]> <emph rend="bold">A Woman Rice Planter:</emph> Electronic Edition. Pringle, Elizabeth Waties Allston (pseud. Pennington, Patience), 1845-1921 Illustrated by Smith, Alice R. Huger (Alice Ravenel Huger), b. 1876. Funding from the Library of Congress/Ameritech National Digital Library Competition supported the electronic publication of this title. Text scanned (OCR) by Kathleen Feeney Images scanned by Christopher Gwyn and Jennifer Stowe Text encoded by Jamie Vacca and Natalia Smith First edition, 1998. ca. 1 MB Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1998.

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 Call number 917.57 P95w 1914 (Davis Library, UNC-CH) A Woman Rice Planter Pringle, Elizabeth Waties Allston (pseud. Pennington, Patience), 1845-1921 Illustrations byAlice R. H. Smith New York The Macmillan company1914

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 Library of Congress Subject Headings Pringle, Elizabeth W. Allston (Elizabeth Waties Allston), 1845-1921 -- Diaries. Women -- South Carolina -- Diaries. Women plantation owners -- South Carolina -- Diaries. Rice -- South Carolina -- Georgetown County -- History -- 19th century. Georgetown County S.C. -- Social life and customs. Georgetown County S.C. -- Economic conditions. Plantation life -- South Carolina -- Georgetown County -- History -- 19th century. 1998-10-13, Celine Noel and Wanda Gunther revised TEIHeader and created catalog record for the electronic edition. 1998-09-08, Natalia Smith, project manager, finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing. 1998-06-01, Jennifer Stowe finished scanning images. 1997-12-20, Jamie Vacca finished TEI/SGML encoding 1997-11-19, Kathleen Feeney finished scanning (OCR) and proofing.

The sheaves are beaten with flails.[Frontispiece Image]

[Title Page Image]

 A WOMAN RICE PLANTER PATIENCE PENNINGTON WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY OWEN WISTER AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALICE R. H. SMITH New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1914 All rights reserved COPYRIGHTED 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, BY THE SUN PRINTING AND PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped Published September, 1913. Reprinted September, 1914. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co. - Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood Mass., U.S.A. ToMY FATHER

TO WHOSE EXAMPLE OF SELF-CONTROL AND CHRISTIAN FORTITUDE, I OWE THE POWER TO LIVE MY LIFE INDEPENDENT OF EXTERNALS, I DEDICATE THESE FRAGMENTARY RECORDS, ON THIS THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH

CHICORA WOOD, April 21st, 1913. INTRODUCTION

WHILE the influences and mechanisms of the present world tend to make all parts of it alike in thought and in costume, the various nooks and corners of our own country are gradually losing their original highly accentuated characteristics, and are merging into a general similarity. Most of what you hear and see any morning in the towns of Massachusetts you will hear and see in Omaha, Denver, Seattle, or anywhere else, because the department stores advertise and sell the same kind of clothes everywhere at the same time, and the same news is everywhere published in the daily papers.

Our American literature is therefore very lucky to have produced its Jewetts, Wilkinses, Cables, Craddocks, Pages, and Harrises, who have well set down for our perpetual interest and instruction the evaporating charm of their chosen fields.

Here is another book belonging to this valuable indigenous shelf of ours, a shelf where stand the volumes that tell of people and events that could have been met with nowhere in the world save upon our own native soil. Although it is not fiction, but a record of personal experience, it should prove to many readers as entertaining as our best fiction.

It is about the South, a particular part of the South, the rice- plantation coast of South Carolina. In this region, field and water and forest intermingle to form a strange, haunting scene, full of character and mystery. To dine with a neighbor here, one needs both the horse and the boat; travel has to be amphibious. And in this region, too, the marks that were made by the old days have been by the new days obliterated less than in most parts of our country. The Massachusetts, the New York, the Pennsylvania of fifty years ago, have been swept into albums and libraries; shelves and cabinets are their resting- place. Would you know how yonder large mills looked in 1860? No mills were there then, the spot was a pond, with a country road and a farm-house about half a mile down the road; perhaps somebody has a photograph or a wood-cut showing it as it used to be. That is what most of us in the North and East have to do - pull down old books, pull open old drawers - if we would see the former aspect of our neighborhood.

Not so is it in the country of the rice. The Southerner of to-day can still trace the fields and woods of old. His house may be roofless, his garden walks a tangle, but the avenue of live oaks still stands, the chimney of his mill still rises above a pile of crumbled bricks, at the doors of the cabins the negroes still sit, clad in a fashion not yet changed beyond recognition. The fields themselves may have had their banks cut and dissolved away by unresisted freshets, but still they are visible, still the unchanged river pours between and around them, and still the boat loads of people creep and prowl through the cuts.

True it is that no longer are these people well-to-do neighbors going to visit each other, rowed by an ebony crew in uniform that chants plantation songs in rhythm to the strokes of its oars - those neighbors are most of them lying in the graveyard of St. Michael's, Charleston, or in the lovely enclosures surrounding the little silent country churches upon which one sometimes emerges during a long ride through the woods. They who go in the boats to-day are apt to be less prosperous, whatever their color, and when they are black they may very likely be poachers who do not sing. But in spite of these differences, the general scene is the same.

Thus the mark of the old days remains visible; emancipation has by no means obliterated it; emancipation has merely brought to a close the old days themselves, without building on top of them anything new; it is Time that gently and silently and slowly is strewing its leaves upon that ended era.

But certain Southerners, loving their old land and custom, have struggled to keep alive the rice-planting, to mend their roofs and doors, to guard the flame upon their old hearths, and to teach good conduct and Christian faith to the young negroes unshackled from slavery indeed, but flung into space without master, or law, or guide. Once engulfed by the towns, these hapless blacks become a prey to every primitive and every sophisticated vice.

Struggle is too pale a word for the decades of efforts and obstacles that these courageous Southerners have known, particularly since rice has come to be grown so successfully elsewhere; and when the devoted planter happens to be a woman, the measure of daily indomitableness is full and runs over.

Such a life of such a woman is described in these pages; with its humor and its poignancy mingling at every turn, with the performances of the negroes, the performances of the animals, and the ceaseless and miscellaneous distractions and dangers of the mistress, all told with perfect vividness and simplicity. As the narrative proceeds, the reader gradually perceives that he has met with a Southern picture unsurpassed, and that it makes a native document of permanent historic value. It should be the companion volume to that admirable account of Eliza Pinckney written by Mrs. St. Julien Ravenel; together, these two books record the South Carolina lady and her plantation, first in the days of her prosperity and then in the later days. Now and then one meets some one with a natural gift of style so complete that it flows from the pen as song from a wild bird; but most rare is it to find this gift and the experiences it portrays united in the same person.

OWEN WISTER. ILLUSTRATIONS The sheaves are beaten with flails . . . . Frontispiece “Cherokee” - my father's place . . . . 4 Bonaparte . . . . 7 Each field has a small flood-gate called a “trunk” . . . . 9 Marcus began work on the breaks . . . . 10 “The girls shuffled the rice about with their feet until it was clayed” . . . . 11 Near the bridge two negro women are fishing . . . . . 14 A request from Wishy's mother, Annette, for something to stop bleeding . . . . 17 Green thought it was folly and fussiness . . . . 27 She picked her usual thirty-five pounds alone . . . . 31 To-day the hands are “toting” the rice into the flats . . . . 34 “You see a stack of rice approaching, and you perceive a pair of legs, or a skirt, as the case may be, peeping from beneath” . . . . 35 Chloe . . . . 40 Front porch - Casa Bianca . . . . 42 Elihu was a splendid boatman . . . . 51 My little brown maid Patty is a new acquisition and a great comfort, for she is very bright . . . . 53 The roughness and plainness of the pineland house . . . . 54 The yearly pow-wow at Casa Bianca . . . . 60 “Four young girls who are splendid workers” . . . . 62 She promised not to war any more . . . . 65 “Myself, ma'am, bin most stupid” . . . . . 66 A rice field “flowed” . . . . 72 The hoe they consider purely a feminine implement . . . . 79 The back steps to the pineland house . . . . 84 “A very large black hat” . . . . 87 Her husband brought her in an ox cart . . . . 93 “Old Maum Mary came to bring me a present of sweet potatoes” . . . . 98 “Pa dey een 'e baid” . . . . 102 One or two hands in the barn-yard . . . . 107 A corner of Casa Bianca . . . . . 109 “Chaney” . . . . 112 Five children asked me to let them “hunt tetta” . . . . 120 “It is tied into sheaves, which the negroes do very skilfully, with a wisp of the rice itself” . . . . 122 “The field with its picturesque workers” . . . . 124 “The Ferry” . . . . 132 His wife was very stirring . . . . 136 Day after day I met Judy coming out of her patch . . . . 138 “Old Florinda, the plantation nurse” . . . . 144 “Miss Patience, le' me len' yer de money” . . . . 150 “Jus' shinin' um up wid de knife-brick” . . . . 159 Aphrodite spread a quilt and deposited the party upon it . . . . 164 “Then he could talk a-plenty” . . . . 171 Chloe is devoted to the chicks - feeds them every two hours . . . . 174 Prince Frederick's Pee Dee . . . . 178 Prince George Winyah . . . . 180 “Eh, eh, I yere say yu cry 'bout chicken” . . . . 187 The summer kitchen at Cherokee . . . . 188 The winter kitchen at Cherokee . . . . 189 The string of excited children . . . . 190 I got Chloe off to make a visit to her daughter . . . . 198 I really do not miss ice, now that my little brown jug is swung in the well . . . . 200 Patty came in . . . . 210 “Plat eye!” . . . . 216 Goliah cried and sobbed . . . . 225 Had Eva to sow by hand a little of the inoculated seed . . . . 232 Her little log cottage was as clean as possible . . . . 236 The sacred spot with its heavy live oak shadows . . . . 242 “I met Dab on the road” . . . . 249 Cherokee steps . . . . 250 The smoke-house at Cherokee for meat curing . . . . 260 Sol's wife, Aphrodite, is a specimen of maternal health and vigor . . . . 262 I saw a raft of very fine poplar logs being made . . . . 263 Cypress trees . . . . 265 She was a simple, faithful soul - always diligent . . . . 270 Winnowing house for preparation of seed rice . . . . 272 “Patty en Dab en me all bin a eat” . . . . 276 Chloe began: “W'en I bin a small gal” . . . . 288 I took Chloe to Casa Bianca to serve luncheon . . . . 299 “I read tell de komfut kum to me” . . . . 309 “Up kum Maum Mary wid de big cake een de wheelbarrer” . . . . 311 Gibbie and the oxen . . . . 313 In the field - sowing . . . . 317 How to lay the breakfast table . . . . 321 Joy unspeakable . . . . 326 The church in Peaceville . . . . 331 Chloe was a great success at the North . . . . 338 My old summer home at Pawleys Island . . . . 349 The roof of the house on Pawleys Island - from the sand-hills . . . . 352 “En de 'omens mek answer en say: ‘No, ma'am; we neber steal none’ ” . . . . 356 “Dem all stan' outside de fence” . . . . 367 Fanning and pounding rice for household use . . . . 375 Pounding rice . . . . 376 The rice-fields looked like a great lake . . . . 399 Casa Bianca . . . . 422 Rice-fields from the highlands . . . . 439 “You see I didn't tell no lie” . . . . 442 A WOMAN RICE PLANTER CHAPTER I CHEROKEE, March 30,1903.

YOU have asked me to tell of my rice-planting experience, and I will do my best, though I hardly know where to begin.

Some years ago the plantation where I had spent my very short married life, Casa Bianca, was for sale, and against the judgment of the men of my family I decided to put $10,000, every cent I had, in the purchase of it, to grow old in, I said, feeling it a refuge from the loneliness which crushed me. Though opposed to the step, one of my brothers undertook very kindly to manage it until paid for, then to turn it over to me. I had paid $5000 cash and spent $5000 in buying mules, supplies, ploughs, harrows, seed rice, etc., necessary to start and run the place. This left me with a debt of $5000, for which I gave a mortgage. After some years the debt was reduced to $3000, when I awoke to the fact that I had no right to burden and worry my brother any longer with this troublesome addition to his own large planting,* and I told him the first of January of 18-- that I had determined to relieve him and try it myself. He seemed much shocked and surprised and said it was impossible; how was it possible for me, with absolutely no knowledge of planting or experience, to do anything? It would be much wiser to rent. I said I would gladly do so, but who would rent it? He said he would give me $300 a year for it, just to assist me in this trouble, and I answered that that would just pay the * He planted at this time one thousand acres of rice successfully. taxes and the interest on the debt, and I would never have any prospect of paying off the mortgage, and, when I died, instead of leaving something to my nieces and nephews, I would leave only a debt. No; I had thought of it well; I would sell the five mules and put that money in bank, and as far as that went I would plant on wages, and the rest of the land I would rent to the negroes at ten bushels to the acre. He was perfectly dismayed; said I would have to advance heavily to them, and nothing but ruin awaited me in such an undertaking.

However, I assembled the hands and told them that all who could not support themselves for a year would have to leave the place. With one accord they declared they could do it; but I explained to them that I was going to take charge myself, that I was a woman, with no resources of money behind me, and, having only the land, I intended to rent to them for ten bushels of rice to the acre. I could advance nothing but the seed. I could give them a chance to work for themselves and prove themselves worthy to be free men. I intended to have no overseer; each man would be entirely responsible for the land he rented. “You know very well,” I said, “that this land will bring my ten bushels rent if you just throw the seed in and leave it, so that every stroke of work that you do will go into your own pockets, and I hope you will prove men enough to work for that purpose.”

Then I picked out the lazy, shiftless hands and told them they must leave, as I knew they would not work for themselves. All the planters around were eager for hands and worked entirely on wages, and I would only plant fifty acres on wages, which would not be enough to supply all with work. My old foreman, Washington, was most uneasy and miserable, and questioned me constantly as to the wisdom of what I was doing. At last I said to him: “Washington, you do not know whether I have the sense to succeed in this thing, Mass' Tom does not know, I don't know; but we shall know by this time next year, and in the meantime you must just trust me and do the best you can for me.”

It proved a great success! I went through the burning suns all that summer, twice a week, five miles in a buggy and six in a boat! I, who had always been timorous, drove myself the five miles entirely alone, hired a strange negro and his boat and was rowed by him to Casa Bianca plantation. Then, with dear old Washington behind me, telling of all the trials and tribulations he had had in getting the work done, I walked around the 200 acres of rice in all stages of beauty and awfulness of smell.

But I was more than repaid. I paid off the debt on the place and lifted the mortgage. I had never hoped for that in one year. My renters also were jubilant; they made handsomely and bought horses and buggies and oxen for the coming year's work. When I had paid off everything, I had not a cent left in the bank to run on, however. Washington was amazed and very happy at the results, but when I said something to him about preparing the wages field for the coming crop, he said very solemnly: “Miss, ef yo' weak, en you wrestle wid a strong man, en de Lo'd gie you strenf fo' trow um down once, don't you try um 'gain.” I laughed, but, remembering that I would have to borrow money to plant the field this year, I determined to take the old man's advice and not attempt it. This was most fortunate, for there was a terrible storm that autumn and I would have been ruined. My renters were most fortunate in getting their rice in before the storm, so that they did well again.

From that time I have continued to plant from 20 to 30 acres on wages and to rent from 100 to 150 acres. Of course I have had my ups and downs and many anxious moments. Sometimes I have been so unfortunate as to take as renters those who were unfit to stand alone, and then I have suffered

“Cherokee”— my father's place.

serious loss; but, on the whole, I have been able to keep my head above water, and now and then have a little money to invest. In short, I have done better than most of my neighbors.

Five years ago the head of our family passed away, and the Cherokee plantation, which my father had inherited from his grandfather, had to be sold for a division of the estate. None of my family was able to buy it, and a syndicate seemed the only likely purchaser, and they wanted to get it for very little. So I determined the best thing I could do was to buy it in myself and devote the rest of my life to keeping it in the family, and perhaps at my death some of the younger generation would be able to take it. This would condemn me to a very isolated existence, with much hard work and anxiety; but, after all, work is the greatest blessing, as I have found. I have lived at Cherokee alone ever since, two miles from any white person! With my horses, my dogs, my books, and piano, my life has been a very full one. There are always sick people to be tended and old people to be helped, and I have excellent servants.

My renters here, nearly all own their farms and live on them, coming to their work every day in their ox-wagons or their buggies; for the first thing a negro does when he makes a good crop is to buy a pair of oxen, which he can do for $30, and the next good crop he buys a horse and buggy.

The purchase of Cherokee does more credit to my heart than head, and it is very doubtful if I shall ever pay off the mortgage. I have lost two entire crops by freshet, and the land is now under water for the third time this winter, and, though I have rented 125 acres, it is very uncertain if I can get the half of that in. March is the month when all the rice- field ploughing should be done. The earliest rice is planted generally at the end of March, then through April, and one week in May. Last season I only got in fifty acres of rent rice and ten of wages; for in the same way the freshet was over the rice land all winter, and when it went off, there was only time to prepare that much. The renters made very fine crops - 30, 40, and 45 bushels to the acre, while the wages fields only made 17! This is a complete reversal of the ordinary results, for I have very rarely, in all these years, made less than 30 bushels to the acre on my fields, and I was greatly discouraged and anxious to understand the reason of this sudden failure in the wages rice at both plantations.

