She loved him
devotedly, but he was so ugly, with his sunken eyes and his "fidgets,"
that she hid him away from people. All the dainties she brought down from
the "Big House" were for the blind child, and she beat and cuffed her
other children whenever she found them teasing him or trying to get his
chicken-bone away from him. He began to talk early, remembered everything
he heard, and his mammy said he "was n't all wrong." She named him Samson,
because he was blind, but on the plantation he was known as "yellow
Martha's simple child." He was docile and obedient, but when he was six
years old he began to run away from home, always taking the same
direction. He felt his way through the lilacs, along the boxwood hedge, up
to the south wing of the "Big House," where Miss Nellie d'Arnault
practiced the piano every morning. This angered his mother more than
anything else he could have done; she was so ashamed of his ugliness that
she could n't bear to have white folks see him. Whenever she caught him
slipping away from the cabin, she whipped him unmercifully, and told him
what dreadful things old Mr. d'Arnault would do to him if he ever found
him near the "Big House." But the next time Samson had a chance, he ran
away again. If Miss d'Arnault stopped practicing for a moment and went
toward the window, she saw this hideous little pickaninny, dressed in an
old piece of sacking, standing in the open space between the hollyhock
rows, his body rocking automatically, his blind face lifted to the sun and
wearing an expression of idiotic rapture.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173