She motioned them forward. But she still was not sure it was safe. In some mysterious way, it was too quiet. And strangely, Yaller Feet was not there.
Once they were all in, the children looked at her, puzzled because she was still whispering. “Somebody’s been here. Be quiet as a mouse,” she said. “I looking outside.” The children froze, afraid to stay and afraid to go with her.
Finally, she found it, outside in the back, and she called into the cabin. “Luke, Luke, come out here! Only don’t you come too close!” She was nervous, but not frightened.
Luke crept up to her until she motioned to him to stop. A man was on the ground. “He dead?” Luke asked, hardly daring to breathe.
“No, not yet,” she said, “but he almost gone. See can you help me get him turned over.” They tugged at the unconscious man, who moaned when they turned him. He was White, a soldier; she knew that from his hat, or maybe he had stolen it.
“What ails him, Betty?” Luke asked.
“Don’t know. He skin and bones, burnin up with fever. Get me some cool water, Luke, and a rag. Could be something bad, could be something not so bad.” Looked to be Union, Betty thought. She checked his pockets and found a dusty letter with dried blood on it.
“Kin you read, Luke?” Betty was sponging off the man’s face with an old rag Luke had found inside. Daylily and Caswell were standing in the cabin too scared to ask what had happened and afraid to call out loud.
“No, ma’am, that’s a fact . . . but . . . I guess I can tell it now. Daylily can read some.
“Lookee here, y’all,” called Luke, running into the cabin. “Come see. A soldier most dead and a letter. Miz Betty want you to read this letter to her, Daylily.”
Caswell and Daylily hurried up to Betty. “You don’t mind I kin read?” said Daylily.
“Why would I? I’m a Indian, not a White woman. Here, read for me.”
They all looked over Daylily’s shoulder while she read, as if they knew what the words said. “It say, ‘To Pri-vate Clar ence Ol-m-stead, Con-fed-derate pr-isoner of war, Eden, North Caro-lina Cole Pitts.’ What’s ‘Cole Pitts,’ Miz Betty?”
“Coal’s for burnin,” Betty answered. “Got to dig down underground to get it out. What the letter say?”
“It say, ‘My dear Clar-ence. I’m pray the letter reach you and that you are in soun health in that reb prison. We hear about the sick-nesses that has taken more than three [zero zerozero, I don know what that sum is, y’all] of our boys who would be happier dyin for the cose, but die instead for small-pox.’”
Suddenly Betty knew what it was she was looking at. “Get back in the house!” she said. “Bring me some old rags and drop them by the woodpile. Don’t touch nothin in the house till I git there! Now git!”
She had to call on her relations. The ground was telling her things. Broken leaves, dragged dust. Look like he had gone outside for some reason. This Union man, he wasn’t one of those who had caught her two days ago. She had never seen his face before. This man looked too sick to do anything but die.
One bad thing followed another, and now another bad thing had to be done. She had to get these children out of here before that scum came back looking for her. There was always that chance, and with smallpox . . . There wasn’t any way she could fix it so they could stay.
She made a little pillow with the rags and put it under Olmsted’s head. Went to the pump and washed and scrubbed her hands as clean as she could with lemongrass and cold water and then lye soap she kept at the pump. She should have known they could only stay with her for so long, but her heart hurt, knowing what she had to do, hurt for them and for herself.
“Miz Betty!” Daylily called from the house. “We hungry!”
Inside the cabin, she looked at everything real hard. The three children were sitting on the floor waiting for her just like she had told them. “OK, here’s what we gotta do,” she said. “First we gotta eat, and then we gotta talk, and then we gotta rest.”
“But Miz Betty,” Caswell said, getting ready to ask the question they were all thinking. “What about the poor sick man? You gonna leave him in the yard like that?”
She took Caswell and set him on her lap. “Come’ere, Gray Wolf. You all need to know. This man’s more’n likely got the smallpox, but I ain’t sure yet.”
“See,” Luke said to Daylily, “I tole you!”
