Alice Morgan

“ When he set foot upon the highroad, he began to follow by sight, for, excepting where the shadows were heaviest, he could discern the little [Pg 95] trudging figure of Grover Cleveland, its outline marred by something slung in man-like fashion across his shoulder and by the dog following closely.
He didn’t try to overtake the child, but, though the road was crooked, he never let him get out of his sight for a second. Sometimes in dark, rough places the man stumbled. “Seem like some spirit’s a-guidin’ the boy,” he said. “He don’t ’pear to make a false step”; and, like Suly, he was awed. ”

“ There’s a bad old man up there, a man that never sees me without making a lick at me with his stick, and if he does you mean and there’s only I left to tell the tale, who’ll I tell it to, I’d like to know? for there’s not a human that’s smart enough to understand my language, though I’ve understood English ever since I was a pup. Come back, Grover Cleveland! come back, I say, come back!” and with that last “come back,” Dixie gave such a sudden and powerful jerk that Grover Cleveland came tumbling backward into a bed of galax. ”

“ The resources of the one little store at the village were meagre but the genius of the decorators was not versatile. Gran’daddy chivalrously intended for the old women to have [Pg 26] the best and in his eyes a new frock was a princely gift. As for the old men, what so appropriate and acceptable as a paper of plug tobacco. At this stage his ingenuity was exhausted and his grandson did the rest.
If there was anything that Grover Cleveland liked better than candy, it was more candy, and though he was unlearned in the letter of the Golden Rule its spirit was inherent in his nature. ”

“ All of us together can keep one building painted and the roof tight and the windows sashed. I’d like not to have a hand in starvin’ or freezin’ any more preachers, but to make one preacher comf’table right here in Junaluska—we done it once and we done it without any outside help too—and we can do it ag’in. I’d like to have him always right yer on [Pg 57] the ground to christen our children, to bury our dead, and to marry our young folks. For myself, I ain’t carin’ what college turned him out so’s he’s a sure-’nough Christian and cares more about right livin’ than he does about beliefs. ”

“ The boy got down off the log and pityingly took his hand.
“Le’s go home,” he said, “I know where I be now an’ if you’re kind o’ mixed up yet, why I can show you the trail,” and he led away as [Pg 124] shamefaced an old sinner as ever trod the mountains.
(Seeing the pair on friendly terms, Dixie indulged in a brief interview with a ’possum.)
“As I was a-sayin’,” comforted the child as they picked their way by the lantern’s light, “it’s powerful mizzable to be borned with ways that you can’t help; but don’t you go to takin’-on about it, for we’re bound to outgrow it—so gran’daddy says. ”

“ Shielding her eyes with her hand the old woman watched them out of sight. “I ain’t been carin’ lately whether I was livin’ or not,” she mused, “but if Christmas trees is beginnin’ to circolate in these yer mountings, I aim to perk up and live long enough to git my share.”
Most of the old people who were young when gran’daddy was a boy still occupied their fathers’ holdings in clefts and coves up in the higher [Pg 35] mountains and to them the tree was carried while the sunshine still slanted and the roads were unthawed. ”

“ Colonel Ledbetter resumed his seat and his grandson came and leaned against him:
[Pg 106]
“Looks like he’s plumb mad, gran’daddy.”
“Yes he is, Grover Cleveland, he’s plumb mad and he’s been so ever since I’ve knowed him and that’s mighty nigh sixty years. He’s so rarin’ mad that when the Lord throws a good thing in his way he’s too mad to see it. Now like that ar wa’nut; any man that was a-lookin’ out for virtues instid of defects would have discovered that ’twas a curly. But old man Sumter’s mad at every thing under the sun whether it’s human or beast or tree or stone ”

“ There’s some big cities where there’s more kinds than we’ve got here. There’s two or three kinds of Meth’-dises and there’s Free-will Baptises [Pg 23] and Holinesses, and they all seem to be workin’ for the same end, only they can’t agree to work together. But, of course, people’s got a right to all the religious differences they can pay for; but here in Junaluska we’re too poor to have so many churches.”
“How did there git to be so many kinds, gran’daddy?”
“’Twas zeal, Grover Cleveland. And there’s another point where gran’daddy ain’t exactly clear in his mind. Zeal must be a good thing ”

“ Carliny found ’em outside her door this morning and she’d no more notion than the dead whose they was or how they got there, till I told her ’bout last night.”
The old man turned them in his hands confusedly. “If Grover Cleveland took these boots up thar last night,” he said, “his sleepin’ opinion is a heap different from his wakin’ opinion. When he’s awake he ’grees with me; he thinks if she was so set on goin’ her own gait, now she’d ought to keep on goin it.” ”

