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 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS
 
 ' He swayed as lightly as a bird on a slender twig." Page 28.
 
 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS 
 
 BY 
 
 MARIAN BREWSTER 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY J. F. GOODRIDGE 
 
 BOSTON 
 ROBERTS BROTHERS 
 
 1892
 
 Copyright, 1892, 
 BY ROBERTS BROTHERS. 
 
 ?Enibersttg 
 JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. How NAP WAS NIPPED 9 
 
 II. THE DEER HUNT 50 
 
 III. NEAL'S NEW NANNY 88 
 
 IV. A STRANGE CROP 133 
 
 V. THE TRAMP 155 
 
 VI. BRER'S KIDE 199 
 
 VII. GENE OVERCOMES OLD BILLY. . . . 242 
 
 VIII. LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS ON GRANDMA'S 
 
 BAY 258 
 
 IX. JOY'S MISHAPS . 280 
 
 2134473
 
 UNDER THE WATEK-OAKS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 
 
 " HUM-MUM-MUM ; luim-mum-mura," buzzed 
 the bees all day in the top of the water- 
 oaks. 
 
 "Hum-mum-mum," hummed Nap down 
 below, for he knew what secret the bees 
 were keeping so mum about. 
 
 The little darky was lying on the broad 
 gallery of the house that nestles under the 
 water-oaks, kicking up his bare heels and 
 eating a sweet potato. 
 
 Brer and Gene also were eating sweet 
 potatoes. The three boys always were en- 
 gaged in this delectable pastime when there
 
 10 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 was nothing more exciting for them to do ; 
 unless, indeed, the supply of this cold re- 
 freshment had already been exhausted from 
 Aunt Nance's kitchen-safe by their vora- 
 cious appetites. Brer and Gene, however, 
 had not keeled over in the easy attitude of 
 their black play-fellow ; they sat with more 
 dignity on the gallery steps, their broad- 
 brimmed hats pushed far back on their 
 heads, and their elbows resting comfortably 
 on their knees as they munched their sweet 
 potatoes, and impartially tossed titbits of 
 brown peeling to the dogs, who had gathered 
 at the foot of the steps in an expectant but 
 orderly circle, for each dog was very well 
 aware that if he wagged his tail too greedily, 
 or spoke up before his turn, he would be 
 ruthlessly passed by until the next round. 
 
 The two brothers were well-built, hand- 
 some little fellows, with intelligent well-bred 
 faces such as one would hardly expect to 
 see in the backwoods ; but this was readily
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 11 
 
 accounted for when one became acquainted 
 with their refined mother and their inde- 
 pendent, high-spirited father. A strong 
 family likeness existed between the boys ; 
 but Brer was dark, with dusky eyes and 
 hair, while little Gene was fair, with light 
 hair and blue or " white " eyes, as Brer 
 teasingly called them. Gene was such a 
 " thin-skinned " little fellow that Brer could 
 not resist the temptation to poke fun at 
 him occasionally, just to "toughen" him, he 
 said. 
 
 It is true Gene was exceedingly quick to 
 fly into a passion ; but his wrath died out as 
 quickly as it came, for Brer knew very well 
 how to manage him. No one could remain 
 angry with Brer long ; he was such a clever, 
 good-natured boy. He was Gene's hero and 
 model ; the little fellow had been following 
 in his big brer's footsteps, and trying to be 
 just like him, ever since he was a baby and 
 Brer a toddling mischief of two years.
 
 12 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " What do you reckon the bees are saying, 
 Nap?" asked Gene. 
 
 " Hum-mum-mum," Nap saucily replied, 
 between his mouthfuls of potatoes. 
 
 " Oh, come, now, you Nap, tell us what 
 they say," demanded Brer, making a vig- 
 orous pretext of pitching his potato at 
 Nap. 
 
 The little darky instinctively ducked his 
 woolly head under his arm, but lifted it in- 
 stantly with a grin, for he knew very well 
 that Brer had no intention of losing that 
 potato. 
 
 " I 'low de bees am keepin' a secret," he 
 replied obediently ; and he added, with a sly 
 glance toward the girls, who were playing 
 dolls on the end of the gallery, " Lak Neal 
 and Joy keeps secrets, mum-mum-mum." 
 
 The boys set up a shout at this keen hit 
 at the girls. Joy joined in with a shrill 
 little laugh, for she always enjoyed the boys' 
 jokes, even when at her own expense ; but
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 13 
 
 Neal, who was always trying to get even 
 with the boys, pressed back the smile that 
 twitched her lips and bent low over her doll 
 to hide the twinkle in her eyes. 
 
 " If bees keep secrets like girls do, we 're 
 bound to find this one out," laughed Brer. 
 " I know something that I sha'n't tell, mum- 
 mum-mum." He pursed up his lips and 
 pressed them hard with his finger, as he 
 had seen the girls do when they wanted to 
 keep a secret in. 
 
 Neal looked up defiantly. 
 
 " I reckon girls can keep secrets as well 
 as boys," she cried ; " this is the way } 7 ou-all 
 do." She dropped her doll and strutted 
 pompously up and down the gallery. " You 
 swell out just like you would burst if you 
 did n't tell, and your eyes get so big and 
 bright, so, that the secret is bound to shine 
 out." 
 
 Joy's gleeful laugh rang out again, and 
 the boys laughed too.
 
 14 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " We never looked such idiots as that in 
 our lives," declared Brer. "If we did, it 
 was only to fool you girls. When we have 
 a sure-enough secret, no one would ever think 
 it." 
 
 " I reckon de bees 'low, ef dey keeps right 
 mum, we-uns neber fin' out whar dey tote 
 de honey," remarked Nap, recalling their 
 attention to the bees. 
 
 "They're mighty sharp, but they can't fool 
 us," cried Brer ; " J wish the old sun would 
 hurry along." 
 
 The boys were waiting, with what pa- 
 tience they could command, for the slow- 
 moving sun to sink so low in his course that 
 his fiery darts should not blind their eyes as 
 they traced the course of the wily bees to 
 their secret storehouse. 
 
 It was early in February, when Northern 
 boys are muffled up to their ears in defence 
 against Jack Frost ; but the feet of Brer and 
 Gene were as bare as the two black ones
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 15 
 
 that waved in the air. For one of the most 
 delightful things about the water-oaks is 
 that where they grow all the seasons are so 
 warm that the canopy of leaves above is 
 always green, and one can run about bare- 
 footed below, all the year round. 
 
 To be sure, there are two or three morn- 
 ings in January when the air is uncomfort- 
 ably keen, and a thin white coating of frost 
 lies on all the roofs of the Owlets' Roost, the 
 old well-house, the new well-house, the po- 
 tato-house, the storehouse, the smokehouse, 
 and on the new big barn away to the right of 
 the yard, and on the sheds of the old barn 
 away off to the left, and on the molasses- 
 house halfway between the two barns. But 
 the slight frost usually disappears before 
 sun-up, and one must look sharp to see it. 
 Once or twice in their short lives, the boys 
 had found wonderful ice-crystals shooting 
 across the surface of the water in the bucket 
 on the back gallery ; and once, only once,
 
 16 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 they had seen a snowfall. The sight was so 
 strange that they were almost frightened, 
 and nearly as wild as the chickens that ran 
 distractedly hither and thither pecking at 
 the bountiful fall of flakes that vanished so 
 strangely from the ground. 
 
 Just now a thick bed of brown leaves 
 lay around the roots of the water-oaks ; for 
 new buds were pushing off the leaves that 
 had shaded the house for a year, and were 
 bursting into the tasselled blossoms around 
 which the bees were swarming. 
 
 The sun loitered exasperatingly that after- 
 noon, it seemed to the boys. 
 
 " I believe the old thing is standing there 
 on purpose to bother us," exclaimed Gene, 
 the last shred of his patience snapping when 
 the supply of potatoes gave out. 
 
 " It 's bound to go down sometime," said 
 Brer, encouragingly. " Can you see what 
 time the clock says, Mamma?" 
 
 The sun was considered by the family a
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 17 
 
 more reliable time-keeper than the clock ; 
 only when the former failed to keep up 
 with their plans, did the boys deign to con- 
 sult the capricious timepiece in the room, 
 a place that they did not frequent except on 
 chilly winter evenings when the north wind 
 drove them from the gallery to the glowing 
 fireplace within. 
 
 Only a tiny blaze was fluttering there 
 now, but Mrs. Lee sat in the cosey chim- 
 ney-corner knitting the white square of 
 a counterpane. At Brer's question she 
 glanced up. 
 
 " The clock says half -past four," she 
 replied in her low, sweet voice ; " but I 
 reckon it has gained since your father 
 went to town." 
 
 " Half- past four ! Come on ! We won't 
 get round by night if we don't look sharp. 
 I reckon the sun won't out our eyes now. 
 Come on ! Come on, you Nap." 
 
 It was Brer, by right of his twelve years
 
 18 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 and his superior attainments, who planned 
 and directed all the work and fun of the 
 three boys; for Gene was only ten, and Nap 
 was smaller than Gene, and he never had 
 any birthdays. 
 
 Usually when they started off for the 
 woods they fell into Indian file, Brer 
 ahead, Gene following, and Nap contentedly 
 bringing up the rear ; but this time, in 
 their search for the bee tree, Brer placed 
 Nap first, for the boys half suspected that 
 he was already in the secret, and as able to 
 take a bee-line to the honey storehouse as 
 the bees themselves. 
 
 If he did not already know the secret, he 
 knew how to find it out. The bees were 
 leaving the water-oaks in all directions, but 
 Nap was not to be deceived. He knew that 
 they all were of one swarm, and that they 
 were only making a pretence of separating 
 until they should be away from the house 
 and should think that they had escaped no-
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 19 
 
 tice, then they would dart straight to one 
 tree. 
 
 The boys had left the yard, and trudged 
 for some time in silence down the thicket 
 road, when Nap came to a halt under the 
 dogwood trees. 
 
 " Is you gwine bide yer, Brer, an' watch 
 out?" 
 
 " I reckon," Brer answered, as if that had 
 been his plan all along. 
 
 " A.m Gene gwine watch out back ob de 
 cane-patch?" 
 
 " I reckon," cried Gene, darting off. 
 
 " Does you-all reckon Nap bes' go yonda 
 roun' de pon' ?" asked Nap, anxiously. 
 
 " Yes ; git ! " assented Brer, dropping on 
 the pine-straw and tossing a burr at Nap. 
 
 The nimble little darky caught the burr, 
 sent it flying back with sure aim, and put- 
 ting a pine-tree between himself and Brer, 
 sped away to the pond. When he had 
 scurried around the pine-studded brim of
 
 20 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 the basin, he threw his little body upon a 
 fallen pine log, and pulling the straw crown 
 that served for a hat over his face, he ap- 
 plied a keen eye to one of the many slits in 
 it, to watch for the home-flying bee. 
 
 He did not peep long through the chink 
 before he discovered the way to the sly bees' 
 house. There they went, across the disk of 
 blue sky that covered the pond, one little 
 speck and another and more, coming from 
 various directions, but all aiming toward one 
 point. 
 
 Nap whistled the mellow notes of the 
 meadow-lark ; Brer and Gene instantly 
 responded, and in a few moments came 
 bounding over the pine-straw, demanding 
 excitedly the way to the tree. 
 
 "I reckon it am dat-a-way ; I reckon you- 
 all see de bees in a minute." He showed 
 them where to watch ; and peering up 
 through a telescope made with his hands, 
 Brer soon made out the moving specks.
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 21 
 
 " Come on ! " he cried ; and again, with 
 Nap ahead, they sped through the pines. 
 
 It did not take them long to find the tree. 
 It was the dead white pine near the rippling 
 branch on the other side of the gully. The 
 bees were buzzing noisily about the tree-top, 
 and the boys could see a black swarm around 
 a hole just above the lowest branch of the 
 tree. 
 
 With his jack-knife Brer cut a large B 
 his mark, and of course a mark for all three 
 boys in the bark of the tree, to secure it 
 against the claim of any one else who might 
 follow the bees ; then they turned homeward 
 in high glee over their success. 
 
 Between the bee tree and home, however, 
 lay the gully. There they must loiter awhile, 
 for the gully is the most fascinating play- 
 ground in the piney woods, and the boys 
 never could pass it without stopping for a 
 frolic. 
 
 The gully is a deep crevice in the hill-
 
 22 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 side, probably formed by the washing of a 
 spring in some remote time. Its rim is 
 firm, and bristling with the projecting roots 
 of pines that grow on its edge ; its perpen- 
 dicular sides are hidden by a tangle of vines 
 and shrubs. Some gum-trees, rooted in the 
 bottom of the gully, brush the sides with 
 their branches in vain effort to reach the 
 top and peep over ; but only those trees that 
 have been fortunate enough to secure a 
 footing high on the sides are able to reach 
 far enough to peep out into the piney woods, 
 but they good-naturedly whisper back to 
 their lowly companions all that they see. 
 
 The great charm of the gully is a high 
 ridge of clean sand, beautifully shaded from 
 deep reds to delicate flesh-tints. It begins at 
 an abrupt stump-shaped elevation in the 
 middle of the gully, higher even than the 
 sides, and descends in a long line to the 
 mouth, sloping away on both sides in most 
 enticing slides. Across from the edge of
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 23 
 
 the gully to the sand-stump, lies a large 
 pine-tree, hurled there by some accommo- 
 dating wind. 
 
 Across this natural bridge ran Brer and 
 Gene and Nap, balancing themselves with 
 their hands and clinging with their toes, 
 then over they went, tumbling and sliding 
 down the slope of loose, warm sand, to 
 struggle up again for another plunge. There 
 was no jollier sport in the piney woods. 
 
 When they were warm and breathless 
 with climbing and tumbling, they took turns 
 being buried in the sand. Finally Brer and 
 Gene covered Nap to his little black chin, 
 so that there was nothing left of him but his 
 woolly head and funny, wrinkled face. His 
 eyes rolled comically up at them, and his 
 white teeth flashed in a continual grin. 
 
 " Good-by, Nap." 
 
 " Good-by, Brer ; good-by, Gene. Take 
 keer yo'self." 
 
 Nap remained perfectly still until Brer
 
 24 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 and Gene had swung themselves up the gum- 
 trees and disappeared over the edge of the 
 gully. Then the sand about him began to 
 heave and slide like a small earthquake. 
 Presently a black foot cropped up, then its 
 fellow, and both began to kick vigorously. 
 The little quick hands came out and fell to 
 work like lightning in the sand, until the 
 whole boy was unearthed, and sprang with 
 a chuckle to his feet. He gave himself 
 a shake, jammed his tattered straw crown 
 over his wool, and, like a flash, was up the 
 gum-trees. 
 
 The boys were galloping on piney-woods 
 ponies in the sapling thicket at the head of 
 the gully. In a trice, Nap was as splendidly 
 mounted as they, on the springing stem of a 
 bent sapling, clinging to the pine-top with 
 one hand, beating unmercifully with the 
 other, prancing wildly up and down at the 
 top of his horse's speed, with such startling 
 screams, " Hi ! hi ! hi ! " that Gene lost his
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 25 
 
 seat and suddenly dipped to the under-side 
 of his slender steed, tearing a long rent in 
 his jean breeches, and scraping his leg most 
 exasperatingly on the rough bark hide. 
 
 " You Nap," he shouted angrily, drop- 
 ping to the ground to nurse the smart, "I'll 
 learn you how to scare a fellow so ! I '11 
 have the ha'nt from the graveyard after 
 you some dark night ! " 
 
 " Law, I did n't go fur to mek yo' hu't 
 yo'self, Gene ; I 'low yo' hab a betta holt on 
 yo' ho'se." 
 
 Nap had not much fear that Gene would 
 set the " ha'nt " on him, for he knew that the 
 boys were as afraid of the ghost as he was ; 
 but he was sorry to have hurt Gene, and 
 sprang from his pony to the ground. 
 
 " Pooh ! don't be a baby, Gene. Pity if 
 you can't get a scratch without whining," 
 scornfully cried Brer, who was bounding 
 rapturously on a springing pony in supreme 
 indifference to Gene's smart.
 
 26 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " You would n't like it, I reckon," re- 
 torted Gene, his face still screwed up with 
 the pain, but rising under his big brer's taunt. 
 " I just wish Nap would get hurt once so 
 he 'd know how it feels. But I don't be- 
 lieve you could scratch him with a hoe ; I 
 reckon he came out of the alligator-hole, 
 his hide 's so thick." 
 
 " Oh, hush your growling and come on ! " 
 commanded Brer. Gene made a sudden dart 
 at Nap's sapling. 
 
 " I 'm going to have this one," he snapped 
 ill-naturedly. " Nap, he always gets the 
 best." 
 
 " All right, Gene, I 's gwine fin' 'noder," 
 agreed Nap, cheerfully. 
 
 " You 're so spry, you 'd better take the 
 big sapling yonder," Gene cried sarcasti- 
 cally, pointing to a tall sapling that hung, 
 by its loosened roots, far out over the 
 gully. 
 
 " I reckon so," replied Nap, taking him at 
 his word, and starting toward the tree.
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 27 
 
 " Come back, you Nap ! Mamma said we 
 should n't swing over the gully," ordered 
 Brer. 
 
 Nap paused obediently. 
 
 " She never said Nap should n't," insisted 
 Gene, perversely. 
 
 "That's so," Brer agreed. He looked 
 longingly at the tree. He sorely longed 
 for the privilege of swinging in that tree ; 
 and the next-best thing to going out him- 
 self was to see Nap there. 
 
 " Sure it will hold ? " he asked. 
 
 Nap ran on to the tree, and critically 
 examined its roots. 
 
 " I reckon," he called back, waiting 
 eagerly for Brer's permission to go out. 
 
 " If you 're sure I don't care what you 
 do." 
 
 " Go it if you dast," challenged Gene. 
 
 Nap made a spring, and with knees, feet, 
 and hands climbed up the slender stem and 
 crawled out upon its tapering length until he
 
 28 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 was perched in the feathery pine-top, far 
 out over the deep gully. 
 
 He threw up his arms in the sun- 
 shine and gave a shout of delight. He 
 swayed as lightly as a bird on a slender 
 twig ; and inspired by the motion, he pres- 
 ently began to chirp and gurgle, and finally 
 he burst forth in a medley of all bird-songs, 
 and warbled away as clearly and blithely as 
 a " sure-enough " mocking-bird. 
 
 The boys had often heard his mimicry 
 before ; but never had it seemed so charm- 
 ing as now, from the slender, swaying 
 perch. 
 
 " That beats old Whir, sure," cried Brer, 
 bouncing from his pony and running to the 
 edge of the gully. 
 
 Whir was the boys' own particular mock- 
 ing-bird, who, in summer, nested with his 
 mate in the scuppernong arbor, pecking 
 grapes by daylight and singing long and 
 loud by moonlight. In winter he and his
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 29 
 
 mate helped themselves to the red holly 
 and dogwood berries hung for them by 
 the boys on the gallery of the Owlets' 
 Roost, and they selfishly fought off all 
 other birds that ventured to approach the 
 water-oaks. 
 
 When Nap ended his song, Gene clapped 
 his hands enthusiastically. He had quite 
 recovered from his fit of temper, and he was 
 very proud of their Nap's accomplishments. 
 
 But Brer had seen something that made 
 him very sober. He called, 
 
 " Come along back, you Nap, and mind 
 you move easy." 
 
 Nap started promptly to obey ; but at his 
 first movement the tree bent slowly and 
 dangerously low. The boys shouted, and 
 rushed to the roots, that were slowly but 
 surely upheaving, and bore down with all 
 their might upon the upturned earth. 
 
 " Go easy, I say," Brer shouted steadily, 
 but his face was as frightened as Gene's.
 
 30 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Nap moved as cautiously as possible ; 
 but his light weight was the last straw 
 that overcame the resistance of the roots; 
 and in spite of the boys' efforts to keep it 
 up, the tree went crashing into the gully, 
 dragging an avalanche of earth down with 
 it. 
 
 Brer darted back with Gene just in time 
 to save them both from plunging head-first 
 after. He sat down emphatically with the 
 force of backward movement, and Gene sat 
 down beside him. They were on their feet 
 instantly, however. 
 
 " Nap 's bound to light on his feet," gasped 
 Gene. 
 
 Brer turned without a word, and bound- 
 ing over the log to the sand-ridge, slid down 
 into the midst of the fallen branches, Gene 
 following closely. 
 
 " You Nap ! " called Brer, in a voice 
 that was trembling, spite of his efforts to 
 control it.
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 31 
 
 " Yer I is," answered the soft voice, 
 faint and muffled. 
 
 They spied him sitting, a little heap, in a 
 nest of pine-needles. His face was hidden 
 in his arm, and red stains covered his calico 
 waist. 
 
 " Where are you hurt ? " asked Brer, scat- 
 tering the debris and kneeling by his side. 
 
 " Dunno," responded the feeble voice. 
 
 " Get some water quick ! " ordered Brer. 
 
 Gene flew down the gully to the spring 
 that flowed at its mouth, and having folded 
 a magnolia leaf in the shape of a cup, filled 
 it with the sparkling water. That was so 
 little ! He jerked off his waist and dipped 
 it into the spring. With this dripping from 
 one hand and the magnolia cup in the other, 
 he hurried back to the boys. 
 
 " It 's his nose ! It 's all swelled up like 
 a mushroom," explained Brer, in great dis- 
 tress. " Here, take a sip, Nap, and let me 
 wipe you off."
 
 32 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Nap lowered his arm from his face and 
 drank eagerly. He showed his white teeth 
 in a momentary smile, that gave such a 
 distressing twist to his swollen, bloody feat- 
 ures, and his eyes, almost closed with the 
 swelling, were filled with an expression of 
 such appealing dumb suffering, that Gene 
 burst into tears. 
 
 " Doan go fo' to cry, Gene," remonstrated 
 Nap, trying not to wince under Brer's awk- 
 ward touches. 
 
 " Hush ! " cried Brer, imperatively ; and 
 Gene hushed as best he could. 
 
 Brer wiped Nap's face with Gene's wet 
 jacket and took off his own to stanch the 
 blood. 
 
 " Now, come on," he said, gently helping 
 Nap to stand. " We '11 tote you home." 
 
 " I reckon I 's gwine walk," objected Nap, 
 starting bravely forward. He was so dizzy 
 and blind, however, that he began to totter 
 at once ; so Brer and Gene hastily fashioned
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 33 
 
 a seat with their crossed hands, and forced 
 him to sit down upon it. 
 
 To mount the sliding sand and cross the 
 log with their burden was out of the ques- 
 tion. They turned to the mouth of the 
 gully, made their way around the head 
 of the spring, and climbed the long slope 
 of the hill that ran to the water-oaks. 
 Nap was a little body, but he became a 
 mighty weight before they were halfway 
 home. 
 
 Nevertheless they staggered onward, re- 
 fusing to set him down, or to rest until they 
 mounted the steps of the house gallery 
 and resigned him to their mother's care. 
 
 Mrs. Lee tenderly dressed the wounds, 
 and laid Nap away on his pallet in the 
 corner of the Owlets' Roost. 
 
 " I have told you not to swing over the 
 gully," she said to the boys. 
 
 " You never told N " Gene began, but 
 he had the shame not to finish this defence. 
 
 3
 
 34 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Gene had been crying bitterly over poor 
 Nap's mishap, with the feeling that the 
 accident was all his own fault, since he 
 had suggested the big sapling. 
 
 Brer could have wept too, if he had n't 
 " got past crying ; " for he knew that he was 
 greatly to blame, since he might and should 
 have prevented the catastrophe. 
 
 Nap himself had not shed a tear. He had 
 endured like a stoic the pain when his wounds 
 were dressed. He had even tried to cheer 
 the boys and comfort Neal and Joy, who 
 looked upon his bruised face with tear-filled 
 eyes. 
 
 " I reckon how it '11 be all right in the 
 mo'nin'," he faltered, with that painful 
 grimace that he intended for a smile. 
 
 But it was not all right in the morning ; 
 it never was quite right again. Even after 
 a long time, when his features emerged from 
 the puffed flesh and his eyes opened to their 
 natural size, Nap did not recover his former
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 35 
 
 looks ; for in his fall, he had not lighted 
 upon his feet, as Gene had trusted, but he 
 had gone down head-first, striking his nose 
 so violently as to break it. 
 
 His nose, to begin with, had been flat and 
 wide, and altogether a sufficiently insignifi- 
 cant feature. By the fall the upper part 
 was mashed flatter than ever ; but the end 
 was quaintly pinched and turned up, as if 
 it had been pinched with the fire-tongs. 
 The upward nip gave the drollest expres- 
 sion of pertness to his otherwise docile and 
 cheery face. 
 
 Except for the pain, of which he never 
 complained, and which soon passed away, 
 the consequences of the fall were of no im- 
 portance to Nap. As he was supremely 
 unconcerned about his looks, the turn of his 
 nose did not affect his temper; and he re- 
 mained the same happy, rollicking little 
 darky as ever, only instead of Nap, the 
 boys called him Nip.
 
 36 UNDEK THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 As Nap was not his baptismal name, 
 merely a make-shift for want of a better, 
 the change was of little consequence. In 
 fact, it was quite uncertain that Nip ever had 
 been baptized or properly named. He had 
 come to the Water-Oaks, in the first place, in 
 a very mysterious way. He might have 
 dropped down like a burr or come up like 
 a gopher, for all the children knew to the 
 contrary. 
 
 They had found him one morning sitting 
 on a log just without the picket paling, 
 with his chin sunk in his hand and his little 
 old solemn face turned patiently toward the 
 gate. 
 
 The dogs were sniffing curiously at him 
 through the pickets, and wagging their tails 
 as if in welcome. This in itself was strange, 
 for usually the dogs were frantic at 
 sight of a darky ; and even before sight 
 they would set up an angry barking if 
 they scented one approaching through the
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 37 
 
 woods. But Nap, when lie was admitted to 
 the yard, they greeted with the fondest 
 caresses and kisses, and he was soon tum- 
 bling among them like a brother. 
 
 His little black body was scarcely covered 
 with a red cotton slip that hung in tatters 
 from his shoulders. When questioned, he 
 had but one word to say for himself, and 
 that no one was able to make out ; but as it 
 sounded more like " Napoleon " than any- 
 thing else, they gave him the name of the 
 great emperor, making it " Nap," for short. 
 
 He was a curious little creature, some- 
 times like a little animal, and at other times 
 so much wiser than themselves that the 
 children did not know what to make of him. 
 He was so keen of sight and hearing and 
 smell that Brer and Gene often had the 
 queer feeling that they were missing half 
 that was going on because their senses 
 were so much duller than Nap's. 
 
 In the early springtime Nap would lie
 
 38 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 for hours with his ear on the pine-straw, 
 listening, he said, to the johnnies and violets 
 that were creeping up ; and he would tell 
 Joy the very day when the sweet little 
 flowers would spring up and open their 
 eyes. 
 
 His eyes were as keen as the buzzards' 
 that soar up, up, up, to a mere speck, 
 and peer down between the pines for their 
 prey. Since Nap had no wings, and his 
 world was so small, he had no chance to try 
 his eyesight at such loner range as the buz- 
 
 \j o 
 
 zards, so he used his bright eyes in spying 
 out the hidden secrets of the plants and 
 insects. He discovered a thousand wonders 
 that the boys and Neal and Joy never would 
 have noticed but for him. On the great 
 round trunks of the water-oaks he showed 
 them a perfect garden of growing beauties, 
 which, as they could see when the rains had 
 brightened the moss and lichens, extended 
 far up out on the branches even over the
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 39 
 
 roof-sides of the house. There were myri- 
 ads of tiny insects swarming in this perpen- 
 dicular garden ; and by putting their ears 
 against the tree, the children could hear the 
 constant rustling of the busy life that went 
 on in the wrinkles of the bark. 
 
 The trunks of the water-oaks were so 
 large that it was impossible to climb them 
 without a ladder ; but Nap would spring 
 from the cedar-trees at the back of the 
 house to the roof. He would scramble along 
 the ridge-pole, and swinging himself into 
 the oak branches, run along them like a 
 squirrel ; and in a twinkling he would be up 
 in the tree-top where the great bunch of 
 mistletoe grew. Away up at that dizzy 
 height, he would wrap his little legs around 
 a branch and swing head downward, or he 
 would drop almost as lightly as a flying 
 squirrel to the lower branches, where he 
 would stand on his head and turn summer- 
 saults along their length.
 
 40 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Once the boys had undertaken to " learn " 
 Nap, but the little darky had such a ridicu- 
 lous way of looking at pictures and of saying 
 his letters upside-down, spite of their efforts 
 to teach him better, that the boys would go 
 into spasms of laughter that sadly interfered 
 with the lessons. This was a pity, for Nap 
 was a- very bright scholar, and very eager to 
 learn ; and even with his book wrong-side-up, 
 he made considerable progress. 
 
 Nap was puzzled to understand what 
 difference the position of the book made. 
 " A," he pronounced, holding the book 
 properly, as Brer told him. Then he turned 
 the other side up, as he liked it best. 
 
 " Am dat A, Brer ? " he asked with his 
 finger on the same letter. 
 
 " Of course it 's A" 
 
 Nap turned the book on one side. 
 
 " Am dat A ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 He turned to the other side.
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 41 
 
 " Am dat A ? " 
 
 Brer grinned and nodded. 
 
 " Am dat allus A, Brer ? " 
 
 The boys set up a shout at this logical 
 conclusion. It was useless to argue with 
 Nip any longer ; and as it was too absurd to 
 teach from a book held upside-down, the 
 lessons came to an end. 
 
 Nip knew plenty of things out of books. 
 "I reckon de moons am de ha'nts ob de 
 suns dat gits bur'd ebry ebnin' in de pine- 
 trees yonda," he remarked one night when 
 the moon was peering down at them through 
 the dancing leaves of the water-oaks. 
 
 " What are the stars, Nip ?" asked Gene. 
 
 " I 'low de stars am de ha'nts ob de sun- 
 beams." So he had an explanation for all 
 the wonderful things with which their small 
 world was full. 
 
 He could tell what the pine-tops were 
 whispering when they waved away up in the 
 blue ; he knew what the leaves of the water-
 
 42 UNDER TUB WATER-OAKS. 
 
 oaks said, and what the squirrels chattered 
 about when they scurried along the branches 
 of the oaks and over the roof of the house. 
 With his wonderful voice he talked with all 
 the birds in their own language. He took 
 his turn with the roosters when they crowed; 
 he imitated Susanna's cackle so exactly that 
 Neal and Joy would fly excitedly to find the 
 egg in the old hen's nest ; with a gobble, he 
 could set all the gobblers a-gobbling, and the 
 whole flock of turkeys to strutting and 
 wheeling about the yard in a most comical 
 fashion. He could screech so well that the 
 three geese would come screaming in a great 
 flurry from the pond, with wings a-flapping 
 and heads stretched out to see what fourth 
 goose had come to the Water-Oaks. They 
 were great geese indeed. 
 
 Of books, Brer and Gene themselves 
 knew very little. Several times young lady 
 teachers had come into their little world to 
 instruct the boys ; and every day for hours
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 43 
 
 they would be shut up in the Owlets' Roost 
 with their books. They submitted very 
 meekly to this imprisonment, and pegged 
 away right faithfully at their lessons, man- 
 aging to stow away a great many facts to 
 wonder over by themselves and to hurl at 
 Nip's incredulous head. 
 
 Of course no one ever thought of sending 
 Nip to school, and Neal and Joy were too 
 young to study ; so the two boys had the 
 Owlets' Roost and the teacher all to them- 
 selves. Such a school was very monotonous ; 
 but, as it happened, their terms of study 
 were very brief, for the poor young ladies 
 soon became homesick shut up in the piney 
 woods, and begged to be returned to the 
 outside world. 
 
 The outside world was a great wonder to 
 the children; sometimes they heard a strange 
 rumbling in the east that, their father said, 
 was made by the steamcars at Dewberry 
 bayou ; and sometimes they heard the deep
 
 44 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 whistle of the steamboats in the far-away 
 city. Brer and Gene could tell Nip some- 
 thing about the steamers, for every summer 
 their father harness-ed big Pacer into the 
 long wagon and drove, with their mother, 
 the girls, and themselves, twenty long miles 
 through the piney woods to Grandma's Bay. 
 There they splashed in the water, rolled in 
 the sand, and hunted crabs to their hearts' 
 content. And from Grandma's high gallery, 
 that projected quite over the water, they 
 could see the white sails of the ships and the 
 black smoke of the steamers as they passed 
 toward the city, or out again to the gulf. 
 
 It was when they were on Grandma's Bay 
 that the boys came nearest to believing 
 that the earth is round ; for there was the 
 low, curving horizon, the sky bending like a 
 dome over the water, and the ships creeping 
 up from the other side. 
 
 When they returned home, Brer would 
 take a pomegranate and try to make Nip
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 45 
 
 understand how the earth resembles it, and 
 that he was like a fly creeping over it. 
 
 Nip did not contradict, he never was so 
 presuming; but he expressed his doubts of 
 such a ridiculous story by turning a circle 
 of twinkling summersaults. 
 
 " Dis yer yearth ob ourn sutenly do ''pear 
 flat," he would say when he was right-side- 
 up again, and looking critically around. 
 
 "An' dis yer sky am mighty nigh flat, 
 suah," he insisted. 
 
 "Ef de yearth am roun' down yonda at 
 Grammer's Bay, I reckon you-alls boun' to 
 slide off some day." 
 
 The boys ridiculed Nip's ignorance, and 
 insisted upon forcing the truth upon him. 
 He let them argue as long as they pleased, 
 while he only gazed significantly around the 
 level clearing and at the stretch of blue 
 above. The boys looked too, and forgot 
 about Grandma's Bay ; and when they had 
 been shut up in their piney wood a few
 
 46 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 days, they let Nip alone, being too engrossed 
 in enjoying life in their own particular lit- 
 tle world around the water-oaks, to con- 
 cern themselves long about such an imper- 
 sonal matter as the rotundity of the earth. 
 All their interests centred about the five 
 water-oaks that shelter their home. These 
 great trees stand in the middle of a broad 
 clearing in the piney woods of one of our 
 most southern States ; their broad branches 
 stretch protectingly over the house that 
 nestles at their very roots, as gray and 
 lichen-covered as the great trunks them- 
 selves. One might think that trees and 
 house had grown up together, so nearly 
 alike are they in color. Certainly there are 
 enough roots for house as well as for trees, 
 for they radiate in long lines through the 
 yard, pushing up through the hard clay in 
 most provoking, stubbing blocks for bare 
 toes. 
 
 The house, with the various outbuildings
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 47 
 
 clustering around it, the old well-house, the 
 new well-house, the storehouse, the potato- 
 house, the smoke-house, some under the 
 shelter of the water-oaks, others farther out 
 under the pecan and walnut trees, is pro- 
 tected by a high picket paling, that is pieced 
 out at one corner where the Owlets' Roost 
 stands, half in the yard, half in the old 
 peach orchard. 
 
 The fine new barn, much larger than the 
 house, and the low lounging sheds of the 
 old barn and the molasses-house, are entirely 
 outside the paling, removed to a seemly 
 distance. 
 
 Pushed far back on all sides of the water- 
 oaks, is a high wall of long-stemmed feath- 
 ery pines, which entirely surrounds the 
 broad clearing, and encloses the people under 
 the water-oaks in a little world all their 
 own. The clearing outside the picket paling 
 around the house is cut up by criss-cross rail- 
 fences in sections known as the " patches : "
 
 48 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 on the side of the new barn are the potato- 
 patch, corn- patch, turnip-patch, greens-patch, 
 oats-patch, watermelon-patch, peach orchard, 
 and garden ; on the old barn side is the old 
 peach orchard, including the scuppernong 
 arbor, and the sugarcane-patch. Surround- 
 ing all these patches runs one long line of 
 rail-fence along the border of the pines. 
 
