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oldest, gray and about sixty, the other two thirty or more- all of
them fine and handsome- and the sweetest old gray-headed lady,
and back of her two young women which I couldn't see right well.
The old gentleman says:
"There- I reckon it's all right. Come in."
As soon as I was in, the old gentleman he locked the door and
barred it and bolted it, and told the young men to come in with
their guns, and they all went in a big parlor that had a new rag
carpet on the floor, and got together in a corner that was out of
range of the front windows- there warn't none on the side. They
held the candle, and took a good look at me, and all said, "Why he
ain't a Shepherdson- no, there ain't any Shepherdson about him."
Then the old man said he hoped I wouldn't mind being searched
for arms, because he didn't mean no harm by it- it was only to
make sure. So he didn't pry into my pockets, but only felt outside
with his hands, and said it was all right. He told me to make myself
easy and at home, and tell all about myself; but the old lady says:
"Why bless you, Saul, the poor thing's as wet as he can be; and
don't you reckon it may be he's hungry?"
"True for you, Rachel- I forgot."
So the old lady says:
"Betsy" (this was a nigger woman), "you fly around and get him
something to eat, as quick as you can, poor thing; and one of you
girls go and wake up Buck and tell him- Oh, here he is himself.
Buck, take this little stranger and get the wet clothes off from him
and dress him up in some of yours that's dry."
Buck looked about as old as me- thirteen or fourteen or along
there, though he was a little bigger than me. He hadn't on anything
but a shirt, and he was very frowsy-headed. He come in gaping and
digging one fist into his eyes, and he was dragging a gun along
with the other one. He says:
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"Ain't they no Shepherdsons around?"
They said, no, 'twas a false alarm.
"Well," he says, "if they'd a ben some, I reckon I'd a got one."
They all laughed, and Bob says:
"Why, Buck, they might have scalped us all, you've been so
slow in coming."
"Well, nobody come after me, and it ain't right. I'm always kep'
down; I don't get no show."
"Never mind, Buck, my boy," says the old man, "you'll have
show enough, all in good time, don't you fret about that. Go 'long
with you now, and do as your mother told you."
When we got up stairs to his room, he got me a coarse shirt and
a roundabout and pants of his, and I put them on. While I was at it
he asked me what my name was, but before I could tell him, he
started to telling me about a blue jay and a young rabbit he had
catched in the woods day before yesterday, and he asked me where
Moses was when the candle went out. I said I didn't know; I hadn't
heard about it before, no way.
"Well, guess," he says.
"How'm I going to guess," says I, "when I never heard tell about
it before?"
"But you can guess, can't you? It's just as easy."
"Which candle?" I says.
"Why, any candle," he says.
"I don't know where he was," says I; "where was he?"
"Why, he was in the dark! That's where he was!"
"Well, if you knowed where he was, what did you ask me for?"
"Why, blame it, it's a riddle, don't you see? Say, how long are
you going to stay here? You got to stay always. We can just have
booming times- they don't have no school now. Do you own a
dog? I've got a dog- and he'll go in the river and bring out chips
that you throw in. Do you like to comb up, Sundays, and all that
kind of foolishness? You bet I don't, but ma she makes me.
Confound these ole britches, I reckon I'd better put'em on, but I'd
ruther not, it's so warm. Are you all ready? All right- come along,
old hoss."
Cold corn-pone, cold corn-beef, butter and buttermilk- that is
what they had for me down there, and there ain't nothing better that
ever I've come across yet. Buck and his ma and all of them smoked
cob pipes, except the nigger woman, which was gone, and the two
young women. They all smoked and talked, and I eat and talked.
The young women had quilts around them, and their hair down
their backs. They all asked me questions, and I told them how pap
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and me and all the family was living on a little farm down at the
bottom of Arkansaw, and my sister Mary Ann run off and got
married and never was heard of no more, and Bill went to hunt
them and he warn't heard of no more, and Tom and Mort died, and
then there warn't nobody but just me and pap left, and he was just
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