 Chapter 28 of Dread, The Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp by Harriet Beecher Stowe This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This recording by Michelle Fry, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Dread, Chapter 28, Magnolia Grove Judge Clayton was not mistaken in supposing that his son would contemplate the issue of the case he had defended with satisfaction. As we have already intimated, Clayton was somewhat averse to the practice of the law. Regarding for the feeling of his father had led him to resolve that he would at least give it a fair trial. His own turn of mind would have led him to some work of more immediate and practical philanthropy. He would have much preferred to retire to his own estate to devote himself with his sister to the education of his servants. But he felt that he could not, with due regard to his father's feelings, do this until he had given professional life a fair trial. After the scene of the trial which we have described, he returned to his business and and solicited Nina to accompany her for a few weeks to their plantation at Magnolia Grove. Wither, as duty bound, we may follow her. Our readers will therefore be pleased to find themselves transported to the shady side of a veranda belonging to Clayton's establishment at Magnolia Grove. The place derived its name from a group of these beautiful trees in the center of which the house was situated. It was a long, low cottage surrounded by deep verandas festooned with an exuberance of those climbing plants which are so splendid in the southern latitude. The range of apartments which opened on the veranda where Anne and Nina were sitting were darkened to exclude the floors, but the doors standing open gave picture-like gleams of the interior. The white matted floors, light bamboo furniture, couches covered with a glazed white linen, and the large vases of roses disposed here and there where the light would fall upon them, presented a background of inviting coolness. It was early in the morning and the two ladies were enjoying the luxury of a teta-teta breakfast before the sun had yet dried the heavy dews which give such freshness to the morning air. A small table which stood between them was spread with choice fruits arranged on dishes in green leaves, a pitcher of iced milk and a delicate little teta-teta coffee service dispensing the perfume of the most fragrant coffee. Nor were they wanting those small, delicate biscuits and some of those curious forms of cornbread of the manufacture of which every southern cook is so justly proud. Nor should we omit the central vase of monthly roses of every shade of color, the daily arrangement of which was the special delight of Anne's brown little waiting maid, LaTisse. Anne Clayton, in a fresh white morning wrapper with her pure healthy complexion, fine teeth and frank beaming smile looked like a queenly damask rose, a queen she really was on her own plantation, reigning by the strongest of all powers, that of love. The African race have large ideality and veneration and in no drawing room could Anne's beauty and grace her fine manners and carriage secure a more appreciating and unlimited admiration and devotion. The Negro race, with many of the faults of children, unite many of their most amiable qualities in the simplicity and confidingness with which they yield themselves up in admiration of a superior friend. Nina had been there but a day, yet could not fail to read in the eyes of all how absolute was the rain which Anne held over their affections. How delightful the smell of this magnolia blossom said Nina. Oh, I'm glad that you waked me so early, Anne. Yes, said Anne. In this climate, early rising becomes a necessary of life to those who mean to have any real positive pleasure in it, and I'm one of the sort that must have positive pleasures. Merely negative rest, lassitude and dreaming are not enough for me. I want to feel that I'm alive and that I accomplish something. Yes, I see, said Nina. You are not nominally like me, but really housekeeper. What wonderful skill you seem to have. Is it possible that you keep nothing locked up here? No, said Anne. Nothing. I'm released from the power of keys, thank fortune. When I first came here, everybody told me it was sheer madness to try such a thing. But I told them that I was determined to do it, and Edward upheld me in it, and you can see how well I've succeeded. Indeed, said Nina, you must have magic power, for I never saw a household move on so harmoniously. All your servants seem to think and contrive and take an interest in what they are doing. How did you begin? What did you do? Well, said Anne, I'll tell you the history of the plantation. In the first place, it belonged to Mama's uncle, and not to spoil the story for relations' sake, I must say he was a dissipated, unprincipled man. He lived a perfectly heathen life here, in the most shocking way you can imagine. And so the poor creatures who were under him were worse heathen than he. He lived with a quadruined woman, who was violent tempered, and went angry ferociously cruel, and so the servants were constantly passing from the extreme of indulgence to the extreme of cruelty. You can scarce have an idea of the state we found them in. My heart almost failed me. But Edward said, don't give up, Anne. Try the good that is in them. Well, I confess, it seemed very much as it seemed to me when I was once at a water cure establishment. Patients would be brought in, languid, pale, cold, half dead, and it appeared as if it would kill them to apply cold water. But somehow or other, there was a vital power in them that reacted under it. Well, just so it was with my servants. I called them all together, and I said to them, now people have always said that you are the greatest thieves in the world, that there is no managing you except by locking up everything from you. But I think differently. I have an idea that you can be trusted. I have been telling people that they don't know how much good there is in you, and now just to show them what you can do, I'm going to begin to leave the closets and doors and everything unlocked, and I shall not watch you. You can take my things if you choose, and if after a time I find that you can't be trusted, I shall go back to the old way. Well, my dear, I wouldn't have believed myself that the thing would have answered so well. In the first place, approbativeness is a stronger principle with the African race than almost any other. They like to be thought well of. Immediately there was the greatest spirit in the house for the poor creatures, having suddenly made the discovery that somebody thought they were to be trusted, were very anxious to keep up the reputation. The elder ones watched the younger, and in fact, my dear, I had very little trouble. The children at first troubled me going into my store closet and getting the cake, notwithstanding very spirited government on the part of the mammies. So I called my family in session again and said that their conduct had confirmed my good opinion, that I always knew they could be trusted, and that my friends were astonished to hear how well they did, but that I had observed that some of the children probably had taken my cake. Now you know, said I, that I have no objection to your having some. If any of you would enjoy a piece of cake, I shall be happy to give it to them. But it is not agreeable to have things in my closet fingered over. I shall therefore set a plate of cake out every day, and anybody that wishes to take some, I hope we'll take that. Well, my dear, my plate of cake stood there and dried. You won't believe me, but in fact it wasn't touched. Well, said Don, I shouldn't think you could have had our Tom did here. Why, really, this goes beyond the virtue of white children. My dear, it isn't such a luxury to white children to be thought well of and have character. You must take that into account. It was a taste of a new kind of pleasure made attractive by its novelty. Yes, said Nana, I have something in me which makes me feel this would be the right way. I know it would be with me. There's nothing like confidence. If a person trusts me, I'm bound. Yet, said Anne, I can't get the ladies of my acquaintance to believe in it. They see how I get along, but they insist upon it that it's some secret magic or art of mine. Well, it is so, said Nana. Such things are just like the divining rod. They won't work in every hand. It takes a real generous, warm-hearted woman like you, Anne. But could you carry your system through your plantation as well as your house? The field hands were more difficult to manage on some accounts, said Anne, but the same principle prevailed with them. Edward tried all he could to awaken self-respect. Now, I counseled that we should endeavor to form some decent habits before we built the cabins over. I told him they could not appreciate cleanliness in order. Very likely they cannot, he said, but we are not to suppose it. And he gave orders immediately for that pretty row of cottages you saw down at the quarters. He put up a large bathing establishment. Yet he did not enforce, at first, personal cleanliness by strict rules. Those who began to improve first were encouraged and noticed, and as they found this passport to favor, the thing took rapidly. It required a great while to teach them how to be consistently orderly and cleanly, even after the first desire had been awakened, because it isn't everyone that likes neatness and order who has the forethought and skill to secure it. But there has been a steady progress in these respects. One curious peculiarity of Edward's management gives rise to a good many droll scenes. He has instituted a sort of jury trial among them. There are certain rules for the order and well-being of the plantation which all agree to abide by, and in all offenses the man is tried by a jury of his peers. Mr. Smith, our agent, says that these scenes are sometimes very diverting, but on the whole there's a good deal of shrewdness and sense manifested. But he says that, in general, they inclined much more to severity than he would. You see, the poor creatures have been so barbarized by the way they have been treated in past times that it has made them hard and harsh. I assure you, Nana, I never appreciated the wisdom of God in the laws which he made for the Jews in the wilderness, as I have since I've tried the experiment myself of trying to bring a set of slaves out of barbarism. Now, this that I'm telling you is the fairest side of the story. I can't begin to tell you the thousand difficulties and trials which we have encountered in it. Sometimes I've been almost worn out and discouraged, but then I think if there is a missionary work in this world, it is this. And what do your neighbors think about it, said Nana? Well, said Anne, they are all very polite, well-bred people, the families with whom we associate, and such people, of course, would never think of interfering or expressing a difference of opinion in any very open way. But I have the impression that they regard it with suspicion. They sometimes let fall words which make me think they do. It's a way of proceeding which very few would adopt because it is not a money-making operation by any means. The plantation barely pays for itself because Edward makes that quite a secondary consideration. The thing which excites the most murmuring is our teaching them to read. I teach the children myself two hours every day because I think this would be less likely to be an offense than if I should hire a teacher. Mr. Smith teaches