Читать книгу Mandingo - Kyle Onstott - Страница 3

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The old man heard the closing of the front door and the limping step in the hall. He was pleased that his son should have the good sense to send the Negroes to quarters and come into the house out of the cold, drizzling February rain.

Hammond walked across the room, picked up his father’s glass of toddy and took a swallow.

‘Take more, take more,’ urged Maxwell. ‘Do you good, son. Gittin’ too cooled off fer me anyways. Got to have me another’n, and I kin ever git that triflin’ Memnon to stir me one. Mem!’ he called. ‘Mem! Memnon!’

Hammond started toward the dining-room to get Memnon when the boy opened the door with apparent alacrity.

‘Didn’t you hear me callin’, Mem, you god-damn black varmint? Stir me a toddy, hot, mind you. Now! Not nex’ week,’ Maxwell commanded.

‘Yas, suh, Masta,’ said the slave and started to go.

‘I talk to you, I cod you, I beg, an’ I cuss you,’ the master said sternly. ‘Only I cain’t whup you—with this rheumatiz. You young masta got to do that.’

The slave was used to the threats of his old master, which, so far, had always come to nothing. None the less, Agamemnon rolled his eyes toward the younger Maxwell, with dilated pupil and a show of white.

‘Whenever you reckon, I’ll take keer of him,’ Hammond promised his father. ‘Whut you think, boy? When I whups, I whups—takes the meat right off your bones. Eh?’

‘Naw, suh, please, suh, Masta, suh,’ replied the Negro. ‘I be spry. I ain’t goin’ to sloth no mo’.’ While he reckoned the impatience of his senior master to be mere bluster, he was by no means sure that the forthright younger man did not mean business. Memnon knew that he was lax, slothful, and procrastinating, and he resolved henceforth to be more diligent—at least for a time. His duties were small enough, to mix toddies for the older man, to replenish the fire, to serve at table, remove his master’s clothes at night and help to put them on in the morning; and he was indulged, fed white man’s viands, kept in clean, whole clothes, given at least one ardent woman with whom to sleep, with a frequent alternative. He was valuable, being strong-thewed, broad-shouldered, yellow-skinned, free from scars, disfigurements, or blemishes. He knew he was not for sale, though he was past thirty and would bring a larger price now than later, but it was unthinkable that his young master would risk scarring him up with the whip and reducing his market worth, especially since he knew the pride the Maxwells took in having their stock, human and quadruped, clean-limbed and sound.

Despite the cold rain and the father’s entreaties, the son returned to his work, determined to clear more land, split the rails to fence it, chop wood for the house fires, but above all to keep the Negroes employed and exercised. Agamemnon prepared the toddy that Maxwell had ordered, saw to it that it was hot, as commanded, and when he saw that the fire was burning low in the fireplace, brought fresh chunks of water-oak and adjusted them upon the dog-irons.

Maxwell, surprised at the slave’s access of industry, could only grunt at what he assumed was a sign of reformation. His joints racked, and he lifted one hand with the other and examined the swollen knuckles. Yet, in spite of the pain and effort it cost him, he braced himself and staggered to his feet occasionally to totter to the window to scan the weather, just to prove to himself that he was able to do it and to alter the tedium of watching the fire and waiting for Hammond’s return.

On one of the excursions, near to evening, he noted that the downpour had subsided to a mere drizzle and scanned the sky for a patch of blue in the hope that the rain would cease altogether. Between the boles of the bare miscellany of trees, maples, tupelos, oaks, chestnuts, hickories, and elms, that behind a zizgag stake-and-rider fence lined the long avenue to the main road, he descried a moving object. He could hardly credit that a visitor was arriving at Falconhurst on so wretched a day and through such mire as the rains had made of the roads.

He could not be sure. ‘Mem!’ he bellowed. ‘Memnon! Memnon, you hear? Memnon, you yaller mongrel! Come here! Come here, I’m sayin’!’

Drowsing before the fireplace in the kitchen, Mem roused himself and shuffled unhurriedly across the open passageway, through the dining-room and into the living-room. ‘Yas, suh, Masta. You a-callin’?’

‘Course I’m a-callin’. Come here to this winder. Look out. Whut you reckon that be movin’ up that laneway?’

Mem looked. ‘Look like horse with gen’man a-ridin’,’ he said.

‘Course it a gen’leman and of course he ridin’ a horse,’ Maxwell said contemptuously. ‘But who it goin’ to be? Who comin’ to Falconhurst in all this weather and through all this mire?’

Memnon had no idea. His interest was no less, however, than his owner’s. ‘Now we’ll have doin’s,’ he declared optimistically. The arrival of any white man at Falconhurst was an occasion.

The horseman emerged into the open and it could be seen that he wore a frock coat and a slouch hat, as might have been expected, that he was thin to emaciation without being very tall, that his bay mount was tired, muddy, and from his action probably a gelding, for which Maxwell felt a contempt.

Three children ran beside the horse, lifting their feet high in an effort to surmount the mud. The man monotonously cracked a whip to urge the children’s haste, but he usually and intentionally missed them. Now and again one was seen to flinch when a blow stung its legs or buttocks, and for three or four strides to hasten its pace.

‘Jest a nigger buyer,’ scoffed Maxwell more to himself than to his servant.

Despite the contempt in his voice, he hastened to the double front doors and went out on the verandah, followed closely by Agamemnon, to await his guest. The profession of dealing in Negroes was deprecated, but the scorn for it was not so intense as to warrant a denial of hospitality to its practitioners. The disdain was for the calling, not for the man. If it was an evil, it was a convenient evil. Dealers saved planters from the necessity of a trip to market with one or two slaves; they were not too particular about the viciousness of Negroes they bought for early resale and were good agencies for the riddance of ‘bad’ Negroes; and better yet, they paid cash on the barrelhead for their purchases. Moreover, they were white.

Visitors to Falconhurst were rare; they brought news. And Maxwell’s dislike for dealers was more of a convention than a conviction. He was aware that his own rung of the social hierarchy was not that of a gentleman—not a fine gentleman at least, merely a gentleman by courtesy, far, far above a dealer but not quite a full gentleman.

The stranger dismounted stiffly from his horse, briefly rubbed his lean flanks to relieve the fatigue of the saddle, doffed his hat, and said, ‘Howdy, suh. Name of Brownlee—Brownlee.’

The Negro children who accompanied him retreated to the off side of the horse, and, open-mouthed, looked warily at their master’s reception.

‘Name of Maxwell, suh, Warren Maxwell,’ the host returned the greeting and identified himself.

‘I was informed of your name, suh. It’s well and, pardon me, suh, favourably known in these parts.’

‘Ought to be, suh. We been right here at Falconhurst sence befo’ the rebellion of 1776.’ The reply was not ungenial, but it served to underline the difference between gentleman planter and slave dealer. No gesture of handshaking was made by either man. ‘Cast the bridle to the boy, suh, who will stable your horse and bed down your servants. Then, come right in. Dinner is mighty nigh ready.’

