Unvanquished

'They's some of yawl about twenty or thirty miles back that claim to have three extry mules,' Ringo said. 'But when we sees any more of um, we'll tell um about yawl.'

We went on. We came in sight of a town, but we went around it; Ringo didn't even want to stop and send the lieutenant's message in, but Granny made him stop and we sent the message in by one of the niggers.

'That's one more mouth to feed we got shed of,' Ringo said.

We went on. We went fast now, changing the mules every few miles; a woman told us we were in Missis­sippi again, and then, hi the afternoon, we came over the hill, and there our chimneys were, standing up into the sunlight, and the cabin behind them and Louvinia bend­ing over a washtub and the clothes on the line, flapping bright and peaceful.

94

THE UNVANQUISHED

'Stop the wagon,' Granny said.

We stopped—the wagon, the hundred and twenty-two mules and horses, and the niggers we never had had time to count.

Granny got out slow and turned to Ringo. 'Get out,' she said; then she looked at me. 'You too,' she said. 'Because you said nothing at all.' We got out of the wagon. She looked at us. 'We have lied,' she said.

'Hit was the paper that lied; hit wasn't us,' Ringo said.

'The paper said a hundred and ten. We have a hun­dred and twenty-two,' Granny said. 'Kneel down.'

'But they stole them 'fore we did,' Ringo said.

'But we lied,' Granny said. 'Kneel down.' She knelt first. Then we all three knelt by the road while she prayed. The washing blew soft and peaceful and bright on the clothesline. And then Louvinia saw us; she was already running across the pasture while Granny was praying.

RIPOSTE

TERTIO

Ab Snopes left for Memphis with the nine mules, Ringo and Joby and I worked on a new fence. Then Ringo went off on his mule and there was just Joby and me. Once Granny came down and looked at the new section of rails; the pen would be almost two acres larger now. That was the second day after Ringo left. That night, while Granny and I were sitting before the fire, Ab Snopes came back. He said that he had got only four hundred and fifty dollars for the nine mules. That is, he took some money out of his pocket and gave it to Granny, and she counted it and said: 'That's only fifty dollars apiece.' 'All right,' Ab said. 'If you can do any better, you are welcome to take the next batch in yourself. I done already admitted I can't hold a candle to you when it comes to getting mules; maybe I can't even compete with you when it comes to selling them.' He chewed something—tobacco when he could get it, willow bark when he couldn't—all the time, and he never wore a collar, and nobody ever admitted they ever saw him in a uniform, though when Father was away, he would talk a lot now and then about when he was in Father's troop and about what he and Father used to do. But when I asked Father about it once, Father said, 'Who? Ab

95

96

THE UNVANQUISHED

Snopes?' and then laughed. But it was Father that told

Ab to kind of look out for Granny while he was away;

only he told me and Ringo to look out for Ab, too, that

Ab was all right in his way, but he was like a mule:

While you had him in the traces, you better watch him.

But Ab and Granny got along all right, though each

time Ab took a batch of mules to Memphis and came

back with the money, it would be like this: 'Yes,

ma'am,' Ab said. 'It's easy to talk about hit, setting

here without no risk. But I'm the one that has to dodge

them durn critters nigh a hundred miles into Memphis,

with Forrest and Smith fighting on ever side of me and

me never knowing when I wull run into a Confed'rit or

Yankee patrol and have ever last one of them confiscated

off of me right down to the durn halters. And then I got

to take them into the very heart of the Yankee Army

in Memphis and try to sell them to a e-quipment officer

that's liable at any minute to recognise them as the same

mules he bought from me not two weeks ago. Yes. Hit's

easy enough for them to talk that sets here getting rich

and takes no risk.'

'I suppose you consider getting them back for you to sell taking no risk,' Granny said.

'The risk of running out of them printed letterheads, she,' Ab said. 'If you ain't satisfied with making just five or six hundred dollars at a time, why don't you req­uisition for more mules at a time? Why don't you write out a letter