Tempest and Sunshine | Page 6

window and afterward given it to Aunt
Judy to start the oven with!
This story was told, however, by Julia, with many embellishments, for
she delighted in making Fanny appear ridiculous. She was going on
swimmingly when she received a drawback from her mother, who said:
"Julia, what do you want to talk so for? You know that while Fanny
studied Latin, Mr. Miller said she learned her lessons more readily than
you did and recited them better, and he said, too, that she was quite as
good a French scholar as you."
Julia curled her lip scornfully and said, "she didn't know what her
mother knew about Fanny's scholarship." Meantime Fanny was
blushing deeply and thinking that she had appeared to great
disadvantage in Mr. Wilmot's eyes; but he very kindly changed the
conversation by asking who Mr. Miller was, and was told that he was a
young man from Albany, New York, who taught in their neighborhood
the winter before.
The appearance of some nice red apples just then turned the attention of
the little company in another channel and before they were aware of it
the clock struck ten. Mr. Middleton had not returned and as it was
doubtful whether he came at all that night, Julia went into the kitchen
for Luce, to show Mr. Wilmot to his room. She was gone some time,
and when she returned was accompanied by a bright-looking mulatto
girl, who, as soon as she had conducted Mr. Wilmot into his room,
commenced making excuses about "marster's old house! Things was

drefful all round it, but 'twasn't Miss Julia's fault, for if she could have
her way 'twould be fixed up, sartin. She was a born'd lady, anybody
could see; so different from Miss Fanny, who cared nothing how things
looked if she could go into the kitchen and turn hoe cakes for Aunt
Judy, or tend the baby!"
By this time Luce had arranged the room all it wanted arranging, and as
Mr. Wilmot had no further need of her services, she left him to think of
what she had said. He did not know that the bright red ribbon, which
appeared on Luce's neck next morning, was the gift of Julia, who had
bribed her to say what she did to him. Julia knew that she had made a
favorable impression on Mr. Wilmot by making him think meanly of
Fanny.
What Luce said had its effect upon him, too. He was accustomed to the
refinements of the North and he could not help respecting a young lady
more who showed a taste for neatness. That night he dreamed that a
bright pair of dark eves were looking at him from each pane of shingle
in the window, and that a golden-haired fairy was dancing the Polka in
Aunt Judy's hoe cake batter.
CHAPTER II
GETTING UP A SUBSCRIPTION SCHOOL
Next morning before daybreak Mr. Wilmot was aroused from a sound
slumber by what he thought was the worst noise he had ever heard. He
instantly concluded that the house was on fire, and springing up,
endeavored to find his clothes, but in the deep darkness of the room
such a thing was impossible; so he waited a while and tried to find out
what the noise could be.
At last it assumed something of a definite form, and he found it was the
voice of a man calling out in thunder-like tones, "Ho, Jebediah! Come
out with ye! Do you hear? Are you coming?"
Then followed a long catalogue of names, such as Sam, Joe, Jack, Jim,
Ike, Jerry, Nehemiah, Ezariah, Judy, Tilda, Martha, Rachel, Luce and

Phema, and at the end of each name was the same list of questions
which had preceded that of Jebediah; and ever from the negro quarters
came the same response, "Yes, marster, comin'."
By this time all the hens, geese, turkeys and dogs were wide awake and
joining their voices in the chorus, made the night, or rather the morning,
hideous with their outcries. At last the noise subsided. Silence settled
around the house and Wilmot tried to compose himself to sleep. When
he again awoke the sun was shining brightly into his room. He arose
and dressed himself, but felt in no hurry to see "his host," who had
come home, he was sure, and had given such tremendous
demonstrations of the strength of his lungs.
Mr. Wilmot finally descended to the sitting room, where the first object
which presented itself was a man who was certainly six and a half feet
high, and large in proportion. His face was dark and its natural color
was increased by a beard of at least four weeks' growth! He had on his
head an old slouched hat, from under which a few gray locks