The Tobacco Tiller Part 19

"I dug a long hole, jest the length of a man, three feet deep, nigh about, right in the middle o' the bed, and sc.r.a.ped off all the plants that was left outside hit!

"I wuz in a plumb muck o' sweat when I got through, hit bein' a warm night, and me awful tired to begin with. They put up a head and foot-stone, and writ somepin' on 'em about this hole a bein' the only fitten place fer a man that wuz a goin' ag'in his neighbors fer the trust.

"The naixt bed we come to, them fellers _salted_. Yes, sir! The man carryin' the salt sack says: 'Clover seed and hemp seed is too high fer me to waste,--I jest brought the salt whar I had salted my hog meat down!'

"After we had rid over about feefteen miles o' ground, the ring-leader, he says: 'We've been fur enough tonight, hain't we, boys? Less 'tend to the pris'ner and go home.'

"I'd been turrible warm up to this time, but when he said that, Mr.

Lindsay, I got as cold as a frog.

"'Did we onderstand you to say you were a goin' to raise a crop o'

terbaccer this year?' he says.

"'Yes, sir,' I says, and I own I wuz a shakin' so, Mr. Lindsay, my voice wuzn't natural, 'I wuz a expectin' to!'

"'He wuz expectin' to!' a man back in the crowd that hadn't done no talkin', put in. 'Tie him up to that thar ellum thar, boys, and give him about forty-nine!'

"They drug me, a pullin' back like a hoss, and diggin' my feet in the dirt worse'n a cat, to the tree, and while they wuz a tyin' me up, one of 'em cut some long ellum switches. I seed I wuz in fer hit, and I says: 'Boys, in my County, thar hain't n.o.body never had no orders not to raise terbaccer.'

"'Whar is your County?' the feller that advised whoopin' me, says.

"'Hain't that you, Bud Baker, and don't you live in this County?'

"I told 'em who I wuz, and whar I'd come from. Told 'em I wuz on my way to see my brother-in-law, Hanc.o.c.k Slemp, that had accidentally got bad hurt a night ridin'. Then they all laughed, and Hanc.o.c.k,--he wuz the very one that wanted me whooped--he said he could 'a' keeked hisse'f fer not a knowin' me. Said hit bein' so dark and him near sighted wuz the main reason he didn't. Then they all 'lowed thar wuzn't another feller so nigh like Bud Baker, in gineral build, in the State.

"I tell you, they ontied me quick, and after we had rid back to Hanc.o.c.k's house, I went to bed, and never waked up ontil ten naixt mornin'!

"Louizy, she wuz plumb proud I thought enough o' her to come to see her in her trouble, she said, but considerin' thar wuzn't no trouble on hand, she wuz glad to see me anyhow."

"I reckon," mused Mr. Lindsay with a laugh, "hit couldn't be held ag'in you, the part you took in night ridin' while you was there, considerin'

it wasn't of your own free will. Did Hanc.o.c.k do any more night ridin'

while you was there?"

"He wuz out some few nights," Mr. Doggett acknowledged. "The naixt night after I got thar, his crowd went out, a layin' bundles o' switches ag'in the doors o' some o' them hit had tore up the beds of, ez a sort o'

reminder o' what'd be did to 'em ef they put out any more beds. Yes, sir.

"They called out one beeg fat man,--might' night' ez beeg around ez one them Archie Evans sycamores. An awful mean feller they said he wuz, and well off too. They wanted to tell him to his face what they'd do ef he didn't promise not to raise terbaccer.

"A sort o' coward they said he wuz, Mr. Lindsay. He had the Gov'ner to send him a lot o' them soldier boys to gyuard his premises. The night Hanc.o.c.k and them went after him, his beeg gyuardin' army wuz a layin'

asleep in the terbaccer barn a mile from his house. One o' Hanc.o.c.k's men scouted around and seed the soldiers wuz asleep, and come and told the crowd.

"The night ridin' fellers, they wuz all a carryin' guns er rifles, but ever' feller wuz proud the gyuards wuz asleep. You see, n.o.body wanted to hurt the boys. Little town fellers, most of 'em wuz--proud to git to ride hoss back, and out fer a good time a c.o.o.n huntin', smokin'

ceegerettes and gittin' drunk. Some o' 'em hadn't never been on a hoss before they tuck to bein' gyuards!

