:-NRI 
 
 B M 102 Ih3 
 

 Twain s Kinrt Menrf. 
 
 The death of Richard Malcolm Johnston 
 recalls a Little story, which, perhaps, is not 
 
 ^n A y H kn ? Wn writes Frank L - Stanton 
 the Atlanta Constitution. At one time 
 . the distinguished writer had be.en 
 
 1 !* ? gW a readin S in Baltimore, 
 as Nelson Page volunteered to assist 
 him. But a death in Mr. Page s f amilv 
 
 2 
 
 refused to resume his lectures. But he went 
 on that occasion, for he appreciated the 
 genius of Richard Malcolm Johnson and 
 <!<^rmg to honor him, he left New York at 
 a great personal sacrifice, and appeared. 
 with him on that occasion. There never was 
 such a crowded hoitse in a Baltimore tho- 
 9, t( ; r - ^ h JSP the entertainment was over 
 Colonel JoHnston, with his accustomed fair 
 ness and courtesy, tendered Twain the bulk 
 
 01 \ he T?r? tS - "^ " Said Mark: "not onS 
 cent shall I receive. It is such a great 
 nonor to/know a man like you tht I am 
 the one/who owes you the debt or grati 
 tude." fWell," said the colonel, "at * east 
 let me /defray your expenses" "I liavr ) 
 
 th ^ Slf M tIckct " said Twain. "GoodV, 
 and Gd| bless you." That was Mark Twain. 
 
OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 
OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE 
 GEORGIA 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD MALCOLM JOHNSTON 
 
 AUTHOR OF "DUKKSBOROUGH TALES," "WIDOW GUTHRIE, 
 " OLD MARK LANGSTON," ETC. 
 
 Their best companions, innocence and health, 
 And their best riches, ignorance of wealth." 
 
 Deserted Village 
 
 gork 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 
 1897 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
COPYRIGHT, IiS97, 
 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 J. 8. Gushing e Co. - Berwick & Smith 
 Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MR. EBEN BULL S INVESTMENTS 1 
 
 Century Magazine. 
 
 MR. CUMMIN S RELINQUISHMENT 23 
 
 Century Magazine. 
 
 MR. PATE S ONLY INFIRMITY 39 
 
 Century Magazine. 
 
 SHADOWY FOES 57 
 
 Century Magazine. 
 
 THEIR COUSIN LETHY 75 
 
 Century Magazine. 
 
 OLD LADY LAZENBEREY 97 
 
 Century Magazine. 
 
 OUR WITCH 115 
 
 Century Magazine. 
 
 WEASELS ON A DEBAUCH 141 
 
 EPHE 155 
 
 The Outlook. 
 
 A CASE OF SPITE 171 
 
 The Independent. 
 
 MR. PEA NEARLY NONPLUSSED 187 
 
 Northwestern Miller. 
 
 LOST 199 
 
 McClurc s Syndicate. 
 
VI CONTENTS 
 
 PASS 
 
 MUTUAL SCHOOLMASTERS 207 
 
 McClure s Syndicate. 
 
 Miss CLISBY S ROMANCE 215 
 
 Frank Leslie s Magazine. 
 
 ISHMAEL 233 
 
 Lippincott s Magazine. 
 
MR. EBEN BULL S INVESTMENTS 
 
 A STORY OF PHILEMON PERCH 
 
MR. EBEN BULL S INVESTMENTS 
 
 A STORY OF PHILEMON PERCH 
 
 For most men (till by losing rendered sager) 
 
 Will back their own opinions by a wager. BEPPO. 
 
 SOMETIMES, when I hear people speaking of 
 investments, I am reminded of some that, to a 
 limited degree and without great ostentation, 
 were wont, when I was a schoolboy of thirteen 
 and there along, to be hazarded by a gentleman 
 of our village ; in one of which, apparently 
 promising quick and good dividends, I ventured 
 to take a chance for myself. 
 
 The Dukesborough school, kept by Mr. Whit- 
 comb, a gentleman from Vermont, had a hun 
 dred pupils, boys and girls, the greater portion 
 of whom were boarders. Although neither very 
 strong nor well grown, I had been, during all 
 the previous session, the swiftest runner among 
 the boys, and it pleased me much to coincide 
 with the general belief that I could not be over 
 come in a foot-race by any other boy near my 
 
 3 
 
4 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 age, no matter where he came from. Among 
 the new boys who had come in at the opening 
 of the present term was Jack Withers, a year 
 older than myself, but not any taller. He had 
 been reared thus far upon a plantation border 
 ing on Fulsom s Creek, seven or eight miles 
 south of the village. If it had not been that I 
 had come to like him so well before our trial of 
 speed, I might have enjoyed more keenly the 
 certain prospect of the defeat which must befall 
 this champion of the new boys, between whom 
 and the old there always was a rivalry which 
 was as animated as it was brief in duration. 
 He proved himself to be such a fine fellow that 
 afterward I was thankful for having been so 
 courteous in my first attentions. Having showed 
 himself the equal of the best of the " olds" at 
 all other sports, he beat, but only by a neck s 
 length, the second best of our runners. After 
 this he was notified that on the following Friday 
 evening, if he should choose to do so, he might 
 contest with the best nag that the "olds" had 
 to present. The liking I had for this new boy 
 led me to say to my friends that I hoped the 
 contest might be had quietly beneath the red- 
 oaks and hickories in the academy yard. But 
 no. A champion, however inclined to be mod 
 est and forbearing, cannot control the solemn 
 behests and mandates of his party, especially 
 
MR. EBEN BULL S INVESTMENTS 5 
 
 when it is ruled by such a man as Mr. Eben 
 Bull. 
 
 Since that time, long ago, I have travelled 
 somewhat extensively both in the United States 
 and abroad, and I can say with assurance, that 
 I have never made acquaintance with a longer, 
 slimmer, straighter, darker, more solemn-looking 
 and more solemn-speaking person than Mr. 
 Eben Bull. Not that, in point of fact, he was 
 so very, very solemn. On the contrary, he 
 was fond of fun, especially that of schoolboys, 
 to whose vagaries he invariably was indulgent, 
 and for which he was ever ready to bespeak in 
 dulgence from their parents and teachers. He 
 professed to glory in witnessing trials of prowess 
 of every kind. Mrs. Bowden, wife of the post 
 master, with whom he boarded, used to tell how 
 he would sit in her back porch and watch the 
 contests of young pigs and of roosters of every 
 age, and banter her husband, who was a semi- 
 religious man, to make what he called " a in- 
 vessment " on the several issues. Claiming to 
 be unambitious, yet he was free to speak of 
 himself as sufficiently knowing upon subjects 
 historical, political, agricultural, mercantile, 
 mechanical, and others, including religious 
 (though not a church-member) and even mat 
 rimonial, albeit a bachelor on the shady side of 
 forty. When asked why he had never married 
 
b OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 nor joined the church, he winked slowly, looked 
 compassionately upon married men and church- 
 members who happened to be present, and 
 mumbled a few words intended to express the 
 profundity with which he had searched into the 
 depths of human nature. The solemnity of his 
 speech was deepened by a habit of imparting a 
 sighing and nasal preface to the beginning of his 
 sentences and to other chosen words in them 
 which made them sound as if the painful elabora 
 tion of his thoughts had induced asthma or some 
 kindred pulmonic infirmity. An avowed patron 
 of the " olds," he was yet quick to admit and 
 receive into his confidence real manifest excel 
 lence among the "news." He liked my family 
 much, and used to speak in highest praise of my 
 fleetness. When he heard that the decisive race, 
 in accordance with my wishes, was to be had on 
 the academy grounds, he said to Tom Gatlin, 
 our leader : 
 
 " Hum ! Tom, let em take it out up here at 
 Eland s, whar everybody can see Phil run away 
 from that chap from Fulsom s Creek. Phil Perch 
 is entirely too modest ; and you tell him I say so." 
 
 That settled it, and after the school was dis 
 missed Friday afternoon, we all repaired to 
 Eland s, whose store was half-way down the only 
 street of which Dukesborough had to boast. I 
 look back now to that scene with some sadness 
 
MR. EBEN BULL S INVESTMENTS 7 
 
 at the contempt I felt for myself after I had been 
 so beaten. When Jack reached the goal, I, fif 
 teen yards behind, put my hand to my heart, 
 turned, and, coming back, looked at no face save 
 one, which I could have avoided no more than a, 
 bird avoids the snake by whose charm it has been 
 enchanted. Mr. Bull, having withdrawn to the 
 steps of the piazza, stood and regarded me silently 
 with his great black eyes, and, as I went on home, 
 I could feel them shooting upon my back, not 
 pity for my defeat, but anger, dire and deadly, 
 for the dishonor of my friends and antecedents. 
 I have lived to suffer the defeat of many a dear 
 hope, but not one of them has ever inflicted a 
 pain like that. Yet, when afterward I found 
 that Jack said openly that he would fight any 
 boy approximating his size who should taunt me, 
 I loved him more than before. When I had left 
 the field, Mr. Bull said to him : 
 
 " N - h, don t say nothin bout it, Jack ; but 
 I invessed two dollars along of Jeemes Bland 
 on that contempible boy, and I ve got to git back 
 the invessment from Jeemes or somebody." 
 
 The friendship between Jack and me grew 
 more and more fond, and it consoled me to re 
 flect that the garland I had worn could have 
 been snatched only by him who proved to be as 
 gentle and manly as he was stalwart and agile. 
 In my mind I compared him with the most fa- 
 
8 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 famous runners of whom I had been reading in 
 Lempriere s "Classical Dictionary," particularly 
 Milanion, who, by the help of Venus, had run 
 the race with Atalanta. If not the first runner 
 in the Dukesborough school, I was second, I 
 thought, to the best in the world and he my 
 friend. 
 
 A mile and a half beyond the Ogeechee, which 
 was equidistant from our village, dwelt Mr. Jones 
 Huckaby, friend of Mr. Bull. A justice of the 
 peace and a farmer, he sought to supplement the 
 income from his office and farm with a small 
 store, and with occasional, moderate, cautious 
 investments, like those of Mr. Bull, on neighbor 
 hood nags, game chickens, and other animals, 
 when discussions upon their comparative excel 
 lences became to that degree animated. Occa 
 sionally the two made joint investments of from 
 half a dollar to five dollars. More often, how 
 ever, they had been opposed. It so happened 
 that the balance just now was in Mr. Huckaby s 
 favor to the amount of six dollars and thirty- 
 seven and a half cents a balance which Mr. 
 Bull thought he owed it to himself to remove. 
 People on the further border of the river often 
 visited Dukesborough, which was much nearer 
 to them than their own county-seat. Mr. Huck 
 aby, especially, was addicted to riding over, tak 
 ing back in his saddle-bags papers of pins, strings 
 
MR. EBEN BULL S INVESTMENTS 9 
 
 of buttons, skeins of silk, arid maybe half a dozen 
 bunches of twine, that, after a fair discount from 
 Mr. Bland, it would hardly have paid to send for 
 all the way to Augusta. But his main purpose 
 in such visitations was to have chattings with 
 his friend, Mr. Bull. 
 
 " I m always glad to see Jones Huckaby," 
 Mr. Bull often remarked kindly ; " the poor fel 
 ler is natchul fond of news, and he unfortunate 
 live whar they ain t any, or mighty little to be 
 had." 
 
 During one of these visits Mr. Bull spoke of 
 Jack Withers, and intimated a willingness to in 
 vest in him on proper conditions. Mr. Huckaby 
 then remarked that there was a boy over on his 
 side of the river who, people said, could get over 
 ground right well, and he would not be surprised 
 if he could beat the Fulsom Creek champion. 
 
 " Feel like invessin anything on that, Jones ? " 
 
 He spoke as carefully as possible, meaning to 
 hide his eagerness. Mr. Huckaby named a dol 
 lar, but, forced by the other s contempt for small 
 figures, and in view of the advantage to the 
 store, where the race must be had, of collecting 
 a considerable number from both sides of the 
 river, rose to ten. From his huge pocket-book 
 Mr. Bull took out and threw down a ten-dollar 
 bill upon the counter of Mr. Bland, who was to 
 be stake-holder. From many a pocket Mr. Huck- 
 
10 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 aby eked out what would cover it, sighing the 
 while with painful apprehension. 
 
 "Eb Bull," he said, in humble but manly sense 
 of every freeman s right to utter his mind even 
 in the presence of men enjoying society advan 
 tages so far superior, "you town people has a 
 contempt of country folks like me that has to 
 make their livin by the sweat o their brow ; but 
 but" then Mr. Huckaby shook his head, as 
 if there were a few things in rural existence that 
 the proudest city aristocrat could have no just 
 occasion to despise. 
 
 "M- no, Jones," answered Mr. Bull; "there 
 you re mistaken, and it s because of our manner. 
 M- of course we has our privileges, n- and our 
 advantages, n- and but yit we has our respects 
 of some country people, n- that they has the am 
 bition like you has, to git out, or try to git out, 
 of their ign ance." 
 
 Talking to Jack Withers afterward, Mr. Bull 
 said : " I had to flarter up Jones Huckaby power 
 ful before I could git the fellow up to the p int 
 of invessin to a figger as would make it worth 
 while to cross over the river that fur. Them 
 country people is awful skeery. My money is 
 invessed in you, boy, and when the thing s over, 
 we ll all try n- see if we can t have some fun in 
 a way not too public and p inted." 
 
MR. EBEN BULL S INVESTMENTS ( ll 
 
 II 
 
 * 
 
 THE race was set for the Saturday following 
 tlie next ensuing, Mr. Huckaby asking, and Mr. 
 Bull allowing, the intervening days for getting 
 in such new supplies as were likely to be in 
 demand at the store. Our boys were elated. 
 Only Jack Withers, noble fellow that he was, 
 declined to indulge triumph in advance over a 
 boy that he had heard was quite poor. 
 
 A mile beyond the river was an outlying field 
 of fifty or more acres covered with a growth of 
 "old-field" pines, beneath which were innum 
 erable strawberry-vines. Thither, during the 
 season of that fruit, young persons in the neigh 
 borhood often repaired. In the early part of 
 the week it was given out that several gentle 
 men were to make an excursion to this field, 
 and were willing to take with them as many of 
 the schoolboys as could get leave. The solemn 
 mystery with which this announcement was 
 repeated several times by Mr. Bull was the 
 subject of some pleasant comment among the 
 ladies. 
 
 It happened at the time that I was indebted 
 to the amount of twenty-five cents to Sally 
 Burch, a decent, elderly colored woman who 
 made and vended ginger-cakes at her home near 
 
12 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEOEGIA 
 
 the church. This sum had been overdue longer 
 than she or I had expected when the credit was 
 given. In those times pocket-money was not at 
 all usual among planters, even those with large 
 plantations, because, getting their income from 
 cotton only once in the year, after the payment 
 of store-accounts, the rest except a reservation 
 nearly always too little for contingent cash ex 
 penses was invested in other property. We 
 boys had our allowance on Christmas and 
 Fourth of July, but not many were able usually 
 to make both ends meet at the recurrence of 
 one of these happy seasons, so remote from its 
 predecessor. On this occasion it occurred to me 
 that an investment of a quarter quietly put upon 
 Jack Withers might not be too grossly improper, 
 would be entirely safe, and would enable me to 
 square my account with Sally Burch, into whose 
 eyes for some time past, I had not been able to 
 look with composure. Therefore, at nightfall 
 on Friday, I approached Uncle Gill, our head 
 man-servant, for a loan. Preliminary to the 
 application, I carried to the stable corn from 
 the crib and fodder from the loft, and, after 
 getting a word of praise, spoke my mind. 
 
 " Marse Philly," answered the old man, paus 
 ing, with currycomb in hand, "whut, name o 
 goodness, you want wid money more n whut 
 your pappy low you?" 
 
X3 
 
 Mil. EBEN BULL S INVESTMENTS 13 
 
 " I want to make an investment; Uncle Gill," 
 I replied. 
 
 " A wes you want make me believe your 
 ma don t make wes co ts enough for you ? " 
 
 I made him understand that, instead of a 
 waistcoat, I had heard of something that was 
 going very cheap, for nothing indeed, as it were, 
 and which I should like to buy with as little 
 noise as possible made about it. After some 
 reflection, taking from his home-knit woollen 
 purse a quarter, he handed it to me, saying : 
 
 " I done made up my mind not to bodder my 
 self lendin to white boys, ev y sence de trouble 
 I had long wid two un em, which I loant one 
 un em a thrip en nother a seb n pens, en 
 dee kep on puttin me off, en puttin me off, 
 whell I had to make out like I gwine to dey 
 pappies ; en dee knowed dey pappies would 
 mighty nigh burn em up wid de hick ry for 
 borrowin money en not payin back, en special 
 from niggers, en all dat, befo I could killect my 
 debt. But I know you ain gwine to projict 
 wid me if you can he p it. Take de quarter, en 
 go long wid you, en maybe de man, when he 
 see de money in your hand, he ll fall yit furder. 
 People, when dey gwine tradin dee has to study 
 bout sich things, mon." 
 
 Many another coin of that and less volume 
 was gotten in that and similar ways before the 
 
14 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 eventful day. Not that we were led by any 
 special words of Mr. Bull, who was not a man 
 to urge children to go directly against the 
 known wishes of their parents and teachers ; 
 but the deep solemnity of his words and looks, 
 imparting great contentment, the sarcastic pity 
 he expressed for the ignorant temerity of Mr. 
 Huckaby these and other things made us note 
 that his mind was enjoying an assurance which 
 victory already achieved and acknowledged 
 could not have enhanced. Along with this was 
 our confidence in Jack, which was as boundless 
 as the skies. 
 
 Our party decided not to visit the strawberry- 
 fields until after the race. All of the boys 
 except Jack travelled on foot, Mr. Bull, for the 
 sake of keeping him entirely fresh, taking him 
 over in a gig. We found quite as large a com 
 pany as we were already gathered. Among 
 them, I noticed, moving about apparently with 
 some anxiety, a pitiful-looking boy of about my 
 height, but thinner. On a sort of sugar-loaf 
 head was an irregular crop of hair of every 
 shade of white, surmounted by a wool hat the 
 rim of which in front for the breadth of his 
 forehead had been torn away. His upper lip 
 made a sort of arch over two of the biggest, 
 longest, whitest teeth I have ever seen. His 
 copperas-dyed, home-made clothes, short in the 
 
MR. EBEN BULL S INVESTMENTS 15 
 
 legs and arms, were out at the knees and elbows. 
 His bowed legs looked like two long parentheses. 
 
 "P int out your nag, Jones/ said Bull, when 
 we had rested several minutes. 
 
 " Here, Peeky," called Mr. Huckaby, and the 
 boy I had noticed came creeping. Mr. Huckaby 
 whispered to Mr. Bull that he was very timid, 
 and was afraid that if he should be beaten, as 
 he expected, the town boys might bully and 
 otherwise maltreat him. Indeed he would not 
 consent to make the race until assured that the 
 goal should be in the direction of his own home, 
 so that he might avoid more easily the conse 
 quences of defeat. 
 
 "This him?" asked Mr. Bull, seeming to be 
 rather taken aback by the strange figure that 
 presented itself. 
 
 " That s him," answered Mr. Huckaby. Then 
 he said to the boy : " Needn t be oneasy, Peeky. 
 These is all good friendly people, and wouldn t 
 hurt nary ha r on your head/ 
 
 After inspecting him for some time with se 
 verest scrutiny, as a philosopher might ponder 
 withal a newly discovered, unique, abnormal 
 specimen of animate existence, Mr. Bull, in a 
 very deep tone, asked : 
 
 " W what s your name, my son ? " 
 
 "Fee Feeky Gwiz Gwizzle, sir." It 
 sounded much like the whining of a cat. 
 
16 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 Mr. Bull grunted painfully, and involuntarily 
 took a step backward; recovering himself, lie 
 said, "Feefee who?" 
 
 " His name is Peeky Grizzle, Eb," Mr. Huck- 
 aby answered for him. " He have a kind of 
 stoppage in his speech, and are ruther tongue- 
 tied ; but them don t hender Peeky from bein 
 of a nice, smart, good boy, not they don t." 
 
 " How old you call yourself ? " asked Mr. Bull. 
 
 " Mam mammy say I fo teen ; dad daddy 
 say I worse n dat." 
 
 " That s jest about my ric lection of Peeky s 
 age," said Mr. Huckaby. " My opinion of Peeky 
 Grizzle is, he s just about fourteen year old, and 
 a leetle on the rise, and a more biddable boy than 
 him I don t know nowhars." 
 
 Peeky glanced with rapid alternation toward 
 Mr. Huckaby and Mr. Lazenberry, a neighbor 
 and special friend, and nervously awaited Mr. 
 Bull s further interrogatings. Mr. Bull slowly 
 lifted his head, looked up toward the zenith, 
 and with the most solemn thoughtfulness stroked 
 his chin through the full length of his fingers. 
 It was evident that some perturbation had come 
 over his mind. At length he looked down again 
 upon Peeky, and said : 
 
 "Ya-as. You ruther take me by surprise. 
 But don t you be oneasy, my son ; h m them 
 boys they ain t no harm in them, ef they is town 
 
MR. EBEN BULL S INVESTMENTS 17 
 
 boys. They jes come over here for a little fun ; 
 that s all. If you git beat, m- or if you beat, 
 I ll see to it myself that you ain t hurted ; and 
 not only that, but you shall have a gingy-cake, 
 and a segyar to boot, if you ve learnt how to 
 smoke yit." 
 
 Then, taking Jack aside, he said darkly : 
 "Jack, them legs o yourn got to work every 
 muscle in em. They ain t never any tellin 
 what s in one o these here wild old-field colts, 
 special sech a ontimely-lookin one as this here. 
 M- Feefeeky, or whatsomever his name is, my 
 opinion is that ef you git away from him m- you 
 got to git away from him at the first jump." 
 
 When all preliminaries had been settled, a 
 hundred yards were stepped off. The contes 
 tants were to break by me, Mr. Huckaby and 
 one of our boys were to watch the starting, and 
 Mr. Bull and a trans-Ogeechean went forward 
 to stand at the farther end of the limit. Peeky 
 gave a perceptible shiver as he and Jack joined 
 hands. When the break was made, Peeky, who 
 would not part from his hat, giving a momen 
 tary glance at Jack, made first for his own ex 
 treme side of the road, and then for home. 
 Call his movement running that is, human 
 running I should not. It was flight. Yes, sirs, 
 flight ! Tucking low his back and shoulders, lift 
 ing his face aloft, he extended both his arms 
 
18 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 at length, and with his open hands, their palms 
 turned backward, fanned behind him the air 
 through which he sped like a swallow skimming 
 a mill-pond. Jack, after taking not more than 
 a dozen strides, convinced that he might as well 
 try to overtake a frightened antelope, stopped, 
 and, turning back, cried : 
 
 " Boys, why in thunder don t you all laugh ? 
 Don t you see that I m doing my level best to 
 laugh myself, and can t ? I know your money 
 is all gone ; but if you ll join those other fellows, 
 and raise a good laugh, I ll treat the crowd to 
 ginger-cakes." 
 
 He had refrained from investing in himself, 
 as he said, out of decency. We raised a shout 
 that was hoped to make up in sound what it 
 lacked in heartiness, and the other side joined 
 in deafening chorus. But that Peeky Grizzle! 
 Ah, sirs, you should have seen him then ! Turn 
 ing back one eye momentarily at the sound, his 
 legs and his hands seemed actually to flutter as 
 he swept along. Dipping his head slightly as 
 he passed by Mr. Bull, on and on he fled, along 
 the level two hundred yards in further extent, 
 up the hill of fifty or sixty in ascent, then dis 
 appeared from our view. Not less interesting 
 was Mr. Eben Bull. Urged by a necessity 
 as stern as fate, when the fugitive passed, he 
 turned and looked at him in silence as long as 
 
ME. EBEN BULL S INVESTMENTS 19 
 
 he could be seen. Then in the loudest tones, 
 and as piteous as ever came from mouth of the 
 most beseeching suppliant, he shouted : 
 
 "M- why don t m- what make m- can t 
 the ongodly, everlastin thing m- can t it stop 
 itself?" 
 
 With slow, offended majesty he stalked back 
 toward the store. Jack, after handing Mr. 
 Huckaby half a dollar for Peeky, hurriedly in 
 vested the balance of his money in cakes, and 
 then said : 
 
 " Let s be off from this place, boys. I wouldn t 
 meet old man Bull now for five dollars, and I 
 wouldn t ride back with him, even if he wanted 
 me, for a hundred." 
 
 We heard the tittering behind us as we were 
 hastening away. When we got out of sight we 
 slacked our pace, and taking out our cakes, ate 
 them in humbleness. 
 
 " They don t make cakes over here like old 
 Aunt Sally Burch," said Tom Gatlin, and there 
 was not a dissentient voice. 
 
 WE heard afterward of Mr. Bull s doings at 
 the store. When he had reached it, he lifted 
 his head heavily from the subdued attitude in 
 which it had been hanging, and, looking around, 
 inquired : 
 
 " M- whar s all our boys ? " 
 
20 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 When told how and why Jack had hurried 
 us away, he said, with a profound sigh : 
 
 " Needn t done no sich a thing. N- I d a 
 not scolded Jack Withers, h- not nary single 
 word." 
 
 Turning upon Mr. Huckaby, he frowned dis 
 mally with what seemed to be the pain of sup 
 pressing his righteous indignation. In a few 
 moments he said : 
 
 " M- Jones Huckaby, you took the vantage of 
 me. N- that creetur ain t folks. M- blest if I 
 believe it s folks ; n- that is, in the gen l way 
 of folks in gen l. N- Jack Withers, nor nary 
 nother human, they jest as well run ag ins 
 thunder. My opinion is that sich a onreg lar 
 creeter as that, if it was left to a n- skidule o 
 men that makes a practice o understandin and 
 rig latin invessments n- accordin to the scale 
 and the code o honor, they d say, if not a for 
 feit, it ought leastways to be a draw." 
 
 " Oh now, come now, Eb, that s your town, 
 
 high- 
 
 " Oh, I m not a-gwine to make a great to-do 
 about it, exceptin to express my n- opinions. 
 I left down a gap in my calc lations and you 
 stepped on me onexpected. Let her go. Whar 
 you supposin the thing tuck up at, n- Jones ? " 
 
 " Home," answered Mr. Huckaby. " He ll not 
 take up this side o thar." 
 
MR. EBEN BULL S INVESTMENTS 21 
 
 " How fur s that ? " 
 
 " About four mile." 
 
 " M- well, it s about thar by now. Did you 
 know how it could git over ground ? " 
 
 " Why, no ; that is, not egzack, El). I has 
 never see him run, not myself, tell to-day; but 
 I ve heerd some o his neighbors, special Jim 
 Lazenberry here, talk about him, and which 
 they perceeded on to say, that when him or his 
 mammy want a rabbit, Peeky take out a little 
 fise-dog he have to jump him, and then him 
 pick him up. Whut make him keep on home, 
 he were afeered o them town boys. He s a 
 ruther skeery kind o boy, a not being so very 
 peert in his mind." 
 
 " N- hit mayn t be peert in what mind it 
 have ; m- but hit make up in hits laigs, which 
 if I ever see a pa r o laigs the same as pot-hooks, 
 hit s his n ; tell the truth, I were ruther feard o 
 them laigs when I first lay eye on em." 
 
 After revolving with death-like solemnity a 
 thought in his mind, he said : 
 
 " M- Jones Huckaby, and you, Jeemes Lazen 
 berry, n- and you gentlemen, and boys, n- one 
 and all you hear me. Hit s my last and ownlest 
 invessment. If I got to git broke and busted to 
 boot, hit s got to come in a natchul way. Far 
 you well." 
 
 He kept his vow. Even down to old age he 
 
22 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 was a frequent admonisher against investing in 
 feats or games of chance of every sort. 
 
 " N- no, sir," hundreds of times he was heard 
 to say ; " h- my advices is ag ins invessment 
 always. I has had the expe unce of em. The 
 de-ficulty about invessments is, when a man is 
 certain in his mind n- that he know every 
 blessed thing about whut he s invessin on, n- 
 them s the very time when he don t know n- one 
 cussed thing about it ; and they bound to break 
 whoever f oiler em." 
 
 Ay ? You d like to hear how Uncle Gill s in 
 vestment in me turned out ? Well, I am glad 
 to be able to make satisfactory answer. The 
 matter was talked about so much that I soon 
 confessed rny part to my mother, and besought her 
 forgiveness and protection against my father 
 when it should get to his ears. After a serious, 
 affectionate rebuke, I obtained both under a 
 pledge not to do so again. Then with the half- 
 dollar she gave me, I liquidated the debts owed 
 to Uncle Gill and Sally Burch. My own refor 
 mation was as quick, and thus far has been as 
 steadfast, as Mr. Bull s. From that day, borrow 
 ing that gentleman s oft-repeated asseveration, 
 I have never " invessed." 
 
MR. CUMMIN S RELINQUISHMENT 
 
ME. CUMMIN S RELINQUISHMENT 
 
 MR. JOHN CUMMIN had been called first "Uncle 
 Jack/ and subsequently "Uncle Jacky " long be 
 fore I was ever born. He was a stoutish, plain, 
 tolerably educated, thoroughly honest, intensely 
 good-hearted, well-to-do country gentleman of 
 whom all of his acquaintances used to speak 
 with much respect, even much affection, although 
 he was nothing in this wide world but an old 
 bachelor ; because, you must know, he had not 
 become so from any wilful neglect of such matri 
 monial opportunities as had come, or nearly had 
 come, in his way in the times of his youth, man 
 hood, and even incipient old age. According to 
 tradition, besides having, when a young man, a 
 good property and first-rate habits, he was good- 
 looking enough for any young woman in the 
 whole neighborhood whose demands in that 
 line were not extravagantly unreasonable. He 
 had not been without several romantic experi 
 ences which had ended contrary to his many 
 hopes and even a few of his expectations. Some 
 sadness, at last become painless, was suspected 
 
 25 
 
26 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 to linger within his heart in recollection of one 
 of these experiences in particular; yet upon the 
 whole he lived ever in a reasonable contentment, 
 and not seldom indulged in jesting where he was 
 entirely sure that it would do no hurt. I hap 
 pened to find out one day that, along with the 
 sadness just mentioned, if there were not, there 
 very well might be, some pride in recalling a 
 sacrifice once made by him in the face of a sorely 
 trying temptation. 
 
 Knowing me from my birth, and being a dear 
 friend of our family, when I came to the Bar he 
 took much interest in my success, occasionally 
 bringing or advising others to carry to me cases 
 of not great importance. At such times he would 
 speak jocosely about thus : 
 
 "Here s a little somethin I brought you to 
 try your hand on. They ain t much in it : I 
 don t know if I hadn t about as soon lose it as 
 win it, and so I brought it to you. Umph ! you 
 understand." 
 
 One day, some years afterward, being now 
 quite an old man, he came into my office in 
 order to give me instructions about his last will 
 and testament, which he wished me to write. 
 One of the items led me to inquire how it 
 was that he had never married. 
 
 He was silent for several moments, then with 
 something of a smile on his face answered : 
 
ME. CUMMIN S KELINQUISHMENT 27 
 
 "Well, now, my young lawyer, what you 
 asked you might call jest one single lone ques- 
 t on by itself ; but I should, that is, me myself, 
 I should call it a many a quest on ; and if I was 
 to go over all of em and tell you all what I 
 done, and all what I didn t do, and then turn 
 round and norate all the whys and the where 
 fores on the lines o them quest ons, it would 
 be a biogerphy yes, sir, a perfect biogerphy, 
 and nothin short o that; that is, you under 
 stand, I mean if I was to begin at the beginning 
 which you might call it my first sproutin days, 
 on and on, down twell the time of my dryin up 
 for good, which you mayn t believe it, but it 
 were, off and on, forty year and better. Oh, 
 you may lift up your eyebrow, for you young 
 people think time a man git to be forty and the 
 rise, it s too late for him to be keerin about such 
 a thing as marryin and the havin of a wife, and 
 he better be spendin o his time in lookin out 
 how he s to stand in the next world. And that s 
 jest where you re all monst ous bad mistaken, 
 as I know by expe unce." 
 