Agamemnon caught the reins, but only to turn the chore over to another black boy who had appeared, more bold than the other Negroes, from behind one corner of the house. Brownlee had an eye for a Negro and quickly noted that this slave boy had only two toes—the great and the little one—on his left foot. Every eye in the quarters appraised the visitor from cover. His arrival was reason for speculation and low-toned talk.

Maxwell was specific in his orders to the black. ‘Take the gen’leman’s horse straight to the stable. Take off his gear and wash him down good—warm water, mind you, not too hot, but warm. I ketches you washing a horse with col’ water this time of year, I’ll hide you sure.’

‘Yas, suh, Masta,’ the boy replied conventionally.

‘And take these little niggers with you and bed ’em down in another stall and give them some pone, all they’ll eat of it. Cook will issue you some black-strap to make it tasty. Tell her I said to.’

‘Cook won’t give black-strap to no nigger withouten your say,’ protested the boy.

‘Tell her I say. If she don’t heed you, have her ask Memnon.’

‘Yas, suh, Masta; have cook ast Memnon,’ the boy repeated to impress the command on his own mind.

Maxwell consulted Brownlee, ‘Reckon I better have your niggers chained up?’

‘I reckon it ain’t necessary on a cold day like this. They too tired to run. Of course you cain’t tell whut goes on in a nigger’s haid,’ he reconsidered. ‘Wouldn’t do no harm.’

Maxwell turned again to the boy. ‘And chain the niggers to the side of their stall—the wench separate from the bucks. Use them small little anklets that they cain’t slip out of and fetch the keys up and turn ’em over to Memnon.’

‘Turn keys over to Memnon,’ the black repeated.

‘When that mud on their legs dries out, crack it and rub it off, too,’ interposed Brownlee. ‘Pardon me, suh, fer giving orders to yo’ servant,’ he apologized to Maxwell.

‘My servants are yo’ servants, suh, so long as you honours me with your company at Falconhurst,’ Maxwell reassured his guest. ‘Anything else the boy kin do fer yo’ property, suh?’

‘That will accommodate me nicely, suh, nicely.’

‘Memnon, go down after dinner to the stable and see that this boy—whut’s your name, boy?’ the master broke off.

‘My name Preacha’, suh, please,’ the confused boy stuttered.

‘Whut’s that? Talk plain.’

‘Preacha’, suh. My name Preacha’.’

‘Preacha’? I don’t like it. It don’t mean nothin’. I like names out’n history or names of heathen gods.’

‘My mammy wanted that I should be a preacha’—a reverend.’

‘I’ll reverend you. We’ll change your name right now—let’s see—Barbarossa. We haven’t had a Barbarossa fer a long time. Remember that—your name is Barbarossa.’

‘Barbarossa, Barbarossa, Barbarossa,’ the baffled boy muttered in determination to remember his new designation.

Maxwell continued his orders to Memnon, ‘See that this Barber do all whut I told him. If he neglect that horse and if he don’t take good care of them niggers, he kin depen’ on a hidin’. Understand, boy?’

‘Yas, suh, Masta.’

‘That’s all,’ said the master.

The newly christened Barbarossa led the horse toward the stable, followed by the three children. ‘Barber, Barber, Barber—something or t’other. My masta done change me from Preacha’ to Barba’,’ and he snapped his fingers, ‘jest like that,’ he said to himself but aloud. Then he laughed delightedly at his own joke. ‘Barba’, Barba’, Bar——’

‘I trade in niggers,’ Brownlee announced to Maxwell.

‘So I reckoned, suh, so I reckoned,’ replied the host. ‘We got to have traders if we’re goin’ to have niggers. We cain’t eat ’em.’

‘I know some gen’lemen don’t like traders, but everybody’s got to live. Whut would you planters do withouten we traders?’

‘We’d have to plough the niggers under, I reckon. I got nothing agin’ traders. I’ve sold to lots of ’em; they’re welcome right in my house and at my table—that is, sence my wife passed away. She was a Hammond, daughter of old Mista Theophilus Hammond of the Anglebranch Plantation down near Selma. Mista Theophilus wouldn’t have no truck with traders—a fine gen’leman. He never sold a servant—not one. Bred good niggers too. I remember twenty year back when servants was cheap, Theophilus Hammond pay two thousand dollars fer a yaller quadroon stallion—a lot of money them days.’

‘Sure was. Why even today you can pick up a mighty noble hand, house-broke and everything, fer fifteen hundred or two thousand. Jest before Christmas I sold a big, sound, robust buck, six foot one and shoulders like that,’ Brownlee stretched his arms, ‘right off the block in New Orleans fer fourteen hundred—yeller, too, good enough to cover anybody’s wenches.’

Mr. Maxwell refused to relinquish his aristocratic father-in-law. ‘Of course, Mista Theophilus (being in the family I calls him by his first name), used to sell off a bad nigger, if he got one; or he’d sell to accommodate a friend with a good house-boy or a fancy, yaller sew-er; or he’d rarely, rarely, part with a young buck to get money to run Anglebranch Plantation and feed the other hands till cotton time. But he never made a practice of selling his stock at all. Didn’t trust traders and wouldn’t sell to ’em.’

‘I come a right smart out of my way to pay my respects to yo’.’ Brownlee bowed and Maxwell returned the bow in so far as his rheumatism permitted. ‘And see didn’t yo’ all have a few servants you wanted to git shet of.’

‘No, cain’t say we have. I sent a fine coffle of prime young bucks Natchez way, right after pickin’ time. If yo’ had of come along about then we could have talked, but I ain’t got nothin’ prime to offer yo’ right now.’

‘They don’t got to be prime, suh. I’ll prime ’em when I git ’em to New Orleans,’ Brownlee urged, betraying his eagerness.

‘If yo’ come this way again in the late fall, I might have a dozen or fifteen nice, strapping boys fer yo’, or a wench or two if I kin get ’em knocked up and showing. Don’t pay to sell a wench open. Buyers like to git two fer the price of one.’

‘Don’t know if’n I could afford to relieve you of a dozen at a time. Limited capital, yo’ know, mighty limited, but I’ll be here—count on’t.’

The wind was playing through Maxwell’s shock of red hair, and he suddenly was aware of the chill in the air that would worsen his rheumatism.

‘Right like to rain some more; I kin feel it right in my jints. Wind a-comin’ up, too. One good comes out of this consarned rheumatiz—learns me to prognosticate.’ He rubbed the swollen joints of one hand over the equally swollen knuckles of the other. ‘I’ll always remember 1831 as a wet year, the year the rheumatiz got me. And now in February, it’s started out wet again and the rheumatiz mirrors the weather, seems like.’

