xt7v416sz957 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7v416sz957/data/mets.xml Page, Thomas Nelson, 1853-1922. 190618  books b92-230-31280747v3 English C. Scribner's sons, : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Novels, stories, sketches, and poems of Thomas Nelson Page (vol. 3) text Novels, stories, sketches, and poems of Thomas Nelson Page (vol. 3) 1906 2002 true xt7v416sz957 section xt7v416sz957 










PLANTATION

  EDITION



  VOLUME III

 



























































Margaret looked as if she had stepped out of the old picture.
                        [PAGE 278]

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Af THE NOVELS, STORIES,
SKETCHES AND POEMS OF
THOMAS NELSON PAGE ,



ON NEWFOUND RIVER









CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK, +4   4 1906

 































Copyright, 1891, 190, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS


  Al Rights Reserved

 






















TO THE DEAR MEMORY
       OF
 ANNE BRUCE PAGE

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PREFACE



THE reader will, perhaps, bear in mind that
"On Newfound River" does not pretend to be
a Novel; but is on its face a "Story,"-a Love-
Story if you will-of simple Country Life in Old
Virginia. The "setting" is wholly that of the
Country, the surroundings are all those of a life
far from cities, the incidents are, for the most
part, those little commonplace events which
might have taken place in a rural neighborhood
before the war, where the gentry ruled in a sort
of manorial manner and their poorer neighbors
bore a relation to them part retainer, part
friend.
  In preparing a new edition for the press, the
author has enlarged the work by certain addi-
tions to the Story, with a view to making it

 

                 PREFACE
more complete and giving a somewhat fuller
reflection of the life it undertakes to mirror,
somewhat as he did before with "The Old Gen-
tleman of the Black Stock." But no attempt
has been made to change it into a Novel, or even
to enlarge it beyond its original scope. It was
written as a Love-Story and a Love-Story, pure
and simple, it is.
                                  T. N. P.
 OAKLAND, Hanover County,
     Virginia, 1906.

 
















                ILLUSTRATIONS

           From Drawings by John Edwin Jackson


MARGARET LOOKED AS IF SHE HAD STEPPED OUT OF THE
   OLD PICTURE .......... ...... . Frontispiece
                                           FACING PAGI,
"WHAT A PITY WE CANNOT ALWAYS HAVE THE THORNS
   CUT FROM AMONG THE FLOWERS FOR US" ...  . . . 167

HE WAS EMBARRASSED BY FINDING HER SO DIFFERENT
   FROM WHAT HE EXPECTED .... . . . . .. . .  . 204

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ON NEWFOUND



RIVER

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ON NEWFOUND RIVER


                     I

NEWFOUND RIVER, or, as it is called by
1   the denizens of that section of Virginia
through which it glides, "Newfound," steals
through two or three counties of Eastern Vir-
ginia in such a leisurely, unobtrusive fashion
that it was not supposed by the early settlers to
be different from the numerous "branches "
which are found between the undulations, there
considered hills, until it was discovered that it
stretched for fifty miles in an almost direct line.
It thereupon received its baptismal name, which
was, after a little time, abbreviated into "New-
found," by which appellation it is, in the phrase
of the law, still called and known.
  War and its effects have wrought a sorrowful
change in the old county, as in other sections of
the State. It lay right in the track of the armies,
and the civilization which existed there in the
                     3

 
          ON NEWFOUND RIVER
old days before the war has perished almost as
utterly as that of Nineveh or of Karnak. But at
the time when the events herein related occurred,
the country on Newfound was one of the old
"neighborhoods" of the State. It was as retired
and as quiet as one of the coves of Newfound
Millpond where the waterlilies slept in a repose
undisturbed by the outside current. Into this
quiet life little excitement ever came from the
outer world with which the chief connecting link
was the sleepy mailrider who passed up the
main road twice a week dropping his papers at
the "big-gates" which were the outward signs
of the plantations that lay secluded beyond the
screening woods and leaving his letters at the
Crossroads post-office. The excitement of that
life was all supplied by the inhabitants them-
selves. Politics there meant how this or that or
the other man cast his vote; religion was gauged
by the spiritual experiences and conduct of this
or that member, and civilization itself was
weighed and tested by the life lived on the plan-
tations. But even the events in their lives did
not usually stir those denizens more than the
breezes stirred the lily pads which, though
moved a little on the surface, being anchored
to the soil soon settled back in their accustomed
                      4

