September 2, 2025 • 35 mins
Discover a rich tapestry of voices in Black Experience in America, 18th-20th Century. This collection features a diverse range of non-fiction, fiction, poetry, drama, and speeches sourced from Project Gutenberg, highlighting works by and about African Americans. From the poignant epistolary exchanges of late 18th-century black Baptist preachers to the powerful testimonies of ex-slaves from the 1930s, this anthology offers a profound exploration of the African American journey through time. (Summary by BellonaTimes)
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Section sixteen of Black Experience in America eighteenth through twentieth century.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information nor to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Hotfoot Hannibal by Charles W. Chestnut
(00:23):
recording by Phil Chenevert Black Experience in America eighteenth through
twentieth century. Hotfoot Hannibal. I hate you and despise you.
I wish never to see you or speak to you again.
Very well, I will take care that henceforth you have
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no opportunity to do either. These words, the first, in
the passionately vibrant tones of my sister in law, and
the latter, in the deeper and more restrained accents of
an angry man, startled me from my nap. I had
been dozing in my hammock on the front piazza, behind
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the honeysuckle vine. I had been faintly aware of a
buzz of conversation and the parlor, but had not at
all awakened to its import until these sentences fell, or
I might rather say, were hurled upon my ear. I
presumed the young people had either not seen me lying
there the Venetian lines opening from the parlor windows upon
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the piazza were partly closed on account of the heat,
or else in their excitement, they had forgotten my proximity.
I felt somewhat concerned. The young man I had remarked,
was proud, firm, jealous of the point of honor, and
from my observation of him, quite likely to resent to
the bitter end what he deemed a slight or an injustice.
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The girl I knew was quite as high spirited as
young Murchison. I feared she was not so just, and
hoped she prove more yielding. I knew that her affections
were strong and enduring, but that her temperament was capricious,
and her sunniest moods easily overcast by some small cloud
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of jealousy or pique. I had never imagined, however, that
she was capable of such intensity as was revealed by
these few words of hers. As I say, I felt concerned.
I had learned to like Malcolm Murchison, and had heartily
consented to his marriage with my ward. For it was
in that capacity that I had stood for a year
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or two to my wife's younger sister, Mabel the match,
thus rudely broken off, had promised to be another link
binding me to the kindly Southern people, among whom I
had not long before taken up my residence. Young Murchison
came out of the door, cleared the piazza in two strides,
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without seeming aware of my presence, and went off down
the lane at a furious pace. A few moments later,
Mabel began playing the piano loudly, with a touch that
indicated anger and pride and independence, and a dash of exultation,
as though she were really glad that she had driven
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away forever the young man whom the day before she
had loved with all the ardor of a first passion.
I hoped that time might heal the breach and bring
the two young people together again. I told my wife
what I had overheard. In return, she gave me Mabel's
version of the affair. I do not see how it
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can never be settled, my wife said, it is something
more than a mere lover's quarrel. It began, it is
true because she found fault with him for going to
church with that hateful Branson girl. But before it ended,
there were things said that no woman of any spirit
could stand. I am afraid it is all over between them.
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I was sorry to hear this. In spite of the
very firm attitude taken by my wife and her sister,
I still hoped that the quarrel would be made up
within a day or two. Nevertheless, when a week had
passed with no word from young Murchison, and with no
sign of relenting on Mabel's part, I began to think
myself mistaken. On a pleasant afternoon, about ten days after
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the rupture, Old Julius drove the rock away up to
the piazza, and my wife, Mabel, and I took our
seats for a drive to a neighbor's vineyard over on
Lumberton Plank Road. Which way shall we go, I asked,
the short road or the long one. I guess we
had better take the short road, answered my wife. We
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will get there sooner. It's not a fine dribe drowned
by the big road, miss Annie, observed Julius, and it
don't take much longer to get down. No, said my wife.
I think we will go by the sharp road. There
is a bay tree in blossom near the mineral spring,
and I wish to get some of the flowers A specs.
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You'd find some bay trees long to big road, ma'am,
suggested Julius. But I know about the flowers on the
short road, and they are the ones I want. We
drove down the lane to the highway, and soon struck
into the short road leading past the mineral Spring. Our
route lay partly through a swamp, and on each side
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the dark, umbracious foliage, unbroken by any clearing, lent to
the road solemnity and to the air a refreshing coolness.
About half a mile from the house and about half
way to the mineral spring, we stopped at the tree
of which my wife had spoken, and reaching up to
the low hanging boughs, I gathered a dozen of the
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fragrant white flowers. When I resumed my seat in the rockaway,
Julius started the mare. She went on for a few
rods until we had reached the edge of a branch
crossing the road, when she stopped short. Why did you stop, Julius,
I asked, I did, sir? He replied, twas de maya
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stop gol on dere lucy. Would you mean for this foolishness?
Julius jerked the reins and applied the whip lightly, but
the mayor did not stir. Perhaps you had better get
down and lead her, I suggested. If you get her started,
you can cross on the log and keep your feet dry.
Julius alighted, took hold of the bridle, and vainly essayed
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to make the mare move. She planted her feet with
even more evident obstinacy. I don't know what to make
of this, I said, I have never known her to
balk before, have you, Julius, No, suh, replied the old man.
I never has. It's a curious thing to me. Suh.
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What's the best way to make her go? Ah specs
sir that if I turn around as she go to utterwy,
But we want her to go this way. Well, sir allah,
if we just set hell for five minutes, she'll start
of by herself. All right, I rejoined. It is cooler
here than any place I have struck today. We'll let
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her stand for a while and see what she does.
We sat in silence for a few minutes when Julius
suddenly ejaculated. Oh huh, I knows why this mad don't go?
It's dust flash cross my recommendrance. Why is it Julius,
I inquired, cause she sees Chloe. Where is Chloe? I demanded,
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Chloe has been dead these forty years, mo. The old
man returned her hate is sitting o beyonder, on the
other side of the branch, under that willow tree. This
blessed minute, Why, Julius, said, my wife, do you see
the haunt? No, he answered, shaking his head. I oh, sea,
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but the mass Caesar, how do you know? I inquired, Well, sir,
this year is a gray horse, and this year is
a Friday, and a gray horse. Can all us see
a haunt? What walks on Friday? Who is Chloe? Said Mabel?
And why does Chloe's haunt walk? Asked my wife. It's
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all in detail, ma'am. Julius replied, with a deep sigh,
It's all in detail. Tell us the tale, I said.