any of the grown men who are willing to take the trouble to learn. Any man who performs a certain amount of labor can secure to himself two or three hours a day to spend as he chooses, and many do choose to learn. Some of the men and the women have become quite good readers and Clayton is constantly sending books for them. This, I'm afraid, gives great offense. It is against the law to do it, but as unjust laws are sometimes lived down, we thought we would test the practicability of doing this. There was some complaint made of our servants because they have not the servile subdued heir which commonly marks the slave. But look, speak, and act as if they respected themselves. I'm sometimes afraid that we shall have trouble, but then I hope for the best. What does Mr. Clayton expect to be the end of all this? Said Nana. Why, I think Edward has the idea that one of these days they may be emancipated on the soil just as the serfs were in England. It looks to me rather hopeless, I must say, but he says the best way is for some one to begin and set an example of what ought to be done, and he hopes that in time it will be generally followed. It would if all men were like him, but there lies my doubt. The number of those who would pursue such a disinterested course is very small. But who comes there? Upon my word, if it isn't my particular admirer, Mr. Bradshaw. As Anne said this, a very gentlemanly middle-aged man came up on horseback on the carriage-drive which passed in front of the veranda. He bore in his hand a large bunch of different-colored roses and a lighting and delivering his horse to his servant came up the steps and presented it to Anne. There, said he, are the first fruits of my roses in the garden that I started in Rosedale. Beautiful, said Anne, taking them. Allow me to present to you Miss Gordon. Miss Gordon, you're most obedient, said Mr. Bradshaw, bowing up sequiously. You're just in season, Mr. Bradshaw, for I'm sure you couldn't have had your breakfast before you started, so sit down and help us with ours. Thank you, Miss Anne. The offer is too tempting to be refused. And he soon established himself as a third at the little table and made himself very sociable. Well, Miss Anne, how do all your plans proceed? All your benevolences and cares. I hope your angel administrations don't exhaust you. Not at all, Mr. Bradshaw. Do I look like it? No, indeed, but such energy is perfectly astonishing to us all. Nina's practiced eye observed that Mr. Bradshaw had that particular nervous, restless air, which belongs to a man who is charged with a particular message and finds himself unexpectedly blockaded by the presence of a third person. So after breakfast, exclaiming that she had left her crochet needle in her apartment and resisting Anne's offer to send a servant for it, by declaring that nobody could find it but herself, she left the veranda. Mr. Bradshaw had been an old family friend for many years and stood with Anne almost on an easy footing of a relation which gave him the liberty of speaking with freedom. The moment the door of the parlor was closed after Nina he drew a chair near Anne and sat down with the unmistakable air of a man who was going into a confidential communication. The fact is, my dear Miss Clayton, I have something on my mind that I want to tell you and I hope you will thank my long friendship for the family, a sufficient warrant for my speaking on matters that really belong chiefly to yourself. The fact is, my dear Miss Clayton, I was at a small dinner party of gentlemen the other day at Colonel Grandin's. There was a little select set there, you know, the Howards and the Elliotts and the Howlins and so on. And the conversation happened to turn upon your brother. Now there was very greatest respect for him. They seemed to have the highest possible regard for his motives, but still they felt that he was going on a very dangerous course. Dangerous, said Anne a little startled. Yes, really dangerous, and I think so myself, though I perhaps don't feel as strongly as some do. Really, said Anne, I'm quite at a loss. My dear Miss Anne, it's these improvements, you know, which you are making. Don't misapprehend me, admirable, admirable in themselves, done from the most charming of motives, Miss Anne. But dangerous, dangerous. The solemn, mysterious manner in which these last words were pronounced made Anne laugh, but when she saw the expression of real concern on the face of her good friend, she checked herself and said, Pray, explain yourself. I don't understand you. Why, Miss Anne, it's just here. You appreciate your humanity and your self-denial and your indulgence to your servants. Everybody has an opinion that it's admirable. You're really quite a model for us all. But when it comes to teaching them to read and write, Miss Anne, he said, lowering his voice, I think you don't consider what a dangerous weapon you are putting into their hands. The knowledge will spread on to the other plantations. Bright niggers will pick it up for the very fellas who are most dangerous or the very ones who will be sure to learn. What if they should? Why, my dear Miss Anne, the facilities that it will afford them for combinations, for insurrections. You see, Miss Anne, I read a story once of a man who made a cork leg with such wonderful accuracy that it would walk of itself. And when he got it on, he couldn't stop its walking. It walked him to death. Actually did. And then it ran off with his body and it's running with its skeleton to this day, I believe. And good-natured Mr. Bradshaw conceived such a ridiculous idea at this stage of his narrative that he leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily, wiping his perspiring face with a camber pocket handkerchief. Really, Mr. Bradshaw, it's a very amusing idea, but I don't see the analogy. Why, don't you see, you begin teaching niggers and having reading and writing and all these things going on and they begin to open their eyes and look around and think. And they are having opinions of their own. They won't take yours and they want to rise directly. And if they can't rise why they are all discontented. And there's the what's-his-name to pay with them. Then come conspiracies and insurrections no matter how well you treat them. And now we South Carolians have had experience in this matter. You must excuse us, but it is a terrible subject with us. Why, the leaders of that conspiracy, all of them were fellows who could read and write and who had nothing in the world to wish for in the way of comfort treated with every consideration by their masters. It is the most melancholy chapter in human nature. It shows that there is no trust to be placed in them. And now the best way to get along with niggers in my opinion is to make them happy, give them plenty to eat and drink and wear and keep them amused and excited and don't work them too hard. I think it's a great deal better than this kind of exciting instruction. Mind, he said, seeing that Anne was going to interrupt him. We have religious instruction, of course. Now this system of oral instruction, teaching them hymns and passages of scripture suited to their particular condition, it's just the thing. It isn't so liable to these dangers. I'll hope you excuse me, Miss Anne, but the gentlemen really feel very serious about these things. They find it's affecting their own niggers. You know, somehow everything goes round from one plantation to another, he said that he had a very smart man who was married to one of your women and he actually found him with a spelling book sitting out under a tree. He said if the man had had a rifle he wouldn't have been more alarmed because the man was just one of those sharp, resolute fellows that if he knew how to read and write there's no knowing what he would do. Well, now, you see how it is. He takes the spelling book away and he tells him he will give him 9 and 30 if he ever finds him with it again. What's the consequence? Why, the consequence is the man sulks and gets ugly and he has to sell him. That's the way it's operating. Well then, said Anne, looking somewhat puzzled, I will strictly forbid our people to allow spelling books to go out of their hands or to communicate any of these things off the plantation. Oh, I tell you Miss Anne, you don't know the passion in human nature for anything that is forbidden. Now, I believe it's more that than love of reading. You can't shut up such an experiment as you are making here. It's just like a fire. It will blaze. It will catch on all the plantations around and I assure you it's a matter of life and death with us. You smile Miss Anne, but it's so. Really, my dear Mr. Bradshaw, you could not have addressed me on a more unpleasant subject. I'm sorry to excite the apprehension of our neighbors, but give me leave to remind you also, Miss Anne, that the teaching of slaves to read and write is an offense to which a severe penalty is attached by the laws. I thought, said Anne, that such barbarous laws were a dead letter in a Christian community and that the best tribute I could pay to its Christianity was practically to disregard them. By no means, Miss Anne, by no means. Well, look at us here in South Carolina. The Negroes are three to one over the whites now. Will it do to give them the further advantages of education and facilities of communication? You see at once, it will not. Now, well-bred people, of course, are extremely averse to mingling in the affairs of other families and had you merely taught a few favorites in a private way as I believe people now and then do. It wouldn't have seemed so bad. But to have regular provision for teaching school and school hours, I think, Miss Anne, you'll find it will result in unpleasant consequences. Yes, I fancy, said Anne, raising herself up and slightly coloring, that I see myself in the penitentiary for the sin and crime of teaching children to read. I think, Mr. Badshaw, it is time such laws were disregarded. Is not that the only way in which many laws are repealed? Society outgrows them. People disregard them. And so they fall away, like the calyx from some of my flowers. Come now, Mr. Badshaw. Come with me to my school. I'm going to call it together, said Anne, rising and beginning to go down the veranda steps. Certainly, my dear friend, you ought not to judge without seeing. And Anne stepped across the shady parlor, and in a few moments reappeared with Naina, both arrayed in white cape bonnets. They crossed to the right of the house to a small cluster of neat cottages, each one of which had its little vegetable garden, and its plot in front carefully tended with flowers. They passed onward into a grove of magnolias which skirted the back of the house till they came to a little building with the external appearance of a small Parisian temple, the pillars of which were festooned with jasmine. Pray, what pretty little place is this? said Mr. Badshaw. This is my school room, said Anne. Mr. Badshaw repressed a whistle of astonishment, but the emotion was plainly legible in his face, and Anne said, laughing. A lady's schoolroom, you know, should be ladylike. Besides, I wish to inspire ideas of taste, refinement, and respect in these children. I wish learning to be associated with the idea of elegance and beauty. They ascended the steps and entered a large room surrounded on three sides by blackboards. The floor was covered with white matting and the walls hung with very pretty pictures of French lithographs tastefully colored. In some places, cards were hung up bearing quotations of scripture. There were rows of neat desks of which there