The Law of the Land, Emerson Hough [best beach reads of all time TXT] 📗

Go into the house and get me some ice; and go pick some mint and bring it here to this gentleman and me—Say, do you know what that railroad did? Why, it just killed the best filly on my plantation, my best running stock, too. Now, I was the man to help get that railroad through the Delta, and I—”

“Well, now, Colonel Blount,” said the other, “the road isn’t a bad sort of thing for you-all down here, after all. It relieves you of the river market and it gives you a double chance to get out your cotton. You don’t have to haul your cotton twelve miles back to the boat any more. Here is your station right at your door, and you can load on the cars any day you want to.”

“Oh, that’s all right, that’s all right. But this killing of my stock?”

“Well, that’s so,” said the other, facing the point and ruminatingly biting a splinter between his teeth. “It does look as if we had killed about everything loose in the whole Delta during the last month or so.”

“Are you on this railroad?” asked Blount, suddenly.

“I reckon I’ll have to admit that I am,” said the other, smiling.

“Passenger agent, or something of that sort, I reckon? Well, let me tell you, you change your road. Say, there was a man down below here last week settling up claims—Bill! Ah-h, Bill! Where you gone?”

“Yes,” said Eddring, “it certainly did seem that when we built this road every cow and every nigger, not to mention a lot of white folks, made a bee-line straight for our right-of-way. Why, sir, it was a solid line of cows and niggers from Memphis to New Orleans. How could you blame an engineer if he run into something once in a while? He couldn’t help it.”

“Yes. Now, do you know what this claim settler, this claim agent man did? Why, he paid a man down below here two stations—what do you think he paid him for as fine a heifer as ever eat cane? Why, fifteen dollars!”

“Fifteen dollars!”

“Yes, fifteen dollars.”

“That looks like a heap of money for a heifer, doesn’t it, Colonel Blount?”

“A heap of money? Why, no. Heap of money? Why, what you mean?”

“Heifers didn’t bring that before the road came through. Why, you would have had to drive that heifer twenty-five miles before you could get a market, and then she wouldn’t have brought over twelve dollars. Now, fifteen dollars, seems to me, is about right.”

“Well, let the heifer go. But there was a cow killed three miles below here the other day. Neighbors of mine. I reckon that claim agent wouldn’t want to allow any more than fifteen dollars for Jim Bowles’ cow, neither.”

“Maybe not.”

“Well, never mind about the cow, either; but look here. A nigger lost his wife down there, killed by these steam cars—looks like the niggers get fascinated by them cars. But here’s Bill coming at last. Now, Mr. Eddring, we’ll just make a little julep. Tell me, how do you make a julep, sir?”

Eddring hitched a little nearer on the board-pile. “Well, Colonel Blount,” said he, “in our family we used to have an old silver mug— sort of plain mug, you know, few flowers around the edge of it—been in the family for years. Now, you take a mug like that, and let it lie in the ice-box all the time, and when you take it out, it’s sort of got a white frost all over it. Now, my old daddy, he would take this mug and put some fine ice into it,—not too fine. Then he’d take a little cut loaf sugar, in another glass, and he’d mash it up in a little water—not too much water—then he’d pour that in over the ice. Then he would pour some good corn whisky in till all the interstices of that ice were filled plumb up; then he’d put some mint—”

“Didn’t smash the mint? Say, he didn’t smash the mint, did he?” said Colonel Blount, eagerly, hitching over toward the speaker.

“Smash it? I should say not, sir! Sometimes, at certain seasons of the mint, he might just sort of take a twist at the leaf, to sort of release a little of the flavor, you know. You don’t want to be rough with mint. Just twist it gently between the thumb and finger. Then you set it in nicely around the edge of the glass. Sometimes just a little powder of fine sugar around on top of the mint leaves, and then—”

“Sir,” said Colonel Blount, gravely rising and taking off his hat, “you are welcome to my home!”

Eddring, with equal courtesy, arose and removed his own hat.

“For my part,” resumed Blount, judicially, “I rather lean to a piece of cut glass, for the green and the crystal look mighty fine together. I don’t always make them with any sugar on top of the mint. But, you know, just a circle of mint—not crushed—not crushed, mind you—just a green ring of fragrance, so that you can bury your nose in it and forget your troubles. Sir, allow me once more to shake your hand. I think I know a gentleman when I see one.”

Oddly enough, this pleasant speech seemed to bring a shade of sadness to Eddring’s face. “A gentleman?” said he, smiling slightly. “Well, don’t shake hands with me yet, sir. I don’t know. You see, I’m a railroad man, and I’m here on business.”

“Damn it, sir, if it was only your description of a julep, if it was only your mention of that old family silver mug, devoted to that sacred purpose, sir, that would be your certificate of character here. Forget your business. Come down here and live with me. We’ll go hunting b’ah together. Why, man, I’m mighty glad to make your acquaintance.”

