor and sat upon it "an 7 
 yit" 
 
 Another warning came from the storm. A 
 heavy limb fell upon the roof. 
 
 "An yit," he hastened. to say, "so long as 
 it s blowin so outside I don know what de 
 elemints is doin to-night, nohow but tell 
 dey eases up, of co se you 11 haf to set 
 down an den I reckon you better pass on ; I 
 ain t got but one bed, an one set o kivers 
 
30 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 Seem to me like you d a managed to git 
 home befo Christmus, anyhow." 
 
 The peddler had not yet siiggested remain 
 ing for the night, but at this hint, notwith 
 standing its breech presentation, he hastened 
 to remark that he was n t at all particular 
 about a bed. Indeed, he liked the idea of 
 sitting up all night. He was a sociable man. 
 He even proceeded to exhibit his sociable 
 nature, as he spoke, by drawing the old man s 
 chair quite near him and begging him to be 
 seated, quite as if he were host of the even 
 ing. The real host, for once in his life, was 
 evidently intimidated, and although he drew 
 it some feet away, he took the proffered chair. 
 Seeing him seated, the visitor remarked, 
 reverting politely to his former suggestion : 
 
 " I would a managed to git home to-night, 
 ef I d a had a home to go to, an ef I was n t 
 so forgitful. I never can ricollect where no 
 place is, once I leave it, an ef I had a home, 
 I d likely forgit where it was ef I did n t 
 forgit I had it." 
 
 By this time the old negro was peering for 
 ward, scanning his guest s face. He saw 
 that he was a white man, and eccentric- 
 looking. His earlier guests were both 
 colored. 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 31 
 
 "How is you talking anyhow!" he asked 
 eagerly and with evident apprehension. " Ef 
 you forgits so constant, maybe you is got a 
 home, an done forgot it." 
 
 The forgetful man looked straight into the 
 fire as he replied in an even voice : 
 
 " All I can say is I disremember havin any. 
 I am a too honest man to claim what I can t 
 ricollect of havin , be it either riches or rela 
 tions. Ef I could ricollect any family thet 
 might be lookin for me to-night, I d shoulder 
 this pack an start ef I could ricollect the 
 road. It s bad havin no ricollection. I d 
 tell you lots o tight places it s got me in ef 
 I could ricollect em." 
 
 " Scuse me, please, sah, but What dis 
 you say ? " Uriah was frightened. 
 
 " I never know what I ve said. I only 
 know what I m sayin ." 
 
 At this, the old man moved his chair back, 
 and mopped his forehead. Then, recovering 
 himself, he added : 
 
 " Sense me movin back. I jes took a case 
 o smallpox istiddy, an f om de way I begins 
 to feel de fire, I looks fer it to bre k out on 
 me any minute. Is you ever had de black 
 smallpox ! " 
 
 "I don t ricollect." It was a quiet an- 
 
32 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 swer, but it moved Uriah back fully three 
 feet. 
 
 " Ef I could be cured of not ricollectin ," 
 the placid voice continued, " I d be willin to 
 give all I ve got in my pack to whoever 
 cured me." 
 
 This roused his professional instinct, and 
 Uriah s voice was almost normal as he asked, 
 looking askance at the object in question as 
 he spoke : 
 
 " What is you got in yo pack, anyhow ? " 
 
 But when his prospective patient replied 
 blandly, " I don t ricollect," he seemed to feel 
 a sudden return of the smallpox symptoms, 
 for he drew his chair quite to the other side 
 of the fire. 
 
 " But I know I ve got the pack," the ped 
 dler continued, " because I never trust no 
 past tenses in my mind about it. I know the 
 things I Ve got. It s them I ve had I dis- 
 remember. I m always under my pack or on 
 it. Ef I was to let go of it a minute, it would 
 be good-by to it." 
 
 Weird as it was, the situation was inter 
 esting to the humble observer of physical and 
 mental phenomena, and he ventured to ask 
 tentatively : 
 
 " Has you ever los anything so by lettin 
 go of it?" 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 33 
 
 "How in thunder do I know?" This was 
 spirited, and Uriah glanced toward the door. 
 But the next words of his guest were reas 
 suring in their placidity. " The only way I 
 know I ain t got no memory is by realizin 
 what I have got. I ve got a absence of 
 memory an that covers the ground." 
 
 " I ivush-t to God A 1 mighty you d Mver de 
 ground twix 1 heah an ivharsomever you started 
 from." This rejoinder, although somewhat 
 muffled, came as a fierce growl and was most 
 uncivil, but the old man was tried beyond his 
 strength, and his masterful nature suddenly 
 surprised him by asserting itself. 
 
 As he spoke, there was a distinct titter 
 from behind the curtain, and Uriah was sure 
 he saw the peddler s shoulders shake a little. 
 
 He raised his head and looked about him, 
 and for a moment there was something really 
 tragic in his fear. Then a change came over 
 his face. There had been a familiar note in 
 that titter. It sounded like it ivas the 
 laugh of the older Bradshaw boy. 
 
 The old man made no sign for nearly a 
 minute. Then he rose to his feet, and as he 
 began to speak, he took in the whole cabin 
 with one comprehensive sweep of his trem 
 bling arm. 
 
34 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 " Um hm," he began. " Yas, I see. You- 
 all is sick, an you wants to know what yo 
 trouble is. Well, I 11 tell yer. Don t be 
 afeard I // tell yer! In de fust place, you s 
 all afflicted wid absence o de brain, an you s 
 jes nachelly a pack o no- count scound els 
 dat what you is. Yo heads is holler as 
 driukin -gou ds, an as fer yo hearts, dey s 
 so swunk an swiveled up, dey ain t no bigger 
 n chicken hearts. Gord forgive me fer sayin 
 it, but you-all is sufferin wid a fatal case o 
 durn fool de whole passel o yer ! " 
 
 The storm of his wrath seemed to break 
 here, and, trembling still with rage, he 
 dropped back into his chair, and while he 
 took his poker and began vigorously to stir 
 his fire, he muttered : 
 
 " Makin game of a ole sick man wid de 
 nervous p ostration, an an - 
 
 " Purty-lookin set o college gemmen you 
 is, I mus say 
 
 " Gwine off to learn manners an an ca - 
 yin on sech dog-gone nonsense 
 
 The violence of his own speech evidently 
 startled him, and he suddenly stopped and 
 cast his eyes up to the ceiling. 
 
 " Yas, Lord," he exclaimed presently and 
 with fervor, " yas ; I is cussin , an I can t he p 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 35 
 
 it ef I is. Anybody but You d cuss ef ef 
 ef a passel o boys you been knowin befo 
 dey was born 
 
 There was something suggestive of tears 
 in the old man s distressed voice, and all at 
 once the boys realized it, and they could be 
 quiet no longer. When the old woman came 
 forward, only partly free from her disguise, 
 and Riah recognized in her the younger Brad- 
 shaw boy, his favorite of the two, he covered 
 his face with his hands. The boy was full of 
 contrition, but he hardly knew what to do or 
 to say. 
 
 "Come on out, Teddy," he called to his 
 brother, as he dropped his skirt and began 
 untying the peddler s pack. " Come on, an 7 
 no more foolin . Come, help me an George 
 undo this pack. We have n t got much for 
 you here, Uncle Riah," he added, as he 
 struggled with the knotted twine " just a 
 few Christmas things we brought you. We 
 were going to fetch em to you this morning, 
 but we began foolin , an then, when it got 
 late, we thought we d have a little lark, an 
 leave the things for you; but George this 
 is our friend Mr. George Moulton. He lives 
 in Connecticut, an he could n t do the plan 
 tation talk, so he took the peddler part, an 
 
30 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 he was so long-winded an funny that he 
 made us giggle an then you went an 1 got 
 mad." 
 
 By this time the pack was open, and he 
 lifted out a half -worn coat and laid it on the 
 old man s lap. It was followed by two hats 
 and a cap, several pairs of shoes, a lot of 
 cravats, some collars and cuffs, and a num 
 ber of packages. 
 
 "Why don t you tell him that mother 
 sent the packages?" said the older brother. 
 " Really, they are the only things that are of 
 any account. We just put in the other 
 things, thinking you might give them to a 
 beggar or something." 
 
 Riah was laughing by this time. 
 
 " I say beggar ! " He was proudly holding 
 the coat up before him. " I say I say beggar ! 
 I gwine take out my buryin -coat an wear it 
 out, an subs tute dis one in its place. Umh ! 
 I nuver expected to be able to be buried in 
 a cutaway." 
 
 Seeing him draw a purse from the coat 
 pocket, the younger brother said, " We 
 did n t have any money to put in that. We 
 never have any when we come home. But 
 I promise you a dime to-morrow, anyhow, 
 an maybe more." 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 37 
 
 "And I 11 give you a dollar right now," 
 said lie who had been the peddler, " if you 7 11 
 say over again what was the matter with us 
 boys and I want you should say it slowly, 
 so I can write it down." 
 
 " What dat you say ? Say all dem cussin 
 jaculatioms over ag in? No, sah, not ef de 
 co t knows itse f . I se shamed enough now, 
 cussin out loud, an it a-fixin to be Christmus 
 terreckly. You-all is sho put me to shame 
 wid all dese Christmus gif s an me not got 
 a thing fer yer." He stopped short here, as 
 if suddenly remembering something. "Lessen 
 I d give yer yo vacation present now, an let 
 you save it." 
 
 He mounted his footstool as he spoke, and 
 reaching over the old crawfish-net that lay on 
 the rafters, he drew down a new one lying 
 above it. 
 
 "When you yo ng rascals busted my new 
 fish-net las summer, an I had no end o 
 trouble a-mendin it, I said to myse f I war n t 
 gwine to have my fine net snook away no mo 
 by a passel o no- count boys, so I turned 
 to an made y -all dis little one." 
 
 The net was far finer and larger than his own 
 had ever been, and the boys were ominously 
 silent when they took it from his hands. 
 
38 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 " I ain t got no presents to put in it," the 
 old man continued, as he took his seat, " but 
 I ax y -all to forgive me fer cussm an it 
 Christmus, too. I ain t no cussin man, no 
 how, but, sence I been wrastlin wid so many 
 sicknesses It s good yon-all did n t ketch 
 me wid de scoldin hysterics on me. I d a 
 sca ed you all but to death." 
 
 The boys had at last thanked him many 
 times for the net, and each in his own way- 
 some without words apologized for his part 
 in the invasion j and at this reference to his 
 professional life there was not one who did 
 not envy him his courage as the younger 
 Bradshaw boy said, leaning on the arm of 
 the old man s chair in a way that was irre 
 sistible as he spoke : 
 
 " And do you mean to say that you really 
 do take people s diseases from them, Uncle Riah 
 honest Injun, now?" 
 
 The old man was taken by surprise, but 
 he chuckled softly as he answered quite 
 seriously : 
 
 "I takes de sponsibility of em, honey. 
 An quick as anybody kin shake off de 
 sponsibility of anything, it s good-by to it. 
 I don t say I ain t wropped up a well leg 
 an nussed it fo to-day. But dat s kaze 
 

HOLLY AND PIZEN 41 
 
 some folks is slow-faithed. Dey won t b lieve 
 nothin widout a witness. When ole man 
 Simpson was limpin roun de plantation, an 
 de leaders of is legs refused to lead, an he 
 had deze heah very cotfse veins in is lef leg, 
 I tole im to saw lef -handed tell I could tek 
 his mis ry away; an t war n t no trouble. 
 You see, sawin lef -handed dat th owed is 
 weight on de yether fine- vein leg, an swapped 
 leaders. But ef I had n t a tied up my leg 
 an showed up de trouble in my system, you 
 reckin he d a supplied me wid winter socks 
 an coal-ile? No, sah. You see, all I gits 
 fer my kyorin folks is what nourishin an 
 cherishin the cases needs. Heap o deze 
 heah college doctors could kyore folks better 
 n dey does ef dey had eyes in dey jedg- 
 mint. I done kyored a heap o ole puny an 
 peaked folks, an started dey circulation wid 
 nothin but de word o healin , fo to-day 
 yas, I is. I jes speaks freedom fer ; em, an 
 when dey slow to see de light, I takes dey 
 cases to board an show em up fer ? em. 
 Why, you could have de best pair o lung- 
 belluses Gord ever made, an set down an 
 study about makin em wheeze, an dey d 
 might soon squeak an leak win . I done 
 tried it." 
 
42 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 " And yet, Uncle Riah, when you were by 
 yourself, we heard you talking about some 
 body s weak back." 
 
 The old man turned and looked at the boy. 
 
 " An was you in my cabin all dat time ? " 
 He was almost fierce as he spoke. 
 
 " No, Uncle 5 but I was in and out several 
 times during the evening. Don t get mad 
 again, now. We just slipped some blankets 
 on your bed to surprise you some mother 
 sent. If you don t have these diseases, what 
 makes you talk about em when you are 
 alone ? " 
 
 " Well, as to dat, of co se, I got so in de 
 habit, I thinks in de language-* dat s all. I 
 is got a plaster on my back now, one ole man 
 Si fetched me, so he could feel eased a little. 
 Settin heah so still some days, my back gits 
 sort o set in de sockets, an ef I could build 
 up ole man Si s faith an my back at de same 
 time, I don t see no p tic lar harm in it." 
 
 " And what about your poison-pot and all 
 of those tomato-cans, Uncle Riah ? We re 
 on to you, now, and we re not going to let 
 you off till you tell us all about it." 
 
 "Dey ain t nothin to tell you about dem 
 pot an cans, honey. An as to de l pizen-pot, 
 as dey call it, dey ain t nuver is been no pizen 
 in it, an I ain t nuver is said dey was. De 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 43 
 
 folks started dat on me, an I lowed dat ef 
 dey needed a pizen-pot to feed dey faith I M 
 let em have it. So I kep still an looked 
 wise. Dat s all I done. Heap o my color 
 folks is dat-a-way. Ef dey did n t think I 
 brewed pizen in de pot o healing dey wouldn t 
 have no faith an no fear. Pizen in docterin 
 is de same as de devil in ligion. Seem lak 
 dey bofe needful. You can t turn yo back 
 on darkness widout facin de light. 
 
 " No j de wuss I ever is done wid pizen was 
 to slip a little lump o sulphur on de live 
 coals once-t in a while to show up de pains 
 leavin my body ; an dat did n t do no harm, 
 kaze de fumes dey all mounted up de chimbly. 
 You see, sometimes doubters comes to be 
 healed ; an when a cripit ole man or oman 
 comes a-limpin in, an I see dey jes come 
 kaze dey don t know whar else to go, an I 
 mek em set down, an unload some o my 
 pains befo dey eyes, an dey see me cast em 
 into de flames an de flames receive em, I 
 tell yer, sometimes hit sets em up so dat 
 dey d all but walk out straight ef dey did n t 
 have no legs. 
 
 " I did fill a couple o knot-holes in a stick 
 o fire- wood wid gunpowder, once-t, jes a 
 few light charges, to help a nervious yaller 
 lady outen er trouble. She had purty nigh 
 
44 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 wo e er ole man out wid de stampin hys 
 terics, an I knowed it. An when she coine 
 to me to be kyored, I tole er her case took up 
 so much room dat I could n t accommodate 
 it lessen I could git de fire to tek a case o 
 convulsion fits dat was surgin in me. An - 
 well, sir, she did n t pay much attention, an 
 she holped me pile on de wood, me layin de 
 loaded log a little to one side, on top o de 
 wet sticks, whar it d git het slow j an when 
 I see de flames begin to warm it, I started 
 inakin passes wid my hands, an implorin 
 de fire to take de fits outen me. 
 
 "Well, sir, when de fire answered my 
 prayer, it purty nigh ripped up de bricks on 
 de hy earth; but hit Icyored de lady. 
 
 "When she come to, I nounced dat she 
 was healed, an I started stamping An wid 
 dat she started shoutin an praisin Gord. 
 An her ole man he say she ain t nuver is had 
 de stampin hysterics f om dat time on. He 
 humored em fer me wid small change an a 
 little liquor fer a year or so, off en an on, 
 an I made him spend a little mo money on 
 his ole oman, an let er set up in de rockin - 
 cheer whilst he worked in de field. She was 
 one deze thin-wristed little yaller omans jes 
 built fer either indulgin or hysterics, one. An 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 45 
 
 now de ole man he indulges her, and dey 
 bofe think I kyored her an lookin at it one 
 way, I spec I is kyored er. 
 
 " You see, chillun, I m feared all dis here 
 seems mighty jubious to y -all book-learners, 
 but we-all is jes gropers. We walks in de 
 half-light, an tries to pick a straight way 
 mongst a heap o brambles. 
 
 " But, wid it all, I craves to help an not to 
 hender. 
 
 " But fer pizen in my pot why, chillun, I 
 been stirrin it wid de holly-branch all day; 
 an you know I could n t use no Christmus 
 wood in a pizen-pot. Look at all dat big 
 bunch o holly layin yonder in de corner on 
 de flo . Yo ma sont it in to me istiddy ; an 
 she say when you-all come you d tack it up 
 on de mantel-shelf fer me. She 11 be long 
 in de mornin wid er Testamint to read de 
 stable story to me, de way she do every 
 Christmus, I reckon. 
 
 " Seem lak it s. been a mighty long day 
 to-day when y -all did n t come." 
 
 The boys had quieted down as the old man 
 went on, notwithstanding the times when 
 they laughed heartily with him through the 
 humorous passages ; and when they took his 
 hint and all three set to and began tacking 
 
46 HOLLY AND PIZEN 
 
 the holly-branches over his hearth, they 
 were pretty still and serious about it j and 
 when they had finished Riah said : 
 
 " No j dey ain t no spicion o no pizen in 
 none o deze tomater-cans, chillun. It s jes 
 like I tole yer to sustain de weak-faithed, 
 dat s all. Dey ain t no mo n pennyryle in 
 most of em, an dat keeps de muskitties 
 away; an de fleas dey flee fom it, too. 
 Uinh ! Listen at me, matchin my words ! 
 
 " De on ies mission o physic, honey, is to 
 ketch de eye o faith dat s all. I spec s to do 
 away wid my tomater-cans little by little, but 
 don t you tell it. I know you-all s too much 
 gemmen to talk behin a ole nigger like me, 
 anyhow. You done complimented me enough, 
 a-listenin at me. But you know what time 
 it is ? Hit s Christmus dis minute, dat what 
 it is. Listen at de clock ! Go on home now, 
 an fleet on de shepherds an de wise men an 
 frankincense and myrrh an de star in de 
 east, an forgit de meanderin talk of a ole 
 fool nigger an de common yarbs o Cherokee 
 Bayou. Go on now, an spress my happy 
 Christmus an thanky-ma am to yo ma fer 
 dem blankets. Git along, I say ! I feels Sam 
 Tyler s third-day chill a-comin on me now, 
 an I gwine git it in twix dem new blankets." 
 
HOLLY AND PIZEN 47 
 
 He had followed the boys to the door, and 
 as they passed out, he called to them : 
 
 " Look up in de firmament todes de east, 
 chillun ! Bless Gord, I wonder ef dat could 
 be de same ole star ! n 
 
QUEEN SHEBA S TBIUMPH 
 
 (HEN Queen o Sheba Jackson came 
 to New York from her plantation 
 home at Broom Corn Bottom, she 
 trod the plank from the Jersey ferry into 
 Gotham like a tragedy queen, and if a 
 little cloud, dark as her face, rising over 
 North River, had swollen and spread before 
 her eyes until the city about her was gray 
 and then nearly black and then suddenly 
 wet, she read in the incident no presage of 
 disaster. She knew that hereabouts were the 
 weather headquarters, and she had brought 
 her umbrella, and the dash with which she 
 ran it up and started forth, her Broom Corn 
 stride in full action, fairly illustrated her 
 spirit. 
 
 She had come against the separate and 
 combined protestations of her family, friends, 
 and church, who had coaxingly, prayerfully, 
 
 48 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 49 
 
 and at last even abusively, advised against it. 
 It takes great spirit to brook such opposition, 
 and Queen o Sheba had struck out to win. 
 
 As she entered the crowd that jostled her 
 elbows on either side, she realized in her new 
 environment a menace to both soul and body. 
 She had been warned that she was " li ble to 
 be lightning-struck wid a live wire at any 
 street-crossin 7 ," and she knew that evil incar 
 nate was rampant in the great city ; but she 
 dodged the telegraph-poles, sniffed at the 
 populace, and feared nothing. 
 
 In her pocket there were eighteen dollars 
 in money, tied in the corner of her handker 
 chief, folded in with a slip of paper on which 
 was written the year-old address of a friend 
 who had previously migrated from Broom 
 Corn. Sheba would have exchanged letters 
 verifying this address, but for fear. Her for 
 tune had come suddenly, and she dared not 
 hold it lest it should melt. The manager of 
 the narrow-gage road that handled Broom 
 Corn s cotton had offered her fifty dollars for 
 her cow, in the presence of witnesses, on the 
 day before his train killed it on the track, 
 and he was pleased to settle with her for 
 transportation to New York and twenty-five 
 dollars to boot. Five of the remaining seven 
 
50 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 dollars of the price of her happy disaster were 
 bulging in a wad from Sheba s stocking now 
 a reserve for a rainier day j and as she strode 
 along, and the sun came out, and she began to 
 see things in the clear light, she was pleased 
 to remember this reserve. It gave her license 
 as to the eighteen in her pocket. 
 
 The first thing she realized concerning her 
 self was that her clothes were all wrong. Of 
 course, being second-hand, they were several 
 seasons old even in Broom Corn, but they had 
 come from Broom Corn s best. For one 
 brief moment, feeling the tightness of her 
 dolman over her arms, Sheba resented New 
 York as daring to oppose Miss Minervy 
 Cheatham in so trivial a matter as the shape 
 of a wrap. Miss Minervy, the judge s daugh 
 ter, was a traveled person, who used lan 
 guages, and who rode the fields about Broom 
 Corn in a riding-habit, the only one extant in 
 the vicinity, and she easily set the pace for 
 the community in all matters of dress and 
 etiquette. Sheba had made Miss Minervy s 
 spring garden two years before for this wrap, 
 a seal plush, edged with fur, and as she 
 pressed through the great-sleeved throng on 
 this first gray day, she remembered that it 
 had come from New York and she felt be- 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 51 
 
 trayed. It is like repudiating a debt the 
 way some cities do. Sheba had dug and 
 hoed and raked, and even begun to gather, 
 for this garment, chiefly because it had been 
 brought from New York ; and when she had 
 found herself hither bound, one of her great 
 est pleasures was in realizing that the wrap 
 question, at least, was happily settled. 
 
 But the dolman had begun to go out of 
 fashion at the first town where the train 
 stopped, and it had grown worse at every 
 station until she got off the cars, and now, 
 while she trod the city of its birth, she felt 
 it shrink into the past with every step she 
 took. She did not care for the motley crowd 
 on the streets, but she did dread to meet the 
 friend upon whom she was to depend for an 
 introduction, "looking" as she mentally ex 
 pressed it, "like a tacky from way back." 
 And so, instead of following up the address 
 she carried, she began to watch for shop- 
 windows, and finally, after she had been 
 walking for an hour or such a matter, no 
 great walk for a Broom Corner, she suddenly 
 disappeared at the door of a Sixth Avenue 
 department-store, armed with her eighteen 
 dollars and a mortal discontent; and when 
 she came out, nearly an hour later, she was 
 
52 QUEEN SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 radiant in the coat of the multitude, stiff, 
 far-trimmed, double-breasted, balloon-sleeved, 
 and with a storm-collar that in its flamboyant 
 flare answered her most daring spirit. 
 
 She would have bought a hat, had hats not 
 "been so dear. She had tried on several, how 
 ever, and studied them to such effect that, 
 watching her chance, she tilted her own, hind 
 part before, on the back of her head, and the 
 result was so gratifying that she decided to 
 wear it so ; and when she had secured it in 
 place with a nine-cent jeweled pin, it not 
 only answered the challenge of the storm- 
 collar, but set the pace for even greater 
 things. Its bows, arranged for the face, 
 smiled promiscuous greetings on all who 
 walked behind it, while its delighted wearer 
 opposed them by a beaming front. When 
 Sheba jostled the Sixth Avenue throng again 
 a feather boa of fine presence graced her neck. 
 She had swung it there quite as one who 
 had habited with constrictors all her life. Of 
 course, the storm-collar repudiated the boa 
 as supererogatory, but Sheba could not real 
 ize this. Still, to do her justice, she had 
 bought it as a bargain rather than as a 
 needed factor in her toilet. It had cost but 
 two dollars and ninety-eight cents, the odd 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 53 
 
 cents exactly expressing Its recent - reduc 
 tion " (from two dollars). And in this certainly 
 no woman who knows how to shop can blame 
 her. Have we not all done likewise ? 
 
 Sheba had her friend in mind when she 
 stepped into the street, but the windows were 
 fascinating in more ways than one. Not 
 only were they glittering allurements in 
 their offerings, but each, when taken at a 
 happy angle, became a mirror, and in its re 
 flection Sheba saw what to her prejudiced 
 eyes was the figure of a stately and finished 
 New-Yorker. The transition had been quick, 
 it is true, but some of us are assimilative. 
 Seeing herself thus, it was perhaps but natu 
 ral that she should have hesitated in front of 
 a photographer s, " just to look " at the beau 
 tiful tintypes of which his glaring adver 
 tisement promised to supply three copies 
 in five minutes, and for only twenty-five 
 cents. 
 
 Many of the sample pictures in the show 
 case were of persons of her own color, which 
 was an added attraction, and 
 
 Well, when her pictures were finished, they 
 fully corroborated the flattering testimony of 
 the windows, and as she slipped them reluc 
 tantly into her pocket und started on hei 
 
64 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 way up- town, her expression was quite urbane 
 and self-complacent. 
 
