Fair and Tender Ladies (12 page)

Well I am going to, I said, and I said Whoa now to the horse in a big voice and reached in ther and got his bridle untangled and hopped alongside of him till I culd fling myself up on his back. He was not a real big horse or I wuldntve done it, also I used to ride a horse if ever they was a horse up here, or a mule ether one. So I got up on the horse and then he started bucking. I jerked him in evertime he jumped, and his shoes struck sparks from the rocks along ther by Sugar Creek. All rigt now boy, I said, lets go. He clumb back up the creekbank to the trail with me holding on for dear life. He stomped a little and looked around oncet he got up ther, and I got a holt of him good, and looked back down ther where Babe was laying in the dark with all them loud-loud frogs. Ill be back as soon as I'm able, I said not knowing iffen Babe culd hear me or not. Garnie had took off for home.

And do you know what I seed then, Molly, or thoght I seed?

I thoght I seed Silvaney slipping out from the pinetrees on the other side of the creek and coming acrost the creek so smooth on the steppystones like she was gliding, with her hair hanging down to her waist. Coming over ther to where Babe was laying.
No, Silvaney, go back!
I hollered.
Go back!
For I did not want her to see, but Babes horse rared up at that minit and I had to rassle his head down and when I looked back down ther I culdnt see her in the dark.

Git on then, I said to the horse. I gave him his head and let him pick his own way down Sugar Fork, and all that long way down to Home Creek too. My mind was going around and around. Now Babe is probly dead, I toled myself. It is what you have wanted all along, and because this was true I felt awful. I felt so bad. Oh Molly, dont never wish for nothing, for you are liable to get it. Granny Rowe says this and it is true.

So while I was riding down ther, the moon come up, the biggest prettest full moon come up just like it was any other nigt in the world, so ligt and lovely it like to took my breth. I knowed it wuld shine on no matter what, and this given me a turn. The moon dont give a damn, I said to myself, and it dont. The moonligt come down throgh the leaves as brigt as day, a cool white ligt, I culd see everthing just as clear when I come riding outen the woods and seen the neghbor peoples houses all in a nice little row. I felt like the highwayman come riding, riding, up to the old inn door. I have got terible news! I wanted to yell but I was too tired to yell. I turned in the saddle and looked back up on Blue Star Mountain wich looked huge and dark and full of mistery, even under that big full moon. You can not see our house from down ther on Home Creek, nor any sign of it. The moon had got up full by then. It hung real low and big in the sky over Pilgrim Knob, and it put me in mind of Silvaney, coming acrost the creek.

Babes horse was wellnigh foundered by then, twerent any problem to halt him at Delphi Rolettes, but when I got down offen him my legs buckled rigt out from under me and it was all I culd do to get acrost the yard and bang on the door.

Wake up wake up its me Ivy Rowe,
I said,
and my brother Babe has been murdered.

Well to make a long storey short, this was true, Babe having brethed his last about the time that I made it down to Home Creek I reckon, with Granny Rowe and Momma with him but it was too late, even Granny Rowe culdnt do nothing to stop him bleeding.

So it was early morning by the time that Mister Rolette and Mister Fox and the rest of them come back up ther bringing the law with them, this is Sargent Pope from Majestic, a little old fatbellied man that looks like a cookstove and didnt do nothing but write SHOT IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD on a piece of paper. I rember I went out on the porch in the early morning whilst Sargent Pope was examming Babe who was layed in the floor.

What will they do now? What will happen? This was Garnie out ther pestering all the men to death with questins.

Mister Delphi Rolette took a draw on his cigaret and said, Well Garnie its like as not that nothing will happen, may be they can not prove a thing.

Wich has turned out to be true! That Gussie has turned rigt around and swore it on a Bible that Arlen Snipes was laying with her all nigt long on the nigt in questin, and cant nobody disprove it. She knows wich side her bread is buttered on, Granny says.

But Momma cryed and said, Clarence has been looking for this bullet all his life, now it is finely his. When they layed his coffin in the ground she said, So holp me God I culdnt do a thing with this boy, and Early Cook said, Dont blame yorself now Maude, sometimes that is the way of it, you have had a hard row to hoe. And I knowed he was thinking back to how Momma had run off from her home as a girl and how Daddy had layed in the bed for so long. Early Cook gave us Babes coffin for free, of coarse we culdnt of payed him a cent if we had to, and they berried Babe as quick as they was able, so quick it did not seem decent somehow. Nobody stood up by the coffin or toled any storeys. They berried Babe next to Daddy at sunset that same day but nobody built him a gravehouse nor mentioned it, it is awful I think to go throgh this world like Babe like a streak of lightning and nobody cares. Babe never had a thing to reccomend him but that grin I reckon, it is sad.

And the only one that loved him was Silvaney.