 A beautiful soft sky canopies this little 
 world, stretching across the clearing from 
 pine-tops to pine-tops ; through the blue 
 move glorious suns of various sizes and de- 
 grees of splendor. Some days the sun that 
 rises is nearly as large as the top of the old 
 well ; while on other days a sun not much 
 larger than the glimmering disk of water at 
 the bottom comes up from the pines. The 
 beams from some suns are so hot that they 
 threaten to shrivel up any one who ventures 
 from the shade of the water-oaks ; while 
 other suns beam down with a mild warmth 
 and light that are very grateful. Moons, at
 
 HOW NAP WAS NIPPED. 49 
 
 night, follow the sun ; stars start out in 
 strange array over the patches,, or blink 
 knowingly down through the leaves of the 
 water-oaks. Fleecy white clouds sail through 
 the deep azure of the sky ; grand thunder- 
 heads loom up in the south ; and dark angry 
 clouds come sweeping over the pine-tops 
 from the north, flashing with lightning and 
 crashing with thunder. 
 
 With their own little world so fascinating 
 and full of strange happenings, what time 
 had the children to fritter away in specu- 
 lations about the shape of the outside 
 world ?
 
 50 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 
 
 BRER and Gene were on a wild chase 
 after Flo ; and Flo with frantic yelps was 
 spinning far ahead over the pine-straw on 
 the track of a round-eyed, bobtailed rabbit. 
 
 Suddenly Gene pulled himself up, whirled 
 around in his tracks, and dropped on his 
 knees beside a cluster of salamander hills. 
 He bent for an instant over the soft yellow 
 sand-heaps, and then gave a shrill shout, 
 " Brer ! Oh, Brer ! Hold on ! Just look 
 a-here, will you ? " 
 
 Brer slowed up with evident reluctance, 
 and with eyes and ears still intent upon 
 Flo. 
 
 " What 's the matter ? Come on ! we '11 
 lose it ! " and he started on again.
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 51 
 
 " Oh, you ! " screamed Gene, dancing up 
 and down in his eagerness. " Let it go, 
 that rabbit ! Just you look a-here once ! 
 Brer-rer-rer ! " 
 
 Thus beset, Brer allowed Flo's plumy 
 tail to vanish in the tyty grove at the head 
 of Sweet-Water Branch, and came grum- 
 blingly back. 
 
 " I reckon you think you 're going to 
 show me a pesky salamander this time, sure. 
 Where is he ? Come, give us a look at him. 
 It's time for him to show something else 
 than those everlasting sand-burrows. Where 
 is he now ? " 
 
 Plainly Brer was greatly put out by this 
 interruption of his sport, and indisposed to 
 be satisfied with anything less than a sight 
 of the mysterious salamander which dur- 
 ing the nights and the rains threw up myri- 
 ads of little yellow hills through the pine-' 
 straw, but which never had allowed to their 
 watchful eyes the briefest glimpse of its shy 
 head above ground.
 
 52 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Of course Nip had seen it, and so the 
 boys knew what it was like, and what it was 
 not like, neither like a frog nor a lizard, 
 and something like both. 
 
 Had Gene actually succeeded in capturing 
 a salamander, the rabbit might go ; but Brer 
 knew very well that Gene could have had 
 no such luck, and he was very angry indeed 
 at losing the rabbit. 
 
 Gene gave no heed to his brer's scowls. 
 
 " Look a-there ! " he cried, pointing trium- 
 phantly at the salamander hills. 
 
 The indifferent gaze that Brer bent upon 
 the soft sand-mounds suddenly became eager. 
 His face flushed and his brown eyes sparkled 
 with excitement as he stooped down and 
 examined the dainty tracks that marked the 
 moist sand-hill. 
 
 "A deer, sure," he murmured in a sup- 
 pressed voice. 
 
 " Of course it 's a deer ! " screamed Gene. 
 
 "Hush, goose; you'll run it off," com-
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 53 
 
 manded Brer. "Don't you see that the 
 tracks are right fresh?" 
 
 With the instinct of a true hunter he cocked 
 his gun and peered cautiously around. There 
 was no live creature to be seen except Flo, 
 who came loiteringly toward them, with 
 lolling tongue and tail hung low, and with 
 a very clear expression of wonder and re- 
 proach in her eyes at their base failure to 
 follow up the bunny which she had so nearly 
 run down for them. The boys' only expla- 
 nation of their strange conduct was to thrust 
 her pointed nose into the deer-tracks. The 
 little dog gave instant recognition of the 
 fresh scent by a series of sharp barks ; and 
 after nosing about a while, quivering with 
 excitement, she started straight off toward 
 the enclosure called the " pasture," giving a 
 quick yelp every now and then as she fol- 
 lowed the trail. The boys trotted close at 
 her heels, their guns cocked, and their keen 
 glances flashing ahead for a first glimpse of
 
 54 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 the game. It was glorious to feel that at 
 last they were on a " sure-enough " hunt, 
 with a good prospect of bringing down a 
 deer, a deer ! They panted and trembled 
 with excitement, but there ! They had gone 
 but a few rods when the horn sounded from 
 the house. At the well-known summons 
 all three stopped short, Flo with a howl of 
 remonstrance, and the boys with groans of 
 despair. The brown eyes and the blue ex- 
 changed one rebellious flash ; then the boys 
 broke away from the chase and ran rapidly 
 toward the house. It was exceedingly hard 
 for them to leave that deer, and the tears of 
 disappointment welled in Brer's eyes; but he 
 manfully winked them back, and hushed 
 Gene, who was fairly fuming with rage, and 
 whose blue eyes actually seemed to snap out 
 sparks of angry fire. 
 
 "I bet one of the girls winded that 
 horn just to fool us ! " he cried. " If they 
 did "
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 55 
 
 " No, they never. It's Mamma. It's time. 
 Look yonder; it's almost sundown. We 
 won't get the work done by dark." 
 
 " But a deer ! It 's right mean to have to 
 leave it," sputtered Gene. Then he turned 
 and shouted savagely, at the top of his 
 voice, " You, Flo ! here, come here ! you 
 Flo! Flo!" 
 
 But Flo flew on with a yelp. She knew 
 as well as the boys knew that the horn was 
 an imperative summons to the house. Her 
 instinct, however, was stronger than her 
 sense of obedience ; after a moment's hesita- 
 tion at the sound of the horn, she had whined 
 wistfully along the trail, and finally had 
 broken bonds, and now was in full cry after 
 the deer. She paid no attention to the 
 boys' shouting and whistling. 
 
 " Go stop her ; she '11 run the deer off," 
 cried Brer, himself keeping on toward the 
 house. 
 
 " I '11 stop her, the hard-headed beast !
 
 56 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 She needs a lesson, and she '11 get it," shouted 
 Gene, bounding after Flo, yelling wrathfully 
 at the wilful little dog. 
 
 Flo heard him following, and half paused ; 
 but the trail was hot, and the keen scent 
 drew her onward, spite of herself. She was 
 confused, however, by his cries, and slack- 
 ened her pace so that Gene soon managed to 
 shorten the distance between them. Still 
 she refused to abandon the trail and return 
 as he ordered ; and at last, out of breath 
 from running, and furious at her disobedi- 
 ence, the boy lifted his gun and fired at 
 her. Poor Flo made one bound, then howl- 
 ing with pain, whirled rapidly round and 
 round. When Gene, white and shocked at 
 his deed, ran coaxingly up to her, she 
 crouched low, and with her tail between her 
 legs, and with piteous whining, shrank away 
 from him and limped skulkingly toward 
 home. 
 
 Horrified and ashamed of his passionate
 
 THE DEEK HUNT. 57 
 
 act, Gene hurried after the yelping little 
 creature. Before he reached home, Brer 
 came rushing out to meet him. 
 
 " What 's the row ? " he demanded breath- 
 lessly. " What did you shoot at ? Did you 
 see the deer, sure enough ? " 
 
 Gene could only shake his head. 
 
 "What was it, then? What ails Flo? 
 She 's just slunk under the house and is 
 whining like a baby." 
 
 " I shot her," gasped poor Gene, pulling 
 his hat over his face and 'bursting into 
 convulsive sobs. 
 
 " Shot Flo ! " exclaimed Brer, gazing upon 
 the grief-shaken little figure of his brother 
 with amazement. " You shot Flo ! 
 Gee! What did you do that for, I'd like 
 to know ? " 
 
 "She wouldn't stop, and I was mad," 
 wailed Gene, stumbling over a pine-knot as 
 he made his way blindly along. 
 
 Brer took possession of the gun, and
 
 58 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 grasped Gene's limp hand. He was dum- 
 founded and almost as disturbed as Gene at 
 the occurrence. He led him along without 
 a word for a while ; then he exclaimed ab- 
 ruptly, " Suppose it had been buck-shot ! " 
 at which suggestion Gene's grief broke forth 
 afresh. 
 
 " I never thought I 'd hit her," he sobbed. 
 
 " No, I reckon not, I reckon you did n't 
 think anything ; but you did hit her, you 
 see. Suppose it had been Nip or me, I 
 reckon it would n't have made a bit of dif- 
 ference. You 'd done us just the same as 
 you did Flo. I declare, you 're right dan- 
 gerous with a gun ! " 
 
 " Oh, I don't want a gun ; I '11 never 
 touch one again ! " cried Gene, actually 
 frightened by the thought of the awful 
 things he might do in one of his blind 
 passions. 
 
 He threw himself upon the ground in a 
 paroxysm of fear and remorse.
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 59 
 
 " I don't want to shoot anybody," he 
 moaned; "I didn't go for to shoot Flo." 
 
 Brer was alarmed at the storm of passion 
 that shook his little brother ; and kneeling 
 down, he put his arms around the trembling 
 form and began to soothe him. " Oh, come, 
 now ; don't take on so, Gene. Of course 
 you did n't mean to do it ; and I reckon Nip 
 and I are safe enough. I '11 trust you not 
 to shoot us, nor anybody nor anything. I 
 reckon you 've learned a lesson, and you 're 
 safe not to do that way again. Come on, 
 now, Mamma will think you are hurt, and 
 will be coming out to see. Come, I reckon 
 Flo is more frightened than hurt. Besides, 
 there is all the work, and it is sundown 
 now." 
 
 Thus coaxed and urged, Gene allowed 
 himself to be lifted to his feet and trotted 
 along beside his brer, with a penitent, tear- 
 stained face and with an occasional sniff to 
 tell of his repressed feelings.
 
 60 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 His grief and shame burst forth again at 
 sight of his mother, who was anxiously wait- 
 ing at the gate. Rushing to her, he clasped 
 her convulsively, and with loud sobbings 
 buried his face in her bosom. 
 
 She held him close, alarmed at the out- 
 burst, and looked to Brer for explanation. 
 
 " He got provoked and peppered Flo with 
 small-shot," Brer said briefly. 
 
 " My son did that ? My son ! My poor 
 little son let the angry spirit get the better 
 of him, so that he hurt an innocent dumb 
 beast ! Mother is ashamed and sorry." 
 
 She did not loosen her warm clasp, but 
 led him away to her room, bidding Brer go 
 on with his work, promising that his little 
 brother should join him in a few minutes. 
 
 " Can't Nip water the horses ? " asked 
 Brer. 
 
 " Well, yes, I reckon he might, if he '11 
 be careful not to get a tumble. Tell him 
 not to mount."
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 61 
 
 Mrs. Lee gave this permission with some 
 hesitation ; for Nip was still an invalid, with 
 his nose under a plaster, and he had been 
 kept very quiet lest some new injury should 
 befall him. 
 
 Brer could hear Nip and the girls laugh- 
 ing on the front gallery, and he stole slyly 
 to the corner of the house to see what 
 amused them. 
 
 It would be very unjust to Neal and Joy 
 to say that they rejoiced over Nip's broken 
 nose, for no little girls could have been more 
 tender-hearted and sympathetic than they 
 had been while the throbbing pain lasted ; 
 but without doubt they enjoyed the novelty 
 of having Nip about the house, and de- 
 rived the greatest pleasure in nursing him. 
 Certainly two little girls never devoted 
 themselves to a more charming and divert- 
 
 
 
 ing patient. 
 
 It is true that except when one or the 
 other took a notion to dose him with some
 
 62 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 home-made concoction, such as pine-top tea, 
 sassafras tonic, or dogwood berry wine, 
 they usually forgot his invalid condition ; 
 for the little darky had the most enter- 
 taining habit of assuming one character 
 after another in bewildering succession. 
 
 At one time he would be a stupid owl, 
 solemnly blinking at them from a dark 
 corner and startling them with a sudden 
 "Too-whit, too-whoo," or by flapping awk- 
 wardly across to another corner. 
 
 At another time he was down on all fours 
 in comic imitation of Neal's pet Nanny, 
 pattering briskly up and down the galleries, 
 marching smartly through the rooms, nib- 
 bling at everything within reach, papers, 
 books, the splint bottoms of chairs, the dolls' 
 dresses, everything, in fact, which the girls 
 could not whisk out of the way. Not until 
 Neal called him 'off would he pause in his 
 mischievous incursions ; and then he would 
 patter around after his little mistress with
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 63 
 
 a persistency that drove Neal frantically 
 hither and thither in vain efforts to es- 
 cape, and which caused Joy to scream with 
 laughter. 
 
 " Baa, baa ! " the little black Nan would 
 bleat, until Neal would seize his wool and 
 drag him with pretended force into an im- 
 aginary orchard ; and even then, the im- 
 portunate bleating would continue until a 
 bottle full of milk and water had been 
 brought. Seizing the nipple in his mouth, 
 he would pull and butt away in the most 
 vigorous Nanny-fashion until the bottle 
 was emptied, and Neal and Joy exhausted 
 with laughing. 
 
 There was no creature nor person under 
 the water-oaks whose character he did not 
 assume during his enforced stay at the house. 
 When Brer sought him, he was swaying 
 serenely back and forth in a rocking-chair 
 on the front gallery. Poised lightly in his 
 slender hands was a set of knitting-needles
 
 64 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 that were flashing briskly through some 
 bright wool. At his feet sat Neal and Joy, 
 at whom he was peering over a pair of im- 
 aginary spectacles with an expression of mild 
 benevolence that could not be mistaken. He 
 was Grandma for the time being. 
 
 "Neal, my deah," he was saying with 
 gentle severity, " set right up, chile ; it 
 'stresses me to see yo' ches' so narrer. You- 
 alls gwine be roun' lak a bar'1-hoop, ef you 
 doan watch out. I reckon you wants to be 
 straight an' el'gant lak yo' aunty. Now, 
 den, dat am betta. Joy, lob, doan wiggle yo' 
 liT body 'bout so. Yo' 'stract yo' po' gram- 
 mer so she can't go long wiv dis yer story. 
 Dar, dat am right puty. Now, den, whar did 
 Grammer git to ? Oh, yas, I 'members. 'Now 
 when dis yer liT bird wat I done tole yo' 
 'bout '" 
 
 " Come along, Grandma, and help me with 
 the horses," here broke in Brer, in a disre- 
 spectful shout.
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 65 
 
 " Oh, Brer, what ails Flo ? " screamed the 
 girls, in a shrill duet. " She 's under the 
 house whining, and won't come out." 
 
 " Flo ! who said there was anything the 
 matter with Flo ? " demanded Brer. 
 
 " But something is the matter. Nip 
 crawled under, and she would n't let him 
 touch her, and she 's fond of Nip, you know. 
 What did hurt her? What did you shoot?" 
 
 " I 'm in a hurry ; come on, Grammer," 
 was Brer's only response. 
 
 " He can't come until you tell about Flo," 
 declared Neal. 
 
 " Yes, he can. Mamma said he was to 
 help me." 
 
 " Well, he can go when he tells what be- 
 came of the little bird." 
 
 " Oh, don't mind them, Nip, come on." 
 
 Nip, who had preserved his dignity 
 throughout this squabble, raised a slender 
 hand in quiet rebuke. " LiT chilluns, liT 
 chilluns, gently ! Brer done forgot hisself
 
 66 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 when he done 'terrupt his ole grammer so, 
 an' tell her come 'ten' de ho'ses. I 's too ole 
 to 'ten' de ho'ses, Brer ; but I 'low I ken sen' 
 dat lazy nigger, Nip, to help yo' ef I ken 
 fin' de no 'count rascal. Jes' go 'long, Brer ; 
 I 'low he's comin'." 
 
 " Now, Nip, you can't " 
 
 " Hush, Neal. Dat dar liT bird jes' go 
 up an' up, pas' de sky. I 's comin', Brer ! " 
 
 " What did the little bird find up there 
 past the sky ? " persisted Joy. 
 
 "Go 'long, Joy. Dis chile dunno. I's 
 gwine fin' out some day, I reckon, when I 
 done wata de ho'ses." 
 
 He slipped away from the unwilling girls 
 and spun away across the yard and out to 
 the new barn. 
 
 "Das we let 'em hab a run dis ebnin', 
 Brer ? " he asked, as he let out old Bess and 
 her colt to find their own way to the trough. 
 
 " No, not to-night. It 's almost dark 
 now. Just hurry along as fast as ever you
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 67 
 
 can. I 'm just bound to have some fun 
 to-night. I'll tell you. Perhaps Mamma '11 
 let you go with me. Just hustle the horses 
 along. What 's that Bess up to ? You 
 Bess, whoa there ! " 
 
 The old horse was nosing the wooden 
 latch of the gate, with the intention of en- 
 tering the yard and taking a stroll around 
 the house under the water-oaks ; but at 
 Brer's authoritative call she tossed her black 
 mane with a show of indifference and hur- 
 ried demurely back to the trough, her colt 
 frisking around her. 
 
 Next to the stall of old Bess was that of 
 Pacer, who was stamping about impatiently. 
 Pacer was a high and mighty horse in more 
 senses than one. He was a great tall, strong 
 creature with a temper as fiery as his red 
 coat. Indeed, he was of such vicious temper 
 that before Nip came, no one but Mr. Lee 
 had ventured to approach him; but Nip, 
 at the very first, to the amazement of the
 
 68 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 boys, had run fearlessly into the stall, tum- 
 bled into the hay directly under the horse's 
 fiery eyes and strong gleaming teeth, and 
 had clambered all over the huge beast ; and 
 Pacer had endured all this familiarity with- 
 out once bucking or lifting a hoof. 
 
 " Come 'long, old Pacer," sang Nip, 
 swinging open the door of the stall and 
 reaching up to clutch the long red mane as 
 the horse hurried out. 
 
 Pacer tossed his head with a whinny and 
 trotted to the trough, Nip running at his 
 side. "Brer 'low yo'-all carn't hab no 
 frolic dis ebnin', ol' Pacer. Marster done 
 go on de hunt, and we-uns doin' all de 
 wo'k," explained Nip, patting the horse's 
 smooth neck while he drank. But Pacer 
 was tired of confinement and eager for a 
 race. He shook his head, impatient of re- 
 straint; and lifting his plumy tail like a 
 challenging signal, he started off smartly 
 for the woods.
 
 THE DEEE HUNT. 69 
 
 " No yer doan, Mars Pacer. Jes' yo' tote 
 yo'self back to de ba'n." 
 
 The little darky had kept his hold of the 
 mane ; and now, with amazing agility, he 
 managed to swing himself up on the broad 
 back of the horse. 
 
 " Now, whoa, sah, whoa whoop ! Go 
 long back to de ba'n, lak I tole yo'." He 
 tugged at the mane and pounded Pacer's 
 hard sides with his bare heels. 
 
 The horse hesitated a moment, when the 
 light weight rested on his back, then with a 
 snort of disappointment, wheeled about and 
 galloped straight back to the barn and 
 entered his stall. 
 
 " You 's got right good sense, Mars Pacer ; 
 I's mighty obleeged to yo' fo' doin' lak I 
 tole you. I reckon yo'-alls ho'ses ken hab a 
 run to-morrow ebnin'." 
 
 In turn, Nip led out the other horses : 
 Jinny, the pet of her master and the easiest 
 saddle-horse in the piney woods ; then the
 
 70 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 race-horse, who had been left with a limping 
 gait and a promise of the record of an il- 
 lustrious pedigree by a sharp horse-dealer ; 
 and finally old yellow Nag, the patient family 
 horse of all work, the only horse of any 
 account on the place, Mamma, Grandma, and 
 Aunty thought. Each horse, as it left the 
 water-trough, cast a longing look toward 
 the woods, and obeyed reluctantly when 
 Nip's guiding hands turned it back to the 
 barn. 
 
 " I knows it am mighty ha'd on yo' ; but 
 I reckon nobody carn't help it. Ole Muley- 
 Mule jes' hab to do de trottin' fo' yo'-alls," 
 said Nip, sympathetically, as he bolted old 
 Nag into her stall. 
 
 "Heah, yo' good-fo'-not'in' Muley-Mule, 
 what fo' yo' lazin' roun' all day an' night ? 
 Gee up, gee up ! Hi ! hi ! hi ! " He threw 
 up his hands and dashed screaming at poor 
 Muley-Mule, who was nibbling weakly at 
 the bark of a pine stump.
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 71 
 
 The old mule looked up in astonishment 
 at this fierce onset, but showed no disposition 
 to move until a bristling pine-burr came 
 whack against her loosely covered ribs. 
 At this insult she lifted her long ears defi- 
 antly, and threw up her weak old legs in a 
 manner that was intended to be very threat- 
 ening indeed, but which was only ridiculously 
 feeble and grotesque. 
 
 " Hi ! hi ! hi ! " screamed Nip again, 
 pitching another relentless burr. 
 
 Thus pricked into action, Muley-Mule, 
 with an angry flirt of her tasselled tail, and 
 with a desperate leap, started off into the 
 pines with the agility of a colt, as if to show 
 that her spirit was not broken, though her 
 ribs were so prominent and her legs so 
 stiff. 
 
 Poor Muley-Mule's strength of limb was 
 not equal to her strength of will, however ; 
 her energy departed as suddenly as it came. 
 She completed a short circuit at a slow walk
 
 72 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 and dragged herself feebly back to the 
 trough ; for there was one thing for which 
 Muley-Mule might be grateful, if she only 
 had thought of it, and that was the abun- 
 dant supply of water with which she might 
 moisten her shrivelled old carcass as often 
 as she chose. 
 
 " Dat am a mighty peart showin' up fo' 
 sech an ole empty critter lak yo' is," com- 
 mended Nip, caressing the mule's rough hide 
 with a stick. "I's gwine ask Brer lemme 
 gib yo' a year ob co'n, case yo' sech a fine 
 race-ho'se." 
 
 At this moment Gene came running out, 
 subdued and kind from his grief over his 
 shameful treatment of Flo ; and feeling anx- 
 ious to make amends for his cruelty, he 
 declared that poor old Muley-Mule must 
 have some oats. He brought a heaping 
 measure from the bin and emptied it into a 
 concave piece of bark that lay conveniently 
 at hand.
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 73 
 
 " Yo' is boun' to ask a blessin' on dat 
 ar suppa, suah," exclaimed Nip, delightedly, 
 squatting on the ground to watch the as- 
 tonished mule enjoy the treat. 
 
 Gene hurried into the barn to help Brer, 
 who was shelling corn with all his might. 
 
 "Are you going out after supper? " Gene 
 asked rather shamefacedly. 
 
 " If Mamma will let us." 
 
 " I reckon she won't let me ; but there 's 
 Nip. He might go, if you ask Mamma ; 
 't won't hurt him, and and he could take 
 my gun." Gene blushed scarlet as he made 
 this offer, and he was obliged to wink his 
 eyes very hard ; for it was a sore trial to 
 give up his beloved gun and let the boys go 
 off for that deer without him. Was n't it 
 his deer ? Had n't he found the tracks ? 
 
 Brer was too excited to notice Gene's de- 
 pression. His one thought was to shoot that 
 deer and have a treat of venison for his 
 father and the other hunters when they
 
 74 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 should return empty-handed, as was often 
 the case, from the camp hunt to which they 
 had gone a week ago. The horns well, 
 he would keep those himself, since it would 
 be his first deer, but Aunty should have the 
 skin, as he always had promised. 
 
 " No," he said in the low tone he always 
 used when excited, "we don't want your 
 gun ; Nip '11 have to carry the light, you 
 know, and I '11 follow on behind, and when I 
 see the critter's eyes, I'll just bang!" 
 Brer took aim and fired with a corn-cob in a 
 most expressive manner, and gave a whoop 
 of triumph and glee that made the lump in 
 poor Gene's throat swell most uncomfortably ; 
 but the little fellow gulped back his grief, 
 for he knew that he had forfeited all right 
 to the deer. Brer's success would be as great 
 a triumph for him. as if he should kill the 
 deer himself. He swelled with pride as he im- 
 agined Brer exhibiting a pair of enormous 
 buck-horns to the astonished hunters upon
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 75 
 
 their return, empty-handed, of course, from 
 the grand camp hunt, and the delicious ven- 
 ison that would be served to them, and the 
 praises they would sound until Brer's face 
 would be all aglow with shy smiles and 
 blushes, in spite of his efforts to seem un- 
 concerned and to pass it off as no great 
 feat. " Just a scared deer ! If it had been 
 a bear, now ! " Brer would say. 
 
 Gene could fancy just how it would be. 
 He entirely forgot his own disappointment 
 and fell to planning and anticipating with 
 as much eagerness as Brer. 
 
 They managed to finish the work in time 
 to fashion a rude sort of lantern, such as 
 they had heard their father tell of using 
 when he and his brothers were boys, and the 
 piney woods abounded in sport, in the days 
 when deer were so plentiful that a herd of 
 tame deer was kept around the house for 
 the purpose of enticing the shy wild ones 
 within easy range of the concealed hunters.
 
 76 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 But those good times when game came oblig- 
 ingly to the very gate of the house were long 
 since past. A deer-track had not been seen 
 within a mile of the water-oaks for years. 
 
 When the supper-horn summoned them, 
 the boys bore the lantern to the house and 
 exhibited it with much pride and no little 
 anxiety to their mother. They were by no 
 means sure that she would favor Brer's plan 
 of a night hunt. 
 
 Mrs. Lee smiled a little at the dark-lan- 
 tern, which was simply a large tin can, cut 
 open and spread, and fastened around the 
 top of a small pine-torch in such a way as 
 to act as a reflector. She became serious at 
 once, however, when Brer divulged his pro- 
 ject of rousing the curiosity of the deer with 
 the light and enticing it within the rays of 
 the flambeau reflector. 
 
 In the first place, she was very incredulous 
 about there being a deer anywhere around, 
 especially in the pasture ; but the boys were
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 77 
 
 so confident of the tracks which they had 
 seen that she passed that question by. 
 
 " Well, suppose there is a deer, how does 
 Brer propose to manage both gun and light ? 
 I don't like to think of him wandering 
 about alone out there in the dark woods, 
 not that there is anything to hurt him, but 
 he might become confused and wander off." 
 
 " I could n't get lost with my eyes shut, 
 Mamma ; I '11 go to Cousin Will's any time 
 you say, with a bandage over my eyes. 
 Why, I 'm as sure of my bearings at night as 
 in the daytime. Besides " and here he 
 hesitated. " I allowed you would n't mind 
 letting Nip go along to carry the light. 
 He could rit get hurt ; and you know, 
 Mamma, you could n't lose him if you 
 tried." 
 
 " I 'low Nip doan know 'nough to lose 
 hisself," here softly observed the little darky, 
 who was lying in the dining-room door- 
 way patiently waiting, while the family ate
 
 78 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 supper, for his own allowance, which was 
 sure to be choice and ample ; for the children 
 vied with one another in saving delicate tit- 
 bits from their own plates for their cunning 
 little playfellow. 
 
 " I reckon dis yer know-nuffin' liT nigga 
 doan hab no mo' sense dan to mek tracks 
 straigh' fo' home, lak de ole pied cat dat 
 jump out ob de bag when yo' fader done tote 
 'er 'long to drown 'er in deep hole," con- 
 cluded Nip, voice and eyes expressing in- 
 tense disgust at the old cat's stupidity in 
 coming home when such pains had been 
 taken to get rid of her. 
 
 " Oh, Mamma knows we can't get lost. 
 She 's only fooling. Why, I 've been out to 
 the pasture hundreds of times after dark in 
 cattle-time." 
 
 " But you had Papa ! " argued Neal, with 
 her dark eyes wide and serious ; for her lively 
 imagination always pictured the dark full of 
 all sorts of dreadful creatures.
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 79 
 
 " No, he never," contradicted Gene. " lie 
 does n't need Papa to scare off the bugaboos, 
 like you do. Neither does Joy ; she is n't a 
 coward. You das n't go out to the orchard 
 gate alone, I bet." 
 
 " Yes, I dast too," retorted Neal, defiantly, 
 but shrinking from her chair to her mother's 
 side, as she peered out over her shoulder into 
 the night that had settled down so black 
 that even the trunks of the water-oaks 
 were invisible. 
 
 Mamma pressed her fanciful little daugh- 
 ter reassuringly to her ; but she asked with 
 a quizzical smile, as she looked into Neal's 
 face, " How would it do for Neal to carry 
 the torch ? She has n't a broken nose to be 
 careful of." 
 
 " No, but she'd break it, sure, running for 
 her life if once she saw that deer's eyes 
 staring at her out of the dark," cried Brer, 
 derisively. " I 'd rather have nobody than 
 Sister. She 'd drop that torch and out it
 
 80 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 just the very second when I 'd be taking aim. 
 Oh, you're going to let Nip go, I know, 
 Mamma ; you 're only teasing. Here, you 
 Nip, just you bolt that supper as fast as ever 
 you can." 
 
 Nip seized the heaped plate that Brer 
 handed down to him and fell to eating with 
 a right good-will. 
 
 " Save room for the venison, you 'd best, 
 Nip," said Gene, who was trying hard not to 
 beg that he might go. He couldn't help 
 thinking that his mother might give her 
 permission at the last minute. 
 
 " Nip can wear my Mardi-Gras mask ; then 
 I reckon he could n't hurt his nose," whis- 
 pered Neal, in her mother's ear. She knew 
 very well that her mother never meant to have 
 her go ; and yet she was frightened by the 
 very suggestion, and she was eager to do all 
 in her power to secure to Nip the pleasure 
 that she did not crave. After a while she 
 meant to find out why Gene was so strangely
 
 THE DEEK HUNT. 81 
 
 left out of the plans. Already her active 
 mind had half guessed the trouble with Flo ; 
 for she had a way of putting this and that 
 together when her curiosity demanded in- 
 formation. 
 
 Joy's eyes were more snapping and 
 straightforward ; but they did not see as 
 keenly into things as Neal's soft, dreamy 
 orbs. 
 
 " What you going to do, Gene ? " she 
 asked, leaning over in her high-chair to pat 
 the cheek of her favorite brother, who sat 
 so silently beside her. 
 
 " Stay at home," he tried to answer indif- 
 ferently ; but as four pairs of brown eyes 
 were turned upon him compassionately, his 
 blue eyes suddenly swam in tears. 
 
 Joy's eyes filled in instant sympathy ; and 
 she looked anxiously at her mother when 
 Neal asked, " Why don't Gene go, Mamma.? " 
 
 " Gene is going to stay with you and me 
 and with Flo," answered Mrs. Lee.
 
 82 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " / know," said Neal. " He done had a 
 tantrum this evening ; and that 's what 
 ails Flo." 
 
 " You think you know a heap" cried poor 
 Gene. 
 
 " I reckon he could n't help it, Mamma," 
 pleaded Joy, with trembling lip. 
 
 " He 'd better learn to help it, and that 
 right soon. He 's getting dangerous," ex- 
 claimed Brer. 
 
 " I reckon temper goes with white eyes ; 
 that 's why he 's so awfully touchy. Don't 
 you, Mamma ? " asked Neal, speculatively. 
 
 " As if eyes had anything to do with 
 temper ! " chuckled Brer. " Oh, come along, 
 Nip. You won't be able to budge if you 
 down all that hominy." 
 
 " I 'low yo' maw done forgit fo' to say yes," 
 loudly whispered Nip behind his hand. 
 
 " Mamma dear, you said yes, did n't 
 
 you?" 
 
 " No, my son, but I will say it now. You
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 83 
 
 and Nip may go, if you will be very prudent, 
 and will promise not to be out longer than 
 an hour and a half, and to come straight 
 home if I wind the horn earlier." 
 
 " I always come ; anyway, we won't be 
 long. You-all just listen for the gun, and 
 then watch out to see some fine venison. 
 How in the world are we going to bring the 
 critter home when we 've got him ? Never 
 mind, we 're bound to manage it." 
 
 Having made full preparations, Brer and 
 Nip started forth on the deer hunt. They 
 entered the pasture and cautiously made 
 their way across it toward the ford of 
 Sweet-Water Creek, where, they concluded, 
 the deer would be. 
 
 Nip marched on before, steadily bearing 
 above his head the shielded torch, the light 
 of which cast a bright narrow path on the 
 pine-straw before them. His own erect little 
 figure was well shadowed by the cunning 
 contrivance of the can ; and Brer, following a
 
 84 UNDEK THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 few paces behind, was also invisible in its 
 shadow. The dark-lantern worked like a 
 charm, throwing all light before, and leav- 
 ing everything out of range of its eye in 
 total obscurity. 
 
 The yellow light glanced from one scaly 
 pine stem to another and sometimes flickered 
 among the mysteriously whispering pine- 
 tops. 
 
 " Watch out sharp, now ! Don't you dare 
 to wink! I would n't lose that deer for 
 Gee ! I thought that was it, sure. Go 
 on." 
 
 Brer gave his commands in an intense 
 whisper; for the most part, however, he 
 remained quiet, allowing Nip to follow his 
 own will, for he had almost as much faith 
 in the little darky's instinct as he had in 
 Flo's. He was all aglow with excitement ; 
 his right hand trembled as it clutched his 
 rifle ; every sense was strained and alert. He 
 started at the sound of a crackling twig and
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 85 
 
 at the dropping of an invisible pine-burr ; 
 while every shadow that stirred in the bright 
 path of their torch seemed the fleeting form 
 of a deer. Once Nip stubbed his toe and 
 stumbled a little. In an instant Brer's gun 
 was at his shoulder; he lowered it with a 
 long quivering breath. " I declare, I like to 
 have shot you for the deer ! " he gasped. 
 
 " I 'low yo'-alls doan wan' waste yo' 
 shot," Nip whispered back over his shoul- 
 der. He had been moving steadily ahead 
 without making any response to Brer's ex- 
 clamation ; but not a sound nor a sight had 
 escaped his keen attention. At last, however, 
 he paused with lifted hand, and listened 
 intently. 
 
 " Somet'ing, suah," he breathed, conceal- 
 ing himself behind a pine-tree and letting 
 the light fall upon the path that here de- 
 scended to Sweet- Water Branch. 
 