 She had asked a policeman to help her on 
 her way, intuitively recognizing a uniform 
 bravely worn in public as a sort of stamp of 
 reliability. 
 
 " I don t know who you is, but you s some 
 body, an you ain t a-hidin it." So she had 
 addressed the seven-foot protector of the 
 peace, who answered her with his index-finger, 
 and sent her flying southward in an elevated 
 train at Fourteenth Street. How could a 
 stranger know the difference between Ninth 
 Avenue and Ninth Street? The fact that 
 Queen o Sheba Jackson did not know was 
 important inasmuch only as it made it late 
 in the day when, having returned disap 
 pointed from the vicinity of the Battery after 
 a vain pursuit, she found that the number 
 which her friend s address called for in Ninth 
 Street was nowhere indicated. The place 
 where it belonged was what seemed to be a 
 pit, out of which emerged ropes and pulleys, 
 marked in the early twilight by a red lantern. 
 The house had been torn down. 
 
 Now, for the first time, Sheba felt fright 
 ened. The street-lamps were lighting, and 
 every one seemed suddenly to be hurrying 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 55 
 
 home or somewhere. She did not feel in 
 clined to ask a policeman to direct her again. 
 She had discovered near the Battery that 
 these uniformed men were the police, having 
 really witnessed one in action, and to be 
 consigned to a lodging by such as one of 
 them would have been too much like being 
 in custody for her free spirit. 
 
 Her present dilemma, however, was not for 
 long. There were plenty of colored people 
 in the throng in Ninth Street, many of them 
 evidently going home from work, and Sheba 
 soon found herself in company with her kind 
 in a stately tenement, where she easily got a 
 bed by a small prepayment. Thus she en 
 tered upon her life in the great city. 
 
 It is no simple matter to get the best sort 
 of position in a strange place when one has 
 no recommendation, and so Sheba was con 
 strained to begin by taking what even to 
 her inexperience seemed a second-best. It 
 afforded her a home, however, and the mu 
 nificent wages of twelve dollars a month, so 
 that she was soon able to write a letter to 
 her people which, with the inclosed tintype, 
 told so startling a tale of instant success that, 
 but for the cost of the trip, many of them 
 would have hastened to follow her. The av- 
 
56 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 erage wages iu Broom Corn was four dollars, 
 payable generally, iu part at least, iii trade 
 at one of its stores. 
 
 CITY life, as it is practised in New York, 
 was trying to Sheba in many ways. She had 
 been somewhat of a local celebrity as a cook 
 at the Bottom, and her first ardor was some 
 what dampened when she came to discover 
 that her skill in making her specialties but 
 termilk and beaten biscuit, for instance 
 counted for naught, and that her frying-pan 
 was unavailable. The golden bread, fragrant 
 at home with the sweetness of the Indian 
 meal, was here a poor, sawdusty thing sug 
 gestive of the kiln, and needing to be sugared 
 to become palatable. And there were other 
 disappointments. Her toilets would not pass 
 muster with people of any form whatever, 
 and her speech would go not at all with them. 
 When it was not too slow it was altogether 
 too swift, which is to say that the picturesque- 
 ness of her drawl was insufficient to compen 
 sate for its acceleration under provocation. 
 From a second-class place she was constrained 
 to accept one of the third rate, which is a de 
 moralizing experience. It takes but a short 
 pedigree of such to constitute a plebeian in 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 57 
 
 the ranking of metropolitan service, and a 
 plebe on the down grade seems to have a 
 poor chance to alter her course. At least, so 
 it seemed in Sheba s case. She changed situ 
 ations many times during the first year, and 
 more than once she changed against her will 
 and suddenly. Life was hard, and there were 
 many times when, but for her challenged 
 pride, which alone of her attributes seems to 
 have remained unsullied, she would have re 
 turned to her native heath, if she had had the 
 money. 
 
 At one time she fell ill, and there were 
 days of experience and loneliness when she 
 missed things. Even in the hospital, where 
 everything was immaculate, she missed the 
 personal attention of the home doctor, whose 
 habit it was to " lump " the servants bills in 
 with the yearly accounts of his white patients 
 whom they served j arid she missed the visiting 
 sisters of the church in the doubtful days of 
 slow convalescence and of her " setbacks." 
 She missed space and air and freedom. In 
 deed, it sometimes seemed as if she were miss 
 ing everything. The even beds and the se 
 rene faces of the nurses palled on her, and she 
 pined for the home air charged with emotion. 
 One good moan or an "Amen!" at her bed 
 
58 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 side and a mustard-plaster that would weigh 
 a pound such as these were the things for 
 which her soul hungered. 
 
 WHEN she sent the prosperous-looking tin 
 type of herself to her home people, Sheba 
 had no intention of misrepresenting her con 
 dition any more than she had when she re 
 frained from mentioning her illness, and the 
 fact that she had lain for several weeks a 
 charity patient in a city hospital. One has a 
 right to one s reserves, surely, and indeed the 
 bravest of us sometimes feel that in maintain 
 ing silence we are exercising our best part. 
 
 In sending the tintype she had meant only 
 to say, " See how fine I look in my New York 
 toggery ! " And if the picture said, instead, 
 " Behold ! I am rich, and prosperous and su 
 perior, and the ring upon my finger is a dia 
 mond, and my fur- trimmed garment represents 
 a small fortune ! " the fault was hardly hers. 
 Even if she had anticipated its telling so exag 
 gerated a tale, she would not have suppressed 
 it, if for no other reason, because she would 
 not have expected it to be believed. But 
 when one wrote her from the plantation that 
 another had remarked that " Queen o Sheba 
 Jackson need n t to think that because she s 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 59 
 
 set up in New York and can afford to sport 
 fur coats and diamonds that she s the biggest 
 toad in the puddle/ 7 she simply did not deny 
 the allegation. Indeed, it is likely that the 
 edifice of deceit that she had soon begun to 
 build, and into which she at last moved bodily, 
 was the direct result of home suggestion. 
 The imputations of affluence, even negatively 
 confessed, became interesting to her, and ad 
 versely as her fortunes declined did she build 
 upon this foundation her castle of indolence 
 and ease. 
 
 The city address which she gave at home, 
 and to which her mail was sent, was the tene 
 ment where she paid twenty-five cents a month 
 for trunk-space, with the privilege of making 
 it a dollar a week when she was pleased or 
 displeased to occupy the bed beside the 
 trunk. 
 
 During the first year, in which she many 
 times changed her residence, the trunk ad 
 dress was only twice changed, and in both 
 instances the letters sent to Broom Corn 
 hinted that its removal which, of course, 
 was ostensibly hers was in an ascending 
 scale. 
 
 Sheba really told very few lies outright about 
 herself and her fortunes in these days, and 
 
GO QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 when she first found herself ostensibly writing 
 from her own apartment, in which there were 
 " stuffed chairs," " dumb-waiters " and " elec 
 tion bells" (the last needing only to be touched 
 to produce almost any desired service), she 
 scarcely knew how it had come about. In 
 deed, this deception was in the beginning 
 only an accident. When the misleading let 
 ter was written, she was actually cooking for 
 the family of a " floor- walker " in Fourteenth 
 Street, and it was true that these attractive 
 luxuries were there, as well as some elegancies 
 which she also casually mentioned ; and if she 
 artlessly alluded to them as " ours," it was 
 with no desire to deceive. It had been the 
 habit of her life to ally herself thus with the 
 white families with whom she lived. 
 
 After her illness, when Sheba came out of 
 the hospital, she was but a shadow of her 
 former self. She was not strong enough to 
 stand the heat and fatigue of cooking, and 
 after trying vainly for more attractive work, 
 she finally found herself in the position of 
 cook s assistant otherwise scullion in a 
 Harlem boarding-house. She had presided 
 over a better kitchen in her day, and she felt 
 pretty blue when she first took the orders of 
 the great Irish potentate, " Miss Bridget," and 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 61 
 
 became conscious that of all the servants 
 there, she was the very lowest in the social 
 order. For the first time she now fully 
 realized that there was absolutely nothing 
 worth while in life for her in New York, 
 and she knew that she would never go home. 
 With this last realization came hopeless 
 ness hopelessness which gradually found 
 expression in a dogged compliance. 
 
 The servants all slept in cots on the base 
 ment floor, and naturally the last comer 
 always had to take the worst place at night, 
 at the head of the basement stairs, where the 
 draft from the cellar blew over her cot j and 
 when Sheba first placed hers here she felt 
 more lonely than she had ever felt in all her 
 life before. It was pretty close quarters when 
 all the cots were down, but, as Maggie 
 the left-handed dish-breaker, once remarked, 
 " There ? s fun in ut when a person gets used to 
 utwanst yis, fun and company," she laughed. 
 But Maggie was blessed with a saving sense 
 of humor, and on her very first night, when 
 she had accepted the cellar draft, she bravely 
 remarked in a loud voice, as she emerged 
 from behind the clothes-rack, where she had 
 repaired with her rosary for prayer : " Sure, 
 there s no room to be lonesome in ut, ony- 
 
62 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 way " ; to which the cook s voice had replied, 
 from under the covers in the kitchen : " Sure, 
 an mony s the toime since, I d pay a guinea 
 a minute, if I had ut, for a half-hour o the 
 lonesomeness I dthreaded comun 7 over." 
 
 The question of place was a matter of 
 nightly scramble, excepting, of course, in the 
 case of the cook, who located her claim ac 
 cording to her whim, and held it by prestige, 
 backed on occasion by brawn and language. 
 The servants made no complaint at this un 
 avoidable crowding; and, indeed, it would 
 have been unreasonable to do so, for did not 
 the landlady, who would almost have tipped 
 the scales with Bridget, sleep in the ostensible 
 "escritory" in the little reception-room, and 
 repair to the dish-closet for her afternoon 
 changes of toilet? 
 
 Sheba hated the cook, and she hated the 
 lesser maids all but left-handed Maggie, 
 through whose promotion she had come into 
 her position. It is true, Maggie said the 
 worst things to her on provocation ; but, as 
 she expressed it, Maggie " talked to her like 
 a human," which was some comfort It was 
 she who put her up to securing a better place 
 for her cot at night, and let her into the rule 
 of the roost, which was that whoever made 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 63 
 
 down her bed and prayed ~by it fixed her claim 
 to the chosen location for the night, all ex 
 cepting, again, the cook, who weighed three 
 hundred pounds, and said her prayers in bed 
 " by a dispensation," so she said. Maggie as 
 sured her, too, once when she was in one of her 
 friendliest moods, that she did n t mind col 
 ored people since she had got used to them, 
 and that it was a holy relief, for when she first 
 came over she crossed herself and called on 
 the blessed Mother every time she met one. 
 The laundress was colored, and so was the 
 bell-boy, who went home at night ; but they 
 had Eastern pronunciations, and were no com 
 pany whatever to Sheba. It was the laun 
 dress, however, who unwittingly brought into 
 her life the element of hope that makes it 
 possible to write a sketch of her which may 
 hold so fine a word as " triumph." 
 
 WHEN, one day, a well-dressed white man 
 called to see the laundress, Sheba could not 
 help overhearing part of his conversation be 
 fore she knew who he was, and when the 
 woman of the tubs approached her haughtily 
 and said that Mr. Stein wished an introduc 
 tion to her, she was glad to speak with him. 
 Mr. Stein represented the Afro- American 
 
64 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 Funeral Insurance Company, Limited, and 
 he had called to collect her dues from the 
 laundress, who held a policy in his company. 
 His desire to meet Mrs. Jackson was entirely 
 in the character of solicitor, and if he had 
 but known how eagerly she listened to his 
 every word as he set forth the advantages of 
 his corporation, he would not have felt it 
 necessary to solicit quite so warmly. When 
 she had lain so ill in the hospital, the pros 
 pect of an unmarked grave in potter s field 
 had stared her in the face a pauper s grave 
 over in the mosquito country which she 
 vaguely knew lay somewhere across the river. 
 And yet, even while it seemed so near, she 
 would have preferred it to an ignominious 
 return home in a position where those who 
 had most fiercely opposed her might come 
 and stand over her and say things to her face, 
 and she would not be able to answer them. 
 
 For a trifle paid monthly she was now of 
 fered assurance of decent burial. An added 
 sum would guarantee a higher grade of ser 
 vice, with carriages and other accessories. 
 The scale ran somewhat like this : Fifty cents, 
 payable monthly before the third day, assured 
 simple, silent burial, with no "grievers." 
 This sum doubled would secure the plumed 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 65 
 
 hearse. Twenty-five cents apiece, paid quar 
 terly, would prepay mourners, a comfortable 
 provision for the stranger, while a dollar a 
 year would cover the cost of fresh flowers. 
 The funeral oration was offered free to such 
 as " took up " all the other advantages. There 
 was a neat chapel on the floor above the 
 undertaker s shop of the company a chapel 
 which might be inspected at stated times by 
 such as wished to verify the representations 
 of the company s agent. Indeed, for such 
 " doubting Thomases " there were occasional 
 "sample funerals" given, when applicants 
 for policies were treated without cost to an 
 entire ceremonial, even to the ride in the 
 carriage to the cemetery. Sheba did not know 
 about this premium upon hesitation when 
 she so readily decided to embrace the proffered 
 terms, and, indeed, she was tempted to a quick 
 decision by Mr. Stein s kind offer to advance 
 the money for the first payment out of his 
 own pocket. So within an hour after she 
 had been introduced to the scheme she had 
 mortgaged her precarious income for a full 
 benefit: six mourners, the same being con 
 sidered "a set," music, flowers, the pom- 
 poned hearse and funeral oration, with a final 
 bed of green, were now hers to contemplate. 
 
66 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 The policy crediting her with a first payment, 
 which she signed in the presence of the laun 
 dress and the bell-boy, the latter didn t 
 expect to die, and refused to insiire, was de 
 livered to her on the third day of the month 
 following, when she paid double dues, making 
 good the loan. 
 
 Strange to say, the taking of the policy re 
 vived her spirit and renewed her self-respect. 
 The fact that she must die to win counted 
 for nothing to her. She would win, even 
 though she died, and the end would be tri 
 umphant, no matter how much of humiliation 
 she might have to endure in the interval. 
 The simple fact that she really did save the 
 money to keep her policy paid up soon began 
 to institute within her an upward tendency. 
 She was obliged to do without many of the 
 baubles which it had been her habit to buy, 
 and she was obliged to guard her temper. 
 It. became necessary that she should keep her 
 place. The ordinary chances of life, dealing 
 with fairly amenable material, ought out of 
 these elements to evolve a pretty respectable 
 woman in time. How much time is, of 
 course, a question of the special case. Sheba 
 was not vicious, although she did some things 
 which are badly catalogued in the moral code 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 67 
 
 of the best civilizations but, if such a thing 
 is possible, she did them innocently. 
 
 If she had been of a pious turn, no doubt 
 the funeral insurance, with its formal pres 
 entation of death beyond contingency, would 
 have instituted a revival of religion within 
 her but the fact is, she was not only not re 
 ligious, but the opposition of the Broom Corn 
 congregation had set her stanchly against 
 the church even in her adopted home. 
 
 She had made an emotional connection 
 with the Methodist Church when she was 
 very young, but before she was well grown 
 she had recklessly danced herself out of its 
 fold, and had never resumed active member 
 ship with it, although she had generally 
 gone to church at Broom Corn, and was 
 enrolled as one of its straying sheep long 
 before she had actually wandered beyond its 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 ON a certain morning several months after 
 she had taken her insurance policy, Queen o 
 Sheba waked with a start before day, and, 
 raising herself upon her elbow, looked about 
 her. She had scarcely slept all night, and 
 even in the dim light of the gas turned low 
 her face showed marks of distress. It was 
 
68 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 evident that there was something on her 
 mind, and that it was disturbing her sorely. 
 
 As she glanced from the clothes and shoes 
 strewn over the floor to the faces of the 
 sleepers, whose vociferous snorings almost 
 deadened the sounds of the rats tumbling in 
 the wall, a change came over her face and for 
 a moment her eyes fairly twinkled with mer 
 riment. A sense of the ludicrous had come 
 to her relief. 
 
 "For Gord s sake!" she chuckled. "No 
 wonder I dremp about a boat-race." And 
 then, fairly shaking with suppressed laugh 
 ter, she added : " Name o Gord ! jes look at 
 my cushioned cheers an my piany an my 
 gilt sofy an my 
 
 She ducked her head suddenly under the 
 cover, lest she should rouse the cook; for 
 while she laughed she observed that one 
 whistling steamer in the race had failed to 
 come to time, and she was pretty sure it was 
 the Bridget. 
 
 When she poked her head out again in a 
 moment, however, there were only the old 
 marks upon it, care lines and the deep-set 
 eyes that tell of failing health and disap 
 pointmentonly these, with the added shade 
 of a new trouble. 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TEIUMPH 69 
 
 Sheba was in trouble indeed trouble of 
 an altogether unexpected sort, which in its 
 descent upon her tired mind had nearly 
 stunned her. The blow had fallen early the 
 morning before, and all day she had done her 
 work in a perfunctory manner, half dazed 
 and brooding, and when Maggie had sym 
 pathetically asked what ailed her, she had 
 only shaken her head moodily and drawled, 
 "Nothin in p tic lar." 
 
 The thing that had really befallen her was 
 a joyous letter from home a letter which 
 brought her only ostensibly " good news n 
 from her people. Surely it ought to be good 
 news to know that one s friends are coming ! 
 
 It would have been good news to poor 
 Sheba if things had been different. 
 
 The situation was this : 
 
 Delegates from all the societies of the vari 
 ous colored churches in and about Broom 
 Corn had decided to take advantage of special 
 rates to New York to attend a reunion, and 
 at least half the delegates were Sheba s 
 personal friends. 
 
 It was even likely that one or two members 
 of her own family would make a break and 
 come. Of course they were all delighted at 
 the prospect of the visit, and the letter an- 
 
70 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 nouncing their coming was the most personal 
 and affectionate that poor Sheba had gotten 
 since she had left home. 
 
 This added to her pain in the matter, if 
 anything conld have made it worse after the 
 simple fact had reached her. Really the let 
 ter frightened her so that she trembled, and 
 she had not quite realized its contents until she 
 had sat and read it carefully again and again, 
 "studyin* over it" between readings until it 
 was all plain. 
 
 She had not the slightest idea what to do. 
 Her first impulse was to run. She could 
 easily take her trunk, leaving no new address 
 behind it at the old place; but this would 
 invite disaster as certainly as holding her 
 ground. This last, however, she could not 
 contemplate. The fact is, she had no ground 
 to hold. If she could not allow her friends 
 to go to the address through which she had 
 received her letters, and to discover her fraud, 
 neither could she invite them to visit her in 
 the basement where she had during the day 
 only right of way between the sink and the 
 window where she peeled potatoes, and 
 debatable cot-space at night. 
 
 No wonder she was troubled as she lay 
 thinking the matter over in the early morn- 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 71 
 
 ing hours. Who that has suffered which is 
 to say, who that has lived does not know 
 this tragedy-time when life s fortifications 
 are unguarded, and its lanterns cast green 
 lights in which yesterday s trivialities get 
 their innings as dancing imps of terror ? 
 
 Sheba had been tormented by three-o clock- 
 in-the-morning visions before now. From 
 her cot she had seen the little shouting corn- 
 plaster man standing on a wheelbarrow, a 
 giant above her head, and reaching down what 
 seemed the distance of a block, with an arm 
 that lengthened as she eluded it, he had tried 
 to snatch her pocket-book from her hand, as 
 she stood in the crowd and her eyes were 
 blinded with light ; and she had waked with 
 a shriek on Sunday morning gaspingly to 
 recover the memory that she had really spent 
 a dime for a box of russet-shoe polish in 
 Ninth Avenue, the night before, from the irre 
 sistible orator behind the corn-plasterer, when 
 she had not a russet shoe to her feet and was 
 twenty-five cents short on her insurance. 
 She knew about this kind of filmy draped 
 ghosts that change shape and finally melt and 
 disappear in the light of day, leaving only 
 the disposal of a trivial obligation to dispel 
 them utterly. 
 
72 QUEEN O SIIEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 But tliis was of another sort. It waked 
 her with a sense of discomfort only, and 
 a vague foreboding which took a far worse 
 shape than the bugaboo of her dream as the 
 mists of sleep cleared and left it before her 
 frightened consciousness, a naked, horrible 
 fact. Yes, it was true. Her people were com 
 ing. It was not a dream. They were coming, 
 expecting to visit her in her own home. She 
 had told them she had a home she had even 
 described it to them ; and they were coming- 
 yes, they were coming. Jake Byers, the 
 preacher, was coming, and Sol Tyler, and 
 maybe her stepsister Cely, and the Lord knew 
 how many more. When she had gone over 
 and over the fact in her mind, she suddenly 
 dropped back on her pillow and closed her 
 eyes, and as she drew the comforter up over 
 her breast her hand touched an envelop 
 which lay there. It held her funeral insur 
 ance policy. She always kept it about her 
 person, to make sure that in case she should 
 die suddenly it should be found a wise pre 
 caution for one prospect! vely alone in death. 
 And so, pinned inside her dress during the 
 day, and at night attached to her chemise, the 
 policy bore her company. 
 
 Excepting a few old clothes, it was the only 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 73 
 
 thing she possessed in the world, and when 
 her hand accidentally touched it this morning 
 she clutched it with a pitiful, convulsive move 
 ment. In a moment, still pressing her hand 
 over her treasure, she suddenly sat up in bed, 
 and in another she had risen to her feet ; and 
 when she had picked out her things from the 
 floor, she tiptoed cautiously out of the room. 
 She was in so much trouble that it irritated 
 her to see others asleep, and she even resented 
 the snores by which they seemed to boast that 
 they were sleeping. 
 
 As she went out she mumbled : " Do, fer 
 Gord sake, lemme git out o dis bedlam whar 
 I kin hear myse f think ! " And when she had 
 gotten quite beyond ear-shot she added: 
 " Thank Gord I ain t no po white! Deze 
 heah Dutch an Irish can out-sno e a sugar- 
 house in grindin season." 
 
 When she had reached the laundry, she 
 pushed up the window, and stood within it, 
 breathing deeply. It was her habit thus to 
 fill her lungs when she arose, the nights 
 seeming to leave her weary and short of 
 breath. 
 
 Day had not yet broken, and it was nearly 
 dark. Still, she could discern the form of a 
 black cat as it ran across the back yard, and 
 
74: QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 when it uttered a low " Miaou ! n she shud 
 dered from the habit of fear. It was a bad 
 omen a black cat s crossing her vision and 
 crying out to her in the dark. It was a sign 
 of death. At another time she would have 
 put down the window and come quickly away ; 
 but not so now. After her first shock she 
 laughed almost bitterly as she muttered: 
 " Miaou away much as you like. I on y 
 wusht to Gord you d fetch me de fatal mes 
 sage about de middle o nex week. I d show 
 dem Broom Corners a sight." 
 
 She lit the gas as she spoke, and took the 
 policy from her bosom and unfolded it, and 
 as she looked over it she read aloud slowly : 
 " A white cashmere shroud an a cherry- 
 wood coffin wid silver handles dicorated 
 wid flowers an six veiled mo ners an a 
 fim al oration an de dead-march an a 
 plumed hearse an fo ca iages And as 
 she began nervously to refold it, she added : 
 " Oh, Lord, send it quick send it quick ! Yas, 
 kitty, I pray de Lord you come wid de fatal 
 message, shore nough. I J m petered out ! " 
 
 She was coughing a little from the chill 
 air, and she turned from the window to the 
 faucet, where she washed her face, and then 
 she began putting on her clothes. 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 75 
 
 " Dis heah fun al policy is a fus -class chist 
 pertector," she chuckled, as she presently laid 
 the envelop inside her corset. 
 
 " Eh, Lord ! ef I could on y reelize on it 
 nex week I d mek dem bottom-Ian delicates 
 open dey eyes." 
 
 Her words were unmeasured, consciously 
 expressing only her distress ; but when they 
 fell upon her ears a meaning beyond her 
 thought startled her, and she held her breath. 
 If she could only realize on the policy next 
 week! 
 
 " What s de matter wid drawin dis fun al 
 in advance, I d like to know ? " she muttered 
 presently. " I ain t got much longer to live 
 nohow, an I kin pay on it long as I hold out, 
 an take to de potter s field when I die. It s 
 as good a place to lay in as any, ef a pusson 
 don t try to ca y name an station into it. 
 Jes so I m in hearin o Gab iel s horn" 
 
 It was a seed-thought that had come to her, 
 and it had fallen into willing soil under 
 forcing conditions. In ten minutes it had 
 not only taken root, but was flourishing and 
 throwing out tendrils of hope in every di 
 rection. 
 
 The scheme was great. It would eliminate 
 the personal quantity absolutely, and her dig- 
 
76 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 nity would be vindicated in the eyes of her 
 scorners. Of course, the Broom Corn dele 
 gates would be notified and invited to the 
 funeral in a body. The company gave sample 
 funerals sometimes on occasion. Why not 
 give one now, and just name it after her? 
 
 If only Mr. Stein could be made to see it 
 as she saw it ! 
 
 At first, naturally enough, Mr. Stein could 
 not be made to see it at all. Indeed, he vir 
 tuously denounced it on sight as simply " wil- 
 lainous," emphasizing his disapproval with a 
 volley of polite profanity. 
 
 As the benefits of the exceptional attendance 
 unfolded themselves to his alert ears, however, 
 he began to veer a little and to ask questions. 
 
 Ten societies were to be represented. 
 And there would be several delegates from 
 each, nearly all of whom she would probably 
 know, and who would come to her funeral. 
 
 Of course there were many difficulties. 
 