Perhaps by the time you get through, the haunt will
go away and the mayor will cross. I was willing
to humor the old man's fancy. He had not told
us a story for some time. And the dark and
solemn swamp around us, the amber colored stream flowing silently
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and sluggishly at our feet, like the waters of Lethy,
the heavy aromatic scent of the bay's faintly suggestive of
funeral wreaths all made the place in idea one for
a ghost story. Chloe Julius began in a subdued tone
used to belong to Old Mars Dougall. Markerdo my old Master.
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She was a likely gal and a smart gal, and
old Miss took up to the big house and larned
her to wait on the white folk till by and bye.
She come to be the missus own maid, and peid
to liao she run the house herself to hear her
talk about it. I was a young boy then, and
he used to work about the stables, so I knowed
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everything that was going on round the plantation. Well, one
time Mars Dougal wanted a house boy and sought down
to the quarters for the hab Jeff and Hannibal come
up to the big house next morning. Old Master and
old Miss looked the two boys over and sussed wi
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their selves for a little while, and then Mars Dougall says, Sissy,
we likes Hannibal to best, and we gone to keep
him here. Hannibal, you work at the house from now on,
and if you are a good nigga, and mine's your business.
I'll give you Chloe for a wife next spring. You
other nigger, you Jeff, you can go back to the quarters.
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We ain't goin to need you. Now. Chloe had been
standing there behind, oh miss, doing all this. Here I talk,
and Chloe made up her mind from the very first
minute she set eyes on them too, that she didn't
like that nigger Hannibal, and wasn't never gone to care
for him. And she was dust as showed that she
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liked Jeff and was gone to set store by him.
Whether Mars Dougal took him into the big house I know.
And so of course Chloe was manster sorry when old
Mars Dougal took Hannibal and sought Jeff back. So she
slipped round the house and we laid Jeff on the
way back to the quarters and told him not to
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be down headed, for she was gwine to see if
she couldn't find some way or nutter to get rid
of that nigger Hannibal and get Jeff up to the
house in his place. The new houseboy caught you on
monstrous fast, and it wasn't no time hardly before Mars
Duel and old miss both Minster Low. Hannibal was the
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best houseboy they ever had. He was pertin supple and
quick as lightning, a sharp as a razor. But Chloe
didn't like his ways. He was so sure he was
gwine to get her into spring that he didn't peer
to live. He had to do no coating, and when
he'd run across Chloe about the house, he'd swell around
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her in a biggie way and say, come here and
kiss me, honey, you gwine to be mine in the spring.
You don't appear to be as fond of me as
you ought to be. Chloe didn't care nothing for Hannibal,
and hadn't cared nothing for him, And she sought just
as much stole by Jeff as she did to day
she first laid eyes on him. An the more familius
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this year are Cannibal got the mold. Chloe let her
mind run on Jeff, and one evening she went down
to the quarters and watched until she got a chance
for to talk with him by hisself. And she told
Jeff for to go down and see old Aunt Peggy,
the conjured woman, down by the Wilmington road, and aks
her to give him somethin to help get Hannibal out
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in the big house. So the white folks is sent
for Jeff again an beIN. As Jeff didn't have nothing
to give, Aunt Peggy, Chloe gunn him a silver dollar
and a silk handkerchief for to pay her wi for.
Aunt Peggy never liked to work for nobody for nothing,
So Jeff slipped down to Aunt Peggy's one night and
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gunnard the present he brung and told her all about
him and Chloe and Hannibal and asked her to help
him out. Aunt Peggy told him she'd work the roots
and for him to come back the next night and
she'd tell him what she could do for him. So
the next night Jeff went back and Aunt Peggy gun
him a baby doll with a body made out in
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a piece of cornstalk and with splinters farm legs, and
the head made out in the elderberry peth and two
little red peppers for feet. Yes, here baby doll says
she is Hannibal this year. Path head is Hannibal's head,
and these yeah pepper feet is Hannibal's feet. You take
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this and hide it under the house, on the seal,
under the door where Hannibal had to walk over it
every day. And as long as Hannibal comes anywhere gnaw
this baby doll, he'll be dust like it is, light
headed and hot footed. And if them two things don't
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get him into truble mighty soon, then I'm no conjur woman.
But when you get Hannibal out in the house and
get all true with this baby doll, you must fetch
it back to me, for all its monstrous, powerful goopher
and liable to make more trouble if you leave it
laying round. Well, Jeff took the baby doll and slip
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up to the big house and whistle to Chloe, And
when she come out, he told her what old Aunt
Pecky had said, ain't Chloe showed him how to get
under the house, And when he had put the conjure
dow on the sill, he went long back to the quarters,
and Dust waited next day shore enough to go for
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mints to work. Hannibal started in the house soon in
the morning with an arm for the wood to make
a fire, and he had no more getting crossed the
door sill before his feet begun to burn, so that
he dropped the arm for the wood on the floe
and woke old Miss up an hour sooner than usual.
Ain't costing Old Miss dead like that, and spoke sharp
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about it. When then the time come on, and Annibal
was helping to cook the card the dinner from the
kitchen into the big house and was getting close to
the door where he had to go in. His feet
started to burn and his head begun to swim, and
he let the big dish of chicken, the dumbness, fall
right down into dirt in the middle of the yard,
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and the white folks had to make dead dinner that
day off in cold ham and sweeten taters. The next
morning he overslept hisself and got into more trouble at
a breakfast. Mars Dugal sought him over to Mars Marlborough
Utlass for the bar of a monkey wrench. He ought
to be back in half an hour, but he come
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poking home by dinner time with a screwdriver instead of
a monkey wrench, and Mars Dougal send another nigga back
with the screwdriver, and Hannibal didn't get no dinner. Long
in the afternoon, Old Miss sought Hannibal to weeding the
flowers in the front garden, and Hannibal dug up all
the bulls old Miss had sought away for and paid
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a lot of money for, and took him down to
the hog penned by the barnyard and fed him to
the hogs. When old Miss come out in the cool
of the evening and seed what Hannibal had done, she
was most crazy, and she wrote a note and sought
Hannibal down to the overseer with it. But what Hannibal
got from the overseer didn't peit it to do no good.
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Every now and then his feet had mister tomming him,
and his mind to get all mixed up, and his
conducts kept getting worser and worser, till finally the white
folks couldn't stand it no longer, and Miles Dougall took
Hannibal back down to the quarters. Mister Smith says Miles
Dougal to the overseer, this here nigger has done got
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sold trifling lately, that we can't keep him at the
house no more. Then I'll fortu him to you to
be straightened up. Use had casion to deal with him once,
so he knows what to spec you does take him
in hand and let me know how he turns out,
And when the hands come in from the field this evening,
you can send that yellow nigger Jeff up to the house.
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I'll try him and see if he's any better than Hannibal.
