CHAPTER V
FORTY ACRES AND A MULE
When Phil returned with Margaret, he drove at Mrs. Cameron's request tofind Ben, brought him with all speed to the hotel, took him to his room,and locked the door before he told him the news. After an hour's blindrage, he agreed to obey his father's positive orders to keep away from theCaptain until his return, and to attempt no violence against theauthorities.
Phil undertook to manage the case in Columbia, and spent three dayscollecting his evidence before leaving.
Swifter feet had anticipated him. Two days after the arrival of Dr.Cameron at the fort in Colombia, a dust-stained, tired negro was usheredinto the presence of General Howle.
He looked about timidly and laughed loudly.
"Well, my man, what's the trouble? You seem to have walked all the way,and laugh as if you were glad of it."
"I 'spec' I is, sah," said Jake, sidling up confidentially.
"Well?" said Howle good-humouredly.
Jake's voice dropped to a whisper.
"I hears you got my ole marster, Dr. Cameron, in dis place."
"Yes. What do you know against him?"
"Nuttin', sah. I des hurry 'long down ter take his place, so's you cansen' him back home. He's erbleeged ter go. Dey's er pow'ful lot er sickfolks up dar in de country cain't git 'long widout him, an er pow'ful loter well ones gwiner be raisin' de debbel 'bout dis. You can hol' me, sah.Des tell my ole marster when ter be yere, en he sho' come."
Jake paused and bowed low.
"Yessah, hit's des lak I tell you. Fuddermo', I 'spec' I'se de man whatdone de damages. I 'spec' I bus' de Capt'n's nose so 'tain gwine be no mo'good to 'im."
Howle questioned Jake as to the whole affair, asked him a hundredquestions about the condition of the county, the position of Dr. Cameron,and the possible effect of this event on the temper of the people.
The affair had already given him a bad hour. The news of this shackling ofone of the most prominent men in the State had spread like wildfire, andhad caused the first deep growl of anger from the people. He saw that itwas a senseless piece of stupidity. The election was rapidly approaching.He was master of the State, and the less friction the better. His mind wasmade up instantly. He released Dr. Cameron with an apology, and returnedwith him and Jake for a personal inspection of the affairs of Ulstercounty.
In a thirty-minutes' interview with Captain Gilbert, Howle gave him morepain than his broken nose.
"And why did you nail up the doors of that Presbyterian church?" he askedsuavely.
"Because McAlpin, the young cub who preaches there, dared come to thiscamp and insult me about the arrest of old Cameron."
"I suppose you issued an order silencing him from the ministry?"
"I did, and told him I'd shackle him if he opened his mouth again."
"Good. The throne of Russia needn't worry about a worthy successor. Anyfurther ecclesiastical orders?"
"None, except the oaths I've prescribed for them before they shall preachagain."
"Fine! These Scotch Covenanters will feel at home with you."
"Well, I've made them bite the dust--and they know who's runnin' thistown, and don't you forget it."
"No doubt. Yet we may have too much of even a good thing. The League ishere to run this country. The business of the military is to keep stilland back them when they need it."
"We've the strongest council here to be found in any county in thissection," said Gilbert with pride.
"Just so. The League meets once a week. We have promised them the land oftheir masters and equal social and political rights. Their members goarmed to these meetings and drill on Saturdays in the public square. Thewhite man is afraid to interfere lest his house or barn take fire. A negroprisoner in the dock needs only to make the sign to be acquitted. Not anegro will dare to vote against us. Their women are formed into societies,sworn to leave their husbands and refuse to marry any man who dares ouranger. The negro churches have pledged themselves to expel him from theirmembership. What more do you want?"
"There's another side to it," protested the Captain. "Since the League hastaken in the negroes, every Union white man has dropped it like a hotiron, except the lone scallawag or carpet-bagger who expects an office. Inthe church, the social circle, in business or pleasure, these men arelepers. How can a human being stand it? I've tried to grind this hellishspirit in the dirt under my heel, and unless you can do it they'll beatyou in the long run! You've got to have some Southern white men or you'relost."
"I'll risk it with a hundred thousand negro majority," said Howle with asneer. "The fun will just begin then. In the meantime, I'll have you easeup on this county's government. I've brought that man back who knocked youdown. Let him alone. I've pardoned him. The less said about this affair,the better."
* * * * *
As the day of the election under the new regime of Reconstruction drewnear, the negroes were excited by rumours of the coming great events.Every man was to receive forty acres of land for his vote, and theenthusiastic speakers and teachers had made the dream a resistless one bydeclaring that the Government would throw in a mule with the forty acres.Some who had hesitated about the forty acres of land, remembering that itmust be worked, couldn't resist the idea of owning a mule.
The Freedman's Bureau reaped a harvest in $2 marriage fees from negroeswho were urged thus to make their children heirs of landed estates stockedwith mules.
Every stranger who appeared in the village was regarded with awe as apossible surveyor sent from Washington to run the lines of theseforty-acre plots.
And in due time the surveyors appeared. Uncle Aleck, who now devoted hisentire time to organizing the League, and drinking whiskey which the dueshe collected made easy, was walking back to Piedmont from a League meetingin the country, dreaming of this promised land.
