Red Rock: A Chronicle of Reconstruction

by Thomas Nelson Page

  CHAPTER XXXIII

  BLAIR CARY SAVES A RIVAL SCHOOL

  A new cause of grievance against Mrs. Welch had arisen in the Countyin her conduct of her school near the Bend. Colored schools were not anovelty in the County. Blair Cary had for two years or more taught thecolored school near her home. But Mrs. Welch had made a new departure.The other school had been talked over and deliberated on until it wasin some sense the outcome of the concert of the neighborhood. Dr. Carygave the land and the timber. “Whether it will amount to anythingelse, I cannot say; but it will amount to this, sir,” said the Doctorto General Legaie, “I shall have done the best I could for my oldservants.” And on this, General Legaie, who had been the most violentopponent of it all, had sent his ox-team to haul the stocks to themill. “Not because I believe it will accomplish any good, sir; butbecause a gentleman can do no less than sustain other gentlemen whohave assumed obligations.”

  Thus Miss Blair’s school was regarded in part as representative ofthe old system. When, however, Mrs. Welch started her school, sheconsulted no one and asked no assistance—at least, of the countypeople. The aid she sought was only from her friends at the North, andwhen she received it, she set in, chose her place and built her school,giving out at the same time that it was to be used for sewing classes,debating societies, and other public purposes. Thus this school cameto be considered as a foreign institution, conducted on foreignprinciples, and in opposition to the school already established by theneighborhood. Mrs. Welch not only built a much larger and handsomerstructure than any other school-house in that section, but she plantedvines to cover the porch, and introduced a system of prizes and rewardsso far beyond anything heretofore known in the County, that shortlynot only most of the scholars who had attended Blair’s school left,but those from other schools much farther off began to flock to Mrs.Welch’s seminary.

  The first teacher Mrs. Welch secured to take charge of the institutionwas a slender, delicate young woman with deep eyes, thin cheeks, anda worn face, who by her too assiduous devotion to what she deemed herduty and an entire disregard of all prudence, soon reduced herselfto such a low condition of health that Dr. Cary, who was called in,insisted that she should be sent back to her old home. The nextteacher, Miss Slipley, was one who had testimonials high enough tojustify the idea that she was qualified to teach in Tübingen.

  She was a young woman of about thirty, with somewhat pronounced viewsand a very pronounced manner; her face was plain, but she had a goodfigure, of which Mrs. Welch, who herself had a fine figure, thoughtshe was much too vain, and as her views relating to the conduct of theschool by no means coincided with those of Mrs. Welch, matters wereshortly not as harmonious between the two as they might have been. Shesoon began to complain of the discomforts of her situation and her lackof association. Mrs. Welch deplored this, but thought that Miss Slipleyshould find her true reward in the sense of duty performed, and toldher so plainly. This, Miss Slipley said, was well enough when one hada husband and family to support her, but she had had no idea that shewas to live in a wilderness, where her only associates were negroes,and where not a man ever spoke to her, except to bow distantly. Soafter a little time, she had thrown up her position and gone home, andshortly afterward had married. This, to Mrs. Welch, explained all herhigh airs. Just then Mrs. Welch received a letter from a young womanshe knew, asking her to look out for a position for her. During the warthis applicant had been a nurse in a hospital, where Mrs. Welch hadlearned something of her efficiency. So when Miss Slipley left, Mrs.Welch wrote Miss Bush to come.

  “She, at least, will not have Miss Slipley’s very objectionabledrawbacks—for, if I remember aright, Miss Bush has no figure at all,”said Mrs. Welch. “Heaven save me from women with figures! When an uglywoman has nothing else, she is always showing her figure or her feet.”

  When Miss Bush arrived Mrs. Welch found her impressions verified. Shewas a homely little body, yet with kind eyes and a pleasant mouth. Sheacceded cheerfully to all Mrs. Welch’s views. She was perfectly willingto live with the woman at whose house it had been arranged that sheshould board; she wished, she said, to live unobtrusively. She was indeep mourning and wore a heavy veil.