‘Roads like thick gumbo, all the way across Alabama, ever sence I left the Georgia line. Horse mired up to his fetlocks and the young niggers muddy half up to the crotch. Had to stop oncet and take the little wench up on the crupper; and lashing the two boys slowed ’em down more than it hurried ’em up. Nigh glad I had so scant a coffle because they a-goin’ to be all skinny, even if not sick, before I kin fetch ’em to market.’ Mr. Brownlee sighed, removed his square-lensed spectacles, wiped his bloodshot, porcine blue eyes on a soiled blue bandana which he drew from the tail of his frock coat, after which he took off his black slouch hat and wiped with the bandana his bald scalp with the tufts of curly black hair above the ears. His small face had been smooth some three or four days ago, but now it was scantily peppered with black.

‘Now, howsomever, at last yo’ kin rest your bones and fatten your niggers. We hope you’ll squander some time with us, leastwise till after the spell of weather.’

‘No, thankee, I reckon I better git along this same evenin’, more ’specially that yo’ cain’t spare me no niggers. The nigger crop is real slim ever’whure. And the prices are going up like balloons in the wind,’ complained Brownlee.

‘No hurry at all,’ argued Maxwell. ‘Not many gen’lemen honour us at Falconhurst.’

‘Got to git along. Got to git along. I values your hospitality, suh, but I got to git along.’

‘Come morning and I might, I jest might, fix my mind on letting yo’ carry away a buck or two. We are all run over with young niggers, got to kick ’em out of the way to walk, but they jest too young to dispose of to advantage me.’

‘I need niggers, I do indeed, suh,’ emphasized Brownlee. ‘If there is a chance to dicker and yo’ prices are not too powerful, I’ll settle down and discommode you all fer the night.’

‘Nothin’ at all, nothin’ at all. Yo’ cain’t discommode me one bit. Charmed to enjoy your conversation. Of course yo’ remember I say I might sell, not that I would sell. I’ll have to counsel with my son. Turn the whole plantation-shebang over to him to run, account of my rheumatiz. But come into the house, suh, come right in and set,’ urged Maxwell, spitting into his hand and hurling to the ground a cud of tobacco he had been harbouring in his jaw. ‘Dinner will be ready soon as Ham rides up.’

Brownlee paused on the gallery which fronted the house to remove on the foot-scraper some of the mud that was drying on his boots.

‘Never mind that, never mind,’ said Maxwell as he held open the door. ‘We ain’t got no finery, jest rag carpets all over and plenty of nigger grease to clean things up. A little mud don’t matter at all.’

‘Seem to me a purty fine mansion,’ Brownlee looked about him. ‘Mighty comfortable.’

‘My grandpappy built a log house in the clearing right here. My pappy built this nine-room clapboard, which was good enough, a plain and common house in his day, purty fancy, fact is, then, fer these parts. I was jest aiming to build a better’n—could well afford it too—somethin’ like Mista Tom Jefferson’s place back in Virginia—fitten to live in like a gen’leman—when my wife upped and passed away seven years back. My wife was a Hammond, daughter of ol’ Mista Theophilus Hammon’ of Anglebranch Plantation.’

‘Fine family; fine, fine family,’ interposed Brownlee.

‘I aimed to build a mansion, as I’m a-telling you, when she come down, some female trouble, a growth. And when she went to her reward, it jest nearly tore the bowels right out’n me. I ain’t got over it yet. I jist dropped everything. This old house good enough fer the boy and me. Course, if Hammon’ marry some fine lady like his mamma (and I’m a-countin’ on it) he’ll prob’bly build her a fine home over on the other knoll and let this place go to quarters. We’re cramped fer quarters anyhow; two families with an extrie wench or two in ever’ cabin, and the extrie boys bedded down on straw in the stable. It ain’t healthy. Come an epizootic and it would ruin us.’

A genial fire in the wide fireplace warmed the sitting-room into which Mr. Maxwell welcomed his guest, who gingerly eased his lean body into a large rocker. The host baked himself in front of the fire, alternately facing it and turning his back to it in an effort to relieve the rheumatic pains that racked his joints.

‘Memnon! Memnon!’ he called. Before the boy arrived he questioned his guest, ‘How do you like your corn?’

‘Uncontaminated, please, suh, uncontaminated.’

‘A glass of unwatered whisky fer the gen’leman and a toddy fer me—hot, mind,’ the host gave his orders to the Negro.

Brownlee eyed the slave appraisingly. ‘Right smart boy,’ he declared. ‘Ain’t fer sale, I reckon.’

When Agamemnon returned with the drinks, Brownlee seemed even more interested in the boy than in the whisky. As the Negro approached to hand him the brimming water goblet, Brownlee reached out and grasped his leg, felt his muscles critically. ‘Kneel down,’ he commanded and ran his hands over the shoulders, opened his mouth and ran his fingers perfunctorily along the sound teeth. ‘ ’Bout thirty, I should say.’

‘Not that old,’ observed the master proudly.

‘Seems like about thirty, teeth and all. ’Bout a quadroon, I reckon.’

‘ ’Bout that. His dam a mulatto, his sire a white man.’

‘Fully house-broke, I reckon?’ the buyer persisted.

‘Yes, but triflin’. Cain’t git no work out’n him.’

‘Sell him to me and I’ll cure that quick.’

‘And he back talks too. I been laying off to hang him up and have him hided fer quite a spell, but whut with the rheumatiz and all, I put it off and put it off.’

‘No, no, Masta, suh,’ the boy began a plaintive wail. ‘I’s spry nigger; don’t hide me; I’ll be good. No, no, Masta, I’ll——’

‘Dry up,’ the master warned. ‘See whut I mean?’ he addressed himself to Brownlee. ‘He’s al’ays puttin’ his mouth into white folk’s talk. He’s a kind of pet of my son, and Ham has ruint him. My son don’t mind if I peel his rump, but he too busy to do it hisself.’

‘Reckon you don’t want to sell him then?’ interposed the trader.

‘No, I reckon not.’

An irregular step sounded on the creaking floor of the hall and Hammond Maxwell limped in. ‘Sorry, suh, about keeping dinner,’ he explained to his father. ‘I rid around agin to see how the river is comin’ up after the rainin’.’

‘Don’t spoil your dinner with concernment.’ Maxwell turned to address his guest, ‘This son of mine is much too ponderous. His only fault, only fault, suh, is that he loves this damned leeched-out plantation and its blacks more than he loves white ladies. Mr. Brownlee, suh, this is my Hammond; named for his grandsire, suh, Theophilus Hammond.’

‘Right charmed by the honour of your company,’ responded Hammond cordially.

‘Thankee, suh. Right charmed my own self,’ said Brownlee, rising and extending his hand.

‘Mr. Brownlee goin’ about the country purchasin’ negras fer the New Orleans block. Cain’t make a sizeable coffle and so he drop by Falconhurst to look over our stock. Do yo’ reckon we kin accommodate him with a buck or two?’

‘Don’t reckon we kin deny a gen’leman in need. Might hap we kin spare something,’ Ham encouraged Brownlee, his hospitality overweighing his contempt for the profession of his guest. ‘But dinner awaits us. May I escort you, suh, into the other room?’