So Jeff went up to the big house and please
Mars Dougal and Old Miss and the rest of the
family so well that they all got the locking him
first rate, and they'd all forgot about Hannibal if it
hadn't been for the bad reports what had come up
from the quarters about him for a month or so.
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Fact is that Chloe and Jeff were so entrusted in
one another since Jeff being up to the big House,
that they forgot all about taking the baby doll back
to Aunt Peggy. And they kept working for a while
and making Hannibal's feet burn more or less till all
the folks on the plantation got to calling him hot
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foot Hannibal. He kept getting more and more trifling till
he got the name of being the most no counts
nigga on the plantation, and Mars Dugal had to threaten
to sell him. In the spring went by and by
to go for quit working, and Hannibal meant to pick
up some and make folks set a little more stole
by him. Now dizz here. Hannibal was a monstrous smart nigga,
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and when he got rid of them soul feet, his
mind kept running on his other troubles. Here tree of
four weeks before, he'd had an easy job waiting on
the white folks, living off the fat of the land,
and promised the finest gallon the plantation for a wife
in the spring. And now he was back in the
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cornfield with the old sea, a cussing and a rearing
if he didn't get a hard task done, with nothing
but corn bread and bacon and molasses to eat, and
all the field hands making remarks and poking fun at
him because he'd been sought back from the big House
to the field. And the more Hannibal studied about it,
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the more matter he got, till he finally swore he
was going to get even with Jeff and Chloe if
it was the last act. So Hannibal slipped away from
the quarters one Sunday and hid in the corn up
close to the big house till you see Chloe going
down the road. He way there and says, he hied, Chloe,
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I ain't got no time for the fool with field hands,
says Chloe, tossing her head. What you want with me,
hot foot, I wants to know how you and Jeff
is getting a long allows that's none of your business, nigga.
I don't see what occasion any common field hand has
got to mix it with the faster folks that lives
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in the big house. And if it'll do you any
good to know, I mought say that me and Jeff
is getting along mighty well, and we gwine to get
married in the spring. And you ain't gwine to be
invited to the weddingther No, no, says he. I wouldn't
expect to be invited to the wedding a common, low
down field hand like I is. But I was glad
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to hear you and Jeff is getting along so well.
I didn't know. But what he had meant to be
a little tired tired of me. That's ridiculous, says Chloe.
Why that nigga loves me so I believe he go
through fire and water for me. That nigga is just
wrap up in me. Uh huh, says Hannibal. Then I
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reckon it must be some other nigga watch meets a
woman down by the creak and the swamp every Sunday
evening to say nothing about two or three times a week. Yes,
it is another nigga, and you is a liar when
you say it was Jeff Abe, I is a liar,
and maybe I ain't got good eyes, but lesson I
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is a liar, and lesson I ate got good eyes.
Jeff is going to meet that woman this evening long,
about eight o'clock, right down dead by the creek in
the swamp, about halfway betwixt this plantation and Mars Marble.
At last, Well, Chloe told Hannibal she didn't believe a
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word he said. Ain't call him a low down nigger
who was trying to slam the Jeff because he was
more luckier than he was. But all the same, she
couldn't keep her mind from running on what Annibal Is said.
She remembered she'd heard one of the niggas say they
was a gal oh bet Mar's Marble Utley's plantation. What
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Jeff used to go with some before he got quainted
with Chloe. Then she meant to figure back and show enough.
There was two or three times in the last week
and she'd been helping the ladies with their dressing and
other fixings in the evening, and Jeff might have gone
down to the swamp without her knowing about it at all.
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And then she means remember little things, what she hadn't
took no notice of before, and what had made it
feel like Jeff had something on his mind. Chloe set
a monstrous heap bestole by Jeff and would have done
most anything for him as long as he struck to her.
But Chloe was a mighty jealous woman, and while she
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didn't believe what Hannibal said, she seed how it could
have been so, and she determined for to find out
for herself whether it was so or no. Now, Chloe
hadn't seen Jeff all day, for Mars Dougal had sought
Jeff over to his daughter's house, young Miss Margaret's, what
lived about four miles Mars Dougles, and Jeff wasn't inspected
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home till the evening. But the supper was over, and
whilest the ladies were setting out on the piazza, Chloe
slipped off from the house and run down the road.
This your same road we come, And when she got
most to the creek this year, same creek right before us.
She kind of kept in the bushes at the side
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of the road till finally she seed Jeff sitting on
the back on the other side of the creek, right
under that old willows tree drooping over the water yonder,
and every now and then he get up and look
up the road towards Mars Marrable's on the other side
of the swamp. Fus Chloe felt like she'd go right
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over the creek and give Jump a piece of her mind.
Then she lowed she'd better be shore before she done anything,
So she held herself in the best she could, getting
madder and madder every minute till by and by she
see a woman coming down the rolled on the other
side from towards Mars Martible ut this plantation. And when
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she see Jeff jump up and run towards that woman
and throw his arms around her neck, poor Chloe didn't
stop to see no more, but just turn round and
run up to the house and rush up to the
piazza and up and told Mars Dougal and old miss
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all about the baby doll, and all about Jeff getting
the gopher from Aunt Peggy, and about what that gopher
had done to Hannibal. Mars Dougall was monstrous mad. He
didn't let on at first, like he believed Chloe, But
when she took and showed him where to find the
baby doll, Mars Dougal turned white as chalk. Why devil's
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work is this, says he? No wonder the pole niggas
feet etched some god to be done to learn that
old witch to keep her hands off in my niggers.
And as for this yard, Jeff, I gwine to do
dust what I promise, so the dark he's on displantation,
or no, I means what I says. For Mars Dougall
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had warned hands before about fooling with conjation. In fact,
he had lost one or two niggers hisself from debin gofered,
and he would have had old Aunt Peggy whip long ago.
Only Aunt Peggy was the free woman, and he was
fed that she'd conjure him. And whiles mars Dougall say
he didn't bleeve in Coanjin and such, he peered to lie.
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It was best to be on the safe side and
let Aunt Peggy alone. So Mars Dougall done dust as
he say, if old miss had pleaded for Jeff, he
might kept him. But old Miss hang got over loosin
them bulbs yet, and she never said a word. Mars
Dugal took Jeff to town next day and sold him
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to a speculator, who started down the river with him
next morning on a steamboat for to take him to Alabama. Now,
when Chloe told Old Mars dougall about this yere baby
doll and this or a gopher, she hadn't hardly loud.
Mars Dugal would sell Jeff down south howsomever? She was
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so mad with Jeff that she swathed herself. She didn't care,
and so she held her head up and went round
looking like she was real glad about it. But one
day she was walking down the road when who should
come along? But this year Hannibal. When Hannibal seed her,
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he busts out, laughing, fit for the kill. Yes, oh man, honey,
hold me. I laughed myself to death. I ain't never
laughed so much since I've been born. What you laughing at,
hot foot? Yah? Yah? Yeah? What I laughing at? Why
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I's laughing at myself? To be shore laughing to think?
