The Broken Sword Part 20

"To be sho yu haint ergwine agin yo own kuller?" suggested Joshua.

"Is yu fur de Nuniun ur de Secesh, ef de belliun haint squelched ur nuffin?"

There was a directness about the question that momentarily unnerved Clarissa but she saw that she was tacitly reinforced by Ned and she replied with the same exhibition of temper.

"Me und Ned is boff ergwine to fight for ole ma.r.s.er, ef de war haint swaged und de time we gits froo wid yu, yu's ergwine to immytate dat ole gyarment, er layin dere in dat pail of poke juice."

"Grate Jarryko!" exclaimed Joshua with vehemence, "dat ar n.i.g.g.e.r dun und fotched on ernudder belliun widout ary shutin ion ur muskeet udder.

Don't do hit, chile," he continued patronizingly, "kase ef yu uprares ernudder insurreckshun fo dis heer wun is dun und ceasded in dis heer po souf, de dekins in de church is ergwine to fling yer into outer darkness. Yu er sot back er Sundys in de jam of de mussy seat wid eyes shot t.i.te lak de slidin elder, er singin 'Kanyun, sweet Kanyun,' und bress Gawd yu is batin de lams ob de flock wid leetle mouffuls o' h.e.l.l farr."

"Ergwine tu de weddin! My Lord!" This was the derisive answer that Clarissa made to this fanfaronade of old Joshua.

Ned laid upon the bed laughing to himself with his eyes fixed upon the crude masonry of a dirt-dauber that was preparing to go into winter quarters just above his head.

"Is yu dun wid speechifyin, sister Johnsin?" asked uncle Joshua as he again wiped his moist face with his handkerchief. "Ef yu is, I has jes got wun reckymendashun fur sich ez yu. Pend upon it, sister, ef yu wus Hanner und Hanner wus yu, I wud play hail-kerlumby-happy-lan on yo ole bones wid er palin fo brekfus und arter supper too, all de time. Ole Satan hes dun und s...o...b..d boff yo yeares wid pitch-forks, und de Lawd nose he is wusser dan de boss, und de pitch-forks is wusser dan de swaller-forks. Ef dat white gal wants to jine hersef to dat cullud gemman, who's ergwine to hender? Tell me dat? I haint ergwine to pester mysef wid no sich low down trash es yu is, und ef yu goes to de weddin dare haint ergwine to be no weddin gyarment fur yu, und when yu nocks at de do, brudder Effrum is ergwine to fling yu out into tarnel darkness whar de whang doodlum hoops und hollers fur hits onliest chile."

"My King," exclaimed Clarissa "whot is dat ole n.i.g.g.e.r er spas.h.i.+atin erbout Ned?"

Ned could not restrain himself, but burst out into a great guffaw.

Joshua angered above measure gathered himself together and walked out of the cabin with the observation:

"I wants to see wun mo whupping post in de lan fo I dies, und I wants. .h.i.ts uprared at dis do, und I wants to fling de whoop fur de high shuruff."

Upon the exit of Joshua Ned began seriously to think of the flagrant acts of injustice which had more or less warped his nature; and all in his heedless pursuit of freedom and sovereignty. He saw within his cabin a perpetual menace to the peace of old master and young mistress. Upon every visit that Alice made to his lowly home he saw that a grief too deep to be sounded, bayonetted afresh her poor heart. The armed soldier who slew her brother and sweetheart wore a blue jacket like the one that hung in the rack above his bed; how could he be true to his oath with these menaces flaunting in the face of his young mistress? So with a huge frown upon his face he said to his wife, "Clarsy, dem ole blu gyarments und dat ole muskett is jess whot plade de devul twixt me und ole ma.r.s.er. Mouter node dey wud set ole ma.r.s.er er fire; he er fitin dem yankys fur fo year in de war und got yung mars Harry kilt, to c.u.m back home und see dese heer n.i.g.g.e.rs er marchin baccards und furrards all ober de plantashun wid dem dar blu jackets jess lak de yankys wo in de war, und er beatin drums dat sounds to ole marsa same as er berryin. Yu jess take dem ole gyarments outen dis house und gib to Ellik, und tell him to gib em to de boss leftenent, und tell him dat corpul Jonsin has sined his persish in de milintery c.u.mpny, und dat he aint ergwine to war no mo."