By the merest chance I found out the cause. Early in December I was planting oats in a six-acre field. We broadcast winter oats in this section and then plough it in on fields which have been planted in peas before. I was anxious to get the field finished before a freeze, and had six of the best ploughmen in it. Grip had prevented my going out until they had nearly finished, but Bonaparte had assured me it was being well done. When I went into the field, it looked strange to me - the rich brown earth did not lie in billowy ridges as a ploughed field generally does. Here and there a weed skeleton stood erect. I tried to pull up one or two of these and found they were firmly rooted in the soil and had never been turned. I walked over that field with my alpenstock for hours, and found that systematically the ploughmen had left from eight to ten inches of hard land between each furrow, covering it skilfully with fresh earth, so that each hand who had been paid for an acre's ploughing had in reality ploughed only one-third of an acre. And then I understood the failure of all the wage rice!

I called Bonaparte, my head man, whom I trust fully. His grandfather belonged to my grandfather, and his family hold themselves as the colored aristocracy of this country. He has been a first-class carpenter, but he is rheumatic and does not work with ease at his trade now, and prefers taking charge of my planting as head man, or agent, as they now prefer to call it. He is trustworthy and has charge of the keys to my barns where rice, corn, oats, and potatoes are kept. I have trusted him entirely, and it would be a dreadful blow to think that he was losing his integrity. Though the pressure from the idle, shambling, trifling element of his race is very great, he has been able to resist it in the past.

Bonaparte.

I showed Bonaparte what I had discovered, and he seemed terribly shocked. Whether this was real or not I cannot say, but it seemed very real, and as he has never ploughed, perhaps he really did not understand. When I said: “And this is why the wage rice turned out so badly! You received ploughing like this and I paid for it,” he seemed convicted and humbled. He had told me how beautifully the rice got up, but as soon as the hot suns of July struck it, the leaves just wilted. Of course, the roots could not penetrate the packed, unbroken clay soil. The best rice-field soil is a blue clay which the sun bakes like a brick. For a while the roots lived in the fresh earth on top.

The seed rice I had paid $1.35 a bushel for and planted two and one-half bushels to each acre; the cost of cultivating and harvesting it is $15 the acre, so that makes $18.37 which it cost to produce seventeen bushels of rice, which sold at 80 cents a bushel, $13.60.

What is to be the result of this new departure in the way of dishonesty I do not know. It has taken me a long time to lose patience. A few years ago one could get the value of the money paid for work. Just after the war there was a splendid body of workers on this plantation, and every one in the neighborhood was eager to get some of the hands from here. My father gave prizes for the best workers in the different processes, and they felt a great pride in being the prize ploughman or ditcher or hoe hand of the year; but now, alas, poor things, they have been so confused and muddled by the mistaken ideas and standards held out to them that they have no pride in honest work, no pride in anything but to wear fine clothes and get ahead of the man who employs them to do a job.

It is very hard for me to say this; I have labored so among them to try to elevate their ideals, to make them bring up their children to be honest and diligent, to make them still feel that honest, good work is something to be proud of. Even last year I would not have said this, but, alas, I have to say it now.

I have just come in from the corn-field, where two women have been paid for cutting down the corn-stalks, so that there will be nothing to interfere with the plough. They have only broken off the tops of the stalks, leaving about eighteen inches of stout corn- stalks all through the field. I shall have to send some one else to do the work and pay once more.

Yesterday I drove eight miles to my lower place, Casa Bianca, where the foreman asked me to go round the banks with him and see the inroads of the last full-moon tides, and it was appalling, the forces of nature are so immense. It makes me quail to think of the necessity of setting my small human powers in opposition. The rice- field banks are about three feet above the level of the river at high water, and each field has a very small flood-gate (called a trunk), which opens and closes to let the water in and out; but when a gale or freshet comes, all the trunk doors have to be raised so as not to strain the banks, and the water in the fields rises to the level of the river outside.

I must stop writing now or I will get too blue. I must go out and bathe in the generous sunshine and feast my eyes on the glory of yellow jessamine that crowns every bush and tree and revel in the delicious perfume as my bicycle glides over the soft, brown pine- needles along the level paths where the great dark blue eyes of the wild violets look lovingly up at me.

Yes, yes, God is very good and His world is very beautiful, and we must trust Him. When these brown children of His were wild, they were, no doubt, in a physical way perfect, but when they were brought to a knowledge of good and evil and brought under the law, like our first parents, the Prince of Darkness stepped in and the struggle within them of the forces of heaven and hell has been going on there ever since.

Each field has a small flood-gate, called a “trunk.”

Can we doubt which will conquer in the end? No! Evil can never have the final victory, but the struggle will be long, for the Prince of Darkness uses such subtle emissaries. They come in the guise of angels, as elevators and instructors, taking from them the simple first principles of right and wrong which they had grasped, and substituting the glamour of ambition, the desire to fly, to soar, for the God-given injunction, “What cloth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God?” Thank God, there is one man of their own race striving to hold up true standards of the Cross instead of the golden calf of the politician.

I fear this is a dull letter, but I have tried to make you understand something of the situation.

PATIENCE PENNINGTON. CHEROKEE, June 1, 1903.

Since last I wrote I have been the sport of winds and waves. This place is still under water from a freshet, and on Sunday, April 5, there was a severe gale, and the water swept over the whole 200 acres of Casa Bianca, flowing up the rice-fields in an hour. Saturday evening the hands, after ploughing, left their ploughs in the field to continue work Monday, and they could not see the handles of the ploughs Sunday morning. I went down Tuesday, to find bridges carried away and even the banks still under water, and the head man reported five breaks in the Black River bank. It was impossible to do anything until the tide receded, and as there was a strong east wind blowing and a freshet coming down the Pee Dee, things looked very black.

Marcus began work on the breaks.

I could not help lamenting aloud, and Marcus felt obliged to offer me some comfort, so he said: “Miss, if we one been

“The girls shuffled the rice about with their feet until it was clayed.”

a suffer, I'd feel bad, but eberybody bank bruk, en eberybody fiel' flow.” This did not comfort me at all, but I realized the folly of lamenting. Fortunately I had just bought 3000 feet of boards, and as soon as the water left the fields Marcus began work on the breaks, and by driving puncheons, laying ground logs, and flatting mud and filling in, the bank is up again, keeping out the river, and the fields are drying off. The season, however, has not waited on us. April is gone, and not an acre is planted when I expected to have 100 acres growing by this time. The worst is that I have been paying out heavily every week to put things back where they were at the end of March.

There are many curious things about the planting of rice. One can plant from the 15th of March to the 15th of April, then again from the 1st to the 10th of May, and last for ten days in June. Rice planted between these seasons falls a prey to birds, - May-birds in the spring and rice-birds in August and September. It was impossible to plant in April this year, and now every one is pushing desperately to get what they can in May.

Yesterday I went down to give out the seed rice to be clayed for planting to-day. I keep the key to the seed-rice loft, though Marcus has all the others. I took one hand up into the upper barn while Marcus stayed below, having two barrels half filled with clay and then filled with water and well stirred until it is about the consistency of molasses. In the loft my man measured out thirty-five bushels of rice, turning the tub into a spout leading to the barn below, where young men brought the clay water in piggies from the barrel and poured it over the rice, while young girls, with bare feet and skirts well tied up, danced and shuffled the rice about with their feet until the whole mass was thoroughly clayed, singing, joking, and displaying their graceful activity to the best advantage. It is a pretty sight. When it is completely covered with clay, the rice is shovelled into a pyramid and left to soak until the next morning, when it is measured out into sacks, one and one-fourth bushels to each half acre. Two pairs of the stoutest oxen on the plantation are harnessed to the rice-drills, and they lumber along slowly but surely, and by twelve o'clock the field of fourteen acres is nearly planted.

It is literally casting one's bread on the waters, for as soon as the seed is in the ground the trunk door is lifted and the water creeps slowly up and up until it is about three inches deep on the land. That is why the claying is necessary; it makes the grain adhere to the earth, otherwise it would float. Sometimes, generally from prolonged west winds, the river is low, and water enough to cover the rice cannot be brought in on one tide, and then the blackbirds just settle on the field, diminishing the yield by half.

I went down into the Marsh field, where five ploughs are running, preparing for the June planting. It is a 26-acre field, very level and pretty, and I am delighted with the work; it is beautiful. When I told one of the hands how pleased I was with the work, he said: “Miss, de lan' plough so sweet, we haf for do' um good.” I went all through with much pleasure, though I sank into the moist, dark brown soil too deep for comfort, and found it very fatiguing to jump the quarter drains, small ditches at a distance of 200 feet apart, and, worse, to walk the very narrow plank over the 10-foot ditch which runs all around the field and is very deep.

The evening is beautiful; the sun, just sinking in a hazy, mellow light, is a fiery dark red, the air is fresh from the sea, only three miles to the east, the rice-field banks are gay with flowers, white and blue violets, blackberry blossoms, wisteria, and the lovely blue jessamine, which is as sweet as an orange blossom. Near the bridge two negro women are fishing, with great strings of fish beside them. The streams are full of Virginia perch, bream, and trout; you have only to drop your line in with a wriggling worm at the end, and keep silent and you have fine sport. Then the men set their canes securely in the bank just before dark and leave then, and almost invariably find a fish ready for breakfast in the morning. There is a saying that one cannot starve in this country, and it is true.

Near the bridge two negro women are fishing.

As I drove down I saw little children with buckets and piggins picking blackberries; such big, sweet berries, covering acres of old fields which once were planted in corn. As I walked down the bank I found a “cooter” (terrapin) which had come out of the river to lay eggs. My excellent Chloe will make a delicious soup from it, or, still better, bake it in the shell. All winter we have quantities of English duck' in the rice-fields and partridges and snipe on the upland, and in the woods wild turkeys and deer, so that if there is a sportsman in the family, one can live royally with no expense.

Sheep live and thrive without any outlay. In 1890 I exchanged a very fine two-year-old grade Devon, for twenty sheep. Since then I have bought seven more. A gale, with sudden rise of water, destroyed twenty-two at one time in 1896, and I lost ten by dogs, but notwithstanding these losses, in the last seven years they have brought me in $200 by sale of mutton; my house is furnished with rugs and blankets, and I am dressed in serge made from their wool, and I have to-day at this place forty-six sheep and thirty-five splendid lambs. If I only could get the latter to a good market, it would pay handsomely, for their keep has cost nothing. I have a Page wire fence around my place.

In the same way cattle live and thrive with no grain, only straw during the winter, and the negroes do not give theirs even straw; they simply turn them into the woods, and in the spring look them up; find the cows with fine young calves and ready to be milked. They shut the calf up in a pen and turn the mother out, and she ranges the rich, grassy meadows during the day, but always returns to her calf at night. When she is milked, half of the milk is left for the calf. In this way the negroes raise a great many cattle, the head of every family owning a pair of oxen and one or two cows.

However, we cannot turn our cattle into the woods as we used to do, for unless we go to the expense of hiring a man to follow them, they will disappear, and no trace of them can be found. One negro will not testify in court against another, so that it is scarcely worth while to attempt to prosecute, for there is no chance of conviction. You hear that such a man has been seen driving off your animal; one or two people say they have seen him; you bring it into court, and witness after witness swears entire ignorance of the matter.

I, for instance, have 500 acres of pine land, and the family estate and my brothers' together make 3000 acres of the finest pasture land. Where my father had herds of splendid cattle I have to keep my cows in a very poor pasture of twenty acres, fenced in, and in consequence have only five or six cows and one pair of oxen on the same plantation where my father used to stable sixty pair of oxen during the winter. They worked the rice land in the spring and roamed the woods and grew fat in summer.

On the road this morning I met Wishy, who made many civil inquiries about my health. Five years ago one morning I was waked earlier than usual by a request from Wishy's mother, Annette, for something to stop bleeding. He had been badly cut by a negro, who struck him on the head with a lightwood bar. Wishy had laughed at his special flame, who had gone to church the Sunday before with a long white veil on her hat and he was enraged. I sent witch-hazel and the simple remedies which I always keep for such calls. About eleven o'clock another request came, this time to lend my wagon and horses to carry Wishy to town fourteen miles away, as his head was still bleeding. I was shocked to hear that he was still losing blood and told them the drive might be fatal under the circumstances; I would go out and see what could be done.

Hastily getting together all the remedies I could think of, my niece and I drove to Annette's house, which was crowded with eager friends gazing at the unhappy Wishy, who sat in the middle of the room, leaning forward over a tub, a man on each side supporting him, while the blood literally spouted from his head, - not a steady flow but in jets. It was an awful sight. I had a bed made on the floor near the door and had him lifted to it, well propped up with pillows, so that he was in a sitting posture. At that time we had no doctor nearer than the town, except a man who had come from a neighboring state under a cloud of mystery. As soon as I heard of Wishy's condition I had sent for him, but the boy returned, saying he was not able to read my note, so there was nothing but to do what I could or to let Wishy die.

A request from Wishy's mother, Annette, for something to stopbleeding.

I got Frank, who was very intelligent, to help me. I dipped absorbent cotton in brandy and then into powdered alum, and put it into the hole in the top of Wishy's head; it seemed a gulf! I put in more and more, having Frank hold his hands closely around the top of the head; but still the blood flowed. Then I sprinkled the powdered alum over all thickly until there was only one little round hole just in the middle; I made a little ball of cotton and alum and pressed it down into the hole with my finger and it was done. I gave him the milk I had carried, had the house cleared of people, and left, ordering that when the doctor came, I should be sent for.

A day passed, and when I sent milk, the message came back that the doctor had been there, looked at him, and gone away. I began to feel very unhappy over the heterogeneous contents of Wishy's head, but if I had not stopped the flow in some way, he would have been dead certainly - his pulse was just a flutter. I tried not to worry over it. The third day a runner came to say: “De docta' cum.” With all speed I had Prue put in the buckboard and drove out. I had never seen the doctor and was surprised to find a fine-looking man in possession of the cabin. He called for a razor, said he could do nothing until he shaved Wishy's head. There was confusion among the numerous darkies who crowded round the house. At last it was agreed that Uncle Jack had the only razor in the street (as they call the negro quarters) that could cut. While a woman went for the razor, the doctor told Annette he must have hot water, and she proceeded to put a tomato can full of water on the fire; but he peremptorily ordered a large pot carefully washed, filled with water, and put on the fire. When the razor came, it was too dull to be of any use until the doctor had sharpened it, and then he shaved all of the woolly head.

I watched the man's proceedings with a growing feeling of shame. I had gone there to keep my eye on him, to prevent any roughness or carelessness to the patient, and he could not have been gentler or more interested and careful if he had been treating the Prince of Wales himself. It was a long business; with an endless stream of hot water from a fountain- syringe he removed from the hollow depths of Wishy's skull all the wonderful packing with which I had filled it, and I went away satisfied.

Day after day for three weeks he came and dressed the wound, until Wishy's head was restored to its normal state. Then he sent a bill for $20, which Wishy begged me to pay, and he would gradually return the money to me as he worked. Of course, I paid it, and, sad to say, not one dollar has ever been returned to me. Wishy married the next winter, and moved to a neighboring plantation. He has never even sent me a string of herring, though he has had a net for two years and caught great quantities which he sold readily at a cent apiece.

During the run of herring in the spring they crowd up the little streams in the most extraordinary way, just piling on top of each other in their haste to reach the very source of the stream, apparently. I suppose one little leader must wave its little tail and cry “excelsior” to the others. At a small bridge over a shallow creek near here a barrelful has been taken with a dip-net in an afternoon. But it takes a meditative, not to say an idle person, to watch for the special day and hour when the herring are seized by the impulse to ascend that particular stream.

I must stop now, not having said anything I meant to say, having been led away by the thought of my lost $20 and how very useful it would be to me now, and I will have to leave other things for another day.

PATIENCE PENNINGTON. P.S. In future I will not write you a letter, but keep a diary and send you a few sheets from time to time. P. P. PEACEVILLE, September 1.

Had a trying day at the plantation, making an effort to get hay properly stacked, and was detained late. I had told Jonadab to wash the buckboard and grease the wheels, which he had done very thoroughly, for I could hear the grease crackling, and Ruth was travelling very fast when the world seemed to come to an end.

I did not know what had happened, but flew to Ruth's head and quieted her, though she had dragged the buck board some distance before I could stop her. I do not know what became of Dab at first, for I didn't see him until I had stopped Ruth, when he came up, stuttering fearfully, and said: -

“The wheel is lef' behind.”

The front wheel had rolled off. I told him to go and bring it and put it on, though I did not see how he was to do it alone and I could not possibly help, as it was all I could do to hold Ruth. Jonadab, however, has a way of surprising me by unexpected capacity, just as a variety from my constant surprise over his awkwardness.

On this occasion he held the wheel in one hand while he lifted the axle with the other and got the wheel on. Then I sent him to look for the nut, but I felt it was a forlorn chance for it was now quite dark. I was in despair; we were three and a half miles from Peaceville, and if I walked, I would have to leave all my impedimenta and only take my basket of keys and other small things, such as my diary.

Most of the planters go home at sunset, and I feared they had all passed, and I could not see my way to any solution. Just as I had come to the conclusion that even my resourceful mind could find no way out of the darkness, two buggies drove up and the gentlemen asked what they could do for me. I explained the situation, and one of them said: -

“If you will drive with me, Miss Pennington, Mr. B. will take your things; the boy can ride the horse, and we will leave the buckboard here until to-morrow.”

I accepted the hospitality of his buggy with many thanks. The transfer of freight was made. Dab took Ruth out, and I rolled the vehicle into the woods, as I could not bear that my buckboard should be left on the roadside, a spectacle of a breakdown. Just as it was all accomplished Dab stammered out: -

“I find de nut.”

Great surprise, for this was fully 100 yards in front of the spot where the wheel had run off, but he said he felt it under his foot and picked it up and showed it in his hand. Mr. H. said: -

“That boy could never have put the nut on at all after greasing it!”

