Part 4 (2/2)

”Where you from, child?” the colonel asked.

”Master Bryant plantation,” I said.

The colonel turned round in his chair and looked at a big map on the wall. All the time he was looking at the map he was going, ”Hummmm, hummmm, hummmm.” I pulled the door quietly and went out. I picked up my bundle and told Ned come on.

When we came up to the river we turned toward the sun. We was going so far this way, then we was go'n turn North again. If I had knowed anything about traveling we could 'a' headed North from where we had spent the night, but being so young and ignorant I thought I had to start back where I had come from the day before.

Soon as we lost sight of town we took to the bushes. You couldn't ever tell who you was go'n meet 'long the road, and we was too far from town to holler for help. We walked, we walked, we walked. The Yankees and Secesh had battled here, too. You could see how the Yankees had burned everything in sight. The ground was still black. The trees looked like black posts, no leaves, no moss, no limbs. When the sun got straight up in the sky we found a shady place in a ditch and sat down. I was so tired I felt like sitting there all day, but I knowed I had to keep going. Once I stopped moving that was go'n be the end for me and Ned. I looked at him sitting there and I asked him if he was all right. He nodded his head.

”Well, let's go some more,” I said.

Late that evening I spotted a house setting cross the field. It wasn't in the direction we was going-it was in the West-but I wanted to know if we was headed right. We started for the house. Even before I reached the yard I could see poor white trash lived there. A little garden side the house, an old dress on the clothesline, a little scrawny woodpile in the back yard. A dog tied with a chain started barking at us when we came up to the gate. A woman in overalls looked out the door. She was poor and skinny, and she looked mean as she was poor.

”You can tell me if this the way to Ohio?” I asked her.

She looked at me, but she didn't say a thing.

”Please ma'am,” I said.

”You don't get away from my gate, I'm go'n let that dog point the way to Ohio,” she said. ”Get away from my gate.”

”I just want know if I'm headed right,” I said.

”I don't know nothing 'bout no Ohio,” she said. ”And if you don't move from there like I done already told you I'm go'n turn that dog loose.”

”We leaving,” I said. ”Can you tell me if y'all got a spring round here? Me and this little boy awful thirsty.”

”You don't see no spring, do you?” she said.

”No ma'am.”

She didn't say another word, she just stood in the door looking at us. I told Ned come on. She didn't say a thing till we got to the end of the fence, then she told us to stop. When I looked back toward the house I couldn't see her. But a few minutes later I saw her coming back with a cup of water. We met her at the gate. When I reached for the cup she pulled it back.

”You think I'm go'n let you put your black mouth on this cup?” she said. ”Hold out your hands.”

I cupped my hands together. The water was warm. I reckoned she had got it out a bucket or a tub setting in the sun. Ned didn't know how to hold his hands together, and I had to cup my hands again so he could drink. Long as we was standing there the woman was fussing at us.

”Don't think I love n.i.g.g.e.rs just because I'm giving y'all water,” she was saying. ”I hate y'all. Hate y'all with all my heart. Doing it because I'm a G.o.d-fearing Christian. I hate n.i.g.g.e.rs with all my heart. Y'all cause of all this trouble, all this ravis.h.i.+ng. Yankee and n.i.g.g.e.r soldiers all over the place stealing my hogs and chickens. Y'all cause of it all. I hope the good white people round here kill all y'all off. Hope they kill y'all before the night over. I'm go'n tell them which way y'all went, and I'm go'n tell them go kill y'all. Now, get away from here. Get away from here before I kill y'all myself. If I wasn't a G.o.d-fearing Christian I'd kill y'all myself.”

I thanked her for the water and told Ned come on. We went East till sundown, then we swung back North.

The Hunter.

Night caught us but we kept going, traveling by the North Star all the time. I reckoned it had been dark about three hours when we came in a thicket of pine trees, and I smelled food cooking. I stopped quickly and held out my arms so Ned would be quiet. I turned my head and turned my head, but I couldn't see the fire or the smoke. Now, I didn't know what to do-go back, go forward, or move to one side.

Then somebody spoke: ”Now, don't this just beat everything.”

I turned around so fast I dropped the bundle on the ground. But I felt much better when I saw another black face standing there looking down on us. He had a green stick about the size and link of a bean pole. He had come on us so quietly he could have killed both of us with that stick before we even saw him.

”What the world y'all doing way out here?” he said. ”Y'all by y'all self?”

”Just me and this little boy,” I said.

”Lord, have mercy,” he said. He was one of the fussin'est people I had ever seen. ”Y'all come on over here,” he said.

I picked up my bundle and me and Ned followed him back to his camp. He had a rabbit cooking on the fire. He nodded for me and Ned to sit down. I saw a bow and arrows leaning against one of the trees. The man squatted by the fire and looked at us.

”Now, where the world y'all think y'all going?” he said.

”Ohio,” I said.

”My Lord, my Lord,” he said. ”I done seen things these last few weeks, but if this don't beat everything, I don't know. Coming and going, coming and going, and they don't bit more know what they doing than that rabbit I got cooking on that fire there. I bet y'all hungry.”

”We got something to eat,” I said.

”What, potatoes and corn y'all done stole?” he said. ”Don't have to tell me, I already know. I done met others just like y'all.”

He took the rabbit off the fire and laid it on the leaves he had spread out on the ground. Then he took a knife from his belt and cut the rabbit up in three pieces. When it had cooled off good he handed me and Ned a piece. He had seasoned it down good with wild onions that he had found out there in the swamps.

”You going North?” I asked him.

”No, I'm where I'm going right now,” he said. ”South.”

I quit eating. ”You got to be crazy,” I said.

”I reckoned you got all the sense, dragging that child through the swamps all time of night,” he said. ”Good thing I'm a friend, not an enemy. I heard y'all long time before you stopped back there listening. I had been leaning on that pole so long I was fixing to fall asleep.”

”We was quiet,” I said.

”Quiet for you, not for me,” he said. ”A dog ain't got nothing on these yers. What you think keeping me going, potatoes and corn?”

I didn't answer him. The rabbit was good, but I didn't want show him how much I liked it. Just nibbling here and there like I was particular.

”Who you know in Ohio?” he asked me.

”Just Mr. Brown,” I said.

”Mr. Brown who?”

”Mr. Brown, a Yankee soldier,” I said.

”Lord, have mercy,” the hunter said, shaking his head. ”Now, I done heard everything.”

”How come you going back South?” I said.

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