“Hol’ your grandmother’s han’! I ain’t no baby. I’m a ’spressman an’ am a gointer hol’ the mule. That was pretty near a joke,” he said, looking confidingly into the eyes of his new friend. “One reason I was so good a-comin’ up here was because we let Susan go in the Jim Crow coach to keep Uncle Oscar comp’ny, ’cause when she is ridin’ anywhere near me she’s all time wantin’ me to hol’ her han.’”
“We thought we’d make two loads of you,” said Lewis, when the greetings were over. “Bill can go ahead with Aunt Lizzie and some of you while the rest of us walk, and when he puts you out at the camp he can come back and meet us half way.”
“Douglas must ride,” declared Helen. “She is so tired.”
“I’m a lot rested now.”
“Yes, sure, you must ride,” said Lewis, a shade of disappointment in his tone as he had been rather counting on having a nice little walk and talk with his favorite cousin.
“Say, Lewis, you run the jitney first. Legs stiff and tired sitting still,” said Bill magnanimously.
So while Lewis was cheated out of a walk with Douglas, he had the satisfaction of having her sit beside him as he drove the rickety car up the winding mountain road. Miss Somerville was packed in the back with Nan and Lucy, but when Lucy found that Helen was to walk, she decided to walk, too. Susan was put in her place, and so her feelings were somewhat mollified.
“Josephus ain’t above totin’ one of the niggers ’long with the trunks,” said Josh, determined to get even for the remarks he had heard Oscar and Susan make in regard to “po’ white trash.” The antagonism that exists between the mountaineer and darkey is hard to overcome.
So Oscar, the proud butler of “nothin’ but fust famblies,” was forced either to walk up the mountain, something he dreaded, or climb up on the seat of the cart by the despised “po’ white trash.” He determined on the latter course and took his seat in dignified silence with the expression of one who says: “My head is bloody but unbowed.”
“The freight came and we have hauled it up and unpacked the best we could. I am afraid it is going to be mighty rough for you girls and for poor Aunt Lizzie, who is certainly a brick for coming, but we have done our best,” said Lewis to Douglas.