"Dats whot you orter dun und dun fo yu jined," answered Clarissa deprecatingly; "jess gon und fotched all dis trubble on de lan fur nuffin. Mouter node ole ma.r.s.er was ergwine to raise er harrykane when he seed de cussed n.i.g.g.e.rs wid dere muskeets er marchin up und down de plantashun lak er pa.s.sel of squorking gooses. I got wexed mysef und I haint fit in no war nudder. Dars dat po gal er cryin her eyeb.a.l.l.s out, und her po lovyer er lying ober yander under de cold clods of Furginny.

I don't specks nuffin else but dat ole Laflin ergwine to get all de n.i.g.g.e.rs in de New United States ma.s.sacreed. Needn't pin dere fafe to whippin de Souf ef she is flung upon her back.

"Yander c.u.ms Ellik now lak a lunytik wid fedders nuff on de tip eend of his hat to stuff a fedder bed, wid his neck as stiff es er poker und his eyes same es de sun in de clipse er sot in de sky."

"Halt! Serlute!" came a self addressed command from the negro sergeant.

"Aha! missus Jonsin, how is yo ladys.h.i.+p dis a. m.?" he asked in the stern voice of an officer.

"I haint got no ladys.h.i.+p; dats whot I haint got, nur I haint ergwine to say amen to no sich dooins nudder," replied Clarissa poutingly.

"Hi!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the black sergeant; "why, missus Jonsin," he continued "De las time I dun yu de onner to wisit yu, yu was spas.h.i.+atin erbout de fousend doller peanny corpul Jonsin was agwine to purchis fur yu, und how yu was ergwine to play de hopperattiks fur yo frens.

"Ugh!" grunted Clarissa scornfully, "I plays de hopperattiks now ebery day, twell my fingurs is clean wo' out on de wash bode, er slavin fur er no count miluntary n.i.g.g.e.r jes lak yu."

"n.i.g.g.e.r!" exclaimed the sergeant derisively, "Dere is no n.i.g.g.e.rs in dis 'lan ob de free und de home ob de brave.' We is sufferens und kings, und our wifes und dorters is queens; und yu holes de specter in yo hans ef yu node it."

Clarissa, greatly irritated at the saucy negro, placed her arms akimbo, and fixing her gaze upon him, exclaimed with wrath,

"Yu go erway frum here, Ellik. I natally spises yu enny how, yu hateful creetur. I haint er puttin my mouf on yu, n.i.g.g.e.r, but fo' dis bressed year runs out, yu is ergwine ter be er spexter, und de buzzards is ergwine ter be er huvverin erroun yer ole bones; jess see ef day don't.

Ole Mars Jon aint ergwine ter stan no mo'. Yu und Efrum er trapesin backards und farrards ober dis plantashun wid a hep, hep, hep, same as Captin Grant ur Ginurl Link.u.m. Pend upon it, n.i.g.g.e.r, dem white fokeses in de town fools yu to def yit."

"Yu sprises me, missus Jonsin," responded the negro with a.s.sumed dignity. "I spis.h.i.+oned yu wus a patrot."

"No I haint, nudder, und I haint ergine tu be no patrot; but I kin tell yu whot yu is ergwine ter be fo' dis year runs out--yu is ergwine ter be er pennytenshur conwick, er yu is ergwine ter be histed twixt de hebbens und de yurth on de gallus. Ef yu takes my wice yu'll burn up dem ole sojer gyarments und tell ole Mars Jon yu is dun und c.u.m back to stay.

Dat is de moest senserbulest fing you can doo; dats whot me und Ned dun und dun und now ole mars Jon is es happy es a c.o.c.kerroche in er borrul of flour."

The sergeant waltzed up to Clarissa, and taking her with some violence by the arm sang in a harsh unmusical voice:

"Oh: say kin yu see by the dorhns early lite?"

when a heavy back banded blow sent the sergeant bowling, as Clarissa shouted in her anger.

"Yaas, I sees de dorn und yu sees de stors."

"Ah!" he exclaimed "I perseeves yu is not er patrot," and he commanded "Attenshun! eyes to de front! forrard march!" and marched away as he whistled

"De jay bird died wid de hooping coff, Und de sparrer died wid de kollery."

Clarissa made one observation as the negro marched off, "Yu will be ded, sted of de sparrer und de jay bird."

What had become of the warning paragraph in the reconstruction calendar?

The three blood red stars that punctuated the enigmatical judgment, "sixty days within which to prove your loyalty." Powers that be, at whose shrine shall the persecuted man make the act of apotheosis? Shall it be at the altar of Laflin, the freedman's deity? Shall it be in the presence of the cringing minions who will mock at his calamity and laugh when his fear cometh?

