Gideon's Band Part 14

"Anybody else eveh tol' you? No. Us Hayles-es ain't fon' o' dat story.

What I ain't tell you ain't be'n ripe to tell. I don't tell noth'n'

'tell it's ripe to tell, me!"

"Oh, it's dead ripe now. Go on, go on!--Burning pilot-house--my uncle Dan--stop!... Hmm!... That's funny.... Why, mammy, how could he be my uncle if he--was burnt up--before I was born?"

"Dat's yo' lookout. He wa'n't bu'nt up tell you wuz goin' on five. Yo'

mixin' his las' en' wid yo' grampa's."

"Oh, I see-ee! He was lost on the _Quakeress_!"

"Well, thaynky, ma'am! Yo' perceivin' powehs is a-gitt'n' ahead o' de hounds. I wuz a-comin' to dat----"

Ramsey interrupted. Her cry of ecstasy was not for the breakfast bell, which on the deck next below rang joyously up and down both guards and died away in the ladies' cabin. It was for a vision that rose before her and the _Votaress_; an illusion of the boat's whole speed being lost to the boat and given to the sh.o.r.e. Suddenly the fair craft seemed to stop and stand, foaming, panting, quivering like a wild mare, while the green, gray-bearded, dew-drenched forest--island and mainland--amid a singing of innumerable birds, glided down upon her, opening the chute to gulp her in without a tw.a.n.g of her guys or a stain upon her beauty.

"Go on!" cried Ramsey, her eyes enthralled by the scene, her ears by the story:--"Mom-a borrowed Phyllis--go on!"

"When yo' grampa gone," said Joy, "an' de will is read, yo' ma tell y'uncle Dan fo' to neveh mine his rights aw his lef's; he kin go on ownin' Phyllis and de chile, but, all de same, he cayn't have 'em. An'

when he paw de groun' an' th'ow dus' on his back yo' pa dess--go an' see him. Wheneveh yo' pa dess go an' see anybody, you know----"

Ramsey knew. She tinkled with delight.

"But den come wuss trouble. 'Caze 'bout dat time----"

About that time Ramsey whisked round and stood so as to give Hugh Courteney, as he came on deck, a square view of her young back. He noticed her better length of skirt.

"Go on," she murmured. "Is he coming this way?"

"Co'se he ain't. He gwine up to de pilot-house."

"Humph, how _awful_ busy! That's just for grandeur. Go on." And while the leafy jaws of the chute drew them in and all the air was suddenly filled with the boat's sounds flung back from every rippling bough, tree top, and ma.s.s of draping vines, the nurse went on:

"'Bout dat time yo' pa he git de hahdess ovehseeh he eveh did git, an'

you can't 'spute de fact dat yo' pa he take' natchiully to hahd men, an'

hahd men take natchiully to him. You kin say dat to his credits."

"Yes," replied Ramsey, "yes," sighing, gesticulating, whimpering in ecstasies of sight as the walls of the watery lane cramped in to half its first width. They seemed to rush past of their own volition, while out beyond them on either hand the whole dense gray-green interwoven wilderness, with ceremonial stateliness, swung round on itself in slow time to the windy speed of the _Votaress_.

XVII

"IT'S A-HAPPMIN' YIT--TO WE ALL"

Nevertheless, "Go on!" cried Ramsey. "How could the overseer be hard on Phyllis if Phyllis was mom-a's maid?"

"Phyllis fo'ce' him to it! 'Caze all dat time, while she sweet as roses wid yo' ma--so's to keep in cahoots wid heh an' not have noth'n' to do wid niggehs o' no breed, pyo', half, quahteh, aw half-quahteh--she so wild to git back to y'uncle Dan dat she----"

"And to leave mom-a! The goosy-goosy! What for?"

"Well, for one thing, by bad luck, f'om fus' sight, de ovehseeh he _fancy_ Phyllis. Y'un'stan'----"

"I don't! I don't want to--Go on!"

"Humph! Phyllis un'stan'. She un'stan' so well an' so quick dat de fus'

drizzly night when de rain 'u'd spile de trail--de scent--she up wid de chile an' putt out."

"For my uncle Dan! Walnut Hills! Go on!" The moving scene was forgotten though the chute was widening again.

"Well, de ovehseeh, o' co'se, he _got_ to run heh down an' fetch heh back. An' same time de creeks an' bayous----"

"Oh, now, that's the same old----"

"Ya.s.s, oh, ya.s.s, de same ole! So ole an' common dat you white folks--what has all de feelin's----"

"Now, just hus.h.!.+ You don't know anything about it! Go on! Go on! The bayous were--what?"

"Bank full, dat's all. One place Phyllis an' him nigh got swep' away an'

he drap' de chile."

"Oh!... Oh!... Oh!"

"He bleeged to do it, he tell yo' ma, fo' to save Phyllis--what ain't want'n' to be save'. Whils' de chile--wuz--de chile wuz drownded." The old woman moved to rise, but the girl, with a new expression in her face, prevented her.

"Go on! What did mom-a do?"

"Lawd, what could she do--widout yo' pa?"

"Oh, I'd have done something. What did Phyllis do?"

"Phyllis? Dess th'ash' de bed fo' th'ee days--eyes a-blazin' murdeh; th'ee days and de Lawd know' how many night'. Yo' ma done one thing but you don't want to know dat, I reckon."

"What did she do? Did she turn Whig?"

"Wuss!--ef wuss kin be. She tu'n'--dat day--Abolitionless. Ain't neveh tell me, but--you ax heh. Mebbe it wa'n't all 'count o' Phyllis. Mebbe it wa'n't plumb hoss-sensible nohow. But dat day-- You ax heh!"

Ramsey flashed: "What are you telling me all this for?"

"Lawd! An' how many time' is you say, 'Go on'?"

"I meant about the _Quakeress_."

"Well, ain't dis de story o' de _Quak'ess_? When----"

"Stop! I'll tell it to you. I see it all."

"You! Y'ain't see it de quahteh o' half a quahteh. Dat story is a-happmin' yit--to we-all--on dis boat!"