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
places. The Landons and others of their kind
ruled unquestioned in a sort of untitled
manorial system; their poor neighbors stood in
a peculiar relation to them, part friend, part
retainer, the line between independence and
vassalage being impalpable; and peace and
plenty reigned over a smiling land.
  The value of a plantation in those old times
was largely determined by the amount of "bot-
tom-land" on it, the uplands being poor, or, at
least, having been worked out.
  The finest "bottom" on Newfound was that at
Landon Hall, which was, indeed, the only one
distinguished by the more dignified name of
" low ground. " Year in and year out it brought
corn so 'rank " that, in the picturesque lan-
guage of the negroes, "you just could follow the
balk," by which was meant that one could just
detect or follow with the eye the spaces between
the rows.
  Perhaps, it was this perennial abundance of
the harvest which gave the Landons their pres-
tige in the county quite as much as the fact that
they held their lands under the same grant which
had been issued by Charles II to the first of the
name who had crossed the seas.
  Father and son, for six generations they had
                     5

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
held it, and it was their boast that in all this
period they had lost but one field.
  This was the tract of a hundred acres or so of
arable land, and a little more of marsh, beyond
Newfound, which the fourth Landon had in very
exuberance of recklessness lost one night at
cards to a neighbor by the name of Bland. That
side of Newfound was swampy, at best, from
the backwater of the Landon mill-pond, and the
tract was chiefly valuable because on it stood the
quaint old gray frame-dwelling with its dormer
windows and hipped roof, which the first Lan-
don had built and named " Landon Hill," 7and in
which they had lived until they erected the im-
posing mansion on the eminence on the other
side of the stream, which they called "Landon
Hall." His friend had badgered him to bet the
land, and he had done so and lost. He offered
to redeem it at twice its value; but the proposal
was rejected. The friends became bitter ene-
mies, and a duel had in time followed in which
Landon had shot his adversary.
  This, however, after the manner of most duels,
had not remedied the matter.
  It was found that the owner had the night be-
fore, with malignant prevision, executed a will
leaving the land entailed as far as possible, and
                     6

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
with conditions which effectually prevented it
again passing into the hands of a Landon for at
least several generations.
  From this time the old place was Naboth's
vineyard to the Landons. The house, peaked
and gray with age, stood on a rise across tihe low
grounds and the river immediately in front of
the lofty hill on which rose the Landons' com-
manding mansion. It was so situated that it
could not be shut out of the landscape. It was
the one place in sight from that eminence which
did not belong to the Landons, and it had been
the cradle of the race: of a race which prided it-
self on being an older branch than that which
remained in England, and on having brought its
landholding instincts across the water.
  No wonder the Landons chafed and fretted
over its loss.
  The son of the one who threw away the old
home retrieved the impaired fortunes of the
family by marrying an heiress, and the Landons
became wealthier than ever. Large offers were
made to the owner of the old place to repurchase
it; but the will of Bland, the duellist, effectually
prevented its recovery, and Colonel Landon
compensated himself and his wife by adding to
the estate on the other side, and rebuilding Lan-
                     7

 
          ON NEWFOUND RIVER
don Hall in magnificent style. The limitation
did not expire for two generations, and Colonel
Landon left in his will a provision inculcating
the necessity of securing the lost tract as soon
as it was possible to do so. The colonel's son,
who was Major Landon, on coming into the
estate endeavored faithfully to fulfil his father's
behest, and watched eagerly for the death of the
old woman with whose life the limitations on the
lost land expired. She lived in the far south, and
the place for several years was unoccupied
and neglected, the fences going down, the
old, quaint, frame-house falling into disrepair,
and the fields growing up in sassafras and pine
until the entire farm became little better than a
wilderness. As soon as Major Landon heard of
her death he despatched an agent to the south to
secure fron the heir the option to purchase; but
to his mortification and chagrin he found that
the property had the day before he applied for
it been sold. He immediately wrote and offered
the purchaser, an old navy surgeon, one Dr.
Browne, a handsome advance on his price; but it
was declined on the ground that the doctor had
bought it for a home and would not sell it at any
figure whatsoever.
  This almost threw the Major into a fever. To
                      8