 Brer drew back into the darkness and 
 waited with baited breath. His hand was
 
 86 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 quite steady now : all danger of an attack of 
 the buck-ague, that is apt to set young hunt- 
 ers a-shivering, was over. He heard the ap- 
 proaching tread of hoofs ; the animal came 
 near, hesitated, advanced a few paces. They 
 could hear its irregular breathing and its 
 curious sniffing, as it tried to make out the 
 nature of the unnatural light before ven- 
 turing nearer. It was terribly exciting to 
 feel the game so near and yet be unable to 
 catch the faintest glimpse of it ; but Nip 
 held the torch without a quiver of his arm, 
 and Brer kept himself well in check without 
 moving a muscle. How he longed, though, 
 to bang straightway at that breathing, invis- 
 ible creature in the darkness ! What if that 
 deer should take to its heels, and he should 
 lose his game from under his very hand ! 
 In another instant his self-control would 
 have failed him, and he would have fired 
 blindly into the dark ; but the animal moved, 
 advanced slowly, its two eyes caught the
 
 "I 'low, Brer, how we-alls done kill Neal's heifer." Page 87.
 
 THE DEER HUNT. 87 
 
 light of the torch, and glowed like two 
 burning coals in the blackness. 
 
 Brer -touched the trigger ; the deed was 
 done ; the sharp report of the gun, a heavy 
 fall, and a long deep sigh. 
 
 Nip gave a yell and sprang forward ; Brer 
 followed with a proud sense of triumph that 
 was almost suffocating. 
 
 " A sure dead deer, Nip ? " he asked, try- 
 ing to speak coolly. 
 
 Nip made no reply ; but there in the light 
 of the torch lay the poor thing, quite mo- 
 tionless ; but Brer gasped and stared at 
 Nip in utter bewilderment. 
 
 Nip returned his gaze for a moment, and 
 then looked back at the prone form at their 
 feet. 
 
 " I 'low, Brer, how we-alls done kill Neal's 
 heifer."
 
 88 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 
 
 IT was some time before Brer could real- 
 ize the enormous blunder that he had made. 
 He seized the torch from Nip's hand, 
 dropped to his knees, and gazed at the 
 pretty little heifer as if he could not and 
 would not believe his eyes. He felt the silky 
 ears with his fingers ; he took hold of the 
 graceful horns and even shook them a little, 
 as if to test whether they really were the 
 ones that he had seen bud and grow on 
 Lodi's gentle head. He passed his hand 
 over her smooth brown coat, and finally he 
 examined the hoofs; there indeed was the 
 white left hind-foot, Lodi's mark. 
 
 When at last the awful truth forced 
 itself upon him, that he had killed Neal's
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 89 
 
 heifer, he staggered to his feet and stared in 
 a dazed way into the dark woods ; but after 
 this moment of uncertainty he recovered 
 himself with a start. 
 
 " Come on, Nip, let 's go to Mamma," he 
 faltered ; and turning abruptly, he marched 
 straight back to the Water-Oaks, Nip trot- 
 ting silently behind him. 
 
 Gene was waiting in breathless impa- 
 tience at the back gate, but Brer pushed by 
 him without a word. Neal and Joy began 
 to scream at him before he was halfway 
 across the yard, but he paid not the least at- 
 tention to them, nor did he notice the pack 
 of dogs that sprang fawningly around him ; 
 he marched straight up the gallery steps and 
 crossed directly to the- door of the room 
 through which was pouring a brilliant flood 
 of light. 
 
 "Mamma, I done shot Neal's heifer; she 
 can have Beauty instead." He was going 
 on manfully to explain ; but he suddenly be-
 
 90 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 came aware that his father and the other 
 hunters were sitting before the fire, and that 
 all eyes were turned upon him. He whirled 
 about and darted for refuge to the Owlets' 
 Roost. There he threw himself upon the 
 bed in the dark, burying his burning face in 
 the pillow ; and though he was "past crying," 
 two or three tears would force their way be- 
 tween his closed eyelids, as they had suffi- 
 cient excuse for doing in such distressing 
 circumstances. 
 
 What could have occurred more mortify- 
 ing to such a proud-spirited boy as Brer? 
 After all his vain boastings, to make such a 
 mistake as to take a heifer for a deer, 
 Lodi, at that ! How ashamed he was ! He 
 could n't bear to think. He jumped up an- 
 grily and turned a dozen savage summer- 
 saults to divert his mind. Then, with fierce 
 determination, he began to practise walking 
 around the room on his hands. Again and 
 again he came whacking down on the hard
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 91 
 
 pine floor ; but he would not give up before 
 he was able to make the circuit of the room 
 without a fall. 
 
 By that time he was so knocked up that 
 he was glad to undress and crawl into bed 
 (the boys and Nip were the owlets that oc- 
 cupied the roost when there was no teacher 
 to hold possession of the little house). To 
 engage his thoughts and keep his attention 
 from the commotion in the yard, he tried to 
 think over some old lessons, and say some 
 poetry that he had learned for his teachers ; 
 but he knew them so well that he could re- 
 peat them without thinking. The sounds in 
 the yard he could not help listening to, and 
 he could tell from them exactly what was 
 going on out there. 
 
 " Quit your listening, you goose ! " he com- 
 manded himself; but he found that he was 
 not so subject to his own orders as were 
 Gene and Nip. 
 
 Finally he heard the smokehouse door
 
 92 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 close with a bang, and then the hunters 
 laughing as they noisily mounted the gallery 
 steps and entered the house; and presently 
 Gene and Nip came stealing quietly into the 
 roost. 
 
 " I '11 let them think I 'm asleep," thought 
 Brer; but he was too feverish and curious to 
 keep quiet. He pulled himself up in bed, 
 and sat upright in the dim light that was 
 filling the room from the moon which was 
 just rising in full splendor behind the pines. 
 
 " They 've done skinned it and dressed it, 
 and Papa said the meat 's bound to be 
 fine," burst forth Gene, as soon as he saw 
 that his brother was awake. 
 
 " Neal 'low how she gwine like beef betta 
 dan ven'son," said Nip, consolingly, as he 
 tumbled down on his low pallet. 
 
 "Yes, Neal she had to bawl some, of 
 course," went on Gene, loftily, as if he had 
 a right to scorn such babyishness ; " but she 
 quit when Mamma said you 'd offered to give
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 93 
 
 her Beauty, and bimeby when Papa asked 
 her, she said she 'd rather have the next 
 Nanny he found than Beauty, 'cause nobody 
 could mistake a Nanny for a deer." 
 
 " Did you tell them about the tracks ? " 
 asked Brer. 
 
 " You bet I did ! and they just laughed. 
 As if we don't know a deer's track when 
 we see it ! I 'd just like to show them ! " 
 Gene had forgotten all about his own 
 woful experience under the new excitement. 
 " Cousin Will said it was a lucky hit for 
 them. He thinks there 's no venison going 
 like tender beef ; and he 'lowed the hunters 
 going to camp down here and get fed up. 
 They 're just starved ; they ate the safe 
 empty, every last cold potato and all ! " 
 
 "Didn't they kill a thing?" 
 
 " Just one wild-cat. They got on the trail 
 of a bear too, the biggest fellow, that's 
 just been a-feasting off lambs and honey. 
 Uncle Jim 's all tore to pieces a-chasing it
 
 94 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 through the swamp ; but they could n't get 
 a shot. They 're going again pretty soon, 
 though." 
 
 Gene made a run and a spring over Brer 
 to his own side of the bed. 
 
 " Say, Brer, would n't it be a lark if we 
 should kill a bear?" he exclaimed, as he 
 fitted himself comfortably into his own par- 
 ticular hollow. 
 
 " I reckon a bar' boun' git in de pasture 
 bimeby," murmured Nip, sleepily, from his 
 corner. 
 
 Neither of the boys had a word to say in 
 response to this happy suggestion. Profound 
 silence settled down over the Owlets' Roost ; 
 but it did not last long, for presently it was 
 disturbed by the soft regular breathing of 
 Gene, who had slipped wearily into dream- 
 land. Soon .Brer and Nip followed him ; and 
 three loud distinct snores resounded through 
 the moon-lit room. 
 
 Brer awoke with a start the next morn-
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 95 
 
 ing. He thought that some one had called 
 him. The first thing that he saw was Nip 
 perched on the footboard of the bed, flapping 
 his arms in the very act of echoing the old 
 rooster's " screech of dawn." 
 
 " Mo'nin', Brer," he said in polite saluta- 
 tion, when he saw that Brer was doing his 
 best to open his eyes. " Tears lak yo' doan 
 wan' de ole sun to show hisself so yerly. 
 But yonda he comes, climbin' up de pines 
 lak he gwine bide all day." 
 
 "Who called me, Nip?" 
 
 " I doan yere nobody callin' yo' ; I jes' yere 
 yo' pa argafyin' wiv ole Pacer in de ba'n." 
 
 " Is Papa up ? " Brer sprang up with a 
 bound that shook Gene out of his morning 
 nap. 
 
 His bright eyes were open wide on the 
 instant ; and he tumbled briskly out of bed. 
 
 " My ! it 's cold," he cried, shrinking up 
 and shivering. 
 
 " It is that ! " agreed Brer, hurrying into
 
 96 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 his clothing. " My things are right wet with 
 
 o / 
 
 the fog. Just see it pouring in at that win- 
 dow, will you ? " 
 
 " It 's gwine hunt itself togeder an* fly 
 back yonda," observed Nip, pointing to the 
 sky, "ef de ole sun doan bu'n it up." 
 
 " I should n't mind floating up on a cloud 
 some day," exclaimed Gene, enthusiastically, 
 looking out at the mist that already was 
 gathering and rising over the patches. " I 'd 
 take my gun, and I 'd just go a-sailing over 
 the pines; and I'd peek down, and when I 
 saw a herd of deer browsing away, boom ! 
 boom ! there would be two dead deer, sure ! 
 I say, though, we 're going to have venison 
 for break Oh no, I forgot ; " and Gene re- 
 lapsed into gloomy silence, for he suddenly 
 remembered. 
 
 From the moment when he had opened 
 his eyes, Brer had been oppressed by a 
 strange feeling that something was wrong; 
 but there had not been time for him to de-
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 97 
 
 cide what was the matter when Gene's words 
 brought back with painful reality the mis- 
 haps of the day before. 
 
 For one instant the thought occurred to 
 him that he might " take to the woods " 
 until the hunters had left the Water-Oaks ; 
 but he was no coward, and he dismissed the 
 idea of running away with scorn. 
 
 "Anyway," he thought, "it was n't any- 
 thing ivrong ; and I bet any one would have 
 done just as I did. It makes a fellow feel 
 cheap, though ; and I 'm mighty sorry it was 
 Lodi, but I did n't go for to do it, and I ain't 
 going to skulk." 
 
 He ran bravely out to his father, who was 
 feeding the horses in the barn. 
 
 " Well, son," was Mr. Lee's greeting, " you 
 got badly fooled yesterday. I reckon you'd 
 give a picayune if you could take back that 
 shot." 
 
 " Yes, sir, I 'd give a heap of picayunes. 
 I 'm right sorry about Lodi."
 
 98 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " So am I. She was bound to make a 
 fine cow. But what 's done can't be un- 
 done ; and she '11 make fine beef. I reckon 
 you can manage to make things square with 
 your sister." 
 
 " I said I 'd give her Beauty ; she 's a sight 
 prettier than Lodi." 
 
 " Well, settle it between yourselves." 
 
 Brer went about his work, much cheered 
 by his father's kindness. 
 
 His courage received another boost when 
 Neal came skipping out to the old well 
 where he was filling the horse-trough, and 
 assured him in the most sisterly fashion 
 that she didn't mind one bit; she knew 
 he did n't " go for to do it." She was n't 
 going to take Beauty either. Papa had 
 said she might have another Nanny; and 
 she thought lambs were a heap nicer than 
 cows, and she just loved beef. She wished 
 breakfast was ready. 
 
 It seems rather savage in Neal to be so
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 99 
 
 ravenous to devour her beloved heifer; but 
 the children under the water-oaks were quite 
 accustomed to seeing their pets go into the 
 pot, from the Nannies that they raised on 
 the bottle to the wee-wees that they took 
 under their own wings, when the hen- 
 mothers refused to care for their broods. 
 Indeed, it was quite understood by Neal and 
 Joy that in due time their dear hen Su- 
 sanna would be cooped and fattened, and 
 served in a delicious pot-pie ; and though 
 they loved Susy with all their hearts, the 
 thought of her tragic fate never saddened 
 them in the least, nor would they relish her 
 drum-sticks any the less for having loved 
 her so dearly. 
 
 When the breakfast gong sounded, Brer 
 was quite braced up, so that he could take 
 the chaff of the hunters in the frank, good- 
 natured fashion that they liked ; but though 
 he tried not to show his feelings, they did 
 manage to tease him considerably.
 
 100 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " Here you are, Brer ! Come around and 
 shake, can't you? You show right good 
 sense when you let deer slip and bring in 
 beef," cried Cousin Will. 
 
 " You bet he knows what 's what," echoed 
 Uncle Jim. "I had a presentiment that 
 you 'd have something good to fill us with 
 when we got back, Brer." 
 
 " We let the deer slip too," cried Cousin 
 Ross. " We were mighty nigh as empty as 
 barrels, but we had no use for venison. Be- 
 sides, we had no time to fool with such small 
 game. We were after bear steak." 
 
 " Since we missed that, I 'm willing to 
 take what I can get. Give me another piece 
 of that beef, if you please, Bud ; it's mighty 
 good." 
 
 " Where 'd you learn to hunt deer anyway, 
 Brer ? I 'd like to take lessons." 
 
 " 'T is n't every one who would have pluck 
 to fire at two eyes in the dark. Might 
 think it was a ha'nt, you know."
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 101 
 
 "That's so. We old fellows might have 
 been fools enough to wait and find out what 
 the critter was, and would n't have a thing 
 to show for our pains. " 
 
 "You going to give the antlers to your 
 sweetheart, sonny ? What will you take for 
 the hide?" 
 
 Brer had his reward for keeping his tem- 
 per through all this chaffing nonsense. 
 
 " Brer 's bound to go along when we go 
 for that bear/' said Cousin Will, as they 
 pushed back their chairs from the table ; 
 " we can't spare such a fine hunter as he is." 
 
 " I reckon he might go along if his 
 mother is willing," said Mr. Lee, smiling 
 down into his son's eager face. 
 
 No one proposed that they should take 
 Gene along. Usually everything was for 
 " Brer and Gene;" but this time Gene's name 
 was not so much as mentioned. It was almost 
 enough to make him wish that he had been 
 the one to blunder into shooting Lodi, since
 
 102 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 everybody made sucli a joke of it, and Brer 
 was going to get such a treat for it. And 
 so it might have been himself, instead of his 
 brer, if Flo 
 
 Gene caught his father's stern eye, and at 
 once the tenor of his thoughts were changed. 
 He realized that he had no cause to com- 
 plain, but rather reason enough to be thank- 
 ful that his shameful act was passed over in 
 silence. He would have been still more 
 thankful, had he known how his mother had 
 pleaded with his father the night before to 
 spare him the severe punishment that he 
 deserved for his cruel deed. 
 
 " I think that Flo's suffering and his own 
 shame will be sufficient punishment," Mrs. 
 Lee had said. 
 
 " Well, I '11 leave him to you. His mother 
 knows how to manage the boy better than 
 I do, I reckon. I certainly should make 
 him smart for such meanness ; but try your 
 own way," Mr. Lee had finally conceded.
 
 NEAL S NEW NANNY. 10o 
 
 The hunters did not carry out their threat 
 to settle down under the water-oaks until 
 Lodi's fresh meat was consumed ; but they 
 lingered about the fireplace in the room, 
 smoking their pipes, and telling over for the 
 hundredth time the larks of their boyhood 
 and the adventures during war times, to 
 which exciting tales Brer and Gene never 
 tired of listening. Neal, however, was all 
 out of patience with them. 
 
 "Those old stories! " she exclaimed in dis- 
 gust. " I should think they would wear out 
 sometime. I 've heard them so many times, 
 I get them all mixed, so I don't know 
 whether it was Cousin Will that chased a 
 wild-cat without a gun, or Cousin Morris; and 
 I'm sure I don't know which one it was that 
 the Yankees did n't shoot, or the one that 
 did n't kill the Yankees. I wish they 'd hush 
 and go home, so that Papa could find me 
 another Nanny, like he promised." 
 
 " Perhaps he would n't fincl a Nanny if
 
 104 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 he went," suggested Joy, as the only conso- 
 lation that she could offer. 
 
 Neal truly had a trial of patience that 
 day ; for the sun had descended halfway to 
 the western pine-tops before the hunters 
 mounted their horses and rode off into the 
 piney woods, shouting out promises, as they 
 went, to return soon for the bear hunt. 
 
 " Of course Papa can 't go now ; it 's so 
 late," pouted Neal, " and all the stray lambs 
 will be eaten up by the wild-cats and the 
 bears ! " 
 
 " You 'd better take care of the Nanny 
 you 've got, instead of crying for another," 
 suggested Gene. "I reckon she's hungry 
 enough to eat the wild-cats and bears, from 
 the way she 's bleating." 
 
 Neal received this rebuke glumly ; but she 
 got the Nanny-bottle of milk and water, and 
 went slowly to the orchard gate, where her 
 lamb had been standing for the past half- 
 hour, keeping up a continuous baa-baaing 
 that was quite distracting.
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 105 
 
 " Hush, you baby ! " cried Neal, crossly, 
 when the lamb bounded frantically against 
 her, almost upsetting her in its eagerness to 
 reach the bottle. " You 're not hungry. If 
 you want to cry, cry ! until you are tired. 
 You're as tight as a barrel," poking the 
 woolly sides ; " you don't know when you 've 
 got enough ! You behave so, I have a mind 
 not to give you a bit. Get away ! " 
 
 She held the bottle high over her head 
 and ran lightly around the orchard ; but 
 Nanny bounded close to her, and finally 
 tripped her down. 
 
 " There, take it, you greedy thing ! " cried 
 Neal, holding the bottle with both hands. 
 
 When it was half emptied, she pulled it 
 sharply away ; and jumping to her feet be- 
 fore Nanny had time to recover from her 
 surprise, she ran nimbly across the orchard 
 and slipped through the gate, slamming it 
 quickly behind her. 
 
 " No ; you sha'n't have another bit ! " she
 
 106 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 declared, facing about and addressing the 
 lamb, who was attempting to squeeze into 
 the crack and push the gate open. 
 
 " If you 'd behave decent, and not butt me 
 round so, you might have it all ; but I 'm 
 tired of being knocked about by such a great 
 strong thing as you, that 's big enough, and 
 ought to have sense enough, to eat grass. 
 I 'm going to hunt a little Nanny that 's 
 sure-enough hungry, and that has n't learned 
 such rough manners as you, and won't push 
 me down." 
 
 Having declared this sudden resolution, 
 Neal inarched smartly under the shade of 
 the water-oaks and out of the opposite gate 
 that opened on the road leading into the 
 piney woods. 
 
 Her mother saw her trudging up the road 
 with the bottle clasped close to her breast. 
 
 " Neal 's gone to hunt a new Nanny," she 
 said with a smile. 
 
 " I '11 trust her not to go far. She 's
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 107 
 
 too timid to venture into the piney woods 
 alone. There, she is stopping now," replied 
 Mr. Lee, who was standing on the gallery 
 beside his wife's chair. 
 
 But Neal had paused only for a moment, 
 to calculate her distance from home; and 
 seeing the Water-Oaks still quite near, she 
 flitted on and was soon hidden by the buck- 
 eye bushes. 
 
 She had caught the faint bleat of a young 
 lamb just over the little knoll before her ; 
 and she sprang eagerly forward, hardly heed- 
 ing that she was entering the woods. What 
 matter if she were ? they were almost as 
 open and full of sunlight as the clearing, 
 and the Water-Oaks were right behind. 
 
 She stopped on the brow of the hill and 
 looked before her with a pleased smile; for 
 there was the prettiest picture in the world. 
 A flock of a dozen or more sheep were 
 browsing through the sunny glade ; while 
 in their midst a number of young lambs
 
 108 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 were dancing and frolicking in the liveliest 
 fashion, leaping lightly over some large pine 
 logs that had been dashed down in a heap 
 by the wind, or prancing along the length of 
 the fallen trunks like kittens. 
 
 " Oh, you pretty Nannies ! What fun ! " 
 cried Neal, longing to join in their sport, and 
 going forward slowly, so that she would 
 not startle them. But as soon as they per- 
 ceived her, the lambs dashed away to their 
 mammies, who lifted their heads and stared 
 wildly at Neal's strange little figure ; and 
 then, suddenly wheeling about, they made a 
 dash over the opposite knoll, and with their 
 lambs close at their heels, they disappeared 
 from sight. 
 
 " You need n't be scared of me. I ain't 
 a bear," cried Neal, huffily, after them. But 
 at the word " bear," she bethought herself, 
 and looked anxiousty around. It was not so 
 light down there in the hollow as it was on 
 the hill. Night was coming on. She reck-
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 109 
 
 oned that she had better go back and give 
 the rest of the milk to her own Nan. She 
 had better manners than these wild things, 
 after all. Neal had run but a few steps, 
 however, when she heard a faint pleading 
 bleat behind her. Looking back, she spied a 
 Nanny standing on the very spot whence 
 the flock of sheep had disappeared. 
 
 " Ba-a, ba-a ! " it called plaintively. 
 
 " Ba-a ! " answered Neal, instinctively. 
 But when she saw the little creature begin 
 to trot eagerly toward her, she waved her 
 apron and cried, " Shoo, shoo ! Go back to 
 your mammy, you little goose ! " for she 
 knew that she would be very severely blamed 
 by her father if she enticed a lamb from the 
 flock, and this lamb's mammy doubtless was 
 with the other sheep in the next hollow ; so 
 she did her best to frighten the lamb away, 
 and finally she turned and ran as fast as she 
 could toward home. But the Nanny, having 
 once recognized her voice as its mammy's,
 
 110 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 refused to give her up, and came briskly 
 leaping along behind her. 
 
 " Go back ! " screamed Neal, stopping at 
 last and stamping her foot. 
 
 The lamb stopped too, but it refused to 
 be turned back by her frantic efforts to wave 
 it off; and when Neal started for home 
 again, the lamb followed. 
 
 " I reckon I 'm bound to take you back to 
 your mammy ! " exclaimed Neal, in despair. 
 It was quite shadowy in the hollow now, but 
 the sun still lighted up the woods on the op- 
 posite knoll very brightly. It would take 
 her but a minute to run across and get rid 
 of the Nanny, and then she could fly home 
 in no time. 
 
 "Come on, then, you ninny ! " she called ; 
 making a circle around the lamb, she ran 
 down the slope into the hollow and panted 
 up the opposite side, the lamb whisking 
 along behind her. 
 
 Neal slackened her speed as she neared
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. Ill 
 
 the crest of the hill, not only because she 
 was out of breath, but so that she should not 
 frighten off the flock of silly sheep again. 
 But where were they ? She peered down 
 into the shadowy glade in vain, for not a 
 woolly coat was to be seen. 
 
 " I reckon I scared them so they 're run- 
 ning yet," thought Neal, laughing at the 
 picture of the frightened sheep scurrying 
 through the piney woods. " Well, I can't help 
 it, even if they run clean off into Grandma's 
 Bay. Come on, Nanny; I '11 give you some 
 milk, and we '11 go home." 
 
 But as Neal advanced, the lamb retreated. 
 " Come here, you silly thing ! Ba-a, ba-a ! 
 Come and get some milk." She made a 
 dash to seize it ; but in sudden fright the 
 larnb gave a whisk of its tail and bounded 
 out of reach. 
 
 " Ba-a, ba-a ! " coaxed Neal, advancing 
 slowly and presenting the bottle. But the 
 lamb had no knowledge of a bottle nor of
 
 112 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 its use, and again when Neal was putting 
 forth her hand to grasp its wool, it scam- 
 pered away. 
 
 " You have n't got a bit of sense," grumbled 
 Neal, scrambling to her feet, for in missing 
 the lamb, she had fallen prone on the pine- 
 straw. She made an angry dash at the lamb, 
 who scurried away as if it were beginning to 
 enjoy the sport, bounding over pine logs 
 and throwing out its long awkward, rag- 
 baby legs in such a comical way as finally to 
 overcome Neal's anger, and cause her to sink, 
 exhausted and laughing, on the pine-straw; 
 upon which the lamb wheeled around and 
 gazed at her in innocent wonderment. 
 
 "I'm laughing at you, if you want to 
 know," explained Neal, becoming serious. 
 " You look so funny and act so foolish. I 
 never saw such a numskull. I 've got a 
 lamb at home that has a heap more sense 
 than you. She's fond of me, and knows 
 what 's good too ; she just comes right up to
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 113 
 
 me and takes all the milk I '11 give her. I 'm 
 going right straight home to give her this, 
 if you won't take it. I '11 try you just this 
 once. Ba-a, ba-a ! " 
 
 Neal baaed in perfect mammy-like tones, 
 and creeping gently forward, held out the 
 bottle enticingly. The lamb, without a sign 
 of fear, let her come within a hopeful dis- 
 tance ; but just when she thought she surely 
 should capture it, it had skipped over a log 
 and was regarding her at a safe distance. 
 
 Neal was thoroughly out of patience. 
 
 "I'm going home, straight," she informed 
 the lamb. " If you want to come, why come ; 
 perhaps Joy will have you, I won't." 
 
 She faced resolutely toward home ; but 
 after advancing a few paces, she glanced 
 back over her shoulder to see if the lamb 
 were following. 
 
 No, it was standing exactly where she had 
 left it, and was not even watching her. 
 That would never do. She could not leave
 
 114 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 that poor motherless thing out in the woods 
 alone to starve. 
 
 " If you don't come, a bear will eat you," 
 she cried, stopping. " Ba-a, ba-a, ba-a ! " 
 
 The Nanny's attention was called back to 
 her by the familiar mammy call ; and when 
 she moved forward again, it started to follow. 
 
 " That 's right ; hurry up. It 's getting 
 right dark," said Neal. She hastened briskly 
 onward, keeping up the " ba-a, ba-a/' that led 
 the Nanny on. 
 
 The woods were quite gloomy by this time, 
 for the sun had sunk down behind the trees. 
 It was not pleasant at all to be out there in 
 the dusk. She was not lost, her face was 
 turned directly toward home ; but she had 
 no idea that she had run so far in her wild 
 chase of the Nanny. She was a decided lit- 
 tle coward, as everybody knew, and she cast 
 fearful glances about as she hurried along. 
 
 Things looked so strange in that half-light. 
 Was that a man's head popping up from be-
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 115 
 
 hind a fallen log ? She knew that it was 
 only a burnt stump, but she could not help 
 running faster ; but she stopped abruptly, for 
 there, directly in her path, sat a darky with 
 his dog on a log. She turned cold with fear, 
 and a great lump in her throat seemed to be 
 choking her, and then she sprang onward, 
 trying to laugh. The darky and the dog 
 were nothing but pine boughs and their 
 shadows. They were only unreal people, 
 such as she always fancied when she was 
 trying to go to sleep in the dark. Still she 
 could not help seeing them, nor being fright- 
 ened by them, and trembling all over. 
 
 That certainly was a man with a knap- 
 sack, tramping through the hollow before 
 her ! There were two people watching 
 him ! 
 
 Nonsense ! they were only shadows and 
 stumps, she knew. She shut her eyes tightly 
 a moment ; and when she opened them again, 
 the queer figures were gone. But yonder was
 
 116 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 a funny lady kneeling beside a stump, and a 
 preacher standing over her. Neal wished 
 devoutly that these last two were real peo- 
 ple ; but they were not real, they were only 
 shadow people, like the others. All at once 
 they disappeared. At the same moment 
 Neal herself suddenly slipped out of sight. 
 Where was she ? 
 
 Certainly she did not know, for she did not 
 dare to lift her face and look around to see. 
 She had dropped down with a dreadful jar 
 into somewhere, and she was lying in a little 
 heap, too stunned and frightened to want to 
 think or hear or see or anything. 
 
 Suppose it was the " jumping-off place " 
 that she had heard her father and the boys 
 talk about so much, and which she had 
 missed seeing because she was looking back 
 at the lady and the preacher. If she had 
 jumped off, how ever was she to get home ? 
 
 " Oh, Mamma, Mam-ma!" she screamed, 
 terrified at the thought of never, never go-
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 117 
 
 ing back to the people under the water-oaks. 
 But her own voice frightened her, and she 
 shrank into silence, shaking with the sobs 
 that she tried to stifle. 
 
 Ba-a, ba-a ! " 
 
 " Why, Nanny, Nan, Nan ! " she cried 
 joyfully, delighted by the familiar sound. 
 She raised her head cautiously and peeped 
 out between her fingers ; but it was all dark, 
 and she quickly buried her face again, for 
 she hated the dark. 
 
 But again sounded the tremulous " Ba-a, 
 ba-a ! " followed by a hurried pattering of 
 feet that seemed to be above her head. 
 
 " Ba-a, ba-a ! " answered Neal, softly, for 
 a Nanny could not hurt any one. 
 
 At this there was a quick clatter of feet, and 
 the bleating sounded close at hand and di- 
 rectly over her head. She started to her feet 
 and looked up. There, right over her, was 
 a circular opening, through which she could 
 see soft fleecy clouds flushed by the sun-
 
 118 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 set, and the feathery pine-tops waving 
 against the evening sky. She gazed up in a 
 dazed way for a few moments, and then in 
 an instant she understood all about it. This 
 was a sink-hole into which she had fallen ; 
 and that Nanny tramping about overhead 
 was not her own loving Nan, but the silly 
 little thing that had been following her 
 through the woods, and which she had for- 
 gotten all about in her haste and fright. 
 
 She knew now just where she was ; it was 
 the hide-and-seek sink-hole. Joy and she 
 had called it that ever since one day of last 
 spring when, as they were running about 
 picking the violets that blinked mistily up 
 from the pine-straw on all sides, they had 
 come unexpectedly upon this hole, and spied 
 a cluster of sweet-marguerites hidden down 
 there. A flood of light was pouring through 
 the opening directly upon the flowers, and 
 showed them, standing daintily on the very 
 edge of a tiny stream that dimpled and
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 119 
 
 sparkled about their stems for a moment 
 and then went singing on where ? 
 
 The girls stretched themselves at full 
 length on the pine-straw, and hung their 
 heads far over to examine the home of the 
 sweet-marguerites, and to see whence the 
 water came and whither it went. They dis- 
 covered that they were lying upon a thin 
 crust of earth that covered a cavity of con- 
 siderable depth and extent. Its sides and 
 ceiling were rough and unsightly with loose 
 soil and bristling roots. On opposite sides 
 were the mouths of dark passages as high 
 but not so broad as the marguerite-room ; 
 through these the water flowed in a shallow 
 stream. When they kept perfectly still, the 
 girls could hear it chattering and gurgling 
 and whispering mysteriously far away under 
 the dark earth. 
 
 This was one of the many underground 
 streams that drain the hills and hollows of 
 the piney woods. It had begun its course
 
 120 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 many long seasons ago, working its way at 
 first slowly and laboriously under the clayey 
 surface, root-bound and hard baked by the 
 hot sun and the hotter forest fires that 
 annually swept over it. Each rainfall that 
 swelled its current helped to wear the chan- 
 nel deeper and broader, until now it could 
 flow freely along a spacious passage, cool 
 and dark, until at the end of its course it 
 burst out into the sunshine and mingled with 
 the swift current of Tyty Creek. 
 
 The opening through which the girls 
 looked down was probably made by the 
 hoof of a cow or of some other heavy ani- 
 mal, and had slowly enlarged by the crum- 
 bling of the soil from its edge. 
 
 < < > 
 
 The sweet-marguerites, poised lightly over 
 the water on their slender stems, lifted their 
 faces fearlessly to the children, who were 
 shouting with delight at sight of the deli- 
 cate lavender blooms, and reaching out long- 
 ing hands toward them.
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 121 
 
 But the marguerites were quite safe in 
 their underground home, for the little grasp- 
 ing fingers fluttered high above their heads ; 
 so they smiled sweetly at the girls until Neal 
 and Joy concluded, very wisely, that they 
 looked too lovely down there with their 
 shadows fluttering on the water to be dis- 
 turbed. It would be a shame to drag them 
 from their chosen home ; it was so cunning 
 of the flowers to hide there. 
 
 When the girls had named it the " hide- 
 and-seek hole," neither of them had thought 
 of it as being a desirable hiding-place for any 
 one but the marguerites and the happy little 
 streamlet ; so when Neal so unexpectedly 
 found herself down there, although she was 
 greatly relieved to know that she had not 
 slipped over the "jumping-off place," and 
 to know that she was not far from home, 
 she was not rejoiced to find herself in the 
 subterranean home of the marguerites. 
 
 The flowers of course were not yet up;
 
 122 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 and fortunately the stream ran only dur- 
 ing wet seasons, so now its bed was quite 
 dry, else poor Neal would have been far 
 more uncomfortable than she was, though 
 it would have been difficult to make her 
 think so. 
 
 She gave a wild spring and tried to clutch 
 the edge of the opening with her hands ; but 
 though she was very light and agile, and she 
 jumped with all her might until she was out 
 of breath, she could not come anywhere near 
 the opening. 
 
 "Ba-a, ba-a ! " she called, to keep the 
 Nanny from straying away. 
 
 She peered about in the vain hope of find- 
 ing something on which to climb out. She 
 looked up and down the deep black pas- 
 sages and shrank fearfully back from them. 
 At last she managed to pull herself up the 
 side of the cavern, by means of the tearing, 
 scratching roots, to the roof, where she hung 
 as long as her fingers would hold, while she
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 123 
 
 tried to force her way out through the hard 
 crust of earth and the network of roots, but 
 this was impossible, and she dropped down, 
 bruised and weeping. 
 
 The rosy flush had disappeared from the 
 sky, and it was becoming quite dark up there 
 in the piney woods. 
 
 " Nanny," she sobbed, " go home and tell 
 them where I am." 
 
 The Nanny did not respond to this appeal, 
 for it had wandered away, and she could 
 hear its plaintive bleat, now here, and now 
 there, as it sought its lost mammy. 
 
 " Ba-a-a, ba-a-a ! " called Neal, as loudly as 
 she could ; and then she sank back against 
 the side of the sink-hole, for suppose a bear 
 should take her for a sheep. 
 
 The Nanny had heard her anyway, for she 
 could hear it coming wearily this way, call- 
 ing plaintively. 
 
 " I wish we were together," moaned Neal. 
 
 The lamb paused quite close to the hole.
 
 124 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Neal could just see its head turning uneasily 
 against the sky. She could not help answer- 
 ing the lonely little creature. 
 
 Hardly had she done so when there was a 
 plunge and a heavy fall almost into her 
 lap. 
 
 " Nanny, Nanny ! " she cried, folding her 
 arms around the warm woolly little body. 
 " Are you hurt ? Are you killed ? " 
 
 The Nanny's frightened struggles assured 
 her that it was uninjured. She groped 
 around in the dark for the Nanny-bottle, 
 and after some struggles she managed to in- 
 sert the nipple between the toothless gums 
 of the unwilling lamb. After that, there 
 was no further trouble ; for having once 
 tasted the milk, the Nanny drank it hungrily, 
 and nestling down in Neal's arms, the weary 
 little creature went comfortably to sleep. 
 
 Even a stupid Nanny is a great comfort 
 sometimes. Neal forgot that it might be a 
 bait for bears and wild-cats. It was a dear
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 125 
 
 little thing, so trusting and innocent and 
 warm. Neal curled around it ; and, to keep 
 herself from thinking of the dark, she tried 
 to keep time with the breathing of the 
 Nanny, but she soon forgot to do that, for 
 she too dropped off to sleep. 
 