 After a pause, in which he seemed to be in 
 dulging a remote retrospect, he continued : 
 
 " Yes, yes, indeed. I begun soon and I helt 
 on late. It first struck me when I were about 
 fifteen year old, and it struck me deep deep 
 as you ever see a colt stuck in the mire of a 
 
28 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 creek-bottom when it seem like lie can t pull 
 hisself out, not by his own strenk. And albe I 
 were as healthy a boy as you ever knowed, I 
 got weakly and puny, and I lost great quantity 
 of my appertite for my victuals, and I tried to 
 write some po try, but fort nate couldn t, be 
 cause I never learnt how, and well, sir, fact 
 is, I jest ketched the moloncholy all thoo and 
 thoo me, that I did. But one thing I knewed 
 for cert n, and that were, if my father was to 
 happen to find out the whole fix I were in, he d 
 take me out it with the hick ry, if it couldn t 
 be took out no other way, and that speedy. 
 And so I swallowed much of it as I could, 
 a-knowin well as if anybody told me so that I 
 had begun to bark too soon, and up the wrong 
 tree at that ; for the girl were six year older than 
 me, and tweren t so very long time before she 
 got married, and so then, why you know, I jest 
 had to give it up, of course ; and I done it like 
 a honer ble man and a honer ble boy ll always 
 do, which if he didn t, somebody ought to shoot 
 him, which that have been my opinion about 
 sech a thing from fur back as I can ric lect. 
 
 " Now, that were my first off-start in that 
 kind o business, if a body might name sech a 
 thing by the name o business. Didn t I tell 
 you if I was to answer all your quest on, it d 
 be a biogerphy ? " 
 
ME. CUMMIN S EEUXQUISHMZNT 29 
 
 I assured him that I was much interested in 
 his talk, and that I would like to hear more of 
 it, if the recital were not painful or disagreeable 
 to him. 
 
 " Oh, no ; oh, no. It ain t no painful to me 
 now, and, as to that, no dis greeble, if you keer 
 to know r about it. I done got over sech as that 
 a long ago. Well, if you want me to tell 
 you jest for your own cur osity, it weren t so 
 very long before I got in ag in, and I kept on 
 a-gittin in, sometimes ruther mild, but casional 
 strong as piz n. For rny expe unce is that this 
 here thing people calls love it takes holt of 
 people in dift er nt and war ous ways. Some 
 times it ain t much more trouble to a feller than 
 a bad cold, or a crick in the neck, or a bile on 
 the elbow ; which sech as that is ill-con venant, 
 to be sure, matter o course, but he know it ain t 
 a-goin to kill him out and out. nor run him 
 a-ravin distracted ; but if he ll go long and 
 have patient, he ll git over it after a while, 
 more or less. Then ag in the tiling strike him 
 and it break out all over him ; and he jest know 
 something s got to be done or they ain t no 
 telliii what ll happen ; I ve had all the syinp- 
 tims. and I know em same as a book. 
 
 "But the de ficulty that is. I may say. the 
 de-ficultest thing with me were. I were never 
 peert enough at the business like women want a 
 
30 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 feller to be ; and many time when I have been 
 studyin about how to fix up and express my 
 mind like it seemed to me a man by good rights 
 ought to express hisself on sech a ser ous and 
 solemn occasion, why, sir, another feller have 
 come in that were peerter in his words, and in 
 his motions, and in his ways in gen l, and he 
 have used a whole lot o dictionary language I 
 never learnt, and the first I knowed, he have 
 over-persuaded my sweetheart, and she have 
 flewed away with him clean away." 
 
 He waved his hand sadly yet uncomplainingly 
 to the far-away fugitives, and thus proceeded : 
 
 " You want to know who they was that got 
 in ahead o me that way the oftenest? Well, 
 sir, it was widowers, that somehow they know 
 how to make their selves the overpersuadin est 
 to women of all that goes. Why, sir, they can 
 git up a cry whensoever they want to, which 
 women can t always stand up against sech as 
 that, and they know it ; and the older they git, 
 the younger the female they ll choosen for their 
 companion if they can, and the pitifuller they ll 
 put up their cry in to em. Yes, sir ; that s my 
 expe unce o them widowers." 
 
 He shook his head at thought of the utter 
 emptiness of endeavors on the part of such as 
 he to compete with rivals so experienced and 
 artful. 
 
MB. CUMMIN S EELINQUISHMENT 31 
 
 "And so it kept on, first one way, then 
 another, ontwell I got to forty, goin on to 
 forty-one, and people begun to call me old 
 bachelor, when I were no more a-wantin to be 
 one o them creaturs than you do this minute 
 (that people say is already done engaged), not 
 one grain more : that I didn t, because I always 
 did believe of all things the good Lord in his 
 wisdom ever make, they are the driest and un- 
 uselessest. And then some of the young girls 
 and boys they must begin to call me Uncle 
 Jack, and it was Uncle Jack this, and Uncle 
 Jack that ; yit, sick as it made me to hear 
 em, I darnesn t let on, a-knowin if I did, it 
 would only make em double it on me. But 
 it had the eeffect, all I could do to help myself, 
 to make me yit slower in all my gaits ; and 
 when, along up to fifty and the rise, they sot in 
 a-callin of me Uncle Jacky, I suspicioned strong 
 that exceptin somethin turned up soon and 
 onexpected like, my time for sech as that would 
 be up. And sure enough it did ; that is, I 
 thought it did, and it come a mighty nigh 
 a-doin of it." 
 
 There was an appealing look on his face as 
 in softened tone he proceeded : 
 
 " The last time my mind were worked up in 
 that kind o style, it were where I come the 
 nighest, and it were the closetest and the try- 
 
32 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 in est of em all. You needn t tell anybody I 
 told you about it at all ewents, twell arfter 
 I m gone. I were fifty-six in my fifty-seb nt . 
 It were Matildy Owens, who she were then 
 twenty-two. She were a perfect fa r pink for 
 beautiful and sweet that she were ; and she 
 were sensible, and she were modest, and she 
 were dilicate, and she were home-stayin , and 
 she were industr ous. Fact is, to my belief twell 
 yit her ekal weren t in all around, and that s 
 sayin a heap ; for in them days, as for pooty, 
 nice, industr ous girls well, all I got to say, 
 _I don t see them now to compar with em, 
 that I don t. I been havin my eye on Matildy 
 Owens four or five year, and then I sot in 
 a-courtin of her jest because I loved her to 
 that that I couldn t keep from it. I had a 
 plenty o prop ty, and I knowed this. I could 
 make her/parrents, well as her, have more com 
 forts. They was poor, but they lived decent. 
 It were my meanin to pay her father out o 
 all debt, and help him fix up his house better, 
 and some other ways he needed. When him 
 and her ma found out what were on my mind, 
 they was willin for me to have her, and they 
 ruther had been a-persuadin of her to that 
 eeffect./ And so, when I put the quest on down 
 to her pine-blank, she said that yes she d have 
 me, and she said it squar out and out, calm, 
 
ME. CUMMIN S RELINQUISHMENT 33 
 
 same like I d asked her about the weather or 
 the time o day. Tell the truth, it were the 
 happiest of all my born days, and I never for 
 got it: that I never did. She have never 
 that is, to my face Matildy Owens have never 
 called me Uncle Jacky, nor not even Uncle Jack, 
 and that made me warm up to her the closeter, 
 and let me feel I weren t so very everlastin 
 too old for her, that it did. And I said to 
 myself, Jack Cummin, you are gittin ruther 
 oldish, if not quite yit beginnin to git old, and 
 Matildy Owens is young ; but you can be good 
 to Matildy, and not git jealous of her because 
 she s got and is ableeged to have young ways, 
 which you hain t, and natchul can t ; and when 
 it come time for you to die off and leave her, 
 you can leave her with a good prop ty and a 
 plenty for her parrents to live on, and so my 
 opinion is you can take the resk. Now, that s 
 what I said to myself." 
 
 Here the old man paused and rubbed his 
 head, as if embarrassed by a regret which his 
 rehearsal of a dear experience made appear to 
 be deeper than he had supposed. Then, con 
 tinuing, he said : 
 
 " Well, sir, I begun to think about it with the 
 ser ousness that a man had ought to always think 
 about sech a matter, because marryin is a se- 
 r ouser and a solem er business than some people 
 
34 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEOEGIA 
 
 look at it, when a man put on the best things 
 he can rake up and he call on God A mighty to 
 testify for him and to stand by him. I tell you 
 now that at sech a time a man have got well, 
 he jest have to putt hisself right on the squar . 
 That s what come to me to try to do arfter 
 thinkin about it in the ser ous way I been 
 a-talkin to you, and that s what final I did do 
 a cordin to my ability." 
 
 After another brief pause, he cleared his throat 
 with some violence and resumed : 
 
 " They ain t much more of it to tell ; but 
 what they is, it s to the p int. There were 
 a young fellow you know Sam Bowers. A 
 th ivin man, and a good citizen, Sam is. It 
 were him that same Sam Bowers. Now, Sam 
 he were in love with Matildy, and that to a 
 pow ful extent. But he were poor like the 
 Owenses, and when I took to goin over there 
 freckwent and he suspicioned what was up, Sam 
 drapped out, he did. I were ruther sorry for 
 Sam ; for he were good-hearted, toler ble in- 
 dustr ous, and oncommon good-lookin . Some 
 said that if Sam had the prop ty to back him 
 up, to their opinion he could cut in now, late 
 as it were, and git Matildy ; and them words 
 come to my year. And so, when, as I tell you 
 now, if I knowed myself, I were no more jeal 
 ous o Matildy than I am o you this minute, 
 
MR. CUMMIN S RELINQUISHMENT 35 
 
 yit it putt me to thinkin a sight ser ouser than 
 before ; and as the time were comin along for 
 the app intin o the day, it seem like I couldn t 
 think about not another blessed thing, not only 
 in the daytime, but of a night long arfter I 
 went to bed; and when I d wake up of a 
 mornin I d go right straight to thinkin about 
 it ag in, twell it seem like to me, if somethin 
 weren t done, my very senses was goin to give 
 way, and that in short. 
 
 " Ahem ! ahe-e-em ! Final one mornin I rid 
 over there. Matildy met me, the same calm 
 modest as ever. I said, Howdy, Matildy? and 
 I set down in a cheer. I darsn t take holt of 
 her hand ; for I do think, on my soul, her hand, 
 spite o the work she done, it were the softest 
 and affectionest I ever helt in mine endurin all 
 my lifetime. And so I never teched it ; but I 
 told her to take a seat, and when we had passed 
 a few words, like people always does when they 
 jest met and howdy d, I looked at her squar , 
 and I said, Matildy, I come over this mornin 
 to ask you a solemn quest on, and it s if do you 
 think you like me well enough to marry me ? 
 Well, sir, the child turned pale. Yit she said 
 she thought she did ; leastways, she hoped she 
 did, and she were a-prayin every day and every 
 night to the good Lord to help her to do her juty 
 by me. And then I says to her, Matildy, they 
 
36 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 tell me Sam Bowers is in love with you, but 
 the feller is poor and have therefore helt back, 
 thinkin that, if nothin else, would hender him 
 from makin the connection. Well, sir, from 
 white she turned red, red as any rose you ever 
 see, and I see some water in her eyes. What 
 you reckon I done then ? I tried to look un 
 concerned, when, fact is, I were a-bilin over all 
 inside o me. And then I says to her, < Matildy, 
 my child, it won t do. You ve tried honest to 
 love me, and you can t. I might have knew, 
 and I ought to have knew, it were ag inst nater 
 to do it ; I m thankful, and God A mighty bless 
 you for tryin it. Now let me tell you some- 
 thin : I m a-goin to git on my horse, and I m 
 a-goin straight from here to Sam Bowers s, and 
 I m a-goin to tell Sam that I ll let him have the 
 money to buy a piece o land, and put up a 
 decent little house, and stock it with furnicher 
 and things him and you ll want to start with, 
 and then I m a-goin to send Sam right straight 
 here to you. Them s about the wery words I 
 said to her. Well, sir, she riz, she did, and she 
 cried, and she said that no, she wanted me to do 
 no sech, but to let things stand jest like they 
 were a-standin then. You see, the poor child 
 she wanted to act perfect honer ble, and I never 
 loved her before like I loved her then that I 
 never did, and the good Lord know it. And 
 
MR. CUMMIN S KELINQUISHMENT 37 
 
 when I riz to go, she helt out her hand, and she 
 putt up her lips like I might kiss em one time. 
 But I helt up my hand so, jest so, and I turned 
 away from her, and I said, No, Matildy, no ; 
 I ve done give you up to Sam, and Sam mightn t 
 like it. And I never told her good-by. Seem 
 to me like I didn t have the strenk. 
 
 " Ahem ! a-a-haam ! And when I got to Sam 
 Bowers, he were in the field a-ploughin of a colt 
 he been breakin ; and it weren t more n a 
 quarter of a hour before Sam jerked that colt 
 out of the plough, slung the trace-chains acrost 
 his shoulders, lit on his back, said thanky and 
 good-by to me, galloped to the house, shucked 
 hisself out his workm -clothes, slid hisself into 
 his Sunday s, and flew over to the Owenses. 
 That were what Sam Bowers done, a-knowin 
 that well he might. 
 
 "And then I rid back home. I had been 
 a kind o tryin to fix up things there a leetle 
 bit, so they wouldn t look quite so thin and 
 bach lor-like. I got up some new crock ry, and 
 some new cal ker curt ns, and a bolt o kyar- 
 petin to put down in the big room ; and when 
 I thro wed my eyes around, everything, special 
 them new things, looked so lonesome that I 
 went to my bed, and I lay down on it, and I 
 cried like a child, that I did. And it seem like 
 to me I couldn t have stood it, exceptin for 
 
38 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 thinkin I been doin what it were plain my juty 
 to do as a honer ble man before God A mighty. 
 Because it seem like to me, if I d a took 
 Matildy, it would not be so very diff ent from 
 the buy in of a inner cent little lamb and a-sack- 
 erficin of it ; and I said to myself, < Jack Cum 
 min, no, if they have to be a sackerficin , let it 
 be you, and not Matildy ; let it be the old, and 
 not the young. And when I done that, I felt 
 better in here, right in here." 
 
 And he placed his hand softly on his breast. 
 
 " Well, well, time for me to be a-leavin ; but 
 I ll add a few, jest only a few. That s been 
 twenty year ago yes, mighty nigh twenty-one. 
 Sam and Matildy has done well, mighty well. 
 You know what a respect ble, fine, th ivin man 
 Sam Bowers is. They has had five children, 
 and one of em, a mighty pooty boy baby he 
 were, they named arfter me ; but, don t you 
 know, time he got to be a year old or sech a 
 matter, poor little feller, he ketched the croup 
 and died, that he did. 
 
 " And now, if you re tired, blame yourself for 
 askin me sech a long quest on ; and you know 
 now how come I to tell you to put down that 
 itom in my will, a-leavin o five thousand dollars 
 to Matildy. But that s to be betwix me and 
 you leastways twell arfter I m gone." 
 
MR. PATE S ONLY INFIRMITY 
 
MR. PATE S ONLY INFIRMITY 
 
 Yet hath my night of life some memory, . . . 
 
 My dull deaf ears a little use to hear. Comedy of Errors. 
 
 OLD Mr. Pate, until his late and only infirm 
 ity, was the most even-tempered man in all our 
 neighborhood. As well as I can remember, no 
 body knew or heard of his having been thrown 
 at any time into a rage, at least with one of his 
 own race. His resentment what there was in 
 it that was at all deadly may have been 
 kindled momentarily, now and then, by a sheep- 
 killing hound, a fence-breaking steer, or some 
 sneaking four-footed invader of his wife s hen 
 house ; but that was all. Things might go 
 awry outside or inside of his family, at which 
 some people might be tempted to use a bit of 
 profane language, yet, although he could main 
 tain his rights with sufficient judicious firmness, 
 he did so with equal mildness. Wrapping him 
 self in virtues known to himself, as well as to 
 others, he used, when hearing of a stormy pas 
 sion into which a neighbor had been flung, to 
 smile calmly, and comment upon the uselessness, 
 
 41 
 
42 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 not to call it foolishness, in a person punishing 
 his own self for other folks s doings. 
 
 He habitually spoke of the Creator in terms 
 of much praise, and even expressed himself as 
 thankful for what, if he had not done it for him 
 pointedly, he had kindly allowed him to do for 
 himself. He liked to see others join the church, 
 and on revival occasions was known sometimes 
 gently to urge young persons of both sexes to 
 heed calls for mourners. He might have be 
 come a member long ago, except that for such a 
 thing in a man like himself he felt that there 
 was no earthly necessity. Contemplating his 
 exemplary deportment, observed through the 
 successes of seventy years and more, he was 
 living in serene trust of many more as placidly 
 felicitous as those now sitting lightly upon his 
 honored head. One of his calm boasts was that 
 he had enjoyed the society of two as good wives 
 as the one wife of any other man under the sun, 
 the former up to fifty, at her demise another, 
 between whom except as to a few details of 
 no sort of importance, but rather operating as 
 interesting, pleasant foils he could never see, 
 as he expressed it, " one single blessed ioty of 
 diff ence." Fond both of the hearing and the 
 imparting of news, good, bad, and indifferent, 
 he wished to know as much as was possible of 
 things occurring outside of his own experience, 
 
43 
 
 and it had been a strong support to what few 
 troubles he had had, to note that other people 
 had theirs also, and especially that they made 
 more complainings than he did. All of his 
 children were now grown, married, and living 
 near in peace and prosperity. 
 
 Yet the prophecy of labor and sorrow to come 
 after three score and ten ! How insidious often, 
 yet always how inevitable ! A slight cold taken 
 one day, like hundreds and hundreds that dur 
 ing the last sixty years he had known how to 
 knock speedily into cocked hats with pepper-tea 
 and hoarhound candy, after yielding to those 
 efficacious remedies at all points save one, fas 
 tened upon that, and refused obstinately to go 
 away. This was his left ear, and I regret to 
 have to add that his right, whether from too 
 intense sympathy with its twin brother, or re 
 duced by continued loans extended to it, declined 
 in time to like condition. 
 
 Mr. Pate, brave man that he was, scornful of 
 trifles, went ahead for a while just the same as 
 ever, ignoring a state of things which, unex 
 pected and undeserved, a man of his energy and 
 resolve was bound to overcome in no great 
 while. But one day his daughter, Mrs. Betsey 
 Runnells, who dwelt a mile distant, came over 
 to see them all, and, after receiving several 
 inaccurate answers once or twice none at 
 
44 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 all to her questionings, was moved to remark 
 thus: 
 
 " Pa, what in this world is getting to be the 
 matter with you since you had that last cold 
 that you answer people s questions so curious, 
 and sometimes don t seem to know they ve 
 asked you anything? It s either that you ve 
 got to paying mighty little attention to people 
 when they re talking to you, or the fact is 
 you re getting deef. One of the things is 
 certain and no doubt about it." 
 
 " No sech a thing, Betsey. It s no sech a 
 thing. It s that you all don t speak cle r and 
 distinct like you used to do ; but you ve all got 
 to mumblin and chawin your words to that 
 that a body can t always tell what s it you re 
 talkin about. I can hear well as I ever did 
 when people open their mouth, and let their 
 words come out cle r. The fau t s not in my 
 years. It s in your all s mouth, and I wish you 
 all jest stop it, that I do. Nonsense ! " 
 
 Now sharp words like these were entirely out 
 of Mr. Pate s habit, in his family or elsewhere. 
 Devoted to him as all were, thereafter, when ad 
 dressing him particularly, they elevated their 
 voices, sometimes above what was needful, and 
 then he took offence of another sort. 
 
 " What in this whole blessed and everlasting 
 world have got into you all jest only here lately, 
 
MR. PATE S ONLY INFIRMITY 45 
 
 that when you ain t a-whisperin at me you 
 bawl out to me the same if the house was afire, 
 or you made out like you thought I d done gone 
 stone deef ? I wish to goodness you could all 
 be reason ble with your woices. I m no gate 
 post." 
 
 Self-delusions, easiest of all and sweetest, 
 cannot abide always, even when nurtured and 
 hugged with affection. The occasion of removal 
 in this case seemed to Mr. Pate particularly 
 mournful. Accustomed from youngest man 
 hood to waken from his sleep at earliest cock- 
 crowing, at the breakfast-table one morning, the 
 last of several over-sleepings, he said to his wife : 
 
 " My dear, what s become of all the roosters, 
 or what ails em, that jest here for a fortni t or 
 so they ve quit crowin of a mornin ? And as 
 for the old Dorninicker, I hain t even laid eyes 
 on him in I don t know the time." 
 
 " They re all here, Mr. Pate, and nothing s 
 the matter with them, except the old Dominicker ; 
 that I had killed because he was old, and the 
 young ones got to running him all over the yard, 
 and he s now in the oven a-baking for dinner. 
 The rest are all right enough, far as I know." 
 
 "Eh? What did you say?" 
 
 She repeated the words sufficiently loud. 
 
 " Why, you don t mean to tell me they ve 
 been a-crowin these last few mornin s?" 
 
46 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 "Regular." 
 
 "Eh?" 
 
 "Regular!" 
 
 " You cert n in your mind, Nancy ? " 
 
 " Yes, SIR ! " she screamed ; " I ve heard them 
 every morning of the world, distinct." 
 
 " My goodness ! Then somethin s s obleeged 
 to be wrong about me som er s, like has been 
 hinted, and some has gone to the lenkt to say 
 it flat down in my very face, and I denied 
 it, hopin they were mistakened. Ah, well, I 
 suppose it ain t give to any one person to be 
 perfect and keep perfect always. But a onex- 
 pecteder and a pitifuller case I d sildom wish to 
 see any more in nobody." 
 
 The old man s carriage from that time under 
 went much change. His first efforts at resigna 
 tion were entirely praiseworthy, even touching, 
 he believed, notwithstanding the feeling that it 
 would have been more just, at least more be 
 coming all around, if, good man that he was, 
 and known by everybody to be a good man, he 
 could have been spared, in an old age so green 
 and hearty, such a sorrowful letting down. As 
 time went on, it pained and even began to anger 
 him to suspect that others were not as consid 
 erate of him as he would have been of them in 
 mutually reversed conditions. If he had tried 
 ever so hard to keep silent, it would not have 
 
MB. PATE S ONLY INFIRMITY 47 
 
 been possible to do so, and it was some comfort 
 to him that, although he could not hear, he could 
 pour forth into other ears his sore complainings. 
 Yet even this, from certain causes, as will ap 
 pear presently, dwindled somewhat after a while. 
 
 " HINES S " people called it. 
 
 This was a small country store situate on the 
 public road at the corner of our grove. When 
 a lad of seven or eight, with sometimes, if my 
 memory be not treacherous, without leave of 
 my parents, I went down to this place, especially 
 on Saturdays, in order to see and listen to the 
 men who repaired thither partly for business, 
 mainly to tell and hear what news might be in 
 the neighborhood. Mr. Pate seldom failed to be 
 there on those days. I had grown to be some 
 what of an acknowledged favorite with him ; 
 mainly, I suspect, because I used to listen re 
 spectfully to his talkings, while most of his ac 
 quaintances were beginning to avoid the garru- 
 lousness which increased with his years. 
 
 One day I felt complimented when he invited 
 me to go with him to a bench under one of 
 the great red-oaks a few rods from the store 
 piazza. 
 
 " Come along with me, my son," he said affec 
 tionately. " I want to talk jest betwixt me and 
 you about things that may be it mayn t do you 
 
48 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 any harm to member when you git to be a old 
 man like me. Come along." 
 
 When we were seated on our bench, he took 
 a rather mournful, but entirely calm, survey of 
 the amphitheatre above, and of the level round 
 about, and thus began : 
 
 "Do you know, my boy, I ask you solemn 
 without expectin a answer but do you know 
 that I d ruther be blind than deef? I don t 
 mean out and out clean stone blind, but about 
 half-way blind, like I m now deef. You don t ? 
 Well, I would, and I ll tell you for why. " 
 
 Then he threw down upon me a look perhaps 
 little, if any, below the solemnly magisterial 
 gaze which Plato on occasion of one of his most 
 melancholy doubtings may be supposed to have 
 bestowed upon his disciples in the grove of Acade- 
 mus, and thus began : 
 
 "Yes, sir; true as gospel. And it s because 
 people, as a gen l thing, is good to blind people, 
 and they ll not only git out of their way, but 
 they ll actuil go out of their own way to help 
 em to find whare they re a-movin to git to. 
 And, sir, they ll even take holt of their hand, 
 and be as proud as a jay-bird when they do it, 
 and they ll lead em, same as a baby jest learnin 
 to walk, to their best, comfortablest cheer, a 
 hustlin out anybody else that s in it. And 
 then they ll ask em all about their healths, 
 
MR. PATE S ONLY INFIRMITY 49 
 
 when nine times out o ten they ain t a-keerin 
 any more about it than other people s. And 
 they ll talk soft to em and help em to cut up 
 their victuals, and beg em to keep on takin 
 some more when they positive know that they ve 
 already eat the greatest plenty, and has no 
 earthly need of one single nother mouthful. 
 And not only that, but they ll do a whole lot of 
 things for em to that well, jest betwixt me 
 and you and this tree we re settin under, I have 
 positive knowed of some o that sort that could 
 jest see to git about, and a-makin out they 
 couldn t do that conven ent, that the fact of the 
 whole business were, they wasn t any manner of 
 account in the beginnin , before they got so, and 
 they wouldn t be if they got over it. And, sir, 
 they were so proud of bein waited on in that 
 kind o style, that they wouldn t give a bawbee 
 nor a continental red cent to have their eyes put 
 back cle r, so they d be expected to go back to 
 work, and be treated like other people. Yes, 
 sir ; that s the way blind people is treated. 
 But when you come to people that is deef in 
 their year, that is, you mind, people that is 
 half-and-half like me, people has not only no 
 respects of em, but they has nothin but contemp , 
 and sometimes, as I know by expe unce, they 
 despise em in their very sight. Now, as for me, 
 I always were a man that like to hear what s 
 
50 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 goin on, and a-knowin other people was the 
 same, it s always been my rule to gether all I 
 could, and let other people sheer in it, as well as 
 the idees I have on matters and things in gen l, 
 and then to give em free my advices, whether 
 they got the gumption to take it or not, which 
 is their lookout, and not mine, you understand." 
 
 He paused briefly, as if in respectful review 
 of a past so signally benignant, then con 
 tinued : 
 
 "But sence I ve got in the fix I m in, in the 
 hearin of my year, people have got to dodgin 
 me, and runnin away from me, same as if I had 
 the eech or even the smallpok, whensomever I 
 come where they are. Or if they set down to 
 swap a few words with me, time we ve got 
 through with how our families is, and about 
 the weather, they git up, and they shoot off, 
 albe some of them do have the manners to give 
 out that their business is a-callin of em som er s 
 else, and they are obleeged to go an tend to it. 
 And all that after the life I ve led, and the use 
 ful it s always been my aim to be, and to do 
 accordin as the good Lord let it lay in my 
 power. Now don t sech as that look like a pity 
 to this generation of people ? Seem to me like 
 it do." 
 
 He sniffed long and audibly, and did not seem 
 to note the few assuring words which I could 
 
51 
 
 employ in sympathy with his suffering from 
 general ingratitude. Indeed, I was almost sure 
 that he could not have heard them, because 
 what I said was : 
 
 " But, Mr. Pate, everybody loves and respects 
 you." 
 
 "Yes, yes," he said, with some impatience; 
 " that s what they all tell me ; but I don t want 
 advices. I ain t a man to need people s advices. 
 What I want is for people to talk to me and to 
 listen to me. Don t you understand ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," I answered quickly. 
 
 After a moment he said : 
 
 " But, my son, it s things in my own family 
 that hurts me the worst. If people outside 
 think they can do without my opinion and 
 without my advices in their business and their 
 matters and things in gen l, why, that s their 
 perfect right, and I m not a denyin of it ; but 
 when it come to my own folks, there s where 
 the shoe pinch. As to what my people has been 
 to me, the good Lord know I can t complain, 
 nor I don t. I ve had two as good wives as 
 the sun ever ris or sot on. My first one were 
 before your day; but people that s old enough 
 members what a high, splendid women she 
 were ; and my second, well, everybody sees how 
 if she s low in heighth, she s bunchy, and she 
 make up for stren th by bein active. As for 
 
52 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 my childern, if I say it myself that maybe 
 oughtn t, they ve been raised to be as rea- 
 son ble good and respectable childern as the 
 common run of anybody else s childern in this 
 whole neighborhood of people, accordin to 
 yes, I may say accordin to the to the society 
 we live in at the present time, you you un 
 derstand ahem." 
 
 "Oh, yes," I tried to interpolate; "every 
 body says that your children " 
 
 " But," ignoring my attempt, he went on, 
 "what hurts me to the very bone sometimes 
 is the disrespects that s putt on me in my own 
 family, the not expectedest of all. Why, sir, I 
 used to be lively at home, and keen as a brier 
 to make things interestin* about the house ; and 
 now it look like I ain t so mighty much more 
 than our old Dominicker rooster, that the young 
 ones got to runnin over him, and stopped all 
 his usefulness; and so they put him up in the 
 coop, and they fattened him, and then they 
 killed him, and they baked him, and tweren t 
 he were so fat, and cooked so brown, stuffin 
 and all, and gravy accordin , I couldn t of teched 
 him. And I actuil felt solemn when I were 
 a-eatin one o his drumsticks, and a slice or 
 two of his breast, and some pickings on his side- 
 bone ; I tell you, I felt positive solemn to think 
 what everything have to come to in the course o 
 
MR. PATE S ONLY INFIRMITY 53 
 
 time, more or less ; that the poor old fellow 
 used to wake me up every mornin at the crack 
 o day with his crowin ; and it s got to that I 
 can t hear a single rooster on the place, and 
 I hain t the words to tell how my feelin s in 
 side o me was hurted when I found it out." 
 
 He put his handkerchief momentarily to his 
 eyes, as if to warn back any weak tear that 
 might feel itself impelled to the front, and then 
 continued : 
 
 " But the thing is, my son, that I m a begin- 
 nin to suspicion em o dodgin me in my own 
 house, like they do everywhere else, and that it 
 make em tired, and sometimes it even fret em, 
 to have to talk to me. And then I git fretted 
 too, after all I ve been to em. And it s got so 
 I try my level best to not want to know about 
 things like I used to do. Yit, when I see them 
 a-workin o their mouth in a way that make me 
 certain in my mind somethin interestin is up, 
 I can t help, to save my life I can t help from 
 wantin to know what it s about. And then one 
 of em comes and bawls it in my year, frecwent 
 it s not worth talkin about, and then I suspi 
 cion em of foolin me by a-tellin me the poor 
 est, insignificantest part, and a-holdin back the 
 rest. Then, casionally the idee takes holt on 
 me that they re a-talkin about me, and a-sayin 
 they wish I weren t so troublesome, and all 
 
54 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 that, and it sting me mighty nigh the same like 
 anybody was to run a pin in me." 
 
 After another pause, turning his face all about, 
 as if to be sure that none other were in hearing, 
 with a look of grave apprehension, almost of 
 alarm, in lower tones he said : 
 
 " And, sir, don t you know, sir, that the sus- 
 picionin o them in that kind o style have got 
 so it have begun to make me ruther deceitful 
 myself ? It jest skeers me to think about it. 
 You mustn t let on I told you so. I was posi 
 tive obleeged to tell somebody, it lay so heavy 
 on my mind, and I tell it to you because you re 
 always good, respectable to me, and you never 
 dodges me, nor runs away from me when I m 
 a-talkin to you. Fact, sir, sometimes when my 
 years ain t quite as cloudy as common, special 
 when the a r is on my side, I can gether what 
 they re sayin , and they don t know it. But I 
 jest know I ve got not to let on, to keep em 
 from suspicionin me of makin out I m worse 
 off than what I actuil am. Now, ain t sech as 
 that a pity for a man of my cha-rec-ter, that s 
 if they is anything I ever did hate, it was de 
 ceitful, and special when I caught people a-tryin 
 to put it on me, and make a fool of me f I jest 
 declare, I git so sorry for myself sometimes 
 a-thinkin about it, that I can but hope the thing 
 will let up on me after a while, so I can git 
 
MK. PATE S ONLY INFIRMITY 55 
 
 back to the usefulness I had before I got in this 
 fix." 
 
 At this juncture, one of the neighbor s, who 
 had just arrived, after alighting, and fastening 
 his horse at one of the racks, approached, in 
 order to pay his respects. Mr. Pate, after a 
 look of incipient resentment toward the comer, 
 turned to me, and in low, hurried tones said : 
 
 " There, now, my son, that ll do ; you can go 
 now ; but don t you let on what I told you." 
 
 To his injunction of silence regarding his con 
 fession I paid what respect was possible, limit 
 ing disclosure to my parents and a few other 
 intimate acquaintances, with prudent admoni 
 tions that it should not go much further. After 
 observations through many years among the 
 aged, to say nothing of even more reliable 
 sources, I seem to recall, what I was then too 
 young to discern in my old friend s droll words, 
 some real pathos, and if not some wisdom, a 
 pathetic simulation of wisdom in thus essaying 
 to defend himself against wrongs real and im 
 aginary ; and so his case, feeling at this late 
 day I may be held excusable, I now, for the first 
 time, make public. 
 