And what a fine woman I made Chloe turned pale
and her heart come up in her mouth. What you mean, Nigga,
says she catching hold of bush by the road for
to steady herself. What you mean by that kind of
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woman you made? What do I mean? H means that
I got squared up with you for treating me the
way you done, and I got even with that yalla
nigger Jeff for cutting me out. Now heigwan to know
what it is to eat corn bread and molasses once more,
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and work from daylight to doc and to have an
overseer driving him from one day's into the other. I
means that I sought would to Jeff that Sunday that
you was goin to be over to mys Marable's visiting
that evening, and you want him to meet you down
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by the creek on the way home. Ain't go the
rest of the road with you. And then I put
on the frock and the sun bonded and fixed myself
up to look like a woman. And when Jeff see
me comin, he run to meet me, and you seed him,
for I been watching in the bushes before an skipper.
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You comin down the road, and now I reckon you
and Jeff both know what it means to mess with
a nigger like me. Poor Chloe hadn't heard molding half
of the last part of what Hannibal said, but she
had heard enough to learn that this nigger had fooled
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her and Jeff, and that Pole Jeff hadn't done nothing,
and that for loving her too much an goin to
meet her, she had caused him to be sol away
where she never never see him no more. The sun
mought shine by day, the moon by night. The flowers
might bloom, and the mocking birds might sing, but Pole
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Jeff was done, lost to her forever and forever. Annimal
hadn't mold and finished what he had to see when
Kloe's knees gone way under her, and she fell down
in the road and laid there half an hour or
so before she come to. When she did, she crept
up to the house, dust as pale as a ghost,
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and for a month or so she crawled round the house,
appeared to be so pold that Mars Dougal sent for
a doctor, and the doctor kept on asking her questions
till he found out she was dust pining away for Jeff.
When he told Marsdoogle, Mars Dougal laughed, and he said
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he'd fixed that she could have the new house boy
of her husband. But old Miss say no, Chloe ain't
that kind of gal, and that Mars Dougal should buy
Jeff back. So Mars dougal write a letter to this
year speculator down to Wilmington and told if he ain't
done sold that nigger south what he'd brought from him,
(30:19):
he liked buy him back again. Chloe mist to pick
up a little when old miss told her about this letter.
Howsome ever by and by Mars Dougle got an answer
from the speculator who said he was monster sorry, but
Jeff had fell overboard or jumped off the steamboat on
the way to Wilmington and got drownded, and course he
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couldn't sell him back much as he liked to bleach
Mars Dougal. Well, adda Chloe heard this, she wasn't much
more use to nobody. She pretended to do her work.
An old miss put up with her and had the
doctor give her meta and then let her go to
the circus, and all sorts o things for to take
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for mind offer troubles. But to day didn't none of
'em do no good. Chloe got to slippin down here
in the evenin' durst, like she was comin to meet
jeff An. She set there under that willow tree on
the other side, an wait for him. Not at a night,
by and by she got so bad the white folks
(31:25):
hunt her over to young missus Bogats for to give
her a change. But she runned away the first night,
and when they looked for her next mornin, they found
her corpse layin in the branch yonder right cross from
where we're sittin now. Ever since then, said Julius in conclusion,
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Chloe's haunt comes every evenin, an sets down honor that
willow tree, an waits for jeff. Annie's walks up and
down the road yonder, lookin and lookin, an waitin, an
waitin for her sweetheart. What ain't never never coming back
to a no mow. There was silence when the old
man had finished, And I am sure I saw a
(32:08):
tear in my wife's eye, and more than one in Mabel's,
I think. Julius said my wife after a moment, that
you may turn the mare around and go by the
long road. The old man obeyed, with alacrity, and I
noticed no reluctance on the Mayor's part. You are not
afraid of Chloe's heart, are you, I asked jocularly. My
(32:32):
mood was not responded to, and neither of the ladies smiled.
Oh no, said Annie, But I've changed my mind. I
preferred the other route. When we had reached the main
road and had proceeded along it for a short distance,
we met a cart driven by a young Negro, and
(32:52):
on the court were a trunk and a valise. We
recognized the man as Malcolm Murchison's servant, and drew up
a moment to speak to him. Who's going away, Marshall?
I inquired, Young Master Malcolm going we on to boat
to New York this evening, sir, And I'm taking his
things down to the wafts, Sir. This was news to me,
(33:15):
and I heard it with regret. My wife looks sorry too,
and I could see that Mabel was trying hard to
hide her concern. He's coming along behind, sir, and I
spec you meet him up the road, apiece. He's going
to walk down as far as Master Jim Williams and
take the buggy from dead to town he'spects to be
(33:35):
gone a long time, sir, and say probably he ain't
never coming back. The man drove on. There were few
words exchanged in an undertone between my wife and Mabel,
which I did not catch. Then Annie said, Julius, you
may stop the rockaway a moment. There are some trumpet
(33:55):
flowers by the road there that I want. Will you
get them for me? John, I sprang into the underbrush,
and soon returned with a great bunch of scarlet blossoms.
Where is Mabel, I asked, noting her absence. She has
walked on ahead. We shall overtake her in a few minutes.
The carriage had gone only a short distance when my
(34:18):
wife discovered that she had dropped her fan. I had
it where we were stopping, Julius, will you go back
and get it for me. Julius got down and went
back for the fan. He was an unconsciously long time
finding it. After we got started again, we had gone
only a little way when we saw Mabel and young
(34:40):
Murchison coming toward us. They were walking arm in arm,
and their faces were aglow with a light of love.
I do not know whether or not Julius had a
previous understanding with Malcolm Murchison, by which he was to
drive us round by the long Road that day. Nor
do I know exactly what motive influenced the old man's
(35:01):
exertions in the matter. He was fond of Mabel, but
I was old enough and knew Julius well enough to
be skeptical of his motives. It is certain that a
most excellent understanding existed between him and Murchison after the reconciliation,
and that when the young people set up housekeeping over
at the old Murchison place, Julius had an opportunity to
(35:25):
enter their service. For some reason or other, however, he
preferred to remain with us. The Mayor, I might add,
was never known to balk again. End of hot Foot
Hannibal recording by Phil Shinever
Section sixteen of Black Experience in America eighteenth through twentieth century.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information nor to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Hotfoot Hannibal by Charles W. Chestnut
(00:23):
recording by Phil Chenevert Black Experience in America eighteenth through
twentieth century. Hotfoot Hannibal. I hate you and despise you.