 She slept soundly for a number of hours ; 
 for when at last she started up to the strange 
 consciousness that she was making the worst 
 possible faces at somebody, she saw the 
 round face of the moon looking fully down 
 upon her. At first she thought it a part of 
 her dream, the strange opening above her 
 and the pines waving up there in the moon- 
 light ; but when she tried to clasp Joy and 
 felt the Nanny in her arms instead, she was 
 quite wide awake. 
 
 It was very comforting to see the moon, 
 for she and the man were very good friends, 
 and had exchanged stares many a time, 
 though they never had spoken. He looked 
 especially rnild, and gazed steadily down as if
 
 126 UNDEK THE WATEK-OAKS. 
 
 to assure her that he understood all about it 
 and had come to keep her company ; while 
 the large star close beside him blinked and 
 winked ceaselessly in the most knowing and 
 encouraging manner. 
 
 " They '11 be around soon," it seemed to 
 say. 
 
 "Yes, morning will come pretty soon," 
 Neal winked back bravely. It never occurred 
 to her that any one would take the trouble to 
 come out into the woods at night to search 
 for her. She thought of everything as go- 
 ing on in the usual way at the Water-Oaks, 
 as if her absence would make no difference. 
 
 " I wonder who 's sleeping with little Joy," 
 she thought ; and she hugged the Nanny 
 closer and buried her quivering face in its 
 wool. 
 
 She wished that she would not keep think- 
 ing of those ghostly people that she had not 
 seen out in the piney woods, and expecting 
 them to come and peer down at her. As if
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 127 
 
 piney-woods ghosts could walk or see, 
 especially when there were no such things ! 
 
 She closed her eyes tight and tried to go 
 to sleep, so that morning would come quickly; 
 but just then the awful thought occurred to 
 her that a snake might have made its winter 
 home in the sink-hole. 
 
 Her hair seemed actually to be lifting 
 from her head, she was so frightened ; and 
 though she knew there was no one to hear 
 her, she could not help it, but gave the most 
 dreadful scream, that sounded like nothing 
 she had ever heard, and that terrified her 
 even more than the thought of the snake 
 had done. 
 
 The Nanny was frightened too, and spring- 
 ing up, began to dash blindly against the 
 sides of the sink-hole, so that Neal had to 
 forget her own fears in trying to quiet it. 
 " Why, Nanny, poor thing, I did n't mean to 
 frighten you. Here, Nanny, Nanny, come 
 and lie down."
 
 128 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Suddenly the moonlight disappeared from 
 the hole, and they were in utter darkness. 
 
 " Hullo, Nealie, so you done found your 
 Nanny, did you ? " spoke a familiar voice 
 with a decided ring of joy in it. 
 
 " Oh, Gene, is that you ? I'm so glad." 
 Neal gave a sob of relief. "I ain't scared 
 and I ain't lost ; but I just fell into this horrid 
 hole, and Nanny came tumbling after me, so 
 I could n't get home." 
 
 " I should think not ; but now I've found 
 you, you 're all right," he said protectingly. 
 " Come on ; I '11 pull you out." He lay flat 
 on the ground and stretched down his 
 arms; Neal hoisted Nanny up just as far 
 as she could, but with all his straining Gene 
 could not quite reach her. 
 
 " Leave her, and you come ; jump ! " panted 
 Gene. " I '11 get her afterward." 
 
 " You can't," objected Neal. 
 
 " Yes, I can. Come on." 
 
 Neal tried her best to reach those grasp-
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 129 
 
 ing hands ; but she could not even touch the 
 tips of the fingers. She sank down in 
 despair. 
 
 " I '11 wait for Papa," she faltered. 
 
 "No, you won't wait for Papa, as if I 
 could n't get you out. Keep Nanny out of 
 the way. I 'm coming." 
 
 Before Neal could object, he dropped heav- 
 ily down beside her. " Whew ! " he ex- 
 claimed, " I did n't know it was that deep." 
 
 " Now we are all three here," cried Neal, 
 half laughing and half crying. 
 
 " We won't be here long. Now, give me 
 Nanny, and you just climb up to my shoul- 
 ders like you used to on Papa's, and then 
 you can boost Nanny out and jump after, 
 just as easy as nothing." 
 
 It was not such an easy feat to perform 
 as it was to talk about ; but after some hard 
 struggling and puffing, Nanny and Neal were 
 both safely above ground. That was all 
 very satisfactory, and Neal glanced around
 
 130 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 through the moonlit woods with a happy 
 sigh ; she would be all right as soon as Gene 
 was up, to banish those horrid piney-woods 
 spectres that her eyes would see. 
 
 But Gene did not come up. Neal could 
 hear a great scratching and scrambling down 
 there, but no Gene appeared. She peered 
 down anxiously. 
 
 " Come on ! " she called. 
 
 "How can I, I'd like to know?" cried 
 Gene, crossly. 
 
 " I don't know. I thought you knew." 
 
 " How could I know this was as deep as a 
 well ? " demanded Gene. 
 
 " If there only was a bucket, I could draw 
 you out." 
 
 " Yes, but there is n't a bucket, you see." 
 
 Gene, down below in the dark, set his wits 
 to work to think up some means of escape, 
 while Neal, above, looked fearfully around. 
 She saw all sorts of queer things that she 
 did not dare to mention to Gene, for fear he
 
 NEAL'S NEW NANNY. 131 
 
 would call her a coward ; but at last she saw 
 something that she knew was no fancy. It 
 was a blazing torch swaying above the brow 
 of the knoll. It rose higher and higher, and 
 presently a man's arm and head appeared ; 
 he was coming straight toward her. 
 
 She seized the Nanny, who was curled up 
 against her, and dropped precipitately into 
 the sink-hole. 
 
 Fortunately, Gene was not directly beneath 
 the opening, or he might have been badly 
 hurt ; as it was, she knocked him with such 
 force as to throw him against the rough sides 
 of the hole and bruise him considerably. 
 
 " Goodness ! What on earth "he shouted 
 in no gentle voice. 
 
 " Sh ! " whispered Neal, clutching his 
 arm fiercely. " Somebody 's coming ! " 
 
 " Somebody a shadow in your eye. 
 Ouch ! let go my arm ! " 
 
 But Neal clung all the closer. 
 
 " No, it 's somebody, with a torch."
 
 132 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " Papa and Brer ! and you, bolting out 
 of sight like this; and they out hunting 
 you half the night ! Holler for all you 're 
 worth ! " and Gene lifted up his voice in a 
 series of lusty shouts, while Neal screeched 
 wildly. In a moment a pack of dogs was 
 clustered around the hole, wagging their 
 tails, and howling and, barking in happy 
 chorus. The light of a torch flashed down 
 upon the children ; and in another moment 
 Neal, with her Nanny clutched close, was sob- 
 bing and laughing in her father's arms, while 
 Gene was explaining, 
 
 " I just could n't stay at home, Papa, 
 when I thought of Neal out here getting 
 scared to death at all the nothings she sees 
 in the dark. I thought a ha'nt had her, 
 sure, when I first heard her yell."
 
 A STRANGE CROP. 133 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A STRANGE CROP. 
 
 THERE were some things about the sink- 
 hole that neither Gene nor Neal had meant 
 to tell ; but somehow all came out, and they 
 were well laughed at and teased. 
 
 But Neal was used to being made fun of, 
 and did not mind it in the least ; and Gene, 
 having learned his lesson of self-control from 
 his unhappy experience with Flo, moreover, 
 having seen his brer endure some pretty 
 tough teasing with determined good-nature, 
 bit his lips and kept the old temper down 
 right manfully. 
 
 He did insist, however, that he would have 
 come up from the sink-hole all right by his 
 own unaided efforts, if they only had given 
 him time.
 
 134 UNDEK THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " I reckon you thought you 'd grow out," 
 Brer remarked dryly. 
 
 Neal's wondering eyes opened wide at this 
 suggestion, and she fell to pondering such a 
 strange idea. She said nothing about it for 
 the present, however; she waited a whole 
 week, until the boys had gone off on the 
 bear hunt with the hunters. For to Gene's 
 inexpressible delight, he received, at the very 
 last moment, permission to accompany his 
 brer, Mr. and Mrs. Lee having decided, from 
 seeing his determined efforts to control his 
 temper, that he might again be intrusted 
 with a gun. 
 
 Two faithful dogs were left to help Flo 
 guard the house, so that Mrs. Lee and the 
 girls and Nip, and black Nance in the 
 kitchen, need have no fears during the 
 hunters' absence. 
 
 "When Brer and Gene rode off with the 
 men, sitting erect and proud on Jinny and 
 Nag, and trying not to grin from ear to ear
 
 A STRANGE CROP. 135 
 
 with delight, the girls half wished that they 
 were boys going on a hunt, only they were 
 afraid of bears. After all, they would much 
 rather stay at home with their dolls and 
 Nip. They actually were to have Nip all to 
 themselves, without danger of the boys com- 
 ing in to interrupt and to make fun of their 
 dolls. 
 
 Their dolls were a rather ridiculous set, to 
 be sure, but they would have been much 
 more respectable if the boys had let them 
 alone ; and in any condition they were very 
 precious to the girls, who only wished that 
 they had more. 
 
 All counted, there were five ; but Elodia, 
 the beautiful doll from New Orleans, with 
 wonderful real hair, with eyes that closed, 
 and with a pitiful little voice when she was 
 punched sufficiently hard on the stomach, 
 was usually laid carefully away in her box, 
 so she only counted when she came forth in 
 all her splendor on state occasions. Celia's
 
 136 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 china head was in Mamma's basket waiting 
 for a new body. Beauty's rubber nose was 
 worn off, and she had turned quite black 
 with mortification ; moreover, she was minus 
 a leg and both arms, so that she was in no 
 condition to be fussed over. Accordingly, 
 there remained but one doll apiece for the 
 girls to dress and whip and shake and hug 
 and kiss. 
 
 Nip was much better than a doll, because 
 he was alive. Dressed up in one of Mamma's 
 cast-off gowns and an old bonnet, with his 
 face well dusted with powder to give him a 
 fair complexion, he made a very stylish lady 
 indeed, poising his head jauntily and tripping 
 about precisely like Aunty. He was charm- 
 ing company too, and the girls exchanged 
 visits with him all the time. 
 
 " Why, Mrs. Nip, howdy. Come right in 
 and sit down." Joy was keeping house on 
 the north end of the gallery. " Here 's Mrs. 
 Neal staying with me while her husband 's
 
 A STRANGE CROP. 137 
 
 off on the hunt. Let me take your bonnet 
 oh, no, I forgot you must keep it on to 
 cover the wool. Ahem ! Well, how is your 
 sweet Beauty to-day ? " 
 
 " Beauty doan feel right sma't dis mo'nin'. 
 Her laig done git lame, case she dis'bey 
 her maw an' go hoppin' roun' on it. She 's 
 right heavy, an' I done tole her one leg ain't 
 'nough to 'spo't her. She 's mighty bad, an' 
 I's 'bleege to keep her woun' up right tight in 
 dis yer ole petticoat ob Joy's oh, I mean 
 dis yer boo'ful shawl from Grammer Bay, so 
 she doan run 'way, an' git her 'plexion spoilt 
 in de sun. She 's jes' boun' to hab her own 
 way, an' she gits away, case I's boun' to do 
 som'fin else dan hoi' on to her all de time. 
 Dar she goes dis minute ! Come yer, you 
 to'mentin' chile ; I 's boun' to gib you a sma't 
 w'ippin' fo' doin' me dat-a-way." For Beauty 
 had suddenly thrown oft' her wrap, and made 
 a flying leap over the side of the gallery. 
 
 Mrs. Nip rushed after her wilful child, and
 
 138 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 brought her back, shaking her vigorously by 
 her one arm. 
 
 " I 's gwine to gib you a w'ippin' yo 's boun' 
 to 'member," exclaimed the tried mother, 
 and suited the action to the word by laying 
 poor Beauty across her knee and pounding 
 her until she cried for mercy in Joy's voice, 
 and said she would not do so any more. 
 
 "I's gwine put yo' whar yo' boun' to be 
 safe, so I ken tak a liT comfo't a-visitin' wiv 
 de ladies." 
 
 Having put Beauty into his chair and 
 seated herself firmly upon her, Mrs. Nip 
 brushed the anxious frown and some pow- 
 der from her forehead, and resumed the 
 conversation. 
 
 " Wat fo' yo'-alls cryin' dis boo'ful mo'n- 
 in' ? Is yo' liT chill uns sick ? " 
 
 Neal wiped the tears of merriment from 
 her eyes and pursed up her mouth in a polite 
 simper. 
 
 " Beulah is right well, thank you, Mrs.
 
 A STRANGE CROP. 139 
 
 Nip; but she gets so lonely playing all 
 alone." 
 
 " Lily, too," chimed in Mrs. Joy. 
 
 " Oh, say, Nip," cried Neal, breaking in 
 upon their play and the conversation quite 
 impolitely, " how long would it have taken 
 for me and Gene and Nanny to grow up out 
 of the sink-hole, do you reckon ? " 
 
 Nip was obliged to meditate a few mo- 
 ments over this startling question. 
 
 "I reckon dat 'pend on de we'der," he 
 said at last, with a twinkle in his eye. " Ef 
 de rain come down right sma't an' doan wash 
 yo'-alls 'way, I 'low how yo' boun' to show 
 yo'self 'bove groun' bimeby." 
 
 "As long as the beans, do you reckon?" 
 
 "I 'low yo'-alls doan wan' come up 
 wrong-side-up, lak de beans does." 
 
 "Well, the beets, then?" 
 
 " De beets boun' 'bide mostly undergroun'. 
 You an' Gene an' de Nanny doan wan' do 
 dat-a-way."
 
 140 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " No, of course not ; but do you think we 
 would be up by this time, Nip?" 
 
 Neal spoke very earnestly, and leaned so 
 far forward in her rocking-chair that it 
 slipped from under her and let her down 
 upon the gallery floor ; but she was just as 
 comfortable there, and waited impatiently 
 for an answer to her question. 
 
 " I reckon yo'-alls come up de day befo' 
 to-morrer," answered Nip, rolling up his eyes 
 wisely. " Case why, Neal ? Yo' gwine to 
 plant yo'self?" 
 
 " No, of course not ; but I do want some 
 more dolls. Say, Joy, let 's plant Celia's 
 head, and Beauty's arms and leg, and " 
 
 Joy clapped her hands in delight. 
 
 "And Lily's loose eye," she screamed 
 excitedly. " We '11 just have heaps of 
 dolls." 
 
 "Oh, hush, let's not tell until they 're up," 
 cautioned Neal. " Do you reckon it 's good 
 planting weather, Nip?"
 
 A STRANGE CROP. 141 
 
 " Fus-rate. I reckon it gwine rain dis 
 ebnin'." 
 
 "Well, come on, then. Let's hustle. You 
 get Celia. Here 'a the arms. Where 's the 
 leg?" 
 
 " In the churn in the store-room." 
 
 In a few minutes the children were hurry- 
 ing with their queer seed to the corn-patch. 
 Nip was armed with a spade, while Neal 
 and Joy dragged one a rake and the other a 
 hoe after them. 
 
 The cornfield had just been ploughed, and 
 the clayey soil was sticky, but it was soft 
 and easy to work, and, besides, no one was 
 likely 'to come that way to spy their garden. 
 
 They chose the very farthest corner, and 
 fell to work with a will. It was a large, 
 smooth bed when it was made, and looked 
 very inviting indeed. 
 
 In the northwest corner they planted 
 Celia's head. It made them feel very sad 
 to cover her up ; but they left the round
 
 142 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 shiny top of her head above ground so she 
 could grow out faster. 
 
 Lily's eye they covered entirely, like a 
 seed, in the southwest corner, and marked 
 the spot with three little sticks. 
 
 The two arms and leg they planted in the 
 two remaining corners, pointing fingers and 
 toes upward, since it was on the other ends 
 that they needed to take root and grow. 
 
 "'Pears lak we's gwine hab a mighty 
 small crap fo' sech a big bed," said Nip, sug- 
 gestively. " I reckon dere 's room fo' de 
 whole ob Beauty in de middle." 
 
 " Oh, let 's cut her up, like an Irish potato ! 
 She's no 'count, anyway. Won't it be fun to 
 see the dolls popping up all over ! You get 
 her, Joy and the scissors too. Me and 
 Nip '11 dig holes." 
 
 This bright idea was accordingly carried 
 out. Poor Beauty was ruthlessly cut up, 
 the bits planted in straight rows and smoothly 
 covered over.
 
 A STRANGE CROP. 143 
 
 " Now, don't say a word to anybody until 
 the} 7 are up, and then no one will have a 
 chance to make fun of us. Boys think girls 
 have n't got any sense, but we '11 just show 
 them ! Don't you go and tell, Nip." 
 
 "I ain't gwine say a wo'd," Nip assured 
 them, and went off to the barn with the 
 tools, whistling nonchalantly, just as if noth- 
 ing had happened. 
 
 The girls slipped quietly back to the gal- 
 lery, and made great show of playing with 
 their two remaining dolls, but they could not 
 help blinking knowingly at each other and 
 bursting into smothered giggles whenever 
 they looked at Nip's preternaturally solemn 
 face. 
 
 "My little daughters must have a very 
 funny secret," Mamma remarked once, but 
 she asked no questions to embarrass them. 
 
 Toward evening it began to rain, just as 
 Nip had prophesied. It rained all night, but 
 cleared in the morning. The girls sent Nip
 
 144 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 repeatedly to look at the corn-patch, and he 
 reported every time that all was well. 
 
 The third day was dry and clear, but the 
 boys and the hunters came home with the 
 bear, and in the excitement Neal and Joy 
 forgot all about the dolly-bed. 
 
 The hunters came riding up with great 
 blowing of horns and loud hurrahs. 
 
 " They-alls done tree de b'ar," Nip an- 
 nounced promptly, but when they drew rein 
 at the gate there was nothing at all to be 
 seen in the fodder-wagon, nothing but a 
 great pile of pine-straw. 
 
 But yes ! what was that great black 
 thing dangling at the end of the wagon ? 
 Neal and Joy approached it cautiously ; but 
 Nip seized it boldly in his little brown hands 
 and began pulling with all his might. 
 
 " Look out ! " cried Cousin Will, sharply ; 
 " that big claw '11 grab you." 
 
 The girls sprang back ; but Nip only 
 grinned and felt the long claws with his 
 fingers.
 
 A STRANGE CROP. 145 
 
 " Dis yer claw ain't gwine grab nobody no 
 mo'," he chuckled. 
 
 It was no easy matter to drag the huge 
 bear to the ground and carry him into the 
 yard. 
 
 Neal clung to her mamma's skirts; but 
 Joy, when she saw that it surely was dead, 
 allowed herself to be perched on the shiny 
 black side of the great creature. 
 
 But what fierce little eyes it had, and 
 what a cruel mouth, full of long white teeth ! 
 Neal knew that she should dream about it. 
 
 The hunters had a great frolic skinning it 
 and cutting it up, and they ended with a 
 grand feast of bear-steak. 
 
 This time, when they gathered about the 
 fire, there was a new story to tell ; and even 
 Neal, folded closely in her father's arms, did 
 not tire of hearing it, and asked more ques- 
 tions than anybody else. 
 
 The boys' faces fairly beamed with proud 
 
 happiness. They themselves had not killed 
 
 10
 
 146 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 the bear, to be sure ; but what was better, 
 their father had killed it, and at the very 
 first shot too. 
 
 It had all happened in the neatest way. 
 The hunters had heard that the bear was 
 eating lambs from the flocks above the head 
 of Fish River ; and so instead of going into 
 the swamp again, they decided to lie in wait 
 for him near the spring. 
 
 They did not build a camp-fire at night 
 for fear of frightening him off, so they had 
 to go without coffee, and eat cold potato- 
 biscuit and some corn-pone and cold bacon. 
 
 They had tied the horses back a little in 
 a sapling thicket, and Mr. Lee had offered 
 to guard them while the others watched for 
 the bear. This was very generous of him, 
 for very likely he would be too far off to 
 have a shot at the bear, which the boys 
 thought was not quite fair. 
 
 But of course they decided to stay with 
 their father, so they wrapped themselves in
 
 A STRANGE CROP. 147 
 
 their blankets and lay down near the tree to 
 which old Nag was tethered. 
 
 They placed their guns close beside them, 
 for they meant to keep their eyes wide open 
 and to listen with all their ears for the least 
 rustle, for they were as anxious as any one to 
 have a shot at the bear. 
 
 They were very tired, however, and before 
 they had lain there long, Gene's eyes became 
 so painfully heavy that he let them close 
 for just a moment's snooze ; and when Brer 
 heard him snoozing so comfortably, he could 
 not resist the temptation to take just one 
 wink of sleep also. But somehow, neither 
 of them thought to waken until a sharp 
 bang right over their heads startled them 
 half out of their senses. 
 
 "Lie still! " their father commanded in a 
 sharp, low voice. He was on one knee be- 
 side them, aiming his rifle over them. He 
 did not fire again. The hunters came run- 
 ning up. Mr. Lee lowered his gun and told 
 the boys that they might get up.
 
 148 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 They were on their feet instantly ; and 
 there, only a few yards from them, lay the 
 huge black monster. 
 
 On his way to his evening feast, the bear 
 had discovered the sleeping boys, and had 
 turned aside to see what they might be. 
 
 Mr. Lee was just dozing off, when he was 
 roused by Nag's plunging and snorting ; and 
 raising his gun, he had sent a bullet to the 
 bear's heart just in time to save the boys 
 from a crushing hug. 
 
 " Dat b'ar ain't got no sense ef he 'lowed 
 you-uns was lambs," exclaimed Nip, scorn- 
 fully. 
 
 " I think I must keep my boys with me 
 next time," said Mrs. Lee. 
 
 The boys raised woful voices at this, but 
 their father silenced them. 
 
 "Don't make me sorry I took you once, 
 boys. Your mother will decide what is best 
 when the next time comes." 
 
 No wonder that their planting was quite
 
 A STRANGE CROP. 149 
 
 driven from the girls' heads. Nearly a week 
 passed before they thought anything about 
 it, and then it was a remark of Brer's that 
 recalled the dolly-bed to their minds. 
 
 " Did you plant some collards out in the 
 corn-patch, Papa ? " he asked one day at 
 the dinner-table. He winked at Gene as he 
 put the question, but the girls did not see 
 that. 
 
 " Collards in the corn-patch ! Certainly 
 not." 
 
 " Well, something is coming up there, out 
 in the far corner, close to the fence. The 
 things did n't look like collards, they were 
 so bright, but I did n't reckon anybody 'd 
 make a flower-bed away out yonder. I 'm 
 bound to see what they are this evening." 
 
 Neal nearly choked herself, she crammed 
 her mouth so full of light bread, and Joy 
 clutched her chair with all her might, and 
 her face grew alarmingly red. But no one 
 seemed to notice the girls ; and they man-
 
 150 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 aged, by desperate efforts, to sit still until 
 dinner was over. 
 
 When they left the table Neal was obliged 
 to feed her two Nannies, and by that time 
 the boj^s had called Nip off with them, so the 
 two little girls had to go to the corn-patch 
 without him. They caught a first glimpse 
 of the dolly-bed from the top of the rail- 
 fence, when they scrambled over. 
 
 " Oh, look, they 're all dressed up ! " 
 screamed Joy, clasping her hands raptur- 
 ously. " Don't they look fine ! " 
 
 And in fact, the dolly-bed appeared to be 
 blooming with figures that nodded and beck- 
 oned in the bright sunlight. 
 
 The girls stumbled breathlessly across the 
 ploughed ground, never stopping, and hardly 
 daring to look until they were quite close to 
 the bed. 
 
 Then they clasped each other's hands and 
 gazed wonderingly at their blossoming dolly- 
 bed.
 
 A STRANGE CROP. 151 
 
 There was no doubt of it, they were actual 
 dolls, though very curious ones, not in the 
 least like the seed they had planted or the 
 dolls in the house. 
 
 " They look like they had growed up from 
 kernels of corn," said Joy, hardly daring to 
 speak above a whisper lest the strange dollies 
 should vanish. 
 
 " That 's because they grew in the corn- 
 patch," explained Neal, stooping down and 
 lightly touching the one in Celia's corner. 
 
 " This don't look like Celia, but it 's a 
 doll." 
 
 " Yes, they 're all dolls," said Joy, " and 
 corn too, 'pears like." 
 
 No wonder that the children were puzzled. 
 The group of dollies seemed to be made up 
 entirely of corn-husks, faces, arms, bodies, 
 and all ; only their dresses were of all the 
 colors of Easter eggs. 
 
 " Let 's pick them and take them in to 
 Mamma," suggested Neal.
 
 152 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 But just at this moment the boys and Nip 
 sprang up on the fence close beside them. 
 
 " Oh, Nip, just see what 's sprouting up! " 
 cried Neal. "We just planted these dolls 
 ourselves ; Nip saw us," she declared to the 
 boys, who were lifting their hands with 
 " ohs " and " ahs " of amazement. 
 
 " I 'low Celia an' Beauty done growed up 
 into co'n-dolls," was Nip's only remark, as 
 he examined the wind-tossed blossoms. 
 
 " Gee, what a fine bouquet they '11 make ! " 
 cried Brer. " Ain't you going to tote them 
 to the house?" 
 
 "Of course we are. How do you pick 
 them?" 
 
 " Oh, easy enough." Brer deftly pulled 
 up the corn-stalk upon which one of the 
 dolls grew. 
 
 The girls fell eagerly to work ; and in 
 a few minutes all the dolls were plucked 
 and gathered in great clusters into their 
 arms.
 
 A STRANGE CROP. 153 
 
 Neal lingered a moment to poke about in 
 the dust, to make sure there were no traces 
 of Beauty and Celia, but not an eye nor an 
 arm could she find. 
 
 Mamma expressed as great wonderment 
 as the boys had shown, at sight of the 
 strange crop. 
 
 " I 'm going to ask Papa to sow dolls in 
 all the patches, and raise heaps of them for 
 Santa Glaus," cried Joy, ranging her armful 
 in a fluttering row against the house along 
 the gallery floor. 
 
 "Turnip-dolls, an' wata-melon-dolls, an' 
 potato-dolls, an' cabbage-dolls." Nip began 
 to tell them off soberly on his fingers ; but at 
 the idea of such ridiculous dolls Mamma 
 and the boys went off into spasms of laugh- 
 ter, and finally Nip himself turned a summer- 
 sault to hide a grin. 
 
 But Neal saw him smile, and it set her to 
 wondering about those corn-dolls. She did 
 not tell Joy that she suspected the boys of
 
 154 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 playing a trick upon them, but she refused 
 to plant any more dolls. A long time after, 
 when she had almost forgotten about the 
 dolly-bed, she discovered Celia's clayey head 
 stowed away in the far corner of the lowest 
 drawer of the great bureau in the store- 
 house. Then she knew.
 
 THE TRAMP. 155 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE TRAMP. 
 
 As there is neither snow nor ice to melt 
 away under the water-oaks, it is not always 
 easy, unless one happens to have a calendar, 
 to know just when spring has come. 
 
 But Nip and the children always knew, 
 for in spring the johnnies came clustering 
 up in dancing, daisy-faced crowds. The vio- 
 lets pushed through the pine- straw ; the 
 sweet waxy arbutus-flowers peeped, fresh 
 and dewy, from beneath their coverlet of 
 black-jack leaves; the buck-eye bushes turned 
 red with heavy blooms ; the swelling buds of 
 the honeysuckle burst into fragrant pink 
 clusters ; the old-man's beard turned white 
 and trailed its drooping branches in the 
 sparkling waters of Sweet- Water Branch ;
 
 156 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 every laurel-bush was a huge, blushing bou- 
 quet ; the tyty trees hung out dainty tassels 
 of the most delicate perfume, to tempt the 
 children and the bees; the yellow jasmine 
 trailed over the ground in luxuriant growth, 
 or climbed the slender saplings, bending 
 them low with the heavy weight of golden 
 fragrant blooms. Of course not all these 
 flowers came at once ; that would be too 
 bewildering. They were expected to come in 
 proper order as the sun called them forth ; 
 but they crowded upon one another in rapid 
 succession, or played truant, as the season 
 happened to suit them. The sweet bay came 
 more leisurely, also the creamy magnolias, 
 high up among the glossy leaves of the white- 
 trunked trees. These were the wild-flowers 
 flourishing in the hollows and hillsides of 
 the piney woods, and overhanging the 
 springs and branches. 
 
 In the clearing the peach-blooms were the 
 first and sweetest that came.
 
 THE TRAMP. 157 
 
 The whole peach orchard was a misty, rosy 
 cloud dropping showers of dainty pink petals. 
 
 Sometimes a warm sun would coax the 
 trees into bloom too early in the season ; and 
 Mr. Lee would be obliged to protect the 
 tender buds from being nipped in a cold 
 snap, by building a smudging fire in the or- 
 chard, so that the smoke could rise all 
 through the branches and keep the frosts 
 away. But frequently he was spared this 
 trouble by the forest fires from which the 
 smoke rolled in heavy waves through the 
 piney woods. 
 
 The times when the woods were burning 
 were very uncomfortable ones for Neal and 
 Joy. Everything looked so strange in the 
 smoky air ; the sun seemed so low and red 
 and hot as it rolled overhead ; and the pine 
 wall that bordered the clearing was so far 
 away and misty ; besides, they were always 
 so thirsty and their eyes smarted so pain- 
 fully. They had such a queer feeling, as if
 
 158 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 something dreadful were about to happen; 
 they could not help expecting to see the fire 
 every minute, though they knew it might be 
 miles away. 
 
 Still, it always came at last, and their 
 father and the boys had to fight it, and 
 sometimes Mamma and old Aunt Nance. 
 
 How the fire started in the woods, no one 
 ever knew ; and a fine was claimed by gov- 
 ernment from any one who should light the 
 dry grass, but still the fire came every year 
 as surely as the springtime. Some said that 
 lighted matches were dropped into the grass 
 by lawless darkies who bore a grudge 
 against the white folks, and wanted to burn 
 them out of their comfortable homes ; but 
 nobody could prove that. 
 
 In former days, when the grass was thick 
 and as tall as a man's head, the men who 
 tapped the pine-trees for turpentine, and 
 worked in the resin distilleries, used to set it 
 afire to " run out the snakes;" but now that
 
 THE TRAMP. 159 
 
 the grass was comparatively low, and the 
 trees were bled of their sap, and the men all 
 gone, there was no need of the burning-, and 
 it did much more harm than good. Govern- 
 ment had even offered a reward to any one 
 w r ho should detect a person in the act of 
 starting a fire. The boys had no such dread 
 of the fire as Neal and Joy ; they enjoyed 
 the fun and excitement of " outing " it. 
 
 Mr. Lee always protected his home by 
 ploughing around the outer fence of the 
 patches, and causing the boys to rake away 
 the dry grass and pine-straw. 
 
 He did so a little earlier than usual this 
 year, because he was obliged to take a trip 
 through the piney woods and across Grand- 
 ma's Bay, to buy in town a supply of seeds, 
 hominy, sugar, and such things as did not 
 grow in the patches around the Water- 
 Oaks. 
 
 He had not the least idea that the fire 
 would come up for several weeks, though the
 
 160 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 woods were full of smoke ; but he felt better 
 to have the place protected. 
 
 " It is possible that I shall be kept till to- 
 morrow," he called back, as he drove off be- 
 hind Pacer early one morning ; " but I reckon 
 I'll be back to-night. Take care of your 
 mother and sisters, boys, and don't let the 
 trough and the critters go dry." 
 
 The boys were quite accustomed to being 
 left in charge of the place, not only when 
 their father went to town, or was off on a 
 hunt, but during the long days that he spent 
 alone in the woods riding over the sheep 
 ranges. 
 
 " We '11 have to work right sharp to finish 
 it to-day," said Brer, leading the way to the 
 barn as soon as their father was out of sight. 
 
 " We 're just bound to finish it," exclaimed 
 Gene, enthusiastically. 
 
 " We 's gwine kotch de ole red sun on a 
 pine-top an' holt him up, ef he wan' go to 
 roost wiv de chickins, case we 're boun'
 
 THE TRAMP. 161 
 
 finish dat playhouse befo* night," Nip de- 
 clared, in his turn, with an emphatic shake 
 of his woolly head. 
 
 " Well, you and Nip feed the shotes and 
 let out the calves, while I draw water. I 
 reckon we '11 be done by breakfast-time, and 
 then we '11 have all day. Lucky Papa let us 
 off the milking, ain't it?" 
 
 The boys usually enjoyed a sort of holiday 
 when their father was away, for work was 
 his motto, and he meant to teach it to his 
 boys early. 
 
 To-day, however, the boys had generously 
 devoted to building a playhouse for Neal 
 and Joy. 
 
 The girls were overjoyed and humbly 
 grateful for this act of condescension in the 
 boys ; and their delight was not in the least 
 dimmed by Brer's ungracious manner of prof- 
 fering the favor. 
 
 " I reckon we 're bound to build a house 
 
 for these everlasting dolls," he had cried, 
 
 11
 
 162 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 giving Lily a contemptuous toss, " else we '11 
 have to sit off on the water-oak roots, the 
 gallery's so cluttered up." 
 
 " Oh, Brer, will you, with a window and a 
 door and a table ?" 
 
 " And a pianer and a sideboard and 
 and " mocked Brer. " I said a house" 
 
 " Well, make it under the cedar-tree, 
 won't you, Brer?" 
 
 " I did n't say I 'd make it, did I ? Now, 
 hush ; supposen we should, though, would 
 you promise to keep all these corn-flowers 
 there, and all the rest of this trash ? " 
 
 " Yes ; everything. But if you won't 
 make a door, how can we get them in ? " 
 
 " Who said we would rit make a door ? I 
 declare, you make me right mad. 1 ' 
 
 " I won't say another word ; only, Brer, 
 how can we see without a window ? " 
 
 " Run and get that old window-sash from 
 the barn, and look through it if you want to 
 see."
 
 THE TRAMP. 163 
 
 Fortunately, the girls understood Brer per- 
 fectly, for there was always a good-natured 
 ring in his voice and a roguish twinkle in 
 his eye, however sharp his words might be. 
 
 As for the playhouse, the boys anticipated 
 making it with as much eagerness and pleas- 
 ure as the girls would enjoy seeing them 
 do it. 
 
 They hastened with their morning's work ; 
 and when breakfast was over, and Brer had 
 thrown out their corn-bread to the pack of 
 dogs, they shouldered their axes and marched 
 off to the pond, for the first thing to be done 
 was to fell some saplings from the thicket 
 and cut them into proper lengths, for the 
 house was to be of logs, like the smokehouse, 
 the storehouse, and the potato-house. 
 
 " AVe 're coming too," shouted Joy, as she 
 and Neal came trotting after, each with a 
 doll tucked under her arm. 
 
 " Won't you bother and ask questions and 
 jabber all the time ? "
 
 164 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " No, we won't say a word. We '11 be 
 just as quiet as mice." 
 
 " All right, then ; mind you keep out of 
 the way when the trees fall. Better stay 
 where you are." 
 
 Accordingly, the girls sank down on the 
 pine-straw, and talked and planned raptur- 
 ously of the new house and the pretty things 
 with which they would furnish it. Every 
 now and then a sapling crashed down ; and 
 the boys cheered as if it were the biggest 
 tree in the forest. The girls, however, were 
 too engrossed in their own plans to pay 
 much attention to the boys, until they were 
 startled half out of their wits by the most 
 awful yelling, all three boys screaming at 
 the tops of their voices. The girls jumped 
 to their feet and stood staring wildly around, 
 uncertain which way to run, for of course 
 their first thought was, a bear. 
 