SHADOWY FOES 
 
SHADOWY FOES 
 
 EVERYBODY thought so much of her that she 
 was always called by her Christian name, which 
 was Penninah, though commonly abbreviated to 
 P nniny. Old people and familiars said P nniny, 
 just so ; others said Miss or Missis P nniny, 
 according to relations and circumstances. Many 
 and many a time have I heard old people say 
 that from the time she first grew up, in the 
 more than one interesting relation into which 
 she had been put by destiny, if anybody ever 
 had a better neighbor, all they cared to ask 
 would be what that neighbor s name was, and 
 where he or she lived, as the case might be. 
 Her reputation as a visitor of both well and sick 
 in the day, as a sitter-up with the latter at night, 
 as a layer-out of the dead, as a consoler of weep 
 ing survivors, as a thoughtful suggester about 
 the paling in of graves, and the planting around 
 them of shrubs and things, was of the very best. 
 On occasions not so lugubrious for instance, 
 as a complimentary eater of good dinners at 
 
 59 
 
60 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 other people s houses, and as a bountiful giver 
 of them at her own she was unexceptionable. 
 Now that is as nigh as I can honestly state her 
 standing in our neighborhood. 
 
 When I had grown old enough to begin to 
 notice with interest things outside of my own 
 domestic circle, she (whose dwelling was about 
 a mile to the south of Hines s store) was living 
 in calm enjoyment of her second widowhood. 
 Young as I was, I could not but remark the 
 happy geniality that was exuberant in all her 
 walk and conversation. It was the more sur 
 prising to me, therefore, when I learned that 
 during the period extending throughout her 
 married life or, as I might more justly say, 
 throughout both her married lives she had 
 indulged in two hostilities which at times in 
 flicted upon her own feelings pain intensely 
 exasperating. Honest woman that she was, she 
 shrank not from admitting frankly that neither 
 of the persons who had become the objects of 
 her repugnance had ever perpetrated in all 
 human probability had never meditated injury 
 of any sort upon her rights or feelings. That 
 made no difference : the animosity was in her 
 breast, and there it stayed during two joint lives. 
 
 As for these persons, both of her own sex, 
 neither had so much as dreamed of hurting 
 either her or anybody or anything belonging or 
 
SHADOWY FOES 61 
 
 appertaining to her. Yet it was really stirring 
 to note how this lady, in all respects so excellent, 
 and indeed so happy during the greater part of 
 the time, would occasionally pour forth abusive 
 tirades, threatening, if they ever should perpe 
 trate the atrocity she dreaded, what she would 
 do in case she should be allowed to get at them. 
 
 The names of those enemies I cannot, any 
 more than you can, call, inasmuch as they were 
 never handed in to the clerk of the Court of 
 Ordinary, wherein applications of such ladies, 
 or of gentlemen in their behalf, according to the 
 statute in such cases made and provided, were 
 usually filed. Inasmuch as they had not lived 
 up to the time when I began to know her un 
 hurt by foes seen and unseen, she had survived 
 apprehension of their assaults, and was then, as I 
 said in the beginning, as good a neighbor as any 
 body ever had, or ought ever to wish to have. 
 
 At the period of her introduction in this brief 
 tale, if she was a day over forty, she would have 
 thanked nobody for saying so. Her full name, 
 before time had wrought its changes upon it, 
 was Penninah Daniel, the baptismal prenomen 
 being derived from that of the fruitful wife of 
 Elkanah the Ephrathite, with the careers of 
 whom and whose family Bible-readers are more 
 or less familiar. 
 
 Now the name Penninah, "as olde bookes 
 
62 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 maken memorie," signifies a precious stone ; 
 and notwithstanding the infirmities herein told, 
 it is to be questioned if very many times it had 
 been bestowed more worthily than in this in 
 stance. Not as pretty as some, but well shaped, 
 industrious, vivacious, one of two daughters of 
 a father who owned a fair tract of land and a 
 good bunch of negroes, she was bound to have 
 beaus ; and she had them. From fifteen to 
 seventeen she ruminated over the several offers 
 made to her, and then took that of Jeff Lockett ; 
 and everybody said it was a good match for 
 both. What is not always the case in such ties, 
 the longer she lived with Jeff, the deeper she 
 fell in love with him. If any person wanted to 
 please her specially, and add to her pride at the 
 birth of any of her children, it was to say that 
 the baby when first exposed to view, was Jeff s 
 picture over and over again, from the incipient 
 curl on the summit of his head to the crook of 
 his little finger. Such she was when there 
 began to arise an apparition that disturbed the 
 otherwise uninterrupted felicity of her existence. 
 
 ii 
 
 As for Jeff Lockett, he did not wilfully in 
 dulge in vanities of any sort. If his children 
 were thought like him, who knew without any- 
 
SHADOWY FOES 63 
 
 body s telling him that he was no paragon, well 
 enough. If that idea pleased his wife, also well 
 enough. He admitted having some of the hard- 
 headedness of which his wife playfully accused 
 him sometimes, and he accepted her exuberant 
 devotion just as if he knew he deserved every 
 bit of it. The hard-headedness before hinted at 
 made itself most apparent when, after two of 
 his facsimiles had been born in fast succession, 
 demands were made upon him to promise what 
 he would do, or rather what he would not do, in 
 a certain contingency possible to occur. This 
 contingency was his wife s death. With the 
 thought of dying young, Jeff being young also, 
 came that of another having him for a husband, 
 and neither of them caring a bawbee for her 
 grave, and seldom giving even a piece of mem 
 ory to the one occupying it. This was more, 
 she felt in her heart, than she ought to be called 
 upon to bear after all her devotion to Jeff, and 
 what she had gone through cheerfully on his 
 account. Foreseeing that marriageable women 
 of all descriptions, no sooner than the breath 
 was out of her body, would be laying snares for 
 Jeff, knowing what a glorious husband he was, 
 she began to regard them as enemies to conquer 
 whom the only chance lay in beginning the 
 attack herself. Yet, like other and more noted 
 diplomats, she began with discussion, and sought 
 
64 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 to elicit from Jeff a promise that in the event 
 of her death he would not take another wife. 
 Now right there came in that infirmity of Jeff! 
 which it is hardly necessary for me to name for 
 the third time. Jeff positively refused to make 
 any such promise, saying that it was all nothing 
 but foolishness. Whereupon Mrs. Penniny con 
 ceived for her possible successor a hostility of 
 which no existing women would have liked to 
 be the object. 
 
 Old Mr. Pate, who, from what he believed the 
 best sort of motives, used to find out everything 
 possible about everybody and everybody s busi 
 ness in the neighborhood, became much inter 
 ested in this case. I remember hearing him say 
 one day : 
 
 " I have knewed consider ble wimming in my 
 time, but nare one as vi lent as P nniny Lockett 
 ag in the one she supposen Jeff might take for 
 a wife in the ewent she drap off, of which she 
 were as healthy a person as went, and look like 
 they was positive no needcessity to be pesterin 
 her mind about sech a onexpected thing for at 
 least a many a year yit awhile. The thing is, 
 she was took up with Jeff to that she couldn t 
 b ar the thought of him havin of another wife ; 
 and it cut her to the very marrer of the bone, she 
 say, because Jeff wouldn t make her any promise 
 to the contrairey ; and I have heerd her ac- 
 
SHADOWY FOES 65 
 
 knowlege that the way she did hate that second 
 wife o Jeff were a sin, but which she couldn t 
 help it because it were in her heart and were 
 there to stay ; at which Jeff laugh, Jeff did." 
 
 One day Penniny fell sick, and grew worse 
 and worse, so that after about a week all her 
 friends, including the doctor, gave her up to 
 die. Moved by solemn duty, a pious aunt in 
 formed her of her extreme danger, and sug 
 gested that, in view of the approaching change, 
 she should make what preparation she regarded 
 necessary. 
 
 Too weak to be greatly shocked by the an 
 nouncement, she only sighed and whispered that 
 on her mind were a few things she wished to 
 say to Jeff, and in the hearing of all at her bed 
 side. Jeff, poor fellow, was nigh distracted with 
 grief ; yet he had strength to approach, lean his 
 head, and listen to her dying words, which were 
 an appeal for a promise to her, in the presence 
 of all there, that he would never put a step 
 mother over her children. That scene Mr. Pate, 
 better than I, can describe. 
 
 " I was there, and heerd it all, a-wantin to 
 see the last o poor P nniny, as I thought she 
 were mighty nigh gone, and give my advices 
 about things in gen l. The thing took Jeff so 
 suddent that he was speechless, exceptin to cry 
 louder and declare that the takin of another 
 
66 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 wife have never been on top o his mind, and he 
 begged P nniny to please not to name sech a 
 idee to him any more. But P nniny kep at 
 him, and Jeff kep at her to spar him the 
 mis ry ; and that is every bit she could git out 
 o Jeff, till final she got mad, and she fetched a 
 flirt, she did, and as she fetched it, she fa rly 
 sung out, Well, thank the good Lord, I ain t 
 dead yit ! And she turned herself over, and 
 she faced herself to the wall, and from that 
 minute she begun to git better, and tweren t 
 more n two days before she could set up in bed, 
 and wash her face, and comb her ha r, and in a 
 week s time she was goin about the house and 
 tendin to her business same like before she 
 taken down. Doctor Lewis said it were jes 
 what she needed, to git mad and make a effort ; 
 and he say if Jeff have had promised her as she 
 wanted, she d been a dead oman in less n 
 twenty-four hours. And so the very next year 
 poor Jeff he took sick, and doctor s physic nor 
 nothin else could hender him a-goin out for 
 good. It seem mighty nigh killin of P nniny 
 to see him go ; but he never asked for no prom 
 ise, and well he didn t, because everybody know 
 what followed in jue time." 
 
SHADOWY FOES 67 
 
 III 
 
 So that first enemy was forgiven freely, and 
 not another word against her was ever heard to 
 come out of Penniny s mouth, although in Mr. 
 Pate s opinion not very many a cow with a 
 crumpled horn ever looked more forlorn than 
 she did now. Time and time again she declared 
 that she never would get over it. Yet when, in 
 the following year, Billy GunnelTs wife died, 
 leaving two poor little motherless children, she 
 couldn t keep, to save her life, from being sorry 
 for them, and thankful they were too young to 
 feel the full extent of their loss. Remembering 
 how Billy had sympathized in her and her 
 orphans griefs, what time they were freshest 
 and sorest, common gratitude drove her to feel 
 sorry for Billy also. I need not say what was 
 the final outcome of such mutualities. With 
 Billy she fell in love, the same as with Jeff, and 
 when the first Gunnell baby was born, that 
 other woman had, it seemed, no other business 
 to do but to rise, and cast her malignant shadow 
 upon a path that otherwise would have been in 
 renewed continuous sunshine. 
 
 "I jest can t help it," often she pleaded; "I 
 love my children, both sets of em, so much, and 
 I love Billy the same, that it makes me perfect 
 miser ble to think of another woman coming in 
 
68 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 to hector over things in this house, and me in 
 the ground, and not able even to turn over 
 in my grave, much less get out and reg late such 
 things in general. Oh, you may laugh ; but it s 
 so. I actual hate that woman, sinful if it may 
 be, and I acknowledge that I wouldn t make 
 any strenious objections to the bad man getting 
 possessions of her when her time comes, if not 
 before. Everybody know I were the same in 
 Jeff s lifetime, and Doctor Lewis said it were the 
 thought of it kept me from dying that time I 
 come so nigh a-doing of it. When Jeff died, that 
 he was the very best husband any woman in this 
 world ever did have of course, excepting of 
 Billy, that at present occepy his place total unex 
 pected ~but at which then time, every heart I 
 had in my breast was that broke that I had no 
 more idees of getting married again than I had 
 of splunging head foremost into the very bottom 
 o Rudisill s mill-pond, where the water is knew 
 to be the deepest, solemn as such a thing would 
 have been to people who knoweth not and can 
 not understandeth how they might be for their 
 own selves in similar case. Why, if any man, 
 be he the finest and richest man that ever 
 walked on two legs, had he have daresn t to 
 even name such a thing to me, if I couldn t 
 have got him out the house no other way, I 
 would have positive called up the hounds, sot 
 
SHADOWY FOES 69 
 
 them on him, and sent him scooting back to his 
 home, wheresomever it might be. That is me, 
 or rather I might say it ivere me, the day poor 
 Jeff let loose his holt on me and the children, 
 and, as old Brer Sanford expressed it, feeling 
 and mod rate and comfo ting, was gethered to 
 his fathers ; and for months on months after 
 ward, until a perfect awful event happened in 
 the drapping off of poor, dear Sally Gunnell, 
 and the leaving of me exposed to have feelings 
 of entire different sort, they is no telling what 
 might happened, that I was thankful Jeff never 
 asked me for a promise of no sort, but said with 
 his dying breath he had no doubts I d try to do 
 the best I knewed how. And so, when I saw 
 the orphan and awful condition poor Sally Gun 
 nell left her little children, and when Billy 
 began to pessecute and pessecute me to help take 
 keer of em, some women might have stood it 
 and helt out, but not me. But and yit it is 
 now different ; a-supposing and a-acknowledging 
 me have been wrong in the first instant. Be 
 cause Billy have had two wives already, and me 
 two husbands, which my own private opinion 
 always have been, that s as many as the good 
 Lord ever want any woman to have, that I have 
 been good as I knewed how to Sally s children, 
 and Billy the perfect same to Jeff s children; 
 but I has not the confidence to believe likewise 
 
70 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 of any other woman under the broad sun in the 
 circumstances of the case, as it now stand, or 
 would stand when I die. But yit, when I ask 
 Billy to promise me, he will do nothing of the 
 kind, but say it is all nonsense and foolishness ; 
 and it put me on thorns, jest like it did before, 
 against the woman that is to bang my and poor 
 Sally s children about, and tromple over my and 
 her grave. People needn t to talk to me ; I jest 
 can t help being mad when I think about it, and 
 that s a most of the time when I m awake and 
 not at my work or my victuals." 
 
 No ; Billy Gunnell would make no such prom 
 ise, even at times when his wife lay sick. We 
 shall see what he got by it. 
 
 IV 
 
 MR. PATE being more familiar with the facts 
 of the case than I am, I shall let him talk 
 again. 
 
 " If P nniny Gunnell weren t one of em, I 
 don t know any as was. Ev rybody member 
 how bad she hated that unfort nate female she 
 suspicioned Jeff o marryin in ewent she went 
 first, and then how her bristles riz the same ag in 
 Billy s third wife. It did seem to me like them 
 wimming, if nothing but sperrits though they 
 be, and not even that, but they actual kep her 
 
SHADOWY FOES 71 
 
 alive in both them hard spells she had endurin 
 first Jeff and then Billy s time. For she were 
 always a resky person about expogin herself to 
 sickness, wisitin everybody in the neighbor 
 hood that had it, special poor people, helpin 
 about everything, down to the very last in the 
 graveyard, and havin nothin ag in anybody in 
 the wide world exceptin them aforesaid females. 
 And now she were widder ag in, and been wid- 
 der long enough for another weddin , tweren t 
 she were that oppoged to the very idee of sech a 
 thing, that she declar she mean to dewote her 
 time to the raisin o her children and Sally Gun- 
 nell s children the best she know how, with the 
 good Lord s he p, and doin what little good it 
 lay in her power to do outside among her neigh 
 bors, as ev ybody acknowledge in that they ain t 
 her ekal. It look strange to me how come a 
 ruther smallish female have buried two big, 
 strong, young husbands, and to all appearance 
 because on her dyin beds they wouldn t promise 
 her like she wanted, and jedgment come on em, 
 both a-layin silent side by side there the back o 
 the gyarden where she planted em. And I have 
 give my advices to Harry Brister and Sammy 
 Pounds, that both of them val able young men 
 been layin for her ever sence not so very long 
 arfter Billy Gunnell went, and was now open and 
 aboveboard a-tryin to over-persuade her, as both 
 
72 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 of em well might, considerin what a fine ketch 
 she were, and picked up powerful sence she been 
 a widder, like most of em tries to do, and does ; 
 that my advices to them boys was, the first / 
 should lay before P nniny, if it was me, I should 
 promise P nniny, at the very offstart, that in the 
 ewent of her a-goin before me I should never 
 even think about takin of another companion. 
 And then, if the time come a gin and onexpected, 
 to leave it to the good Lord to git me out o 
 standin up to sech a foolish promise. As they 
 both done it, but no use. Oh ! she were one of 
 em, Penninah were." 
 
 " No ; not Harry Brister, or Sammy Pounds, 
 or any other one of I could not say how many 
 other widowers and bachelors that lay siege to 
 her gates, could ever take them. To all offers, 
 backed by whatever promises and oaths, she 
 smiled calmly, answering : 
 
 "No: the sheer I ve had of marrying is as 
 much as any one woman ought reasonable to 
 wish for in a vale where, as the Scriptur say, 
 there s so many tears. I have had a very much 
 happiness with two husbands as good, to my 
 opinions, as any that went ; and I do not think 
 I ought to take the resk another and a third 
 time, and have my feelings all worked up in 
 anxiety about stepmothers to my children and 
 Sally Gunnell s the same, that as for them I ve 
 
SHADOWY FOES 73 
 
 tried to do a good part. I acknowledge such 
 anxiety was vain and foolish, as both my hus 
 bands frequent said, that they both went before, 
 and I have tended both their graves as the good 
 Lord give me strength and light. As for them 
 two women that I hated with every bit of heart 
 was in me, a-not withstanding they was nothing 
 but idle tales in my own mind, I hope the good 
 Lord will not seemeth him meet to let em rise 
 up in judgment against me not expected ; but 
 my mind is made up final that never no, never 
 will I take the resk of another of em." 
 
THEIR COUSIN LETHY 
 
THEIR COUSIN LETHY 
 
 IT seemed to me, child as I was, rather pitiful 
 that, as Mr. Pate grew harder of hearing, and 
 older, people, although never meaning to be 
 offensive or impolite, kept themselves as much 
 apart from his society as was possible to respect 
 ful friendly relations. This was on account of 
 his increased garrulousness, and his frequent 
 complainings of the little attention paid to his 
 words, sometimes narrative, as often admonitory. 
 A harmless egotist, honestly believing himself to 
 be a very charitable and therefore a very useful 
 gossip, his habit was, before his deafness came 
 on, to find out, as a matter of simple neighborly 
 duty, every possible thing about current neigh 
 borhood existence, and then, without ever dream 
 ing of charging anything for it, to offer his 
 counsel for its disposal or utilization. This 
 counsel some might, others might not, accept. 
 He was a man too well poised to be fretted by 
 neglect of taking help gratuitously extended by 
 one to whom so much wisdom had been imparted 
 by Heaven, being accustomed at all times to 
 
 77 
 
78 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 reflect in entire calmness that his mission was 
 only the giving of counsel, not the enforcing its 
 adoption. The intimacy between him and me, 
 notwithstanding the difference of more than 
 threescore years in our ages, became only the 
 closer as adult listeners who avoided his society 
 increased in numbers. Somehow I became much 
 interested in what he had to say, especially 
 regarding things happening before my day. 
 Not without some spirit of romance in his being, 
 he told me several of his recollections in that 
 line which sometimes I rather like to recall. 
 These fond recurrings of old men to their young 
 times seem to me of the dearest among the 
 Almighty s tendernesses to second childhood in 
 human existence. 
 
 One afternoon, when he and I had become 
 the only sitters on one of the benches hard by 
 the store, he said : 
 
 " Did I ever tell you about the run of Ephom 
 Garrett and Lige Strouder for their cousin 
 Lethy ? " 
 
 Indeed I had heard the story more than once ; 
 but willing for him to enjoy another telling, I 
 looked inquiringly. 
 
 To bring the story within reasonable limits, I 
 must abbreviate within my own some of my 
 narrator s many words. 
 
 The Garretts lived a mile from one end of the 
 
THEIR COUSIN LETHY 79 
 
 village, and the Strouders about equidistant from 
 the other. The Griddles occupied a nice two- 
 story house in the middle, near the store of 
 Bland & Jones. Nearly opposite, on the other 
 side of the street, in a somewhat nicer two-story, 
 dwelt the Robys, with whom boarded Mrs. 
 Eoby s brother, Curry Lightner. Mrs. Griddle 
 was sister to Mr. Garrett, and Mr. Griddle 
 brother to Mrs. Strouder. That is, they used to 
 be before the heads of the three families had 
 died. This of course made Ephraim Garrett 
 and Elijah Strouder, although of no kin to each 
 other, cousins to Lethy Griddle, of whom some 
 people, admitting that this was saying a great 
 deal, maintained that she was the head of all 
 the pretty girls that went to Mr. Hodge s school. 
 Fond of both of these cousins, who were some 
 five years older than she, Lethy often tried to 
 reconcile their differences, which, beginning 
 early, continued late. And well she might, 
 because but for her those boys might have been 
 as friendly with each other as any other couple 
 not similarly exposed to estrangement. 
 
 " The de-ficulty was," as briefly put by Mr. 
 Pate, " they was two of them, and they weren t 
 but one of Lethy, which my expe unce is that 
 always make a deiFence in sech a case." 
 
 Truth is, both these cousins had been dead in 
 love with Lethy from the time when she was 
 
80 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 thirteen and began to notice outward things, 
 and each regarded the other with the appre 
 hension natural to the double relationship. 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Mr. Pate ; " them boys took 
 to runnin ag in one another from time Lethy s 
 ma let her drap her pant lets, and begin to go to 
 parties and fishin s, and them kind of things. 
 It hurt one of em when tother turned him 
 down at whatsomever they went at. They wasn t 
 so fer from bein about on a pair in gener l. 
 They said at their school that Lige had considible 
 the advantage in readin , but Ephe kept above 
 him in the spellin class. They was about ekal 
 in grammar, and if Lige was some better in 
 jography, Ephe topped him in figgers. So it 
 were in their playin . Lige in gener l beat 
 Ephe a-runnin , but twicet out of three times 
 Ephe could lay Lige s back on the ground in a 
 wrastle." 
 
 Thus, as my friend in extended detail went on 
 to relate, the rivalry continued on every field of 
 joint endeavor until all were grown up, and 
 settled down to business ; for in those times 
 girls, if in different ways, did work for the 
 family, whether it was needed or not. The 
 rivals, full of health and activity, equally unob 
 jectionable as to looks and habits, not the 
 difference of an inch in height or of half a dozen 
 pounds in weight, Ephraim a shade lighter and 
 
THEIR COUSIN LETHY 81 
 
 Elijah a shade browner than Lethy, continued 
 to besiege each in the way he was advised and 
 believed was most promising ; and Lethy, sweet, 
 good, thoughtful girl that she was, while never 
 showing signs of preference for either, often 
 exhorted them to moderate, if they could not 
 altogether suppress, their mutual hostility. 
 
 " You mind, my son," Mr. Pate lingered to 
 remark in sage parenthesis, " when a girl is 
 pootty and sweet as any pink, and she knows it, 
 as Lethy Griddle were obleeged to know the 
 above, they can be as cool, or at least they 
 know how to make believe they are cool the 
 same as a curcumber, when them that want em 
 may be hot as a horseshoe jest out of the fire. 
 And fact is, the red hotter them gits, the cooler 
 they can show theirself. That s one o the ad 
 vantages the good Lord have give to females, 
 and a fellow have to study and pick up ex- 
 pe unce in sech things to find out how to git 
 round em. Oh, I tell you now, and other people 
 will tell you, that Joe Pate hain t been livin 
 this long in the world without getherin a many 
 a useful itom of information about wimmin 
 single and married, a-includin of widders, 
 because a man, even if he is married, he never 
 know when sech infimation mayn t come in 
 handy." 
 
 The counsellor, and sometimes by special re- 
 
82 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 quest the go-between, of these lads and their 
 cousin was Curry Lightner. He was a tall, 
 brownish, bushy-haired person, who, although 
 as far gone in years as twenty-nine without 
 ever being even engaged, was one of those cool, 
 level-headed bachelors not at all common, and 
 was often heard to say that people might name 
 him any name to suit themselves, but that he 
 should not make any movement toward getting 
 married until he could be made to believe, in 
 some one particular case, that he would do bet 
 ter than by staying single. On the income of 
 his property, which was somewhat more than 
 that of any of the other three, he lived at ease, 
 yet without extravagance. He dressed neatly, 
 but with occasional negligence, which some said 
 was put on for the purpose of showing (but all 
 for policy s sake) his independence of general 
 female opinion. He patiently let himself be 
 consulted by ardent young men and youths in 
 their loves, and, although never undertaking to 
 become a zealous partisan, freely gave advice 
 out of his long, apparently unselfish contem 
 plation of such matters, and his stock of inter 
 esting words, which seemed without limit. In 
 the case of Ephraim and Elijah, he said to each 
 distinctly that while he was willing to advise 
 freely, it must not be expected of him to take 
 an active part on the side of either, but that 
 
THEIR COUSIN LETHY 83 
 
 they must fight the thing out themselves on 
 their several lines. 
 
 "No, Ephe; no, Lige," alternately in multi 
 tudinous concludings ; " you see what I can do 
 for you. My advices is as free as water a-me- 
 and ring down its own stream for others to 
 partake besides itself ; but the making or the 
 breaking in those aforesaid things is not to my 
 hand to perp trate, but is for them that is will 
 ing to make enemies for what is not their look 
 out nor their own particular business. No ; 
 come to me when your mind is egzited either 
 by doubts or uncertainties, and I ll talk to you 
 as free as I would with my own parrents if 
 they wasn t both of em dead." 
 
 Hardly satisfactory as were such interviews 
 to the lads, yet each was consoled by assurance 
 felt that the confidant would at least never be 
 stir himself in support of his rival. This assur 
 ance was well founded, for in none of Lightner s 
 visits to the Griddles , which were frequent, did 
 he ever speak a word implying special prefer 
 ence in his regard for either, although very 
 many kindly of both. 
 
 Chatty and vivacious as Lethy was generally, 
 yet much of her talk when with her cousins 
 separately was not very interesting, because it 
 ran so much in praise of the absent. One day, 
 when she and Elijah were alone together, noting 
 
84 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 that her words in praise of Ephraim, if not en 
 tirely lost upon the listener, were far from the 
 sort he would have preferred to hear, after talk 
 ing until it was becoming plainly painful to him, 
 she said : 
 
 " Cousin Ligy, what is the reason you and 
 Cousin Ephe don t seem to like each other like 
 you ought ? Seems strange, nice young men 
 like you are, and both my own dear cousins at 
 that. Now there s Mr. Curry Lightner. He 
 never comes here that he don t have something 
 kind and pleasant to say about you both ; while 
 you and Cousin Ephe I do wish you and he 
 could be more friendly, indeed I do." 
 
 " Has Ephe Garrett been running me down 
 to you, Lethy ? " 
 
 " There it is ! No, he has not, as you ought 
 to know well enough I wouldn t let him do if 
 he was to want. But neither has he been run 
 ning you up, as I suppose you would call it, no 
 more than you ve ever been running him up to 
 me. It isn t right, and hurts ma s feelings, not 
 to say anything of mine, that I don t suppose, 
 because it don t look like, either one of you 
 cares anything about them." 
 
 These words, intended so to be, were tremu 
 lous and touching. 
 
 " My goodness, Lethy ! Care about your feel 
 ings ? Me ? Why, Aunt Patsy ought to know, 
 
THEIR COUSIN LETHY 85 
 
 and you can t help from knowing, that Ephe 
 Garrett don t that, no, not to save his life, 
 could Ephe Garrett think half as much of 
 you as I do." 
 
 " Why couldn t he ? " she asked, restored to 
 calmness and coolness. 
 
 "Because it ain t in him, Lethy, and never 
 was in him, and never could git in him. He 
 hain t the heart capacity to hold what s in me ; 
 nor he hain t the breast, nor nor yes, I ll 
 say it open he hain t it not in one single one 
 of his whole blessed inside of nervous fabrica 
 tion, to leave love and affection entirely out of 
 the case, whom to compare with me and mine in 
 the presence of you." 
 
 "Whee-oo! Cousin Ephe, according to all 
 that, must be very lacking somewhere." 
 
 "For that and them onnly, Lethy; for that 
 and them onnly is my meaning of the above. 
 As to Ephe Garrett, what I should say about 
 Ephe Garrett, if I was called on to express my 
 opinion of Ephe Garrett, it would be that in 
 some points of view of a case not of the present 
 sitooation, Ephe Garrett is right much of a man ; 
 but that in the present sitooation it is me that 
 know what you to be in and through yourself, 
 and to predate and vally to the accordin . It 
 is me that have the judgment of your perfec 
 tion and all your walk and conversation and 
 
86 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 would fain believe, if you could only think as 
 I do, that happiness to both of us would be 
 commensurate. And it not onnly is hard, but 
 to me, in my present egzitement, it look pitiful, 
 when I am using the most perspective words 
 I know how, and trying to put my very best 
 foot foremost, you re there a-laughing at me, 
 and I have no doubts in my mind but what it s 
 because Ephe Garrett has been telling you some 
 thing mean and ridiculous about me." 
 
 When her laughing fit was over, she an 
 swered : 
 
 " It isn t so, Cousin Ligy ; not a bit of it. 
 When Cousin Ephe is here he talks mostly with 
 ma ; but neither ma nor I have ever heard him 
 say one single word against your character in 
 any way. It s all in your imagination." 
 
 Yet he could not entirely believe her, and he 
 went away pondering how he might get even 
 with Ephe. 
 
 After waiting quite a time for Mr. Pate to 
 get thus far in his narrative, I let him proceed 
 for some distance in his own way. 
 
 "Now Ephe Garrett s huntin were defFent 
 from Lige, that Lige went at Lethy straight 
 out mad, like Lethy had good rights to be hisn 
 and nobody else, and that amejent, which ain t 
 the thing with young, unexpe unced girls, how- 
 somever it may be with widders, that I have 
 
THEIR COUSIN LETHY 87 
 
 had expe unce of both. And my expe unce of 
 widders is, when they has drapped the takin 
 on for their husband that s dead and goned and 
 showed hisself to be no more use to them, and 
 arf ter they has made up their mind to try it 
 ag in, the thing can be settled without any great 
 to-do in the multiplyin o words. Why, there s 
 my wife, that she s my second, and nobody ever 
 had a better, exceptin of my first wife, jest as 
 good, that she, a-meanin of my wife for the 
 time a-bein , ware the widder Tidy. I ain t 
 say in it s so, but the drappin off of Johnny 
 Tidy not long before my first wife went to her 
 mansions in the sky seemed a most like the good 
 Lord had a eye on my woeful conditions, 
 knowin what a friend to him I had always 
 tried to be. Yit when the case were so be, and 
 come around so natchel and conven ent like, 
 that there were our two plantations a-j inin , me 
 a widower and Mrs. Tidy a widder, both young 
 enough and, you may say, strong and warlike, 
 that one night I thought it all over, and next 
 mornin I rid over there, and when I putt the 
 case before her (for she were always a quick- 
 mind person for a female), she see through it 
 plain as me, and before I left that house we 
 app inted the day. But you see, my son, that s 
 widders. With young girls it s deff ent. A 
 man have to flarter them up powerful when 
 
88 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 they re pink and scrimptious like Lethy Griddle, 
 and that s jest where Ephe knowed Lige had 
 the vantage of him in the words and lang- 
 widges that somehow Ephe never could come up 
 with like Lige, and what he did know of em, 
 his bashful egzitement made him forgit em in 
 Lethy s company tell it were too late. But 
 with old people Ephe Garrett could express 
 hisself to perfect satisfaction. And so Ephe 
 made set, Ephe did, at Lethy s ma, because he 
 done already heard the sayin that a good way 
 to ketch a calf silent and easy were to fling a 
 nubbin to the cow." 
 
 One day Ephe took in to Mrs. Griddle a bas 
 ket of nice country things, eggs, butter, and 
 I couldn t say what all, and after usual sal 
 utations, giving and receiving of thanks, with 
 no mention of Lethy, who had stepped over 
 to a neighbor, he said: 
 
 " I don t know, Aunt Patsy, that you know 
 that pa in his lifetime thought more of you 
 than are sister or brother in the family, and it 
 seems like the same have come down to me 
 sense he s dead and gone." 
 
 Then with his left hand he gently rubbed his 
 right jaw. 
 
 " It s very nice in you to say so, Ephra m," 
 answered his aunt. " It was jest last night 
 Lethy and I were talking about how good you 
 
THEIR COUSIN LETHY 89 
 
 and Ligy Strouder was to remember us, that 
 only yisterday he brought her a whole lot of 
 roses and bubby blossoms." 
 
 Ephe took down his hand, laid it upon his 
 knee, and had the looks of one who felt suddenly 
 somewhat sick. Rallying, he said with words 
 beginning in melancholy : 
 
 " Yes ; I brought my present to you, though 
 of course I expected Cousin Lethy to have her 
 part that is, without she rather have nothing 
 to do with anything belongin to me." 
 
 "Come now, Ephra m; Lethy thinks jest as 
 much of you as she do of Ligy that is, to my 
 opinion she do ; and it seem a pity that you and 
 him can t be friendlier with one another, that it 
 look like the poor child is sometimes distressed 
 in her mind at you and him a-growlin ." 
 
