Brother Against Brother Part 8

Levi had not told his employer in what manner the would-be owner of the plantation had conducted himself on the place after the death of the colonel; and Noah could not understand why his brother had such an antipathy to so genial a man as the manager, viewed from his own and his family's standpoint.

"I take Levi as I find him, and I have been very much pleased with him,"

added Noah.

"But I did not come over here to talk about that dirty shote," continued t.i.tus, suddenly bracing himself up to attack the subject of the grievances which had gnawed like a live snake at his vitals for nearly two years. "In the fust place, I want you to understand, Noah Lyon, that there ain't a word of truth in the story Meely told this noon in your house."

"All right, Brother t.i.tus," replied Noah. "I haven't looked for the arms and ammunition, and I know nothing about them."

"Do you believe what I say, Noah?" demanded t.i.tus with a savage frown.

"I have no reason to doubt your statement."

"If you and your family want to make trouble over that statement, I s'pose you can do so. You 'n' I don't agree on politics."

"We are not disposed to make trouble. If there should be any difficulty it will come from your side of the house, t.i.tus."

"You are an abolitionist, and folks on the right side in this county have found it out. They don't believe in no Lincoln shriekers, and the Union's already busted," said the Secessionist brother with a good deal of vim; and in this, as in other matters, he believed the popular sentiment was on the side he wished it to be.

"I voted for Lincoln, and I believe in the Union," added Noah quietly.

"Yes; and there is five hundred men in this county that would like to drive you out of the State, and burn your house over your head!"

exclaimed t.i.tus, becoming not a little excited. "I believe they'd done it before this time if I hadn't stood in their way."

"Then I am very much obliged to you for your friendly influence. I was not aware that I had been in any peril before," returned Noah with a smile, which was suggestive of a doubt in his mind. "Do you think I am in any danger from such an outrage as you suggest?"

"I know you are!" t.i.tus belched out with something like fury in his manner. "If it hadn't been for me they'd done it before now. You haven't been a bit keerful in your doings. You've got up a Union meeting at the Big Bend schoolhouse for to-morrow night; and if you go on with it, I'm almost sure you will get cleaned out; and the folks on the right side may come over here, after they have shut your mouths at the Bend, and see whether your house will burn or not. I have done all I could to keep our folks quiet, and advised them not to meddle with the meeting at the schoolhouse; but if you keep on the way you're going, I won't be responsible for what happens."

"Though I came from the North since you did, all the people I meet seem to be very friendly to me," answered Noah, the smile still playing upon his lips; a satirical smile which indicated that he did not believe more than a very small fraction of what his brother had been saying.

He had no doubt that the gang with whom t.i.tus and his sons a.s.sociated would do all and even more than he prophesied; but they did not form the public sentiment of the county.

"You don't meet all nor a tenth part of the people, and you don't know what is running in their heads," protested the Secessionist. "You and your two boys keep on howling for the Union when the people round here are all dead set agin it. What can you expect? Seven States is out of the Union, and that busts the whole thing."

"I don't think a majority of the people about here are of your way of thinking, Brother t.i.tus; but if I am in danger of mob violence, as you say I am, my house is my castle; I shall defend it as long as there is anything left of me," added Noah, the same smile resting on his lips as he uttered his strong words.

"Defend your house!" said t.i.tus with a bitter sneer. "You hadn't better do anything of the sort. If you show fight, the crowd will hang you to one of them big trees. You ain't reasonable, Noah. Do you cal'late on fighting the whole county?"

"We differ considerably in regard to the state of feeling in this county. We are between two fires, and I think we had better not say anything more on that subject."

"That's so; but one fire is an alfired sight hotter than t'other; and that's the one that will burn up that big house of yourn."

"I shall defend my house, and I think I shall be able to hold my own.

But I am not an abolitionist any more than you are, Brother t.i.tus,"

mildly suggested Noah.