Dab was vociferous as to his having put it on and screwed it tight. I was beyond conjecture, and too thankful to question. Very rapidly the transfer was made back to my vehicle, Mr. H. remarking, “Your buckboard takes easily more than our two buggies.”

I thanked them heartily for their chivalrous aid, and we all drove on home.

After the agitation had somewhat subsided, I asked Dab, who was sitting behind, if he had really put the tap on or not. He answered with great certainty: -

“Yes, ma'am; yes, ma'am; I did put it on; I know I did, en screwed it tight - ”

I did not contradict him, but said, “Think about it; go back in your mind and remember just what you did, and where you put the nut when you took off this wheel, which you say you greased last.”

After two miles in silence I heard convulsed sounds from the back, and finally out came “No-o-o, Miss Pashuns; no ma'am, I never put that nut on; I put it on the front o' the buckboard, an' when I put the wheel on, I went for drink of water, and never did put the nut back - no, ma'am I never put it back. I left it setting on the front of the buckboard.”

When Dab finally gets started after stuttering and spluttering, he cannot bear to stop talking, but keeps repeating his statement over and over with delight at the glib way in which the words come out, and I have to say mildly, “That will do, Dab,” and even then I hear him saying them over to himself.

After stopping his flow of speech I told him it was a great relief to know exactly what had happened, and I hoped it would be a lesson to him all his life and make him feel that he was a responsible being; that I trusted him with important work, and how if it had not been for God's great goodness, I might be lying on the road with a broken neck and he with both legs broken. I did all I could to make him feel what mercy it had been, and he seemed deeply impressed. Ruth behaved beautifully during the whole thing, so I gave her a saucer of sugar when we got home.

 Saturday, September 9.

Have been ill ever since the happy incident the other night, but this afternoon I felt impelled to go into the plantation. I had planned to send Chloe in with the money for Bonapart to pay off, but at the last minute got up and went myself.

As soon as he saw me Green said: “Glad you cum, ma'am Nana's got de colic turrible en we dunno w'at to do fur her.

I forgot that I was myself decrepit and flew to the house and got a bottle of colic cure and a box of axle-grease. I always keep aconite, but had none, but fortunately had not returned this bottle of horse medicine which I had borrowed when Ruth was sick. It said a teaspoonful every half hour, but I knew my time was short and Nana was desperately ill, so I gave a teaspoonful every ten minutes.

She would just throw her great body down with such force that it seemed she must break every bone in it, roll over and over, and pick herself up and flop down again before you could attempt to head her off. While she was down, I made Green and Dab rub her heavily with axle-grease.

I myself put the medicine in her mouth, holding her head up and her lips tight together until she had swallowed it. She has such confidence in me that she did not resist at all, but kept quite still while I did it. I gave her six doses, and then it was dark, and I suddenly became aware that I was very tired and could do no more. I told Nana goodby, for I never expect to see her again.

My poor dear little Irish terrier, who is my shadow and constant companion, is very ill. For three days he has neither eaten nor drunk. His throat seems paralyzed, and he looks at me with such superhuman eyes that it makes me miserable, for I can do nothing for him.

I take a bowl of water to him and he buries his little nose in it, but cannot swallow or even snuff it up. I can get nothing down his throat, so that it is impossible to treat him.

 Sunday.

Poor little Snap was so ill and made such a constant appeal to me for help which I could not give, that I felt it was cruel to let him suffer longer, so I sent to Miss Penelope for a bottle of chloroform. He followed me from room to room, a feeble skeleton, all eyes, and still I tried to give him milk, and when he turned his head from that, I gave him water into which he would feebly dip his little black- tipped mouth.

At last I took him in my arms and put him on a soft cushion in a tall banana box; then I cut several pieces of very savory roast beef and put them all around his little muzzle. He could not eat them, but he could smell them, and I could see by his eye that it was a comfort to him to have them there.

Then I filled a sponge with chloroform and put it into a cone which I had made of pasteboard and put it over his head and covered up the whole thing with a heavy rug. After two hours I sent Dab to look in, and he came back radiant to say that Snap was quite well.

I went to look, and the dear little doggie roused himself from a delightful nap to look at me. All expression of suffering and appeal was gone from his eyes. He looked supremely happy and comfortable, and after glancing up at me he tucked his head down on the roast beef and went to sleep again.

I wet the sponge and once more left him. When I took him out the next morning, I could not believe he was dead, so perfectly happy and natural did he look. Dab dug his grave in my little garden, and I laid him to rest, feeling the loneliest mortal on earth when I got through.

 September.

When I went in to Cherokee yesterday, I was amazed to find Nana quite recovered. I had told Bonaparte if she showed any disposition to eat, to give her rough rice instead of either oats or corn, and it seems to have been a happy thought, for it has agreed with her, and though weak still and much skinned and bruised by the way she threw herself about, she seemed quite well.

This is the eighty-eighth birthday of the sainted friend whom I visit every day. Every one in the little village sent her some little offering, so that her room was full of flowers and dainty trifles, and she enjoyed them so much. Though unable to eat anything and nearly blind, her interest in everything and everybody is vivid.

This afternoon, as Dab was putting the demijohn of mill in the box preparatory to leaving Cherokee, and I was standing in front of him screwing the top on the jar of cream to put in the same box, suddenly he dropped the demijohn and leaped in the air, uttering the most terrific Comanche yells I ever heard. I nearly dropped the jar of cream at the sound; he fled away still yelling.

My mind is fertile in horrors, and I said to myself, “The boy has gone mad!” I was terror struck.

When he finally stopped, some distance away, I called out, “What is the matter, Jonadab?” He just pointed to a spot near where I stood and began to yell again, “Snake run across my foot.”

The relief was so great that I looked composedly on the big snake, but called in a tone of unwonted severity, “You must come and kill it.” I knew the only thing to prevent Dab from going into a fit was to be severe in my tone, and peremptory.

Most reluctantly and slowly he returned. I cannot imagine why the snake elected to stay in the ivy to meet its fate; it was sluggish, evidently having swallowed something large, either a rat or another snake, for it was very stout. I made Dab find a long strong stick. It required continued urging and encouragement to get Dab to complete the job, but as soon as it was done and he felt himself victor over the thing which had terrified him so, he became puffed up with pride and courage.

 September 30.

The storm is over, and all nature is smiling. Oh, the beauty of the sunshine falling on the dark green pines and the ecstasy of the song of the mocking-bird, who is perched on a tall pine just east of the piazza, splitting his little throat, trying to give vent to his joy and thanksgiving to the Great Father! If one could only bottle up a little of this sunshine and glory and ecstasy to bring out on some gray morning when one's blessings seem too far away to be remembered!

I am just writing a line while Dab is having his breakfast and putting Ruth in the buckboard before we start for Cherokee to see the damage done by the winds and the deluge of rain which fell for twenty-four hours. The cotton had opened more fully Saturday than it yet had done, but slight drizzle prevented its being picked. I fear the hay which was stacked will all have to be taken down.

8 P.M. - Spent the day at Cherokee fighting with incompetency and unwillingness.

The loose, irregular stacks of hay were, of course, wet to the heart, and I had them taken down entirely, much to Green's dismay. He thought it purely folly and fussiness, and I had to stand by and see it done, lending a helping hand now and then, to get it done at all.

He was loud in his abuse of Gibbey, his brother, for incompetency and determination not to work, saying “He's too strifflin' to lib,” but that he himself was capable of everything; not only stacking hay, but everything else, he did in the most perfect way. I let him talk on, for his manner was respectful, and I was really interested and amused to see unveiled his opinion of himself.

It would be very comfortable to see one's self in that perfect light, instead of being always so fiercely conscious of one's own shortcomings. I almost envied Green his fool's paradise.

I went to a stack which he assured he had “'zamined, an' it was puffectly dry, 'cause, I put dat stack up myself.” With ease I ran my hand in up to the elbow and brought out a handful of soaking wet hay. But that had no effect; he said that was some he had just thrown back, fearing to have it exposed, as it might rain, looking wisely at the clear sky.

One has to pray inwardly all the time to keep from a mighty outburst. He is better than any one else I could get just now.

Spent some time in the cotton-field seeing that the first pickings were spread on sheets in the sun so as to dry thoroughly. I had put some peanuts in my pockets for the little girls, Jean and Kitty, and I stayed talking to them a little while.

They have up to this time “minded child,” that is, each has lived with a married sister and taken care of their babies. They do not look as though they had enjoyed life, nor have they learned anything, and I am anxious to brighten them up a little and teach them to take an interest and pride in their work. Thus far I cannot boast of my success, as to-day Jean picked six pounds and Kitty four!

Green thought it wasfolly and fussiness.

 October 1.

Another gorgeous autumn day, with just enough white clouds flying here and there to make shadows. The cowpeas were picked to-day, and they are bearing finely, and the people know how to pick them; it is not like the cotton. One woman who never can pick more than twenty pounds of cotton had seventy pounds of peas, and Eva had ninety pounds. I feel better satisfied with the day's work than usual.

I got the hay which had been dried put in the barn, which is much better than stacking it, when no one knows how, but I could only do that because the ground is too wet to run the mowing machine; thus I could use the team to haul in the hay. One of the renters came up and paid his money quite voluntarily, which is so unusual that it put me in good spirits for the day.

 October 3.

To-day is too beautiful for words. As I went into the sun-swept piazza this morning I felt, like the mocking-birds, an ecstasy of gratitude for so much beauty. I did wish so I could take a day off and sit in the piazza and just bask in the beauty of everything and breathe the crisp freshness of the first fall weather and sew.

I am making a suit of white flannel woven from the wool of my own sheep. I have embroidered the revers and cuffs of the jacket and nearly finished it, and want it to wear these delightfully cool mornings, but I cannot stay to-day.

I must get through my home duties as quickly as possible and make my daily visit to the bedside of my saintly friend, who, having begun her life in wealth and having in middle age been reduced to poverty, has passed fourscore and eight years, a beautiful example of woman, wife, and mother, and is now slowly passing through the valley of the shadow. This is my greatest pleasure and privilege, and whatever other duty is hurried over, to this I give full time.

To hold daily converse with one who, after lying three months in hourly pain, is serene and calm, nay, joyous with gratitude for His many mercies (which some might need a microscope to discover), is a rare opportunity of seeing a true follower of the Blessed One, and I come away always feeling as though I had quenched my thirst at a living stream, refreshed and strengthened.

On the plantations, too, things look bright. The pea-vine hay is falling heavy and sweet behind the mowing machine, and what was cut yesterday has dried nicely and will be raked into windrows this afternoon. The crab-grass hay is also dry and ready to be stacked again. The cotton is opening well, and we can make a good picking to-morrow.

As I went into the pea-field, where the women were singing as they picked, I came upon a spider who was too large to stand upon a silver dollar. I was most reluctant to kill him, for he was doubtless the Hitachiyama of his race.

He scorned to run, or even move quickly away, so sure was he that he was invincible and need fear no foe, and it did seem too unfair to crush out his little greatness, but the bite of such a spider would mean serious illness, if not death, and there were all the women, most of them with bare feet, to run the risk of being stung, so I dealt the fatal blow.

Some of the women picked ninety pounds, and Jean picked forty and Kitty thirty-six.

 October 4.

Job knew what he was talking about when he said: “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” I went to Cherokee in quite an excitement this morning because the cotton-field was snowy yesterday and I expected to make a big picking, but last night, on a plantation three miles away, an old woman died and not a creature has come out to work.

Eva is the “Presidence of the Dessiety,” her son tells me, to which Linette belonged, and so, of course, she could not be expected to work to-day, but the other women have no such eminence nor can they claim kin nor even friendship: meanwhile should the weather change and a rain come down, my precious cotton will be ruined.

 October 5.

Another brilliant morning, but no hands in the cottonfield but Eva. She, having accomplished the duties falling on her as “presidence” of the burial society and pinked out yards and yards of frilling for the dressing of the coffin and shroud and sat up all last night, did not feel bound to remain to the funeral, as they had not been friends; indeed the departed Linette had been the cause of great domestic infelicity to Eva, so she came and picked her usual thirty-five pounds alone.

I sent Dab to pick for a short time, and he did very well, picking eleven pounds in about an hour. Then I went in and picked for about fifteen minutes myself.

I wanted to find out what the difficulty was. I picked a pound and a half and found it very easy and interesting, even exciting work, and I am no wiser than I was before. If I was not afraid of the sun, I would have gone on all day, or rather until 2 o'clock, for it clouded up after that, and I came home in a pouring rain, which continues at bedtime.

 October 6.

A beautiful bright Sunday after a night of heavy rain. The thought of the wasting cotton had to be sternly put aside. I had to visit the wonderful invalid before I could get rid of the nagging thought, “If only the cotton had been picked!” After that the glorious sunshine and singing birds had their full value, and the seventh-day peace reigned within as well as without.

I have a little class in the afternoon on my piazza for a Sunday lesson, eight little boys and one golden-haired, blue- eyed little girl. At first, I had some difficulty in getting them to come, for they always have such a good time playing that it seemed to them a great waste of the golden hours to come to Sunday-school.

Some of them said they were willing to come and sing hymns, but they did not want any lesson. However, I found one little fellow who wanted the lesson, so I told him to invite any one who wanted the lesson to come with him at 4.30 o'clock the next Sunday afternoon, but no one else.

Punctually at the hour three little boys and one little girl arrived, while the other boys in the village played up and down before my gate most ostentatiously, so that little heads could not help turning to see what was going on, and in the midst of one of the Commandments, I heard a squeaky little voice, “I wonder what those fellows are laughing at!” for they had got up a great burst out in the road, quite a stage laugh.

However, we got through comfortably and went into the

She picked her usual thirty-five pounds alone.

sitting-room to the piano, and I asked each one to choose a hymn which we sang. At the second hymn one of the boys from the road joined us, but I seemed unconscious of his presence, and when the singing was over, I invited the first four into the dining-room and handed them some little sponge cakes.

The next Sunday there was a full attendance and has been ever since. The lesson has to be carefully selected, as there are four denominations represented, so I take the Lambeth platform and teach the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. After that I tell them Bible stories, beginning with the thrilling narration of the Creation and the Garden of Eden.

When I first told how Eve was tempted to eat the fatal apple, and Adam too was tempted, and they were driven out from that beautiful spot to earn their living in the sweat of their brows, the interest was breathless, and one little fellow asked: -

“Miss Patience, what would have happened if they had never eaten the apple? Would they have stayed in the garden?”

“Yes,” I said with confidence.

“And never had to wear any clothes?”

More faintly I answered “No, I suppose not.”

“Well,” he said, “the garden would have had to be made much bigger for all the children that were to come.”

“Yes,” I said, “I suppose the whole world would have been a garden,” but I was glad to leave the subject and get on to firmer ground.

However, this Sunday when I asked them to tell me the story, they went on swimmingly until I asked who ate the apple first. Most chivalrously they all answered, “Adam.”

“No,” I said, “I am sorry to say it was Eve.”

“Then,” piped up the squeaky little voice, “then, Miss Patience, women are badder than men.”

“Oh, no,” I exclaimed, “but Eve was beguiled by the serpent, who told her the fruit would make her wise. The great Creator made man first, and meant him to be the protector and guide of the woman, and when she offered him the apple, he should have refused and said, ‘Light of my eyes, we must not eat it. The Great Being who made us and gave us this beautiful home forbid us to eat of that fruit.’ But Adam failed in his duty and ate the apple, and they were driven out.”

My sturdy little brown-eyed thinker, who had been listening with profound attention, said: -

“Miss Patience, what would have happened if Eve had eat the apple and Adam hadn't?”

I was completely routed. “I cannot think what would have happened then.”

There was a chorus of little voices: “Why, Eve would have been driven out, and he would have the garden for hisself.”

I am quite sure when I was small we never asked such questions. Perhaps when it was read, as it used to be, in the Bible language, it did not take such hold on the mind as it does when narrated, but I am so eager to get their interest and attention that I tell them the stories instead of reading them, and with such success that nothing but force could keep them away.

Always have to light the lamp before we finish singing, but no one will give up his hymn, and as I read over each verse very slowly before we sing it, and they repeat it after me, it takes a good while. It is wonderful how quickly they learn the words.

One very small boy, who strayed in for the first time, when I told him he could choose a hymn asked for “Yankee Doodle,” greatly to the amusement of those who had been coming two months. It is a pleasure to teach such bright children. At the end I always hand a few chocolates or some candy.

To-day the hands are “toting” the rice into the flats.

 CASA BIANCA, October 8, 1903.

The harvest has come and with it real harvest weather - crisp, cool, clear; and the bowed heads of the golden grain glow in the sunshine. The hurricane which was reported as wandering around last week frightened me terribly, but after waiting Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for it to materialize, I had to cut on Thursday, for the rice was full ripe, and though we have had some light showers, there has been no serious bad weather. To-day the hands are “toting” the rice into the flats.

“You see a stack of rice approaching, and you perceive a pair oflegs, or a skirt, as the case may be, peeping from beneath.”

You see a stack of rice approaching, and as it makes its way across the plank which bridges the big ditch, you perceive a pair of legs or a skirt, as the case may be, peeping from beneath. Men, women, and children all carry, what look like immense loads, on their heads, apparently without effort. This is the gayest week of the year. Thursday the field was cut down by the hands with small reap-hooks, the long golden heads being carefully laid on the tall stubble to dry until the next day, when it was tied into sheaves, which the negroes do very skilfully with a wisp of the rice itself. Saturday it was stacked in small cocks to dry through Sunday, and to-day it is being loaded into the flats, having had every advantage of weather.