“Shh, Luke. Just listen. That’s terrible bad sickness for him and bad news for us, whatever it is. Cause you guys gotta grow up, and if he gives you the sickness, you might not get to. You might get sick and die. So after we eat, I gonna find somewhere in the woods for you to sleep, and next day you gotta rest, and then you gotta go.”
They all looked like she had slapped them. She hated this. She purely hated it, what she had to do, and all the heart went out of her.
“Go where?” said Caswell.
“Go north like you was before I found you and you found me.”
“We gotta leave you?” Daylily looked like that was the last thing on earth she thought Betty would ever say. “No, I don’t wanna. Betty, we can’t leave without you, we can’t!” Daylily put her arms around Betty and held on tight.
Luke said softly, “She can’t help it. We catch that man’s sickness we all gon die.”
Tears were brightening Daylily’s brown eyes. “But Betty, Miz Betty, what you gon do?” she said.
“Don’t you worry bout Miz Betty Strong Foot, Little Bear. Got plenty strong medicine,” she said, beating her chest and making fun of how White men sometimes talked to her, pretending to be brave. But she wasn’t, not brave at all. This was harder than being captured.
“But you’ll die,” Caswell wailed.
“Betty not gon die!” she said. “Promise. Now stop that and let’s get somethin to eat. Some good meat and bread. And then I gotta talk to Luke. I got somethin for him to do.” Everyone looked anxious and scared. “Listen, everything gon work out. You gonna get up north, you gonna grow up and be important people, and you gonna come back here and see Betty someday. I gonna show you a way to get to Harper’s Ferry, and you kin get help there, have a place to stay, and find some grown folks to take care of you. I gonna show you which way to go, so don’t be scared. And some day y’all gonna be all grown up doin all kinda important things in the world.
“Now listen to Betty. All of you got strong medicine. Caswell is a wolf. A wolf is a teacher; he finds a way, and he can always get back home to the family. Wolf must lead by sharing what he learns. And he teaches other people what he learned. Wolves be loyal and wise.
“And Daylily is a bear. A bear knows things by listenin. Bear goes to the dream lodge and tells us the truth. Bear is a fierce mother for the young.”
Daylily’s chin was trembling, but she was trying hard to be brave.
“And Luke,” said Betty, “Luke got powerful eagle medicine. Luke got big courage. He can come through fiery trials. He can fly high and see it all. He knows the whole story, and he talks to the Great Spirit and tells other folks. So you see, you got everything you need. What did I say? If you believe, you ain’t never alone. You got a whole passel of angels and spirit animals with you. And you gotta be caring for each other.”
Daylily blew her nose on a handkerchief and straightened her shoulders. She put her arm around Caswell. “We can do it for you, Miz Betty,” she said.
That’s all Betty could say to them, and she hoped and prayed they had strength enough to make it without her. “You all gotta promise Betty you gonna be strong, OK?” Caswell nodded, yes. Luke made a fist and said, “OK, OK, Betty, we gon be fine.”
Betty pointed at each one of them. “Cause you a bear, an eagle and a wolf, and that’s a fact!” she said. “I saw it in my sleep, and what I see in my sleep I believe!”
They ate quickly; in spite of their trouble, they were all hungry, like children almost always are. Every few minutes, Betty would look outside and go around back to where the sick man was. Yaller Feet came stepping back from where
ver he had gone. He must have run when the sick man came around. “Checkin up,” she told them. “Got to be on the lookout.”
They had to go rest in the woods on the back side of the house away from the soldier, so she could watch for them. About thirty yards from the house Betty knew there was a small cave. She took the children there and gave them a quilt to lie on, and put another quilt over them to keep the chill away. When she walked away, she felt a big lump in her throat. These my children, she thought. They deserve something more than this.
While they were resting, she put together some food for the road, and water in the canteens. She gave Luke fresh gunpowder in his powder bag, and cleaned his rifle. She made a sling to make it easier for him to carry his rifle, and then she went outside and woke Luke up.
He had dozed off, and she was glad he had been able to get some sleep. They were all tired from their rescue efforts.
“Luke, you gotta wake up,” Betty said, hating to wake him.
