WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.230 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.230 --> 00:00:04.650 align:middle line:84% OK, let me read a little bit from this book that 00:00:04.650 --> 00:00:06.690 align:middle line:90% is now in progress. 00:00:06.690 --> 00:00:09.060 align:middle line:84% I'll read from the very first of it 00:00:09.060 --> 00:00:11.220 align:middle line:84% and then a couple of pages from the middle, 00:00:11.220 --> 00:00:14.170 align:middle line:84% and then two or three pages from the end of it, 00:00:14.170 --> 00:00:16.799 align:middle line:84% which means that we will ignore a few hundred 00:00:16.799 --> 00:00:18.285 align:middle line:90% pages that may not matter. 00:00:18.285 --> 00:00:21.670 align:middle line:90% 00:00:21.670 --> 00:00:25.680 align:middle line:84% Well, I think that will be clear. 00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:28.770 align:middle line:90% "The day didn't begin that day. 00:00:28.770 --> 00:00:31.210 align:middle line:84% It started a very long time ago, in fact, 00:00:31.210 --> 00:00:35.250 align:middle line:84% over half 100 years ago before Luther Calvin Knox got off 00:00:35.250 --> 00:00:37.800 align:middle line:84% the boat and came inland to settle, 00:00:37.800 --> 00:00:40.860 align:middle line:84% only to have to go and live with the niggers when the war came. 00:00:40.860 --> 00:00:43.500 align:middle line:84% Before Wesley Knox took the ghost with him 00:00:43.500 --> 00:00:45.390 align:middle line:84% from the nigger camp and went to preaching 00:00:45.390 --> 00:00:46.830 align:middle line:90% and founded the college. 00:00:46.830 --> 00:00:50.400 align:middle line:84% Before Francis Priapus Knox got chased by the thing 00:00:50.400 --> 00:00:52.320 align:middle line:90% in the woods and went soft. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:56.580 align:middle line:84% Before Lottie Thelma Knox got in bed and stayed there for 30, 00:00:56.580 --> 00:00:59.250 align:middle line:84% years writing letters to congressmen. 00:00:59.250 --> 00:01:02.520 align:middle line:84% Before Socrates Knox went to work in the steel mill 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:06.300 align:middle line:84% and discovered John C. Calhoun in the family tree. 00:01:06.300 --> 00:01:08.970 align:middle line:84% Before Adolph Knox Moore killed Wick 00:01:08.970 --> 00:01:11.310 align:middle line:84% the Frog, Victoria's new husband who 00:01:11.310 --> 00:01:14.580 align:middle line:84% sold Bibles, with a broomstick on his grandmother's 00:01:14.580 --> 00:01:15.930 align:middle line:90% back porch. 00:01:15.930 --> 00:01:19.890 align:middle line:84% And before Isaiah Luther Knox rediscovered the ghost 00:01:19.890 --> 00:01:23.130 align:middle line:84% from the nigger camp and wrote this book." 00:01:23.130 --> 00:01:25.392 align:middle line:84% I might say that this is the first part of a trilogy, 00:01:25.392 --> 00:01:26.850 align:middle line:84% by the way, and all of these things 00:01:26.850 --> 00:01:29.130 align:middle line:90% don't happen in the first book. 00:01:29.130 --> 00:01:32.010 align:middle line:84% Some of them will happen in the second, third. 00:01:32.010 --> 00:01:33.880 align:middle line:84% "It wasn't Luther Calvin's fault-- 00:01:33.880 --> 00:01:36.370 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin Knox's fault though, 00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:38.820 align:middle line:84% that he had to come over right before the Civil War. 00:01:38.820 --> 00:01:40.500 align:middle line:84% It wasn't his fault that the Knox's 00:01:40.500 --> 00:01:42.750 align:middle line:84% had gotten run out of Scotland by Bloody Mary 00:01:42.750 --> 00:01:45.210 align:middle line:84% and had gotten run out of Ireland by the potato blight 00:01:45.210 --> 00:01:47.520 align:middle line:84% and had gotten at last run out of South Carolina 00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:51.210 align:middle line:84% by Black labor competition, high prices, and Luther Calvin's 00:01:51.210 --> 00:01:52.977 align:middle line:90% father's ghost. 00:01:52.977 --> 00:01:54.810 align:middle line:84% And it wasn't his fault that during the war, 00:01:54.810 --> 00:01:56.640 align:middle line:84% he had to be run off his land by Yankees 00:01:56.640 --> 00:01:59.220 align:middle line:84% when he didn't even know what a Yankee was. 00:01:59.220 --> 00:02:02.040 align:middle line:84% But it was his fault, his wife told him later on, 00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:04.350 align:middle line:84% that he hadn't had enough sense not 00:02:04.350 --> 00:02:07.710 align:middle line:84% to take his wife, an innocent child, off into the woods 00:02:07.710 --> 00:02:10.110 align:middle line:84% to live with a tribe of haunted niggers, a thing 00:02:10.110 --> 00:02:15.420 align:middle line:84% that could, she averred, mark a family for generations. 00:02:15.420 --> 00:02:17.970 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin would answer her, distant as ever, 00:02:17.970 --> 00:02:20.730 align:middle line:84% that when he was herded off the ship at Charleston 00:02:20.730 --> 00:02:23.970 align:middle line:84% in the November evening rain, after a voyage on which 00:02:23.970 --> 00:02:26.430 align:middle line:84% his father had died and been buried at sea, 00:02:26.430 --> 00:02:29.340 align:middle line:84% he knew that things weren't going to go well. 00:02:29.340 --> 00:02:33.000 align:middle line:84% The rain was cold, the docks were gray and ugly and not 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:34.620 align:middle line:84% at all new looking as they should 00:02:34.620 --> 00:02:38.490 align:middle line:84% have been in the New World, and he could see no work. 00:02:38.490 --> 00:02:41.220 align:middle line:84% There were Black men everywhere doing all the work, 00:02:41.220 --> 00:02:44.520 align:middle line:84% lifting things, pushing things, leading things, unloading 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:45.720 align:middle line:90% and loading things. 00:02:45.720 --> 00:02:48.780 align:middle line:84% You've never seen a Black man before except in a circus that 00:02:48.780 --> 00:02:50.670 align:middle line:84% had played Belfast, but they looked 00:02:50.670 --> 00:02:53.700 align:middle line:84% as if they by no means needed help in whatever it was they 00:02:53.700 --> 00:02:54.930 align:middle line:90% were doing. 00:02:54.930 --> 00:02:58.050 align:middle line:84% Right away, he got separated from his wife, Chastity, 00:02:58.050 --> 00:03:02.460 align:middle line:84% and his recently widowed mother and his five-year-old son 00:03:02.460 --> 00:03:06.180 align:middle line:84% Wesley because they were all pushed in a great mob up 00:03:06.180 --> 00:03:08.220 align:middle line:84% from the hold and down the gangplank, 00:03:08.220 --> 00:03:10.920 align:middle line:84% and went spilling out into an even greater mob who 00:03:10.920 --> 00:03:12.780 align:middle line:84% were waiting and milling about on the dock 00:03:12.780 --> 00:03:15.060 align:middle line:84% where they all ran a slant into a great herd 00:03:15.060 --> 00:03:19.080 align:middle line:84% of French [? Girard ?] pigs who were also being unloaded. 00:03:19.080 --> 00:03:23.040 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin's family, he would recall with mixed emotions, 00:03:23.040 --> 00:03:26.940 align:middle line:84% along with a number of other people were thrust by the mob 00:03:26.940 --> 00:03:28.080 align:middle line:90% into the pigs. 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:31.200 align:middle line:84% And amidst great squealing and confusion, 00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:36.120 align:middle line:84% swept away not to be found until nearly Christmas. 00:03:36.120 --> 00:03:39.240 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin wandered all the night that first night 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:41.460 align:middle line:84% among the other immigrants, who were many, 00:03:41.460 --> 00:03:45.030 align:middle line:84% searching for Chastity, Wesley, and his mother. 00:03:45.030 --> 00:03:48.660 align:middle line:84% Lamps lit grayly, the don wooden buildings 00:03:48.660 --> 00:03:50.970 align:middle line:84% in the faces of the Black stevedores 00:03:50.970 --> 00:03:53.790 align:middle line:84% glistening with rain, but nowhere did they 00:03:53.790 --> 00:03:55.680 align:middle line:90% light his family. 00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:58.320 align:middle line:84% Others too had lost parts of their families 00:03:58.320 --> 00:04:01.560 align:middle line:84% in the hog stampede, or though only Luther Calvin 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:05.640 align:middle line:84% lost all his, and there was much weeping and wandering about. 