 "Aunt Patsy," he painfully remonstrated, "it 
 ain t me ; it is not me that is a-growlin at Lige 
 Strouder. It s Lige Strouder a-growlin at me ; 
 and not only that, but a-barkin at me to boot. 
 Then you know that he don t think nigh as much 
 of Lethy as I do. As for me, in this case, Aunt 
 Patsy, I take in the view not only Lethy, but I 
 take in you. Which I have yit to learn Lige 
 Strouder do, with all his high-syllable words, 
 which he have got out of the dictionary with 
 Curry Lightner to help him, and which I ve got 
 too much work to do to inwestigate. But Lige 
 
90 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 Strouder can t deny that in the spellin -class at 
 Mr. Hodge s school he were a heap nigher the 
 foot than I were to the head. Lige Strouder 
 have been studyin fine language and things, 
 even o nights, to find words to turn me down 
 in Lethy s affection, when he know in his con 
 science I think a thousand million times more of 
 her than he do, even if I can t p inted find the 
 words, when me and her is together by our 
 selves, to lay myself open before her. It s all 
 because I love her to that distraction the words 
 fail me. And so the best I can do is to putt 
 my case before my own blessed aunt that I ve 
 learnt to love more than are aunt I ve got in all 
 this sorrowful world, when it look like a pity a 
 young man with the affections I have can t git 
 the peace on his mind he honest think he 
 deserve." 
 
 Tears as honest as the very longest day of the 
 year touched the aunt s heart. One was in her 
 own eye when she said : 
 
 "Ephra m, my son, I can onnly say that if 
 the deciding of this case was left to me, you are 
 obleeged to be awares how they would go. For 
 blood is blood, and kin is kin, leavin out that 
 water is water, and can t be anything beyant 
 water. I loved your pa the same he loved me, 
 and even if it be Mr. Griddle were foiid of Lijah s 
 ma, yit blood is blood, which I caln t but say 
 
THEIR COUSIN LETHY 91 
 
 with that basket a-setting there before my very 
 eyes. But I tell you now, after them feeble 
 remarks ; it s a subject that Lethy have took the 
 bit in her own mouth, and is a-goin to decide 
 for her own self." 
 
 Ephraim thanked his aunt, and went away 
 hopeful that what influence she could exert 
 would preponderate in his favor. 
 
 At night when the mother reported this in 
 terview, said Lethy : 
 
 " That s all right, ma, that is, it s as nigh 
 right as Cousin Ephe knows how to put it. It 
 would be just as well, though, if Cousin Ephe 
 came at me instead of you, and if Cousin Lige 
 came at me different and with fewer of his big 
 words, which he ought to know that I know 
 that he don t know all the meanings of em. 
 We ll see about it before very long. No use 
 hurrying. What you say about kin being kin, 
 and blood blood, is all right in its place. I m 
 sleepy myself, I am." 
 
 Shortly after the last-mentioned visits, the 
 youths resorted alternately to their friend and 
 counsellor. 
 
 " Lige," said Mr. Lightner, " you have the ad 
 vantage of Ephe in the quantities of your words, 
 and the beautifulness of their significations 
 and sounds ; for my experience with women 
 is, they rather love language and music, though 
 
92 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEOKGIA 
 
 not a musician myself, strictly speaking, 
 and have not yet used my .best language on 
 them, at least to any solemn extent. Them 
 words ( notwithstanding and nevertheless 
 which you tell me you flung out witli Lethy, 
 keerless, like you was used to them, will do you 
 no harm. So the word commensurate/ al 
 though it might have been just as well to say 
 what it all was commensurate with say the 
 universal world, or some other large thing. Yit 
 I ve no doubt she understood your meanings. 
 If I was exact in your place, I should go on 
 with my circulations, and should keep a dic 
 tionary where I could turn to it handy. A dic 
 tionary, if it mayn t be as interesting to some 
 people like a love and warlike book, yit it has 
 its use in matters of your kind. For you may 
 say what you please about women, but it s 
 principal language that taken their eye of 
 course I mean if looks, and property, and other 
 advantages is satisfact ry." 
 
 " Ephe," in his turn, " in my view of this 
 terraqu ous life, as I have seen named some 
 where in my reading, the mind of one female 
 freckwent hangs on the mind of another female, 
 and her mind, that is, the other female s mind, 
 to use a ruther low expression, a fellow have 
 to untwine it gradual tell he can git himself 
 included along with the girl of his desire. The 
 
THEIR COUSIN LETHY 93 
 
 advantage you have over Lige in this case 
 which, it is plain to see, lays in Mrs. Griddle 
 being your blood and not Lige s ; and if it was 
 me, I should put it forwards for all it is worth. 
 I should keep on telling my Aunt Patsy how 
 hard my own pa loved her ; and as for baskets 
 and buckets, and those kind of things, I should 
 just hang around and actual pessecute her on 
 them lines. Of course I can t interfere active 
 between you and Lige, being both of you my 
 friends, civil and political. It is for you and 
 Lige to work the thing out for your own selves 
 accordin to the lamp by which both your feet 
 is guided, like Patrick Henry said at the Decla 
 ration of Independence." 
 
 Indefinite and not quite intelligible as such 
 counsels were, the rivals felt, though in some 
 darkness, the need of holding to them. 
 
 Young as I was, I did not feel very, very 
 tired as the old man fondly dwelt in elongated 
 detail. The lengthening shadows of the trees 
 warned him to advance to the end. Casting 
 his eye momentarily at the fast-declining sun, 
 he said : 
 
 " Well, there s a heap more of up and downs ; 
 but I reckon I as well finish up, and tell how 
 the contendin parties run the thing to a head. 
 Rudisill have drawed off his mill-pond. At sech 
 times whole lots o people gethered there to 
 
94 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 ketch fish with seines and nets, and one thing 
 and another. Now Ephe Garrett, when oncet 
 he were too rapid in the shettin of his seine 
 that was jes jammed with suckers and cat and 
 red-bellies, she were split ag in a rock, and he 
 skint his knee, and sprained his ankle, and he 
 have to lay at home for a whole munt. And 
 in the time news got out that Ephe Garrett 
 have the rheumatiz, which have come down to 
 him on his mother s side of the house. Nobody 
 knowed who started it, but Ephe sispicioned 
 Lige Strouder, and he declared he d git even 
 with Lige. So one day he went in town, and 
 he hopped about on his cretch all over town, 
 a-denyin o the words, and a-addin that Lige 
 Strouder s people have had the consum tion on 
 his father s side, a-includin of a old aunt that 
 had a cough that lasted sixty year and better, 
 and she tired out two whole gineration o peo 
 ple before she give out ; that of course sech a 
 disease, when it oncet got in a family o people, 
 it stayed there to the very last prosterity of 
 em. Well, sir, when things got to that solemn 
 p int, some thin have got to be done. And so 
 Ephe sent word to Lige, and Lige sent word 
 to Ephe, that soon as Ephe could fling away 
 his cretch they was to meet at Eland s store 
 and settle it. Now sech as that skeared Mrs. 
 Griddle to that she begged Lethy to decide in 
 
THEIR COUSIN LETHY 95 
 
 her mind before the battle come round, and 
 Lethy declared she meant to. And so one 
 mornin Lethy putt on her very best frock and 
 things, and her ma didn t say anything because 
 she knowed night before what was up, and she 
 looked solemn, but she said she were riconciled. 
 Bimeby here come ridin in town the old man 
 Sanford that he was the parscher of their 
 church, and he lit at the Robys , and were met 
 at the gate by Curry Lightner, and them two 
 and Mrs. Roby, Curry s sister, went straight 
 across to the Griddles , and in less n a half a 
 hour Lethy and Curry was j ined in the banes, 
 and then they lit in the Roby gig, and was off 
 on a tower clean as fer as A gusty, where they 
 stayed one whole solid week." 
 
 " And what," I asked, " did the other young 
 men do ? " 
 
 " Do ? why, they was both in the sitooation 
 of the feller the calf runned over. They was 
 both of em speechless, and had nothin to do 
 nor say. When their langwidges come back to 
 em, Ephe said that as his cousin Lethy wouldn t 
 take him, he were thankful she did not take 
 Lige ; and Lige said the same about Ephe. 
 And when Curry Lightner got back, and call 
 em < Cousin Ephe and Cousin Lige kind and 
 affectionate, and declare he have not putt hisself 
 in his best langwidge before Lethy tell he see 
 
96 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 they has run the lenkt of ther rope, they for 
 give him. And tweren t a year before Ephe 
 married Lige s sister, and Lige married Ephe s 
 sister ; and then the whole lot of em got jest 
 overwhelmed with one Another together in good 
 feelin s all around." 
 
OLD LADY LAZENBERRY 
 
OLD LADY LAZENBERRY 
 
 As Mr. Pate advanced in age it seemed to con 
 sole him much that, though interested listeners 
 to his chattings gradually diminished in numbers 
 on account of his deafness and growing garru- 
 lousness, I remained steadfastly loyal. One Sat 
 urday afternoon, sure that, as usual, he would 
 be at the store, I went there. After all except 
 myself, with one and another excuse, had gone 
 away from him, knowing that he expected me 
 to ask him for another story, I did so. 
 
 " Another story, eh ? Ain t you afeard you ll 
 git sp ilt, havin a man o expe unce and obserwa- 
 tion talkin to thes you by your lone self ? No ; 
 no danger. Pity but what some grown people 
 would follow the egzample of not a-interruptin 
 ner runnin away from convisation which is 
 meant for their good, and their good only, if 
 they had the jedgment to see it. Well, what 
 sort o story you want Injun story, fightin 
 story, or what ? " 
 
 I answered that, if all the same to him, I pre 
 ferred one with a good deal of love and courting 
 
 99 
 
100 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 strung along, and some marrying toward the 
 end. 
 
 " Thes listen to that ! This here boy ! And 
 him eight year old last Chuesday ! Fer I were 
 at the house and I heerd his ma say it were his 
 birthday. And I had to run my hand in my 
 pocket and jerk out a thrip for him. And his 
 ma hizitated about him takin of it ; but she 
 give in when she see my feelin s would be hurted, 
 and I conwinced her that a thrip give by a 
 neighbor at sech a time weren t big enough 
 money to make a fool o nobody noways. Yes, 
 he were eight year old a Chuesday, this here 
 boy, and he want to hear about courtin and 
 marryin . Yit a body is obleeged to acknowledge 
 that it s in the blood o people, old or young. 
 Courtin and marryin has been goin on ever 
 sence Adam and Eve in the gyarden, and down 
 till yit it s the interestinest occepation people 
 can foller and hear tell about. I have putt my 
 mind a right smart on the subject, and it have 
 arriv to the settlin of it that the good Lord 
 made em so in the offstart, fer to make em 
 have and keep up their respect of a inst ootion 
 he see it were the best he could do fer thes sich 
 a set. For my expe unce of the good Lord have 
 been and is that he know his own business better 
 than anybody can tell him ; that I have said so 
 to warous people many and many a time, some 
 
OLD LADY LAZENBERRY 101 
 
 of em heedin my word, and some not, as the 
 case might be, a cordin to the gumption that 
 deffer nt people has, more or less. And but 
 this here boy want a story, he do." 
 
 For a moment or so he seemed dropped into 
 reminiscent mood ; then, looking down upon me, 
 he said : 
 
 " I ruther think I ll make a few remarks to 
 day on the old lady Lazenberry." 
 
 He smiled with benevolent compassion, mov 
 ing his head slowly up and down, and proceeded : 
 
 " My expe unce of old people that is, what 
 you might call oldish people it is that when 
 courtin once take a start with em, it is rapider 
 and it is p inteder than young people, and it s 
 because, a-knowin what little sunshine they got 
 left, they see the importance o getherin in 
 what hay they see a-layin round. Now the old 
 lady Lazenberry she never liked the name her 
 self, but they called her that to sip rate her from 
 her daughter-in-law. 
 
 " The family lived on t other side the Ogee- 
 chee, not fur from Long Creek meetin -house, 
 where she were a member in good standin from 
 the time she j ined, a girl, till now, when she 
 have outlived two husbands, and active and spry 
 as the youngest widder a-goin . Her first hus 
 band were Lihu Lazenberry, and after he died 
 leavin her with three children, his brother Isaac, 
 
102 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 a-feelin hisself adequate to the above, stepped in 
 and extenduated the family two better. Then 
 he died, thes like everybody do when their time 
 come. And when, some time atterwards, she 
 begun to streak her black with red ribbins and 
 things, people that thought she were goin to 
 give up to numerous affliction acknowledged 
 they were mistakened in their mind. She were 
 always one o that kind o wimming that, when 
 they know they ve got a better head on em 
 than them around em, would go long and do 
 what they wanted. Both her husbands knewed 
 that, and was proud of her ; for she were a ele 
 gant manager, which they weren t, and have got 
 a right nice property together. 
 
 " Now, unfort nately there were another fe 
 male in the family that had ambition for the 
 same, and that were Sally Ann, Billy Lazen- 
 berry s wife. But there s a deffunce betwixt 
 wimming that have a head and know it, and them 
 that think they have got a head and hain t, and 
 that were the case with Sally Ann. Billy ner 
 none the other children, married or not, never 
 thought o sich a thing as tryin to hector over 
 their ma. But Sally Ann, knowin that Billy 
 bein a good-hearted fellow, and wouldn t quoil, 
 she severial times ondertook to tell her ma-in-law 
 she ought to do this and she oughn t to do that, 
 and the old lady, fer Billy s sake, only thes 
 
OLD LADY LAZENBERRY 103 
 
 smiled, and went on about her business same as 
 ef Sally Ann hadn t opened her mouth. You 
 onderstand, she see Sally Ann never have nigh 
 the head she have herself, and tweren t worth 
 while to bother with her ithout the time come 
 to use her to help fetch about anything she have 
 made up her mind she want. And, shore 
 enough, it did along o them red ribbins and 
 things I told you about. Sally Ann ought to 
 have knew, like everybody else did, that the old 
 lady weren t goin to stay a widder providin 
 she could suit herself ; for she weren t but forty- 
 nine year old, and she were as perfect healthy 
 and active as Sally Ann, every bit and grain, 
 and as fer looks, she helt her own remarkable. 
 She were never at no time what people called a 
 great beauty, but she full made up by cha-recter 
 and industr ous and good managy, and special 
 the good head she always carried about with 
 her." 
 
 Despite what then seemed to me the very far 
 advanced age of the lady thus for the third time 
 indulging herself in romantic speculations, my old 
 friend s numerous words were more interesting 
 to me than I could hope to make them to others 
 by rehearsal. I must narrate in brief, there 
 fore, some facts told by him in much fond detail. 
 
 For reasons sufficient in her own mind, Mrs. 
 Billy Lazenberry decided that her mother-in-law 
 
104 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEOIIGIA 
 
 should not marry again if she could hinder it. 
 Knowing this, the elder, on her part, decided to 
 use her daughter-in-law in furtherance of her 
 intentions general and special. 
 
 When the widow had put on what Mr. Pate 
 styled her " red ribbins and things," marrying 
 gentlemen began to surmise that, whatever else 
 might be the result, she would not take offence 
 at approaches in ways of gentlemen that were 
 not improperly urgent, and with words choicely 
 persuasive. Among these was Mr. James Boze, a 
 bachelor whom young people, for years, had been 
 calling Uncle Jeenis. Although a gentleman of 
 some firmness of character and a reasonably good 
 business man, he was slow in action, and modest 
 to a degree that made him a favorite listener 
 with those who much preferred their own to the 
 conversation of others. He professed to be a 
 lover of what he called " the seek," even acknow 
 ledging an intensity of feeling occasionally, when 
 in the presence of one specially attractive, that 
 produced titillation in his nostrils leading to vio 
 lent sneezing when he had no more sign of a 
 cold than the most clear-headed among my 
 readers at this minute. Embarrassment, soon 
 degenerating into inanity, had heretofore kept 
 him from making known the state of his feelings 
 to any particular lady. Now, being about the 
 age of the widow Lazenberry, or perhaps a year 
 
OLD LADY LAZENBERKY 105 
 
 or so older, lie was generally believed to be one 
 who might be counted out when marriage was 
 the theme of conversation among the neighbors. 
 A rather small man in the beginning, latterly he 
 had seemed to age and dwindle rather fast for 
 one of his years. He lived close, closer in the 
 lapse of time and the fading away of romantic 
 ideas and hopes. With both the late Lazenberrys 
 he had been a good friend, and many a time at 
 the Lazenberry table had he been joked with by 
 the last for continuing to be an old bachelor. 
 Repelling such a charge as well as he could, he 
 thanked Mrs. Lazenberry, and always remem 
 bered her for coming to his support on such oc 
 casions by maintaining that the only reason why 
 he had not married was that his time hadn t 
 come. 
 
 Now there may or there may not have been 
 something peculiar in a look which Mr. Boze 
 received from Mrs. Lazenberry on that Sunday 
 at Long Creek meeting-house when she ap 
 peared first in colors. He indulged a small hope 
 that there was ; but he was not a man to pre 
 sume upon such a thing. Yet there was noticed 
 somewhat, if only a trifle, of brightening in his 
 looks and dress, and a slight propensity to sneeze 
 whenever the lady s name was mentioned in his 
 hearing. In this simple society there were al 
 most no secrets. If there had been, Mrs. Billy 
 
106 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 Lazenberry would have been apt to make early 
 acquaintance with one as interesting as this. 
 As it was, her mother-in-law, far from indulging 
 any motive of concealment, for reasons good and 
 sufficient wished her to have knowledge of every 
 thing existing, and suspicion as far as possible 
 beyond it. Mrs. Billy had laughingly been hav 
 ing a good deal to say about, as she expressed it, 
 " old uncle Jeems Boze a-primping hisself here 
 lately." Something pointed seemed needful for 
 the occasion ; so one day, when Billy was at his 
 mother s, she said to him, " Billy, Sally Ann 
 have been a-ridiculin of Jeems Boze right 
 smart, and if you could git her to stop it, possi 
 ble it might be jest as well as not/ 
 
 " Law, ma, I can t no more stop Sally Ann 
 from sech as that than I can shet up all out o 
 doors. You know that, ma." 
 
 " Yes, I know, my son. Pity but what you 
 could. Sally Ann, exceptin of ruther too much 
 tongue, is a good woman and a excellent wife. 
 Maybe if you ll try it again you ll have better 
 luck. Because you know Jeems Boze is not 
 a for ard person, and sech as that might hurt 
 his feelin s and discourage him, which nobody 
 ought to want to make enemies." 
 
 Billy promised to undertake the task. 
 
 " Now, my boy," here said Mr. Pate in paren 
 thesis, " there were where the old lady showed 
 
OLD LADY LAZENBERRY 107 
 
 the head she had over Sally Ann. She knewed 
 that when Billy begun on Sally Ann, it would 
 turn her tongue perfect loose on Jeems Boze, 
 and that s what she wanted done. And then 
 she want to fling out to Billy in an affectionate, 
 motherly way, so to prepar his mind for what 
 might be comin onexpected-like." 
 
 As was foreseen, Mrs. Billy, after report of the 
 conversation, excited by this new view of the 
 case, became more intent than before upon re 
 pressing Mr. Boze. She went about picking up 
 all there was to be had against him, adding 
 freely other things that in her opinion would be 
 far more discreditable if they could only be 
 found out. Mr. Boze, most harmless and 
 peace-loving of mankind, never having been in 
 a quarrel of any sort in all his life, and timid, 
 especially with regard to women, looking upon 
 all this as a warning, decided that it was most 
 prudent for him to stop right where he was, get 
 back amain into his old clothes, shave himself 
 as before but once a week, and that only in 
 spots, indifferent as to the number of gashes 
 from an unstropped razor, and give it out that 
 his health was bad, and he had no expectation 
 or wish to live much longer. It is curious, 
 when a man comes to be afraid of a woman, 
 how intensely afraid he can get. At the bare 
 mention of Mrs. Sally Ann Lazenberry s name 
 
108 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 Mr. Boze s countenance became utterly woe-be- 
 gone, his small frame shrank yet smaller, and he 
 trembled sensibly without, and more so within. 
 It was actually pitiful how this humble, good 
 man wilted before the blasts of Mrs. Sally Ann 
 Lazenberry. When the widow had noted as 
 much as was satisfactory of all this, she ex 
 claimed : 
 
 " Aha ! " and then added to herself, Sally 
 Ann is a conven enter thing to have about sech 
 a matter than a body might even want." 
 
 The afternoon was far worn before the con 
 clusion of this story. I often recall my old 
 friend s interest, greater, evidently, because of 
 the ripe ages of the lovers. Passing over his 
 very many words in narrating the subsequent 
 doings of the parties interested, I subjoin some 
 remarks of the one most prompt and active in 
 conducting them to a happy end. 
 
 One day, a fortnight or so after an event the 
 excitement of which began to subside the sooner, 
 perhaps, for being the third of its kind, this per 
 son, in answer to a neighbor s congratulations, 
 among very many others, said the following 
 words : 
 
 " I thanky, Mrs. Ivy. The longer a body live 
 in this world, it seem like the bigger their ex- 
 pe unce is bound to be. When I was a girl, of 
 course, like other girls, I looked forrards, and 
 
OLD LADY LAZENBERRY 109 
 
 when I got married, I done it accordin to the 
 Lord s app intment, which I believe in the same 
 in such cases as I believe in you a-settin there. 
 Well, Lihu Lazenberry he was a good husband, 
 like he promised, but he died, leaving me a wid- 
 der with three children. And after a while 
 Isaac Lazenberry he overpersuaded me, not ex 
 pected, and in the course of time Isaac Lazen 
 berry went, and there I were again, with two 
 more orphans. Now the Tostle Paul, you know 
 yourself, Mrs. Ivy, he writ that when a female 
 person have lost her companion, it is perfect law 
 ful for her to have another ; and it seem like to 
 me the Tostle Paul give his advices freer to 
 widders than young girls, being appearant ruther 
 doubtful sometimes about young girls, but p inted 
 that widders better had. Hadn t been so, I d a 
 never took Isaac Lazenberry, and when Isaac 
 Lazenberry went, it wouldn t been worth no 
 man person s while to even name sech a subject 
 to me, which I has no doubt, Mrs. Ivy, you 
 were the same when Mr. Ivy come at you after 
 your first husband died, a not doubtin but what 
 the Tostle Paul knowed what he was a-talkin 
 about. Now, fact o the business is, idees of 
 the kind, after Isaac Lazenberry went, might 
 of kept longer out of my mind hadn t been for 
 Sally Ann, that everybody know the fun ril of 
 Isaac Lazenberry weren t so very fur over when 
 
110 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 Sally Ann, thinkin my business were her busi 
 ness, she begun to talk. Then I stuck on the 
 breast of my frock, one little, lone, red ribbin, 
 thes to let Sally Ann know that my business 
 was a thing that I were goin to tend to myself 
 ithout a-askin of her fer help. To tell the truth, 
 I hadn t been pesterin my mind noways about 
 Jeems Boze partic lar. But when Jeems Boze 
 got hisself some new clothes, and begun to hold 
 hisself straighter, and look like he thought some- 
 thin of hisself, and when I ketched his eye 
 Sunday meetin s, lookin at me friendly and 
 wishful, and I let him see my feelin s weren t 
 hurted by sech behavior, why, of course I begun 
 to have that same flutterin in my breast that 
 a female can t keep herself from havin sech a 
 time and in them conditions, albe same like 
 before it were not expected, and I begun to be 
 a-waitin to see what Jeems Boze were goin to 
 do about it. 
 
 " But now Sally Ann she let her tongue go 
 loose at both ends, as the sayin is, against 
 Jeems Boze to sech a scan lous pitch that it 
 skeert Jeems Boze, and made him drap back 
 further than before in his bachelor ways, and he 
 never come anigh me, and he tell people that 
 it wouldn t be so very long before they d find 
 him at the p int o death. Now, don t you 
 know, Mrs. Ivy, that sech as that made me 
 
OLD LADY LAZENBERRY 111 
 
 feel sorry for Jeems Boze ? Why, of course it 
 was obleeged to. And then I put on more 
 red, and I determined in my mind to thes kiver 
 myself all over with red ruther than to let Sally 
 Ann drive him to the insignif cance she were 
 appearant bent on. But you know, Mrs. Ivy, I 
 never could ketch Jeems Boze s eye to let him 
 understand my signs and feelin s, he were that 
 skeert of Sally Ann. That made the yearnester 
 the flutterin I had fer him in my breast, and so 
 one Sat day night, when my Sam were startin 
 for his wife s house (she that were Jeems Boze s 
 Judy), I told him to tell his Marse Jeems from 
 me not to mind Sally Ann s talk, and that I 
 had neither part ner lot in it. And when Sam 
 came back a Monday mornin , he said the words 
 made his Marse Jeems fa rly jump out of his 
 cheer- and next mornin he got out his new 
 clothes and put em on, and he shaved hisself 
 nice and clean, and he told Sam if he didn t feel 
 ruther skeert to do it, he d get on his horse and 
 ride straight over here. And he told Sam to 
 tell me to try to fetch back my mind, and see if 
 I couldn t ricollect tellin him the reason why 
 he hadn t got married it were because his time 
 hadn t come. Did you ever see anything dili- 
 cater than that ? And I made Sam go right 
 straight back and tell him I ricollect perfect, 
 and it seemed like to me the same as a inarracle. 
 
112 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 And so, not long after, here come a-ridin up the 
 lane nobody but Jeems Boze, a-suspicionin of 
 which I had already put on my best frock. And 
 soon as he come in the house and shook hands, 
 he trimbled and he sneezed and he set down 
 awk ard-like ; and I were pleased in my mind 
 to see his egzitement, because you know your 
 self it s the nature of a dilicate female, even if 
 it have been twice before, to not seem like too 
 willin when a man person come at her on sech 
 a arrant, and so he may feel ruther skeert and 
 dubious, and not be holdin his head up too 
 high and bold. At first Jeems Boze were 
 speechless till I handed him a tumbler of water 
 with my own hands, and said I thought he 
 looked uncommon well that mornin , which he 
 did; then he peertened up, and well what 
 followed, followed. And I sent for Billy and the 
 girls that s married ; and they all acknowledged 
 I have been a good mother to them, and that if 
 I felt it were my juty to get married again, they 
 were thankful in their mind it were as good a 
 man as their Uncle Jeems Boze. Of course Sally 
 Ann knocked under when she found she had it 
 to do." 
 
 She paused awhile, and then added with some 
 pathos : 
 
 " And why shouldn t she, Mrs. Ivy ? What 
 have I done to be found fault with by Sally Ann 
 
OLD LADY LAZENBERRY 113 
 
 or anybody else ? Is a widder, even a two-time 
 widder, got nothin else to do but thes set down 
 or go about grievin fer them that s gone, and 
 a-complainin of the good Lord fer takin of 
 em ? And ain t a widder, even if she ain t 
 young as some, ain t she liable to get lonesome 
 and to want company like other wimming ? I 
 know well as if I had heard em that some 
 people laughed when the widder Lazenberry 
 have got married a third time, and that to 
 Jeems Boze, not expected. But sech as that 
 don t faze, and is perfect idle wind to me and 
 Jeems Boze, that if I ever see a happy man 
 person and contented in his mind, as he ac 
 knowledge it hisself, it is Jeems Boze, that he 
 solemn declare he were glad his time never 
 come till it did ; and as for kind and biddable 
 and convenant man person for a woman to have 
 about the house, and do what she want done, 
 and not do what she don t want done, I say 
 it bold, I don t believe in my mind there s 
 anybody anywheres to beat Jeems Boze. And, 
 oh, it s my hopes and my honest pra rs that the 
 good Lord mayn t seemeth him meet to make 
 me another widder. For, as you has the ex- 
 pe unce to know yourself, Mrs. Ivy, it s only 
 them that has been one that know what the 
 feelin s of it is." 
 
 " You see, my son," Mr. Pate said, in con- 
 
114 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 elusion, "that courtin and marryin ain t a 
 thing of people s age, ner of their been married 
 before oncet or twicet and left singuil. I might 
 add three times or four times ; number o times 
 got no thin to do with it. It s thes the natur o 
 people to not want to live by their lone self, 
 and when their pardner is took away from em, 
 if they don t git another it ain t because they 
 don t want to. And when you git old enough 
 to study about sich things, if your mind have 
 the strenkt to take em in, you ll see that them 
 married wimming that busies theirselves the 
 most strenious about widders a-marryin ag in 
 is the very ones, nine times in ten, to do the 
 very same like ways theirself when their hus 
 bands drap off young or old, make no odds 
 which, ithout they re so old as to forgit or to 
 not know what they do want. Time and tide 
 waits for nobody. And if you do be too young 
 to know it now, it s a fact that you never will 
 hear a sensibler obserwation than what that call 
 itself. 
 
 " You better go back to your ma now. She 
 might git oneasy and be a-sendin fer you. Spent 
 that thrip I give you Chuesday? There, now, 
 I knowed he had ! Never mind. If both of us 
 lives to his next birthday, he shall have another." 
 
OUR WITCH 
 
OUR WITCH 
 
 What are these . . . 
 
 That look not like the inhabitants o the earth, 
 And yet are on t ? MACBETH. 
 
 WITCHES those, I mean, that were visible, 
 tangible, and liable to be caught at their prac 
 tices were scarce in the extreme South. Warm 
 weather or something else discouraged immigra 
 tion. Now and then an old early settler who 
 was posted on their history was not quite sure 
 in his mind but that ghosts of a few flitted about 
 of nights, playing their pranks, though not to a 
 very alarming degree. Relief of its kind was 
 derived from the generally accorded fact that 
 their visitations were confined to those of their 
 own sex, and consisted chiefly in knotting manes 
 and tails of mares, drying up milch cows, ruffling 
 the feathers of setting hens, and spreading night 
 mares over the breasts of honest women, who, 
 after hearty suppers richly deserved for hard 
 days work, went to their beds never dreaming, 
 until fast asleep, what was coming. Preventives 
 were used by those who were apprehensive of 
 
 117 
 
OLD TIMES IX MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 such molest ings of their premises. The one re- 
 gMded most reliable was a meal-sieve ^called 
 sifter) hung on the outside of doors. The argu 
 ment ran thus: From the very beginning of the 
 institution of witches, one of the fixed rules of 
 their discipline was that, when confronted by 
 this useful domestic implement, they were to go 
 in and out of every one of its openings before pro 
 ceeding farther. Pausing to calculate that such 
 continuous up-and-down, right-and-left move 
 ment over and through a limited circular plane. 
 on, above, and beneath which were few objects 
 to interest a traveller, might not be completed 
 before daybreak, more often than otherwise they 
 turned their backs and went away in disappoint 
 ment. 
 
 Yet there was believed to be one in bodily, 
 actively moving, even notably discernible, exist 
 ence, whose suspected practices in the way of 
 her profession wrought for a while considerable 
 distress in a family that was living theretofore 
 in moderate peace, at least with the world out 
 side of itself. The witch was Mrs. Polly Boddy. 
 and the family the Magraws. From the very 
 start Mrs. Magraw, whose maiden name was 
 Nancy Tall, was plain, and she continued grow 
 ing on that line until one ceased to look for any 
 change for the better. During the good many 
 years of waiting in her young womanhood she 
 
OUK WITCH 119 
 
 did not seem, except at times, painfully heartsick 
 at the delay of suitors, and was said to have a 
 disposition that under the circumstances was, if 
 not remarkably good, not as bad as some. In 
 time came along Andy Magraw, a Scotchman, 
 two years younger, who by degrees offered him 
 self ; and she took him much as one, disappointed 
 of something dainty and hot, takes a cold potato 
 rather than go without dinner of any sort. He 
 would have been regarded as plain himself ex 
 cept for the advantage he held of continuous 
 comparison. They had one child ; but, a weak 
 ling from the beginning, it gave way to the 
 season of its first summer, and had no successor. 
 As time went on, the wife, never of a cheerful 
 spirit, seemed to grow less and less satisfied with 
 surroundings both at home and outside of it, 
 and learned to be quite voluble in the use of 
 complaining words. This became particularly 
 so of late, although she was now sixty years old. 
 Mrs. Boddy, on the contrary, with an excel 
 lent beginning, had kept it up surprisingly well. 
 She had outlasted two husbands, stout, brave 
 men in their time, and now, the junior of 
 Mrs. Magraw by only four years or such a mat 
 ter, looked hardly fifty. Not only that, but the 
 bland smoothness of her cheek, the cheery beam 
 ing of her eyes, the uniform tidiness of her dress, 
 and the cordial welcome of her voice and general 
 
120 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 manner, all made it seem that she intended to keep 
 herself young and agreeable as long as possible. 
 
 They were adjoining neighbors, the Magraws 
 living on the first rise beyond the river, and Mrs. 
 Boddy a mile farther up the stream, and nearly 
 opposite (on our side) Mr. Johnny Rainey, the 
 oldest deacon in the church. 
 
