Jupiter Lights. Woolson Constance Fenimore
on top of my collars, where any one can find it; for I do so dislike an ill-arranged funeral. For instance, I particularly desire that there should be fresh water and glasses on the hall-table, where every one can get them without asking; so much better than hidden in some back room, with every one whispering and hunting about after them. I trust you don’t mind my saying,” she concluded, looking at Eve kindly, “that I hope you may be here.”
They left the cemetery together.
“I suppose it was a shock to you that your niece should marry a Union officer?” Eve said, as they took the shorter path towards the house.
“Ye-es, I cannot deny it; and to my father also. But we liked John for himself very much; and Cicely felt – ”
But John’s sister did not care to hear what Cicely felt! “And was it on this island that he expected to make his fortune – in cotton?”
“No; these are rice lands, and they are worthless now that the dikes are down.”
“And the slaves gone.”
“Yes. But we never had many slaves; we were never rich. Now we are very poor, my dear; I don’t know that any one has mentioned it to you.”
“And yet you keep on all these infirm old negroes – those who would be unable to get employment anywhere else.”
“Oh, we should never turn away our old servants,” replied Miss Sabrina, with confidence.
That evening, at the judge’s suggestion, Cicely took her guitar. “What do you want me to sing, grandpa?”
“‘Sweet Afton.’”
So Cicely sang it. Then the judge himself sang, to Cicely’s accompaniment, “They may rail at this life.” He had made a modest bowl of punch: it was Christmas night, and every one should be merry. So he sang, in his gallant old voice:
“‘They may rail at this life; from the hour I began it
I’ve found it a life full of kindness and bliss;
And until they can show me some happier planet,
More social, more gay, I’ll content me with this.’”
He was contented with it – this life “full of kindness and bliss,” on his lonely sea-island, with its broken dikes and desolated fields, in his half-ruined old house, with its wooden walls vibrating, with more than one pane of glass gone, more than one floor whose planks were loosened so that they must walk carefully. At any rate, he trolled out his song as though he were: it was Christmas night, and every one should be merry.
There was one person who really was merry, and that was Master Jack, who sat on the lap of his Northern aunt, laughing and crowing, and demanding recognition of his important presence from each in turn, by the despotic power of his eye. In truth, it was this little child who held together the somewhat strangely assorted group, Miss Sabrina in an ancient white lace cape, with flowers in her hair; the old judge in a dress-coat and ruffled shirt, Cicely in a gay little gown of light-blue tint (taken probably, so Eve thought, from her second trousseau), and Eve herself in her heavy black crape; she alone had made no concessions to Christmas; her mourning attire was unlightened by any color, or even by white.
“‘Macgregor’s Gathering,’” called the judge.
Cicely sang it. After finishing the song, she began the lament a second time, changing the words:
“We’re niggerless, niggerless, niggerless, Gregorlach!
Niggerless, niggerless, nig-ig-ig-gerless!”
she sang. “For we’re not ‘landless’ at all; we’ve got miles and miles of land. It’s niggers that are lacking.”
The judge laughed, patting her little dark head as she sat on a stool beside him. “Let us go out to the quarters, grandpa; they will be dancing by now. And Jack must go too.”
The judge lifted his great-grandson to his shoulder. Eve had already noticed that Cicely never took the child from her with her own hands; she let some one else do it. When the door was opened, distant sounds of the thrumming of banjoes could be heard. Seeing a possible intention on Eve’s face, Cicely remarked, in her impersonal way, “Are you coming? They won’t enjoy it, they are afraid of you.”
“I don’t see why they should be,” said Eve, when she and Miss Sabrina were left alone.
“You are a stranger, my dear; it is only that. And they are all so fond of Cicely that it wouldn’t be Christmas to them if she did not pay them a visit; they worship her.”
“And after she has sung that song!”
“That song?”
“‘Niggerless,’” quoted Eve, indignantly.
“Well, we are niggerless, or nearly so,” said Miss Sabrina, mystified.
“It’s the word, the term.”
“Oh, you mean nigger? It is very natural to us to say so. I suppose you prefer negroes? If you like, I will try to call them so hereafter. Negroes; yes, negroes.” She pronounced it “nig-roes.” “I don’t know whether I have told you,” she went on, “how much Cicely dislikes dreams?”
“Well she may!” was the thought of Jack Bruce’s sister. What she said, with a short laugh, was, “You had better tell her to be careful about eating hot breads.”
“Would you have her eat cold bread?” said Miss Sabina, in surprise. “I didn’t mean that her nights were disturbed; I only meant that she dislikes the telling of dreams – a habit so common at breakfast, you know. I thought I would just mention it.”
Eve gave another abrupt laugh. “Do you fear I am going to tell her mine? She would not find them all of sugar.”
“I did not mean yours especially. She has such a curious way of shutting her teeth when people begin – such pretty little white teeth as they are, too, dear child! And she doesn’t like reading aloud either.”
“That must be a deprivation to you,” said Eve, her tone more kindly.
“It is. I have always been extremely fond of it. Are you familiar with Milton? His ‘Comus’?”
“‘Sabrina fair, listen where thou art sitting?” quoted Eve, smiling.
“Yes.
”‘Sabrina fair, listen where thou art sitting,
Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of lilies knitting – ’”
said the Southern lady in her murmurous voice. “You don’t know what a pleasure it has always been to me that I am named Sabrina. The English originated ‘Comus;’ I like the English, they are so cultivated.”
“Do you see many of them here?”
“Not many. I am sorry to say my father does not like them; he thinks them affected.”
“That is the last thing I should call them.”
“Well, those who come here really do say ‘serpents’ and ’crocodiles.’”
“Do you mean as an oath?” said Eve, thinking vaguely of “Donner und blitzen.”
“As an oath? I have never heard it used in that way,” answered Miss Sabrina, astonished. “I mean that they call the snakes serpents, and the alligators crocodiles; my father thinks that so very affected.”
Thus the wan-cheeked mistress of Romney endeavored to entertain their guest.
That night Eve was sitting by her fire. The mattress of Meadows was no longer on the floor; the English girl had started on her return journey the day before, escorted to the pier by all the blacks of the island, respectful and wondering. The presence of little Jack asleep in his crib behind a screen, with Dilsey on her pallet beside him, made the large wind-swept chamber less lonely; still its occupant felt overwhelmed with gloom. There was a light