00:04:05.640 --> 00:04:09.570 align:middle line:84% All it remained to Luther Calvin was the family King James Bible 00:04:09.570 --> 00:04:12.300 align:middle line:84% and a book of Celtic fairy tales, both of which 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:16.890 align:middle line:84% he always carried by hand, and a bundle of Wesley's clothes. 00:04:16.890 --> 00:04:21.209 align:middle line:84% Worst, he found out next morning, he had no job. 00:04:21.209 --> 00:04:23.610 align:middle line:84% A message arrived at the customs house addressed 00:04:23.610 --> 00:04:26.580 align:middle line:84% to the shipper's representative that the gentleman in New York, 00:04:26.580 --> 00:04:29.460 align:middle line:84% upon whose newspaper solicitation, Luther 00:04:29.460 --> 00:04:32.190 align:middle line:84% Calvin and the others had come to the New World to assist 00:04:32.190 --> 00:04:34.860 align:middle line:84% and manifest destiny by stretching the railway 00:04:34.860 --> 00:04:39.755 align:middle line:84% lines to the frontiers of civilization, had died. 00:04:39.755 --> 00:04:41.880 align:middle line:84% The shipper's representative made this announcement 00:04:41.880 --> 00:04:43.950 align:middle line:84% to the Irish and assembly on the docks 00:04:43.950 --> 00:04:46.770 align:middle line:84% after they had waited all night to pass customs 00:04:46.770 --> 00:04:48.810 align:middle line:90% and had had no tea. 00:04:48.810 --> 00:04:52.980 align:middle line:84% It was a perfunctory lisping man who flanked by soldiers, 00:04:52.980 --> 00:04:56.250 align:middle line:84% immediately went on to regret that their baggage had been 00:04:56.250 --> 00:04:58.590 align:middle line:84% confused with a load of English woolens 00:04:58.590 --> 00:05:03.770 align:middle line:84% by the illiterate stevedores and it left at dawn for Kansas. 00:05:03.770 --> 00:05:06.890 align:middle line:84% And the riot that followed amid the style of rifle smoke, 00:05:06.890 --> 00:05:08.750 align:middle line:84% the cries of the Black stevedores 00:05:08.750 --> 00:05:11.990 align:middle line:84% who had been dumped in the sea, the wails of wounded men 00:05:11.990 --> 00:05:15.230 align:middle line:84% and the last screams of the shippers' representative, 00:05:15.230 --> 00:05:19.310 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin, who was inclined to quieter riots, 00:05:19.310 --> 00:05:21.830 align:middle line:84% stepped across a white picket fence 00:05:21.830 --> 00:05:23.850 align:middle line:90% and entered the promised land. 00:05:23.850 --> 00:05:27.770 align:middle line:84% 'Aye,' he said to himself as he crept among the warehouses 00:05:27.770 --> 00:05:31.910 align:middle line:84% to shore, 'the fiend were in the garden before Mr. Adam were, 00:05:31.910 --> 00:05:35.330 align:middle line:90% and he don't like neighbors.' 00:05:35.330 --> 00:05:37.580 align:middle line:84% The Charleston morning was brilliant. 00:05:37.580 --> 00:05:40.918 align:middle line:84% On all sides, were green things, even flowers, 00:05:40.918 --> 00:05:41.960 align:middle line:90% although it was November. 00:05:41.960 --> 00:05:45.980 align:middle line:90% 00:05:45.980 --> 00:05:49.490 align:middle line:84% The rain had vanished, leaving a fresh washed smell that 00:05:49.490 --> 00:05:51.620 align:middle line:84% seemed to come from the air itself 00:05:51.620 --> 00:05:55.310 align:middle line:84% once he had left the brimstone smell of the gunpowder 00:05:55.310 --> 00:05:57.290 align:middle line:90% and the docks behind. 00:05:57.290 --> 00:06:00.530 align:middle line:84% The sky was a blue that made everything whiter and the day 00:06:00.530 --> 00:06:02.840 align:middle line:90% was neither too hot or too cold. 00:06:02.840 --> 00:06:06.320 align:middle line:84% On both sides of the street were grand, wooden houses 00:06:06.320 --> 00:06:08.990 align:middle line:84% fresh and white in which no one appeared to work 00:06:08.990 --> 00:06:11.480 align:middle line:90% at all except the Black people. 00:06:11.480 --> 00:06:14.330 align:middle line:84% That fact impressed Luther Calvin most of all. 00:06:14.330 --> 00:06:16.850 align:middle line:84% No one seemed to be working anywhere. 00:06:16.850 --> 00:06:18.860 align:middle line:84% There was much busyness everywhere, 00:06:18.860 --> 00:06:21.050 align:middle line:84% but no one except the Blacks seemed 00:06:21.050 --> 00:06:22.850 align:middle line:84% to be working hard at being busy, 00:06:22.850 --> 00:06:25.100 align:middle line:84% and they were more busy than working. 00:06:25.100 --> 00:06:28.760 align:middle line:84% Merchant-looking men smiled, preachers smiled, women smiled, 00:06:28.760 --> 00:06:31.880 align:middle line:84% Blacks smiled, even the horses seemed to Luther Calvin 00:06:31.880 --> 00:06:33.080 align:middle line:90% to be smiling. 00:06:33.080 --> 00:06:34.970 align:middle line:84% Compared with the scene at the docks 00:06:34.970 --> 00:06:37.700 align:middle line:84% and the long, cold night before it was truly 00:06:37.700 --> 00:06:41.450 align:middle line:84% the Garden of Eden, his family and his dead father 00:06:41.450 --> 00:06:43.790 align:middle line:84% slipped in and out of his thoughts 00:06:43.790 --> 00:06:46.550 align:middle line:84% and at last threatened to slip out altogether." 00:06:46.550 --> 00:06:48.922 align:middle line:84% By the way, I know sometimes that it gets awfully hard 00:06:48.922 --> 00:06:50.630 align:middle line:84% sitting and listening to someone read you 00:06:50.630 --> 00:06:53.630 align:middle line:84% a story, unless you grew up in radio days 00:06:53.630 --> 00:06:56.157 align:middle line:84% and listened to Let's Pretend on Saturday mornings. 00:06:56.157 --> 00:06:57.740 align:middle line:84% So if it does and you want to stand up 00:06:57.740 --> 00:07:00.870 align:middle line:84% and say Simon says or stretch or something like that, 00:07:00.870 --> 00:07:03.060 align:middle line:90% please feel free. 00:07:03.060 --> 00:07:05.400 align:middle line:84% "But as Luther Calvin walked, the neighborhood 00:07:05.400 --> 00:07:08.640 align:middle line:84% began to change in Luther Calvin's mood with it. 00:07:08.640 --> 00:07:11.400 align:middle line:84% Brick stores and stables and blacksmith shops 00:07:11.400 --> 00:07:14.400 align:middle line:84% began to crowd the street, and the houses became smaller 00:07:14.400 --> 00:07:16.110 align:middle line:90% in built-in connected rows. 00:07:16.110 --> 00:07:18.990 align:middle line:84% There were fewer green things, and the cobbles of the street 00:07:18.990 --> 00:07:20.070 align:middle line:90% became rougher. 00:07:20.070 --> 00:07:22.980 align:middle line:84% The Blacks were working in much heavier kinds of labor, 00:07:22.980 --> 00:07:26.370 align:middle line:84% and the whites that oversaw them were shouting and working too. 00:07:26.370 --> 00:07:28.770 align:middle line:84% Uneasily, Luther Calvin thought of his family 00:07:28.770 --> 00:07:32.250 align:middle line:84% wandering lost among the same streets all night or worse 00:07:32.250 --> 00:07:36.600 align:middle line:84% still, lying hurt and unattended in one of the dim side streets, 00:07:36.600 --> 00:07:40.110 align:middle line:84% victims of the pig stampede in the night. 00:07:40.110 --> 00:07:41.970 align:middle line:84% The row houses gave way to shacks 00:07:41.970 --> 00:07:44.760 align:middle line:84% where first lived lean, white men like himself 00:07:44.760 --> 00:07:47.520 align:middle line:84% and then more Blacks with strange headdresses 00:07:47.520 --> 00:07:48.630 align:middle line:90% and no shoes. 00:07:48.630 --> 00:07:50.580 align:middle line:84% The Blacks looked menacing to him, 00:07:50.580 --> 00:07:53.910 align:middle line:84% and their strange unintelligible speech threatened him. 00:07:53.910 --> 00:07:58.530 align:middle line:84% Wild, wailing music and smells of unnamable things cooking 00:07:58.530 --> 00:08:01.230 align:middle line:84% swam in the air around him, and images 00:08:01.230 --> 00:08:04.680 align:middle line:84% of his family being taken away by these alien creatures, 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:08.010 align:middle line:84% from Luther Calvin was convinced could be cannibals, 00:08:08.010 --> 00:08:10.680 align:middle line:90% sent him into a true panic. 00:08:10.680 --> 00:08:12.360 align:middle line:90% His pace quickened. 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:14.640 align:middle line:84% His family had all his mind again. 00:08:14.640 --> 00:08:15.960 align:middle line:90% He thought of the stockyards. 00:08:15.960 --> 00:08:17.700 align:middle line:90% Of course, the stockyards. 00:08:17.700 --> 00:08:20.190 align:middle line:84% The pigs would have gone to the stockyards! 00:08:20.190 --> 00:08:21.780 align:middle line:84% He stopped the first Black man he 00:08:21.780 --> 00:08:25.170 align:middle line:84% found, his eyes lit with determination, 'The pigs, lad. 00:08:25.170 --> 00:08:26.830 align:middle line:90% Where are the pigs,' he shouted. 00:08:26.830 --> 00:08:27.330 align:middle line:90% 'No sir. 00:08:27.330 --> 00:08:27.830 align:middle line:90% No, sir. 00:08:27.830 --> 00:08:30.960 align:middle line:84% I ain't got 'em,' the Black man said, backing up. 