Collected Stories

  “I don’t want them,” Herman Basket said that pappy said.

  “Then Herman can have them all,” Doom said.

  “I don’t want them either,” Herman Basket said.

  “All right,” Doom said. Then Herman Basket said he asked Doom if his name was still David Callicoat, but instead of answering, Doom told one of the black people something in the white man’s talk, and the black man lit a pine knot. Then Herman Basket said they were watching Doom take the puppy from the box and make the bullet of bread and the New Orleans salt which Doom had in the little gold box, when he said that pappy said:

  “I believe you said that Herman and I were to divide these black people.”

  Then Herman Basket said he saw that one of the black people was a woman.

  “You and Herman don’t want them,” Doom said.

  “I wasn’t thinking when I said that,” pappy said. “I will take the lot with the woman in it. Herman can have the other three.”

  “I don’t want them,” Herman Basket said.

  “You can have four, then,” pappy said. “I will take the woman and one other.”

  “I don’t want them,” Herman Basket said.

  “I will take only the woman,” pappy said. “You can have the other five.”

  “I don’t want them,” Herman Basket said.

  “You don’t want them, either,” Doom said to pappy. “You said so yourself.”

  Then Herman Basket said that the puppy was dead. “You didn’t tell us your new name,” he said to Doom.

  “My name is Doom now,” Doom said. “It was given me by a French chief in New Orleans. In French talking, Doo-um; in our talking, Doom.”

  “What does it mean?” Herman Basket said.

  He said how Doom looked at him for a while. “It means the Man,” Doom said.

  Herman Basket told how they thought about that. He said they stood there in the dark, with the other puppies in the box, the ones that Doom hadn’t used, whimpering and scuffing, and the light of the pine knot shining on the eyeballs of the black people and on Doom’s gold coat and on the puppy that had died.

  “You cannot be the Man,” Herman Basket said. “You are only on the sister’s side. And the Man has a brother and a son.”

  “That’s right,” Doom said. “But if I were the Man, I would give Craw-ford those black people. I would give Herman something, too. For every black man I gave Crawford, I would give Herman a horse, if I were the Man.”

  “Craw-ford only wants this woman,” Herman Basket said.

  “I would give Herman six horses, anyway,” Doom said. “But maybe the Man has already given Herman a horse.”

  “No,” Herman Basket said. “My ghost is still walking.”

  It took them three days to reach the Plantation. They camped on the road at night. Herman Basket said that they did not talk.

  They reached the Plantation on the third day. He said that the Man was not very glad to see Doom, even though Doom brought a present of candy for the Man’s son. Doom had something for all his kinsfolk, even for the Man’s brother. The Man’s brother lived by himself in a cabin by the creek. His name was Sometimes-Wakeup. Sometimes the People took him food. The rest of the time they didn’t see him. Herman Basket told how he and pappy went with Doom to visit Sometimes-Wakeup in his cabin. It was at night, and Doom told Herman Basket to close the door. Then Doom took the puppy from pappy and set it on the floor and made a bullet of bread and the New Orleans salt for Sometimes-Wakeup to see how it worked. When they left, Herman Basket said how Sometimes-Wakeup burned a stick and covered his head with the blanket.

  That was the first night that Doom was at home. On the next day Herman Basket told how the Man began to act strange at his food, and died before the doctor could get there and burn sticks. When the Willow-Bearer went to fetch the Man’s son to be the Man, they found that he had acted strange and then died too.

  “Now Sometimes-Wakeup will have to be the Man,” pappy said.

  So the Willow-Bearer went to fetch Sometimes-Wakeup to come and be the Man. The Willow-Bearer came back soon. “Sometimes-Wakeup does not want to be the Man,” the Willow-Bearer said. “He is sitting in his cabin with his head in his blanket.”

  “Then Ikkemotubbe will have to be the Man,” pappy said.

  So Doom was the Man. But Herman Basket said that pappy’s ghost would not be easy. Herman Basket said he told pappy to give Doom a little time. “I am still walking,” Herman Basket said.

