Bobby Blake on a Plantation; Or, Lost in the Great Swamp

by Frank A. Warner

  CHAPTER XIII

  FLYING HEELS

  The six dusty miles from the station to the plantation would have beentedious ordinarily, but the boys were too full of high spirits to letlittle things like dust and heat affect them. The buckboard creaked andjounced along, and the mules seemed to have even more than their shareof the general disinclination to hurry. The old negro gave the boys newsof all that had been going on at the plantation since Lee’s last timehome.

  “Ah’m afraid dat Marse Jim Boolus am fixin’ to make you an’ you ma allde trouble dat he kin,” said the old darkey, shaking his head. “Seemslike he’s gettin’ meaner and more no-account every year dat passes overhis haid.”

  “The old rascal!” exclaimed Lee, with flashing eyes. “I’ll make himsorry some day for all the trouble he’s caused my family.”

  “Dere’s lots of odder folks feels de same way,” said Jim. “Ev’body in deparish hates him like pisen, but de more people hates him de mo’ heseems to like it.”

  On the boat Lee had said quite a little of this Jim Boolus to Bobby andFred. He was a mean old skinflint, who had thriven on the misery ofothers, and by many a shady deal had brought ruin on honest people.While everybody knew him to be unscrupulous and dishonest, he was socunning and crafty that he always managed to keep out of the grip of thelaw. At present he was trying to prove his ownership to a large part ofMrs. Cartier’s estate, and she was in serious danger of losing it.

  The boys were still discussing ways and means to frustrate the wilyschemings of the crafty old land shark when the buckboard turned off thedusty road, pursued its leisurely way up a long graveled avenue shadedby stately trees, and drew up before a wide-flung old mansion flanked bywide verandas. Before it had stopped Lee jumped out and ran to meet apleasant faced lady who was descending the steps. After their firstaffectionate greeting Lee introduced Bobby and Fred to her.

  “These are my two friends, Mother, Bobby Blake and Fred Martin,” hesaid. “I guess you’ve heard so much about them in my letters to you thatyou hardly need an introduction.”

  “Indeed yes,” she smiled. “And I hope that Lee’s mother will be just asgood friends with you as Lee is.”

  Mrs. Cartier was so gracious and hospitable that the boys were quicklyat their ease and felt as though they had known her a long time.

  Lee showed them their room, a beautiful large one with big, comfortablelooking beds and dark, cool curtains at the windows.

  “When you fellows have gotten some of the dust off you, come on down andI’ll show you around,” said Lee, as he left them.

  “Well,” remarked Bobby, when he and Fred were alone, “it looks to me asthough we had come to a pretty fine place to spend our vacation. Mrs.Cartier certainly has a way of making a fellow feel welcome.”

  “She certainly has,” returned Fred, “I’ve often heard about Southernhospitality, and now I know what it’s like.”

  “I wish we could do something to fix that skinflint old neighbor oftheirs,” continued Fred, after a pause.

  “Well, there’s no telling; maybe we can,” said Bobby.

  Shortly afterwards Bobby and Fred went downstairs, and found Lee waitingfor them on the veranda.

  “I thought you fellows must have been overcome by the excitement of thatbuckboard ride and dropped asleep,” grinned Lee. “You never used to takeas long as that to get spruced up back at school, especially when youhappened to get up late and thought you’d be late for breakfast.”

  “When in Rome do as the Romans do,” quoted Bobby. “When you hit a placewhere everybody seems to take things easy, why be in a hurry?”

  “Hurray!” shouted Lee. “I can see that you’ve got the making of aSouthern gentleman in you, all right. ‘Never be in a hurry’ is one ofthe first things you learn around here.”

  “That’s all right, sometimes,” put in Fred. “But when you’re toting afootball down a field with the goal posts looking to be about ten milesaway, and eleven fellows doing their best to grab you around the kneesand sit on your chest, hurrying is the one thing you’re most anxious todo.”

  “Right!” laughed Bobby. “Not to mention the way the coach feels aboutit.”

  “Well, I’ll have to admit that a coach _doesn’t_ believe in takingthings easy,” said Lee, “but then, I guess probably most coaches don’tcome from the South.”

