Her tone seemed to please the woman, who turned to face her again. “I am his mother. My name is Clovis Elk. I am the wife of the Overseer.”

“Yes?” Sarah felt that she was being told more than she comprehended.

“You are the young visitor,” Clovis said.

“I am Sarah Pennington.”

“Roman babbles about you.” She moved her hand from the boy’s arm to his back. “He says how pretty you are. He likes pretty things because he is so ugly.” Roman blushed agonizingly, bringing to Sarah’s attention the fact that he was lighter than the woman, lighter than she remembered Roscoe Elk as being.

Ignoring the woman as if she were not there, Sarah said, “I like you, Roman, and I would like to be your friend.”

Clovis threw back her head and laughed. “Say ‘thank you’ to the lady!” Clovis shouted, breaking her laughter. Two smaller children, dark as she was and far darker than Roman, ran past Sarah onto the porch and clutched at the woman’s skirt and arm. “Mu-dear! Mu-dear!” they said together.

“These are Roman’s brothers,” Clovis said, holding the small boys against her as if wanting to draw attention to the fact that she and they were the same color. “Their names are Alonzo and Roscoe.”

“Mu-dear!”

“Mu-dear!”

“Except for Roman, we are what you call in Savannah ‘F.P.C.’ Is it so?”

“Free persons of color?”

She nodded. “The young’uns were born free after I was bought and paid for by my husband, who is part Indian. Only Roman is a slave.” Clovis laughed again and hugged the small boys. Roman ran into the house without looking at anyone. Angry and disturbed, Sarah turned and left them without another word.

20

Nell and Felix had gone back to their house in Highboro. Beulah Land was its everyday, working, living self. The Negroes under Roscoe’s supervision hoed corn and cotton, and suckled tobacco, which they were trying as a new crop at the suggestion of Felix. Rooster had not planted any. He was waiting to see how the Beulah Land experiment turned out, thinking that it might not be worth the careful tending required and the building of a special barn in which to cure the crop.

The men also cut trees in the woods, those that had been struck by lightning or were dying naturally and inhibited the free growth of a younger timber. The trees were chopped or sawed down, then trimmed or dragged out by mule teams, and cut into usable lengths of wood for winter warmth and for cooking.