If only no rain or wind comes until it is unloaded at Cherokee, fifteen miles up the river! I have sent for a tug to tow the two flats up on the flood-tide this evening - just now it is dead low water, and the flats are aground, which always scares me; for, if by any chance they get on a log or any inequality, they get badly strained and often leak and ruin the rice. Flats are one of the heavy expenses on a rice plantation - large, flat-bottomed boats from twenty to eighty feet long and from ten to twelve feet wide, propelled in the most primitive way by poles and steered by one huge oar at the stern. They can be loaded up very high if the rice is properly stowed.

I have sent to try and get some rice-birds for my dinner These are the most delicious little morsels, so small one can easily eat six for breakfast, and a man makes nothing of a dozen for dinner. We used to get them in great abundance only a few years ago, but now the rice-bird industry has become so big a thing we find it very hard to get any at all. Formerly a planter hired bird mincers, furnished powder and shot, and got several dozen birds from each one; but now the negro men go at night with blazing torches into the old rice-fields, which are densely grown up in water-grasses and reeds, the birds are blinded and dazed by the light, and as the fat little bodies sway about on the slender growth upon which they rest, they are easily caught, their necks wrung, and they are thrust into the sack which each man has tied in front of him. In this way a man sometimes gets a bushel by the time the reddening dawn brings him home, and he finds waiting for him on the shore buyers from the nearest town, who are ready to pay thirty cents a dozen for the birds, so that one or two nights of this sport give as much as a month's labor. Of course, it is hard to come out to cut rice the next day, so probably illness is pleaded as an excuse for his absence in the field.

This makes it more and more difficult to get the rice harvested; no one but one of African descent could spend his nights in the rice-field, where the air is heavy with the moist malaria, so it is his opportunity. The shooting of rice-birds has almost gone out, for the bird mincers are so careless. They shoot into the rice and so destroy as much as the birds, almost; now blank cartridges are almost entirely used to scare the birds. Going round the field one day with Marcus, I said, with great relief: “I'm so glad not to see a single bird to-day.” He laughed and said: “Miss, wait till de bird mincers shoot.” In a few seconds the bird mincers became aware of my approach and up and fired very nearly at the same time. The birds rose in clouds so that the sun seemed darkened for a few seconds, and the noise of their wings was deafening. It seemed tantalizing not to be able to get any to eat. In spite of the tremendous report of the firing, it did no execution, for the old- fashioned muskets which are used have an enormous load of very coarse powder, but no shot.

Now, my flats are loaded, and I must start on my twelve-mile drive to the pine-land. As soon as I can have the flats unloaded I must send them back for the hands to harvest their rice. I do not pretend to overlook this. I try to put them on their mettle to do the best possible. Some respond, but the majority just poke along, doing as little as possible each day, so as to have longer time to strip the rice from the straw, and carry it home in bags, so that when it come to mill, there is not enough to pay their rent. They know how I hate to take all they bring, I so like for them to have a nice little pile of their own to ship; it is very hard for me to believe what the foreman tells me, that they have been eating this rice for three weeks past.

 October 16.

I have threshed the May rice, and it has turned out very well, considering the hard time it had for two months after it was planted. My wages field made twenty-five bushels to the acre and the hands nearly the same, only a little less, but it is good rice and weighs forty-six pounds to the bushel; and as I hear every one complaining of very light rice, I am thankful it is so good.

 October 17.

I have had an offer of $1.05 for my rice in the rough, and I am going to take it, though I shall miss the cracked rice and the flour which we get when the rice is milled, and the rice will have to be bagged and sewed up, which is a great deal of work; but Mr. S. will pay for it at my mill, and that will relieve my anxiety about money.

 October 18.

A hard day's work, but the sale has been most satisfactory, for as the standard weight per bushel for rice is forty-five, and my rice weighs forty-six or forty-seven, I have a good many more dollars than I had bushels, which is very cheering; and I have had grip and am greatly in need of cheering. Mr. S. weighed every sack and put down the weights and then added up the interminable lines of figures. I added them, too, but was thankful I did not have the responsibility, for they came out differently each time I went over them.

 October 24.

The harvest of my June field (wages) began to-day. Though very weak and miserable from grip, I drove the twelve miles to Casa Bianca, and in a lovely white pique suit went down on the bank. I timed myself to get there about 12 o'clock, and as I expected I met a procession of dusky young men and maidens coming out of the field. I greeted them with pleasant words and compliments on their nice appearance, as they all reserve their gayest, prettiest clothes for harvest, and I delight to see them in gay colors, and am careful to pay them the compliment of putting on something pretty myself, which they greatly appreciate. After “passing the time of day,” as they call the ordinary polite greetings, I asked each: “How much have you cut?” “A quarter, Miss.” “Well, turn right back and cut another quarter - why, surely, Tom, you are not content to leave the field with only a quarter cut! It is but a weakling who would do that!” And so on till I have turned them all back and so saved the day.

A field of twenty-six acres is hard to manage, and unless you can stir their pride and enthusiasm they may take a week over it. One tall, slender girl, a rich, dark brown, and graceful as a deer, whose name is Pallas, when I ask, “How much?” answers, “Three- quarters, Ma'am, an' I'm just goin' to get my break'us an' come back an' cut another quarter.” That gives me something to praise, which is always such a pleasure. Then two more young girls have each cut a half acre, so I shame the men and urge them not to let themselves be outdone; and in a little while things are swimming. I break down some of the tops of the canes and make a seat on the bank, and as from time to time they come down to dip their tin buckets in the river to drink, I offer them a piece of candy and one or two biscuits, which I always carry in the very stout leather satchel in which I keep my time-books, etc.

Pallas.

Though the sun is fiery, I feel more cheerful than I have for a good while. The field of rice is fine, Marcus says, - “Miss, I put my flag on dat fiel',” - and insists it will make over forty bushels to the acre. I don't throw cold water on his enthusiasm, but I know it will not. However, the rice is tall, and the golden heads are long and thick. I count a few heads and find 200 grains on one or two, and am almost carried away with Marcus's hope, but will not allow myself to think how much it will make. One year this field put in the bank $1080, but I know it will not do that this year. There is no use to think of it.

I stayed on the bank until sunset to encourage the slow workers to finish their task. All the work in this section is based on what was the “task” in slavery times. That it was very moderate is proved by the fact that the smart, brisk workers can do two or three “tasks” in a day, but the lazy ones can never be persuaded to do more than one task, though they may finish it by 11 o'clock. I feel placid tonight, for half the field is cut down and will dry on the stubble all day to-morrow.

 October 26.

Drove down to Casa Bianca as early as I could and found the hands cutting merrily. As soon as each one had cut a half acre they turned in and tied that cut on Saturday and stacked it in small cocks.

Again I am cheered and rested by the beauty around me. The sun is gorgeous, though the autumn haze is all over the wide expanse of level fields with every hue of green and gold. I get in the small patches of shade made by the tall canes and feast my eyes and thank the Great Artist who has made it all so beautiful.

The three flats are in position for loading to-morrow, the wind is still west, and so I hope the fair weather may last. My supply of candy and biscuits is much appreciated. I make my own lunch on the biscuits and a bottle of artesian water, which I always take with me. I would as soon think of eating snake's eggs as of drinking the river water, so full is it of animal life, I am sure. I know how it would look under a powerful microscope.

 October 31.

Spent yesterday in the mill threshing out my rice, most trying to me of all the work, the dust is so terrible; but the mill worked well, and so did the hands - and better than all, the rice turned out well, thirty-five bushels to the acre, and good, heavy rice. So I felt rewarded for the dust and other trials. I was so determined to prevent stealing that I engaged the sheriff's constable to watch on the nights that the rice was stacked in the barnyard; and now that expense is over, and the pile is safe in the second story of the shipping barn. Next I have to thresh out the people's rice from Casa Bianca, which will be up in a day or two; then I will have a little time to have the upland crops seen after before the rice here, at Cherokee, which was planted very late, will be ready to cut.

Front porch — Casa Bianca.

 CHEROKEE, November 4.

Yesterday I had my wages field of rice here cut. It is only eleven acres of very poor rice, which has cost a good deal of money, owing to the freshets. The only thing to be done now was to get it in with as little expense as possible, so I announced yesterday that it must be in the barnyard to-night. Bonaparte looked wise, smiled in a superior way, and said that was impossible - that perhaps by Tuesday it could be got in. I didn't dispute his wisdom or argue with him. I simply went into the field with the hands in the morning, yesterday, and stayed until it was all cut down. I told Bonaparte to put a watchman in the field, and left the choice to him. He said he would put Elihu; so I rested content until about 10 o'clock, when I began to get anxious about it. The best planter in my neighborhood had told me he had never known the stealing of rice so bad from the field. He attributed it to there being so little planted as high up the river on account of the freshet, so that rice is very scarce. This rice had not been good enough to warrant the expense of the constable, but I did not wish to lose the little that was there, so I determined to go over and see for myself. I called a negro boy of about sixteen years whom I had recently taken into my service, and asked him if he was afraid to row me over to the field. He hesitated and I went on: “I want to take some lightwood and a blanket over to Elihu, who is watching, for the night is very cold.” At once he said he was not afraid at all, as the moon was bright. When I ran up to my room to get my wraps and my good Chloe found I was going, she said: “Miss Patience, le' me go wid you; I know well how fo' paddle boat, en yo ain't long git dat boy, en yu dun know ef 'e kin manige boat at night.” Of course I was delighted to take Chloe; I sent Jake for lightwood, she took the blanket and I the matches. The getting in the boat was the darkest part, but once out on the river it was perfectly lovely - such a glorious night, the air so crisp and exhilarating. As we neared the field Chloe entreated me to be careful when I got out on the bank, for Elihu might take us for thieves and shoot; but I went very fearlessly, for I had a conviction that there was no Elihu there, and so it proved.

I told Jake to kindle a large fire in a sheltered corner of the bank, while Chloe and I walked all the way round the field. I can't describe the weird peace of the scene; and to make it more ghostlike Chloe insisted on speaking in a low whisper, as becoming the time and place, and reminding me that people from the next place might be hiding all around. No sign of any marauder, however, appeared, and I knew the fire on the bank would give the impression that I had installed my friend the constable, so I went back to the house entirely satisfied with the expedition. I charged Jake to say nothing on the subject to any one. Why will one try to exact the impossible? I lost my man, who has been with me fifteen years, this fall, and Jake is the substitute for the present.

To-day I stayed in the field again all day and succeeded in getting the rice tied and put in the flat by sunset. Then I said the flat must be taken up to the barn, but Bonaparte said that could not be done because there was “'gen tide.” Of course all the men echoed that it was impossible, but I laughed at the idea, and climbing to the top of the rice, I sat there and told two of the young men to take the poles and push the flat out into the river - having privately asked old Ancrum who had stowed the flat if it was true that a flat could not go against the tide, and having heard from him that it was nonsense. The men pushed the flat out and poled it up the river with the greatest ease, and before dark it was safely staked under the flat house, so that my mind will be at rest about it to-morrow.

 November 6.

Threshed out the rice to-day. It made only twenty bushels to the acre, and I hear rice has gone down very much. The hands now are whipping out the seed rice, which is a tedious business, but no planter in this county will use mill-threshed rice for seed. Mr. S., who bought my rice and who travels all over the South buying rice for a mill in North Carolina, told me that everywhere else mill-threshed rice was used, simply putting a little more to the acre. Here it is thought the mill breaks the rice too much, so the seed rice is prepared by each hand taking a single sheaf at a time and whipping it over a log, or a smooth board set up, until all the rice comes off. Then the sheaves are laid on a clay floor and beaten with flails, until nearly every grain has left the straw. After all this trouble of course it brings a good price - $1.75, $1.50 per bushel, $1.25 being the very cheapest to be had.

 November 7.

The time for paying the taxes will soon be passed, and all the negroes on the place have asked me to pay their taxes in addition to my own, so that I must sell some rice. Took samples to our county town; I was told they were very good rice, but no one wished to buy. I was offered, however, 82 1/2 cents a bushel for one and 85 cents for the other! I sold the smaller lot for 82 1/2 and determined to hold the larger part, for I feel confident rice must go up by February, and I do so want to get $1 a bushel for it, for then I will pay out, but otherwise not, after all my work.

 November 12.

Peaceville has been wrought up to a state of wild excitement. On Sunday afternoon, when I was expecting my little class, only Kitty and the Philosopher and Squeaky came, and before I could ask where the others were they burst out: -

“All the others have gone to hear the lion roar, and to see if they could get a peep at him.”

“A lion? Here?” My tone was suitable to the subject.

“Yes, ma'am; they put up three big tents while we were in church this morning, right in front of the post-office.”

I praised them for coming under such heavy temptations, but they exclaimed in chorus: “We didn't want to come - mamma made us; we wanted to hear the lion roar, too.”

At which I was more pleased than ever, and was as rapid as possible with the lessons and told no story, though I thought Daniel in the lions' den might suit the occasion; but I soon saw that they could listen to nothing under such phenomenal circumstances. A very feeble Punch and Judy is the greatest show seen here before.

We sang the hymns, I gave each one an apple, and said I would walk down with them to the tents. A most delightful progress we made, every one having turned out to see the unwonted sight.

Before we got to my gate the King of the Forest began to roar tremendously and kept it up, to the awe and delight of the humans and the dismay of the animals. Cows refused to come up to be milked, but fled to the swamp, and horses cowered in their stalls.

Every one, even the most sedate, had turned out to look at the tents. I went with the children until I saw their parents and then returned to my piazza.

 Tuesday.

Yesterday was the grand day. There were two exhibitions, one at 1 o'clock and at 8 P.M. The two stores were shut for the day, and business suspended while the village gave itself up to dissipation.

I had to go to the plantation, having an appointment with a carpenter for an important bit of work. It was difficult to get Ruth past the tents. I took the plan of stopping to talk to every one I met as I approached the green in front of the post-office, which was so changed since Saturday, when she saw it last.

Most fortunately the lion did not roar at that time, and we got by without accident. Though I have seen a great many fine wild beasts, the excitement in the air gained me, and I was anxious for Chloe to choose the morning performance as I had to be away then; but Chloe, when I told her she could go morning or evening, whichever she preferred, said she would go at night, as she heard that would be the grandest. So I could not go, for she would never have consented to leave the house and yard unguarded.

I did not see the show, but I certainly have enjoyed the accounts of it and have come to the conclusion that the Shelby show might be called a high-class moral entertainment. The most particular and sedate, not to say prudish, were not shocked, and the acrobatic feats amazed every one.

Peaceville was a great surprise to them also; they asked for a hotel or boarding-house; there was none. They wanted to board somewhere, but no one took boarders. The acrobatic star, who, as Chloe described her, hung from the top of the tent, dressed in “pink titers,” by one foot, holding up her fifteen-year-old daughter, also beautiful in pink tights, by the foot, said she did not wish to stay in a tent; she never did; she wanted to be in a house, and finally some ladies who lived near the place where the tents were pitched said they had an empty house in their yard which they would fix for her, and it being Sunday afternoon and no servants were to be found, the ladies themselves put beds in the house and made it comfortable for the acrobat ladies, and when these offered to pay, were quite shocked and surprised and said there was no charge; they were glad to have been able to make them comfortable.

Chloe and Dab have both given me thrilling accounts of the lady dressed in pure silver, a very stout lady who took the head of a snake, bigger round than Dab's body, and stroked it and laid it on her breast: “Her color was quite change while she did it, en the snake lick out 'e tongue en you could see the lady trimble an' it was byutiful.”

Altogether for many days joy will reign in the memory of these delights. It was conducted with great dignity, and there was no confusion or trouble, which seems wonderful, for there were great crowds of darkies coming from miles around and only about thirty white people all together. Yet they had the seats arranged on different sides, so that all were satisfied. The lion was given part of a kid before the spectators, and then he stopped roaring.

 November 18.

Green has returned to work; that is, he milked this morning and hauled one load of manure to the field. His cousin, Wishy, got his kinfolk to buy off the negro who was prosecuting him for killing his cow, and the case was dropped.

Long ago, when I kept Wishy from bleeding to death by patching up his head, I fear I did not benefit the world.

I find Elihu has gone! Moved bag and baggage to my neighbor's, where he will have unlimited credit. He owes me $10, which he promised faithfully to pay, and Jean and Kitty have walked off in my boots beyond the reach of my small efforts to improve them.

I feel quite sad about it - my heart has always been tender to Elihu; I have had to help him so often. The last time he went off to make “big money,” as they call it, on some timber work he came back very ill, and for a month I took him nourishment and medicine daily, in spite of which his wife and children lived in my potato patch. He was very weak, and one day he broke out: “Miss, if I ever lef' you 'gen and gone off for work any ways else, you sen' for the sheriff en tie me. You ben good to me en ten' me, en den de debil mek me lef' yu fer mek' big money! en now look a' me! Yu ten' me en yu feed me des de same.”

He is an uncommonly rich shade of black, so that his own mother always referred to him as “dat black nigger.” Under constant and proper supervision he can be very useful, but he cannot make himself work every day. He must have a compelling hand and head behind him.

He has ten living children and a smart active young woman for his second wife. When we were planting largely of rice, he made a fine living, as he rented sixteen acres - he did the ploughing and his family the rest of the work. He had a splendid yoke of oxen, which he bought from us, and cows and another fine steer he had raised.

The changes in the conditions in the last few years I do not understand, but since McKinley's death steadily the negroes have declined in their responsibility and willingness to work until now their energies are spent in seeing how little they can do and still appear to work so as to secure a day's pay.

Elihu used to be a splendid ploughman, but this spring I had him to plough ten acres for me, breaking it up flush. The earth was barely scratched, I found afterward, though I paid him by the day instead of by the acre, fearing he would be tempted to hurry over it if I paid by the acre.

