II.
_PENN AND THE RUFFIANS_.
Penn traversed the field, followed by the gang from the school-house. Ashe approached the woods, Silas and his friends rose up before him. Hewas thus surrounded.
"Thought you'd come and meet us half way, did ye?" said Mr. Ropes,striding across his path. "Very accommodating in you, to be shore!" Andhe laughed a brutal laugh, which was echoed by all his friends exceptDan.
"I have not come to meet you," replied Penn, "but I am going about myown private business, and wish to pass on."
"Wal, you can't pass on till we've settled a small account with youthat's been standing a little too long a'ready. Bring that tar, some onye! Come, Pepperill! show your sperrit!"
This Pepperill was a ragged, lank, starved-looking man, whose appearancewas on this occasion rendered ludicrous by the feathers sticking allover him, and by an expression of dejection which _would_ draw down thecorners of his miserable mouth and roll up his piteous eyes,notwithstanding his efforts to appear, what Silas termed, "sperrited."
"You, too, among my enemies, Daniel!" said Penn, reproachfully.
It was a look of grief, not of anger, which he turned on the wretchedman. Poor Pepperill could not stand it.
"I own, I own," he stammered forth, a picture of mingled fear andcontrition, "you've allus used me well, Mr. Hapgood,--but," he hastenedto add, with a scared glance at Silas, "I hate your principles!"
"Look here, Dan Pepperill!" remarked Mr. Ropes, with grim significance,"you better shet your yaup, and be a bringin' that ar kittle!"
Dan groaned, and departed. Penn smiled bitterly. "I have always used himwell; and this is the return I get!" He thought of another evening, butlittle more than a week since, when, passing by this very path, he hearda deeper groan than that which the wretch had just uttered. He turnedaside into the edge of the woods, and there beheld an object to exciteat once his laughter and compassion. What he saw was this.
Dan Pepperill, astride a rail; his hands tied together above it, and hisfeet similarly bound beneath. The rail had been taken from a fence amile away, and he had been carried all that distance on the shoulders ofsome of these very men. They had taken turns with him, and when, tiredat last, had placed the rail in the crotches of two convenient saplings,and there left him. The crotch in front was considerably higher thanthat behind, which circumstance gave him the appearance of clinging tothe back of an animal in the act of rearing frightfully, and exposed adelicate part of his apparel that had been sadly rent by contact withsplinters. And there the wretch was clinging and groaning when Penn cameup.
"For the love of the Lord!" said Dan, "take me down!"
"Why, what is the matter? How came you here?"
"I'm a dead man; that's the matter! I've been wipped to death, and thenrode on a rail; that's the way I come here!"
"Whipped! what for?" said Penn, losing no time in cutting the sufferer'sbonds.
"Ye see," said Dan, when taken down and laid upon the ground, "thepatrolmen found Combs's boy Pete out t'other night without a pass, andtook him and tied him to a tree, and licked him."
The "boy Pete" was a negro man upwards of fifty years old, owned by thesaid Combs.
"Wal, ye see, jest cause I found him, and took him home with me, andwashed his back fur him, and bound cotton on to it, and kep' him overnight, and gin him a good breakfast, and a drink o' suthin' strong inthe morning, and then went home with him, and talked with his masterso'st he wouldn't git another licking,--just for that, Sile Ropes andhis gang took me and served me wus'n ever they served him!" And thebroken-spirited man cried like a child at the recollection of hisinjuries.
He was one of the "white trash" of the south, whom even the negroesbelonging to good families look down upon; a weak, degraded,kind-hearted man, whose offence was not simply that he had shown mercyto the "boy Pete," after his flogging, but that he associated onfamiliar terms with such negroes as were not too proud to cultivate hisacquaintance, and secretly sold them whiskey. After repeated warnings,he had been flogged, and treated to a ride on a three-cornered rail, andhung up to reflect upon his ungentlemanly conduct and its sadconsequences.
At sight of him, Penn, who knew nothing of his selling whiskey to theblacks, or of any other offence against the laws or prejudices of thecommunity, than that of befriending a beaten and bleeding slave, felthis indignation roused and his sympathies excited.
