The Cabin by the Live Oak, Chapters I-IV [pp. 197-205]

The Cabin by the Live Oak.
should have termed "coal black." But
the ravages of sickness had given his
complexion a sallow hue, and while his
frame showed him to be in health a man
of more than ordinary strength, he was
now almost powerless. So far as I could
judge, his age was between thirty-five
and forty years. I noted these things
before speaking to him.
"You sent for me?" I said.
His gaze, which had wandered after
the first look, returned to me, and he
feebly nodded.
"You need a doctor, my friend; do
you not?"
Instead of answering my question he
looked at me fixedly for a few moments.
I was about to repeat it when he spoke.
"Yo' doan' know me, sah?"
"No, I do not."
"Doan' yo''member dat summer on
de Consumnes Rio?"
"I was on the Macosme, or Consumnes, as it is called, one summer."
"An' doan' yo''member Cun'l Sawyah?"
"Sawyer? Yes; I remember him
quite well. And now that you speak of
the Colonel, I remember that he had a
colored man with his company who was
a slave. Are you the man?"
"I is, sah. I didn' talk to yo', sah,
fo' de reason I heahd yo' an' de Cun'l
argufyin' onct, but I knew yo' all de
same when I use to see yo' go by. I's
had Jim heah watchin' for yo' two or
free days, but dis is de fust time he could
speak to yo' alone."
"That should have made no difference.
If you needed help any of us would have
come to your assistance."
"But I wantedyo', sah. I's been pow'ful bad, an' but for Jim heah would
'a' gone clar ober Jordan, I guess.
You ax me if I wants a doctor. I tinks
no, now,'kase I feels pretty well, only
pow'ful weak. P'raps you can tell Jim
what to get dat's good fo' me now."
I had had some experience in fevers
among my comrades in crossing the
plains, as well as during the first year
after my arrival, and felt myself competent to give Jim the required directions.
Some of the articles were in my own
possession, and I proposed that Jim
should first go to the store while I remained with the sick man, and that I
should then go to my camp, leaving Jim
in attendance. So Jim started on his
errand, leaving us alone together.
"I let Jim go, sah, while yo' is heah,
jes''kase I want to say a few wuds to
yo'. I's been pretty neah de jaws ob
deaf, sah, an' I believe, ef I had died
widout talkin' wid some man I could
'pend on, I should'a' had to come back,
shuah. Now, marse, dere's no hurry.
Go home an' get yo' suppah, so's yo'
folk won' be afeared about yo'. Come
a while tomorrow'f yo' kin."
"I don't like to leave you alone, my
friend."
"Neb' min' me, marse. I's all right
now, sah, on'y so weak. Tomorrow I'll
send Jim to de claim and tell yo' what
I wants to."
As he seemed to know his own condition well enough, I felt quite disposed
to accede to his suggestions, the more
especially as I did not feel disposed to
make a supper of such materials as the
sick man's cabin afforded. So giving
him a strict injunction to send for me
at the earliest moment if there should
be a change for the worse in his symptoms, I took my departure.
II.
WHEN my partners learned the reason
for my delay in reaching home that
night, and the promise I had made the
sick man, they at once told me to go to
him the first thing in the morning, and
if I believed my presence necessary to
stay with him altogether for a few days.
So, when I did go back, I felt that matters would go on in the claim as well
without my presence as with it, and had
no scruples in preparing to remain at
his place the whole of the day.
198
[August,