"You shriek for the Union, and it's all the same thing among honest folks down here," retorted the Secessionist.

"I hold about fifty slaves, and I had an idea that this made me a slaveholder," said Noah lightly.

"Don't you own 'em?" demanded t.i.tus violently; for this subject touched upon one of his grievances. "I have done everything I could to save you from any hard usage on the part of our folks in spite of the way you've used me."

"I am not aware that I have used you badly, Brother t.i.tus."

"You call me brother; but judging from your actions you ain't no brother of mine."

"I should like to have you tell me in what manner I have wronged you, t.i.tus. I hear from others that I owe you five thousand dollars; but I am not aware that I owe you a nickel," replied the planter, who had by this time come to the conclusion that the quarrel his brother insisted upon fomenting might as well be brought to a head then as at any other time.

t.i.tus was silent for a moment, and resumed his seat on the bench, from which he had risen a dozen times in his excitement as the interview proceeded. He looked as though he was gathering up his thoughts in order to present his argument, as he evidently intended it should be, in the most forcible manner.

"If a man has two brothers, and one of them goes back on him, is that any reason why the other should go back on him?" asked the dissatisfied one with more coolness and dignity than he had before exhibited.

Mrs. Amelia, years before, had tried to reform his language, picked up in the taverns and among coa.r.s.e a.s.sociates, and she had succeeded to some extent. He could talk with a fair degree of correctness; but he had two methods of expression, one of which he called his "Sunday lingo,"

used on state occasions, and his ordinary speech at home and among his chosen a.s.sociates, enlarged by the addition of some Southern words and phrases. He began his argument in his best style, though he had never been able to banish his use of the milder slang.

"Decidedly not," replied Noah very promptly. "On the contrary, he ought to stand by the brother if he has been wronged."

"That is just exactly what you have not done, Noah Lyon!" exclaimed t.i.tus, springing from his seat again. "And Nathan said unto David, 'Thou art the man!'"

"Which means that I am the man," answered Noah, his smile becoming almost a laugh. "I didn't know, Brother t.i.tus, that I was the David, and I must ask you to explain."

"Dunk went back on me," continued the malcontent, recalling the name by which the colonel was known on the farm in his boyhood.

"I was not aware that Dunk did any such a thing. I suppose you mean in his will."

"That is just what I mean!" stormed t.i.tus. "He gave you ten thousand dollars more than he gave me; and that was not fair or right."

"But the will explains why he did so."

"On account of fetching up them two children! I wouldn't have brought in any bill for taking care of my dead brother's children. I ain't one of them sort!" protested t.i.tus.

"But you refused to take one of them into your family when I proposed it to you," suggested Noah very gently.

"Because my wife was sick at the time," said t.i.tus, wincing at the remark.

"You did not offer to take one of them afterwards. But I did not bring in any bill; I never even mentioned the matter to the colonel when I wrote to him. I boarded, clothed, and schooled them for ten years, and paid all their doctor's bills."

"But Dunk gave you ten thousand dollars for it; and it wasn't right. He spent a month with you in Derry not long before he died, and you smoothed his fur in the right way," snarled t.i.tus.

"But the children were not mentioned. I am sure it cost me a thousand dollars a year to take care of the children; but I did not complain, and never asked you or Dunk to pay a cent of the cost. The colonel made his will to suit himself; and he never spoke or wrote of the matter to me."

"You got on the right side of him, and he cheated me out of what rightfully belonged to me. I ain't talking about law, but about right.

Half of that ten thousand belongs to me, and you are keeping me out of it."

"It was right for you and Dunk to pay as much for supporting the orphans as I did. Then you and he owed me two-thirds of the sum bequeathed to me. At compound interest that would amount to more than I receive under the will. I will figure it up when I have time, and of course if you owe me anything on this account, you will pay me."

This argument completely overwhelmed t.i.tus; but Levi had concluded there would be no violence, and dashed over the bridge on his fiery colt.