Fair and Tender Ladies

by Lee Smith

  But Daddy, it is Silvaney.

  She is hiding more now, she gets up of a morning and runs off in the woods and hides, I sware she is like a wild animal. She will grab up a bit of pone or a cold tater or something else crazy to eat and run off laghing, you can not ketch her nor slow her down, nor ax her a thing when she is like this. And talk! Lord she will talk to herself out loud, this is the scarriest part, and then she will cock her head just like she is listening to somebody, and then she will anser them back! Only aint nobody relly ther Daddy, and you cant understand a word she says. When I tell Momma this, she just says, Oh hush your mouth Ivy, you know how you embroider, honey, just hush.

  And Silvaney has got a ligt in her eye now like a reglar fire, it is like her whole face is lit up from inside, like they is a fire in her head shining throgh, and its not long I think before this fire is going to burn her up.

  Oh Silvaney Silvaney. She has that pale smooth skin you know and them big blue eyes like lakes, and it is like, rigt under ther is flames, flames. It is so scarry.

  Momma says, Dont be so silly Ivy you are just full of notions, Silvaney is fine, fine, hush yor mouth, shut up shut up Ivy. Hush, just shut up for gods sake.

  But Silvaney is not fine. And Daddy I see this, and I do not know who to turn to, nor what to say.

  For it is all hooked up with Babe someway, I can not say. Silvaney has got worse since Babe come back. Somehow Babe is more than she can stand, you know Silvaney is dellicate. When did it all start I wonder, when Silvaney was little or when they was borned, them twins, Silvaney and Babe, do you reckon it culd of started that long ago? Granny Rowe allus said that Babe come out helthy with a big head of black hair but Silvaney was real tiny and come out blue and had to be shook upside down till she brethed good.

  Do you reckon it started so far back? Or may be when they was five years old and Silvaney took the brane fever, Momma said she was out of her head for a week sollid and her head was as hot as a skillet on the stove and it burned out part of her brane. Oh Daddy were you ther when Silvaney took so sick, did you watch by her side? For I feel that I shuld watch her now, but I can not. I can not keep up with her now, sometimes I can not ketch her at all, I will heer her voice talking, talking in the woods, but when I come where she was, she is gone. Only a footprint or a broken leaf or her voice on the hot dry wind. Oh Daddy they is something terible hapening now, I can not say what it is. Were you ther when she walked in the fire? For Silvaney is doing these things agin now, I feel it, I can not keep up with her nor watch her ever minit wich I shuld.

  Listen Daddy. The other nigt Babe come in drunk in the middle of the nigt. We had not seed him in days. He went out of the house to pee and fell offen the porch wich wuld of been funny if he hadnt of been so mad. So he just layed ther by the steps hollering and then he quit hollering and we knowed he had past out. But sometime later in the nigt, and I dont know what time it was but I know it was relly late, I woke up all of a sudden and sat up strate on the bed. I didnt know what had got into me. I was wide awake. So I got up out of the bed, I culd heer everbody brething around me, and gone over and pushed the door, and law you have never seed such a flood of moonligt in your life, all acrost the yard, it was nearabout ligt as day but a pale flat kind of ligt, the moon. And of coarse it was hot too, even up here, and not a breth of air stirring. I walked out on the porch.

  And what did I see but Babe laying out ther drunk in the dirt, his head flung back and his mouth wide open. But the awful part of this is that Silvaney was out ther too, in her white shift with her hair hanging wild and ligt down around her sholders, bending over Babe, watching him sleep.

  Silvaney honey, what are you doing out here? I asked her, and Silvaney said, Why hello Ivy, how are you?

  I am doing fine, I said, now come on in. Finely she got up and come in the house and went to bed, but ther is something relly wrong Daddy, for it is like she does not need to sleep nor eat now, ether one. And ever after this nigt it has been in my mind, Silvaney sitting in the moonligt watching Babe, it was like she was part of him truely, like the other side of Babe who has so many plans and schemes, but she has none. Silvaney is so fair and he is dark. It scarred me to death and Ill sware it, I cant get it out of my mind how they looked in the moonligt like a statue in Mrs. Browns art book from France, how Silvaneys hair looked in all that ligt. Oh Daddy I miss you so much do not think I am crazy because I feel they is something terible starting to happen and you know it is dog days so whatever it is will go on happening, but I remane yo

  My dear Molly,

  Babe is dead.