'Of course, 00:08:30.960 --> 00:08:31.470 align:middle line:90% you ain't. 00:08:31.470 --> 00:08:32.789 align:middle line:90% The stockyards, man. 00:08:32.789 --> 00:08:35.520 align:middle line:90% The stockyards.' 'Ah, yes sir. 00:08:35.520 --> 00:08:37.230 align:middle line:90% They be in the stockyards. 00:08:37.230 --> 00:08:39.150 align:middle line:84% That's right,' the Black man said, 00:08:39.150 --> 00:08:42.179 align:middle line:84% propitiating by taking another step back from Luther Calvin 00:08:42.179 --> 00:08:44.100 align:middle line:90% and his demonic eyes. 00:08:44.100 --> 00:08:46.470 align:middle line:84% 'Where are the stockyards, quick.' 00:08:46.470 --> 00:08:48.060 align:middle line:84% 'Yonder, sir,' the Black man said, 00:08:48.060 --> 00:08:50.670 align:middle line:84% pointing toward the sea and broke into a run. 00:08:50.670 --> 00:08:53.310 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin was more lost than ever. 00:08:53.310 --> 00:08:57.030 align:middle line:84% Yonder he saw from the crest of a small hillock he climbed 00:08:57.030 --> 00:08:59.280 align:middle line:84% lay in a direction through shacks 00:08:59.280 --> 00:09:04.080 align:middle line:84% and savannas as desolate as the very wastes of Egypt. 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:06.840 align:middle line:84% It took Luther Calvin an hour to find the stockyards, 00:09:06.840 --> 00:09:10.905 align:middle line:84% and he ran the last of the way chased by bony dogs. 00:09:10.905 --> 00:09:14.160 align:middle line:84% 'Yeah,' he thought to himself, as he caught the scent of blood 00:09:14.160 --> 00:09:19.650 align:middle line:84% and dung, 'this was not your ordinary paradise. 00:09:19.650 --> 00:09:22.080 align:middle line:84% At the stockyards, he found a fellow Irishman 00:09:22.080 --> 00:09:23.940 align:middle line:84% at work who remembered that a herd of pigs 00:09:23.940 --> 00:09:25.860 align:middle line:84% had, indeed, come in the night before, 00:09:25.860 --> 00:09:28.950 align:middle line:84% accompanied by a number of Irish ladies and gentlemen 00:09:28.950 --> 00:09:31.350 align:middle line:90% and a free few children. 00:09:31.350 --> 00:09:33.030 align:middle line:84% They had left messages, all of which 00:09:33.030 --> 00:09:36.450 align:middle line:84% the Irishman began to chant to Luther Calvin in a litany. 00:09:36.450 --> 00:09:39.540 align:middle line:84% He had barely begun when the soldiers came. 00:09:39.540 --> 00:09:42.210 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin was asked if he had ID, money, 00:09:42.210 --> 00:09:43.830 align:middle line:90% and if he were Irish. 00:09:43.830 --> 00:09:46.020 align:middle line:84% Since the soldiers had blue coats, not red, 00:09:46.020 --> 00:09:47.980 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin's fear was not great. 00:09:47.980 --> 00:09:49.990 align:middle line:84% He was going to report his lost family to them, 00:09:49.990 --> 00:09:52.532 align:middle line:84% in fact, when one of them hit him in the stomach with a rifle 00:09:52.532 --> 00:09:53.880 align:middle line:90% butt and told him to move. 00:09:53.880 --> 00:09:56.760 align:middle line:84% Within minutes, he found himself with another group of Irishmen 00:09:56.760 --> 00:09:59.100 align:middle line:84% being marched, again, through the aimless shacks 00:09:59.100 --> 00:10:02.220 align:middle line:84% of the Blacks toward the edge of town, while one of the soldiers 00:10:02.220 --> 00:10:05.130 align:middle line:84% read a proclamation to them that all unattached 00:10:05.130 --> 00:10:08.280 align:middle line:84% Irish were being escorted from the city as a public safety 00:10:08.280 --> 00:10:10.950 align:middle line:84% measure as a result of the morning's disturbances 00:10:10.950 --> 00:10:12.840 align:middle line:90% on the docks. 00:10:12.840 --> 00:10:16.980 align:middle line:84% Some miles outside of town in a desolate trail through scrubby 00:10:16.980 --> 00:10:21.060 align:middle line:84% pine thickets, under a sky that had, again, turned slate, 00:10:21.060 --> 00:10:23.460 align:middle line:84% they were abandoned by the soldiers who 00:10:23.460 --> 00:10:26.580 align:middle line:84% left them with the advice to go north or west, 00:10:26.580 --> 00:10:29.220 align:middle line:84% and told them that they now had their names. 00:10:29.220 --> 00:10:31.650 align:middle line:84% And if they were caught again within or near the city 00:10:31.650 --> 00:10:36.360 align:middle line:84% limits of Charleston, sterner measures would be adopted. 00:10:36.360 --> 00:10:38.550 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin wondered what those sterner measures 00:10:38.550 --> 00:10:41.190 align:middle line:84% might be as he looked around him at the desolation 00:10:41.190 --> 00:10:42.990 align:middle line:90% in the twilight. 00:10:42.990 --> 00:10:45.450 align:middle line:84% He had eaten nothing since he left the ship. 00:10:45.450 --> 00:10:47.670 align:middle line:90% It was turning cold again. 00:10:47.670 --> 00:10:49.920 align:middle line:90% There was no shelter in sight. 00:10:49.920 --> 00:10:51.750 align:middle line:84% His wife and family were, no doubt, 00:10:51.750 --> 00:10:54.420 align:middle line:84% also in another small group of Irishmen on 00:10:54.420 --> 00:10:56.970 align:middle line:84% a trail or highway out of Charleston 00:10:56.970 --> 00:10:59.370 align:middle line:84% just as desolate as he, and what's 00:10:59.370 --> 00:11:03.300 align:middle line:84% more with even less money than the few pounds he had. 00:11:03.300 --> 00:11:04.980 align:middle line:84% That night, he and his compatriots 00:11:04.980 --> 00:11:08.130 align:middle line:84% slept in a fire-less pine lean to in the forest, 00:11:08.130 --> 00:11:11.040 align:middle line:84% ate raw potatoes grubbed from a nearby field, 00:11:11.040 --> 00:11:15.300 align:middle line:84% and talked themselves to sleep with tales of poets and singers 00:11:15.300 --> 00:11:18.720 align:middle line:84% and the little people of Ulster and Down. 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:22.680 align:middle line:84% Thus, began Luther Calvin's life in the New Eden, 00:11:22.680 --> 00:11:27.690 align:middle line:84% and thus, began his six-week search for his family. 00:11:27.690 --> 00:11:29.970 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin had grown up a gentleman 00:11:29.970 --> 00:11:33.810 align:middle line:84% who bore no malice against anyone except the Pope 00:11:33.810 --> 00:11:36.000 align:middle line:90% and his hirelings. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:38.340 align:middle line:84% He was a farmer with deep staring eyes 00:11:38.340 --> 00:11:40.690 align:middle line:84% and a habit of talking to himself in the fields. 00:11:40.690 --> 00:11:42.420 align:middle line:84% He knew as a good Irish countryman 00:11:42.420 --> 00:11:45.690 align:middle line:84% that the Earth was shared by many other creatures 00:11:45.690 --> 00:11:49.470 align:middle line:84% than himself and the most part, unseen ones. 00:11:49.470 --> 00:11:52.950 align:middle line:84% The sounds that he heard in the unfamiliar woods and marshes 00:11:52.950 --> 00:11:55.590 align:middle line:84% as he wandered in a semicircle around Charleston 00:11:55.590 --> 00:11:59.550 align:middle line:84% those next weeks could have come from them all, or worse. 00:11:59.550 --> 00:12:01.365 align:middle line:84% And his nights were spent sleepless, 00:12:01.365 --> 00:12:06.070 align:middle line:84% cold, and in terror of the spirits of this new land. 00:12:06.070 --> 00:12:08.650 align:middle line:84% But he was also a resolute man, and as he searched 00:12:08.650 --> 00:12:12.850 align:middle line:84% for his family, learned to beg food in exchange for an odd job 00:12:12.850 --> 00:12:15.880 align:middle line:84% here and there, to steal the late turnips in the ground, 00:12:15.880 --> 00:12:18.190 align:middle line:84% and to bear the disappointment of not finding 00:12:18.190 --> 00:12:20.290 align:middle line:90% a single trace of his family. 00:12:20.290 --> 00:12:22.390 align:middle line:90% His pounds were useless to him. 00:12:22.390 --> 00:12:25.180 align:middle line:84% He was laughed at when he tried to spend them. 00:12:25.180 --> 00:12:27.460 align:middle line:84% He became even leaner than he had been before 00:12:27.460 --> 00:12:29.170 align:middle line:90% and grew a beard. 