 Mr. Pate, who was the first to tell me this 
 story, showed, I thought, that much kind com 
 passion yet lingered in his recollection of Mrs. 
 Magraw. 
 
 " Why, sir, it looked like a pity any female to 
 be so unfort nate and inmortal plain as what she 
 were. They s a say in that pootty is only skin 
 deep, but ugly goes to the bone. It seem like 
 ith Mrs. Magraw, the ugly in her cons tootion 
 went clean thoo and thoo, meat, bone, sinner, 
 and muscle, and kep itself in every single p int 
 of view out ards and in ards, and that she were 
 jes turned loose in a flock by herself for other 
 people to be sorry for her that had to look at 
 her. They say she were right toler ble mild and 
 biddable when she were young, and even for a 
 while arfter she got married, exceptin when she 
 got mad. But somehow she begun to take up 
 the notion that things in gen l was ag in her 
 and gittin worse a constant. Yit she were a 
 female of powerful sperrit. She worked herself, 
 and she made everything about her work. 
 
OUR WITCH 121 
 
 <. 
 
 " People called her a pincher. She pinched 
 herself, and she pinched the niggers, and she 
 pinched her husband all she could ; but who, 
 Andy Magraw, he, good, peaceable man if he 
 were, sometimes bowed up his back, and cussed, 
 and wouldn t. Some said he were too good and 
 leniunt to her, and if he d take the reins in his 
 own hand, and let her understand as the head 
 o the family he were goin to keep em, she d 
 swage down and come reason ble. But one 
 thing I ve noticed in my expe unce, and it s 
 that them that think they know how to manage 
 sech wives as what Mrs. Magraw were is them 
 that ain t got em theirselves. Andy Magraw I 
 no doubt done the best he knowed how accordin 
 to the war ous risin s o the case before him, so 
 to speak. He never talked ag in her to t other 
 people, and nobody daresn t talk ag in her 
 where he were. 
 
 "Now, as for the poor ornan believin in 
 witches, they was other people in them times 
 that done the same, that is, to a extent, 
 and if anybody disputed em, they d fetch in 
 Scriptur to back em up. My own sip rate 
 opinion is that that were a long time ago, and 
 in a fur-away fur n country, where the good 
 Lord seemeth him meet to app int em for the 
 skearin o them hard-head Izzleites out o their 
 disobedience ; but in these Nunited States, and 
 
122 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 special in as healthy, peaceable country as the 
 State o Georgie, it s not worth while for people 
 to bother their brains overly much about em. 
 The stand my father always took about the 
 things, it were if you let them alone and not 
 try to locate em, they d let you alone. The 
 trouble ith Mrs. Magraw, she wouldn t." 
 
 Suspicions, first vague, had been lurking for 
 some time in the mind of Mrs. Magraw. Feel 
 ing herself Mrs. Boddy s superior in every qual 
 ity except personal attractiveness, she began to 
 speculate how it was that the cheek of a woman 
 not far from being as old as herself, survivor of 
 two husbands, held, and kept holding, the beauty 
 of her youth. Instead of being marred by mar 
 riage life and widowhood, it seemed to be im 
 proved by them specially the latter. Her gift 
 of resilience from the loss of such companionship 
 Mrs. Magraw for a time confessed not to under 
 stand. Particularly within this last gone year, 
 since Mr. Boddy had been given a place behind 
 the garden under the cedars by the side of his 
 predecessor, the woman looked, and to Mrs. 
 Magraw s mind behaved, as if her desire were 
 set upon going back to the period of youngest 
 womanhood, to stay there forever. For all such 
 as these Mrs. Magraw in time judged the cause 
 to be preternatural, and so informed her hus 
 band. The grunt heard from his breast made 
 
OUR WITCH 123 
 
 her feel without any doubt that the judgment 
 was correct. 
 
 Visiting between these ladies, always rare, for 
 some time past had ceased. The difference was 
 too great to let either, particularly the elder, be 
 come fond of seeing or being seen by the other. 
 Necessarily they saw each other on monthly- 
 meeting Sundays, and must sometimes be thrown 
 together going or returning. It had been pain 
 ful always to Mrs. Magraw that the other was 
 so much praised by all the men, and even by 
 some of the women who were satisfied with their 
 own conditions and belongings. Henceforth she 
 watched and brooded, occasionally hinting to 
 others besides her husband the decision at which 
 she had arrived. Lately two of the milch cows 
 on the place suddenly went dry, both on the very 
 same day. On the next the horn of another set 
 in to crumple. Quickly thereafter, a middle- 
 aged hen, theretofore as steady and sure as any 
 the most respectable of her sex, one morning, in 
 the very middle of her three weeks incubation, 
 came off the nest with every feather ruffled, and 
 no sort of handling could make her stay there 
 again when the back of the yard woman was 
 turned, though she repeatedly put her upon it. 
 Finally, Flower, a red-and-white speckled calf of 
 extraordinary promise, came under the spell. 
 Irrational or not, of all the animals in the family, 
 
124 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 Mrs. Magraw s heart was set on this calf. She 
 was a very pink of a calf, pretty, shaped to per 
 fection, sweet-tempered, light-hearted even to 
 frequent gayety. Often and often, when her 
 mistress was walking in the yard, wherein she 
 was let to be petted, the dear little thing, 
 making a festoon of her lovely white tail, would 
 caper about her mistress in all sorts of exuberant 
 fun, occasionally stopping immediately before 
 her and gazing into her face apparently in great 
 admiration for it. One evening, while the two 
 were in this affectionate attitude to each other, 
 the elder was heard to say : 
 
 " Poor innocent little Flower ! Mist ess don t 
 seem so awful ugly to you, does she ? " 
 
 The youngling licked her extended hand, 
 and bounded away for further sport, leaving 
 the other with a corner of her apron to her 
 eyes. 
 
 Now even this favorite, heretofore so cheer 
 ful, so harmless, so full of goodly promise, was 
 noticed one day looking melancholy. To fondest 
 caressings she gave no answer but doleful cries. 
 For four days she dwindled if with any earthly 
 disease, one impossible to be diagnosed. On the 
 fifth she died. They buried her in the garden. 
 A basket of nice pebbles was gathered, and 
 spread over her grave. 
 
 After a day given up to mourning, of its kind 
 
OUR WITCH 125 
 
 earnest, even distressing, came on dire resent 
 ment. To her husband Mrs. Magraw said : 
 
 " What made me know positive in my mind 
 it were her, about that poor calf anyhow, 
 if not the t others, when me and her were 
 flung together on the road last meetin -day, and 
 I were obleeged to say somethin to all her de 
 ceitful palarver, and I told her about Flower, 
 she looked at me out of one eye, and she smiled 
 at me insignificant, and said she hoped I d be 
 able to raise her ; and the very next day it took 
 to drindlin . And if you don t do somethin 
 about it, Andy Magraw, I will. You know I 
 can shoot a shot-gun mighty nigh as well as you 
 can, and I ll go to that horrid witch s cuppen 
 and calf parscher, and I ll keep goin there tell 
 every one of em lays dead. What you goin to 
 do, Andy Magraw ? " 
 
 Mr. Magraw, although feeling not quite sure 
 that occult evil influences had not been among 
 the cattle and poultry, yet had no sort of sym 
 pathy with his wife s convictions; for, like other 
 men, he much admired and respected Mrs. Boddy. 
 Abundant experience, however, having taught 
 him that argument against any opinions once 
 risen in his wife s mind served only to fix them 
 more firmly therein, he briefly speculated on 
 what to do in order to appease what boded 
 serious scandal. After some meditation he gave 
 
126 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 out that he would try to find out if anything 
 could be done. 
 
 " In a day or two I ll go over there and peruse 
 around." 
 
 "Yes, you ll peruse around, and that s all 
 you ll do." 
 
 " Yera weel, then ; I won t go." 
 
 " Yes, you will." 
 
 He uttered a grunt, and went out. 
 
 Brief and inarticulate as was this response, 
 Mrs. Magraw knew very well that it contained 
 more meaning than some other men s multitudes 
 of words. So when he returned he found that 
 she had moderated ; for daring and unreasonable 
 as she had become, she must recognize, if she 
 did not respect, the sentiment of the community 
 that it was not becoming for a married woman 
 to move in public with no co-operation of her 
 husband in matters threatening collisions with 
 outsiders. The heaviest complaint that her mind 
 had ever lodged against him was his persistent, 
 doggedly obstinate refusal to quarrel with her. 
 One day her disgust for his weakness on this 
 line had driven her to say : 
 
 " Andy Magraw, it do seem to me that when 
 you was very born, they come mighty nigh 
 a-makin you a fool." 
 
 " Fool ! Why, Nancy-," he answered meekly, 
 " it s the vera name I answer to." 
 
OUR WITCH 127 
 
 And her reply was : " Goodness gracious ! To 
 think a man would be satisfied with them con 
 ditions ! I wish I was one of em." 
 
 " Umph, umph ! We never knaw about sic 
 things/ 
 
 After another day s rumination, the while 
 making a quiet visit to the old man Rainey, 
 which he did not mention to her, next morning, 
 getting himself up with some smartness, he 
 remarked that he was going to call upon Mrs. 
 Boddy. The little confidence of his wife was 
 somewhat enhanced when, taking down his rifle 
 from its forks, he loaded and shouldered it. 
 
 Noting his approach, the rosy widow despatched 
 her house-girl to gather in the garden a handful 
 of mint. By the time the usual greetings, neigh 
 borly questionings and answerings, and a few 
 remarks on the weather were over, there was 
 handed to the visitor a tumbler, of the size they 
 had in those days, brimming with a julep of a 
 savor whose better neither eye nor nostril nor 
 throat of man was ever regaled with. Under 
 the influence of this king (or queen, as the case 
 may be) of Southern potations, whatever remon- 
 stration might have been on Mr. Magraw s mind 
 even to hint sneaked out and tried to hide behind 
 his back. He was not an intemperate man at 
 all. Yet from his ancestors he had inherited 
 quick recognition of a good thing, and prompt- 
 
128 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 ness of acceptance when thus graciously ex 
 tended. As he sat and sipped, Mrs. Boddy, 
 who merely for the sake of added grace to her 
 hospitality had joined him in a glass smaller 
 and paler, seemed to him to float in a very lake 
 of loveliest innocence. When these cheering 
 rites were over, and some moments had passed 
 in waiting announcement of the special purport 
 of the call, the lady, smiling kindly, said : 
 
 " Mr. Magraw, of course I know what your 
 wife sent you here for. Mrs. Magraw has been 
 talking and making her insinuations about me 
 for a good while. I ve stood it because I knewed 
 she couldn t stop her mouth any more than she 
 could help some other things she s got. I never 
 had anything more to do with her home matters 
 and concerns than she s had to do with mine 
 that is, as I know of ; and as for being the witch 
 she tells people I am, it s all news to me, and, of 
 course, I some rathers she d stop it." 
 
 " Why, Mrs. Boddy," he answered, with up 
 lifted hand, " I dunn I I Mrs. Boddy 
 ye ye knaw a man canna say anything ag in 
 his ain I knaw weel ye re na witch, but I canna 
 canna " 
 
 His tone and manner were so entirely what a 
 good man s should be in the circumstances that 
 she was deeply sensible of them, and, interrupt 
 ing him, said : 
 
OUR WITCH 129 
 
 " You re perfectly right, Mr. Magraw. No 
 good man will open take sides against his own 
 wife. It is nothing. Let it go. I don t think 
 anybody is apt to take me for the thing she 
 names me ; and now I see how it pains you, I m 
 going to try and not let it trouble me any more. 
 It hasn t but mighty little. I think it must be 
 Mrs. Magraw s health. I m glad to see you 
 looking so well, Mr. Magraw." 
 
 He gave himself a nervous shake; then, rising, 
 said : 
 
 "Mrs. Boddy, I thank ye, ma am. I think 
 mysel somethin may be wrang wi Nancy, and 
 and I bid ye guid day, Mrs. Boddy." 
 
 He went away, trailing his rifle as if he were 
 ashamed of it. 
 
 "Good man," soliloquized Mrs. Boddy "the 
 best, the very best, in all this neighborhood 
 not hardly except old Brother Rainey spite 
 of being yoked to a woman that of all in this 
 world I do suppose is the sorrowfullest, ugliest, 
 the foolishest, suspiciousest, the backbitingest, 
 mouthiest, and the general beatingest, that 
 may the good Lord have mercy on us all poor 
 sinners ! Amen, I pray ! " 
 
 When Mr. Magraw, upon returning, reported 
 such incidents of the visit as he deemed prudent, 
 his mate broke out upon him with words of which 
 the following are a few: 
 
130 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 "Yes; it s perfect cle r that thing have witched 
 you too, Andy Magraw. You never was a man 
 that could tackle with women, exceptin of me, 
 that can t help herself ; and I can smell on you 
 this minute the mint-dram she give you, that 
 before you got to the gate I see you tryin to 
 blow off the scent of it on your hat and on your 
 coat-sleeve. If such as that is to go on, they d 
 as well begin to season the lumber for my coffin. 
 But I tell you now, Andy Magraw, it shan t go 
 on ! She may witch you in the bargain of them 
 poor dumb cattle, but she don t tromple on me 
 no furder. You hear me ? " 
 
 " Well, now, my son," said Mr. Pate, " good, 
 patient man if he were, Andy Magraw couldn t 
 always stand her mouth. And so he told her 
 plain down that Mrs. Boddy weren t no more a 
 witch than she were, and he add that maybe the 
 reason he want to got shet o the julip, it were 
 he were afeard, when the scent struck her, it 
 might make her yit hotter with Mrs. Boddy for 
 bein more liber l than what she were in the 
 mixin of her sperrits and sugar, and the dividin 
 with other people. Because she were knew to 
 love the article well as Andy, albe nobody ever 
 accused her of knockin it too heavy. My 
 expe unce is, mighty few people make ser ous 
 objection to a julip in its place, when people 
 that makes em know what they re about, which 
 
OUR WITCH 131 
 
 all don t, unfort nate, and some may push the 
 use of em to a too much extents. But them 
 words of Andy made her ravin mad, and she 
 declared that if the good Lord have made her a 
 man that he, unfort nate, didn t she d raise 
 thunder quicker n ever run down a skinned 
 poplar. Did anybody ever ! And she said that 
 the very next mornin , soon as her breakfast 
 she would git, on her head her bonnet it would 
 go, on her horse she would mount, and then 
 ride about mong the neighbors, a-forewarnin 
 of em ag in the witch, Polly Boddy. What you 
 think Andy Magraw done then ? He determ ed 
 in his mind that it were absolute necessity for 
 the old man Kainey to take a hand in the busi 
 ness, him bein the onl est man in the whole 
 neighborhood she were afeard of, because it 
 were him that persuaded the brothern to let her 
 in the church when they hizzitated about her high 
 temper and the freckwent sloshin of her tongue. 
 He argied that if she didn t quite have grace, 
 it might come to her arfter she were took in. 
 Of course Andy couldn t go in, because o his 
 cussin sometimes, which he never denied. And 
 so Andy, a-knowin she wouldn t take his ad 
 vices, sot in, he did, to beggin her to not 
 fetch the thing up in the church, and special 
 not to go to the old man Rainey about it. Fact 
 is, Andy Magraw were one o the sensiblest men 
 
132 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 they had in them days, spite o bein surrounded 
 with sech a wife. The old man Rainey were 
 the oldest and influentialest man in the church, 
 and Andy Magraw knewed that if anybody 
 could head her in her ravin course it were the 
 old man Rainey." 
 
 The praise of Mr. Pate had good foundation. 
 Immediately after the utterance of Mr. Magraw s 
 urgent remonstrance, his wife, becoming calm, 
 looked at him pitifully and said : 
 
 " Well, Andy Magraw, I do think, on my 
 soul, you re the poorest hand to help out and 
 give advice to a body in the suffering fix I m 
 in that ary poor woman ever took up with for 
 a husband in this lonesome, perishing world. 
 Why, man, sence you mention it, it s the very 
 thing for me to do ; and I m a-goin straight 
 over to Br er Rainey s if my life is spar d tell 
 to-morrow." 
 
 He nodded in humble disappointment, and 
 after dinner, resuming his rifle, remarked that 
 he believed he would go out and see if he could 
 not find a hawk. Returning in the evening 
 with the body of one of these enemies of the 
 barn-yard, he was comforted to see her in 
 reasonable placidity of mood, in which she re 
 mained for the rest of the day. 
 
 Everybody said that Uncle Johnny Rainey 
 had a long head, which he used for his own 
 
OUR WITCH 133 
 
 good and that of his neighbors, particularly 
 those belonging to the congregation of his 
 church. In the half-century of his diaconate 
 he had settled a greater number of difficulties 
 and disputes, doctrinal, social, and domestic, than 
 any other one man in his generation throughout 
 that whole region. Calm and conciliatory, but 
 confident, firm, even adroit when needed, he 
 kept his near a thousand fellow-members in all 
 possible harmony. The case of Mrs. Magraw 
 had long been in his mind, and he was not 
 surprised at the coming of its climax. On 
 her approach, he met her at the gate, helped 
 her to dismount, and led her into the piazza, 
 where he had instructed his wife, after a few 
 words of welcome salutation, to leave them 
 together. When all preliminaries were over, 
 and Mrs. Eainey on polite pretence withdrew, 
 the good man began to talk. He well judged 
 that it was best for him to take the initiative. 
 As for his supplies of words, whether at con 
 ference meetings or other occasions, inexhaustible 
 is hardly the word ; yet with this single hearer 
 he deemed a couple of hours enough for his 
 purpose. 
 
 " Sister Magraw," he began, " my mind I 
 don t know as you may know it, but my mind 
 jes here lately it have been a-runnin consider ble 
 on witches, and I been a-studyin up the subjects 
 
134 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 of em, from the witch o Endor down till now 
 that they seem to be a sispicion that they is one, 
 and maybe two, in the Jukesborough Bap t is 
 cong egation." 
 
 "Two, Br er Rainey?" Mrs. Magraw, shud 
 dering, asked. 
 
 " Come, Sister Magraw, don t put in and inter- 
 rup me. Yes, one ; maybe two ; and if the thing 
 ain t stopped, no tellin how many more. Now, 
 you know if you don t, I ll tell you that the 
 onl est way, when oncet a witch were caught, and 
 pine-blank proved the onl est way laid down 
 for her was to burn her up bodaciously. That 
 have been done in time, more or less ; yit from 
 what I could gether in my readin o hist ry, 
 them that done it was sorry they done it arfter 
 the thing blowed over, a-feelin jub ous in their 
 mind if they didn t act hasty about the takin 
 in o evidence. In my own mind that is, in 
 what mind the good Lord, for useful purpose, I 
 humble hope, he have merciful putt in here 
 right in here" thankfully tapping his fore 
 head with a forefinger " my opinion, as no 
 longer than day before yisterday I told Sister 
 Boddy, that I didn t believe they was a witch 
 in the whole State o Georgie, and special in the 
 cong egation where I been app inted deacon by 
 the reg lar layin on o hands accord in to the 
 Scriptur ; and I added to Sister Boddy that ef, 
 
OUR WITCH 135 
 
 for instance, she, Sister Polly Boddy, was to 
 fetch up in conf ence, I didn t name names 
 plain and open p inted as some does, but ef she 
 was to fetch up ary nother female o the con- 
 g egation for bein of a witch, and then couldn t 
 prove it to the satisfaction o the brothern, 
 which they is no doubt she couldn t, then and 
 in them case she might possible be turned out 
 herself, and, what s more, run the resk o bein 
 sued for slander and scandal by the said female 
 sister, and have her plantation and the very 
 house over her head took for damage. Now, as 
 for the dryin up of milch cows, and the drindlin 
 o calves, what I told Sister Boddy of my ex- 
 pe unce, it were that ever sence I could member, 
 and long before, milch cows and calves and settin 
 hens been doin them things when the time for 
 em come for doin o em, like the Scriptur say 
 they s a time for all things." 
 
 About thus on, on, and on he discoursed, occa 
 sionally turning to note upon the listener s face 
 the effect of his words. It was plain to see that 
 they were going straight home. She shuddered 
 both at the intimation clearly conveyed that she 
 herself was suspected by Mrs. Boddy of witch 
 craft, and at the risk of being sued by her for 
 words already spoken to many persons. When 
 at last Mr. Rainey saw that he could safely stop, 
 he did so, and looked benignly into her face. 
 
136 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 " Br er Rainey," she said, panting, but in a 
 low tone, " I didn t know any of Polly Boddy s 
 milch cows had dried up, nor any of her 
 calves - 
 
 " There ! Of course you didn t. I knowed 
 you didn t ; and you had no more to do with 
 em than I did, which of course I couldn t, not 
 bein of a female. And it all come, like sech 
 always in gen l does, from neighbors not under- 
 standin one nother better, and makin lowances 
 for nobody bein perfec . Is there anything on 
 your mind, Sister Magraw, you wanted to open 
 to me special ? " 
 
 " N-no, Br er Rainey ; not now. My mind 
 has been pestered a good deal here lately ; but 
 but I reckon maybe I m mistaken. But if 
 Polly Boddy think oh, my Lord, Br er Rainey, 
 what is a poor woman to do like me, that no 
 body ever did keer anything for her, excepting 
 of you ? " 
 
 The old man, calling in his wife, set in with 
 words of comfort, the latter holding her hand. 
 It was an easy task. Tears long buried at 
 length came in her eyes. When she was slowly 
 riding away, Mr. Rainey said : 
 
 " Poor woman ! my opinion is, the clirnak 
 have come on her, and I m thankful it ain t of 
 the ravin kind. Me and Sister Boddy thought 
 that were the best way to swage her down 
 
OUR WITCH 137 
 
 bein took for a witch herself. But I tell you 
 now, she ain t long for this world." 
 
 I let Mr. Pate tell the rest in his own way. 
 
 " Old man Rainey were right. It come out 
 that the poor creetur were out her head. The 
 doctor said she been so ev y sence her baby died, 
 but he never told nobody but old man Rainey, 
 because tellin wouldn t do the case no good. 
 Soon as she got home, ithout say in a word to a 
 soul, smilin to ev ybody said anything to her, 
 she went to bed. Andy Magraw put a nigger 
 on a horse and told him not to spar him gal- 
 lopin for the doctor. He say the doctor say 
 the egzitement about Mrs. Boddy have been 
 too much for her head, and it have now struck 
 her heart. And he told Andy Magraw to pre- 
 par his mind, and that she weren t goin to git 
 out that bed alive. And what time she lasted 
 she were perfec calm and biddable, and she 
 talked pleasant about people and things forty 
 and fifty year before. And when she give out 
 final, they said it were same as a little baby 
 goin to sleep in a cradle. And if anybody 
 ever see a man cry and go on about a dead 
 companion, it were that same Andy Magraw. 
 And that s the end o the tale about the 
 witch." 
 
 I felt much surprise at a finish so unusually 
 abrupt. Evidently Mr. Pate had anticipated it. 
 
138 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 After a brief pause, looking down into my un 
 satisfied face, he said : 
 
 " Well, what is it ? What more you want ? " 
 
 I ventured to ask what became of them after 
 ward. 
 
 " Of who ? " he asked, in teasing delay " of 
 Andy Magraw or Mrs. Boddy ? " 
 
 " Of both." 
 
 "What you think? Now, jes on a ventur , 
 what you think ? " 
 
 " I think they got married." 
 
 " There, now ! Ain t it astonishin how yearly 
 young boys their mind ll begin to run on 
 marryin ? But I s pose they can t he p it, bein 
 of their natur . Well, I ll answer your quest on. 
 Look like they ought to get married, don t it ? 
 Plantations j inin , even their very geese gittin 
 everlastin mixed. Ev ybody looked for it, same 
 as the sun a-risin of a mornin . As for the old 
 man Rainey, he told em both, look like to him 
 the good Lord have jes paved the way for em ; 
 and they weren t any doubts but, soon as it 
 were decent, the widder sot her cap for him. 
 But, sir, and there were the interestest part o 
 the whole business, Andy Magraw took up 
 the idee that maybe it were his fau t his poor 
 wife gittin so discontented and crazy in her 
 mind, and nobody not even the old man 
 Rainey could git him to go a-nigh Mrs. Boddy, 
 
OUR WITCH 139 
 
 albe he acknowledged he loved her dear. They 
 is people o that kind, and I has heerd readin 
 people say that of all denomination of folks, a 
 Scotmon is the stickiest about hangin to a idee 
 that have oncet settled itself in the back o his 
 head. Some said he were crazy as his poor wife 
 not to take up with sech a opporchunity as Mrs. 
 Boddy that she were only waitin for him to 
 name the word. And some even add the opinion 
 of him a-sispicionin her bein a witch like his 
 poor wife cused her. As for her, Mrs. Boddy, 
 she got tired a-waitin for him, and she whirled 
 in, she did, and she got married spite of him, 
 and that to a monst ous good, suitable husband. 
 You know, havin the expe unce o two of em, 
 she have learnt to know how to pick and choose. 
 But she always said Andy Magraw were as good 
 a man as ever lived or died, and other people 
 give their opinion the same. But, don t you 
 know, soon arfter she got married seem like he 
 got more and more restless and fidgety in his 
 mind and in his gaits in gen l, and tweren t 
 long before he sold out and moved away- 
 clean away back yonder where he come from 
 original ." 
 
WEASELS ON A DEBAUCH 
 
WEASELS ON A DEBAUCH 
 
 FROM childhood to his death when quite an 
 old man he was called Little Len Cane. Little 
 in physical stature, his thoughts had been ever 
 mainly of little things. It would not have em 
 barrassed him to be asked and to have to answer 
 that he did not know who was governor of the 
 state, or who the presiding judge in that judicial 
 district, because he cared nothing about such 
 matters. He never had had any curiosity to see 
 even the city of Augusta, at which any man of 
 respectable standing in Middle Georgia, during 
 that period (sixty years ago), would have been 
 rather ashamed to acknowledge that he had 
 never been for at least one time. What had 
 been interesting him chiefly from earliest child 
 hood were the lower animals, and the lower 
 among these, especially such as were good to eat 
 but difficult to get, and such as were troublesome. 
 Not that he was fond of game for himself, or 
 ever owned any property to be molested by nox 
 ious things. Plain bread and meat with coffee 
 
 143 
 
144 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 three times a day were all he wanted. But he 
 liked to accommodate not only the family of his 
 brother Ausbon, with whom, after the death of 
 his parents, he dwelt, but the few neighbors with 
 whom he was familiar. For these he hunted 
 duck and fish in the mill-pond near by, and 
 squirrels and other game among the bordering 
 woods. So well he had learned their habits that 
 it was impossible to escape from his search. If 
 any woman in the community, although not 
 among his particular friends, was sick, and ex 
 pressed a desire for game, her family knew where 
 it could be gotten with absolute certainty. If 
 it was fish, all the invalid had to do, was to 
 specify the kind, say sucker, cat-fish, eel, or perch, 
 and if the latter, whether bream, silver, or red- 
 belly. For to him were familiar the retreats of 
 all, and the art to capture them. 
 
 So it was in regard to plunderers of home 
 steads among these lower animals. No hawk 
 ever invaded the poultry-yard of his sister-in-law. 
 There wasn t one in that whole region that knew 
 not better than do such as that. Similarly pru 
 dent were minks, weasels, rats, and chicken- 
 snakes. A reasonable number of mice might 
 circulate about the corn-crib, partly because 
 what they consumed was hardly missed, and 
 partly to satisfy invaders which, grown desper 
 ate by the absolute dearth of booty there, might 
 
WEASELS ON A DEBAUCH 145 
 
 resort to the hen-house, whereat, although des 
 tined to certain seizure and punishment after 
 wards, they might inflict damage which it would 
 cost pain and some trouble to repair. 
 
 He never boasted of his accomplishments,, un 
 less so might be regarded an expression of some 
 little impatience with people who, instead of com 
 ing to him in order to find out what they ought 
 to have found out for themselves about matters 
 pertaining to their own well-being, concerned 
 themselves about governors, and judges, and 
 politics, and such things which in his opinion 
 they had not one single grain of use for under 
 the sun. Perhaps there might have been a little 
 vanity in carrying about with him one or other 
 trophy won by creek or woodland. Occasionally 
 he wore a mink-skin cap with eel-skin band, 
 he picked the touch-hole of his long, single- 
 barrel shot-gun with the tusk of a cat-fish, and 
 what little moneys he had were kept in a 
 purse which once had been upon the back of 
 a weasel. 
 
 When I was a child I used to listen with 
 much interest to old Mr. Pate, who had known 
 Little Len well, and who was fond of relating 
 incidents in his history. 
 
 "He weren t, Little Len weren t," he often 
 said, " no, in what people in general call 
 smart. Len weren t smart that way, not a bit. 
 
146 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 When his parrents first sent him to school, he 
 couldn t, or he jes wouldn t, learn about books, 
 no matter how heavy the schoolmarster putt 
 the hick ry on him. Stead of that, Len would 
 be watchin , even in the schoolhouse, how to 
 catch flies and things on the sly, and outside 
 he d be studying about pisants, and yaller- 
 jackets, and bumble-bees, and lizzards, and sap- 
 suckers, and even doodles, and things nobody 
 else ever keered much about, and all, it seem 
 like, jes for cur osity. Why, sir, he could call a 
 doodle out of his hole quicker, and with fewer 
 words and less noise, than any boy I ever see. 
 And so final they let him quit school ; and if he 
 never did, and always wouldn t, do any reg lar 
 work, yit he were always a useful little fellow in 
 the family in one way and another, helpin to take 
 keer of things, special weakly little young an 
 imals, except babies, and them never would 
 he even tech when he could help it. In 
 things like that and keepin off prowlers of all 
 kind he were the smartest man I ever know, 
 if a body could call a man one that in some 
 respect were so little of a man. And as for 
 marryin and havin a wife, I ve heerd him 
 acknowledge many time that sech a idee never 
 come into his head." 
 
 Among many things related by the old man 
 was the following, as on a morning in the 
 
WEASELS ON A DEBAUCH 147 
 
 summer we were sitting in the piazza of Hines s 
 store, on the roadside, at the foot of our grove. 
 
 " To show you how smart Len were, I ll tell 
 you about him and the weasels, which I never 
 laid eyes on the things but once in my life, 
 and wouldn t done it then, exceptin for that 
 same Len Cane. I don t know as I ever see 
 my wife (my first wife, I mean) in fact, I jes 
 am certain in my mind I never see her madder 
 than one mornin when, goin into the hen-house 
 to look arfter some settin hens, she found six of 
 em stretched out dead on the ground. She 
 called me to come there quick, and when I 
 see the destruction of the varmint, I jes couldn t 
 keep from cussin , which, hadn t been she were 
 so mad herself she d a-scolded strong; for she 
 were a honest, good Christian woman, and no 
 mistake. And then she asked me in a loud 
 tone of voice, Mr. Pate, why don t those men, 
 you among them, sometimes, that hunt foxes 
 that do little or no harm, with their hounds and 
 horns, why don t you go to killing off them 
 varmints that are the very oudaciousest, tor- 
 mentingest things that women have to putt up 
 with in all this troublesome world ? Well, I 
 had to answer well as I could ; for you know, or 
 if you don t now, when you get big enough, you 
 will know, they isn t much fun in the huntin of 
 minks. For the things is that sly, if you actuil 
 
148 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 see one run in his hole, and you dig for him, ten 
 chances to one when you git to the bottom, he 
 ain t there." 
 
 Interesting to me as was the circumstantial 
 account of the old man, I must repeat here only 
 a brief portion. It was then according to the 
 narrator that Mrs. Pate, whose wrath had no 
 notion of subsiding, declared that she would 
 send for Len Cane. Len liked well that excel 
 lent woman, and was even very grateful to her 
 for the help given by her during a long spell of 
 sickness which he had had several years ago, and 
 so Len responded promptly to her call. After 
 minute inspection of the bodies of the dead, and 
 a scrutinizing survey of the ground inside and 
 for some rods that outside the hen-house, they 
 repaired to the mansion where a colloquy oc 
 curred, a scrap of which, as I recall it, I will 
 give. 
 
 Len. Bad piece o business. What you think 
 it were, Missis Pate ? 
 
 Mrs. Pate. Why, a mink, of course. Why, 
 didn t our children day before yesterday see one 
 run in his l^ole in a bank on the spring-branch, 
 and didn t I tell Mr. Pate about it, and didn t 
 he say he jest as well go look for a needle in a 
 fodder stack, and you see the consequences of it 
 all ? Been a fox, they d a been have a dozen 
 hounds in less than a hour, and enough hurraing 
 
WEASELS ON A DEBAUCH 149 
 
 and yelping and blowing of horns to deaf a 
 body s ears. 
 
