Red Rock: A Chronicle of Reconstruction

by Thomas Nelson Page

  CHAPTER IX

  MR. JONADAB LEECH TURNS UP WITH A CARPET-BAG AND OPENS HIS BUREAU

  The young officers at the court-house meantime had fared very well. Itis true that most of the residents treated them coldly, if civilly, andthat the girls of the place, of whom there were quite a number, turnedaside whenever they met them, and passed by with their heads held high,and their eyes straight to the front, flashing daggers. But this theyoung men were from experience more or less used to.

  Reely Thurston told Middleton that if he would leave matters to him,he would engineer him through the campaign, and before it was overwould be warbling ditties with all the pretty girls in a way to makehis cousin, Miss Ruth Welch, green with envy. The lieutenant began byparading up and down on his very fine horse; but the only result heattained was to hear a plump young girl ask another in a clear voice,evidently meant for him to hear, “What poor Southerner,” she supposed,“that little Yankee stole that horse from!” He recognized the speakeras the young lady he had seen looking at them from the door of theclerk’s office the morning of their arrival.

  Brutusville, the county seat where they were posted, was a prettylittle straggling country village of old-fashioned houses amid grovesof fine old trees, lying along the main road of the county, where itwound among shady slopes, with the blue mountain range in the distance.Most of the houses were hip-roofed and gray with age. The river—thesame stream that divided Red Rock from Birdwood—passed near thevillage, broadening as it reached the more level country and receivedthe waters of one or two other streams. Before the war there had beentalk of establishing deep-water connections with the lower country, asthe last rapids of any extent were not far below Brutusville. Dr. Cary,however, had humorously suggested that they would find it easier tomacadamize the river than to make it navigable.

  THE GIRLS OF THE PLACE TURNED ASIDE, WHENEVER THEY METTHEM AND PASSED BY WITH THEIR HEADS HELD HIGH.]

  The county seat had suffered, like the rest of the county, during thewar; but as it happened, the main body of the enemy had been kept outof the place by high water, and the fine old trees did much to concealthe scars that had been made.

  The old, brick court-house in the middle of the green, peeping outfrom among the trees, with its great, classical portico, was esteemedby the residents of the village to be, perhaps, the most imposingstructure in the world. Mr. Dockett, the clerk—who had filled thisposition for nearly forty years, with the exception of the brief periodwhen, fired by martial enthusiasm, he had gone off with Captain Gray’scompany—told Lieutenant Thurston a day or two after the latter’sarrival, that while he had never been to Greece or, indeed, out ofthe State, he had been informed by those who had been there that thecourt-house was, perhaps, in some respects, more perfect than anybuilding in Athens. Lieutenant Thurston said he had never been toGreece either, but he was quite sure it was. He also added that heconsidered Mr. Dockett’s own house a very beautiful one, and thoughtthat it showed evidences, in its embellishments, of that same classicaltaste that Mr. Dockett admired so much. Mr. Dockett, while acceptingthe compliment with due modesty, answered that if the lieutenant wishedto see a beautiful house he should see Red Rock. And thereupon begannew matter, the young officer gently leading the old gentleman to talkof all the people and affairs of the neighborhood, including the charmsof the girls.

  From this, it will be seen that the little Lieutenant was alreadylaying his mines, and preparing to make good his promise to Middletonto engineer him through the campaign.

  The compliment to the Dockett mansion was not without its effect onthe genius who presided in that classic and comfortable abode, and,at length, Mrs. Dockett, a plump and energetic woman, had, with someprevision, though in a manner to make her beneficiaries sensible ofher condescension, acceded to the young men’s request to take them asboarders, and allow them to occupy a wing-room in her house.

  Thus Middleton and Thurston were able to write Ruth Welch a glowingaccount of their “head-quarters in an old colonial mansion,” and of the“beautiful maiden” who sang them “songs of the South.”

  The songs, however, that Miss Dockett sang, though as Thurston saidtruly, they were in one sense sung for them, were not sung in thesense Lieutenant Thurston implied. They were hardly just the sortthat Miss Ruth Welch would have approved of, and were certainly notwhat Mrs. Welch would have tolerated. For they were all of the mostultra-Southern spirit and tendency, and breathed the deadliest defianceto everyone and everything Northern. Miss Dockett was not pretty,except as youth and wholesomeness give beauty; but she was a cheerymaiden, with blue eyes, white teeth, rosy cheeks, and a profusion ofhair, and though she had no training, she possessed a pleasant voiceand sang naturally and agreeably—at least to one who, like Thurston,had not too much ear for music. Thurston once had the temerity to askfor a song—for which he received a merited rebuff. Of course she wouldnot sing for a Yankee, said the young lady, with a toss of her head andan increased elevation of her little nose, and immediately she left theroom. When, however, the young officers were in their rooms, she sangall the Southern songs she knew. One, in particular, she rendered withgreat spirit. It had just been written. It began:

  “Oh! I’m a good old rebel, Now, that’s just what I am; For this ’Fair land of freedom,’ I do not care a-t all.”

