The Land(103)
“I did,” I said.
“’Spect you must be thinkin’ all I do is go round hittin’ on folks.”
I shrugged. “Not my business.” I started to walk on.
“She done said things . . . things ’bout Mitchell.” I stopped and gave her my attention. “I don’t ’low nobody t’ be sayin’ things ’gainst folks I care ’bout, they be true or not.”
“You figure what she said was true?”
Caroline’s jaw hardened. “Woman was talkin’ ’bout Mitchell’s wild ways ’fore we got married. Said she heard it from Mister Tom Bee.” I nodded, and Caroline softened. “I know Mitchell been with women ’fore me, but he ain’t with nobody but me now, and that’s the truth.”
Again I nodded.
“That Minnie, she talked one time too many outa turn when she said he was out tommin’ round on me, ’cause I know different, and even if I ain’t, I ain’t gonna have her runnin’ up here t’ me with her tongue.”
“Well, I guess you won’t have to worry about that again.”
Caroline smiled. “I always done had me a temper. Took after my mama, and she always gettin’ after me ’bout it. I gotta ask the Lord t’ help me ’bout that.” She looked a bit contrite.
I smiled as well. “That might be a good idea. I just hope you don’t ever get mad at me.”
“Jus’ stay on my good side,” she warned with a grin, “and you got nothin’ t’ worry ’bout.”
I laughed and Caroline went back to her hoeing.
Despite having a temper when crossed, Caroline was good for Mitchell. I could see that. She kept him in check, and with her will for work she sometimes seemed to press him to do a little more than he was willing. More than once I heard her after him about one thing or another concerning the forty, and the thing she most worried him about was planting a crop. “What I wanna know,” she said one dawn as we finished our breakfast, “is when we gonna get this land plowed and planted. Good day for it today.”
“Well, right now,” said Mitchell, “you ain’t noticed, we kinda busy choppin’ trees.”
“I know that!” said Caroline. “But I thought you and Paul-Edward said you was goin’ t’ do some plantin’ on them acres you done already cleared. We could pull up some of them stumps and have ourselves a nice little field.”
“We’re figurin’ on that,” said Mitchell. “But we talkin’ ’bout next spring. Right now I’m figurin’ we got more tree clearin’ t’ do ’fore we can get to the plantin’.”
“Wait too long,” said the all-knowing, farm-wise Caroline, “we gonna be too late to plant anything.”
“Well, woman, what you gonna plant? It’s here late summer already.”
Caroline was ready with an answer. “Can get us in some collards and spinach and cabbage. Maybe some sugar peas too. I got seed from home. Can get them harvested ’fore real cold weather set in and I can take ’em t’ the market in Strawberry t’ sell.”
“Won’t have time for plantin’ or harvestin’,” objected Mitchell. “We got trees to cut.”
“Could be, Mitchell,” I interjected, “maybe we can do both.”
Mitchell turned to me. “How you mean?”
“Maybe we can split the work. You and I, we can still be cutting the trees, and Caroline can work the fields and Nathan can help her out sometimes. Maybe we can even get Tom Bee back to work with us a couple of days a week.”
Mitchell questioned me on that. “You ready to let go more hard money for another hand?”
“Did it once before,” I said. “Maybe it’s time I did again.”
“Ready to let go for a plow too?”
I nodded. “I’ve already set aside for that. Could be we’ll make a little money from the vegetables. In any case, it won’t hurt to break the ground early. It’ll make it easier for spring planting.”
“Good then,” said Caroline. “We can get started.”
Mitchell gazed quizzically at her. “Can you handle a plow?”
Caroline laughed. “Sugar, seem like I been plowin’ and hoein’ since I could walk, so I ain’t hardly ’fraid of no plow.”
Mitchell too laughed as he looked at her. “Baby, you ain’t hardly ’fraid of nothin’!”
Caroline got her fields. I’ve got to admit, though, she and Nathan didn’t do all the plowing. They didn’t do all the stump-pulling either. Mitchell and I took turns helping with that. But she and Nathan did all the planting, and when the vegetables began to grow, they took care of the weeding too. Yet with all that and the household chores Caroline had taken upon herself, she still found time to help in hacking off branches and burning the brush.