Free Queen by Alex Haley Page B

defended Eleanor, despite his opposition to her
    marriage. It was the boys who were truculent and troublesome, and he
    wondered if there was too much of himself in them, or if he simply envied
    their strength and youth and vitality. Most of all, he was disappointed
    in Jamie, who shared his love of horse racing, and who, he thought, might
    have been his true heir. In the end, even Jamie had let him down, and was
    off to America to join his wastrel brothers.
        The sense of complete failure of his domestic life was shocking to him,
        but he did not blame himself. Matrimony, he decided, was an archaic
        institution, of peasant origin, and worthless to the modern man. He had
        refused to marry his mistress, Sarah Black, because he did not want to
        be disappointed by marriage again, but she was content with the hours he
        could give her, and he bad two fine boys by her, who appreciated him and
        never asked for more than he could give. Why could not his legitimate
        children be the same?
        But still Jamie was his son, and he could not send him out into the world
        without some provision for his welfare. He wrote to his lawyer advising
        that Jamie should be excised from his will, but he did not cancel the
        letters of credit. Whether the boy chose to use the money or not was up
        to him. He had done his duty as a father. In the morning he went to
        Belfast on business, and never made contact with Jamie again.
     
    Jamie spent a day with Sara and Jimmy at their cottage, and they envied
    his plans. With Washington at school in Dublin, Jimmy was no longer
    employed as tutor, but had found some few hours of part-time work, with
    other families, but was hardpressed to make a living. They had often
    talked of emigrating, and Jamie's plans gave their own fresh impetus.
    Jamie laughed that soon the whole family would be there.
    48 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
     
    "And why not?" Sara asked. "What is there for us here?" Jamie was anxious
    to be gone from his father's house. He planned to return to Dublin and to
    find work for a month, to give him some spending money, or to ask Eleanor
    for a loan. He spent a happy evening with old Quinn in the barn, talking
    of racehorses and getting drunk on poteen, and said a tearful farewell to
    Jugs, when he staggered into the kitchen late that night.
        She saw the moment she had been waiting for, and pressed a small bag of
        money into his hand. It was not much, but as much as he needed. He looked
        at it in surprise, and sobered up fast.
        "It is some part of my savings," she said. "And ye have need of it. "
        "I can't take this, Jugs," he protested, for her generosity embarrassed
        him. She was a poor woman, and he could have been rich.
        "Oh, tosh," she said. "Put it in your pocket, for I know ye have none.
        Ye think I could rest easy with you going off to that savage land and not
        a penny to bless yourself with?"
    He would not take it.
        " I have no need of it, " she cried. " I have everything here. And,
        sensibly, she gave him a way out.
        "It is a loan," she said. "Ye can easy pay me back when ye've made your
        fortune."
        That, and his need, convinced him, and he swore that he would pay back
        every penny of it. He kept his word. From the first few dollars he earned
        in America, he sent small sums back to Jugs until the loan was paid off,
        and he continued to send her money for the rest of her life.
        The following morning, at dawn, Sara and Jimmy came to the house to wish
        him Godspeed, and they stood with Jugs and old Quinn, and watched him
        trot down the drive and away, out of their lives. Then they went inside
        and sat with Jugs, who wept for the boy she had raised and would never
        see again.
     
    The sadness and many tears of the leavetaking