 Len. Yes, ma am, they ll hunt things they 
 know is no manner o use to kill or to eat, and 
 they ll let go free them that ll do more struction 
 in one night than a fox ll do in his whole life 
 time. Still, Missis Pate, Mr. Pate needn t dug 
 for that mink. Time he d got or thought he d 
 got to the bottom o his hole, that mink might 
 o got out and made his way across the spring- 
 branch half way to Fulsom s Creek. But did 
 you think it were that mink killed them hens, 
 Mr. Pate ? 
 
 Mr. Pate. I hain t a doubt about it, Len, 
 nary blessed doubt, him or some other one of the 
 specie. 
 
 Len. Well, it weren t that one, nor none of 
 the specie that done it, onlest you may call a 
 weasel so ; for that s what done it. 
 
 Mr. Pate. A weasel ? I ve heard o the 
 things ; but I never see one in all my born days. 
 Ain t you mistaken, Len ? 
 
 Len. No mistake about it. It were a weasel. 
 They ain t plentiful about this kind of a lat chude, 
 a bein of a varmint which a body can see, from 
 their fur, that roams in countries where its 
 colder than we has among us here. They r a 
 sca ce creatur , and they r so shy and dodgy 
 that it ain t easy to come up with em. It took 
 
150 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 me, I don t know how long it took me to find 
 out their ways. But I done it at last, and it 
 bein Missis Pate that wants it done, I m a goin 
 to ketch this one for her, a knowin she like no 
 sich struction about her among things she raise 
 herself. 
 
 Mr. Pate. That s right, Len ; go it. I ll do 
 what I can ; I ve got six as good hounds as the 
 next man, I don t care who he is. 
 
 Len. Can t be done to-day, Mr. Pate. It s too 
 late now, and besides, we ve got to fix for him 
 the next time he come ; for he s shore to come 
 ag in. When he come ag in and have got drunk, 
 if you ll send for me promp , we ll git him. 
 
 Mr. Pate. Drunk ? Did you say drunk, Len ? 
 
 Len. Yes, sir, drunk were the words I said. 
 
 Mr. Pate. Come, Len, none of your projickin . 
 I m not a man, and I think you ought to know 
 I m not a man to be projicked with and fooled 
 with. 
 
 Mrs. Pate. Laws, Mr. Pate. Don t you sup 
 pose Len know what he s a talking about? 
 What else made me send for him ? I know he 
 ain t a wanting to fool when he see how tore up 
 my feelings is about them hens. Go on, Len. 
 You say the things gits drunk ? 
 
 Len. That they do, Missis Pate, and if 
 things is done like I say, next time that weasel 
 come here and you send for me next mornin , 
 
WEASELS ON A DEBAUCH 151 
 
 soon you ll see with your own eyes if what I tell 
 you ain t so, and he d a cut the throats of more 
 of em last night if he hadn t got drunk and 
 found he had to take hisself away or git 
 caught. 
 
 Mrs. Pate. My sakes alive ! I didn t even 
 dream the things was that oudacious. 
 
 The instructions left by Len were to have 
 several wagon-loads of rails taken from fences 
 of adjacent patches and deposited in a pile a few 
 feet from the hen-house. These were executed 
 under the eyes of Mrs. Pate, who afterwards 
 waited for results with what patience she could 
 command. About four days afterwards her ire 
 rose if possible to white heat when, in the 
 early morning, having repaired to the hen-house, 
 fifteen, including hens, pullets, roosters, young 
 and old, lay still in death, their neatly cut 
 throats seeming to appeal for compassion for 
 such untimely tragic end. Among them was a 
 favorite speckled matron, which had been raised 
 by hand in the very house, and which from pure 
 gratitude and affection came often into the little 
 back shed room, laid her egg on the floor or on 
 the bed, lifted up her cackle and then went back 
 to her business out of doors. When she also was 
 found among the slain, her mistress, as she freely 
 admitted afterwards, had to just give up and 
 cry, "because," she pleaded, "it not only made 
 
152 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 me mad, but it hurt my feelings in the bargain, 
 and I couldn t help it." 
 
 Len made haste to come to the call that had 
 been sent by a swift runner. After counting 
 the dead accurately with as much of a smile as 
 ever could light up his pale, serious face, he 
 said : 
 
 " My, my ! Fifteen of em ! Had a big spree, 
 didn t they ? Obleeged to be more n one of em. 
 We ve got em, cert n, and no mistake." 
 
 "And now," he said kindly, "sense the thing 
 have been come up with, I ll tell you, Mr. Pate, 
 and special you, Missis Pate, how I got him." 
 
 "Got him!" said Mr. Pate. "I don t see 
 where you ve got anything of the kind. What 
 you talkin about, Len ? " 
 
 " Missis Pate," Len said, turning resignedly to 
 her, "Mr. Pate ll believe nothin till he see it 
 with his own eye. I ll tell you where the things 
 is, and I ll tell you how they got there, for 
 there s more n one of em. Now, Missis Pate, 
 you have knew people that they loved whiskey 
 to that they ll git so drunk they can t wabble 
 till the stuff have died out in em, and they can git 
 back the use o theirselves. Well, now, madam, 
 it took me a longer time than the miser ble 
 things is worth to find out about em, because 
 they re so sca ce and sly and awful dodgy. But 
 a weasel is jest as fond o blood, and special 
 
WEASELS ON A DEBAUCH 153 
 
 chicken blood, as a drunkard is of whiskey, and 
 it have the same eefeck on him. If he can git 
 enough of it, he ll keep a swiggin at it tell he 
 gits that drunk that the first place he can creep 
 into when he s perfect full, in there he go and 
 stay till he can sleep his drunk off. As for 
 them weasels that were in that hen-house, last 
 night, if Mr. Pate ll take the trouble to have 
 them rails took up, them weasels is in there 
 
 some rs." 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Pate, when relating the 
 incident to me, " it did beat. When he begun 
 talkjn to me about weasels gittin drunk, I 
 a most suspicioned he were gittin out of his poor 
 little head ; but don t you know, sir, at the 
 bottom o that pile o rails, there they wor, three 
 of em, sir, and they were that perfect swelled 
 up with dead drunk, they didn t know it when 
 the hounds killed em. Time that were over, 
 Len left, because he say a turkle have been in 
 his cat-fish hole on the creek, and he have to go 
 there right away to fix to git him. He wouldn t 
 hardly stay long enough to hear all my wife s 
 thankin s she give him ; but which all sech as 
 that go to make me say that Len Cane, little as 
 he were, and not botherin hisself about matters 
 he know nothin about, yit in some things 
 well, sir, for smart in them things, I never see 
 Little Len Cane s equil." 
 
EPHE 
 
EPHE 
 
 EPHE. Except by his mother, and then only 
 when in angry or monitory mood, he was never 
 called otherwise. " Ephom ! You Ephom ! " 
 He always knew by the cry that something was 
 to be paid ; yet he was used to it, and, after an 
 instalment was entered, went along much as 
 before. He and his sister Jane, two years older, 
 were children of Susan, a free black woman, 
 whose husband, Ephraim, a slave of Mr. Colin 
 Duncan, had deceased. This gentleman s man 
 sion, a plain two-story, was situate on the hither 
 limit of his plantation, half a mile from the vil 
 lage. The family occupied a small house in one 
 of his fields, where, with a bit of ground and 
 outside employment, they got sufficient living. 
 The woman, honest, industrious, when made a 
 widow obtained Mr. Duncan s consent to become 
 guardian of her family. Such arrangement 
 was usual with persons of her class, in con 
 formity with provision of the General Assembly 
 of the State. Generally they were regarded 
 with kindness, often extending to compassion. 
 
 157 
 
158 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 A Fourth Estate, as it were, among slaves and 
 two classes of whites, few in numbers, like their 
 kinsmen in bondage simple, affectionate, recog 
 nizing their station to be the very lowest, they 
 deported themselves humbly, and were seldom 
 charged with crimes or even pettiest misdemean 
 ors. If it had not been forbidden by the law, 
 jnany would have chosen to be sold into slavery. 
 A few whites, having their likes in every com 
 munity, dissatisfied with their own conditions, 
 which they had not energy and forethought to 
 improve, addicted to general complainings, made 
 these pointed against free negroes. Even an 
 occasional petty slave-owner, become so by pur 
 chase, not by inheritance, joined to greater or 
 less degree, arguing that their presence was a 
 menace to subordination. But sentiment among 
 most persons was in favor of allowing all reason 
 able privileges in their rather helpless isolation. 
 
 In some fashion, not of the best, yet not bad, 
 Ephe grew from infancy to eighteen. Large, of 
 great strength and activity, more industrious and 
 contented when hired, and, indeed, lacking in 
 judgment at work when not under supervision, 
 his time for a year past had been spent mainly 
 with jobs, as hoeing in gardens, chopping wood, 
 and the like, for such as chose to employ him. 
 One day he said to his mother : 
 
 " Mammy, I wish I was a shore nough nigger. " 
 
EPHB 159 
 
 " Well, ain you a nigger ?" 
 
 " Yes m, but not in dat sense." 
 
 " What sense you talkin bout, Ephom ? " 
 
 " In de sense I want to b long to Mis Dun 
 can,, and him gim me to Marse Johnny to be his 
 nigger for good." 
 
 " What make you say dat now ? " 
 
 " Because dis ebenin , when Mis Felts was 
 payin me for cuttin wood, dat Mis Brockett 
 was in de sto ? en he cussed me, en -fee-said iie 
 wished to Gawd ev ry free nigger was hung er 
 driv out de Ian . En he look like he were 
 gwine to light on me wid his stick, hadn t been 
 Marse Johnny was passin by from school, en he 
 tole me to go long home, and he tole Mis 
 Brockett he oughtn t buse me when I done 
 nothin t all to him." 
 
 The mother said no more, for she knew that . 
 it was not an unreasonable wish. Indeed, ! 
 towards that class, feeling, even among slaves, 
 besides distinct superiority, in some cases was / 
 of contempt for imagined aspirations beyond all 
 hope to compass. 
 
 The man Brockett, huge, dark, rugged, had 
 been discharged as overseer by Duncan because 
 of extreme rigor in the discipline of his negroes. 
 His resentment extended to Ephe, who, out of 
 pure fear, had declined to work on his farm 
 near by. David Felts, the other, was a mer- 
 
160 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 chant, who, coming there a year or so back, 
 bought a store and rented a dwelling-house. 
 The low prices set on his goods at cash sales, 
 compared with credit practised in the two other 
 stores, drew customers, and soon he was doing 
 what seemed a good trade. Reticent except in 
 matters of pure business or special existing 
 interest, yet he was affable, thankful for patron 
 age however small, and acted as if he sincerely 
 wished to be regarded as a person who had 
 come there to impart as well as receive benefits. 
 From certain remarks he was believed to have 
 come from a town somewhere on the eastern 
 shore of Maryland. His son Joseph, about six 
 teen, much like him, assisted at the counter, 
 and slept in the back room. The old merchants, 
 although intimating sometimes that Mr. Felts 
 must purchase at lower prices than they could 
 get, seemed as sympathetic as the rest when, 
 one cold, rainy night, the store, with all its 
 contents, except Joseph, was burned to the 
 ground. 
 
 I could not well make clear the excitement in 
 that simple community, where house-burnings 
 were almost incendiarisms absolutely none. 
 It was just before dawn ; by sunrise everybody, 
 including many from the country, were at the 
 scene. Felts, looking like an extremely poor 
 man, expressed himself, specially to Duncan, 
 
EPHE 161 
 
 thankful for sympathy, and avowed his convic 
 tion that it must have happened by pure acci 
 dent. Joseph, who had escaped by a miracle, as 
 it were, roused by the smoke and heat, having 
 just time to seize his clothes and break through 
 a window into the street, where he dressed him 
 self, was too sorely shaken to talk much. He 
 could say, however, that Ephe Duncan wasT&t 
 the store the previous night, and, being con 
 siderably in liquor, he had let him remanTimtil 
 it was thought safe to send him away ; but that 
 he had not the slightest suspicion of his firing 
 the house. Brockett, happy with the excitement, 
 proposed a close search of the premises. In 
 time he picked up, near the gate-opening outside, 
 a much-soiled woollen purse, in which, besides a 
 few small coins, were a five-dollar note and a 
 crumpled paper signed by his guardian, authoriz 
 ing Ephraim Duncan to contract and receive pay 
 for his work. Joseph, although startled and 
 pained by the discovery, was obliged to admit 
 that he was pretty sure that that note was in 
 the cash-box the evening previous. When this 
 news reached Duncan, who had returned home, 
 he sent a messenger for Ephe and another to the 
 county seat for John Frierson, Esq., his legal 
 adviser. 
 
 Eager were the exclamations of the finder. 
 
 " But, Mr. Brockett, and you other gentlemen," 
 
162 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 pleaded Felts, " this is a life-and-death matter, 
 a thing I ve no idea that poor negro knew, even 
 if he d been sober, and somehow I can t believe 
 he set fire to the house. I beg you gentlemen 
 to to " 
 
 "Mister Felts," Brockett broke in, "this 
 dev lish business is got to be put whar it be 
 long, for the safetity of other people well as 
 you. I m a-goin for that villion, and if I ain t 
 mistakened, there s men here as will go long 
 with me." 
 
 With a half-dozen others he set out. In 
 formed by Susan that Ephe had gone to Dun 
 can s, they proceeded thither. 
 
 Colin Duncan, of medium height, slender, 
 rather pale, held in much respect by his equals, 
 was not loved by Brockett s set, to whom, 
 though never asserting, he was suspected of 
 feeling strongly the sense of superiority. At the 
 calls of the men, coming upon his piazza, and 
 hearing their business, he said : 
 
 "Have you any warrant, gentlemen?" 
 
 " No need of any warrant in such a case, Mr. 
 Duncan," said Brockett. 
 
 " Oh, yes, there is, gentlemen. All of you, 
 perhaps, excepting Mr. Brockett, know that. I 
 don t say that the boy you seek is on my 
 premises ; but if he were, I should hardly feel 
 that, in a case as serious as this, I would do 
 
BPHE 163 
 
 right in surrendering him except upon process 
 of law." 
 
 His mildness and apparent hesitation em 
 boldened Brockett further. 
 
 " Come now, Mr. Duncan, you can t fool us. 
 We know he s here, and we re jes simple got to 
 have him. Everybody knows how you respect 
 free niggers above white folks that s got none 
 of no sort, as I ve heerd you say with my own 
 years that you wished the whole of em was sot 
 free, and you can t deny it honest." 
 
 " Gentlemen," Duncan said, smiling, as he 
 looked towards Brockett, " that man lias heard 
 me say that I believed it would be well, at least 
 for the white race, if the slaves were all liberated. 
 Base as it was, especially on such an occasion, 
 to report only a portion of my words, I care not 
 for it. He is welcome to whatever he can get 
 out of the malignity that he s been indulging 
 against me since I discharged him from my 
 service. For what he says of my trying to fool, 
 as he terms it, I admit that this negro is now in 
 my dining-room, by the side of my wife, where, 
 until he is demanded by lawful authority, his 
 safety I feel to be as sacred and binding upon 
 me as if he were my own son. I will not 
 deliver him to that man yonder to abuse and 
 outrage before he can be brought to judicial 
 trial, and if he attempts to enter upon my 
 
164 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEOEGIA 
 
 premises to rescue, I ll shoot him as I would a 
 marauding beast." 
 
 Then he drew forth a horseman s pistol. 
 
 The men, after brief communings, went away, 
 followed by Brockett, muttering dire threats. 
 
 Early next morning Duncan, with Frierson, who 
 had come the night before, set out for Felts house. 
 
 " Don t you say a word, Mr. Duncan," said 
 the latter while on the way. " Let me do all the 
 talking on our side. I think I understand the 
 case now. At all events, I will before I leave 
 this small but respectable old burg." 
 
 Felts was much surprised, even exhibiting 
 some embarrassment. When the guests were 
 seated, entering the adjoining room, he had a 
 brief conversation with his wife, who presently 
 went out through a back door. On his return 
 Frierson said : 
 
 " We d like to see your son also, Mr. Felts." 
 
 " He s not at home just now, sir ; I sent him 
 away upon some business, and he won t be back 
 until three or four days." 
 
 " Oh ! you sent him away ? " 
 
 Smiling, as if he had made a point sooner 
 than expected, he fixed upon him a look which, 
 from an astute, experienced lawyer, few besides 
 the innocent can confront. Feeling his way, he 
 noted the almost imperceptible blenching, and 
 said, coldly : 
 
EPHE 165 
 
 " Perhaps it is as well. I only wished to put to 
 him a question or two, Mr. Felts/ and his eyes 
 pierced through and through, when he added : 
 
 " Mr. Felts, this negro did not fire your house. 
 If you do not know that, your son does." 
 
 " I know nothing about it, Mr. Frierson," he 
 answered, with some pleading in his tone, " ex 
 cept what my son said. He didn t accuse Ephe, 
 although it did look suspicious. I do hope on 
 my soul the poor negro isn t guilty. Mr. 
 Brockett and the other gentlemen will tell you 
 that I said the same thing to them. I made up 
 my mind to not even prosecute for the money, 
 as I got that back." 
 
 " That seems forbearing and kind, sir, but it 
 is not quite satisfactory. The boy did not even 
 steal your money. For his security, it must be 
 made convincingly apparent that he is innocent 
 of any sort of participation in this affair. If it 
 be not, I will myself notify the Solicitor-General 
 to present it before the next Grand Jury. What 
 ever else comes of that, one thing may be counted 
 certain : a deal of money will be spent before it 
 is ended. Mr. Felts," he suddenly broke into 
 loud, commanding interrogation, " what value 
 would you have set upon this property, and at 
 what sum was it insured ? However, however," 
 as if regretting his words, " I will withdraw 
 those questions at least for the present as 
 
166 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 I have no right in this private manner to inquire 
 into the details of your business." 
 
 Rising, he said to his client : 
 
 " Mr. Duncan, I think we may as well retire. 
 I don t see what more can be done until the 
 young man returns. We are sorry to have had 
 to trouble you in your own house, Mr. Felts, 
 but you know we must defend this poor creature 
 as well as we can. I am glad to see how frankly 
 you give him the benefit of your doubts. Per 
 haps it may be as well not to report what 
 transpired in this interview. I bid you good- 
 morning." 
 
 Before Felts could utter the guarded words 
 revolving in his mind they were gone. 
 
 " You do beat all creation, Frierson," said 
 Duncan. 
 
 " Ah, my friend, at such a time a man must 
 strike first, and at any point he sees or guesses 
 to be weak; I knew that was somewhere when 
 he said his cub was away, and I struck the harder 
 because without intelligent aim. Noting how 
 it hurt, I felt secure, but it was best to press no 
 further. That Joe fired the house, with or with 
 out his father s knowledge, for the insurance 
 money, and, to delude their company, pointed 
 suspicion to the negro. Dishonest as they be, 
 they are not bad enough to wish him to hang 
 for it. Partly to prevent that and partly to 
 
EPHE 167 
 
 avoid close questioning, Felts sent him away. 
 He will return or not according to what 
 seems more advisable. He will, and so must 
 we, keep back what was said on this point. 
 Ephe is all right. Thankful for his escape, we 
 can afford to let the rest settle as they can their 
 own affairs." 
 
 Ephe s statement was that, after finishing a 
 job of wood-chopping, he had been called into 
 the store by young Felts and given two drinks 
 of whiskey. He recalled the fact that the boy 
 playfully took from his pocket his purse, and 
 after some time, as Ephe thought, replaced it. 
 He could not tell the hour, but it was late when 
 he left for home, which he easily reached, and en 
 tered without disturbing his mother and sister. 
 The former said that, rising earlier than usual, 
 she discovered the blaze at its first appearance 
 in the village, when, going into Ephe s chamber, 
 she found him in a deep sleep. Duncan reported 
 her words, adding that, in his opinion, she was 
 as truthful a person as any of his other ac 
 quaintances. People commended the merchant s 
 promptness to express credit of the report, and 
 say that the burning most probably resulted 
 from Joseph s carelessness about the fire on the 
 hearth when going to bed. As for the money, 
 he might have been mistaken in his supposed 
 identification. At all events, its quick loss 
 
168 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 showed that, at the time of taking it, he was 
 in such condition as to be hardly responsible for 
 the theft. In about a week Joseph returned, 
 when his meek and humble deportment, and 
 keeping as much as possible out of the stern 
 presence of his father, looked well, very well 
 indeed. It became understood that as soon as 
 affairs could be settled the family would move 
 away. When it was known that the property 
 was in part insured, a thing that never had 
 been done there before, everybody was thankful 
 that not more harm was done. Even Brockett, 
 disappointed and reluctant, at length gave it 
 up. 
 
 " I did think," he said doggedly, " we had a 
 dead holt on one o the cussed things that ll 
 now git cusseder than ever, with rich men to 
 hire lawyers and back em. It s jes the luck o 
 poor white folks. I believe yit his mammy lied 
 about it. They ll all do it." 
 
 Ephe s family had been so frightened that, 
 yielding to their entreaties, he was allowed to 
 make his home with the Duncans. His affection 
 for the family, particularly John, a lad of four 
 teen, grew to be as devoted as that of a dog for 
 its owner, and somewhat like it. He loved best 
 of all to follow in John s company and do his 
 bidding. Not long after, when the two were in 
 a buggy drawn by a mettlesome colt that they 
 
EPHE 169 
 
 were breaking, just as they turned from the 
 highway into the lane leading to the mansion, 
 John, rather against the other s remonstrance, 
 took the reins. Recognizing change in the grip, 
 the colt suddenly set out at full speed. 
 
 " Gimrne back dem strings, Marse Johnny," 
 said Ephe; but before he could resume, the 
 bit, under the boy s frantic jerking, was 
 broken. 
 
 " My Gawd ! " cried the negro. Rising, he 
 leaped forward, alighting on the colt s neck. 
 Reaching down, he inserted his thumb into its 
 mouth, and grasped its jaw. The desperate, 
 resistless wrench careened rider and horse, and 
 they were prostrated on the ground, the former 
 underneath, yet keeping his hold. John quickly 
 loosed and let go the maddened beast. 
 
 " Is you hurted, Marse Johnny ? You ain 
 hurted, is you ? " feebly asked Ephe. 
 
 " No, no ; but Ephe, dear Ephe, you must be, 
 very badly." 
 
 " T ank Gawd ! T anky de good Lord ! " 
 
 " Tell me, Ephe, how are you hurt ? Can 
 you get up ? My God ! what must I do ?" 
 
 " Neber mind bout me, my marster ; I git 
 up d rectly. I ain hurted so mighty bad. Jes 
 sorter stunt in in my br my bres . " 
 
 The boy, raising his head, rested it upon his 
 knee. He coughed, and blood oozed from his 
 
170 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 mouth. While the flow was being stanched he 
 looked up with humblest, blissfulest thankful 
 ness. In another moment upon his face was 
 beauty such as Death sometimes paints withal 
 the plainest among his victims. 
 
A CASE OF SPITE 
 
A CASE OF SPITE 
 
 UNDER the old judiciary of the State of 
 Georgia, parties in the courts of justices of the 
 peace were allowed trials of issues by a jury 
 composed of not more than seven men nor less 
 than five. Some incidents of a case in one of 
 these tribunals, in which Josiah Cofield, Esq., 
 presided, I purpose to report. 
 
 Daniel Hickson was so dark-skinned that 
 people used to call him Black Dan, and his dis 
 position was much like his outward being. I 
 don t remember ever to have heard any of the 
 neighbors speculate as to which of these two 
 conditions, if either, preceded and produced the 
 other ; but all were persuaded in their minds 
 that, if not parent and offspring, they must have 
 been twin brothers, or twin sisters, as (in the 
 language of statutes) the case might be. If 
 Dan Hickson had been ever fully satisfied with 
 an instance of treatment received by him from 
 other people, nobody could tell when that was. 
 Perhaps the nearest approach was the day 
 whereon he got married. For indeed he did 
 
 173 
 
174 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 get a wife, and a good one ; but some said it 
 was because she was the oldest among seven 
 daughters of a poor man whose name was 
 Scroggins. By this time there was a multi 
 tude of children whose chief, if not only ad 
 vantage over their forbears was change of family 
 name. 
 
 Dan was a carpenter ; at least he called him 
 self one, and he was nigher being on that line 
 of business than any other. He could drive a 
 jack-plane better than some people who were 
 without much addiction to that kind of exercise, 
 and he could bore an auger hole not so divergent 
 from a perpendicular or a horizontal as to let it 
 seem worth while to make a great fuss about it. 
 The main support of the family was this wife, 
 who slaved herself as if she felt bound to be 
 everlastingly thankful for her escape from old- 
 maidhood and the Scroggins name. Besides all 
 work at home, she took in weaving and plain 
 sewing, sold a few chickens and eggs, all about 
 enough to purchase what few things were needed 
 from the stores. Dan did not complain very 
 often of his wife ; for, dull and saturnine as he 
 was, he could not but know that she did almost 
 every blessed thing for the family. Yet he 
 must do a certain amount of mouthing in order 
 to keep her from getting above herself. There 
 is nothing more important, particularly to mean 
 
A CASE OF SPITE 175 
 
 husbands, than letting women know that they 
 are not the heads of things. Commonly he sub 
 mitted to home conditions, letting himself and 
 his children be fed and clothed by their mother, 
 fretting himself only to the degree deemed pru 
 dent and salutary for his own lordship. Occa 
 sionally he took a job, mainly for the purpose 
 of letting it be known what the result would be 
 if he were to put himself fully forth with the 
 vigor which to none except himself he was 
 known to possess. 
 
 A mile or so distant, on Williams Creek, dwelt 
 the Collinses ; good, excellent people, whose 
 head, Mr. Jacob Collins, a],l his acquaintances 
 were bound to respect<; x To him, from Dan 
 Hickson, some gratitude for little favors now 
 and then was due, but was never acknowledged.". 
 One reason was that whenever in his hearing 
 the name of Mrs. Hickson was spoken, Mr. 
 Collins was hearty, sometimes even ardent, in 
 his praise ; whereas, at the mention of Dan s, 
 he was either entirely silent, or, after uttering 
 a grunt of varied magnitude and doubtful mean 
 ing, passed on as if in search of conversation upon 
 topics more interesting. Occasionally he called 
 upon Dan to do little jobs in fixing up loosened 
 gates and doors, mending plantation gear, and 
 things of that sort. Knowing the motive for 
 which such employment was bestowed, Dan was 
 
176 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 not at all thankful for it, and, in time, grew to 
 actually dislike this neighbor. 
 
 Mr. Collins, in point of fact, was not so very 
 much whiter than Dan, either in complexion or 
 spirit ; but though reticent and saving almost to 
 closeness, he was thoroughly upright, and much 
 more kind-hearted than his looks, words, and 
 general deportment indicated. 
 
 Dan s wife thought a great deal of him, as 
 well she might, for the times when, by one 
 way and another, involving not considerable 
 trouble to himself, he helped them out. Dan s 
 hostility was increased by this feeling in his 
 wife ; not at all from jealousy, but because it 
 looked to him as if meant and intended to 
 lower himself, and at length he came to wish 
 for an opportunity of doing what he called 
 paying Jack Collins back. The latter perhaps 
 would have known of this feeling if, when 
 known, he would have cared about it. As it 
 was, he ignored Dan s sullenness when in his 
 presence, and acted as if nothing was further 
 from his thoughts or desires than being made 
 acquainted with anything ever passing in the 
 head of Dan Hickson. It was destined, how 
 ever, to come to pass that such acquaintance 
 should be made and in a way as pronounced 
 as it was singular and unexpected. 
 
A CASE OF SPITE 177 
 
 One night Mr. Collins said at the supper table : 
 
 " As I rid by Dan Hickson s this evenin his 
 wife were up to her elbows at the washtub. I 
 halted a bit, howdied, asked how all was, and 
 she the same. She told me Dan were out of a 
 job and she wished he could git one. I didn t 
 tell her what were on my mind that Dan bet 
 ter stay at home, and git to ploughin and hoein 
 and tendin to things in gener l thar, than be 
 foolin around lookin for jobs that he ain t fittin 
 to manage. But she s such a hard-working good, 
 fine woman, and have so much scufflin to do to 
 git along with all them children, a-addin in Dan, 
 I felt sorry for her ; and I told her to tell Dan 
 that if he have a mind to it, he might come over 
 to-morrow mornin , and I d see if I couldn t give 
 him somethin to do." 
 
 " Well, / should have told her no such thing," 
 said Mrs. Collins. " Dan Hickson s work isn t 
 worth nigh what he charges for it, and besides 
 it s well known that he don t like you. His 
 wife is a good, industrious woman, and all that ; 
 but I got no use for Dan Hickson." 
 
 " Oh well, my dear, you re right about Dan s 
 work and his gener l good for nothin ; but I m 
 a-aimin at helpin his family. As for Dan Hick- 
 son not likin o me, I never pestered my mind 
 about whether he liked me or not, and jest as 
 live he don t as do. Them is the exact way I 
 
178 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 am about Black Dan Hickson, as some calls 
 him. " 
 
 There were quite a number of little some 
 things needed to be done about the yard and 
 horse lot ; for Mr. Collins, good man that he 
 was known to be, was not one to throw away 
 his money in absence of all consideration. And 
 so when Dan came over next day he was en 
 gaged for a set time with the understanding 
 that it might be extended if his work should 
 prove satisfactory. The job, however, was done 
 in a way so slovenly that, at the expiration of 
 the engagement, Mr. Collins frankly owned dis 
 satisfaction, and added that he would have no 
 further use of Dan s services. At that Dan, 
 as had been his intention all along, flew into as 
 much of a passion as he knew not to be unsafe, 
 refused offer of the money stipulated for his 
 work, and, when he had reached, passed through 
 and shut the gate, cried back : 
 
 " I m a-goin to sue you, sir." 
 
 "Well, Dan Hickson," Mr. Collins fired at 
 his back as he rushed away, " you re a triflin er 
 and a good-for-nothiner creatur than I knewed, 
 and that s a heap to say." Then he soliloquized 
 thus : 
 
 " I have knewed some fools in my life-time ; 
 but it seems like to me, if I ain t bad mistakened, 
 Dan Hickson s the biggest I ever come up with. 
 
A CASE OF SPITE 179 
 
 He sue me, after I offered him the money, and 
 he wouldn t take it ! Psher ! go long with you, 
 Dan Hickson ! " 
 
 He turned away and let his thoughts seek 
 other themes. A few days afterward, meeting 
 Dan on the street, supposing that his wrath had 
 subsided enough to let him take the money that 
 was due him, he tendered it ; but Dan passed 
 on, and, if it had been possible, he would have 
 looked blacker in the face than it was its nature 
 to be. Mr. Collins remarked calmly to a by 
 stander : 
 
 " It appears like the fool in Dan Hickson 
 have growed to be so big that it ockepy all his 
 in ards and can t git out convenant to itself ; " 
 and he added : " I ve heerd older people than 
 what I call for say that it take a many var ous 
 kind o people to make up a world ; but I don t 
 hizitate to express my opinion that it seem like 
 to me if Dan Hickson had been left out when 
 they were makin the one we has at the present, 
 they is a monst ous few people would a-said they 
 missed him so mighty powerful much. I owe 
 Dan Hickson fifteen dollars ; that is, I acknow 
 ledge to owe it, albe the work he done for me 
 ain t worth it ; and this is now twice t I ve of 
 fered to pay him the money, and he won t take 
 it. It remain to see what he s goin to do about 
 it. I shan t pester myself with him any furder. 
 
180 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 He did threatin to sue me, and you know Siah 
 Cofield 11 let summons go agins anybody or any 
 thing to pile up his fees. But if Dan do do 
 what he makes his threats, without I m much 
 mistakened in the law o such cases, I ll fling 
 him in the cost. Because it ll be no thin but a 
 case o spite, and mostly because I got more 
 prop ty than he have ; and he know I think a 
 mighty heap of his wife and a monst ous little 
 o him." 
 
 It was a frequent and entirely honorable boast 
 of Mr. Collins that he had never been sued in 
 any court, and that whenever he knew the pre 
 cise amount of a creditor s bill it had been his 
 habit to give or send the money on or before 
 the day on which it was due and payable. 
 Therefore, when, a few days afterward, James 
 Hutchins, the constable, brought a summons to 
 be and appear on the next but one ensuing 
 Saturday at the Courthouse of Josiah Cofield, 
 Esq., to make answer to a suit at the instance 
 of Daniel Hickson, it could hardly be expected 
 that such a man could refrain from at least a 
 few words of righteous resentment. 
 
 " Well ! the fool have done gone and done 
 like he said he would. It have broke out on 
 him worse than I thought, and Squire Cofield 
 and, as to that, you too, might have knew there 
 were somethin wrong some r s." 
 