“ What you reckon he’d say if they was found froze plumb to death? And he such a powerful pious man and a-standin’ way up high in the church! Free-handed too—where he takes a notion—givin’ the preacher his rent free [Pg 83] and all the wood he’s a mind to cut and haul and all the apples and corn and potatoes he’s a mind to harvest; and a-pilin’ up fodder stacks close to ole Mis’ Jimson’s fence and a-pullin’ out a rail with his own hands so’s her ole cow can get her head through and help herself. ”

“ When a man’s cussin’ mad, tain’t so powerful ill for him to bat the old devil’s name about some but, Grover Cleveland, don’t you never go to triflin’ with the name of the Lord; that’s uncommon low down, that is. ”

“ His mother—she’s a queer ole stick as ever was—but they do say that Sam’s wife does the old woman mean, so I’ll give her a frock just to show ’em all that she’s some thought of. If them old critters don’t see a Christmas tree this year, the chances is they’ll die ’thout ever seein’ one. Haw, Bonaparte! By gum, if we’d a’ been a steam car we’d have run plumb over old Mis’ Jimson’s [Pg 15] cow; ’pears like she ain’t got heart in her to get out of the way; I reckon that pore old somebody ain’t got enough for herself to eat, let alone the cow. ”

“ Grover Cleveland shed his blanket, sprang over the wheel while it was yet in motion, and fled into the house and out of sight.
The old man chuckled. “The little feller’s right much ashamed of hisself when he’s found out in one of his spells. I reckon he cried some when you-all woke him up—he gen’ally does.
“Them that’s had nothin’ to cry for’s the ones that’s done the cryin’,” teased Thad.
“I don’t care if I did,” said Suly preparing to accept the invitation to “stop in by a spell.” “It must [Pg 86] be a mighty nasty feelin’ to wake up in the woods at night and not know how you got there.” ”

“ When we git riled, Presaterian cussin’ don’t sound noways diff’rent from Methdis’ cussin’ and a wayfarin’ man in Junaluska could never tell by lookin’ at the children’s frocks and faces whether their mothers believe that sprinklin’ or duckin’ is the tellin’est means of grace; and Baptis’ hogs and cattle left out on the mountings all winter without fodder and shelter looks jes’ as gaunted-up when spring comes as the Piscopals’ does. ”

“ So they made out their itinerary at once and, though they were subject to some delays and gran’daddy remarked as he groped for his gloves in the wood box among dish towels, [Pg 30] frying pans, broken dishes, and wearing apparel, “It’s quare what a way things has of skulking out of sight when they’re wanted,” and the little boy replied as he tore a strip from a window curtain and gartered his stocking, “It’s ’cause we ain’t got no woman here to keep ’em in their place,” by sunrise the oxen were hitched up and the premature Christmas tree started on its journey. ”

“ And more than that, t’other side the ford you went tearin’ off after a rabbit or a ’possum or a coon, and left him to find his way all by hisself. Now you get over there and don’t you say no more to me!”
Ashamed of his shortcomings or awed by her gestures, which were imperious, Dixie slunk to the other side of his master who, partially recovered by the unusual tones, came to a stand dazed and trembling.
“Poor little soul!” she said dropping to her knees and putting her arms about him. “Wake up, dear, and don’t you be scairt a mite, for it’s only Suly; you know Suly, don’t you?” ”

“ It was strange, but Colonel Ledbetter’s eyes never happened to light on that scarred log as he led his party past it and toward the summit of the hill.
“There’s only ten trees lying here,” he said, “that curly I left standing. Sometimes the man that buys it will give more for it that-a-way because he wants to have it cut particular; sometimes they count on gettin’ root and all.” ”

“ And so they watched them from point to point and every time they came into view a squad ran in to re-inspect the cabin and see that every thing was in order.
At last the white mules stood [Pg 70] before the door. Colonel Ledbetter and Grover Cleveland sat on the front seat of the wagon, and on chairs behind them sat Preacher Carr and his wife.
Strong hands assisted the wife to alight, but the preacher sprang over the wheel to greet his people. They crowded round him and the young cried, “Merry Christmas,” and the old said, “Welcome Home.” ”

“ Have they got any ear-marks that you know ’em by, gran’daddy?”
“No they ain’t Grover Cleveland; they ain’t none of ’em branded that-a-way.”
“What makes ’em diff’rent, gran’daddy?”
“It’s the way they b’lieve, gran’son. The Methdises they b’lieve in free grace and sprinklin’, and the Baptises they b’lieve in sousin’, and the Presaterians—they’re right mean, they are—they b’lieve in ’lection.” ”

