I HAD shut the door to. Then
I turned around. and there he
was. I used to be scared of him
all the time, he tanned me so
much. I reckoned I was scared
now, too; but in a minute I see
I was mistaken -- that is, after
the first jolt, as you may say,
when my breath sort of hitched,
he being so unexpected; but right
away after I see I warn't scared
of him worth
bothring about.
He was most fifty, and he looked
it. His hair was long and tangled
and greasy, and hung down, and
you could see his eyes shining
through like he was behind vines.
It was all black, no gray; so
was his long, mixed-up whiskers.
There warn't no color in his
face, where his face showed;
it was white; not like another
man's white, but a white to make
a body sick, a white to make
a body's flesh crawl -- a tree-toad
white, a fish-belly white. As
for his clothes -- just rags,
that was all. He had one ankle
resting on t'other knee; the
boot on that foot was busted,
and two of his toes stuck through,
and he worked them now and then.
His hat was laying on the floor
-- an old black slouch with the
top caved in, like a lid.
I stood a-looking at him; he
set there a-looking at me, with
his chair tilted back a little.
I set the candle down. I noticed
the window was up; so he had
clumb in by the shed. He kept
a-looking me all over. By and
by he says:
"Starchy clothes
-- very. You think you're a
good deal of a
big-bug, DON'T you?"
"Maybe I am, maybe I ain't," I
says.
"Don't you give me none o'
your lip," says he. "You've put
on considerable many frills since
I been away. I'll take you down
a peg before I get done with
you. You're educated, too, they
say -- can read and write. You
think you're better'n your father,
now, don't you, because he can't?
I'LL take it out of you. Who
told you you might meddle with
such hifalut'n foolishness, hey?
-- who told you you could?"
"The widow.
She told me."
"The widow,
hey? -- and who told the widow
she could put
in her shovel about a thing that
ain't none of her business?"
"Nobody never
told her."
"Well, I'll
learn her how to meddle. And
looky here -- you
drop that school, you hear? I'll
learn people to bring up a boy
to put on airs over his own father
and let on to be better'n what
HE is. You lemme catch you fooling
around that school again, you
hear? Your mother couldn't read,
and she couldn't write, nuther,
before she died. None of the
family couldn't before THEY died.
I can't; and here you're a-swelling
yourself up like this. I ain't
the man to stand it -- you hear?
Say, lemme hear you read."
I took up a book and begun
something about General Washington
and the wars. When I'd read about
a half a minute, he fetched the
book a whack with his hand and
knocked it across the house.
He says:
"It's so. You
can do it. I had my doubts
when you told me.
Now looky here; you stop that
putting on frills. I won't have
it. I'll lay for you, my smarty;
and if I catch you about that
school I'll tan you good. First
you know you'll get religion,
too. I never see such a son.
He took up a little blue and
yaller picture of some cows and
a boy, and says:
"What's this?"
"It's something
they give me for learning my
lessons good."
He tore it up, and says:
"I'll give
you something better -- I'll
give you a cowhide.
He set there a-mumbling and
a-growling a minute, and then
he says:
"AIN'T you
a sweet-scented dandy, though?
A bed; and bedclothes;
and a look'n'-glass; and a piece
of carpet on the floor -- and
your own father got to sleep
with the hogs in the tanyard.
I never see such a son. I bet
I'll take some o' these frills
out o' you before I'm done with
you. Why, there ain't no end
to your airs -- they say you're
rich. Hey? -- how's that?"
"They lie --
that's how."
"Looky here
-- mind how you talk to me;
I'm astanding about
all I can stand now -- so don't
gimme no sass. I've been in town
two days, and I hain't heard
nothing but about you bein' rich.
I heard about it away down the
river, too. That's why I come.
You git me that money to-morrow
-- I want it."
"I hain't got
no money."
"It's a lie.
Judge Thatcher's got it. You
git it. I want it."
"I hain't got
no money, I tell you. You ask
Judge Thatcher;
he'll tell you the same."
"All right.
I'll ask him; and I'll make
him pungle, too, or
I'll know the reason why. Say,
how much you got in your pocket?
I want it."
"I hain't got
only a dollar, and I want that
to --"
"It don't make
no difference what you want
it for -- you just
shell it out."
He took it and bit it to see
if it was good, and then he said
he was going down town to get
some whisky; said he hadn't had
a drink all day. When he had
got out on the shed he put his
head in again, and cussed me
for putting on frills and trying
to be better than him; and when
I reckoned he was gone he come
back and put his head in again,
and told me to mind about that
school, because he was going
to lay for me and lick me if
I didn't drop that.
Next day he was drunk, and
he went to Judge Thatcher's and
bullyragged him, and tried to
make him give up the money; but
he couldn't, and then he swore
he'd make the law force him.
The judge and the widow went
to law to get the court to take
me away from him and let one
of them be my guardian; but it
was a new judge that had just
come, and he didn't know the
old man; so he said courts mustn't
interfere and separate families
if they could help it; said he'd
druther not take a child away
from its father. So Judge Thatcher
and the widow had to quit on
the business.
That pleased the old man till
he couldn't rest. He said he'd
cowhide me till I was black and
blue if I didn't raise some money
for him. I borrowed three dollars
from Judge Thatcher, and pap
took it and got drunk, and went
a-blowing around and cussing
and whooping and carrying on;
and he kept it up all over town,
with a tin pan, till most midnight;
then they jailed him, and next
day they had him before court,
and jailed him again for a week.
But he said HE was satisfied;
said he was boss of his son,
and he'd make it warm for HIM.
When he got out the new judge
said he was a-going to make a
man of him. So he took him to
his own house, and dressed him
up clean and nice, and had him
to breakfast and dinner and supper
with the family, and was just
old pie to him, so to speak.
And after supper he talked to
him about temperance and such
things till the old man cried,
and said he'd been a fool, and
fooled away his life; but now
he was a-going to turn over a
new leaf and be a man nobody
wouldn't be ashamed of, and he
hoped the judge would help him
and not look down on him. The
judge said he could hug him for
them words; so he cried, and
his wife she cried again; pap
said he'd been a man that had
always been misunderstood before,
and the judge said he believed
it. The old man said that what
a man wanted that was down was
sympathy, and the judge said
it was so; so they cried again.
And when it was bedtime the old
man rose up and held out his
hand, and says:
"Look at it,
gentlemen and ladies all; take
a-hold of it;
shake it. There's a hand that
was the hand of a hog; but it
ain't so no more; it's the hand
of a man that's started in on
a new life, and'll die before
he'll go back. You mark them
words -- don't forget I said
them. It's a clean hand now;
shake it -- don't be afeard."
So they shook it, one after
the other, all around, and cried.
The judge's wife she kissed it.
Then the old man he signed a
pledge -- made his mark. The
judge said it was the holiest
time on record, or something
like that. Then they tucked the
old man into a beautiful room,
which was the spare room, and
in the night some time he got
powerful thirsty and clumb out
on to the porch-roof and slid
down a stanchion and traded his
new coat for a jug of forty-rod,
and clumb back again and had
a good old time; and towards
daylight he crawled out again,
drunk as a fiddler, and rolled
off the porch and broke his left
arm in two places, and was most
froze to death when somebody
found him after sun-up. And when
they come to look at that spare
room they had to take soundings
before they could navigate it.
The judge he felt kind of sore.
He said he reckoned a body could
reform the old man with a shotgun,
maybe, but he didn't know no
other way. |