“Yes, Lily, and you must help me. And it must be a secret. Not even Mollie Bragg is to know,” cautioned Berry. “We must begin to-day,” she added.
“Yas, Missie Berry,” Lily promptly agreed. Whatever Berry wanted done Lily would do without question. But there was something on Lily’s mind that troubled her. She knew that Berry made daily visits to the red-buds, ready to fulfil the promise to the “witch”; and Lily now resolved to tell her young mistress that the voice Berry had heard at midnight as the wind swept down the ridge had been the voice of the man of whom Berry seemed afraid. And now the colored girl began to wonder if this man might not be one of those Confederates for whom Berry meant to watch.
“Missie Berry, yo’ knows w’ot I tells yo’ ’bout de witch-tree? An’ yo’ ’members de night yo’ wen’ down dar, wid de win’ a-howlin’ an’ a-screechin’, an’ de dark jes’ lak’ a black wall? I wus clus beside yo’, Missie Berry! An’ dat wan’ no witch w’ot call yo’ ‘boy,’ an’ makes yo’ promis’ ter kerry a letter. No, Missie! ’Twas dat man we saw a-cookin’ a burd ober der fire by de ledge!”
It was now Berry’s turn to be surprised. But she instantly realized that Lily was right; and when Lily added, “I follered arter dat man an’ I knows,” Berry looked at her companion admiringly. “Lily!” she exclaimed, “my father thought that man was a spy; and probably the letter he means to hide at the witch-tree will be for some Confederate general.”
“Do yo’ reckons ’twill be fer sum Confedrit gen’ril?” questioned Lily.
“Yes; because he has been about Shiloh all winter, I’m sure he has; keeping watch of the Tennessee River, so that he could send word of Union troops being landed. And the time I met him at the brook I bragged of how fast I could run,” Berry continued eagerly, “and that’s what made him want me for a messenger. He must have been hiding near the brook, Lily, the day you told me about witches.”
“Dat’s so, Missie Berry! An’ I reckon he got de cake an’ de honey,” Lily responded regretfully.
“He’s exactly like the cupboard mouse that Mrs. Bragg told me about,” Berry declared, remembering how difficult it had been for her to secure the cake, and how much trouble she had taken to please some possible witch, only to have the woodsman laugh at her folly.
“I ain’ nebber heard no story ’bout de cupboard mouse,” said Lily; and Berry repeated it, greatly to the negro girl’s satisfaction.
“Dat am a fine story, Missie, an’ maybe we’s gwine ter set de cat af’er dis mouse dat kep’ all de cake ter hisse’f,” she chuckled.