"It's a dreadful state of society in which such outrages are tolerated!"he exclaimed.
"_I_ say, dreadful!" sobbed Mr. Pepperill.
"The good Samaritan himself would be in danger of a beating here!" saidPenn.
"I don't know what good smart 'un you mean," replied the weeping Dan,whose knowledge of Scripture was extremely limited, "but I bet he'd gitsome, ef he didn't keep his eyes peeled!" And he wiped his nose with hissleeve.
Penn smiled at the man's ignorance, and said, as he lifted him up,--
"Friend Daniel, do you know that it is partly your own fault that thisdeplorable state of things exists?"
"How's it my fault, I'd like to know?" whimpered Daniel.
"Come, I'll help thee home, and tell thee what I mean, by the way," saidPenn, using the idiom of his sect, into which familiar manner of speechhe naturally fell when talking confidentially with any one.
"I am stiff as any old spavined hoss!" whined the poor fellow,straightening his legs, and attempting to walk.
Penn helped him home as he promised, and comforted him, and said to himmany things, which he little supposed were destined to be broughtagainst him so soon, and by this very Daniel Pepperill.
This was the way of it. When it was known that Penn had befriended thefriend of the blacks, Silas Ropes paid Dan a second visit, and bythreats of vengeance, on the one hand, and promises of forgiveness andtreatment "like a gentleman," on the other, extorted from him aconfession of all Penn had said and done.
"Now, Dan," said Mr. Ropes, patronizingly, "I'll tell ye what you do.You jine with us, and show yourself a man of sperrit, a payin' off thisyer abolitionist for his outrageous interference in our affairs."
"Sile," interrupted Dan, earnestly, "what 'ge mean I'm to do? Turn agin'him?"
"Exactly," replied Mr. Ropes.
"Sile," said Dan, excitedly, "I be durned if I do!"
"Then, I swear to gosh!" said Sile, spitting a great stream of tobaccojuice across Mrs. Pepperill's not very clean floor, "you'll have a doseyourself before another sun, which like as not'll be your last!"
This terrible menace produced its desired effect; and the unwilling Danwas here, this night, one of Penn's persecutors, in consequence.
It was not enough that he had shown his "sperrit" by fetching thevictim's own bed from his boarding-house, telling his landlady, theworthy Mrs. Sprowl, that Sile said she must "charge it to her abolitionboarder." He must now show still more "sperrit" by bringing the tar. Awell-worn broom had been borrowed of Mrs. Pepperill, by those who knewbest how the tar in such cases should be applied: the handle of this wasthrust by one of the men, named Griffin, through the bail of the kettle,and Dan was ordered to "ketch holt o' t'other eend," and help carry.
Dan "ketched holt" accordingly. But never was kettle so heavy as that;its miserable weight made him groan at every step. Suddenly thebroom-handle slipped from his hand, and down it went. No doubt hislaudable object was to spill the tar, in order to gain time for hisbenefactor, and perhaps postpone the tarring and feathering altogether.But Griffin grasped the kettle in time to prevent its upsetting, and thenext instant flourished the club over Dan's head.
"I didn't mean tu! it slipped!" shrieked the terrified wretch. Afterwhich he durst no more attempt to thwart the chivalrous designs of hisfriends, but carried the tar like a gentleman.
"This way!" said Silas, getting the escaped feathers into a pile withhis foot. "Thar! set it down. Now, sir," throwing away his own coat,"peel off them clo'es o' yourn, Mr. Schoolmaster, mighty quick, if youdon't want 'em peeled off fur ye!"
Penn gave no sign of
compliance, but fixed his eye steadfastly upon Mr.Ropes.
"I insist," said he,--for he had already made the request while the menwere bringing the tar,--"on knowing what I have done to merit thistreatment."
"Wal, that I don't mind tellin' ye," said Silas, "for we've all nightfor this yer little job before us. Dan Pepperill, stand up here!"
Dan came forward, appearing extremely low-spirited and weak in theknees.