was a little chair. Anne stepped to the door and rang a bell, and in about ten minutes the patter of innumerable little feet was heard ascending the steps, and presently they came streaming in. All ages, from four or five to fifteen, and from the ebony complexion of the negro, with its closely curling wool, to the rich brown cheek of the quadroon with melancholy, lustrous eyes and waving hair. All were dressed alike in a neat uniform of some kind of blue stuff with white capes and aprons. They filed into the tune of one of those marked rhythmical melodies which characterized the negro music, and moving in exact time to the singing assumed their seats, which were arranged with regard to age and size. As soon as they were seated, Anne, after a moment's pause, clapped her hands and the whole school commenced a morning hymn in four parts, which were sung so beautifully that Mr. Bradshaw, quite overpowered, stood with tears in his eyes and nodded at Naina and cast on him a satisfied glance. After that there was a rapid review of the classes. There was reading, spelling, writing on the blackboard and the smaller ones were formed in groups into adjoining apartments under the care of some of the older girls. Anne walked about superintending the whole and Naina, who saw the scene for the first time, could not repress her exclamation of delight. The scholars were evidently animated by the presence of company and anxious to do credit to the school and teacher and the two hours passed rapidly away. Anne exhibited to Mr. Bradshaw specimens of the proficiency of her scholars in handwriting and the drawing of maps and even the copying of small lithograph cards which contained a series of simple drawing patterns. Mr. Bradshaw seemed filled with astonishment. Upon my word, said he, these are surprising. Miss Anne, you are a veritable magician, a worker of miracles. You must have found Aaron's ride again. My dear madam, you run the risk of being burned for a witch. Very few Mr. Bradshaw know how much of beauty lies sealed up in this affected race, said Anne with enthusiasm. As they were walking back to the house, Mr. Bradshaw fell a little behind and his face wore a thoughtful and almost sad expression. Well said Anne, looking round, a penny for your thoughts. Oh, I see, Miss Anne, you are for pursuing your advantage. I see triumph in your eyes. But yet, after all this display, the capability of your children makes me feel sad. To what end is it? What purpose will it serve, except to unfit them for their inevitable condition, to make them discontented and unhappy? Well, there ought to be no inevitable condition that makes it necessary to dwarf a human mind. Any condition which makes a full development of the powers that God has given us, a misfortune, cannot certainly be a healthy one, cannot be right. If a mind will grow and rise, make way and let it, make room for it, and cut down everything that stands in the way. That's terribly leveling doctrine, Miss Anne. Let it level then, said Anne. I don't care. I come from the Old Virginia Cavalier Blood and am not afraid of anything. But Miss Anne, how do you account for it that the best educated and the best treated slaves, in fact, as you say, the most perfectly developed human beings, were those who got up the insurrection in Charleston? How do you account for it, said Anne, that the best developed and finest specimens of men have been those that have got up insurrections in Italy, Austria, and Hungary? Well, you admit then, said Mr. Bradshaw, that if you say A in this matter, you've got to say B. Certainly. And when the time comes to say B, I'm ready to say it. I admit, Mr. Bradshaw, that it's a very dangerous thing to get up steam if you don't intend to let the boat go. But when the steam is high enough, let her go, say I. Yes, but Miss Anne, other people don't want to say so. The fact is, we're not all of us ready to let the boat go. It's got all our property in it, all we have to live on. If you're willing yourself so far as your people are concerned, they'll inevitably want liberty and you say you'll be ready to give it to them. But your fires will raise the steam on our plantations and we must shut down these escaped vows. Don't you see? Now, for my part, I've been perfectly charmed with this school of yours, but after all, I can't help inquiring where to it will grow. Well, Mr. Bradshaw, I'm obliged to you for the frankness of this conversation. It's very friendly and sincere. I think, however, I shall continue to complement the good sense and the gallantry of this state by ignoring its unworthy and un-Christian laws. I will endeavor, nevertheless, to be more careful and guarded as to the manner of what I do. But if I should be put into the penitentiary, Mr. Bradshaw, I hope you'll call on me. Miss Anne, I beg ten thousand pardons for that unfortunate illusion. I think I shall impose it as a penance upon you to stay and spend the day with us and then I'll show you my rose garden. I have great counsel to hold with you on the training of a certain pillar rose. You see, my design is to get you involved in my treason. You've already come into complicity with it by visiting my school. Thank you, Miss Anne. I should be only too honored to be your vetter in any treason you might meditate. But really, I'm a most unlucky dog. Think of my having four bachelor friends engaged to dine with me and so being obliged to decline your tempting offer. In fact, I must take horse before the sun gets any hotter. There he goes for a good-hearted creature as he is, said Anne. Do you know, said 9-11, that I thought he was some poor, desperate mortal who was on the verge of a proposal this morning and I ran away like a good girl Child, said Anne, you're all together too late in the day. Mr. Bradshaw and I walked that little figure some time ago and now he is one of the most convenient and agreeable of friends. Anne, why in the world don't you get in love with somebody? My dear, I think there was something or other left out when I was made up. But I never had much of a fancy for the Lords of Creation. They do tolerably well till they come to be lovers but then they are perfectly unbearable. Lions in love, my dear, don't appear to advantage, you know. I can't marry Papa or Edward and they have spoiled me for everybody else. Besides, I'm happy and what do I want with any of them? Can't there be now and then a woman sufficient to herself? But, 9-11, I'm sorry that our affairs here are giving offence and making uneasiness. For my part, said Nana, I should go right on. I have noticed that people try all they can to stop a person who is taking an unusual course and when they are perfectly certain that they can't stop them, then they turn around and fall in with them and I think that will be the case with you. They certainly will have an opportunity of trying, said Anne. But there is Delcimer coming up to Avenue with the letter bag. Now child, I don't believe my excellence when you consider that I used to have all these letters that fall to you every mail. At this moment, Delcimer wrote up to the verandah steps and deposited the letter bag in Anne's hands. What an odd name you have given him, said Nana, and what a comical looking fellow he is. He has a sort of waggish air that reminds me of a crow. Oh, Delcimer don't belong to our regime, said Anne. He was the prime minister and favorite under the former reign. A sort of licensed court jester and to this day he hardly knows how to do anything but sing and dance and so brother, who is for allowing the largest liberty to everybody imposes on him only such general and light tasks as suit his roving nature. But there, said Anne throwing a letter on Nana's lap and at the same time breaking the seal directed to herself. Ah, I thought so. You see Puss, Edward has some law business that takes him to this part of the state forthwith. Was ever such convenient law business? We may look for him tonight. Now there will be rejoicings. Oh now, Delcimer, I thought you had gone. She said looking up and observed that personage still lingering in the shade of a tulip tree near the verandah. Please miss Anne, is Master Clayton coming home tonight? Yes, Delcimer. Now go and spread the news for that's what you want, I know. And Delcimer, needing no second suggestion, was out of sight in the shrubbery in a few moments. Now I'll wager, said Anne, that creature will get up something or other extraordinary for this evening. Such as what? Well, he is something of a troubadour and I shouldn't wonder if he should be cuddling his brain at this moment for a song. We shall have some kind of operatic performance you may be sure. End of Chapter 28 Magnolia Grove Chapter 29 of Dread, a tale of the great dismal swamp by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. This recording by Michelle Fry Dutton Rouge, Louisiana. Dread, Chapter 29 The Troubadour About five o'clock in the evening, Nina and Anne amused themselves with setting a fancy tea table on the veranda. Nina had gathered a quantity of the leaves of the live oak which she possessed a particular faculty of plating in long, flat wreaths and with these she garlanded the social round table after it had been draped in its snowy Damasque while Anne was busy arranging fruit in dishes with vine leaves. LaTisse will be in despair tonight said Anne, looking up and smiling at a neatly dressed brown mulatto girl who stood looking on with large lustrous eyes. Her occupation is gone. Oh, LaTisse must allow me to show my accomplishments, said Nina. There are some household arts that I have quite a talent for. If I had lived in what's its name there that they used to tell about in the old times, Arcadia, I should have made a good housekeeper for nothing suits me better than making wreaths and arranging bouquets. My nature is dressy. I want to dress everything. I want to dress tables and dress vases and adorned dishes and dress handsome women, Anne. So look out for yourself for when I have done crowning the table I shall crown you. As Nina talked she was flitting hither and thither taking up and laying down flowers and leaves, shaking out long sprays and fluttering from place to place like a bird. It's a pity, said Anne, that life can't be all Arcadia. Oh yes, said Nina, when I was a child I remember there was an old torn translation of a book called Guest Nurse Idols that used to lie about the house and I used to read in it the most charming little stories about handsome shepherds dressed in white playing on silver and ivory flutes and shepherdesses with azure mantles and floating hair and people living on such delightful things as cool curds and milk and grapes and strawberries and peaches and there was no labor and no trouble and no dirt and no care. There were flowers in the birds growing and singing and being beautiful. Ah, dear, I have never got overwonding at sense. Why couldn't it be so? It's a thousand pities, said Anne, but what constant fight we have to maintain for order and beauty. Yes, said Nina, and what seems worse beauty itself becomes dirt in a day. Now these roses that we are arranging tomorrow or next day would be bitter and wish somebody would sweep them out of the way but I never want to be the one to do that. I want someone to carry away the withered flowers and wash the sold vases but I want to be the one to cut the fresh roses every day. If I were in an association I should take that from my part. I'd arrange all the flowers through the establishment but I should stipulate expressly that I should do no clearing up. Well, said Anne, it's a mystery to me what a constant