A Free State Read Online Free Page A

Theater, and I will never forget it. This was not just a man, however skilled, singing a few tunes, but a coherent musical group, with assigned parts, worked-out routines, harmonies. They exploded onto the stage; their movements, wild yet precise and timed to one another, expanded upon the music they made—tambourine, fiddle, bones, banjo. All were expert singers and dancers as well as masters of their instruments. Their performance galvanized me, as it plainly did everyone within hearing, and I resolved to form a troupe of my own.
    Mulligan, it turned out, had been at the same performance, as well as several others by the same ensemble, at which he carefully studied the technique of the great Whitlock. When he and I met we were both carrying the same idea firmly—to establish a troupe—and after our initial skirmish we set to practicing with a singleness of purpose that was energizing to say the least. Our performances—Mulligan on the banjo and myself on the bones—began to be a primary attraction for Kimball, and it caused no small jealousy among the other acts, and at length we made up our minds to leave the circus at the end of a run in Camden and hop across the river to plant our flag in Philadelphia.
    Mulligan had begun to defer to me in matters of business and organization. He was a great musician, but that is all he was. All his prodigious energies went into the subtleties of performance on the banjo. He was hopeless with money, and it was on this score, in fact, that I finally cemented an understanding with him.
    Each week, Mulligan would no sooner draw his salary than it would evaporate like the morning dew in the harsh sunlight of a card game. He was forever borrowing money and sliding further into debt.
    â€œJohn,” I said to him one day after listening to his chronic financial lament, “have you ever thought to save your money?” Saving money was a skill I had somehow inherited from my Scots forebears.
    â€œJames,” he said, “I cannot make ends meet as things stand now. How would I find two pennies extra, let alone enough to call ‘savings’?”
    â€œLet me do this,” I said. “Have Kimball pay both our salaries to me, and then I will pay you myself. And after onemonth we will see if that works to your satisfaction. I will save your money for you.”
    He watched my face as if I had posed a very difficult mathematics problem and he was considering whether to attempt an answer. Finally, he said, “You would pay me?”
    â€œYes,” I said. “And you may abandon the arrangement at any time you wish, and retrieve your escrows from me.”
    â€œEscrows?”
    â€œSavings.” He regarded me with a puzzled, vaguely suspicious expression, and I said, “John, you know where I am twenty-four hours a day. I could hardly slip out on you even if I wanted to.”
    Still somewhat puzzled, he agreed to the arrangement. He was making, at that time, twelve dollars per week; I was drawing ten. Kimball, after making sure that Mulligan was in agreement, began paying the full twenty-two dollars to me on every Friday, and I would pay Mulligan ten directly. He bristled initially, but agreed to see if he could live within the constraint. After the second week it began to seem normal to him. After the third I believe he forgot the arrangement entirely. At the end of the sixth week, when I paid him his Friday salary, I presented him with an additional twelve dollars.
    Dumbfounded, he asked, “What is this for? Where did you get this?”
    â€œThese are your savings,” I said. “You may collect them now, or I can continue to hold them for you and add to them each week.”
    His gaze bounced several times between the banknotes and my own face. He shook his head once, then again, then said, simply, “Thank you. Let’s continue.”
    From then on I was treasurer of a corporation of two. And when at length we were