  Another verse ran:

  “Three hundred thousand Yankees Lays dead in Southern dus’, We got three hundred thousand Before they conquered us; They died of Southern fever, Of Southern steel and shot; I wish they were three million, Instead of what we got.”

  The continued iteration of this sanguinary melody floating in at theopen window finally induced the little Lieutenant, in his own room oneafternoon, to raise, in opposition, his own voice, which was none ofthe most melodious, in the strains of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Buthe had got no further than the second invocation to “the land of thefree and the home of the brave,” when there was a rush of footstepsoutside, followed by a pounding on his door, and on his opening thedoor Mrs. Dockett bore down on him with so much fire in her eye thatReely was quite overwhelmed. And when she gave him notice that shewould have no Yankee songs sung in her house, and that he must either“quit the house or quit howling,” little Thurston, partly amused andpartly daunted, and with the wide difference between Mrs. Dockett’sfried chicken and beat-biscuit and the mess-table “truck” before hiseyes, promised to adopt the latter course—“generally.”

  Fortunately the young officers were too much accustomed to suchdefiances to feel very serious about them, and they went oningratiating themselves with Miss Dockett—Thurston by his fun andgood-humor, and Middleton by his gentlemanly bearing and his firmmanagement of the negroes who hung around the camp.

  The peace and comfort of the young men, however, were suddenlymuch threatened by the arrival of a new official, not under theirjurisdiction, though under Colonel Krafton, who had sent him up,specially charged with all matters relating to the negroes.

  He arrived one afternoon with only a carpet-bag; took a room in thehotel, and, as if already familiar with the ground, immediatelydispatched a note to Mrs. Dockett asking quarters in her house. Evenhad the new-comer preferred his application as a request it might havebeen rejected; but he demanded it quite as a right; the line whichhe sent up by a negro servant being rather in the nature of an orderthan a petition to Mrs. Dockett to prepare the best room in her housefor his head-quarters. It was signed “Jonadab Leech, Provost-Marshal,commanding,” etc., etc. But the new official did not know Mrs. Dockett.The order raised a breeze which came near blowing the two officers,whom she had accepted and domiciled in her house, out of the quartersshe had vouchsafed them. She sailed down upon them with the letter inher hand; and, as Thurston said, with colors flying and guns ready foraction. But, fortunately, little Thurston was equal to the emergency.He glanced at the paper the enraged lady showed him and requested to beallowed possession of it for a moment. When he had apparently studiedit attentively, he looked up.
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br />   “I do not know that I quite comprehend. Do I understand you to insiston taking this man in?” He was never so innocent-looking. Mrs. Dockettgasped:

  “What!! Ta—ke in the man that wrote _that_!” She visibly expanded.

  “—Because if you do, Captain Middleton and I shall have to moveour quarters. I happen to know this man personally—slightly—thatis, I once had a transaction with him as an officer which resultedunpleasantly. His functions are entirely different from ours; he beingcharged with matters relating to the freedmen, their care and support;while ours are military and relate to the government of the county andthe maintenance of peace. (He glanced at Mrs. Dockett, who was sniffingominously.) While we shall uphold him in all proper exercise of hispower, and recognize his authority as an officer within the scope ofhis own jurisdiction, I must say that for personal reasons his presencewould be distasteful to me, and I think I can speak for CaptainMiddleton (here he looked over at his friend inquiringly), and if youcontemplate taking him in, I should prefer to remove my own quartersback to camp.”

  The little Lieutenant had gathered dignity as he proceeded, and hedelivered the close of his oration with quite the manner of an orator.He had spoken so rapidly that Mrs. Dockett had not had a moment to getin a word. He closed with a most impressive bow, while Middleton gazedat him with mingled amusement and admiration.

  Mrs. Dockett discovered the wind taken completely out of her sails, andfound herself actually forced into the position of making a tack andhaving rather to offer an apology to the ruffled little officer.