downward tendency there is to everything how everything is gravitating back, as you may say, into disorder. Now, I think a cleanly, sweet, tasteful house and above all table are among the highest works of art and yet how everything attacks you when you set out to attain it. Flies, cockroaches, ants, mosquitoes, and then it seems to be the fate of all human beings that are constantly wearing out and disarranging and destroying all that is about them. Yes, said Nina, I couldn't help thinking of that when we were at the camp meeting. The first day I was perfectly charmed. Everything was so fresh, so cool, so dewy and sweet, but by the end of the second day they had thrown eggshells and pea pods and melon rinds and all sorts of abominations around among the tents and plates. How disgusting, said Anne. Now I'm one of that sort, said Nina, that love order dearly but don't want the trouble of it myself. My Prime Minister, and Katie, thanks to Mama, is an excellent hand to keep it and I encourage her in it with all my heart so that any part of the house where I don't go much is in beautiful order. But bless me I should have to be made over again before I could do like Aunt Elizabeth. Did you ever see her take a pair of gloves or a collar out of a drawer? She gets up and walks so moderately across the room, takes the key from under the napkin on the right side of the bureau, unlocks the drawer as gravely as though she was going to offer a sacrifice. Then if her gloves are at the back side underneath something else, she takes out one thing after another so moderately. Then when the gloves or collar or found lays everything back exactly where it was before, locks the drawer and puts the key back under the towel. And all this she'd do if anybody was dying and she had to go for the doctor. The consequence is that her room, her drawers, and everything are a standing sermon to me. But I think I've got to be a much calmer person than I am before this will come to pass in my case. I'm always in such a breeze and flutter I fly to my drawer and scatter things into little whirlwinds ribbons, scarves, flowers everything flies out in a perfect rainbow. It seems as if I should die if I didn't get the thing I wanted that minute and after two or three such attacks on the door then comes repentance and a long time of rolling up and arranging and talking to little naughty Nina who always promises herself to keep better order in future. But, my dear, she doesn't do it, I'm sorry to say, though perhaps there are hopes of her in future. Tell me, Anne, you are not stiff and pokey, and yet you seem to be endowed with the gift of order. How did it come about? It was not natural to me, I assure you, said Anne. It was a second nature, drilled into me by Mama. Mama, ah, indeed said Nina, giving a sigh. Then you are very happy. But come now, Latisse. I've done with all these. Take them away. My tea table has risen out of them like the world out of chaos, she said, as she swept together a heap of rejected vines, leaves, and flowers. Ah, I always have a repenting turn, when I've done arranging vases, to think I've picked so many more than were necessary. The poor flowers droop their leaves and look at me reproachfully as if they said, you didn't want this. Why couldn't you have left us alone? Oh, said Anne. Latisse will relieve you of that. She has great talents in the floral line, and out of these she will arrange quantities of bouquets, she said. As Latisse, blushing perceptibly through her brown skin, stooped and swept up the rejected flowers into her apron. What have we here? said Anne, as dulcimer attired with most unusual care came bowing up to steps presenting a note on a waiter. Dear me, how stylish, guilt-edged paper, smelling of myrrh and ambergris she continued as she broke the seal. What's this? The Magnolia Grove Tributors request the presence of Mr. and Miss Clayton and Miss Gordon at an operatic performance which will be given this evening at eight o'clock in the Grove. Very well done. I fancy some of my scholars have been busy with the writing. Dulcimer, we shall be happy to come. Whereupon did he pick up those phrases? said Nina when he had departed. Oh, said Anne, I told you that he was prime favorite of the former proprietor that used to take him with him wherever he traveled, as some people sometimes will, a pet monkey, and I dare say he has lounged around the lobbies of many an opera house. I told you that he was going to get up something. What a delightful creature he must be, said Nina. Perhaps so to you, said Anne, but he is a troublesome person to manage. He is as holy destitute of any moral organs as a jackdaw, when sometimes questions whether these creatures have any more than a reflected mimicry of a human soul, such as the German stories imagine in cobalts and water sprites. All I can see in Dulcimer is a kind of fun-loving animal. You don't seem to have any moral nature. Perhaps, said Nina, his moral nature is something like the cypress vines seeds which I planted three months ago, and which have just come up. Well, I believe Edward expects to see it along one of these days, said Anne. His faith in human nature is unbounded. I think it is one of his fourables for my part, but yet I try to have hopes of Dulcimer that some day or other he will have some glimmering perceptions of the difference between a lie and the truth, and between his own things and other peoples. At present he is the most lawless marauder on the place. He has been so used to having his wit to cover a multitude of sins that it's difficult for a scolding to make any impression on him. But, Hark, isn't that a horse? Somebody's coming up the avenue. Both listened. There are two, said Nina. Just at this instant Clayton emerged to view, accompanied by another rider who, on nearer view, turned out to be Frank Russell. At the same instant the sound of violins and banjos was heard, and to Anne's surprise a gaily dressed procession of servants and children began to file out from the grove, headed by Dulcimer and several of his associates playing and singing. There, said Anne, didn't I tell you so? There's the beginning of Dulcimer's operations. The air was one of those inexpressibly odd ones whose sharp metallic accuracy of rhythm seems to mark the delight which the Negro race feel in that particular element of music. The words, as usual, amounted to very little. Nina and Anne could hear, oh, I see Damascus are coming up to track. His horse heels do clatter with the clack, clack, clack. The idea conveyed in these lines still further carried out by the regular clapping of hands at every accented note while every voice joined in the chorus. Sing, boys, sing. Damascus is come. Give three cheers for the good man at home. Ho, he, ho. Hurrah, hurrah. Clayton acknowledged the compliment as he came up by bowing from his horse, and the procession arranged itself in a kind of lane through which he and his companion rode up to the veranda. Pawn my words, said Frank Russell. I wasn't prepared for such a demonstration, quite a presidential reception. When Clayton came to the steps and dismounted a dozen sprang eagerly forward to take his horse, and in the crowding round for a word of recognition the order of the procession was entirely broken. After many kind words and inquiries in every direction for a few moments the people quietly retired, leaving their master to his own enjoyments. You really have made quite a triumphal entry, said Nina. Dosimer always exhausts himself on all such occasions, said Anne, so that he isn't capable of any further virtue for two or three weeks. Well, take him while he is in flower then, said Russell, but how perfectly cool and inviting you look, really quite idyllic. We must certainly have got into a fairy queen's castle. But you must show us somewhere to shake us off our feet, said Clayton. Yes, said Anne, there's Aunt Pearl waiting to show you your room. Go and make yourselves as fascinating as you can. In a little while the gentleman returned in fresh white linen suits and the business of the tea table proceeded with alacrity. Well now, said Anne, after tea looking at her watch, I must inform the company that we are all engaged to the opera this evening. Yes, said Nina, the Magnolia Grove Opera House is to be opened and the Magnolia Troubadour troubadour to appear for the first time. At this moment they were surprised by the appearance below the veranda of Dulsamer with three of his colored associates all wearing white ribbons in their buttonholes and carrying white wands tied with satin ribbons and gravely arranged themselves two and two on each side of the steps. Why, Dulsamer, what's this? White and Dulsamer bowed with the gravity of a raven and announced that the committee had come to wait on the gentleman and ladies to their seats. Oh, said Anne, we were not prepared for our part of the play. What a pity I didn't bring my opera hat, said Nina. Never mind, she said, snatching a spray of multi-flora rose. This will do. And she gave it one twist around her head and her toilet was complete. We heard that soon done, said Frank Russell, as he watched the coronet of half-opened buds and roses. Yes, said Nana, sit down, Anne, I forgot your crown. There, wait a moment, let me turn this leaf a little and weave these buds in here. So, now you are the Baltimore bell, to be sure. Now for the procession. The opera house for the evening was an open space in the grove behind the house. Lamps had hung up in the trees twinkling on the glossy foliage. A sort of booth or arbor was built of flowers and leaves at one end to which the party were marshaled in great state. Between two magnolia trees a white curtain was hung up and the moment the family party made their appearance a chorus of voices from behind the scenes began an animated song of welcome. As soon as the party was seated a curtain rose and the chorus consisting of about 30 of the best singers, males and females came forward dressed in their best holiday costume singing and keeping step as they sung and bearing in their hands bouquets which as they marched around the circle they threw at the feet of the company. A wreath of orange blossoms was significantly directed at Nana and fell right into her lap. These people seem to have had their eyes open. Coming events cast their shadows before said Russell. After walking around the chorus seated themselves at the side of the area and the space behind was filled up with a dense sea of heads all the servants and plantation hands. I declare said Russell looking round on the crowd of dark faces this sable cloud is turning a silver lining with a witness how neat and pretty that row of children look and as they spoke a procession children from Ann's school came filing round in the same manner that the others had done singing their school songs and casting flowers before the company. After this they seated themselves on low seats in front of all the others. Dalsimer and four of his companions now came into the center. There said Ann, Dalsimer is going to be the centerpiece he is the troubadour. Dalsimer in fact commenced a kind of recitative to the tune Masters in the Cold, Cold Ground. After singing a few lines the quartet took up the chorus and their voices were really magnificent. Wah! said Nana. It seems to me they are beginning in a very doleful way. Oh said Ann, wait a minute this is the old master I fancy we shall soon hear the tune changed. And accordingly Dalsimer striking into a new tune began to rehearse the coming in of a new master. There said Ann, now for a catalog of Edward's virtues they must all