“Oh, Clara, Clara, how could you!” exclaimed Mrs. Carteret reproachfully; “you might have killed my child!”
She had snatched the child from Jane’s arms, and was holding him closely to her own breast. Struck by a sudden thought, she drew near the window and looked out. Twice within a few weeks her child had been in serious danger, and upon each occasion a member of the Miller family had been involved, for she had heard of Dr. Miller’s presumption in trying to force himself where he must have known he would be unwelcome.
Janet was just turning her head away as the buggy moved slowly off. Olivia felt a violent wave of antipathy sweep over her toward this baseborn sister who had thus thrust herself beneath her eyes. If she had not cast her brazen glance toward the window, she herself would not have turned away and lost sight of her child. To this shameless intrusion, linked with Clara’s carelessness, had been due the catastrophe, so narrowly averted, which might have darkened her own life forever. She took to her bed for several days, and for a long time was cold toward Clara, and did not permit her to touch the child.
Mammy Jane entertained a theory of her own about the accident, by which the blame was placed, in another way, exactly where Mrs. Carteret had laid it. Julia’s daughter, Janet, had been looking intently toward the window just before little Dodie had sprung from Clara’s arms. Might she not have cast the evil eye upon the baby, and sought thereby to draw him out of the window? One would not ordinarily expect so young a woman to possess such a power, but she might have acquired it, for this very purpose, from some more experienced person. By the same reasoning, the mockingbird might have been a familiar of the witch, and the two might have conspired to lure the infant to destruction. Whether this were so or not, the transaction at least wore a peculiar look. There was no use telling Mis’ ’Livy about it, for she didn’t believe, or pretended not to believe, in witchcraft and conjuration. But one could not be too careful. The child was certainly born to be exposed to great dangers—the mole behind the left ear was an unfailing sign—and no precaution should be omitted to counteract its baleful influence.
While adjusting the baby’s crib, a few days later, Mrs. Carteret found fastened under one of the slats a small bag of cotton cloth, about half an inch long and tied with a black thread, upon opening which she found a few small roots or fibres and a pinch of dried and crumpled herbs. It was a good-luck charm which Mammy Jane had placed there to ward off the threatened evil from the grandchild of her dear old mistress. Mrs. Carteret’s first impulse was to throw the bag into the fire, but on second thoughts she let it remain. To remove it would give unnecessary pain to the old nurse. Of course these old negro superstitions were absurd—but if the charm did no good, it at least would do no harm.
XII
Another Southern Product
One morning shortly after the opening of the hospital, while Dr. Miller was making his early rounds, a new patient walked in with a smile on his face and a broken arm hanging limply by his side. Miller recognized in him a black giant by the name of Josh Green, who for many years had worked on the docks for Miller’s father—and simultaneously identified him as the dust-begrimed negro who had stolen a ride to Wellington on the trucks of a passenger car.
“Well, Josh,” asked the doctor, as he examined the fracture, “how did you get this? Been fighting again?”
“No, suh, I don’ s’pose you could ha’dly call it a fight. One er dem dagoes off’n a Souf American boat gimme some er his jaw, an’ I give ’im a back answer, an’ here I is wid a broken arm. He got holt er a belayin’-pin befo’ I could hit ’im.”
“What became of the other man?” demanded Miller suspiciously. He perceived, from the indifference with which Josh bore the manipulation of the fractured limb, that such an accident need not have interfered seriously with the use of the remaining arm, and he knew that Josh had a reputation for absolute fearlessness.
“Lemme see,” said Josh reflectively, “ef I kin ’member w’at did become er him! Oh, yes, I ’member now! Dey tuck him ter de Marine Horspittle in de amberlance, ’cause his leg wuz broke, an’ I reckon somethin’ must ’a’ accident’ly hit ’im in de jaw, fer he wuz scatt’rin’ teeth all de way ’long de street. I didn’ wan’ ter kill de man, fer he might have somebody dependin’ on ’im, an’ I knows how dat’d be ter dem. But no man kin call me a damn’ low-down nigger and keep on enjoyin’ good health right along.”
“It was considerate of you to spare his life,” said Miller dryly, “but you’ll hit the wrong man some day. These are bad times for bad negroes. You’ll get into a quarrel with a white man, and at the end of it there’ll be a lynching, or a funeral. You’d better be peaceable and endure a little injustice, rather than run the risk of a sudden and violent death.”
“I expec’s ter die a vi’lent death in a quarrel wid a w’ite man,” replied Josh, in a matter-of-fact tone, “an’ fu’thermo’, he’s gwine ter die at the same time, er a little befo’. I be’n takin’ my own time ’bout killin’ ’im; I ain’ be’n crowdin’ de man, but I’ll be ready after a w’ile, an’ den he kin look out!”
“And I suppose you’re merely keeping in practice on these other fellows who come your way. When I get your arm dressed, you’d better leave town till that fellow’s boat sails; it may save you