  He was shot in the back of the head by a man named Arlen Snipes, or so everbody says, we do not know it for sartin.

  This is what all happend.

  Babe had been gone from here upwards of a week, over to Kentucky trading or so he said, of coarse we never knowed where Babe went when he left nor what he was up to nether. I wuld like to know what he had to trade. He was up to no good, I reckon it is fair to say, and I dont care iffen I speak ill of the dead or not. Some men had been up here after him about some monney, while he was gone. But they say he had got in a whole nother ruckus over at Pineville about a mans wife that he had been messing around with for some time, and she run off from her husband after him, left two little old babys ther at the house, but when she got up with Babe he wuldnt have her, and sent her back to her old man, now this was Arlen Snipes. And so then Arlen Snipes come out after Babe, telling everbody in Pineville goodbye and that he wuldnt be back afore him or Clarence Wayne Rowe was dead, one. And his pretty blackhaired wife come out in the road crying and twisting her hands and begging him not to do it but he said, Gussie, get on back in the house now.

  Who knowed what Gussie had in mind, or what she wanted to happen? Can you imagine this Molly I can not!

  But the first thing anybody over here knowed about it was Tuesday after supper when it was just coming on for dark, and Granny Rowe was over here visiting, and we was all sitting out on the porch with the littluns, and all of a sudden we heerd a shot ring out in the nigt over the treefrogs and crickets, real close by. Then a horse started winnying.

  Well did you heer that? Momma says, sitting strate up, and Granny Rowe says, It sounds like a shot to me, and not far off nether.

  Oh no, Beulah says. Beulahs baby is sucking at her titty.

  Sounds to me like it was rigt down the hill ther, says Granny Rowe. She is smoking her pipe on the porch, she has got smoke all around her head. The horse was down ther squeeling bloody murder at the creek.

  Im going down ther, says Garnie who is morbid as you know, and he jumps off the porch and runs down the holler and Momma says, Ivy, go after him. He ougtnt to go alone. I have to say, I wanted to go down ther anyway, you know how I am so curios! So I took off running after Garnie, hollering Garnie honey, wait on me! But he wuld not wait for a thing. I ran along throgh a whole bunch of lightning bugs, it was like I was running throgh stars.

  Then I heerd Garnie.

  Ivy, Ivy, he hollered, Oh lord, Ivy come here, and I follered his voice acrost Sugar Fork to where he had come upon Babe laying on the creekbank down from the trail. This old horse he was riding had got itself all tangled up in a thornbush, it was raring and plunging and winnying, and culd not get away, wich was lucky for us as I will relate direckly.

  Babe was laying half in and half out of the creek, it was so dark we culdnt hardly see him. The bullfrogs was making a racket all along the creek. Babe, Babe, I said and I pulled at his shirt and tryed to turn him over. When I got a good look at his face it was nearabout gone, nothing but blood, but when I layed my head on his back I thoght I culd heer his hart.

  Garnie honey, I said to Garnie, you go on back to the house and get Granny Rowe and see can she do anything for Babe, and I am going to get on this horse and ride him down to Home Creek and get some of the neghbor people, it looks like a murder to me.

  Ivy you cant ride that horse, Garnie said. Garnie was hunkered down looking at Babe, it was getting dar
k real fast.

  Well I am going to, I said, and I said Whoa now to the horse in a big voice and reached in ther and got his bridle untangled and hopped alongside of him till I culd fling myself up on his back. He was not a real big horse or I wuldntve done it, also I used to ride a horse if ever they was a horse up here, or a mule ether one. So I got up on the horse and then he started bucking. I jerked him in evertime he jumped, and his shoes struck sparks from the rocks along ther by Sugar Creek. All rigt now boy, I said, lets go. He clumb back up the creekbank to the trail with me holding on for dear life. He stomped a little and looked around oncet he got up ther, and I got a holt of him good, and looked back down ther where Babe was laying in the dark with all them loud-loud frogs. Ill be back as soon as I’m able, I said not knowing iffen Babe culd hear me or not. Garnie had took off for home.