“ But she grabbed her testament from off the shelf and a rabbit’s foot from out the button box, reassuring herself by a swift glance that it was the left hind one (no other “keeps a man from harm”) , pressed the two together, and ventured to take another look. She [Pg 33] recognized the oxen, the wagon, and its occupants. Her terror fled, but she stood transfixed with amazement.
“Mis’ Jimson, this ’ere’s a sure ’nough Chrisamas tree,” called Grover Cleveland.
She hobbled down to the gate. “What upon airth, Jakey Ledbetter?” she asked. ”

“ And I’d be proud to put a hymn-book on for Suly Jordan; she sings so good and she tied up my toe in turpentine that day I stubbed it. And there’s Zeb’lon, old Aunt Dicey’s gran’son—looks like he’s growed bigger’n there’s any call for—but he has troubles yet jes’ like little fellers. Ole man Sumter, he shot [Pg 13] Zeb’s tame deer last Friday, and Zeb and me, we got to it ’fore it was plumb dead and it looked up at Zeb, and Zeb he cried sure-’nough tears, he did. So you see Zeb’s only a boy yet and I don’t want to forgit him a-Chrisamus. ”

“ He replenished the fire and lit a candle.
“He sleeps right there betwixt me and the wall,” he pointed to a bed in the corner, “and I can’t contrive how he manages to give me the slip so often; he’s got some sort of sleepin’ slyness that he ain’t no more notion of when he’s awake, than a angel. Barricadin’ the door ain’t no good. One night I tied him fast to my wrist so’s he couldn’t move without wakin’ me up, but that seemed to hurt the little fellow’s feelin’s powerful an’ I didn’t try it again.”
[Pg 87]
Nothing was to be seen of Grover Cleveland. Suly went to the bed. ”

“ Why his very crops fails because he hates ’em so. Grover Cleveland, don’t you never go to bein’ mad at every body all the time. Tain’t Christian, an’ more’n that it kind o’ spiles your aim so that you don’t bring down no game.”
“Was he borned that-a-way, gran’daddy?” ”

“ For a moment the old man gloated [Pg 11] in silence over his wealth, for among these North Carolina mountaineers commerce is mostly carried on by barter and cash in hand is a scarce commodity.
“The Pistopals’ Chrisamus tree is only jes’ a holly”—gradually as the new idea had possessed his mind the limp little head had faced front again—“I clum up into that thar fiddle-leaf poplar that grows front of the meetin’-house winder and looked in, and there ain’t many berries on it at all; there’s a heap prettier ones in our woods.”
“Certainly there is, Grover Cleveland. ”

“ Seem like he gets scairt and keeps still a spell. I’m mighty nigh beat out myself, bein’ up so late yesterday evenin’; I reckon I can sleep without any rockin’,” and he went to bed.
He awoke after a three-hours’ nap. The room was cold and his first thought was to see if the Valley of the Mississippi was doing its duty by his grandson. It was not; and when he attempted to pull it into place he found there was no grandson there; neither did there appear [Pg 94] to be a complement of the Valley of the Mississippi.
“Grover Cleveland! Grover Cleveland!” ”

“ I laid in ten pounds extra for Christmas but old man Ledbetter come in yer and he let Grover Cleveland clean me out. You can gen’rally, most always [Pg 45] trust Colonel Ledbetter not to do no low down tricks but you-all know how’tis; if Grover Cleveland was a-hankerin’ after the whole top side of the airth his gran’daddy’d git it for him if he could. ”

“ Carliny, she’d manage it so that poor little soul wouldn’t go caperin’ about at night.”
“Them boots has taken to theirselves wings.”
“I’m afraid Carliny’s goin’ to freeze to death up there this winter—or starve—one.”
“Them boots had blue tops; they was Grover Cleveland’s own choice; blue always takes his eye.”
“It’s time we was movin’ on, Suly,” said Thad going to the door.
[Pg 90]
The girl had to stop beating the bush. “Carliny and Jakey ain’t a-doin’ any good up there, Colonel Ledbetter; they’re both a-lookin’ puny. ”

“ But he had it embarrassingly recalled to his mind next morning at breakfast when Aunt Carliny said as she gave him his second helping of hominy:
“Grover Cleveland’s getting right good ’bout stayin’ in bed o’ nights; he ain’t tried to get up in a dog’s age. Of course he couldn’t get up without my catchin’ him, for I’m always sleepin’ with one eye open, but seem like he don’t try any more.”
“I reckon he’s outgrowin’ them kind of capers,” gran’daddy reached out, stroked the yellow pate and the yellow pate bent lower and lower and finally the whole boy went down under the table. ”