‘Yes, it’s gitting on to one and you must be wolf-hungry, Son, after all mornin’ in the saddle,’ declared the father, as he led the way into the dining-room.

It was an immense, bare apartment, its size only modified by the height of the ceilings. Against one wall stood a wide sideboard of the Empire period, mahogany, over-ornate, but with some claim to distinction of taste. Its surface, however, was so cluttered with rococo silver and glass as to destroy what dignity it might have possessed.

The large rectangular table in the middle of the long, tall room was covered by a cloth of heavy damask in a checker-board pattern of red and white. In the very centre of the table stood a tall revolvable silver or silver-plated caster with cruets of condiments and jars of various kinds of pickles. From its upright handle were suspended two pairs of tongs and around its perimeter dangled a fringe of silver teaspoons.

On one corner of the table stood a tall, glass pitcher of thick, yellow milk. Places were laid for three. The pinkish willow-ware plates were enormous, ornamented with pictures of Chinese temples and pagodas. Each was flanked with a bone-dish of the same ware. The substantial knives and forks were of steel, their bone handles streaked with yellow from too long boiling in dish-water. The empty coffee cups that stood at the right of each cover, each handle meticulously turned to the exact right of each cup, were on the same oversized scale as the plates. Tall goblets of heavy pressed glass, each holding upright in its bowl a red napkin starched and ironed to display its fringed border, stood behind the cups. Except for the pickles in the caster jars, and salt in capacious open dishes of heavy, red glass, no food was visible.

Although there were no flies to be brushed on this chilly day, two sleek boys stood, one on each side of the table, waving fans of frayed peacock-tail feathers monotonously and tirelessly to and fro. The trader began his evaluation of the boys the moment he set eyes upon them. Here was something choice, something fancy. What a price these two would fetch at private treaty in New Orleans! He knew exactly the men who would be interested. The bumper of whisky he had drunk enlarged his imagination. Perhaps these rustics had no comprehension of the value of such a brace in the right market, of the purposes for which they could be sold, of the uses to which they could be put. Either, alone, was a jewel. Together, as a span, twins, they would bring four or five times what they would bring singly.

As he glanced from one to the other, he was not able to detect a trace of difference. The contours of closely shorn skulls were exactly alike, the same round faces with full cheeks, the same noses only slightly flat with nostrils somewhat large, the same neat ears, the same large full mouths turned upward at the corners, the same large eyes with irises so black that it was impossible to detect that they had pupils. The facial skins were alike in colour and in texture—a light amber through which shone a rosiness round the cheek-bones. They appeared burnished, but it was with health and the soft soap that had been recently applied to render them fit for service in their master’s dining-room.

Down to their small, arched, bare feet they were made alike, height, arm length, leg length, flatness of chest, roundness of buttock. It was not by design that they were uniformly clad, because the small boys on Falconhurst after six or eight were all dressed alike in rough shirts and rougher pants, which were their only garments. Before six or eight, often up to ten, boys wore nothing at all, although girls were clothed a little earlier. The boys’ clothes were uniform also, in their age and drabness—it could not be called colour.

Brownlee’s survey of the room and his evaluation of the twins were rapid. It took no more time than for Agamemnon to withdraw the horse-hide covered chair, and to seat his rheumatic master at the head of the table, after which he pulled out Brownlee’s chair and seated him. Hammond dispensed with the Negro’s assistance and sat down at the side of the table opposite Brownlee, whose liquorish eye continued to steal glances at the boys.

Agamemnon fetched from the kitchen an immense platter of stewed chicken enveloped with dumplings, tender as tissue. This was followed by another platter on which rested slice after centre slice of fried ham surrounded by the red gravy in which it had been cooked. A third platter contained eggs, more than a dozen of them, fried on one side only.

Next to be handed round was a heaped-up dish of boiled potatoes, followed by tender spring greens on which reposed a large piece of bacon.

Agamemnon filled the glasses with the creamy milk from the pitcher, then filled the cups from a battered tin pot of strong, black, and hot coffee, upon which he floated cream so thick that it oozed from the pitcher only semi-liquid. He then passed a pitcher of light-coloured molasses with which the coffee was to be sweetened.

‘Eat hearty, suh, eat hearty,’ urged the host. ‘Might as well clean up the vittles. The leavin’s are jest scraped to the servants anyways.’

‘Scrumptious meal, suh,’ declared Brownlee after his fourth cup of coffee.

‘Nothin’ extrie, nothin’ extrie. Jest the general run of dinner,’ Maxwell deprecated the compliment paid to his food, and led the way back to the sitting-room.

‘Now about those servants you offerin’ to sell me,’ Brownlee persisted, sinking his chair before the fireplace.

‘Well, let’s see,’ Maxwell said. ‘Whut you reckon, Ham?’

‘Well, s’pose we drags out that Preacher and that lean, brown boy named Emperor?’

‘Changed Preacher’s name to Barbarossa,’ corrected the father. ‘That’s good. They all right, an’ you say.’

‘They brisk and lively? How big are they?’

‘One about fifteen hands, three inches, I reckon. You saw him. He barned your horse. The other taller, mayhap close to seventeen hands—but they got a spell of growin’ in ’em yet. Yes, they right vig’ous and frisky. They’ll make good hands,’ the elder Maxwell affirmed.

‘They ain’t unsound, but they not sound neither, not quite exactly prime,’ Hammond warned.

‘I was jest calculating’,’ replied the trader, ‘That Preacha’ is kin’ of cripped, ain’t he? Toes off one foot?’

‘Not cripped. It don’t slow him down none,’ said Hammond. ‘Of course, if you don’t crave him——’

‘It’s all right, it’s all right. A nigger’s a nigger—of course, at a price.’

‘Of course,’ Hammond agreed.

‘What ails the other’n?’ inquired Brownlee.

‘A burned scar; don’t ruin him none, but Papa and me, we don’t like to shovel feed into a boy that don’t strip down purty. Falconhurst negras are right sound and we wants to keep ’em so. We right proudish over havin’ good stock without’n blemish or blight. Our only reason fer cheapening these boys.’

‘If’n he kin cut cane and pick cotton, I kin use him—of coursen, with allowance fer price.’

‘Memnon, gather up them two boys, Preach and Emp; shuck ’em down; and give ’em a hunk of hard soap. Tell ’em to go down to the river and wash all over good, and then come on back here and tarry in front of the gallery.’ Hammond gave instruction. ‘And sen’ fer my hoss.’

‘You ain’t goin’ out, Son. It’s rainin’ right down.’

‘Got to see after that passel cutting stove wood up beyond that fur clearin’. Not a hand would cut a stick if I wasn’t there to drive them.’

‘Don’t want you to ketch your death, Son, a-workin’ in this kin’ of weather—cold and rain.’

‘Don’t fret yourself, Papa,’ said the boy. ‘I’m warm dressed and waterproof.’

‘Whut am I goin’ to rate Mr. Brownlee fer them boys?’ the senior asked.

