Among the Pines Part 24

"He's a renegade Yankee--the meanest thing on earth."

I said no more, but entered into the services as seriously as the strange gymnastic performances of the preacher would allow of my doing; for he was quite as amusing as a circus clown.

With the exception of the Colonel's, and a few other pews in the vicinity of the pulpit, all of the seats were mere rough benches, without backs, and placed so closely together as to interfere uncomfortably with the knees of the sitters. The house was full, and the congregation as attentive as any I ever saw. All cla.s.ses were there; the black serving-man away off by the doorway, the poor white a little higher up, the small turpentine-farmer a little higher still, and the wealthy planter, of the cla.s.s to which the Colonel belonged, on "the highest seats of the synagogue," and in close proximity to the preacher.

The "man of prayer" was a tall, lean, raw-boned, angular-built individual, with a thin, sharp, hatchet-face, a small sunken eye, and long, loose hair, brushed back and falling over the collar of a seedy black coat. He looked like a dilapidated scare-crow, and his pale, sallow face, and cracked, wheezy voice, were in odd and comic keeping with his discourse. His text was: "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." And addressing the motley gathering of poor whites and small planters before him as the "chosen people of G.o.d," he urged them to press on in the mad course their state had taken. It was a political harangue, a genuine stump-speech, but its frequent allusions to the auditory as the legitimate children of the old patriarch, and the rightful heirs of all the promises, struck me as out of place in a rural district of South Carolina, however appropriate it might have been in one of the large towns, before an audience of merchants and traders, who are, almost to a man, Jews.

The services over, the congregation slowly left the church. Gathered in groups in front of the "meeting-house," they were engaged in a general discussion of the affairs of the day, when the Colonel and I emerged from the doorway. The better cla.s.s greeted my host with considerable cordiality, but I noticed that the well-to-do small planters, who composed the greater part of the a.s.semblage, received him with decided coolness. These people were the "North County folks," on whom the overseer had invoked a hanging. Except that their clothing was more uncouth and ill-fas.h.i.+oned, and their faces generally less "cute" of expression, they did not materially differ in appearance from the rustic citizens who may be seen on any pleasant Sunday gathered around the doorways of the rural meeting-houses of New England.

One of them, who was leaning against a tree, quietly lighting a pipe, was a fair type of the whole, and as he took a part in the scene which followed, I will describe him. He was tall and spare, with a swinging, awkward gait, and a wiry, athletic frame. His hair, which he wore almost as long as a woman's, was coa.r.s.e and black, and his face strongly marked, and of the precise color of two small rivulets of tobacco-juice that escaped from the corners of his mouth. He had an easy, self-possessed manner, and a careless, devil-may-care way about him, that showed he had measured his powers, and was accustomed to "rough it"

with the world. He wore a broadcloth coat of the fas.h.i.+on of some years ago, but his waistcoat and nether garments of the common, reddish homespun, were loose and ill-shaped, as if their owner did not waste thought on such trifles. His hat, as shockingly bad as Horace Greeley's, had the inevitable broad brim, and fell over his face like a calash-awning over a shop-window. As I approached him he extended his hand with a pleasant "How are ye, stranger?"

"Very well," I replied, returning his grasp with equal warmth, "how are you?"

"Right smart, right smart, thank ye. You're----" the rest of the sentence was cut short by a gleeful exclamation from Jim, who, mounted on the box of the carriage, which was drawn up on the cleared plot in front of the meeting-house, waved an open newspaper over his head, and called out, as he caught sight of the Colonel:

"Great news, ma.s.sa--great news from Charls'on!"

(The darky, while we were in church, had gone to the post-office, some four miles away, and got the Colonel's mail, which consisted of letters from his New York and Charleston factors, the Charleston _Courier_ and _Mercury_ and the New York _Journal of Commerce_. The latter sheet, at the date of which I am writing, was in wide circulation at the South, its piety (!) and its politics being then calculated with mathematical precision for secession lat.i.tudes.)

"What is it, Jim?" shouted his master. "Give it to us."

The darky had somehow learned to read, but holding the paper at arm's length, and throwing himself into a theatrical att.i.tude, he cried out, with any amount of gesticulation:

"De news am, ma.s.sa, and gemmen and ladies, dat de ole fort fore Charls'on hab ben devacuated by Major Andersin and de sogers, and dey hab stole 'way in de dark night and gone to Sumter, whar dey can't be took; and dat de ole Gubner hab got out a procdemation dat all dat don't lub de Aberlishen Yankees s.h.i.+ll c.u.m up dar and clar 'em out; and de paper say dat lots ob sogers hab c.u.m from Georgi and Al'bama, and 'way down Souf, to help 'em. Dis am w'at de _Currer_ say," he continued, holding the paper up to his eyes and reading: "Major Andersin, ob de United States army hab 'chieved de 'stinction ob op'ning cibil war 'tween American citizens; he hab desarted Moulfrie, and by false fretexts hab took dat ole Garrison and all his millinery stores to Fort Sumter."

"Get down, you d----d n.i.g.g.e.r," said the Colonel, laughing, and mounting the carriage-box beside him. "You can't read. Old Garrison isn't there--he's the d----d Northern Abolitionist."

"I knows dat, Cunnel, but see dar," replied Jim, holding the paper out to his master, "don't dat say he'm dar? It'm him dat make all de trubble. P'raps dis nig can't read, but ef dat aint readin' I'd like to know it!"