He rubbed his eyes. “Huh?” he mumbled. “Yeah?”
“I’m sorry, little Blue Eagle, you gotta do one more piece of business for me before y’all go. You gotta take a message. It’s two hours walkin time, where you gotta go. I need you to carry these words in your head, OK? The words are ‘Red is dead. Sunrise on the left.’ OK?”
“Red is dead. Sunrise on the left,” Luke said to himself slowly. Then all of a sudden he was fully awake. He knew she was giving him a spy message! He was both thrilled and scared.
“Now,” she said. “Listen good, Luke. You go back to the house where they caught me, only don’t go all the way. Stop at the cornfield before the house. It’ll be an old cornfield gone to seed. You know the difference between right and left?”
Luke nodded.
“Put out your right hand.” Luke did as he was told.
“Now put out your left hand. That’s it. The old cornfield on the left hand. Now come outside a minute.”
Betty pointed to a tree at the edge of the yard. “You see that tree? This old house about from here to that tree. Is gonna be a man there at sundown tonight in the cornfield. Old Black man, white hair, and beard, tall. He gonna whistle ‘John Brown’s Body.’ You know that song?”
Luke shook his head. “I’m not sure, Betty.”
“I’ll hum it for you,” she said.
As she sang the song for him, he seemed to remember it and began to hum along. He said Unc Steph used to hum it under his breath, but he had never heard anybody but Betty sing the words.
“Sing it for me,” Betty said. And she hummed it again, so he could follow. When she thought he had it, she said, “When you hear the song, you say the words. Now what are they? Tell me again.”
Luke repeated the “red is dead” message.
“Don’t say these words to nobody else, you hear? Nobody! If you do, they tie you up and take you to jail, or worse. If you see somebody else sides the old man, you hide, and hightail it back here soon as you can. I can’t go cause they know me now. They caught me. Folks be on the lookout for me. We just gotta get this message there. It’ll save a lot of lives on both sides, I hope. You gotta leave now. You just got time.”
“Betty, I’s just wonderin, is it Union or reb this message is for?”
“For both. We’s trying to stop a battle. One way or nother, it don’t matter to me.”
But Luke was stubborn, and he knew right from wrong even at his age.
But Betty knew he wasn’t old enough to know that right and wrong could sometimes get so they looked like they were all mixed up, even if they weren’t. He wasn’t old enough to know folks could lose their faith in most everything and just decide to live the best way they could and the devil take the rest. He was not old enough to know bitterness.
“But Miz Betty, it got to matter. Don’t you see? It got to! I don’t wanna be helpin no rebs. They hate my kind. They treat us like dogs! Don’t you see? It ain’t right! It ain’t right!”
Daylily and Caswell were stirring from their naps. They had heard most of the conversation between Betty and Luke, and sat up on the quilt, a little confused but knowing Luke was going somewhere without them. Betty could see the fear on Daylily’s face.
“Where he goin, Miz Betty? You can’t send him away. He got to go to Harper’s Ferry with us. We can’t make it without him! And we got to stay out here in this cave by ourselves!”
Caswell nodded, knowing that at least what Daylily said was true. They couldn’t make it without Luke.
Betty patted Daylily’s shoulder to soothe her. “Shh, you gon be fine,” she said quietly. She was just praying he’d make it back. So many lives depended on this one little boy doing a job she should have done if she just hadn’t been captured!
“Shh,” she said, trying to put their fears to rest. “He comin back, tonight! And I gonna be looking in on you all night. Don’t you worry; you and Caswell be fine. Luke just goin for a little while.”
Luke was crying now, but he wiped his face with an angry swipe of his sleeve.
“Hush now, Luke, husha bye,” Betty said, taking his hand. “I know you got eagle medicine in you, aiming for the sky, ain’t that so? It’s all right. This for Union. Betty sees the sky you be flyin in, Little Blue Eagle.”
Luke nodded that he understood. At least Betty seemed to know why he couldn’t be a spy for the rebs.
“You go now. Time movin too fast already. The Great Spirit hold you up and Betty will sing you there and back.”