A CASE OF SPITE 181 
 
 "I hope you won t blame me and Squire 
 Cofield, Mr. Collins. We re obleeged " 
 
 " Oh no, Jeems, I don t blame you nor him 
 from wantin your fees ; and I can t hold you 
 responsible for Dan Hickson havin of no more 
 sense. You go long, and tell Squire Cofield I ll 
 certain to be thar if I m a-livin ." 
 
 Quite a number of the neighbors used to ) 
 gather at the court ground on the one Saturday/ 
 in the month when this tribunal sat. To-day 
 as many as forty were present ; for much talk 
 had been given out by both parties in this issue, 
 and considerable curiosity was indulged. Mr. 
 Collins and Dan put in an early appearance ; the 
 latter seemed calm, but sufficiently serious, with 
 the thought of a poor man being forced thus to 
 cry out for withholding of hard-earned wages. 
 At the sounding of the case, both parties an 
 nouncing themselves ready, the magistrate said : 
 
 "Then perceed with the case; Mr. Hickson 
 have the no first." 
 
 To be accurate, this was a figure of speech; 
 for, being a hot day, the Court removed from 
 the small building, and seated itself beneath a 
 white-oak tree near by. 
 
 Of the four witnesses summoned the first, 
 after proving the bill, was turned over to the 
 defendant for cross-examination. 
 
182 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 " I got no question for the witness/ said the 
 latter. " Every word he have swore to is 
 nothing but the God s truth!" The like oc 
 curred with the second. When the third was 
 put forth one of the by-standers, voicing the 
 general sentiment of rising disgust, said to Dan, 
 loud enough to be heard by several : 
 
 "What you keep puttin up witnesses for, 
 Dan ? Don t you see Mr. Collins ain t sputin 
 your account ? " 
 
 " Never you mind," answered Dan ; " I m 
 a-goin to jes pile it on to him, to let him know 
 who he s a-amin to run over and squush." 
 
 " All right ; go it, horsefly ! but if you don t 
 look out, you re goin to be popped off with the 
 whip," the interlocutor replied. 
 
 Plaintiff s case at length closed, and defendant 
 was informed that the floor was his. Rising 
 slowly, he cast his eyes in solemn retrospect 
 toward his home and the memories awakened 
 by thoughts of it. Turning again, without 
 seeming to note the presence of the dignitary 
 before him, he threw a general mildly appealing 
 look around, and then began : 
 
 " Forty-nine year ago, on the twenty-fift o 
 last December I were borned; and it were in 
 this same county, and in this same deestrict, 
 and that not a mile from where I now ockepy 
 with myself and my own people in reason ble, 
 
A CASE OF SPITE 183 
 
 mod rate peace untwell now. I member 
 freckwent to have heerd my mother say that 
 when I come, I come a Chris mas present, 
 which I ve no idee she would have used them 
 words if she had have knew that I d live to 
 see the time I had to be sued for a account o 
 fifteen dollars, and that by sech a man as Dan 
 Hickson. No, I honest believe sech as that were 
 far be it from the mouth o that honor ble fe 
 male ; that I ve not a doubt on the mind of all 
 that knewed her when she died the twentit o 
 this last Aperl she went straight to mansion in 
 the sky." 
 
 It was a good exordium ; for evidently it told 
 upon all present, even Dan, who scowled around 
 as if to remonstrate against the insinuation that 
 he meant to cast reflection upon the memory of 
 the excellent lady to whom so pathetic allusion 
 had been made. 
 
 " If my ric lection b ar me out," the speaker, 
 after a tender pause, proceeded, " all the records 
 in this county will show that I never has been 
 sued in no court, little nor big, since I have been 
 a man grown, and, in course not before I arriv 
 to that age o discretion, umph so to speak 
 untwell now. And in the first offstart of these 
 few remarks, I say this case is nothin in the 
 world but a case o puore spite; and I ll let 
 you, my neighbors and friends and acquaintances 
 
184 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 and feller-citizens, I ll let you all see just how 
 it is. 
 
 " Ahem ! My yard and horse lot wanted some 
 little patchin up, and me and Dan Hickson made 
 a bargain for twenty days at seventy-five cent a 
 day. I told him if he done it to suit I might 
 keep him some longer, as there were some other 
 work a-wantin to be done. I knewed he wern t 
 the carpenter he called hisself; but he have a 
 excellent, hard-workin , good woman for wife; 
 and it were because of her and her quantities 
 o little children I thought I d try him, it bein 
 always my feelin it were a pity that sech a fine 
 woman have to put up with jest sech a man as 
 Dan Hickson is." 
 
 Here everybody, except Dan and Squire Co- 
 field, laughed heartily. 
 
 " Well," continued the defendant, "Dan Hick- 
 son showed hisself a poorer workman than I had 
 honest took him for ; and so when his time were 
 out I told him I has no furder use for his ser 
 vices, but that there were his fifteen dollars, and 
 I took out my pocket-book. Then he up, he did, 
 and he riz into a passion, and he declar he won t 
 take the money, but is a-goin to sue me for it. 
 First time I see him arfter that I told him there 
 were his money if he d step in Mr. Huckaby s 
 store and give me a receipt for it. He never 
 noticed me no more n I d been a hound-dog. 
 
A CASE OF SPITE 185 
 
 And so, first thing I knewed, here comes Jeems 
 Hutchins with a summons. And now I ask the 
 question if my friends and neighbors think it s 
 fa r, and if it s right betwix man and man for 
 me to be flung in the cost by Dan Hickson, who, 
 if he deny my words, I m ready to prove em 
 every one. These is all the remarks it lay on 
 my mind to say on the present occasion." 
 
 This address was followed by looks and mur- 
 murings that made Dan hang his head in silence. 
 
 " Take the case, gent men o the jury," charged 
 the magistrate, " and decide it accordin to your 
 idees betwix man and man, the pla ntuff and 
 the defen ant." 
 
 After a very few minutes the jury, returning 
 from another oak to which they had repaired, 
 rendered the following : 
 
 " We, the jury, find this a case o spite ; and 
 our verdi t is the pla ntuff Dan Hickson be flung 
 in the cost." 
 
 Dan, seizing his hat, betook himself away. 
 
 "Come back here, Dan Hickson," cried Squire 
 Cofield, "and pay them cost; the jury have 
 found agin you, out and out; and if you don t 
 come back and " 
 
 "Never mind, Squire Cofield," Mr. Collins 
 blandly interrupted, " let him go. Here s his fif 
 teen dollars ; the jury have found against him, 
 but I ll pay it, and you can take the cost out of 
 
186 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 that. I ll make it up some way to the creatur s 
 family. Dollar eighteen and three quarter cent, 
 ain t they ? Yes, well, take it out, and I ll make 
 it up somehow. But my advice would be to 
 you to be more keerful how you send your sum 
 monses to people that you obleeged to know 
 they ain t a-wantin to dodge nothin that s ac- 
 cordin to law and jestice." 
 
 After he had gone, one of the men said : 
 " Had no idee Mr. Collins was sech a pleader. 
 When he brung in his ma, I declar I were a most 
 fit to cry ; for I knowed her, and she were as 
 perfec a saint in her old age as ever trod grit 
 in Warren County. It s to be now hoped that 
 Black Dan 11 let out some o the fool that s 
 always been in him." 
 
MR. PEA NEARLY NONPLUSSED 
 
MR. PEA NEARLY NONPLUSSED 
 
 MR. BENJAMIN PEA, even in his youth, had 
 been addicted to forgetfulness and absence of 
 mind. As he grew older these infirmities in 
 creased, and now that he was quite old, it hap 
 pened more frequently than ever that he became 
 what he called " wery nigh nonplushed." Such 
 was the kindness of his heart, however, that 
 he was always ready to apologize, and, when 
 possible, make amends for his mistakes. 
 
 " I have fit agin it all my life-time," he would 
 say sometimes, in a deploring way ; " but when 
 a thing is jes horned with a person, he may 
 fight agin it, but he can t whip it clean, out and 
 out. But I don t think I were ever quite as nigh 
 bein of nonplushed as I were with Billy Owens, 
 twicet in Agusty." 
 
 And this is the way it happened. Robert and 
 William Owens, neighbors, but never intimates 
 of Mr. Pea, had removed, fifteen years before, 
 to Augusta, where they had been doing as well 
 as they could in various vocations. The brothers, 
 though somewhat, were not alike sufficiently to 
 
 189 
 
190 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 embarrass anybody in distinguishing between 
 them except just such a man as Uncle Ben Pea, 
 as he was wont to be called. Uncle Ben made 
 one visit a year to that city, so loved, so honored, 
 so magnified by the Middle Georgia country 
 people of that time. A few months before one 
 of these visits, the news had come to the neigh 
 borhood that William Owens wife had died. 
 Uncle Ben heard it with the rest, and though 
 he had never thought much of Billy Owens, yet 
 he pitied, he said, the poor fellow, because he 
 knew what it was himself ; for Uncle Ben was, 
 and had been for many years, a widower, and 
 so remained until his death. Billy Owens be 
 reavement, however, had not made so profound 
 an impression on Mr. Pea s mind as to be there 
 when it would have been especially desirable to 
 that kind-hearted man. 
 
 On the occasion of one of his yearly visits to 
 Augusta he had just disposed of his load of cot 
 ton, and, turning from Mclntosh into Broad 
 Street, was proceeding with the prudent obser 
 vation which gentlemen from the country were 
 wont to make in order to guard securely against 
 getting lost in a town so vast, when he was 
 startled by hearing himself loudly but most 
 cordially saluted by name, and felt himself 
 pressed heavily but most fondly upon the shoul 
 der. 
 
MK. PEA NEARLY NONPLUSSED 191 
 
 " How are you, Uncle Ben ? " 
 
 Turning, he recognized, after a brief scrutiny, 
 that it was Mr. William Owens. It required 
 some scrutiny though, because Mr. Owens looked 
 so uncommonly spruce. 
 
 "Why Bob; no, it s yes it s Billy Owens. 
 Why, Billy, I never seed you look better. I 
 needn t to ask how you are ; how s your wife 
 and all the rest of the fambly ? " 
 
 Mr. Pea did not know whether Mr. Owens 
 had any children or not. 
 
 "How s your wife, Billy? how s that good 
 oman ? " Affectionate is the word to charac 
 terize Mr. Pea s language and his tone. 
 
 Mr. Owens cordial freedom subsided for an 
 interval. Removing his new fur hat, he placed 
 his hand respectfully upon the crape, and softly 
 replied : 
 
 " My wife, Uncle Ben ? Why, she s dead. I 
 supposened you d heard about it." 
 
 Mr. Pea laid his finger upon his nose (his 
 own nose of course), a habit he had, as if such 
 action helped him in recalling things he ought 
 not to have forgotten. 
 
 " Billy, I beg your pardon. It seems to me 
 that I did hear of Mrs. Owenses death, and that 
 I were very sorry to hear of it. Cert nly, Billy, 
 I did hear of it ; but you you looked so 
 well, Billy, that " Uncle Ben, though a man 
 
192 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 that rather prided himself on his veracity, felt 
 that a little story would be no great sin in the 
 circumstances " that I thought it must be 
 a kind of a mistake, Billy." 
 
 "No, Uncle Ben," answered Mr. Owens, 
 smoothing the fur that was uncovered ; " the 
 news was true. It come nigh killin me, Uncle 
 Ben. One time it peared like it would kill me. 
 But I had my business to attend to, and so I 
 tried to keep up as well as I could." 
 
 " Right, Billy. I m glad you took them views, 
 Billy. When a man like you and me, Billy, 
 loses their wives " 
 
 But just at that moment a lady, youngish, 
 rather handsome, and rather afflicted looking, 
 passed down the street by the gentlemen. She 
 was dressed in black, though there was white 
 on her wrists, around her neck, and in the in 
 side of her bonnet. She bowed distantly as she 
 passed. 
 
 " Well, good-bye, Uncle Ben," said Mr. Owens, 
 placing his hat on one side of his head, " I have 
 to go," and Mr. Owens went on down the 
 street. 
 
 " I were mighty nigh nonplushed, Bob," Mr. 
 Pea said shortly afterwards to his brother on 
 meeting him and telling of his mistake. 
 
 "Oh, Billy 11 git through, Uncle Ben. He s 
 young yit awhile. Billy s all right." 
 
MR. PEA NEARLY NONPLUSSED 193 
 
 "I think so, Bob/ said Mr. Pea. "Billy 
 looks like he d pull through." 
 
 Yet Mr. Pea said he had been monstrous nigh 
 bein of badly nonplushed, and Miss Georgiana, 
 his daughter and only child, was much amused 
 by his account of it. 
 
 At about the same time of the next year Mr. 
 Pea was on his yearly visit to the famous city. 
 He was just coming out of the store of the Car- 
 michaels, and a boy was carrying to his wagon 
 a shovel and a pair apiece of fire-tongs and and 
 irons. At that moment, Mr. William Owens 
 came walking down Broad Street. From his hat 
 the crape was absent, and its own spruceness 
 and that of his remaining self departed. His 
 gait and his mien were serious, but at the sight 
 of his old neighbor he brightened up somewhat. 
 
 "Why, if it ain t Uncle Ben Pea." Then he 
 seized Mr. Pea by the hand. 
 
 Mr. Pea was a rather short man, stout. Both 
 the Owenses were tall. After another brief 
 scrutiny, and apparent satisfaction therewith, 
 Mr. Pea said in the tone a man would be apt to 
 employ to persons who had expected to catch 
 him napping, and had found him wide awake : 
 
 "Oh yes, Owens. It s Bob Owens. How 
 d ye, Bob ? How s your fambly ? Poor Billy, 
 hes dead, I know. I was sorry to hear it. 
 So was Georgie Ann. We was both very sorry 
 
194 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 to hear it. How s his poor widow and the 
 rest of his fambly genilly?" 
 
 " Dead ! Uncle Ben ! " answered Mr. Owens. 
 "Dead! Why, Tm Billy Owens." 
 
 " Why, bless my soul," cried Mr. Pea, not 
 loudly, though. There were too many persons 
 passing on the street for that. Only Mr. Car- 
 michael heard him. 
 
 Mr. Pea looked down, laid his finger along 
 the full length of his nose, slightly lifting his 
 spectacles in the action. Then looking up again 
 he said: 
 
 " Why, cert nly, Billy. What was I talkin 
 about ? It s your wife that s dead. You re a 
 widower now, Billy, poor fellow, like me." 
 
 " No, Uncle Ben, not now." 
 
 Mr. Carmichael had gotten behind the door, 
 and, as he could not hold it up, had laid his 
 head against the wall. Mr. Owens saw him 
 peeping through the crack above one of the 
 hinges. The embarrassment of Mr. Pea now 
 seemed as if it was going to turn to anger. 
 
 "Billy Owens," he said sternly, "don t be 
 try in to make a fool outen me." 
 
 " I ain t, Uncle Ben," answered Mr. Owens. 
 With Mr. Pea in front, and Mr. Carmichael at 
 the crack of the door, he did not know whether 
 to cry or to laugh. 
 
 " I ain t, Uncle Ben. It s my first wife 
 
MR. PEA NEARLY NONPLUSSED 195 
 
 you re thinkin about. Shes dead, and I m 
 married agin." 
 
 Mr. Pea removed his finger from his nose, 
 readjusted his spectacles, looked up at Mr. 
 Owens thoughtfully, and studiously laid both 
 his hands upon the lapels of Mr. Owens coat, 
 then very slowly said : " Billy they ain t 
 none o you dead, then at the present ?" 
 
 " No, Uncle Ben, I m thankful to say that 
 I m yit a livin and 
 
 " And your wife, Billy, she s dead ah, that 
 is, in course, your first wife ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," feebly responded Mr. Owens, as he 
 saw through the crack Mr. Carmichael getting 
 down upon his knees. 
 
 Mr. Pea, yet pressing his lapels, and looking 
 intently at Mr. Owens, said : 
 
 "I m truly glad to hear it, Billy that is, 
 that none o you are dead at the present. 
 And I hope that none of you never " But 
 this seemed to be going too far; for Mr. Pea 
 was obliged to know that the Owenses could 
 not be expected to become an exception to the 
 law of universal human mortality. 
 
 " That is Billy for the present. I m so 
 glad to hear it, Billy." Mr. Pea looked at Mr. 
 Owens and pressed his lapels as if he would 
 like to take him in his arms as one escaped 
 from death, and bear him away from possible 
 
196 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 reach of the monster. He repeated yet once 
 again, looking the while with fondest affec- 
 tionateness : 
 
 " I m so glad to hear it, Billy. And, Billy, 
 if anything do happen, won t you, or won t 
 you leave word for somebody to send me a 
 letter, and but pshaw ! Sich a thing ain t 
 goin to happen in my day well, good-by, 
 Billy." 
 
 When he had gone, " Mr. Carmicol ! " said 
 Mr. Pea, looking around. 
 
 Mr. Carmichael came forth from behind the 
 door, coughing and blowing his nose as if he 
 had taken sudden violent cold. 
 
 " Well, upon my word, Mr. Carmicol, I were 
 never nigher of bein of nonplushed than jes 
 now with Billy Owens, that is, for a while. You 
 see, it s the second time. When I see him last 
 year, he were so spry and gaily like, I thought 
 I mout be mistaken about his wife bein dead ; 
 a purvidin I ever heerd it, and which Georgean 
 say we did hear it ; and when I see him jes 
 now so serous and cast down, I got the idee 
 that it were him that were dead instid of his 
 wife, and that he were Bob. You see, Mr. Car 
 micol, I never knowed em intimate nohow, 
 though I never knowed anything in particular 
 agin em. Well, he looked peerter when he 
 were a widower, than he do now sence he s 
 
MR. PEA NEARLY NONPLUSSED 197 
 
 married agin. I spect Billy over-cropped hisself 
 the last time." 
 
 " That s what they say, Mr. Pea," answered 
 Mr. Carmichael. "He married the widow 
 Beardsley, and they tell me that she s the 
 captain of the concern." 
 
 "I knowed it, and it s mighty apt to be the 
 case in gineral. But I don t think I were ever 
 nigher of bein of nonplushed for a while. 
 I got out of it though tollerble, didn t I, Mr. 
 Carmicol?" 
 
 "Elegantly, Mr. Pea, elegantly." 
 
 " You know, Mr. Carmicol, I ve always been 
 sort o forgitful and abson-minded ; and I ve had 
 to brace myself agin it. It s not often they 
 ketches me clean out and out. But I don t 
 member when I were nigher to it than jes 
 now with Billy Owens. You think I got out 
 pretty well, eh ? " 
 
 " Oh, elegantly, elegantly." 
 
 "I m glad of it. I m even thankful, Mr. 
 Carmicol. You see, Mr. Carmicol, I got Billy 
 for a while, jes for a while I got Billy sorter 
 mixed up ith ith you may say a couple 
 o wimming at wunst, an a leetle mo and I 
 mout of lost my holt on him, and of hurted 
 poor Billy s feelinks, and which I wouldn t of 
 done that nohow in the world ef it could be 
 hendered. I jes did scape it, like a feller 
 
198 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 that s shot at and missed. It s all practice ith 
 me, Mr. Carmicol ; it s every bit of it practice. 
 For practice, you know, so they say, makes perfic. 
 Hadn t been for practice, I mout of been of non- 
 plushed clean, out an out, an of hurted poor 
 Billy s feelinks, which I wouldn t of done for 
 nothin in the world, and special him in the 
 fix he pear to be in at the present." 
 
LOST 
 
LOST 
 
 WHEN I was a child I used to speculate, in a 
 child s way, on those parables of our Lord re 
 garding the woman s lost penny and the one 
 lost sheep of the shepherd. The wonder was 
 how concern for the missing could become so 
 absorbing as to be excluded from the remaining 
 ninety and nine. Experiences and observations 
 in time have not only made those teachings 
 intelligible to me, but they seem among the very 
 wisest and most benignant that come from that 
 divine source. Aside from the reproach that 
 a loser cannot avoid taking upon himself for real 
 or imagined lack of vigilance, when a possession, 
 even of small or moderate value, has been lost, 
 such reproach, without parting from its own 
 peculiar poignancy, is usually accompanied by a 
 feeling of compassion which, in the case of inani 
 mate things, but for its oft occurrence, would seem 
 most strange and be named most absurd. Of 
 course, when such loss is of a human being, and 
 one among the dearest, such emotions are nat 
 ural, and perhaps the most anguishing that the 
 human heart ever is made to suffer. 
 
 201 
 
202 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 I have been thinking lately of a case that I 
 became acquainted with many years ago. I had 
 frequent occasion to visit an elderly gentleman 
 residing just outside the limits of a village in 
 another county than mine. In the drawing- 
 room of his mansion were several pictures, 
 mainly family portraits. One of these I often 
 regarded with much interest. It was of a boy 
 child, apparently four or five years old. It was 
 extremely beautiful, the expression being so 
 lovely and innocent as to seem almost celestial. 
 My old friend never made allusion to it, and I 
 do not recall if I ever saw his face turned in its 
 direction. His habit was to meet me in that 
 room, wherein I had been shown by a servant, 
 and then lead to his library. 
 
 One day, as he entered silently, I was stand 
 ing before the picture. As I turned, I remarked 
 how strikingly interesting it was. 
 
 "Yes," he answered simply, "the child for 
 whom it was taken was uncommonly lovely. 
 Will you come with me into the library?" 
 
 To my surprise he referred not again to the 
 subject, but led straightway to another. 
 
 It was years afterwards that one morning as 
 I was approaching the house I noticed a well- 
 dressed, fair-looking old man with long, white 
 hair on his head and face leaning upon a large 
 gate at a corner of the yard through which 
 
LOST 203 
 
 vehicles were wont to pass to the rear of the 
 mansion. He seemed in deep meditation, and, 
 at the sound of my advance, turned and slowly 
 moved away. On entering the house I men 
 tioned this fact to my friend. 
 
 " Yes, yes," he answered. " Take a chair. 
 In a minute or so I ll tell you about him." 
 
 He retired for a brief while, and returning, 
 thus said : 
 
 "He is the child whose picture in the next 
 room I remember you taking an interest in 
 some time back. He is the same, the very same 
 to me that he was then, and sometimes, indeed, 
 I believe that he is the same to the Almighty 
 Creator who suspended the best part of his 
 being only a few days after that picture was 
 made. He was so fair and otherwise attractive 
 that my wife, his mother, wished for him to be 
 painted, and it was done. We were then resid 
 ing on a large plantation owned by me in one 
 of the older counties. Our cattle and some 
 other beasts were suffered to roam at large, 
 getting sufficient living in the woods and out 
 lying, untended fields. Young negroes toward 
 evening used to go forth in order to bring the 
 lagging milch-cows to their pen. One evening 
 this child asked the children to be taken with 
 them, and, on their refusing, and running away 
 from him, unknown to them and any person at 
 
204 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 the house he followed, and became lost in the 
 wood." 
 
 He paused for a moment, then continuing, 
 said : 
 
 " The matter, in a very little while, was made 
 known throughout the neighborhood; and by 
 several parties during that night, the follow 
 ing day and night, search was made. On the 
 next morning he was found within half a mile 
 of the house, standing in a shallow pool of 
 water. He paid no attention to the triumph 
 ant shouting of the finders, but on his face 
 was the serenity which, if you had been near 
 enough just now, you would have observed. He 
 spoke not a word, nor has he spoken a word 
 since. His understanding had been uncommonly 
 bright, so his parents and other acquaintances 
 regarded; but from that day, more than fifty 
 years ago, never a ray of intelligence has appar 
 ently come to it beyond what belongs instinc 
 tively to the lower classes in animate existence. 
 If he has ever had suffering of any sort, it has 
 never been known. He sits most of the day in 
 his own chamber on the ground floor underneath 
 my own, occasionally going forth for a walk, 
 always seeming in calm reverie. He has always 
 been punctual to the periods of eating and sleep 
 ing, in which he is served by one of my men- 
 servants, in whose hands he is as an infant. 
 
LOST 205 
 
 Neither this man, nor myself, nor any other per 
 son, has he ever appeared to recognize. Since 
 the death of his mother, ten years back, and 
 since I have become much more sensible of my 
 age, I cannot but indulge anxiety about the dear 
 child s care. However, however/ with an easy 
 effort towards resignation, " I shall try to trust, 
 as I always have trusted, that the judgments of 
 the Almighty, as the Psalmist wrote, are just, 
 justified in themselves/ 
 
 To my old friend it was a mercy that the 
 child died before him, and that his death seemed 
 as free from pain as his life had been. 
 
MUTUAL SCHOOL-MASTERS 
 
MUTUAL SCHOOL-MASTERS 
 
 AMONG my acquaintances at the bar many 
 years back was one who, not long after middle 
 age having attained considerable fame and satis 
 factory fortune, had retired from practice, and 
 settled upon a farm a few miles out of the 
 county seat. 
 
 One day, while he and I were together in my 
 office, he gave me a bit of his own experience 
 that interested me considerably. I will put it 
 down (as near as I can recall them) in his own 
 words. 
 
 We had been conversing about difficulties 
 often attendant upon the beginnings of young 
 professional men. To some remark of mine he 
 answered rather abruptly : 
 
 " Now, now ! People may talk and talk about 
 opportunities which they think they ought to 
 have had, and what great things they might 
 have done if these had not been unjustly with 
 held from them. In a country like this almost 
 any young man can find as much of opportunity 
 as he needs to start with. I ll tell something, 
 if you ll listen, about me and my brother Dave. 
 
 p 209 
 
210 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 "We agreed that we d have an education 
 better than could be got at the neighborhood 
 country school, beyond which our parents means 
 could not allow us to go. Dave was then six 
 teen years old and I fourteen. We got the 
 notion somehow that to be ripe scholars we 
 must know Latin, with which our late teacher 
 had no acquaintance. 
 
 " One day, after we had been for some time 
 speculating upon the subject, Dave said: Dan, 
 my sakes ! Why can t we teach ourselves ? You 
 me, and I you ? I believe we can do it if we ll 
 begin right, study hard, make good rules and 
 stick to em/ Now you may not believe it ; but 
 that very notion had been gradually forming in 
 my mind. 
 
 " So with our own little moneys we bought 
 one Adams c Latin Grammar and one Historic 
 Sacrse/ and in what holidays we got from work 
 on the farm we kept school and went to school 
 in a fodder house just behind the horse lot. At 
 the other school, during the seasons father could 
 afford to send us, we had picked up a good deal 
 in arithmetic and English grammar, and it sur 
 prised and delighted us, that, principles of syntax 
 being much alike in both, we found our task less 
 difficult than we had apprehended. 
 
 " When mother found what we were doing 
 (for we had not told her until fairly started), 
 
MUTUAL SCHOOL-MASTERS 211 
 
 she besought father to increase our holidays. 
 At first he refused, saying it was mere nonsense, 
 Dave s and my attempting to teach each other 
 what neither of us knew one single, blessed thing 
 about. Yet, yielding to her affectionate persist 
 ence, he assented, saying that, although the work 
 on the farm (always the case) was pressing, he 
 would give us, besides Saturday, that we d been 
 having, Tuesday and half of Thursday. That 
 is, for a while, to see if anything was to come of 
 it. If not, the thing had to stop, at least so far 
 as extra holidays were concerned. 
 
 " We agreed, Dave and I, that the discipline 
 was to be as strict as that in other schools, 
 which you and I know was altogether of an 
 other sort from the lax, persuasive, cajoling in 
 these days. We were to give and take genuine, 
 good, long lessons, and then get them. If we 
 didn t we were to keep and be kept in at dinner 
 hour and evening, and make and be made to get 
 them over again, not omitting advancing tasks, 
 and say and be made to say them to final entire 
 satisfaction." 
 
 " Well," I said during a pause in the history, 
 " such as that must have been rather a tough 
 trial upon brotherly affection, if you and Dave 
 had very much of that article. Didn t you 
 quarrel sometimes ? " 
 
 " No more than is common between brothers 
 
212 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 of nigh the same age, and not as much as we 
 did before we set up our joint concern. The 
 solemn understanding was that neither should 
 rebel or complain in words against the other 
 while in relation of pupil to master. We did 
 what was more effectual than quarrelling. Guess 
 what that was ?" 
 
 " I give it up." 
 
 " Why, sir, we fought." 
 
 " Fought ! " I exclaimed. Then I leaned my 
 head upon the table between us, as if I would 
 very much like to faint. 
 
 "Yes, sir," laughing with delight, he replied. 
 " That is, each master whipped whenever such 
 stimulus he judged to be proper and necessary. 
 No tapping, either. Dave kept his hickory, and 
 I kept mine, not less sound and seasoned. He 
 laid on and I laid on according to judgment on 
 the merits, I should rather say the demerits of 
 individual cases. Occasionally we had to rub 
 our shoulders and legs from the rigor of inflic 
 tion ; but we didn t break our rule, even by dis 
 respectful remonstration. Of course, such as 
 that occurred seldom and only during the first 
 weeks of the session. The interest imparted in 
 the work, soon made that sort of discipline seem 
 unnecessary. In three months time we got 
 through Historic Sacrse, parsing as we went 
 (you know the Bible helped us out mightily 
 
MUTUAL SCHOOL-MASTERS 213 
 
 with that), and before the year was out were 
 reading easily in Caesar s Commentaries and 
 beginning to tackle Cicero on Catiline/ I m 
 through." 
 
 "That is a remarkable history/ I exclaimed 
 with heartiest emphasis. "What became of 
 your brother?" 
 
 "He studied medicine, and is, and for years 
 has been considered, one of the best physicians 
 in the town where he first settled. Oh, no; 
 there s nothing very remarkable about it. Many 
 a poor boy, with scantier means, but with supe 
 rior gifts, has done far better than Dave and I. 
 It only tends to show what can be done by a 
 youth of slim means and moderate understand 
 ing by searching for and making for himself 
 opportunities instead of mouthing complaints 
 against fortune for not bestowing them gra 
 tuitously." 
 
MISS CLISBY S ROMANCE 
 
MISS CLISBY S KOMANCE 
 
 " Like a dull actor now, 
 I have forgot my part, and I am out." CORIOLANUS. 
 
 As to the age of Miss Margaret Clisby, the 
 highest figure put down among those who have 
 known her longest is forty. To me, who see her 
 now and then promenading on Charles Street, 
 she does not look a day over thirty. They say 
 she is even more handsome than when she was 
 just grown up, her tall, slender figure being so 
 graceful, her blonde cheek so smooth, her lips so 
 pink, and her teeth so sound and white. Since 
 the death of her last surviving parent, fifteen 
 years back, she has been living with a younger 
 sister, wife of Mr. Summers, near Mount Vernon 
 Place. There was one, only one, romance in her 
 youngest womanhood, whose ending, I have 
 heard whispered, seemed for quite a time to 
 weigh on her mind. However that may have 
 been, now she looks as well content as her sister, 
 or any other woman having husband and chil 
 dren to entire satisfaction. She owns a good 
 
 217 
 
218 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 property, and it is well invested. Whenever 
 one of her intimate friends, in jest or otherwise, 
 hints of her marrying on some fine day, she does 
 not blush, but, smiling and fanning herself, 
 answers in words which give no intimation of 
 any special view or expectation indulged in that 
 behalf. It is just the same if any special man 
 is mentioned, even when it is Abbott Sinclair. 
 
 On the opposite side, and about equidistant 
 from the Place, the Sinclairs live. Mrs. Sinclair, 
 who was Miss Clisby s cousin, died some years 
 ago. After a decent period it began to be sus 
 pected that the survivor was beginning to turn 
 his thoughts in the direction of another marriage. 
 There seemed no urgent reason why he ought 
 not. He was only a little past forty-five, keep 
 ing in his stout physique most of the activity 
 and even the good looks that he had always 
 carried. Then Eliza, his oldest daughter, nine 
 teen, was engaged, while the other, Sarah, a year 
 and a half younger, was too handsome, too sure 
 of abundant provision, already too much followed 
 by young men, to be kept from being the same 
 before very long. And so the fact was that Mr. 
 Sinclair, even for a longer while than he would 
 have admitted to any person except one, had 
 been indulging the sentiments of which he was 
 suspected. 
 
 Now, Eliza felt herself intensely concerned 
 
MISS CLISBY S ROMANCE 219 
 
 about it, particularly on Sarah s account. At 
 least, that was the way in which she used to put 
 her objection when speaking among relatives and 
 friends of the family. Devotedly fond of her 
 cousin Margaret, she would have placed her 
 among those from whom she sought comfort and 
 counsel, but for the delicacy which was in the 
 whole thing. Because there was not one among 
 Miss Clisby s friends and acquaintances who, if 
 asked to express opinion about the possibility of 
 her being won in marriage, would not have given 
 it, answering candidly that, if the right man was 
 to appear and offer himself, she, no matter how 
 coolly she smiled and fanned herself, young, gay, 
 lovely woman that she was, would find it both to 
 her interest and her pleasure to say yes ; perhaps 
 not right down, but in time ; and if he had some 
 ardor and knew how to employ persuasive words, 
 in no very long time. After thinking over the 
 matter, what time their thoughts were not upon 
 their own, and after several talks with each 
 other, the sisters decided between them upon a 
 compromise which, under the circumstances, 
 would seem to come nearer than anything else 
 they could think to being satisfactory. That 
 was for their father, if he should prove to be 
 absolutely fixed upon taking another wife, to 
 marry their cousin Margaret. Having settled 
 that, they seemed to feel somewhat relieved, and 
 
220 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 awaited the first good opportunity to make him 
 acquainted with their views of the situation. 
 This occurred very soon. One night when Eliza s 
 lover and Sarah s beaus had been dismissed by 
 nine o clock, on excuse of having some rather 
 important domestic matters on hand, they re 
 paired to the library, where they imparted and 
 received the usual affectionate greetings. 
 