be got down rhyme or no rhyme. Dalsimer kept on rehearsing every four lines the quartet struck in with the chorus which was then repeated by the whole company clapping their hands and stamping their feet to the time with great vivacity. Now Ann is coming your turn said Nana as Dalsimer launched out in most high flown lines on the beauty of Miss Ann. Yes, said Clayton the catalog of your virtues will be something extensive. I shall escape at any rate said Nunn. Don't you be too sure said Ann. Dalsimer has had his eye on you ever since you've been here. And true enough after the next stanza Dalsimer assumed a peculiarly meaning expression. There said Ann do see the wretch flirting himself out saucy crow. It's coming now look out Nana with a waggish expression from the corner of his downcast eyes he sung. Oh, Massa is often absent. Do you know where he goes? He goes to North Carolina for the North Carolina Rose. There you are said Frank Russell do you see the grin going round what a lot of ivory they're coming in this chorus strong and the whole assembly great animation poured out on the chorus Oh to North Carolina Rose Oh to North Carolina Rose we wish good luck to Massa with the North Carolina Rose This chorus was repeated with enthusiasm clapping of hands and laughing I think the North Carolina Rose ought to rise said Russell Oh hush said Ann Dalsimer hasn't done yet Assuming an attitude Dalsimer turned and sang to one of his associates in the quartet Oh I see two stars arising up in the shady skies to which the other responded with animation No boy you are mistaken it is the light of her fair eyes that's thorough at any rate said Russell while Dalsimer went on Oh I see two roses blooming together on one bed and the other responded No boy you are mistaken her cheeks so red and they are getting redder said Ann tapping Nina with her fan Dalsimer is evidently laying out his strength upon you Nina Dalsimer went on singing Oh I see a grapevine running with its curly rings up there and the response No boy you are mistaken it is her rings of curly hair and the quartet here struck up Oh she walks on to Veranda and she laughs out of the door and she dances like the sunshine across the parlor flow her little feet day patter like the rain upon the flowers and her laugh is like sweet waters through all the summer hours Dalsimer has had some help from some of the muses along there said Clayton looking at Ann Oh she said Ann hear the chorus Oh do North Carolina Rose Oh do North Carolina Rose Oh plant by our Veranda Do North Carolina Rose This chorus was repeated with three times three and the whole assembly broke into a general laugh when the performers bowed and retired and the white sheet which was fastened by a pulley to the limb of the tree was let down again Now come Ann confess that wasn't all Dalsimer's work said Clayton Well to tell you the truth said Ann to has got up between him and Letiz who has a natural turn for versifying quite extraordinary If I chose to encourage and push her on she might turn out to be a second Phyllis Wheatley Dalsimer and his co-agitors now came around bearing trays with lemonade, cake, sliced pineapples and some other fruits Well on my word said Russell this is quite pretty got up I think said Clayton the African race evidently are made to excel in that department which lies between the sensuous and the intellectual what do we call the elegant arts These require rich and abundant animal nature such as they possess and if ever they become highly civilized they will excel in music, dancing and elocution I have often noticed in my scholars said Ann how readily they seize upon anything which pertains to the department of music and language the Negroes are sometimes laughed at for mispronouncing words which they will do in a very droll manner but it's only because they are so taken with the sounds of words that they will try to pronounce beyond the sphere of their understanding like bright children Some of these voices are perfectly splendid said Russell Yes said Ann we have one or two girls on the place who have that rich contralto voice is oftener to be found among them than among whites The Ethiopian race is a slow growing plant like the aloe said Clayton but I hope some of these days they'll come into flower and I think if they ever do the blossoming will be gorgeous That will do for a poet's expectation said Russell The performance now gave place to a regular dancing party which went on with great animation yet decorum Religious people said Clayton who have instructed the Negroes I think have wasted a great deal of their energy in persuading them to give up dancing and singing songs I tried to regulate the propensity There is no use in trying to make the Negroes into Anglo-Saxons any more than making a grapevine into a pear tree I trained the grapevine Behold said Russell the successful champion of Negro writes Not so very successful said Clayton I suppose you've heard my case has been appealed so that my victory isn't so certain after all Oh said Nana Yes it must be I'm sure no person of common sense would decide any other way and your own father is one of the judges too That will only make him the more careful not to be influenced in my favor said Clayton The dancing now broke up and the servants dispersed in an orderly manner and the company returned to the veranda which lay pleasantly checkered with the light of the moon falling through trailing vines The air was full of those occasional pulsations of fragrance which rise in the evening from flowers Oh how delightful said Nana This fragrance of the honeysuckles I have a perfect passion for perfumes They seem to me like spirits in the air Yes said Clayton He says that the breath of flowers comes and goes in the air like the warbling of music Did Lord Bacon say that? Said Nana in a tone of surprise Yes why not Oh I thought he was one of those musty old philosophers who never thought of anything pretty Well said Clayton then tomorrow let me read you his essay on gardens and you'll find musty old philosophers often do things It was Lord Bacon, said Anne who always wanted musicians playing in the next room while he was composing He did said Nana Why how delightful of him I think I should like to hear some of his essays There are some minds said Clayton large enough to take in everything Such men can talk as prettily of a ring on a lady's finger as they can wisely on the course nothing escapes them That's the kind of man you ought to have for a lover Anne said Nana laughing You have weighed enough to risk it I'm such a little whisk of thistle down that he would annihilate me Such a ponderous weight of wisdom attached to me would drag me underwater and drown me I should let go my line I think if I felt such a fish bite You are tolerably safe in our times said Clayton Such men once in a century or two They are the road makers for the rest of the world They are quarry masters that quarry out marble enough for a generation to work on Well said Nana I shouldn't want to be a quarry master's wife I should be afraid that some of his blocks would fall on me Why wouldn't you like it if you were wholly your slave said Frank Russell It would be like having the genius of the lamp at your feet If I could keep him my slave But I'm afraid he'd outwit me at last Such a man would soon put me on the shelf for a book to read though I've seen some great men I mean great for our times And they didn't seem to care half as much for their wives as they did for a newspaper Oh said Anne That's past praying for with any husband The newspaper is the standard rival of the American lady It must be a warm lover that can be attracted from that even before he is secure of his prize You are severe Miss Anne said Russell She only speaks the truth said Nana You men are a bad set You are a kind of necessary evil Half civilized at best But if ever I set up an establishment I shall insist upon taking precedence of the newspaper This ends Chapter 29 The Troubadour Chapter 30 The Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp by Harriet Beecher Stowe This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org This recording by Michelle Fry Baton Rouge, Louisiana Dread Chapter 30 Tiff's Garden With the limits of our story admit of it we should gladly linger many days in the shady precincts of Magnolia Grove where Clayton and Nana remained some days longer and where the hours flew by on flowery feet but the inevitable time and tide which waits for no man wait not for the narrator we must therefore say in brief that when the visit was concluded Clayton accompanied Nana once more to Kenema and returned to the circle of his own duties Nana returned to her own estate with views somewhat chastened and modified by her acquaintance with Anne as Clayton supposed the influence of a real noble purpose in life had proved of more weight than exhortations and she began to feel within herself positive aspirations for some more noble and worthy life than she had here to for lead that great absorbing feeling which determines the whole destiny of woman's existence is in its own nature and elevating and purifying one it is such even when placed on an unworthy object and much more so when the object is a worthy one since the first of their friendship Clayton had never officially sought to interfere with the growth and development of Nana's moral nature he had sufficient sagacity to perceive that unconsciously to herself a deeper power of feeling and a wider range of thought was opening within her and he left the development of it to the same quiet forces which swell the rosebud and guide the climbing path of the vine simply and absolutely he lived his own life before her and let hers alone and the power of his life therefore became absolute a few mornings after her return she thought that she would go out and inquire after the welfare of our old friend Tiff it was a hazy warm bright summer morning and all things lay in that dreamy stillness that trance of voluptuous rest which precedes the approach of the fiercer heats of the day since her absence there had been evident improvement in Tiff's affairs the baby a hearty handsome little fellow by dint of good nursing pork sucking and lying outdoors in the tending of breezes and sufferers had grown to be a creeping creature and followed Tiff around in his garden administrations with unintelligible chatterings of delight at the moment when Nina wrote up Tiff was busy with his morning work in the garden his appearance it is to be confessed was somewhat peculiar he usually wore in complement to his nursing duties an apron in front but as his various applications pressed hard upon his time and as his own personal outfit was ever the last to be attended to Tiff's nether garments had shown traces of that frailty which is incident to all human things rest me he said to himself that morning as he with difficulty engineered his way into them holes here and holes there don't want but two holes in my britches and eyes got two dozen got my foot true to wrong place poor old Tiff lost a massive wish I could get hold of some of them their clothes they were telling about at the camp meeting they wore 40 years in the wilderness maze and handy them our times was well anyhow I'll tie an apron behind and another in front rest the Lord I've got aprons anyhow I must make up a pair of britches some of these here days when the baby's teeth is all through those don't want no mending and washing is done these here weeds stop growing in the garden rest if I know what the Lord want of so many weeds here's like they come just to play