Phil undertook to manage the case in Columbia, and spent three days collecting 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 ushered1 into 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 confidentially2.
“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?” 236
“Nuttin’, sah. I des hurry ’long down ter take his place, so’s you can sen’ him back home. He’s erbleeged ter go. Dey’s er pow’ful lot er sick folks up dar in de country cain’t git ’long widout him, an er pow’ful lot er 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 what done 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 hundred questions 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 shackling3 of one of the most prominent men in the State had spread like wildfire, and had caused the first deep growl4 of anger from the people. He saw that it was a senseless piece of stupidity. The election was rapidly approaching. He was master of the State, and the less friction5 the better. His mind was made up instantly. He released Dr. Cameron with an apology, and returned with him and Jake for a personal inspection6 of the affairs of Ulster county.
In a thirty-minutes’ interview with Captain Gilbert, Howle gave him more pain than his broken nose.
“And why did you nail up the doors of that Presbyterian church?” he asked suavely7.
“Because McAlpin, the young cub8 who preaches there, 237 dared come to this camp and insult me about the arrest of old Cameron.”
“I suppose you issued an order silencing him from the ministry9?”
“I did, and told him I’d shackle10 him if he opened his mouth again.”
“Good. The throne of Russia needn’t worry about a worthy11 successor. Any further ecclesiastical orders?”
“None, except the oaths I’ve prescribed for them before they shall preach again.”
“Fine! These Scotch12 Covenanters will feel at home with you.”
“Well, I’ve made them bite the dust—and they know who’s runnin’ this town, and don’t you forget it.”
“No doubt. Yet we may have too much of even a good thing. The League is here to run this country. The business of the military is to keep still and back them when they need it.”
“We’ve the strongest council here to be found in any county in this section,” said Gilbert with pride.
“Just so. The League meets once a week. We have promised them the land of their masters and equal social and political rights. Their members go armed to these meetings and drill on Saturdays in the public square. The white man is afraid to interfere13 lest his house or barn take fire. A negro prisoner in the dock needs only to make the sign to be acquitted14. Not a negro 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 our anger. The negro churches 238 have pledged themselves to expel him from their membership. What more do you want?”
“There’s another side to it,” protested the Captain. “Since the League has taken in the negroes, every union white man has dropped it like a hot iron, except the lone15 scallawag or carpet-bagger who expects an office. In the church, the social circle, in business or pleasure, these men are lepers. How can a human being stand it? I’ve tried to grind this hellish spirit in the dirt under my heel, and unless you can do it they’ll beat you in the long run! You’ve got to have some Southern white men or you’re lost.”
“I’ll risk it with a hundred thousand negro majority,” said Howle with a sneer16. “The fun will just begin then. In the meantime, I’ll have you ease up on this county’s government. I’ve brought that man back who knocked you down. Let him alone. I’ve pardoned him. The less said about this affair, the better.”
As the day of the election under the new régime of Reconstruction17 drew near, the negroes were excited by rumours18 of the coming great events. Every man was to receive forty acres of land for his vote, and the enthusiastic speakers and teachers had made the dream a resistless one by declaring that the Government would throw in a mule19 with the forty acres. Some who had hesitated about the forty acres of land, remembering that it must be worked, couldn’t resist the idea of owning a mule.
The Freedman’s Bureau reaped a harvest in $2 marriage fees from negroes who were urged thus to make 239 their children heirs of landed estates stocked with mules20.
Every stranger who appeared in the village was regarded with awe21 as a possible surveyor sent from Washington to run the lines of these forty-acre plots.
And in due time the surveyors appeared. Uncle Aleck, who now devoted22 his entire time to organizing the League, and drinking whiskey which the dues he collected made easy, was walking back to Piedmont from a League meeting in the country, dreaming of this promised land.
He lifted his eyes from the dusty way and saw before him two surveyors with their arms full of line stakes painted red, white, and blue. They were well-dressed Yankees—he could not be mistaken. Not a doubt disturbed his 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 ’em now 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 have only a few left. The boys are hurrying to get their homes. All you’ve got to do is to drive one of these red, white, and blue stakes down at each corner of the forty acres of land you want, and every rebel in the infernal regions can’t pull it up.”
“Hear dat now!”
“Just like I tell you. When this stake goes into the ground, it’s like planting a thousand cannon24 at each corner.”