  “But this is a serious matter with me,” pappy said.

  He said that at last pappy went to Doom, before the Man and his son had entered the earth, before the eating and the horse-racing were over. “What woman?” Doom said.

  “You said that when you were the Man,” pappy said. Herman Basket said that Doom looked at pappy but that pappy was not looking at Doom.

  “I think you don’t trust me,” Doom said. Herman Basket said how pappy did not look at Doom. “I think you still believe that that puppy was sick,” Doom said. “Think about it.”

  Herman Basket said that pappy thought.

  “What do you think now?” Doom said.

  But Herman Basket said that pappy still did not look at Doom. “I think it was a well dog,” pappy said.

  III

  AT LAST the eating and the horse-racing were over and the Man and his son had entered the earth. Then Doom said, “Tomorrow we will go and fetch the steamboat.” Herman Basket told how Doom had been talking about the steamboat ever since he became the Man, and about how the House was not big enough. So that evening Doom said, “Tomorrow we will go and fetch the steamboat that died in the river.”

  Herman Basket said how the steamboat was twelve miles away, and that it could not even swim in the water. So the next morning there was no one in the Plantation except Doom and the black people. He told how it took Doom all that day to find the People. Doom used the dogs, and he found some of the People in hollow logs in the creek bottom. That night he made all the men sleep in the House. He kept the dogs in the House, too.

  Herman Basket told how he heard Doom and pappy talking in the dark. “I don’t think you trust me,” Doom said

  “I trust you,” pappy said.

  “That is what I would advise,” Doom said.

  “I wish you could advise that to my ghost,” pappy said.

  The next morning they went to the steamboat. The women and the black people walked. The men rode in the wagons, with Doom following behind with the dogs.

  The steamboat was lying on its side on the sand-bar. When they came to it, there were three white men on it. “Now we can go back home,” pappy said.

  But Doom talked to the white men. “Does this steamboat belong to you?” Doom said.

  “It does not belong to you,” the white men said. And though they had guns, Herman Basket said they did not look like men who would own a boat.

  “Shall we kill them?” he said to Doom. But he said that Doom was still talking to the men on the steamboat.

  “What will you take for it?” Doom said.

  “What will you give for it?” the white men said.

  “It is dead,” Doom said. “It’s not worth much.”

  “Will you give ten black people?” the white men said.

  “All right,” Doom said. “Let the black people who came with me from the Big River come forward.” They came forward, the five men and the woman. “Let four more black people come forward.” Four more came forward. “You are now to eat of the corn of those white men yonder,” Doom said. “May it nourish you.” The white men went away, the ten black people following them. “Now,” Doom said, “let us make the steamboat get up and walk.”

  Herman Basket said that he and pappy did not go into the river with the others, because pappy said to go aside and talk. They went aside. Pappy talked, but Herman Basket said that he said he did not think it was right to kill white men, but pappy said how they could fill the white men with rocks and sink them in the river and nobody would fi
nd them. So Herman Basket said they overtook the three white men and the ten black people, then they turned back toward the boat. Just before they came to the steamboat, pappy said to the black men: “Go on to the Man. Go and help make the steamboat get up and walk. I will take this woman on home.”

  “This woman is my wife,” one of the black men said. “I want her to stay with me.”

  “Do you want to be arranged in the river with rocks in your inside too?” pappy said to the black man.

  “Do you want to be arranged in the river yourself?” the black man said to pappy. “There are two of you, and nine of us.”

  Herman Basket said that pappy thought. Then pappy said, “Let us go to the steamboat and help the Man.”

  They went to the steamboat. But Herman Basket said that Doom did not notice the ten black people until it was time to return to the Plantation. Herman Basket told how Doom looked at the black people, then looked at pappy. “It seems that the white men did not want these black people,” Doom said.

  “So it seems,” pappy said.

  “The white men went away, did they?” Doom said.

  “So it seems,” pappy said.

  Herman Basket told how every night Doom would make all the men sleep in the House, with the dogs in the House too, and how each morning they would return to the steamboat in the wagons. The wagons would not hold everybody, so after the second day the women stayed at home. But it was three days before Doom noticed that pappy was staying at home too. Herman Basket said that the woman’s husband may have told Doom. “Craw-ford hurt his back lifting the steamboat,” Herman Basket said he told Doom. “He said he would stay at the Plantation and sit with his feet in the Hot Spring so that the sickness in his back could return to the earth.”

  “That is a good idea,” Doom said. “He has been doing this for three days, has he? Then the sickness should be down in his legs by now.”

  When they returned to the Plantation that night, Doom sent for pappy. He asked pappy if the sickness had moved. Pappy said how the sickness moved very slow. “You must sit in the Spring more,” Doom said.

  “That is what I think,” pappy said.

  “Suppose you sit in the Spring at night too,” Doom said.

  “The night air will make it worse,” pappy said.

  “Not with a fire there,” Doom said. “I will send one of the black people with you to keep the fire burning.”

  “Which one of the black people?” pappy said.

  “The husband of the woman which I won on the steamboat,” Doom said.

  “I think my back is better,” pappy said.

  “Let us try it,” Doom said.

  “I know my back is better,” pappy said.

  “Let us try it, anyway,” Doom said. Just before dark Doom sent four of the People to fix pappy and the black man at the Spring. Herman Basket said the People returned quickly. He said that as they entered the House, pappy entered also.

  “The sickness began to move suddenly,” pappy said. “It has reached my feet since noon today.”

  “Do you think it will be gone by morning?” Doom said.

  “I think so,” pappy said.

  “Perhaps you had better sit in the Spring tonight and make sure,” Doom said.

  “I know it will be gone by morning,” pappy said.

  IV

  WHEN IT GOT to be summer, Herman Basket said that the steamboat was out of the river bottom. It had taken them five months to get it out of the bottom, because they had to cut down the trees to make a path for it. But now he said the steamboat could walk faster on the logs. He told how pappy helped. Pappy had a certain place on one of the ropes near the steamboat that nobody was allowed to take, Herman Basket said. It was just under the front porch of the steamboat where Doom sat in his chair, with a boy with a branch to shade him and another boy with a branch to drive away the flying beasts. The dogs rode on the boat too.

  In the summer, while the steamboat was still walking, Herman Basket told how the husband of the woman came to Doom again. “I have done what I could for you,” Doom said. “Why don’t you go to Craw-ford and adjust this matter yourself?”

  The black man said that he had done that. He said that pappy said to adjust it by a cock-fight, pappy’s cock against the black man’s, the winner to have the woman, the one who refused to fight to lose by default. The black man said he told pappy he did not have a cock, and that pappy said that in that case the black man lost by default and that the woman belonged to pappy. “And what am I to do?” the black man said.

  Doom thought. Then Herman Basket said that Doom called to him and asked him which was pappy’s best cock and Herman Basket told Doom that pappy had only one. “That black one?” Doom said. Herman Basket said he told Doom that was the one. “Ah,” Doom said. Herman Basket told how Doom sat in his chair on the porch of the steamboat while it walked, looking down at the People and the black men pulling the ropes, making the steamboat walk. “Go and tell Craw-ford you have a cock,” Doom said to the black man. “Just tell him you will have a cock in the pit. Let it be tomorrow morning. We will let the steamboat sit down and rest.” The black man went away. Then Herman Basket said that Doom was looking at him, and that he did not look at Doom. Because he said there was but one better cock in the Plantation than pappy’s, and that one belonged to Doom. “I think that that puppy was not sick,” Doom said. “What do you think?”

  Herman Basket said that he did not look at Doom. “That is what I think,” he said.

  “That is what I would advise,” Doom said.

  Herman Basket told how the next day the steamboat sat and rested. The pit was in the stable. The People and the black people were there. Pappy had his cock in the pit. Then the black man put his cock into the pit. Herman Basket said that pappy looked at the black man’s cock.

  “This cock belongs to Ikkemotubbe,” pappy said.

  “It is his,” the People told pappy. “Ikkemotubbe gave it to him with all to witness.”

  Herman Basket said that pappy had already picked up his cock. “This is not right,” pappy said. “We ought not to let him risk his wife on a cock-fight.”

  “Then you withdraw?” the black man said.

  “Let me think,” pappy said. He thought. The People watched. The black man reminded pappy of what he had said about defaulting. Pappy said he did not mean to say that and that he withdrew it. The People told him that he could only withdraw by forfeiting the match. Herman Basket said that pappy thought again. The People watched. “All right,” pappy said. “But I am being taken advantage of.”

  The cocks fought. Pappy’s cock fell. Pappy took it up quickly. Herman Basket said it was like pappy had been waiting for his cock to fall so he could pick it quickly up. “Wait,” he said. He looked at the People. “Now they have fought. Isn’t that true?” The People said that it was true. “So that settles what I said about forfeiting.”

  Herman Basket said that pappy began to get out of the pit.

  “Aren’t you going to fight?” the black man said.

  “I don’t think this will settle anything,” pappy said. “Do you?”

  Herman Basket told how the black man looked at pappy. Then he quit looking at pappy. He was squatting. Herman Basket said the People looked at the black man looking at the earth between his feet. They watched him take up a clod of dirt, and then they watched the dust come out between the black man’s fingers. “Do you think that this will settle anything?” pappy said.

  “No,” the black man said. Herman Basket said that the People could not hear him very good. But he said that pappy could hear him.

  “Neither do I,” pappy said. “It would not be right to risk your wife on a cock-fight.”

  Herman Basket told how the black man looked up, with the dry dust about the fingers of his hand. He said the black man’s eyes looked red in the dark pit, like the eyes of a fox. “Will you let the cocks fight again?” the black man said.

  “Do you agree that it doesn’t settle anything?” pappy
said.

  “Yes,” the black man said.

  Pappy put his cock back into the ring, Herman Basket said that pappy’s cock was dead before it had time to act strange, even. The black man’s cock stood upon it and started to crow, but the black man struck the live cock away and he jumped up and down on the dead cock until it did not look like a cock at all, Herman Basket said.

  Then it was fall, and Herman Basket told how the steamboat came to the Plantation and stopped beside the House and died again. He said that for two months they had been in sight of the Plantation, making the steamboat walk on the logs, but now the steamboat was beside the House and the House was big enough to please Doom. He gave an eating. It lasted a week. When it was over, Herman Basket told how the black man came to Doom a third time. Herman Basket said that the black man’s eyes were red again, like those of a fox, and that they could hear his breathing in the room. “Come to my cabin,” he said to Doom. “I have something to show you.”

  “I thought it was about that time,” Doom said. He looked about the room, but Herman Basket told Doom that pappy had just stepped out. “Tell him to come also,” Doom said. When they came to the black man’s cabin, Doom sent two of the People to fetch pappy. Then they entered the cabin. What the black man wanted to show Doom was a new man.

  “Look,” the black man said. “You are the Man. You are to see justice done.”

  “What is wrong with this man?” Doom said.

  “Look at the color of him,” the black man said. He began to look around the cabin. Herman Basket said that his eyes went red and then brown and then red, like those of a fox. He said they could hear the black man’s breathing. “Do I get justice?” the black man said. “You are the Man.”

  “You should be proud of a fine yellow man like this,” Doom said. He looked at the new man. “I don’t see that justice can darken him any,” Doom said. He looked about the cabin also. “Come forward, Craw-ford,” he said. “This is a man, not a copper snake; he will not harm you.” But Herman Basket said that pappy would not come forward. He said the black man’s eyes went red and then brown and then red when he breathed. “Yao,” Doom said, “this is not right. Any man is entitled to have his melon patch protected from these wild bucks of the woods. But first let us name this man.” Doom thought. Herman Basket said the black man’s eyes went quieter now, and his breath went quieter too. “We will call him Had-Two-Fathers,” Doom said.