 For one important thing, her friends would 
 wish to see the corpse. This, however, Sheba 
 blew away with a breath. She would leave 
 last requests. Indeed, every obstacle finally 
 gave way under the pressure of her superior 
 will, and it was soon Mr. Stein who was sug 
 gesting things. As a proxy, for instance, 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 77 
 
 there were two customers on hand now, await 
 ing burial. One was a suburban lady whose 
 family had sent her in, but he had found that 
 her policy was not paid up. He had intended 
 to put her quietly away, not because he was 
 in any way obliged to do so, but simply be 
 cause he considered her room better than her 
 company. She was about Mrs. Jackson s 
 color. " Y unger, perhaps, but yust apout de 
 face, py golly! Maybe, after all, ve could 
 ugspose der corpse." So he developed the 
 scheme. 
 
 When Sheba sat at the ironing-board in 
 the laundry, that night, writing home, she was 
 more than once obliged to lay down her pen 
 and hold her aching sides for laughing. 
 
 Of course, the letter expressed her delight 
 in the prospect of seeing her people. " She 
 wrote only a few lines, because she was so 
 very busy moving. The house where she 
 had lived had just burned to the ground, and 
 her things had been saved only by a chance. 
 She would meet the delegates at the station, 
 and take them home for dinner." 
 
 The letter closed with the casual remark 
 that she was suffering a little with " palperta- 
 tion of the heart," but she was otherwise well. 
 
 This was the edge of the wedge. 
 
78 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 A later letter, which followed in a few days, 
 although gay and hopeful in spirit, let fall 
 another hint of heart trouble. She had de 
 cided upon "heart failure" for her taking 
 off. She had discovered that it was a swell 
 New York method. Several distinguished 
 people had been reported as dying of heart 
 failure. It had a good sound, and was sud 
 den and unexpected. 
 
 When she had proposed the mock funeral, 
 Sheba had not dreamed of anything so au 
 dacious as attending it herself, but the plan 
 had scarcely assumed definite shape before 
 she determined to do so. Indeed, when the 
 idea had once entered her mind, nothing could 
 dissuade her, and there was really no consid 
 erable risk in it. She was emaciated in com 
 parison with her former self, and she had 
 learned the Afro-urban art of effectively ap 
 plying red and white to a dark skin. Added 
 to these screeneries, there was a new bearing^ 
 of which she was unconscious. She held her 
 arms nearer her body than of old, as people 
 learn to do in a crowded city, and she pitched 
 less than she had done in her spacious field 
 life at Broom Corn. 
 
 WHEN she entered the chapel, a fidl ten 
 
QUEEN SHEBA S TRIUMPH 79 
 
 minutes before the hour appointed for the 
 obsequies, surely no one would have known 
 her, not even Bridget, the cook, had she met 
 her suddenly, beplumed and veiled, in the 
 hallway. Sheba had crept out of her cot dur 
 ing the night before, and stealthily descended 
 to the basement, where she easily " borrowed " 
 such finery as she needed from several trunks 
 in storage there. 
 
 Mr. Stein saw her when she came into the 
 chapel, and when he recognized her he came 
 forward and politely led her to a front seat. 
 As she sat and looked upon the silver-han 
 dled coffin, covered with flowers, before the 
 altar, and realized its implication, her heart 
 thumped so that it shook her body. 
 
 Mr. Stein was very busy putting last 
 touches here and there, and when he finally 
 satisfied himself, he came and formally in 
 vited Sheba to examine the decorations. He 
 had evidently done his best. Long sprays of 
 smilax depending from the chandelier found 
 effective attachment in the handles of the 
 casket, and there were standing in every 
 direction ferns and palms galore, all chemi 
 cally treated mummified affairs, waxed and 
 awful, grim monuments of death simulating 
 life. 
 
80 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 As Sheba stood beside the coffin, filled with 
 admiration and a gruesome triumph, she was 
 suddenly seized with a wild desire to see the 
 face within. She had a mean feeling of re 
 sentment toward it, as a usurper who was 
 taking advantage of her in her extremity, 
 and whose place in the potter s field she 
 would herself have to occupy. 
 
 " Some folks is sho born to luck," she was 
 maliciously reflecting, while Mr. Stein slid 
 back the coffin lid j but when she peeped in 
 she gasped. 
 
 " Who is it ? " she whispered hoarsely, when 
 at last she could speak, turning to Mr. Stein, 
 whose soft hand supported her elbow. 
 
 " Nopoddy," he replied. " She s schust de 
 tummy; she & vax. But ain t she a taisy, 
 heh?" 
 
 The real presence of death in the garment 
 of life was bad enough, but there was some 
 thing even more gruesome and revolting in 
 this second masquerade. Involuntarily Sheba 
 shrank back, shuddering, from the ghastly 
 thing. 
 
 Seeing her embarrassment, Mr. Stein has 
 tened to explain : " Dot oder party vot loogs 
 like you olready, her vamily hanks too close-t 
 arount. Odervise ve vould have udilized her, 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 81 
 
 und your friendts could haf looked upon der 
 faze of der corpse. She vas schust your 
 schtyle ugzactly. Some of her peoples got 
 inwited to your funeral to-day, und ven dey 
 see der peautiful ceremony I t ink maybe 
 dey put up de money. De tummy, ve put er 
 in for veight, schust, so de ball-bearers dey 
 don t sushpecd not ing. She veighs a hundred 
 und eighdy-nine pounds olready." 
 
 She had heard scarcely a word he said until 
 now, but his last words startled her. 
 
 " Dat s de precise notch I weighed when I 
 come f om Broom Corn," she drawled, in an 
 awed voice, " an fer face an features, look 
 like I kin see myse f layin dar. I m jes 
 swathed in a col sweat lookin at myse f. 
 Tell de trufe, cep n fer de tightness o dis 
 frock an de way it s got de spine o my back 
 on a strain, I d think maybe it was me." 
 
 Mr. Stein turned and scanned her narrowly. 
 
 " But der mouf ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " You can t jedge nothin t all bout my 
 mouf sence my toofs all drapped out. Dat 
 Eighth Avenyer doctor he gimme a overdose-t 
 o calomon. When dey fell out, seem like my 
 courage fell wid em, too." 
 
 Seeing him still dubious, Sheba bethought 
 her of the tintype one of the original three 
 
82 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 which she carried in her pocket-book. In a 
 moment she had taken it out and held it up 
 before him. 
 
 " Dat was me on y jes but two yeahs ago," 
 she said tentatively. 
 
 Mr. Stein was satisfied. With a wave of 
 his hand he dismissed the subject, and when 
 he arranged the flowers on the coffin again 
 he placed them lower on the lid, as he 
 chuckled, " Ve oggshibit de corpse." 
 
 While they spoke there came a flash of 
 lightning, and presently another, and simul 
 taneously with the first sound of low thunder 
 Sheba heard footsteps on the stairs, and she 
 staggered rather than walked back to her seat. 
 
 The comers were the hired mourners. They 
 wore long black veils, and when they had 
 reached the coffin, walking by twos, they 
 separated, taking seats, four at the head and 
 two at the foot of the casket. Of course they 
 were not in the secret. Some secrets are for 
 the principals only and the fewer of these 
 the better. 
 
 It was not long before the Broom Corn 
 delegates came tramping up the stairs, their 
 new brogans on the uncarpeted steps sound 
 ing like a drove of horses. Sheba recognized 
 their tread, and she tried to fan herself care- 
 
QUEEN O> SHEBA S TRIUMPH 83 
 
 lessly when she knew they were entering, but 
 her hand trembled so that she was obliged to 
 lay down her fan. 
 
 She sat near the wall, and by turning a 
 little she could see her own people when they 
 came up the aisle. There were several women 
 among them, and these hid their faces in their 
 handkerchiefs with a proper show of grief. 
 When the presiding minister appeared, ar 
 rayed in clerical robes, Sheba was much im 
 pressed; still her chief thought was of the 
 effect upon her friends, for even in this criti 
 cal moment her mental comment was, "I 
 s pec dey 11 all think I done turned High 
 Church Tiscopal up heah in New York." 
 
 But when the minister began to lead in 
 prayer, and she heard the brave responses of 
 her people, whose cries of " Amen ! " and 
 " Glory ! " came clear and strong from several 
 directions, she was strangely moved. 
 
 The service was imposing from the begin 
 ning, and if the sermon was short and some 
 what impersonal as a tribute, it was pyro 
 technic in its oratory ; and when it came to a 
 dramatic close, Sheba knew by the breathless 
 stillness that followed that the hour was ripe, 
 and she raised her thin voice and sailed in 
 with a plantation hymn which she knew she 
 
84 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 could count on for power. This was the only 
 fillip she gave, but it was enough. The ex 
 citement which had flickered in ejaculations 
 here and there now fairly burst into flame, 
 sweeping everything before it. In the pauses, 
 while they passed from hymn to hymn, the 
 delegates rose one after another, and some 
 times two at a time, to eulogize the lamented 
 sister, who, while she listened to her imputed 
 virtues, recognized her old self not at all, and 
 there were critical moments when she almost 
 lost her bearings. 
 
 It was only when they began to press for 
 ward to view the remains that they became 
 quiet, and even then the silence was occa 
 sionally broken by a sob. " Brother Byers," 
 the Broom Corn preacher, led the way, and, as 
 a privileged character, lingered at the coflin 
 to exchange a word with the others as they 
 passed in turn. Sheba sat very near, and 
 she could not help overhearing what they 
 said. It was plain that all were deeply im 
 pressed with the splendor of the affair, and 
 most of their comments were complimentary, 
 which is to say that such as failed to declare 
 that "Sis Jackson" looked "puffec ly nachel" 
 found her improved in flesh all excepting 
 one. The only distinctly derogatory word 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 85 
 
 uttered and, paradoxically, it was this which 
 pleased her most was spoken by the rever 
 end Byers, him whose opposition had been a 
 potent factor in her coming to New York. 
 
 As he leaned over the coffin, Sheba heard 
 him whisper to Sam Simpleton, his presiding 
 elder : " I don t want to wrong de dead, but 
 f om de way Sis Jackson s face looks to me, I 
 s picion dat her sudden t demise is de result o 
 high livin ! You know Sis Jackson allus is 
 hankered arter de flesh-pots." And when he 
 shook his head mournfully, old Sam shook 
 his, also. He thought so, too. His assent 
 delighted Sheba especially because she had 
 once been married to old Sam, and she hated 
 him as few ex-husbands, even, are hated. 
 
 Sheba was standing it all very well, which 
 means that she was keeping pretty well out 
 of it. Although there were frequent crises 
 when she choked up a little, she bravely main 
 tained her position as a quiet observer almost 
 to the end. 
 
 It began suddenly to be hard for her when 
 she discovered that the occasional suppressed 
 note of real sorrow that had gone to her 
 heart and almost upset her had come from 
 her stepsister Cely. She did not know cer 
 tainly that Cely had come until she saw her 
 
80 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 ashy face as she approached the coffin ; and 
 when she threw herself upon it, and, calling 
 upon God to witness, accused herself of 1111- 
 sisterly conduct to her "beloved Queenie," 
 for whose leaving home she freely blamed 
 herself, Sheba trembled so that she could 
 hardly sit up. 
 
 Cely was a shining light in the church at 
 Broom Corn. The ultimatum of all her re 
 lated experiences was always " Glory, hallelu 
 iah ! " and her refuge did not fail her to-day. 
 
 Sheba knew her ways, and had no respect 
 whatever for her religion. It was not that 
 which moved her. The ties of blood and 
 home are strong, even though they be atten- 
 ua^ted. It was the familiar face and the thou 
 sand memories it wakened this, with the 
 note of genuine grief in the wail that tore 
 her tired, homesick heart asunder. 
 
 There was abject, honest remorse in the 
 broken voice that begged the waxen face for 
 forgiveness. 
 
 Sheba had begun to sob aloud, and was so 
 evidently losing self-control that Mr. Stein 
 was growing uneasy, when Cely reached her 
 climax, and, with a shriek, threw herself over 
 the coffin, falling in a swoon. 
 
 This proved but an anti-climax, however, 
 
QUEEN O SHEBA S TEIUMPH 87 
 
 for even while Cely was being carried into 
 another room, Sheba, gaunt and wan, had 
 risen from her seat and was trying to speak. 
 
 In this her darkest hour of guilt, when she 
 had dared trifle with the dread mystery, a 
 sudden light had broken upon her darkened 
 spirit, a light which she interpreted as con 
 version, and she could not be silent another 
 minute. 
 
 In a twinkling she had realized a saving 
 grace and felt again the joy that had come to 
 her but once, in her early religious experi 
 ence, and she rose to proclaim her identity 
 and her sin. She would make a full confes 
 sion, and would go back home with her peo 
 ple, a prodigal daughter, but, by the help of 
 God, for the rest of her days an honest 
 woman. 
 
 As she opened her lips there came a blind 
 ing flash of lightning, accompanied by a clap 
 of thunder. 
 
 Three times did she essay to speak, and 
 three times was she thus silenced. But the 
 spirit was in her, and neither principalities 
 nor powers could hold her now. 
 
 Seeing finally that words could gain no 
 hearing in the bursting storm, she threw 
 up her hands, shouting, "Glory! glory! 
 
88 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 glory ! n again and again and again, with 
 growing fervor and lessening voice, until, 
 with a gasp, she fell into Mr. Stein s arms, 
 and he hastened to bear her away. He car 
 ried her to the small antechamber opposite 
 that in which the Broom Corn delegates were 
 working over her sister, trying to bring her 
 back to consciousness. 
 
 It had been his purpose, before starting to 
 the cemetery, to call attention to this as one 
 of his company s typical funerals, and to 
 exploit its advantages; but the storm had 
 demoralized his congregation, and the un 
 precedented conduct of his ostensible corpse 
 had so demoralized him that he hastened to 
 announce that, in consequence of the inclem 
 ent weather, the interment, to which all the 
 present company were cordially invited, would 
 be postponed until the following morning. 
 
 He wanted to get them out of the way be 
 fore Sheba should recover herself, not know 
 ing what she might do or where he would 
 stand. The deferred funeral would give 
 him time to get her in order, and another 
 opportunity to "work his business." 
 
 While he went about looking after his 
 slowly departing guests, he stepped occasion 
 ally to the door and peeped in to see how 
 
QUEEN SHEBA S TRIUMPH 89 
 
 Sheba was getting along, and he was pleased 
 to observe that she seemed not to have moved 
 from her position on the lounge where he had 
 laid her. 
 
 Some of the delegates had not brought 
 umbrellas, and they were somewhat nervous 
 about keeping in a body, lest they should lose 
 their way, so that it was perhaps an hour be 
 fore the last one had gone 5 and Mr. Stein, 
 turning the key in the front door, drew a 
 sigh of relief and went to look after his pa 
 tient. He had explained that she was an 
 intimate friend of the deceased, and that she 
 was being cared for. 
 
 When he reached the door he was surprised 
 to see that she still had not stirred. This 
 was strange, and yet the truth did not occur 
 to him until he got quite near and saw her 
 face. 
 
 The strain upon her tired nerves and heart 
 had been greater than she could bear, and at 
 the moment when the door of heaven had 
 seemed open to her she had been allowed to 
 enter in shouting, triumphant. 
 
 This tragic ending at once simplified and 
 complicated things for Mr. Stein. 
 
 It was an easy matter enough, a few hours 
 later, to lift out the dummy figure, and to 
 
90 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 lay in its place her whose right it was to be 
 there ; and, to do him justice, Mr. Stein made 
 the change with a sentiment of satisfaction 
 that was closely akin to real sympathy. He 
 liked to deal fairly with his customers, and 
 it pleased him to know that this forlorn one, 
 to whom it had seemed to mean so much, 
 was at last to get " full walue." Even while 
 he mechanically performed the last sad offices 
 for her, he said aloud several times, " Poor 
 t ing ! poor t ing ! " 
 
 Her tragic passing was a relief to him only 
 in view of her sudden turn. The ordinary 
 hysterical woman he knew from much experi 
 ence ; but while he had stood beside her in 
 her last religious frenzy, he had heard Sheba s 
 words, and they frightened him. Twice she 
 had declared herself, and only fire from 
 heaven had saved him from exposure. So 
 far her taking off was a relief. But at the 
 same time it set for him embarrassing limita 
 tions. For one thing, it put an embargo 
 upon his advertisement. He dare not con 
 nect the. name of his company with so irregu 
 lar a burial. She would be missed, and then 
 there might be a search ; there could be no 
 doctor s certificate or license without an in 
 vestigation of the circumstances. The sample 
 
QUEEN SHEBA S TRIUMPH 91 
 
 funeral had already been reported, and its 
 postponement needed no explanation. 
 
 Sheba s name had not needed to be men 
 tioned in the services, and for simple prudence 
 it had been omitted. 
 
 For aught the Broom Corn delegates knew, 
 the funeral was held in the church with 
 which she had connected herself, and was 
 being conducted at her expense and they 
 must think so still; they must go home 
 thinking so. 
 
 The attendance on the first day was more 
 than doubled on the next j but, shame to say, 
 there were exactly one third of the promised 
 dozen carriages in attendance. To do the 
 company justice, however, there were all that 
 were called for by the policy, which Mr. Stein 
 would have given his hat to find, and which 
 lay safely under Queen o Sheba s hands, 
 where she should hold it for all time. 
 
 The only jar in the morning funeral 
 occurred when some friends who had not 
 come the day before begged to see the face 
 of the corpse, and Mr. Stein was constrained 
 to decline. 
 
 Her face had changed so sadly during the 
 night that they who had seen it the day be 
 fore would not recognize it, so he said, and 
 
92 QUEEN O SHEBA S TRIUMPH 
 
 it would only be too sorrowful a sight which 
 was true. 
 
 Thus, after life s weary battle, did Queen o 
 Sheba achieve her full filial triumph. 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 >ISS MELISSA ANN MOORE was 
 a spinster who knitted green moss 
 mats. She had learned how to make 
 these mats when she was very young, and 
 constant practice had kept her art perfect 
 through many years. 
 
 There are two classes of needlework wo 
 men: there are those who learn a pattern 
 to honor it all their days to whom it is as 
 a creed, and who would scorn a departure as 
 they would scorn a heresy in religion ; and 
 others there are whom a design serves only 
 as a hint, valuable chiefly as a point of de 
 parture into ways of their own without end. 
 Even womanly women of this latter type 
 have been known to confess a momentary 
 grudge against a pair of tiny pink feet that 
 demanded two of a kind from their all too 
 adventurous needles. 
 
 93 
 
94 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 Miss Melissa was an orthodox creature, and 
 not more steadfast was she to the faith of 
 her fathers than to the one moss pattern of 
 her mothers. She fully believed that every 
 perfectly constructed mat that emanated from 
 her faithful fingers was foreordained to 
 be, from the beginning of time, else it 
 would never have been counted worthy to 
 materialize. 
 
 There were examples of Miss Melissa s art 
 in nearly every home in Simpkinsville ex 
 amples more or less faded and worn, accord 
 ing to circumstances, but all faithful witnesses 
 of her entire worthiness to perpetuate the 
 species. And, be it said to her credit, those 
 that she made to sell were handled and their 
 proportions verified with the same scrupulous 
 care as were such as came into being for 
 bridal or Christmas presents, or to adorn the 
 marble base of her own evening lamp. You 
 could measure the distance between the little 
 moss clumps in the border of any of them, 
 and find each one precisely as long as the in 
 dex-finger of Miss Melissa s left hand, mea 
 sured from the mole downward. She would 
 no sooner have guessed at one of these inter 
 vals than she would have prevaricated in a 
 statement of fact. 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 95 
 
 Miss Melissa lived with her married brother 
 Caleb; and at the birth of each of his nine 
 children there had been a pair of " aunty s 
 lovely moss mats " ready as a welcoming gift 
 to the little stranger, to be laid out for in 
 spection among the pink and blue socks and 
 sacks that were sent in by friends and rela 
 tives, after which they were withdrawn and 
 packed away in camphor, to be kept until 
 their owners should marry, when they would 
 do double duty as wedding presents. Not 
 that Miss Melissa was parsimonious. Far 
 from it. But she was getting old, and, as 
 she expressed it : "1 7 11 be mos 7 likely passed 
 away long bef o 7 that time j an so I put a en 
 velop o 7 good wishes an 7 advice in with each 
 set, which it seems to me 11 be mighty im 
 pressive, comin 7 from a dear dead aunt, same 
 as a voice from the grave. 77 
 
 She had even kept an extra pair of mats on 
 hand, carefully wrapped and perfumed with 
 sachet-powder, against the arrival of impend 
 ing twins, the same "runnin 7 in both fami 
 lies, 7 so that, to quote again from her own 
 lips, " the unexpected, ef it should come, should 
 find itself expected in one quarter, at least. 77 
 Indeed, she insisted that, for her part, she 7 d 
 see to it that a duplicate baby should n 7 t fall 
 
96 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 short of its welcome just for the sake of a few 
 stitches she d put into a duplicate pair of 
 lamp-mats, " an it jest as much a blood- 
 relation to me as its twin, every bit an 
 grain. 7 
 
 She always made her mats in pairs, be 
 cause they were " intended to be made in 
 pairs"; and she set them, "as they were 
 meant to be set, on each end o the mantel 
 shelf, with a lamp all ready to light a-standin 
 in the center of each one." It is true, she 
 used one of her own pair on the small center- 
 table in her bedroom, but she always con 
 sistently borrowed it from its station opposite 
 its mate and put it carefully back next 
 morning. 
 
 For twenty years and more Miss Melissa 
 had pursued her gentle art, and, as she her 
 self was pleased to assert, she " had n t never 
 turned a mat out of her hand thet she would 
 n t be more n willin to have raveled out an 
 counted, an ef she ever should do sech a thing 
 as to turn off one with a false stitch in it, it 
 would run in her head same as a tune out o 
 tune, an she d look for a lamp to sputter 
 quick as it was set in it." 
 
 There seems to be a serene pleasure in this 
 kind of orthodox needlework. That there is 
 
A NOTE OF SCAELET 97 
 
 joy in the other sort, with its fitful depar 
 tures and sometimes eccentric creations, does 
 not alter the matter. The even tenor of un- 
 questioningly following a lead is conducive to 
 length of days and a fair showing of good 
 works therein. 
 
 It is the dweller upon the plain who has 
 seen a mountain either seen it with his 
 mortal eyes or evolved it out of its antithesis 
 who becomes discontented and does some 
 thing. What he does is is it not? largely 
 a matter of temperament. He may forsake 
 the dead level of his native heath and go in 
 search of his mountain, or he may mope 
 and grow weary, and have nervous prostra 
 tion or " low sperits," according to his social 
 position. 
 
 No one knows, excepting the doctor, maybe, 
 and of course we all know that he does n t, 
 what it is precisely that induces the condi 
 tion so variously called, and which exhibits 
 itself first in an ignoble discontent. 
 
 Why was it that, after all her years of faith 
 ful pursuit of it, Miss Melissa one day found 
 herself restless in the practice of her art? 
 When she wound the green zephyr for the 
 moss border around the outsides of the parlor 
 chairs, as she had so often done, "settin 
 
98 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 each chair jest far enough from the wall to be 
 walked behind, an takin in the top grape on 
 the back o the haircloth sofy," -why did she 
 stop as many as three times on the third 
 round, and raise the strands in her fingers, 
 studying them thoughtfully until she finally 
 said aloud: " T ain t because it s green- 
 though they do say green is forsaken ; an of 
 co se I know it s exac ly the right shade, for 
 I ve matched it time an ag in by the livin 
 moss, an it s, ef anything, even more natural. 
 I spect it s my liver thet s torpid." 
 
 She started off again, though, and did not 
 stop until she had wound the required num 
 ber of strands. When she had finished, how 
 ever, instead of cutting the zephyr, she 
 hesitated and looked at it. 
 
 " I ve got half a notion to wind on another 
 row ! " she exclaimed. " I ve often thought 
 lately thet I d like to see how that moss 
 would look ef it seemed to grow a little 
 thicker or thinner." And even as she spoke 
 she began her promenade around the horse 
 hair set; but there was a new look in her 
 eyes, and she walked faster than on any of 
 the earlier rounds. 
 
 Then came the tying of the strands pre 
 paratory to the cutting. At first she mea- 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 99 
 
 sured, as always, from the mole j but when she 
 had tied one or two in this way, she suddenly 
 thrust her hands behind her and exclaimed : 
 " Lordy, how tired I am of it all ! I m a-goin 
 to stop an 7 guess at these spaces that 7 s 
 what I m a-goin to do." And guess at them 
 she did, tying faster and faster as she went. 
 
 It was her habit to take her work into the 
 dining-room after supper, joining the family 
 until they separated for bed; but to-night 
 she stole into her own room, and locked the 
 door. 
 
 That mat was never finished. Although 
 she worked far into the night, and chuckled 
 often over the irregularities that were so 
 many expressions of her spirit of revolt, her 
 joy was not full. The color wearied her. It 
 was representative of a long way that had 
 had no turning. Of course she could not 
 know this. She knew only that, for some 
 occult reason which she did not try to under 
 stand, she would have given her eyes, almost, 
 if the strands had been red " not none o** yo 7 
 pale pinky reds, neither, but jest a 7 all-fired 
 red " j and the more she thought of it, the 
 more the idea haunted her the more the 
 red invited and the green " tormented n her. 
 
 Two days afterward the center of the mat 
 
100 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 was done, and half of its irregular growth of 
 greenery was already in place, when, in au 
 access of impatience that surprised herself, 
 Miss Melissa suddenly threw it into the top 
 bureau-drawer, turned the key, and, seizing 
 her sunbonnet, started down the street. 
 Within an hour a light and bulky parcel was 
 lying, still wrapped, beside the unfinished 
 green mat, under lock and key ; and while she 
 played with the baby in the dining-room, after 
 supper, her brother remarked that he did n t 
 know when he had seen Melissa looking so 
 well or so young. 
 