 But, no, the boys were pounding something 
 on the ground. It must be a snake ; only 
 the boys never were afraid of snakes.
 
 THE TRAMP. 165 
 
 "We've done killed it," shouted Gene, at 
 last. So the girls advanced cautiously. 
 
 Brer was sitting on a log, looking white 
 and frightened ; Gene was shaking as if he 
 had a chill ; while Nip was holding up a 
 monstrous wiggling body of a snake on a 
 stick. 
 
 " Dis yer snake ain't no moccasin," he 
 said positively. 
 
 "It isn't a rattler either, nor a coach whip, 
 nor anything that I ever saw before," cried 
 Gene, whose teeth were still chattering. 
 
 " It 's a snake, anyway, that 's sure, and 
 the biggest one I ever saw," said Brer, try- 
 ing to rouse from his fright. " I never 
 knew a snake to do any one that-a-way be- 
 fore. Gee, how he squirmed ! " 
 
 They had been working away merrily, 
 planning to erect a house with all the mod- 
 ern improvements of which they knew ; and 
 Brer, having selected a fine straight sapling, 
 pushed back into a buckeye bush to make
 
 166 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 room for a good sweep of his axe, when his 
 bare foot had come down upon the cold, 
 shiny coil of a squirming snake. Before he 
 could move, the snake had lifted its head 
 almost to a level with Brer's waist, and, 
 striking, had seized the lappets of his pocket 
 in its jaws. 
 
 Then it was that Brer, thinking that he 
 was bitten, yelled in terror ; and Gene, seeing 
 the monster, had cried out too, Nip swelling 
 the chorus with such vehemence that the 
 startled reptile had dropped to the ground, 
 and glided directly toward the spot where 
 the girls were sitting. But in a twink- 
 ling, Nip had brought down his axe on the 
 creature's struggling body, and had pinned 
 it there until the boys had beaten out its 
 loathsome life. 
 
 " Bring the ugly thing in and show it to 
 Mamma. She '11 be scared half to death 
 when we tell her," cried Neal. 
 
 " We ain't a-going to tell her, nor you
 
 THE TRAMP. 167 
 
 either, until we 've got our logs. You 're 
 willing enough to go in now, I reckon ; but 
 if you say a word about this before we come, 
 you 're bound not to get any house. Mamma 
 would fancy the pond alive with snakes, 
 and wouldn't let us cut another sapling. 
 Go along in, but don't you say a word. 
 We '11 bring it and tell when we come." 
 Brer had entirely recovered from his fright, 
 and was himself again. 
 
 Except for this short interruption, the log- 
 cutting went on smoothly all the morning, 
 and in the afternoon the even, round lengths 
 were fashioned rapidly into a line square 
 house. 
 
 Doubtless they would have completed it, 
 door, window, and all, without any need of 
 impaling the red sun on a pine-top to keep 
 him from going down into the smoke and 
 gloom of the forest, if a sudden, furious com- 
 motion among the dogs had not called them 
 in haste to the front gate.
 
 168 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Some one was there, a man quietly wait- 
 ing a few yards back from the paling against 
 which the dogs were savagely leaping. 
 
 "Go and speak to him, Brer," said Mrs. 
 Lee, who had come out on the gallery. 
 
 Brer assumed his father's dignified bear- 
 ing, and advanced to the gate. 
 
 " Howdy, Bud ! " said the stranger, nodding 
 familiarly. 
 
 " Howdy," Brer responded courteously, 
 trying vainly to hush the dogs. 
 
 The stranger came a few paces nearer, so 
 that he could make himself heard above the 
 fierce barking. 
 
 " I 'd like to speak a word with your 
 father, Bud. He 's somewhere abouts the 
 clearin', I reckon." 
 
 "No, he 's in town." This was a very in- 
 discreet reply ; and Brer bit his lip in vexa- 
 tion the moment he had made it. It would 
 have been better, perhaps, to let such a rough- 
 looking stranger think that there was some 
 man about ; but it was too late for that now.
 
 THE TRAMP. 169 
 
 "Gone for supplies, I reckon. I hope he '11 
 bring some tobac' ; I 'm just out. "Well, I 
 suppose I can see your mother ; I 'd like 
 some grub and a night 's lodgin', if you 
 can take me in." 
 
 Brer withdrew to consult his mother. 
 
 " Mamma will send you out a good meal, 
 but she can't lodge you to-night. There's 
 another place about three miles ahead that 
 you can reach before dark " 
 
 " Oh, that 's too far ; I can hardly limp 
 now. Suppose you tie those dogs, and I '11 
 come in and talk with your mother. I 
 reckon you don't have much company in 
 this wilderness, and I 'low she 'd like to 
 hear the news." 
 
 But Brer made no movement toward 
 obeying his suggestion. 
 
 " Well, then, Bud, if you 're too lazy to tie 
 them dogs, just call them off, and I '11 walk 
 right in. I ain't af eared." 
 
 He walked boldly up to the gate.
 
 170 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " You 'd better not," said Brer, quietly ; 
 " I might not be able to manage the dogs." 
 And the angry animals made such a savage 
 spring at him that the man withdrew rather 
 hastily. 
 
 Gene came out with a plate loaded with 
 corn-bread, sweet potatoes, bacon, and cold 
 biscuit, with a foaming mug of corn-beer to 
 wash it down. 
 
 The man received them over the fence, 
 muttering angrily, " So your mother ex- 
 pects me to sit out here on a log, and eat 
 cold grub, like a nigger." 
 
 " It is the best that we can do for you," 
 answered Brer, with heightening color. 
 " Those victuals are exactly what we all 
 eat. If you don't want them, just hand 
 them back." 
 
 " No you don't, sonny. Don't get riled. 
 This corn-beer is n't bad ; only I wish it was 
 somethin' stronger. I '11 put this grub into 
 my pockets, so I can chew on it if my shoe-
 
 THE TRAMP. 171 
 
 leather gives out. There 's a heap o' nour- 
 ishment in cow-hide, you better b'lieve ; 
 that 's why my shoes look so chawed up. 
 I 'm prospectin' through these parts with a 
 view to takin' up a homestead, an' settlin' 
 down with my fambly. Your house is the 
 first I 've come across in two weeks. I 
 reckon I '11 settle somewhere about here and 
 be your neighbor. I 'm a right social party, 
 and thankful, too, for all favors. You just 
 depend on 't I won't forget you and your 
 stale grub." 
 
 He cast a sharp, scowling look about the 
 place, and slouched heavily up the road, 
 turning once to shake his fist at the dogs, 
 who kept up their fierce din as long as he 
 was in sight. 
 
 " That 's the meanest-looking man I ever 
 saw," exclaimed Gene ; " I 'd just like to let 
 the dogs out on him." 
 
 " You don't mean that, my son. I am 
 always too sorry for such poor homeless
 
 172 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 men to be angry at their want of gratitude. 
 Probably," Mamma added significantly, " he 
 did n't learn to control his temper in his 
 youth." 
 
 " But what is he going to do to us, 
 Mamma ? " wailed Neal ; " he looked so 
 mad." 
 
 " The man is n't going to hurt us, my 
 child. Don't be foolish. See, he has gone 
 quite out of sight." 
 
 " Dat man ain't gwine fur befo' he lose his 
 whiskers. Mighty cur'us 'bout dose whiskers ; 
 dey des look lak dey gwine drap clean off 
 when he talk so peart." 
 
 " Is that so, Nip ? Were his whiskers 
 really loose ? " 
 
 " Dat 's de truf, Brer ; I seed him clap 
 'em on right sma't w'en he tuk notice how 
 dey was a-slippin' down." 
 
 " I suppose he is some criminal or escaped 
 convict," said Mrs. Lee; "but never mind, 
 he 's gone, and Papa will be here soon, so 
 hurry about the work."
 
 THE TRAMP. 173 
 
 So it came about that the boys did not 
 finish the playhouse that day. 
 
 " We-alls done fo'get to cotch de sun fo' 
 he out ob reach," exclaimed Nip, regretfully, 
 when the chores were done and the boys 
 returned to the house. 
 
 " Oh, well, never mind. I 'in tired enough, 
 and the girls will just have to wait for their 
 house ; " and Brer threw himself wearily on 
 the sheep-skin before the hearth, for a little 
 fire in the evening was very cheerful and 
 not at all uncomfortable. 
 
 Mrs. Lee sat in her cosey chimney-corner, 
 watching the flickering blaze ; while Neal 
 and Joy nestled at her feet, prattling their 
 sweet nonsense in soft undertone. 
 
 " Nip," called Mamma, presently, lifting 
 her head to listen, " is n't that the wagon 
 coming ? " 
 
 " I reckon de wagin ain't comin', Miss 
 Lyla ; but me an' Gene 'low we-uns see a 
 cur'us fiah a-bu'nin' yonda," answered Nip 
 from the gallery.
 
 174 UNDER TIIE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " It 's a sure light. Mamma," cried Gene. 
 
 Brer was on the gallery in a second, 
 and Mrs. Lee and the girls hurriedly 
 followed. 
 
 " Jes' put yo' haid yer, Brer, an' I reckon 
 yo' '11 spy it 'tween de co'ner ob de Owlets' 
 Roost an' de fig-tree." 
 
 " Yes, I see it, sure enough, Mamma. It 's 
 over the ridge, flaring up right in one spot. 
 Now it 's gone ; no, there it is, brighter than 
 ever. Somebody must just be starting it. 
 You look right there through the fork of 
 the fig-tree. Do you see ? " Brer placed 
 his mother carefully and pointed out the 
 direction. 
 
 " Yes ; but it appears to me more like a 
 camp-fire than anything else. It does n't 
 spread in the least. It 's smothered and 
 smoking now, as if fresh wood had just been 
 thrown on. I reckon it is our tramp, camp- 
 ing out there for the night." 
 
 " But he 's bound to set the woods a-fire or
 
 THE TEAMP. 175 
 
 do some mischief. Let me and Gene and 
 Nip slip out and watch him." 
 
 " I hardly think there is need of that," 
 objected Mrs. Lee. " Papa will be here 
 presently. He will see about it. You don't 
 want to deprive the man of such poor com- 
 fort as he can get from a pine-straw bed, do 
 you?" 
 
 " No, of course not. Only I believe he 's 
 staying around for some mischief. Why, 
 he 's had time to tramp three or four miles 
 since he left. He 's just got some reason for 
 hanging around, I know." 
 
 " Only let us go and peek at him, Mamma. 
 He '11 never see us," Gene pleaded. " We '11 
 take Lyon along." 
 
 " Oh, no, it never would do to take a 
 dog along. Lyon would tear him all to 
 pieces. You must leave the dogs here, and 
 you must promise me not to do anything 
 rash. Brer, I trust to your judgment. If 
 the man is only resting quietly, come
 
 176 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 away without disturbing him. If you see 
 anything to make you think that he means 
 mischief, send Nip back to report, and I '11 
 tell you what you had better do." 
 
 " All right, Mamma ; we '11 be sensible. 
 Had n't we better leave one of the guns with 
 you?" 
 
 " Leave both ; you won't need them. You 
 are better off without them." 
 
 " It would n't do any harm to take my 
 gun. It 's only loaded with bird-shot. It 
 might be a mighty good thing to have along 
 if I wanted to scare him, you know." 
 
 " Well, take it, but remember what I say ; 
 keep quiet and don't rouse him. He is a 
 desperate man, and it won't take much to 
 make him angry." 
 
 It was not every day that there was a 
 chance for such a jolly lark, and the boys 
 stole off into the dark woods with the most 
 rapturous feeling of adventure, which stirred 
 all the more keenly in their breasts because
 
 THE TKAMP. 177 
 
 it was mixed with uncertainty and the least 
 bit of fear. 
 
 They soon reached the crest of the slope, 
 where they could look down into the hollow 
 and see the flames from which the light arose. 
 
 It was, as their mamma had said, a camp- 
 fire. At first the flickering flames and the 
 column of smoke were all that they could 
 distinguish, because of intervening sapling 
 thickets, the large pine stems, and fallen 
 timber ; but as they stole nearer, flitting 
 noiselessly from tree to tree, they saw a dark 
 figure pass between them and the light. 
 They paused and waited breathlessly for it 
 to reappear ; but there was no further sign of 
 life save a sudden burst of sparks, as if fresh 
 fuel had been tossed upon the fire. 
 
 " If we can just creep down behind that 
 pile of logs, we can see, easy, just what he is 
 up to," whispered Brer. " Go right still, 
 now. If he 's by the fire, he can't see us ; but 
 if he 's prowling round through the woods, 
 
 12
 
 178 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 he '11 be mighty apt to catch sight of us. 
 Come on ; stoop low." 
 
 They glided quickly and quietly over the 
 pine-straw until they were hidden in the 
 shadow of the great fallen trees that had 
 been twisted off and thrown together by 
 fierce winds. 
 
 The boys were almost startled to discover 
 how near they had approached the fire. Its 
 light flickered brightly on the trunks of the 
 pine-trees just behind them. 
 
 " Keep down in the shadow," Brer cau- 
 tioned. They took off their hats and peeped 
 warily over the logs. The first thing that 
 their eyes rested upon was the figure of a 
 man sitting with bis feet to the fire and with 
 his back propped comfortably against a pine- 
 tree. As his face was turned toward them, 
 and the warm light of the fire played brightly 
 over it, they had a capital view of him. That 
 it was not their tramp was the first thought 
 of Brer and Gene. The tramp was a rough,
 
 THE TRAMP. 179 
 
 hairy man ; but this man's face, and head 
 too, were quite bare, as they plainly could 
 see, for he had tossed his hat aside. 
 
 Nip's sight was keener than the boys'. 
 He crawled close to Brer and breathed into 
 his ear, 
 
 " I 'low he keep dem fine w'iskers and 
 ha'r to dress up w'en he go visitin'." 
 
 Brer looked at the man sharply. His cloth- 
 ing certainly was exactly like that worn by 
 the tramp, dirty jean trousers, a buttonless 
 torn coat of a yellow-brown hue tied together 
 in front by a wisp of pine-straw, and a faded 
 red kerchief knotted about his neck. And 
 when one came to examine him closely, there 
 was the same scowling face and angry eyes, 
 more savage and repulsive than ever, now 
 that the partial screen of hair and beard was 
 removed. 
 
 He had been sitting perfectly still, with 
 his hands clasped behind his head, and his 
 eyes fixed steadily on the fire.
 
 180 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Presently, however, he started up with 
 an impatient oath, and glanced suspiciously 
 about him in the darkness. He seemed sat- 
 isfied that there was nothing about, for hav- 
 ing tossed two or three pine-burrs upon the 
 fire, he settled down with his chin in his 
 hands, and began muttering indistinctly to 
 himself. 
 
 It sounded exactly like the growling of a 
 bear, and an angry one at that. Once he 
 lifted his head and looked with an ugly leer 
 in the direction of the Water-Oaks ; and he 
 raised his fist and shook it threateningly. 
 
 " If he was a sure enough bear, and I only 
 had a gun " Gene began resentfully ; but 
 Brer's elbow gave his ribs an imperative 
 nudge. 
 
 The tramp had sprung hastily to his 
 feet, staring about with an expression of 
 alarm on his face. He stood there but the 
 briefest instant ; then, with a quick move- 
 ment, he scattered the blazing embers and
 
 THE TRAMP. 181 
 
 disappeared behind the tree against which 
 he had been leaning. 
 
 The boys crouched lower, but kept vigilant 
 watch ; and presently, by the light of the 
 blazing pine-straw that the scattered fire 
 had kindled, they saw a dark form skulking 
 away into the dark woods. 
 
 " What did you go and scare him off for, 
 you simpleton ? " demanded Brer, in an an- 
 gry whisper. " Did n't I tell you to keep 
 still?" 
 
 " He made me that mad I 'd like to have 
 hollered right out," muttered Gene, defiantly. 
 " Who cares if he is gone ? I don't, sure. 
 The farther, the better." 
 
 " Yes, if he has gone. Look behind you ! " 
 
 At Brer's admonition Gene whirled about, 
 instinctively doubling his fists and falling 
 into a posture of defence. 
 
 Brer laughed, " You 're fooled mighty 
 easy." 
 
 Gene turned sharply upon his teasing
 
 182 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 brer; but Nip's mild voice interrupted the 
 explosion. 
 
 " Gwine let the woods burn out to-night, 
 Brer ? " he inquired in a tone of placid 
 indifference. 
 
 " No, not if I can help it. Whew ! how 
 that fire is spreading ! Get pine-tops, quick ! " 
 
 He set the example by running forward, 
 and, having placed his beloved gun against a 
 tree, by seizing upon a young sapling, and 
 deftly twisting and breaking its stem. With 
 this fine broom for " outing " the fire, he 
 rushed forward, shouting to the others to 
 follow, and vigorously fell to beating the 
 flames that were spreading nimbly over the 
 pine-straw, forming two lines of fire burning 
 rapidly in opposite directions, and running 
 out longer and longer at the ends. 
 
 But he was hardly well at work, thrashing 
 vigorously on this side and that, when he 
 was interrupted by a wild yell from Gene. 
 
 " Drop that gun ! " was Gene's cry.
 
 THE TRAMP. 183 
 
 " Well, no, young un, I ain't a-goin' to 
 drop this fine gun just yet. It might go off 
 and hurt somebody, you know." 
 
 Brer recognized the sarcastic voice of the 
 tramp on the instant, and understood at 
 once that he had stolen up in the darkness 
 and gained possession of the rifle. He 
 dropped his pine-top and bounded to Gene's 
 assistance. 
 
 " Drop it, I tell you ! " Gene was advanc- 
 ing fiercely upon the man, his face white with 
 passion, and his fists raised threateningly. 
 
 The man laughed mockingly, and raising 
 the gun, took quick aim at the advancing 
 boy. 
 
 " Halt ! " he commanded curtly. 
 
 Gene was too blinded with indignation 
 and anger to pay the least heed ; but Brer, 
 cooler-headed and more sensible, saw the 
 reckless gleam in the man's eyes, and he 
 shouted imperiously, "Stop, you Gene!" 
 and Gene stopped.
 
 184 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " That 's right," said the tramp, lowering 
 the rifle ; " I s'h'd hate to see you hurt your- 
 self, and you might run against a bullet, you 
 know." 
 
 " You might run against one yourself, if 
 you don't put down that gun. That 's my 
 brer's." 
 
 " Your brer's, is it ? I 'lowed it was mine. 
 If your brer wants to set up a claim for this 
 fine new rifle of mine, he can speak out for 
 himself ; but he had better bide right where 
 he is." 
 
 With this he turned the rifle upon Brer, 
 who was slyly sidling toward him. 
 
 As Brer wisely obeyed him, and both boys 
 stood at bay before him, the tramp lowered 
 the gun, but held it in readiness for instant 
 use. 
 
 The boys glared at him angrily, only wait- 
 ing for a chance to spring ; and he returned 
 their gaze with an alert, angry expression, 
 over which played a taunting smile that was 
 very exasperating.
 
 THE TRAMP. 185 
 
 " So your ma sent you skulkin' out here 
 in the woods to spy on me, did she ? She 
 was n't satisfied to turn me off like a nigger, 
 but she had to send you to rout me out of a 
 poor pine-straw bed. Your ma ain't no lady, 
 she ain't. You may tell her so for me if 
 you ever see her again." 
 
 The brown eyes and the blue flashed threat- 
 eningly. 
 
 " You 'd better take care what you say 
 about my mother ! " said Brer, in a low, 
 stern tone. 
 
 " My mamma is the best lady in the 
 world ! " shouted Gene, the veins swelling 
 on his forehead. 
 
 Both boys were touched to the quick by 
 this insult to their mother ; and they were 
 quivering to spring forward to avenge it. 
 But the man was handling the gun signifi- 
 cantly; and they restrained themselves. 
 
 " You 're right plucky little chaps, sure, to 
 show fight to a great feller like me, what
 
 186 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 owns a fine new gun like this un. But I 
 reckon me and my rifle are a match for a 
 dozen of you and all your niggers. Where 's 
 that little darky hid himself ? " 
 
 He spoke with some anxiety, and cast his 
 restless gaze hither and thither through the 
 woods, which were all alight now and flicker- 
 ing with shadows from the fire, that was roar- 
 ing and leaping in triumphant glee. " It 's 
 time for me to be inovin' on," he said ; " it 's 
 gettin' too hot for me here. Look a-here, 
 do } r ou know what they do with spies ? " 
 
 " Hang them," answered Brer, promptly. 
 
 " Or shoot them. Shootin' 's the easiest 
 and quickest. I 've half a mind to let you 
 off this time ; but that 's what I 'm goin' 
 to do to you if you don't turn those pockets 
 of yours wrong-side-out this minute. Look 
 sharp, now ! You first ! " He pointed the 
 rifle squarely at Brer. But Brer thrust his 
 hands solidly into his pockets and never 
 flinched.
 
 'Instantly the boys were upon him." Page 187.
 
 THE TRAMP. 187 
 
 " Look sharp, I say ! " shouted the man, 
 angrily. " I '11 give you while I count three, 
 then you 're done for, sure. Now, one 
 two three ! " the gun went off with a bang 
 and flash ; the man, with a smothered oath, 
 threw up his hands and fell struggling back- 
 ward. Instantly the boys were upon him. 
 Nip, who came butting like a ram between 
 the man's knees, was holding down the shorn 
 head ; Brer, heavily astride the prostrate 
 body, struggled desperately, with Gene's 
 help, to keep possession of the knotted hands 
 that strained and wrenched with alarming 
 strength. 
 
 " Let his head go, and get the gun," panted 
 Brer, who felt that this was the only chance 
 of conquering their desperate enemy. " Have 
 you fixed it ? Cock it, then, and just give 
 it to him if he budges." 
 
 The whites of Nip's eyes showed diaboli- 
 cally in the firelight. He took aim at the 
 man as if he would like nothing better than
 
 188 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 to touch the trigger. The man looked up 
 the glistening length of the barrel and was 
 quiet. 
 
 " Do just what I told you," repeated Brer, 
 in cold, measured tones. " If he stirs, shoot. 
 Now, Gene, just let go his hands ; we won't 
 bother ourselves to hold him." He arose de- 
 liberately from his seat on the man's chest 
 and drew some stout cord and a knife from 
 his pocket. " Turn on your face ! " he 
 commanded. 
 
 " You told me not to stir," retorted the 
 man. 
 
 " But now I tell you to stir, and you 'd 
 better mind ! Nip, if he does n't do as I tell 
 him, you just let him have it. Now turn ! " 
 
 Brer's voice quivered ever so slightly as 
 he said this, for the man's face was becoming 
 terrible in its wrath ; and Brer knew, and 
 Gene knew, and Nip knew, that there was not 
 a single loaded cartridge left in the barrel ; 
 and if the man had one suspicion of this, he
 
 THE TRAMP. 189 
 
 would spring to his feet and dash upon them. 
 They were not strong enough to hold him, 
 and the empty gun was their only chance of 
 victory. 
 
 Slight as it was, the prisoner caught that 
 uncertain tone in Brer's voice, and a shrewd 
 gleam lighted his sullen eye. He made a 
 show of obeying, and turned ever so slightly ; 
 then he paused and asked, 
 
 " What for do you want me to turn ? " 
 
 " Never mind what for. You just turn." 
 
 The man moved slightly over, bringing 
 his right hand around to the ground ; and 
 Brer noticed with alarm that he was slowly 
 drawing up his foot. 
 
 " Turn, I say ! " shouted Brer. 
 
 But, quick as a flash, the man drew himself 
 together for a spring, when 
 
 " Turn ! " thundered a stern voice, and a 
 rifle was thrust close to the wicked face. 
 
 The man dropped and rolled over. 
 
 " Now tie him, Brer," said Mr. Lee, quietly.
 
 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 "Here, Nip, take my gun, it's good for three 
 or four bears, and if he does n't mind on 
 the instant, just blow his brains out. Brer, 
 march him home and lock him into the 
 potato-house. Leave the rifle with your 
 mother ; she '11 look out for him, and you 
 and Nip come back here. Gene, get your 
 pine-top and come with me ; this fire will 
 get away with us if we don't look sharp. 
 There 's a tree caught, already. I must stop 
 that. You begin at this near end. I '11 be 
 with you in a minute." 
 
 Brer had no further trouble in managing 
 the tramp. Having securely tied his hands 
 behind his back, he helped him to stagger 
 to his feet, and pointing toward the Water- 
 Oaks, bade him, " March ! " The man obeyed 
 sullenly. From the moment when he knew 
 that escape was hopeless, he never but once 
 opened his lips to utter a word while they 
 had him in charge. 
 
 Brer followed him closely, with cocked
 
 THE TRAMP. 191 
 
 gun, while Nip led the way, carrying the 
 man's hat, and ragged wig and beard. 
 
 When they reached the Water-Oaks and 
 entered the yard, it required all Brer's 
 authority to hold the dogs in check, to keep 
 them from springing upon the man and tear- 
 ing him to pieces ; and when he was safely 
 lodged in the potato-house, they dashed 
 in howling, barking circles around it. Be- 
 fore locking him in for the night, Brer caused 
 Nip to cut the cords that bound his hands 
 and to spread on the ground a pallet that 
 Mrs. Lee had provided. 
 
 The prize was safe till morning ; and Brer 
 and Nip bounded like deer back to the woods, 
 where the fire was making alarming head- 
 way. 
 
 Mr. Lee, however, was an experienced fire- 
 fighter. When he saw that the rushing 
 wave of fire had become too fierce to be 
 beaten out with pine-tops, he took a lighted 
 brand, and drawing it through the pine-
 
 192 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 straw some rods in front of the advancing 
 flames, he kindled a counter line of fire, 
 which, seizing eagerly upon the intervening 
 pine-straw and grass, and drawn in by the 
 fierce upward draught caused by the in- 
 tense heat of both fires, rushed to meet 
 the advancing sheet of flame; and in a 
 few moments the two lines of fire had met 
 and died quietly away for lack of fuel. The 
 feeble flames that had resisted the draught 
 and had crept onward over the long stretch 
 of dry grass were easily brushed out by the 
 boys and Mr. Lee. 
 
 When that was accomplished, the danger 
 was chiefly over ; still there remained scat- 
 tered over the blackened region burning trees 
 up which the flames were swirling to the 
 very limbs ; and these at any moment might 
 fall, or throw a burning branch into the un- 
 burned district, and thus start a new fire. 
 
 Mr. Lee took all possible precautions 
 against such an unfortunate occurrence,
 
 THE TRAMP. 193 
 
 sweeping down the flames from such trees 
 as it was possible to save, and burning the 
 grass away in wide circles about burning 
 trees that stood dangerously near the limits 
 of the unburnt region. 
 
 The boys darted briskly about, lending 
 a helping hand here, using their pine-tops 
 wherever there was need, shouting excitedly 
 to one another, and enjoying not a little the 
 novelty and fun. They looked like imps of 
 darkness as they sprang about over the 
 strangely charred and smoking ground, 
 weirdly lighted and shadowed by the flaring 
 light from the burning trees. 
 
 It was long past midnight when they 
 turned their faces toward home, such 
 smutted, hollow-eyed faces ! Nip was the 
 only one whose complexion did not suffer 
 from such begriming work. 
 
 But, oh, how tired they were ! They did 
 not realize it until they were washed ; and 
 then, when they tumbled into bed, every 
 
 13
 
 194 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 bone in their bodies seemed to have the tooth- 
 ache. And their eyes were so heavy ! They 
 would have time to think about the tramp 
 in the morning. 
 
 The morning, however, was well advanced 
 before they awoke from their sleep of ex- 
 haustion ; and when they staggered stiffly 
 from the Owlets' Roost, they found that 
 their father had already harnessed Pacer 
 in the long wagon, and was about to start 
 with their prisoner to Grandma's Bay. He 
 questioned the boys closely about their 
 encounter with the tramp on the previous 
 night, and put the wig and beard into the 
 wagon. 
 
 " Had n't you better take Brer, or both 
 the boys with you ? " Mrs. Lee asked. 
 
 " Oh, no ; the boys had better stay here. 
 They 'd be apt to get a glimpse of the world 
 that they are better off without at present. 
 This man is an escaped convict, I am sure. 
 You need n't worry about me, Lyla. I shall
 
 THE TRAMP. 195 
 
 take old Snap and my rifle along ; and if the 
 fellow shows a disposition to resist, he '11 find 
 that neither the dog nor I can be trifled with. 
 He shall drive, and I shall sit behind. 
 There 's not the least risk." 
 
 The boys did not know whether to be 
 pleased or not at this summary disposition 
 of their captive. They hated the sight of 
 him, and yet they felt a sort of ownership 
 in him, and rather wished that they might 
 have a hand in delivering him over to the 
 authorities. However, they never disputed 
 their father's judgment ; and they hurried 
 about, helping to arrange for his departure. 
 
 It was when he was seated in the wagon 
 in which he himself was obliged to drive to 
 his own fearful destiny that the tramp faced 
 about, and wrathfully shaking his fist at the 
 boys, cried huskily, 
 
 " You youngsters ain't a-goin' to forget 
 me, the man that you sent back to jail 
 without his ever havin' done you a bit of
 
 196 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 harm ! I ain't a-goin' to forget you, you bet ! 
 When I come to the gallows, I '11 think of 
 those skulkin' youngsters that sent me there. 
 I '11 curse " 
 
 " Stop that, and drive on ! " thundered 
 Mr. Lee ; and with the pressure of cold steel 
 against his temple, the man obeyed. 
 
 The boys looked uneasily at each other, 
 standing still where the wagon had left them. 
 
 " If he did rit hurt us, he would uv if he 
 could uv. What else was he planning when 
 he swore there at the fire and shook his fist 
 toward the Water-Oaks ? " cried Gene, de- 
 fensively. 
 
 " I don't see how we could have done any- 
 thing else, especially when he took the rifle," 
 said Brer, his face much troubled. 
 
 " He boun' kill somebody wiv Brer's rifle, 
 suah, ef we-uns doan mek 'im drap it," was 
 Nip's conviction. 
 
 " You did just right and bravely, boys," 
 said Mamma, reassuringly. " The man is des-
 
 THE TRAMP. 197 
 
 perate and wicked, not fit to be at large, 
 a danger in any community. You need n't 
 feel in the least troubled by his words. Don't 
 think of them." 
 
 But the boys did think of them, Brer 
 and Gene, at least, though they tried their 
 best to forget them. They were not greatly 
 troubled, of course, since Mamma had said 
 they had done right ; still it was not pleasant 
 to think that they had sent a man to the 
 gallows. Fortunately, they never knew posi- 
 tively that he was hung, though Mr. Lee, 
 when he delivered him to the proper authori- 
 ties, found out that he had been convicted of 
 a very terrible crime. What the crime was, 
 he never told the boys. 
 
 There was one agreeable circumstance 
 connected with the adventure of the tramp 
 that went far toward easing the boys' con- 
 sciences. The judge had been so pleased 
 with the story of their bravery in capturing 
 the man that he had declared they ought to
 
 198 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 have at least the amount offered for cap- 
 turing an incendiary, and since they had 
 seen the man in the very act of firing the 
 woods, they were fully entitled to the reward. 
 So, upon his return, their father smilingly 
 gave to both Brer and Gene a gold-piece 
 equal in value to a barrel of pecan-nuts in 
 the fall.
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 199 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 BRER'S RIDE. 
 
 SPRING is such a rushing time under the 
 water-oaks that the boys had at this season 
 but little time for sport ; but they had such 
 jolly rollicking times over their work that 
 they enjoyed it almost as much as play. 
 Moreover, it was such a pleasure to them to 
 feel that they were helping, and to hear 
 their father say : 
 
 " I 'm right proud of my boys. They can 
 do almost as much work in a day as two full- 
 grown men. They 're worth a dozen lazy 
 no 'count niggers." 
 
 Nip, in a way, worked with the boys, of 
 course ; but somehow it was so unnatural 
 for Nip to do anything but frolic, that it 
 seemed almost as ridiculous to require
 
 200 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 work of him as of Flo or any of the other 
 dogs. 
 
 Still, in spring every hand was needed ; 
 for besides the ordinary work, there was the 
 ploughing and planting, cattle-hunting and 
 branding, milking and churning, sheep-driv- 
 ing and sheep-shearing, fruit gathering and 
 preserving, and a thousand and one other 
 things to be done before the children could 
 hope to see the sparkling waters of Grand- 
 ma's Bay. 
 
 The first thing to be done was to feed up 
 Muley-Mule a little with oats, so that she 
 would have strength to plough the patches. 
 Mr. Lee often suffered greatly from hoarse- 
 ness in those days, for Muley-Mule was so 
 stubborn and so weak, and the " po' pine 
 Ian' " so clayey and rough, that a tremendous 
 amount of geeing and hawing was necessary 
 before all the patches were furrowed. But 
 the ploughing, sooner or later, was always 
 accomplished, and Muley-Mule was turned
 
 BEER'S RIDE. 201 
 
 forth again to enjoy her life of undisturbed 
 leisure. The poor creature really did enjoy 
 life at this season. It was the happiest time 
 of the year for her. It is true, the measure 
 of oats was no longer doled out to her ; but 
 that was of no consequence when tender 
 sweet grass was springing up all through the 
 burnt regions, making beautiful green slopes 
 for the long shadows of the pines to stretch 
 across, and, what Muley-Mule cared for, af- 
 fording delicious pasturage upon which 
 she could feast her ribs full, with a delight- 
 ful sense of deserving from work well 
 done. 
 
 The old mule actually became fat and 
 frisky from good living. At night she would 
 come trotting gayly back to the trough with 
 her ears coquettishly cocked, and her nose 
 comically smutted from contact with the 
 fire-blackened ground. 
 
 Brer, always busy filling the trough at the 
 time of Muley-Mule's visit, would greet her
 
 202 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 comical appearance with a derisive shout, 
 while Nip, usually Brer's shadow, would ad- 
 dress her tauntingly, 
 
 " Heah come de Beauty ob de piney woods 
 to look at herself in dis yer fine lookin'-glass. 
 Hi, dar, Muley-Mule ! yo' done forgit wash 
 yo' face an' comb yo' ha'r, an' put de powda 
 on. Doan go fo' to put yo' triflin' nigga 
 face in dis yer fine basin w'at quality ho'ses 
 gwine drink from." 
 
 Muley-Mule, being so comfortable in body, 
 was too amiable in mind to resent this 
 impudence, except by a provoking turn of 
 her long left ear, and perhaps by a longer 
 draught of water than necessary, thereby 
 forcing Brer to draw an extra bucketful 
 from the well. And every bucket counted ; 
 8,395 a year was Brer's reckoning, averag- 
 ing twenty-three per day, sometimes more, 
 sometimes fewer, usually more. 
 
 There were the two buckets on the back 
 gallery to be kept full of the sweet spark-
 
 BREK'S RIDE. 203 
 
 ling water from the new well, also Aunt 
 Nance's buckets in the kitchen. As the new 
 well was furnished with a nice new pump, 
 drawing the house water was a compara- 
 tively light task ; but it seemed to Brer that 
 the two buckets in the old well must be con- 
 stantly coming up and going down, in order 
 to keep the trough from going dry. It must 
 be confessed that he sometimes grumbled 
 over the lavish use of water under the 
 water-oaks ; but as he really took great pride 
 in keeping buckets and trough sparkling to 
 the brim, it is possible that this grumbling 
 was indulged in for the sake of rousing Gene 
 to controversy rather than to express any 
 discontent with his work. 
 