  And do you know what I seed then, Molly, or thoght I seed?

  I thoght I seed Silvaney slipping out from the pinetrees on the other side of the creek and coming acrost the creek so smooth on the steppystones like she was gliding, with her hair hanging down to her waist. Coming over ther to where Babe was laying. No, Silvaney, go back! I hollered. Go back! For I did not want her to see, but Babes horse rared up at that minit and I had to rassle his head down and when I looked back down ther I culdnt see her in the dark.

  Git on then, I said to the horse. I gave him his head and let him pick his own way down Sugar Fork, and all that long way down to Home Creek too. My mind was going around and around. Now Babe is probly dead, I toled myself. It is what you have wanted all along, and because this was true I felt awful. I felt so bad. Oh Molly, dont never wish for nothing, for you are liable to get it. Granny Rowe says this and it is true.

  So while I was riding down ther, the moon come up, the biggest prettest full moon come up just like it was any other nigt in the world, so ligt and lovely it like to took my breth. I knowed it wuld shine on no matter what, and this given me a turn. The moon dont give a damn, I said to myself, and it dont. The moonligt come down throgh the leaves as brigt as day, a cool white ligt, I culd see everthing just as clear when I come riding outen the woods and seen the neghbor peoples houses all in a nice little row. I felt like the highwayman come riding, riding, up to the old inn door. I have got terible news! I wanted to yell but I was too tired to yell. I turned in the saddle and looked back up on Blue Star Mountain wich looked huge and dark and full of mistery, even under that big full moon. You can not see our house from down ther on Home Creek, nor any sign of it. The moon had got up full by then. It hung real low and big in the sky over Pilgrim Knob, and it put me in mind of Silvaney, coming acrost the creek.

  Babes horse was wellnigh foundered by then, twerent any problem to halt him at Delphi Rolettes, but when I got down offen him my legs buckled rigt out from under me and it was all I culd do to get acrost the yard and bang on the door.

  Wake up wake up its me Ivy Rowe, I said, and my brother Babe has been murdered.

  Well to make a long storey short, this was true, Babe having brethed his last about the time that I made it down to Home Creek I reckon, with Granny Rowe and Momma with him but it was too late, even Granny Rowe culdnt do nothing to stop him bleeding.

  So it was early morning by the time that Mister Rolette and Mister Fox and the rest of them come back up ther bringing the law with them, this is Sargent Pope from Majestic, a little old fatbellied man that looks like a cookstove and didnt do nothing but write SHOT IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD on a piece of paper. I rember I went out on the porch in the early morning whilst Sargent Pope was examming Babe who was layed in the floor.

  What will they do now? What will happen? This was Garnie out ther pestering all the men to death with questins.

  Mister Delphi Rolette took a draw on his cigaret and said, Well Garnie its like as not that nothing will happen, may be they can not prove a thing.

  Wich has turned out to be true! That Gussie has turned rigt around and swore it on a Bible that Arlen Snipes was laying with her all nigt long on the nigt in questin, and cant nobody disprove it. She knows wich side her bread is buttered on, Granny says.

  But Momma cryed and said, Clarence has been looking for this bullet all his life, now it is finely his. When they layed his coffin in the ground she said, So holp me God I culdnt do a thing with this boy, and Early Cook said, Dont blame yorself now Maude, sometimes that is the way of it, you have had a hard row to hoe. And I knowed he was thinking back to how Momma had run off from her home as a girl and how Daddy had layed in the bed for so long. Early Cook gave us Babes coffin for free, of coarse we culdnt of payed him a cent if we had to, and they berried Babe as quick as they was able, so quick it did not seem decent somehow. Nobody stood up by the coffin or toled any storeys. They berried Babe next to Daddy at sunset that same day but nobody built him a gravehouse nor mentioned it, it is awful I think to go throgh this world like Babe like a streak of lightning and nobody cares. Babe never had a thing to reccomend him but that grin I reckon, it is sad.

  And the only one that loved him was Silvaney.