us but then we doesn't know maybe there's some good in them we doesn't know but a little no way Tiff was sitting on the ground weeding one of his garden beds when he was surprised by the apparition of Niner on horseback coming up to the gate here was a dilemma to be sure no cavalier had a more absolute conception of the nature of politeness and the claims of beauty rank in fashion in Tiff then to be caught sitting on the ground with a blue apron on in front and a red one on behind was an appalling dilemma however as our readers may have discovered Tiff had that essential requisite of good breeding the moral courage to face an exigency and wisely considering that a want of cordiality is a greater deficiency than the want of costume he rose up without delay and hastened to the gate to acknowledge the honor Lord, rest your sweet face Miss Niner he said while the breezes flapped and fluttered his red and blue sails oh Tiff's amazing happy to see you Miss Fanny's well thank you and Master Teddy and the baby all doing nicely rest the Lord Miss Niner be so good as to get down and come in I've got some nice berries that I picked in the swamp and Miss Fanny will be proud to have you take some you see he said laughing heartily and regarding his peculiar costume I wasn't looking for any quality long this year time of day so I just got on my old clothes why Uncle Tiff I think they become you immensely said Niner your outfit is really original and picturesque you're not one of the people that are ashamed of their work are you Uncle Tiff so if you just lead my horse to that stump I'll get down Laws know Miss Niner said Tiff as with the lack of Tiff he obeyed her orders Specks if old Tiff was ashamed of work he'd have a heap to be shamed of because it's pretty much all work with him too so Tom Tiff pretended to come with me to China as she looked around but he lagged behind by the brook to get some of those green grapes and I suspect it's the last I shall see of him so Tiff if you pleased to tie still fine in the shade I'll go in and see Miss Fanny and Niner tripped lightly up the walk now bordered on either side with China esters and marigolds to where Fanny was standing bashfully in the door waiting for her in her own native woods this child was one of the boldest and happiest of romps there was scarce and eligible tree which she could not climb or a thicket she had not explored she was familiar with every flower every bird every butterfly of the vicinity she knew precisely when every kind of fruit would ripen and flower would blossom and was so offay in the language of birds and squirrels that she might almost have been considered one of the fraternity her only companion and attendant old Tiff had that quaint, fanciful grotesque nature which is the furthest possible removed from vulgarity and his frequent lectures on proprieties and conventionalities his long and prolix narrations of her ancestral glories and distinctions had succeeded in infusing into her a sort of childish consciousness of dignity while at the same time it inspired her with a bashful awe of those whom she saw surrounded with the actual insignia and circumstances of position and fortune after all Tiff's method of education instinctive as it was was highly philosophical since a certain degree of self-respect is the nurse of many virtues and a shield from many temptations there is also something perhaps in the influence of descent Fanny certainly inherited from her mother a more delicate organization than generally attends her apparent station in life she had also what perhaps belongs to the sex a capability of receiving the mysteries and proprieties of dress and Nina as she stood on the threshold of the single low room could not but be struck with the general air of refinement which characterized both it and its little mistress there were flowers from the swamps and hedges arranged with care and taste feathers of birds strings of eggs of different color dried grasses and various little woodland curiosities which showed a taste refined by daily intercourse with nature Fanny herself was arrayed in a very pretty print dress which her father had brought home in a recent visit with a cape of white muslin her brown hair was brushed smoothly from her forehead and her clear blue eyes and fair rosy complexion gave her a pleasing air of intelligence and refinement thank you said Nana as Fanny offered her the only chair the establishment afforded but I'm going with Tiff out in the garden I can never bear to be in the house such days as this you didn't expect me over so early Uncle Tiff but I took a notable turn this morning and routed them up to an early breakfast on purpose that I might have time to get over here before the heat came on it's pleasant out here out of the woods falls across the garden so how beautifully those trees waved Tiff go on with your work never mind me yes Miss Nana it's mighty pleasant while I was out in this year garden at four o'clock this morning and appeared like these year trees was waving like a song so sort of still you know kind of spreading out their hands like days have prayers and there was a mighty handsome star looking down I suspect that their star is one of the very oldest families up there most likely said Nana cheerily they call it Venus the star of love Uncle Tiff and I believe that is a very old family love is a mighty good thing anyhow said Tiff Lord bless you Miss Nana it makes everything go kind of easy sometimes when I'm studying upon these year things I says to myself peers like the trees in the woods they love each other they stand kind of lock and arm so and they kind of nod their heads and whisper so peers like the grape vines and the birds and all them are things they live comfortable together like they was peaceable and liked each other now folks is up to get the stewin and fretting around and turning up their nose a this year thing but peers like the Lord's work takes everything mighty easy they just kind of lives long peaceable I think it's mighty structure certainly it is said Nana old mother nature is an excellent manager and always goes on making the best of everything there's heaps done that our way and no noise said Tiff why Miss Nana I studied upon that there in my garden well I look at that dire corn way up over your head now all died there grow this year summer no noise about it peers like nobody couldn't see when it was done they were telling us in camp meeting how the Lord created the heaven and the earth now Miss Nana Tiff has his own thoughts you know and Tiff says peers like the Lord is creating the heaven and the earth all the time you see him a doing of it right before your face and them growing things are so curious Miss Nana peers like for all the world as if they was critters peers like each of them has their own way and won't go no other these year beings they will come up so curious right top of the stocks they will turn around the pole one way and if you was to tie them you couldn't make them go round to other they set in their own way there is for all day so still about it Laws Miss Nana these year things makes Tiff laugh so he said sitting down and indulging in one of his fits of merriment you are quite a philosopher Tiff Laws Miss Nana I hope not because one of the preachers at the camp meeting used up them folk terrible I tell you that there are pretty much all I could make out of the sermon that people mustn't be lost first Laws Miss Nana I hope I ain't no such oh I mean the good kind Uncle Tiff but how were you pleased upon the whole at the camp meeting well Miss Nana I hope I got something I don't know fairly how much Tiff but Miss Nana it appears like as if you had come out here to instruct us about these year things Miss Fanny she don't read very well yet and peers like if you could read us some out of the Bible and teach us how to be Christians what Tiff I scarcely know how to myself I'll send Millie to talk to you she's a real good Christian oh Millie is a very nice woman said Tiff somewhat doubly but Miss Nana peers like I'd rather have white teaching peers like I'd rather have you if it wouldn't be too much trouble oh no Uncle Tiff if you want to hear me read I'll read to you now have you got a Bible here stay I'll sit down I'll take the chair and sit down in the shade and then you needn't stop your work Tiff hurried into the house to call Fanny produced a copy of a testament which with much coaxing he had persuaded Cripps to bring on his last visit and while Fanny sat at her feet making lark spur rings she turned over the pages to think what to read when she saw Tiff's earnest and eager attention her heart smote her to think that the book so valuable in his eyes was to her almost an unread volume what shall I read to you Tiff what do you want to hear well I want to find out the shortest way I can how these here children be got to heaven this year world is mighty well long as it holds out but then you see it don't last forever things is passing away Nana thought a moment the great question of questions so earnestly proposed to her the simple child like old zoe hanging confidently on her answer at last she said with a seriousness quite unusual with her Tiff I think the best thing I can do is to read to you about our savior he came down into this world to show us the way to heaven and I'll read you when I come here days all that there is about him all he said and did and then perhaps you'll see the way yourself perhaps she added with a sigh I shall too as she spoke a sudden breeze of air shook the clusters of the prairie rose which was climbing into the tree under which she was sitting and a shower of rose leaves fell around her yes she said to herself as the rose leaves fell on her book it's quite true what he says everything is passing and now amid the murmur of the pine trees and the rustling of the garden vines came on the ear of the listeners the first words of that sweet and ancient story now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king behold there came wise men from the east saying where is he that is born king of the Jews for we have seen his star in the east and to worship him probably more cultivated minds would have checked the progress of the legend by a thousand questions statistical and geographical as to where Jerusalem was and who the wise men were and how far the east was from Jerusalem and whether it was probable they would travel so far but Naina was reading to children and to an old child man in whose grotesque and fanciful nature there was yet treasured a believing sweetness like the emulates supposed to belong to the good genie of the fairy tales the quick fancy of her auditors made reality of the story as it went along a cloudy Jerusalem built itself up immediately in their souls and became as well known to them as the neighboring town of E Herod the king became a real walking personage in their minds with a crown on his head and Tiff immediately discerned a resemblance between him and a certain domineering old general Eden who used greatly to withstand the cause of virtue and the patents in the neighborhood where he was brought up Tiff's indignation when the slaughter of the innocence was narrated was perfectly outrageous he declared he wouldn't have believed that of King Herod bad as he was and good hearted and inoffensive as Tiff was in general seemed really to afford him comfort that the devil had got that dare man for now serves him right too said Tiff striking fiercely at a weed with his hoe killing all them poor little children why what harm had they done him anyway wonder what he thought of