00:12:29.170 --> 00:12:32.440 align:middle line:84% At last, soon after the 1st of December 00:12:32.440 --> 00:12:34.600 align:middle line:84% when he woke in the morning with frost 00:12:34.600 --> 00:12:37.750 align:middle line:84% in his beard and his shoes had lost their soles, 00:12:37.750 --> 00:12:40.060 align:middle line:84% when he had searched every village and farm 00:12:40.060 --> 00:12:42.160 align:middle line:84% around Charleston without success, 00:12:42.160 --> 00:12:44.320 align:middle line:84% when his nights had become living visions 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:47.050 align:middle line:84% from revelations, when he had read all the Bible 00:12:47.050 --> 00:12:50.110 align:middle line:84% through again and the Book of Fairy Tales through twice, 00:12:50.110 --> 00:12:52.780 align:middle line:84% when he had sung to the pines, all the long 00:12:52.780 --> 00:12:56.410 align:middle line:84% ballads he knew to keep the creatures away in the night, 00:12:56.410 --> 00:12:59.140 align:middle line:84% he felt he had begun to possess the new land 00:12:59.140 --> 00:13:01.700 align:middle line:90% and to be possessed by it. 00:13:01.700 --> 00:13:03.970 align:middle line:90% And he found work. 00:13:03.970 --> 00:13:06.910 align:middle line:84% He was given a shed to sleep in and straw for a mattress 00:13:06.910 --> 00:13:09.190 align:middle line:84% by a farmer too small to have slaves 00:13:09.190 --> 00:13:10.940 align:middle line:90% and went to work in the fields. 00:13:10.940 --> 00:13:13.180 align:middle line:84% He helped with the mules and the winter crops 00:13:13.180 --> 00:13:14.770 align:middle line:84% with the three cows and the mending 00:13:14.770 --> 00:13:18.880 align:middle line:84% of the wagon and the house and small barn and the sheds. 00:13:18.880 --> 00:13:21.550 align:middle line:84% The walls of the shed and the smell of the cooking 00:13:21.550 --> 00:13:25.000 align:middle line:84% kept the creatures at bay in the evenings and night, 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:26.830 align:middle line:84% and the loneliness of his wanderings 00:13:26.830 --> 00:13:29.770 align:middle line:84% in search of his family were softened somewhat 00:13:29.770 --> 00:13:32.770 align:middle line:84% by the sound of the farmer's wife singing hymns, 00:13:32.770 --> 00:13:35.680 align:middle line:90% as she cooked breakfast at dawn. 00:13:35.680 --> 00:13:37.660 align:middle line:84% In only a short time, he came to feel 00:13:37.660 --> 00:13:40.120 align:middle line:84% comfortable with the smell of pine smoke 00:13:40.120 --> 00:13:43.720 align:middle line:84% in the pre-dawn mixed with crisp odors of pork 00:13:43.720 --> 00:13:47.350 align:middle line:84% chops and salt pork and biscuits to listen 00:13:47.350 --> 00:13:49.900 align:middle line:84% for the chance of the field Blacks, whom he now 00:13:49.900 --> 00:13:53.560 align:middle line:84% called niggers out of respect for farmer's feelings, 00:13:53.560 --> 00:13:56.110 align:middle line:84% as they worked in the adjoining fields. 00:13:56.110 --> 00:13:57.820 align:middle line:84% And there was always enough to eat 00:13:57.820 --> 00:14:01.240 align:middle line:84% in the warmth in the evenings without the heavy smell of peat 00:14:01.240 --> 00:14:04.540 align:middle line:84% and the warm roughness of walls of wood around him 00:14:04.540 --> 00:14:07.840 align:middle line:84% instead of the cold dampness of Irish stone cottages 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:10.240 align:middle line:84% where the wind whistled at night and the pantry 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:12.340 align:middle line:90% was always empty. 00:14:12.340 --> 00:14:16.330 align:middle line:84% With the same resoluteness that he had searched for his family, 00:14:16.330 --> 00:14:18.715 align:middle line:84% he decided to settle and to wait. 00:14:18.715 --> 00:14:21.220 align:middle line:90% 00:14:21.220 --> 00:14:25.060 align:middle line:84% Then one night he returned weary and damp from the fields 00:14:25.060 --> 00:14:29.710 align:middle line:84% and found his father waiting for him in the dimness of the shed. 00:14:29.710 --> 00:14:32.410 align:middle line:84% The old man was sitting cross-legged on the straw 00:14:32.410 --> 00:14:36.040 align:middle line:84% smelling of the sea and looking gravely in front of him. 00:14:36.040 --> 00:14:38.410 align:middle line:84% He was covered with a grayish patina, 00:14:38.410 --> 00:14:40.420 align:middle line:84% and his hair was matted to his head 00:14:40.420 --> 00:14:43.540 align:middle line:84% longer than Luther Calvin had remembered it. 00:14:43.540 --> 00:14:46.960 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin was startled, but remembered himself and said 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:50.710 align:middle line:90% respectfully, 'Hello, Father.' 00:14:50.710 --> 00:14:52.090 align:middle line:90% 'Where's your family, boy?' 00:14:52.090 --> 00:14:54.310 align:middle line:90% his father said sternly. 00:14:54.310 --> 00:14:57.520 align:middle line:84% 'I've lost them, Father,' Luther Calvin said. 00:14:57.520 --> 00:15:00.490 align:middle line:84% 'It's nice to see you here, Father.' 00:15:00.490 --> 00:15:01.832 align:middle line:90% 'Never mind, boy. 00:15:01.832 --> 00:15:03.790 align:middle line:84% That ain't what you come over here for, was it? 00:15:03.790 --> 00:15:07.690 align:middle line:84% Where's your family?' 'I don't know, sir.' 00:15:07.690 --> 00:15:10.540 align:middle line:84% 'Is this all your mother and I worked for, to see you live 00:15:10.540 --> 00:15:13.930 align:middle line:84% in a shed like these Blacks the rest of your days?' 00:15:13.930 --> 00:15:16.750 align:middle line:84% 'They're called niggers here, Father,' Luther Calvin 00:15:16.750 --> 00:15:17.842 align:middle line:90% explained. 00:15:17.842 --> 00:15:19.300 align:middle line:84% 'You know why you ain't found them, 00:15:19.300 --> 00:15:21.640 align:middle line:84% boy?' his father said in a booming voice, 00:15:21.640 --> 00:15:25.450 align:middle line:84% pointing his finger through the gloom at Luther Calvin's heart. 00:15:25.450 --> 00:15:27.850 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin was surprised at how long his father had 00:15:27.850 --> 00:15:29.843 align:middle line:90% let his fingernails get. 00:15:29.843 --> 00:15:32.260 align:middle line:84% 'You ain't found him because you don't know where they be, 00:15:32.260 --> 00:15:33.940 align:middle line:90% ain't it so?' 00:15:33.940 --> 00:15:38.290 align:middle line:90% 'Yes, Father.' 'I thought so. 00:15:38.290 --> 00:15:41.080 align:middle line:84% I taught you to read and to sing and to work in the fields. 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:43.180 align:middle line:84% You ain't forgot that, have you?' 00:15:43.180 --> 00:15:47.890 align:middle line:84% 'No, Father.' 'I wish I had me pipe and some tobacco. 00:15:47.890 --> 00:15:50.440 align:middle line:84% I thought there would be all the tobacco I wanted when I got 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:53.740 align:middle line:84% over here,' his father said peevishly. 00:15:53.740 --> 00:15:55.170 align:middle line:84% 'Well, I know where they be, boy, 00:15:55.170 --> 00:15:56.587 align:middle line:84% and don't you forget that neither. 00:15:56.587 --> 00:16:00.760 align:middle line:84% Sit down.' Luther Calvin sat on the stall beside his father, 00:16:00.760 --> 00:16:05.200 align:middle line:84% who gave off cold the way a hot stove gave off heat. 00:16:05.200 --> 00:16:08.140 align:middle line:84% His father described a street and house in Charleston 00:16:08.140 --> 00:16:09.640 align:middle line:84% and made him repeat the description 00:16:09.640 --> 00:16:11.410 align:middle line:84% until he was sure he had it, and made 00:16:11.410 --> 00:16:13.510 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin promise to leave with the dawn 00:16:13.510 --> 00:16:15.040 align:middle line:90% to find his family. 00:16:15.040 --> 00:16:18.250 align:middle line:84% Then the two of them sat the rest of the night side by side, 00:16:18.250 --> 00:16:19.960 align:middle line:84% and his father told him the wonders 00:16:19.960 --> 00:16:22.930 align:middle line:84% of the bottom of the sea and the creatures that lived there 00:16:22.930 --> 00:16:24.700 align:middle line:84% and the men he had met and the trouble he 00:16:24.700 --> 00:16:26.590 align:middle line:90% had had in finding him. 00:16:26.590 --> 00:16:29.500 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin told his father of the nights in the woods 00:16:29.500 --> 00:16:31.420 align:middle line:84% and of his search, but his father 00:16:31.420 --> 00:16:34.240 align:middle line:84% seemed to know it all already, though he listened 00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:36.730 align:middle line:84% in the painfully patient way he had listened when 00:16:36.730 --> 00:16:38.740 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin was a boy and would tell him 00:16:38.740 --> 00:16:41.260 align:middle line:90% a story he already knew. 00:16:41.260 --> 00:16:42.940 align:middle line:84% His father asked him to light a candle 00:16:42.940 --> 00:16:45.730 align:middle line:84% and read some from the book of fairy tales. 