“Bye, Luke,” Daylily said, talking barely above a whisper. “You got your mama’s mojo?”
“Yeah, course I do.”
“Bye, Luke,” echoed Caswell. “You got your rifle?”
“You my brother now, Caswell, don’t you forget,” Luke answered.
“Sho nuff, Luke.”
“Yeah, that’s a fact,” answered Luke. He needed to hurry up and go before he got to crying again. He wanted to be proud and tall, and act like a man, even though he felt more like a child leaving his mama.
“Be there by sundown,” Betty called out to him as he vanished into the woods. “Remember, the eagle is always nearby and the Great Spirit be by your side.”
CHAPTER 25
CLARENCE OLMSTEAD
During that evening while Luke was gone, Betty didn’t even try to sleep. She kept walking to the cave and back to check on Daylily and Caswell. Worry kept knocking at the door of her mind. Where was Luke, how was he doing, was he on his way back by now? Full night came, and no Luke. She really did have to be brave now, for the sake of the younger children. Daylily was restless. Once she woke up calling for Betty while Betty was standing over her to make sure she was covered with the quilt. “I’m here, Little Bear,” she said. “Don’t you fret yourself. Betty ain’t gonna let nothing happen to you all. Luke be back soon. You rest now.” Daylily lay back again and Betty tucked the quilt tighter around her.
She went back to the cabin and tried to work on a special blanket that she was weaving, with images of the wolf, the bear and the eagle, but she couldn’t concentrate. The last thing she wanted to do was leave them alone with a sick and maybe dying man to go looking for Luke. No telling if other soldiers or that trash was looking for her, and to add to everything else, Clarence Olmstead seemed to be even worse. He was sweating so. His whole face was wet. He was talking out of his head. She took pity on him and dragged him into the house as far away from their beds as possible.
It was hard work, but it was a good thing he was so skinny and Betty was strong, because he was almost dead weight. Betty listened to his ravings to see if she could hear anything about the troops, and where he’d come from.
Suddenly he opened his eyes like he was staring at a vision; he muttered something about his boy. “My son,” he kept saying, “my only son, dead by a rebel bullet, twelve years old, and dead . . .” and then he sank back into his fever.
Betty looked around for a rag she could throw away later. She went to wet it under the pump out back, and came back to wipe the sweat
off his face. He must have sensed her standing over him, and he started and opened his eyes, yelling out “David, David!”
“Just you rest now,” she said aloud.
But Clarence Olmstead fell back in a stupor again.
Poor man, Betty thought. Lost his son. The longer she sat there, the more she thought of Luke and what danger he might be in. “I must be ailing in my mind,” she said to herself, “to send him into such danger.”
And he said he wouldn’t mind if it meant something, if it meant something to the others he had loved. He had more sense than she had, more than she ever had. He really was an eagle, flying up there close to God. She had named him without even knowing how right she was. Betty sat up straight in her rocking chair. She wiped the man’s forehead, and thought of this poor man and his son and Luke.
If she sent Luke, whom she loved like he was her own child, to be murdered by some no-count dirty dogs, it had to be for something, something that really mattered like breaking slavery chains, setting free all the suffering people who were tortured and murdered, treated like animals or worse. She didn’t know about that life firsthand because God had blessed her with a life of freedom, but she knew from her papa how terrible it would be to have somebody own you. Why didn’t I see, she thought, why didn’t I see until now?
“Oh, Lord, oh, God, oh, Great Spirit,” she prayed, “send my chile home to me.” She sat by Olmstead all night and rocked and chanted in her mama’s words for Luke’s safe homecoming. And she knew, she knew now for sure. There would be no more spying for the rebs, not from her, not ever again.
Rocking and rocking and wiping her tears, she said, finally, “It’s all right, Luke, it’s all right. And Lord, just get him back here so I can tell him I know. I know what he was cryin about. He wanted me to know that we gotta be strong and stand up for right. Oh, Great Spirit, if you really listening to Betty Strong Foot, send him back to us so’s I can tell him Betty knows, we got to stand, we got to stand till all our people be free.”
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