Forage was very scarce, and as long as he ploughed for me I told him to give his oxen all they could eat from the hay under the barn which was blown down. The two-story barn was packed full of hay, some of my best alfalfa, when the storm struck it. Of course it took some labor to get the hay out, and poor Elihu, after the mighty effort of ploughing one-half acre a day, could not make himself get out more than just enough to keep the oxen alive.

I had urged him from the beginning of the winter to make his children gather daily a certain quantity of the gray moss with which the oaks are laden and which cattle eat greedily; that would have kept his cows and oxen in good condition, but he never did it.

I had two large sacks gathered every day for my cattle; his went hungry. One by one the cows and young calves died, not being accustomed to range like the woods cattle.

Some time after he finished ploughing for me he drove his son up to see a doctor fifteen miles from here in a very bitter spell of weather - drove the creatures up without feed, and after consulting the doctor turned right back. One ox dropped and died two miles from home, the other managed to get back but lay down about 100 yards from my front gate, under the trees laden with food which would have saved its life, if given in time. I used to take the lantern and go out at night to carry food to it, knowing that if Elihu saw me feeding it he would cease giving the little care which he expended on it.

It struggled on a week and then died. One month before he had been offered $60 for the yoke.

At last he had not an animal left. Then he came to me and said he would like to take service with my neighbor by the month as ploughman, as he would no longer give him work unless he hired to him by the month. I was very sorry, for I let him work there all the time when I had no work for him He is a splendid boatman, and I always called on him to row me across the river and did not mind wind or waves with Elihu at the oars.

However, I told him he could do so if he paid $1 a month for his house - now he has gone, owing me for eight months rent besides his tax. Several years ago he was double taxed having neglected to pay at the right time, and since then I have always paid his tax when I paid my own.

He owns some land with timber. When I went to pay the tax, I saw two buildings and twenty-five acres and the tax was $4. I saw Elihu, I showed him the paper, and asked: -

“Have you any buildings on the land?”

“No, miss, I ent build no house, I rusher stay here, en if I sick you ten' me.”

“But, Elihu, the tax paper calls for two houses.”

“Well, miss, ent you know, look like I ought to had house by now!”

“But if you have none, you should not pay tax on one. Now when February comes, which is the month to make returns, I will make your return without the house.”

“Well, miss, if you tink so, but I hate fer tek off de house.”

I deprived him of his air castle, but the tax was reduced to $2.70, I believe - I must look over the tax receipts to see.

I always pay Bonaparte's and some others, I am so afraid of their putting off until they are double taxed. I do not see how I am to pay my own taxes this year; they are nearly $200, and there is nothing coming in. I have many, many valuable things which I would like to sell, but I have no gift that way.

Elihu was a splendid boatman.

After many struggles I made up my mind to accept an offer for my castle in the air, a mountain top in the Sapphire region of North Carolina, but the purchaser withdrew; it is so with everything - no one wants to buy anything If our valiant, voracious, and vivacious King Stork would only desist from his activities while a few small creatures were left it would be a mercy; but I fear when he gets through, there will be none but sharks, devil-fish, and swordfish left.

 November 20, Saturday.

When Green came this morning, I told him I wanted Bonaparte to sow the oats on the land he has been ploughing this week, and he must harrow it in to-day, as the season is already late. He seemed shocked and said the land was quite too rough for him to get through harrowing the acre and a half to-day.

I in turn was shocked and told him that was absurd and that it must be done; that I was distressed to hear he had ploughed it so badly as what he said would indicate; that I would have Dab take Romola and run the cultivator while he ran the harrow, so as to have the oats thoroughly covered. I told Dab to get the horse at once and take the cultivator to the field.

I did a thousand things before following him. I found him in the slough of despond and I had to fix the harness, etc., for him, and then we proceeded to the field. I found Dab had not the faintest idea of how to guide the horse and manage the cultivator, so I told him until he got accustomed to it I would lead Romola, so that he could devote all his attention to the cultivator.

The ground was rough to distraction, and with every polite intention Romola could not help every now and then walking up my skirt, short as it was, and I was nearly dragged down upon the ground, but I could not bear to give up, though I was utterly exhausted, for the cultivator was doing good work.

We had just got through half an acre and I was wondering how I could retreat with my laurels, when Patty came at a full run to say the “lady had come.” Never was an arrival more welcome. I told Dab he must take Romola back to the stable and make himself presentable and bring in dinner as soon as possible.

Made my way to the house as quickly as I could, but I was so tired that my feet were like lead. S- was very much surprised to find what I had been doing and proceeded to argue with me, but I only made fun of her arguments, and we had a very gay dinner.

My little brownmaid Patty isa new acquisitionand a great comfort,for she isvery bright.

My little brown maid Patty is a new acquisition and a great comfort, for she is very bright and intelligent and not too dignified to run, which is a great blessing.

 CHEROKEE, Sunday, November 22.

Drove S- to church in our little pine-land village; she seemed to enjoy the very simple service. Then I took her over to my summer- house which is just across the road from the church. She was amused at the roughness and plainness of the pine-land house as compared to the winter quarters. Drove her then in to Hasty Point, which is named from Marion's hasty escape in a small boat from the British officers during the Revolution, and is a very beautiful point, overlooking the bold Thoroughfare and Peedee River; then home to a dinner of English ducks. I am very stiff from my agricultural efforts.

 November 24.

Yesterday just as I was getting into the buckboard to drive S- down to Gregory to take the train Jim arrived. He has come to begin the colts' education and can only stay a month, as his employer in Gregory gave him a month's holiday. I am so glad to have him - told him to get all the harness together and mend things up and see if he could contrive a harness fit to put on Marietta to break her in the road cart.

S- was so anxious to see Casa Bianca that I thought we could drive in there on our way to Gregory, eat our lunch there, and still get down in time for the train, but we failed to do it. She was so delighted with the place and wanted to see everything in the rambling old house, even the garret with its ghostly old oil portrait of a whole family in a row and a broken bust of another member, that we delayed too long. Besides, the train left at 4:10 instead of 4:45, as it has been doing for some years. I had to leave S- to spend the night at the hotel, which I hated to do, but she said she must get off on the 6 A.M. train, and I was equally obliged to come home, so we parted with mutual regret.

The roughness and plainness of the pine-land house.

It was late for my long, lonely drive. By the time I got to the ferry it was dark, and I wondered how I was to manage. I asked the two old men to lend me their lantern, but they said they could not spare it. However, about half a mile farther on I stopped at a cottage and asked for the loan of a lantern, and the owner, a darky, brought out a bright, well-trimmed lantern and with true courtesy assured me he was happy to lend it, and I made the drive without accident, truly thankful to get into my dear home, with its bright fire of live-oak logs, at 8: 30 out of the cold and darkness.

 December 8.

To-day Richard Dinny came to say he would undertake to mend the break in the rice-field bank. As it is about two miles round there in a boat, I had him paddle me through the canal to Long field trunk, and I walked from there on the banks. I hurried along because the time was short before hour for luncheon. I had had the bank hoed just in the middle, so that a sportsman could go through unseen by the ducks in the field. Sometimes it was hard for me to get through with my skirt, but the man found it hard to keep up with me. The break looked very alarming, the water rushing over, and every tide that goes over will double the work.

Coming back, my hair caught in a brier and I found it impossible to disentangle it. I had taken off my big hat early in the engagement and left it on the bank near the boat. After trying desperately to get free from the brier I asked Richard, who was just behind, if he had a knife. He said yes.

“Then cut this bramble,” I said, holding well up above my head the brier, which was completely wrapped in my hair.

He got out his knife and took a long time about it, sawing and sawing, but finally I was released. As soon as I got home I rushed upstairs to fix my hair for luncheon, for it is curly and was every which way over my head. As I took it down a lock as thick as my finger came off in my hand. Richard had taken so long because he was sawing off my hair instead of the bramble.

 December 9.

Yesterday's work at the break was too much for Richard. This morning he sent word he was called off by important business, so could not come.

 December 11.

We are having the most delightful springlike weather. It is a joy to wake up morning after morning and find the same balmy, mild air. The effort to keep the house warm in the cold weather got on my nerves very much, and now I am relaxing and expanding to my own natural condition, which is rather optimistic - one of peace and good-will to the world in general, with a firm faith that things must come right in the end, however difficult and crisscross they may seem.

Went to Casa Bianca to-day. The place is too lovely for words. How any one who has the money and wants a winter home can hesitate to give $10,000 for it I do not see. When it is sold, it will break my heart, but either this place or that must go. This place (Cherokee) has nearly 900 acres, and the house is in perfect order. Besides, it has an ever-flowing artesian well 460 feet deep which throws water above the roof when a smaller pipe is put on, - a reducer, the man who bored the well called it. There is a grove of live oak of about 50 acres.

I often wonder that it should have fallen to my lot to have two such beautiful homes. Altogether if I only had a small certain income, I would not envy the King on his throne.

 December 12.

All the sashes up this lovely April morning. I have a man called Jimmie trimming up a little. The vista my dear mother had cut out years ago had grown up, and it is a great pleasure to have it open once more. From the front piazza it opens a view down the river, a beautiful bend, the shining, glimmering water framed by the dark oak branches.

Finally I have put Joe, Ruben, and George to work on the break. After lunch went over in the boat to see their work; they had a fine supply of mud cut, some on the bank and some in the flat. Sent Bonaparte to take over some long plank for them to use inside of puncheons to hold the soft mud.

 December 13.

Joe, George, and Ruben working on break. They had to be there at daybreak to catch the low tide. This afternoon I went over in boat to look at the work, and to my delight it is really done, and I believe will last, only every day at low water they must put on a little fresh mud to raise it as it settles.

Oh, this heavenly Indian summer! It is too delightful for words!

Bonaparte had Frankie and Green helping him to clean the chimneys. It is a troublesome business.

Bonaparte goes up on a ladder to the top of the house. It always frightens me to see him, for he is an old man, but he minds it less than the younger ones. He ties a stout cedar bough to a long rope about midway in the rope, then drops it down the chimney the three stories to the first floor; there Frankie catches the rope and between them they pull it backward and forward until the chimney is clean and the hearth is filled with soot.

Once I tried getting a chimney-sweep, but he wept and pleaded so not to go up the chimneys again, saying he would suffocate, they were so long, that I returned to the old and primitive way and will never try the sweep again. After this one sweeping we keep the chimneys clean by burning them, when there is a pouring rain, about once a month.

I have always broken my colts myself; no one but myself either rode or drove Ruth until she was thoroughly broken Of course Jim's stable discipline was of the utmost importance, and he always went along, but he never touched the reins. I did the driving.

This year, however, I had not the spirit to cope with them and have determined to leave it entirely to him. He is now patching up a harness so as to drive Marietta in the road cart.

 NOTE

It may be wise to explain a peculiarity of our low-country rice region. From the last week in May until the first week in November it was considered deadly for an Anglo-Saxon to breathe the night air on a rice plantation; the fatal high bilious fever of the past was regarded as a certain consequenoe, while the African and his descendants were immune. Hence every rice planter had a summer home either in the mountains, or on the seashore, or in the belt of pine woods a few miles from the river, where perfect health was found. In 1845 my father built a large, airy house surrounded with wide piazzas on Pawley's Island, and there he spent the summer, with occasional trips north and abroad, until the war made it unsafe to occupy the island. Then he built a log house in the pineland village of Peaceville: this large house with double shingled roof was built by his plantation carpenters with wooden pins, owing to the blockade there being no nails to be had. After the war my brother owned this, and my mother in spite of great difficulties returned to the beach as a summer home. As the crow flies this island was about three miles east of Cherokee, but for us mortals to reach it, many miles by land and water had to be traversed - all of our belongings, servants, horses, cows, furniture, were loaded on to lighters and propelled seven miles through broad rivers and winding creeks to Waverly Mills where they were disembarked and travelled four miles by land, but when we reached this paradise on the Atlantic Ocean we felt repaid for all the effort. It was here we spent our summers when I began my rice-planting venture. As my mother reached the limit which David places for the span of life, she shrank from the long move and bought a house in Peaceville just opposite the church and here the last beautiful summers of her life were passed in peaceful serenity.

 CHAPTER II January 1.

ON the rice plantation the first of January is the time for the yearly powwow, which the negroes regard as a necessary function. It is always a trial to me, for I never know what may turn up, and the talk requires great tact and patience on my part, not more, I suppose, however, than any other New Year's reception. One is so apt to forget that the “patte de velours” which every one uses in polite society is even more of a help in dealing with the most ignorant, and makes life easier to all parties.

 Saturday, January 2.

I went down to Casa Bianca for the important talk. I found two more families had been seized by the town fever. Every year more hands leave the plantations and flock to the town, and every year more funerals wend their slow way from the town to the country; for though they all want to live in town, none is so poor but his ashes must be taken “home”; that is, to the old plantation where his parents and grandparents lived and died and lie waiting the final summons. I met such a procession to-day, an ox-cart bearing the long wooden box, containing the coffin, and sitting on top of it the chief women mourners, veiled in crepe; behind, one or two buggies, each containing more people than it was intended to carry; then behind that a long, straggling line of friends on foot, all wearing either black or white, for their taste forbids the wearing of any color at a funeral. The expense of a railroad journey does not deter them from bringing their dead “home.” The whole family unite and “trow

The yearly pow-wow at Casa Bianca.

een” to make up the sum necessary to bring the wanderer home, and even the most careless and indifferent of the former owners respect the feeling and consent to have those who have been working elsewhere for years, and who perhaps left them in the lurch on some trying occasion, laid to rest in the vine-covered graveyard on the old plantation.

Two years ago, a man and his wife, of whom I thought a great deal, who had been married and who had lived always at Casa Bianca, left me to go to town. They had prospered and bought the usual progression - oxen, cows, a horse, and finally a house and lot in the county town, Gregory. This house they rented out for several years, and then the desire came to go and occupy and enjoy the house and give up the laborious rice planting. It seemed very natural, and though I was very sorry to part with them I could not say a word against the plan. Dan and Di were both splendid specimens of physical health and far above the average in intelligence, capacity, and fidelity. They went well provided, according to their standards. With his horse and wagon Dan supported his family in comfort, hauling wood, etc., while Di opened a little shop in one of her front rooms, which was well patronized, as their house was on the outskirts and far from the shopping street.

One afternoon, some months after their move, Di said to Dan: “I'm dat sleepy I haf tu lay down, but call me sho' befo' de sun set.” She left Dan smoking his pipe on the little porch, where, about an hour later, the youngest child came to him for something, and he said, “Go ax yo' Ma, 'e toll me tu wake um fo' de sun go down.” The baby went and returned reporting, “Ma 'oudn't answer me.” Dan went in to find her dead. He brought her home to the plantation, and in a few months his son brought him also, to rest under the moss-laden live oaks.

This is only one instance out of many; those accustomed to regular outdoor work cannot stand the confinement and relaxation of town life.

But back to the powwow at Casa Bianca. The two families who are moving to town carry off four young girls who are splendid workers, and very necessary to the cultivation of my “wages fields.” Two of the men announce they are tired of renting and want to go “on contraak.” This I do not quite understand, as they always sign a paper promising to do all that is required on the place, which I have considered a contract; and I am a good deal amused over their efforts to explain, when at last Marcus, the foreman, says to them: “De lady aint onde'stan', kase he neber wuk contrak, but I will make she sensible,” which he proceeded to do with great delicacy. I found it simply was to work entirely for wages and not rent, and I was expected to give each one a half acre of rice land to plant, in addition to their house and large garden free of rent, in return for which they were to sign “contraak.” It is impossible to show by the writing the funny emphasis which they put on the last syllable of this word.

“Four young girls who are splendid workers.”

The two hands were poor renters, so that the present arrangement is perfectly satisfactory to me, only the portion of land rented grows smaller year by year, and where is it to end? I cannot plant more land on wages than I do, for it costs $15 per acre, besides the keeping of the banks and trunks on the whole 200 acres. Last year there were ten acres less than the year before, and this year there will be twenty-five acres less than in 1903. Besides this, the plantation to the north of Casa Bianca, whose lands adjoin, has been practically abandoned, so that the water rushes down through its broken river bank on my fields, and I have to go to a heavy outlay to keep it out.

Marcus asked me to go round the bank with him, and after thinking it well over I have concluded to throw out three of my fields and make up a straight bank from the upland down to the Black River, a distance of half a mile, high, wide, and strong enough to act as a river bank, and resist the rushing water which comes with immense force in the Black River, for it is the deepest stream in this section, in many places 60 or 70 feet deep. It will cost a lot, and I do not know where the money is to come from; but if I do not make the stand against the water, I shall not be able to plant anything, and this is the place from which I derive my income.

“He that regardeth the clouds shall neither sow nor reap.” This text is my great stand-by when things look stormy and I am discouraged. I suppose the rushing river may be considered as in some sort a relation, or at any rate a remote descendant, of the clouds, and I will not regard it, but give Marcus an order to go to work on the bank as soon as possible.

The week after this visit I was sent for by the foreman at Casa Bianca. When I went down, I found every one in a state of unrest and ferment. Nat, one of the renters, had told the others that he had made a special arrangement with me by which he was to do only what he wished to do. Now, one would suppose that no sane person would believe such a statement as this, but I had been seen talking to Nat apart, and they were all prepared to throw up their agreement and go - “contraak” hands and all. It was some time before I found out what the matter was, for even Marcus was entirely upset and talked mysterious nonsense before he finally gave me the key to the situation. I then assembled all the men and told Nat to recount what he had said to me on that occasion and what I had said to him. He pretended to have forgotten. So I related: “You told me your mother wanted to move to town and take your three sisters with her, so that your working force would be diminished, and you would not be able to rent as much this year as you had done, and you would want only eight instead of twelve acres. I told you I was sorry your mother was going, for though she herself no longer worked the girls were good hands. Then I asked you if you remembered when your mother first came to me. You were a very little boy; she was in great distress, having been turned away from the place where she was living, with her large family of little children. All her things had been put out in the road because she had been fighting, and she entreated me to give her a house to stay in. I told her I heard that she was a ‘mighty warrior’ and stirred up strife wherever she went. But she promised not to ‘war’ any more, so I gave her a house and she kept her promise, prospered, brought up her large family respectably, and now owned much ‘proppity,’ cows, oxen, and pigs, and everything she wanted; and the children had all grown up healthy and happy, and I only hoped they might retain their health of soul and body in town.”

