The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-09-26

| his nature to its foundations
'tNorf, marm9 Me go Norf2'
yep, yer got ter We uns cayrnt live hyar-
! abouts Yer gotJer git Norf SOS ter live an do
sometbin. NV folks they waz likely 'nough peo-
pie up Norf, bit yer dads was powerful poor.
Never mount to nothin'-'specaly in Loweese-
any" The woman replaced her pipe and smoked
on in moody silence. Finally, with sigh, she
said again:
SHOULD like powerful we'll to see the Norf
again."
Pete hesitated moment, and then said:
"Cayrn't We 60 marmW
mop. Hain't got strength huff. Shd die on
tn road, But yer gotter git thar somwayser-
nuther."
She relapsed into silence, and the boy sat think
ing over this problem of how he was to get North
| without money, strength or friends.
Presently his mother resumed conversation;
| Pete felt a vague wonder at her talking so
much. The fact was she had said more to him
in the last half hour than in the preceding fort
"Never got no letter from tn folks up Norf
fur five year Haint writ 'em fur six. But
| they er thar-abouts somears. They hain't died
| like we uns hav."
The boy accepted this conclusion as assured
and fell to wondering how they lived, if they had
not died.
Cost a heap to git back Norf," drawled the
woman in her unusual conversational burst
Me an yer dad war three month gittin' down
| hyar wi a mule an josef n 'Rasmus. Matther
| n Luke n yer waZ bornd hyar."
She pulled meditatively upon the old clay
| pipe an case / shouldn't hold out much
| longer, yer gotter take ole stockn yo1l find
| In err chink tween the jice an ther roof. an
fetch hit away n git back Norf. Yer cayrn't sell
nothln hyarabouts-nary soul to buy. Yer jist
| let tn ole ramshake buds slide an git OUTER
| this hyar. Kase yer never kin ef yer don't
| hustle right smart YEN die like tn res o we
! uns."
The deep shadows under the trees began to
| grow longer, and the two sat there in quiet.
| W. fnn of off N
move. The short Southern night was approach
| ing The long sprays of moss hanging from the
| trees seemed to brighten up a little at the
prospect of brief respite from the glare of the
| sun.
There was that heavy, indescribable odor upon
| the air which rises from swamp lands, and in the
| luxuriant South, where everything grows rank
and thick, and where decay is quick to attack
| and Destroy this damp, unwholesome odor
seemed heavy with the breath of poisonous
plants and miasmc sloughs, exhaling fever from
reeking beds of moisture that had stewed under
tropical sun all day, and now cast off vapors
| like fetid perspiratlon whose mission was to
prove how exceedingly uncomfortable it all was
Mrs. Barker broke the silence again, with her
langud drawl. so suggestive of the physical in
ertia which oppressed her, body and soul
"Pete, yer amt never seed no money, has
| yer9"
Pete shook his head in the negative.
| Yer doant know er nickP from er dollar.
They'd steal yer blind qucker'n ken say Jack
1
| to suggest new idea to the woman
| Eyer brung ther stocKn hyar"
| Pete arose, and, after protracted search, re-
! turned holding old stocking at arms length.
| From puny protuberance at the toe there came
a faint jingle suggestive of coin.
| His mother took the stocking from his hand
with much elaboration, and proceeded to empty
the contents into her lap
There were two silver dollars, some silver
| pieces of minor denomination, and several COP
| pers of the old fashioned, big two-cent variety
| Pete gazed in astonishment at this display of
wealth, so lavish, and at the same time so unex-
| pected
'Yeres four dollars n twenty-seven cents
Taint huff ter git yer clar North but yerll have
ter work long az yer kin git jobs. N eff yer
shows yer money ter ary soul yerll have EN-
| skin yer in no time"
''Thars ole suit O. cloes o yer dads took
EN- In some, but yer gotter roll up legs N sleeves,
n eff yer en- yers got EN-. II yer doant yer
amt got EN-. I'll just haste these year bits in
sly when yer needs enlist one to er time Save
as yer go. all yer kim" Pete acknowledged these
| instructions with an affirmative nod. II reckon
| yerl git thar somewayg ernuther."
The next night, while smoking as usual Mrs
| Barker laid down her pipe with gesture of
| aversion.
"Pears like cayrnt stomac de pipe even
Oars powerful misery croast me hyar, an my
| head er bigger'n barr'l."
Peto expressed his sympathy crudely, and
after awhile his mother arose and staggered
weakly into the one-room cabin. where she flung
| herself upon the unmade hard bed in the corner
Along in the night Pete awakened by low
means and mumblings from his mother, and a
constant cry for "water," water" He put the
cup of brackish liquid to her parched lips from
time to time, and sat patiently in the dark try
ing to keep awake and watch, for it was plain
that Mrs. Barker was In great physical anguish.
When day came the thin cheeks were purple
with fever and the dull eyes brilliant with the
internal fires. She moaned and tossed through
that day and another night, constantly talking
about 9Th Norf," and saying weakly she would
like powerful we'll to lletch bref of air u2 Norf
again Pears like it's all breaved UP down
hyarabouts."
Pete listened in mute anguish, but knowing
there was no doctor to be had in the neighbor.
hood, and not daring to call upon the irate and
dignifed black woman who had so Scornfully
called him "po white trash
He did not leave his mother until the third
day, when the last change came. The fever
reused the dormant Northern energy, and under
its singing whip she planned for Pete. and in
strueted him where to go, and how to reach the
North
eth cayers costs-too much Yerll hev-ter
| help long on boat-Git-out-to-the
river.-ther Mississip'-an ax-the capn of err
! Observation-Disclosures work-long. Somethin1l
turn-up-fur yer-Be az-good az yer-kn.
| Yer aint-had much chance-but it'll be-dif-
| A few minutes after the soul of the tired
woman had indeed left the South, although the
| WORKOUT body remained.
! Pete being unable to bury her without help
| was forced in this emergency to ask assistance
of Wash's mother and father. Upon the arrival
| eff the former it did not take long for the expert
| enced eye of the black woman to what mad
been the disease to (Which Mrs. Barker had sue
| cumbed
$50 de Lawd-dat Yeller jack chile, does
| yer know wha' yer mudder die ongi
! Pete shook his head sadly. He would have
been glad to talk freely with those who had come
to do the last offices for the dead, but someway
| his reserve seemed more than ever formidable
and the shynoss from which he suffered made it
! impossible for him to talk as he would have
liked to if the dumb thought could have been
| put into words.
Oats Yeler Jack. Me an dc ole mans had
| ern an l reckon we knows Yer mudderll hay
| ter be burrid 'thout no reay Yel1er Jack hove