  The others agreed that this was very probable, and then set out on atour of the plantation. This covered several hundred acres, and in thedays “before the war” had evidently been a profitable estate. Besidesthe big, rambling old mansion, there were numerous barns andoutbuildings, including what had formerly been quarters for numerousslaves. Most of these buildings were unused and out of repair now, and,except in the busy planting and picking seasons, there were only fiveold servants on the place. Aunt Dinah, the cook, deserved first place,because she was past master (or mistress) of the art of cookery, andcould turn out dishes that had spread her fame for miles in a country ofgood cooks.

  Uncle Josh, a faithful old darkey, whose wrinkled face was framed insnow white hair, acted as “handy man” and did odd jobs where-ever theywere needed, although forever complaining about a mysterious ailmentthat he invariably referred to as “de misery in mah back.” There werethree other more or less lazy but entirely good-natured darkeys, who didwhatever else was necessary in a carefree but somewhat inefficientmanner.

  “They mean well enough, and they think the world of mother and me, butunless somebody’s watching them they’ll never hurt themselves withoverwork,” explained Lee. “When I’m through school and college and cantake charge of this place, I’m going to get more action or know thereason why.”

  He took Bobby and Fred through the big barn, where now only a few horsesand mules were stabled, although there was room for a hundred. As theypassed one stall, there was a flash of vicious hoofs, which narrowlymissed Fred, who was the nearest.

  “Wow!” he exclaimed, as he jumped back, “I pretty near stopped somethingthat time. That beast must have a grudge against me, I guess.”

  “Oh, it isn’t against you, in particular,” said Lee. “He’s got a grudgeagainst the whole human race. That’s old Baldy, and I really believehe’s the meanest mule that ever lived, and if you know anything aboutmules, you’ll realize that that’s saying something. I should have warnedyou about him, but I didn’t think about it.”

  “Oh, well it doesn’t matter as long as he missed me,” said Fred. “Youcan bet I’ll watch out for him in the future.”

  “It’s a circus to see the darkeys when they have to harness him,” saidLee. “They’re all afraid of him, and yet they respect him, too, becausehe’s as strong as two ordinary mules, and when he feels like it can do ahard day’s work. I think they’re going to hitch him up in a littlewhile, and if you like we’ll hang around and watch the fun.”

  You can be sure Bobby and Fred had no objection to this, and sureenough, in a little while two husky colored men appeared and took downthe necessary harness from pegs on the wall.

  “Are you going to hitch up old Baldy?” asked Lee.

  “We aim to, Marse Lee,” said one, whose first name was Mose, and whoselast name nobody ever seemed to have heard. “But dat mule doan alwayscalculate to do jest whut we wants him to.”

  “’Deed he don’t,” agreed the other. “Las’ time Ah come near him, he donetook de seat outen my pants, an Ah shore thought Ah was headed straightfor Kingdom Come ’fore Ah could get away from him.”

  The negro who had spoken first approached the stall cautiously, but themule heard him coming, and, with ears laid viciously back, lashed out athim with flying heels. But the negro was on his guard, and jumped to oneside barely in time to save himself.

  “Reckon ole Baldy ain’t feelin’ friendly toward me to-day no-how,” saidMose, with a somewhat nervous grin. “Reckon Ah’d better untie him fromde stall nex’ door.”

  He went cautiously into the stall adjoining that of old Baldy, andreached over gingerly to untie his halter. B
ut the mule was not to becaught napping, and he made a wicked nip at the negro’s hand. He justmissed the hand, but caught the ragged coat sleeve in his white teeth,and tore a long strip from it.

  “Mah goodness!” exclaimed the negro, “Ah’d rather monkey wid a load o’dynamite dan wid dat mule.”

  “Try it again, an’ I’ll take his mind offen you,” said the other negro.

  He picked up a long rake from a corner, and with this began prodding atthe rear end of the mule, while his companion again cautiouslyapproached the halter. This ruse was successful, for the animal was sooccupied with trying to kick the rake handle into bits, that he hardlynoticed anything else, and Mose had no trouble this time in untying thehalter.

  “Watch out dare, niggah!” he admonished his assistant. “Everybody gitout of de way an’ let this critter sail.”

  The boys scattered to places of safety, as the mule, finding his headfree, backed out of the stall and made for the open door. There was afenced-in yard surrounding the stable, and he galloped around this,kicking up his heels and hee-hawing. The two negroes dashed pellmellafter him, followed by the laughing boys.

  “Now the real fun will begin,” said Lee. “Just watch them try to harnesshim up.”