The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks - Donald Harington [14]
“What road?” Jacob was curious to know.
The man pointed north. “Why, the road that I came here on. All the way from Connecticut.”
Jacob had never heard of Connecticut. It sounded like some kind of Indian name, so he figured maybe it was over in Indian Territory. It was news to him that a road led from Stay More all the way over there. Jacob looked the other way, south, beyond his house, and observed, “Wal, I reckon it don’t go no farther.”
“A coincidence, and a good one,” Eli Willard declared, “because I have only one clock left.” He unstrapped the lone shelf clock from his saddlebag, and held it up for Jacob’s inspection, turning it slowly around for him to admire the woodwork, and then winding it (even the key was wood) and showing Jacob that it ran properly. Since all the parts were wood, there could be no chime or gong, but this clock had a sort of rattling mechanism, so that it could “strike” the hour by making a noise that sounded like a woodpecker close up. Jacob was very impressed with this. “My last clock,” Eli Willard reiterated. “I was going to keep it, out of sentimental reasons. But to honor your status as my last and final contact, I can bear to let you have it. Here.” And he gave the clock into Jacob’s hands.
“Wal, gosh dawg, thet’s awful good of ye,” Jacob said. “Caint I give ye ary thang in return?”
“Twenty dollars,” Eli Willard said.
“Huh? Why, that’s money!” Jacob exclaimed.
“Legal tender, cash, currency, coin of the realm, oil of palm,” Eli Willard said. “Two sawbucks on the barrelhead.”
Jacob turned the pockets on his buckskins inside out. “I aint got a cent to my name,” he declared. “And neither has he”—indicating Noah, who had emerged from the cabin to witness the transaction. Noah also turned the pockets of his buckskins inside out.
Eli Willard looked from one brother to the other, and shook his head in sympathy. “Yes, it’s hard to wrest a living from this rocky soil, isn’t it? Be that as it may, allow me to present this clock to your wife regardless.” He moved toward the door of the cabin.
“Uh, we aint got ary,” Jacob pointed out.
“Allow me to place it upon your mantel then,” Eli Willard said, and continued entering the cabin. Actually, this was a ruse that he, and dozens of other Connecticut clock peddlers swarming through the Ozarks, used to gain admission to the interior of the dwelling, to see if there was anything of value inside that might be traded for the clock. Eli Willard discovered there was no mantel-shelf over the fireplace. No nails in the house, he found a peg on the wall and hung the clock on it. “There!” he said. “A handsome addition to your humble home.” Then he began to look around at the contents of the room.
The Ingledew cabin was, of course, only one room, unlike so many other buildings in our study. Here are the objects that Eli Willard saw: two beds “built-in,” the corners of the cabin forming two of their four sides, mattresses of ticking brought from Tennessee stuffed with cornshucks grown in Arkansas, resting upon rude slats and covered with patchwork quilts (heirlooms brought from Tennessee); two ladder-back chairs which Noah carved from maple and seated with woven hickory splints; a simple table he also carved from maple; two lamps, the fuel of which was bear’s oil; miscellaneous cooking utensils (which, come to think of it, were made of iron and seem to contradict what I said earlier about there being no metal in the house); Noah’s Bible (which he could not read; upon his departure from Tennessee his mother had forced it upon him, having given up all hope for Jacob); on the walls things hanging: their two flintlock rifles and powder horns propped up on racks of deer antlers; two large deerskins sewed up to become vessels, one for bear’s oil, the other for wild honey (these, incidentally, were the only things Eli Willard saw that interested him, but they were too large to pack off on his horse); a water bucket homefashioned of red cedar with a gourd dipper in it; from the joists of the ceiling were strung dried things, tobacco, sliced pumpkin, red