‘Whutever’s right and fair,’ the boy replied. ‘You’ve had more truck in that kind of messin’ than ever I had.’ He bent over and kissed his father, bowed to the trader and was gone.

The father sighed, arose and trudged painfully to the cloudy window on which he wiped a space through which to watch his son mount his horse.

Despite Brownlee’s anxiety to inspect his prospective purchases, Maxwell chose to enjoy awhile in anticipation the pleasure he knew would be his in conducting the transaction. He surmised how ardent the trader was to buy, and was confident to wait until his fish had fully swallowed the hook.

‘Hammond think this a cotton plantation,’ he observed. ‘Falconhurst ain’t a cotton plantation at all. It a nigger farm, that whut it is, a nigger farm. It’s been cropped and cropped fer cotton year after year till there ain’t no more cotton in the dirt.’

Brownlee was but little interested in Alabama cotton economy. Every little while he arose and paced to the window and looked at the two nude Negroes waiting patiently beneath a tupelo tree that partially shielded them from the wind-driven rain.

‘That burn on that buck is middlin’ bad,’ he observed.

‘Jest looks that way through that wrinkled pane. That winder light is all wavy. Ain’t nothin’ at all, scarcely. But Hammond jest cain’t abide a nigger on the place that ain’t perfect. Funny that way. Mayhap it reminds him of his own stiff leg which he got from that pony gelding when he was six years old. His mamma didn’t want he should have a pony so young. She warned me, but I’ve got a stubborn streak too. Besides the little feller wanted a pony, wanted it bad. I never could suffer that child to crave nothin’ and to not git it. I cain’t yet. That spotted pony seemed gentle when I traded for it, but you cain’t never trust a gelding, horse or nigger. They villainous and double-hearted. The varmint throwed the boy off the third day he had him, bucked him right off withouten no reason at all. I didn’t think the boy was hurt none, but I toted him into the house (didn’t trust him to no nigger) and laid him down on that very lounge there in the corner, eased his cryin’, undressed him gentle-like as I could, and rubbed him down with whisky. Lucretia Borgia, the cook, that is, suckin’ them two twins—the two you saw in the dining-room—and her and I give the babies to Ham fer a bribe to let her rub him with whisky ever’ day. Didn’t do no good, howsumever. His knee stiffened up. Cain’t scarcely bend it at all.’

Brownlee was less interested in Hammond’s stiff knee than in the Negroes in the dooryard. ‘We better look after them boys out there. Standing nekid in this drivin’ rain is liable to give ’em lung fever or somethin’.’

Maxwell led the way through the hall to the front doors, which Agamemnon opened for him, guiding his way down the single step to the verandah. The Negro brought rocking-chairs, but only his master sat down. Brownlee, in his concern to get down to business, continued to stand and Agamemnon to hover about his master for the primary purpose of overhearing the negotiations.

‘Git them boys up here onto this gallery and sop that rain offn ’em,’ Maxwell ordered Agamemnon, drawing a soiled bandana from his pocket and heaving it toward him. ‘Mr. Brownlee craves to finger ’em over.’

The two young Negroes approached the gallery with misgivings. They had never been permitted to come so close to the house, and, now that they were summoned, they were aware of their muddy feet. Both shivered as much from fear as from cold. Preach’s teeth chattered but the mouth of the lanky Emperor was so much overshot that his teeth failed to meet and the convulsions of his jaw made no sound.

Agamemnon, degraded to the place of valet to a field hand, chose the lighter-hued Emperor as the lesser evil and dabbed at him gingerly with the handkerchief, after which, with a glance askance in the direction of his master, he tossed the wet handkerchief to Preach who proceeded to wring it out and wipe the standing drops from his body. To dry himself on the wet rag was impossible.

Brownlee took charge of Emp, made a preliminary pass of his hands over the goose-pimpled back and skinny leg, after which he turned his attention to the big cicatrix which was firmly healed and could not be forced to open or bleed for all the pummelling and pinching the trader gave it. Emperor had been inured to pain by the burn and the treatment it had undergone, and he did not flinch.

‘Purty ganglin’,’ deplored Brownlee. ‘Narrow-shouldered and stooped over.’

‘I know he ain’t ready to sell yet. Needs a year on him. Besides he ain’t been fattened and primed,’ countered the owner.

‘Terrible pig-jawed, too.’

‘Don’t want him to chew the cane down, do you?’ Maxwell replied.

‘Kneel down here in front of me, boy,’ the dealer ordered. ‘No, not that a-way—back to me.’

Emp turned around and, despite the absence of visible wales, Brownlee carefully explored the muscles beneath the skin for ridges that would betray the healed-over marks of the whip.

He then pulled the boy upright onto his knees, tilted his head back and ran his fingers along the teeth, which despite the malformed lower jaw were as sound as if their cusps had fitted together normally. Getting Emp to his feet, he pulled and twisted his fingers, and, finding none broken, stiff, or badly twisted, signalled him by a grasp of the calf to lift the feet, one at a time to the arm of the chair that he might examine the toes.

‘How much you want fer him, suh?’

‘Ought to be worth six-fifty,’ Maxwell ventured, tentatively.

‘Too much. Cain’t use him at that price. Cain’t git more than seven fer him in New Orleans.’

‘Six twenty-five, then?’

‘Wait; let me look at the other’n. Maybe we kin deal on the two of ’em.’

Preacher was cold and shaking, but he slouched forward for his examination. He was no longer afraid and showed no more feeling of his indignity than his fellow had displayed. He knew that he was mere property which had changed ownership before.

Brownlee pursued his inspection much as he had inspected Emperor.

‘An Angola,’ he disparaged.

‘Don’t know no more about his breedin’ than about the other’n. Angola or not, he’s peart and vig’rous.’

‘But Angolas don’t sell good. Buyers afraid they’ll come down. The least ailment carries ’em off, and a good hidin’ lays ’em by fer a month. Course, fer myself, I don’t care; but buyers are slow to bid ’em in.’

‘I reckon you don’t want nothin’ but Mandingos and Fulahs,’ said Maxwell contemptuously.

‘Well, they’re good niggers, ‘specially Mandingos.’

Brownlee speeded up his examination of Preach, sensing Maxwell’s growing irritation, but his canvass was none the less minute.

‘Whut you want fer this one?’ asked Brownlee.

‘ ’Bout seven hundred, I reckon, more or less,’ Maxwell had reached the price part of the trade, which he enjoyed bickering about.

‘Cain’t give it and git out whole. How much fer the two of ’em?’

‘How much I ask you fer the yaller one? Six hundred twenty-five, weren’t it? And seven hundred fer this one. That’s, that’s, let’s see. I’m kind of slow cipherin’ in my head. Thirteen twenty-five, ain’t it? Make it twelve hundred and a half fer the span of ’em. Cheap enough.’

‘Cain’t cut ’er,’ parried the trader. ‘Make it, say, about——’

‘Ain’t no good. Twelve fifty’s my best price. Take ’em or quit ’em. It’s jest accommodation. I ain’t anxious to trade.’

