Iola Leroy; Or, Shadows UpliftedHarper, Frances Ellen Watkins
General
Iola Leroy; Or, Shadows Uplifted
Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins
African American women -- Fiction; African Americans -- Fiction
Just then Aunt Linda, who had been completing the preparations for her
supper, entered the room with her husband, and said, "Salters, let me
interdoos you ter my fren', Mr. Robert Johnson, an' his niece, Miss
Leroy."
"Why, is it possible," exclaimed Robert, rising, and shaking hands,
"that you are Aunt Linda's husband?"
"Dat's what de parson sed," replied Salters.
"I thought," pursued Robert, "that your name was John Andrews. It was
such when you were in my company."
"All de use I'se got fer dat name is ter git my money wid it; an' wen
dat's done, all's done. Got 'nuff ob my ole Marster in slave times,
widout wearin' his name in freedom. Wen I got done wid him, I got done
wid his name. Wen I 'listed, I war John Andrews; and wen I gits my
pension, I'se John Andrews; but now Salters is my name, an' I likes it
better."
"But how came you to be Aunt Linda's husband? Did you get married since
the war?"
"Lindy an' me war married long 'fore de war. But my ole Marster sole me
away from her an' our little gal, an' den sole her chile ter somebody
else. Arter freedom, I hunted up our little gal, an' foun' her. She war
a big woman den. Den I com'd right back ter dis place an' foun' Lindy.
She hedn't married agin, nuther hed I; so we jis' let de parson marry us
out er de book; an' we war mighty glad ter git togedder agin, an' feel
hitched togedder fer life."
"Well, Uncle Daniel," said Robert, turning the conversation toward him,
"you and Uncle Ben wouldn't go with us, but you came out all right at
last."
"Yes, indeed," said Aunt Linda, "Ben got inter a stream of luck. Arter
freedom com'd, de people had a heap of fath in Ben; an' wen dey wanted
some one to go ter Congress dey jist voted for Ben ter go. An' he went,
too. An' wen Salters went to Washin'ton to git his pension, who should
he see dere wid dem big men but our Ben, lookin' jist as big as any ob
dem."
"An' it did my ole eyes good jist ter see it," broke in Salters; "if I
couldn't go dere myself, I war mighty glad to see some one ob my people
dat could. I felt like de boy who, wen somebody said he war gwine to
slap off his face, said, 'Yer kin slap off my face, but I'se got a big
brudder, an' you can't slap off his face.' I went to see him 'fore I lef,
and he war jist de same as he war wen we war boys togedder. He hadn't
got de big head a bit."
"I reckon Mirandy war mighty sorry she didn't stay wid him. I know I
should be," said Aunt Linda.
"Uncle Daniel," asked Robert, "are you still preaching?"
"Yes, chile, I'se still firing off de Gospel gun."
"I hear some of the Northern folks are down here teaching theology, that
is, teaching young men how to preach. Why don't you study theology?"
"Look a yere, boy, I'se been a preachin' dese thirty years, an' you come
yere a tellin' me 'bout studying yore ologies. I larn'd my 'ology at de
foot ob de cross. You bin dar?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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