The Purple Heights

ruth-from white men; who knows to what use they will put it and him? So deeply have ages of slavery and oppression ingrained this upon black men's subconscious

n't a negro in the county he didn't know by name: even "mean niggers" grinned amiably at Peter Champneys. They remembered what he had once said to a distri

udge with disconcerting directness. "If you'd been born a colored man, and some folks talked and behaved to yo

as just another piece of that boy's damfoolishness. But the negroes, who knew that judge as only negroes can know white

of them-Mindel at the wash-tub, Emma Campbell picking a chicken, old Maum' Chloe churning, Liza playing with her fat black baby, Joe Tuttle plowing, old Daddy Neptune Fennick leaning on his ax. Sometimes t

of that wisdom which is one of the keys of the Kingdom to come. To be able really to know, truly to understand and come human-close to the lowly, to men and women un

egro reformer all but futile. But he knew, too, the terrible patience, the incredible resignation, with which poverty and neglect and hunger and oppression and injustice are borne, until at times, child as he was, his soul sickened with shame and rage. He relished the sweet earthy humor that brightens humble lives, t

hes, that Peter had bad luck at first, and was driven farther afield than he usually went; his search led him even to the edge of the River Swamp, a dismal place of evil repute, wherein cane as tall as a man grew thickly, and sluggish streamlets meandered in and ou

kets doubtfully; it would be a man-size job to trudge the long sandy road home, so laden. While he sat there, hating to move, Daddy Nept

r," he called. "Best come on hom

on the heels of it. Daddy Neptune seized one bucket, Peter the other, and both ran for the shelter of the ca

his welcome guest ate from tin plates on their knees, drinking their coffee from tin cups. Between mouthfuls each gave the othe

g of curling gray wool, and a white beard covered the lower portion of an unusually handsome countenance. He had a shrewd and hom

nd though he had sheltered, fed, clothed, and taught to work several negro lads, these had gone thei

n its unchancy black stretches, one might believe that the place was haunted, as the negroes said it was. Daddy Neptune was moved to tell Peter some of his own experiences with the River Swamp. He spoke, between puffs of his corn-cob pipe, of the night Something had

you; t'other ways, you ain't got nothin' I 's gwine to let you tell me. I 's axin' you to git. En," finished Neptune, "dat t'ing done went right out-whish!-same lak I 's tellin' you!

experiences. He had a glimmer that negroes are nearer to certain Powers than ot

wid my fowls, whichin ef I catches it, I aims to blow its hea

it's a wild-cat gets yours. I heard one

e o' guinea-fowls for watch, en dey sho does set up a mighty po

r read the Twenty-first and Twenty-second chapters of Revelation, to which the old man listened with clas

rrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away..

veryment," said th

remembering comfortable, complacent white Christians-well fed, well housed, well clothed; with education and all that it implies as their heritage; with all the high things of the world open to them by reason of their white skin; praying decorously every Sunday to a white man's God-Peter felt confused. How should the white man and the white man's God answer and account to the Daddy Neptu

e its lonesome and lovely call, the shivering-owl's cry making it lovelier by comparison. The cypresses shook blackly in the blacker swamp water which licked their roots. From the drenched vegetation arose a fresh and

of big Neptune standing with his head bent in a listening attitude at one of the shuttered windows. A bit of fatwood in the fireplace burst for a momen

n," whispered Neptune. "Now I aims to git

fear: who should come knocking so stealthily at the door of the cabin by the River Swamp at that eerie hour? Neptune, his gun gripped in his hand

e? For Gawd A'mighty's sake

wide. The figure that had been crouching agai

, Peter," said Neptune, pe

its light they perceived a stained, muddy, disheveled wretch, in the last state

recognized in the intruder a negro to whom the old man had been, as was hi

his torn clothes, his desperate look of a hunted beast, made him recoil. He had never before seen any one with just

urned his head from side to side; he refus

n, gimme a drink en don't ast me no questions twell I 's able to

hichin you is welcome to," said Neptune. "You ain't sa

eet his coat fell open, and the torn sleeve and cuff of a gingham shirt showed. On it was a

tles so 's I kin git

een doin'?" demanded Neptune. His voic

fust, en I'll tell you, soon 's I gits

a loaf of bread. Without cutting it he handed it to Jake, who began to tear it wi

suh." In silence Neptune handed him a gourd of water. When

been doi

his bullet head forward. His hands, hanging at hi

muttered hoarsely. His eyes rolled toward the door, which, no

reath, and tossed it abroad odorously. Stars had come out to keep the pale moon company, and a faint light glinted on wet grass and bushes. Crickets and katydids and little green tree-frogs kept up a har

of listening. Jake's teeth chattered audibly. He edged toward the open d

s voice was li

a w'ite gal-een de cawn-fi

wed into red points that bored into the other's eyes, and plunged like daggers into his heart and mind. Before that glance, like a vivisectionist's knife, Jake wilted; he seemed to s

eard-of torture, went over his big frame. The fringe of hair on his bald head rose, hi

tching hands. "Dey 's-dey 's-gwine to gi

uished, rattling whisper. He asked no further questions. He had

-She came down de cawn-field paff-wid de cow followin' 'er-en-en-I don't kno

gal don

Jake rocked himself to an

in his ears. And the red of that girl's blood got into his eyes, and he saw things through a scarlet mist. The

sound shivered. Long, slow, bell-like. Nearer. It galvaniz

, dey 'll git m

ands; but something in Neptune's face stopped him. Neptune's bigness seemed to fill

