Free Joe and Other Georgian SketchesHarris, Joel Chandler
General
Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches
Harris, Joel Chandler
Georgia -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
The organ in the little church was a fine instrument, though a small
one. It had belonged to the little preacher's wife, and he had given it
to the church. To his mind, the fact that she had used it sanctified it,
and he had placed it in the church as a part of the sacrifice he felt
called on to make in behalf of his religion. Helen played it with
uncommon skill--a skill born of a passionate appreciation of music in
its highest forms. The Rev. Mr. Hill listened like one entranced, but
Helen played unconscious of his admiration. On the outskirts of the
congregation she observed Mrs. Stucky, and by her side a young man with
long, sandy hair, evidently uncombed, and a thin stubble of beard. Helen
saw this young man pull Mrs. Stucky by the sleeve, and direct her
attention to the organ. Instead of looking in Helen's direction, Mrs.
Stucky fixed her eyes on the face of the young man and held them there;
but he continued to stare at the organist. It was a gaze at once
mournful and appealing--not different in that respect from the gaze of
any of the queer people around him, but it affected Miss Eustis
strangely. To her quick imagination, it suggested loneliness, despair,
that was the more tragic because of its isolation. It seemed to embody
the mute, pent-up distress of whole generations. Somehow Helen felt
herself to be playing for the benefit of this poor creature. The echoes
of the wedding-march sounded grandly in the little church, then came a
softly played interlude, and finally a solemn benediction, in which
solicitude seemed to be giving happiness a sweet warning. As the
congregation filed out of the church, the organ sent its sonorous echoes
after the departing crowd--echoes that were taken up by the whispering
and sighing pines, and borne far into the night. Mrs. Stucky did not go
until after the lights were out; and then she took her son by the hand,
and the two went to their lonely cabin not far away. They went in, and
soon had a fire kindled on the hearth. No word had passed between them;
but after a while, when Mrs. Stucky had taken a seat in the corner, and
lit her pipe, she exclaimed:
"Lordy! what a great big gob of a man! I dunner what on the face er the
yeth Lou Hornsby could 'a' been a-dreamin' about. From the way she's
been a-gigglin' aroun' I'd 'a' thought she'd 'a' sot her cap fer the
giner'l."
"I say it!" said Bud, laughing loudly. "Whatter you reckon the giner'l
'ud 'a' been a-doin' all that time? I see 'er now, a-gigglin' an'
a-settin' 'er cap fer the giner'l. Lordy, yes!"
"What's the matter betwixt you an' Lou?" asked Mrs. Stucky grimly.
"'Taint been no time senst you wuz a-totin' water fer her ma, an'
a-hangin' aroun' whilst she played the music in the church thar." Bud
continued to laugh. "But, Lordy!" his mother went on, "I reckon you'll
be a-totin' water an' a-runnin' er'n's fer thish yer Yankee gal what
played on the orgin up thar jess now."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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