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
be balked of what he had been reared to look for-
ward to was like being defrauded of a part of
his inheritance.
  Shortly afterwards the old doctor arrived with
his family, which consisted of a little grand-
daughter and two old negroes, one of whom was
his body-servant, and the other the child's mam-
my.
  Major Landon, after the custom of the coun-
try, called formally on the new neighbor; but
he was not received, and it soon became known
that the newcomer was not at home to visitors
and wished to be let alone. This was as open a
violation of the custom on Newfound as if the
new settler had waylaid his neighbor from be-
hind a fence, and from that time the aversion of
the Major, and the suspicion of the rest of the
community fell upon the new residents.
  Stories soon began to be told of them and
their "strange doin's": of how the old doctor
used to prowl around the country at night,
though he would not stir from his place by day-
or at least, would not go on "the main, plain
road"; but always stuck to by-paths; of how the
two negroes were not like other black-folks, but
talked sometimes a strange jargon and were in
fact, "free niggers"; and of how a strange man
                     9

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
in black, used to come from town to have church
with them in some sort of a papist fashion. To
be sure there were those who said that the old
man was a mighty good doctor and though he
did not practise generally, was always ready
to go to a poor man's family and what was more,
never made any charge for it; and as to the
negroes, their talk was only a French patois and
the man in black who came was only a Catholic
priest from the City forty miles away. Still
there was nothing so remarkable as for a man
to differ so much from his neighbors as to shut
himself up. To refuse all hospitality he must
have something wrong about him. This was a
proposition which could not be questioned. In
time a word was whispered about concerning
him which could only be whispered: "Aboli-
tionist. "
  Still there was no proof.



10

 





HI



THEY were an austere people, the Landons,
reaping where they had not sown, and
gathering where they had not strewn. Tall,
straight, keen-eyed, aquiline they grew, father
and son, for generation after generation, as dis-
tinct from their plain neighbors on Newfound
as a Lombardy poplar is from the common pine.
The Major was the austerest of the race.  He
reigned supreme on Newfound: a benevolent
tyrant with a tongue of flame, tempered happily
by a heart really kind at the core and easily
touched. His temper was explosive; but rarely
lasted longer than the first outburst and this
was generally followed by a period of calm and
kindness.
  It was an accepted fact on Newfound that
every man, woman, and child gave way to the
Major except Bruce.  Bruce was his only son.
and the prospective heir to the Landon Hall
plantation, with its four thousand acres and its
five hundred negroes.
  As Bruce sprang up tall and slim, yet straight,
                    11

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
muscular and active, the resemblance between
him and the Major, "the Landon favor," as it
was called, was marked. There was in both the
same finely cut face and clean figure, the same
deep-set, clear gray eyes under strong brows,
the slightly aquiline nose, the wide mouth full of
fine teeth, and the firm chin and jaw, but more
than this, was the resemblance in character. The
same spirit discovered itself in each: an indom-
itable resolution to carry out his will which
showed itself in every line of the face and every
fibre of the frame. The Major was stern and
imperative; the boy was resolute and defiant.
" That boy is so like me sometimes that it fright-
ens me," said the Major once to his wife, of
whom happily, there was also something in her
son. One of the servants expressed it once by
the saying, " De chip don ' fly fur from de
stump." In truth, Bruce Landon was as like
his father as it was possible to be, and this like-
ness did not stop at mere physical resemblance.
  "He has the Landon bull-dog in him," said
the Major, proudly; "he will not give up unless
you kill him. " If Mrs. Landon sighed over this
particular tribute of praise, it was because she
knew how the Landon obstinacy had too often
brought sorrow to the Landons.
                     12