  Miss Bush had not been in her position long before Mrs. Welch felt thatat last she had found the very person for the place. She was as quietas a mouse, and not afraid of any work whatever. She not only taught,but wholly effaced herself, and, in fact, proved a perfect treasure.

  By the negroes she was called Miss May (a contraction for Mary), whichwent abroad as her family name.

  Miss May proved to be a strict disciplinarian, and a firm believer inthe somewhat obsolete, but not less wise doctrine, that to spare therod is to spoil the child, and as this came to be known, it had theeffect of establishing her in the good esteem of the neighborhood.Thus, though no one visited her, Miss May received on all hands arespectful regard. This was suddenly jeopardized at the opening ofthe new campaign, by a report that the school-house, in addition toits purposes as a school-building, was being used as a public hall bynegroes for their Union-league meetings. Leech, whose head-quarterswere now in the city, had come up to take charge of the canvass, andhad boasted that he would make it hot for his opponents—a boast heappeared likely to make good. He attended the meetings at the newschool-house, and it was reported that he had made a speech in whichhe said that the whites owed the negroes everything; that the time hadcome for payment, and that matches were only five cents a box, and ifbarns were burned they belonged to them. The report of this speech wascarried through the County next day. One night shortly afterward AndyStamper’s store was burned to the ground, and this was followed by theburning of several barns throughout Red Rock and the adjoining counties.

  The reappearance of the masked order that had almost disappearedfollowed immediately in some places. A meeting was held in Brutusville,denouncing the outrage of such speeches as those of Leech, at which Dr.Cary presided, and Steve Allen and General Legaie, Jacquelin Gray andCaptain McRaffle spoke, but there was no reappearance in this County ofthe masked men. McRaffle denounced the patrons and teacher of the newschool with so much heat that Steve Allen declared he was as incendiaryas Leech.

  McRaffle sneered that Steve appeared to have become very suddenly achampion of the carpet-bagger, Welch; and Steve retorted that at leasthe did not try to borrow from people and then vilify them, but thatCaptain McRaffle could find another cause to quarrel with him if hewished it. For a long time there had been bad blood between Steve andMcRaffle. Among other causes was McRaffle’s evil influence over Rupert.

  Rupert Gray had been growing of late more and more independent,associating with McRaffle and a number of the wildest fellows in theCounty, and showing a tendency to recklessness which had caused allhis friends much concern. Jacquelin tried to counsel and control him,but the boy was wayward and heedless. Rupert thought it was hard thathe was to be under direction at an age when Jacquelin had already wonlaurels as a soldier.

  When his brother took him to task for going off with some of the wilderyoung men in their escapades, Rupert only laughed at him.

  “Why, Jack, it’s you I am emulating. As Cousin John Cary would say,‘The trophies of Miltiades will not let me sleep.’” And when CaptainAllen tried to counsel him seriously, he floored that gentleman bysaying that he had learned both to drink and to play poker from him. Hewas, however, devoted to Blair, and she appeared to have much influencewith him; so Steve and Jacquelin tried to keep him with her as much aspossible.

  One evening shortly after the public meeting at which Steve andMcRaffle had had their quarrel, Rupert appeared to be somewhatrestless. Blair had learned the signs and knew that in such cases itwas likely to be due to Rupert’s having heard that some mischief wason foot, and she used to devise all sorts of schemes to keep the boyoccupied. She soon discovered now what was the matter. Rupert had hearda rumor that a movement was about to be directed against Miss May’sschool. None of the men he was intimate with knew much about it. Itwas only a
rumor. Steve and Jacquelin were both away from the Countyattending Court in another county. Blair was much disturbed.

  “Why, they are going to do it on your account,” said Rupert. “They saythis school was started to break up your school.”

  “Nonsense! Do they think that’s the way to help me? The teacher is awoman,” urged Blair. Rupert’s countenance fell.