 She did not wait for the family to sepa 
 rate, but, slipping away early in the evening, 
 she escaped to her room, and turned the key 
 in the door. Then she lighted the lamp and 
 drew down the window-shade before she 
 drew forth the parcel of scarlet wool and 
 shook it out and held it before her, laughing 
 aloud. Her brother was right. She did look 
 young and pretty to-night that is, young 
 for forty-one, and pretty for lier. 
 
 After admiring the hank of wool for some 
 minutes, she laid it aside, hastily undressed, 
 took down her hair and braided it in two long 
 plaits for the night, and put on her flannel 
 wrapper over her nightgown. Then she 
 
A NOTE OF SCAELET 
 
 fastened one end of the red zephyr to one 
 of her bedposts, drew back the rocking-chair 
 until it stood in line for attachment, steadied 
 it by slipping a shoe under its left rocker, 
 passed over to the sewing-machine, took its 
 spool for her next support, and so completed 
 a circuit. Then taking a bit of sweet-gum 
 into her mouth, she fairly flew round and 
 round, until the thickness of the strands 
 " seemed jest about right," when she reck 
 lessly bit the zephyr from the ball with her 
 teeth, and sat down. The scissors lay within 
 reach, but it suited her mood to ignore them. 
 She even said aloud, as she glanced at them : 
 "Lay still; I don t need you this time" ; 
 but when she had bitten the wool, she made 
 a wry face, and added, " Reckon I better look 
 out an 7 not bite that pivoted tooth out." 
 But she chuckled as she said it. 
 
 The making of the red mat was the mark 
 ing of a new era for Miss Melissa. The note 
 of fine fresh color in her room, in her fingers, 
 on her lap, and always in her consciousness, 
 even when locked from sight, in some mystic 
 way answered a need of her monotonous life. 
 It appeased, if it did not satisfy, the weariness 
 that was expressed as color-hunger of her 
 eyes j and it is not surprising if in the joy of 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 it she felt a sort of shame, and would not for 
 all the world have had any one know about it. 
 
 She would light both lamps at night now, 
 and turn them up to their full height, while 
 she tried the effect of the mat on the mantel, 
 putting its unfinished half in front under one 
 lamp, while she laid the red zephyr around 
 the base of the other, to get the effect of the 
 balancing touch of red j and although she did 
 not know it, the tune she hummed under her 
 breath was one she had not sung for years. 
 She never knew that the red mat took shape 
 to the air of " Ever of Thee I m Fondly 
 Dreaming." To be fair to her, there really 
 was no especial "thee" in her case. The 
 term was generic, and even in this sense it 
 was misleading. Miss Melissa had not been 
 a woman of dreams or of imagination or re 
 grets, nor was she in any sense sentimental. 
 
 She was acting under an impulse more law 
 less than any of her early girlhood, and while 
 she experimented with the mat in various 
 situations, she finally tried the color against 
 her face, laying the unfinished mat as a collar 
 on her neck. The picture pleased her, and 
 she even pinched her cheeks till a faint color 
 showed in them. Seeing this, she blushed to 
 crimson from real shame, and hurriedly turn- 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 103 
 
 ing out one lamp, she humbly removed the 
 mat from her neck and went on with her 
 work. But she did not forget how she had 
 looked to herself in that one brief moment 
 when she had blushed at her own vanity, and 
 she hummed another tune of her young days, 
 one called " The Rock Beside the Sea," which 
 had no more or no less application to her 
 case than the first. Both were simply bodily 
 reminiscent, and while she was turning back 
 ward they met her on the way. 
 
 But on the morrow, when she realized that 
 it was Sunday, and yet she took up her mat, 
 she was on the second one now, her song was 
 still another, and there seemed to be a rela 
 tion between it and her mood as she sang 
 gaily : 
 
 I m going, going, going, going ; 
 Who bids, who "bids for me? 
 
 It had never been the kind of song she 
 liked, and the girl who had sung it at school 
 exhibitions, twenty-five years before, was one 
 she had not admired. Yet here she was sing 
 ing away at it, and on Sunday ! She sang it 
 only because it was the most reckless song 
 she knew, and she was misbehaving as far as 
 she could. And she was having fun. 
 
104 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 When the family had gone to church, her 
 voice raug out pretty loud several times, but 
 she had no fear. Cynthy, the black cook, 
 was shouting, " Rock-a my soul on de bosom 
 o Aberham ! " in so loud a voice that nothing 
 short of an explosion would have attracted 
 her attention. Miss Melissa had pleaded 
 headache and remained from church ; or, to 
 be fair to her, she had not used the word 
 " headache," but had simply said that her 
 head " did n t feel like as ef she could set 
 th ough a sermon," which was true. 
 
 It was a beautiful day in May, and the 
 sound of bees came floating in at the open 
 window. Indeed, one yellow-waistcoated fel 
 low actually darted into the room, and 
 flaunted his Princeton colors almost in Miss 
 Melissa s face. Then, seeing the red zephyr, 
 he buzzed about it several times, and, as 
 suddenly as he had come, shot upward in a 
 shaft of sunshine, and disappeared. 
 
 Miss Melissa s eyes followed him, and when 
 she knew that he was gone, she suddenly 
 realized all the outside beauty of the spring 
 day. In imagination she saw the opening 
 dogwood, and the stately spruce-trees filled 
 to dripping with odorous sap, their thou 
 sands of fragrant cones fairly bursting with 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 105 
 
 a spicy stickiness. She realized the winding 
 branch where the willows swung their light- 
 green fringes and the clumps of wild plum 
 were in flower. It was the plum-blossoms 
 that decided her. She sprang from her chair 
 and got her bonnet. Then she wrapped her 
 knitting carefully in a fresh handkerchief, 
 stuck it in her pocket, and started out. 
 
 It was not her fault that on her way 
 through the cow-lot she saw the fishing-rods 
 lying over the rafters in the cotton-seed shed. 
 She had frankly set out to follow any vagrant 
 impulse, to do the thing that seemed pleas- 
 antest, to go where there was beauty and un 
 restraint, and she had deliberately taken her 
 work with her on Sunday. She knew that 
 she could not match the finished mat at 
 home ; but if she could have done it, she 
 would not have wished to. The mat that 
 was done was "a ravin , tearin beauty"; 
 and its mate would match it in recklessness, 
 which was all she meant it to do. 
 
 But one glance at the fishing-poles made the 
 mat seem tame. She knew as soon as she 
 set eyes on them that she was going fishing. 
 " No, Satan ; you need n t to get behind me 
 not a bit of it. You can walk before me, 
 or beside me, or any way you choose ; or you 
 
106 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 can skeet off about your business. I m 
 a-goin fishin ." While she was thus openly 
 declaring herself, she had already begun 
 climbing over the cattle-troughs to secure a 
 rod. When she had got it down, it occurred 
 to her that she ought to leave some explana 
 tion of her absence, and so she turned back, 
 crossed the yard to the kitchen, and called : 
 " Oh, Aunt Cynthy ! Tell em all I ve went 
 out to get a little fresh air j an whilst I m 
 out I 11 mos likely go an see how ole Mis 
 Gibbs is ; an ef I m late for dinner, tell em 
 not to wait." 
 
 In about three minutes, while the fat old 
 woman was still drawling, "What is Miss 
 M lissy sayin , anyhow ? " the tip of a long 
 bamboo fishing-pole was grazing the young 
 under leaves of the sweet-gum trees in the 
 lane, and a middle-aged maiden was singing 
 in a low, swinging voice : 
 
 I m going, going gone ! 
 
 And Aunt Cynthy, dropping a bay-leaf 
 into her gumbo-pot, turned her head and lis 
 tened. " What dat ? " she ejaculated. " Three 
 times dis mornin seem like I s heerd sperits. 
 I sho trus dey ain t come to uounce no harm 
 to Miss M lissy." 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 107 
 
 And at that moment this same reserved 
 and orderly person was on her knees before 
 a dirty plank at the cattle-crossing, lifting 
 squirming earthworms out of their beds with 
 her hair-pin, and dropping them into a little 
 pocket she had improvised by pinning up the 
 end of one of her broad bonnet-strings upon 
 itself. And in a surprisingly short time this 
 same pink bonnet might have been seen a 
 mile away, was seen by the mocking-birds 
 and squirrels, that came out frankly to in 
 quire, shining through the bush that 
 sparsely covered the jutting rock where 
 goggle-eyed perch were known to congregate. 
 
 As Miss Melissa settled herself upon the 
 rock, she laughed. "Reckon I ought n t to 
 expec any luck to-day, jest to punish me; 
 but I do, jest the same. An I reckon, ef I 
 was n t hardened, I d have the cold shivers 
 puttin these worms on the hook an seein 
 em squirm ; but I don t. Somehow, squirm- 
 in is expected of a worm one way or 
 another. Well, they s one comfort, anyhow : 
 I ain t settin anybody a bad example. Ef 
 they s one thing Simpkinsville can keep, it s 
 Sunday an that s why this tickles me so." 
 And she chuckled again as she added, " Like 
 as ef the fish knew any difference ! " 
 
108 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 When she had finally dropped her line into 
 the water, carefully baited from her bonnet- 
 string, and when she saw that the fish were 
 not waiting to seize it, she said : " B lieve I 11 
 take out the mat an knit a few rounds while 
 the fish are getherin " ; and holding her rod 
 awkwardly with her knees for the moment, she 
 drew out the parcel. Before she was hand- 
 free, however, the cork sank quite out of 
 sight. There was a scramble, and in a second 
 a fine " goggle-eye " flapped into her very lap, 
 dropped over her shoe, and fell with a splash 
 back into the water. 
 
 For a moment she felt as if she would never 
 recover from the panic that it gave her this 
 actual, expected yet unexpected contact with 
 the beautiful, shimmering, live thing. She 
 thrust her work back into her pocket ; then, 
 mounting the bank, she cut a leaf from the 
 palmetto, tore it into shreds, which she laid be 
 side her, and set earnestly to fishing. And the 
 tune that she thought now thought rather 
 than hummed it was "Listen to the Mocking 
 bird": 
 
 H-h-h-h-//-h-h ! 
 
 H-h-h-h-/j-h-h ! 
 H-h-h-h-h-h-/<-h-h-/< / 
 
 H-h-h-h-/j-h-h ! 
 
 H-h-h-h-/i-h-h ! 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 109 
 
 So, without vocalization, her spirit sang the 
 sprightly measure, and she knew not at all 
 that it was because the mocking-bird s trill 
 was in her ears all the time. Nor, when she 
 smiled down to the bank, had she the least 
 idea that it was because the tiny blue and 
 purple blossoms along its margin were all in 
 broad grins, nodding to her. Even when she 
 tried to fit her tune to the funny darting 
 movements of the black-satin-backed bugs 
 that went through their dance-figures for her 
 on the water s surface, she was consciously 
 thinking only of her line. She had thrown 
 open all life s doors and windows, and was 
 letting in light and color and sound ; and she 
 knew only that she was out on a great lark, 
 and she was reckless as to where it might 
 lead her. Of course it was all wicked, and she 
 would be in sackcloth and ashes pretty soon ; 
 but she would not feel that she was there for 
 nothing. She was earning her penance. 
 
 The fish bit finely, after a little. Silver and 
 speckled beauties followed one another on 
 the cruel palmetto strip, whose lengthening 
 burden kept up a perceptible movement in 
 the water, even though the string hung deep. 
 In through the delicate coral gills, and out by 
 way of the pretty mouths, so she strung them. 
 
 There is such a thing as fishing s being too 
 
110 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 good. It lacks the zest of patient angling. 
 So Miss Melissa must have found it to-day, 
 for she remarked, as she sent a slim perch 
 down the fatal string to the number thirty- 
 one, u I wish to goodness you-all would n t 
 bite so fast, an give me a chance to fish." 
 
 Of course she was fishing merely for sport 
 a most cruel thing to do, even on a week 
 day. To have carried the fish home would 
 have been a village scandal. Still, knowing 
 this, she had not the courage to throw them 
 back into the stream. She thought of it, 
 but only for a moment, and her argument 
 against it closed with : " An maybe ketch the 
 same one over an over ag in ? No, not much. 
 Ef I say to myself, I ve caught a dozen 
 fish, I 11 know I ve cauglit a dozen. But 
 I 11 do my best for em. I 11 string em, an 
 hang em in their native element; an ef 
 they re lively, time I git through maybe I 11 
 turn em loose maybe; though I d hate to 
 ketch the same ones over ag in, even ef it was 
 next week. Ef ole Mis Gibbs did n t have 
 sech an inquirin mind for scandal, an sech 
 a talent for distribution, I d take em up an 
 fry em for her an I d eat my share, too." 
 
 And here she stopped suddenly, as if sur 
 prised by a new thought. 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 111 
 
 " Would n t that be perfectly lovely ? " she 
 said slowly, in a moment. " But of co se I 
 could n t do it an no fryin -pan here, nor 
 nothiu , an no match to light a fire, even ef 
 the smoke could be persuaded not to rise." 
 
 Could it be possible that Miss Melissa 
 Ann Moore, Sunday-school teacher and sec 
 retary of the Foreign Missionary Society, was 
 contemplating a solitary fish-fry on the holy 
 Sabbath? Perhaps not. 
 
 She fished until she was very tired, and 
 then, fighting her fatigue as a baby fights 
 sleep, she kept on from sheer inability to 
 stop until she had used her last bait. Then, 
 hastily wrapping her line, she drew up the 
 fish and looked at them. 
 
 "Pity I could n t send you over to the 
 porehouse for the widders, like Deacon Tyler 
 does his week-day surpluses," she said, ad 
 dressing the fish; "but of co se you re a 
 Sunday ketch, an noways fitten to nourish a 
 Christian widder. Lordy, but what a sinner 
 I am to be referrin so familiar to Deacon 
 Tyler, an he sanctified these ten years an 
 over ! Funny notion that was of Mis Gibbs s 
 thet he ain t never married because they ain t 
 no sanctified woman fitten to mate with him ! 
 She settles everybody s hash, one way or an- 
 
112 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 other. But I reckon she s about right when 
 it comes to him. Wonder what she says 
 about me not bein mated, ez she calls it? 
 J d as lief think o marryin that ole feller the 
 bishop told about thet set his life away on 
 top a pillar St. Simon What-you-may-call- im 
 I forgit his surname. Not thet I don t rev 
 erence the deacon 
 
 Miss Melissa had not had the least sense 
 of fear, and yet, when she presently heard 
 footsteps behind her, she felt a sudden terror 
 lest she should fall off the bank. She was 
 too much frightened even to glance over her 
 shoulder when the bush against her arm 
 trembled ; but in a moment her fear was re 
 lieved in part, as she recognized the tall, 
 gaunt figure that emerged from behind her 
 and took a seat upon a projecting rock about 
 a dozen yards from where she sat. It was 
 one she had seen once before. She instantly 
 realized it to be that of a vagrant negro, and 
 she knew that he had come for his dinner he 
 or she. This very non-committal and elusive 
 old person, whose haunts were the cane-brake 
 and the swamp, had been in slavery days a 
 menace to the runaway, who feared his evil 
 eye and silent potency in witchcraft for he 
 was a mute ; and when it was discovered that 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 113 
 
 he frequented the brake he was not molested. 
 The "haunt" that the negroes were afraid 
 either to kill or to confront was better than 
 a pack of hounds to clear the thicket, and so 
 "Silent Si/ 7 responsible neither to law nor 
 order, had lived a charmed life, done as he 
 pleased, and was reckoned no more than the 
 other half-shy, half-bold inhabitants of the 
 woodland. Some said he was a voodoo woman 
 who had escaped from the Barbour planta 
 tion seventeen years before a woman who 
 could cast spells at long range, and had 
 made so much trouble 011 the bayou that 
 when she ran away she was not pursued. 
 Then there were others who felt sure he 
 was a man who once lived on Bayou La- 
 fourche, and who had strange white spots on 
 his body, and claimed that God was grad 
 ually making him over into a white man, 
 though a few feared him as a leper. And 
 there were other stories, but none of them 
 invited friendship with the uncanny person 
 ality that even yet chose the life of a hermit, 
 and whose clothes, rescued from the village 
 dumping- ground and laundered in the creek, 
 were so freely promiscuous in their sugges 
 tions as to be entirely non-committal. 
 
 When Miss Melissa had recovered from her 
 
114 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 first surprise, she burst into a hearty, ringing 
 laugh. " Well," she exclaimed, " ef they s 
 one person on earth thet I d be willin to see 
 me here, it s you, Silent Si." 
 
 For some minutes she sat chuckling to her 
 self over what seemed a humorous situation. 
 
 " Don t reckon he even knows it s Sunday 
 or thet they is any Sundays, for that 
 matter. Don t seem like they could be any 
 need of religion in a cane-brake, noways, with 
 no other sinners round. Most of our needs 
 of grace is th ough dealin with our feller- 
 man, looks to me like, though I don t know. 
 I ve been doin pretty well to-day all by 
 myself. 
 
 " Lordy, ef this ain t the funniest ! Even 
 ef he knew me, he could n t tell. 
 
 " Well, they s one thing, shore : I m a-goin 
 to give him my fish. Yas, I m a-goin to give 
 him my fish, an see thet he has one square 
 meal, anyhow. He can t break a Sabbath 
 that he ain t never heard of ; an as for me, 
 well, maybe the good Lord 11 let the charity 
 of it balance the Sabbath-breakin ." 
 
 At this, she called bravely : 
 
 " Si ! Oh, Si ! " 
 
 "Oh, Si! ".answered a distinct echo from 
 across the creek. 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 115 
 
 It seemed a mocking reminder of the 
 mute s deafness, and there was. some thing so 
 uncanny in it that, although Miss Melissa 
 laughed, it was with nervous laughter. 
 
 "Well, you cert n y are deef in both ears, 
 old Si," she chuckled; "for ef you could n t 
 hear out o the one on this side, the echo has 
 sampled the other for me. This would be a 
 good place to fetch the deacon to. I would 
 n t feel so called to quote Scripture to him ef 
 I could jest locate his good ear. I know ef 
 he ketches one word of a Scripture quotation 
 he can finish out the verse, an I Ve more n 
 once fell back on the Bible for conversation 
 when a worldly remark was on the tip o my 
 tongue. I know it s the right ear thet s 
 good, an yet I m so used to makin allow 
 ances for me bein left-handed thet somehow 
 T gen ally git confused an say things in the 
 deef side. But out here the echo would be 
 bound to strike it. 
 
 "I see Si is spittin on his bait for luck. 
 He s learned something ef he is deef. Maybe 
 he does know it s Sunday, after all. I 
 reckon some folks would be afeard of him, 
 out here by theirselves, but I ain t. I ricol- 
 lect too well what a mild face he had the day 
 he come out o the bresh, that summer, when 
 
110 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 we was d ariii off the ground after our Sun 
 day-school picnic, an I give him a lot o the 
 scraps. I was n t a bit afeard of him then. 
 I jest passed the things to him on a broom 
 because some folks said he had the leprosy. 
 Of co se time has proved he ain t got that. I 
 believe I 11 unwrap my line an fling it over 
 his, an make him take notice." 
 
 No sooner said than done. Attracted thus, 
 the mute turned and looked at her. With a 
 motion of her hand she held his attention 
 until she had drawn up the string of fish, 
 and then by a simple pantomime she offered 
 them to him. A difficult medium of com 
 munication seems sometimes to be conducive 
 to a swift understanding, for in a surprisingly 
 short time these two people, who had met 
 only once in a twilight wood many years 
 before, had so well understood each other 
 without the aid of speech that the mute was 
 building a fire under a ledge of the rock a 
 few feet away, a secret hiding-place from 
 which he soon brought forth a rude cooking 
 equipment, and Miss Melissa Ann Moore 
 was scaling fish with her own hands, using 
 for the purpose first one and then the other 
 blade of her scissors. She had rolled up her 
 sleeves, and pinned up her dress-skirt to 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 117 
 
 serve as apron, and while she scraped off the 
 silver scales and trimmed the glittering fins, 
 she hummed a tune into which she was 
 presently fitting the words, "From Green 
 land s Icy Mountains." 
 
 Her song was low at first, a soft, gur 
 gling treble ; but as she went on it gradually 
 yielded to the inspiration of the wood, abetted 
 by the brave note of a stalwart bird that 
 poured out his joy from a tree above her, 
 until she was singing as she had never sung 
 in her life before. 
 
 It was a fine duet for a while, but soon 
 neighboring birds, hearing it, came and sang 
 with the two until the woods rang 5 and no 
 one but God heard the anthem God and 
 perhaps the squirrels and other voiceless 
 creatures who came out of hiding to peep 
 and to listen. Miss Melissa, strange as it 
 may seem, was all unaware of aught save 
 delight. It was as if the long-pent joy that 
 ought to have expressed itself through years 
 of living had suddenly burst forth, demand 
 ing right of way, and converting her, for the 
 time, into a simple instrument of song. And 
 the birds, knowing the life-notes, understood, 
 and sang with her. 
 
 And all the while she mechanically con- 
 
118 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 tinued to scale the fish. But so translated 
 was she that when the mute came and stood 
 beside her, she did not see him until a breeze 
 blew his skirt across the line of her vision, 
 and she turned. When her eyes fell full 
 upon the slender oval face of the tall yellow 
 "human" standing dumbly beside her, she 
 stopped singing and withdrew her hands. He 
 took the motion for permission, and quickly 
 gathered up the fish and returned to the fire. 
 His coming so near had broken the spell and 
 brought her back to earth. She watched him 
 in awed silence for a moment, and then she 
 said, quite as if the circumstances were in no 
 wise out of the ordinary : 
 
 "Well, whilst the picnic ? s progressing 
 reckon I might s well knit a few rounds on 
 the red mat." 
 
 Suiting the action to the word, she took 
 out her knitting, and as her needles flew she 
 soon fell into speculative discourse with her 
 self concerning her companion. 
 
 " I declare," she began, " I feel like as ef I 
 was jest about half in a dream, an liable to 
 wake up any minute ; but I d be mighty dis 
 appointed ef I was to wake up before them 
 fish are fried an e t. No, t ain t no dream ; 
 they say you can t never dream smells. Ef 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 119 
 
 anybody had a told me, I would n t a be 
 lieved he d be so clean about it washed his 
 hands in the branch even before he built the 
 tire. An , come close-t to em, her clo es is 
 more faded n they are dirty, anyhow ; an I m 
 shore no hair could be whiter jest like 
 the driven snow " 
 
 She had dropped her knitting in her lap 
 while she watched the silent figure at work. 
 There was something so weird about it all 
 that even Miss Melissa, unimaginative as she 
 was, felt the strange spell. 
 
 " What would I give ef I could git her to 
 come an set down here by me an tell me the 
 story of her life ! They can t be a life with 
 out a story, an I reckon hers would be so 
 unnatural thet it would make a good book. 
 No speech, no relations, no knowledge of 
 Gord or the devil jest herself, day in an day 
 out. 
 
 "Or hisself," she added, seeing the mute 
 break a stick of wood across his knee. " But 
 jest to think of thinkin thoughts with no 
 words to think em in ! I would n t under 
 take it, I know. Thoughtless words are com 
 mon enough, but wordless thoughts I can t 
 conceive of sech a thing. Imagine me tryin 
 to think in Hindu an not knowin so much 
 
 8 
 
120 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 as polhj fronsay in it to explain my thoughts 
 to my miiid. I often wonder what sech a 
 one will do at the jedgnient, when he s re 
 quired to give an account of hisself. 
 
 "But he must have ricollections of some- 
 thin or somebody. But I ? d think even ricol 
 lections d git to be monotonous, after a 
 while, for a main dependence. Somehow, I 
 doubt ef he remembers anything. I reckon 
 he jest gits up every mornin an scrimmages 
 for food, an goes to bed at night an rests 
 from his scrimmagin . Come to think of it, 
 that s what all the world s a-doin , more or 
 less. 
 
 "I s pose they s any number o places 
 where he s got fryin -pans an things hid, an 
 little strips of bacon like that he s fryin 
 with now. 
 
 " Meal in a bottle with a cork in it ! Who d 
 ever a thought o sech a thing ! Well, it s 
 a good way to keep it dry. I s pose the 
 annual picnic leavin s is the same as a Christ 
 mas dinner to him. They say it don t make 
 no difference where they have the picnics, 
 down at Silas s mill, or at the camp-meetin 
 grove, or up at Pump Springs, he always 
 gits wind of em an somebody sees him prowl- 
 in round for the fragments j but from this 
 
SHE HAD DROPPED HER KNITTING IN HER LAP/ 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 123 
 
 time on, I intend to see thet he finds some- 
 thin more n broken victuals. I d do that 
 much for a dumb brute without a soul to 
 save. What is he doin now, for gracious 
 sakes? He s a-cuttin off a bunch o that 
 palmetter an tyin it to a pole. I do wonder 
 ef he s a-goin to sweep the ground off before 
 he sets the food on it. He don t know it s a 
 sin to sweep on Sunday, I don t reckon. Ef 
 I did n t have this mat to finish, I d try the 
 deef-an -dumb alphabet on him, an spell out 
 the f o th commandment." 
 
 The mute had, indeed, fashioned a rude 
 broom from the materials at hand, and before 
 Miss Melissa could anticipate his intention, 
 he had taken a beautiful leaf of the green 
 palmetto, laid it on the improvised broom, 
 placed the fish and a corn-dodger upon it, 
 and, standing at arm s-length, was presenting 
 it to her. 
 
 It meant recognition. 
 
 So she had served him years ago in the 
 twilight wood. She was much startled for 
 the moment, but a swift glance at his pathetic 
 face touched her almost to tears. As she 
 looked into his eyes a flicker of servile plea 
 sure illumined them a flicker that she felt 
 rather than saw, like the blink of a summer 
 
124 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 sky when one says, "Was that lightning?" 
 and cannot be quite sure whether it was until 
 it comes again. 
 
