too high-pressure schooling—the boys on picket.
all three of the men at once became guardians of abraham lincoln, and in their several ways heartily interested in his welfare.
the deacon was fired by the missionary spirit of his kind and class.
"no use talkin' no more about the heathen 'on greenland's icy mountains,' or any place else," he communed with himself that evening, as he sat and smoked, and occasionally glanced at the ebon face of the sleeper in the corner. "providence has cut out a job for me, and sent it home. rather, he sent me where i couldn't help stumblin' upon it, and reckonizin' it. the responsibility to him is clear. i've got heathen enough to last me for a 'coon's age, to lift that poor, ignorant soul up, and bring it to a knowledge of christian ways. he's not nice nor purty; never heard of a pagan that wuz. wouldn't be pagans if they wuz. but he's a man and a brother, and the bible says that i'm my brother's keeper. i'll keep him agin fifty-'leven o' that old snortin' rebel and copperhead blowhard billings. i wuzzent brung up in the woods to be scared by the hootin' of an owl."
"we might take him along with us, si," said shorty, in a low tone, with a nod toward abraham267 lincoln. "we could make a bully cook out of him. we could have no end of fun with him. we could learn him lots o' tricks. he's as strong as an ox, and after i'd give him a few lessons in puttin' up his hands, he'd knock out that sassy nigger o' the colonel's."
"i think so, too," acquiesced si, with an estimating glance at the sleeper.
abraham lincoln's education began bright and early the next morning, when shorty kicked and shook him into wakefulness at the sound of the reveille.
"git up; git up," said shorty. "wash your hands and face, comb your hair, cut some wood and put it on the fire, and bring a kettle o' water from the spring."
"wash my hands and face," said the negro, in a dazed way. "wha' fo'? don't got nufin on dem. comb my ha'r? nebber did dat in my life."
"well, you've got to do it now every mornin', and be spry about it, too. come, don't move around as if sawed out o' basswood. this ain't nigger-quarters. git some springs in your feet."
and he emphasized his injunctions with a vigorous push.
the negro's face looked as if he began to have doubts as to whether freedom was all that had been represented to him. to have to get up early every morning, and wash his face and hands and comb his hair, seemed at the moment to be a high price to pay for liberty.
"does i hab tuh do dat ebbery mornin', boss?" he said, turning with a look of plaintive inquiry to the deacon.268
"why, certainly," said the deacon, who had just finished his own ablutions,' and was combing his hair. "every man must do that to be decent."
abraham lincoln gave a deep sigh.
"washes himself as if he's afraid the water'd scald him," said the deacon, watching the negro's awkward efforts. "he'll have to take more kindly to water, if he comes into a baptist total immersion family. there's no salvation except by water, and plenty of it, too. now," he continued, as the black man had finished, "pick up that ax and cut some wood to get breakfast with."
abraham lincoln took the ax, and began belaboring the wood, while the deacon studied him with a critical eye. there was little that the deacon prided himself on more than his skill as a wood chopper. people who think the ax is a simple, skill-less tool, dependent for its efficiency solely upon the strength and industry with which it is wielded, make a great mistake. there is as much difference in the way men handle axes, and in the result they produce, as there is in their playing the violin. anybody can chop, it is true, as anybody can daub with a paint brush, but a real axman of the breed of the deacon, who had gone into the wilderness with scarcely any other tool than an ax, can produce results with it of which the clumsy hacker can scarcely imagine. the deacon watched the negro's work with disgust and impatience.
"hadn't oughter named sich a clumsy pounder as that 'abraham lincoln,'" he mused. "old abe could handle an ax with the best of 'em. this feller handles it as if it was a handspike. if si couldn't 've269 used an ax better'n that when he was 10 years old, i'd 'a' felt mortally ashamed o' him. gracious, what a job i have before me o' makin' a first-class man out o' him."
the deacon gives abe a lesson in wood chopping 269
he took the ax from the negro's hand, and patiently showed him how to hold and strike with it. the man apparently tried his best to learn, but it270 was a perspiring effort for him and the deacon. the negro presently dropped his ax, sat down on the log, and wiped his forehead with his shirtsleeve.
"'fore god, boss, dat's de hardest way ob cuttin' wood dat i ebber seed. hit'll kill me done daid to chop wood dat a-way."
"pshaw!" said the impatient deacon. "you're simply stupid; that's all. that's the only way to handle an ax. you kin cut with half the work that way."
he was discovering what so many of us have found out, that among the hardest things in life is that of getting people to give up clumsy ways for those that are better.
in the meantime the boys had gotten breakfast. then shorty, who was dying to train their new acquisition for a winning fight with the colonel's negro, took him behind the house for a little private instruction in boxing. the field-hand had never even heard of such a thing before, but shorty was too much in earnest to care for a little thing like that. he went at his task with a will, making the negro double his fists just so, strike in a particular way, make a certain "guard," and hit out scientifically. shorty was so enthusiastic that he did not stop to think that it was severe labor for the poor negro, and when he had to stop his lesson at the end of half an hour to go on battalion drill he left his pupil in a state of collapse.
ignorant of the new ordeal through which his charge had been going, the deacon went out in search of him. he had just finished reading the news in the cincinnati commercial, ending with an271 editorial on "our duty toward the freedmen," which impelled him to think that he could not begin abraham lincoln's education too soon.
"now, abe," said he briskly, "you've had a good rest, and it's time that you should be doin' some thing. you ought to learn to read as soon as possible, and you might as well begin to learn your letters at once. i'll give you your first lesson. here are some nice large letters in this newspaper head, that you kin learn very easily. now, the first one is t. you see it is a cross."
"afo' de lawd, boss," wailed the desperate negro, "i jest can't l'arn no mo', now, nohow. 'deed i can't. hit's bin nuffin but l'arn, l'arn, ebbery minnit sense i got up dis mawnin', an' my haid's jest bustin', so hit is. i a'most wisht i wuz back wid my ole mas'r, who didn't want to l'arn me nuffin."
the astonished deacon paused and reflected.
"mebbe we've bin tryin' to force this plant too fast. there's danger about puttin' new wine into old bottles. it's not the right way to train anything. the way to break a colt is to hang the bridle on the fence where he kin see and smell it for a day or two. i'll go a little slow with him at first. would you like something more to eat, abe?"
"yes, boss. 'deed i would," answered the negro with cheerful promptness, forgetting all about the pangs of the "new birth of freedom."