"The fat feller come to the door, his beeg jaws a swellin' up red, like a turkey gobbler lookin' over a white sack o' meal. (He wuz in sich haste he hadn't drawed on no day clothes.)

"'Of course,' he says, 'I'm goin' to raise a tobacco crop this year.

Didn't I git sixteen cents fer all mine last year?'

"'Yes, old elephant,' says Hanc.o.c.k, 'you did, and ever'body else around you, with terbaccer jest as good and some of hit better'n yourn, got _six_. What did the Trust's buyer promise you this year, ef you'd stand ag'in the Equity, and keek hit all you could as you've been a doin',--_eighteen_ cents, er _twenty_?'

"'Exercise more jedgement in disposin' of your crop, ef you want to git _my_ prices,' the fat man let out, mighty impudent, 'I'm a man of jedgement!'

"'We're men o' jedgement too,' Hanc.o.c.k says, 'but hit don't let us honestly git livin' prices fer our terbaccer.'

"'Ef you've got grievances ag'in the buyers, why don't you take 'em to the Courts?'

"'The Courts!' Hanc.o.c.k says,--'how long would hit be afore we'd git a Court decision? Of course the Courts might decide in time to do our great grandchildren jestice, but thar hain't no Methusalah strain in none our blood jest at present. We'd have to _eat_ while we wuz a waitin' fer the cases to be settled in Court!

"'I reckon you want us to _keep on_ eatin' corn bread and greens ever'

day, and let you keep that hide of yours plumped out with pound cake, turkey and ice cream, do you?'

"'You can eat timothy fer all I keer!' he says, 'twon't cut no figger in my terbaccer raisin'!'

"'Naw, but _these_ will!' Hanc.o.c.k says, throwin' his bundle o' apple tree switches on the ground,--he'd had 'em hid--'_these_ will! Ketch him, boys!'

"Hit tuck six o' the boys to pull him offen the verandy and git him roped, he clawed and fit so. They never give him but feefteen licks! No, sir. He give in uncommon quick,--his meat bein' some softer than his temper. I'd jedge though, hit wuz the sight o' that thar bundle o' hedge tree switches one the boys fetched and laid down in front o' him that brung him to reason so soon.

"He 'lowed when he ketched sight o' them, he wouldn't raise nary stalk o' terbaccer, and he wouldn't keek the Equity nary 'nother keek, no sir!

And he meant hit too. Yes, sir, he wuz ez humble ez a toad when they ontied him and give him a match and a ca'tridge and told him these wuz souvernears o' the occasion.

"I wuz so tickled when we rid off, I come nigh a fallin' off the hoss I wuz a ridin'!"

"Uncle Eph," said Mr. Lindsay, here, "you don't mean to tell me you was out a night ridin' too, of your _own choice_?"

Mr. Doggett colored as he realized his tongue slip had betrayed his departure from the beaten path of virtue.

"Don't never let the old lady and the boys, ner anybody else about here, hear o' hit, Mr. Lindsay," he besought. "Hanc.o.c.k put at me so to go and see a little o' the fun," he admitted reluctantly, "I went with him and the boys a time er two!"

"I guess you'll give up puttin' in a crop, now," Mr. Lindsay remarked, picking up his tools to go. Mr. Doggett rose.

"Well, no, sir. Ef I didn't raise, Mr. Castle'd git somebody else, so what'd be the difference? Ef I wuz not to put in a crop the boys'd have to light out and work in the mines maybe, or on the railroad, which is mighty nigh sh.o.r.e death, yes, sir! Any word you want to send the Jeemses, Mr. Lindsay?"

Mr. Lindsay stiffened slightly, and there was a world of meaning in his one word of answer, "No!"

CHAPTER XII

THE MAD COW

"No true love there can be, Without its dread penalty, jealousy!"

A grateful odor from the white blooming wild cherry by the fence of the James potato-lot, was wafted to Miss Lucy, as, with her milk-buckets she came out into the dew-wet yard at five o'clock one morning well on toward the end of May. But she was not cognizant of its sweetness. Her face was pale, restless--hara.s.sed, as she paused a moment with her eyes on the sloping plowed fields across the road. The tobacco barn of Castle with its metal roof s.h.i.+mmered like silver in the bright sun: the fields showed flecks of green on their raw brown,--the newly set tobacco.