00:16:45.730 --> 00:16:48.190 align:middle line:84% He interrupted him several times to make comparison 00:16:48.190 --> 00:16:50.500 align:middle line:84% between the creatures in the story and those that 00:16:50.500 --> 00:16:53.890 align:middle line:84% lived on the bottom of the sea and to assure Luther Calvin 00:16:53.890 --> 00:16:58.060 align:middle line:84% that there were little people in the forest of the sea too. 00:16:58.060 --> 00:17:00.670 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin offered to read from the Bible, 00:17:00.670 --> 00:17:02.710 align:middle line:84% but his father refused and seemed about 00:17:02.710 --> 00:17:05.079 align:middle line:84% to get angry and told Luther Calvin never 00:17:05.079 --> 00:17:06.819 align:middle line:84% to read his children from the Bible, 00:17:06.819 --> 00:17:08.950 align:middle line:84% but always from the Book of Fairy Tales 00:17:08.950 --> 00:17:11.200 align:middle line:84% and to sing them the songs of the old poets 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:13.569 align:middle line:84% and tell them the stories of the little people. 00:17:13.569 --> 00:17:15.849 align:middle line:84% Because children should be led into the ways 00:17:15.849 --> 00:17:18.880 align:middle line:90% of truth and not superstition. 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:21.579 align:middle line:84% Then as the cold life of the dawn 00:17:21.579 --> 00:17:25.170 align:middle line:84% began to seep under the door, his father said to him, 00:17:25.170 --> 00:17:28.210 align:middle line:84% 'I'm the one who taught you to read and to sing and to work 00:17:28.210 --> 00:17:30.940 align:middle line:84% in the fields, and don't you forget that, son. 00:17:30.940 --> 00:17:32.410 align:middle line:84% It's time to go now, and don't you 00:17:32.410 --> 00:17:35.140 align:middle line:84% stop till you find what you come here for, what you promised me 00:17:35.140 --> 00:17:39.340 align:middle line:84% we'd find when you first started talking to me of coming here. 00:17:39.340 --> 00:17:42.640 align:middle line:84% Though I disremember all the things you said we'd find. 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:44.440 align:middle line:90% There were so many of them.' 00:17:44.440 --> 00:17:46.750 align:middle line:84% 'Now, don't you stop and live like a heathen Black man 00:17:46.750 --> 00:17:49.330 align:middle line:84% in a shed, and that's your father telling you now.' 00:17:49.330 --> 00:17:52.030 align:middle line:84% 'Niggers,' Luther Calvin reminded his father, again, 00:17:52.030 --> 00:17:52.810 align:middle line:90% gently. 00:17:52.810 --> 00:17:55.240 align:middle line:84% 'And they're not heathens, Father.' 00:17:55.240 --> 00:17:58.000 align:middle line:84% 'So much the worse for them, boy,' his father said. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:00.340 align:middle line:84% 'Now, go and do what I told you.' 00:18:00.340 --> 00:18:02.950 align:middle line:84% 'Yes, sir," Luther Calvin said and got up. 00:18:02.950 --> 00:18:07.300 align:middle line:84% He felt as if he had slept all the night, but was stiff. 00:18:07.300 --> 00:18:09.610 align:middle line:84% 'Are you coming with me, Father?' 00:18:09.610 --> 00:18:11.050 align:middle line:90% 'I can't, boy. 00:18:11.050 --> 00:18:15.380 align:middle line:90% I'm dead.' 'Yes, sir.' 00:18:15.380 --> 00:18:17.960 align:middle line:84% 'Take care of your mother, lad,' his father said. 00:18:17.960 --> 00:18:20.690 align:middle line:84% His face was even more gray in the new light, 00:18:20.690 --> 00:18:23.120 align:middle line:84% and his eyes were deeper than Luther Calvin had 00:18:23.120 --> 00:18:24.830 align:middle line:90% remembered them. 00:18:24.830 --> 00:18:28.280 align:middle line:84% 'I wish I could cry, but I can't now, you know. 00:18:28.280 --> 00:18:30.920 align:middle line:90% I wish I had some tobacco too.' 00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:34.490 align:middle line:84% 'Goodbye, Father.' 'I'll say goodbye to mother for you.' 00:18:34.490 --> 00:18:38.060 align:middle line:84% 'Goodbye, boy.' Luther Calvin picked up the bundle 00:18:38.060 --> 00:18:41.870 align:middle line:84% of Wesley's clothes and the book of Celtic Folk Tales. 00:18:41.870 --> 00:18:44.630 align:middle line:84% He left the shed and closed the door. 00:18:44.630 --> 00:18:47.600 align:middle line:84% There was smoke coming from the chimney of the farmer's house, 00:18:47.600 --> 00:18:50.090 align:middle line:84% and he heard the hymn the farmer's wife was singing, 00:18:50.090 --> 00:18:52.670 align:middle line:84% and he smelled the salt pork she was cooking 00:18:52.670 --> 00:18:56.120 align:middle line:84% mixed with the smell of the pine smoke and the damp pine 00:18:56.120 --> 00:19:00.800 align:middle line:84% woods nearby, smells he would live with the rest of his life. 00:19:00.800 --> 00:19:02.900 align:middle line:84% There was a thin fog all around him 00:19:02.900 --> 00:19:04.940 align:middle line:84% so that the world looked to him as if it 00:19:04.940 --> 00:19:07.430 align:middle line:90% were hiding behind a veil. 00:19:07.430 --> 00:19:10.100 align:middle line:84% He glanced the last time at the shed 00:19:10.100 --> 00:19:13.760 align:middle line:84% and saw a small rivulet of water had followed him out the door 00:19:13.760 --> 00:19:18.560 align:middle line:84% and was slowly making its way toward Charleston and the sea. 00:19:18.560 --> 00:19:21.500 align:middle line:84% He turned in the same direction and sat out briskly 00:19:21.500 --> 00:19:23.390 align:middle line:84% thinking that the road to Charleston 00:19:23.390 --> 00:19:28.130 align:middle line:84% would be long, though he did not know until a sun shadowed day 00:19:28.130 --> 00:19:31.280 align:middle line:84% in the woods years later, as he saw the flash 00:19:31.280 --> 00:19:33.770 align:middle line:84% and heard the trumpet of a shotgun, 00:19:33.770 --> 00:19:38.240 align:middle line:84% just how long the journey he was beginning that day would be 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:41.060 align:middle line:84% and how much wider the wilderness is and denser 00:19:41.060 --> 00:19:46.370 align:middle line:84% the forest would be than those on the road to Charleston." 00:19:46.370 --> 00:19:49.430 align:middle line:84% Well, I think I'll cut some of this 00:19:49.430 --> 00:19:52.130 align:middle line:84% since we're running a little short on time. 00:19:52.130 --> 00:19:54.840 align:middle line:90% 00:19:54.840 --> 00:19:55.350 align:middle line:90% Let's see. 00:19:55.350 --> 00:19:58.130 align:middle line:90% 00:19:58.130 --> 00:20:01.010 align:middle line:84% "No one stopped Luther Calvin to ask him for identification 00:20:01.010 --> 00:20:03.110 align:middle line:84% or if he were Irish when he got to Charleston. 00:20:03.110 --> 00:20:05.240 align:middle line:84% The dark riots seemed to have been forgotten 00:20:05.240 --> 00:20:08.720 align:middle line:84% in the continuing business of ships and slaves and commerce 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:11.780 align:middle line:84% and the fraternal glow of Christmas that lit the city. 00:20:11.780 --> 00:20:14.300 align:middle line:84% As he entered the edge of town, the houses of the Blacks 00:20:14.300 --> 00:20:16.010 align:middle line:84% and of the poor whites looked mostly 00:20:16.010 --> 00:20:19.190 align:middle line:84% the same as when he had left only colder. 00:20:19.190 --> 00:20:21.620 align:middle line:84% But when he came to the row houses, 00:20:21.620 --> 00:20:24.710 align:middle line:84% he found that holly wreaths had sprouted from their doors 00:20:24.710 --> 00:20:26.780 align:middle line:84% and mistletoe from their stone arches, 00:20:26.780 --> 00:20:29.060 align:middle line:84% and the trees were growing inside the house 00:20:29.060 --> 00:20:30.680 align:middle line:90% before the windows. 00:20:30.680 --> 00:20:33.380 align:middle line:84% The white houses on the broader streets toward the docks 00:20:33.380 --> 00:20:36.770 align:middle line:84% were even more splendid with wreaths and all the windows 00:20:36.770 --> 00:20:39.680 align:middle line:84% and trees inside as tall as two men. 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:41.780 align:middle line:84% Tears came to Luther Calvin's eyes 00:20:41.780 --> 00:20:44.330 align:middle line:84% as he remembered Christmases in Belfast 00:20:44.330 --> 00:20:47.990 align:middle line:84% when his father was alive and when he was with his family. 00:20:47.990 --> 00:20:50.090 align:middle line:84% Strangers wished him a Merry Christmas, 00:20:50.090 --> 00:20:54.470 align:middle line:84% and some of the Blacks tipped their hats to him as he passed. 00:20:54.470 --> 00:20:56.000 align:middle line:84% The street his father had described, 00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:59.000 align:middle line:84% he found at last in none of the sections he had seen before, 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:02.450 align:middle line:84% but in an area of small squares and neat shops 00:21:02.450 --> 00:21:06.740 align:middle line:84% with ladies and gentlemen's clothing displayed 00:21:06.740 --> 00:21:09.500 align:middle line:84% in their tastefully dressed windows. 