his self Narnia found it necessary to tranquilize the good creature to get a hearing for the rest of the story she went on reading of the wild night journey of the wise men and how the star went before them till it stood over the place where the child was how they went in and saw the young child and marry his mother and fell down before him offering gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh Lord bless you I wish I had been dare said Tiff and that dare child was the lord of glory sure enough Miss Narnia I heard him sing this year him at the camp meeting you know about cold on his cradle you know it goes this year away and Tiff sung to a kind of rocking lullaby words whose poetic imagery had hit his fancy before he knew their meaning cold on his cradle the dew drops are shining low lies his head with the beasts of the stall angels adore in slumber reclining maker and savior and monarch of all Narnia had never realized until she felt it in the undoubting faith of her listeners the wild exquisite poetry of that legend which like an immortal lily blooms in the heart of Christianity as spotless and as tender now as 1800 years ago that child of Bethlehem when afterwards he taught in Galilee spoke of seed which fell into the good and honest heart and words could not have been more descriptive of the nature which was now receiving this seed of paradise when Narnia had finished her reading she found her own heart touched by the effect which she had produced the nursing child loving old Tiff was ready in a moment to bow before his redeemer and shrined in the form of an infant and it seemed as if the air around him had been made sacred by the sweetness of the story as Narnia was mounting her horse to return Tiff brought out a little basket full of wild raspberries Tiff wants to give you something he said thank you Uncle Tiff how delightful now if you only give me a cluster of your Michigan rose proud and happy was Tiff and pulling down the very top most cluster of his rose he presented it to her alas before Narnia reached home it hung drooping from the heat the grass withereth and the flower faded but the word of our God shall stand forever End of Chapter 30 Tiff's Garden Chapter 31 of Dread a tale of the great dismal swamp by Harriet Beecher Stowe this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by John Brandon Dread Chapter 31 the warning in life organized as it is at the south there are two currents one the current of the master's fortunes feelings and hopes the other that of the slaves it is a melancholy fact in the history of the human race as yet that there have been multitudes who follow the triumphal march of life only as captives to whom the voice of the trumpet the waving of the banners the shouts of the people only add to the bitterness of enthrallment while life tenina was daily unfolding in brighter colors the slave brother at her side was destined to feel an additional burden on his already unhappy lot it was toward evening after having completed his daily chores that he went to the post office for the family letters among these one was directed to himself and he slowly perused it as he rode home through the woods it was as follows my dear brother I told you how comfortably we were living on our place I and my children since then everything has been changed Mr. Tom Gordon came here and put in a suit for the estate and detached me and my children as slaves he is a dreadful man the case has been tried and gone against us the judge said that both deeds of emancipation both the one executed in Ohio and the one here were of no effect that my boy was a slave and could no more hold property than a mule before a plow I had some good friends here and people pitied me very much but nobody could help me Tom Gordon is a bad man a very bad man I cannot tell you all that he said to me I only tell you that I will kill myself and my children before we will be his slaves Harry I have been free and I know what liberty is my children have been brought up free and if I can help it they never shall know what slavery is I have got away and I'm hiding with a colored family here in Nash's I hope to get to Cincinnati where I have friends my dear brother I did hope to do something for you now I cannot nor can you do anything for me the law is on the side of our oppressors but I hope God will help us farewell your affectionate sister it is difficult to fathom the feelings of a person brought up in a position so holy unnatural as that of Harry the feelings which had been cultivated in him by education and the indulgence of his nominal possessors were those of an honorable and gentlemanly man his position was absolutely that of the common slave without one legal claim to anything on earth one legal right of protection in any relation of life what any man of strong nature would feel on hearing such tidings from a sister Harry felt in a moment there rose up before his mind the picture of Nina in all her happiness and buoyancy in all the fortunate accessories in her lot which crowded on his mind but expressed in words they might have been something like these I have two sisters daughters of one father both beautiful both amiable and good but one has rank and position and wealth and ease and pleasure the other is an outcast unprotected given up to the brutal violence of a violent wicked man she has been a good wife and a good mother her husband has done all he could to save her but the cruel hand of the law grasps her and her children and hurls them back into the abyss from which it was his life study to raise them and I can do nothing I am not even a man and this curse is on me and on my wife and on my children and children's children forever what does the judge say in this letter he can no more own anything than a mule before his plow that's to be the fate of every child of mine and yet people say you have all you want why are you not happy I wish they could try it do you think broad cloth coats and gold watches can comfort a man for all this Harry rode along and his hands clenched upon the letter the reins drooping from the horse's neck in the same unfrequented path where he had twice before met Dredd looking up he saw him the third time standing silently as if he had risen from the ground where did you come from said he seems to me you are always at hand when anything is going against me went not my spirit with thee said Dredd have I not seen it all it is because we will bear this that we have it to bear Harry but said Harry what can we do do what does the wild horse do launch out our hooves rear up and come down on them what does the rattlesnake do lie in their path and bite why did they make slaves of us they tried the wild Indians first why didn't they keep to them they wouldn't be slaves and we will they that will bear the yoke may bear it but said Harry Dredd this is all utterly hopeless without any means or combination or leaders we shall only rush on to our own destruction let us die then said Dredd what if we do die what great matter is that if they bruise our head we can sting their heels Nat Turner they killed him but the fear of him almost drove them to set free their slaves yes it was argued among them they came within two or three votes of it in their assembly a little more fear and they would have done it if my father had succeeded the slaves in Carolina would be free today die why not die Christ was crucified has everything dropped out of you that you can't die that you'll crawl like worms for the sake of living I'm not afraid of death myself said Harry God knows I wouldn't care to die but yes I know said Dredd she that letteth will let till she be taken out of the way I tell you Harry there's a seal been loosed there's a vile port out on the air and the destroying angel standeth over Jerusalem with his sword drawn what do you mean by that said Harry Dredd stood silent for a moment the rigid tension of a cataleptic state and his voice sounded like that of a person speaking from a distance yet there was a strange distinctness in it the words of the prophet and the vision that he hath from the Lord when he saw the vision falling into a trance and having his eyes open and behold he saw a roll flying through the heavens and it was written within and without with mourning and lamentation and woe behold it cometh behold the slain of the Lord shall be many they shall fall in the house and by the way the bride shall fall in her chamber and the child shall die in its cradle there shall be a cry in the land of Egypt for there shall not be a house where there is not one dead Dredd Dredd said Harry pushing him by the shoulder come out of this come out it's frightful Dredd stood looking before him with his head inclined forward his hand appraised and his eyes strained with the air of one who is trying to make out something through a thick fog I see her he said who is that by her back is turned ah I see it is he and there's Harry and Millie try hard try you won't do it no no use sending for the doctor there's not one to be had they're all too busy rub her hands yes but it's no good whom the Lord loveth he taketh away from the evil to come lay her down it is death death death Harry had often seen the strange moods of Dredd and he shuttered now because he partook something in the common superstitions which prevailed among the slaves of his prophetic power he shook and called him but he turned slowly away and with eyes that seemed to see nothing yet guiding himself in his usual dexterous agility he plunged again into the thickness of the swamp and was soon lost to view after his return home it was with the sensation of chill at his heart that he heard Aunt Nesbitt reading to Nina portions of a letter describing the march through some northern cities of the cholera which was then making fearful havoc on our American shore nobody seems to know how to manage it the letter said physicians are all at a loss it seems to spurn all laws it bursts upon cities like a thunderbolt scatters desolation and death and is gone with equal rapidity people rise in the morning well and are buried before evening in one day houses are swept of a whole family ah said Harry to himself I see the meaning now but what does it portend to us how this strange foreshadowing had risen to the mind of dread we shall not say whether there be mysterious electric sympathies which floating through the air bear dim presentiments on their wings or whether some stray piece of intelligence had dropped on his ear had been intercepted by the burning fervor of his soul we know not the news however left very little immediate impression on the daily circle at Canemom it was a dread reality in the far distance Harry only pondered it with anxious fear End of Chapter 31 Recording by John Brandon Chapter 32 of Dread A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp by Harriet Beecher Stowe This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org This recording by Michelle Fry Battenridge Louisiana Dread Chapter 32 The Morning Star Nina continued her dream Nina continued her visits to Tiff's garden on almost every pleasant morning or evening Tiff had always some little offering, either berries or flowers to present or a nice little luncheon of fish or birds cooked in some mode of peculiar delicacy and which served up in Sylvan style seemed to have something of the wild relish of the woods In return she continued to read the story so interesting to him and it was astonishing how little explanation it needed how plain honesty of heart and lovingness of nature interpreted passages over which theologians have wrangled