“Who told you?” asked Joe.
“De word done come,” replied Harbert “Hit bleeze ter be so, kaze all de niggers done hear talk un it. We-all will wake up some er deze odd-come-shorts an’ fin’ de Yankees des a-swarmin’ all ’roun’ here.”
“What are you going to do?” Joe inquired, laughing.
“Oh, you kin2 laugh, Marse Joe, but deyer comin’. What I g wine do? Well, suh, I’m gwine ter git up an’ look at um, an’ may be tip my hat ter some er de big-bugs ’mongst um, an’ den3 I’m gwine on ’bout my business. I don’t speck4 deyer gwine ter bodder folks what don’t bodder dem, is dey?”
Joe had forgotten this conversation until it was recalled to his mind one morning shortly after his night ride to Hillsborough. General Sherman had swung loose from Atlanta, and was marching down through middle Georgia. The people that Joe saw went about with anxious faces, and even the negroes were frightened.
0246
Before this vast host all sorts of rumors5 fled, carrying fear and consternation6 to the peaceful plantations7. At last, one cold, drizzly9 day in November, Joe Maxwell, trudging10 along the road on his way to the printing-office, heard the clatter11 of hoofs12 behind him, and two horsemen in blue came galloping13 along. They reined14 up their horses, and inquired the distance to Hillsborough, and then went galloping on again. They were couriers carrying dispatches from the Twentieth Army Corps15 to General Sherman.
There was hurrying to and fro on the plantation8 after this. The horses and mules16 were driven to a remote field in which there was a large swamp. Joe carried Butterfly and tethered him in the very middle of the swamp, where he could get plenty of water to drink and young cane17 to eat. During the next ten hours the plantation, just as Harbert predicted, fairly swarmed18 with foraging19 parties of Federals. Guided by some of the negroes, they found the horses and mules and other stock and drove them off; and, when Joe heard of it, he felt like crying over the loss of Butterfly. The horse did not belong to him, but he had trained it from a colt, and it was his whenever he wanted to use it, day or night. Yet Butterfly was soon forgotten in the excitement and confusion created by the foragers, who swept through the plantations, levying20 in the name of war on the live-stock, and ransacking21 the not too well-filled smoke-houses and barns in search of supplies.
Joe Maxwell saw a good deal of these foragers, and he found them all, with one exception, to be good-humored. The exception was a German, who could scarcely speak English enough to make himself understood. This German, when he came to the store-room where the hats were kept, wanted to take off as many as his horse could carry, and he became very angry when Joe protested. He grew so angry, in fact, that he would have fired the building. He lit a match, drew together a lot of old papers and other rubbish, and was in the act of firing it, when an officer ran in and gave him a tremendous paddling with the flat of his sword. It was an exhibition as funny as a scene in the circus, and Joe enjoyed it as thoroughly22 as he could under the circumstances. By night, all the foragers had disappeared.
0249
The army had gone into camp at Denham’s Mill, and Joe supposed that it would march on to Hillsborough, but in this he was mistaken. It turned sharply to the left the next morning and marched toward Milledgeville. Joe had aimlessly wandered along this road, as he had done a hundred times before, and finally seated himself on the fence near an old school-house, and began to whittle23 on a rail. Before he knew it the troops were upon him. He kept his seat, and the Twentieth Army Corps, commanded by General Slocum, passed in review before him. It was an imposing24 array as to numbers, but not as to appearance! For once and for all, so far as Joe was concerned, the glamour25 and romance of war were dispelled26. The skies were heavy with clouds, and a fine, irritating mist sifted27 down. The road was more than ankle-deep in mud, and even the fields were boggy28. There was nothing gay about this vast procession, with its tramping soldiers, its clattering29 horsemen, and its lumbering30 wagons31, except the temper of the men. They splashed through the mud, cracking their jokes and singing snatches of songs.
Joe Maxwell, sitting on the fence, was the subject of many a jest, as the good-humored men marched by.
“Hello, Johnny! Where’s your parasol?”
“Jump down, Johnny, and let me kiss you good-by!”
“Johnny, if you are tired, get up behind and ride!”
“Run and get your trunk, Johnny, and get aboard!”
“If there was another one of ’em a-settin’ on the fence, on t’other side, I’d say we was surrounded!”
