VINEY'S FREE PAPERS
Part I
There was joy in the bosom of Ben Raymond. He sang as he hoed in the field. He cheerfully worked overtime and his labors did not make him tired. When the quitting horn blew he executed a double shuffle as he shouldered his hoe and started for his cabin. While the other men dragged wearily over the ground he sprang along as if all day long he had not been bending over the hoe in the hot sun, with the sweat streaming from his face in rivulets.
And this had been going on for two months now—two happy months—ever since Viney had laid her hand in his, had answered with a coquettish "Yes," and the master had given his consent, his blessing and a five-dollar bill.
It had been a long and trying courtship—that is, it had been trying for Ben, because Viney loved pleasure and hungered for attention and the field was full of rivals. She was a merry girl and a pretty one. No one could dance better; no girl on the place was better able to dress her dark charms to advantage or to show them off more temptingly. The toss of her head was an invitation and a challenge in one, and the way she smiled back at them over her shoulder, set the young men's heads dancing and their hearts throbbing. So her suitors were many. But through it all Ben was patient, unflinching and faithful, and finally, after leading him a life full of doubt and suspense, the coquette surrendered and gave herself into his keeping.
She was maid to her mistress, but she had time, nevertheless, to take care of the newly whitewashed cabin in the quarters to which Ben took her. And it was very pleasant to lean over and watch him at work making things for the little house—a chair from a barrel and a wonderful box of shelves to stand in the corner. And she knew how to say merry things, and later outside his door Ben would pick his banjo and sing low and sweetly in the musical voice of his race. Altogether such another honeymoon there had never been.
For once the old women hushed up their prophecies of evil, although in the beginning they had shaken their wise old turbaned heads and predicted that marriage with such a flighty creature as Viney could come to no good. They had said among themselves that Ben would better marry some good, solid-minded, strong-armed girl who would think more about work than about pleasures and coquetting.
"I 'low, honey," an old woman had said, "she'll mek his heart ache many a time. She'll comb his haid wid a three-legged stool an' bresh it wid de broom. Uh, huh—putty, is she? You ma'y huh 'cause she putty. Ki-yi! She fix you! Putty women fu' putty tricks."
And the old hag smacked her lips over the spice of malevolence in her words. Some women—and they are not all black and ugly—never forgive the world for letting them grow old.
But, in spite of all prophecies to the contrary, two months of unalloyed joy had passed for Ben and Viney, and to-night the climax seemed to have been reached. Ben hurried along, talking to himself as his hoe swung over his shoulder.
"Kin I do it?" he was saying. "Kin I do it?" Then he would stop his walk and his cogitations would bloom into a mirthful chuckle. Something very pleasant was passing through his mind.
As he approached, Viney was standing in the door of the little cabin, whose white sides with green Madeira clambering over them made a pretty frame for the dark girl in her print dress. The husband bent double at sight of her, stopped, took off his hat, slapped his knee, and relieved his feelings by a sounding "Who-ee!"
"What's de mattah wid you, Ben? You ac' lak you mighty happy. Bettah come on in hyeah an' git yo' suppah fo' hit gits col'."
For answer, the big fellow dropped the hoe and, seizing the slight form in his arms, swung her around until she gasped for breath.
"Oh, Ben," she shrieked, "you done tuk all my win'!"
"Dah, now," he said, letting her down; "dat's what you gits fu' talkin' sassy to me!"
"Nev' min'; I'm goin' to fix you fu' dat fus' time I gits de chanst—see ef I don't."
"Whut you gwine do? Gwine to pizen me?"
"Worse'n dat!"
"Wuss'n dat? Whut you gwine fin' any wuss'n pizenin' me, less'n you conjuh me?"
"Huh uh—still worse'n dat. I'm goin' to leave you."
"Huh uh—no you ain', 'cause any place you'd go you wouldn' no more'n git dah twell you'd tu'n erroun' all of er sudden an' say, 'Why, dah's Ben!' an' dah I'd be."
They chattered on like children while she was putting the supper on the table and he was laving his hot face in the basin beside the door.
"I got great news fu' you," he said, as they sat down.
"I bet you ain' got nothin' of de kin'."
"All right. Den dey ain' no use in me a tryin' to 'vince you. I jes' be wastin' my bref."
"Go on—tell me, Ben."
"Huh uh—you bet I ain', an' ef I tell you you lose de bet."
"I don' keer. Ef you don' tell me, den I know you ain' got no news worth tellin'."
"Ain' go no news wuff tellin'! Who-ee!"
He came near choking on a gulp of coffee, and again his knee suffered from the pounding of his great hands.
"Huccume you so full of laugh to-night?" she asked, laughing with him.
"How you 'spec' I gwine tell you dat less'n I tell you my sec'ut?"