in vain It was not long before Tiff had impersonated to himself each of the disciples particularly Peter so that when anything was said by him Tiff would nod his head significantly and say, ah, ah, that dire is just like him putting in, but he's a good man out of all What impression was made on the sensitive young nature through whom as a medium Tiff received this fresh revelation we may perhaps imagine. There are times in life when the soul, like a half-grown climbing vine, hangs wavering tremulously stretching out its tendrils for something to ascend by Such are generally the great transition periods of life when from the ideas and the conditions of one stage of existence to those of another Such times are most favorable for the presentation of the higher truths of religion. In a hazy, slumberous stillness of that mid-summer atmosphere in the long silent rides through the ponds Nine and a half awakened from the thoughtless dreams of childhood yearning for something nobler than she yet had lived for, thought over and revolved in her mind this beautiful and spotless image of God revealed in man which her daily readings presented and the world that he created seemed to whisper to her in every pulsation of its air, every breath of its flowers, in the fanning of its winds, he still liveth, and he loveth thee. The voice of the good shepherd fell on the ear of the wandering lamb calling her to his arms, and Nine found herself one day unconsciously repeating, as she returned through the woods, words which she had often heard read at church When thou saidest unto me seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face Lord will I seek. Nine had often dreaded the idea of becoming a Christian as one shrinks from the idea of a cold dreary passage which must be passed to gain a quiet home. But suddenly, as if by some mental invisible hand the veil seemed to be drawn which hid the face of almighty love from her view, she beheld the earth and the heavens transfigured in the light of his smile. A strange and unspeakable joy arose within her as if some loving presence were always near her. It was with her when she laid down at night and when she awoke in the morning the strange happiness had not departed. Her feelings may be reached by an extract from a letter which she wrote at this time to Clayton Quote It seems to me that I have felt a greater change in me within the last two months than in my whole life before. When I look back at what I was in New York three months ago, actually I hardly know myself. It seems to me in those old days that life was only a frolic to me as it is to a kitten. I don't really think that there was much harm only the want of good. In those days sometimes I used to have a sort of dim longing to be better, particularly when Livy Ray was at school. It seemed as if she woke up something that had been asleep in me but she went away and I fell asleep again and life went on like a dream. Then I became acquainted with you and you began to rouse me again and for some time I thought I didn't like to wake. It was just as it is when life is asleep in the morning. It's so pleasant to sleep and dream that one resists anyone who tries to bring them back to life. I used to feel quite pettish when I first knew you and sometimes wished you'd let me alone because I saw that you belonged to a different kind of sphere from what I had been living in and I had a presentiment that if I let you go on, life would have to be something more than a joke with me. But you would, like a very indiscreet man as you are you would insist on being in sober earnest. I used to think that I had no heart. I began to think that I have a good deal now. Every day it seems as if I could love more and more and a great many things are growing clear to me that I didn't used to understand and I'm growing happier every day. You know my queer old protege, Uncle Tiff, who lives in the woods here for some time past I have been to his house every day, reading to him in the testament and it has had a very great effect on me. It affected me very much in the first place that he seemed so very earnest about religion when I, who ought to know so much more, was so indifferent to it. And when the old preacher with tears in his eyes actually insisted upon it that I should show his children the road to heaven then I began to read to him the testament, the life of Jesus. I didn't know myself how beautiful it was, how suited to all our wants. It seemed to me I never saw so much beauty in anything before and it seems as if it had waked a new life in me. Everything has changed and it is the beauty of Christ that has changed it. You know I always loved beauty above all things, in music in nature and in flowers but it seems to me I see something now in Jesus more beautiful than all. It seems as if all these had been shadows of beauty but he is the substance. It is strange but I have a sense of him, his living and presence that sometimes almost overpowers me. It seems as if he had been following me always but I had not seen him. He has been a good shepherd seeking the thoughtless Lamb. He has all my life been calling me child until lately my heart has never answered. Father is this religion? Is this what people mean by a conversion? I tried to tell Lantnez but how I felt because now I feel kinder to everybody and really my heart smoked me to think how much fun I had made of her and now I begin to love her very much. She was so anxious I should talk with Mr. Tittenmarch because he is a minister. Well you know I didn't want to do it but I thought I ought to because poor Auntie really seemed to feel anxious I should. I suppose if I were as perfect as I ought to be a good man's stiff ways wouldn't trouble me so but stiff people you know are my particular temptation. He came and made a pastoral call the other day and talked to me. I don't think he understood me very well and I'm sure I didn't understand him. He told me how many kinds of faith there were and how many kinds of love. I believe there were three kinds of faith and two kinds of love and he thought it was important to know whether I had got the right kind. He said we ought not to love God because he loves us but because he is holy. He wanted to know whether I had any just views of sin as an infinite evil and I told him I hadn't the least idea of what infinite was and that I hadn't any views of anything but the beauty of Christ that I didn't understand anything about the different sorts of faith but that I felt perfectly sure that Jesus is so good that he would make me feel right and give me right views and do everything for me that I need. He wanted to know if I loved him because he magnified the law and made it honorable and I told him I didn't understand what that meant. I don't think on the whole that the talk did me much good. It only confused me and made me very uncomfortable but I went out to old tiffs in the evening and read how Jesus received the little children. You never saw anybody so delighted as old tiff was. He got me to read it to him three or four times over and now he gets me to read it every time I go there and he says he likes it better than any other part of the testament. Tiff and I get along very well together. He doesn't know anymore about faith than I do and hasn't any better views than I have. Aunt Nesbitt is troubled about me because I'm so happy. She says she's afraid I haven't any sense of sin. Don't you remember my telling you how happy I felt the first time I heard real music? I thought before that that I could sing pretty well but in one hour all my music became trash in my eyes and yet I would not have missed it for the world. So it is now that beautiful life of Jesus so sweet so calm so pure so unselfish so perfectly natural and yet so far beyond nature has shown me what a poor sinful low creature I am and yet I rejoice. I feel sometimes as I did when I first heard a full orchestra play some of Mozart's divine harmonies I forgot that I was alive I lost all thought of myself entirely and I was perfectly happy so it is now this loveliness and beauty that I see makes me happy without any thought of myself it seems to me sometimes that when I see it I can never suffer there is another thing that is strange to me and that is that the Bible has grown so beautiful to me it seems to me that it has been all my life like the transparent picture without any light behind it and now it is all illuminated and its words are full of meaning to me I am light-hearted and happy happier than ever I was. Do you remember the first day you came to that I told you it seems so sad that we must die? The feeling is all gone now I feel that Jesus is everywhere and that there is no such thing as dying it is only going out of one room into another everybody wonders to see how light-hearted I am and poor Auntie says she trembles for me. I couldn't help thinking of that the other morning I was reading to Tiff what Jesus said when they asked him why his disciples were fast. Can the children of the bride chamber mourn while the bridegroom is with them? Now my dear friend you must tell me what you think of all this because you know I always tell you everything I have written to Livy about it because I know it will make her so happy Millie seems to understand it all and what she says to me really helps me very much I always used to think that Millie had some strange beautiful kind of inward life I knew nothing of because she would speak with so much certainty of God's love and act as if it were so real to her and she would tell me so earnestly child he loves you now I see into it that mystery of his love to us and how he overcomes and subdues all things by love and I understand how perfect love casts without fear to this letter Nana soon received an answer from which also we give an extract if I was so happy my dearest one as to be able to awaken that deeper and higher nature which I always knew was in you I thank God but if I ever was in any respect your teacher you have passed beyond my teachings now your child like simplicity of nature makes you a better scholar than I in that school where the first step is to forget all our worldly wisdom and to become a little child we men have much more to contend with in the pride of our nature and our habits of worldly reasoning it takes us long to learn the lesson that faith is the highest wisdom don't trouble your head dear Nana with Aunt Nesbitt or Mr. Tipmarch what you feel is faith they define it and you feel it and there's all the difference between the definition and the feeling that there is between the husk and the corn as for me I am less happy than you religion seems to me to have two parts to it one part is the aspiration of man's nature and the other is God's answer to those aspirations I have as yet only the first perhaps because I am less simple and less true perhaps because I am not yet become a little child so you must be my guide instead of I yours for I believe it is written of the faithful that the little child shall lead them I am a good deal tried now my dear because I am coming to a crisis in my life I'm going to take a step that will deprive me of many friends of popularity and that will perhaps alter all my course for the future but if I should lose friends and popularity you would love me still would you not it is wronging you to ask such a question but yet I should like to have you answer it it will make me stronger for what I have to do on Thursday of this week my case will come on again I am very busy just now but the thought of you mingles with every thought End of Chapter 32 The Morning Star