  Now Molly, this part is awful. For Silvaney never showed up all that livelong day whilst they were signing the papers and berrying Babe, and nobody knowed where she was, you know she has took to wandering. And I culd not say for sartin wether I had seed her that nigt by the creek or not, things was confused in my mind. So I did not say a word about it. But I set out on the porch that nigt and wuld not sleep, looking for Silvaney, I wanted to be the one to tell her for I knowed it wuld upset her so. Finely thogh I just had to sleep, I was hurting all over from riding that horse, and so I went in and layed down on my pallet, and when I got up the next day it was plum noon and I was so sore I culdnt hardly move at first, but Momma was ther sitting in the chair next to me.

  Mommas face looked all washed out and kind of purified and she said, Ivy I have got some more bad news to tell you, and I said, What, Momma? And Momma said, It is Silvaney, and my hart sank. For I had knowed it somehow I think, and I said, Oh Momma, what is it?

  She said, Silvaney knows somehow, she has come back in here and cut at herself with the kitchen knife and run back out in the woods, so Granny says we must ketch her next time and try to holp her, and Granny is going to stay with us to holp out until we have done so.

  Now this means that Tenessee is here too, wich is funny. For Tenessee has taken it in mind that Mister Early Cook who is a batchelder is sweet on her, and says that he is coming back up here for her direckly. So Molly, as I write this letter we are waiting. Granny Rowe and Momma and me are waiting for Silvaney, and Tenessee is waiting for Early Cook. She has got her little bead bag beside her chair. She says she is ready to go off to be maried. I will let you know what happens next for I remane yor devoted frend,

  IVY ROWE.

  Dear Mrs. Brown,

  I have thogt and thogt to myself, shuld I keep silent now or shuld I write and tell her my feelings about what she and Mister Brown have gone and done to Silvaney? And at first I thogt, I will not say a thing, for they have only done what they thogt was the best.

  But then agin I thogt how Mister Brown used to push his eyeglasses back on his head and say, Girls, girls, search for the truth, for the truth is more presious than rubies, more dear than love. And Mister Brown read to us that death takes toll of beauty, courage, yuth, of all but truth.

  So I will come rigt out and say what I think, it is as follers, I think you all have done a grave wrong to have brung old Doc Trout up here to sware out a warrant on Silvaney, and that little old stovebellied hateful Sargent Pope. If Daddy was still alive you wuld not have done so I will venture to say, nor Victor here nor Babe alive, ether one.

  They did not have to tye her hands nether, to put her in the wagon, you know she walked down Sugar Fork so nicely, it was not nesessary to tye her hands. And she knowed what all was happening, she knowed it exactly Mrs. Brown, you yorself was not here to see her eyes when Doc Trout clicked to the mules and they started off, how she starred back at me and Momma and did not
speak. I belive she knowed what was hapening, and gone of her own accord. She is no longer VILENT, yet this is what Doc Trout wrote on the warrant to send her away.

  I was suprised that Momma let Silvaney go so easy, yet Momma is tired of figting, and all the fire has gone out of her since we berried Babe. Momma, Momma, make them stop! I said as old Doc he clicked up the mules, but Momma put her arms around me and said, Oh Ivy, perhaps it is for the best, Mister Brown thinks it is all for the best. Silvaney will get better bye and bye, and then she will come back to us.

  But Mrs. Brown I will tell you the truth, I do not agree. Since Babe is dead, I feel that Silvaney wuld of quited down. In any case Silvaney is diffrent from all, she needs to wander the woods, and she needs some woods to wander. I cannot feature her in the Elizabeth Masters Home in Roanoke Va. it dont matter how nice it is, she will not learn a trade ther nether, as Mister Brown thinks. For I have tryed to teach Silvaney but she cant learn. She needs to be at home Mrs. Brown, up here on Sugar Fork where they is people to love her like she is, and where she can come and go as she will. She wuld of quited down before long, Mrs. Brown, but now that they have taken my Silvaney it is like they have taken a chunk of my hart.

  So althogh you have done what you think is best, it is not best, it is wrong. And I remane yor truthful,

  IVY ROWE.

  Dear Mrs. Brown,

  To anser your questin, the man that brung that letter was my uncle, Revel Rowe.

  Yrs.,

  IVY ROWE.

  My dear Molly,

  I have got some good news to tell you at last! For you will not belive what has happend.