00:21:09.500 --> 00:21:13.670 align:middle line:84% Tall beaver hats and frock coats and some wide-brimmed hats 00:21:13.670 --> 00:21:17.120 align:middle line:84% and white suits and others all sprinkled among other windows 00:21:17.120 --> 00:21:22.130 align:middle line:84% with long, flowing gowns, knit shawls, gloves, lace, bags, 00:21:22.130 --> 00:21:24.320 align:middle line:90% and bolts of silk and crinoline. 00:21:24.320 --> 00:21:26.580 align:middle line:84% It was a busy time with ladies and gentlemen, 00:21:26.580 --> 00:21:29.060 align:middle line:84% coming and going among the shops in the same clothing that 00:21:29.060 --> 00:21:31.520 align:middle line:84% was displayed in the shop windows and carriages 00:21:31.520 --> 00:21:33.620 align:middle line:84% with Black footman and attendants waiting 00:21:33.620 --> 00:21:37.340 align:middle line:84% alongside the small squares, all as he remembered it 00:21:37.340 --> 00:21:39.740 align:middle line:84% from the English illustrated magazines. 00:21:39.740 --> 00:21:42.680 align:middle line:84% His problem was that the houses all looked like the one 00:21:42.680 --> 00:21:44.900 align:middle line:90% his father had described. 00:21:44.900 --> 00:21:48.470 align:middle line:84% Peering in at doors and windows, he wandered more and more 00:21:48.470 --> 00:21:50.870 align:middle line:84% downcast from shop to shop, house 00:21:50.870 --> 00:21:54.920 align:middle line:84% to house, jostled by the crowds, accosted by match girls, 00:21:54.920 --> 00:21:56.510 align:middle line:90% splashed by carriages." 00:21:56.510 --> 00:21:58.382 align:middle line:84% One thing that I'm doing, by the way, 00:21:58.382 --> 00:21:59.840 align:middle line:84% and here he's playing with a number 00:21:59.840 --> 00:22:03.590 align:middle line:84% of various styles, a number of periods in literature. 00:22:03.590 --> 00:22:09.440 align:middle line:84% And it might be of some side interest to you 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:13.670 align:middle line:90% to try to find some of those. 00:22:13.670 --> 00:22:15.770 align:middle line:84% "At last, as he wandered spiritless 00:22:15.770 --> 00:22:18.380 align:middle line:84% near the end of the street all in a jumble, 00:22:18.380 --> 00:22:20.840 align:middle line:84% a brougham and pair of grays thundered 00:22:20.840 --> 00:22:23.540 align:middle line:84% from one of the small squares and sent him leaping out 00:22:23.540 --> 00:22:25.370 align:middle line:90% of its way onto the curb. 00:22:25.370 --> 00:22:27.920 align:middle line:84% A beaver hat shouted with a laugh from the brougham, 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:31.250 align:middle line:84% 'Back to the woods, Father Christmas,' and Luther Calvin 00:22:31.250 --> 00:22:34.910 align:middle line:84% had lost the spirit even to throw a rock. 00:22:34.910 --> 00:22:38.240 align:middle line:84% He took shelter from the jostling by a small knit goods 00:22:38.240 --> 00:22:42.920 align:middle line:84% shop he had found himself in front of. 00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:45.500 align:middle line:84% I see, one that displayed knit goods no different 00:22:45.500 --> 00:22:47.720 align:middle line:90% from others on the street. 00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:50.090 align:middle line:84% Dejected and muddy, he stared vacantly 00:22:50.090 --> 00:22:54.050 align:middle line:84% into the window, his mind lost on the piece of the farmer's 00:22:54.050 --> 00:22:59.150 align:middle line:84% shack, and his eyes wandering among the fancy knitting. 00:22:59.150 --> 00:23:00.770 align:middle line:84% He'd never felt sorry for himself 00:23:00.770 --> 00:23:02.480 align:middle line:84% before, not even when he was sleeping 00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:04.580 align:middle line:90% under the dripping trees. 00:23:04.580 --> 00:23:06.590 align:middle line:90% He began to now. 00:23:06.590 --> 00:23:08.060 align:middle line:90% Father Christmas. 00:23:08.060 --> 00:23:09.560 align:middle line:84% And what would he do with his family 00:23:09.560 --> 00:23:11.660 align:middle line:84% if he found them, buy them a carriage 00:23:11.660 --> 00:23:14.000 align:middle line:90% and a parcel of Blacks? 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:18.500 align:middle line:84% He began to hum 'The Last Rose of Summer' under his breath, 00:23:18.500 --> 00:23:22.880 align:middle line:84% and then he saw it, the stitch, he recognized the stitch. 00:23:22.880 --> 00:23:26.570 align:middle line:84% There in the window in one white shawl was unmistakably 00:23:26.570 --> 00:23:29.090 align:middle line:84% the broad stitch he remembered from his childhood, 00:23:29.090 --> 00:23:30.020 align:middle line:90% his mother's. 00:23:30.020 --> 00:23:33.140 align:middle line:84% And then a pair of fine ladies' gloves trimmed with lace 00:23:33.140 --> 00:23:36.560 align:middle line:84% was the smaller, more crabbed stitch his wife used. 00:23:36.560 --> 00:23:37.790 align:middle line:90% Self-pity flew. 00:23:37.790 --> 00:23:39.410 align:middle line:90% He had found his family. 00:23:39.410 --> 00:23:41.780 align:middle line:84% He rushed into the shop, as he burst 00:23:41.780 --> 00:23:45.290 align:middle line:84% in the tiny bell over the door tinkled, resurrection, 00:23:45.290 --> 00:23:47.480 align:middle line:84% and the gray, little proprietress 00:23:47.480 --> 00:23:51.080 align:middle line:84% threw her hands to her breast and flattened against the wall. 00:23:51.080 --> 00:23:53.690 align:middle line:84% 'Chastity,' he demanded and made for a door in the back 00:23:53.690 --> 00:23:56.450 align:middle line:84% of the shop, finding at a glance that the woman was the only 00:23:56.450 --> 00:23:59.630 align:middle line:84% person besides himself in the shop. 'Chastity.' 00:23:59.630 --> 00:24:02.480 align:middle line:84% 'Oh, yes, please.' the little woman squeaked,' 00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:05.540 align:middle line:84% As he flung the door open and flung himself in with it 00:24:05.540 --> 00:24:08.450 align:middle line:84% into the room, the two women who had been knitting on wicker 00:24:08.450 --> 00:24:11.240 align:middle line:84% chairs in the room both leapt up and froze. 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:13.490 align:middle line:84% 'Sweet Lord in heaven.' his mother shrieked, 00:24:13.490 --> 00:24:16.610 align:middle line:84% 'Back,' Chastity screamed almost simultaneously. 00:24:16.610 --> 00:24:19.610 align:middle line:84% 'Back where you belong," and made the hex sign at him while 00:24:19.610 --> 00:24:23.030 align:middle line:84% her knitting fell in a heap at her feet burying Wesley. 00:24:23.030 --> 00:24:24.890 align:middle line:90% 'Chastity,' he said again. 00:24:24.890 --> 00:24:26.780 align:middle line:90% 'Back,' Chastity demanded. 00:24:26.780 --> 00:24:29.210 align:middle line:84% 'Back among the demons you come from.' 00:24:29.210 --> 00:24:32.210 align:middle line:84% She looked to the sky still making hex signs. 00:24:32.210 --> 00:24:34.280 align:middle line:84% 'Oh, sweet Christ, child, in heaven, 00:24:34.280 --> 00:24:35.930 align:middle line:84% I call upon you in all your mercy 00:24:35.930 --> 00:24:38.960 align:middle line:84% to send this thing back among the shades it's come up from 00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:41.810 align:middle line:84% and to protect two innocent women and an innocent child. 00:24:41.810 --> 00:24:45.290 align:middle line:84% Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.' 00:24:45.290 --> 00:24:47.480 align:middle line:90% Luther Calvin was stunned. 00:24:47.480 --> 00:24:50.990 align:middle line:84% 'It's me, Chastity, your own husband. 00:24:50.990 --> 00:24:53.930 align:middle line:84% 'Aye, so you think you are?' his mother said, 00:24:53.930 --> 00:24:56.850 align:middle line:84% snatching Wesley and knitting from the floor and clutching 00:24:56.850 --> 00:24:59.550 align:middle line:84% them to her bosom ready to flee into Egypt. 00:24:59.550 --> 00:25:02.820 align:middle line:84% 'If you were, you'd have pity on this child of your mortal self 00:25:02.820 --> 00:25:05.320 align:middle line:90% and go back to the shades.' 00:25:05.320 --> 00:25:07.920 align:middle line:84% 'But I am me mortal self, Mother." 00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:12.780 align:middle line:84% 'Aye, so you think you are, you poor creature dead 00:25:12.780 --> 00:25:14.940 align:middle line:84% and dumped into the sea these six weeks, 00:25:14.940 --> 00:25:17.280 align:middle line:84% resting in the arms of your dear father. 00:25:17.280 --> 00:25:20.610 align:middle line:84% So you think you are, me poor, dead boy?' 00:25:20.610 --> 00:25:23.520 align:middle line:84% 'Mrs. Knox, what in the world is going on back there?' 