 When she took the fish she was so agitated 
 that she said, " Thank you, Si," quite aloud ; 
 but the words fell upon his back, for he had 
 not lingered. 
 
 For some minutes Miss Melissa sat and 
 looked at the feast it seemed a feast, for the 
 hour was late, and she was hungry before 
 she could recover herself enough to touch it. 
 But finally she drew the palmetto up on her 
 knee, and began her novel meal, which she 
 ate as uuquestioningly as a child. She had 
 been all her life accustomed to the negro s 
 hand as a server of food the negro, taken 
 many times without question from field or 
 forest work ; and when once this sort of ser 
 vice is accepted, and one learns the usual 
 cleanliness of the shapely hands of the most 
 uncouth among them, he has arrived at a com 
 fort point which does not always exist in 
 more pretentious serving. The old "aunty" 
 who shucks her roasting-ears all over her 
 kitchen floor, and spreads her baby s pallet 
 on the pile of bark in the corner, will make 
 biscuits as white as snow, and her pine table 
 will show its pretty grain even down its 
 
A NOTE OF SCAELET 125 
 
 scoured legs. The floor is hers, but her 
 hands and the table where she prepares his 
 feasts are consecrate to her master s service. 
 
 It was some minutes before Miss Melissa 
 thought of looking after the mute, and when 
 she did look he was gone. There was not 
 even so much as a trace of the fire he had 
 built upon the ground. Indeed, she would 
 not have known where it had been but for 
 the pile of brush he had drawn over the 
 spot. 
 
 She stopped eating, and looked about her. 
 
 "Well," she exclaimed, "I don t doubt a 
 minute but what I m hoodooed, an none o 
 the things I seem to see are really happenin . 
 
 " Of co se here s the fish, an my red mat ; 
 an there s my fishin -pole, layin where I 
 throwed it over the buckeye-bushes. That 
 much is real. But that gray squir l climbin 
 down the tree-limb, there, looks like as ef it 
 might easy be in a dream an suddenly dis 
 solve. I do declare, I feel almost like as ef I 
 was in the Garden of Eden. Ef I was to see 
 a snake anywhere, I d fully expect it to en 
 large an come forward an try to tempt me. 
 I wonder what time o day it is, anyhow? 
 I see the shadders is all reversed, an 
 
 "Why, it s gittin dark ! " 
 
126 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 She rose to her feet and looked about her 
 and shuddered. 
 
 " Deary, deary me ! n she said, " how far 
 wrong one bad act will take a person ! Only 
 three days ago I stopped counting my strands 
 an now what an awful sinner I ain ! Will 
 I ever have forgiveness an peace of mind 
 again, I wonder? 
 
 "What would the deacon say or even 
 Gord? Somehow, I don t mind the Lord 
 knowin it ez much as I would the deacon. 
 He s so sanctified. An of co se Gord knows 
 all the ins and outs of it, how werried I 
 was, an he s authorized to blot out. Maybe 
 this is the real me, after all, an I have n t 
 been no more n a hypocrite all these years. 
 
 "No," she added, looking upward, " t ain t 
 that. Whatever it is, I ain t a hypocrite, I 
 know. Some say Gord judges us by our best 
 days, an some say he holds us for our worst. 
 An then, ag in, some say he averages. May 
 be ef he 11 average up these last three days 
 with my forty-one years of tryin to live 
 righteously, it 11 seem like as ef I ve been 
 passable good right along. 
 
 " But I must be goin ." 
 
II 
 
 THERE were bedtime twitterings in the brush 
 on every side now, and the shaft of sunlight 
 that had a moment before revealed the glories 
 of the greenery all about her passed out even 
 while she looked, and Miss Melissa realized her 
 isolation in a momentary sense of fear. But 
 this wood, and the banks of the stream that 
 wound in and out of it for miles, had been the 
 familiar playground of her childhood. She re 
 membered it when there were tales of bears 
 and wildcats there, and she knew where several 
 Indian graves were, within a stone s-throw of 
 where she sat graves that were witnesses to 
 some stirring times in which her grandfather 
 had taken part. It would be hard for her to 
 be really afraid here, even in the dense copse 
 where she had hidden. In a moment she was 
 smiling at the idea, and to make sure of her 
 self she went back to the jutting ledge, and 
 deliberately threw the fragments of her dinner 
 into the water, so as to leave no vestige of the 
 occasion. 
 
 She dropped them in slowly, one at a time, 
 and watched them while they floated a min 
 ute, or sank as they fell ; and her calm exterior 
 
 127 
 
128 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 gave no hint of a new panic that had begun 
 to rage within her. She had felt it for a mo 
 ment when the mute first disappeared, and 
 while she stood alone in the darkening wood 
 it came again. It w r as the inevitable home- 
 going that confronted her. She had always 
 been truth itself, and she would have to give 
 an account of this broken Sabbath probably 
 within an hour. She felt sure that her brother 
 was already inquiring for her and watehing 
 the gate, and that her nervous sister-in-law 
 was declaring herself " certain an sure some- 
 thin awful had happened " ; and in all prob 
 ability Sally Tolbert, and Mis Allen, and 
 maybe the Tompkins children, had been over 
 during the afternoon to see how she was, hav 
 ing missed her at church. Possibly even 
 Deacon Tyler had dropped in, with his ear- 
 trumpet, so as not to miss any detail of an 
 illness that had been serious enough to keep 
 her from service. He always went to inquire 
 for the sick. In imagination she could hear 
 her sister-in-law screaming into the trumpet 
 that " the last seen of Sis M liss was thus or 
 so. Cynthy had watched her go through the 
 gate, and had heard her say something about 
 old Mrs. Gibbs, she thought." 
 
 This last reflection was suggestive and 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 129 
 
 helpful. She had intended to go and see how 
 old Mrs. Gibbs was, and she would go now, 
 late as it was. That old lady had cataracts on 
 her eyes, so the doctors said, and she was im 
 patiently awaiting the period of full blindness, 
 that darkest hour before the dawn when the 
 w r orld might be hers again. 
 
 Miss Melissa would go now, and offer to 
 take her to evening service ; and her family, 
 seeing her there, might assume that she had 
 been with Mrs. Gibbs all day, and not ask any 
 questions. Mrs. Gibbs would not see that she 
 was not dressed for church. 
 
 How stupidly a sane person can plan when 
 his thoughts are fixed on a single point ! The 
 whole congregation would have had to have 
 cataracts on their eyes to make it possible for 
 one to appear in church in a gingham frock 
 and pink sunbonnet without creating a sensa 
 tion. But she would go and see Mrs. Gibbs, 
 anyway. It would be a safe way-station in 
 the direction of a return, and perhaps while 
 there something would be suggested. Of 
 course she could not take her fishing-rod with 
 her, but she could hide it in the brush. 
 
 THERE was no light in the Gibbs cottage when 
 she arrived, wirich was a good omen. Mrs. 
 
130 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 Gibbs lighted up only for company, and she 
 would find her alone as she did. 
 
 Delighted at the sound of her voice, the 
 voluble old lady greeted her with a charac 
 teristic welcome. 
 
 " Why, howdy, Melissy Ann ! Howdy ! I m 
 proud to see you. An I m glad to see you 
 ain t expectin to go to church, for I don t feel 
 a bit worshipful this evenin . Ef I d heard 
 a swish when you come in, I d know it was 
 my duty to go with you. Speak o the devil 
 I was jest a-thinkin jest now how long 
 that bayadere silk o yores had lasted. I 
 ricollec you bought it off 1 n yo second inat- 
 raffle, time the circus tent blowed away. Well, 
 I m glad you re better. How s yo sis -in- 
 law ? Got over her faint yet ? Or was it the 
 child thet fainted ? Some said it was her, an 
 some itr 
 
 This was an unpromising beginning. It 
 seemed at the onset that she would be obliged 
 to confess that she had not been at home all 
 day. She would not be rash about it, though. 
 If her sister-in-law had fainted in church, ap 
 parently that was all Mrs. Gibbs knew about 
 it, and she could gain nothing by asking ques 
 tions, so she said tentatively : 
 
 " Sis Salina s subjec to them dizzy spells 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 131 
 
 sence she s stoutened up so j an the doctor 
 says it behooves her to take keer of herself, 
 an to take boneset an 
 
 "An camomile an bitter aloways, to alle 
 viate the boneset," Mrs. Gibbs interpolated. 
 " Yas j you can tell her for me thet I say thet 
 when I stoutened befo I fell away the last 
 time, that was what brought me through. 
 
 " But some folks thought maybe it was jest 
 fright, this mornin , thet ailed her. It s 
 enough to scare anybody to have a cow rush 
 into a pew du in services, an to upset a 
 whole row o child en, the way that cow did 
 hers. I ve always thought it was resky an 
 irreligious allo win a cow to graze in the 
 churchyard, the way they do, whilst the gos 
 pel is bein preached. But of co se nobody 
 could a foresaw her takin a notion to attend 
 services. They say Mis Blanks is goin to 
 have it out with Jim Towers, you know, 
 it was his cow, an she says ef he don t pay 
 for her bonnet she 11 see the reason why. 
 Was n t it funny for her to chew up the most 
 expensive thing in church, which everybody 
 knows Mis Blanks s bonnets is milliner- 
 trimmed fresh every season ? I ain t missed 
 my eyesight so sence it went never. I s pose 
 the cow nachelly knew straw when she saw it, 
 
132 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 an she had n t no respec for a leghorn braid. 
 Lncky thing Mis Blanks always unties her 
 bonnet-strings to sing, else she d a been 
 strangled, shore. They say the cow mooed 
 right into Deacon Tyler s ear-trumpet, an rose 
 him straight out of is pew. You know, when 
 he sets his trumpet for the sermon he always 
 shets his eyes ; an the first thing he heard was 
 * Moo ! Of co se I knew I was safe, in the 
 amen corner, cause no Durham could get over 
 the railin , less she was hard pressed. I 
 missed the sight of it all, but my hearin s 
 better n ever, an to my dyin day I 11 never 
 forgit the words Brother Clayton said, an 
 how the cow changed things around. lie 
 was jest repeatin his tex for his fo th head, 
 an he says, says he : * " An Nathan said unto 
 David," so, Sitkey, so ! Lordy ! but you 
 missed a church circus this morniu , honey, 
 Melissy, shore. 
 
 " But I m right glad to hear thet yo sister. 
 in-law ain t noways serious. Did she expect 
 her brother Ben to come to-day, or was it a 
 complete surprise ? Mandy Jones says he s 
 fetched a trunkful o presents, but his sister 
 would n t let him open it on the Sabbath. 
 Mis Jones sent Mandy down the road to see 
 ef they was crape on the gate, not knowin 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 133 
 
 what a cow-horn might result in ; an Mandy 
 she see the carriage at the door, an she went 
 to see ef it was the undertaker, it bein a 
 strange carriage, an that s how it come out 
 thet it was her brother Ben come back. 
 Mandy did n t go in, but she counted eight 
 child en playin on the po ch, an she see Ca 
 leb s wife rockin the cradle with her foot, 
 which proved it was n t empty ; so she knew 
 they was all alive, an she come away. 
 
 "But I don t see how you-all stand not 
 knowin what he d fetched you till to-morrer 
 morniii . Caleb s wife is shorely a godly 
 woman by intention. My judgment would 
 7 a been to open that trunk an have a rapid 
 distribution. She could a had it opened with 
 prayer, ef she d a seen fit ; an then, when the 
 things was all give out, they could a been put 
 away tel to-morrer, all excep Bibles an sech. 
 Even a frivolous present, received an put out 
 o sight, is less distractin , in my opinion, than 
 a doubtful box with a Bible in it. They say 
 he claimed thet none of his presents was n t 
 wicked, nohow, cep n the pack o playin - 
 cards that he brought for the preacher, which 
 I m glad to see Ben ain t lost none of his 
 devilment in his travels. But she would n t 
 hear to techin tf ^ trunk. She s got the 
 
134 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 courage of her convictions, shore. I never 
 will forgit how she apologized for one of her 
 babies bein born on a Sunday, or how relieved 
 she seemed when one o the attendin ladies 
 reminded her thet all its birthdays would n t 
 of necessity f oiler on the Sabbaths. 
 
 " But you ain t told me yet whether you-all 
 was lookin for him or not, or 
 
 Before she could answer, Miss Melissa was 
 startled by a rap at the door, and Mrs. Gibbs 
 asked her to light the lamp. Until now, the 
 two women had been sitting in the dark. 
 
 The light revealed a funnel-shaped instru 
 ment thrust through a crack in the door, and 
 Miss Melissa knew that the deacon had come, 
 and that almost certainly he was looking for 
 her. She knew he had presented his trumpet 
 for an invitation to enter, and so she obedi 
 ently screamed, with nervous aim just out 
 side the funnel : " Howdy, deacon ! Come in." 
 He caught part of the greeting, however, and 
 while she went on to say that she was just 
 thinking it was time to go, he came in, shook 
 hands with the two women, and sat down 
 between them. 
 
 " Has he got his trumpet with him ? " asked 
 the brave hostess, realizing his deafness; but 
 Miss Melissa did not hear her, either. She 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 135 
 
 felt that she must get the deacon away, if 
 possible, before there were any revelations, 
 and she was devoting herself to him. While 
 Mrs. Gibbs was thinking, "Wonder ef they 
 could be anything in him comin here after 
 her," that lady was screaming, in reply to his 
 solicitous inquiry : 
 
 " Oh, yas, sir, thank you ; it s a heap better. 
 The open air an then, talkin here to Mis 
 Gibbs. T was n t exactly to say a headache, 
 nohow. I reckon I ought to ve went to 
 church, by rights." 
 
 "Well," said the deacon, slowly, "I can t 
 jedge for nobody else, of co se, but I d resk a 
 good deal on yo doin the right thing. For 
 myself, I know it takes all the church-goin 
 I m capable of to keep me within a stone s- 
 throw of the straight an narrer way. Of 
 co se I have n t heard a sermon in ten year ; 
 but I go, an set my trumpet <fo rec for the 
 W^ord of God, an that seems to be all thet 
 could be expected of me. Some has insinu 
 ated thet I ought to keep my eyes open, an 
 from my experience this mornin , I s pose 
 likely I ought. But, exceptin for self-preser 
 vation, I can t see no obligation to do it. Ef 
 Brother Clayton would shave, I d obligate 
 myself to keep awake an watch his lips j but 
 
136 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 they ain t no inspiration in the motion of 
 chin-whiskers, not even ef they are dilatin 
 on the gospel not to me. But of co se I 
 know I ain t as good a Christian as what I 
 ought to be, noways. I don t begin to b lieve 
 the way 1 ve been taught, an I ain t got the 
 faith on all p ints thet folks think I have, 
 neither. F instance, that doctrine of i What 
 is to be will be, I don t begin to b lieve it. I 
 don t b lieve for a minute, f instance, thet 
 that fool cow was fo ordained to moo into my 
 trumpet this mornin , an rouse me out of a 
 dream o the golden streets which she done." 
 
 He looked at Miss Melissa and waited for a 
 reply. 
 
 "Well, I did n t see the cow or hear her," 
 she began irrelevantly. "Of co se He who 
 created the cow, an created you, He must have 
 known 
 
 "Never mind the trumpet, Miss Melissy," 
 he interrupted, smiling; "you re on my good 
 side. Come jest a leetle close-ter, please, 
 ma am, an talk slow ; an hand this to Mis 
 Gibbs, so s she can express an opinion to my 
 deef side ef she s so disposed." 
 
 He handed Miss Melissa the ear-trumpet, 
 and she passed it over to Mrs. Gibbs. 
 
 "Well, I b lieve events can be helped, or 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 137 
 
 hindered," the brave hostess shouted into the 
 funnel, glad of a chance to speak. "Ef I 
 did n t b lieve that I would n t have no cour 
 age to anoint my cataracts." 
 
 "An I think thet nobody can go far 
 wrong," added Miss Melissa, " ef he jest fol- 
 lers the Scriptures. I know a man down 
 here at Spring Hill, he started readin doubt- 
 in books, an first thing his folks knew, he 
 was disputin perpetual hell an the fire thet s 
 never squenched; an several of his smarty 
 friends, thinkin it was becomin , they started 
 to show off in the same way. One well-raised 
 young man thet s got two elders an a class- 
 leader in his family, an is sfcudyin medicine 
 hisself, why, he up an said he doubted the 
 story of Jonah an the whale, jest on physical 
 grounds 
 
 " I should a thought he would 7 a been sort 
 o physicked with him, shore enough," shrieked 
 Mrs. Gibbs; "Jonah, I mean no, the whale" 
 
 "An so he was an physicked effectual. 
 We ve got Scripture for that. To me, the 
 mericle ain t that. It s the two of em sur- 
 vivin ; that s what gits me. Maybe I ought 
 n t to say it, an I would n t ef any of our 
 young folks was around j but sometimes I ve 
 thought thet maybe the whole thing was n t 
 
138 A NOTE OF SCAKLET 
 
 never intended for no more n a yarn. Them 
 apostles must ve got off fakes occasional, jest 
 to relieve the monotony, an I don b lieve for 
 a minute thet my eternal salvation has got to 
 hinge on me a-swalleriu no fish-story over a 
 thousand years old. Even the fresh ones we 
 git is li ble to suspicion t least, some of em 
 is. I know I ve been tempted myself, an me 
 a deacon in the church. A inch in a fish s 
 tail, or a ounce or so of weight, or the narrer- 
 ness of a person s escape from drowndin , 
 well, they seem sech harmless exaggerations, 
 an they give a man standin in a community 
 where things is pretty slow. But of co se I 
 ain t never done it. I Ve stood by my little 
 fish all my life, an I ve had the durnedest 
 luck, too, for a patient fisher. But of co se 
 you ladies ain t never tempted that-a-way." 
 He looked at Miss Melissa. " You ain t never 
 fished all day, I m shore, an been tempted a 
 thousand ways to diverge. Ef you was to go 
 fishin , Miss Melissy, no doubt you d be as 
 conscientious about yo ketch as you are in 
 knittiii them green mats." 
 
 Fortunately, he did not glance at Miss 
 Melissa now, for her face was scarlet. She 
 felt sure she had been discovered ; and if she 
 had broken all the commandments in one foil 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 139 
 
 impulse, she could not have been more hope 
 lessly criminal in her own consciousness. 
 
 " I ve often thought/ the deacon continued, 
 eying her mischievously the while, "that ef 
 you would make jest one crooked mat, or turn 
 out jest one of a false color, say a red one, 
 why, the devil might have some hope of 
 you ; but so long as you set sech a example of 
 consistency as you do, why, ef you have even 
 so much as a sick-headache, an stroll away 
 for relief, we know the place to hunt you is 
 the bedside of the sick, an , shore enough, 
 here you are. Well, I mus be goin ," he 
 added, looking at his watch. "Ef you 11 
 accept of my company, I 11 escort you home. 
 I would n t advise you to pass by the wilier 
 hedge alone for a few nights, for they do say 
 Silent Si has been seen prowlin round for a 
 week or so, an you might run ag in him him 
 or his haunt. Some say th ain t nothin but 
 his sperit been seen for three years not thet 
 you d be afeard of him, exactly, either in the 
 flesh or out" 
 
 If Miss Melissa had had a hope that the 
 deacon knew nothing of her escapade, it was 
 gone now ; and when she rose to go, she said 
 " Good mornin " to her hostess, and in reply 
 to an invitation to come again soon, she stain- 
 
140 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 mercd, " Not at all " ; and when she was out 
 side, and the deacon offered her his arm, she 
 actually sobbed aloud. Fortunately, though, 
 it was in his deaf ear; and before she had 
 further committed herself, he had passed her 
 the trumpet, saying : " I can t offer you my 
 good ear, lest you d be for sale on the outside 
 the walk, so you 11 haf to do yo laughin an 
 talkin in this. What was you laughin at, 
 anyhow ? A deef man can feel a chuckle he 
 can t hear." 
 
 This was so funny that she really laughed, 
 now, straight into the funnel. She laughed 
 so loud and so long, and with such a growing 
 sense of humor, that the deacon laughed with 
 her from sheer contagion. When life s ten 
 sion has been long and rigorous, and over 
 strained nerves recoil, it is hard to recover 
 control sometimes. Since Miss Melissa s 
 weeping had been translated into mirth it 
 quite ran away with her, and it would have 
 alarmed the deacon had he heard it all. But 
 the snatches of it that fell into his trumpet 
 were only sufficient to impart a sense of joy- 
 ousness, and he said cheerily : 
 
 "Yo feelin so happy to-night is as good 
 as a sermon to me. Notwithstanding you 
 have n t had the inspiration of divine service 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 141 
 
 to-day, you ve found the reward of doin the 
 Lord s work. You ve found it in a merry 
 heart." 
 
 The deacon s voice was too gentle for irony. 
 Surely, after all, he could not know. 
 
 To feel like a criminal was bad enough, but 
 it did not approach the hopelessness of being 
 found out. Miss Melissa cleared her throat, 
 and looked up a little. So long as only she 
 and God and the speechless old negro knew, 
 she could hope to enter her closet and have it 
 out in confession and prayer. She had antici 
 pated the sackcloth, and was willing to endure 
 the sting of it; but to be whipped in the 
 market-place, figuratively if not with bodily 
 stripes, was more than she could brook. If 
 the deacon knew all, and would tell, this 
 would be her fate. But he did not know. 
 His stumbling over the live wires that con 
 nected with her conscience was only an acci 
 dent ; but she was so sensitive. It was easy 
 to turn the scales either way by a feather s 
 weight. What could have been more inno 
 cent than the good man s next remark ? And 
 yet how easily she misunderstood it, and what 
 despair it wrought within her ! Witness his 
 artless offense : 
 
 "Many another, in sech circumstances, 
 
142 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 bavin a headache for a good excuse, instead 
 of doin the Lord s work as you ve done to 
 day, would a 7 found some fish of their own 
 to "fry." 
 
 How simple and natural the tribute to her 
 supposed faithfulness, but how subtle and 
 poignant the sting upon her guilty conscious 
 ness ! It was more than she could bear. 
 
 " Hursh ! " she screamed, clapping the fun 
 nel quite over her lips. " Hursh, deacon ! 
 Not another word ! I can t stand it. Ef 
 you ve got the feelin for me thet you d 
 have for a yaller dog thet was bein pursued, 
 you 11 hursh ! " 
 
 "Well, upon my word, you re purty brash, 
 Melissy." It was her brother Caleb who 
 stepped up from behind them, and he had 
 heard his sister s last words. 
 
 "Don t mind her, Caleb," the deacon said 
 mildly ; " she s jest showin her Christian hu 
 mility. Whenever I refer to her good works 
 it seems to pleg her, but I did n t have no idee 
 of taxin her forbearance so severe. I found 
 her settin in darkness, ministerin to ole Mis 
 Gibbs, jest as we s picioned she was. I s pose 
 you got uneasy an come to hunt her ? " 
 
 " Well, we thought we d like to locate her 
 befo 7 it got into the night. I s pose it s fool- 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 143 
 
 ish to be afraid of ole Si, but somehow we ve 
 been raised to fear him, an I did n t know but 
 maybe you might take a notion to come home 
 the woods way, Sis, an 7 I d jest as lief none 
 o my folks would run no resks. Sev al of the 
 niggers say they ve saw him prowlin aroun 
 our place of nights lately, but I spect that s 
 jest to clair their own skirts when things is 
 missin . Our children say somebody has went 
 off with yo fishin -pole, Sis. Do you know 
 anything about it ? " 
 
 "Yas; I hid it. 7 Her voice was pretty 
 steady, considering the pressure upon her. 
 
 "I thought likely you had. First thing 
 when we come home from church, the young 
 ones started nosin round, an they missed it. 
 It s about church-time now, deacon, an ef 
 you want to git in for the openin hymn, I 11 
 see Melissy home ; or ef you 
 
 "No, thank you, Caleb. Not thet I d 
 slight a hymn because I can t hear it, but I 
 ain t been raised to shift a lady half-way 
 home. You go on to church, an I 11 be 
 along d rec ly." 
 
 Miss Melissa dropped the deacon s arm. 
 
 "You both go," she exclaimed. "Nothm 
 ain t goin to hurt me." 
 
 But the deacon held her fast. 
 
144 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 " Go along, Sis/ said Caleb, from behind. 
 "You know lie can t hear nothin , nohow. 
 He might s well be scortin you home as 
 settin up noddin ." Caleb knew so well the 
 range of the deacon s half-awake ear that he 
 dared hairbreadth proximity to it with im 
 punity. " An ef you don t feel like comin to 
 preachin , which I should n t think you would 
 after a whole day with Mis Gibbs, you might 
 let Cynthy go. She s settin half asleep in 
 the rocker between the children s beds." 
 
 "I 11 stay with em," said Melissa. "I 
 s pose Saliny has gone ahead." 
 
 " Yes ; she s went to the mother s meet-in 
 in the session-room. I promised thet ef you 
 did n t come in time I d look after the young 
 sters. They re all asleep, cep n Joe an Sallie. 
 They re comin straight from the Epworth 
 meetin to church." 
 
 As he left them, Caleb turned back and 
 called to his sister : " Kind o sorry you ain t 
 comin to church, Sis. Brother Clayton lays 
 off to rouse the sleepers in the temple to-night. 
 Goin to preach on Though thy sins be as 
 scarlet you know the rest of it." And as 
 he left them he said to himself : " Dear Lord ! 
 ef them two could only see theirselves as 
 others see em." 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 145 
 
 Miss Melissa made no reply, but presently 
 she said to the deacon : 
 
 u Did you ketch what Bud said to me ? " 
 
 " Well, no not exacly. I aimed for it, but 
 my tube gits tangled sometimes. But I 
 thought I caught somethin 7 about starlight. 
 It is a-goin 7 to be a starlight night. Was 
 that what he remarked ? " 
 
 "No; that word was i scarlet/ not i star 
 light. 7 He knew you 7 d set out to pleg me, 
 an 7 he thought he 7 d give me a partin 7 shot, 
 that 7 s all. He was jest repeatin 7 the tex 7 
 Brother Clayton has give out for to-night. 
 I wonder you ain 7 t mentioned it before. 77 
 
 She was too angry to care much what she 
 said, and the old deacon, although he did not 
 in the least suspect this, felt that something 
 was wrong with her. He had known this for 
 some time. There was a wail in the voice 
 that commanded him to hush, and, tender 
 hearted old man that he was, he felt that he 
 could not sleep until he found out what the 
 trouble was. 
 