-house," he said sharply. "D

all other-niggers? Hadn't he the-pro

to his shoulder. Just as the fugitive neared the fowl-house, the gun spoke. The flying figure leaped high in the air, and then sprawled out and was suddenly st

palling carrion. But the earth was the one thing that would receive Jake unprotestingly. He lay on his face, his arms outflung, and from the gaping hole between his shoulders a d

eaned on it. His bald head drooped until his gray beard swept his breast, and his throat rattled like a dying man's. Shudders went over

ad boy, neither. Used to sing en wissle roun' de house, en fetch water en fiah-wood. Chloe, she l

, dey done raise 'er-used to say 'er prayers

newy arms and sh

ed the old man. And of a sudden he began to weep dreadfully; heart-broken c

while God sa

oul of the black people, the boy began to weep with him. With understanding merging into pity he crept nearer and put his slender, boyish arm around the big, shaking, agonized figure, and the old man turned his h

for what should happen, and Peter Champneys sat beside him, the gun between his

s of it excited them. A few minutes later, and here they were, a posse of some thirty or forty mounted men struggling pell-mell after them. One great hound leape

t level with the old man's shoulder. He looked in vain for the sheriff; evidently, this was an independent posse. One of the men rode up to the door, shouting to make

And to Neptune, savagely: "Now then,

Champneys w

e's been on the watch. So when he saw that-that nigger over there running by

's marrow froze, burst from th

be strung up himself, the old black-" And he cursed Neptune vilely. He felt swindled. There would be no burning, with interludes of unspeakable things.

he baying dogs, and the black corpse with its bruised face. The guinea-hens, after their insane fashion, kept up a deafening potracking, flapping from limb to limb of the tree in which they roosted. The indifferent swa

ced with infernal effect. Peter Champneys watched it, his soul revolting. He had no sympathy for Jake; he felt for him nothing but hatred. He couldn't think of that gay and innocent girl coming down the corn-field path, un

th-the brute beast mob-vengeance that follows swiftly upon the heels of the unpardonable sin. Th

nstance, consider Mosely, who had done things-with a clasp-knife. And that other man, the farm-hand, shifty-eyed and mean, always half drunk, a bad citizen: they would be sure to be foremost in affairs like this. They had precious little respect for t

ionless by his doorway. Neptune had not moved or spoken since Peter had answered the posse's questions. He had not even appeared to hear the vile abuse heaped upon him. He was not in the least afraid for his life: He was beyond that. That which had happened, which was happening, had dealt the stern,

dished fists, glints of guns. Neptune, without a flicker of fear, regarded them with his sorrowful gaze. But Peter Champneys stepped in front of him, and thrust the cold

ue blouse and a pair of patched and faded denim trousers, but for all that heir to a long line

eys spoke in the voice his grandfather had

tle nigger-love

n an' git the

own the

hand held them in check for a breath

red hounds! First one of you lays a hand on me or Daddy Nep gets his hea

the boy's eyes that d

with a noose at the end snaked over the tossing heads, and all but settled over black Neptune's. It slipped,

oosed rope whizzed forward. But even as it did so Peter Champneys's trigger-finger moved. The report sounded like a clap of thunder, and was followed by a roar of rage and pain. The rope-thrower, with the rope tripping his feet and impeding his movements, danced about wildly, shaking the hand from which three fingers had been cleanly clipped. At th

let anything happen to Daddy Nep, you'

r a nigger-lover, Sheriff

t your neck stretched for it! My

k Champneys had given him his first pair of shoes. The sheriff was stirred to the

e is to it. No, you don't do no hangin'! I'm sheriff o' this county, an' I aim to keep the law. Let that o

the big bay had been swung around to stand between Neptune and th

rning his head to look down into the bo

hand on his bridle shook. He knew old Neptune, too, and in his way liked him. But it was hard for the sheriff

know Neptune, too. And-what happened-wasn't his fault. It's got not

igger for a day or two until this thing dies down." After all, the sheriff thought relievedly, Neptune's swift action, actua

your hawse, Mosely! You, over there, with your fist shot up, rid

ff o' this county an' upholdin' law an' order in it, you won't drag no dead nigger behind my ha

s to bury-it?"

yes over the posse, saw that not one straggler remained to do further mischief, and drove them before him, willy-nilly. In five minutes the trampled yard

sun mustn't rise upon the horror that lay in the cabin yard. Neptune went to his small barn a

rned with a lighted lantern, for the River Swamp was still very dark. The sun wouldn't be up for an hour or two yet. Peter held the lantern in one hand, and carried spade and shot-gun over the other shoulder. In the ghostly light they entered the swamp, every turn and twist of whose wide, watery acreage was known to Neptune, and was fa

of a great height, grew thickly. Neptune began to dig in the black earth. Sometimes he struck a cypress root, against which the spade rang with a hollow sound. It was slow eno

it to the hole. Swiftly and deftly he tipped it, and the shapeless bundle slid int

of the trees were gilded by the first rays. Every bush was hung with diamonds, the young gr

ace and a pair of gnarled hands to the morning sky. His lips moved

d the heart in his boyish breast ached with a new pain. Thoughts big, new, insi

hole county was in his favor. He went his harmless, fearless, laborious way unmolested. That autumn he died, and the cabin by the River Swamp was

s haunted: on wild nights one might hear there the sound of a s