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
  Once when Bruce was being thrashed for
going fishing in disobedience to orders, he faced
the Major, and looking him straight in the eyes
said doggedly, " You 'd better give me two now;
for I 'm going again." To the credit of the
Major, it must be said, that this exhibition of
the unconquerable will of the family for that
time got the boy off.
  By the time Bruce was thirteen he was almost
as well known on Newfound as his father. At
least twice he had been fished out of the millpond
unconscious (once when he was pulled out by
Dick Runaway, and once when he had got Dick
out), besides any number of times when he had
fallen in and been got out before he reached that
state.
  Sam Mills considered him a prodigy and Sam
Mills was something of an oracle on Newfound,
being given to observing changes, whether in
men or weather. He always spoke of his quali-
ties as if he had been a young puppy and possi-
bly the similitude was nearer in some respects
than Sam Mills meant to imply.
  It was more than rumored that Bruce had
once or twice met some of the runaway negroes
who skulked around in the woods, and had
hunted with them. The consorting with or hav-
                    13

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
ing anything to do with this class of miscreants
was at this time a high offense socially as well
as legally. No one but Bruce could have stood
this charge. Bruce did not deny it. He simply
claimed that Dick Runaway, as he was called,
was his father's negro, and no one had anything
to do with it.
  Dick was one of Major Landon's negroes and
so incorrigible a runaway that he was known
throughout the neighborhood and was by many
of the neighbors considered a nuisance, if not
a menace to the good order that prevailed.
So-me of Major Landon's friends had been in-
clined to take him to task for his leniency in the
matter and had urged on him the duty of selling
him and thus relieving the section of a bad
example likely to spread and produce disastrous
consequences. The Major, however, was not
willing to sell any of his servants. He always
regarded it as an act unbecoming a gentleman
except under the spur of extreme necessity, and
he was never given to accepting suggestions un-
less they chimed in with his own views.
  Dick was a big black fellow of the pure South
African type, with brawny muscles, white teeth,
a big jaw and keen eyes. The love of liberty
and the spirit of the jungle still gripped him so
                    14

          ON NEWFOUND RIVER
fiercely that all steady work was as irksome to
him as to an unbroken horse. Thus, even when
he was at work he was so inclined to shirk it that
he was constantly in trouble with Bailiff, the
overseer. Punishment appeared to have little
effect and if he was whipped he ran away. This
had in time become almost a fixed habit with him
and three or four times every year Dick
was reported by the overseer to be miss-
ing. Sometimes, he would be caught and
brought back by those who made it their
business to apprehend runaways,-among
whom was a certain "Pokeberry Green, " whose
chief occupation appeared to be hunting the
runaways,--and sometimes he reappeared of
his own accord and took uncomplainingly the
modified punishment visited upon those delin-
quents who surrendered themselves and thus
saved the cost of a reward. It is possible that
Major Landon's patience might have given out
but for an accident connected with one of Dick's
escapades.
  As Bruce grew to be a bigger boy he first
shook off the trammels of his Mammy and then
of the negro boy of about his own age who was
selected to be his attendant and prepared to
hunt and fish alone.   His luck certainly
                    15

 
          ON NEWFOUND RIVER
appeared to be so much better as to
justify him; but the fact was that Bruce
had found a new comrade more to his
taste. He was down on the river one day fishing
when the bushes suddenly parted behind him
and Dick made his appearance. He was clad
very differently from the neat manner in which
Major Landon 's servants were usually clad. An
old shirt, a pair of ragged trousers fastened
at the waist with a leather strap, and an old
straw hat were all he wore except a small strap
knotted tightly about his wrist. At first Bruce
was a little startled, for Dick was on one of his
periodical escapades. But in a moment he was
reassured, and that day was one of the most
delightful in the boy's experience.
  "Dis aint no place to fish," declared Dick
scornfully. "You come with me and I '11 show
you whar fish is. I done bait de hole."
  Bruce promptly rolled up his line and fol-
lowed his guide, who instead of following the
path struck at once into the swamp, picking his
way, as Bruce observed, with wonderful skill
through marshy places; at times wading in the
water, at times treading on green hammocks
till at length he brought Bruce into the deepest
                    16