  She had never dreamed of preferring this new-comer to them, shedeclared. She could not but say that they had always acted in a mostgentlemanly way, so far as she was concerned. She had, indeed, beenmost agreeably surprised. She had never, for a moment, dreamed ofpermitting this impudent upstart, whoever he was, to come into herhouse. Let him go to some of his colored friends. Of course, if theywished to leave her house—they must do so. Her head was rising again.Thurston hastened to interpose.

  Not at all—they were most charmed, etc. Only he didn’t know but shemight not care to have them remain—and they could not do so if thisman came.

  “He’s not coming. Let him try it.” And the irate lady sailed out todeliver her broadside to the new enemy that had borne down on her.

  She had no sooner disappeared than the Lieutenant’s face fell.

  “Gad! Larry, we are undone. It’s that Leech who used to live with oldBolter, and about whom they told the story of his trying to persuadehis wife to let him get a divorce, and who shirked all through the war.Unless we can get rid of him it’s all up. We’re ruined.”

  “Freeze him out,” Middleton said, briefly. “You’ve begun well.”

  “Freeze——? Freeze a snow-bank! That’s his climate. He’d freeze in——!” The little Lieutenant named a very hot place.

  Thurston had not been too soon in placing the line of discriminationclearly between themselves and the Provost Marshal, for the arrival ofthe latter in the county at once caused a change of conditions.

  On receipt of Mrs. Dockett’s decisive and stinging reply Leechimmediately made application to Captain Middleton to enforce hisrequisition, but, to his indignation, he was informed that they werethe only boarders, and that Mrs. Dockett managed her own domesticaffairs: which, indeed, was no more than the truth. To revenge himself,the Provost took possession of Mr. Dockett’s office, and opened hisbureau in it, crowding the old official into a back room of thebuilding. Here, too, however, he was doomed to disappointment andmortification; for, on the old clerk’s representation of the danger tohis records, and of their value, enforced by Mrs. Dockett’s persuasivearguments, Leech was required by Middleton to surrender possession andtake up his quarters in an unoccupied building on the other side of theroad. Here he opened his office under a flaring sign bearing the words,“FREEDMEN’S BUREAU.”

  So the Provost, being baffled here, had to content himself, as hemight, at the court-house tavern, where he soon laid off a newcampaign. His principal trouble there, lay in the presence of the dark,sallow Captain McRaffle, whose saturnine face scowled at him from theupper end of the table, and kept him in a state of constant irritation.The only speech the Captain ever addressed to him was to ask if heplayed cards, and on his saying he “never played games,” he appeared totake no further interest in him. The Provost, however, kept his eye onhim.

  The effect of the Provost’s appearance was felt immediately. The newsof his arrival seemed to have spread in a night, and the next day theroads were filled with negroes.

  “De wud had come for ’em,” they said. They “had to go to de Cap’n togit de papers out o’ de buro.” Only the old house-servants were left,and even they were somewhat excited.

  This time those who left their homes did not return so quickly.Immediately after the news of the surrender came, a good many of thenegroes had gone off and established settlements to themselves. Thechief settlement in the Red Rock neighborhood was known as “The Bend,”from the fact that it was in a section half surrounded by a curve ofthe river. It was accessible from both sides of the river, and in thepast had been much associated with runaway negroes.

  It had always been an unsavory spot in the county, and now, the negroescongregating there, it had come into greater ill repute than ever. Itwas dubbed with some derision, “Africa.” Here Jim Sherwood and Moseshad built cabins, and shortly many others gathered about them. This,however, might not have amounted to much had not another matter come tolight.

  The Provost was summoning the negroes and enrolling them by hundreds,exciting them with stories of what the Government proposed to do forthem, and telling them the most pernicious lies: that they need notwork, and that the Government was going to feed them and give them all“forty acres and a mule apiece.”

  Even the older negroes were somewhat excited by these tales, and,finally, Mammy Krenda asked Dr. Cary if it was true that the Governmentwas going to give them all land.

  “Of course not. Who says so?” asked the Doctor.

  “I heah so,” said the old woman. Even she was beginning to be afraid totell what she had heard.

  Contemporaneously with this, an unprecedented amount of lawlessnesssuddenly appeared: chicken-houses were robbed; sheep and pigs andeven cattle were stolen, without there being any authority to takecognizance of the thefts or any power to punish.

  Andy Stamper and several others of the neighbors came over to see Dr.Cary about the matter. They had been to the court-house the day before“to see about things,” Andy said, and “had found every nigger in thecounty piled up in front of that Leech’s door.”