"Well, den, go on—tell me yo' sec'ut."
"Huh uh. You done bet it ain' wuff tellin'."
"I don't keer what I bet. I wan' to hyeah it now. Please, Ben, please!"
"Listen how she baig! Well, I gwine tell you now. I ain' gwine tease you no mo'."
She bent her head forward expectantly.
"I had a talk wid Mas' Raymond to-day," resumed Ben.
"Yes?"
"An' he say he pay me all my back money fu' ovahtime."
"Oh!"
"An' all I gits right along he gwine he'p me save, an' when I git fo' hund'ed dollahs he gwine gin me de free papahs fu' you, my little gal."
"Oh, Ben, Ben! Hit ain' so, is it?"
"Yes, hit is. Den you'll be you own ooman—leas'ways less'n you wants to be mine."
She went and put her arms around his neck. Her eyes were sparkling and her lips quivering.
"You don' mean, Ben, dat I'll be free?"
"Yes, you'll be free, Viney. Den I's gwine to set to wo'k an' buy my free papahs."
"Oh, kin you do it—kin you do it—kin you do it?"
"Kin I do it?" he repeated. He stretched out his arm, with the sleeve rolled to the shoulder, and curved it upward till the muscles stood out like great knots of oak. Then he opened and shut his fingers, squeezing them together until the joints cracked. "Kin I do it?" He looked down on her calmly and smiled simply, happily.
She threw her arms around his waist and sank on her knees at his feet sobbing.
"Ben, Ben! My Ben! I nevah even thought of it. Hit seemed so far away, but now we're goin' to be free—free, free!"
He lifted her up gently.
"It's gwine to tek a pow'ful long time," he said.
"I don' keer," she cried gaily. "We know it's comin' an' we kin wait."
The woman's serious mood had passed as quickly as it had come, and she spun around the cabin, executing a series of steps that set her husband a-grin with admiration and joy.
And so Ben began to work with renewed vigor. He had found a purpose in life and there was something for him to look for beyond dinner, a dance and the end of the day. He had always been a good hand, but now he became a model—no shirking, no shiftlessness—and because he was so earnest his master did what he could to help him. Numerous little plans were formulated whereby the slave could make or save a precious dollar.
Viney, too, seemed inspired by a new hope, and if this little house had been pleasant to Ben, nothing now was wanting to make it a palace in his eyes. Only one sorrow he had, and that one wrung hard at his great heart—no baby came to them—but instead he made a great baby of his wife, and went on his way hiding his disappointment the best he could. The banjo was often silent now, for when he came home his fingers were too stiff to play; but sometimes, when his heart ached for the laughter of a child, he would take down his old friend and play low, soothing melodies until he found rest and comfort.
Viney had once tried to console him by saying that had she had a child it would have taken her away from her work, but he had only answered, "We could a' stood that."
But Ben's patient work and frugality had their reward, and it was only a little over three years after he had set out to do it that he put in his master's hand the price of Viney's freedom, and there was sound of rejoicing in the land. A fat shoat, honestly come by—for it was the master's gift—was killed and baked, great jugs of biting persimmon beer were brought forth, and the quarters held high carnival to celebrate Viney's new-found liberty.
After the merrymakers had gone, and when the cabin was clear again, Ben held out the paper that had been on exhibition all evening to Viney.
"Hyeah, hyeah's de docyment dat meks you yo' own ooman. Tek it."
During all the time that it had been out for show that night the people had looked upon it with a sort of awe, as if it was possessed of some sort of miraculous power. Even now Viney did not take hold of it, but shrunk away with a sort of gasp.
"No, Ben, you keep it. I can't tek keer o' no sich precious thing ez dat. Put hit in yo' chist."
"Tek hit and feel of hit, anyhow, so's you'll know dat you's free."
She took it gingerly between her thumb and forefinger. Ben suddenly let go.
"Dah, now," he said; "you keep dat docyment. It's yo's. Keep hit undah yo' own 'sponsibility."
"No, no, Ben!" she cried. "I jes' can't!"
"You mus'. Dat's de way to git used to bein' free. Whenevah you looks at yo'se'f an' feels lak you ain' no diff'ent f'om whut you been you tek dat papah out an' look at hit, an' say to yo'se'f, 'Dat means freedom.'"
Carefully, reverently, silently Viney put the paper into her bosom.
"Now, de nex' t'ing fu' me to do is to set out to git one dem papahs fu' myse'f. Hit'll be a long try, 'cause I can't buy mine so cheap as I got yo's, dough de Lawd knows why a great big ol' hunk lak me should cos' mo'n a precious mossell lak you."
"Hit's because dey's so much of you, Ben, an' evah bit of you's wo'th its weight in gol'."
"Heish, chile! Don' put my valy so high, er I'll be twell jedgment day a-payin' hit off."