 When they reached her gate, Miss Melissa, 
 instead of asking him in, extended her hand 
 and said good night. " I know you 7 re anx 
 ious to get to church, deacon, 77 she began to 
 say ; but he interrupted her : 
 
146 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 " I ain t anxious to do nothin but to fall on 
 my knees and apologize right an left, Miss 
 Melissy. Whatever I ve done or said, God 
 knows, but I ve hurt yo feelin s,an I would n t 
 a done sech a thing, not for nothin on earth. 
 Ef you 11 jest let me- go in an set down a 
 minute I did n t ketch the drift o what Caleb 
 said about his wife, but I reckon she s likely 
 gone ahead to join the other mothers, as usual ; 
 an ef so, we 11 have the parlor to ourselves, 
 an you kin fetch a lamp an scan my features 
 for honesty while I tell you I m innocent of 
 whatever I J ce done I n 
 
 It was rather scant politeness, but Miss 
 Melissa said not a word as she led the way 
 into the house. 
 
 When she had dismissed the negro, and 
 drawn her chair beside the deacon s, one 
 must needs sit close to a deaf man, she laid 
 a parcel upon the center-table at her elbow, 
 and began to speak; but the deacon inter 
 rupted her. 
 
 " Befo we explain fully, Miss Melissy," he 
 said, " I want to say a word. I m afeard my 
 talk this evenin clair disgusted you, an I m 
 sorry I said them things about the whale. I 
 know how you feel about all Scripture, an I 
 ought to ve kep my mouth shet." 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 147 
 
 " Yon need n t feel bad about that, deacon. 
 To be candid, after the first shock, it sort 
 o made me feel nearer to yon to find thet you 
 was human an frail. Of co se I don t share 
 yo misgivin s. I believe all the Holy Scrip 
 ture verbatim, word for word. But I 7 m of 
 a dangerous disposition. Ef I started to 
 doubt, they s no tellin where I d go. But 
 I ve always looked upon you as ef you was 
 a sort o stained-glass apostle with a halo 
 on, like them two in the Piscopal winders. 
 Seemed like as ef you jest lived up to every 
 thing perfect, even to yo deefness sense 
 me mentionin it. Am I talkin loud enough ? " 
 
 " Yas ; I hear every word. Settin so, with 
 the house still, I can even hear that lamp sizz. 
 Don t you reckon you better turn it down ? " 
 
 She turned the wick as she went on : 
 
 "An , as I said, yo havin faith- weakness 
 was a sort o comfort to me. I don t know but 
 it makes what I m about to say a little easier 
 for me. Of co se you know all about my mats ; 
 you ve showed that." 
 
 " About yo mats ? Why, cert n y. Every 
 body does j an I think they re to be strongly 
 recommended both for shape an usefulness, 
 an durability, too ; an ef anybody says I ever 
 said different" 
 
148 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 " I m not ref errin to my green mats, dea 
 con, an you know it. I m referrin to these." 
 
 She opened the parcel, and spread the scar 
 let mats upon her lap. 
 
 " But how you found out about em I don t 
 know, but you ve acknowledged you did ; an 
 now I in goin to out with the whole thing. 
 I s pose the devil tempted me. As you said 
 this evenin , ef I ever condescended to make 
 a red mat, or one out o kilter, the devil might 
 have hopes of me. Well, here s two both 
 all-fired red, an knit with no mo conscience 
 than a cat s got. The best part of this last 
 one I ve knit to-day Sunday. Not a stitch 
 counted in either one, an how they turned 
 out so everlastin pretty I don t know. It s 
 like the reward of vice. Yas; every minute 
 thet I ain t been fishin to-day, I ve knit 
 pretty near. Don t put on surprise, deacon. 
 You ve kep a-hintin about my fryin my 
 own fish, an thro win up about me bein afraid 
 of Silent Si, so of co se you know about our 
 picnic. I went fishin this mornin , stid o* 
 goin to church, an happened to come up with 
 the old nigger ; an I give him the fish to cook, 
 an then, why, we picnicked. I did n t set 
 down to the table with him, of co se him or 
 her, whichever it is. An I had n t been to 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 149 
 
 Mis Gibbs s ten minutes sca cely, this evening 
 when you come, which of co se you knew, al 
 though you referred so sarcastic to findin me 
 a-tendin the sick. 
 
 " I s pose likely I m goin to perdition. I 
 don t know, I m shore; but I did n t start 
 with no sech intention." Her lip quivered 
 here just a little. 
 
 " The fact is, I got sick an tired o them 
 green mats, an wo e out with everything all 
 in about three days ; an ef I had n t started 
 out this mornin , an spent all the energy I 
 had left in Sabbath-breakin , I b lieve I d a 
 died. I m forty-one years old, an I ve green- 
 matted tel I m about played out. 
 
 " I ain t been to a circus, or got on a steam- 
 car, or had a dress made out o the house not 
 for over twelve years. I ain t even had the 
 luxury of a spell o sickness, with betterin 
 days an neighbors trays sent in not for nine 
 years. It s jest been mat-knittin whenever 
 I d try to git a little diversion from the 
 duties of a aunt an sister-in-law, an an 
 an 
 
 " Well, it broke out in me all of a sudden, 
 this week, an this is what it s led to. Of 
 co se you can t never respect me no more ; but 
 they s one thing : you can t pleg me like you 
 
150 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 attempted to do to-night. Nolody dast to do 
 that, not even an apostle hisself, ef they was 
 one alive. 
 
 " Ef I m put out o the church for to-day s 
 miseonduc , why, out I go, that s all ; but I 11 
 give myself up ; the conference won t haf to 
 summons me." 
 
 She had been borne along so fiercely by 
 her own passion that she had failed to see the 
 growing distress in the deacon s face until he 
 laid his hand upon her arm. Then it was 
 that she saw that there were tears upon his 
 cheeks. 
 
 "Hush, Melissy, hush! For God s sake, 
 hush ! " He was obliged to take his hand 
 kerchief and wipe his eyes. 
 
 "What you ve told me is all new to me 
 before God." His right hand trembled visibly 
 as he held it up to give force to his words. 
 
 " Yas ; it s as new to me as ef Heaven had 
 jest revealed it ; but, bless God, how happy it 
 does make me feel ! Talk about respect-in 1 you ! 
 Why, honey, I would n t take all the money 
 in Simpkinsville bef o the wah for what you ve 
 confessed to me. It brings you in reach of 
 me. For ten year I ve set an contemplated 
 you an yore life, an so far as I could scan it, 
 it s been perfect, an they s been times I d a 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 151 
 
 give my head to see a flaw in you ; an , bless 
 Heaven, the time has come, an I can speak. 
 I could n t ask no perf ec woman to be my wife 
 an me a poor mericle-doubtin , deef old 
 sinner like I ve always been. 
 
 " I ve worshiped you, Melissy, honey, same 
 as I d worship a saint, for over ten year ; but 
 no human man s got a right to make love to 
 a up-an -down saint. 
 
 " But I can make love to you now, an I m 
 a-doin it this minute. Any dear-hearted 
 woman thet s lived the life you ve lived, an 
 then, when she was put to it, had the grit to 
 kick out o the traces 
 
 He put his arm about her, as if she had been 
 a child in distress, and drew her to him. 
 
 "Did you take notice thet I never said I 
 liked the color o them green mats, honey? 
 Growin things an tree-frogs can have a 
 monopoly o that color for me, an I don t 
 wonder you got tired of it. But these red 
 ones, they ve got jest enough o the ole Nick 
 in em to tickle me all over. 
 
 "We 11 set em on the mantel-shelf, an 
 they 11 illuminate the whole house." 
 
 Miss Melissa sat quite still and looked 
 doubtingly into the deacon s face. His 
 words did not satisfy her. He realized the 
 
152 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 mats in their" worst meaning, and yet he 
 took pleasure in them. Her voice was al 
 most reproachful when she said, after a 
 while : 
 
 "You would n t want to illuminate the 
 house with a reminder of my sinfulness, 
 would you ? " 
 
 " T ain t that, deary. It 11 be as a re 
 minder of yo humanness that s all." 
 
 " An yet they re the reverend color of sin, 
 accordin to Scripture. Though thy sins 
 be- " 
 
 " That s only half o the tex , honey." 
 
 " Yas ; that s so. Maybe it will be jest as 
 well to keep em in sight. We 11 try to reelize 
 the promise every time we look at em 
 1 whiter than snow. That-a-way they 11 be 
 symbols of forgiveness." 
 
 "That cotation ain t whiter than snow, 
 honey. It s < as white as snow, an it s from 
 the first chapter of the prophet Isaiah, eigh 
 teenth verse. You re thinkiu about a psa m 
 verse. It s the Fifty-first Psa m, seventh 
 verse, seventh or eighth, thet says * whiter 
 than snow. Well, you can read the mats that- 
 a-way, ef you like, but don t talk too much about 
 it, now, lessen you 11 skeer me. I don t "doubt 
 you re entirely too good for me, after all. 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 153 
 
 But, for better or for worse, you re mine, 
 from this time on through all eternity, lessen 
 you cast me off. 
 
 " Even ef I was to wake up sudden an find 
 I d been dreamin all this whole thing, I d 
 set out to hunt you up an co t you now that 
 is, ef I remembered all the dream." 
 
 "Which part do you mean?" She looked 
 artlessly into his face as she asked it. 
 
 " Put on yo guessin -cap," he chuckled, as 
 he tightened his arm about her and covered 
 her hand with his. 
 
 "All scarlet ain t sin," he added, looking 
 down upon her. "The side o yo neck an 
 yo ear don t turn away, now. It s perfectly 
 lovely. But how did you git them little black 
 freckles on yo wrist ? " 
 
 He had lifted her hand and was turning 
 it over. " And how red it is ! The right one 
 ain t that-a-way." 
 
 " Them s Sunday freckles," she said evenly. 
 " You know, I m left-handed, an that s my 
 fishin hand. It s been held over the water 
 in the sun the livelong day. I wonder you 
 dast to hold it." 
 
 " T ain t no worse for me to lH)ld yo po 
 little Sabbath-breakin hand than for you 
 
 to be a-listenin to the words of my doubt- 
 10 
 
154 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 expressin tongue, is it ? n he chuckled j but in 
 a moment he added seriously : 
 
 " But they s some precious truths I ain t 
 never doubted, deary. I ain t never doubted 
 the love of God, or the blessedness of livin in 
 Him, or the beauty of holiness. 
 
 "But," and now he chuckled again, 
 "come down to it, it s only these trinin 
 little one-day open-air freckles on yo hand 
 thet brings it where I can feel anyways eligible 
 to it that is, it s what these dear little freck 
 les express God bless em ! Seems to me 
 you must freckle mighty easy, though." 
 
 " I always did. You know, I was sandy- 
 haired befo I" 
 
 "You re sandy-haired yet, deary. The 
 prettiest sand on earth is the white sand o 
 the sea-shore. It s whiter than snow, ef any 
 thing outside of a pure woman s soul is. But 
 yo hair ain t arrived at that stage, quite. 
 They s a plenty of the earthly sand-color in 
 it yet, an I m glad of it. Sand an grit, you 
 know, they re pretty nigh the same tiling. 
 I like a woman thet s got grit. It was mighty 
 gritty the way you owned up to all you done, 
 knowin you d have to face the music alone. 
 
 " Oh, what a joy this day has brought me ! 
 Yas, indeed, we 11 put these red mats in sight, 
 
u ARE YOU SHORE YOU DOUBT ? 
 
A NOTE OF SCARLET 157 
 
 an they 11 be beacons to us both, each in a 
 different way, maybe. An nobody but you 
 an me an the gate-post * 
 
 " Which ole Si is as deef as 
 
 "Will ever know the story of em. I m 
 s prised you was n t afeard of ole Si, though. 
 They say he s picked up a ole stovepipe hat 
 somewhere, an with it an his dress-skirts an 
 boots 
 
 " I would n t like to come on im sudden in 
 the dusk myself. You know I offered him 
 shelter, four year ago, in my barn; but he 
 would n t have it. I don t wonder you thought 
 I knew about yo seem him. Every time I 
 opened my mouth to-night, seem like I put 
 my foot in it, as the sayin is. 
 
 " But do you reelize thet you ain t holdin 
 back from me none, an thet I m keepin my 
 arm around you, straight along, an I m 
 a-takin a heap o things for granted ? " 
 
 At this Miss Melissa withdrew herself ; but 
 she was not blushing, nor in any wise con 
 scious or confused. 
 
 "It s all so sudden," she said evenly, 
 " seem like I can quite git the straight of it. 
 I feel like as ef the Apostle John had ast me 
 to marry him, an while I was holdin off, half 
 scared, he turned into Peter, an an " 
 
158 A NOTE OF SCARLET 
 
 " An you give in to Peter ? " 
 
 Her face was as red as the scarlet mat, but 
 the deacon did not see it. Her voice betrayed 
 her embarrassment somewhat, though, as she 
 said, lowering her tone a little : 
 
 " I could take Peter easier n I could John. 
 He would n t be sech a constant reproach to 
 me. But you ve been like John to me for so 
 long I can t hardly" 
 
 She laid her hand upon his arm, and putting 
 her lips close to his good ear, continued : 
 
 " Are you shore you doubt, in yo heart of 
 hearts, about Jonah an the whale an it all 
 stated clair in the Bible? You ain t jest 
 makin pretend, jest to encourage me ? " 
 
 " Why, honey, I told you about that before 
 I knew" 
 
 " So you did. An you re slwre you doubt ? " 
 
 " I m afeard I am, beloved." 
 
 "Well, ef you re slwre maybe we can be a 
 help to one another." 
 
UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 WEATHEB PREDICTION 
 
 )HEY called him " Uncle Still n on the 
 plantation, because he was a silent 
 man. 
 
 Still had been self-contained and ruminant 
 ever since his childhood. Indeed, when he 
 was a mere piccaninny, sitting apart from 
 the other children and " mooning" while they 
 romped in the fields, his mother had accredited 
 him with " knowin mo 7 ? n he let on/ and his 
 rare utterances as he grew older were such 
 as to verify her claim for him. 
 
 When he was only a wide-eyed stripling, 
 he was fond of walking alone in the woods 
 or of throwing himself in the deep grass, 
 where, with his hoe lying idle beside him, he 
 would lay his ear against the earth and listen ; 
 and where another could discern only silence, 
 the boy would report " heat-callin s," or 
 " frost- warnings," or " myriads callm fer 
 
 159 
 
ICO UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 rain," or " stiddy songs fer pleasant days," 
 and those who watched him said that "his 
 scent was true." 
 
 But, with all this, Still was a despiser of 
 learning, and even in an environment where 
 education was held in reverence, as a gift of 
 Heaven reserved for the few and the free, he 
 early declared himself an enemy to books. 
 
 " Book-knowledge ! " he exclaimed con 
 temptuously. "Why, hit ain t nothin but 
 secon -han wisdom, an , of co se, fer seek as 
 can t read, hit s de bes dey is. But fer 
 humans wha understan sky an fieP pages 
 an woods books, an kin see shut-eye wonders 
 hit s stale." 
 
 This was one of his longest remembered 
 speeches, delivered when he was a young man, 
 and it went far to establish the reputation 
 for "wisdoms" and "knowledges" (a plural 
 store) that had followed him through life and 
 set him apart in the popular regard as one 
 who might with impunity live the life of idle 
 ness which he essayed. 
 
 At this period his favorite sport was fish 
 ing, and he was known to go day after day 
 to a certain moss-grown projection overlook 
 ing a turn in the creek, and to sit there from 
 early morning till nearly dark, when, if he 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 161 
 
 wanted fish, he would cross over to where the 
 conditions were favorable, a stone s-throw 
 away, and catch a string of perch in a few 
 minutes. He knew they would n t bite at the 
 first place, and he "went there a-purpose," 
 because he "did n t want to be bothered"; 
 and so, letting his line drift with the stream, 
 he would become a part of the landscape and 
 " watch an listen in peace," as wide awake as 
 the " black-eyed-Susans " at his elbow, but as 
 still as the bank from which they sprang. 
 
 It would seem, from these and similar 
 indications, that there had been somewhat of 
 the poet in old Still in these his callow days ; 
 but, as has been the fate of many another of 
 fairer promise, he began to grow fat before 
 he had reached mid-life not only fat, which 
 is perhaps not per se a condition unfavorable 
 to the poet s growth, but fatty, a word which, 
 albeit it is an adjective and refuses to serve 
 with grace, we must needs misfit for our pur 
 pose. To grow fatty is to degenerate hope 
 lessly. Perhaps it is not the fattiness so 
 much as the state of satisfaction that it in 
 duces that is so fatal to the best things. By 
 the time Still was forty he was a soft, fat 
 dreamer, who was apparently blandly content 
 simply to endure. 
 
1G2 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 "I feels best when I sets stock-still," was 
 one of his characteristic declarations at this 
 period, uttered in the presence of his good 
 wife, who quickly added, in a tone of tender 
 solicitude : 
 
 "Yas; an de stiller you sets de stockier 
 you gits." 
 
 Thirty years more or less had passed since 
 then, and Uncle Still, the old man, continued 
 to feel best when he was stillest, and his out 
 ward growths were those of breadth and 
 serenity. No one knew definitely when his 
 natural reticence had crystallized into the 
 silence that had been broken in years only 
 under great pressure that gave his utterances 
 import beyond their abstract value, but it 
 was probably about the time when he took 
 permanently to his chair. 
 
 It seems fitting that a prophet should be a 
 man of few words and many wisdoms, if he 
 have faithful followers who wait upon his 
 speech. 
 
 For about ten years, now, Still had sat 
 from morn to night in the straight, splint- 
 bottomed chair placed for him at sunrise by 
 his good wife on the spot indicated by the 
 silent direction of his right thumb. The 
 index-finger may command on occasion, but 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 163 
 
 there is no gainsaying the peremptoriness of 
 the pointing thumb. 
 
 Tild Ann was an obedient wife, and she 
 was proud of her lord. Perhaps she loved 
 him ; but that was her business. Certain it 
 is that her outward motions were those of de 
 votion, and that is all the world has a right 
 to require of a wife. It was one of her 
 favorite boasts that he was one of the " mos 
 pompious an bes -dressed gen lemens in de 
 county/ and when he took the chair she set 
 for him daily it was her habit to give him a 
 touch here and there, straightening his stock, 
 or even, on occasion, tying his shoe for him, 
 before she left him for her tubs, where it was 
 her pleasure to earn a support sufficient for 
 two. 
 
 Although he was supposed to have varied 
 " knowledges " on subjects occult, and to see 
 things invisible to others, Still s greatest 
 reputation was for " weather- wisdom," and it 
 was said that during all the years that he 
 had occupied his chair he had never been 
 surprised by weather that had compelled 
 him to move. And when his wife would 
 observe a neighbor coming to the turn of the 
 road and peeping over the fence to see where 
 he sat, she would chuckle softly to herself. 
 
1G4 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 Still did not like the sun upon his head, 
 neither did he like the rain in his face, and 
 so, if he began the day in the open beyond 
 the tree, it was safe for his neighbors to 
 count upon a gray day. The hot rainless 
 days of summer he spent beside his spouse 
 at her wash-bench in the shade of the trees, 
 while in a corner of the back shed he got the 
 best there was for his lungs out of a day 
 given over to a " stiddy drizzle." And so it 
 was necessary only to discover where he sat 
 to know the day s temper. Seeing him on 
 the corner of the " gallery," even though the 
 early morning was fine, his neighbors would 
 feel safe in setting out tomato-plants or cab 
 bages. Even the gardener at the great house 
 had been seen to peep slyly over the fence 
 before venturing to draw back the covers 
 from his hotbeds. Thus it seems that Tild 7 
 Ann s was no idle claim when she boasted 
 that as a weather-prophet her old man was 
 " better n a woodsful o tree- toads or a whole 
 slough o croakin frogs [she pronounced it 
 sloo], an a million times mo fur-seein n deze 
 heah vain weather-vanes wha don t no mo n 
 nounce de win arter it s done come," which 
 last, at least, was certainly true. 
 
 But, even more than this, under pressure 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 165 
 
 of special petition the old man Still some 
 times foretold weather as much as a week 
 ahead; but in these cases his answers were 
 given in pantomime, which it was the busi 
 ness of the " seekers " to interpret. But they 
 were generally simple enough. A quick shiv 
 er, the buttoning or unbuttoning of his coat, 
 the mopping of his forehead, or the rolling 
 up of his trousers, were motions which even 
 he who could n t run might read. Some 
 times, however, his pantomime was more 
 ambiguous, and so susceptible of several in 
 terpretations that before following any one 
 of them the seeker thought it safe to take a 
 survey of the weather and exercise a casting- 
 vote based on personal judgment, which 
 would obviously be strengthened by the pro- 
 phet s indorsement in any case. 
 
 Although there were few of the younger 
 set on the plantation who had ever heard the 
 sound of the old man s voice, they were all 
 familiar with his potent words as handed 
 down to them, and the boy who had lain with 
 his ear " ag in dead leaves to git live wisdom " 
 had not, through the simple withdrawal of 
 speech, lost an atom of his prestige. Indeed, 
 his mysterious silence rather strengthened 
 his position. It was almost uncanny to see 
 
106 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 him sometimes, now, point with his thumb 
 to a clump of grass that he wanted, and when 
 it was brought, raise it between his eyes and 
 the sun for a moment, pluck a blossom or a 
 seed-pod and hold it to his ear, then throw 
 the whole away and silently reach for his 
 great palmetto fan or open his umbrella. 
 
 Sometimes, when the case was important, 
 the seekers brought gifts to Tild Ann. 
 They began bringing them to the old prophet 
 himself, but there is small satisfaction in 
 giving to one who does not even blink his 
 thanks ; and as Tild Ann was an engaging 
 woman of warmth and words, whom it was 
 a pleasure to please, and as she commanded 
 the "right of way" to the prophet, she 
 naturally became the recipient of what, in 
 her wifely pride, she was pleased to call 
 Still s earuin s." And, for that matter, it 
 was she, and not her silent lord, who, it was 
 said, had "th owed out de hint" by which 
 the generous were encouraged in their offer 
 ings, her judgment in the matter being that 
 " ef Still s prophecies is wuth anything, dey 
 sho is wuth a pint o milk or a couple o fresh 
 aigs," which seems a very moderate estimate 
 of his powers. 
 
 When, on rare occasions, the old man had 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 167 
 
 had recourse to the spoken word, presu 
 mably either because he could find no other 
 medium, or for the sake of emphasis, the 
 monosyllable falling from his long-silent lips 
 had reverberated through frequent repetitions 
 to the remotest limits of his constituency, 
 which is to say, the range of plantation circles 
 within a radius of a dozen miles, more or 
 less, in any direction bounded by river, 
 swamp, or bayou. 
 
 " Uncle Still done spoke ! " 
 
 " Ole Unc Still done spoke ! " 
 
 "What he say?" 
 
 "Whoheerdhim?" 
 
 "He say <Git!" ; 
 
 "Who he say Git to?" 
 
 "He say < Git 7 to ole Horse-steal Tyler, dat 
 who he say it to." 
 
 " He did, did he ? An what ole Horse-steal 
 Tyler do?" 
 
 " What he do ? When Uncle Still say, Git/ 
 why, he got, dat what he done ! He jes cut 
 out an 7 run same as ef de devil was arter 
 him. An he did n t cut out none too quick, 
 nuther. De sheriff purty nigh trod on his 
 heel ; but he did n t ketch him ! " 
 
 Such is a brief sketch of his last utterance 
 and its sensational passage j and for this one 
 
108 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 word of spirit, spoken in the nick of time, 
 the good woman Tild Aim enjoyed a rich 
 harvest. Everybody who wished to know 
 anything came and waited before the silent 
 man, leaving a gratuity in her hand. It was 
 surprising to find how many kinds of 
 "knowledges" he really had, now that the 
 day of full honor had come to him, and how 
 many ways there were of telling things with 
 out speech. He even knew about all the 
 babies who were predestined to appear during 
 the year; not only that, but whether they 
 would arrive singly or gregariously, by twos 
 or even threes. This precise information, 
 however, was just the sort of tiling that he 
 discreetly withheld from every one, it would 
 seem, excepting his good wife ; and she, being 
 no meddler in things that did not concern 
 her, did no more than innocently remark 
 after the events had occurred: "I could a 
 tol you dat las summer a harmless little 
 wifely weakness that, in adding to her good 
 man s reputation, helped to boil the family 
 pot. 
 
 As is a way with modern prophecies, the 
 very strength of Uncle Still s utterances 
 seemed sometimes to lie in their ambiguity. 
 For example, when he took from his pocket 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 169 
 
 a nut and handed it to Lily Belvedere when 
 she came, a bride, seeking foreknowledge, 
 and she opened it in the presence of her 
 friends, to find within it a double kernel, 
 otherwise a philopena, the inference seems 
 plain enough, and a more astute woman 
 than she, having faith in her prophet, would 
 have been forgiven for " sewing for two," as 
 she did, during the year following. But when, 
 along about Christmas, there arrived at her 
 cabin a single brown boy-child, she would 
 have denounced the old man as a charlatan, 
 had not the granny who dressed the babe 
 called her attention to the double crown upon 
 his head, which, manifestly, was an answer 
 to the prediction of the philopena symbol, 
 and indicated that hers was no common child. 
 All the plantation folk know that two 
 crowns on one head indicate a double men 
 tality and gifts of sight as pronounced as 
 those of such as are "born with a caul," and 
 whose vision is not in the least disturbed by 
 so trifling interpositions as stone walls, black 
 darknesses, or infinite distance, and whose 
 only drawback is, perhaps, an occasional 
 embarrassment in a loss of perspective and 
 space-values, through the equal clearness with 
 which all things are seen. 
 