 It was Gene's nominal duty to chop the 
 light wood that his father hauled with old 
 Pacer from the woods. In summer of 
 course this task was trifling ; but in winter, 
 especially during a cold snap, when the peo- 
 ple under the water-oaks had no idea of
 
 204 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 stinting themselves in the use of wood, or 
 of keeping doors closed, it was by no means 
 light work to keep Aunt Nance's wood-box 
 full, and the piles of back-logs and light 
 wood in the gallery up to a respectable 
 height. At these times Mr. Lee and Brer 
 always came to his assistance ; but the re- 
 sponsibility of the job was Gene's, and the 
 whacking of his fine sharp axe or the trund- 
 ling of his new wheel-barrow might be heard 
 at any moment. But he had his reward, 
 not only in the consciousness of well-doing, 
 but in his supreme satisfaction at night 
 when the back -logs were laid and the light 
 wood skilfully adjusted, and he lay on the 
 hearth-rug watching the red flames smile 
 and roar up the chimney, and felt that he 
 had furnished the fuel for such luxurious 
 warmth and glorious light. 
 
 When Brer, with a great show of being 
 imposed upon, would count up his water- 
 buckets, Gene would cry scornfully, " Draw-
 
 BEER'S RIDE. 205 
 
 ing water, that 's nothing ! Cutting light- 
 ud now, that takes muscle ! It takes a 
 man to swing an axe and haul wood ! How 
 many stick do you reckon- 1 cut in a year ? 
 You could n't count 'em ! " 
 
 "I could count them in two minutes. 
 Just try watering this family one day, and 
 you '11 see who does the work. If I was n't 
 ashamed to do such baby work, I 'd change," 
 Brer would remark with provoking conde- 
 scension. 
 
 " Oh, yes, change ! You 're too sharp to 
 change. Come on, let 's." 
 
 " Black-jack 's betta 'n white oak ! " 
 
 This sharp interruption, if the boys were on 
 the gallery steps, would sound from the ridge- 
 pole directly over their heads ; if they were 
 at the light-wood pile, it would drop from the 
 cedar branches above, repeated immediately 
 on this side of the roof, in an instant on the 
 other, in the tree under which they stood ;
 
 206 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 from the far edge of the grove, or after an 
 instant's pause, from the distant patches. 
 
 " Black-jack 's betta 'n white oak ! " 
 
 With a whoop, the boys would start in 
 pursuit, for of course it was Nip mimicking 
 the whippoorwill that haunted the clearing 
 in the moonlight nights of summer, hiding 
 herself in the dark branches, and persisted in 
 shouting out for half the night, in rapid, 
 shrill, and positive iterations, the trite opin- 
 ion that black-jack is better than white oak, 
 as if any one would take the trouble to 
 notice her, except with a pine-knot, if one 
 could only get good aim. 
 
 It was far easier to make a good shot at 
 Nip than at the sly night bird, cunning and 
 spry though the little darky was ; but it was 
 only with harmless pine-burrs that the boys 
 would pelt him until he would drop upon 
 them, and all three boys, urged on by the 
 wild barking of the dogs and the excited
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 207 
 
 cries of the girls, would have a glorious 
 tumble that would effectually banish any 
 remaining feelings of rivalry between the 
 drawer of water and the hewer of wood. 
 
 The other daily chores of the boys were 
 light, corn-husking for the horses, corn- 
 shelling for Mamma's turkeys and chickens, 
 feeding the few cattle that were kept about 
 the place the year around for the scant supply 
 of milk that could be drawn from their shriv- 
 elled bags, penning and unpenning the year- 
 lings, feeding the shotes. Working together 
 and with Nip made these duties fun pure 
 and simple, unless, indeed, they happened to 
 interfere with the more urgent occupation 
 of trailing a rabbit, treeing a squirrel, or 
 shooting doves and partridges in the pasture. 
 
 Sometimes Neal and Joy, for the proud 
 privilege of enjoying the boys' society, would 
 make a pretence of helping with the husk- 
 ing or the shelling, but the little girls were 
 usually content to devote the moments that
 
 208 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 they could snatch from play to helping 
 Mamma feed the turkeys and chickens, to 
 hunting hidden nests, and to nursing mother- 
 less, downy pee-wees and wee-wees. 
 
 In the planting season, in order to leave 
 Gene at liberty to help his mother garden, 
 old Pete was summoned to help Mr. Lee and 
 Brer seed the patches. Pete was a shiftless 
 worker, a very unequal substitute for Gene. 
 He was a charmingly social old darky, how- 
 ever ; and the boys immensely enjoyed hav- 
 ing him about. He was wonderfully weather- 
 wise and Bible-wise. The boys delighted in 
 asking him questions to draw out profoundly 
 ridiculous answers. His self-confidence was 
 never in the least shaken by the failure of 
 the weather to come up to his prophecies ; 
 and although he had forfeited his member- 
 ship to more than one church from his utter 
 inability to " tell de truf," still he emphati- 
 cally assured the boys that he " knowed his 
 Bible," and to prove his religious tendencies
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 209 
 
 lifted up his voice over his hoeing and rolled 
 forth original psalm-tunes in such prodi- 
 gious volume that the clearing fairly rang 
 with hallelujahs. 
 
 Labor was not congenial to Pete. When 
 Mr. Lee and Brer were absent, he usually 
 sat in the shade of the fence and snoozed ; 
 or if he were lonely, he would try to entice 
 the boys out for company by loud and im- 
 portunate cries for " wata." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I reckon Pete thinks we 're his 
 niggers," Gene would remark sarcastically, 
 giggling at the notion ; but finally, when he 
 had sufficiently enjoyed Pete's calls, he would 
 fill the tin bucket and with Nip trot out to 
 the patch. 
 
 In the vegetable garden, Gene and his 
 mother were head-gardeners, while Nance 
 and the girls assisted or bothered, as the case 
 might be. Gene considered it a great privi- 
 lege to be allowed to work here instead of in 
 the patches, not only because he delighted to 
 
 14
 
 210 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 work with his mother, whom he served with 
 beautiful devotion and gallantry, but also 
 because the entire process of gardening was 
 in itself such a pleasure, enriching and 
 cultivating the clayey soil into mellow, in- 
 viting beds, marking the straight grooves for 
 the seeds, dropping them in at nice depths 
 and covering them with careful patting. 
 After this came a little pause, when he 
 waited with suppressed excitement for the 
 magic work of the warm sun and the gentle 
 rains, until his keen eyes spied the first green 
 tips peeping forth in the identical places 
 where he had hidden the seeds away ; then 
 followed the prolonged delight of watching 
 the little sprouts develop into lettuce, peas, 
 beans, Irish potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages, 
 squashes, just as he had planned ; the blos- 
 soming, the forming, and maturing, and 
 finally the proud triumph of gathering the 
 messes for Aunt Nance to serve in savory 
 dishes to the admiring family. Were ever
 
 BREK'S RIDE. 211 
 
 peas and beans and potatoes so delicious as 
 Mamma's and his, or lettuce so crisp ? 
 
 The next year, when Miss Sue, the teacher 
 from the North, with the little Yankee, 
 Tommy, was ruling the Owlets' Roost, she 
 one day announced in the easy, offhand 
 way she had of setting tasks that caused 
 the school to lift its six hands in dismay, 
 that each pupil should write, within a lim- 
 ited time, a composition on a subject of his 
 own choosing. 
 
 After a soul-racking time of indecision, 
 during which he suspended his pencil over 
 every conceivable subject without being able 
 to make a scratch, on the very last evening 
 of grace, poor Gene sat down and wrote 
 about his garden, and before he was half 
 through telling about it, he had discovered 
 to his astonishment that composition was 
 great fun, after all ; and not being able 
 to write all he knew about gardening 
 in one composition, he continued it the
 
 212 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 very next time that Miss Sue gave him an 
 opportunity. 
 
 During the milking season, which began 
 with the penning of the cattle in the spring, 
 and lasted through summer-time, Gene had 
 a task that was not nearly so much to his 
 liking as gardening. 
 
 " Churning ! I hate churning ! " he even 
 went so far as to declare. But that was 
 either before or after the churning season ; 
 when he actually was at it he made no com- 
 plaint. Indeed, from appearances, one might 
 judge that he really liked it ; at least, he 
 made the most of it. 
 
 He was acknowledged the champion 
 churner under the water-oaks, with the 
 exception of his father. 
 
 " I reckon nobody carn't squeeze de milk 
 so dry lak yo' pa. I 'low de shotes boun' 
 miss de butta when yo' pa done churn de 
 milk," was Nip's remark. 
 
 " I reckon Nip is right," Mr. Lee laughed, 
 when he overheard it.
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 213 
 
 The churning was done immediately after 
 breakfast, in the cool of the morning. 
 
 " Ready, Mamma ! " Gene would call ; and 
 Mamma, with the sun-sweetened skimmer in 
 her hand, would come down the gallery steps 
 in her leisurely, smiling way, and cross the 
 yard to the dairy under the shed of the new 
 well. 
 
 When the yellow cream was skimmed 
 from the pans, and the churn was filled and 
 in position on a new yellow pine board, Gene, 
 with the proud air of being monarch of all 
 he surveyed, would take his seat of honor 
 upon the wooden bench ; pressing his little 
 knees against the churn in as close imita- 
 tion of Papa as possible, or with Nip's small 
 legs clasped firmly about the base to steady 
 it, he would begin the splash, splash, dash, 
 splash. 
 
 Truly a more comfortable or charming 
 spot for working on a warm spring morning 
 it is impossible to imagine.
 
 214 UNDEK THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Throughout the clearing, over the patches, 
 the air was glaring and hot, and quivering 
 with the rays of the fierce Southern sun ; 
 but upon the house and the yard lay the 
 dense, grateful shade of the water-oaks and 
 the nut-trees, while a cool breeze from the 
 distant bay swept softly under the branches, 
 playing lightly with Mamma's hair, as she 
 sat rocking gently on the corner of the 
 gallery, with some sewing in her hands. 
 
 Under the deepest shade of the largest 
 oak stood the dairy under the well-house, 
 and before it sat Gene, splash-dash-splashing, 
 and casting a stern and observant eye over 
 the premises. For as churning is not an 
 all-absorbing occupation, during this hour 
 when his position as chief churner and only 
 man about invested him with supreme au- 
 thority, Papa and Brer being out in the 
 patches, or in the barn, or off cattle-hunting 
 in the pines, Gene devoted his chief ener- 
 gies to regulating affairs under the water-
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 215 
 
 oaks, trying to discipline the inhabitants 
 of the yard into something like orderly 
 behavior. 
 
 The dogs he could manage easily. " Dogs 
 had some sense." When he ordered them 
 off, they went ; and they knew enough not 
 to worry the tantalizing cats in the kitchen 
 door, when he was about. 
 
 Chickens, Susanna in particular, were 
 everlasting torments, and refused to be any- 
 thing else. Gene had his sling in his pocket 
 and a pile of " rocks " at hand, with which 
 to protect Mamma's plants on the gallery 
 from their scratching ; or if the chickens 
 became indifferent to his shots, he ordered 
 the girls to shoo them off. But the girls ! 
 They were the trial of the hour. The 
 endeavor to make them behave was a 
 task that never ended. During this hour 
 that Gene gave to butter-making and to 
 making them mind, the girls' mischief was 
 as irrepressible as the steam in the molasses
 
 216 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 evaporator when a brisk fire crackled beneath 
 it. Gene had no patience with them. 
 
 Two little black orphan pigs were being 
 raised in the yard, who in their grunting fond- 
 ness for buttermilk constantly threatened to 
 overturn the churn, refusing to be quelled 
 by the vigorous kicking of Gene's bare toes. 
 As a two-edged punishment, struck at once 
 against the girls and against the pigs, Gene 
 commanded Nip to shut up the squealing 
 little creatures in the girls' playhouse. 
 
 This was an insult to the girls, but such a 
 ridiculous one that they could not help gig- 
 gling as they peeked through the cracks at 
 the unwilling tenants of their playhouse. 
 
 " Well," said Neal, at last, determined to 
 make some condition on being forced to 
 submit to this indignity. " If you want 
 us to leave the pigs in there, you 're bound 
 to guess this riddle." 
 
 " Well, what is it ? " demanded Gene, 
 churning away indifferently.
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 217 
 
 " Now, Joy, don't you tell ! " began Neal, 
 her eyes wide and mysterious. " Now, let 
 me see " 
 
 " Mind you get it straight," interrupted 
 Gene. 
 
 " Oh, hush ! You mix me up. Oh, yes ! 
 ' What makes more noise than one pig under 
 a gate ? ' " 
 
 "A hundred," answered Gene, promptly. 
 " Run these puppies off, can't you ? " 
 
 There were always a half-dozen or more 
 of these short-legged, curious-eyed pups tum- 
 bling about the yard and drifting toward the 
 churn ; and tossing them off on his bare feet 
 was much like rolling peas uphill. 
 
 The turkeys, kept in the yard until late in 
 the day, lest they should hide their nests in 
 the woods, were no trouble at all ; they were 
 only amusing, as they manoeuvred in stately 
 circles, or halted in gobbling chorus. Some- 
 times a strategic movement would result in 
 the discovery of a snake, around which they
 
 218 UNDER THE WATLR-OAKS. 
 
 would draw their lines in closer and closer 
 circles, tiptoeing with the greatest caution, 
 cocking upon the squirming enemy first one 
 eye, then the other, and questioning one an- 
 other with the liveliest concern with regard 
 to its probable nature. " Look out ! See it ? 
 See it ! Peek ! Peek ? Peek ! Peek ! " 
 
 This cry of course would summon Gene 
 from the churn, which he would surrender 
 to the girls with stern charges not to whip 
 the butter back nor to upset the churn, while 
 he marched manfully off to despatch the in- 
 truding reptile and relieve the anxiety of 
 the turkeys. 
 
 On the whole, the churning hour was 
 rather interesting to all concerned, especially 
 at the close, when buttermilk was served. 
 
 Indeed, compared with Brer's work, churn- 
 ing was mere sport. Gene never would have 
 felt the least twinge of the envy that some- 
 times caused him to watch with longing eyes 
 Brer's departure with his father, had he
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 219 
 
 known what it was to " rope calves " or to 
 " cow-hunt." 
 
 To be sure, Brer had ample compensation 
 for his harder work in his added sense of 
 dignity from association with his father and 
 the other men. Still, it was right hard for a 
 little fellow Mr. Lee himself acknowledged 
 that to tumble out of bed at the first pale 
 glimmer of dawn, and go out through the 
 warm moist air to the steaming cow-pen, 
 to rope the hungry calves while Papa took 
 his share of milk from the shrivelled bags of 
 the poor piney-woods cows ; but Brer did 
 this every morning after the cows began to 
 come up. At first he used to become dizzy 
 from faintness ; but his father would catch 
 him up and lay him upon a board that was 
 placed for the purpose across the corner of 
 the rail fence, and leave him to come to him- 
 self while he went on to finish the milking 
 before " sun-up." 
 
 In addition to his work in the pen, this
 
 220 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 year, for the first time, Brer rode with the 
 cow-drivers through the woods. 
 
 Mr. Lee was a good herdsman and a good 
 shepherd. He knew at a glance every one 
 of his cattle that ranged through the piney 
 woods ; and he remembered the face of every 
 woolly back, though the sheep aside from 
 the one flock that slept under the cedar- 
 grove never approached the clearing ex- 
 cept once a year, when they were gathered 
 from far and near for the shearing. 
 
 Brer, however, and the other children 
 except, of course, Nip could not tell their 
 papa's cattle from those of Cousin Will or 
 Uncle Jim, except for the brand ; and to 
 them the sheep looked as much alike as so 
 many cotton-bolls. 
 
 It was Mr. Lee's wish that Brer should 
 become more familiar with the herds and 
 flocks. " So if anything should happen to 
 me, my son, you would know how to man- 
 age for your mother and sisters," he said.
 
 BEER'S HIDE. 221 
 
 Accordingly, while still in knee-breeches, 
 Brer mounted old Nag and rode off with 
 the men. 
 
 Unlike bear-hunting and deer-hunting, 
 cow-hunting is no sport. It is downright 
 hard work, calling for great endurance of 
 hunger and fatigue, and for much patience 
 in driving stubborn cattle. 
 
 At an appointed time, the hunters Un- 
 cle Jim, Cousin Will, and the other piney- 
 woodsmen meet at the Water- Oaks, or at 
 some other homestead clearing, and separat- 
 ing in companies of twos and threes, scour 
 the woods in all directions. 
 
 At night, each company drive such cattle 
 as they have found, without regard to brands, 
 into the pen of the most convenient clearing, 
 often the hunters themselves remaining at 
 the homestead of that clearing over night, 
 to spare themselves and horses unnecessary 
 travel. The next morning they go forth 
 again, sometimes for a half-dozen successive
 
 222 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 mornings, until all the cattle are penned. 
 Then, in turn, all the pens are visited, each 
 driver claiming and branding his own cat- 
 tle, and if he so chooses, separating them 
 from the others to drive to his own cow- 
 pen. By the time that this is all accom- 
 plished, the hunters are pretty thoroughly 
 exhausted. 
 
 " I don't know how the rest of you feel 
 about it, but for my part I 'm right glad 
 I'm bound for home to-morrow, instead of 
 for the woods,'* exclaimed Uncle Jim, on 
 the last evening of the hunt. 
 
 He and Cousin Will were sitting with the 
 family at the tea-table on the cool gallery, 
 helping themselves to the bountiful supply of 
 bacon and hominy, corn-pone and molasses. 
 
 " It 's been a right jolly hunt for me, sure," 
 said Cousin Will, reaching for the molasses- 
 pitcher. " I 'm mighty lucky this year. I 've 
 lost only two critters, and I 've a right smart 
 lot of young calves."
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 223 
 
 " It 's been a lucky winter all round the 
 piney-woods for cattle," remarked Mr. Lee. 
 " I 've only missed one cow-beast, and I 'm 
 sure I sighted her not two weeks ago, at the 
 head of Bay River, too. Unless she 's stuck 
 in the swamp, she must be alive somewhere, 
 with all this new grass to eat. I 've a no- 
 tion to make another day of it with Brer, 
 and hunt her up." 
 
 " You 'd best, if it 's that pied cow you 
 were telling of ; she 's worth the time. And 
 I 'd trust you, Bud, if you found nothing but 
 a bag of bones, to put life into them." 
 Cousin Will pushed back his chair, with a 
 teasing laugh. 
 
 " Yes, Bud has sense enough to keep what 
 he 's got," said Uncle Jim. " He is n't go- 
 ing to leave half the butter in the milk for 
 the hogs, either." 
 
 " You 're right there, boys ; I prefer to 
 keep the butter for nearer kin," retorted 
 Mr. Lee, with a good-natured twinkle in his
 
 224 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 eye. " If I do squeeze the milk for the 
 butter, there are those who like to eat the 
 butter, and they are right welcome to it," 
 he added, not in the least offended by their 
 teasing reference to his well-known habits 
 of close economy and thrift. 
 
 " I 'm mighty glad you feel that way, 
 Bud," called Cousin Will, strolling to the 
 other end of the gallery to light his pipe ; 
 " for I 'm bound to drop in every time the 
 wind blows toward the Water-Oaks. A cup 
 of Lyla's coffee and a filling of her potato- 
 pone are necessary once a month to keep me 
 going." 
 
 " If you say so, Bud, I '11 stay over and 
 help hunt that cow," said Uncle Jim, as he 
 rose and drew his tobacco-pouch from his 
 pocket. 
 
 " Oh, no ; just as much obliged, but Brer 
 and I can manage first-rate, I reckon." 
 
 Early the next morning Uncle Jim and 
 Cousin Will started for their homes on the
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 225 
 
 Bay, driving before them such cattle as they 
 chose to milk during the summer. 
 
 Mr. Lee and Brer rode off too, but in an 
 opposite direction. They turned their horses' 
 heads toward the source of Bay River, and 
 rode at a comfortable pace along the bridle- 
 path. 
 
 The distance before them was long to the 
 spot where Mr. Lee had last seen the pied 
 cow ; but they had the whole day for the 
 hunt, and Jinny and Nag, having been jog- 
 ging steadily all the week, were disposed to 
 take their own time. 
 
 Toward noon, thunder-heads lifted above 
 the pines in the far northwest, and the low 
 mutterings of a storm sounded in the dis- 
 tance ; but the clouds having threatened in 
 this way every day of the past week, and 
 then drifted around the hunters to empty 
 their contents on some distant portion of 
 the piney woods, Mr. Lee and Brer rode on 
 in careless unconcern of the weather-signs. 
 
 15
 
 226 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 They were as silent as two Indians, as they 
 rode over the rounded knolls and sunny hol- 
 lows of the open piney woods, across rough 
 bowlder-strewed ledges, along the densely 
 wooded course of winding branches, or 
 paused a moment in the rippling fords 
 while Jinny and Nag thrust their noses into 
 the clear water. With no sound to disturb 
 the ceaseless swishing of the pines overhead, 
 save the steady trot, trot, trot, of their horses, 
 the occasional sweet call of the meadow-lark 
 in the sunny distance, and once the chopping 
 of a woodman's axe, they passed through the 
 long distances of the woods, over Gum-Tree 
 Branch, across the resin-coated ground of the 
 deserted turpentine still, past the deserted 
 Holly place, with its open doors and fallen 
 fences, near a cluster of silent negro cabins 
 with the tall, lone chimney beyond them, 
 marking the abandoned hearthstone of an 
 old house. 
 
 Brer and Nag, following, jogged indiffer-
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 227 
 
 ently along. Jinny, however, leading the 
 way, was wide awake, picking careful steps 
 along the rain-washed trail, or over or 
 around a fallen tree that blocked the path ; 
 while Mr. Lee, erect and intent, with keen 
 eye, glanced sharply on every side for traces 
 of the pied cow, or for tracks of " varmint," 
 enemies to his flocks and herds. 
 
 " Ah ! " he exclaimed at last, bringing 
 Jinny to an abrupt standstill. " Look yon- 
 der ! " He pointed upward ; and Brer, fol- 
 lowing his finger, after a moment of intent 
 gazing, perceived a black speck up in the 
 sky that, as he watched, grew gradually 
 larger, descending into plain sight, at last, 
 as a large long-winged buzzard. 
 
 " Look yonder ! "he cried again, as more 
 soaring specks appeared, seemingly from out 
 the blue, and slowly dropped into view. 
 
 " They 're making for the swamp, sure. 
 We 're too late to find the pied cow. It 
 looks like the fire had driven her into
 
 228 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 the swamp, and the poor critter had n't 
 strength to pull herself out. Go 'long, 
 Jinny." As they rode forward, the region 
 about the head of the river showed, by its 
 blackened surface just beginning to brighten 
 with the green tips of piercing grass-blades, 
 that the woods here had just burned. 
 
 Having approached the thicket of the 
 spring, Mr. Lee threw himself from Jinny, 
 and handing the bridle to Brer, carefully 
 examined the soft mud of the various paths 
 that led under the thick underbrush of the 
 swamp. He disappeared from view ; but 
 Brer could hear the breaking of twigs and 
 swinging of branches as his father pushed 
 his way through the dense, tangled bushes. 
 He also could hear a significant sound that 
 he knew well, the slow flapping of the 
 clumsy buzzards as they settled about the 
 tempting feast that had drawn them down 
 from the sky. 
 
 He was tired of the saddle, and thirsty, so
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 229 
 
 he dismounted ; and having tied the horses 
 to a couple of gum-trees, he went down the 
 path to the spring, where the water was 
 always cool and sweet, under the white- 
 stemmed magnolia-tree that shaded it and 
 furnished a liberal supply of thick, shiny 
 leaves for drinking-cups. He lingered a 
 few moments in the delicious coolness, care- 
 lessly cutting his mark in the soft bark of 
 the tree, while he vaguely wondered at the 
 intense gloom of the place that the shade of 
 the trees seemed hardly sufficient to cause. 
 
 Presently his father called him. 
 
 "Son! Son!" 
 
 " Ho ! " answered Brer, promptly. 
 
 Running back to the horses, he found his 
 father already mounted on Jinny, and with 
 Nag's bridle in his hand. 
 
 " Look sharp ! " said Mr. Lee, who was 
 anxiously scanning the sky. " The cow is 
 swamped, and the buzzards have got her, 
 and we 're in for a good wetting. We '11
 
 230 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 make for old man Johnson's clearing. Keep 
 Nag up right close, now." 
 
 Brer sprang to Nag's back, and the old 
 horse instantly wheeled about and galloped 
 rapidly after Jinny, who, under Mr. Lee's 
 careful guidance, wound nimbly among the 
 pines, springing lightly over fallen logs and 
 avoiding sink-holes in a way astonishing, 
 had not her rider been almost as familiar 
 with every foot of piney-woods ground as 
 with his own particular clearing under the 
 water-oaks. 
 
 But the swift-coming storm was already 
 upon them. The pine-tops were swaying 
 and moaning restlessly in the rising wind; 
 dense clouds were pressing heavily down, 
 filling the woods with a gloom that was all 
 a-quiver with lightning-flashes ; the rolling 
 of thunder broke into startling crashes, and 
 large rain-drops were already falling. 
 
 " Look sharp ! " shouted Mr. Lee over his 
 shoulder, urging Jinny to greater speed, for
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 231 
 
 he well knew the dangers from falling trees 
 in a storm. 
 
 The storm rapidly increased in fury ; great 
 trees swayed threateningly ; the rain swept 
 down in sheets, soaking to the skin, and 
 blinding both horses and riders. It was 
 impossible to make headway in such con- 
 fusion. 
 
 Mr. Lee suddenly turned Jinny into a sap- 
 ling thicket and brought her to a standstill 
 under the partial shelter of the young trees. 
 Nag carried Brer close alongside. Then they 
 waited, facing the storm, with their hats 
 pulled over their eyes and their shoulders 
 drawn shrinkingly up, for the tempest to 
 spend its fury. The uproar was terrific. 
 The thunder rolled and rattled and crashed ; 
 one dazzling flash of lightning instantly fol- 
 lowed another ; the rain beat upon them 
 pitilessly, swirled and dashed against them 
 from every direction by the wind-tossed 
 saplings.
 
 232 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Shrinking from the flooding, smothering 
 rain, Brer wondered why his father had 
 not sought shelter behind some huge pine ; 
 but, as he grumbled to himself, came the 
 prompt and emphatic answer, as if he had 
 spoken. A sharp tearing and crackling 
 sounded close at hand, followed by a loud, 
 stunning thud that shook the very ground, 
 and caused both horses to spring in terror. 
 Brer almost fell from his saddle, but he 
 recovered himself, and managed to keep 
 hold of the bridle. Nag at once stood 
 still, though Brer could feel her trembling 
 under him. It was a falling tree. Brer 
 had heard the sound many times, but always 
 from a distance. 
 
 "A mighty close call," shouted Mr. Lee, 
 bringing Jinny back to Nag's side, " but 
 we 're one tree safer." 
 
 " Lightning struck ? " yelled Brer. 
 
 " No, a rotten Lor ! " 
 
 There was a dazzling flash ; a frightful,
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 233 
 
 tearing crash. It seemed to Brer as if the 
 very heavens were shattering and falling 
 upon them. He instinctively fell forward 
 upon Nag's neck; none too soon, for with 
 a snort and a bound of terror, the old horse 
 seized the bit, and dashed madly into the 
 forest and the raging storm. Clinging des- 
 perately about her neck, and pressing closely 
 with his body, Brer closed his eyes and 
 held his breath in dreadful expectation that 
 the next instant he would be dashed against 
 a pine-tree or crushed beneath Nag in a 
 sink-hole. But on and on and on they 
 dashed, up a*nd down, and through splash- 
 ing water. Brer could not think, he could 
 not even care, where Nag was taking him. 
 He felt as if he were being whirled through 
 a horrible, maddening dream and suddenly 
 came the end, as startling as the fall from a 
 nightmare into a bed of down. 
 
 In a sickening second he felt himself 
 torn from the saddle ; but when he instinc-
 
 234 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 tively nerved himself for a shock, nothing 
 followed. 
 
 Surely this was a dream. He felt about 
 timidly at first, then he struck out wildly 
 in vain attempts to grasp something with 
 hands or feet, but, strangely, there was 
 nothing. 
 
 " Doan flounder 'roun' so lak a turtle," 
 remonstrated a gasping voice above him. 
 
 Brer opened his eyes, expecting to see Nip 
 astride the footboard. But no, he was not 
 in bed ; he was somewhere out in the piney 
 woods. He was suspended in some way, 
 face downward. All he could see was a 
 narrow water-filled trail, running through 
 the pine-straw a few feet below. 
 
 " Watch out whar yo' gwine strike ; I 's 
 boun' drap yo'," said the breathless voice 
 again. 
 
 Brer chose the dryest-looking spot beneath 
 him, and came down lightly on his hands 
 and bare feet. He was up like a spring ;
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 235 
 
 and looking above, he spied Nip's lithe figure 
 pulling itself up on a leafy branch. 
 
 " Is that you, Nip ? " he asked, still 
 stunned by his tempestuous ride, and hardly 
 venturing to believe his senses. 
 
 " I reckon dis nigger am Nip," replied the 
 voice. 
 
 " What you doing up there in this wet ? " 
 
 "I's a-comin' down, Brer." 
 
 The rain had stopped as suddenly as it 
 had begun. The clouds were blown over, 
 and the wind that drove them was gone. 
 The sun had burst forth warmly upon the 
 fresh, dripping woods. 
 
 Nip came down with a shower of drops. 
 
 " Does yo' reckon Nag 's done kilt herself, 
 Brer?" he asked. 
 
 " I don't know. Where is she ? Come 
 on ; we '11 follow her up. Where are we, 
 anyway ? " 
 
 Brer was thoroughly bewildered. 
 
 "Yer we is, under de 'simmon-tree."
 
 236 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Brer gazed about in amazement. Sure 
 enough, here he was on the very edge of 
 the water-oak clearing. Nag had come 
 straight for home by the trail they had 
 travelled in the morning. 
 
 " Oh, Nag 's safe and sound in the barn, 
 I reckon," he exclaimed in relief. 
 
 " I reckon ole Nag 's so scart she doan 
 see de washout in de gully, case I done 
 hear her yell lak she done fall right in." 
 
 " The trail washed into the gully ! Then 
 she 's bound to be down." 
 
 They ran along the wet trail to the head 
 of the gully. The broad overhanging edgo 
 across which the trail ran had broken off 
 abruptly, and carried to the depths below 
 the cluster of saplings that had grown 
 upon it. 
 
 Poor Nag, alas ! had been too frenzied 
 to notice the break in the trail, for there 
 she lay, quite on the other side of the gully 
 bottom.
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 237 
 
 u She was going so fast she just flew right 
 across, and came whack ! head-first, against 
 that far side," cried Brer. 
 
 " I reckon ole Nag done broke her-all 
 neck," said Nip, as they made their way 
 down through the wet sand. 
 
 He was right. The horse's head was bent 
 sideways right under the body, and she was 
 quite dead. 
 
 "What '11 Papa say?" lamented Brer. 
 
 " I reckon he 's boun' feel right bad 'bout 
 ole Nag," said Nip, ruefully. 
 
 "I hope he 's all right." Brer looked anx- 
 iously up to the edge of the gully. " Come 
 on ! I never thought ; Jinny 's bound to do 
 just like old Nag." 
 
 " Miss Lee doan ride wiv his eyes shut," 
 said Nip, reassuringly, as they climbed hur- 
 riedly up. 
 
 " But he might be on the watch-out for 
 me There he is ! Papa / Here ; all 
 right!"
 
 238 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Mr. Lee had checked Jinny on the very 
 edge of the gully, whence he was gazing 
 down at Nag's body with a horror-stricken 
 face. 
 
 At Brer's call, he answered with a hoarse 
 cry of relief, and then he slowly dismounted 
 as if he had been bound by some dreadful 
 spell. 
 
 " Thank God ! " he exclaimed devoutly, 
 when Brer appeared over the edge of the 
 gully. " I thought sure you were lying under 
 Nag down yonder. How did you escape ? " 
 
 "Why, I I do' know. Nip grabbed me." 
 
 " Nip grabbed you ! How in this world 
 could he do that?" 
 
 " I do' know. The first thing I knew, 
 Nag was gone, and I was swinging in air. 
 Then in a minute Nip let go, and I came 
 down to ground." 
 
 " But where was Nip ? " 
 
 " He was in the persimmon-tree, and 
 when Nag came a-tearing along the trail
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 239 
 
 under that long branch, he just I say, 
 Nip, how 'd you manage to keep a grip on 
 the tree?" 
 
 " I dunno, Brer. I jes' twis' my legs 
 roun' lak I does in de water-oaks." 
 
 " Did n't it almost yank you in pieces to 
 pull him off?" asked Mr. Lee. 
 
 " Teard lak Brer ain't gwine let ole Nag 
 go, an' I 'lowed I 's gwine 'long wiv Nag 
 an' Brer into de gully an' leave my legs 
 behind ; but Brer, he done 'cide to 'bide wiv 
 me, so I doan dis'point Neal an' tote her de 
 dewberries w'at I promis' her." 
 
 " So you were out after dewberries, were 
 you, when the rain came on ? That 's how 
 you happened to see the washout." 
 
 "Yas, sah." 
 
 " How 'd you happen to be up in the 
 persimmon-tree ? " 
 
 " I 'lowed de fiah ain't gwine run down 
 from de sky on a 'simmon-tree, de pine-trees 
 a-reachin' up so high fo' it."
 
 240 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " And when you saw old Nag a-thundering 
 along, you just swung under and caught 
 onto me ! " 
 
 " It 's right lucky for you for all of us 
 that Nip happened to be up there and 
 had the grip to hold you, else you 'd be 
 down there with poor Nag this minute." 
 Mr. Lee spoke very soberly ; but he roused 
 himself in a moment. " Come, we must 
 get that saddle and bridle off, and hurry 
 home to your mother ; she '11 be worried 
 about us." 
 
 The fact that Nip had saved Brer's life 
 was fully appreciated by the people under 
 the water-oaks, as they showed by special 
 kindness to him ; they were very grateful, 
 but no one thought it necessary to say so, 
 Nip himself least of all. He understood 
 their feelings without ,the saying, just as 
 Flo or Snap would have understood, and 
 he was perfectly satisfied. Perhaps Neal 
 expressed more appreciation of his deed
 
 BRER'S RIDE. 241 
 
 than any one else. She made him re- 
 late the occurrence over and over again : 
 where he had found the berries ; how he 
 had run when it began to rain ; just how 
 he had happened to go around by the gully ; 
 and why he scrambled up into the persim- 
 mon-tree when he heard that awful clap of 
 thunder; what he had thought when he 
 heard Nag coining, and saw Brer, every- 
 thing; she even inquired anxiously if his 
 joints were not loose. 
 
 " Papa," she asked, after due considera- 
 tion, " don't you think we ought to give 
 Nip a collar, like Cousin Will did old dog 
 Bishop, when he pulled little Lollie out of 
 the creek?" 
 
 16
 
 242 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 GENE OVERCOMES OLD BILLY. 
 
 " Ow ! " cried Gene, shrinking as if he 
 had been seized with hot pincers. "Just 
 look a-here, what I Ve done, will you ? It 
 makes me sick ! " 
 
 Brer had just released a sheep from the 
 shearing-bench, and was watching with a 
 grin the awkward, shorn, sheepish creature, 
 embarrassed by its own lightness, bound un- 
 certainly back to the flock, and huddle in, 
 as if to hide its unbecoming nakedness. 
 