“But wait,” said Eddring, “there may be two ways of looking at this.”

“Well, there’s only one way of looking at a julep,” said Blount, “and that’s down the mint. Now, I’ll show you how we make them down here in the Sunflower country.”

“But, as I was a-saying—” and here Blount set down the glasses midway in his compounding, and went on with his interrupted proposition; “now here was that nigger that lost his wife. Of course he had a whole flock of children. Now, what do you think that claim agent said he would pay that nigger for his wife?”

“Well, I—”

“Well, but what do you reckon?”

“Why, I reckon about fifteen dollars.”

“That’s it, that’s it!” said Blount, slapping his hand upon the board until the glasses jingled. “That’s just what he did offer; fifteen dollars! Not a damned cent more.”

“Well, now, Colonel Blount,” said Eddring, “you know there’s a heap of mighty trifling niggers loose in this part of the world. You see, that fellow would marry again in a little while, and he might get a heap better woman next time. There’s a lot of swapping wives among these niggers at best. Now, here’s a man lost his wife decent and respectable, and there’s nothing on earth a nigger likes better than a good funeral, even if it has to be his own wife. Now, how many nigger funerals are there that cost fifteen dollars? I’ll bet you if that nigger had it to do over again he’d a heap rather be rid of her and have the fifteen dollars. Look at it! Fine funeral for one wife and something left over to get a bonnet for his new wife. I’ll bet there isn’t a nigger on your place that wouldn’t jump at a chance like that.”

Colonel Blount scratched his head. “You understand niggers all right, I’ll admit,” said he. “But, now, supposing it had been a white man?”

“Well, supposing it was?”

“We don’t need to suppose. There was the same thing happened to a white family. Wife got killed—left three children.”

“Oh, you mean that accident down at Shelby?”

“Yes, Mrs. Something-or-other, she was. Well, sir, damn me, if that infernal claim agent didn’t have the face to offer fifteen dollars for her, too!”

“Looks almost like he played a fifteen dollar limit all the time, doesn’t it?” said Eddring.

“It certainly does. It ain’t right.”

“Well, now, I heard about that woman. She was a tall, thin creature, with no liver left at all, and her chills came three times a week. She wouldn’t work; she was red-headed and had only one straight eye; and as for a tongue—well, I only hope, Colonel Blount, that you and I will never have a chance to meet anything like that. Of course, I know she was killed. Her husband just hated her before she died, but blame me, just as soon as she was dead, he loved her more than if she was his sweetheart all over again. Now, that’s how it goes. Say, I want to tell you, Colonel Blount, this road is plumb beneficent, if only for the fact that it develops human affection in such a way as this. Fifteen dollars! Why, I tell you, sir, fifteen dollars was more than enough for that woman!” He turned indignantly on the board-pile.

“I reckon,” said Colonel Blount, “that you would say that about my neighbor Jim Bowles’ cow?”

“Certainly. I know about that cow, too. She was twenty years old and on her last legs. Road kills her, and all at once she becomes a dream of heifer loveliness. I know.”

“I reckon,” said Colonel Blount, still more grimly, “I reckon if that damned claim agent was to come here, he would just about say that fifteen dollars was enough for my filly.”

“I shouldn’t wonder. Now, look here, Colonel Blount. You see, I’m a railroad man, and I’m able to see the other side of these things. We come down here with our railroad. We develop your country. We give you a market and we put two cents a pound on top of your cotton price. We fix it so that you can market your cotton at five dollars a bale cheaper than you used to. We double and treble the price of every acre of land within thirty miles of this road. And yet, if we kill a chance cow, we are held up for it. The sentiment against this road is something awful.”

“Oh, well, all right,” said Blount, “but that don’t bring my filly back. You can’t get Himyah blood every day in the week. That filly would have seen Churchill Downs in her day, if she had lived.”

“Yes; and if she had, you would have had to back her, wouldn’t you? You would have trained that filly and paid a couple of hundred for it. You would have fitted her at the track and paid several hundred more. You would have bet a couple of thousand, anyway, as a matter of principle, and, like enough, you’d have lost it. Now, if this road paid you fifteen dollars for that filly and saved you twenty-five hundred or three thousand into the bargain, how ought you to feel about it? Are you twenty-five hundred behind, or fifteen ahead?”

Colonel Calvin Blount had now feverishly finished his julep, and as the other stopped, he placed his glass beside him on the board-pile and swung a long leg across so that he sat directly facing his enigmatical guest. The latter, in the enthusiasm of his argument, swung into a similar position, and so they sat, both hammering on the board between them.

“Well, I would like to see that damned claim agent offer me fifteen dollars for that filly,” said Blount. “I might take fifty, for the sake of the road; but fifteen—why, you see, it’s not the money; I don’t care fifteen