Fool's Gold

by Steve Stroble

and Thomas. “Let’s be going now.”

  “Master angry always?” Thomas asked once they were inside the simple hut.

  “Depends on how things goes. If weather be good and crops be good, he be happy. If things be bad he ain’t happy. No different than most folks be acting. You sees his last servants now be long gone. They got in their last harvest and heads off for Philadelphia. Won’t ever never be seeing them boys no more. Their servant days all over with now.”

  “He not need us till time to plant?”

  “Don’t you wish? Mr. Bates always, always, always be finding something for us to do all the time. You’ll see.”

  It took Bates two days to reach the stable where James had left Andre. By then he had died and been quickly buried to prevent any spread of the disease that had killed him. In typical fashion Bates journeyed on to New York, partially to renew his business contacts for the furniture that he sold at wholesale but mostly to carouse and enjoy the lure of the big city. It would be three weeks before he returned home. By then Thomas’ command of English would almost double, thanks to James and Mrs. Bates. She daily taught English to both him and Dominic and gave them the books from which her children had learned to read. What confused Dominic and Thomas the most was the variations of English that seemed to depend on where one dwelled.

  “Maybe it same in Germany?” Dominic wondered.

  “Yah. We say some words different in Bavaria than in Prussia.”

  James did his best to help them. “Look here. I been studying this map of America. This be where I be born.” He pointed at Georgia on the map. “They speak one way there. And this here be where we be now.” He pointed at Pennsylvania. “They be a ways apart so it be no wonder they talks different up here, right?”

  “What it mean, ‘youse?’ You say it, yah?”

  “Oh. That be like I be telling you. There be folks up around these parts be saying that. Not sure which country they be from. But I reckon I hears it enough times that I start saying it sometimes. It means ‘you.’ Now down Georgia way they likes to say ‘you all’ and ‘all of you all’ instead. Guess the more places you lives the more words you knows.”

  Such distinctions were mostly amusing to the newcomers. They were concerned more with how to please their new master. His absence gave them time to learn how and when to express deference. James taught them the best way to avoid his wrath.

  “Just be sure you don’t ever never be sassing him. One of the indentured boys done that one time. It be the only time he does it. Master Bates beat the living tar out of him so bad he be laid up for a week.”

  Dominic and Thomas gulped. Both had heard tales of men from their hometowns with temperaments similar to Bates. They had administered similar punishments. When Bates finally returned home he assembled his newest servants and James for his customary telling of his expectations.

  “Now listen close, you two. Whatever you don’t understand because of your lack of English James here can explain to you later. He be real good at getting you newcomers used to things around here.” He patted James on the shoulder. “First off as you most likely have already deduced, your friend has died off on me. In addition to paying his fare and Arnold’s commission I also had to pay his last doctor bill. So now I have plenty a dollar invested in someone I’ll never even lay my eyes on.”

  “Mmmm mmm mmmm,” James intoned. He knew where the conversation was headed.

  “Anyways that means you two has to do the work of three. But I be a fair man. I’ll cut your length of duty to me to four years instead of five if you work hard.”

  “Since all your experienced servants done finished with being here and is now long gone, I gonna has my hands full training these two new boys, you know.”

  Bates cleared his throat. “Not to worry, James. Mrs. Bates told me she be willing to keep giving them English lessons. She never did that for any of the rest of the indentured servants and that probably be what made every last one of them was so slow and dimwitted. She says these two be working hard at learning their English. That can only mean one thing and that’s that they be working hard at whatever you and me tells them to do. With you in charge you know I sleep easy at night, James. You be worth your weight in gold. Go ahead and get them started in the woodshop. I lined up orders while I was off in New York.” He handed a list to James.

  Over the years James had progressed from being a simple woodsman to a skilled furniture maker. From being barely able to swing an ax, he used saw, hammer, chisel, awl, drill, and screwdriver to build quality dressers, tables, chairs, and cabinets that showcased only the finest china. The only phase of such projects that he avoided was staining or painting the pieces. The fumes emitted by the chemicals gave him headaches and made him nauseous. He delegated that step to his apprentices.