00:25:23.520 --> 00:25:26.980 align:middle line:84% came the timid voice of the proprietress in the front room. 00:25:26.980 --> 00:25:28.950 align:middle line:84% 'Oh, Mrs. Carlisle,' his mother answered, 00:25:28.950 --> 00:25:31.860 align:middle line:84% 'there's not a soul here but ourselves and a poor sad thing 00:25:31.860 --> 00:25:34.080 align:middle line:84% that thinks it's here among us, but it's not, 00:25:34.080 --> 00:25:38.550 align:middle line:84% so there's not a thing to concern ourselves about.' 00:25:38.550 --> 00:25:41.895 align:middle line:84% Mrs. Carlisle stepped into the room behind Luther Calvin. 00:25:41.895 --> 00:25:44.460 align:middle line:84% 'Why, I should say there is something to concern ourselves 00:25:44.460 --> 00:25:47.070 align:middle line:84% about if you two ladies don't know this gentleman,' she said 00:25:47.070 --> 00:25:48.760 align:middle line:90% sternly, though squeakily. 00:25:48.760 --> 00:25:51.210 align:middle line:84% 'Sir, she said to Luther Calvin and put her hand 00:25:51.210 --> 00:25:52.830 align:middle line:90% on his arm to turn him around. 00:25:52.830 --> 00:25:55.380 align:middle line:84% 'Oh, Mrs. Carlisle, don't touch it,' Chastity begged. 00:25:55.380 --> 00:25:57.360 align:middle line:90% 'Please ma'am, your soul. 00:25:57.360 --> 00:26:00.300 align:middle line:84% It's solid,' his mother said as Mrs. 00:26:00.300 --> 00:26:02.700 align:middle line:90% Carlisle touched Luther Calvin. 00:26:02.700 --> 00:26:04.600 align:middle line:90% 'Oh, me Jesus, it's solid. 00:26:04.600 --> 00:26:05.100 align:middle line:90% Me boy. 00:26:05.100 --> 00:26:07.140 align:middle line:90% Me poor boy.' 00:26:07.140 --> 00:26:10.920 align:middle line:84% Wesley had uttered not a sound, nor turned his eyes 00:26:10.920 --> 00:26:12.330 align:middle line:84% away from his father while he was 00:26:12.330 --> 00:26:15.990 align:middle line:84% battling to disengage himself from his net of knitting. 00:26:15.990 --> 00:26:17.430 align:middle line:84% At his grandmother's astonishment, 00:26:17.430 --> 00:26:19.770 align:middle line:84% she loosed her hold on him, and he and the knitting 00:26:19.770 --> 00:26:22.900 align:middle line:84% slithered down into a heap on the floor. 00:26:22.900 --> 00:26:26.610 align:middle line:84% Once down, he wriggled from his net and stumble to his father. 00:26:26.610 --> 00:26:29.970 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin tried to take him, but Mrs. Carlisle 00:26:29.970 --> 00:26:31.620 align:middle line:90% held fast to his arm. 00:26:31.620 --> 00:26:33.750 align:middle line:84% 'Hands off me bloody ghostly arm, 00:26:33.750 --> 00:26:36.390 align:middle line:84% ma'am,' he said and pulled away from her. 00:26:36.390 --> 00:26:38.730 align:middle line:84% Wesley clutched his father's leg. 00:26:38.730 --> 00:26:41.610 align:middle line:84% The fire in Luther Calvin's eyes damped 00:26:41.610 --> 00:26:45.120 align:middle line:84% as he squatted and put his hands on Wesley's shoulders. 00:26:45.120 --> 00:26:47.650 align:middle line:84% 'Hello, lad,' he said, 'not to feared.' 00:26:47.650 --> 00:26:50.280 align:middle line:84% Wesley's eyes were serene as they always 00:26:50.280 --> 00:26:53.130 align:middle line:84% were until 60 years later when he preached 00:26:53.130 --> 00:26:54.870 align:middle line:90% the sermon to the fiend. 00:26:54.870 --> 00:26:56.910 align:middle line:84% One of them was blue and the other brown 00:26:56.910 --> 00:26:59.670 align:middle line:84% and they crossed when he was perplexed or meditative. 00:26:59.670 --> 00:27:02.040 align:middle line:90% They were crossed now. 00:27:02.040 --> 00:27:03.900 align:middle line:84% 'Hello, Father,' he said gravely. 00:27:03.900 --> 00:27:05.365 align:middle line:90% Grandfather found you.' 00:27:05.365 --> 00:27:08.910 align:middle line:84% 'Ah,' Luther Calvin said and took Wesley up into his arms, 00:27:08.910 --> 00:27:11.160 align:middle line:84% then turned back to his mother and Chastity. 00:27:11.160 --> 00:27:13.530 align:middle line:84% I'm neither shade nor demon, nor have wished myself 00:27:13.530 --> 00:27:17.580 align:middle line:84% both in the past six weeks, and I've come for you at last. 00:27:17.580 --> 00:27:20.370 align:middle line:84% And I'll take a bit of decency and a greeting from all of you 00:27:20.370 --> 00:27:22.560 align:middle line:84% and an apology to this poor lady who it seems 00:27:22.560 --> 00:27:25.230 align:middle line:84% has been kind enough to take you in and give you sustenance 00:27:25.230 --> 00:27:27.325 align:middle line:90% these last long weeks. 00:27:27.325 --> 00:27:28.950 align:middle line:84% And Lord knows what I would have wanted 00:27:28.950 --> 00:27:31.800 align:middle line:84% to come back to this for if I was a peaceful demon down 00:27:31.800 --> 00:27:33.870 align:middle line:90% amongst the shades. 00:27:33.870 --> 00:27:37.950 align:middle line:84% Seeing Wesley in his father's arms and no harm coming to him, 00:27:37.950 --> 00:27:41.010 align:middle line:84% Chastity took a tentative step toward Luther Calvin, 00:27:41.010 --> 00:27:41.790 align:middle line:90% as did his mother. 00:27:41.790 --> 00:27:43.165 align:middle line:84% In the next moment, they were all 00:27:43.165 --> 00:27:47.310 align:middle line:84% clutching and weeping except for Wesley, who never wept. 00:27:47.310 --> 00:27:49.950 align:middle line:90% Luther Calvin was placated. 00:27:49.950 --> 00:27:53.070 align:middle line:84% For years afterward, however, Chastity 00:27:53.070 --> 00:27:54.840 align:middle line:84% would awaken in the middle of the night 00:27:54.840 --> 00:27:58.407 align:middle line:84% and touch her husband to make certain he was himself. 00:27:58.407 --> 00:28:00.240 align:middle line:84% And for the rest of her life, the impression 00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:02.865 align:middle line:84% would come to her at times that he was not solid." 00:28:02.865 --> 00:28:07.290 align:middle line:90% 00:28:07.290 --> 00:28:12.510 align:middle line:84% OK, I think that time is running a little bit short. 00:28:12.510 --> 00:28:14.460 align:middle line:84% I'll read one more short section, 00:28:14.460 --> 00:28:17.790 align:middle line:90% and we'll let it go at that. 00:28:17.790 --> 00:28:20.130 align:middle line:84% You see, what happens is that they finally 00:28:20.130 --> 00:28:23.250 align:middle line:84% make their way inland through various tribulations, 00:28:23.250 --> 00:28:26.530 align:middle line:84% and Luther Calvin gets some land and so forth. 00:28:26.530 --> 00:28:29.790 align:middle line:84% And then the war comes, and Luther Calvin 00:28:29.790 --> 00:28:31.500 align:middle line:84% can't see fighting for either side, 00:28:31.500 --> 00:28:36.720 align:middle line:84% really, since he really has nothing to do with either side. 00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:42.690 align:middle line:84% And Northern foragers come, and he winds up 00:28:42.690 --> 00:28:45.030 align:middle line:84% with a number of other men, hanging a bunch of them. 00:28:45.030 --> 00:28:49.230 align:middle line:84% They have to go in the woods and live with some freed Blacks who 00:28:49.230 --> 00:28:53.250 align:middle line:84% have been living on the land, who have gone back 00:28:53.250 --> 00:28:55.180 align:middle line:90% to earlier ways of life. 00:28:55.180 --> 00:28:59.850 align:middle line:84% They live in a [? craw, ?] in a kind of African compound. 00:28:59.850 --> 00:29:00.805 align:middle line:90% Excuse me. 00:29:00.805 --> 00:29:03.570 align:middle line:84% They have reverted somewhat to their religion 00:29:03.570 --> 00:29:06.300 align:middle line:90% and various other things. 00:29:06.300 --> 00:29:09.810 align:middle line:84% And eventually, the Northerners come, again. 00:29:09.810 --> 00:29:15.240 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin escapes in a balloon because, you see, 00:29:15.240 --> 00:29:17.250 align:middle line:84% a balloon from a traveling roadshow 00:29:17.250 --> 00:29:20.220 align:middle line:84% has come down in the woods, and the Blacks have gotten it. 00:29:20.220 --> 00:29:22.320 align:middle line:84% And they're dressed in the costumes 00:29:22.320 --> 00:29:26.580 align:middle line:84% they found in the balloon, which were Shakespearean costumes, 00:29:26.580 --> 00:29:29.880 align:middle line:84% since it was a Shakespearean troupe, with armor and breast 00:29:29.880 --> 00:29:31.920 align:middle line:90% plates and this sort of thing. 00:29:31.920 --> 00:29:35.790 align:middle line:84% The Blacks are named Pocahontas and Uncus and Pelotan, 00:29:35.790 --> 00:29:38.970 align:middle line:84% and there's an Indian who lives with them named Washington. 00:29:38.970 --> 00:29:41.490 align:middle line:90% 00:29:41.490 --> 00:29:44.400 align:middle line:90% So that will explain part of it. 00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:48.420 align:middle line:84% Luther Calvin then walks back 150 miles after the balloon 00:29:48.420 --> 00:29:51.960 align:middle line:84% comes down in a pig pen near Chattanooga 00:29:51.960 --> 00:29:54.930 align:middle line:84% and goes back to the woods and builds 00:29:54.930 --> 00:29:57.180 align:middle line:84% him a little lean to there because his house has 00:29:57.180 --> 00:29:59.440 align:middle line:90% been burnt and so forth. 