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He war mad, I reckon; certain, Mass' Ed'ards, he war mad." "Wet?" said I. "Laws, Miss Daisy," said Margaret, "'tain't nothin'. Them whips, they draws the blood easy. Darry, he don't mind." I have a recollection of the girl's terrified face, but I heard nothing more.
Mass' Ed'ards, he say dat de meetin's dey makes coloured folks onsettled; and dey don't hoe de corn good if dey has too much prayin' to do." "And does he forbid them then? doesn't he let you have prayer-meetings?" "'Tain't Mr. Edwards alone, Miss Daisy," said Margaret, speaking low.
"Margaret," said I, a day or two before Christmas, "can't the people have those meetings you spoke of without getting leave of Mr. Edwards?" "Can't have meetin's, no how!" Margaret replied decidedly. "But if I wanted to see them, couldn't they, some of them, come together to see me?" "To see Miss Daisy! Reckon Miss Daisy do what she like. 'Spect Mass' Ed'ards let Miss Daisy 'lone!"
Mass' Ed'ards, he say dat de meetin's dey makes coloured folks onsettled; and dey don't hoe de corn good if dey has too much prayin' to do." "And does he forbid them then? Doesn't he let you have prayer- meetings?" " 'Taint Mr. Edwards alone, Miss Daisy," said Margaret, speaking low.
His wife began the moment she saw him. "Well, of all the crazy carryings on!" she cried. "What's the Ed'ards boy firin' off guns for, right under peaceable folks' windows? I'm goin' to speak to Mr. Ed'ards right off." "Now don't ye, Sarepty, now don't ye!" said Mr. Peaslee, in alarm.
Also I learned, that Aunt Sarah, a middle-aged woman who worked in the fields, "wanted terrible to come to de Sabbas meetin's, but she war 'shamed to come, 'cause her feet was mos' half out of her shoes; and Mr. Ed'ards wouldn't give her no more till de time come roun."
I said, for Margaret kept silent. "And de oberseer, he say leastways he swore, he did, dat his will should be what is done on dis plantation, and he wouldn't have no such work. He say, dere's nobody to come togedder after it be dark, if it's two or t'ree, 'cept dey gets his leave, Mass' Ed'ards, he say; and dey won't get it." "But what did he do to Darry?"
Edwards nevertheless turned and walked toward his neighbor. Mr. Peaslee, leaning over the fence, began. "Ed'ards," he said, reaching out an anxious, deprecatory hand, "don't ye think you're jest a leetle mite hard on that boy o' yourn " He got no further. Edwards gave him a look that made him shiver, and cut the conversation short by turning on his heel and marching toward the barn.
I could scarcely hold myself on my feet by this time. "He whipped him, I reckon," said Margaret in a low tone, and with a dark shadow crossing her face, very different from its own brown duskiness. "He don't have a light hand, Mass' Ed'ards," went on Theresa; "and he got a sharp new whip.
"And he says that the prayer-meeting hinders the work, Jem?" "Clar, missis, Mass' Ed'ards got long head; he see furder den me," Jem said, shaking his own head as, if the whole thing were beyond him. I let him go. But a day or two after I attacked Margaret on the subject. She and Jem, I knew, were particular friends. Margaret was oracular and mysterious, and looked like a thunder cloud.
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