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
recesses of the swamp. Here, after a little
careful creeping through the brake, they
came to a small wooded island which was swept
on one side by the current and on another
opened on a little cove completely screened by
overhanging trees, under one of which lay an old
skiff. Close by was Dick's favorite lair which
he divulged to Bruce under a promise of the
most absolute secrecy; a sort of booth formed
of boughs and old boards. Here Dick was in
reasonable security as he explained, "even from
dat Pokeberry"; for his hounds could not track
him there and even should they find him lie could
escape to the other side. Bruce expressed his
detestation of Pokeberry. "I 'd a kilt him long
ago," said Dick. "if I had 'n been feared dee 'd
hang me. But some day he 's gwine to git
drowndid."
  " You are not going to drown him  " ex-
claimed the boy.
  "Not a bit; de water gwine to do dat," said
Dick oracularly. "I 'm gwine to lead him whar
he '11 wish he had n't gone, dat 's all, eaze he
can't swim."
  Here, indeed, the fish bit as Bruce had never
known them bite elsewhere. But better even
                    17

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
than that was the sport of having Dick light his
fire and cook a dinner of fresh fish, "'fat meat,"
and corn hoe-cake.
  Bruce was so much pleased with his ex-
perience that one day a little later he deter-
mined to try his skill as a runaway and visit
Dick in his island and had gotten nearly over the
deep part when his foot slipped and down he
went over his head. Unhappily his efforts car-
ried him out into deeper water. He went down
again choking and strangling and the Landon
name might have ended then and there had not
Dick Runaway happened to be near enough to
plunge in and pull him out.
  Even then Bruce was so far gone that Dick
finding he was so very ill took him in his
arms and braving whatever might befall himself
rushed with him for home. Fortunately the
Major was riding in the field which Dick had to
cross and he met the terrified negro with his
limp burden in his arms. Taking the boy up on
his horse he galloped to his home where prompt
remedies applied soon brought Bruce around.
The boy's first inquiries were for Dick, and he
would not be quiet until he had secured Dick's
full pardon.
In fact, this act stood Dick in stead, not only
                    18

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
for that time; but for all future occasions when
the spirit seized him and he took to the woods.
The Major was forced to admit the overseer's
charge that Dick was not only a shirker himself
but set a disastrous example to the rest of the
plantation. But as often as he thought of tak-
ing efficient steps to put a stop to Dick's va-
grancy, the recollection of Bruce 's white face as
he lay limp and unconscious in Dick's big black
arms that day intervened to defer all action.
  There was only one person with whom Bruce
Landon was not on good terms. This was the
young man "Pokeberry Green" who had
come to the neighborhood a few years before,
drifted from no one knew where, though a
strong accent and familiarity with the purlieus
of a great city led to grave suspicion of his ori-
gin, which was subsequently verified. He had
more education than most of the denizens and
had evidently travelled both North and Soutb.
He was too lazy to engage in regular work, and
lived generally by his wits. His only ostensible
occupation was hunting. This he extended occa-
sionally to hunting and now and then capturing
such runaway negroes as might from time to
time, for fancied or real grievances, leave their
homes and take to the woods. A strange thing
                     19

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
wd as, that although he was known to do this, he
had appeared on better terms with the negroes
than with the whites.
  Once or twice he appeared to have large
amounts of money, which he said had been left
him, and which he had gone off to get. He soon
ran through them, however. At other times he
used to hang around the Crossroads "grog-
gery, " drinking whenever he could get whiskey.
He was a heavy, muscular fellow, with stiff
black hair, a red skin, and small, dark, hard eyes;
a man of whom one would at once say the moral
fibres were as coarse as a doormat. He was
much hated by some of the negroes, and gener-
ally detested by the whites; but he possessed a
certain shrewdness united to a deal of effrontery
which made him feared if not popular with the
lowest members of the lowest class. He called
himself "Mr. Green," and a long, deep purple
mark on the side of his heavy jaw and neck,
which might have been a scar, but which he
averred was a birthmark, had given him the
name of "Pokeberry." Between this man and
Bruce there was the deepest hatred, which
neither pretended to conceal. Pokeberry was a
born bully, and Bruce brooked no insolence. On
one occasion when they met at Jones's Cross-
                    20