  “They aren’t going to trouble her—are just going to scare the negroesso there won’t be any more meetings held there. Some say she’s kin toLeech—or something.”

  “She is nothing of the kind,” asserted Blair. “Ruth Welch told me shehad never seen Mr. Leech, and declined positively to see him. When isit to be?”

  “To-night.”

  Blair lamented the absence of Jacquelin and Steve. If they were but athome they would, she knew, prevent this outrage.

  “Oh! Jacquelin and Steve! They are nothing but old fogies,” laughedRupert. “McRaffle, he’s the man!” With a toss of his head he broke intoa snatch of Bonny Dundee.

  Blair watched him gravely for a moment.

  “Rupert,” she said, “Captain McRaffle is nothing but a gambler and anadventurer. He is not worthy to be named in the same breath with—withSteve and—your brother any more than he is to be named with my father.This is the proof of it, that he is going to try to interfere with awoman. Why does he not go after Colonel Leech, who made the speechthere?” Rupert’s face grew grave. Blair pressed her advantage.

  “He is a coward; for he would never dare to undertake such a thingif your brother and Steve were at home. He takes advantage of theirabsence to do this, when he knows that Miss May has no defender.”

  Rupert’s eye flashed.

  “By George! I never thought of that,” he burst out. “She has got adefender. I’ll go there and stand guard myself. You needn’t have anyfear, Blair, if I’m there.” He hitched his coat around in such a way asto display the butt of a huge pistol. Blair could not help smiling. Butthis was not what she wanted. She was afraid to send Rupert to guardthe place. He had not judgment enough. If what the boy had heard weretrue, something might happen to him if he went there. She knew that hewould defend it with his life; but she was afraid of the consequences.So she set to work to put Rupert on another tack. She wanted him togo down to the county seat and learn what he could of the plans, andtry to keep the men from coming at all. This scheme was by no meansas agreeable to Rupert as the other, but he finally yielded, and setout. Blair watched him ride away through the orchard, the eveninglight falling softly around him as he cantered off. She sat stillfor a little while thinking. Suddenly she rose, and going into thehouse found her mother and held a short consultation with her. A fewmoments later she came out with her hat on, and disappeared among theapple-trees, walking rapidly in the same direction Rupert had taken.Her last act as she left the house was to call softly to her mother:

  “When Rupert comes back send him after me. I will wait for him at Mr.Stamper’s.”

  It had occurred to her that Andy Stamper would do what she was afraidto have a rash boy like Rupert attempt. Andy hated Leech, to whom hecharged the burning of his store; but he was devoted to Miss Welch. Andhe had told Blair of seeing Miss May once pull down her veil to keepfrom looking at Leech.

  When, however, Blair arrived at the Stampers’s Mr. Stamper was absent.But she found an heroic enough ally in his representative, Mrs. Delia,to make up for all other deficiencies. The idea of the possibility ofan injury to one of her sex fired that vigorous soul with a flame notto be quenched.

  “I jest wish my Andy was here,” she lamented. “He’d soon straighten ’emout. Not as I cares, Miss Blair, about the school, or the teacher,”she said, with careful limitation; “for I don’t like none of ’em, andI’d be glad if they’d all go back where they come from. The old schoolwas good enough for me, and them as can’t find enough in white folksto work on, outdoes me. But—a man as can’t git a man to have a fusswith and has to go after a woman, Delia Stamper jist wants to git holdof him. I never did like that Cap’n McRaffler, anyhow. He owes Andy ahundred and twenty-nine dollars, and if I hadn’t stopt Andy from givin’him things—that’s what I call it—jest _givin’_ ’em to him—sellin’on credit, he’d a owed us five hundred. He knows better th’n to foolwith me.” She gave a belligerent shake of her head. “I’ll tell youwhat, Miss Blair,” she suddenly broke out. “Our men folks are all away.If they are comin’ after women, let’s give ’em some women to meet asknow how to deal with ’em. I wants to meet Captain McRaffler, anyhow.”Another shake of the head was given, this time up and down, and herblack eyes began to sparkle. Blair looked at her with new satisfaction.

