by Vicky Saari
Jessie stammered for a minute or so, since this morning she had forgotten about everything. “Oh Lord! I did!” She fluttered her arms over her head as if she had reached her last wit. Caleb was surprised at his wife, and this increased his curiosity. All afternoon she had seemed upset and out of sorts, and he had no idea why. But he had an idea that it had something to do with whatever was going on in the cabin. Moments later, Opal and Minnie pulled up beside Seth’s carriage.
As soon as all the greetings were spoken, Jessie laughed and told Minnie that she had forgotten about Sunday dinner. But it wasn’t what she said so much as how she said it that concerned Minnie. Over the years, they had literally saved each other’s life at different times. Despite the hardships they had faced together, Minnie had never seen Jessie so befuddled. As she climbed down from the carriage, she tried to ease her friend’s tension by offering to host the dinner at her house. “We can switch, and we’ll come to your house next month,” she suggested as she took her friend’s arm and drew her away from the men. She knew something had to be amiss somewhere. When she saw Little Jessie peeking out the cabin door, she had an idea where the trouble lay.
Opal, late into the conversation, brought up the subject of the bounty hunters and told how they had gone into the Pritchetts’ harness shop and more or less threatened them if they didn’t find that slave soon. “They seemed to think they had chased him up the creek down the road. Apparently that’s where he’d gotten away. Darned near killed one of the dogs just trying to break it loose from his leg, they said. They nearly scared Pritchett’s wife to death.”
On this last bit of information, Caleb and Seth looked at one another and watched the two women walking toward the cabin, and though no words were spoken, they each knew in their own minds what the problem was in the cabin. The big question was what they were going to do about it. Only then was Seth able to remember why the name George seemed so familiar. Could it be the same George? The one Martha had grown up with? A strong hunch told him that those men would be back if they lost him in the creek down the road, past his house. The only thing he knew for certain was that he’d have to wait until Morgan was busy elsewhere before he could talk to Martha.
The three men resumed their discussion and wondered what might happen if the men should come back to town and asked themselves how they should handle them. Opal was the first to come up with an idea, and as he explained his plan, the other two men agreed. Opal said he would talk to Jed about using his pigs on his way home. That night, as Seth unhitched his wagon and combed down his horses, he quietly told Hiram what had happened today and asked him to ride into the village to get the sheriff. Then he went to speak to Martha as quickly as he could get her alone.
******
Hogarth woke to a warming sun. He watched as the late snow on his rooftop slowly dripped down his eaves. He looked about at the patches of barren ground and patches of snow and knew that for the next few days at least, all he could really look forward to would be slush and wet. Instead of dealing with his present, he returned to his past:
Chapter 5
Morely and Jeff had camped near the river along the road to Eureka and had about come to the conclusion that their prey had escaped them. “You know, Jeff, there’s somethin’ fishy about that town of Sethsburg! I ain’t never seen a town closed up in the middle of the day for no reason,” lamented Morely.
Of the two men, he could easily be called the most unkempt. The nearest thing to a bath he had had in the past two years had been the quick dip he had made in a creek last winter when the ice broke through. Jeff could only be considered slightly less squalid. Perhaps it was because he was slimmer, and the heat didn’t bother him the way it did his older brother. “You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” Jeff asked.
“I’s a thinkin’ those people are up to sumpin’.” Morely tossed the remainder of his rabbit to the two dogs and watched them fight over it. “Why else would they all hide out the way they did? You’d think that grocery store would be glad to have our business.”
“I bet that cobbler feller has somethin’ to do with it. He seemed kinda cagey to me,” Jeff encouraged his brother when a commotion arose between the two dogs. They turned to see a giant wild boar with a huge tusk steal the meat from the two mongrels that were tied up, then run off into the brush. “Ain’t that the same pig that helped that darkie get away?” Jeff wondered aloud.