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
roads whither Bruce had gone to get the semi-
weekly mail, their dislike flamed into a collision.
Pokeberry, angered at some recent and caustic
criticism of Major Landon's on his suspicious
mode of life, had made some allusion to the
story of the boy's meeting the runaway negroes
and hunting with them. The boy to the enjoy-
ment of the little audience gathered in the lazy
afternoon about the post-office, retorted by call-
ing him a " nigger-hunter. " A fierce quarrel en-
sued, and Bruce had got much applause by sud-
denly attacking the bully and felling him to the
ground with a stick which lay conveniently at
hand. From this time they were sworn enemies.
  As much credit, however, as Bruce gained
from these things, his reputation on Newfound
was based less on them than on his well-known
resistance to his father. He was about the only,
person who dared to stand out against the
major.
  From this time the boy began to be counted as
a rising scion of the Landon stock; for this was
in the period before the war when courage and
readiness to fight were reckoned among the most
proper if not the most admirable traits of a man
and were as much expected in him as if he had
been a game-cock.
                    21

 







III



IT 'S becus they 's so high sperited," a thin
dim-looking fellow of about forty, dressed
in an old suit, of which the coat was much too
large for him, and the trousers much too small,
explained drawlingly one afternoon to a contem-
plative group around him at Jones's Cross-
roads, where the family traits of the Landons
were being discussed.
  The speaker was Sam Mills. Sam was a great
friend of the Major's and was an authority.
  "It 's becus they 's got so much of the devil
in 'em," declared Squire Johnson, burning at
the recollection of the scarcely veiled contempt
and the sharp-edged speeches with which the
major usually deigned to recognize his existence.
" Ef I ever git him befo' me, I 'm gwine to show
him who 's th' majistrit in this district!"
  The squire was a large, burly man, with a
smooth-shaven red face, and a heavy bunch of
grizzled whisker growing under his large chin.
                     22

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
  "Ef you does," said one of the bystanders,
"you won' be majistrit long." He looked over
towards Mills for corroboration.
  The squire was turning to him when Mills in-
tercepted him.
  "You ain ' never gwine to git him befo' you,"
he drawled; "he aim ' got no use for law."
  The justice turned his quid of tobacco over
and over in his mouth, chewing with a force
which attested the violence of his feelings. Mills
understood the act as if it had been articulate
speech.
  "I heard him say so myself," he asserted, as
if he had been contradicted.
  "What 'd he say" a chewing individual on
the fence, in brown jeans and an old straw hat,
found the energy to inquire.
  "He said he 'd 'a ' had old Dr. Browne up for
turning his cows into his corn long ago if th' had
a jestice with any sense; but he ruther let the
cows eat his corn than make a fool of himself
going befo' a fool to try an' git jestice."
  There was a gleam of satisfaction in the small
gray eyes of the speaker as he glanced over at
the man in the chair, and saw how his shafts
had penetrated his armor of self-conceit. The
individual referred to, whose mouth was too full
                     23

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
to admit of an attempt to speak, chewed ran-
corously.
  "He ain' never forgive me for goin' against
him when he run for the Convention," he said,
wiping the stained mouth on the palm of his
hand.
  "He ain' never forgive you for whippin' that
nigger Dick of his whar you all caught out with-
out a pass that night," said Mills, with the air
of a man who knows the secret things. "He
said you an' Pokeberry was the cusses of the
county an' stirred up mo' trouble with the nig-
gers 'In anything else."
  The magistrate swore under his breath. Be-
ing classed with Pokeberry was more than he
could stand.
  "Ef I foun' a nigger roamin' aroun' without
a pass, was I to change the law becus 'twas one
of his niggers " he said, in a complaining tone.
  "He said 'twant the law; that the nigger give
a good excuse: he told you he was gwine for th'
doetor, and he was on a mule; and if you 'd 'a'
had any sense you would 'a' knowed it. He said
he don't allow nobody to touch one o' his nig-
gers; and he said the law talks about discretion
of them whar ain't got as much discretion as his
horse. "
                    24