00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:02.610 align:middle line:84% And this is the first winter he was there. 00:30:02.610 --> 00:30:04.770 align:middle line:84% "The only visitors he had the first winter 00:30:04.770 --> 00:30:06.510 align:middle line:90% were his father and mother." 00:30:06.510 --> 00:30:09.360 align:middle line:84% His mother, by the way, drowned shortly after that too 00:30:09.360 --> 00:30:10.230 align:middle line:90% in a stream. 00:30:10.230 --> 00:30:10.890 align:middle line:90% It was swept-- 00:30:10.890 --> 00:30:12.300 align:middle line:90% 00:30:12.300 --> 00:30:16.590 align:middle line:84% Oh, well, they have gone into a town nearby. 00:30:16.590 --> 00:30:20.190 align:middle line:84% You see, there's a gentleman named Mr. Mooney, Mr. Plutus 00:30:20.190 --> 00:30:25.390 align:middle line:84% Mooney, who is another Irishman, who had met them in Charleston. 00:30:25.390 --> 00:30:29.100 align:middle line:84% And they ran into him because he was head of the Freedman's 00:30:29.100 --> 00:30:33.540 align:middle line:84% Bureau, and he has been using the freed Blacks in order 00:30:33.540 --> 00:30:35.610 align:middle line:84% to build him a nice, little business 00:30:35.610 --> 00:30:41.430 align:middle line:84% thing, which he has gotten, and he's becoming a capitalist. 00:30:41.430 --> 00:30:43.560 align:middle line:84% You see, the book is really, in many ways, 00:30:43.560 --> 00:30:48.000 align:middle line:84% about the vanishing of the consciousness that 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:54.030 align:middle line:84% dominated the world for all of history, up until the past-- 00:30:54.030 --> 00:30:57.420 align:middle line:84% well, in England, I suppose, the past 200 years, and the States, 00:30:57.420 --> 00:30:59.310 align:middle line:90% the past 100 years. 00:30:59.310 --> 00:31:01.830 align:middle line:84% It's about the triumph of the visible in some 00:31:01.830 --> 00:31:05.580 align:middle line:84% ways over the invisible, since we live in a very visible world 00:31:05.580 --> 00:31:08.220 align:middle line:90% nowadays. 00:31:08.220 --> 00:31:11.490 align:middle line:84% And so I chose this period because it's 00:31:11.490 --> 00:31:13.800 align:middle line:90% the very transition. 00:31:13.800 --> 00:31:17.160 align:middle line:84% I chose an Irishman because of his kinds of consciousness, 00:31:17.160 --> 00:31:20.340 align:middle line:84% and the Black people with African backgrounds 00:31:20.340 --> 00:31:24.270 align:middle line:84% for their kinds of consciousness and show 00:31:24.270 --> 00:31:28.680 align:middle line:84% what happened when these people get caught up after the Civil 00:31:28.680 --> 00:31:31.530 align:middle line:84% War in the New South, which is, for me, 00:31:31.530 --> 00:31:37.630 align:middle line:84% a metaphor for the new world nowadays, that we live in. 00:31:37.630 --> 00:31:39.360 align:middle line:90% So he's in a lean-to. 00:31:39.360 --> 00:31:41.520 align:middle line:84% "The only visitors he had that first winter 00:31:41.520 --> 00:31:44.310 align:middle line:84% where his father and mother, who were waiting for him when 00:31:44.310 --> 00:31:46.230 align:middle line:90% he got up Christmas morning. 00:31:46.230 --> 00:31:48.630 align:middle line:84% His father's gray patina had settled 00:31:48.630 --> 00:31:51.510 align:middle line:84% in since Luther Calvin had seen him last, 00:31:51.510 --> 00:31:56.490 align:middle line:84% and his mother wore only the slip she had disappeared in." 00:31:56.490 --> 00:31:58.335 align:middle line:84% She had taken off her clothes to go bathing. 00:31:58.335 --> 00:32:00.570 align:middle line:84% Well, this caused Chastity great concern 00:32:00.570 --> 00:32:02.760 align:middle line:84% because she was certain that his mother had 00:32:02.760 --> 00:32:07.410 align:middle line:84% gone to judgment naked, which is an improper thing to do. 00:32:07.410 --> 00:32:12.105 align:middle line:84% "'Well,' his father said, back where you started, eh, boy?' 00:32:12.105 --> 00:32:14.730 align:middle line:84% 'Hey, you're looking well,' said Luther Calvin.'" This is about 00:32:14.730 --> 00:32:17.370 align:middle line:90% 15 years later. 00:32:17.370 --> 00:32:19.680 align:middle line:84% "'Can't say the same for you, boy.' 00:32:19.680 --> 00:32:22.170 align:middle line:84% 'Father,' his mother said, 'it's Christmas. 00:32:22.170 --> 00:32:25.150 align:middle line:84% Wish Luther Calvin a Merry Christmas.' 00:32:25.150 --> 00:32:26.370 align:middle line:90% 'Merry Christmas, boy. 00:32:26.370 --> 00:32:28.365 align:middle line:90% Don't expect a present. 00:32:28.365 --> 00:32:31.500 align:middle line:84% Are you not going to greet your mother?' 00:32:31.500 --> 00:32:32.520 align:middle line:90% 'Hello, Mother. 00:32:32.520 --> 00:32:33.600 align:middle line:90% Merry Christmas, Mother. 00:32:33.600 --> 00:32:36.900 align:middle line:84% I've missed you.' 'Oh, we've missed you too, son. 00:32:36.900 --> 00:32:39.000 align:middle line:84% It's not that I didn't want to see you, you know, 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:42.465 align:middle line:84% it's that your father don't like Blacks.' 00:32:42.465 --> 00:32:43.590 align:middle line:90% 'Where's your family, boy?' 00:32:43.590 --> 00:32:45.720 align:middle line:90% His father said. 00:32:45.720 --> 00:32:49.020 align:middle line:84% 'It seems I've lost him again, Father.' 00:32:49.020 --> 00:32:53.010 align:middle line:84% 'Damnest man I've ever seen for not keeping up with his family. 00:32:53.010 --> 00:32:55.500 align:middle line:84% Still no tobacco around, I reckon. 00:32:55.500 --> 00:32:56.370 align:middle line:90% Eh, never mind. 00:32:56.370 --> 00:32:58.035 align:middle line:84% I couldn't smoke it if there was. 00:32:58.035 --> 00:33:00.810 align:middle line:90% You got to breathe to smoke. 00:33:00.810 --> 00:33:03.720 align:middle line:84% What do you plan on doing now, boy?' 00:33:03.720 --> 00:33:06.120 align:middle line:84% I've not give it much thought, Father.' 00:33:06.120 --> 00:33:08.640 align:middle line:84% 'You should love that woman you married, lad. 00:33:08.640 --> 00:33:10.680 align:middle line:90% On principle, you should.' 00:33:10.680 --> 00:33:13.980 align:middle line:84% He paused to pick a barnacle from his beard. 00:33:13.980 --> 00:33:15.360 align:middle line:90% 'It'll be coming for you. 00:33:15.360 --> 00:33:19.440 align:middle line:84% You know that?' 'So I fear, Father.' 00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:21.380 align:middle line:84% 'You wouldn't like that, would you? 00:33:21.380 --> 00:33:22.800 align:middle line:90% Well, you've not to do with it. 00:33:22.800 --> 00:33:24.900 align:middle line:90% There's no getting away.' 00:33:24.900 --> 00:33:26.970 align:middle line:84% 'Will you be staying a spell, Father?' 00:33:26.970 --> 00:33:27.690 align:middle line:90% 'I can't, boy. 00:33:27.690 --> 00:33:29.580 align:middle line:90% I told you once, I'm dead. 00:33:29.580 --> 00:33:32.580 align:middle line:84% Got me own business to attend to now. 00:33:32.580 --> 00:33:34.320 align:middle line:90% Aye. 00:33:34.320 --> 00:33:37.140 align:middle line:84% Are you not going to say goodbye to your mother?' 00:33:37.140 --> 00:33:38.590 align:middle line:90% 'Aye, Father. 00:33:38.590 --> 00:33:40.170 align:middle line:90% Goodbye, Mother. 00:33:40.170 --> 00:33:43.980 align:middle line:84% 'Oh, son,' his mother said, 'have you no more to say than 00:33:43.980 --> 00:33:45.000 align:middle line:90% that?' 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:48.450 align:middle line:84% 'Do your sign before we go,' his father said. 00:33:48.450 --> 00:33:51.000 align:middle line:84% 'And how should I sitting here in me shift. 00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:53.730 align:middle line:84% Oh, Luther, don't go to judgment in your skivvies 00:33:53.730 --> 00:33:55.090 align:middle line:90% whatever you do. 00:33:55.090 --> 00:33:57.810 align:middle line:84% They don't give you nothing else.' 00:33:57.810 --> 00:34:01.380 align:middle line:84% 'We're going, lad,' his father said. 'You'll see us again.' 00:34:01.380 --> 00:34:03.300 align:middle line:90% 'I hope so, Father.' 00:34:03.300 --> 00:34:05.910 align:middle line:84% 'Don't hope for it too soon, boy. 00:34:05.910 --> 00:34:09.330 align:middle line:84% Now, go get you some breakfast, and remember your father that's 00:34:09.330 --> 00:34:12.060 align:middle line:84% not had a bite of bacon for 12 years 00:34:12.060 --> 00:34:14.429 align:middle line:84% or a bite of anything for that matter. 00:34:14.429 --> 00:34:17.340 align:middle line:84% And don't forget a man's a man for all that, the poet says. 00:34:17.340 --> 00:34:18.800 align:middle line:90% You hear me?'" 00:34:18.800 --> 00:34:19.338 align:middle line:90%