 At Gene's outcry, he crossed over to his 
 bench. 
 
 " Gee ! I should think it would make you 
 sick ! What 's the use of cutting into a 
 critter like that ? "
 
 GENE OVERCOMES OLD BILLY. 243 
 
 " If the thing would squirm, and not lie 
 there like a log, it would n't get cut into. 
 How 's a fellow to know whether he 's cut- 
 ting skin or wool ? I don't believe a sheep 
 would budge if I cut its leg off ! " exclaimed 
 Gene. " I 'd hate to be a sheep, without a 
 spark of spirit ! " 
 
 " Suppose you catch a sheep, and let your 
 brother finish shearing that one," said Mr. 
 Lee, crossing from his own bench to exam- 
 ine Gene's work. " You have managed to 
 cut that poor thing up pretty badly, I 
 declare. Here, catch me that ewe yonder." 
 
 Gene made a dash that scattered the flock, 
 and clutching the ewe by its wool, held it 
 with a determined grip, though the fright- 
 ened creature dragged him all about the pen 
 in its efforts to escape. 
 
 " Come and get her, Papa," he cried, 
 between his teeth. Then addressing the 
 struggling sheep, he muttered, " No, you 
 don't! You just stay where you are."
 
 244 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " Hold on ! Don't let her get away with 
 you ! " cried Mr. Lee, who with Brer was 
 stopping work to enjoy the tussle. " Here 
 you are, old sheep ! You might as well give 
 up first as last when Gene gets hold of you." 
 
 He lifted the sheep easily, stretched it on 
 the bench, and deftly secured its crossed fore- 
 legs under a nicely contrived strap, while 
 Nip fastened the hind-legs in the same way. 
 
 Gene sat panting on an inverted nail-keg. 
 "That ewe's mighty strong," he gasped, 
 " but I was just bound to keep her." 
 
 The open centre of the new barn had been 
 transformed into a sheep-pen. A shearing- 
 bench had been built across one end, and a 
 fence at the rear enclosed considerable space, 
 confining the sheep convenient for catching. 
 The barn was shady and comfortable, with 
 a cooling current of air drawing constantly 
 through it, making it a pleasant working- 
 place even on a day too dazzling to be looked 
 at and too warm for gathering peaches.
 
 GENE OVEKCOMES OLD BILLY. 245 
 
 At times the entire family assembled here, 
 even Mamma with the rest, a great apron 
 over her dress, over-sleeves on her arms, 
 shearing, shearing, shearing, the heavy fleeces 
 from the panting, pink-skinned sheep. 
 
 Nip's place was on the shearing-bench, 
 where it was his business to aid in strapping 
 the captured sheep, keep track of the shears, 
 and carry off the fleeces when they were 
 taken from the uncomplaining sheep. 
 
 Neal and Joy were on the bench too, fidget- 
 ing about, and running slyly from one end 
 to the other for something that they had for- 
 gotten, and that they must have on the in- 
 stant. They were trying hard to keep still, 
 oh, yes, desperately hard, for the per- 
 mission to stay up there was good only so 
 long as they did not bother. If Brer and 
 Gene had not been so fussy there would not 
 have been the least trouble, but the boys 
 always were picking at them, poor things ! 
 Papa and Mamma did not mind their fun, and
 
 246 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Mamma, when she was helping Gene shear, 
 always let them pet the poor tied sheep, 
 keeping so nice and still. 
 
 " You 're such a fine sheep-catcher, sup- 
 pose you catch one for me. I 'm about 
 through with this fellow," said Brer, who 
 was clipping away with all his might, for it 
 was his ambition to shear as many sheep a 
 day as his father. Already he could shear 
 as many as Cousin Will, for he was wonder- 
 fully skilful with the clippers ; and each 
 day he increased his number. Gene pounced 
 upon a black ewe; and after the usual scurry 
 about the pen, amid the excited screaming 
 of Neal and Joy, he brought it triumphantly 
 to Brer's bench. 
 
 " There's some fun in that," he exclaimed, 
 drawing a long breath of satisfaction when he 
 had helped Brer to lift and strap the sheep. 
 
 " I 'd a heap rather chase them than clip, 
 clip, clip, snip, snip, snip, cutting great 
 streaks out of them, and they having no
 
 GENE OVERCOMES OLD BILLY. 247 
 
 more sense than to let me. Ugh ! it makes 
 my flesh creep." 
 
 " Suppose you do all the catching, then, 
 and let those that know the difference be- 
 tween wool and mutton do the shearing," 
 suggested Brer. 
 
 "All right, if you and Papa '11 give me a 
 cent for every one I catch," agreed Gene. 
 
 " I '11 do it if Papa will. Shall we, Papa ? " 
 asked cautious Brer. 
 
 " Yes, it 's a bargain. Fetch me old Billy, 
 Gene, while I finish this one." 
 
 Billy was an old merino ram who had 
 once been a pet under the water-oaks, but 
 at last he had wandered off with the flock. 
 He soon had forgotten his old play-fellows, 
 for when he had spent a year in the woods 
 and came back at the shearing season, he re- 
 fused to take the least notice of the children ; 
 and when they made friendly advances, he 
 received them with a sullen lowering of his 
 immense spiral horns.
 
 248 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Billy did not like the shearing any more 
 than the other sheep, and he had been stand- 
 ing all the morning with his head thrust 
 gloomily into a corner, casting* angry sheep's- 
 eyes whenever a raid was made upon the 
 flock for another victim. 
 
 He always made fierce resistance when his 
 turn came, and Mr. Lee had no idea that 
 Gene would make an attempt to catch the 
 ugly-tempered animal. 
 
 Gene, however, having made a bargain, 
 had no idea of backing out of it the very 
 first thing. 
 
 Billy was rather small, but he was very 
 strong. It sometimes was as much as Mr. 
 Lee himself could do to catch him and strap 
 him down. The great thing was to get a 
 proper hold of him, to begin with. 
 
 Gene carefully examined Billy's position; 
 it seemed to him that it was very favorable. 
 All that he need do was to steal slyly up, 
 land on Billy's back with a quick spring, and
 
 GENE OVERCOMES OLD BILLY. 249 
 
 pull in the sheep's fore-feet, so that he would 
 be on his knees before he could move and. 
 bring those terrible horns into play. 
 
 Accordingly, Gene advanced as quietly as 
 possible among the scattering flock, pretend- 
 ing to have his eye on an old Roman-nosed 
 ewe that stood not far behind the ram, for 
 he knew how watchful and keen Billy was. 
 If he should have a suspicion that he was 
 Gene's object, the chance would be lost. 
 
 Gene was very successful in getting quite 
 near, and he had just spread himself for a 
 short run and a spring, ' when the ram 
 wheeled and darted forward. Before Gene 
 could think, he was lying flat on the sheep's 
 back with both hands buried in the thick 
 wool, and with his feet closely wrapped 
 about Billy's stout neck. 
 
 Now began a wild backward ride, that 
 was like a dizzy tangle of circles to Gene. 
 Around and around dashed Billy, scattering 
 the astonished flock before him, tossing his
 
 250 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 head angrily, prancing stiffly on his four 
 short legs, whirling dizzily in vain effort to 
 throw his rider off, and at last, having suc- 
 cessfully dodged Mr. Lee and Brer in their 
 efforts to head him off and corner him, he 
 made a reckless dash at the gate ; and rising 
 with a determined spring, he came stolidly 
 down on the other side. 
 
 "Let him go! " shouted Mr. Lee. 
 
 But Gene did no such thing. He dug his 
 hands more securely into the matted wool. 
 " Let him .go ! " Not he, after being served 
 such a trick ! Billy might bolt over a pine- 
 top for all he cared. He reckoned he could 
 stand it if Billy could. No, sir, he had got 
 Billy, and he meant to keep him. 
 
 Straight ahead into the piney woods Billy 
 dashed, with quick, short bounds. Gene re- 
 newed his clutch and lifted his head to see 
 what path they were leaving behind them. 
 Ah ! he saw. Billy was on his way back to 
 the pasturing-grounds, where he never had
 
 GENE OVERCOMES -OLD BILLY. 251 
 
 been encumbered with such loads. But 
 Billy's pasture was on the far side of Fish 
 River, and Gene was by no means inclined 
 to travel so far from the Water-Oaks. Cau- 
 tiously he lowered his feet, and gradually 
 worked. up to a sitting posture. The sensa- 
 tion of riding backward was very queer, 
 especially at Billy's rough gait. But to one 
 who had had some experience with horses of 
 various dispositions, and also with Muley- 
 Mule, it was not impossible to keep one's 
 seat, especially so near the ground. 
 
 But although he might stand the ride, 
 Gene had no desire to go on. He could think 
 of no possible way to stop the ram, but at 
 least he could bother him a little. 
 
 Securing a firmer grip of the wool with 
 one hand, he reached carefully around with 
 the other until he could grasp one of Billy's 
 horns, and pulled it backward. 
 
 Billy jerked his head angrily, but Gene held 
 on, though the strain wrenched him severely.
 
 252 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 The ram pranced fiercely at this fresh in- 
 sult, but he was obliged to slacken his pace, 
 and presently Gene noticed that instead of 
 dashing madly ahead, his course was becom- 
 ing more and more curved. He exerted 
 himself to pull the head still farther aside, 
 so that Billy, in following his nose, made a 
 wide circuit, instead of moving so rapidly 
 forward. The ram was losing both spirit 
 and strength under the human burr that 
 clung so persistently to his back, and sud- 
 denly both were pretty well knocked out of 
 him by the blind force with which he ran 
 against a pine-tree. As Billy came to an 
 abrupt stop, and stood half stunned by the 
 unexpected blow, the thought flashed through 
 Gene's head that, after all, his trouble had 
 only begun. Bringing Billy to a standstill 
 was all very satisfactory, but how in the 
 world could he ever make the stubborn crea- 
 ture go back to the "Water-Oaks ? 
 
 Fortunate things happen in the piney
 
 GENE OVERCOMES OLD BILLY. 253 
 
 woods, however, as well as out in the world 
 and in books. Just as Billy began to re- 
 cover from the shock, and was showing very 
 plainly, by a series of butts at the offend- 
 ing tree, that his ugly temper was by no 
 means subdued, Gene heard the welcome 
 music of old Pete's voice. The old darky 
 was approaching along the trail from which 
 Billy's twisted horn had led him astray. 
 Old Pete was singing a psalm-tune at the 
 top of his rich, bass voice, emphasizing it at 
 the end of each stanza by a prolonged roar 
 and an energetic lurch of the hoe which he 
 carried. Although his own uproar prevented 
 his hearing Gene's outcry, he quickly spied 
 the queer steed and his rider; for they do 
 say a piney-woods darky can see through 
 the back of his head, his sight is so keen. 
 
 He ended his song with a wild whoop, and 
 came hurrying forward. 
 
 " Law, Gene, what fo' yo' an' Billy 'way 
 out yer, behaving lak yo' ain't got no sense ?
 
 254 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 What fo' doan yo' sit roun' fo'wa'ds an' tell 
 yo' fool ho'se he carn't butt no trail t'rough a 
 pine-tree ? Tears lak ole Billy boun' jerk yo'- 
 alls to pieces. Bes' git down from dat fine 
 ho'se an' let him root up dat tree by hisself." 
 
 " I ain't going to get down. The old thing 
 brought me here, and he 's got to take me 
 home. I say, Pete, I wish you would whack 
 him with that hoe, and make him quit jar- 
 ring so." 
 
 " All right, Gene. Jest look out fo' yo'- 
 alls legs an' I '11 hoe his wool fo' him. Whoa, 
 you Billy-ho'se ! What fo' yo' doin' Gene 
 dat-a-way ? I 's gwine larn yo' some sense." 
 
 With this, Pete brought his hoe down 
 with a resounding blow on the sheep's side, 
 and dodged behind the pine-tree. But Billy 
 saw him, and darted after him with a speed 
 that caused old Pete to spin around and 
 around before the threatening horns, and 
 almost flung Gene off by centrifugal force. 
 
 "Make for home!" yelled Gene. "If
 
 GENE OVERCOMES OLD BILLY. 255 
 
 you '11 make him follow you home, I '11 make 
 Papa give you a nickel's worth of tobacco," 
 he gasped. 
 
 " All right, Gene ; old Pete ain't gwine lose 
 dat tobac, suah." 
 
 He shook his hoe in the angry ram's face 
 and darted away, Billy bounding after him. 
 More than once the old darky was forced to 
 pause and circle around a pine-tree, while he 
 recovered breath ; and twice, when Billy 
 came to a stubborn standstill, as if he half 
 suspected the game, Pete was obliged to stir 
 up his wrath with the hoe. 
 
 At last they reached the clearing, and 
 after a moment's breathing spell behind the 
 last pine, old Pete offered his last insult to 
 Billy by tossing a pine-burr into his face, 
 and flew straight toward the barn, Billy 
 leaping after him in blind rage. 
 
 Mr. Lee had just saddled Jinny to give 
 chase to the runaways, when he spied them 
 coming at full tilt. He directed Brer to
 
 256 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 open the gate of the sheep-pen wide, while 
 he himself stood in readiness to lay hands 
 on Billy. 
 
 With a yell, old Pete rushed into the pen 
 and bounded to the shearing-bench ; and 
 Billy, regardless of everything but his tor- 
 mentor, was drawing himself up to follow, 
 when Mr. Lee's ready hand seized him and 
 brought him to his knees. In an instant 
 Gene had slid down, and swept the hind-feet 
 of the ram off the ground ; and Billy, spite 
 of his struggles, was soon securely strapped 
 down upon the bench. He made two or 
 three more efforts to escape, but finding 
 them futile, he fell back and lay breathing 
 heavily. 
 
 Gene sank upon the nail-keg and gave 
 vent to his excitement in an hysterical burst 
 of laughter and tears. They all roared and 
 shouted with laughter, but not one shed a 
 tear with him, except those that rose to their 
 eyes from the distress of laughing.
 
 GENE OVERCOMES OLD BILLY. 257 
 
 " I reckon you won't be so keen to catch 
 any more sheep," laughed Brer, holding his 
 sides. 
 
 " Yes, sir," cried Gene, starting suddenly 
 from his collapsed condition. " I 'm going 
 to catch every single one of them ! " 
 
 And so he did. 
 
 17
 
 258 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS ON GRANDMA'S BAY. 
 
 " OH, Mamma, why can't we take Nip to 
 Grandma's Bay?" coaxed Joy, nestling in 
 her mother's lap and twining her soft arms 
 about her neck. "Just this once ! " 
 
 " Do let him go, Mamma ; Nip just ought 
 to see that bay. He thinks it 's nothing but 
 a pond. Why can't he go ?" begged Gene. 
 
 " There is no spare room in the wagon, 
 and Grandma expects only five of us," an- 
 swered Mrs. Lee. Then, with a twinkle in 
 her eye, she suggested, " If one of you 
 should stay here with your father, to help 
 him milk and churn, there would be room 
 for Nip." 
 
 This was an exceedingly awkward pro- 
 posal. The children flushed and ahemmed,
 
 LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS. 259 
 
 but they said never a word for full two 
 minutes. They carefully avoided looking at 
 one another, their whole attention being 
 suddenly concentrated upon the sweet and 
 juicy water-melon of which each held a 
 huge pink chunk. One not knowing that 
 they had been indulging in the delights of 
 water-melon for a week, or not having seen 
 the huge pile that the boys had hauled in 
 from the patch in the early morning and 
 laid in the coolest corner of the dining- 
 room, might have thought that they were so 
 many little epicures enjoying the one melon 
 of the season, such intense and critical de- 
 votion did they devote to their luscious 
 handfuls. 
 
 The children were gathered about Mam- 
 ma's chair, Neal and Joy and Nip on 
 the gallery floor, the two boys on the steps, 
 all lying about in easy attitudes, with the 
 comfortable air of having nothing to do. 
 For at last the busy time was over, and the
 
 260 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 well-earned, delightful rest had come, when 
 they could lounge all day on the gallery, 
 shaded from the blinding glare of the sun 
 by the thick canopy of the water-oaks, and 
 fanned by the cool, spicy breezes from Grand- 
 ma's Bay. 
 
 They had helped Mamma prepare the fruit 
 for preserving, and at the same time they 
 had managed to stow away in their small 
 bodies an incredible quantity of honey-burst 
 figs, luscious peaches, and cool melons. Such 
 congenial occupation did not interfere in the 
 least with their chattering; all their plans 
 for Grandma's Bay were made, and to-mor- 
 row why, they really were going ! 
 
 The figs had been soured by the last rain ; 
 but there were still tempting peaches on the 
 trees and great round melons in the patch. 
 These they were willing to leave for Papa, 
 but Nip they hated to leave Nip behind. 
 
 Which one of them could be generous 
 enough to give up that long-anticipated
 
 LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS. 261 
 
 visit in favor of Nip ? Each waited to give 
 the others a chance to make this praise- 
 worthy sacrifice. 
 
 At last Neal asked rather doubtfully, but 
 with a sly twinkle, very much like Mamma's, 
 in her eye, 
 
 " Would n't Grandma be dreadfully dis- 
 appointed if she should see Nip a-sitting up 
 behind Papa instead of Brer?" 
 
 " I reckon Grandma will expect to see 
 Brer," answered Mamma, with a smile. 
 
 "Or just Nip, instead of Gene, sitting on 
 the trunk beside me ? " continued Neal. 
 
 ^ Just Nip, instead of you, sitting on the 
 trunk beside me, you mean," interrupted 
 Gene. " Why, Grandma would send you all 
 back if you left me behind. You 'd just 
 better not try it." 
 
 " Grandma said / must come. She said 
 she reckoned that when I came to the Bay, 
 I 'd be as straight as Aunty," cried Neal, 
 defiantly.
 
 262 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " You 'd better not go, then, I can tell 
 you, Miss. There you sit, bent up like a 
 jack-knife ! " exclaimed Brer. 
 
 Neal straightened up with a jerk, and sat 
 as upright and stiff as if a cold iron rod had 
 been run down her back. 
 
 " See here, Joy, seeing you 're so anxious, 
 you might stay at home. Nip would look 
 right pretty, sitting up there in Mamma's 
 lap. Grandma would n't miss such a mite 
 as you," suggested Brer. 
 
 " Yes, she would," cried Joy ; " would n't 
 she, Mamma ? I won't let Nip sit on 
 Mamma's lap." 
 
 " What fo' yo'-alls w'ar yo' selves out ? " 
 here piped up Nip, who had been eating his 
 juicy melon with unrestrained gusto, arid 
 listening to this squabble with an air of 
 supreme unconcern. " Nip ain't gwine fool 
 'way his time holdin' on de aidge of Gram- 
 mer's Bay, whar de suns an' de moons an' 
 de stars goes a-slippin' down into de wata
 
 LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS. 263 
 
 an' git drownded ; he gwine 'bide right yer 
 on dry Ian' an' watch out fo' de grapes to 
 git ripe." 
 
 " He is the biggest goose about the Bay, 
 Mamma. He just ought to go next year, 
 anyway. Papa might get old Pete to stay 
 with him, if the dogs wouldn't eat him 
 up." 
 
 " Next year, I 's boun' cotch de ole ha'nt 
 moon an' mek him tote me down Grammer's 
 Bay," said Nip, looking up at the silver boat 
 just gliding from behind a cloud into the 
 rosy sunset sky. 
 
 " Then you can go a-rowing in it on the 
 Bay," cried Neal, forgetting her prim atti- 
 tude, and bending her head quite to the 
 gallery floor to catch a better glimpse of 
 the new-moon skiff. " I 'm going to look 
 for you every single night." 
 
 " Perhaps you '11 see him this year," said 
 Mr. Lee, who had come from the orchard 
 with a hatful of peaches, and having seated
 
 264 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 himself beside Mamma, was liberally tossing 
 the pink balls to the children. " I 've been 
 thinking of bringing Uncle Jim's Frank 
 back into the piney woods to give him a 
 chance to get over the fever. If he comes, 
 I '11 just hand Nip here over to the man in 
 the moon, and let him go along down to the 
 Bay." 
 
 Joy clapped her hands gleefully. 
 
 " When Nip comes, we '11 just have heaps 
 of fun," she cried, as if she had been doubt- 
 ful of good times without him. 
 
 The next morning, by the light of the 
 stars that seemed to have waited a little 
 later than usual to see them off, the children 
 shouted an excited farewell to their dusky 
 playfellow, who, upside down on the gate- 
 post, was waving them a parting salute 
 with his little bare foot. " Mind you come 
 as soon as Papa lets you off," was Brer's 
 last command. 
 
 " All right, Brer. Yo'-alls jes' watch out
 
 LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS. 265 
 
 an* see me come a-sailin' down out ob de 
 sky some fine night." 
 
 " I 'm going to watch every night after 
 I say my prayers," screamed Joy, bouncing 
 in her mother's arms. 
 
 " Me too," echoed Neal, jogging along 
 behind on the hard trunk, between Brer 
 and Gene. 
 
 But by noon, when Pacer, panting and 
 wet from his twenty-mile pull, drew them 
 forth from the piney woods, and stopped at 
 Grandma's gate, on the very brink of the 
 blue sparkling bay, all thoughts of Nip had 
 fled from their minds ; nor did they once 
 think of him again that day, and at night 
 Neal and Joy were almost too tired to say 
 their prayers, and the boys were too full of 
 frolic to remember anything. 
 
 As for the days that followed, they were 
 too full for thinking. To begin with, the 
 children must explore Grandma's premises 
 and the whole extensive playground of the
 
 266 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Bay shore, to see if everything was as 
 they had left it. They examined with 
 critical eye the scuppernong vine and the 
 orange orchard to estimate how many bot- 
 tles of wine Aunty would make this season, 
 and how many bags of oranges would come 
 to the Water-Oaks in the fall. 
 
 They sipped a healthful draught from 
 Sulphur Spring, and rushed wildly to the 
 cool, dark waters of Deep-Hole to wash 
 the disagreeable mineral taste from their 
 mouths. There were the twin elms to be 
 visited, and their famous dam of the run 
 in the dell. 
 
 After all their haunts had been duly in- 
 spected, they must conquer their shyness 
 and make acquaintance with the city chil- 
 dren who had come across the Bay for 
 the summer. And then the days were so 
 crowded with excitement and frolic, and 
 the nights were so heavy with sleep, that 
 there was no opportunity to think of Nip.
 
 LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS. 267 
 
 But one morning there was Nip sitting with 
 Flo on the steps of Grandma's front gal- 
 lery, gazing with soft, observant eyes on 
 Grandma's Bay. 
 
 " Why, you Nip ! " shouted Brer, with 
 mingled joy and astonishment. The boys, 
 rushing from their room for their early 
 plunge in the bay, had almost stumbled 
 over the unexpected apparitions. 
 
 " Flo too ! " yelled Gene, dancing about 
 on one foot in his delight. " See, she is n't 
 afraid of me down here ! " 
 
 Neal and Joy came pattering out in their 
 night-gowns. Neal stared at Nip with great 
 round eyes. 
 
 " Oh, Nip, did you come in the moon, sure 
 enough?" she demanded. 
 
 " Where 's the moon-man ? " queried Joy, 
 glancing around. 
 
 " Why, there 's the man and there 's his 
 dog," responded Brer, roguishly pointing to 
 Nip and Flo. " What are your eyes for,
 
 268 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 I 'd like to know ? If you 'd ask him where 
 he has moored the moon, there 'd be some 
 sense in it." 
 
 " Where did you, at Grandma's wharf ? " 
 innocently demanded Joy ; but the next in- 
 stant she was shouting with the boys over 
 her own foolish question. 
 
 " De moon done git swamp in Graminer's 
 Bay; I done see it go down," announced Nip, 
 who was grinning and tumbling all about in 
 his delight at being again with the children. 
 
 Neal and Joy were a trifle startled by this 
 bold statement, but before they could ques- 
 tion it, Brer ordered them in to dress, while 
 he and Gene led Nip off for his first swim- 
 ming-lesson. 
 
 Nip, however, needed no instruction in 
 the art of swimming. The very first time 
 that the boys pushed him from the wharf, 
 with the severe but benevolent intention of 
 compelling him to strike out, to swim or 
 sink, he rose like a duck to the surface, and
 
 LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS. 269 
 
 plunged and darted about as if he had been 
 born and raised in the water instead of 
 nobody knows where. Brer and Gene and 
 all the other white boys were as clumsy 
 as porpoises beside the swift, gliding little 
 darky. They tried to learn how he darted 
 about so easily, but Nip could not teach 
 them. 
 
 " Tears lak I does jes' lak de swallows 
 does up yonda in de sky," was all that 
 he could tell them. 
 
 Grandma's Bay seems to have been made 
 especially for children to play in, for a hard, 
 sandy floor extends for almost half a mile 
 straight out from the shore, perfectly level 
 and smooth, so that one can wade in with 
 perfect security, without the least fear of 
 plunging over one's head into a deep hole. 
 When the tide was out, Neal and Joy 
 could run far out before the smooth water 
 came up to their necks ; but when the tide 
 was in, they stayed under the bath-house ;
 
 270 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 and when the wind blew the water into 
 rolling waves that take one's breath away, 
 they did not go in at all. 
 
 But the boys did. When a storm was 
 raging in the gulf, and the soft, south wind 
 blew in strong, warm gusts over the bay, 
 ploughing deep furrows in the water and 
 tossing it up in foaming white-caps, the 
 boys had the jolliest times of all. It was 
 such fun to run before the swiftly chasing 
 waves, to leap over them, one after another, 
 as they rolled rapidly in to shore, or to dash 
 under the white breakers, and come up, 
 gasping and dripping, on the other side 
 just in time to meet another. 
 
 But the greatest sport of all was one for- 
 bidden to Brer and Gene. Some of the boys 
 who had lived on the bay all their lives, and 
 were as much at home in the water as on the 
 sandy shore, used to row out into the storm- 
 tossed waves ; and when they were quite 
 beyond the wharves that run out from the
 
 LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS. 271 
 
 villas along shore, they would unfurl a great 
 sail. This the wind would catch instantly, 
 and send the boat skimming like a bird 
 through the dashing spray at a speed that 
 took their breath away, and then, with a 
 sudden, mischievous puff, it would dip the 
 sail under the waves, and the boys would 
 be floundering in the water or clinging to 
 the edge of the boat. These boys would 
 urge and tease Brer and Gene to join them, 
 and when the two boys dutifully refused, 
 would taunt them as cowards, and shouted 
 that they did not dare. This was very try- 
 ing to the piney-woods boys, who had always 
 been brave and too venturesome for Mrs. Lee's 
 comfort. It was not their mother, however, 
 who had forbidden them to go out in the 
 boat, but Grandma, who had seen too many 
 people drown in the cruel water to be willing 
 to trust her dear ones to the treacherous 
 waves. She always watched with the keen- 
 est anxiety the frolicking boys in the boat.
 
 272 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Although Brer and Gene were not so 
 familiar with the water as the shore boys, 
 they were quite unwilling to be thought 
 unequal to any sport, and least of all would 
 they consent to being called cowards. It 
 was too much of any one to expect of spirited 
 boys to stand like girls on the wharf, and 
 watch the fun without joining in. 
 
 Gene stood there in silence one day as 
 long as he could bear it. 
 
 " Mamma never told us not to," he sput- 
 tered. " Grandma 's always afraid we '11 
 drown if we wet our feet." 
 
 " No, Mamma never ; she would n't either. 
 She don't like to see us beat. I bet, if it 
 were not for Grandma, she 'd tell us to go 
 on and show those fellows what we can do," 
 said Brer. 
 
 The boat came sweeping by just then 
 before a driving gale. 
 
 " Hang your clothes on a hickory limb, 
 but " yelled one of the boys, waving his 
 hand tauntingly.
 
 LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS. 273 
 
 "Just you come back for us," shouted 
 Gene, angrily. 
 
 " We may as well go out once, just to 
 show them," said Brer, rather uneasily. " If 
 Mamma had told us not to, it would have 
 been different, of course, but she never said 
 a word." 
 
 " Yo' muder 's boun' be pow'ful mad w'en 
 she year dose no' count boys callin' we-alls 
 cowa'ds," said Nip, who was balancing him- 
 self on the wharf-railing. 
 
 " They won't have another chance," de- 
 clared Gene. " Say, Brer, let 's hoist the 
 mast in Grandma's boat, and show them 
 what we can do." 
 
 " Grandma 's going to go for us just for 
 going out with the other fellows. I reckon 
 we 'd best leave her boat alone. Just see 
 where those fellows are tacking to, will you ? 
 They '11 be out in deep water before they 
 know it. Gee, how they rip along ! They 
 must be crazy going out that f ar ! " 
 
 18
 
 274 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " Tears lak dey-alls carn't pull de sail 
 roun'," cried Nip, standing upright against 
 the wind on the narrow wharf-railing, and 
 gazing keenly at the flying boat. 
 
 " Looks like it, sure, or they 've lost their 
 senses. No use in running out that far to 
 get back here. I reckon I could show them 
 something about tacking, if I am a land- 
 lubber. Whew ! Look at that, will you ? " 
 
 The sail of the boat suddenly flew out, 
 flapped madly from the mast an instant, and 
 then dragged it down into the water. For 
 one moment the watchers thought that the 
 boat had gone down, but presently it rose 
 from a trench upon a great swell, and they 
 could see the four boys clinging to it. 
 
 " They 're all right," cried Brer, with a 
 breath of relief. " I did n't know as they 'd 
 find it so easy out there in deep water." 
 
 "Does yo' year dey-alls a-hollerin', Brer?" 
 asked Nip, lifting his head to hearken. 
 
 " No. Do you ? "
 
 LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS. 275 
 
 " I 'low I year right plain. Jes' a-w'oopin'. 
 'Pears lak deys gwine slip down de oder side 
 de yerth, ef somebody doan tote dey-alls 
 back." 
 
 " I really believe that they are drifting 
 out. I bet they can't right the boat in that 
 deep water. Look, Brer ! " cried Gene. 
 
 But Brer had seen, and he was ready for 
 action. " You Nip, get into that boat and 
 bail her for all you 're worth. Gene, help 
 me get the mast and sail from the bath- 
 house ! " were his prompt orders. 
 
 The boys had seen the mast set and the 
 boat rigged for sailing many times ; and 
 though they never had actually managed 
 her, they went to work under the pressure of 
 excitement as if they were born sailors. 
 
 They had shoved the rocking boat from 
 her moorings, and were getting well under 
 way when Grandma, Mamma, and Aunty 
 came running down the wharf, their hair 
 blown by the wind and their dresses flapping 
 about them.
 
 276 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " Mamma, we just have it to do," called 
 Brer, appealing to his mother, before Grand- 
 ma could say a word. 
 
 " They '11 drown if we don't," screamed 
 Gene. 
 
 The boys were mistaken in fearing Grand- 
 ma's interference. Though she strongly 
 censured reckless and unnecessary exposure 
 to danger, she was a wise, brave woman, en- 
 couraging bravery when there was real need 
 for action. She called to the boys quietly, 
 for their mother was very pale and seem- 
 ingly unable to speak. 
 
 " Be careful in shifting the saiL When 
 they 're in, let Ross manage. Tell him if he 
 tips you out, I '11 see that he is punished in 
 a way that he will remember. Will you do 
 as I say?" 
 
 " Yes, sure ! Mamma, don't be scared." 
 
 It was no easy task to approach the upset 
 boat in the teeth of the gale. They were 
 obliged to tack far out on this side and then
 
 1 And Brer and Gene each look an oar and managed to struggle 
 alongside." Page 277.
 
 LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS. 277 
 
 on the other, and so zigzag forward. How 
 Brer managed, with his slight experience, to 
 shift the sail without upsetting the boat, he 
 never knew ; but they kept right-side-up in 
 spite of the buffeting wind and tossing 
 water, and in a time really much shorter 
 than it seemed to themselves or to those 
 waiting and to those watching, they neared 
 the capsized boat. 
 
 With the sail full of wind, scurrying along 
 at breathless speed, it was impossible to come 
 close to the other boat without danger of 
 swamping it and of upsetting their own boat ; 
 so the three boys furled the sail as well as they 
 could in such a tempest, and Brer and Gene 
 each took an oar and managed to struggle 
 alongside. The four exhausted boys scram- 
 bled aboard, and sank into the bottom of the 
 boat. 
 
 Brer resigned the command to Ross, as 
 Grandma had directed. 
 
 " She said how you are the best sailor, and
 
 278 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 she said you are not to upset the boat again," 
 he said briefly. 
 
 Ross flushed with shame. 
 
 " Your grandmother need n't be afraid 
 I '11 be up to any more tricks to-day. I 've 
 had enough water myself for once. I say, 
 Brer," he went on awkwardly, " that was a 
 right pretty show of tacking. I reckon I 
 could n't have done better myself." 
 
 That was a right handsome concession 
 from Ross, and Brer was more pleased by it 
 than he cared to show. 
 
 " I '11 tell you what," exclaimed one of the 
 boys, when they had safely put about, un- 
 furled the sail, and were speeding gayly to- 
 ward the wharf. " We 're bound to take 
 back all we said about you-alls being cow- 
 ards, ain't we, kids ? " 
 
 " You bet ! " was the hearty response ; " and 
 I say, Brer, you won't hear us calling you- 
 alls ' land-lubbers ' any more, either." 
 
 " Call ahead," said Brer, indifferently ; 
 " we don't care what names we go by."
 
 LITTLE LAND-LUBBERS. 279 
 
 " I care," cried Gene ; " I ain't going to be 
 called a coward by anybody." 
 
 " Doan yo' go fo' to upset de boat, Gene," 
 cautioned Nip, sitting with all his small 
 weight upon the upheaving side of the boat, 
 " case Grammer's watchin' out from de w'arf, 
 an' she boun' give yo' a pun'shment w'at 
 yo' doan fo'git. W'oa, ole boat, w'at fo' yo' 
 upsettin' ? " he yelled, as the boat lurched 
 against the wharf, and then coolly keeled 
 over, as if that were the proper way to de- 
 liver its cargo, dumping them out into the 
 shallow, seething water. 
 
 " We did n't go fo' to do it, Grammer," he 
 sputtered, astride the keel in an instant. 
 " Doan yo'-alls go fo' to fret yo'self . We- 
 alls gwine set dis yer boat to rights befo' 
 yo' done git de pone-cake from de safe fo' 
 to soak up de wata from we-alls stomachs."
 
 280 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 
 
 " SEE mine ! see my crab ! it 's the biggest 
 of all ! " screamed Joy, proudly swinging 
 the great foolish fellow that was clinging so 
 desperately to her line, as if it were clutch- 
 ing a life-preserver, instead of a death-bait. 
 
 "Great guns!" cried Gene, bending for- 
 ward to see. " It is a fine one, sure. But 
 what you fooling with it that-a-way for? 
 Haul it up, quick ! you '11 lose it." 
 
 Joy began to pull in her line, and the row 
 of children from all along shore, who were 
 swinging their heels over the side of Grand- 
 ma's wharf, and dangling long meat-baited 
 strings into the water for the silly crabs to 
 grab, watched the great clumsy pink crea-
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 281 
 
 ture rise dripping from the water and sway 
 slowly up, up, up splash ! 
 
 " 0-o-oh ! " screamed Joy and all the dis- 
 appointed children in chorus. 
 
 "Oh, you-all hush!" cried Brer, crossly, 
 from the other side of the wharf, where he 
 had dropped a half-dozen lines. " Have n't 
 you got any sense ? You '11 scare off every 
 blessed crab." 
 
