Free Joe and Other Georgian SketchesHarris, Joel Chandler
General
Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches
Harris, Joel Chandler
Georgia -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
"But, my dear child," said Miss Tewksbury, in a matter-of-fact way,
"there is every reason why you should not have known it. This picture
was taken in Washington, and he never sent a copy of it home. If he did,
your father put it away among his papers. You were not more than twelve
years old when Wendell went away."
"Perhaps if Hallie will get the fragment of letter," said General
Garwood to Miss Tewksbury, "it will confirm your impression."
"Oh, it is no impression," replied Miss Tewksbury. "I could not possibly
be mistaken."
The fragment of letter, when produced, proved to be in the handwriting
of Charles Osborne Eustis; and there was one sentence in it that was
peculiarly characteristic. "Remember, dear Wendell," it said, "that the
war is not urged against men; it is against an institution which the
whole country, both North and South, will be glad to rid itself of."
It would be difficult, under all the circumstances, to describe Helen's
thoughts. She was gratified--she was more than gratified--at the
unexpected discovery, and she was grateful to those who had cared for
her brother's grave with such scrupulous care. She felt more at home
than ever. The last barrier of sectional reserve (if it may be so
termed) was broken down, so far as she was concerned; and during the
remainder of her stay, her true character--her womanliness, her
tenderness, her humor--revealed itself to these watchful and sensitive
Southerners. Even Miss Tewksbury, who had the excuse of age and long
habit for her prejudices, showed the qualities that made her friends
love her. In the language of the little rector, who made a sermon out of
the matter, "all things became homogeneous through the medium of
sympathy and the knowledge of mutual suffering."
In fact, everything was so agreeable during the visit of Helen and her
aunt to Waverly--a visit that was prolonged many days beyond the limit
they had set--that Uncle Prince remarked on it one night to his wife.
"I'm a nigger man, 'Mandy Jane," said he, "but I got two eyes, en dey er
good ones. W'at I sees I knows, en I tell you right now, Marse Peyton
is done got strucken."
"Done got strucken 'bout what?" inquired 'Mandy Jane.
"'Bout dat young lady w'at stayin' yer. Oh, you neenter holler," said
Uncle Prince in response to a contemptuous laugh from 'Mandy Jane. "I
ain't nothin' but a nigger man, but I knows w'at I sees."
"Yes, you is a nigger man," said 'Mandy Jane triumphantly. "Ef you wuz a
nigger 'oman you'd have lots mo' sense dan w'at you got. W'y, dat lady
up dar ain't our folks. She mighty nice, I speck, but she ain't our
folks. She ain't talk like our folks yit."
"No matter 'bout dat," said Uncle Prince. "I ain't seed no nicer 'oman
dan w'at she is, en I boun' you she kin talk mighty sweet w'en she take
a notion. W'en my two eyes tell me de news I knows it, en Marse Peyton
done got strucken long wid dat white 'oman."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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