Fair and Tender Ladies

by Lee Smith

  But then Momma hollered out where was I, and the third time she hollered I said I was coming, and I went back up ther and got us some more water, and then I went on in the house. My leg had got cut and bleeding but I never even knowed it till I seen it in the ligt. I wuld of layed there forever if I culd of. Do you think this is evil? It is true thogh, belive you me.

  Well that was yesterdy evening, and then we et us some sweet taters Momma had roasted in the fire and a pot of soup beans she had cooked with some fatback in them, and some cornbread Beulah made, her cornbread is bettern Mommas. So this was good. And Garnie and Ethel is getting some meat back on ther bones now Im proud to say, and Johnny he grows like a weed but Danny dont do no good, he carrys his head to the side and walks on a slant, it seems.

  And then all of a sudden, in comes Gaynelle and Virgie Cline!

  Never even knocked nor hollered nor nothing, just pushed open the door and poked those old black bonnets around it, Silvaney and Beulah screamed bloody murder and Ethel she went for the gun.

  Law, law, Momma said, but Daddy he slep on.

  So the Cline sisters comes on in laghing like silver bells, then they see Daddy and goes over ther and bends way down and tuches him here and ther, ther hands is fluttering like butterflys down by Sugar Fork in the spring. Oh oh they said, John Arthur is going, and they tuched his forehead, he stirred but he never awoke. He is going they said, Oh la. For they had not knowed this, they never leave ther cabin hardly ever wich is way away upon Hell Mountain, Daddy used to take us up ther to hear ther storys.

  Lord you orter see how they live! ther cabin is so little it is like a dolly cabin with everthing just so. They is two pallets ther with the prettest quilts, and two little old rocky chairs by the fire, and two cups and two plates on the table and two little brooms, and not a thing else. Gaynelle and Virgie Cline are maiden ladys, and have not been apart for a minute. They sit on the porch in little strate-back chairs with seats of woven hickory, smoking pipes. Ther faces are little and squnched up like apple dolls, they are teeny-tiny with curly white hair and dont way hardly a thing. Dont nobody know how they live exackly Daddy said, they do not farm nor raise a thing but beans and flowers in the yard, nor have a cow, but folks takes them food just to hear ther storys.

  I think myself they live on storys, they do not need much food.

  But I am telling how they come in here last nigt and like to have frigted us outen our wits and then Silvaney, now mark you it was Silvaney, I swear she knows moren folks think, Silvaney says, oh it must be Old Christmas! for this is when they used to come ever year, Janury 5 like clockwork and stay up all nigt and drink coffee and tell storys with Daddy, they did it when he was not but a child living here with his own momma and daddy and his sister Vicey and brother Revel. Daddy allus said it seemed to him that they were old ladys then, so dont nobody know how old they migt be now.

  So Gaynelle and Virgie Cline were talking back and forth amongst therselves, and looken at Daddy, ther talking was too soft to hear good and it sounded like a nother langage almost, like bells in the snow. You culd tell they didnt know iffen twuld be better to stay nor go. Danny and Johnny was holding onto Ethels legs and peeping outen her skirt with ther eyes as big as a plate.

  And you culd hear our daddy drawing ever breth.

  I looked at Momma wich werent no good, Momma was looking wild and she bit at her lip, she had bit it so much it was all ready bleeding. Her hair was all over her head. She clutched up her skirt in her hands. And all I culd think of I sware was that snow outside I sware, where I had layed as I said for upwards of a hour and where it was so quite and peacefull. Lord it was like it drawed me out the door almost, it was like I was being pulled.

  But then all of a sudden I heerd myself say, and it was me, mind you, I was the one that said it, Well now that youve come so far we hope you will stay, take off your bonnets come close to the fire and tell us a story. For it seemed to me that the only way I culd keep from running back out in the snow was to hear a story! Momma looked ill as a hornet at me but then she looked down at Daddy and then she told Beulah to make some coffee wich Mrs. Brown had sent us up here by Green Patterson. And the ladys sat down by the fire and we all gathered up around.

  Dont tell Bloody Bones begged Beulah, whatever you do.

  And just the mention of it set Silvaney off, I had to wet her face down to make her hush.