“Aw—w, you’re ’maginin’ stuff again,” said his brother as he was attempting to replace the dogs’ muzzles. “Ain’t no pig that smart!”
Meanwhile at the Hodges’, Priscilla sat in her aunt’s kitchen picking at what was left of her breakfast. The men had all left, including her pa. Ever since her uncle Seth had returned from the Hogarths’ last night, something was in the air. But she had no idea what. Even her aunt Martha had left as soon as she put breakfast on the table, saying she had to go see Jessie.
Jessie had nearly collapsed the night before when the men uncovered her secret. Since then, Minnie had joined the vigil, and slowly the darkie was beginning to rouse. In the night, he had drunk part of the kale tea Jessie had made. Minnie had redressed his wounds, and Little Jessie kept things moving along in the house. When Martha arrived, Mittens directed her to the old cabin, but George was not yet awake. In the dim light, Martha studied the darkie carefully in search of familiar features of the boy she had grown up with. As she drew closer, the dark man’s eyes shot open in fright. “Sh-sh-h,” all three women hushed at once.
“Miss Martha, is that you?” he inquired cautiously.
“Yes, George. It’s me!” she responded. “But you need to stay quiet. There are slave hunters about. Jessie and Minnie are my friends. They are going to make you well.”
George attempted to rise on the corn-husk bed and looked about him at the rude cabin. It wasn’t much different than the ones they’d had on the plantations. He looked at the two other women in the room and asked how he got there.
“My daughter and I found you across the creek while we wuz pickin’ greens,” Jessie told him. “My son helped us get you into the cabin. You were unconscious, and you were pretty torn up when we found you.”
“I guess it was them dogs!” George attempted to sit up and suddenly realized he was nearly naked. “Where’s my shirt?”
“My husband took it! I don’t know why. I heard him say somethin’ about settin’ a trap,” Minnie told him.
“I brought this one out for you to wear. It ain’t much, but it’s clean,” Jessie said as she handed him an old blue calico shirt.
George looked at the shirt and at the window of the cabin. “It’s the same as the curtains,” he noted.
This thought brought a giggle from the women as though they shared a secret. “Where were you goin’ when you ran away?” asked Martha.
George hung his head in deep disappointment. “I wuz jest tryin’ to go north. Everyone says they don’t have slaves up north in Canada. I heerd they wuz people who helped slaves when they runaway,” he told them. “Follow the North Star, everybody said.”
At the Hodges’ house, Seth knew his brother was in the business of buying and selling slaves and wasn’t sure how to approach him except to tell him about the men who’d come through town yesterday. He told him why he was wondering why they thought there was a slave around Sethsburg. “Slavery isn’t legal here in Indiana,” he reminded his brother, knowing what kind of response he was about to get.
“Well, it ain’t legal right now, but we aim to change all that. But they’ve emancipated the slaves in England, and that made them illegal in Canada too. There’s some kind of secret society being drummed up by some abolitionists who say they can help the slaves get to Canada. They’re the same ones who want to keep slaves out of the Missouri Territory as well as Indiana; so they keep encouraging our slaves to run away.” Morgan responded. “I’ve heard about it, but I don’t know anything
about it.” Then his curiosity was aroused. “Are you sure you don’t know anything about where this darkie is?”
Seth looked his brother straight in the eye and swore he knew nothing. He’d just heard about the bounty hunters last night. “I guess they rode through town while we were all at the inn. They say they’re goin’ around scairin’ people,” he added. Irregardless of how much he loved his brother, he wasn’t about to get him involved in local affairs—especially runaway slave affairs. “Are you sure you and the kids can’t stay until Sunday?” he asked, trying to change the subject. He hated to see the young couple give up their home and business to go back to the kind of life his brother lived. He’d made a remarkable recovery since Priscilla had begged Jacob into agreeing to go back and work for her father. Despite the promises his brother had made, he knew in his heart that as long as Morgan was alive, Jacob’s place in his brother’s affairs would never be that of an equal. He was and would always be the son of a dockworker.