I wish never to see you or speak to you again.
Very well, I will take care that henceforth you have
(00:46):
no opportunity to do either. These words, the first, in
the passionately vibrant tones of my sister in law, and
the latter, in the deeper and more restrained accents of
an angry man, startled me from my nap. I had
been dozing in my hammock on the front piazza, behind
(01:06):
the honeysuckle vine. I had been faintly aware of a
buzz of conversation and the parlor, but had not at
all awakened to its import until these sentences fell, or
I might rather say, were hurled upon my ear. I
presumed the young people had either not seen me lying
there the Venetian lines opening from the parlor windows upon
(01:28):
the piazza were partly closed on account of the heat,
or else in their excitement, they had forgotten my proximity.
I felt somewhat concerned. The young man I had remarked,
was proud, firm, jealous of the point of honor, and
from my observation of him, quite likely to resent to
the bitter end what he deemed a slight or an injustice.
(01:52):
The girl I knew was quite as high spirited as
young Murchison. I feared she was not so just, and
hoped she prove more yielding. I knew that her affections
were strong and enduring, but that her temperament was capricious,
and her sunniest moods easily overcast by some small cloud
(02:13):
of jealousy or pique. I had never imagined, however, that
she was capable of such intensity as was revealed by
these few words of hers. As I say, I felt concerned.
I had learned to like Malcolm Murchison, and had heartily
consented to his marriage with my ward. For it was
in that capacity that I had stood for a year
(02:35):
or two to my wife's younger sister, Mabel the match,
thus rudely broken off, had promised to be another link
binding me to the kindly Southern people, among whom I
had not long before taken up my residence. Young Murchison
came out of the door, cleared the piazza in two strides,
(02:56):
without seeming aware of my presence, and went off down
the lane at a furious pace. A few moments later,
Mabel began playing the piano loudly, with a touch that
indicated anger and pride and independence, and a dash of exultation,
as though she were really glad that she had driven
(03:17):
away forever the young man whom the day before she
had loved with all the ardor of a first passion.
I hoped that time might heal the breach and bring
the two young people together again. I told my wife
what I had overheard. In return, she gave me Mabel's
version of the affair. I do not see how it
(03:39):
can never be settled, my wife said, it is something
more than a mere lover's quarrel. It began, it is
true because she found fault with him for going to
church with that hateful Branson girl. But before it ended,
there were things said that no woman of any spirit
could stand. I am afraid it is all over between them.
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I was sorry to hear this. In spite of the
very firm attitude taken by my wife and her sister,
I still hoped that the quarrel would be made up
within a day or two. Nevertheless, when a week had
passed with no word from young Murchison, and with no
sign of relenting on Mabel's part, I began to think
myself mistaken. On a pleasant afternoon, about ten days after
(04:27):
the rupture, Old Julius drove the rock away up to
the piazza, and my wife, Mabel, and I took our
seats for a drive to a neighbor's vineyard over on
Lumberton Plank Road. Which way shall we go, I asked,
the short road or the long one. I guess we
had better take the short road, answered my wife. We
(04:48):
will get there sooner. It's not a fine dribe drowned
by the big road, miss Annie, observed Julius, and it
don't take much longer to get down. No, said my wife.
I think we will go by the sharp road. There
is a bay tree in blossom near the mineral spring,
and I wish to get some of the flowers A specs.
(05:09):
You'd find some bay trees long to big road, ma'am,
suggested Julius. But I know about the flowers on the
short road, and they are the ones I want. We
drove down the lane to the highway, and soon struck
into the short road leading past the mineral Spring. Our
route lay partly through a swamp, and on each side
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the dark, umbracious foliage, unbroken by any clearing, lent to
the road solemnity and to the air a refreshing coolness.
About half a mile from the house and about half
way to the mineral spring, we stopped at the tree
of which my wife had spoken, and reaching up to
the low hanging boughs, I gathered a dozen of the
(05:53):
fragrant white flowers. When I resumed my seat in the rockaway,
Julius started the mare. She went on for a few
rods until we had reached the edge of a branch
crossing the road, when she stopped short. Why did you stop, Julius,
I asked, I did, sir? He replied, twas de maya
(06:14):
stop gol on dere lucy. Would you mean for this foolishness?
Julius jerked the reins and applied the whip lightly, but
the mayor did not stir. Perhaps you had better get
down and lead her, I suggested. If you get her started,
you can cross on the log and keep your feet dry.
Julius alighted, took hold of the bridle, and vainly essayed
(06:36):
to make the mare move. She planted her feet with
even more evident obstinacy. I don't know what to make
of this, I said, I have never known her to
balk before, have you, Julius, No, suh, replied the old man.
I never has. It's a curious thing to me. Suh.
(06:57):
What's the best way to make her go? Ah specs
sir that if I turn around as she go to utterwy,
But we want her to go this way. Well, sir allah,
if we just set hell for five minutes, she'll start
of by herself. All right, I rejoined. It is cooler
here than any place I have struck today. We'll let
(07:18):
her stand for a while and see what she does.
We sat in silence for a few minutes when Julius
suddenly ejaculated. Oh huh, I knows why this mad don't go?
It's dust flash cross my recommendrance. Why is it Julius,
I inquired, cause she sees Chloe. Where is Chloe? I demanded,
(07:43):
Chloe has been dead these forty years, mo. The old
man returned her hate is sitting o beyonder, on the
other side of the branch, under that willow tree. This
blessed minute, Why, Julius, said, my wife, do you see
the haunt? No, he answered, shaking his head. I oh, sea,
(08:03):
but the mass Caesar, how do you know? I inquired, Well, sir,
this year is a gray horse, and this year is
a Friday, and a gray horse. Can all us see
a haunt? What walks on Friday? Who is Chloe? Said Mabel?
And why does Chloe's haunt walk? Asked my wife. It's
(08:26):
all in detail, ma'am. Julius replied, with a deep sigh,
It's all in detail. Tell us the tale, I said.
Perhaps by the time you get through, the haunt will
go away and the mayor will cross. I was willing
to humor the old man's fancy. He had not told
us a story for some time. And the dark and
solemn swamp around us, the amber colored stream flowing silently
(08:50):
and sluggishly at our feet, like the waters of Lethy,
the heavy aromatic scent of the bay's faintly suggestive of
funeral wreaths all made the place in idea one for
a ghost story. Chloe Julius began in a subdued tone
used to belong to Old Mars Dougall. Markerdo my old Master.
(09:11):
She was a likely gal and a smart gal, and
old Miss took up to the big house and larned
her to wait on the white folk till by and bye.