  “That is what I wish. That is why I came,” she said. “Can you leaveyour children?”

  “They are all right,” said Mrs. Stamper, with kindling eyes. “I ain’tbeen on such an expedition not since the war. I’ll leave word for Andyto come as soon as he gits home.”

  As they sallied forth, Mrs. Stamper put into her pocket a big pistoland her knitting. “One gives me courage to take the other,” she said.

  It was a mile or two through the woods to the school-house, and thenovel guards arrived at their post none too soon. As they emerged fromthe woods into the little clearing on one side of which stood thechurch and on the other the new school-house, the waning moon was justrising above the tree-tops, casting a ghostly light through the treesand deepening the shadows. The school-house was considerably largerthan any other in the neighborhood, and over one end of the porch MissMay had trained a Virginia creeper. The two guards took their seats inthe shadow of the vine. They were both somewhat awed by the situation,but from different causes. Blair’s feeling was due to the strangenessof her situation out there, surrounded by dark woods filled with thecries of night insects and the mournful call of the whip-poor-will.Mrs. Stamper confessed that the graves amid the weeds around the churchwere what disquieted her. For she boasted that she “was not afeared ofthat man living.” But she admitted mournfully, “I am certainly afearedof ghosts.”

  The two sentinels had but a short time to wait. They had not beenthere long before the tramp of horses was heard, and in a little whilefrom the woods opposite them emerged a cavalcade of, perhaps, a dozenhorsemen. Mrs. Stamper clutched Blair with a grip of terror, for menand horses were heavily shrouded and looked ghostly enough. Blair wastrembling, but not from fear, only from excitement. The presence of theenemy suddenly strung her up, and she put her hand on her companionencouragingly. Just then one of the men burst into a loud laugh. Mrs.Delia’s grip relaxed.

  “I know that laugh,” she said, with a sigh of deep relief. “Jest lethim ride up here and try some of his shenanigan!” She began to pull ather pistol, but Blair seized her.

  “For heaven’s sake, don’t,” she whispered; and Mrs. Stamper let thepistol go, and they squeezed back into the shadow. Just then the menrode up to the school-house door. They were discussing what they shoulddo. “Burn the house down,” declared the leader. “Drive the old hagaway.” But this met with fierce opposition.

  “I didn’t come out here to burn any house down,” said one of the men,“and I’m not going to do it. You can put your notice up and come along.”

  “Ah! you’re afraid,” sneered the other.

  There was a movement among the horsemen, and the man so charged rode upto the head of the column and pulled his horse in front of the leader.There was a gleam of steel in the light of the moon.

  “Take that back, or I’ll make you prove it,” he said, angrily. “Rideout there and draw your pistol; we’ll let Jim here give the word, andwe’ll see who’s afraid.”

  Their companions crowded around them to make peace. The leaderapologized. The sentiment of the crowd was evidently against him.

  “Now get down and fix up your notice to Leech, and let’s be going,”said one of the peacemakers.

  The leader dismounted and started up to the door. As he did so, one ofthe two young women stepped forward.

  SHE GAVE A STEP FOR
WARD AND WITH A QUICK MOVEMENT PULLEDTHE MASK FROM HIS FACE.]

  “What do you want?” asked Mrs. Stamper. The man positively staggeredfrom surprise, and a murmur of astonishment broke from the horsemen.Mrs. Stamper did not give them time to recover. With true soldierlyinstinct she pressed her advantage. “I know what you want,” she said,with scorn. “You want to scare a poor woman who ain’t got anybody todefend her. You ain’t so much against niggers and carpet-baggers as youmake out. I know you.”

  “You know nothing of the kind,” growled the man, angrily, in a deepvoice. He had recovered himself. “What business have you here? Go home,wherever that may be, and leave the Invisible Empire to execute itsdread decrees.”