They all listened attentively while Nat punctuated my narration with “Yes, ma'am,” at every comma. Then I said: “Did I say anything more to you, Nat?” “No, ma'am; dat's all.” Then indignation broke out on Nat from the assembled hands. “En yo' tole all dem lie fo' mek we fool! I mos' bin gone way,” and much more, all talking at once. Nat only looked foolish and said: “I jes' bin a fun.” I gave him a serious talk, and the hands scattered in high good humor; but if I had not gone down that day, in all probability the whole party would have packed up their household goods in their ox-carts and left,“contraak” hands and all! Marcus said, with his usual dignity: “Myself, ma'am, bin most turn stupid” - as though no words could express more fully the seriousness of the situation.

She promised not to warany more.

 March 12.

Since then things have gone very comfortably and quietly at Casa Bianca. The field I am to plant in April has been well ploughed, the ditches cleaned, and finally the division bank made up splendidly. Across the canal and down to the river it is one foot above “full moon tide.” I have twenty-six fine lambs, born in January. At Cherokee, also, I have had some good work done. My “wages field” there was ploughed early in February, so that the frost has had a chance to mellow it. I have ten acres of fine oats growing and ten acres prepared for corn; pigs, cows, and everything doing well, except the lambs. Nine were born in January, but some “varmint,” Bonaparte reports, has killed seven. I know the “varmint” is a dog, somebody's treasure, so that it cannot be convicted, and every other animal is suspected, - fox, wildcat; and many strange tracks are talked of.

At Cherokee I had to put down a new trunk, which is quite a business. It requires knowledge of a certain kind, but is very simple, like most things, to those who know. To me it seems a terrible undertaking, for if it is badly done, the trunk may blow out when the field is planted, and ruin the crop. Knowing so little as I do, I thought it best to leave it to Bonaparte, so I did not go over to the place, which is about a mile away through winding creeks.

The tide suited the morning, January 12, and the weather was mild. I waited with great anxiety for the return of the hands in the evening. I rushed down to the barnyard when I heard the boat, and asked if the trunk was well down. Bonaparte smiled in his superior way.

“Myself, ma'am, bin moststupid.”

“Well, no, ma'am; de fac' is we neber did git de ole trunk out.”

“What,” I said, “you have left it half done?”

“Oh, no, ma'am. We bruk up de ole trunk an' tuk out all but de bottom.”

“Then the water is rushing through to-night, making the gulf wider and wider?”

“Yes, ma'am.”

I was speechless. There was no use saying anything, but I decided to go over the next day and use my common sense, if I had no knowledge. Bonaparte told me he could not get the hands, any of them, to go down in the water, and no trunk can be buried with dry feet.

The next morning, January 13, I went, carrying lunch and a bottle of home-made wine, with a stick in it for those who were to get wet. It was a beautiful bright day, with the thermometer at 50 at 9 o'clock, for which I was very thankful. The tide was not low enough for anything to be done until then. I had had three flatloads of mud cut and put on the bank, and everything was at hand. The getting up of the bottom planks was at last accomplished, and then the new trunk floated in to place on the last of the ebb, so that it settled itself into its new bed on the low water, and then the filling up was a perfect race, so much mud to be put in before the tide began to rise, besides the inclination of the bank to cave in. I kept urging the two men down in the gulf to pack the fresh mud well as it was thrown in. The stringpiece and ground logs which Bonaparte had provided were, according to my ideas, entirely inadequate, and I sent four hands to an island near by to cut larger, heavier pieces. Altogether, the day was one of the most exciting and interesting I ever spent, though I stood six hours on the top of a pile of mud on a small piece of plank, where I had to balance myself with care to look into the gulf and not topple over. It was black dark when we left the trunk, but the mud was well packed, with every appearance of solidity and stability, and the next day I had two more flatloads of mud put on, and, though a freshet has come and gone since, “she” has not stirred, and the field drains beautifully.

The company which planted the places next to Cherokee has broken up. One of the principal investors told me that he had had his money in it for seven years, and never got a cent of interest, and he was thankful to get out of it. They have taken all my best hands, one by one, but they have not succeeded - did not make money for all that. And this year the price of rice has gone down, so that what has been made brings only half of what was hoped for.

I believe these lands would make a great deal if we understood the cutting and curing of hay, for the grass grows most luxuriantly if the land is ploughed and left, but the curing of hay is unknown to the rice-field darky.

Our uplands are very fertile and adapted to any crop, it seems. Last year a few tried cotton and did very well without any commercial fertilizer. The only trouble is the nice cultivation cotton requires. I had a little planted. We did very well and sold at 15 1/2, but I am afraid to plant more than an acre or two, as I cannot get it kept clean, which is essential to cotton.

The freshet, which we always look for after the melting of the snows in the mountains, has not yet come. We had one a month ago, but now it has subsided, and the rush of preparation for planting should go on; but I find it impossible to enthuse my renters. A lethargy seems to have fallen upon them, and if I only had the money, I would plant all the available land myself. But that is a very big if, and I must just have patience and try to rouse their energy. Above me there are only a very few acres planted, as the freshet is more disastrous the higher up the river you go. About two miles above me is a historic plantation, where Marion made a very narrow escape from his British pursuers by jumping into a canoe and pushing up a small creek, while the British, after some delay in getting a boat, rowed, as they thought, after him, but followed the bold, wide stream of the Thoroughfare, which took them rapidly away from him.

This is the home of a very remarkable woman, who has, by her own exertions, educated her sisters and brothers and paid off the mortgage on the plantation. The family was wealthy and accustomed to the liberal use of money, but when the end of the war came, they found themselves with nothing but the land, not a cent to plant or to buy food. This young girl received a present of a small sum of money from a relative in England, which she invested in supplies that every one was in need of, opened a small store, and as fast as she sold out reinvested the money; showing wonderful cleverness and strength and perseverance. She has been the only stay of a large family, always ready to throw herself in the breach and pay anything that was needed. After buying the place in, she planted successfully for one or two years. Then the freshets began, and, after two or three very disastrous years of loss, she showed her good judgment by giving up planting altogether, and all that splendid rice land, under the finest, heaviest banks, is just returning to its original condition of swamp, growing up in cypress. She has land also covered with splendid timber, which must eventually be of great value, but as yet the money value of such things has not reached us, and the little shop continues to support a large family in their beautiful historic home, where with lovely flowers and beautiful oaks, every fence and hedge covered at this season with the glowing, sweet-smelling yellow jessamine, she leads a useful, contented, beautiful life, a blessing to all around.

[Illustration]

I mentioned in my last letter that I had lost my good Jim, who had been with me fifteen years. I tried in vain to fill his place, but there was no one to be had that was reliable; so I got a mountaineer in August, paying his way down from the Blue Ridge. He promised well, but on the fifth day he was seized with nostalgia, and I had to drive him the eighteen miles to the railroad and put him on a train to return to his beloved mountains.

I would have had to return the eighteen miles alone on the road had I not met Jim, who was as pleased to see me as I was to see him; for the town life which his wife so loves is odious to Jim, and he asked permission to return to me until I got some one.

Being a person not easily daunted, I again engaged a mountaineer, not finding it possible to get a good darky, paid his way down and had Jim show him all his duties, the roads etc., and he seemed a very hopeful person; and Jim returned to the hated town, satisfied as to my having competent help. Mountaineer number two showed no trace of homesickness for four months; but then suddenly, one day, it took him. It was no surprise to me. I knew it would come, and had got a black boy as help in case of emergency; so that when the attack came, I had Jake get the wagon and drive us to town, and I put mountaineer number two on the train. Then I increased Jake's wages and put him in charge of the stable.

Last week when I went to Casa Bianca to pay off, I took a niece and her two children, who were staying with me, and we had a very pleasant picnic dinner. The four-year-old children had never been in the country, and enjoyed everything, especially the lambs. Jake's home is about 300 yards from Casa Bianca avenue, and at 12 o'clock I told him that he could go and see his mother for two hours, and that I wanted to leave at 3: 30 o'clock. Jake, however, did not return till 5: 30 o'clock, though I sent after him; and, in his hurry, instead of calling the horses, which had been turned out on the lawn to enjoy the beautiful pasture, he ran them. Some one had left the gate open, and they dashed through it and never stopped running till they reached the gate at Cherokee, eight miles away, leaving me with my party of city friends, the sun setting and no horses to take us home!

Two men on the place owned horses, but they were turned out and could not be got up for some time. Besides, one was a terrible kicker and the other a runaway. I had to act quickly. I said to the old watchman: “Go and tell the man with the fastest ox- team on the place to come here with his cart at once.” In a very short time Nat appeared with a large black in a little cart of wonderful construction. I did not see how it was possible for a lady, two children, and a maid to get into it; but, apparently, it was the best that could be done. They had walked on, and I told Nat to go as fast as possible and pick up as many of the party as he could carry, and I would follow, as soon as the kicking horse could be put into a buggy, and take the rest. He assured me his cart could carry all, and went off at a rapid trot. After what seemed an age, Marcus came with his kicker, and with the wraps, lunch basket, and other encumbrances I got in and drove rapidly after the party, which was the funniest looking in the world; Nat running alongside and flourishing an immense cowhide lash, A. and the maid seated on a board which was balanced on the sides of the little structure so as to make a seat, the little boy sitting behind with his feet dangling and the little girl tightly clasped in her mother's arms. They had gone four miles in this wonderful fashion. As soon as we caught them, I made A. get out and take the children in the buggy, while I climbed into the ox jumper with the maid and told Marcus to drive home as quickly as possible, as the children should not have been out so late. I had been utterly wretched till I came up with them and found them all unharmed. Then my spirits rose and bubbled over. It struck me that the others were a little quiet, but I never knew the reason until we were all safely enjoying our evening meal. The maid was supposed to be driving, while A. held the little girl and Nat goaded on the ox, and at a very rough bridge the ox stumbled, the maid fell out, and the wheel ran over her, leaving the rest of the party without any hold on the big black ox! A most tragic situation, and such a mercy no one was hurt. It was very good of them not to tell me until afterward, and it was truly magnanimous of the maid to remark to Nat as she extricated herself from the ingenious contrivance, which he had constructed himself: “It surely is the handiest little vehicle I ever did see.”

Saturday. I suddenly awoke to the fact after breakfast this morning that I had a note which was due at the bank to-day. It was pouring, and if I sent a check by mail, it would not be received until Monday, as the mail gets in after business hours. I called Dab and asked him if he thought he could walk down to Gregory and take an important letter to the bank before 2 o'clock. He answered promptly that he could. I got the letter ready and told him he could spend the night with his sisters and return by 1 o'clock to-morrow. He started armed with a large package of lunch and with my best umbrella and a dollar to spend. While I was taking my tea at 6 o'clock, to my surprise Dab walked in with a letter. He said Mr. S- gave him the answer and he thought he had better not go anywhere with that important letter, and so he had come straight back home! I was so pleased and cheered by this evidence of his sense of responsibility and fidelity to a trust. I had felt ill and miserable all day. I told him how pleased I was and thanked him heartily and told Chloe to give him a very fine supper after his walk of twenty-eight miles.

A rice field “flowed.”

Sunday. I went to church this morning feeling very down, which was wicked, for God's goodness is always there. When I looked around our little church, where a literal Scriptural quorum of two or three was gathered together, my eye was gladdened by the sight of a charming new suit of reseda cloth with a heliotrope toque! Then across the aisle I saw a cinnamon brown suit with a hat to match! Positively my spirits rose at once.

We are so accustomed to our mourning-clad congregation, nearly every one of us wearing black, we all know each other's very respectable costumes from year to year and watch with interest the successful and often ingenious remodelling of sleeves - I being the only recalcitrant who will not cut over sleeves, feeling sure that they will come back into vogue (which they always do before the faithful garment is laid to rest) - we never expect anything so astonishing as a brand-new tailor-made suit, and in colors too, and now to have the eye refreshed by two, is cause for rejoicing.

On Monday, April 18, I planted the wages field at Cherokee. Here we cannot so well use the machines, so I have the field sown by hand. I am planting mill-threshed rice in this field, which is an experiment on my part. In the autumn a buyer for a large rice mill in North Carolina came to make an offer for my rice; and he spoke of the “superstition,” as he called it, of planters in this state that only hand-whipped rice could be planted to make good crops. He said the large crops made in Texas and Louisiana, which are practically ruining the rice industry in this section by keeping down the price, are the result of mill-threshed rice - none other is known or thought of. This made a great impression on me, for the whipping by hand is a very expensive process, more so than the actual cost of the work, because it gives such unlimited opportunity for stealing.

I had the habit formerly of planting twenty-five acres and dividing the rice; twelve and a half acres I sent to the threshing mill in a lighter, the other twelve and a half I had taken into the barnyard, stacked, and when thoroughly cured, had it whipped out for seed. The half sent to mill always turned out from twenty-five to thirty-five bushels to the acre; the part saved for seed turned out from fifteen to twenty bushels to the acre.

That happened several years in succession. I never have had a field hand-whipped turn out over twenty bushels to the acre, and I have seldom had one threshed in the mill until these last very bad years turn out under thirty.

All of this made me determine to try planting mill-threshed rice this year. I planted a small portion in a bowl of water on cotton, which is the approved way of trying seed, and nearly every single seed germinated and shot up a fine healthy leaf. So I felt no hesitation about it; and I began with my wages field, putting half a bushel more to the acre in case there should be some grains cracked in the mill. I went over early to the field and sat on the bank all day, while Bonaparte and Abram followed the sowers.

The women are very graceful as they sow the rice with a waving movement of the hands, at the same time bending low so that the wind may not scatter the grain; and a good sower gets it all straight in the furrow. Their skirts are tied up around their hips in a very picturesque style, and as they walk they swing in a wonderful way. This peculiar arrangement allows room for one or two narrow sacks (under the skirt), which can hold a peck of rice, and some of the sowers, if weighed on the homeward trip, would be found to have gained many pounds. They are all very gentle and considerate in their manner to-day, for a great sorrow has fallen on the family. Their tender, sympathetic manner is more to me than many bushels of rice, and I turn my back when they are dipping it out.

I have offered hand-whipped rice for sale at $1.30 a bushel, and mill-threshed at $1 per bushel, and have sold 159 bushels of the former and 225 bushels of the latter, which has been a great help. We have made a fine start on the upland crop, and the corn looks very well. The small acreage planted in cotton also looks well, and I hope it will be worked properly while I am gone.

 May 9.

Left Cherokee for a month's absence, and drove to Gregory to take the through train to Washington, where I arrived the next morning in time for breakfast. I have a duty which calls me away. It was a pity to have to leave now, for the people had just become roused to an interest in preparing the land for their crop, and it is the first propitious season we have had for three years with no spring freshet, and I hope to get about 100 acres planted at Cherokee. I feel better satisfied to leave since Jim has returned to work with me and will take entire charge of the upland crop. His health suffered in the confinement of the town work. He was in bed a good deal of the time, and, what with lost time and doctor's bills, his wife found they were worse off instead of better, and finally, after nine months, she begged him to come and ask me to take him back, which I gladly did, and he has gone to work with enthusiasm.

While away, I visited Washington, Mount Vernon, Baltimore, and New York, and was much impressed by the immense strides made in every way since my last visit. The increase of wealth and luxury, the fact that simplicity of life is becoming impossible even to those who would prefer it, the rush and the hurry which one cannot avoid, the tyranny of fashion which no one seems able to shake off - all of these things amazed me. My good black Chloe once surprised me by saying: “You know, Miss Patience, ef yu aint een de fashi'n yu may's well be dead!” But Chloe follows at such a very respectful distance that the “fashi'n” so vital to her at this moment is a watered form of what was worn in New York four years ago. Still, I recognize in it the same note which I find dominant wherever I go and which is to me incomprehensible - it doesn't seem to me very self-respecting to feel obliged to follow some one else's taste so absolutely. One's eye naturally turns toward the changes of mode which are pretty, but to feel bound to follow simply because fashion decrees, I do not understand.

I saw many things that interested me greatly. One evening I was walking back to the St. Denis about 10: 30 when my escort said: “That scarcely seems possible at this season.” “What?” I asked. He pointed to a closely pressed row of men in a single file, on the edge of the pavement, one immediately behind the other in perfect order: decently dressed, respectable-looking men. It had a strange look to me, and I asked the meaning of it. “That's the Fleischman line.” This conveyed nothing to me. “It is a great bakery here, which for years has distributed every night at twelve all the bread left over from the day's bake, one loaf to each man. I know that in winter the line extends many blocks, but at this season I am surprised to see such a line at this hour; it will be twice as long by midnight.” My heart just stood still as I looked at it.

That so many men, looking so respectable, could need a loaf of bread, and wait silently, patiently for hours together seemed impossible to me. Where I live there is no hunger, no want; life is so easy, food so plentiful. A few hours' work daily feeds a man and his family.

One day Jim was driving to town to spend Sunday with his family, and the next day he told me that he had met an old woman on the road going from one plantation to another. She seemed half blind and looked so miserable that he stopped and asked her where she was going, and offered to take her there in the-wagon, as he had to pass right by. He helped her in and she told him she was very hungry - had eaten nothing since the day before.