 " Mine is n't scared off," said Joy. " Look, 
 Nip, there he is, right on the bottom, see ? " 
 Joy pushed back her little sun-bonnet, and 
 leaned so far over the water that Nip, who 
 was sitting beside her to bait her line, 
 jumped up quickly and stood on her dress to 
 prevent her falling. The water below was 
 shallow, it is true ; but the wharf was so high 
 above it that a fall was not desirable. Nip 
 could look down over Joy's head; he too 
 saw the shining pink shell with the sunlight 
 dancing over it. 
 
 " Let down yo' line, Joy, quick ! I reckon 
 dat fool crab waitin' fo' noder bite."
 
 282 UNDER TEE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 "The bait's gone. The old thing done 
 took it off," whimpered Joy. 
 
 "Doan go fo' to cry, honey. I's gwine 
 tie some mo' meat on." 
 
 "Hurry!" whispered Joy, impatiently, 
 thrusting the string into his hands, while 
 she fixed the crab with the unwinking gaze 
 of her two bright eyes. 
 
 " Let it down right easy," directed Nip, 
 returning the string with a nice bit of fresh 
 meat securely tied on the end. 
 
 Joy lowered the line with breathless cau- 
 tion. It touched the water, and ever so 
 softly swept over the crab ; but the old 
 fellow never budged. 
 
 " He does just like he thought it nothing 
 but a piece of seaweed," whispered Neal, 
 too interested in Joy's crab to notice that 
 another was pulling at her own line. 
 
 "Let the meat hit the old crab right 
 hard," directed Gene. 
 
 Joy allowed the water to wash the meat
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 283 
 
 heavily backward and forward over the 
 sprawling creature, but the crab took no 
 heed except to move its claws a little 
 uneasily. 
 
 " I 'low dat crab am feastin' on dat fust 
 bait w'at he done grab, an' he doan wan' no 
 ino'," said Nip. 
 
 " He 's got to take it ! " cried Joy, ignoring, 
 in her impatience, Brer's orders for quiet. 
 " There, you old thing, catch hold, I say ! " 
 She made the meat dance about the crab 
 until the water was stirred into little circling 
 wavelets. 
 
 " Oh, quit that, Joy ! You '11 scare him 
 off, and all the rest too." Gene had just lost 
 a bait. 
 
 11 Jes' you hoi' dat string right steady, Joy, 
 an' bimeby dat ole crab gwine grab right 
 tight," whispered Nip. 
 
 " No, he won't. He 's going now. Catch 
 him ! You Nip, catch him ! " 
 
 " Carn't cotch 'im w'en he boun' to go," 
 remonstrated Nip.
 
 284 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " Yes, you can too ; jump right down and 
 catch him ! Hurry ! he 's going. Brer, make 
 Nip catch him for me." 
 
 " I sha'n't do any such thing. Stop your 
 row, can't you ? How do you reckon he 's 
 going to catch him, in his fingers?" 
 
 " He 's going ! " screamed Joy, who had 
 kept her eyes on the precious crab. She 
 scrambled to her feet and went pattering as 
 fast as she could up the wharf to the sand. 
 
 " Wait, Joy, I 's gwine cotch yo' fine crab 
 fo' yo'," called Nip, as she gathered up her 
 skirts and splashed out into the water. 
 
 " You 're not going to do any such thing," 
 cried Brer, peremptorily. " Let her lose her 
 crab, now she 's scared all ours away, and 
 spoiled all our fun. You just stay where 
 you are." 
 
 Joy waded straight toward the post near 
 which she had seen the crab settle, recklessly 
 ploughing the water up in front and care- 
 lessly trailing her skirts behind her. When
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 285 
 
 she reached the spot, she was obliged to 
 stand still a moment to let the disturbed 
 water clear, and then where was the 
 crab? 
 
 " Why don't you catch him ? " asked Brer, 
 sarcastically. 
 
 " Pity to lose a crab that 'a worth all the 
 others in the bay," remarked Gene, imitat- 
 ing his brother's tone. 
 
 "I 'low dat ole crab w'at yo' so fond 
 ob " began Nip, in the same strain but 
 what an interruption ! 
 
 They had heard Joy scream many a time 
 before, but this who could have thought 
 it possible for such a volume of screeches to 
 be confined in her small body ? 
 
 The children sprang to their feet and 
 looked down upon her with terror. 
 
 Brer and Gene and Nip in a trice were off 
 the wharf and beside the little sister. 
 
 In her distress she would have nothing to 
 do with them.
 
 286 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 The foolish child, in her determination to 
 find the crab, had plunged her hand into the 
 water to feel in the sand about the post. 
 
 " Ee ee ee ! " screaming with fright 
 and pain, she jerked her hand from the 
 water and shook it violently, but the strong 
 claws of the crab, that had seized her, closed 
 tighter and tighter, pinching her tender 
 flesh most cruelly. 
 
 She turned upon the boys desperately, 
 then back to the shore she plunged, and ran, 
 screaming and howling at the top of her 
 voice, toward Grandma's back gallery, while 
 behind her streamed the boys and all the 
 little playmates. 
 
 Neal's face was pale with alarm, and she 
 too lifted up her voice in a series of shrieks ; 
 and all the little girls sniffed and sobbed in 
 sympathy with poor little Joy. 
 
 What a hubbub ! Mamma, Grandma, and 
 Aunty came running out to meet them. 
 
 Mamma clasped the terrified child in her
 
 "Screaming with fright and pain, she jerked her hand from the water 
 and shook it violently " Page 286,
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 287 
 
 arms and frantically tried to loosen the stub- 
 born claws. This was impossible to do, for 
 the crab was as determined to keep Joy as 
 Joy had been to keep it. Aunty ran for hot 
 water into which to plunge the stubborn 
 creature ; but Brer meanwhile came to his 
 mother's side, breathing hard, but speaking 
 quietly, 
 
 " Mamma, tell her to quit her yelling and 
 hold her hand down there. I '11 cut those 
 nippers off." 
 
 " Joy, be brave, and do as your brother 
 tells you." 
 
 Poor Joy stifled her cries, but quivered 
 all over with pain and excitement, clinging 
 to her mother, while Brer cut off the crab's 
 claws. 
 
 What relief ! All the little girls laughed 
 and cried with her when she was free, and 
 crowded around to examine the wounded 
 hand, petting and kissing Joy " like she 'd 
 caught a potful of crabs for dinner, instead
 
 288 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 of driving them all out to sea, and scaring 
 everybody out of their senses, because she 
 done gone crazy over one pesky crab, and 
 had stuck her fingers into its very claws," 
 grumbled Brer, resenting the strain upon 
 his feelings and the loss of the crabs he had 
 planned to catch. 
 
 " We must remember that Joy is only a 
 wee bit girlie," said Mamma, " and not ex- 
 pect her to be quite so brave as my big 
 boys." 
 
 But that evening after tea, when she and 
 Grandma and Aunty were sitting on the 
 end of the wharf, enjoying the cool night 
 breeze and the gorgeous reflections of the 
 sunset on clouds and water, Mrs. Lee took 
 occasion to reprove Joy for the foolish out- 
 cry which she had made over the crab. 
 
 Brer and Gene had pushed out in the 
 boat to try their luck with the net; and 
 there was no one to overhear Mamma's 
 lecture but Neal, and Nip, who was lying
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 289 
 
 on his stomach and propping his head in his 
 hand, so that he might better watch the boys. 
 
 "Joy must remember when she is hurt 
 that crying and screaming don't do one bit 
 of good. It only makes the pain harder to 
 bear ; and it distresses other people." 
 
 " She screeched like an alligator had got 
 her," exclaimed Neal, scornfully, quite for- 
 getting how she had swelled the chorus, 
 until Nip asked simply, 
 
 " Did yo'-alls 'low a sha'k done kotch 
 Joy, case why yo' yell so, Neal ? " 
 
 " No, I did n't ! " retorted Neal, glancing 
 quickly at the teasing smiles of the three 
 ladies. " I done thought it was a whale." 
 
 " Whales don't come to Grandma's Bay ! " 
 exclaimed Joy ; " do they, Nip ? " 
 
 " I 'low w'ales doan come, but sha'ks 
 does, suah ; case why, one snipped off de 
 foot of a no 'count nigger dat carn't swim 
 no mo' 'n a rock. I 'low Grammer 's yern 
 tell 'bout dat sha'k." 
 
 19
 
 290 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " Yes, Nip ; but that was out beyond 
 the Point. Sharks seldom come here." 
 
 " Say, Joy, suppose it had been a shark ? " 
 speculated Neal, opening her eyes wide as 
 she imagined the great creature sweeping 
 down on little Joy. " You 'd have screeched 
 then, I reckon." 
 
 " I reckon so," agreed Joy, cheerfully. 
 The idea of anything more terrible than 
 a crab was beyond her imagination. 
 
 " I 'low Joy ain't got no screech left big 
 'nough fo' a sha'k," grinned Nip. 
 
 " I have too ! You just listen." 
 
 Joy stretched her mouth preparatory to 
 showing her ability to salute a shark ; but 
 Mamma laid her hand softly over the yawn- 
 ing cavity. 
 
 " There, there, Joy. Wait until the shark 
 comes. We 've had enough screaming to- 
 day. Listen ! How softly the waves are 
 lapping the shore ! See the beautiful colors 
 in the sky and the water."
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 291 
 
 " The bay looks just like a piece of the 
 sky," said Neal. " See, the boys look just 
 like they were floating in the clouds. They 
 look just like they were cut out of black 
 clouds ; the boat, too, and their shadow, 
 just as clear, upside down. 
 
 " Is n't it funny ? Say, Nip, is that the 
 way you and Flo and the man in the moon 
 looked when you came a-sailing down to 
 Grandma's Bay?" 
 
 " Dar ain't no fish a-floppin' up an' 
 a-splashin' in de sky, Neal," expostulated 
 Nip. 
 
 " Of course not. Only, just look, sup- 
 posing the boat is the moon, and Brer 
 he 's going to fall if he don't look out, 
 throwing that net and he was the man 
 in the moon, and Gene (only you would n't 
 be poling, like he is) was you, and you 'd 
 just come slipping down, as easy, through 
 the rosy clouds. What makes the moon 
 go, anyway?"
 
 292 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " I 's gwine ax de man in de moon, 
 bimeby," replied Nip, sleepily. 
 
 " Could n't you see when you came, I 'd 
 like to know?" 
 
 " 1 's mostly sleepin' at night-time." 
 
 tc Now, Nip, you were n't asleep when 
 you were a-sailing in the moon." 
 
 " Nip never said he sailed in the moon," 
 cried Joy. 
 
 " He never said he did n't ; and how could 
 he and Flo have come any other way ? " 
 argued Neal, who liked to believe in all 
 sorts of wonderful things. " There 's the 
 moon-boat now ? " 
 
 "Yes; the new moon again," observed 
 Mrs. Lee. " We have been with Grandma 
 and Aunty a whole long month. I reckon 
 Papa and old Pacer will come for us in a 
 few days. What do you say to that, 
 boys ? " 
 
 It had become quite dark except for the 
 moon and stars and the phosphorescent
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 293 
 
 glow on the water that broke like liquid fire 
 against the posts of the wharf and the prow 
 of the boat, which the boys, who had been 
 coining slowly in, had tied to the landing. 
 
 " Home in a few days, back to the 
 Water-Oaks ! How jolly ! " shouted Gene, 
 "Only " he glanced around the enchanted 
 moon-lit scene, at the sparkling water with 
 the waving paths of moonlight and star- 
 light lying across it, the lights of the city 
 on the opposite shore, at the dear old villa 
 on the cliff, with the dark, moss-hung oaks 
 clustering about it, and the pines rising 
 like gloomy giants behind it. Some one 
 was singing far out over the water ; and 
 when the song was ended, and Aunty an- 
 swered it in her sweet, low contralto, Gene 
 slid down at her feet and hid his face 
 among the soft folds of her dress, for it 
 made him feel right homesick to think of 
 leaving Grandma's Bay. 
 
 The children were greatly distracted be-
 
 294 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 tvveen their desire to see the Water-Oaks 
 again and their reluctance to leave the Bay. 
 There was no immediate cause for distress, 
 however, for Mr. Lee did not appear for 
 nearly a week. 
 
 In that time Joy had an opportunity to 
 show that she could be as plucky as any 
 of them, now that she had made up her 
 mind never again to be so babyish as she 
 had been over that horrid crab. 
 
 It was late one afternoon, and the girls 
 had just come up from their second daily 
 plunge into the bay. Neal, in the room, 
 was struggling into her shoes and stockings, 
 and letting Mamma tie her into a ruffled 
 white gown with pink ribbons, for it was 
 the fashion on the Bay for all the girls 
 to dress up and visit like little ladies every 
 evening. Joy, lounging on the back gallery, 
 waiting her turn to be dressed, was wonder- 
 ing what the boys were shouting and laugh- 
 ing about, down by the old store. She half
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 295 
 
 wished that she were a boy, then she would 
 not need to put on her shoes and stockings. 
 No, she did not wish that either, for boys 
 never wore such pretty dresses and ribbons, 
 and they always looked so funny and stiff 
 when they were dressed in their best suits. 
 Joy shook her brown head scornfully at the 
 thicket that hid the old store from sight. 
 " No, sir, I would n't be a boy if Why, 
 Aunty ! " She scrambled up the lattice for 
 a better view. Yes ; it was Aunty who had 
 screamed. Joy could see her white dress 
 fluttering through the trees. And what was 
 that crashing through the bushes after her ? 
 Oh, it was Mr. Jackson's pet deer, just tear- 
 ing along ! 
 
 Joy did not stop to consider. She jumped 
 from the gallery, and flying to the orchard 
 gate, pushed through, darted under the scup- 
 pernong arbor and under the orange-trees, 
 
 no matter if something did prick her foot, 
 
 and dashed with all her might against
 
 296 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 the old gate that opened into the woods. 
 Brush and briers were growing thickly 
 against it, but she forced it open, and rushed 
 out, tossing her arms and screaming, 
 
 " Aunty ! Aunty ! " 
 
 Aunty saw her, and turned. The snort- 
 ing deer was close behind her ; but before 
 his horns touched her, she swept little Joy 
 back into the orchard, and pulled the gate 
 close behind her. 
 
 Then, while the baffled deer tossed his 
 cruel horns and stamped his sharp hoofs 
 in baffled rage, Aunty sank down under 
 the orange-trees. 
 
 " Oh, Aunty, don't ! " cried Joy, terror- 
 stricken by the white face and closing eyes. 
 She stretched up her little arms for support 
 as Aunty's head fell back heavily. Joy low- 
 ered it easily to the ground and flew back 
 to the house, calling loudly for Grandma 
 and Mamma. 
 
 She could not explain what was the mat-
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 297 
 
 ter with Aunty, but she seized Grandma's 
 hand, and pulled her at an undignified pace 
 to the orange orchard, Mamma and Neal 
 following. 
 
 Grandma understood at a glance. 
 
 " She has fainted from fright," she said, 
 kneeling by Aunty's side. " Send Joy for 
 water, Lyla, and that bottle of scuppernong 
 in the safe." 
 
 Mrs. Lee herself hastened to the house. 
 
 " Did the deer catch her ? Is she dead ? " 
 whispered a horror-stricken voice at Grand- 
 ma's side. 
 
 Brer and Gene and Nip, heading a troop 
 of frightened boys, had come stealing into 
 the orchard through a gap in the opposite 
 fence. 
 
 Grandma turned upon the culprits sternly. 
 
 " Go straight away, boys ! Have n't I 
 told you hundreds of times not to aggravate 
 that deer ? Ross ! -Is Ross here ? Go and 
 tell your father to take his deer out of the
 
 298 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 woods, and to keep it out, or I shall have it 
 shot. It has been a public nuisance long 
 enough. Boys, I say to go ! " 
 
 Never had Grandma addressed them in 
 that tone before. The boys, filled with aw- 
 ful fear at the sight of Aunty's still face, 
 slunk guiltily away. 
 
 Brer and Gene and Nip went slowly to 
 the house. 
 
 Mamma came running down the steps. 
 
 " Is she dead ? " gasped Gene, trying to 
 clutch her skirts as she brushed by them ; 
 but Mamma only gave them a reproachful 
 glance as she hurried on. 
 
 Brer led the way to the wharf, where 
 they sank in a dejected row in the shade 
 of the bath-house. 
 
 " Keep a watch-out on the house, Nip," 
 commanded Brer, huskily. 
 
 This gave Nip some occupation. Brer 
 and Gene kept their gaze turned carefully 
 out to sea, thinking and thinking of Aunty's
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 299 
 
 white face with the shadows of the orange- 
 trees moving softly upon it, wondering if 
 it still lay so, and wishing oh, how they 
 did wish that they had let that deer 
 alone. 
 
 After a time the silence became unen- 
 durable to Gene. His heart seemed swelled, 
 and it ached so he could not stand it any 
 longer. With a sob, he burst forth, 
 
 " Oh, Brer, what shall we do ? Let 's not 
 sit here ; let 's go back to the house." 
 
 " Grandma ordered us off," objected Brer, 
 dully. 
 
 " But we can't sit here and think any 
 longer ; I shall just burst. If we 've gone 
 and made that deer kill Aunty, we 're bound 
 to do something." 
 
 " Do what ? I 'd like to know. Did n't 
 Grandma tell us to go, like she never 
 wanted to see us again ? I 'in sure I don't 
 blame her." 
 
 " But let 's do something."
 
 300 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " What is there to do, now she 's dead ? " 
 
 " Mamma wants us, I know," sobbed 
 Gene. " I want to see Aunty again. I 
 don't believe she 's dead." 
 
 " Did n't you see her ? " demanded Brer, 
 huskily. Then he added, making a great 
 effort to steady his voice, 
 
 " You and Nip go. Go along with Gene, 
 Nip." 
 
 Nip looked pleadingly at Brer. 
 
 " I 'low I 's gwine 'bide yer wiv you, 
 Brer," he coaxed. 
 
 " No ; you go 'long with Gene," ordered 
 Brer. 
 
 When he was alone, Brer buried his face 
 in his arms and shook with sobs. He wept 
 and moaned, his grief wrenching him sorely. 
 Suddenly he controlled himself and sat up 
 with a look of resolve on his pale face. 
 
 "I'll go away," he muttered. "I'll 
 never show myself again to bother them. 
 Gene is n't so old ; and Nip it does n't
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 301 
 
 matter so much about them. But of course 
 they all 'd hate the sight of me. Aunty 
 she wouldn't scold, but she " 
 
 He ran rapidly down the steps and 
 sprang into the dancing skiff. He never 
 once looked at the house as he untied the 
 boat and pushed off. 
 
 He rowed with all his might straight 
 out into the bay. Where he was going 
 he did not think. He did not think of 
 anything but to get out of sight. Per- 
 haps, in his dazed, grief-stricken mind, there 
 was some vague idea of drifting out into 
 the gulf, or perhaps of being picked up 
 by some out-going steamer. It was not 
 like Brer to act so impulsively, nor to take 
 flight for any cause, but when had such a 
 terrible thing happened ! The very thought 
 of it was too dreadful for endurance. He 
 splashed wildly with his oars to drive the 
 thought away. He would not even look 
 up when a chorus of screams and shouts
 
 302 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 arose from the wharf. But though he re- 
 fused to heed them, the cries confused him 
 and hindered his movements. One oar 
 slipped from his nerveless hand and floated 
 away. It took much time to paddle after 
 it and secure it. 
 
 The calls from the wharf became louder 
 and more insistent. 
 
 " Brer ! Brer ! Come back ! " That 
 was Gene's voice. But now another cry 
 sounded nearer, but faint. 
 
 " Brer ! I 's comin'. Brer." 
 
 Brer started and lifted his head. What 
 was that small round object bobbing along 
 in the water ? 
 
 " Brer ! " again came the cry, more feebly. 
 
 Brer turned the boat and rowed rapidly 
 back. Nip grasped the edge of the boat, 
 but he was too exhausted to scramble in ; 
 Brer was obliged to help him. 
 
 " You Nip, what possessed you ? " 
 
 "I reckon I was possess' by de sperit,
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 303 
 
 Brer," answered Nip, wiping his face on his 
 sleeve. 
 
 " Do you want to slide off on the other 
 side of the earth ? " demanded Brer. 
 
 " I dunno. Is you gwine slide off, Brer ? " 
 
 Brer slapped the water impatiently with 
 the oars. 
 
 " Case why, Aunty gwine feel right bad, 
 when yo'-alls doan come back right soon." 
 
 " Aunty ! " 
 
 " Aunty 's done riz, Brer." 
 
 " Is she is n't she dead ? " 
 
 " Whar yo' eyes, Brer ? Doan yo see 
 Aunty a-standin' lak a sure 'nough ha'nt on 
 de w'arf, a-screechin' an' a-wavin' to yo'-alls ? " 
 
 Brer jumped upright in the boat and 
 gazed back. There was Aunty indeed, 
 standing on the very edge of the wharf, her 
 tall white-clad figure gleaming in the last 
 low rays of the sun, one hand shading her 
 eyes and the other beckoning to him ; and 
 now he could hear her, for the others were
 
 304 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 still. " Brer ! oh-o-oh, Brer ! " How sweet 
 and clear the prolonged notes sounded ! 
 
 Brer made a trumpet with his hands and 
 shouted back, "Coming ; we 're coming ! " 
 
 What a long slow row that was back to 
 the wharf ! but Aunty stood there waiting 
 for them as real as life. She had quite re- 
 covered from the fainting-fit too, or she 
 never could have endured that awful hug 
 that Brer gave her when he sprang up the 
 steps. 
 
 " Why, Brer ! " she exclaimed, laughing 
 softly and running her white fingers through 
 his hair ; but she pretended not to see the 
 tears in his eyes, which was just like 
 Aunty. 
 
 " Hurry to your mother, Brer; she 's wor- 
 ried about Joy. The poor child has got 
 something in her foot. You '11 have to run 
 down to Point Myrtle, I reckon, and see if 
 Dr. Beauregard came over in the steamer." 
 
 " A doctor ! Joy must be badly off if 
 Mamma could n't cure her."
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 305 
 
 Brer hastened to the house, expecting to 
 find Joy in an alarming state. He was re- 
 lieved to see her lying quietly on the couch 
 with her foot in Grandma's lap. 
 
 The palm of the foot was badly swollen 
 just back of the big toe; but the only sign of 
 a wound was a tiny puncture like a pin-hole. 
 " I fear it 's an orange-thorn," said Mamma. 
 " She said she felt a sting when she was run- 
 ning to open the gate for Aunty. She for- 
 got all about it in the excitement, until I 
 saw her limping." 
 
 " See if you can feel anything, Brer," said 
 Joy, stretching out the little tanned foot. 
 
 Brer pressed his fingers upon the swollen 
 flesh, until Joy snatched her foot back, 
 laughing a little hysterically. 
 
 " It does n't hurt much" she said. " I 
 don't want a doctor. Mamma '11 cure it." 
 
 "We'll try a poultice to-night," decided 
 Mamma ; " to-morrow we will see about the 
 doctor." 
 
 20
 
 306 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 In the morning Joy was feverish and her 
 foot much inflamed, so Mamma sent the boys 
 for Dr. Beauregard. 
 
 He was a stout, jolly man, who laughed 
 while he probed, and probed while he 
 laughed, until Joy could have kicked him, 
 if she had not been afraid of that sharp, 
 glistening knife that hurt her enough as it 
 was. Neal hid her face in Grandma's lap ; 
 but the boys, who saw Joy set her teeth in 
 her determination not to scream, doubled 
 their fists, that were tingling to show that 
 great, heartless man what hurting was ; while 
 Nip, that saucy little darky, when he 
 saw the doctor poising his lancet for another 
 trial, gave the wrinkled skin of his fat neck 
 such a tweak with his sharp fingers that Joy, 
 who saw him, laughed, and it was the doctor 
 who set his teeth, while he made a futile slap 
 at the flea that he thought had bitten him. 
 
 He was so annoyed, being a city man, not 
 so hardened to flea-bites as were over-the-
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 307 
 
 Bay people, that he forgot to probe any 
 more. 
 
 He arose hastily, assuring Mamma posi- 
 tively there was not the least sign of any 
 foreign substance in the foot, a severe prick, 
 nothing more ; but he added pompously, 
 
 " Keep it clean, Madam ! keep it dry. 
 The least carelessness or the least neglect is 
 sure to bring on lockjaw. Take her away 
 from the salt-sea air and the salt-sea water. 
 Take her at once, Madam. Good-day." 
 
 He made a sweeping bow around the 
 room, and puffed forth to his carriage. 
 
 " We '11 send for my good old doctor to 
 come by the steamer to-night," said Grand- 
 ma; "we will run no risks." 
 
 " Is your doctor scared of fleas ? " asked 
 Joy. 
 
 " Not a bit ; and he knows in a minute the 
 difference between nipping fingers and bit- 
 ing fleas. I warn you, Nip." 
 
 There was no need to warn Nip. He
 
 308 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 watched the grave, white-haired gentleman 
 suspiciously at first ; but when he saw how 
 tenderly he handled Joy's poor inflamed foot, 
 and how trustfully Joy smiled up at him, he 
 concluded that this doctor did not need to be 
 nipped, and he retired behind the boys, who 
 were eying the doctor approvingly, for he 
 produced no lancet from his case. He said 
 to Mamma with a pleasant smile, " Only a 
 little splinter, Lyla. It will work itself out. 
 Just let it alone. This little girl will be 
 jumping about like a cricket in a few 
 days." 
 
 This good old doctor was mistaken, how- 
 ever. The foot grew worse; Joy became 
 more feverish and fretful each day. Mrs. 
 Lee began to think nervously of what the 
 fat, pompous doctor had said about lockjaw. 
 
 How glad they all were, how relieved, 
 when Papa at last came ! 
 
 "We'll take her straight back into the 
 piney woods," he decided at once. " She 's
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 309 
 
 bound to get well there. Can you be ready 
 to start by four in the morning, Lyla ? " 
 
 Mamma said "yes; " the children all cried 
 "yes," and neither Grandma nor Aunty 
 would say a word to detain them. 
 
 Accordingly, the next morning, while the 
 night still lay black on the bay and the 
 wavelets drowsily lapped the shore in the 
 darkness, the sleepy children drank their 
 strong coffee by the light of a kerosene 
 lamp on Grandma's back gallery, and started 
 on the long drive back into the piney woods, 
 and before the scorching rays of the red sun 
 had penetrated the open vistas of the pines, 
 they were far on their way to the Water- 
 Oaks. 
 
 Brer remained behind, not to ride up with 
 the moon man, who doubtless would have re- 
 fused accommodations to such a scoffer, but 
 with Uncle Jim, who was promising himself 
 a visit to the Water-Oaks within a few days. 
 
 Brer had resigned his seat in the wagon
 
 310 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 to Nip, whom Joy, in a whimsical mood, had 
 chosen for her nurse, and even for a day she 
 refused to be separated from him. 
 
 Papa held his little girl in his strong arms 
 while Pacer trotted bravely over the long, 
 long road ; and when, after a weary time of 
 ceaseless jolting, the faithful old horse came 
 to a standstill in the shade of the bay-tree, 
 before the dear house gate, he carried her 
 high above the welcoming cluster of barking, 
 leaping dogs, and laid her tenderly upon a 
 sheepskin pallet in the cool corner of the 
 gallery. 
 
 Mamma bathed the throbbing foot with 
 light, soothing touches, and skilfully bound 
 it with strong sweet-gum salve of her own 
 make. 
 
 Then Joy raised herself on her elbow and 
 called imperatively, 
 
 " Nip ! Nip ! You Nip ! " 
 
 " Hi ! " came the prompt response from 
 the old orchard, where Gene and Nip were
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 311 
 
 scrambling over the roof of the scuppernong 
 arbor, taking an inventory of the grape crop, 
 popping the occasional ripe grapes that their 
 searching eyes discovered into their ready 
 mouths, and dropping some into the greedy 
 apron that Neal held stretched to its most 
 gaping width beneath them. 
 
 Nip swung himself down by the great 
 scuppernong trunk that supported the centre 
 of the arbor, and sped lightly to the gallery 
 where Joy continued her petulant calling, 
 
 "Nip! Nip! You Nip!" 
 
 " Yer I is, Joy. Wat fo' yo' yellin' lak 
 I 's down yonda at Grammer's Bay ? Doan 
 go fo' to 'cite yo'self fo' not'in' an' mek yo'- 
 self right feberish," remonstrated Nip, pat- 
 tering along the gallery and dropping down 
 at Joy's side with an offering of four great 
 luscious grapes in his extended hand. "I 
 'low yo' doan wan' dese yer fine ripe 
 grapes." 
 
 " Yes, I do," declared Joy, sitting up and
 
 312 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 taking three grapes. " Now, you eat that 
 one right slow for company," she said, push- 
 ing away his hand with the other grape in 
 it. 
 
 Nip obediently munched his grape in soci- 
 able leisure until Joy's grapes had disap- 
 peared and she issued her next order, 
 
 " Tell them to bring us some more." 
 
 " Hi, dar ! " yelled Nip, springing to his feet 
 and facing the scuppernong arbor. " Doan 
 yo' go fo' to roll all dose fine scuppernongs 
 down yo'-alls frote. Case why, Joy 'low 
 she gwine war yo'-alls out ef Neal doan 
 fotch her an apernful ob grapes right soon. 
 D' year ? " 
 
 " Now conjure it," was Joy's next com- 
 mand, as she sank back and stretched out 
 her bandaged foot. 
 
 " All right, honey. Mind yo' 'bide right 
 still. Nip gwine conjure dat ole splinter 
 so he boun' show hisself." 
 
 The little darky dropped on his knees
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 313 
 
 and made a strange sign over the injured 
 foot. Then, working his face into fascinat- 
 ing contortions, rolling up his eyes in awful 
 solemnity, and moving his lips in indistinct 
 mutterings, he waved his slender brown 
 hands in circles and other mystic signs over 
 the throbbing wound ; while Joy watched 
 him with a breathless interest that was 
 partly amusement, but more than half su- 
 perstitious belief. 
 
 " Now dat ar foot gwine git well right 
 sma't," declared Nip, when the spell was 
 completed. " Doan go fo' to fret yo'self 
 any mo' 'bout dat splinter. Dat splinter 
 am comin' out." 
 
 Of course Nip was right. 
 
 Two mornings after, on the day of Brer's 
 arrival with Uncle Jim, when Mamma was 
 dressing the foot, she discovered a speck in 
 the swollen flesh. She tried in various 
 ways to remove it, but all her attempts 
 being unsuccessful, she at last called Papa.
 
 314 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 Mr. Lee examined the spot carefully, and 
 then sent Brer for the pincers. 
 
 " I 'm going to hurt you some, Joy," 
 he said ; " but if you will sit right still in 
 Mamma's lap and stand the pain like a 
 brave little woman, it will be over in a min- 
 ute, and in a few days we '11 have a well 
 foot. Besides," said Papa, mysteriously, 
 " when this splinter is out, I 'm going to 
 tell you a secret." 
 
 " What, Papa ? " cried Neal, with widen- 
 ing eyes. 
 
 " Never mind. I 'm going to tell Joy 
 first, and she can tell the rest of you. Now 
 be brave, little girl," 
 
 Joy clung close in Mamma's helpful arms, 
 not uttering a cry until all was over, then 
 she could not help sobbing a little from pain 
 and excitement. In a minute she sat up, 
 and laughing hysterically, brushed away 
 the tears to see the splinter that the boys 
 were exclaiming over.
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 315 
 
 It was an orange-thorn, fully an inch 
 in length, that had been buried in Joy's 
 small foot, hiding from the two wise doctors 
 as well as from everybody else. 
 
 " Gee ! " cried Brer, with mock concern. 
 " I should hate to have Joy step on me. 
 I say, Mamma, I wish you 'd make her 
 wear shoes. It 's right dangerous to have 
 her round here barefoot. Suppose, now, she 
 should step on one of us, where would 
 we be?" 
 
 " Ger-ate guns ! " cried Gene. " I never 
 thought of that. We 'd be worse off than 
 Joner in the whale, once we got caught in 
 Joy's foot." 
 
 " I reckon Nip's fingers or Mamma's salve 
 could conjure you out," laughed Papa, as 
 he went down the steps. The determined 
 clutch of a small hand stopped him. 
 
 " Well, daughter, what is it ? " he asked, 
 looking down into Neal's shining eyes. 
 
 " The secret," she demanded.
 
 316 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 " Sure, T forgot." He returned to 
 Mamma's side, and bending down, whis- 
 pered very softly in Joy's ear. 
 
 Joy's face flushed and her eyes snapped 
 as she listened. 
 
 " You don't know," she cried, clapping 
 her hands and laughing roguishly at the 
 eager faces about her. 
 
 " Papa said for you to tell," screamed 
 Neal, stepping on Mamma's toe in her 
 excitement. 
 
 " Well," began Joy, promisingly. Then 
 she paused and pursed her lips. " It 's a 
 secret," she declared, shaking her head. 
 
 " Now, you tell ! " demanded Gene. 
 
 "Anew " Joy looked up at Mamma 
 and laughed. " A new " again she paused 
 tantalizingly. 
 
 "Oh, don't tell unless you want to. I 
 reckon it is n't worth telling," said Brer, 
 turning his back. 
 
 " It is too ! A new teacher is coming ! 
 and Tommy ! "
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 317 
 
 "Tommy!" 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 "When?" 
 
 "Where from?" 
 
 " Tommy ? " 
 
 "Who's Tommy?" 
 
 " Tommy is a little Yankee boy, coming 
 down to the Water-Oaks with his cousin 
 who is going to live in the Owlets' Roost 
 this winter and teach you boys." 
 
 Mamma's explanation was followed by a 
 pause of dubious silence. The introduction 
 of a little stranger among them was a mat- 
 ter of serious importance to the children. 
 
 "Is Tommy going to school?" asked Neal, 
 at last. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " We '11 have Nip ! " cried Joy, trium- 
 phantly. 
 
 " How do you know you '11 have Nip ? 
 Come along, you Nip." Gene cast a look of 
 defiance at the girls, and with Nip in his
 
 318 UNDER THE WATER-OAKS. 
 
 wake, followed Brer out to the new barn 
 to talk the unexpected news over. The 
 boys betook themselves to the corn-crib, and 
 husked numberless ears of corn on the sub- 
 ject, but at last they could not quite make 
 up their minds about Tommy. 
 
 " I should n't mind seeing a Yankee boy," 
 grumbled Gene; "but somehow Tommy 
 Tommy sounds like a period." 
 
 " A period ? " demanded Brer. 
 
 " Like a stop to things, you see. It '11 
 be different with him around." 
 
 " Of course it won't be like having it all 
 to ourselves," agreed Brer. 
 
 " Tommy sha'n't come to the Water- 
 Oaks," declared Gene, with sudden heat. 
 
 " Oh, come now, Gene, what 's the use ? 
 We 're bound to have him. I reckon he '11 
 be a heap of fun too. Papa says Yankees 
 are up to all sorts of things, you know. 
 I wonder what he 's like." So they fell 
 to speculating about the little stranger.
 
 JOY'S MISHAPS. 319 
 
 Gene's instinctive feeling that Tommy's 
 advent to the piney woods would end the 
 first volume of their happy, lonely times, 
 was natural and true to the event ; but 
 Brer also was right in anticipating the com- 
 ing of the little Yankee from away up yon- 
 der as the beginning of a new chapter in 
 their lives of fresh and lively interest. 
 
 THE END.
 
 
 &j?