She come to be the missus own maid, and peid
to liao she run the house herself to hear her
talk about it. I was a young boy then, and
he used to work about the stables, so I knowed
(09:32):
everything that was going on round the plantation. Well, one
time Mars Dougal wanted a house boy and sought down
to the quarters for the hab Jeff and Hannibal come
up to the big house next morning. Old Master and
old Miss looked the two boys over and sussed wi
(09:52):
their selves for a little while, and then Mars Dougall says, Sissy,
we likes Hannibal to best, and we gone to keep
him here. Hannibal, you work at the house from now on,
and if you are a good nigga, and mine's your business.
I'll give you Chloe for a wife next spring. You
other nigger, you Jeff, you can go back to the quarters.
(10:16):
We ain't goin to need you. Now. Chloe had been
standing there behind, oh miss, doing all this. Here I talk,
and Chloe made up her mind from the very first
minute she set eyes on them too, that she didn't
like that nigger Hannibal, and wasn't never gone to care
for him. And she was dust as showed that she
(10:39):
liked Jeff and was gone to set store by him.
Whether Mars Dougal took him into the big house I know.
And so of course Chloe was manster sorry when old
Mars Dougal took Hannibal and sought Jeff back. So she
slipped round the house and we laid Jeff on the
way back to the quarters and told him not to
(11:00):
be down headed, for she was gwine to see if
she couldn't find some way or nutter to get rid
of that nigger Hannibal and get Jeff up to the
house in his place. The new houseboy caught you on
monstrous fast, and it wasn't no time hardly before Mars
Duel and old miss both Minster Low. Hannibal was the
(11:22):
best houseboy they ever had. He was pertin supple and
quick as lightning, a sharp as a razor. But Chloe
didn't like his ways. He was so sure he was
gwine to get her into spring that he didn't peer
to live. He had to do no coating, and when
he'd run across Chloe about the house, he'd swell around
(11:44):
her in a biggie way and say, come here and
kiss me, honey, you gwine to be mine in the spring.
You don't appear to be as fond of me as
you ought to be. Chloe didn't care nothing for Hannibal,
and hadn't cared nothing for him, And she sought just
as much stole by Jeff as she did to day
she first laid eyes on him. An the more familius
(12:07):
this year are Cannibal got the mold. Chloe let her
mind run on Jeff, and one evening she went down
to the quarters and watched until she got a chance
for to talk with him by hisself. And she told
Jeff for to go down and see old Aunt Peggy,
the conjured woman, down by the Wilmington road, and aks
her to give him somethin to help get Hannibal out
(12:30):
in the big house. So the white folks is sent
for Jeff again an beIN. As Jeff didn't have nothing
to give, Aunt Peggy, Chloe gunn him a silver dollar
and a silk handkerchief for to pay her wi for.
Aunt Peggy never liked to work for nobody for nothing,
So Jeff slipped down to Aunt Peggy's one night and
(12:50):
gunnard the present he brung and told her all about
him and Chloe and Hannibal and asked her to help
him out. Aunt Peggy told him she'd work the roots
and for him to come back the next night and
she'd tell him what she could do for him. So
the next night Jeff went back and Aunt Peggy gun
him a baby doll with a body made out in
(13:13):
a piece of cornstalk and with splinters farm legs, and
the head made out in the elderberry peth and two
little red peppers for feet. Yes, here baby doll says
she is Hannibal this year. Path head is Hannibal's head,
and these yeah pepper feet is Hannibal's feet. You take
(13:37):
this and hide it under the house, on the seal,
under the door where Hannibal had to walk over it
every day. And as long as Hannibal comes anywhere gnaw
this baby doll, he'll be dust like it is, light
headed and hot footed. And if them two things don't
(13:59):
get him into truble mighty soon, then I'm no conjur woman.
But when you get Hannibal out in the house and
get all true with this baby doll, you must fetch
it back to me, for all its monstrous, powerful goopher
and liable to make more trouble if you leave it
laying round. Well, Jeff took the baby doll and slip
(14:22):
up to the big house and whistle to Chloe, And
when she come out, he told her what old Aunt
Pecky had said, ain't Chloe showed him how to get
under the house, And when he had put the conjure
dow on the sill, he went long back to the quarters,
and Dust waited next day shore enough to go for
(14:44):
mints to work. Hannibal started in the house soon in
the morning with an arm for the wood to make
a fire, and he had no more getting crossed the
door sill before his feet begun to burn, so that
he dropped the arm for the wood on the floe
and woke old Miss up an hour sooner than usual.
Ain't costing Old Miss dead like that, and spoke sharp
(15:08):
about it. When then the time come on, and Annibal
was helping to cook the card the dinner from the
kitchen into the big house and was getting close to
the door where he had to go in. His feet
started to burn and his head begun to swim, and
he let the big dish of chicken, the dumbness, fall
right down into dirt in the middle of the yard,
(15:29):
and the white folks had to make dead dinner that
day off in cold ham and sweeten taters. The next
morning he overslept hisself and got into more trouble at
a breakfast. Mars Dugal sought him over to Mars Marlborough
Utlass for the bar of a monkey wrench. He ought
to be back in half an hour, but he come
(15:51):
poking home by dinner time with a screwdriver instead of
a monkey wrench, and Mars Dougal send another nigga back
with the screwdriver, and Hannibal didn't get no dinner. Long
in the afternoon, Old Miss sought Hannibal to weeding the
flowers in the front garden, and Hannibal dug up all
the bulls old Miss had sought away for and paid
(16:13):
a lot of money for, and took him down to
the hog penned by the barnyard and fed him to
the hogs. When old Miss come out in the cool
of the evening and seed what Hannibal had done, she
was most crazy, and she wrote a note and sought
Hannibal down to the overseer with it. But what Hannibal
got from the overseer didn't peit it to do no good.
(16:35):
Every now and then his feet had mister tomming him,
and his mind to get all mixed up, and his
conducts kept getting worser and worser, till finally the white
folks couldn't stand it no longer, and Miles Dougall took
Hannibal back down to the quarters. Mister Smith says Miles
Dougal to the overseer, this here nigger has done got
(16:56):
sold trifling lately, that we can't keep him at the
house no more. Then I'll fortu him to you to
be straightened up. Use had casion to deal with him once,
so he knows what to spec you does take him
in hand and let me know how he turns out,
And when the hands come in from the field this evening,
you can send that yellow nigger Jeff up to the house.
(17:19):
I'll try him and see if he's any better than Hannibal.
So Jeff went up to the big house and please
Mars Dougal and Old Miss and the rest of the
family so well that they all got the locking him
first rate, and they'd all forgot about Hannibal if it
hadn't been for the bad reports what had come up
from the quarters about him for a month or so.