 "You retire early to-night, my dears," said 
 the father. " How was it ? Did you tire of 
 your visitors, or they of you?" 
 
 66 1 don t think they got so very tired of us, 
 father," answered Eliza ; " but Sarah and I 
 didn t feel much like entertaining, having some 
 thing on our minds we wanted to talk with you 
 about ahem! " 
 
 "Ay? Be seated, then, and let s hear what 
 it is." 
 
 "Father, people say that you are thinking 
 of marrying again. Sarah and I hope it isn t 
 so." 
 
 He rose, took a cigar from a box on the man 
 tel, was very slow in lighting it, and when he 
 was again seated said : 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Because it would seem like being hard upon 
 us, Sarah particularly." 
 
 " Hard on both ! Sarah particularly ! I can t 
 see how it should be so on either. You re think- 
 
MISS CLISBY S KOMANCE 221 
 
 ing very strongly about marrying, yourself. 
 Sarah, too, for aught I know. If she isn t, she 
 will be, and when both of you are off, if it s a fair 
 question to ask, I d like to know what s to become 
 of me here by myself ? Is it to be taken for 
 granted that a man in the situation I shall be 
 then has no right to try to make some sort of 
 provision for himself ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, no, dearest," she said, quickly, and 
 suddenly decided that it would be best to proffer 
 the compromise at once, and so she continued : 
 " Sarah and I have been thinking indeed, 
 we ve been thinking a great deal about it. Tak 
 ing it for granted that in all human probability 
 you might think of seeking another wife, know 
 ing what an affectionate heart you ve always 
 had, and how good you ve been to us, we have 
 made up our minds that we would try to be 
 reconciled if you married a certain lady that 
 we love very much, that mother loved very 
 much, and whom we know you ve always thought 
 a great deal of." 
 
 " That so ? Who can that be ? " 
 
 " Cousin Margaret Clisby." 
 
 He sighed, then turning to face Eliza directly, 
 said : 
 
 " She s the very woman I want ; but I don t 
 believe she would have me. If I did, I would 
 ask her to-morrow." 
 
222 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 This brought the girls entirely on his side, and 
 Eliza said with firmness : 
 
 " I believe she would. I d be willing to bet 
 my very life on it. She s not too old ; she s as 
 affectionate as she can be ; and although she s 
 got a-plenty to live on, you re rich, and you re 
 perfectly healthy, and for your age the very 
 handsomest, youngest-looking, best-mannered 
 man in this whole town; and my opinion of 
 Cousin Margaret is that she has too much sense 
 to turn away from you if you were to ask her. 
 I m just delighted to find how we agree about 
 her. If I were in your place, I d go there right 
 away to-morrow morning. Will you ? " 
 
 " That I won t not upon that errand." 
 
 "Why, father, I had no idea you were so 
 scary. When will you go ? " 
 
 " I can t say ; perhaps never." 
 
 "Well, that is the most surprising thing I 
 ever I don t know what to make of you, 
 father. It s the first case of timidity I ve ever 
 seen in you. Then, if you won t go there, /will, 
 if you ll let me, and I ll find out how she stands. 
 What do you say ? Perhaps that would be best. 
 She will know how Sarah and I feel about it, and, 
 as it were, put her in readiness when you go." 
 
 After reflecting several moments he said : 
 
 "I ve no objection, my child ; I agree to in 
 dorse all you promise as to what I ll endeavor 
 
223 
 
 to do for Margaret s happiness if she will marry 
 
 me." 
 
 " All right ; I was going there to-morrow any 
 how, and I ll bet you all I m worth, or expect to 
 be, that I bring you good news, or at least a pros 
 pect of it, if not a promise and a vision. Now, 
 Sarah, we can go to bed, and go to sleep as soon 
 as our heads touch the pillows." 
 
 When they had gone he sat smoking and mus 
 ing until very late. Finally he rose, and said to 
 himself aloud : 
 
 "I d give all I have and hope to obtain, if 
 this mission could succeed ; but it will come to 
 naught." 
 
 II 
 
 DESPITE the fact that her father, whom she 
 would have preferred to remain single, was a 
 party in the case of marriage brokage on Eliza s 
 hands, she felt that it was very interesting, even 
 to the degree of spiciness. She knew she had 
 uncommon persuasive ways, and, dearly loving 
 both of those upon whose interests she was in 
 tent, determined to use them, if found necessary, 
 to their utmost, and trusted in her ability to com 
 pass what, everything considered, would be an 
 excellent thing all round. So early the next 
 morning she went upon her errand. Meeting her 
 lover on the street, she stopped to say : 
 
224 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 "Here you are, like another bad penny. 
 Don t you ask where I m going; I m on busi 
 ness, and it s as delicate as important. I hadn t 
 time to say even that much." 
 
 "Well, but, Eliza - 
 
 " Oh, you needn t go to well-butting ; I m in 
 a big hurry. I ll tell you some time, maybe, if 
 you ll be good. I must go now. By-by! " And 
 she glided away. 
 
 After one warm embrace and two warm kisses, 
 and after mutual congratulations upon good 
 healths and first-rate looks, and after the two 
 had gotten off to themselves for the confidential 
 chat Eliza had announced upon entrance to be 
 on her mind, she thus began : 
 
 " Oh, Cousin Margaret, I ve got something so 
 interesting to tell you, and it s about love ! " 
 
 "Interesting subject, my dear; but I supposed 
 you had gotten over the most exciting stage." 
 
 " Oh, it s not my case at all. I met Tom just 
 now by the Monument, but I hardly more than 
 spoke to him, I was in such a hurry to get to 
 you. If I were to give you twenty guesses I 
 doubt if you would hit upon it although you 
 might, that is, if you have been thinking about 
 it at all. Well, I won t palaver about it, as they 
 say, but tell you right away that we, Sarah and 
 I, have found out, and only last night, that 
 father seriously wishes to marry again. And 
 
MISS CLISBY S ROMANCE 225 
 
 don t you know that we were distressed, and, 
 indeed, scared half to death, until we found out 
 who it was he s in love with ? for I tell you 
 now that he is in love, deep, deep. I never 
 knew anybody to be more so, never. Have you 
 any idea who she is? No ? I suppose I oughtn t 
 to ask you, under the circumstances ; but I hope 
 in my heart it won t surprise you very much. 
 Why, darling, it is your own precious self, whom 
 I ve always loved like my own mother, and 
 whom it is now my heart s desire to love as my 
 own mother ; and last night Sarah and I actu 
 ally added it in our prayers." 
 
 Then Eliza gave a filial hug as cordial as any 
 prospective stepmother in the whole world ought 
 to be satisfied with. 
 
 The response was not such as the ardent girl 
 had hoped. There was no shrinking. Miss 
 Clisby simply let herself be encircled in the 
 round arms, and then smiled blandly in polite 
 recognition of the endearment. Conscious of 
 instant diminution of her own warmth, Eliza, 
 resuming her seat, looked at her cousin with 
 affectionate, eager anxiety. The latter, without 
 marked coldness, but as if on a matter of mere 
 fact, said : 
 
 " Eliza, your father has not mentioned such a 
 thing to me." 
 
 " No, dearest ; but it was because of the deli- 
 
226 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 cate respect he has for you along with his affec 
 tion, and because of his fear that it might not be 
 agreeable to you, at least so soon after mother s 
 death. But that is now four years gone, and 
 only this morning father told me that mother, 
 several times during her long sickness, said to 
 him that, not only on mine and Sarah s account, 
 but on his own, she hoped that after her death 
 he and you would marry. To think that dear 
 father has kept this to himself so long ! I 
 declare I think he has behaved beautifully, con 
 sidering how dearly he has been loving you. 
 And as for a husband, I don t know father s 
 equal. That I don t, and never expect to." 
 
 Miss Margaret was doing a nice little some 
 thing of embroidery. She stopped, folded her 
 stuff, laid it upon the table by which she was 
 sitting, then said : 
 
 "Eliza, I ll give you a bit of my history, if 
 you care to listen to it. It s of no interest to 
 anybody but me, and to me only as a recollec 
 tion which has long ceased to be painful. Still 
 I think of it sometimes, as I suppose almost 
 everybody of my age does about things which 
 used to seem of some value. Do you think you 
 can bear to hear it ? I ll make the story brief 
 enough, I promise you." 
 
 " That I do, Cousin Margaret ; I wonder you 
 could ask ! " 
 
MISS CLISBY S ROMANCE 227 
 
 She placed her elbow upon the table, leaned 
 her head upon the tips of her thumb and fingers, 
 and said : 
 
 "When I was a girl about your age and 
 that was long before you were born a young 
 man made love to me. At least he professed 
 to do so, and I fully trusted his asseverations. 
 He was extremely handsome and in all respects 
 entirely personable. I soon yielded to his per 
 suasions and became entirely devoted to him. 
 It was all so irresistible, and seemed to me so 
 natural and so right, that I made no indeed, 
 it did not occur to me that it would be prudent 
 or even proper to make efforts to hide any of 
 the affection I had for him. It seemed to me 
 as if my individual being was subsiding day by 
 day and being absorbed into his. If I had been 
 wise no, I will not say that; but if I had 
 been cunning, and made myself seem to have 
 been won with difficulty, and when won, in dan 
 ger of losing, except through continual devoted 
 service it is possible that I could have kept my 
 lover. The being without these faculties, and 
 something else besides, began in time to estrange 
 him. No marked change had occurred in his 
 words, spoken or written ; but he began, as I 
 thought, to look upon and accept my devoted- 
 ness as something to which he was easily entitled, 
 and to respond to my demonstration witli gradu- 
 
228 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 ally lessening cordiality. Hurt by his manner, 
 I resolved to try the strength of his feeling ; so 
 one night, as he was about to leave the house, 
 I said that, after all, I was doubtful if we were 
 suited to each other. The remonstrance I hoped 
 for did not come not a word of it. He only 
 said that if such were my views we might as 
 well separate. I replied it was all I could do 
 that such a course seemed to me not only 
 prudent, but unavoidable. He left me at once, 
 and never returned. Fact was, he had already 
 turned away from me in his heart, and to a girl 
 who, being very lovely, was a very dear friend. 
 He did not make known to her, at least in words, 
 the feeling he had for her until after our separa 
 tion, and she would not listen to his suit until 
 she had talked with me, whose relation to him 
 she had known. I begged her to regard me as 
 out of all consideration, and counselled, if she 
 could love him well enough, to accept him. She 
 did so, and I have every reason to believe that 
 they lived happily together what time the rela 
 tion continued." 
 
 Here she paused, and looked as if she were 
 hesitating whether or not she should say more. 
 The slight tinge that had been on her cheek 
 during her brief narrative faded, and her sub 
 sequent words were spoken with deliberateness, 
 as if it were a house, or some other item of 
 property, offered for her purchase. 
 
MISS CLISBY S KOMANCE 229 
 
 With something of a smile, looking at Eliza, 
 she continued : 
 
 " Since then I have not once thought of mar 
 riage. I have never been able to understand 
 how any one, particularly a woman, could love 
 more than once. A love that is true love, it 
 lias always seemed to me, either lives, flourishes, 
 and becomes fruitful, or it withers and perishes. 
 The last is what mine did. Of it I may say 
 thus much, and I will say it to you, that after 
 some years came a period when there was no 
 legal or moral impediment to its renewal ; for 
 the friend who, without any misconduct of her 
 own, but with my consent and counsel, sup 
 planted me, died, and I have been reliably in 
 formed that her surviving husband would be 
 willing for me to take the place left by her. 
 That is as impossible as if it had been he who 
 had died instead of her. Perhaps he knows this 
 already. If not, he will know it if he should 
 ever seek to communicate with me upon such 
 a subject. In all this I have never been con 
 scious of any feeling of resentment. I admit 
 that for a time my disappointment oppressed 
 me sorely ; but I grew to regard it as the des 
 tiny appointed by Heaven for me, and so accept 
 ing it, I have been, and I am now, very happy. 
 If, after what I have experienced, I were to 
 suffer myself to be persuaded to marry, I feel 
 
230 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 quite sure that nothing but disaster would come 
 of it. But that can never be. And now, my 
 dear, I ve told you what few persons know, and 
 what I had not expected to tell to anybody. I 
 know I can rely upon your loyalty and your 
 discretion." 
 
 " That you can, Cousin Margaret. But I hope 
 you will not object to my intimating to father 
 some of the things you have said to me? " 
 
 " You may tell him all, Eliza, every word ; 
 but him only. Indeed, I d rather you would do 
 it than not, so that he can put me at once out 
 of all his reckonings." 
 
 When Eliza had reported this conversation she 
 added : 
 
 "And oh, father, I never saw Cousin Mar 
 garet so fine ! Diana at the fountain of Gar- 
 gaphia, gazing at Actseon as he fled before his 
 hounds, looked not more commanding, nor, to my 
 belief, was more unapproachable to a man. Did 
 you know the one who treated her so ? He must 
 have been purblind or parted from his senses." 
 
 " Your Cousin Margaret must answer that, 
 my child, if she will, as most probably she will 
 not ; and my advice to you would be not to ask 
 her." 
 
 " Oh, dear, dear ! it s a great disappointment 
 to me and Sarah." 
 
 "Hah ! " he ejaculated when she went out of 
 
MISS CLISBY S ROMANCE 231 
 
 the room ; " Eliza did not know how keen was 
 the point of her simile. I feared it knew it, 
 indeed. It was a sore mistake to let such a 
 jewel drop from my hands; but Margaret Clisby 
 shall never see me desireless nor utterly hopeless 
 of recovering her. I will pay that much tribute 
 to the past, and, if it must be, make that sacri 
 fice, living and dying alone, as I am now." 
 
 This was two years ago. Much of his time 
 since then has been spent by Mr. Sinclair abroad, 
 the house being kept by Eliza, who, besides her 
 husband and baby, partially looks after Sarah. 
 The baby s name is Margaret Clisby, and her 
 namesake and godmother is intensely fond of 
 her. There is that in Miss Clisby s face and 
 manner, when in the presence of her former 
 lover, or when his name is called within her 
 hearing, that indicates something, none can say 
 precisely what. Eliza has told her over and 
 over, with, as she tries to believe, gradually 
 increased impunity from frown or gesture of 
 remonstrance, that her own happiness can never 
 be complete until her dear father is provided 
 for, and in the only way possible. There are 
 those who confidently profess that this is to be. 
 Others shake their heads, but in confessedly in 
 distinct doubt. I have my opinion ; but I have 
 been so often mistaken about such matters that 
 I decline to express it herein. 
 
ISHMAEL 
 
ISHMAEL 
 
 IT was in the month of May, 1866. At a 
 table in a bar-room of the St. Nicholas Hotel in 
 New York, Charles Dupont, a medium-sized, 
 bright-looking young man from Charleston, 
 South Carolina, was with a companion sipping a 
 mint-julep. A few minutes after they had been 
 seated, another came in, and, after looking 
 about and ordering beer and a sandwich, went 
 to a chair by a table near that at which were 
 seated the two first mentioned. He was of 
 olive complexion, that with his well-cut features 
 and shining brown hair and moustache, made 
 him strikingly handsome despite a pallor which 
 indicated that he was not in sound health. He 
 took his luncheon slowly, and apparently with 
 little enjoyment, occasionally glancing towards 
 the other table, and once, although he looked in 
 the opposite direction, listening with evident 
 interest to the conversation there. It was at 
 the point when Dupont informed his companion, 
 Henry Morris, a New York merchant whom he 
 had known before the war but not met again 
 
 235 
 
236 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 until now, that he would be on his way to Liver 
 pool by the Cunard steamer Cuba, which was to 
 sail after three days. Almost immediately after 
 this announcement the stranger rose and went 
 out. 
 
 "Do you know that young man?" asked 
 Dupont, pointing as he stood at the bar settling 
 his bill. 
 
 "No," answered Morris. "I ve been seeing 
 him about the hotels for a year or so, oftener 
 than anywhere else at the New York., where 
 people from the South generally stay. Once I 
 overheard him as he was asking somebody there 
 about Charleston. I don t think he has any 
 special business, and I suspect he has money, as 
 he always seems deliberate in his gait and wears 
 the very nicest clothes. It is evident that he is 
 an invalid." 
 
 " I am sure I saw him in Charleston several 
 times last winter. That s why I asked you 
 about him. Yes, Morris," he continued, dis-j 
 missing this. for a more interesting theme, "I m 
 trying for what can be done to build up the 
 cotton business of Dupont Brothers again. Poor 
 father, you know, was killed in the war ; Uncle 
 Pierre took me into the firm in his place, and he 
 is sending me to Liverpool, hoping that I may 
 get backing besides that already promised, and 
 possibly stumble on other opportunities." 
 
ISHMAEL 237 
 
 After some further conversation they sep 
 arated. 
 
 That night at about eleven o clock, as Dupont, 
 seated at the same table, was ruminating with 
 his late cigar, the person whom he had seen in 
 the forenoon came in again, and taking a chair by 
 the nearest table, lighted a cigarette. Dupont, 
 thinking that he ought to do as he would like to 
 be done by, thus soliloquized : 
 
 " That man, being, in my opinion, either a 
 Southerner or a sympathizer with Southern 
 people, wants to make my acquaintance. If so, 
 I ll give him a chance." 
 
 Turning directly to him, he said : 
 
 " Your pardon, please, sir ; but my friend 
 with whom perhaps you saw me this morning 
 said that not long ago he heard you inquiring at 
 the New York Hotel about Charleston people. 
 There is my home." 
 
 A grateful smile came upon the man s face, 
 and he answered : 
 
 " Yes, the bartender this morning said to me 
 that he thought you were the gentleman whose 
 name I noticed on the hotel-register, and I had 
 been intending, when I could find you disen 
 gaged, to beg the privilege of asking you a few 
 questions about my native town. I was an 
 infant when I was brought away, but ever since 
 I have been old enough I have felt much interest 
 in it. My name is Corson." 
 
238 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 " And mine Dupont. Won t you move your 
 chair to this table ?" 
 
 With the faintest delay of hesitation he did 
 so, and quickly said: 
 
 " I haven t been very well, and I am making 
 arrangements to go abroad, hoping for good of 
 some sort from the voyage." 
 
 "Ay? That s what I ve been doing also. 
 When do you sail ? " 
 
 " I have engaged for next Tuesday, on the 
 Cuba." 
 
 "Indeed! We were destined to make ac 
 quaintance, even if we had not met here. I go 
 on that steamer." 
 
 Corson nodded and smiled as if he were 
 pleased at the announcement. 
 
 "Have you ever crossed the sea?" asked 
 Dupont. 
 
 " Yes, several times." 
 
 " Do you get sea-sick ? " 
 
 " No ; that is, not much so. Neptune, noting 
 probably that I am rather a poor subject, spares 
 me that trouble." 
 
 After chatting for nearly an hour about 
 Charleston and the prospective voyage, Corson 
 rose to go. 
 
 " I am glad," said Dupont, " to have met so 
 soon a fellow-voyager, particularly a native 
 Charlestonian." 
 
ISHMAEL 239 
 
 "The pleasure is mutual, Mr. Dupont, I as 
 sure you. As I shall have some matters to 
 attend to between this and Tuesday, I may 
 not see you before then; that is, unless I can 
 serve you in any way. If I can, I beg you 
 to say so." 
 
 " Thank you, thank you. What little busi 
 ness I have in New York can easily be de 
 spatched without assistance." 
 
 " I ll leave with you my card. If you should 
 find that I could help you in any way, I ll 
 really thank you to call or send a messenger. 
 Good-night." 
 
 On the card was written " Mr. C. D. Corson, 
 French s Hotel." 
 
 When Dupont got to the Cunard wharf on 
 Tuesday, he was pleased to find that his new 
 acquaintance was waiting for him before coming 
 on board. When both, after visiting their 
 berths, met again upon the deck, Corson, lead 
 ing to a couple of chairs, said : 
 
 "Did you know that you will need to have 
 your own special chair ? I guess you did 
 not." 
 
 "Why, no. I ve never been on a boat but 
 three or four times, when going to Savannah 
 and returning. I supposed that the ship pro 
 vided seats." 
 
 "Not specially, and not comfortably. I m 
 
240 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 something of a traveller, and know what things 
 are indispensable to comfort. Now, this is my 
 chair, and that is yours. Mine, you see, is not 
 new, having crossed the ocean before. Yours, 
 which is just like it, I had brought from my 
 quarters this morning." 
 
 "Why why, you embarrass me by such 
 thoughtful kindness." 
 
 " Please let it not be so. We are natives of 
 the same town, and where my experience can 
 be of service to you I think you should use it, 
 just as in like conditions I would get advantage 
 from yours." 
 
 At once intimacy between them was started, 
 which grew constantly more cordial. Dupont 
 was touched by what seemed affection in this 
 man so handsome, so well mannered, so cultured. 
 For he soon found that his education, mostly 
 obtained abroad, was of the very best. He was 
 entirely discreet in his attentions, mingling, 
 although to, less extent than Dupont, with the 
 other (but only the male) passengers ; yet his 
 satisfaction grew more and more manifest when 
 he was in Dupont s company alone. 
 
 On the second day Dupont, most unexpectedly 
 to himself, was prostrated by sea-sickness, that 
 malady which, considering the briefness of its 
 duration and the absence of all sympathy from 
 others, the well and the sick, is perhaps of all that 
 
ISHMAEL 241 
 
 a man of sound body is ever tormented with 
 the most disgusting, depressing, and demoraliz 
 ing. In this Corson tended him as a mother 
 tends her sick infant, and when the patient 
 became fairly convalescent he declared to the 
 constant nurse that he loved him like a brother. 
 
 " Bless your heart for saying it ! Now you 
 need champagne, of which I am going presently 
 to bring you some of the best." 
 
 "That is capital," said Dupont when he had 
 tasted it. " I think I ll give our steward an 
 extra shilling for this." 
 
 (t You will do nothing of the kind. I put in 
 a basket six bottles for this very contingency." 
 
 " Now just see here, Corson, " 
 
 "Don t call me that: call me Charles." 
 
 " You say so ? Then I will ; but you shall do 
 the same with me ; for my name is Charles too. 
 But it seems to me there ought to be a limit to 
 this one-sided goodness." 
 
 " It is nothing ; but if you think it some 
 thing, you will pay me back in kind some time, 
 after I m dead, if not before." 
 
 The smile with which he said this was so sad 
 that Dupont made no answer. 
 
 By the time they reached Liverpool each 
 knew as much as the other was disposed to tell 
 of his antecedents. Each was an only child, 
 both of whose parents were deceased. Brought 
 
242 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 away an infant, Corson, when a lad of fourteen, 
 had been taken to Marseilles, where the family 
 had dwelt several years, during which he was 
 getting his education. Since he had become of 
 age the weakness of physical constitution in 
 herited from his mother had hindered his going 
 into business, and he had been living upon the 
 income derived from property left at her death 
 a few years back. 
 
 They got lodgings in adjoining rooms at 
 the Adelphi Hotel, and meals at one of the 
 restaurants near the Exchange. Corson took 
 the liveliest interest in Dupont s reports of pro 
 gress in his mission. One night, when they had 
 been there about a fortnight, while together in 
 the smoking-room, he said, evidently with some 
 hesitation : 
 
 " Charles, could you use five or ten thousand 
 dollars to advantage ? " 
 
 " That I could. Why do you ask ? " 
 
 " Because indeed, I thought during the voy 
 age and since of doing so, but decided to wait 
 somewhat longer because it would be entirely 
 convenient and agreeable to me to advance to 
 you either of those sums." 
 
 " My God, Corson ! " 
 
 " Not Corson." 
 
 "Well, then, Charles. Do you take me for 
 one who would let a man whom he has known 
 
ISHMAEL 243 
 
 for only a month advance him money without 
 assured good securities ?" 
 
 " Have you, or has not your firm, property on 
 which you could put a mortgage ? I ask only 
 for the sake of the feeling you might have 
 in the matter. I should have no apprehension 
 about the loan, fully trusting in your integrity 
 and your ability to discharge it." 
 
 " No, neither I nor the firm own any property 
 except such as is already covered for as much as 
 it will stand. I couldn t think of accepting such 
 a loan from you, and I hope you ll not mention 
 it again." 
 
 " Then I will not. I am not rich ; but I have 
 some investments which I could easily call in, 
 and it occurred to me that if I could assist you 
 to some extent, I d like to do it." 
 
 " I thank you with all my heart ; but I am 
 sure that brief reflection will convince you that 
 I am right." 
 
 The subject was not alluded to again. 
 
 A temporary position on Change was obtained 
 for Dupont by an influential friend, who advised 
 him to remain in Liverpool until the winter 
 should set in. Cor son during the summer 
 months made several excursions to leading cities 
 in Great Britain and France. But these were 
 brief, and Dupont became more and more sen 
 sibly touched by the affectionate gladness with 
 
244 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 which his friend met him on returning. On 
 occasion of a few days respite from business in 
 the fall, he was persuaded to journey with him 
 to London. Noting that it gratified him, he 
 let him pay most of the expense, Corson respect 
 ing the delicacy which sometimes forbade this. 
 Besides the most famous places, they visited 
 several not now of great interest except for 
 their traditions, as Crosby Hall (now a restau 
 rant), where King Richard III. wooed Anne of 
 Warwick, the spot in Temple Gardens where 
 York and Lancaster plucked their badges from 
 the rose-trees there, the churches of St. Dun- 
 stan s, St. Sepulchre, and others humbler yet, 
 holding in their yards the dust of many whose 
 names, known to only a few in their times, have 
 since become immortal ; to Tavistocks Break 
 fast Rooms, where for generations the dwellers 
 and habitues about Covent Garden have gath 
 ered to the good things therein served; to 
 Datchett s Lane at Windsor, and Herne s Oak 
 at the Forest near by, which "The Merry 
 Wives" made never to be forgotten, and many 
 others. Dupont could not but admire more and 
 more the strange youth, as the vigor of his 
 understanding and the extent of his culture and 
 observation became more and more manifest. 
 
 In this while his malady, tubercular consump 
 tion, grew rapidly. Generally very cheerful, yet 
 
ISHMAEL 245 
 
 occasionally of late there were evidences of rest 
 lessness which were painful to Dupont, who by 
 this time had become strongly attached to him. 
 One day, it was in October, Dupont said to 
 him: 
 
 " Charles, don t you think that it would be 
 better for you at home than here ? " 
 
 " No, no, my dear Charles. I understand my 
 case fully. I am better off as it is than I would 
 be otherwise. Besides, I have no home, except, 
 except I am going to sail for New York 
 next week, in order to attend to some business 
 that needs my presence, but I shall return when 
 it is despatched." 
 
 He went, and, against Dupont s expectation, 
 came back a month later. Dupont was shocked 
 at his debility. Yet his late restlessness was 
 gone, and his cheerfulness increased. 
 
 " I see how you are pained by my looks," he 
 said, when Dupont, who had met him at the 
 ship, took him to his chamber at the Adelphi ; 
 "but do you know? I never have a pain 
 of any sort now. Consumption gives a pleasing 
 decline. I came back somewhat sooner than I 
 expected, because I wanted to be sure of being 
 with you when death comes. I am looking out 
 for it, and am prepared." 
 
 He survived six weeks. Dupont was with 
 him what time he could get from his business, 
 
246 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 and during the last week did not leave him 
 longer than for a few minutes at a time. His 
 only request was that a telegram, immediately 
 after his decease, be despatched to a party in 
 New York. He accepted Dupont s attentions 
 with gratitude as delicate as profound, and 
 often from his glittering eyes came affection 
 unspeakably fond. One afternoon, reclining in 
 his chair, after being in silence for some time, 
 he whispered : 
 
 " Charles, my brother Charles, won t you kiss 
 me good-by ?" 
 
 Dupont kissed him. He smiled and immedi 
 ately expired. 
 
 This was the answer to the telegram : 
 
 "41 WALL STREET, NEW YORK, DEC. 3, 1866. 
 " Yours received. The deceased, Charles D. Corson, 
 before his late departure for Liverpool, executed and 
 deposited with us a last will and testament, by which, 
 after some small charities, he bequeathed to yourself the 
 residue of his property, which will amount, it is probable, 
 to about twenty thousand dollars. You are named sole 
 executor. He requested us to notify you, after receiving 
 intelligence of his decease, of this fact, and to add that in a 
 pocket beneath the lid of his trunk would be found a letter 
 addressed to you. We await your instructions in the 
 premises. "PIERCE & FARROW." 
 
 The letter filled many pages. After giving 
 an account of an attachment between Dupont s 
 father and his own mother, the daughter of an 
 
ISHMAEL 247 
 
 octoroon woman who had been a slave, he dwelt 
 at some length upon the careers of her and her 
 child after both parents had decided that sepa 
 ration, absolute and distant, was indispensable. 
 The mother and infant, well supplied with 
 money, were sent to New York, and some time 
 afterwards the father married. After the death 
 of the mother, and particularly since he had 
 become of age, he had had much longing to 
 know some who were of his kindred. On the 
 maternal side there were none, as his mother 
 was an only child. During the war of secession 
 he had been abroad. After it was over he 
 returned, and during a visit to Charleston in 
 the following winter learned of young Charles 
 Dupont, and often contrived to observe him 
 upon the streets. He was planning another 
 visit, when, seeing Dupont s name on the regis 
 ter of St. Nicholas, he made his way to him, as 
 has been shown. On finding that Dupont was 
 to sail, he rose at once, and, repairing to the 
 office of the Cunards, engaged a berth for him 
 self. Touching in the extreme were his words 
 of compassion for the pain which Dupont was to 
 feel at the disclosure of facts of whose truth 
 there were papers in the trunk containing evi 
 dences irrefragable. Hardly less touching was 
 his appeal to him not to reject his bequest. The 
 letter ended thus : 
 
248 OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE GEORGIA 
 
 "My mother was so far from complaining 
 that she became entirely reconciled to what she 
 knew to be inevitable. Her feeling towards the 
 only man for whom she had ever cared remained 
 throughout her life, and often she said to me 
 that he was as much entitled to my filial regard 
 as any father whose offspring had come in legit 
 imate conditions. Nor did she complain, nor 
 fail to teach me not to complain of destiny. 
 Never a tinge of shame was upon her face, nor 
 its feeling within her breast, for the lower line 
 of her ancestry, and I am thankful, yes, upon 
 this bed of death I bless the holy name of God, 
 that this has been the same with me. The will 
 of God ! Who can compass it ! Who can ap 
 proximate nearer than the fullest certitude that 
 it is always wise, always just, always merciful ! 
 The bond-woman with her son must be cast out 
 at the coming of the son of the free. It was 
 right because it was in accord with the will of 
 God, and his blessing, following the exiles, 
 opened for -them a well in the wilderness of 
 Beersheba. So the rude Esau must yield his 
 birthright to the younger, who in the womb of 
 their mother had begun the struggle for priority ; 
 yet journeying far away into Seir, he there found 
 peace and prosperity. My mother lived in con 
 tent, and died happy. So have I lived, and, now 
 that I have known you, so will I die. Farewell." 
 
ISHMAEL 249 
 
 When he had finished the perusal, the sur 
 vivor, weeping aloud, went to the bier, and, 
 casting himself upon his knees, cried, 
 
 "My brother! Oh, my brother! Why did 
 you not why why did you not, why did not 
 my own heart burning within me, make known 
 these things before? My brother! Oh, my 
 brother!" 
 
James Lane Allen s New Novel. 
 
 " The longest, strongest, and most beautiful of Mr. Allen s novels." 
 CHICAGO TRIBUNE. 
 
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 to learn that her new novel, On the Face of the Waters, has at once 
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 ters, and in its grasp on a multiplicity of historical facts." The Outlook. 
 
 ON MANY SEAS. 
 
 THE LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 
 By FREDERICK BENTON WILLIAMS. 
 
 EDITED BY HIS FRIEND 
 
 WILLIAM STONE BOOTH. 
 i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 
 
 "Every line of this hits the mark, and to any one who knows the 
 forecastle and its types the picture appeals with the urgency of old 
 familiar things. All through his four hundred and more pages he is 
 equally unaffected and forcible, equally picturesque. To go through 
 one chapter is to pass with lively anticipation to the next. His book 
 is destined to be remembered." New York Tribune. 
 
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