170 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 For instance, seeing a woman and a bull 
 in a field, each in perfectly distinct outline, 
 such a one might not instantly be sure 
 Avhether he was seeing the woman through 
 the bull or the bull through the woman, and 
 for catastrophe-averting action, which must 
 needs be swift, the sure snap-shot of the eyes 
 of common mortals has its value. There is 
 an embarrassment in perfection, in a condi 
 tion distinguished by limitations. 
 
 But, speaking of Lily and the philopena 
 prediction, she was so pleased over it that 
 when her babe was a month old she brought 
 him to see the old man, bearing a gift of 
 tobacco in his little fist. Carefully drawing 
 back the tight kinks, she proudly exhibited 
 the double whorl of hair which grew upon 
 his head as if it had started from two points. 
 The prophet took no notice of it apparently, 
 or of her either, until she turned to go, when, 
 reaching down into his pocket, he produced 
 a handful of nuts, and carefully selecting one, 
 laid in her hand a second philopena, and she 
 went home wondering. 
 
 Christmas was always a week long on the 
 plantation, which is to say that the annual 
 dance on Christmas eve was but an usher 
 ing in of a series of festivities that never 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 171 
 
 flagged until New Year s night. To " come 
 and spend Christmas n is even yet an invita 
 tion for the week, in the best of plantation 
 life above the quarters, in many communities. 
 
 At Christmas-time of the year of the 
 memorable freeze that killed all the orange- 
 trees in old man Fortier s back yard in the 
 month of April, it was too warm to dance on 
 the bayou on Christmas eve, and so the usual 
 ball was, by unanimous voice, deferred until 
 "the last day of Christmas" instead of the 
 first. It seemed certain that the overdue 
 cold snap would put in an appearance before 
 that time, and the people would feel more in 
 the mood for it. Besides, as the crop had 
 been an unusually good one, the hands were 
 promised a rendering of accounts a day earlier 
 than usual, so that, knowing the exceptional 
 balances to their credit, they might enter the 
 New Year " with their heads up." It would 
 be a dancing season in more senses than one. 
 
 The Christmas dance in the sugar-house 
 was usually an occasion of romantic culmina 
 tions, anyway; for such of the young men 
 as foresaw a creditable reckoning on the 1st 
 of January were emboldened to speak final 
 words at the dance, and it was no uncommon 
 thing for more than one long-pending engage- 
 
172 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 ment to be " purnouuced " before the dance 
 was over. 
 
 On the night before New Year s eve of the 
 year of the freeze it was still hot, and inside 
 the cabins there were rnosquitos thick around 
 the candles. Outside, the conditions were 
 little better, but there was a white moon 
 above, and the ground was dry and firm. 
 Outside were mosquitos, too, but really, in 
 Louisiana, the people do not care much about 
 mosquitos. It would n t pay to care. If 
 they cared at all, they would have to care too 
 much, for they are a pest and a plague, and 
 should have been mentioned, one would think, 
 in the Book of Job. 
 
 Next morning it would be time to prepare 
 for the dance, to bring evergreens from the 
 woods, and Spanish moss, and palmettos, 
 and to hang the " s ciety banners " about. Of 
 course, now that the last day had arrived, the 
 dance must come off " whe r or no." Those 
 who would n t dance out Christmas and the 
 old year at the same time, " heat or no heat," 
 might " set aroun an look on," but the ball 
 would come off " shore." 
 
 Next morning it was warmer than ever. 
 It really seemed silly for such as were driven 
 out of their cabins by the heat and sat fan 
 ning themselves on their door-steps at eight 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 173 
 
 o clock in the morning to be arranging an 
 indoor dance for that night. It was Apollo 
 Belvedere, the little yellow fiddler, Lily s hus 
 band, who first said it was silly, and that, for 
 his part, he thought the most sensible thing 
 would be to have the dance in the grove in 
 stead, and to hire the Chinese lanterns from 
 the white Baptists, who had bought them for 
 their missionary pound-party, and charged 
 only two dollars for the use for a night of 
 the entire two hundred. 
 
 Apollo had been somewhat reticent about 
 the Christmas dance this year from the first. 
 The truth, which he did not in the least 
 realize and would honestly have denied, was 
 that he was jealous of whomever should be 
 the belle at the dance this year. His Lily 
 had reigned supreme for the last four seasons, 
 and he could not bear the thought of an 
 other s dancing down the line of her recent 
 triumphs. 
 
 Lily was handsomer than ever the day she 
 stepped into the road with Apollo, Jr., upon 
 her arm, and she would have been quite as 
 ready now to dance her slippers off, as she 
 had done last year; but mothers of babies 
 are not expected to "lead off" in the dance 
 at plantation functions. 
 
 But she could top the crowd in the lantern- 
 
174 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 lit grove, and so he pictured her stepping 
 proudly about and passing her baby around 
 from one to another to be admired until he 
 should fall asleep and be handed over to his 
 daddy, who would cover him over with his 
 coat on a bench beside him and let him " git 
 used to sleepin by dance-music." It was a 
 fond paternal fancy, and in his enjoyment of 
 it Apollo felt that he was employing his best 
 part, which was probably true. 
 
 There was much that was attractive in the 
 scheme, much beyond the novelty of an out 
 door dance at New Year s, that appealed to 
 everybody. All the comrnitteemen and the 
 floor manager approved of it, " ef There 
 was a big " if " in the case, and it was about 
 the weather. Supposing it should rain? It 
 was likely to, at almost any moment, no mat 
 ter if the sky was clear, while the temper 
 ature was so high. They dare not make 
 preparations without some assurance of fair 
 weather. With this, and a full moon, there 
 would be nothing finer than the dance in the 
 grove, and it was at this juncture that Apollo 
 bethought himself of Uncle Still. 
 
 In half an hour he had presented himself 
 before Tild Ann, armed with one of Lily s 
 best custard-pies (purloined from her cup- 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 175 
 
 "board). He laid it beside Tild Ann s tub on 
 the wash-bench, with the compliments of the 
 season from "Mr. Apollo Belvedere, Jr." 
 Then, respectfully taking off his hat and 
 holding it behind him, he went and stood 
 before the man of "wisdoms," while he 
 opened his case. 
 
 " Howdy, Unc Still, howdy, sir ? " he began. 
 "I m pleased to see you settin outside de 
 portals o yo 7 residence dis mornin , kaze we- 
 all on de dance an ban committees is peti- 
 tionin fer a continuation o summer an a 
 smilin moon. Seem like ef we could dance 
 under a clair firmamint, an an put out de 
 flags an lanterns under de trees to light up de 
 path, whiles de ladies toe it by twos down 
 de cedar row, an de gemmen sachey roun de 
 poplars on each side, an meet em one by 
 one, an s lute pardners bias- ways, right an 
 lef, an swing corners back to de Cherokee 
 hedge, all by de light o de moon on high, 
 answered by de paper lanterns below." 
 
 Apollo was an eloquent fellow, and while 
 his enthusiasm bore him bravely along he 
 watched the old man s face for a sign. 
 
 " So I say ef we had de incouragemint o ? 
 wisdom to put out de banners an lanterns ; 
 
 " Put out yo lanterns ! " 
 
170 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 The interruption was so sudden and unex 
 pected, and the voice so sepulchral and re 
 mote, that Apollo fell back as if he had been 
 shot, tumbling over two sleeping dogs behind 
 him j and when they waked, barking, Tild 
 Ann was so startled that she tilted her starch- 
 tub over on her feet and nearly choked on 
 the piece of pie she had in her mouth. 
 
 Before she could recover herself, Apollo 
 had darted through the gate with both dogs 
 after him, and she could see only the top of 
 his hat, which he waved in the air as he ran, 
 shouting : " Unc Still done spoke ! He say 
 put out de lanterns ! Put out de lanterns ! " 
 
 IT was a festive and effective scene in the 
 grove that night long strings of lanterns 
 festooned from tree to tree, and the laden 
 refreshment-table decorated with yards upon 
 yards of green tarlatan hired with the lan 
 terns, with banners bearing the various 
 society mottos hung where they would best 
 catch the light ; and the girls, dressed mostly 
 in white, with their polished dark arms and 
 necks shining through, walking arm in arm 
 with loftily groomed, strutting fellows in 
 rusty broadcloth with " buttonhole bo quets," 
 and chaffing one another in " company lan 
 guage" as they "promenaded." 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 177 
 
 While Apollo stood aside timing his fiddle, 
 he took in the picture and mentally hugged 
 himself for planning it all j for although the 
 girls were radiant and Lily had a new posi 
 tion among them, he realized, as she towered 
 above them all with the child upon her arm, 
 that it was no secondary place. 
 
 Lily was a stately brown Juno, and as she 
 passed among the lesser women, wearing her 
 last year s white dress let out in the seams 
 for her glorification, she dignified the whole 
 assembly j and her little yellow husband knew 
 it well. 
 
 He knew it so well that even while he 
 dashed off waltz and polka measures from 
 his bow, he always realized exactly in what 
 part of the grounds she and the wee yellow 
 baby were, and once, when they passed quite 
 near and Lily took the baby s hand and 
 waved it to his " daddy," he was so happy 
 that he missed his time for a minute and was 
 obliged to stop and feign a sneeze to explain 
 it; and when a companion laughingly asked 
 if he sneezed because he was warm, he an 
 swered : " Yas j I allus sneezes when I 7 m 
 warm." 
 
 "You does ! Dat s mighty funny." 
 
 " T ain t no funnier n you is." 
 
 " How is I funny ? " 
 
178 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 " You so ogly till you purty. Dat s how ! " 
 
 So they chaffed each other till Apollo, hav 
 ing recovered himself, struck up again, and 
 the dance went on. 
 
 Nearly everybody on the place had " turned 
 out " to see the grove lighted up, even many 
 of the old people, who had not appeared at 
 the sugar-house dances for years, coming and 
 taking back seats to look on. 
 
 The moon had risen round and fair soon 
 after the dancing had begun, and the night 
 was almost as white as day ; but it was hot. 
 It was so hot that, as old man Ctrsar expressed 
 it, the * k air cracked," and at intervals there 
 was a suspicious twinkle overhead late in the 
 evening a twinkle that was felt rather than 
 seen, as if the sky were blinking. Old man 
 Still noticed it as he sat within his cabin 
 window, and so did Tild Ann, and it made 
 her nervous, but she said nothing. Neither 
 said he anything. He had not gone to the 
 dance because he never went anywhere, ex 
 cept occasionally to church. He went to 
 church to enrich his mental vocabulary so 
 Tild Ann said, though not in these exact 
 words. "To git book- words to think in" 
 was her way of putting it. And she boasted, 
 too, that, when he did go, he could " look de 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 179 
 
 preacher out o countenance whenever he saw 
 him drawin it too strong" a valuable man 
 to have in a congregation. 
 
 Tild Ann had stayed away from the dance 
 because she was afraid to go. If all the signs 
 she had learned to depend on during nearly 
 half a century of life with the hitherto in 
 fallible prophet counted for anything, it 
 would rain to-night, and rain hard. She had 
 even felt it herself in her left shoulder-blade 
 all day, and would have forsaken her tubs at 
 any other time than this. Of course she had 
 been obliged to get all her wash out and the 
 things sent home on this last day. Other 
 wise she could not hope ever to feel that her 
 work was done during the entire coming 
 year, for clothes in suds on New Year s day 
 mean clothes in suds the long year through. 
 All the plantation people know this. 
 
 When she saw the play of light along the 
 sky coming at shortening intervals, and 
 presently heard a low sound as of rumbling 
 thunder, she could stand it no longer, and 
 she rose from her seat, lighted a candle, and 
 went up to her husband and scanned his 
 face. 
 
 "Is you los yo fo sight, or what?" she 
 whispered; but seeing that he only spat out 
 
UNCLE STILUS FAMOUS 
 
 of the window, she took courage and went 
 back to her place on the door-step, and tried 
 to enjoy the music of the string-band and 
 the calling of the figures as they came dis 
 tinctly to her from the grove. 
 
 The clock had scarcely finished striking 
 twelve, it being just three minutes after " the 
 turn o the night," and the drums and bugles 
 and, loud cries of Happy New Year ! " and 
 " Hands all roun ! " were still in the air, 
 when the downpour came. 
 
 To the few who had been watching with 
 out it was no great surprise, though the last 
 signs had come with a rush; but to the 
 dancers it seemed as if the moon had been 
 suddenly snuffed out, and before they could 
 turn around to see who had done it, the rain 
 was in their faces, and in a minute the whole 
 place was sopping wet, and it was as " dark 
 as Egypt." 
 
 There was nothing to do but to run blindly 
 for shelter, which they did, most of them 
 taking refuge in the sugar-house. 
 
 Of course the supper was soaked and 
 spoiled, nor was this the worst of it. When, 
 after a while, its sodden remains were brought 
 in, they were found to be all mixed up in the 
 wet meshes of the tarlatan, that had dyed 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 181 
 
 everything a vivid green, which everybody 
 knows is " rank pizen," and not even fit for 
 dogs. 
 
 If it had not been so hopelessly warm there 
 might have been a resurrection of joy and a 
 revival of festivities in the sugar-house even 
 yet. There would be five hours good dan 
 cing before daybreak. Even as it was, there 
 were several young men and a few of the 
 girls who wished to " keep it up," but every 
 body knew how it was with them. This 
 was to have been their " fatal night," and 
 they had n t managed to "git ingaged" yet. 
 Consequently they did not know that it was 
 not freezing cold, or that they were soaking 
 wet. 
 
 No doubt the young people made the most 
 of their misfortune, and it is possible that 
 they discovered that taking a girl home in 
 the rain, "totin her shoes in their hands," 
 or perhaps carrying her bodily over the 
 "washes," was almost as favorable to the 
 speaking of last words as is the promenade 
 between dances or the seat in the shadowed 
 corner of the sugar-house. 
 
 Certainly there was nothing to do but to 
 go home now, and home they went, nearly 
 all laughing, but a few in no happy frame of 
 
182 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 mind. Apollo was probably the most unhappy 
 of them all. It had not occurred to him that 
 the old man s prophecy might fail until the 
 rain descended and the floods came, and he 
 was almost dazed over it all yet. While they 
 waited under shelter for the rain to subside, 
 the men were gathered in groups that soon 
 became indignation meetings. They had 
 been betrayed, and the more they discussed 
 it the more angry they grew. Old man Still 
 was an old man, it was true, but so much 
 more reason was there why he should have 
 known better than to amuse himself at their 
 expense, as he had apparently done. Cer 
 tainly Apollo s story was straight. He had 
 asked for advice, and he had gotten it in the 
 most unequivocal form" by word of mouth." 
 Of course they could n t punish the old man, 
 but neither would they pass it over. All the 
 Baptist lanterns were reduced to little more 
 than pulp, and somebody would have to pay 
 for them. After all, the question soon re 
 solved itself into that of fixing this responsi 
 bility. 
 
 There was a good deal of strong language 
 wasted before they separated, but it was really 
 too hot to think much about anything. The 
 belated winter arrived in the night, and in 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 183 
 
 the light of a winter sun next morning the 
 waste in the grove looked even worse than 
 they had realized it to be. Apollo had risen 
 early and strolled over with his hands in his 
 pockets and his " thinking-cap " on, to see 
 how things looked ; and when the men came 
 out he had a proposition ready for them. It 
 was this : 
 
 Inasmuch as he had been the bearer of 
 their petition for advice, and they had met 
 disaster through his report, he " wanted 
 things claired up," and so he " motioned "- 
 showing that his conception of the matter 
 was a formal one he motioned that a com 
 mittee be appointed to wait upon Uncle Still 
 and to demand of him some sort of "satis 
 faction." All who felt themselves specially 
 injured in the matter should be free to at 
 tend the " case/ and to state their grievances 
 and to demand redress. They could at least 
 "git jedgment," which was "satisfaction" if 
 it was n t anything more. 
 
 The scheme was attractive, but it was hard 
 to arouse any available enthusiasm in it. 
 Everybody said yes, but no one offered to be 
 one of the committee. They were afraid of 
 the old man Still. Apollo, standing boldly 
 in the redoubt of injured innocence, was the 
 
184 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 only man who had no fear in the matter. 
 He argued bravely and at length, but to no 
 purpose. Then, suddenly firing, he declared 
 that since no one would go with him, he 
 would go alone dog-gone ef he would n t. 
 He would go, and he would take Lily and the 
 baby with him and make them show how 
 they had suffered. Old man Still should see 
 the limp remains of Lily s ruffled dress and 
 " listen at little Polio wheeze," yas, he should. 
 He was n t "afeard to talk up to him," and 
 if anybody wanted to come an listen, they 
 were welcome. 
 
 After thus declaring himself, he hurried 
 home, and when about noon he started down 
 the road with Lily carrying the baby beside 
 him, half a dozen of the older men, repenting 
 their timidity, joined him, and a number of 
 women fell into line, giggling and shoving 
 one another as they went. Most of these 
 dropped out, however, afraid to incur the 
 odium of appearing before the old man in an 
 unfriendly attitude. 
 
 Apparently the news of the intended visit 
 had preceded them, for when they arrived at 
 the cabin, Tild Ann sat dressed in her Sun 
 day best beside her lord, and she had drawn 
 all her chairs in a circle before the fire. 
 
APOLLO TRIED TO SPEAK, BUT HE COULD NOT." 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 187 
 
 Evidently she was expecting company, and 
 wished to make them welcome. 
 
 Apollo, who headed the line, hastened to 
 decline seats for his entire escort, however, 
 and, standing behind one of the chairs, while 
 they distributed themselves back of the others, 
 he cleared his throat and began : 
 
 " Howdy, Uncle Still ? Howdy, Aunt Tild 
 Ann ? I see you bof e high an dry dis morn- 
 in , an I wush you a happy New Year. 
 Howsomever, I come wid a complaint. I 
 hates to say de word, but I come wid a com 
 plaint o jestice ag in you, Uncle Still. Yas 
 sir, I say it ag in, I is de bearer of a com 
 plaint fom all de committees ag in you. It s 
 either you or me, one, dat s sponsible for 
 all dat nasty mess out in de grove dis morn 
 ing an I know it ain t me" 
 
 As he spoke, Tild Ann rose, stepped a little 
 in advance of her husband, and taking her 
 position, as Apollo had done, behind a chair, 
 she faced him squarely. Seeing her rise, 
 Apollo politely inclined his head, and she 
 began : 
 
 "Will you have de kindness to state yo 
 case, Mr. Belvedere? A wife is a helpmeet, 
 an helpmeets has to be moufpieces when de 
 occasion requi es. State yo case, an I will 
 attemp to answer you." 
 
188 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 The exceeding formality of this made it 
 interesting. She had held Apollo in her 
 arms when he was a baby, and her address 
 ing him as " Mr. Belvedere " was " going him 
 one better " at his own game. The audience 
 were all impressed. Some of the women 
 were so nervous that they heard their own 
 hearts beat, and the men settled back to listen 
 as if they had been in court. But Apollo 
 was in no wise disconcerted 5 there was too 
 much at stake. 
 
 "Well, Aunt Tild Ann," he replied, as he 
 had begun, "dis is de voice of my complaint, 
 an when I speak, I speak f er all who put dey 
 trus in Uncle Still las night. Hit would be 
 a prodigum waste o words fer me to state 
 dat I has alias had de utmos respec fer 
 Uncle Still s wisdoms an knowledges which 
 he has showed fo th f om time to time. I 
 don t haf to refer no further back n to de 
 top of my baby s double-crown head to prove 
 dat. When I come heah a-seekin istiddy 
 inornin , I b lieved in im." 
 
 While he spoke, the old man Still did not 
 wink. Although somewhat back of his wife, 
 he sat facing his accuser; but he might have 
 been .calmly surveying the moon through 
 Apollo for any sign he gave of realizing his 
 presence, 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 189 
 
 "Yas," Apollo repeated,. "I trusted in im. 
 An when I passed his word on, eve body 
 trusted in im, an what has come to pass? 
 In place o reapin de reward o faith, we ain t 
 nothin but nothin but a slopped-up laugh- 
 in -stock in de eyes o de white Baptists dat 
 what we is ! " 
 
 Several grunts of approval came from 
 behind Apollo here. He was doing well. 
 
 "When I come a-seekin insight," he went 
 on, "I knowed de elemints looked mighty 
 super/?wous an onsettled, an I was weak in 
 faith. All I petitioned Uncle Still was to 
 answer one single little question, an look like 
 he mought a gimme a straight answer. All 
 I craved to know was what de elemints was 
 a-fixin to do 
 
 "An 7 what did he say?" Tild Ann asked 
 bravely. 
 
 "What did he say? He say, Put out yo 
 lanterns, jes as plain as I m a-sayin it now." 
 
 " An did n t de elemints put em out ? " 
 
 The voice came from behind her, and for a 
 single moment Tild Ann lost her composure. 
 She turned and faced her lord, but it was 
 with him as if he had not spoken. 
 
 And now a light came into her eyes. 
 
 When she turned to her guests again, her 
 12 
 
190 UNCLE STILL S FAMOUS 
 
 face was quite serene, but there was a note of 
 triumph in her voice, and her eyes shone with 
 the light of victory, as she said : 
 
 " Dat what I say. Ef de elemints ain t put 
 out yo lanterns, I I don know no better 
 way to say it." 
 
 Apollo tried to speak, but he could not. 
 He knew himself vanquished by a quibble, 
 but, for the life of him, he could not see just 
 where it was. 
 
 Before he could recover his bearings and 
 find a word, everybody was screaming with 
 laughter. This roused Lily s spirit. In a 
 single stride she stepped forward and took 
 the floor. With a quick shifting of her arm 
 for greater freedom, she even relegated the 
 infant Apollo to a secondary place upon her 
 hip, as she said : 
 
 "Sence you informs me dat helpmeets is 
 moufpieces, I reckon I kin put in. All I got 
 to say is dis : 
 
 " When Polio fetched de word o prophecy, 
 seem like he fetched it straight, an look like 
 it s a pity some o you-all grayheads did n t 
 have de sense to read it. 
 
 " I sho does hope dat befo I gits to be ole 
 as you is, I 11 know how to Distinguish de 
 diif ence twix a prophet an a lawgiver. 
 
WEATHER PREDICTION 191 
 
 " Come on, Polio, an tote dis heavy chile 
 o yourn home, an give deze gemmen time 
 to pass de hat roun an raise dat white-Bap tis 
 money." 
 
 She put the baby into her husband s arms 
 as she spoke, and, with her head high in air, 
 strode out of the door; but when they were 
 in the road, she actually held her sides and 
 swayed with laughter, as she said : 
 
 " Seem like you ain t much of a prophecy- 
 reader, is you, ole man ? " 
 
 "Well, I sesso, too," Apollo chuckled. 
 "Howsomever, Lily, honey, seem like you 
 ain t perzac ly de one to th ow it up to me, is 
 yer? Yit, n still, sence you done argified 
 de case so powerful, of co se I ain t gwine 
 th ow nothin up to yer, but I was Jes a-study- 
 in " 
 
 " What is you studyin , I like to know 1 " 
 
 " Nothin in p tic lar. I was jes a-thinkin 
 dat maybe you mought sell out dat secon 
 set o baby clo es to raise some o de money 
 to pay fer dem white-Baptis lanterns. Fer 
 Gord sake, look at little Polio laughin ! I 
 clare fo gracious, I b lieve he onderstan de 
 joke." 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 TCAYUNE STEVE, familiarly called 
 Picayune, age anywhere from 
 twenty to thirty-five, stood four 
 feet one in his bare feet. At least, measured 
 against the door-frame, these were the figures. 
 But Steve objected to being measured against 
 the door-frame. He said it "wa n t fair," 
 and when it is seen that a twine measure 
 ment from the top of his woolly head follow 
 ing the outer curve of his bow-legs raised the 
 pencil-mark fully ten inches well, perhaps 
 Steve was right. 
 
 He was no doubt right as to the divine 
 intention concerning himself ; and the second 
 hand trousers which clad his curved nether 
 limbs were witnesses for the defense when 
 ever he was charged with the lesser altitude 
 witnesses, indeed, which Steve had more 
 than once been known to produce to his own 
 discomfort, taking them off and standing in 
 192 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 193 
 
 nature s chocolate-colored enameling, while 
 the friendly garments stretched carefully 
 upon the floor gave their elevating testimony. 
 
 This novel performance consisted in first 
 measuring the trousers and then his own 
 body from the waist-line upward, adding the 
 results. By this mathematical process, in 
 deed, Steve had been known to gain as many 
 as eighteen inches but then he had cheated. 
 The chalk-line he drew upon his own body 
 indicated a waist unduly long, while the 
 trousers, descending from a corpulent first 
 wearer, were deep in the crotch, and aspired 
 nearly to his armpits, so that the space of 
 several inches was thus twice reckoned. 
 
 Another advantage Steve always claimed 
 was that his bushy hair should not be pushed 
 down. "My hair is myse f," he would pro 
 test, " des as much as any yether part o me. 
 How kin any man be counted tall when he s 
 cheated at bofe ends dat-a-way?" And so 
 Steve tried to " get even " by cheating in the 
 middle. 
 
 When questioned in regard to his height, 
 as he constantly was, he would reply : " Well, 
 I ranges various, cordin to fairness an ca cu- 
 lation. When I gits my rights, I m long 
 about six foot." 
 