"Is it you, Daniel, who are to bear witness against me?" said Penn, in avoice of singular gentleness, which chimed in like a sweet and solemnbell after the harsh clangor of Silas's ruffian tones.
Dan rolled up his eyes, hugged his tattered elbows, and gave a dismalgroan.
"Come!" said Silas, bestowing a slap on his back which nearly knockedhim down, "straighten them knees o' yourn, and be a man. Yes, Mr.Schoolmaster, Dan is a-going to bear witness agin' you. He has turnedfrom the error of his ways, and now his noble southern heart isa-burnin' to take vengeance on all the enemies of his beloved country.Ain't it, Dan?--say yes," he hissed in his ear, giving him a secondslap, "or else--you know!"
"O Lord, yes!" ejaculated Dan, with a start of terror. "What Mr. Ropessays is perfectly--perfectly--jes' so!"
"Your heart is a-burnin', ain't it?" said Silas.
"Ye--yes! I be durned if it ain't!" said Dan.
"This man," continued Ropes, who prided himself on being a great orator,with power to "fire the southern heart," and never neglected an occasionto show himself off in that capacity,--"this individgle ye see afore ye,gentlemen,"--once more hitting Dan, this time with the toe of his boot,gently, to indicate the subject of his remarks,--"was lately aslow-minded a peep as ever you see. He had no more conscience than to'sociate with niggers, and sell 'em liquor, and even give 'em liquorwhen they couldn't pay fur't; and you all know how he degraded himselfby takin' Combs's Pete into his house and doin' for him arter he'd beenvery properly licked by the patrol. All which, I am happy to say, thedeluded man sincerely repents of, and promises to behave more like agentleman in futur'. Don't you, Dan?"
As Dan, attempting to speak, only gasped, Ropes administered a sharppoke in his ribs, whispering fiercely,--
"Say you do, mighty quick, or I'll----!"
"O! I repents! I--I be durned if I don't!" said Dan.
"And now, as to you!" Silas turned on the schoolmaster. "Your offence ingineral is bein' a northern abolitionist. Besides which, your offencesin partic'ler is these. Not contented with teachin' the Academy, whichwas well enough, since it is necessary that a few should have larnin',so the may know how to govern the rest,--not contented with that, youmust run the thing into the ground, by settin' up a evenin' school, andofferin' to larn readin', writin', and 'rithmetic, free gratis, towhosomever wanted to 'tend. Which is contrary to the sperrit of ourinstitootions, as you have been warned more 'n oncet. That's chargeNumber Two. Charge Number Three is, that you stand up for the old rottenUnion, and tell folks, every chance you git, that secession, that nobleright of southerners, is a villanous scheme, that'll ruin the south, ifpersisted in, and plunge the whole nation into war. Your very words, Ibelieve. Can you deny it?"
"Certainly, I have said something very much like that, and it is myhonest conviction," replied Penn, firmly.
"Gentlemen, take notice!" said Mr. Ropes. "We will now pass on to chargeNumber Four, and be brief, for the tar is a-coolin'. Suthin' like eightdays ago, when the afore-mentioned Dan Pepperill was in the waller ofhis degradation, some noble-souled sons of the sunny south"--the oratorsmiled with pleasant significance--"lifted him up, and hung him up toair, in the crotches of two trees, jest by the edge of the woods here,and went home to supper, intending to come back and finish the purifyingprocess begun with him later in the evenin'. But what did you do, Mr.Schoolmaster, but come along and take him down, prematoorely, and go tocorruptin' him agin with your vile northern principles! Didn't he, Dan?"
"I--I dun know" faltered Dan.
"Yes, you do know, too! Didn't he corrupt you?"
These words being accompanied by a severe hint from Sile's boot, Mr.Pepperill remembered that Penn _did_ corrupt him.
"And if I hadn't took ye in season, you'd have returned to yourbase-born mire, wouldn't you?"
"I suppose I would," the miserable Dan admitted.
"Wal! now!"--Sile spread his palm over the tar to see if it retained itstemperature,--"hurry up, Dan, and tell us all this northern agitatorsaid to you that night."