At the Hogarths’ cabin, George was finally awake and able to move around. So the women carried in a long wooden tub and filled it with hot water. Caleb had built it just for this purpose. Jessie brought him Caleb’s only other pair of pants to go with the shirt and a long piece of cloth to serve as a union suit under his clothes. As soon as everything was set into place, the women went outside and left George to perform his own ablution. Since he’d never been in a bathtub, he wasn’t sure what to do, but he had an idea. He figured it was pretty much like taking a bath in the creek. The trouble was the giant bandage that Miss Jessie had tied around his leg. She’d told him to not get it wet and had wrestled a log alongside the tub for him to rest his leg on while he bathed. The water had cooled pretty fast, and as he eased himself into the water, he picked up the cake of lye soap that the women had left behind. “I think I could learn to enjoy this kind of living,” he crooned to himself as he lathered himself from head to toe
Once he was clean and feeling refreshed, he began to reflect on his situation; being cared for by a bunch of white folks sure seemed strange. No one had ever been that nice to him, not since he was a kid living in Miss Martha’s home, and he wasn’t sure how to react to it all. But it was sure nice to see Miss Martha again. She’d told him about his ma, how she’d lost her mind after her pa had sold him. They were best friends as kids, but that in itself was a sin. That was when things all started to go wrong in his life.
For some reason he trusted Miss Martha, but he wasn’t sure about all the other white folks. There’s some you could trust and some you can’t. So far, he had never been too sure of who was what. But the other ladies were nice too. The one lady had tried to drag him to the cabin herself. She and her daughter had cared enough about him to nurse him until he got his strength back. She had even given him her husband’s clothes. Then there was the Injun woman. She couldn’t see well, but she had stayed with him the whole night—praying, feeding, and chanting over him. He had no idea how he could ever repay these ladies, but what about their menfolk? Would they help him or the bounty hunters?
Quietly he dressed and eased his head out the door to see where the women went. They were walking across the yard carrying baskets of food.
“I’d like us to eat outside,” Jessie said, “But until we find out about those bounty hunters, you need to stay inside. After you eat, we’ll clean this place up a bit and make it a nicer place to stay until you know what you want to do.”
George was awed by such kindness. It took all he had to fight back his tears. They used a couple of sawn boards to spread across some barrels of feed to form a table. It had been a long time since these women had shared a meal in the old cabin. It brought back memories that they all tried to share at once. Somehow the Miss Martha he had known as a child was a far different person than the one he was hearing now. They had giggled and laughed as the memories kept flooding forth. George just sat, listened, and enjoyed their merriment.
*****
Perhaps it was the quiet that pulled Hogarth out of his reverie, for he didn’t like what he saw. All about him was an eerie quiet, and the darkening sky had a greenish cast to it; then came the hail that bounced on and around him, and then came the sound of a roaring freight train. He never saw what hit him. Everything went black, and Hogarth was thrown back to the past.
Chapter 6
Job Bascom lay in the grass beside the road at the end of the lane to his house. He wasn’t sure why he was out there, except that his pa had told him to watch for two men on horseback with dogs tethered to the horses. He wasn’t to do anything except to run back to the house and tell his pa when they passed. Then there was his ma. She hadn’t come home last night. She’d stayed at the Hogarths’ for some reason. He looked across at the Pritchetts’ shop and wandered over to talk to Jonathan and his son. They were both working out front today; maybe they knew what was going on.