Now Molly, this part is awful. For Silvaney never showed up all that livelong day whilst they were signing the papers and berrying Babe, and nobody knowed where she was, you know she has took to wandering. And I culd not say for sartin wether I had seed her that nigt by the creek or not, things was confused in my mind. So I did not say a word about it. But I set out on the porch that nigt and wuld not sleep, looking for Silvaney, I wanted to be the one to tell her for I knowed it wuld upset her so. Finely thogh I just had to sleep, I was hurting all over from riding that horse, and so I went in and layed down on my pallet, and when I got up the next day it was plum noon and I was so sore I culdnt hardly move at first, but Momma was ther sitting in the chair next to me.

Mommas face looked all washed out and kind of purified and she said, Ivy I have got some more bad news to tell you, and I said, What, Momma? And Momma said, It is Silvaney, and my hart sank. For I had knowed it somehow I think, and I said, Oh Momma, what is it?

She said, Silvaney knows somehow, she has come back in here and cut at herself with the kitchen knife and run back out in the woods, so Granny says we must ketch her next time and try to holp her, and Granny is going to stay with us to holp out until we have done so.

Now this means that Tenessee is here too, wich is funny. For Tenessee has taken it in mind that Mister Early Cook who is a batchelder is sweet on her, and says that he is coming back up here for her direckly. So Molly, as I write this letter we are waiting. Granny Rowe and Momma and me are waiting for Silvaney, and Tenessee is waiting for Early Cook. She has got her little bead bag beside her chair. She says she is ready to go off to be maried. I will let you know what happens next for I remane yor devoted frend,

 

IVY ROWE.

Dear Mrs. Brown,

 

I have thogt and thogt to myself, shuld I keep silent now or shuld I write and tell her my feelings about what she and Mister Brown have gone and done to Silvaney? And at first I thogt, I will not say a thing, for they have only done what they thogt was the best.

But then agin I thogt how Mister Brown used to push his eyeglasses back on his head and say, Girls, girls, search for the truth, for the truth is more presious than rubies, more dear than love. And Mister Brown read to us that death takes toll of beauty, courage, yuth, of all but truth.

So I will come rigt out and say what I think, it is as follers, I think you all have done a grave wrong to have brung old Doc Trout up here to sware out a warrant on Silvaney, and that little old stovebellied hateful Sargent Pope. If Daddy was still alive you wuld not have done so I will venture to say, nor Victor here nor Babe alive, ether one.

They did not
have
to tye her hands nether, to put her in the wagon, you know she walked down Sugar Fork so nicely, it was not nesessary to tye her hands. And she knowed what all was happening, she knowed it exactly Mrs. Brown, you yorself was not here to see her eyes when Doc Trout clicked to the mules and they started off, how she starred back at me and Momma and did not speak. I belive she knowed what was hapening, and gone of her own accord. She is no longer VILENT, yet this is what Doc Trout wrote on the warrant to send her away.

I was suprised that Momma let Silvaney go so easy, yet Momma is tired of figting, and all the fire has gone out of her since we berried Babe.
Momma, Momma, make them stop!
I said as old Doc he clicked up the mules, but Momma put her arms around me and said, Oh Ivy, perhaps it is for the best, Mister Brown thinks it is all for the best. Silvaney will get better bye and bye, and then she will come back to us.

But Mrs. Brown I will tell you the truth, I do not agree. Since Babe is dead, I feel that Silvaney wuld of quited down. In any case Silvaney is diffrent from all, she needs to wander the woods, and she needs some woods to wander. I cannot feature her in the Elizabeth Masters Home in Roanoke Va. it dont matter how nice it is, she will not learn a trade ther nether, as Mister Brown thinks. For I have tryed to teach Silvaney but she cant learn. She needs to be at home Mrs. Brown, up here on Sugar Fork where they is people to love her like she is, and where she can come and go as she will. She wuld of quited down before long, Mrs. Brown, but now that they have taken my Silvaney it is like they have taken a chunk of my hart.

So althogh you have done what you think is best, it is not best, it is wrong. And I remane yor truthful,

 

IVY ROWE.

Dear Mrs. Brown,

 

To anser your questin, the man that brung that letter was my uncle, Revel Rowe.

 

Yrs.,

 

IVY ROWE.

My dear Molly,

 

I have got some good news to tell you at last! For you will not belive what has happend.

First off I will start at the begining wich was last week when me and Beulah went to town for Court Day, I was thinking of you often on that day for I seed yor auntie who I have been mad at. Anyway me and Beulah set out walking in the morning afore full ligt, and it was a considerable chill in the air it being November, and when we got down to Home Creek Mister John Conaway spyed us walking and said, Girls, if you will wait for a minit, Ill hitch up the wagon and give you a ride to town, because I am going down ther for Court Day myself. Wich we did, and this is how we went in style and got ther early, we was bouncing up and down on the wagon seat and giggling. I have never seed such foolish girls, said Mister Conaway. I do not know what got into us Molly that we set to giggling so. Migt be that Beulah and me had not got off together away from them younguns afore. Migt be that Mister Conaway has a big goiter and a funny way of talking, he says girrels for an instance instead of girls. We got so tickled we like to have died! I rember I looked over at Beulah just as we was coming into Majestic and I thogt Law, she looks just like a girl, and then I thogt, Well I gess so, you crazy thing, she
is
a girl, but things has been so hard on her, I had like to have forgot it.