  They rapidly became a team. Thomas had spent years wielding an ax when his father had expanded the fields of his farm by cutting into the surrounding forest. It soon became apparent that for every tree Dominic or James could fell, Thomas could drop two. As Thomas felled the trees and led the horses that pulled the timber to the small sawmill James and Dominic cut the wood to size. More detail oriented than the other two, Dominic made perfect cuts to the lumber. A running joke kept them laughing as James and Thomas would say, “I don’t know how Dominic does it. Every time I try, I cut the piece of wood twice and it’s still too short.” When enough lumber was ready they met in the woodshop. Here James patiently taught his apprentices the craft of furniture making.

  “Just remember to takes your time,” he said. “Better for everyone including the buyer if we makes ten pieces of furniture done right instead of 12 or 13 pieces with something wrong.”

  Over the long frigid winter they assembled the orders that Bates had taken. By late spring they had completed more pieces of furniture than James and the three former indentured servants ever had during any comparable period of time. Hard to impress, Bates grinned in wonder.

  “Are you certain neither one of you two ever made furniture back in the old country?”

  “No, sir,” Dominic answered. “It because James good teacher.”

  “Yah.” Thomas added, happy to receive even off-handed praise.

  “Well, you all did good. I didn’t expect it all to be ready until the middle of summer. Nice sized order this time around. We’ll be taking four wagons to New York to deliver it. So’s as soon as I borrows three other wagons all of us will be heading up to New York.”

  Dominic and Thomas almost grabbed each other to dance. They shared a common goal of living in the distant city one day. Any chance to visit it was a dream come true. Seeing their excitement, Bates grinned again.

  “Thought you’d be liking that. But it still be raining heavy and the rain would soak through the tarps down to the furniture on the way there. So while we waits for sunny days to dry out the roads there’s only one thing to do. Have a party to celebrate your excellent work.”

  Only the finest pieces would be taken to New York. The rest Bates would first deliver by himself to a Philadelphia furniture store that he had done business with for over 30 years. A man of economy and efficiency, he planned to return with three barrels of beer from a Philadelphia brewery. He put Mrs. Bates in charge as he left to make the delivery and pickup.

  The Bates’ last party had been a sullen affair. Husband and wife had quarreled during the preparations for a gathering to celebrate Christmas. The couple’s simmering anger had poisoned the celebration. It ended with Mr. Bates retreating to the servants’ quarters and drinking with them until he passed out into oblivion. This left Mrs. Bates to entertain the guests, who surmised that Mr. Bates had taken ill. Both Dominic and Thomas wondered if they were going to view a repeat performance of that failed Yuletide cheer.

  “She said she should kill him,” Dominic recalled. His and Thomas’ long hours of English lessons with Mrs. Bates now allowed them to converse freely, which they enjoyed. Their new land and its inhabitants were a constant source of bewilderment an
d entertainment for them.

  “Don’t you all be a feared none.” James chuckled. “You knows Mrs. Bates only fights fair and square. She only be bopping him on his head when he be awake and can defend himself.”

  The male servants were sent to the main house to help prepare it for the party. They scrubbed every floor, washed every window, and dusted everything in the large two-story brick house. Then Mrs. Bates supervised the menu’s preparation. While Dominic and Thomas peeled three bushels of potatoes, James and the two maids collected eggs that the free ranging chickens had scattered throughout the farm’s 80 acres and next turned milk into butter and cream with the wooden churn. Mrs. Bates then told James to slaughter the largest steer from the herd of 57 cattle. None were sad to see it die because it once had used its thick horns to rip bloody gashes in James’ legs after he momentarily had turned his back on it while feeding the herd. After the attack it had been castrated but become only slightly more docile.

  James used one of Bates’ pistols to shoot a ball into the beast’s head after enticing it next to the fence with a pile of hay. It took all three male servants using a thick rope to pull the dead behemoth into the air. After it was dangling by its feet from a massive limb of a 40-foot tall oak tree, James slit its throat to drain its blood