The Battle Ground | Page 3

Part no mo', Whar we'll part no mo'; Gawd A'moughty bless you twel we Me--et a--gin."
"Twel we meet agin," chirped the little girls, tripping into the chorus.
Then, with a last rumble, the wagon went by, and Zeke came trotting back and straddled the stone wall, where he sat looking down upon the loose poppies that fringed the yellowed edge of the wheat.
"Dey's gwine way-way f'om hyer, Marse Champe," he said dreamily. "Dey's gwine right spang over dar whar de sun done come f'om."
"Colonel Minor bought 'em," Champe explained, sliding from the wall, "and he bought Dolly dirt cheap--I heard Uncle say so--" With a grin he looked up at the small black figure perched upon the crumbling stones. "You'd better look out how you steal any more of my fishing lines, or I'll sell you," he threatened.
"Gawd er live! I ain' stole one on 'em sence las' mont'," protested Zeke, as he turned a somersault into the road, "en dat warn' stealin' 'case hit warn' wu'th it," he added, rising to his feet and staring wistfully after the wagon as it vanished in a sunny cloud of dust.
Over the broad meadows, filled with scattered wild flowers, the sound of the chant still floated, with a shrill and troubled sweetness, upon the wind. As he listened the little negro broke into a jubilant refrain, beating his naked feet in the dust:--
"Gawd A'moughty bless you twel we Me--et a--gin."
Then he looked slyly up at his young master.
"I 'low dar's one thing you cyarn do, Marse Champe."
"I bet there isn't," retorted Champe.
"You kin sell me ter Marse Minor--but Lawd, Lawd, you cyarn mek mammy leave off whuppin' me. You cyarn do dat widout you 'uz a real ole marster hese'f."
"I reckon I can," said Champe, indignantly. "I'd just like to see her lay hands on you again. I can make mammy leave off whipping him, can't I, Betty?"
But Betty, with a toss of her head, took her revenge.
"'Tain't so long since yo' mammy whipped you," she rejoined. "An' I reckon 'tain't so long since you needed it."
As she stood there, a spirited little figure, in a patch of faint sunshine, her hair threw a halo of red gold about her head. When she smiled--and she smiled now, saucily enough--her eyes had a trick of narrowing until they became mere beams of light between her lashes. Her eyes would smile, though her lips were as prim as a preacher's.
Virginia gave a timid pull at Betty's frock. "Champe's goin' home with us," she said, "his uncle told him to--You're goin' home with us, ain't you, Champe?"
"I ain't goin' home," responded Betty, jerking from Virginia's grasp. She stood warm yet resolute in the middle of the road, her bonnet swinging in her hands. "I ain't goin' home," she repeated.
Turning his back squarely upon her, Champe broke into a whistle of unconcern. "You'd just better come along," he called over his shoulder as he started off. "You'd just better come along, or you'll catch it."
"I ain't comin'," answered Betty, defiantly, and as they passed away kicking the dust before them, she swung her bonnet hard, and spoke aloud to herself. "I ain't comin'," she said stubbornly.
The distance lengthened; the three small figures passed the wheat field, stopped for an instant to gather green apples that had fallen from a stray apple tree, and at last slowly dwindled into the white streak of the road. She was alone on the deserted turnpike.
For a moment she hesitated, caught her breath, and even took three steps on the homeward way; then turning suddenly she ran rapidly in the opposite direction. Over the deepening shadows she sped as lightly as a hare.
At the end of a half mile, when her breath came in little pants, she stopped with a nervous start and looked about her. The loneliness seemed drawing closer like a mist, and the cry of a whip-poor-will from the little stream in the meadow sent frightened thrills, like needles, through her limbs.
Straight ahead the sun was setting in a pale red west, against which the mountains stood out as if sculptured in stone. On one side swept the pasture where a few sheep browsed; on the other, at the place where two roads met, there was a blasted tree that threw its naked shadow across the turnpike. Beyond the tree and its shadow a well-worn foot-path led to a small log cabin from which a streak of smoke was rising. Through the open door the single room within showed ruddy with the blaze of resinous pine.
The little girl daintily picked her way along the foot-path and through a short garden patch planted in onions and black-eyed peas. Beside a bed of sweet sage she faltered an instant and hung back. "Aunt Ailsey," she called tremulously, "I want to speak