Brownlee perceived a finality in Maxwell’s statement which the latter had not intended to put into it. Brownlee seemed about to retire.

‘Oh, make it even twelve hundred,’ Maxwell conceded.

‘They unsound,’ argued the dealer, running his hand over Emperor’s scar. ‘I’m sorry, but I jest cain’t git out at that price.’

‘Tell you whut!’ proposed Maxwell, as if the concept had just occurred to him. ‘S’pose you trade in them three young ‘uns of yourn out in the stable on these two bucks.’

‘Wouldn’t trade ’em in. Might trade even,’ parried the trader.

‘Let’s see ’em,’ Maxwell turned to Memnon, ‘You got the keys to ’em. Git ’em.’

While Agamemnon was gone on his errand, their master gave the two boys permission to go into a cabin and get warm. ‘Try Dido’s cabin. She got a good fire about this time; cookin’.’

‘You cain’t git shet of them little saplin’s in New Orleans,’ began Maxwell. ‘I reckon you know that and bought ’em up cheap. Keep ’em three, four, five year and they’ll be real sale-worthy.’

‘Whure’ll I keep ’em? Cain’t keep ’em cheap in New Orleans. I bought ’em to sell. Want to git my money and buy more niggers.’

‘Jest whut I mean. Trade ’em to me fer them two young bucks that are able to work and jest right fer the market. I’ll grow the young ’uns here whure feed is cheap and you kin come back and buy ’em offn me when they’re growed up and ripened. Course I aims to look ’em over before there’s a swap.’

There seemed to Brownlee to be no flaw in Maxwell’s argument. Memnon appeared from the direction of the stables, followed by the two boys. He led the small girl by the hand. Exhausted by their morning journey, they had been asleep and were now but half awake.

‘Shuck ’em down,’ ordered Maxwell.

Memnon peeled the garments from the two boys, and the girl, releasing the single button, pulled her dress off over her head.

Maxwell made no such detailed examination as Brownlee had made of the older boys. He delegated most of it to Memnon. The boys were of approximately the same age, both bronze mulattoes. Obviously not twins, they were similar in make and shape, well rounded but sturdy and hard of muscle, considering their youth. Maxwell remarked about their resemblance and Brownlee answered him, ‘Same pappy prob’bly. I bought ’em from the same breeder—hard up but wouldn’t sell his grown stock.’

Maxwell perfunctorily felt their thighs and calves, scrutinized the navel of one that he suspected of having a hernia, commanded Memnon to open the mouths that he might examine the teeth, and declared himself satisfied.

The girl was not pretty but she was animated and appealing. She enjoyed the attention given to her and responded instantly to any command. Maxwell appraised her quickly. Yellow, approximately quadroon, she had small bones, lightly fleshed. Her breasts were just beginning to swell but she was far short of nubility.

‘Well,’ Maxwell said, ‘how will we trade?’

‘Even—your two fer my three.’

‘No, I want a hundred dollars to boot.’

‘Even.’

‘Fifty.’

‘Cain’t do better than even. Them two bucks of yourn is unsoun’.’

‘I don’t run down your stock.’

‘Nothin’ to run down. All three sound as gold pieces.’

‘I never make a trade without boot. I’ll tell you whut I’ll do, I’ll match you—ten dollars or five.’

‘Hell, I’ll give five,’ conceded the trader.

‘Done!’ declared Maxwell, sustained in his resolution to obtain some hard cash in each transaction.

‘All’s to do now is to make out bills of sale.’

‘And plank down the money boot. But now she’s mine, I’ll tell you that wench ain’t soun’. She jest gant and peaked.’

‘She’s yourn to doctor up however you wantin’.’

‘Memnon, you take the pore little thing over to Dido. And put some dry rigging on them two boys of Mr. Brownlee’s and take ’em back to the stable.’ Turning to the trader, Maxwell asked, ‘Want them boys chained up—afraid they’ll run tonight? They’re yourn now. I wash my hands of ’em.’

‘Bring ’em back here afore you straw ’em down. I want to give ’em a talkin’ to. When I gits finished with ’em they won’t run,’ replied the new owner.

‘Bed these two little black bucks in the stall with the other saplings. Let ’em git acquainted. Feed ’em strong and give ’em plenty of clabber. Don’t worry about them running tonight; they too petered out to run tonight, and tomorrow they’ll know Falconhurst grub so good that you couldn’t chase ’em off.’

‘That all, Masta, suh?’

‘That’s enough. Fetch that Barbarossa and Emperor right here to their new master. I’ll go in to the fire. Gitting cold and raining yet.’ Maxwell rose and entered the house.

‘I’ll go with you,’ Brownlee said to Memnon. ‘I don’t want them two nekid bucks out in this rain.’

Agamemnon led the way to Dido’s cottage, followed by the three nude striplings, the trader bringing up the rear.

They found Preach and Emp sitting on the puncheon floor on either side of the fireplace over which big Dido was cooking dinner in a pot, a baby clinging to her breast. Four other children, dispersed about the small windowless single room of the cabin, gathered with back to wall to stare at the strange white man. The two nude boys roused to their feet and moved away from the fire to make way for their betters. Their faces were grim.

Brownlee addressed them: ‘I’m a-dickering with Mista Maxwell to buy you two boys.’

‘Yas, suh,’ they answered in unison.

‘How would you like to go with me—to be my niggers?’ he said with a kindly tone.

‘I likes it here. Masta’s good to me,’ said Emp, and Preach burst into fresh tears.

‘I’ll be good to you, too.’

‘You goin’ to take us to New Orleans and sell us fer cane han’s,’ protested Emperor.

‘Nonsense, no sich thing. If I gets you, you goin’ to be stock niggers. Of course we goes by way of New Orleans, whure I got to buy me some more hands; but I got a big plantation up in Kaintuck and I got eighteen or twenty wenches comin’ ripe that got to be serviced.’

Brownlee waited for his information to penetrate the hard skulls. He watched their spines stiffen, their heads lift, and animation suffuse their faces. ‘Reckon you kin do that kind of work for me?’

‘Sure kin,’ said Emp, and Preach echoed his words before he could get them both out of his mouth. They looked at each other, hardly able to credit their prospective good fortune.

‘I craves the both’n you,’ said Brownlee, ‘if I kin set the price right. We’ll know, come mornin’.’

He turned to leave the cabin. ‘They won’t run tonight. Don’t bother to chain ’em. Put dry clothes on ’em and bed ’em down as usual,’ he instructed Memnon.

Brownlee walked slowly from the quarters toward the house in the waning light. He chuckled to himself about the lie he had told those boys to fortify their willingness to go along with him. A Negro that changes ownership against his will is likely to give trouble to his new master. Brownlee conceived that his paltering with the boys would hasten their steps across country quite as much as the threat of the whip around their legs.