“Oh,” I said, “Jim, did you give her something to eat?”

“I didn't have nothing to eat with me, ma'am, but the sticks of candy you giv me to take to my chillun; but I giv her them, en you never see any one so please'.” Then he went on to say: -

“It seems to me sence I ken remember this is the first person I ever seen real hungry.”

“You mean you have never met a hungry person on the road before?”

“I never met none on the road nor never seen none nowhere that was perishin' with hunger.”

I was scarcely surprised, for my mother always at Christmas told her man servant to find out the poor and those needing food that she might supply it. The old man always reported that there was no one he could find in need of food, but plenty to whom a present of tea and coffee would be most acceptable, and to these the packages of sugar, coffee, tea, and tobacco always went.

The next thing I wish to mention is my visit to the Agricultural Department in Washington. I went in search of information as to the planting of alfalfa, and the use of the impregnated soil, which is said almost to insure success. That is the crop to which I look with much hope for our uplands, and I have much at heart to take in a beautifully drained area of thirty acres which has been pastured for some years and plant it eventually all in alfalfa. At first I could not get more than ten acres in fine enough condition, I suppose; but all that I can plant this year I wish to. I have already bought the wire to enclose it, which is a heavy outlay, and had the cedar posts got out, so that it will not cost much to get the fence put up; but I have no proper disk harrows and cultivators to put the soil in the best condition, and the outlay is too heavy to venture on buying them, so I will do the best I can with my old-fashioned implements and plant a heavy crop of cow-peas on the land as a preparation for the alfalfa, which I will not plant till September.

It was a great pleasure and satisfaction to find men of intelligence and education whose whole time is devoted to the effort to promote the productiveness of soil everywhere, and to find them willing, I may say eager, to assist me in every way. All the information was given in a brief and yet courteous way that was a great boon to me, and the reading matter furnished me by them on the subject will make it plain sailing, if only I succeed in getting good seed; and the impregnated soil, I believe, will prove a blessing to this section and solve many problems.

On my return after a very hot journey I reached Gregory at 10 o'clock at night and drove to a pineland two miles away, where I was most hospitably received and spent a delightfully cool night. The heat in Washington and New York had been extraordinary for the season. The next morning I attended to my business in Gregory and started on my homeward drive of twenty miles about 10 o'clock. I drove first to Casa Bianca, where the June rice wages field of twenty-six acres was being planted. I found Marcus and the hands in fine spirits. The April rice was very fine, they said, especially the River Wragg, though Marcus told me it was suffering greatly from the need of hoeing, but he could not stop the preparation of the land for the June planting to hoe it out. This trouble is due to the moving of so many of the young people last winter to town. They were all good hoe hands and there is no one to take their place. The men now think it beneath them to handle a hoe; that they consider a purely feminine implement; the plough alone is man's tool.

I stayed at Casa Bianca until 3 and then drove to Cherokee, where everything had a very different aspect. When I drove into the barnyard, after the usual exchange of politeness with Bonaparte as to the health of each member of the family, I asked him how the rice crop looked. He laughed in a scornful way and said: “W'y, ma'am, I may's well say der ain't none.” “No crop, Bonaparte; what do you mean?” He continued to smile in his superior way, and the hands standing round chimed in: “Yu' right, Uncle Bonaparte, you may's well say dey's none, we fiel'ain' got none tall een um, 'tis dat mill trash rice; you kin see de rice dead een de row wid de long sprout on um, all dead.” I answered quickly, “If the seed is dead with a long sprout on it, that proves conclusively that the seed was not to blame; if the seed had been defective, it would not have sprouted. There was a good stand in Varunreen; before I left, the sprout water had been drawn.” “Well, ma'am, dey ain't nun dey now to speak of.” “How is the tide now?” “Most high water now, ma'am.” “Get my boat out at once and I will go over and see for myself.”

The hoe they considerpurely a feminine implement.

While they were getting the boat one of the hands asked me to give him seed to replant his land. “What is the use if you think the seed is bad?” “We want you fer buy mo' seed. Col. Naples got seed fu' a dollar en forty cent a bushel.” I told him I had no money to buy more seed; I was willing to give them more of the same rice which I had if they wished to replant, but that was all I could do.

I got into my little white canoe, which I call the “Whiting,” and had Bill, one of the most pessimistic renters, to row me down the river. The tide was high. I was able to step out on the bank without any sticking in the mud, which makes it such a horrid trip when the tide is low. I was greatly relieved at sight of the field. There was plenty of rice in it, as I pointed out to Bill as he walked round the bank behind me. The rice was stunted and growing poorly, and upon inquiry I found that it had been dry during the month I was away. Though not a drop of rain had fallen in that time, it had not been moistened by letting the water into the ditches, as it should have been from time to time. That would have made all the difference in the growth of the rice; but foreman, trunk minder, and hands were all so sure it could never make a crop, being mill-threshed seed, that they have not given it a chance, content to declare loudly that there is no rice in the field.

I am greatly comforted by the sight of it, for there is plenty of rice there to make thirty bushels to the acre should no disaster come to it; and I get into the little “Whiting” with a quieter mind, though still greatly distressed about the hands' rice. The row back is most refreshing, there is such a breeze, but the sun having gone down suddenly, the damp chills me, for I had not thought of taking a wrap, it was so hot when I left the wagon. I give orders to Bonaparte to have the field hoed out at once so that the water can be put on as soon as possible. Then I interview the trunk minder, whose business it is to water the rice, and ask the meaning of this talk of there being no rice in the rented fields. He begins about mill- threshed seed, but I show him the glass dish of rice in which every grain had sprouted and grown vigorously. The sight of this seems to confuse him. Then he mentions that he had got a bushel from me “to plant out to his house een a bottom,” and that he never saw a prettier show than that patch of rice. “Then,” I say, “you see it is not the seed; you must have left that rice exposed in some way to the hot sun just as it sprouted.” “Dat's a truth, my missis; it must be so. I did shift the water and I must ha' left it off too long, an' the sun took effect on de rice w'en 'e was sproutin'.”

The result, however, is the same. In the three fields of rented rice the stand is so poor, they tell me, as scarcely to warrant cultivation further. The hands, to begin with, I am told, carried home to eat much more than half of the rice given them to plant. They always take home a goodly portion on the principle that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush; but on this occasion, as it was mill-threshed rice and was not coming anyway, and I was safely away in Washington, they scarcely put any in the ground.

Thoroughly disheartened, I got into the wagon and drove to Peaceville, the little pineland settlement, just as the night fell. The dogs give me a joyful, noisy welcome and Chloe seems overjoyed to see me, while little Imp shows every white tooth in his head and his black face beams with joy. Chloe has a delicious supper for me, to which I do full justice, not having eaten anything since breakfast, at 6: 30. The bungalow is very comfortable, though not much for beauty - the servants have moved all my belongings from the plantation while I was away, and I find everything I need except my piano and my books. The piano could not be moved because Jim has had the team in the plough every day. They have done very well, however, for the piazza is filled with blooming plants, and the house looks clean and cool in its fresh white wash. The pineland is noted for its pleasant nights, and I woke refreshed in the morning, but to find I had taken a terrible cold in my homeward progress on the river, I suppose.

 Wednesday, June 15.

I drove down to Casa Bianca to-day to see how the rice looked and to give orders for the bringing up of mutton weekly. I have been so entreated to furnish the village with mutton weekly again this summer that I have consented to do it, though it is quite an undertaking to have it brought up the twelve miles regularly and early enough in the morning. Marcus met me with a very solemn face, and when I said in my cheeriest voice, “How is everything, Marcus?” he took off his hat, made a low bow, and said: -

“Miss, I have very bad news to-day.”

“Oh, Marcus, what has happened? Is Rubin dead?” Rubin is a very beautiful bull, the pride of the place. Very slowly and with great dramatic effect Marcus answered: “No, ma'am, but the crop is ruin', all the rice is gone!” “Impossible,” I cried, “it was so fine the last time I was here.”

“Yes, ma'am, but Sunday dey come a sea tide, what just sweep over the bank an' 'e bin on de rice till now; de watah bin a foot deep on all de rice, an' salt, ma'am, salt like 'e'll do for cook with, en to-day fu' de first 'e begin for drop, en I giv' yu' my word, ma'am, in my fiel' de rice yu' kin see on de hill is red, same as red flannel! You kin come en see fu yuself, ma'am, down as far as de bridge, for you kyant walk on de bank, 'e too wet.”

I went and saw that the entire place was flooded and that the hills as they peeped out, here and there, had a reddish hue, instead of the vivid green of healthy rice.

What a disaster! A bolt out of a clear sky. If Marcus is right, it means ruin, and up to this time the rice was splendid. Of course, if salt water has covered the rice since Sunday there can be no hope except for the June rice, 60 acres, which was still under the sprout water, which the sea tide only diluted, and so it may escape. Marcus was so thoroughly cast down that I had to cheer him, and searched my brain for grains of comfort for him, until by dint of effort I became quite cheerful myself, in spite of the very black outlook. I made him taste the river water and he reported it still salt.

I stopped at Cherokee on the way home and saw the corn and cotton, and they are beautiful and do Jim great credit, for it is only by the constant stirring of the land with plough and cultivator that the crop has not suffered from the six-weeks drought. The oats are being cut, much injured by the drought, having made no growth and the grain not having filled out.

 Tuesday, June 21.

Gave orders yesterday for the threshing of the oats to-day. The engineer fired up at daylight and had a fine head of steam on when the hands assembled, but Bonaparte looked at the sky and said he thought the day was too “treatish to trash” and sent the hands away, at least a quarter cord of light wood having been wasted, besides the engineer's time and the waste of the hands' time, and, worst of all, the losing of the day when there is so much work needed. It did not rain at all, and even if it had rained there would have been no harm done, for I had purposely had the oats hauled into the mill the day before, so that in case of rain they could still thresh. When I drove down, expecting to find things in full blast, I was very much provoked. I just had to leave, for there is no use to give vent to one's wrath. I told them to thresh to-morrow without regarding the weather.

 June 22.

Went in to find threshing successfully accomplished; they got through quite early, so I determined to let them finish out their day by moving the piano. The oats made twenty bushels to the acre, which is more than I thought possible. No one in a city has any idea what the moving of a piano is. I always feel as though I were personally lifting and handling it, so entirely is the responsibility on my shoulders. My upright piano is my most cherished possession, companion, and friend, and I am always nervous over the perils of its four-mile drive from plantation to summer house.

A small mattress is put in the plantation wagon - I have no spring wagon - and on that the piano is put and steadied by two men while it is slowly driven out. It always takes eight men, as they are not accustomed to lifting, and they make a great ado over it. Just as the piano was lifted out of the wagon up the rather high steps on to the piazza at the pineland, they set it down at the head of the steps, and gave it a great push to roll it toward the sitting room door, there came a tremendous crash. The piazza had fallen in on the side toward the house. Fortunately there were no men in front of the piano; they were all behind. I was standing very near and called to them to hold on to it a moment. I had two heavy planks brought and put as a bridge from the place where the piano rested into the door, and as soon as they got the front rollers on the plank all danger was over, but for a time it looked as if there must be a

The back steps to the pineland house.

terrible smashup. I sent one of the men under the house to see what had caused the crash. He reported it was the giving way of one of the blocks, which was so rotten it had crumbled away. “Why, Bonaparte, I sent you to examine the foundation of this house and see if any repairs were needed, and you said it was all in order.” Bonaparte only murmured apologetically that he was too busy to see about such small matters.

I am very thankful no one was hurt, and the dear piano is safely installed. It is a small Steinway upright and is very nearly human in its companionship. This is the sixth Steinway I have had, I believe, having never owned any other. I watch its health with desperate anxiety, for it will have to last me to the end, unless something wonderful happens to revive rice. I have been at the piano all evening and it is now 1 o'clock and I am too much excited to go to bed, and that is why I am writing.

An unknown friend sent me two years ago two volumes of Russian music that I find fascinating. A cradle song by Karganoff and a prelude by Rachmaninoff especially possess me. When I play that Berceuse I feel myself the Russian peasant clasping her child, with intense strained nerves, always alert, in spite of the soothing, delicious melody she sings and the reassuring loving reiterations of promised safety. The prelude is tremendous, foreshadowing awful depths of pain, endless struggle through distress and discord, up, up, creeping to a final chord of perfect harmony, but a minor chord. If I were asked for what I was most thankful in my possessions I should say my power of enjoyment. Here entirely alone, with never any audience - and in some measure because of that - these things can fill me with such intense pleasure that it is like being on a mountain top with the heavens opening in a glorious sunset, revealing to the panting soul the inner Court of the Beyond.

I remember when taking a singing lesson as a girl being so overcome by my inability to express what the music said to me that I broke down and was reduced to tears and said: “Oh, Mr. Toiriani, there is no use for me to go on: I have no voice and it is useless.” He turned fiercely upon me and said: “Voice - what does that matter? You must go on. Vous avez le feu sacre.” As I used my handkerchief violently in my effort to suppress the sobs that would come, it seemed to me a poor consolation, for if the said fire found no outlet it must consume and not illuminate; but I dared not answer, only struggled for composure to go on with “Buona notte, buon dormir” in a feeble, quavering, high soprano. But I often think now I understand more what he meant. One is independent of outside things; there is a warmth and a glow and a depth that fills and satisfies, irrespective of results and externals.

 July 3.

I paid off this afternoon, as the Fourth of July is the day of all days the negroes celebrate. It was always so before the war. Every creature has to be finely dressed.

Chloe came in yesterday in great excitement to say Miss Penelope had opened a big box of the most beautiful hats and she wanted the money to buy one, “Quarter of a dollar and 10 cents.” I exclaimed at the cheapness, but when she returned and showed me a very large, black straw trimmed with a wealth of black and white veiling and a huge purple orchid on top I was still more filled with wonder how it is possible.

Chloe is perfectly happy. The cloud which has hung over her for the last week is dispelled by the consciousness that she is suitably provided to celebrate the country's birthday.

 July 6.

On Sunday sent word to all the Cherokee hands that I wanted them to hoe the rice yesterday. Of course no work is ever done on the Fourth. It is a day of general jubilation among the darkeys - gorgeous costumes, little tables set about with ice cream, lemonade, cakes; every kind of thing for sale - watermelon above all. Yesterday morning there were three women in the field and a boy to hoe the rice. The other hands sent word that “they couldn't work so soon arter the Fourth.”

“A very large black hat.”

I am anxious to get the field hoed out, for besides its being very grassy, I see by the weather report that the river has risen to 18 feet at Cheraw and is still rising, and it is most important to get the rice clean of grass and the water put over it before that freshet water gets down here. There are 12 tenant houses on the place with 20 grown hands and about 6 half hands and numbers of children. These people, by their agreement, are to work for me whenever I call them. When I do not need them they are at liberty to work wherever they choose, but when I call them they are bound to come. With this understanding they have their house free of rent with an acre of rich upland, all the wood they need, winter and summer; yet it is impossible to get the necessary work done. One-half of an acre is the task for a whole hand in hoeing rice, and the eleven-acre field should not take more than two days at the utmost; but at this rate it will take more than a week, and I am powerless to command the work. I pay in money always, but they prefer to make excuses of illness to me, and slip off and work for my neighbor who pays in cards redeemable only in his store, because it is done on the sly and in opposition to my authority - in other words, that is freedom.

Who could succeed with such a state of things in any business? I am so discouraged. I do not see where it is to end. This fertile soil must just grow up in weeds and go to waste, because, forsooth, life is too easy here. Why work when one can live without? Why carry out a contract when one can wriggle out of it as a snake does from the effort to hold him with a forked stick, and go and bask in the sun and satisfy the elemental needs as the snake does?

Jim came in to-night, having done a fine day's ploughing, but very angry because he had spent his midday hours chasing three negro pigs through the corn-field. He says they are in the field every day doing great damage, and he cannot find any hole in the fence where they could get in. My own twenty-five pigs are kept confined in a crawl or pen for fear of their getting into the corn, and these robber pigs are fattening on it. I very much fear some one in an unseen moment turns them in the gate, for they belong to people living on the place.

I am broadcasting peas on the field from which the oats were cut, and these pigs are eating them before they can be ploughed under. I cannot bear to order the pigs shot, but suppose I will have to do it. Things have never been so bad as this before. There is some influence under the surface of which I know nothing. God only knows how it is to end, and it is a great comfort to feel that He does know everything and never fails them that trust Him.

 July 16.

Our rector came to us for service to-day, and we had an excellent sermon from him. To-night all the neighbors assembled at my house, as usual on Sunday evenings, for sacred music. It always moves me to see the delight every one takes in this very simple way of passing the evening - men, women, and children are equally enthusiastic. I tried having the children in the afternoon, but they did not enjoy it as much, so they all come at 8 and sing until 10, and then home to their night's rest.

 July 17.

I was scarcely able to get back from Cherokee to-day, so exhausted was I. Ever since I came home I have been rising at 6 and going into the plantation very early, attending to my work, and getting back to the pineland between 12 and 1 - a rag in every way. I am so much the worse for wear that I shall have to give up for a while; as most of the important work is over it will not matter so much. Have had great trouble about the wood again - but will not go over it.

 July 18.

Too unwell to go out, so have spent the day in the hammock, reading with great delight Mrs. Gillespie's “Book of Remembrance.” What a great thing for a woman like that to leave such a record behind her! How I wish all the great women who have passed out of our sight and hearing could have done the same; it would be an inspiration and help to the poor things growing up, with their confused ideals.

 July 19.