An arctic night has dropped down upon the south; and in our dense blindness we know not in what direction lies the Serbonian bog. We once erected upon this soil a mighty temple which wisdom and virtue consecrated to patriotism. We laid the edifice upon foundations of concession and compromise; and we were vain enough to believe that it would stand forever; but not so. So the d.y.k.es of Holland; the mountains of Switzerland, and the surrounding Sea of Venice were proclaimed as everlasting pledges for the preservation of patriotism, but intestine struggles engendered those revolutionary factions which invited the attack of a despotism and secured its victory. So reasoned with himself this veteran of the civil war, and the father of a loyal-hearted daughter, this slave of a power whose minions were drunken with its excess.

CHAPTER XVI.

UNDER THE HAMMER.

As Colonel Seymour was pa.s.sing a group of negroes in the court-yard this irritating remark from one of them arrested his attention. "Dat dar secesh's home is agwine to be sold at auction ter day under a margige, und de boss is ergwine ter buy hit;" and very soon thereafter a half-grown negro boy ringing a huge bell, and bearing aloft a placard as imperiously as a Roman lictor bore the axe and fasces, halted before him, and displayed offensively the following advertis.e.m.e.nt. "By virtue of a certain deed of mortgage executed by John W. Seymour and wife Alice to James W. Bowden, and duly recorded in the proper office of the ---- county, and value duly a.s.signed to me, I shall sell for cash on Sat.u.r.day, the 6th day of November, 186-- the lands and premises described in said mortgage deed, and known and designated as Ingleside, containing twenty-five hundred acres," Abram Laflin, a.s.signee. Thus ran the publication that may possibly furnish a key to the mystic meaning of the three blood-red stars under the written order. "Sixty days in which to prove your loyalty." To-day, and the patrimonial estate of Ingleside with all but its cherished memories, will pa.s.s by right of purchase into the hands of the carpet baggers and negroes; to-day, and the axe of the barbarian will be laid at the roots of the ancestral oaks; to-day, and the grained corridors will echo to ribaldry and wa.s.sail; to-day, and the war scathed veteran and his beautiful daughter, like the pariahs of Hindoostan, shelterless vagrants, will beg their bread and home. "If an uninterpretable destiny; if an inscrutable providence so orders and decrees, that I shall surrender this home, yet as token of the love I bear this wretched country, I will abide by her; I will cherish her as my wife, my mother, my child; I will defend her with my sword, my speech, my life, and I will be to my oppressed countrymen, their friend, their champion and their brother. I abhor these natural sons of Belial who are whetting the knife that will drink their blood;" so exclaimed the old soldier without a blemish upon his name. So thought the fire-tried christian who was appealing to the ultimate tribunal for right; so thought the man who was harra.s.sed by every resource of vengeance, as he turned his rigid face from the jeering crowd, the a.s.sa.s.sins of his peace.

The old man with fading memory tried in vain to recollect the transactions he had had with James W. Bowden, to whom he once owed twenty-five thousand dollars, and to whom he had conveyed in trusts the valuable estate of Ingleside. He asked appealingly of his daughter "Have you no knowledge of these affairs that will aid me in this extremity."

"My dear father," she answered reflectively, "I am sure the debt has been paid. Indeed I heard you say that you paid it in gold."

"But where are my papers?" he asked; "Scattered to the winds by the school mistress and her negro pupils. Shall I ever be able to exhibit any proof of its payment? Can you not a.s.sist me? Perhaps we may find somewhere the cancelled note."

Bowden was dead and a profligate son alone survived.

There were a hundred negroes who thronged the negro auctioneer.

"What is I bid fur dis plantashun?" "Fifteen thousand dollars."

"Hold!" interrupted Colonel Seymour now advancing. "I forbid the sale of this land or any part of it, the debt is paid."

"Ha, Ha. Ha," jeered the negroes, "dat dar secesh's mind is a puryfied wanderin," shouted a chorus of voices. "Cry de bid Mr. auctioneer,"

shouted the negro Wiggins. "Ef dat ar white man mak eny mo sturbance, we's agwine ter slap him in de jail forthwid. I warrantees de t.i.tle fer de boss." "Twenty thousand----twenty-five thousand----once, twice, free, times dun und gone to Mr. Laflin."

The whole affair seemed an illusion, an unnatural evaporation of land and houses--the Ingleside plantation dissipated into thin vapor like the genii of the sealed casket in the Arabian Nights.