(17:42):
Fact is that Chloe and Jeff were so entrusted in
one another since Jeff being up to the big House,
that they forgot all about taking the baby doll back
to Aunt Peggy. And they kept working for a while
and making Hannibal's feet burn more or less till all
the folks on the plantation got to calling him hot
(18:02):
foot Hannibal. He kept getting more and more trifling till
he got the name of being the most no counts
nigga on the plantation, and Mars Dugal had to threaten
to sell him. In the spring went by and by
to go for quit working, and Hannibal meant to pick
up some and make folks set a little more stole
by him. Now dizz here. Hannibal was a monstrous smart nigga,
(18:28):
and when he got rid of them soul feet, his
mind kept running on his other troubles. Here tree of
four weeks before, he'd had an easy job waiting on
the white folks, living off the fat of the land,
and promised the finest gallon the plantation for a wife
in the spring. And now he was back in the
(18:49):
cornfield with the old sea, a cussing and a rearing
if he didn't get a hard task done, with nothing
but corn bread and bacon and molasses to eat, and
all the field hands making remarks and poking fun at
him because he'd been sought back from the big House
to the field. And the more Hannibal studied about it,
(19:10):
the more matter he got, till he finally swore he
was going to get even with Jeff and Chloe if
it was the last act. So Hannibal slipped away from
the quarters one Sunday and hid in the corn up
close to the big house till you see Chloe going
down the road. He way there and says, he hied, Chloe,
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I ain't got no time for the fool with field hands,
says Chloe, tossing her head. What you want with me,
hot foot, I wants to know how you and Jeff
is getting a long allows that's none of your business, nigga.
I don't see what occasion any common field hand has
got to mix it with the faster folks that lives
(19:55):
in the big house. And if it'll do you any
good to know, I mought say that me and Jeff
is getting along mighty well, and we gwine to get
married in the spring. And you ain't gwine to be
invited to the weddingther No, no, says he. I wouldn't
expect to be invited to the wedding a common, low
down field hand like I is. But I was glad
(20:19):
to hear you and Jeff is getting along so well.
I didn't know. But what he had meant to be
a little tired tired of me. That's ridiculous, says Chloe.
Why that nigga loves me so I believe he go
through fire and water for me. That nigga is just
wrap up in me. Uh huh, says Hannibal. Then I
(20:43):
reckon it must be some other nigga watch meets a
woman down by the creak and the swamp every Sunday
evening to say nothing about two or three times a week. Yes,
it is another nigga, and you is a liar when
you say it was Jeff Abe, I is a liar,
and maybe I ain't got good eyes, but lesson I
(21:04):
is a liar, and lesson I ate got good eyes.
Jeff is going to meet that woman this evening long,
about eight o'clock, right down dead by the creek in
the swamp, about halfway betwixt this plantation and Mars Marble.
At last, Well, Chloe told Hannibal she didn't believe a
(21:26):
word he said. Ain't call him a low down nigger
who was trying to slam the Jeff because he was
more luckier than he was. But all the same, she
couldn't keep her mind from running on what Annibal Is said.
She remembered she'd heard one of the niggas say they
was a gal oh bet Mar's Marble Utley's plantation. What
(21:48):
Jeff used to go with some before he got quainted
with Chloe. Then she meant to figure back and show enough.
There was two or three times in the last week
and she'd been helping the ladies with their dressing and
other fixings in the evening, and Jeff might have gone
down to the swamp without her knowing about it at all.
(22:10):
And then she means remember little things, what she hadn't
took no notice of before, and what had made it
feel like Jeff had something on his mind. Chloe set
a monstrous heap bestole by Jeff and would have done
most anything for him as long as he struck to her.
But Chloe was a mighty jealous woman, and while she
(22:33):
didn't believe what Hannibal said, she seed how it could
have been so, and she determined for to find out
for herself whether it was so or no. Now, Chloe
hadn't seen Jeff all day, for Mars Dougal had sought
Jeff over to his daughter's house, young Miss Margaret's, what
lived about four miles Mars Dougles, and Jeff wasn't inspected
(22:57):
home till the evening. But the supper was over, and
whilest the ladies were setting out on the piazza, Chloe
slipped off from the house and run down the road.
This your same road we come, And when she got
most to the creek this year, same creek right before us.
She kind of kept in the bushes at the side
(23:19):
of the road till finally she seed Jeff sitting on
the back on the other side of the creek, right
under that old willows tree drooping over the water yonder,
and every now and then he get up and look
up the road towards Mars Marrable's on the other side
of the swamp. Fus Chloe felt like she'd go right
(23:41):
over the creek and give Jump a piece of her mind.
Then she lowed she'd better be shore before she done anything,
So she held herself in the best she could, getting
madder and madder every minute till by and by she
see a woman coming down the rolled on the other
side from towards Mars Martible ut this plantation. And when
(24:06):
she see Jeff jump up and run towards that woman
and throw his arms around her neck, poor Chloe didn't
stop to see no more, but just turn round and
run up to the house and rush up to the
piazza and up and told Mars Dougal and old miss
(24:26):
all about the baby doll, and all about Jeff getting
the gopher from Aunt Peggy, and about what that gopher
had done to Hannibal. Mars Dougall was monstrous mad. He
didn't let on at first, like he believed Chloe, But
when she took and showed him where to find the
baby doll, Mars Dougal turned white as chalk. Why devil's
(24:53):
work is this, says he? No wonder the pole niggas
feet etched some god to be done to learn that
old witch to keep her hands off in my niggers.
And as for this yard, Jeff, I gwine to do
dust what I promise, so the dark he's on displantation,
or no, I means what I says. For Mars Dougall
(25:17):
had warned hands before about fooling with conjation. In fact,
he had lost one or two niggers hisself from debin gofered,
and he would have had old Aunt Peggy whip long ago.
Only Aunt Peggy was the free woman, and he was
fed that she'd conjure him. And whiles mars Dougall say
he didn't bleeve in Coanjin and such, he peered to lie.
(25:41):
It was best to be on the safe side and
let Aunt Peggy alone. So Mars Dougall done dust as
he say, if old miss had pleaded for Jeff, he
might kept him. But old Miss hang got over loosin
them bulbs yet, and she never said a word. Mars
Dugal took Jeff to town next day and sold him
(26:04):
to a speculator, who started down the river with him
next morning on a steamboat for to take him to Alabama. Now,
when Chloe told Old Mars dougall about this yere baby
doll and this or a gopher, she hadn't hardly loud.
