The dark night

by Lucy Ellen Guernsey

The children ran down the descent leading to the grist-mill, where Jeduthun Cooke was sitting in the door playing on the harmonica.

He was always making music of some kind—singing or whistling, or playing on the fife or bugle, or on the harmonica, as at present. Old Mrs. Badger, up at the tavern, said she wondered Mr. Antis would have such a noise, but the "boss" only laughed, and said the stones would not know how to run without Jeduthun's music. Jeduthun Cooke was a light-coloured quadroon who had worked steadily in Mr. Worthington's mill for the last sixteen years, except for the three years that he was in the army as bugler to a cavalry regiment. He was a tall man, and as thin, wiry, and agile as a panther, and there was a sparkle in his eye which looked as if he might have a fiery temper. Nevertheless, he had never been seen furiously angry but twice. Once was at the Badger boys, whom he found tying a bunch of crackers to the tail of the old dog at the mill. Jeduthun thrashed them both soundly, and threatened them with a ducking, to boot. The boys went to complain to their grandmother—an unwise proceeding on their part, for the old lady not only gave them a second edition of the thrashing, but sent them to bed at five o'clock on the Fourth of July. There were both dishonour and loss in that, and the boys never forgot the lesson.

The other time Jeduthun flew into a passion, there was also a child concerned, but this time the child was the victim. An Englishman had come to work in the saw-mill, and had brought with him a little orphan nephew. There was a strong conviction among the people at Boonville that this lad was abused; but nothing was done about the matter till one morning, when Jeduthun, going down to the mill earlier than usual, heard the poor child screaming and begging for mercy. Jeduthun jumped over the gate and ran round the house to the back door. There was poor little Eben tied to a post, while his uncle was beating him unmercifully. Nobody knew exactly what happened, but when Mr. Antis, wakened by the cries of the child and screams of murder from the woman, appeared on the scene, he found Jeduthun engaged in ducking Tom Collins in the mill-dam, and with some trouble prevailed on him to let the man come out of the water before he was quite drowned. Tom Collins brought an action for assault, and Jeduthun was fined seventy-five cents, which he cheerfully paid, remarking that he thought he had got the worth of his money. Eben was taken away from his cruel relation and placed with a farmer in the neighbourhood, and Tom Collins found it expedient to move away from Boonville.

These two instances of temper did not make Jeduthun at all less popular in the little community. He was a special favourite with the children, for whom he told stories, sung songs, and made kites, tops, and water-wheels; and then he sometimes lectured as well, and he liked nothing better than to have a dozen of the school-children round the mill door all chattering at once. He kept excellent order among his little friends, never permitting any teasing, meddling, or other bad manners, and Miss Hilliard, the school-mistress, used to say that Jeduthun was really a great help to her.

Jeduthun was sitting in the mill door playing a very sad and solemn tune on his harmonica, or mouth-organ, as it is sometimes called, and the children waited till he finished it, for they knew he did not like to be interrupted.

"That sounds like a funeral tune!" said Anna Lee.

"'Tis," said Jeduthun.

"They sung it at Mary Jane Hill's funeral over at the Springs," remarked Elsie. "It goes to the words, 'When blooming youth is snatched away.'"

"That's it, exactly," returned Jeduthun, and he sung the first verse of the hymn in such a soft, pure voice, and with such a tender solemnity, that it brought tears to the children's eyes as they listened, as well as to those of Mr. Antis,—albeit "unused to the melting mood,"—who was busy in his office.

"They'll be singing that over at the Springs to-day," remarked Jeduthun when he had finished the verse. "Miss Lilla Parmalee is going to be buried to-day."