George Washingtons Last Duel | Page 4

tell you?" Then he said briefly:
"Yes, 'm."
"What is its extent? How many acres are there in it?"
George Washington positively started. He took in several of the family in his glance of warning.
"Well, I declare, marm, I don't know," he began; then it occurring to him that the honor of the family was somehow at stake and must be upheld, he added, "A leetle mo' 'n a hundred thousan', marm." His exactness was convincing. Miss Jemima threw up her hands:
"Prodigious! How many nee---- how many persons of the African blood are there on this vast domain?" she inquired, getting nearer to her point.
George, observing how much she was impressed, eyed her with rising disdain:
"Does you mean niggers, m'm? 'Bout three thousan', mum."
Another exclamation of astonishment burst from the old lady's lips.
"If you will permit me to inquire, Uncle George, how old are you?"
"She warn see if I kin wuck--dat's what she's after," said George to himself, with a confidential look at a young gentleman in a hunting dress on the wall between two windows. Then he said:
"Well, I declare, mum, you got me dyah. I ixpec' I is mos ninety years ole, I reckon I'se ol'er 'n you is--I reckon I is."
"Oh!" exclaimed Miss Jemima with a little start as if she had pricked her finger with a needle.
"Marse Nat kin tell you," continued George; "if you don't know how ole you is, all you got to do is to ax him, an' he kin tell you--he got it all set down in a book--he kin tell how ole you is to a day."
"Dear, how frightful!" exclaimed Miss Jemima, just as the Major entered somewhat hastily.
"He's a gone coon," said George Washington through the crack of the door to the old gentleman in ruffles, as he pulled the door slowly to from the outside.
The Major had left the young people in the dining-room and had come to get a book to settle a disputed quotation. He had found the work and was trying to read it without the ignominy of putting on his glasses, when Miss Jemima accosted him.
"Major, your valet appears to be a very intelligent person."
The Major turned upon her.
"My 'valet'! Madam! I have no valet!"
"I mean your body servant, your butler"--explained Miss Jemima. "I have been much impressed by him."
"George!--George Washington?--you mean George Washington! No, madam, he has not a particle of intelligence.--He is grossly and densely stupid. I have never in fifty years been able to get an idea into his head."
"Oh, dear! and I thought him so clever! I was wondering how so intelligent a person, so well informed, could be a slave."
The Major faced about.
"George! George Washington a slave! Madam, you misapprehend the situation. He is no slave. I am the slave, not only of him but of three hundred more as arrogant and exacting as the Czar, and as lazy as the devil!"
Miss Jemima threw up her hands in astonishment, and the Major, who was on a favorite theme, proceeded:
"Why, madam, the very coat on my back belongs to that rascal George Washington, and I do not know when he may take a fancy to order me out of it. My soul is not my own. He drinks my whiskey, steals my tobacco, and takes my clothes before my face. As likely as not he will have on this very waistcoat before the week is out."
The Major stroked his well-filled velvet vest caressingly, as if he already felt the pangs of the approaching separation.
"Oh, dear! You amaze me," began Miss Jemima.
"Yes, madam, I should be amazed myself, except that I have stood it so long. Why, I had once an affair with an intimate and valued friend, Judge Carrington. You may have heard of him, a very distinguished man! and I was indiscreet enough to carry that rascal George Washington to the field, thinking, of course, that I ought to go like a gentleman, and although the affair was arranged after we had taken our positions, and I did not have the pleasure of shooting at him.
"Good heavens!" exclaimed Miss Jemima. "The pleasure of shooting at your friend! Monstrous!"
"I say I did not have that pleasure," corrected the Major, blandly; "the affair was, as I stated, arranged without a shot; yet do you know? that rascal George Washington will not allow that it was so, and I understand he recounts with the most harrowing details the manner in which 'he and I,' as he terms it, shot my friend--murdered him."
Miss Jemima gave an "Ugh. Horrible! What depravity!" she said, almost under her breath.
The Major caught the words.
"Yes, madam, it is horrible to think of such depravity. Unquestionably he deserves death; but what can one do! The law, kept feeble by politicians, does not permit one to kill them, however worthless they are (he observed