  Tell Old Dry Fry, I said. This one is funny and Daddys faverite.

  Well Old Dry Fry was a preacher man, one of the ladys started, but you cant tell Gaynelle from Virgie, its not worth your truble to try. And when they tell a story it goes back and forth, first one to the other you know. She said, everbody knowed Old Dry Fry. And Old Dry Fry liked to eat so much, he wuld eat at two or three houses sometimes after meeting, and one time when he was eating, he et so much that he up and died. Well in the house where he died lived a man named Ray Doolittle and he said, Law me! We will be hung for murder! and so he wrapped Old Dry Fry up in a quilt and taken him down the road and leaned him up agin another fellers door. And when this other fellers old woman opened the door that follering day, why Old Dry Fry fell in the house and everbody said, Law me! its Old Dry Fry dead, we will be hung for murder! For everbody knowed Old Dry Fry.

  So they put him in a corncrib and then they taken him out in the dead of nigt and set him up in the bresh by the high road, and direckly a rich man come along, and some highway robbers come up and shot at him until they had cotched him and took all his money, and then they let him go. This rich mans name was Old Moneybags Macintosh, and he run off crying to beat the band.

  Then it got full ligt, and them highway robbers seed Old Dry Fry setting up there dead in the bresh by the side of the road, and they said, Law me! its Old Dry Fry dead as a post, we will be hung for murder! For everbody knowed Old Dry Fry.

  So they taken Old Fry down to the riverbank and propped him up by a willer tree, and he stayed rigt there until a little old fiesty boy come along and said Ho there, Old Dry Fry! For everbody knowed Old Dry Fry. And when Old Dry Fry didn’t say nothing, this little fiesty boy said, I reckon you think you are too good to talk, Old Dry Fry, and when Old Dry Fry didnt say nothing then, why this little fiesty boy just poked him in the river with a willer stick and run off down the road. Now there was a old woman down there fishing for bass-fish and Lord, she cotched Old Dry Fry. And she said, Law me! Hit is Old Dry Fry as dead as a stone, I will be hung for murder! For everbody knowed Old Dry Fry.

  And the sisters passed the story around, back and forth between them, and by and by we was all laghing and laghing, even serios Ethel and glummy little old Garnie and even Momma, well she was not laghing but she had set down ther by Daddy and she had left off clutching her skirt. They is something very funny about saying Old Dry Fry over and over. So the story goes on, it goes back and forth betwixt Gaynelle and Virgie Cline until at the end of it, we was dubbled up laghing and Old Dry Fry had ben put in a poke and tyed onto a horse and the last anybody knowed, the horse was galloping off for Kentucky under the ligt of the moon.

  And then they toled a bunch more including Mutsmag wich Silvaney asked for, now you see how good she can recollect. So the sisters toled Mutsmag wich is about a old woman that had three gals, Poll, Betts and Mutsmag, but they all treated Mutsmag mean, she had to do all the work while theyd lay in bed of a morning and not give her nothing to eat but leftovers and old sour milk. Then the old woman up and died, and the girls had to go in the world to seek ther fortune and they said Mutsmag, you come too, but she had to carry all ther plunder and they wuldnt give her no journey cakes. But after many adventures a giant comes along, and he eats up Poll and Betts, and then he turns into a handsome Prince and tuck Mutsmag off to a faraway country where she was the Queen.

  I loved that one. But now it was late and the littluns had fell asleep and even Ethel was fixing to fall asleep, you culd tell by her eyes drooping down. The Cline sisters stirred and rustled as if they was fixing to go. Me and Silvaney was the on
liest ones still up and listening. And I recollected how, if Daddy had not been so sick, he wuld of been telling too, he loved the old storys so, and I recollected what all he used to say about Old Christmas Eve, how alder buds will bust and leaf out, and bees will roar in a beegum like ther fixing to swarm, and briars will blossom and animals will speak, and if you go up on a real high hill, you migt see a big star rise.

  Daddy allus said Old Christmas was a time to stay home and think on what will last. And what will last? I said to myself rigt then, and I looked over at Daddy ther fixing to die, and the fire was dying too. It was real late but I wasnt one bit sleepy. Nothing lasts, I said to myself, nothing not nary a thing.

