Project Gutenberg's Old Jabe's Marital Experiments, by Thomas Nelson Page

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Old Jabe's Marital Experiments
1908

Author: Thomas Nelson Page

Release Date: November 16, 2007 [EBook #23513]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD JABE'S MARITAL EXPERIMENTS ***

Produced by David Widger

OLD JABE'S MARITAL EXPERIMENTS

By Thomas Nelson Page

Charles Scribner's Sons New York, 1908

Copyright, 1891, 1904, 1906

Old Jabe belonged to the Meriwethers, a fact which he never forgot or
allowed anyone else to forget; and on this he traded as a capital,
which paid him many dividends of one kind or another, among them being a
dividend in wives. How many wives he had had no one knew; and Jabe's own
account was incredible. It would have eclipsed Henry VIII and Bluebeard.
But making all due allowance for his arithmetic, he must have run these
worthies a close second. He had not been a specially good "hand" before
the war, and was generally on unfriendly terms with the overseers.
They used to say that he was a "slick-tongued loafer," and "the laziest
nigger on the place." But Jabe declared, in defiance, that he had been
on the plantation before any overseer ever put his foot there, and he
would outstay the last one of them all, which, indeed, proved to be
true. The overseers disappeared with the end of Slavery, but Jabe
remained "slick-tongued," oily, and humorous, as before.

When, at the close of the war, the other negroes moved away, Jabez,
after a brief outing, "took up" a few acres on the far edge of the
plantation, several miles from the house, and settled down to spend
the rest of his days, on what he called his "place," in such ease
as constant application to his old mistress for aid and a frequently
renewed supply of wives could give.

Jabe's idea of emancipation was somewhat one-sided. He had all the
privileges of a freed-man, but lost none of a slave. He was free, but
his master's condition remained unchanged: he still had to support him,
when Jabez chose to call on him, and Jabez chose to call often.

"Ef I don' come to you, who is I got to go to!" he demanded.

This was