  “They’re talkin’ about every one of ’em gittin’ forty acres and a mule,Doctor,” said little Andy, with a twinkle in his eye; but a grim lookabout his mouth.

  “The biggest men down thar are that Jim Sherwood of yours; thattrick-doctor nigger of Miss’ Gray’s, Moses Swift, and a tall, blacknigger of General Legaie’s, named Nicholas Ash. They’re doin’ most ofthe talkin’. Well, I ain’t got but eighty acres—jest about enough fortwo of ’em,” added Andy, the grim lines deepening about his mouth;“but I’m mighty sorry for them two as tries to git ’em—I told Hiramso.” The twinkle had disappeared from his blue eyes, like the flash ona ripple, and the eyes were as quiet and gray as the water after theripple had passed.

  “Hiram, he’s the chief adviser and friend of the new man. I thought hewas hatchin’ something. He was down there inside of the office—lookedlike a shot cat when I come in—said he was tryin’ to git some hands.You watch him. He’s a goin’ over. He was at the nigger meetin’-houseth’ other night. I heard some white man was there; but I couldn’t gitat who ’twas till old Weev’ly let it out.”

  Dr. Cary told of his conversation with Still a few days before; but thelittle Sergeant was not convinced.

  “Whenever he talks, that’s the time you know he ain’t goin’ to do it,”he said.

  Still’s attentions to Miss Delia Dove had not only quickened And
y’sjealousy, but had sharpened his suspicion generally, and he hadfollowed his movements closely.

  Still had quickly become assured that the two young soldiers in commandat the county seat were not the kind for him to impress. And when thenew officer came he had at once proceeded to inspect him.

  Leech was expecting him; for though they had never met, Still hadalready secretly placed himself in communication with Krafton, theProvost-Marshal in the city.

  The new Provost was not pleasing to look on. He was a man spare infigure and with a slight stoop in his shoulders—consequent perhapson a habit he had of keeping his gaze on the ground. He had mild blueeyes, and a long, sallow face, with a thin nose, bad teeth, and achin that ended almost in a point. He rarely showed temper. He posedrather as a good-natured, easy-going fellow, cracking jokes with anyonewho would listen to him, and indulging in laughter which made up inloudness what it lacked in merriment. When he walked, it was with apeculiar, sinuous motion. The lines in his face gave him so sour anexpression that Steve Allen, just after he moved to the court-house topractise law, said that Leech, from his look, must be as great a stenchin his own nostrils as in those of other people. This speech broughtSteve Leech’s undying hatred, though he veiled it well enough at themoment and simply bided his time.

  The Provost-Marshal was not a prepossessing person even to Still; butMrs. Gray’s manager had large schemes in his mind, and the new-comerappeared a likely person to aid him in carrying them out. They soonbecame advisers for each other.

  “You can’t do nothin’ with them two young men,” the overseer told theProvost. “I’ve done gauged ’em. I know ’em as soon as I see ’em, and Itell you they don’t think no more of folks like you and me than of thedirt under their feet. They’re for the aristocrats.”

  He shortly gauged the Provost.

  “When I know what a man wants, I know how to git at him,” he saidto his son Wash, afterward. “He wants to get up—but first he wantsmoney—and we must let him see it. I lent him a leetle too—just togrease the skillet. When you’ve lent a man money you’ve got a halter onhim.”

  “You’re a mighty big fool to lend your money to a man you don’t knowanything about. You’ll never get it back,” observed Wash, surlily.

  “Ah! Won’t I? Trust me; I never lend money that I don’t get it back inone shape or another—with interest too. I don’t expect to get thatback.” He dropped his voice. “That’s what I call a purchase—not aloan. Don’t try to fry your chicken till you’ve greased the pan, myson.”

  “Something in that,” admitted the young medical student. They weresitting on the little front porch of the overseer’s house, and HiramStill’s eye took in the scene about him—the wide fields, the rich,low-grounds, the chimneys of the mansion-house peeping from the groveof great trees on its high hill a half mile away. His face lit up.

  “Ah! Wash, if you trust your old pappy, you’ll see some mighty changesin this here county. What’d you say if you was to see yourself some daysettin’ up in that big hall yonder, with, say, a pretty young lady fromacrost the river, and that Steve and Mr. Jacquelin ploughin’ in thefurrer?”

  “By G—d! I’d love it,” declared Wash, decisively, his good-humorthoroughly restored.