Solomon. Marilyn Bishop Shaw
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Название: Solomon
Автор: Marilyn Bishop Shaw
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Учебная литература
Серия: Florida Historical Fiction for Youth
isbn: 9781561645855
isbn:
“Times are different now, and we can’t just avoid all the white men in the world.” Lela took her husband’s hand and scolded gently. Memories of Moses’ appearance just weeks before flashed through their minds. “Oh, look at him, Moses. It’s just a boy’s passing fancy. Let him have a little bit of a childhood. Lord knows he gets little enough of one.” When he heard that tone from Lela, Moses knew not to argue, so he took a final sip of water and returned to the woodpile.
4
It took working from dawn to dusk every day to bring in their little harvest. The corn was picked and stored in the crib, the fodder was stacked to dry in the field, and the sweet potatoes were dug and buried in layers in their banks. They’d enjoyed a few vegetables and berries from the garden and the woods during the summer, and Lela had done her best to get them all built up healthy before fresh food went short in the winter. She even managed a small supply of dried fruits.
By late fall the lean-to was almost finished. The family had spent every possible moment working on it. The end of every pole had to be notched just right so it would fit with others to make corners. The biggest logs went on the bottom with the fat end toward the front to give the roof a natural slope to the back. The problem was that without extra men to help it was slow, back-breaking, dangerous work slipping each log into one side and then lifting its other end to slip into the notch.
Once in a while a log would slip right into place, but more often, they would snag and have to be trimmed to fit into the corner. It was a good day if they got five or six logs in place. Of course, the higher the walls got, the harder the job. He hadn’t known how he’d use them at the time, but Moses was glad he had salvaged several strong ropes from the plantation storehouse before they left Georgia.
Sometimes Lela helped Solomon pull his rope line. More often, she trudged back and forth to the spring for water and to the pit where they found gray clay dirt. Every time a few logs went into place, Lela mixed a batch of good stiff mud strengthened with pine straw, which she daubed in between the logs, inside and out. Otherwise, the cold and wet would just bluster right through the house—and the people, too.
Poor Sunny and Sudie had to help everybody. For Moses, Sunny pulled the heaviest logs up and Sudie hauled the sacks of dirt on her back for the mile trip back to the house for Lela.
For the past three days, the house had been so near completion they barely stopped to eat or rest. Moses tied off the last of the poles serving as roof beams and helped Lela daub the highest parts of the walls. Solomon cut as many broad palmetto fronds as Sudie could drag on a sled. They made trip after trip through the virgin timber, each time unloading the fronds near the house in piles by size.
Moses shouted down to his son, “Solomon, don’t get no more pa’metta. I think we’re ready to put the roof over our heads, boy!”
Solomon let out such a whoop that Sudie lurched and dumped the fronds on the ground and Sunny brayed nervously. “I guess Sunny and Sudie are glad to see the end of this, too, Papa!” Bless that boy, thought Lela. He can still keep a cheerful spirit as tired as he must be.
It took several more days to weave and secure the palmetto fronds thickly and tightly enough to give a waterproof shelter. Their hands were blistered and cut from working with the sharp fan-shaped palmetto leaves. Their arms ached, their backs ached; they were tired to the bone. The three of them stood looking up at their house. “It’s a fine house, Moses, a fine house.”
“It’ll sure do us for a while, an’ it’s a sight better than the wagon even without a front wall. But I tell you, I don’t think I ever been so tired out. Not even after pickin’ cotton all day long in roastin’ Georgia sun.” He noticed Lela flexing her hands. “Oh, my little Lela. Look at them hands. Your hands wasn’t meant for this kind of work. What have I brought you to, girl?”
She quickly pulled her hands away from him before he could see just how badly cut she was. “You go away, Mister Freeman. I just had it too easy all those years growing up with Missy Walker. If I’d stayed on as her lady’s maid I’d have been spoilt and good for nothing sure.” Before he could say another word she continued, “Now, let me see if I can find some cold biscuits and a little of that wild honey Solomon and Sunny stumbled into. If you two men are as hungry as I am, you could eat that honey, bees and all!”
Moses slapped his hat on his leg and chuckled. “Well, I say we ought to enjoy every drop of that honey after all the stings Solomon and Sunny got finding it!” They collapsed at the food box enjoying the relief of a good laugh.
As he put the last big bite of his third cathead biscuit in his mouth, Moses looked thoughtful. “Family, what do you say we have ourselves a little adventure?”
“Adventure, Papa?” Solomon’s big round eyes were gleaming.
“Moses Freeman, what have you got in that fool head of yours this time?” Lela asked, a gleam of curiosity and suspicion under her highly arched right eyebrow.
“I tell you what’s in my fool head, woman. We been working from can to cain’t ever day since we been here. Now, I don’t mind work, but it’s time we took us a break. Mercy, we even had a day of rest near ’most every week when we was slaves!” Lela and Solomon tried to wait patiently, knowing that Moses would reveal his plan in his own time in his own way. “We ain’t looked around these parts much, only what we could see going where we had to go for fishing, or clay dirt, or such. S’pose we take a little look around. Maybe to the south a piece. The coast is s’pose to be south of us but I don’t rightly know how far. Maybe we could even get to the salty part and dry us up some fresh salt.”
“That we could use. I’m all but out, and without a little salt none of our fine stews will taste so good. Maybe we could take the wagon and gather up a supply of good roots and herbs. Oh, and these biscuits are the end of the flour. Maybe we can find some of that coontie to grind up. They say it makes passable flour.”
“Yeah, Mama, and maybe we can find some good fat raccoons and rabbits. I been saving the hides to trade when we can find a place to do the trading.”
“Hold on there, you two. You got your store list all wrote out, don’t you, Miss Lela?” Moses asked.
“I guess I do know a thing or two we could use,” Lela answered as she cocked her head thinking of still more things to add to her shopping list.
“It’s settled then, best get good sleep ’cause we leave at first light.”
By dawn, all three were up and ready to leave. Some debate slowed their leaving as they tried to decide whether they’d have to use Sunny and Sudie for pack or if they could take the wagon. They had no idea what they would encounter, but hoped to find enough roots, herbs, nuts, and animal hides to fill the wagon. They would go as far as they could. If they had to leave the wagon and return to it later, they’d depend on Solomon’s keen sense of direction to relocate it.
With a week ahead of them to enjoy the freedom of exploration, they left their little home with light hearts. Solomon raced ahead of the wagon, darting from one curiosity to another. Moses walked mostly but sometimes he sat on the wagon seat with Lela as she drove, her eye constantly on the lookout for the items on her shopping list. Their pace was slow but steady.
The further south they moved, the more frequently they stopped, and Lela’s herb and root baskets were filling more quickly than she’d expected. They’d found ginger, lamb’s ear, and tree moss for healing. There were wild garlic and wild onions for cooking. They even dug coontie roots. СКАЧАТЬ