“En will the Lawd’s messengers come wid me right 240 now to de bend er de creek25 whar I done pick out my forty acres?”
“We will, if you have the needful for the ceremony. The fee for the surveyor is small—only two dollars for each stake. We have no time to linger with foolish virgins26 who have no oil in their lamps. The bridegroom has come. They who have no oil must remain in outer darkness.” The speaker had evidently been a preacher in the North, and his sacred accent sealed his authority with the old negro, who had been an exhorter27 himself.
Aleck felt in his pocket the jingle28 of twenty gold dollars, the initiation29 fees of the week’s harvest of the League. He drew them, counted out eight, and took his four stakes. The surveyors kindly30 showed him how to drive them down firmly to the first stripe of blue. When they had stepped off a square of about forty acres of the Lenoir farm, including the richest piece of bottom land on the creek, which Aleck’s children under his wife’s direction 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 simple with the big seal of the Government on it, and you’re fixed31 for life. The deed you can take to the courthouse and make the clerk record it.”
The man drew from his pocket an official-looking paper, with a red circular seal pasted on its face.
Uncle Aleck’s eyes danced.
“Is dat de deed?” 241
“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, leaves nothing for to-morrow that he can carry with him to-day.”
“I takes de deed right now, gemmen,” said Aleck, eagerly counting out the remaining twelve dollars. “Fix ’im up for me.”
The surveyor squatted32 in the field and carefully wrote the document.
They went on their way rejoicing, and old Aleck hurried into Piedmont with the consciousness of lordship of the soil. He held himself so proudly that it seemed to straighten some of the crook33 out of his bow legs.
He marched up to the hotel where Margaret sat reading and Marion was on the steps playing with a setter.
“Why, Uncle Aleck!” Marion exclaimed, “I haven’t seen you in a long time.”
Aleck drew himself to his full height—at least, as full as his bow legs would 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 much shorter than that, Uncle Aleck.”
He shuffled34 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 tell dat ’oman Cindy ter take her chillun 242 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 her cheek against the setter.
“De Gubment gim it ter me to-day,” he replied, fumbling35 in his pocket, and pulling out the document. “You kin23 read it all dar yo’sef.”
He handed Marion the paper, and Margaret hurried down and read it over her shoulder.
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 de creek, whar I done stuck off wid de red, white, an’ blue sticks de Gubment gimme.”
“I’ll read it to you,” said Margaret.
“Wait a minute,” interrupted Marion. “I want Aunt Cindy to hear it—she’s here to see Mamma in the kitchen now.”
She ran for Uncle Aleck’s spouse36. Aunt Cindy walked around the house and stood 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’ my chillun 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 sniffed37 the air contemptuously.
“What is it, honey?” she asked of Margaret. 243
Margaret read in mock solemnity the mystic writing on the deed:
To Whom It May Concern:
As Moses lifted up the brazen38 serpent in the wilderness39 for the enlightenment of the people, even so have I lifted twenty shining plunks out of this benighted40 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 sharper curve.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
ushered
|
|
| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
confidentially
|
|
| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
shackling
|
|
| 给（某人）带上手铐或脚镣( shackle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
4
growl
|
|
| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
friction
|
|
| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
inspection
|
|
| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
suavely
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
cub
|
|
| n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
ministry
|
|
| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
shackle
|
|
| n.桎梏，束缚物；v.加桎梏，加枷锁，束缚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
worthy
|
|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
scotch
|
|
| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
interfere
|
|
| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
acquitted
|
|
| 宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
lone
|
|
| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
sneer
|
|
| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
reconstruction
|
|
| n.重建，再现，复原 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
rumours
|
|
| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
mule
|
|
| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
mules
|
|
| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
awe
|
|
| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
devoted
|
|
| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
kin
|
|
| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
cannon
|
|
| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
creek
|
|
| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
virgins
|
|
| 处女，童男( virgin的名词复数 )； 童贞玛利亚（耶稣之母） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
exhorter
|
|
| n.劝勉者，告诫者，提倡者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
jingle
|
|
| n.叮当声，韵律简单的诗句；v.使叮当作响，叮当响，押韵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
initiation
|
|
| n.开始 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
squatted
|
|
| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
crook
|
|
| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
shuffled
|
|
| v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
fumbling
|
|
| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
spouse
|
|
| n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
sniffed
|
|
| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
brazen
|
|
| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
wilderness
|
|
| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
benighted
|
|
| adj.蒙昧的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |