Fair and Tender Ladies

  Do you want a prayer Maude, Mister Patterson axed Momma, and she said Lord no, Green.

  But aunt Tenessee out on the porch started laghing and laghing, she said, Father Son and Holy Ghost, the one that drinks the fastest can have the most. And so Granny come and taken her back in the other side of the house. The men stood ther around the coffin the rest of the nigt, it is just what you do, with little Garnie standing amongst them so big-eyed like a little owl. Momma stood too with her face as hard as a mans face, not crying now nor looking like she ever culd of cryed, and they stood ther all nigt, and come first ligt they nailed the coffin shut and carried it outside, Early Cook put drawer handles on the sides to carry it with, and off we went, everbody that had stayed the nigt and was not drunk.

  It was the softest palest prettest morning. Everthing smelt so new because of the rain, it was like Genesis in the Bible. They caried Daddy in the box real easy, he didnt way hardly a thing, with me and Momma and Granny and Ethel and Garnie and Tenessee follering. We left Danny and Johnny back at the house with Beulah. Victor had gone ahead with some boys to dig him a grave at the berrying ground, and Silvaney run off in the woods. We past by the smokehouse and then we was on our way throgh the orcherd it was like the ocean I think thogh I have never seed it, or it was like clouds, white clouds on ever side. Somehow in the pale perly ligt these apple trees seemed the prettest I have ever seed them, and smelled the sweetest, and this on the day we berried my daddy wich shuld of been the worstest in my life, but somehow it was not. It was not. For he had been sick so long, and had got so little, that it was not like we had talked to him there on his pallet by the fire for a long time, Mrs. Brown. It was like we had talked to ourselves.

  Now, I thoght, Daddy is free to go, and the sun come up then and those white flowers looked even pretier, bees buzzing all throgh them.

  Get away, get away, said Tenessee, batting at a bee with her hand, and it obeyed her. Tenessee is good with animals, she has got a house cat that follers her everwhere around ther cabin at Dimond Lick, and one time she trained a deer but Major Little shot it by mistake.

  We past throgh the apple trees and past by Pilgrim Knob where our chickens run, and then we started up Blue Star Mountain on the trail we took when Victor taken us up ther after chestnuts, it seemed like years ago. We past by sarvis and redbud and dogwood, and all the trees had little pale green leaves on them now I saw, the oak trees had leaves as big as squirrel paws, all was a pale pale green. Tenessee talked to herself all the way in her singsong voice, but Momma clumb with her jaw shut tigt and her eyes set strate ahead. Are you all rigt? I axed her one time, and she said yes. We past by the path that went to the bald where the chestnut trees is, and we past by the rocky-clifts where Daddy used to bring us after black-berrys, and this was the fartherest I had ever been up ther before. We was out of the tall woods by then, moving throgh scrub pines, so you culd see the sky wich was blue as blue culd be, I reckon it was about seven in the morning by then, and one or two hawks was flying circles up ther. Ethel pointed up but did not speak. Tenessee and Granny had dropped behind.

  Ho! Victor said and then we were ther. It was not much to see. Him and the Conaway boys had dug a big hole and the dirt was all red and muddy, piled up beside it. It was a little clearing on the hillside, that is all, where the trees dont grow. I dont know exackly how I thoght it wuld be, may be like the sematary at the Methodist Church in Majestic wich is pretty with flowers and gravestones. Well they is none of that here at the Rowe berrying ground up on Blue Star Mountain. Theys little mounds, that is all, and some so old they have sunk in insted of humped up, and some old wooden markers you cant hardly read and some you can. And theys four lattice houses bilt up ther, two of them falling in, one of them bilt over the grave that holds Daddys daddy and momma, to keep out animals I reckon.

  They put Daddys coffin down into the grave.

  It was Mister Green Patterson and Mister Delphi Rolette and Stoney Branham and Roland Fox and Dove Yates and Victor, all of them sweating by then, and they taken off ther hats and bowed ther heads and everbody was looking out of the side of ther eyes at Momma who looked for a minit as if she wuld speak, but then she bit her lip and set her jaw and turned away, and the Conaways started shovelling.

  Rest in peace, Victor said just about to himself, he looked down at the ground when he said it.

  I went over and sat on a rock by myself while they shovelled, but after a wile we heerd the sweetest singing, this was Tenessee who had got up ther at last. She stood on the edge of the woods and sang When I can read my title clear, to mansions in the skys, I will bid farewell to evry care, and wipe my weep-ing eyes. Been a long time travelling here below, to lay this body down. It was Garnies song wich he used to sing at his preachings, when we wuld play Town. But Garnie did not sing. Instead he was starring down into the grave wile they filled it up until you culdnt see the coffin any more. Momma looked up in the sky, shading her eyes with her hand, and I looked too and seed them hawks still circling. They was a little wind up ther, clean and cold. Silvaney come out of the woods and watched Tenessee singing God be with you till we meet agin and I sat on the rock.

  Then they were done shovelling and Tenessee was done singing and Momma turned to me and smiled the first smile she had smiled since Christmas and said Gentlemen, I thank you. And I felt my soul lift up like the hawk flying.

  It was over.

  I know Victor and Early Cook will go back up ther and build a little lattice house to cover his grave, I heard them say it, and I know the preacher man will pray for Daddy too bye and bye when next he comes, iffen Momma will allow it. But it is finely over.

  And you will not belive what has happend next!

  When we come back to the house the firstest thing we saw was Danny and Johnny out in the muddy yard wearing nothing but ther drawers, this was so irreglar as you will gess.

  Hidy! Hidy! they hollered. Beulah has got a baby.

  Lord lord, Momma said and we come busting in as fast as we culd and sure enogh, Beulah was laying in the bed all warshed out looking and smiling, and blood everwhere.

  Holp me Granny, Beulah said, and Granny Rowe done all the rest of it, and I got to hold the baby wich is named John Arthur after Daddy, a little boy. Granny Rowe says that sometimes it happens like that, one spirrit goes and a nother one comes direckly, but you cant make too much out of it. Granny Rowe says it is nothing but natural, that is all. Tomorry, Victor says, we will start to plant.

  And so I remane your devoted,

  IVY ROWE.

  My dear Mrs. Brown,

  To anser your questin, YES I will love to come! My momma has said at first that No I may not come, it will spoil me rotten, but now she says yes I may come, to get me out of her hair, I will have to be good and watch my Ps and Qs. So I may come when your nice is visiting, Victor will carry me down to your house on his way back to work with the company as he has got our garden put in now, and they think so highly of him over ther.

  I remane your exited and grateful,

  IVY ROWE.

  PS, I will see you soon!

  Dear All,

  I know you will want to hear from me and how I am getting along. Well the anser is, fine. Molly Bainbridge is the nice of Mrs. Brown, her whole name is Margaret Mae Bainbridge wich I love so much I culd eat it with a spoon. It is like a Party name isnt it? I know you rember our Play Parties in the woods. Now as I write this letter I am sad all of a sudden, I dont know what has come over me, I think of you All so. Please do not think I am fancy, nor spoilt, nor putting on Airs. It is not so, as I will tell you direckly. Things is not all what they seem ether.

  But Molly is real sweet and you wuld love her too. Molly is my age 14 she has shiny dark brown hair that curls all down her back, she has a million diffrent ribands for it too, they lay in the drawer of her trunk just like a rainbow, it is the prettest thing, all the colors you can think of, some you cant. The first time ever I seed them all laying ther like that, I starred and starred and cotched
my breth, they was so beutiful. So Molly said, Why what are you looking at Ivy?

  And when I told her, she laghed and said, Oh Ivy go on. That is how she says it, Oh go on.

  Molly laghs a lot, also she talks all the time. The firstest two days I was here, I got plum wore out just trying to foller what all she said, now I am keepen up pretty good. Molly looks so much like Mrs. Brown you wuld take them for sisters. Mollys momma is the elder and Mrs. Brown is the younger one. Molly can cross her eyes grate, also she can stick her tonge out all rolled up, and she is so full of notions Momma, if you think I am full of notions you shuld see Molly Bainbridge. I cant hold a candle to her.

  So far Molly and me have played cowboy, queen, city, and goldrush. The way you play goldrush is, go to the creek with a seve and pan for gold. You migt find some. A boy found a ruby not far from here down in North Carolina, Mister Brown showed us this in a newspaper. Also now we are writting a play, we will give it for Mister and Mrs. Brown. Also Molly has got a jumprope so we jump rope a lot we sing songs too and play jumprope games.

  One time Mrs. Brown come out and jumped rope too, she is not like a lady some ways she is just like a girl. Molly says that Mrs. Brown wants children the worst in the world, but so far her and Mister Brown has not had any luck. I thoght, if Molly comes up on the mountain to see us we culd get Granny Rowe to send Mrs. Brown something to holp her out. I will write more of this later.

  Now I will tell you what all Molly has in her trunk, this is a Chinese red trunk with brass straps, inside it she has17 Hair Ribands

  5 Dresses

  3 Skirts

  4 Camisoles

  3 Shirtwaists

  Pink Stationary

  A White Bible

  Ballay Shoes!

  A Bathing Costume!

  She will not need the last two up here, belive you me! This is what Mrs. Brown toled her. She toled Molly that mountain girls do not dance ballay, nor swim in a bathing costume. But we have swum down at the swimmen hole in the bend of the Levisa many times when Daddy took us fishen, I said as much. Of coarse we did not ware a bathing costume to do so, I rember I wuld ware Victors old jeans and a shirt.

  Molly lets me ware anything, so when I look in the glass sometimes I think it is her but insted, it is me!

  Molly wants to have freckles moren anything just like mine but I hate them, I want to have dark dark hair like hers and Mrs. Browns, not red like mine, dark is more royal I think. When we pull up our hair the same way and put Mollys ribands in it, when we put our faces together then starring into Mrs. Browns glass, why then it is hard to tell who is who, and who has got freckles and dark hair, and who aint. One time I started a sentence and Molly finished it, and one nigt we dremp the same dream about walking down a long, long road.

  Molly is so smart thogh, she has read ever book in the world it seems like.

  But Molly is a only child. So she axes me and axes me, Where do you all sleep? What do you all eat? What is it like to have so many? I can not say. Molly has everthing she wants without lifting a finger, this is clear. But she is not spoilt.

  In fact she is so sad sometimes and cries like her hart is braking, this is because her Momma is indisposed. It is what Mrs. Brown says, indisposed. It means her Momma is laying in a hospital due to her nerves, while her Father practices Law, Molly says he is very grand and very busy, he has hired a German lady to cook and take care of Molly. Molly has not met her yet but if she hates her she will run away to New York City and join up with a show! This is what she says. Molly is so full of spunk she has wore out her Father who just grubs after the almighty doller acording to Mister Brown, he said if he had to live with Robert Bainbridge he too wuld be indisposed. Molly crys to think of her Mother, she cryed to hear Mister Brown talk so mean about her Father.

  So althogh Molly the nice has everthing I wuld want in the whole world including a cocker spanel at home that can do five tricks and a house as big as a hotel with running water and who knows what all, she has so many trubles and crys and is not happy, now are you all suprised?

  I wish she culd live here forever with Mister and Mrs. Brown but her Father will not let her do so. He says Mister and Mrs. Brown are mining fools gold anyway, but they are not mining atall so far as I can tell, except for Molly and me in the creek with our seve.

  I am writting this letter at Mister Browns desk, it is a real desk with many little drawers to put things, I wuld so love to have a desk like this one. Early Cook made it for Mister Brown and brung it over here, he is so proud of it too. He has not ever had a call to make nothing like it before. For Mister Brown is a writter I think not a preacher atall, he walks the mountain for pleasure, carrying a walking stick and a notebook, and does not come home all day long. He has many notebooks I see here numbered one, two, three. Molly says he has studdied to be a preacher but he does not preach as you know, nor does he act like one. I have never knowed anybody to act like him atall!

  First off, well you have seed Mister Brown and you know how he looks, aint nobody looks like him nether, that wild white hair sticking out around his head like dandelion fluff it is so fine, and his eyes real blue and extra big behind his glasses with the little gold frames. His hair is prematerly white Molly says, and says it runs in his family, but I think myself that it migt of turned white from all the books he has read, you can look in Mister Browns eyes and tell he knows moren most folks has ever thoght of.

  Mister Brown calls me Brigt Eyes and talks to me a lot. One time when I toled him mine and Mollys favorite poem rigt now is young Lochinvar, he grabbed up both my hands and said, Oh lovely lovely Brigt Eyes! as if he wuld cry, now why wuld he act this way?

  What I did not tell is, young Lochinvar reminds me of Whitebear Whittington, some way. Because sometimes when I say things, Mister Brown writes them down in his notebook and then I feel like whatever I have said isnt mine any more, its a funny feeling.

  I thoght that Mister and Mrs. Brown have come here to live and run our school, and this is true, but they is considerable more to it than that I think. Mister Brown is a reglar card as Granny wuld say and a mistery to me. I have never seed the beat of Mister Brown.

  I will tell you one thing he done for an instance, now this was yesterday, he come out on the porch where me and Molly was stringing beans for Mrs. Brown and he brung the Bible too, I thoght, Oh no now he will preach, but insted he read out loud to Mrs. Brown like he was an acter.

  Mister Brown read, now this is outen the Bible mind you, Rise up my love my fair one and come away, for lo the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers apear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heerd in the land. I toled Molly, A turtle aint got no voice, for this is so. And we got to giggling and laghing so bad but we was trying not to, now it was hard. For Mister Brown was all wild and waving the Bible around. His forehead is big and white and peaky, it has lumps, you can tell he is so smart. He is real real thin.

  Then Mister Brown says, Thy lips Oh my spouse drop as the honeycomb, honey and milk are under thy tonge, and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. He is reading all this outen the Bible!

  Oh honnestly David, says Mrs. Brown. Do stop, you are embarassing the girls.

  But Mister Brown read that she is a garden inclosed and a spring shut up. You cant hardly tell if hes funning her or not.

  My word David, says Mrs. Brown. Oh my mercyful soul.

  You are a fountain sealed, he hollers, and with that she puts down the pan of beans and stands up and smooths out her skirt. Mrs. Browns cheek is as red as fire and little dark curls of hair springs up everwhere around her face. David, come inside for a minute, she says, and the way her face looks, you cant tell iffen she is real happy or real mad. Sometimes she just dont know what to do with him, this is clear. Sometimes Mister Brown actes like he is plum tetched in the head he is so crazy about her, but other times he gives her a lecture like she is still in school.

  He is considerable oldern Mrs. Brown.
Molly says that Mister Brown was her teacher, this is how come them to meet in the first place, Mrs. Brown says he swep her offen her feet. Well this may be so, but sometimes now I think he will talk her to death. It is a funny thing to see Mrs. Brown in the schoolhouse and note how she keeps even them big boys like Claude Presnell and Monk Lester in line, and dont put up with no sass, and everbody dotes on her, and then to note how she actes at home with Mister Brown, how she is just like a little girl agin, it dont make no sense to me. She actes jolly and laghing and happy as a child, and does for him all the time. Why Mister Brown dont have to lift a finger, not even to chop up the wood for the cookstove. Green Pattersons boy comes and does it for them, now what do you all think of that?

  But they is other times too, and I will tell you one of them wich I seed with my own eyes, even iffen I wasnt supposed to. It was real early morning and I was up and listening to all the birds, Molly and me sleeps on pallets up ther in the loft it is like your plum up in the trees. They is a little winder what looks out on leaves and at nigt you look out into stars. So I wake up afore Molly ever day, and ever day the firstest thing I think is, now I have to go and milk old Bess, and then I rember wher I am and I dont. I lay ther and think of you All and of lots of things.

  But so this one morning I was just laying ther and I heerd Mister Brown in the kitchen going on and on, now it was too early in the morning for one of them lectures of hisn and anybody with any sense culd of told him so. But I heerd him going on and on, and on and on, and then direckly I heerd something crash and brake, like a glass or a plate or something, and I heerd somebody running so ligt acrost the porch I knowed it was probly Mrs. Brown, and then I get up and go over ther and look out the little winder and what do I see? I see the back of her pretty blue dress just flashing along throgh the cherry trees, and then she stops by the well and puts her hands up to her face, and then she sinks down to the grass it is clear she is crying. And then direckly of coarse Mister Brown he comes out ther after her looking all wild and crazy, he tuches her sholder real easy but she jerks away. He dont leave, however. Then after a time Mrs. Brown stands up and rubs her face and takes Mister Browns hand and they walk back to the house together as grave and proper as dolls. In fact they put me in mind of dolls, I seen it all throgh the little winder wich has made a frame around it in my mind.