He lifted his eyes from the dusty way and saw before him two surveyorswith their arms full of line stakes painted red, white, and blue. Theywere well-dressed Yankees--he could not be mistaken. Not a doubt disturbedhis mind. The kingdom of heaven was at hand!
He bowed low and cried:
"Praise de Lawd! De messengers is come! I'se waited long, but I sees 'emnow wid my own eyes!"
"You can bet your life on that, old pard," said the spokesman of the pair."We go two and two, just as the apostles did in the olden times. We haveonly a few left. The boys are hurrying to get their homes. All you've gotto do is to drive one of these red, white, and blue stakes down at eachcorner of the forty acres of land you want, and every rebel in theinfernal regions can't pull it up."
"Hear dat now!"
"Just like I tell you. When this stake goes into the ground, it's likeplanting a thousand cannon at each corner."
"En will the Lawd's messengers come wid me right now to de bend er decreek whar I done pick out my forty acres?"
"We will, if you have the needful for the ceremony. The fee for thesurveyor is small--only two dollars for each stake. We have no time tolinger with foolish virgins who have no oil in their lamps. The bridegroomhas come. They who have no oil must remain in outer darkness." The speakerhad evidently been a preacher in the North, and his sacred accent sealedhis authority with the old negro, who had been an exhorter himself.
Aleck felt in his pocket the jingle of twenty gold dollars, the initiationfees of the week's harvest of the League. He drew them, counted out eight,and took his four stakes. The surveyors kindly showed him how to drivethem down firmly to the first stripe of blue. When they had stepped off asquare of about forty acres of the Lenoir farm, including the richestpiece of bottom land on the creek, which Aleck's children under his wife'sdirection were working for Mrs. Lenoir, and the four stakes were planted,old Aleck shouted:
"Glory ter God!"
"Now," said the foremost surveyor, "you want a deed--a deed in fee simplewith the big seal of the Government on it, and you're fixed for life. Thedeed you can take to the courthouse and make the clerk record it."
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The man drew from his pocket an official-looking paper, with a redcircular seal pasted on its face.
Uncle Aleck's eyes danced.
"Is dat de deed?"
"It will be if I write your name on it and describe the land."
"En what's de fee fer dat?"
"Only twelve dollars; you can take it now or wait until we come again.There's no particular hurry about this. The wise man, though, leavesnothing for to-morrow that he can carry with him to-day."
"I takes de deed right now, gemmen," said Aleck, eagerly counting out theremaining twelve dollars. "Fix 'im up for me."
The surveyor squatted in the field and carefully wrote the document.
They went on their way rejoicing, and old Aleck hurried into Piedmont withthe consciousness of lordship of the soil. He held himself so proudly thatit seemed to straighten some of the crook out of his bow legs.
He marched up to the hotel where Margaret sat reading and Marion was onthe steps playing with a setter.
"Why, Uncle Aleck!" Marion exclaimed, "I haven't seen you in a longtime."
Aleck drew himself to his full height--at least, as full as his bow legswould permit, and said gruffly:
"Miss Ma'ian, I axes you to stop callin' me 'uncle'; my name is Mr.Alexander Lenoir----"
"Until Aunt Cindy gets after you," laughed the girl. "Then it's muchshorter than that, Uncle Aleck."
He shuffled his feet and looked out at the square unconcernedly.
"Yaas'm, dat's what fetch me here now. I comes ter tell yer Ma ter telldat 'oman Cindy ter take her chillun off my farm. I gwine 'low no mo'rent-payin' ter nobody off'n my lan'!"
"Your land, Uncle Aleck? When did you get it?" asked Marion, placing hercheek against the setter.
"De Gubment gim it ter me to-day," he replied, fumbling in his pocket, andpulling out the document. "You kin read it all dar yo'sef."
He handed Marion the paper, and Margaret hurried down and read it over hershoulder.
Both girls broke into screams of laughter.
Aleck looked up sharply.
"Do you know what's written on this paper, Uncle Aleck?" Margaret asked.
"Cose I do. Dat's de deed ter my farm er forty acres in de land er decreek, whar I done stuck off wid de red, white, an' blue sticks de Gubmentgimme."
"I'll read it to you," said Margaret.
"Wait a minute," interrupted Marion. "I want Aunt Cindy to hear it--she'shere to see Mamma in the kitchen now."
She ran for Uncle Aleck's spouse. Aunt Cindy walked around the house andstood by the steps, eying her erstwhile lord with contempt.
"Got yer deed, is yer, ter stop me payin' my missy her rent fum de lan' mychillun wucks? Yu'se er smart boy, you is--let's hear de deed!"
Aleck edged away a little, and said with a bow:
"Dar's de paper wid de big mark er de Gubment."
Aunt Cindy sniffed the air contemptuously.
"What is it, honey?" she asked of Margaret.
Margaret read in mock solemnity the mystic writing on the deed:
_To Whom It May Concern_:
As Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness for the enlightenment of the people, even so have I lifted twenty shining plunks out of this benighted nigger! Selah!
As Uncle Aleck walked away with Aunt Cindy shouting in derision, "Dar,now! Dar, now!" the bow in his legs seemed to have sprung a sharpercurve.