  And then the sisters, who had been stirring to go, sat back and said, Well now Ivy, this one is for you.

  And they toled it then in a whisper so low it was like it was toled in my very own head.

  There was a man with three daghters who was fixing to go to town, and he axed, What do you want me to bring you girls? for he loved them very much. The eldest one axed for a new silk dress the color of evry bird in the sky, and the second eldest axed for a new silk dress the color of evry color in the rainbow, and the youngest, who was the fathers faverite, axed for white roses.

  Well the onliest white roses in the whole town was on a rosybush in the churchyard and when the father comenced to brake these roses, he heerd a voice that said, You brake them and I will brake you. And then he comenced to brake them agin, and then he heerd it agin, and then he thoght about his youngest daghter and how bad she wanted them white roses. But then finely he heerd the voice say, Give me what meets you first at the gate, you can brake all you want till your basket is full. And he thoght of his old hound dog that allus run out to the gate, and said that wuld be all rigt.

  But when he rode up carrying his roses, who shuld run out but his youngest girl, she said, Daddy Daddy!

  Get back sugar, he hollered, but she come on anyways and give him a big kiss and tuck the roses. So the father was truble, but he didnt say nothing, nor tell it, and then as soon as dark come, they heerd a big voice say, Send out my pay.

  So the father he tryed to send out the old hound dog, but the voice come agin, Send out my pay.

  So the father he went out there hisself, and then the eldest girl she went, but the voice come agin, Send out my pay! and finely the youngest girl she give them all a kiss and gotten her bonnet and coat and gone out the door where she was suprised to find the biggest white bear she had ever seed, who said Get up on my back, and she done it, but she was crying so hard that her nose bled, and three drops of blood fell on the white bears back.

  But he kept running on and on.

  And finely he come to a nice cabin, and lit the lamp, and lo and behold he was a good-looking young feller and as soon as she seed him, she thoght the world of him.

  But now she had to choose. He said his name was Whitebear Whittington and he had been witched so that he culd be a man of a nigt and a bear of a day, or a bear of a nigt and a man of a day, now wich will it be? axed Whitebear Whittington.

  She picked a man of a nigt.

  So in the daytime hed be a bear and lay around in the woods outside whilst she kept house, and then come nigt and hed be a man, and she was as happy as she culd be. For she loved him with all her hart. She had three babys and time past and she wanted to show them to her daddy, she knowed he was getting old.

  Well you can do this said Whitebear Whittington, but dont you never speak my name no matter what you do, and she said she wuld never do so. So he tuck them on his back next morning to her fathers gate.

  Now I am so happy to see you honey, her father said, but he kept on axing whose was these babys and finely because she loved him so, she said, Whitebear Whittington.

  Well Lord then it lightninged and thunder roled and when she raised up her eyes, she seed her husband going up Pine Mountain and on the back of his shirt was three drops of blood.

  Oh how she hollered and cryed then, for she loved him.

  So she left her children with her father and set out after him, and she walked the mountains for seven long years and whenever she lost hart, a white bird wuld fly over and drop a fether with a red speck on it, so she wuld keep on going, and sometimes she wuld come to a house wher theyd tell her about a fine young man who had ben ther only the nigt before, with three drops of blood on the back of his shirt. And she kept walking for seven years. She wuld of give up if she had not come upon a old woman who gave her three gold nuts, a walnut and a hickry nut and a chinkypin, and said for her to foller the river and she wuld find her man. So she done so.

  But what she found was a bunch of women warshing his shirt, for whoever culd get out the blood culd have him. So she grabbed it away from them women and in a minute it come clean, but then another woman jerked it away, and so this other woman got him and tuck him home, and all this time he never knowed her. He looked her strate in the eye and never knowed her. So the girl gave the woman her gold chinkypin just to sleep with him one nigt, and so she did, and in the nigt the girl said, Three drops of blood Ive shed for thee, three little babes Ive born for thee, Whitebear Whittington turn to me. But the old lady had done give him a sleepy dram, and he wuld not wake.

  And then the girl give the woman her gold hickry nut so she culd sleep with him the next nigt but the same thing happend, and he slept on, and she culd not rouse him.