These and hundreds of other comments, exclamations34, and questions, Joe was made the target of; and, if he stood the fire of them with unusual calmness, it was because this huge panorama35 seemed to him to be the outcome of some wild dream. That the Federal army should be plunging36 through that peaceful region, after all he had seen in the newspapers about Confederate victories, seemed to him to be an impossibility. The voices of the men, and their laughter, sounded vague and insubstantial. It was surely a dream that had stripped war of its glittering’ trappings and its flying banners. It was surely the distortion of a dream that tacked37 on to this procession of armed men droves of cows, horses, and mules, and wagon-loads of bateaux! Joe had read of pontoon bridges, but he had never heard of a pontoon train, nor did he know that bateaux were a part of the baggage of this invading army.
But it all passed after a while, and then Joe discovered that he had not been dreaming at all. He jumped from the fence and made his way home through the fields. Never before, since its settlement, had such peace and quiet reigned38 on the plantation. The horses and mules were gone, and many of the negro cabins were empty. Harbert was going about as busy as ever, and some of the older negroes were in their accustomed places, but the younger ones, especially those who, by reason of their fieldwork, had not been on familiar terms with their master and mistress, had followed the Federal army. Those that remained had been informed by the editor that they were free; and so it happened, in the twinkling of an eye, that the old things had passed away and all was new.
In a corner of the fence, not far from the road, Joe found an old negro woman shivering and moaning. Near her lay an old negro man, his shoulders covered with an old ragged39 shawl. “Who is that lying there?” asked Joe.
“It my ole man, suh.”
“What is the matter with him?”
“He dead, suh! But, bless God, he died free!” *
It was a pitiful sight, and a pitiable ending of the old couple’s dream of freedom. Harbert and the other negroes buried the old man, and the old woman was made comfortable in one of the empty cabins; she never ceased to bless “little marster,” as she called Joe, giving him all the credit for everything that was done for her. Old as she was, she and her husband had followed the army for many a weary mile on the road to freedom. The old man found it in the fence corner, and a few weeks later the old woman found it in the humble40 cabin.
The next morning, as Joe Maxwell was loitering around the printing-office, talking to the editor, Butterfly came galloping up, ridden by Mink41, who was no longer a runaway42.
* This incident has had many adaptations. It occurred just
as it is given here, and was published afterward in The
Countryman.
“I seed you put ’im out in de swamp dar, Mars’ Joe, an’ den I seed some er de yuther niggers gwine dar long wid dem Yankee mens, an’ I say ter myse’f dat I better go dar an’ git ’im; so I tuck ’im down on de river, an’ here he is. He mayn’t be ez fatez he wuz, but he des ez game ez he yever is been.”
Joe was pleased, and the editor was pleased; and it happened that Mink became one of the tenants43 on the plantation, and after a while he bought a little farm of his own, and prospered44 and thrived.
But this is carrying a simple chronicle too far. It can not be spun45 out here and now so as to show the great changes that have been wrought—the healing of the wounds of war; the lifting up of a section from ruin and poverty to prosperity; the molding of the beauty, the courage, the energy, and the strength of the old civilization into the new; the gradual uplifting of a lowly race. All these things can not be told of here. The fire burns low, and the tale is ended.
The plantation newspaper was issued a little while longer, but in a land filled with desolation and despair its editor could not hope to see it survive. A larger world beckoned46 to Joe Maxwell, and he went out into it. And it came about that on every side he found loving hearts to comfort him and strong and friendly hands to guide him. He found new associations and formed new ties. In a humble way he made a name for himself, but the old plantation days still live in his dreams.
THE END.
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1
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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9
drizzly
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| a.毛毛雨的(a drizzly day) | |
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10
trudging
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式） | |
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11
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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12
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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13
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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14
reined
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| 勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理 | |
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15
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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foraging
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| v.搜寻（食物），尤指动物觅（食）( forage的现在分词 )；（尤指用手）搜寻（东西） | |
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levying
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| 征（兵）( levy的现在分词 )； 索取； 发动（战争）； 征税 | |
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ransacking
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| v.彻底搜查( ransack的现在分词 )；抢劫，掠夺 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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23
whittle
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| v.削（木头），削减；n.屠刀 | |
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24
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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25
glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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26
dispelled
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| v.驱散，赶跑( dispel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27
sifted
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| v.筛( sift的过去式和过去分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审 | |
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28
boggy
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| adj.沼泽多的 | |
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29
clattering
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
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30
lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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31
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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32
dodge
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| v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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34
exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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panorama
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| n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置] | |
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36
plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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37
tacked
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| 用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝 | |
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38
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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39
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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40
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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41
mink
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| n.貂，貂皮 | |
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42
runaway
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| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
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43
tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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prospered
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| 成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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46
beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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