  “Dread fiddlesticks!” exclaimed Mrs. Stamper. “I don’t know you, don’tI?” She gave a step forward and, with a quick movement, caught andpulled the mask from his face. “I don’t know you, Captain McRaffle?And you don’t know me, do you?” With an oath the man made a grab forhis mask, and, snatching it from her, hastily replaced it. She laughedtriumphantly. “No, I didn’t know you, Captain McRaffle. I’ve got causeto know you. And you ought to be ashamed of yourself coming out hereto harm a poor woman. So ought all of you; and you are, I know, everymother’s son of you. If you want to do anything, why don’t you do it tomen, and openly, like Andy Stamper and Capt’n Allen?”

  “It hasn’t been so long since they were in the order,” sneered McRaffle.

  “Yes, and, when they were, there were gentlemen in it,” fired back Mrs.Stamper; “and they went after men, not women.”

  “We didn’t come to trouble any woman; we came to give notice that nomore night-meetings and speeches about burning houses were to be heldhere,” growled McRaffle.

  “Yes; so you set an example by wanting to burn down houses yourself?That’s the way you wanted to give notice, if it hadn’t been for thosegentlemen there.”

  “She’s too much for you, Captain,” laughed his comrades.

  “We’re trying to help out our own people, and to keep thecarpet-baggers from breaking up Miss Cary’s school,” said McRaffle,trying to defend himself.

  “No doubt Miss Cary will be much obliged to you.”

  “No doubt she will. I have good reason to know she will,” affirmedMcRaffle; “and you’ll do well not to be interfering with our work.”There was a movement in the corner behind Mrs. Stamper.

  “Ah! Well, I’ll let her thank you in person,” said Mrs. Stamper,falling back with a low bow, as Miss Cary herself advanced from theshadow. The astonishment of the men was not less than it had been whenMrs. Stamper first confronted them.

  Blair spoke in a clear, quiet voice that at once enforced attention.She disclaimed indignantly the charge that had just been made by theleader, and seconded all that Mrs. Stamper had said. Her friends, ifshe had any in the party, could not, she declared, do her a worseservice than to interfere with this school. She knew that its patronshad reprobated the advantage that had been taken of their action inallowing the building to be used as a public hall.

  When she was through, several of the riders asked leave to accompanyher and Mrs. Stamper home, assuring her that the school-house would notbe interfered with.

  This offer, however, they declined. They were “not afraid,” they said.

  “We don’t think you need tell us that,” laughed several of the men.

  Just then there was the sound of horses galloping at top speed, and ina second Rupert Gray and Andy Stamper dashed up breathless.

  Mrs. Stamper and Miss Cary explained the situation. Hearing from Mrs.Stamper what McRaffle had said about Blair, Rupert flashed out that hewould settle with Captain McRaffle about it later.

  For a moment or two it looked as if there might be a seriousmisunderstanding. But Blair, seconded by the men who had offeredto conduct them home and by Mrs. Stamper, quieted matters; and thecavalcade of masked men rode away in one direction, whilst Andyand Rupert rode off in the other with the two young women behindthem, leaving the little school-house as peaceful in the moonlightas if there had never been a sound except the cicalas’ cry and thewhip-poor-wills call within a hundred miles.

  The incident had some far-reaching consequences. Only a day or twolater Captain McRaffle went to town; and a short time after therewas quite a sensation in the county over a notice in Leech’s organ,announcing that Colonel McRaffle, long disgusted with the brutalmethods of the outlaws who disgraced the State, had severed hisconnection with the party that employed such methods; that, indeed,he had long since done so, but had refrained from making publichis decision in order that he might obtain information as to theorganization, and thus render his country higher service than he couldotherwise do.

  The next issue of the paper announced the appointment of “the ablecounsellor, Colonel McRaffle,” to the office of Commissioner of theCourt, in which position, it stated, his experience and skill wouldprove of inestimable benefit to the country!

  It was, perhaps, well for the new commissioner that his office was inthe city.