194 PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 Though born long after the close of the 
 Civil War, Steve had always lived with his 
 mother s former mistress, to whom she had 
 tacitly given him. 
 
 Violet, his mother, had been rather a no 
 torious woman in her day, a day, indeed, that 
 though visibly waning, was not yet over. 
 There were now living about the country sev 
 eral portly women of various complexions who 
 referred to her as " mammy," and in these 
 daughters, although it was a notable fact that 
 she could live with none of them, she had 
 always taken especial pride. 
 
 They all wore gilt shoes and clocked stock 
 ings, lived without work, " asked nobody any 
 odds/ and were " in good and regular stand 
 ing in the churches." 
 
 What could fond mother ask for more f 
 
 But Steve poor little black, bow-legged, 
 simple-minded Steve, her last-born ugly duck 
 lingcould count for naught in her estimate 
 of life and its values, and so she had formally 
 cast him out. 
 
 And then she had gone her own gait, un- 
 trammeled by family ties, whither nobody 
 seemed to know or to care. 
 
 When first she had deserted Steve at the 
 homestead door, the fading garment of ante- 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 195 
 
 bellum ease still lay loosely about the old 
 place. 
 
 It had never been one of the great estates, 
 and its proprietors, plain, honest folk of the 
 class commonly damned as " estimable " 
 by their more pretentious neighbors, had 
 laid no claim to aristocracy. Still, when in 
 a few years the plantation passed from its 
 widowed owner into new hands, it left her 
 possessed of traditions that, so far as they 
 went, were equal to the best traditions of 
 affluence as expressed in bountiful living, 
 open doors and stables, and a retinue of lazy, 
 happy-go-lucky servants, underworked and 
 overfed; traditions held in common with 
 such as add to the list a certain degree of 
 culture, travel, social discrimination, and 
 world-wisdom. 
 
 Now the old house was painted anew. 
 New people occupied it. New methods had 
 set the old sugar-house panting to a quicker 
 breath. 
 
 Old lady Trowland never realized that 
 much of the picturesque charm had passed 
 out with the passing of the old regime. She 
 realized simply that she had been rich and 
 was now very poor, and that, meagerly 
 equipped, she must face the world alone. 
 
196 PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 When, at the very last, the crowd of house- 
 servants had disbanded, little Steve ugly, 
 deformed, incapable of work was alone un 
 claimed, uncared for. 
 
 Here was at least one definite heritage 
 descending from the old life an inheritance 
 of responsibility} and as such it had a cer 
 tain dignity. 
 
 And thus it was that when finally the pale, 
 black-gowned woman passed out the front 
 gate, down the avenue of tall cedars guard 
 ing the walk, little Steve toddled grotesquely 
 beside her. 
 
 Again, as so often in life, Tragedy and 
 Comedy walked hand in hand. 
 
 The change of home was a simple one, and 
 the short journey to the former overseer s 
 cottage "a little piece down the road"- 
 was taken on foot. 
 
 For several years before she left the 
 " great house " the mistress had taken in a 
 little sewing, " having so much time and 
 nothing to do " when the war was over and 
 the men of her family had not come back to 
 her. It was in this way, indeed, that she had 
 earned the little ready money necessary for 
 the lubrication of the prevailing credit sys 
 tem of the county. But now that there was 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STOEY 197 
 
 not even any ostensible security, of course this 
 had also to pass, and the small sign that 
 soon appeared within a window-pane of her 
 sitting-room, facing the public road, was, to 
 him who read it aright, a pathetic epitome of 
 the situation. "Sewing for Cash." Such 
 was its modest announcement. The " cash," 
 it is true, was in this case a variable com 
 modity, ranging from fractional currency to 
 " fry ing-sized chickens," or small pails of 
 wild berries gathered from the roadside, or 
 bags of potatoes or Indian meal. Some 
 times it was even strained to mean service, 
 wood-chopping, washing, or scouring, in 
 which cases payment was cheerfully offered 
 in advance. 
 
 Steve could do little to help, but he could 
 do something. He could pick up chips, light 
 fires, draw out basting-threads. Better than 
 this, he could talk and he could sing, and 
 was light of heart and merry. But still best 
 in the situation, he needed care. 
 
 Summer after summer in the long after 
 noon Steve played outside the door with the 
 other plantation children ; for to such as he 
 life is but a prolonged childhood. He had 
 long ago been nine years old, and he would 
 practically never be any older. 
 
198 PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 As was natural, boy-nature being what it 
 is, Steve was somewhat a butt among the 
 youth of his own color, and, indeed, there 
 were many times when he was constrained to 
 appeal to his protector to defend him against 
 them. 
 
 " Mis Annie ! oh, Mis Annie ! " he would 
 call from the playground. " I wush-t you d 
 step out heah ter deze boys ! Dey a-devilin 
 me ag in ! Say my legs makes O every -time 
 I puts my foots togedder, an when I crosses 
 em, dey holler < X ! 
 
 " An darin me to head off chickens, an 
 dey know I can t head off nothin lessen it s 
 too big ter run th ough. An an dey ax in 
 me if my pants is cut out wid a circular saw 
 an an an - 
 
 His complaint, once flowing, would gen 
 erally continue to pour itself out until " Mis 
 Annie" would appear at the door, from 
 which, with a mild reproof, she would disperse 
 the crowd, and Steve would hobble indoors. 
 Then, while he returned to his basting- 
 threads, he would fall to moralizing in the 
 following innocent fashion : 
 
 " Mis Annie, you know some h n ? " So he 
 began, one day, while he mechanically wound 
 the long basting- threads upon a "pewee 
 stick " for a second using. " You know 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STOR* 199 
 
 some h n, Mis Annie ? Ef er I had a baby 
 I declare, lis n at nie a-talkin about havin 
 a baby, an I ain t even to say married, much 
 lessen havin no baby but ef I teas to have 
 a baby, an anybody d stan it on its foots an 
 make it loney fo its time, I d I d purty 
 nigh bus his head open, dat I would ! " 
 
 The virile wrath expressed in this volley 
 was a supreme effort of Steve s arrested man 
 hood. 
 
 "Why, Stevie," his mistress replied, "I 
 thought you liked the nice curved legs that 
 God gave you ? " 
 
 " So I does ! So I does, Mis Annie ! Kaze 
 I knows t ain t eve body dat s got legs like I 
 is, and I knows dey s pointedly special, and I 
 knows dey got a double-hinge back action to 
 em, too, an all dat. But you see, my baby 
 des a-s posin , Mis Annie s posin he mought 
 not like deze heah circumfence legs. (Dat ; s 
 what de new boss calls em, an I think it 
 sounds a heap purtier n des common bow- 
 legs.) Heap o folks is bow-legged ; but fer 
 reg lar circumfence legs, de new boss he say I 
 ought to have my picture tooken an put into 
 a book. You reckon anybody d put my 
 picture in a book, Mis Annie, black like I 
 is, an no purtier n dis?" 
 
 "Why, certainly, Stevie. Your color 
 
200 PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 would n t have anything to do with it, I am 
 sure. Would you like to have your picture 
 go into a book ? " 
 
 " Yas, m, indeedy ! I reckon I would ! 
 But you know what 1 d like to do ? Des de 
 minute dey d git a snap at me, I d crave to 
 rise up straight an high on my foots, des ter 
 see how I d look. I often wushes I could 
 h ist myself good des once-t, till I could prove 
 dat top mark on de do -sill." 
 
 " Yes ; but maybe if you were to straighten 
 up, you could n t get down again and 
 
 "An maybe it s a sin ter say it, Mis 
 Annie," he interrupted eagerly, "but I 
 would n t keer much ef I could n t. I dremp 
 one night I straightened out my legs an 
 could n t twis em back ag in, an t was n t 
 sech a bad dream, nuther." 
 
 "But think how much fun you d lose, 
 Steve," so proceeded his gentle comforter. 
 " You could n t play circus for the boys. Re 
 member, you are the only fellow they have 
 who can scratch his ears with his toes, or put 
 the soles of his feet together and rock like a 
 cradle. And then, too, if you had straight, 
 strong legs, maybe you would run away and 
 leave me, and I would be so lonely. I would n t 
 have a nice little servant-boy to draw out my 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 201 
 
 bastings and run the sewing-machine treadle 
 for me with his strong, willing hands when 
 my feet are tired." 
 
 " Um hm ! No, ma am ! I would n t 
 leave you, Mis Annie. Did you think I 
 stayed wid you on de count o my bow-legs ? 
 I would n t think o nothin else but to stay 
 wid you, not ef I had a million legs." 
 
 So little Steve, unconsciously confessing his 
 utter dependence, when he meant only to avow 
 his loyalty, would forget his wrongs so com 
 pletely that at a first signal from the boys he 
 would give an answering whistle and bound 
 out again so fast that sometimes in his eager 
 ness he would lift both feet together, they 
 would cross, and down he would tumble upon 
 his face, to the hilarious delight of the wait 
 ing crowd, who would gleefully bear him 
 away upon their shoulders j and he might 
 presently be seen perched upon a barrel, 
 going through his antics for the amusement 
 of his tormentors. 
 
 The coming of a visitor to the plantation 
 was frequently the occasion of a special ex 
 hibition, when Steve would "perform" with 
 more or less ardor according to the enthusi 
 asm or apparent importance of the guest. 
 
 Steve s reputation as a funny little perform- 
 
202 PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 ing freak had gone abroad through his own 
 and adjacent counties, and as there was no 
 thing repulsive in his simple child-face or his 
 absurdly nimble nether limbs, his " shows" 
 were always regarded as good fun. 
 
 It was perhaps the glitter of a brilliant 
 scarf-pin upon the breast of an unexpected 
 visitor, at one of these impromptu perform 
 ances, that inspired Steve to his best effort 
 on a certain memorable occasion which proved 
 the turning-point in his life. 
 
 When the show was over the strange guest 
 of the jeweled pin put a silver dollar into the 
 toddling performer s little palm, and, engag 
 ing him in conversation, accompanied him 
 home. 
 
 He had heard of the boy, and had come 
 many miles to see him. And now he wanted 
 him. 
 
 There was money in Picayune Steve s 
 " double-j inted, back-action circumf ence 
 legs" money for the " Golden Star Museum, 
 America s Greatest Collection of Living Won 
 ders," in New York city, money for Steve. 
 
 Old lady Trowland had all a provincial 
 woman s horror of everything connected with 
 stage life, and although her poor protege had 
 proven himself impervious to learning, hav- 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 203 
 
 ing barely mastered the intricacies of the 
 wary alphabet after fourteen years of patient 
 teaching, still she feared lest he should prove 
 normally susceptible to vice. 
 
 All his life she had guarded him against 
 contaminating influences, her one fear being 
 that he would " go to the bad," though by 
 what circuitous route his crooked little legs 
 would carry him there she had never asked 
 herself. 
 
 It is true that many of her prejudices 
 against the stage life were quickly dispelled 
 by Mr. Steinberger s assurance that the insti 
 tution which he had the honor to represent 
 was conducted strictly in the interest of sci 
 ence and religion, and differed from such as 
 the Smithsonian in Washington, for instance, 
 only in exhibiting living instead of defunct 
 marvels. 
 
 This invested his proposition with a certain 
 dignity, no doubt, and yet certain it is that if 
 it had come at any other time than the pres 
 ent it would have been unhesitatingly re 
 jected. But the old lady had been feeling ill 
 of late. A numbness often made her busy 
 fingers "all thumbs" as she sewed, and she 
 would sometimes drop her needle for no cause 
 whatever j and occasionally she woke suddenly 
 
204: PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 over her work, not remembering when she 
 had fallen asleep. Upon her death, Steve 
 must go to his mother or sisters or to the 
 poorhouse. Any one of these alternatives 
 meant neglect and vicious associations, if not 
 abuse. 
 
 She would think it over. She had not 
 failed to note with pleasure that during his 
 conversation Mr. Steinberger had ventured to 
 hope that she would not object to Steve s at 
 tending Sunday-school in company with other 
 members of his company Sunday-school, 
 and the sacred concerts which were open to 
 all worshipers on Sabbath afternoon. 
 The museum was situated ? 
 Oh, no ; not in a wicked street. Certainly 
 not ; but in the Bowery, which from its very 
 name- 
 No, it was not exactly a part of Central 
 Park. It was much smaller, quieter "in 
 every way more elewated. In fact, de ele- 
 wated tone perwades de untire Powery 
 tay und night." 
 
 This was one of Mr. Steinberger s stock 
 jokes, actually perpetrated at his burlesque 
 Sunday-school performances j but he dared to 
 risk it here, and old lady Trowland, as she sat 
 in her little parlor resting her elbow on a 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 205 
 
 well- worn copy of "Alexander s Evidences of 
 Christianity/ only smiled at the quaintness 
 of her guest s English, as she naively remarked 
 that she "presumed that Mr. Steinberger s 
 own family were Lutherans." 
 
 " Orichinally," was the laconic reply, ut 
 tered in a pious voice. 
 
 And then he added : " But dey don t shtuck 
 to it so close-t no more. Dey are wery 
 liperal." 
 
 THE end is not difficult to see. 
 
 It was soon noised abroad that Picayune 
 Steve was going out into the great world. 
 
 And so, in due time, a little sole-leather 
 trunk the best the house afforded was 
 packed with a full and comfortable wardrobe, 
 which his benefactress supplied from her 
 slender purse at a definite cost of comfort to 
 herself. 
 
 In her sentiment toward her pitiful little 
 protege, old lady Trowland unconsciously re 
 versed the old legend of the jewel in the 
 toad s head. She had loved to think of this 
 poor little "crapaud noir"so he was often 
 playfully called along the coast as trans 
 figured into a possible jewel which she might 
 one day wear in her own heavenly crown, if, 
 
 13 
 
206 PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 by God s grace, she might be the humble 
 means of making his ; calling and election 
 sure." 
 
 There were marked passages in the New 
 Testament of large print which she laid on 
 the very top of the clothing in his trunk 
 passages so simple that the wayfaring man, 
 though a fool, might not err therein. This 
 little book Mr. Steinberger pressed to his 
 heart while he promised that it should be 
 read to the boy every day. 
 
 Steve s triumphant departure was a great 
 event on the plantation, and when at last, sit 
 ting beside his resplendent patron, the small 
 boy drove down the public road, there was 
 a great farewell shout from the assembled 
 crowd of black fellows about the gate, many 
 of whom would, no doubt, in the exhilara 
 tion of the moment, have been happy to change 
 legs with him for his precarious journey. 
 
 News travels fast, even on a Southern plan 
 tation. During the few days while Mr. Stein 
 berger waited for Steve to be made ready, the 
 report of the boy s prospective honors had 
 spread abroad, and as the carriage passed the 
 plantations lying on either side the road en 
 route to the station, there were crowds wait- 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 207 
 
 ing by the wayside to see it, and to hurl after 
 it their blessing, prodigally expressed in hand- 
 fuls of rice and old shoes. 
 
 Steve was beginning to know himself for 
 a celebrity already, even before he had 
 reached the depot and where he found himself 
 the hero of a most sensational little drama. 
 
 It was nearly train-time when he and Mr. 
 Steinberger arrived at the station, and the 
 prospective passengers stood laden with their 
 small luggage upon the platform beside the 
 rail, awaiting the train. 
 
 Mr. Steinberger had bought tickets and was 
 stepping out with the others, Steve toddling 
 beside him, when from a plantation wagon 
 that rattled up to the landing a huge colored 
 woman alighted, and before any one realized 
 her intention, she had rushed up to the poor 
 bewildered boy, clasped him to her bosom, 
 and begun to shriek aloud : 
 
 "Who dis gwine rob me of my blessed 
 chile ! Gimme my flesh an blood ! Can t no 
 body take my baby out en my bosom lessen 
 
 Steve was pretty heavy to be carried in the 
 arms, and as the hysterical woman had actu 
 ally lifted him from the ground, she soon 
 found herself breathless and panting, and 
 
208 PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 from sheer exhaustion she dropped upon one 
 of the benches, still holding the boy against 
 her breast. 
 
 Steve had not laid his eyes upon his fond 
 parent for several years, and she had about 
 doubled in weight in the interval, but he rec 
 ognized her, and, childlike, he began to cry. 
 
 The train was in sight. Steve s ticket was 
 bought, his trunk checked. 
 
 Mr. Steinberger was a man of business and 
 he was quick of vision. At the beginning of 
 the little scene between mother and son he 
 had only looked askance and pressed his 
 forefinger upon his nose, but a second glance 
 at the woman changed his relation to the 
 affair. He stepped quickly back ten paces or 
 such a matter and scrutinized her, shifted his 
 position and examined her again from the 
 new point of view, and then, after rushing to 
 her for a few whispered words, he proceeded 
 to buy a third ticket and to secure a hand 
 ful of checks for the numerous bundles in the 
 wagon in which she had come. 
 
 The mother, whose love would not brook 
 the threatened separation from her offspring, 
 had come prepared to follow him. 
 
 No one will ever know whether it was a sub 
 sequent discovery or whether he had realized 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 209 
 
 her full value on sight, but it was only after 
 Mr. Steinberger had safely bestowed mother 
 and son within the day-coach, and found his 
 own seat in the sleeper, that he was heard to 
 chuckle, as he clapped his jeweled hand upon 
 his knee : 
 
 " He, he, he ! Six chins, py golly ! But 
 dot s w at I call luggy ! For fife year I haf 
 peen looging for a laty mid six chins ! Und 
 now I got her midout no papers signed, und 
 she don t know de walue of suberfluous chins 
 in my pizness ! He, he, he, he ! A poy as can 
 scratch his head mid his toes is not ing to a 
 laty mid six chins ! Ho, ho, ho, ho ! " 
 
 And Mr. Steinberger rubbed his hands to 
 gether with glee. And then he pressed the 
 electric button at his side. 
 
 "Anyhow I drink to de six chins," he 
 chuckled. "I sign quick de papers as she 
 shall shtand mit her poy on de blatform und 
 den I shpring de chins." 
 
 LITTLE Steve wears a gilded crown. His 
 diminutive body is gorgeously clad in jacket 
 and breech-cloth of scarlet velveteen be 
 decked with tinsel fringe, and he sits upon a 
 miniature throne in the Museum of the Golden 
 Star 5 but Violet does not stand beside him. 
 
 13* 
 
210 PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 It was thought best to make a new com 
 bination by which she soon found herself ad 
 vertised as twin sister to a dashing chinless 
 man from New Minister, who stood six feet 
 seven in his boots and drew twenty dollars a 
 week. Violet had chins enough for both. 
 It was a case of love at first sight, and there 
 was soon a real wedding. This romantic 
 event was, of course, never mentioned in the 
 bills when she and her complementary spouse 
 were still announced as the "New Munster 
 Twins," with explanatory notes giving the 
 "true" sensational story of the confusion of 
 chins through a pre-natal impression. 
 
 Steve was of age. Violet soon realized that 
 there was no money in his contract for her, 
 and she forthwith grew ashamed of him and 
 disclaimed all relationship with him. And so 
 when the little fellow was thrown in with a 
 "job lot" of freaks who were sent to board 
 with the " Living Mermaid," and Violet had 
 taken to a furnished apartment all Notting 
 ham lace and cheap upholstery just off the 
 Bowery, she seemed to forget all about him. 
 She had, by the way, learned somewhat of the 
 value of extra chins in the meantime, and 
 drew the opulent sum of five dollars a week 
 apiece on all six. 
 
 When Mr. Steinberger had demurred at 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 211 
 
 this figure, she had threatened to tie the 
 nether one inside her collar, and when still 
 further provoked, what did she but with a 
 quick puff seem to inflate the entire half- 
 dozen until they were worth no more than a 
 common goiter in the trade, which masterful 
 exhibition of power and fire brought the 
 manager to terms. 
 
 Subsequently, however, there arose out of 
 her environment of admiration a resplendent 
 suitor who proved a fatal rival to Violet s 
 chinless mate, a suitor from whom she could 
 draw a royalty on chins kept at home, and 
 so there was a general rupture of museum 
 contracts, and little Steve s mother, already 
 gone quite out of his life, passed forever be 
 yond his sight. 
 
 The first day that the boy missed her from 
 her accustomed stand on the platform oppo 
 site his own, he could not have explained 
 why, but his lip quivered just a little. 
 
 It is something when one is quite alone 
 among strangers to be able to look over a sea 
 of faces and simply to think, " There is my 
 mother." If this be all, it is not much surely. 
 Perhaps its full value was expressed in the 
 slight momentary tremor of the boy s lip 
 when he knew that she had gone. 
 
 But who shall say, when life is most hope- 
 
212 PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 less and barren, that such an atmosphere is 
 poison, this or that flower a bane ? 
 
 There be kind hearts in strange bosom s> 
 and the "Living Mermaid" is a maternal 
 creature and good to her boarders. Even the 
 double-headed Chinaman, who is so disagree 
 able a sight to her that she seats him at meal 
 time at a table behind her, will tell you that 
 both his mouths are generously fed. He will 
 tell you this with both at once, indeed, not 
 only behind her back, but behind his own, so 
 it must be true. 
 
 Herself only a freak by courtesy, she re 
 gards with compassion all those who, when 
 their hours of service are over, must needs 
 fetch their superfluous members or their de 
 ficiencies home with them. She, of course, 
 leaves the mermaid s caudal appendage in the 
 tank and walks out from behind the curtain 
 quite as other women, excepting, perhaps, 
 more like rheumatic women than others, 
 from the strained position of her limbs and 
 the chill of the water. 
 
 Even more than all the other curios of 
 her household, little Steve endears himself to 
 her. She would probably care most for him 
 simply because he is the one of lowest estate 
 among them, and the loneliest, even had he 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 213 
 
 not little ways of devotion, as when for long 
 hours at a time he is pleased simply to sit and 
 rub her feet for her. 
 
 She does not drink or smoke or even 
 swear in Steve s hearing, though the man 
 of the house, who is not a merman, does all 
 three. 
 
 Every second Sunday is her " day off " from 
 tank duty, and on this afternoon, while Steve 
 rubs her feet, she actually reads aloud a 
 chapter in his Testament to him. 
 
 She has flowing crimson hair, and Steve 
 thinks she is a goddess, especially when she 
 gets her fins and tail on, and he could never 
 conceive of anything more unfitting than that 
 she should willingly do wrong. 
 
 Further than worshiping at the shrine of 
 this most improper saint, who, under the un 
 defined influence of his child-heart, shows 
 him only her angel side, Steve will never go to 
 the bad. 
 
 He enjoys his little throne, albeit it has, as 
 other thrones, its weary hours. 
 
 He loves the music of the band, and is not 
 yet able to refrain from giggling aloud when 
 the fat women mount their bicycles. 
 
 He prides himself upon his scarlet coat 
 and golden fringe. But to him, as to other 
 
214 PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 children, these things are simples with no 
 secondary meanings or dangers. 
 
 Sometimes he falls asleep in his lofty seat 
 and dreams of the plantation and "Mis* 
 Annie," or of his boy companions, fancying 
 himself flying from them, as he had often 
 done, to an ambush of poison-oak, where they 
 dare not follow him. 
 
 Rolling over and over in its luxuriant foli 
 age in the old plantation days, he would 
 gather the crimson leaves, which held no 
 poison for him, and hurl them at his tormen 
 tors until his anger was spent, when he would 
 fall asleep. 
 
 Old lady Trowland has long ago gone to 
 her rest. Fortunately she never knew of 
 Violet s meeting with Steve at the station, 
 and a letter from the boy, following some 
 time after Mr. Steinberger s prompt announce 
 ment of safe arrival, had assured her that he 
 was well and happy. 
 
 The Mermaid had recognized sundry evi 
 dences of gentle rearing in this humblest of 
 her boarders. She had great respect for old 
 Mrs. Trowland, and this first letter, written 
 with great pains, was her supreme effort. 
 
 Steve had wanted some poetry in the letter, 
 but such verses as she suggested did not seem 
 
PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 215 
 
 to him to quite fit the case. He thought that 
 a certain one that he called "Title Clair" 
 would be very suitable, but unfortunately 
 neither he nor his amanuensis could recall 
 the words. 
 
 Although dazzled by the brilliant person 
 ality of the claret-colored divinity, Steve 
 never hesitated, under provocation, to pro 
 claim his first allegiance to the friend of his 
 childhood, as in one instance, when the god 
 dess had attempted to assert herself unduly, 
 he startled her by springing to his feet and 
 exclaiming : 
 
 " I 11 have you know Mis Annie don t low 
 nobody to impose on me ! Don t keer ef you 
 is belle o de tank or whatever ! " 
 
 Whereupon the tender-hearted lady of fin 
 fame, after gasping a moment in mute be 
 wilderment, did forthwith don her gilt bon 
 net trimmed with a green parrot and solferino 
 feathers, and sally forth down the street, 
 whence she soon returned with a pink pop 
 corn ball and a pair of campaign sleeve-but 
 tons. 
 
 " Heer s a bit of joolry for him, now, for 
 makin him mad it is," she says coaxingly, as 
 she lays them in his hands; and the boy, 
 crunching yesterday s reluctant confection, 
 
216 PICAYUNE: A CHILD STORY 
 
 as he laboriously adjusts a button, says pres- 
 eutly : 
 
 " I see you walks tolerable limpy. Ef you 
 wants yo foots rubbed, you better set down 
 an take me whiles I m in de notion." 
 
 So peace is restored. 
 
 The wine-tinted goddess in the bestowal of 
 her womanly sympathies unconsciously poses 
 as a saint while she lends herself to the boy s 
 innocent worship. 
 
 And he, stroking her great freckled foot 
 with his little black hands, warms his own 
 heart as well. 
 
 Again the poison-ivy is his friend. For 
 little Steve s heart is the heart of a child. 
 

 
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