  Finely she gave the old woman her gold walnut, and it was all she had, and this evening her husband spit out his sleepy dram, and did not swaller it. So when the girl said, Three drops of blood Ive shed for thee, three little babes Ive born for thee, Whitebear Whittington turn to me, he done so, and when she said his name he waked up, and he knowed her. And the next morning that old woman found the door locked as tigt as a drum, and she culdnt get in no way and she was mad as fire but there wasnt nothing she culd do as the spell was finely broke and they walked back over the mountains together and got ther three children and went on home, and Whitebear Whittington never was a bear again.

  I think this is the bestest story I have ever heerd.

  By the time the sisters had quit telling it, it was real late and everbody but me and Silvaney was sleeping, so we helped the sisters get ther bonnets and ther coats where we had hanged them up to dry and they said over and over they had to go, they wuld not spend the nigt, which we knowed anyway, they never will stay the nigt but walk in all wethers home. Goodbye then we said, we culd not see ther faces under ther bonnets nor hear what they said, wich sounded like fairy bells in the snow. When they tell a story, you can hear them. Silvaney stood in the door and watched them go, and I come and stood in the door behind her, and Momma raised up and hollered at us for letting out heat. So we went out and closed the door behind us and stood barefoot in the snow, it was not even cold a bit, watching the lady sisters skitter like waterbugs over the snow, moving faster and faster it seemed until they were lost in the shadders of trees as they headed up Hell Mountain so fast it seemed they were flying.

  Silvaney and me stood with our arms around each others waists and looked at everthing, the moon on the snow so brite it was almost like day, the snow shining back at the moon.

  The sisters dissapeared.

  But when I was straining to see them I seed something else and I will sware it, you culd see in that moonligt as plain as day, and what I seed was Whitebear Whittington walking into the dark trees, and them three drops of blood on his back. I grabbed Silvaney hard it made her lagh out loud she thoght I was funning her, and then she culdnt stop laghing, it tuck awhile. I said Silvaney Silvaney, did you see him? and she said, who? But Silvaney dont know what she sees. And I seed him myself I tell you, seed his white shirt and fine gold hair all shining, Whitebear Whittington I seed him as plain as day, but I cant tell it to nobody else so I have writ it down for you cold Hanneke, Hanneke Queen, or for nobody, or may be it is for me as I remane forever always,

  IVY ROWE.

  My dear Mrs. Brown,

  I thank you k
indly for yor letter but to anser yor questin, no I do not pray, nor do I think much of God. It is not rigt what he sends on people. He sends too much to bare.

  Listen here.

  My daddy died to anser yor questin a week ago Thursday.

  And it was a funny thing, it being rigt after that big rain, and little freshets of water was busting out everwhere around here and the sky so blue it was like you culd smell spring in the air and the birds is all coming back now too, they was twittering. I had took off my long undershirt two weeks before, and Silvaney and Ethel and the littluns had done the same, and we had took the asafiddity offen around the littluns necks. Ethel and them was taking on so that morning for I had found three little chicks just hatched and nearabout drowned up on Pilgrim Knob, and I had brung them in the house and put them in a little box up here by the stove and we was all watching them. So wasnt nobody paying much mind to nothing but that, when all of a sudden Silvaney comes busting in the door and screams and falls down on the floor by Daddys pallet. Now I culdnt tell you where Silvaney had been nor what in the world she was up to. She has took to wandering the mountain since the thaw, cant none of usuns keep her in the house, and after all she is growed, Silvaney is a big girl now.

  And that awful screem she lets out as she falls is like a knifeblade in my hart.

  Silvaney lays on the floor crying.

  Lord what is it now, Momma says and she turns from the stove where she has been cooking a mess of cabbage. Then she thows down her paddle on the floor and runs over there and flings herself acrost Daddy, laying her ear to his puny chest. John, John Arthur, she says. Then she lays plum still for a minute acrost his pallet, and her hair had come loose now outen its knot, and it splayed black and gray everwhere like a witches hair, covering Daddys face. You culdnt hear a thing in the house but Silvaney crying and the boy-babys banging ther little gourds on a old tin pan Beulah had give them to play with. Then Momma looked up and looked around at all of us.