Dawsey fell to the ground with the wolf on top of him.
“Dawsey!” Bertie looked on in terror.
Dawsey laughed while the wolf licked his face. After a brief moment he stood up. “Thee might want to stand behind me. I can protect thee better there.” He winked at Bertie and laughed again.
Bertie got behind Dawsey even though it was becoming clear to Bertie that Dawsey knew this animal.
“Dawsey I want thee to meet Wooster, our outside guard dog. Just put your hand out like this and let her sniff it.” Bertie hesitated, then put his hand out for the dog to sniff it. “Good! Thee and Wooster are now friends.” The dog nudged Bertie’s hand. “She wants you to scratch her. She likes it best when you scratch behind her ears.”
Bertie tentatively scratched behind the dog’s ears. “Wooster is huge. Are you sure it is okay for me to scratch?”
“Yes, of course. Though if thee were not one of her friends, she would have bitten it off by now.” Bertie pulled back his hand. Dawsey laughed again. “I think that it is time that we start working.”
“I agree. What is the first thing that we should to do?” Bertie nervously glanced at Wooster.
“I think that first we need to muck out the stalls and then we need to get all of these boxes into the store.” The boys quickly cleaned up the horse stalls and put down a fresh layer of straw.
“Good! Now help me get all of these boxes onto this small wagon and we can take them to the store.”
The boys took the boxes of Anchor Brand Laudanum off of the buckboard, plus some other boxes that were in the barn, and loaded them on to the small wagon.
“So where are we taking all of this stuff?”
“Just over there. Do you see that house over there?” Dawsey pointed to a small house next to their main house. It had off-white clapboard siding similar to Dawsey’s house and a chimney on one side of the building.
“Oh, that is not far. I was worried that we would be pushing this wagon forever. This wagon is heavy with all of these boxes”
“Not to worry. It is not far and I want to get there quickly. I would like to get there before Papa gets there. Then I can do what I think needs doing and not get in trouble for doing it.”
“You have more problems with your father than I thought.”
“It is not that bad.” Dawsey scowled at Bertie. “We get along fine. Why would thee say that?”
“You seem to get into a lot more trouble than your letters let on.”
“Thee are one to talk, Mister Brass Balls,” Dawsey smiled.
“I could not just let him get away with that ruse. I had to throw that ball to stop him.”
“And as punishment thee has to clean out the barn and lug boxes from the barn to the store.”
“I have been in worse trouble before.”
“Me too. I would say that we got off easy.” Just then Wooster barked and Snicks bounded up to greet the boys. “Hello Snicks. Are thee here to help us?” Dawsey went to the door at the store and opened it. Snicks went inside. Wooster nudged Dawsey then went back to the farm. “Goodbye Wooster. Bertie, please hand me the boxes.”
“OK, Here you go.” Bernie handed Dawsey the boxes of Anchor Brand and the other boxes from the barn.
“Good! Now we can put most of these boxes into the closet over here, but keep out one box of Anchor Brand and that green box.”
“What is in the green box?”
“Open it and see!”
Bertie opened the box and found a bunch of bags. Bertie lifted one out to look at it. “Potassium Nitrate. What do you use that for?
“Depends… Some people use it for shortness of breath due to asthma. Other people use it for food preservation. But most use it to make gunpowder.”
“Gunpowder! I thought that quakers were against that sort of thing.”
“Well, not exactly. Quakers are for peace and eschew weapons of war. But when it comes to feeding your family, many are not above using a gun to hunt for food. Papa is not above selling them the ingredients to make gunpowder. But fortunately for his conscience, most of the people who buy it are not quaker. Plus, they tend to be on the poor side.”
“Or a negro.”
“Seph! What are you doing here so early?”
“I need my coffee of course. Did you get any in the new shipment?”
“It should be here, but let us look.” Bertie, please hand me that box of Anchor Brand.
Bertie looked at Dawsey and raised an eyebrow. “This box has Anchor Brand laudanum in it, not coffee.”
Dawsey smiled. “Just open the box please.”
“OK.” Bertie opened the box and pulled out one of the boxes of Anchor Brand.
“Go ahead and open up that,” said Dawsey.
Bertie opened the Anchor Brand box, then gasped. “That is not a bottle of laudanum. that is coffee!”
“Indeed it is coffee. Tariff free coffee to be exact, so it is less expensive than the other brands of coffee that we sell.”
Bertie stared at Dawsey then at the box of coffee.
“And I would like two boxes of that inexpensive coffee,” said Seph.
“Yes, of course. Is there anything else that thee would like?”
“Nope. That is all that I need.” Dawsey rang him up. Seph took his boxes of coffee, smiled, and left.
“I thought the Quakers were against lying too,” said Bertie.
“Oh they are. But sometimes they bend the rules to help out the last fortunate, like Seph.”
“Or a Negro like Seph”
“Yes, a Negro like Seph. He is a good man. We like to help him when we can.”
The door to the shop opened. A large, well muscled man that smelled of pigs came in. “What was that nigger doing here?”