He entered the darkling house only to find his host huddled over the few embers in the fireplace, in a violent temper, reviling Agamemnon for permitting the fire to die.

Dark had well set in before Hammond came. He was tired but cheerful.

‘Evening, Papa,’ he said, bending to kiss the old man’s cheek. ‘Evenin’, Mr. Brownlee. Did Papa gold-brick you into buying them boys?’

‘Mighty nigh,’ answered the trader.

Maxwell sensed that his confession must be made. ‘Spittin’ out the right of the matter, it wasn’t a sale,’ he began.

‘No?’ inquired Hammond.

‘No, it was a sort of swop, so to speak—although I got boot,’ he hastened to add, and reiterated, ‘I got boot, by golly.’

‘Whut sort of swop?’ asked Hammond.

‘Well, Mista Brownlee had three little striplings when he rode up, a couple of young bucks nigh on to fifteen hands high, about, and a nice little yaller wench.’

‘I seen ’em chained up down in the stables. And you, I s’pose swopped the two big bucks fer ’em?’ The tone of the question betrayed vexation.

‘But I got boot, I got boot,’ protested the father. Brownlee abstained from argument.

‘How much boot?’

‘Only fi’ dollars—but boot is boot.’

Maxwell sensed Hammond’s displeasure and rubbed his arthritic knuckles as if to invite sympathy. His face clouded as if he were about to weep. ‘I thought I was makin’ a good trade. Mayhap I’m losin’ my grip, mayhap even my mind.’

‘No, now, Papa. You’re all right.’ Ham saw the distress his criticism had caused. He rose from his chair, shuffled across the room, gently grasped one of the distorted hands and soothed it with light friction. ‘No, no; you made a good trade. It’s jest that instead of gittin’ money out of two niggers, here you’ve gone and added another—and got no money.’

‘Fi’ dollars.’

‘Yes, five dollars. You jest cain’t lay eyes on a likely little nigger without havin’ it. Falconhurst is crawling with young niggers—two deep—nowheres to grow no cotton and no hands big enough to work it.’

‘As I always says, Falconhurst ain’t no cotton-growin’ plantation. Jest a nigger farm, a nigger nu’sery,’ the elder man justified himself.

‘Papa, if you want another little servant, you a-goin’ to have another little servant. Ain’t nobody goin’ to try to balk you, least of all me. You all are still the master of Falconhurst, Papa, and I’ll stack your gumption in a nigger trade up against what little I’ve learned from you, anytime.’ Hammond patted and relinquished the hand and returned to his chair. The older man felt good; the pain had miraculously gone. Hammond’s approval and the evidence of his affection were all the medication he required.

‘You in charge of Falconhurst now, Son. I don’t want to do nothin’ without’n your nod.’

Agamemnon threw open the door to the dining-room and sounded the supper bell. There was much sameness about the meals at Falconhurst, but there was always plenty of plain and filling food—chicken, pork, and hot bread.

‘Pitch right in and hit that fry, suh,’ Maxwell adjured his guest. ‘Don’t be backward. An’ make a long arm and reach some of that watermelon-rind pickles. Lucretia Borgia makes it right tasty-like.’

‘Don’t crowd the gen’leman, Papa. Don’t crowd him. Does seem like though that Mista Brownlee don’t eat nothin’ at all.’

Before he could answer, Brownlee was compelled to wash down his mouthful of food with coffee that had hardly cooled in his saucer. ‘Wonderful meal, gen’lemen!’ he gulped. ‘As good vittles as ever I et.’

Lucretia Borgia insinuated herself into the room with the excuse of bringing hot coffee to refill the emptying cups. She had wanted to get a look at Brownlee ever since she learned of his arrival. ‘That Memnon, he don’t step fas’ enough,’ she said by way of explanation. ‘He let ever’body run out of coffee. Triflin’, that’s whut.’

‘Sure is triflin’,’ assented the master. ‘Takes you jackin’ him behind and me in front to git any work out’n him.’

‘Lucretia Borgia is the only nigger on the plantation worth killin’,’ Hammond added. ‘Does more work than any three on ’em.’

The black eyes of Lucretia Borgia sparkled; her mouth grinned, displaying an expanse of powerful teeth; and her second chin bobbled in appreciation of the compliment. Approximately a quadroon, Lucretia Borgia, always addressed by her full name, was buxom and broad-beamed, rather than fat, as she appeared at a casual glance. She planted her large, bare feet on a broad base, swaying from side to side as she walked with a kind of majesty around the table. She was good-natured from the good treatment she received and the good food left from her master’s table. She chuckled her way into her master’s graces and had her will of the whole plantation.

‘She cook all these good vittles?’ inquired Brownlee.

‘She not only cook, but she boss the feedin’ of the hands, overlooks the spinnin’ and the loomin’ in the quarters, and up to comin’ three year ago brought a good sucker about every eighteen or twenty months. Shore a fas’ breeder. She the dam of these triflin’ twins,’ Maxwell piled praise upon praise. He knew how to inspire her to even greater efforts. ‘I guess she bred out, though she ain’t too old. Jest brung babies too fast and clean bred out.’

‘Naw, suh; naw, suh, Masta,’ Lucretia Borgia burbled her tidings. ‘I knocked up again.’

‘No? Well bless my soul,’ said Maxwell, in amazement. ‘Have you got a silver dollar, Ham? Give it to Lucretia Borgia. How that come about?’

‘I don’t know, suh; but I is.’

‘Here’s your dollar,’ said Ham. ‘And when that baby come there’ll be another dollar, two dollars if it twins agin.’ Lucretia Borgia curtsied coyly as she took the coin from his hand and expressed elaborate thanks.

‘So that Napoleon boy I give you had a nigger in him after all? A long time comin’ out,’ commented Maxwell.

‘I reckons I didn’t git it from ’Poleon. That squirt no good. This baby is Memnon’s, I figures. Masta Ham tole me to try Memnon agin, and I been pesterin’ with him fer about a month.’

‘By golly, it might be twins, if it Memnon’s. He was a twin his own se’f and he is the twin-gittin’est nigger I ever had.’

Memnon grinned to hear himself discussed so favourably. But his grin faded as his owner continued.

‘I’d send the lazy son-of-a-bitch to market if he warn’t such a sure stock boy. All he good fer is to pester the wenches. Cain’t even keep a fire goin’, and his toddies is always cold agin he gits ’em to you.’

‘I didn’t know Memnon was running down again, Papa. Whyn’t you tell me? Jawin’ him don’t do no good. I reckon I’d better call him out to the stable, when I gits time. A good patch of hide offn his rump with a good rubbing down with pimentade will spry him up,’ volunteered Ham.

‘Pimentade?’ inquired Brownlee. ‘Whut’s pimentade?’

Ham explained. ‘Hide tore offn a nigger, rub it over with pimentade and skin will grow right back without a mark. It sovereign fer skinning. You mix it out of salt, cayenne, and lemon juice. Course, it stings. The niggers dread the rubbin’ more than the hidin’, but it sho’ straighten ’em out.’