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
  "Them Landons is the hard feelin'est folks
in Ameriky. They 's wuss 'n Injuns!" declared
the dispenser of justice.
  "Don' know 'bout that," drawled Mills; "but
he cert'ny's got some 'n against you. I don'
think you '11 git his endorsement next time."
  This sally provoked a chuckle of amusement
from the speaker and his auditors, which was so
distasteful to the justice that he rose.
  "I don' ixpect him and I don' want him," he
declared, looking defiantly at his tormentors.
"Ef I ever git him befo' me, I '11 show him
who 's the jestice in this district."
  He stalked over to where his lean horse stood
tied to the fence, and prepared to leave.
  "He says the squa'r don' know as much law
as his horse, " said Mills, in a confidential under-
tone. "He says if he had known what a fool he
was, he 'd 'a' took the place himself ruther than
have him saddled on the county.'"
  "I 'd like to see the Major befo' him onct."
hazarded his companion.
  "You 'd see the ha'r fly," was Mills's reply.
  " They are a curisome folks, " he added medi-
tatively, presently, after a pause during which
the pompous old magistrate had mounted his de-
jected beast and ridden away. "Ain' a kinder-
                    25

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
hearteder man in th' wor' than the ole Major if
you take him right; but you can't shove him, not
a inch,-not a inch, " he repeated.
  A grunt of acquiescence from his companions
reached him.
  They were ruminant creatures, these quiet
dwellers on Newfound; they chewed their
straws, or tobacco and plodded along their accus-
tomed way as placidly as oxen, but stirred out of
their wonted calm they were as difficult to
handle. Mills evidently did not expect any
other answer, for he proceeded:
  "When my ole ooman was took down that
time, he comed over thar mo' reg'lar 'n th' doc-
tor, and he knowed what to do for her jes' as
good as him. "
  The slanting sun fell through the trees on the
little group in their coarse, rusty, old coats, and
lit up their rugged faces.
  "But if you stir 'im up, umph!" (The inar-
ticulate grunt expressed fully the speaker 's
views.) "What you heard me tell the ole squa'r
thar jes' now is the truth. He ain' never gwine
forgive him. He ain' th' forgivin' kind. Ain'
but two folks in th' worl' he don' like,-the
squa'r an' ole Dr. Browne."
"Three, you ought to say," interrupted one
                    26

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
of his friends, a short, wiry, sunburned, red-
headed fellow named Hall, with a turned-up
nose and a big mouth.-"An' Pokeberry. Thar
he comes now."
  "Yes, and Pokeberry," assented the other.
"He said that he believed that Pokeberry is at
the bottom of more than half the devilment the
niggers cuts up, and he jist wisht he could prove
it on him.'"
  "You don't reckon there 's anything in that
word about Pokeberry 's stealin' niggers, does
you " asked one of the group of the speaker.
The reply was a grunt which might have been
taken either way. It led to a general discussion
of the suspicious circumstances in Pokeberry's
career, each man contributing his quota until
they had fabricated a fairly good case against
that by no means immaculate individual.
  The members of the group turned themselves
lazily and glanced up the sandy road, down
which, at a slouching pace, came a stout, heavy-
set man of about thirty, with a gun thrown
across his arm, and two thin, undersized, spotted
hounds walking at his heel.
  The contemplation of Pokeberry as lhe ap-
proached appeared to engross all the faculties
of the little group against the fence, and they
                    27

 
         ON NEWFOUND RIVER
chewed their tobacco in silence until he had
turned in at the open door of the little store and
disappeared from their view.
  "Yes, an' Pokeberry," said M