Jed had lain awake most of the night wondering what his mom had gotten them into. He hadn’t told Sarah about the darkie. He figured she’d know soon enough. Last night, Opal had come to his workshop and told him to stay close to the house and keep his pig handy. He then told him about the slave hunters, and this worried Jed because he knew what his ma had in the cabin. For the first time in his life, Jed was afraid. With no one else to turn to, he talked to his stepson, Brad, and asked him to go to the house to check on Little Jessie. “She had quite a load in Grandpa’s cart yesterday, and I wondered if she needed any help today.” For a long time, he had watched Brad and his sister meet on the path between their houses. Considering his wife, Sarah, had suckled them both in their first year of life, the idea seemed a little strange at first, but he reminded himself that they weren’t blood relatives, and if either was to get married someday, how would they ever meet someone. This led him to wonder if his pigs were getting out so often accidentally or if they were getting some help. Then he remembered about Opal’s plan.
As Brad went one way, Opal appeared from the other direction with what was once a man’s shirt, which was now torn into strips. It looked like the shirt that the darkie had been wearing. When he mentioned it, Opal told him about the trap they were setting. He wanted to use Jed’s pigs to help set up the trap. They were going to tie these strips around his pigs, and when the word came, they were going to herd the pigs out to the road with the darkie’s scent on them to draw the dogs away. Jed wasn’t sure he liked the idea; for one thing, what if his pigs got hurt. They were a pest, and they were a nuisance, but they were also food for the table, and he had a lot of mouths to feed. “It’s better than havin’ them men attack our women.” Opal gave him a long, hard look. “Besides, who helped your ma cart that darkie into the cabin?”
Jed knew he didn’t have a case. The way he saw it, this was the nearest thing to an adventure he’d had in years. Not even the bears bothered with them much anymore. As for the pigs, they’d disposed of most of the snakes. That in itself had been a major relief. “Well, if pigs can get rid of snakes, I’m sure they can take care of a couple of bounty hunters and their dogs,” he said, and laughed half-way in jest.
Martha wanted to visit with Jacob in the store so that she would be ready to take it over when he left. He had been busy all morning taking inventory and making ready to turn the operation over to her, and he was glad she was here to help. He wished Priscilla had come with him so that she could get their personal belongings together to make the trip, but she had wanted to spend some time with her pa today. Jacob knew they didn’t have anything much that could be considered citified and figured she wouldn’t want to take many things with her. He was certain her dad had more than a few plans for all of them.
“Is there anything special that I can help you with?” Martha asked Jacob.
“I’m not sure, Aunt Martha. Maybe you could begin sortin’ our things in back. Priscilla hasn’t touched any of it. I really need her here because I don’t know what to take.”
Martha guessed
as much and immediately began cleaning, sorting, and organizing Priscilla’s household goods and her personal belongings. Nearly every dime the kids had made had gone back into the business. Priscilla’s mother had tried to compensate and regularly sent her daughter and granddaughter miles and miles of silk gowns; gowns that they would never need in the wilderness, but the gowns might come in handy in the city. It was these things she began to pack into the wooden boxes stored under the store. They all had cobwebs and crawling insects in them, and she had carefully brushed them clean. Nothing that Jacob had would do him much good in the city. As his father-in-law’s new business manager, he would definitely need a new wardrobe. Still, she wondered how well either of the kids would handle living in Morgan’s house. It was huge, and he owned a large staff of slaves to oversee it. She wasn’t sure how well Priscilla, and especially Jacob, would take to being slave owners. They had run from that lifestyle once. She was sure they would be tempted to run again.
Suddenly a commotion in front of the store erupted, and she hurried out to see what was going on. Immediately, she was surprised to see so many people in the town and realized the stage had come in. Moments later, Morgan’s driver pulled up behind the store and announced that he was to start packing the Dunbars’ things.
Martha watched the store while Jacob helped the driver with the loading. He didn’t realize they had so much, but he guessed Martha knew what she was doing. A short while later, Baby Alice ran in and announced that Lucille had let the school out early. She was excited about the move and began going through her own dresses to decide what she wanted to take right away. Naturally, they were all the prettiest ones. At ten years old, she was already smitten with her grandmother’s fashions and was looking forward to having a reason to wear them. Her mom had only allowed her to wear some of them to church on Sundays.