"O Lord!" groaned Pepperill, "my memory is so short!"
"Bring that rope, boys! and give him suthin' to stretch it!" said Silas,growing impatient.
Dan, knowing that stretching his memory in the manner threatened,implied that his neck was to be stretched along with it, made haste toremember.
"My friends," said Penn, interrupting the poor man's forced anddisconnected testimony, "let me spare him the pain of bearing witnessagainst me. I recall perfectly well every thing I said to him thatnight. I said it was a shame that such outrages as had been committed onhim should be tolerated in a civilized society. I told him it was partlyhis own fault that such a state of things existed. I said, 'It is owingto the ignorance and degradation of you poor whites that a barbaroussystem is allowed to flourish and tyrannize over you.' I said----"
But here Penn was interrupted by a violent outcry, the majority of thepersons present coming under the head of "poor whites."
"Let him go on! let him perceed!" said Silas. "What did you mean by'barbarous system'?"
"I meant," replied Penn, all fear vanishing in the glow of righteousindignation which filled him,--"I meant the system which makes it acrime to teach a man to read--a punishable offence to befriend the poorand down-trodden, or to bind up wounds. A system which makes itdangerous for one to utter his honest opinions, even in private, to aperson towards whom he is at the same time showing the mercy whichothers have denied him." He looked at Dan, who groaned. "A system----"
"Wal, I reckon that'll do fur one spell," broke in Silas Ropes. "You'vesaid more 'n enough to convict you, and to earn a halter 'stead of amild coat of tar and feathers."
"I am well aware," said Penn, "that I can expect no mercy at your hands;so I thought I might as well be plain with you."
"And plain enough you've been, I swear to gosh!" said Silas. "Boys,strip him!"
"Wait a moment!" said Penn, putting them off with a gesture which theymistook for an appeal to some deadly weapon in his pocket. "What I havesaid has been to free my mind, and to save Daniel trouble. Now, allow meto speak a few words in my own defence. I have committed no crimeagainst your laws; if I have, why not let the laws punish me?"
"We take the laws into our hands sech times as these," said the mancalled Gad.
"You're an abolitionist, and that's enough," said another.
"If I do not believe slavery to be a good thing, it is not my fault; Icannot help my belief. But one thing I will declare. I have neverinterfered with your institution in any way at all dangerous to you, orinjurious to your slaves. I have not rendered them discontented, but,whenever I have had occasion, I have counselled them to be patient andfaithful to their masters. I came among you a very peaceable man, asimple schoolmaster, and I have tried to do good to everybody, and harmto no one. With this motive I opened an evening school for poor whites.How many men here have any education? How many can read and write? Notmany, I am sure."
"What's the odds, so long as they're men of the true sperrit?"interrupted Silas Ropes. "I can read for one; and as for the rest, whatgood would it do 'em to be edecated? 'Twould only make 'em jes' sechlow, sneakin', thievin' white slaves, like the greasy mechanics at thenorth."
"The white slaves are not at the north," said Penn. "Education alonemakes free men. If you, who threaten me with violence here to-night, hadthe common school education of the north, you would not be engaged insuch business; you would be ashamed of assaulting a peaceable man onaccount of his opinions; you would know that the man who comes to teachyou is your best friend. If you were not ignorant me
n, you, who do notown slaves, would know that slavery is the worst enemy of yourprosperity, and you would not be made its willing tools."
The firm dignity of the youth, assisted by the illusion that prevailedconcerning a revolver in his pocket, had kept his foes at bay, andgained him a hearing. He now attempted to pass on, when the man Gad,stepping behind him, raised the broom-handle, and dealt him a stunningblow on the back of the head.
"Down with him!" "Strip him!" "Give him a thrashing first!" "Hang him!"
And the ruffians threw themselves furiously upon the fallen man.
"Whar's that Dutch boy?" cried Silas. "I meant he should help Dan lay onthe tar."
But Carl was nowhere to be seen, having taken advantage of the confusionand darkness to escape into the woods.