‘Salt, cayenne pepper, and lemon?’ Brownlee made a mental note. ‘Sounds convenient. Have to try it.’

Ham pushed back his chair and the party rose to return to the sitting-room. Ham said, ‘Mayhap, and you don’t feel yourself pushed in the mornin’ to git away, I’ll find the time to brush this boy down and you kin watch his squirm and wiggle and hear him holler when the pimentade goes on him. It’s sovereign. Seems peculiar you never heared about it. The idy come from Domingo. Them Frenchies are smart, that way.’

‘Don’t aim to git goin’ too early. I’ll kindly wait if you goin’ to correct the boy anyway; wouldn’t want you to take the trouble jest fer me to see. I sees lots of niggers larruped, but I always admires to see it. It’s kind of comical-like—that is if it has to be done anyways. One kin always learn something.’

Maxwell took a more moderate view. ‘We don’t flog much on Falconhurst. Only two cases all last year that I recollect—both fer stealin’. But when we flogs we flogs good—we lays it on well.’

‘Only way,’ declared Brownlee.

‘Only way, suh. Course, we don’t use a snake to nip hunks out of the meat and ruin a nigger. No, suh. I had me made a couple of paddles, a big one and a littler one fer saplin’s and wenches, made out of sole leather with holes drilled through ’em. Hang ’em up, jest by the ankles, never by the toes ’lessen you twist ’em, with the legs spread wide as you kin spread ’em, and a rag stuffed in they mouth. Give that big paddle to a strong young buck and tell him to go to work. Why, you git the skin offn a nigger’s rump in no time at all, and finish up with a good dosin’ of this here pimentade, as Ham was tellin’ you. Then go away and let the nigger hang and smart fer an hour or two, you got a good servant, a good servant, suh, from then on. Yes, suh, no nigger don’t want a second dose like it.’

‘I’ve hearn of them holed paddles. Never saw none. Yes, suh, it must be right purty to watch.’

‘No, not so purty—unless your taste run that way. Ham and me, we don’t enjoy floggin’s, and don’t have more than we kin help. Course, goin’ to keep niggers, you got to take the hide offn one, oncet in awhile. Especially house niggers. You’re good to ’em, feeds ’em up on the kind of vittles you eats your own self, breeds ’em to your likeliest wenches, and they gits slack, gits triflin’. They don’t mean no harm, but they’s nothing more aggravatin’ than a slack house nigger, nothin’.’

‘They takes advantage,’ interpolated Brownlee, who never had possessed a servant in his own house.

‘Sure do, and has to have it corrected out of ’em. Take this Memnon boy, here, a good buck but lazy, lazy as they come. Spiled, spiled. I reckon you right, Ham. Reckon you better pull a piece of hide offn him, sometime when you got an extra hour or two, no hurry about it. I kin spare him any time you likes.’

‘All right, Papa; I’ll take care of him, tomorrow or next day. Lucretia Borgia kin mix toddy and fire up fer you while he’s hanging up to dry, cain’t you, Lucretia Borgia?’

‘Sho’ kin. Sho’ kin.’ Lucretia Borgia enjoyed carnage.

‘Maybe it might be a good idea to have Lucretia Borgia spank Mem ever’ morning when she spanks the twins, that is after I gits through with him,’ declared Ham.

‘Ever’ morning?’ inquired Brownlee.

‘Yas, suh, ever’ morning I soften up they bottoms some fer the devilishness they do yestiday. Cain’t keep track of what the devilishness is, but I know they does it. Yas, suh. That way, with a little warmin’ every day, they won’t grow up and use up Masta Ham’s time a-skinnin’ ’em down every month or so. I aims that Alph and Meg to be spry niggers, fitten fer Masta to keep right in the house to wait on him good.’

‘I done told you, Lucretia Borgia, I don’t know how many times, that I won’t never whup them boys without’n your leave. Un’erstan’? I promise you,’ declared Hammond.

‘Whup ’em whenever you feels like, Masta Ham,’ Lucretia Borgia answered. ‘But jest don’ sell ’em. Don’t sell ’em unlessen you gits a great big price fer ’em, please Masta.’

‘No, I won’t never sell ’em either. Papa and me wants ’em fer ourselves. Don’t we, Papa?’

‘You done sold so many of my children right out from under me.’

‘Well, they was mine, wasn’t they?’ Maxwell bridled.

‘Yas, suh, Masta. They’s yours.’

‘And I got good homes for ’em, ever’one of ’em.’

‘Naw, suh, Masta. I ain’t moanin’ ’bout whure they went. I knows they gittin’ good Christian raisin’ up. But——’

‘But whut? Lucretia Borgia, you outgrowin’ your pants—tellin’ me whut to do with my own little niggers. Remember I bought them children from you, paid you a silver dollar fer ever’ damned one of ’em and two dollars fer them twins, and I’ll do with ’em whut I damn please.’

‘Papa, Papa, don’t git yourself all riled. It ain’t good fer your rheumatiz,’ Hammond admonished.

Maxwell turned as quickly as his rheumatism would permit and stumped vexedly into the sitting-room. Brownlee followed. Hammond remained in the dining-room. He was disturbed at the turn the conversation had taken, thought the arousal of Lucretia Borgia’s apprehensions about her beloved and badgered sons just a little gratuitous, debited his father’s unnecessary testiness if not to age at least to rheumatic pain. It was unlike his father to bully the Negroes.

Hammond at length followed Lucretia Borgia across the open passageway and into the cheerful hot kitchen where the twins were gourmandizing on the left-overs from the main table and where he found Lucretia Borgia in unwonted tears. At his show of surprised compassion, she heaved from her bench, threw her heavy arms about his neck, and wept herself dry while Ham supported her vast bulk of hot flesh.

It required only a little compassion with the merest trace of diplomacy, which was all Hammond possessed, to turn Lucretia Borgia’s misery to the happiness which was her birthright. Her health, her indomitable vigour, and her status in the plantation hierarchy, first as a cook and then as a breeder of amber twins, conspired together to provoke such gusto. Ham, without quite understanding his purpose, merely steadied Lucretia Borgia’s tottering pedestal. He comforted her until the fountainhead of her tears was dry, after which he joked with her.

Ham’s jokes lost nothing by their lewdness nor their lack of euphemism. They concerned Memnon’s supplanting, or rather supplementing, Napoleon, the yellow youth whom Lucretia Borgia had chosen as her paramour, the comparison of their anatomies, and the circumstances of the woman’s pregnancy.

The twins listened in silence, only half-comprehending at all why it should provoke such laughter from their mother and smiles from their master. They kept their eyes fixed on the single battered platter from which both ate with their fingers, lifting and rolling them now and again in the embarrassment of their failure to understand some of the terms their elders were using. There was no shame at what they understood, for they had listened to stark talk and overt bawdiness at the table of their masters, who would have thought it absurd to modify their conversations to protect so impersonal a commodity as the innocence of a couple of young slaves.