The dogs kept barking at me and I was afraid to move. Then a man called out of the window of the house, "Calm down, boys! Who’s there?"
"It’s me," I said.
"Who’s me?" asked the voice.
"George Jackson, sir. I’m only a boy."
"What do you want?"
"I don’t want anything, sir. I only want to pass by the house, but the dogs won’t let me."
"Why are you prowling around here at this time of night, huh?" he asked.
"I wasn’t prowling around, sir." I began to make up a story in my head to tell him. "I fell overboard off a steamboat."
"Look here, if you’re telling the truth, you needn’t be afraid," said the man in a kinder voice. "Nobody will hurt you." Then he shouted, "Bob and Tom, wake up and fetch the guns!"
I heard more people moving around in the house. Then the man called out to me again. "George Jackson, do you know the Shepherdsons?"
"No sir," I said truthfully. "I never heard of them."
"Well, then, walk forward slowly and push the door open, just enough to squeeze in."
I took one slow step at a time. As I got close to the front door, I heard the people inside unlocking it. I pushed it and stepped inside.
By candlelight I could see three big men, all with guns pointed at me. The oldest was about sixty; the other two were young men. Behind them were an old lady and two younger women.
As soon as I was inside, the old gentleman locked the door again. Then all of us went into the parlor. They all took a good look at me and decided that I didn’t look like a Shepherdson. The old lady noticed that I was all wet. She told her servant girl to get me some food and to wake up Buck. Buck came down a few minutes later, rubbing his eyes. He looked to be about 13—my age.
Buck took me up to his room where he gave me some dry clothes. He told me about a rabbit he had caught in the woods. Then he asked me where Moses was when the candle went out. I said I didn’t know, and he said I should guess.
"How can I guess," I said, "when I never heard of it before?"
Finally he said, "He was in the dark!"
"Well, if you knew where he was, why did you ask me?" I said.
"It’s a riddle," he said. Then he grinned at me. "Are you going to stay here awhile? I hope so. I have a dog and we can go down to the river and have great times."
Still talking in this friendly way, he took me down to dinner. It was the best food I had ever tasted: cornbread and butter and beef and buttermilk. All the family members—their name was Grangerford, I soon found out—asked me questions. I told them I came from Arkansas, that my mother and brother and sisters were all dead, and that my father had drowned when we both fell off the steamboat, so I had no family. They said that I could have a home with them as long as I wanted.
The Grangerfords lived in a beautiful house with lots of rooms. Everything was kept clean and polished by all their black servants. They had a clock on the mantel, with a china cat and dog on either side. They had many books and lots of pictures on the walls.
Colonel Grangerford, the older man, treated his family kindly, and they loved him. He and his two grown-up sons were handsome men and very well dressed. His wife was a sweet-faced kind lady. The two daughters were Miss Charlotte, who was proud, and Miss Sophia, who was quiet and gentle. I found out that the family used to be larger, but a daughter had died, and three sons had been killed.
One day Buck and I were walking in the woods when we heard a horse coming. "Quick, hide!" Buck said. We hid behind a tree and saw a handsome young horseman with a gun. I later found out his name was Harney, and he was one of the Shepherdsons. Suddenly Buck fired his gun, right by my ear, and Harney’s hat flew off his head. Then we both ran through the woods and didn’t stop until we got back to the house.
Colonel Grangerford scolded Buck for shooting from behind a tree.
"But that’s what the Shepherdsons do," Buck replied.
I noticed that Miss Sophia looked very pale until she heard that Harney Shepherdson wasn’t hurt.
When Buck and I were by ourselves, I asked him why he wanted to hurt Harney Shepherdson. "What did he do to you?" I asked.
"He never did anything to me," Buck answered.
"Well, why did you want to shoot at him?" I asked.
Then Buck told me that there was a feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. I had never heard this word before, so he explained that long ago, a man in one family had fought with a man in the other family, and killed him. Then the dead man’s brother shot the first man. Then all the brothers and cousins got into the fight, too. The feud had started more than thirty years ago. No one could remember who had started the first fight, or what it was about. But the feud went on.