Mars Dugal would sell Jeff down south howsomever? She was
(26:25):
so mad with Jeff that she swathed herself. She didn't care,
and so she held her head up and went round
looking like she was real glad about it. But one
day she was walking down the road when who should
come along? But this year Hannibal. When Hannibal seed her,
(26:45):
he busts out, laughing, fit for the kill. Yes, oh man, honey,
hold me. I laughed myself to death. I ain't never
laughed so much since I've been born. What you laughing at,
hot foot? Yah? Yah? Yeah? What I laughing at? Why
(27:09):
I's laughing at myself? To be shore laughing to think?
And what a fine woman I made Chloe turned pale
and her heart come up in her mouth. What you mean, Nigga,
says she catching hold of bush by the road for
to steady herself. What you mean by that kind of
(27:29):
woman you made? What do I mean? H means that
I got squared up with you for treating me the
way you done, and I got even with that yalla
nigger Jeff for cutting me out. Now heigwan to know
what it is to eat corn bread and molasses once more,
(27:50):
and work from daylight to doc and to have an
overseer driving him from one day's into the other. I
means that I sought would to Jeff that Sunday that
you was goin to be over to mys Marable's visiting
that evening, and you want him to meet you down
(28:11):
by the creek on the way home. Ain't go the
rest of the road with you. And then I put
on the frock and the sun bonded and fixed myself
up to look like a woman. And when Jeff see
me comin, he run to meet me, and you seed him,
for I been watching in the bushes before an skipper.
(28:32):
You comin down the road, and now I reckon you
and Jeff both know what it means to mess with
a nigger like me. Poor Chloe hadn't heard molding half
of the last part of what Hannibal said, but she
had heard enough to learn that this nigger had fooled
(28:52):
her and Jeff, and that Pole Jeff hadn't done nothing,
and that for loving her too much an goin to
meet her, she had caused him to be sol away
where she never never see him no more. The sun
mought shine by day, the moon by night. The flowers
might bloom, and the mocking birds might sing, but Pole
(29:14):
Jeff was done, lost to her forever and forever. Annimal
hadn't mold and finished what he had to see when
Kloe's knees gone way under her, and she fell down
in the road and laid there half an hour or
so before she come to. When she did, she crept
up to the house, dust as pale as a ghost,
(29:37):
and for a month or so she crawled round the house,
appeared to be so pold that Mars Dougal sent for
a doctor, and the doctor kept on asking her questions
till he found out she was dust pining away for Jeff.
When he told Marsdoogle, Mars Dougal laughed, and he said
(29:57):
he'd fixed that she could have the new house boy
of her husband. But old Miss say no, Chloe ain't
that kind of gal, and that Mars Dougal should buy
Jeff back. So Mars dougal write a letter to this
year speculator down to Wilmington and told if he ain't
done sold that nigger south what he'd brought from him,
(30:19):
he liked buy him back again. Chloe mist to pick
up a little when old miss told her about this letter.
Howsome ever by and by Mars Dougle got an answer
from the speculator who said he was monster sorry, but
Jeff had fell overboard or jumped off the steamboat on
the way to Wilmington and got drownded, and course he
(30:43):
couldn't sell him back much as he liked to bleach
Mars Dougal. Well, adda Chloe heard this, she wasn't much
more use to nobody. She pretended to do her work.
An old miss put up with her and had the
doctor give her meta and then let her go to
the circus, and all sorts o things for to take
(31:04):
for mind offer troubles. But to day didn't none of
'em do no good. Chloe got to slippin down here
in the evenin' durst, like she was comin to meet
jeff An. She set there under that willow tree on
the other side, an wait for him. Not at a night,
by and by she got so bad the white folks
(31:25):
hunt her over to young missus Bogats for to give
her a change. But she runned away the first night,
and when they looked for her next mornin, they found
her corpse layin in the branch yonder right cross from
where we're sittin now. Ever since then, said Julius in conclusion,
(31:46):
Chloe's haunt comes every evenin, an sets down honor that
willow tree, an waits for jeff. Annie's walks up and
down the road yonder, lookin and lookin, an waitin, an
waitin for her sweetheart. What ain't never never coming back
to a no mow. There was silence when the old
man had finished, And I am sure I saw a
(32:08):
tear in my wife's eye, and more than one in Mabel's,
I think. Julius said my wife after a moment, that
you may turn the mare around and go by the
long road. The old man obeyed, with alacrity, and I
noticed no reluctance on the Mayor's part. You are not
afraid of Chloe's heart, are you, I asked jocularly. My
(32:32):
mood was not responded to, and neither of the ladies smiled.
Oh no, said Annie, But I've changed my mind. I
preferred the other route. When we had reached the main
road and had proceeded along it for a short distance,
we met a cart driven by a young Negro, and
(32:52):
on the court were a trunk and a valise. We
recognized the man as Malcolm Murchison's servant, and drew up
a moment to speak to him. Who's going away, Marshall?
I inquired, Young Master Malcolm going we on to boat
to New York this evening, sir, And I'm taking his
things down to the wafts, Sir. This was news to me,
(33:15):
and I heard it with regret. My wife looks sorry too,
and I could see that Mabel was trying hard to
hide her concern. He's coming along behind, sir, and I
spec you meet him up the road, apiece. He's going
to walk down as far as Master Jim Williams and
take the buggy from dead to town he'spects to be
(33:35):
gone a long time, sir, and say probably he ain't
never coming back. The man drove on. There were few
words exchanged in an undertone between my wife and Mabel,
which I did not catch. Then Annie said, Julius, you
may stop the rockaway a moment. There are some trumpet
(33:55):
flowers by the road there that I want. Will you
get them for me? John, I sprang into the underbrush,
and soon returned with a great bunch of scarlet blossoms.
Where is Mabel, I asked, noting her absence. She has
walked on ahead. We shall overtake her in a few minutes.
The carriage had gone only a short distance when my
(34:18):
wife discovered that she had dropped her fan. I had
it where we were stopping, Julius, will you go back
and get it for me. Julius got down and went
back for the fan. He was an unconsciously long time
finding it. After we got started again, we had gone
only a little way when we saw Mabel and young
(34:40):
Murchison coming toward us. They were walking arm in arm,
and their faces were aglow with a light of love.
I do not know whether or not Julius had a
previous understanding with Malcolm Murchison, by which he was to
drive us round by the long Road that day. Nor
do I know exactly what motive influenced the old man's
(35:01):
exertions in the matter. He was fond of Mabel, but
I was old enough and knew Julius well enough to
be skeptical of his motives. It is certain that a
most excellent understanding existed between him and Murchison after the reconciliation,
and that when the young people set up housekeeping over
at the old Murchison place, Julius had an opportunity to
(35:25):
enter their service. For some reason or other, however, he
preferred to remain with us. The Mayor, I might add,
was never known to balk again. End of hot Foot
Hannibal recording by Phil Shinever
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