"Clear out," said the Colonel, now actually roaring with laughter; "it's the garrison of soldiers that the _Courier_ speaks of, not the Abolitionist."

"Read it yoursef, den, ma.s.sa, I don't seed it dat way."

Jim was altogether wiser than he appeared, but while equally as well pleased with the news as his master, he was so for an entirely different reason. In the crisis which these tidings announced, he saw hope for his race.

The Colonel then read the paper to the a.s.semblage. The news was received with a variety of manifestations by the auditory, the larger portion, I thought, hearing it, as I did, with sincere regret.

"Now is the time to stand by the state, my friends," said my host, as he finished the reading. "I hope every man here is ready to do his duty by old South Carolina."

"Yes, _sar_! if she does _har_ duty by the Union. We'll go to the death for har just so long as she's in the right, but not a d----d step if she arn't," said the long-legged native I have introduced to the reader.

"And what have _you_ to say about South Carolina? What does she owe to _you_?" asked the Colonel, turning on the speaker with a proud and angry look.

"More, a darned sight, than she'll pay, if ye cursed 'ristocrats run her to h---- as ye'r doin'. She owes me, and 'bout ten as likely n.i.g.g.e.rs as ye ever seed, a living, and we've d----d hard work to get it out on her _now_, let alone what's comin'."

"Don't talk to me, you ill-mannered cur," said my host, turning his back on his neighbor, and directing his attention to the remainder of the a.s.semblage.

"Look har, Cunnel," replied the native, "if ye'll jest come down from thar, and throw 'way yer shootin'-irons, I'll give ye the all-firedest thras.h.i.+ng ye ever did get."

The Colonel gave no further heed to him, but the speaker mounted the steps of the meeting-house and harangued the natives in a strain of rude and pa.s.sionate declamation, in which my host, the aristocrats, and the secessionists came in for about equal shares of abuse. Seeing that the native (who, it appeared, was quite popular as a stump-speaker) was drawing away his audience, the Colonel descended from the driver's seat, and motioning for me to follow, entered the carriage. Turning the horses homeward, we rode off at a brisk pace.

"Not much secession about that fellow, Colonel," I remarked, after a while.

"No," he replied, "he's a North Carolina 'corn-cracker,' one of the ugliest specimens of humanity extant. They're as thick as fleas in this part of the state, and about all of them are traitors."

"Traitors to the state, but true to the Union. As far as I've seen, that is the case with the middling cla.s.s throughout the South." "Well, it may be, but they generally go with us, and I reckon they will now, when it comes to the rub. Those in the towns--the traders and mechanics--will, certain; its only these half-way independent planters that ever kick the traces. By the way," continued my host, in a jocose way, "what did you think of the preaching?"

"I thought it very poor. I'd rather have heard the stump-speech, had it not been a little too personal on you."

"Well, it was the better of the two," he replied, laughing, "but the old devil can't afford any thing good, he don't get enough pay."

"Why, how much does he get?"

"Only a hundred dollars."

"That _is_ small. How does the man live?"

"Well, he teaches the daughter of my neighbor, Captain Randall, who believes in praying, and gives him his board. Randall thinks that enough. The rest of the parish can't afford to pay him, and I _wont_."

"Why wont you?"

"Because he's a d----d old hypocrite. He believes in the Union with all his heart--at least so Randall, who's a sincere Union man, says--and yet, he never sees me at meeting but he preaches a red-hot secession sermon."

"He wants to keep you in the faith," I replied.

A few more miles of sandy road took us to the mansion, where we found dinner in waiting. Meeting "Ma.s.sa Tommy"--who had staid at home with his mother--as we entered the doorway, the Colonel asked after the overseer.

"He seems well enough, sir; I believe he's coming the possum over mother."

"I'll bet on it, Tommy; but he wont fool you and me, will he, my boy?"

said his father, slapping him affectionately on the back.

After dinner I went, with my host to the room of the wounded man. His head was still bound up, and he was groaning piteously, as if in great pain; but I thought there was too fresh a color in his face to be entirely natural in one who had lost so much blood, and been so severely wounded as he affected to have been.

The Colonel mentioned our suspicions to Madam P----, and suggested that the shackles should be put on him.

"Oh! no, don't do that; it would be inhuman," said the lady; "the color is the effect of fever. If you fear he is plotting to get away, let him be watched."

The Colonel consented, but with evident reluctance, to the arrangement, and retired to his room to take a _siesta_, while I lit a segar, and strolled out to the negro quarters.

Making my way through the woods to the scene of the morning's jollification, I found about a hundred darkies gathered around Jim, on the little plot in front of old Lucy's cabin. He had evidently been giving them the news. Pausing when I came near, he exclaimed:

"Har's Ma.s.sa K----, he'll say dat I tells you de trufh;" and turning to me, he said: "Ma.s.sa K----, dese darkies say dat Ma.s.sa Andersin am an ab'lisherner, and dat none but de ab'lisherners will fight for de Union; am dat so, sar?"

"No, I reckon not, Jim; I think the whole North would fight for it if it were necessary."

"Am dat so, ma.s.sa? am dat so?" eagerly inquired a dozen of the darkies; "and am dar great many folks at de Norf--more dan dar am down har?"