As I was still too weak to go out this morning, and the mercury was 94 degrees, I sent Chloe in to the plantation, driven by the Imp. With the big umbrella over her she was most comfortably arranged, and I told her not to hurry back, as Gerty could cook what little I needed. For some reason the trip went against her, and she came back in a very bad frame of mind. She said some one had jeered her on the road, and said she had given up the job of cooking to Gerty, and that I must want to kill her to send her out in such heat.

I really am mystified, for I have gone in every day since June 7, and many days have been hotter than this. Last summer very often Chloe walked in to the plantation and saw after things in the garden, and walked back, in spite of remonstrance on my part. I wish I knew who had jeered her, but I really cannot bring myself to ask. Better just to let her alone until she recovers her equanimity, but it is trying when I am feeling so below par. I certainly shall not send her again.

 July 30.

Rose at 6 and went into the plantation soon after 7, and got through my work very comfortably, though the thermometer was 96 degrees when I got back.

Am reading Sir Walter Besant's autobiography with interest. While I was in Washington some one gave me a list of books from the Philadelphia bookstore, and the reduced prices have made it a blessing. I have been able to get books otherwise entirely beyond my reach, and it is such a treat.

I think biography is the most fascinating and satisfying reading. I sent on $7, and no one could imagine what a number of delightful books came back. I positively gloat over them. I have not had such riches in years.

We have a very nice little book club in Peaceville, established about eight years ago by the thoughtful kindness of a friend, who had visited me several times and became greatly interested in Peaceville and its “old time” atmosphere. She sent all the novels her family had finished reading. And her sister-in-law, who lives at the North, but was making a visit South and was there when the books were packed and sent, subscribed to McClure's for the Peaceville Book Club, and has kept it up ever since; also, from time to time, sending a well chosen new book. It is so very kind.

When the first lot of books arrived I went around, mentioning that this donation had been made. I said I hoped every one in the village would join, and that the membership would be 10 cents. Every one was roused and delighted, and there was much discussion as to where the books should be kept. Finally the postmistress, who occupied a little cottage where the whole village assembled to chat while the mail was being divided, consented to keep the books. This was an ideal arrangement, and I had a large bookcase, simply made, with lock and key, and the books were installed.

After a short time two of my dear friends, whom I had thought of as especially likely to enjoy the books, came to me and said they would not be able to join the book club. I wondered, and urged them to join, when the mother said: “We had intended to join, for we thought the fee was 10 cents a year; but since hearing it is ten cents a month it will be impossible for us to indulge ourselves in that pleasure.”

“Oh,” I said, “it is ten cents a year and not a month. The person who told you made a mistake - ” Then they said, “That is too delightful; for we felt miserable at having to give it up.”

Now the fee had been merely in order to give some little control over the books, and I had thought if it was a monthly fee we should be able to get some books every year with the fees; but as it was established just for these very cases, I suddenly changed the plan, and 10 cents a year it has remained ever since. The kind friends have continued to send the novels they have read, and some of their friends in New York have sent boxes of magazines, so that the little club now has about four hundred volumes. Our dearly beloved postmistress has gone to join the majority, and the little cottage is closed, and the books have been removed to a shed room in my house, but there is no estimating the pleasure they have given, and still give, and the weary hours they have relieved.

Every year I get one new book with the fees, and this year, thanks to the wonderful Philadelphia bookstore, I got three, for novels are preferred at the Book Club.

When people work hard and have little pleasure they need relaxation, which means “Mrs. Wiggs” and “Lovey Mary” and tales of chivalry and wonder and social joys, and all the things which every one longs to have for themselves and their children. The writer who can blot out all the sordid present and raise one into a different atmosphere and keep one there for two hours is a mighty benefactor.

 August 6.

I have suffered so from heat that I felt distracted. Went to the plantation most reluctantly, but it was a relief, for it felt cooler driving, but poor Ruth suffered greatly. I at ashamed to be so knocked down by the heat; my mind seem addled.

Bonaparte's daughter-in-law, Kiz, is very ill with typhoid fever. Her husband brought her to the doctor to-day in an ox cart. The doctor was very angry, saying she was quite too ill and that he must take her quickly home.

I had made some jelly for her and sent Patty running after the ox cart with it. She said Kizzie was very grateful and took it all, saying it was the nicest thing she had ever tasted.

Her husband brought her in an ox cart.

Poor, poor soul; in this heat - no ice, no anything that she should have! I who am quite well miss ice terribly, and think of her with that fever!

I sent some jelly to old Amy, too. I do not think she can recover. She is Patty's grandmother. MacDuff feels the heat greatly. The mercury has been over 90 for several days. The colts both have distemper and cannot be driven for a long time.

 CHAPTER III September 3.

IT is time for my harvest to begin, but for some reason the rice is ripening very slowly, and I fear the first field at Casa Bianca will not be ready to cut before the 14th of this month. It has never quite recovered from the salt water and is not as fine as last year. At Cherokee one field of rice is very fine, the other not very good; but the corn is of the best, and so are the peas. A splendid crop. In July I took up thirty acres of very well- drained land, enclosed it with an American wire fence, and planted some of it in cow-peas preparatory to planting alfalfa this autumn. The peas are most luxuriant, a solid mass of green about two feet high. They show the benefit of the subsoiling I had done, for I used no fertilizer of any kind on the land. I have gone to great expense to put this land in good condition, for I have great hope of making alfalfa our money crop in the future - poor, dear rice seems to have resigned that position.

 September 13.

Mr. and Mrs. S. from Indiana are staying with Mr. L. They came to look into the possibilities of this country for cattle raising, Mr. S. being one of the most successful and best-known breeders of Hereford cattle. He wishes to see as much of the plantations as he can, so I invited them to spend the day with me at Casa Bianca, as it is a good natural pasture. I took down everything with me for a nice luncheon, and they seemed to enjoy the day. Mr. S. said my cattle were in fine condition, and that the grass was very good.

While they amused themselves wandering about the grounds and over the rambling old house I went to see Marcus. He told me he had all the hands he could get minding birds and picking grass out of River Wragg and that he had taken the water off to-day as he hoped to cut it day after to-morrow. After lunch when we went out the look of everything had changed - it had been a perfect morning, with little white clouds flitting about, just making you wonder at the blue of the sky in contrast to their airy whiteness, but now they had heavy dark edges and they rushed heavily and wildly about, and there was something in the air that made one sniff a coming storm. Mr. L., who knew the signs well, asked me to have his carriage got, and left at once, advising me to do the same; but I had some things to attend to before leaving, and so was nearly an hour late. I told Marcus to put the water back on the rice or it would be whipped to pieces by the wind, which was now tremendous.

My twelve-mile drive home in an open wagon was a race with the storm, wildly exciting and exhilarating, in spite of the danger from falling limbs and flying branches. All along the way the cattle were gathered in the middle of the road, and my companion said she had always heard that was a sure sign of an approaching storm; ordinarily they are in the woods and I was greatly surprised at the number. I knew the negroes owned a good deal of cattle, but did not know there were such herds.

The horses were greatly excited and it did not take us long to reach home. Though it had rained all the way it did not pour, and the wind being so high seemed to blow the rain away, and we were very little wet.

The wind increased in violence every hour, and now at 10 o'clock it is a terrific gale. I have been all over the house examining windows and doors to see that the fastenings are secure, and am going to bed, for I am very tired.

 September 14.

The storm raged terribly all night; sleep was impossible The rafters creaked and groaned, the windows rattled, the house shook, the wind roared through the pine trees, while the cracking of limbs sounded like musketry and now and then the loud thud of a falling tree like cannon. These sounds kept the ear and mind on a prolonged strain. In the dawn of the morning I looked out - a gloomy, dark sky, trees down in every direction, not a fence in sight; but no houses down.

Later in the day I went forth to find out how my neighbors had fared, and found every one so thankful to find themselves and their families alive and unhurt that every one was cheerful and bright. Most people sat up all night and all seemed to have had me much on their minds.

“Such a terrible night for you to be alone in the house; we thought of you constantly.” I had been thinking with such anxiety about people on the islands and at sea that I did not feel frightened for myself; but I found the servants had been very anxious about me, and Jim had walked round the house several times, but finding all still and no light had gone back to the servants' hall. I hear of many marvellous escapes, houses falling and pinning people down, without a single death and with little injury.

All the planters went out very early to the plantations, carrying axes to cut their way along.

 September 15.

I rode to the plantation to-day, as the road is impassable for a vehicle from the village to Cherokee. There the storm played havoc; the immense oak trees are down in every direction; some uprooted, some split into several sections. Just back of the dwelling-house there was a large oak heavily draped with ivy that had been snapped off in falling, narrowly escaping the house. Two other very large oaks to the northeast of the house are down; they evidently broke the force of the wind on the house, which is not injured at all. The earth is strewn with gray moss and small green twigs and leaves, so that it looks like a huge gray and green carpet.

A two-story barn is down at the barn-yard, also another building, and the screw is badly twisted and in a falling condition. The corn, which was so fine, has been torn and tangled, and a great deal is lying on the ground partially buried in the mud, the heavy beating rain having left the fields almost boggy. I sent all hands to gather up the fallen ears; in the barn I had them shucked and spread over the floor to dry. At the point of nearly every ear the corn is sprouting. Of the cow-peas about ten acres are ruined; they were loaded with pods almost ready to pick, and they have been stripped of leaves and fruit and are only bare stems. I have never seen a storm so thorough in its work and so minute in its attention to detail.

I always try to see the grain of comfort in every misfortune, and find it now in the thought of the profit to the land in that heavy mulch of pea-vine leaves and pods; meantime I will not make seed. Fortunately my alfalfa peas were younger and in a sheltered situation, and have not been at all hurt. I had not heard from Casa Bianca until to-night, and the same tale of destruction and desolation comes from there, but there has been no loss of life. I was so afraid some of the negro houses might have fallen and hurt some one, for they are very old. There is not a fence standing, and the demand for nails is great.

 September 17.

This morning old Maum Mary came to bring me a present of sweet potatoes, indicating that she was in great need of nails; so I made her a present of some nails and also a piece of money. She and old Tom live on a little farm of their own, where they plant a field of corn, a patch of rice, a patch of cotton, and one of tobacco. They raise three or four hogs every year and have a cow. In addition to these they have a most prolific pear tree and a very large scuppernong grapevine and the sale of their fruit brings them in a nice little income.

“Old Maum Mary came to bring me a present of sweet potatoes.”

After the interchange of presents had been made and she had eaten the plate of meat and bread and drained the cup of coffee which I brought her, her tongue was loosed, and she said: -

“Yes, my missus, I neber see sech a judgment on de tree! De big pine 'ood is lebel down, en I had to climb for get yuh, but I ain't hab a nail, en de fench bin down, en me tetta, en me little crap o' corn bin dey open, en ef de Lawd didn't bin dat mussiful dat night en confuse de critter mind, all 'ood a gone. Yes, my missus, eberybody fench bin down, but not a cow nor a hog ain't eat nothing. Ain't yer see? De Lawd confuse dem mind to dat; Him is mussiful fer true. Dat night, my missus, de house shake en rock so, tell me en Tom git up en set down by de fiah, en we pray, en we pray, but de fish cu'dn't burn, kase de rain po' down de chimbly. We de pray, en de house de rock en de shingle de fly, bam dis way, en bam dat way, en Tom cry out en 'e say, ‘Yes, my Lawd, we is sinna fo' tru, but spare we dis time,' en den I teck up de disco'se’ en I say, ‘Lawd, I know I is wicked, but gi' me anoder chanst.’ En de wahter gone through de house, en de shed blow off, en de wedder- boa'd blow off, en de tree all round de crack en de fall, en, my missus, w'en de mawning come I was susprise w'en I see Tom de day, en me de day, en de house de day, en I hol' up my han' en I cry, ‘My Lawd, yer is too mussiful, yo' jes' trow down de boa'd en de shingle, now ef dat bin a man, strong like a you, him 'ood a throw down de hol' house.’ Yes, ma'am, I'se tankful to de Lawd,” and with a deep courtesy she went to mend her fence.

 September 20.

Harvest is going on at Casa Bianca - the much-tried River Wragg field is being loaded into the fiats, in spite of its being soaked in salt water in July and swept by the gale last Tuesday. I cannot help hoping it may make something, it looks so pretty and golden as it is being “toted” into the flat. The night of the gale I thought it would be completely destroyed, because it was dry, but a tremendous tide rushed over the banks and topped the rice, thereby saving it from complete destruction. The June rice, however, fifty acres of which was very fine, has been greatly injured by the topping tide, for it seems the water was brackish, and the rice was just in milk. Marcus was bragging about this rice, and my hopes were high, but now he shakes his head and looks solemn.

Some years ago a lady in Saratoga said to me: “The Lord does not seem to have much respect for you rice planters.” I answered: “I think Job's friends and acquaintances said the same thing to him.”

Certainly it behooves us to imitate that worthy's patient endurance of the calamities which fell so thick upon him for years, and his firm faith in his Maker.

In the Old Testament the promise of worldly prosperity as a reward of obedience to God's law was very distinct, but in the New Testament it is different - sorrow, adversity, tribulation, are mentioned, and the promise is of peace within, of power to be undismayed by seeming disaster, strong in the faith that He doeth all things well.

God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform, He plants his footsteps on the sea And rides upon the storm. * * * * * * * Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust him for his grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.

Several of my friends in the village are ill, and fresh milk is much needed; so I waited till after sunset, when Gibbie had finished milking, to take the fresh milk with me. It was so little that after sending out three little pitchers there was none left for myself. Gibbie is doing his best to dry up the cows; this was the last trial.

In the morning I found Eva had not come out to do the work I had pointed out to her, and I went out to the street, meaning to go to her house and see what was the matter. I found no gate to her large enclosure and could not get in, so went to Gibbie's house to ask the way. It was about 11 o'clock and Gibbie was supposed to be at work. Saw the children and asked for their mother, but they did not seem to understand, but when I repeated my question the little one answered: -

“Pa dey een 'e baid.”

I looked through the door and there was Gibbie fast asleep across the bed. I went in and poked him with my parasol, but he did not wake, so I left the house feeling hopeless - how can any work be done with this going on!

As I went through his yard I met his wife carrying a burning coal between two sticks. She had been over to a neighbor's, as she said, “to ketch fiah fo' cook Gibbie bittle.” She directed me to her mother-in-law's house through a labyrinth of fences and gates.

I was much interested, for it is just what Stanley describes in “Darkest Africa,” a system of passages of stockades, making hasty entrance impossible and so guarding against surprise; any one finding his way through must be seen by the inmates before reaching the innermost barrier. I wound my way through a field of splendid potatoes, then through one of peas, then into a field of splendid corn with peas running to the top of the stalks loaded with pods seven and eight inches long.

I went into the house, where Nobby, Eva's youngest son, a youth of 18, was sitting contemplating a big sheet packed with peas which lay on the floor. I asked where his mother was. He said in the field behind the house.

“Pa dey een'e baid.”

He remained sitting while I went round the house, where grew luxuriant tomato plants loaded with fruit and very tall okra, and on to another fine potato patch, where there were also peas, which Eva was picking.

She was much startled at seeing me. When I asked her why she had not come to work as she promised she hesitated and stammered, then said that the cow broke her fence and she had to stay home to mend it.

“Surely that big idle boy Nobby could mend the fence,” I said.

The fence showed no sign of damage, and I knew she had just preferred to stay at home. I spoke severely and told her to come to-morrow and do the work. She has in all about ten acres with her house, and her agreement is to give me one day's work every week as rent, and she cannot make up her mind to do that if she can possibly escape it.

My only consolation was the extreme abundance and comfort of everything and the cleanliness of the houses and the children, but that is a great comfort to me.

I have made myself a beautiful big blue denim apron turned up about twenty inches, so that when I go in the field to get rid of the cockspurs and see the work I need not be idle.

My field of pea-vine hay is beautiful, but it was so badly ploughed that here and there cockspurs were not turned under and they would ruin the whole field. I have paid a woman twice to go through the field and pull out the plants before the fatal little burr was hard. I went through it myself some time ago and found that she had only broken off the heads and left the roots, all there to spring again.

I pulled out quite a number, and to-day called Dab to go into the field with me to pull them. If only I had told him to bring a hoe the day would have been saved. In order to get to the field by the shortest way I had to pass through a low spot in the corn-field which was grown up with weeds dense and as tall as my head. The ox cart had made a track in the midst, where its wheels had mashed the weeds, from the barn-yard. I was about fifty feet in front of Dab, lifting my foot very high at each step and going very slowly, with eyes everywhere, when six feet in front of me I saw a heart curdling sight - a moccasin so enormous that I could not believe my eyes.

He lay with his tail a foot beyond the wheel tracks on one side and his awful head a foot beyond on the other! I called as softly as I could to Dab, who was just opening the gate, “Bring a strong stick quickly to kill this snake!”

Dab called aloud in his most educated tone, which he very seldom uses, “A snake, eh? What kind of a snake? A big snake, eh?”

“Come at once, Dab, with a strong stick!” I said in anything but a conversational tone, but Dab continued to discourse and ejaculate, and before I could get him to take a lath from an old gate near which he stood the monster, who had listened to everything, slowly moved into the thick bushes and was gone.

There I stood, afraid to move one way or the other. I do not remember ever to have been so thoroughly demoralized since I was a child. When Dab came up even the tail was out of sight. I hate to think it, but it almost seemed as if Dab had dallied and waited until he was sure it had gone, for I kept crying, “Come quickly, it is beginning to move! Oh, Dab, come on, it will get away! It is going!” and not until I cried in despair, “Now it is gone!” did he come forward with great boldness, a splendid lightwood stake in his hand with which the snake could easily have been killed while it was in sight. I would not let him pursue it into the high growth.

I sent him back to the house for a hoe, and while he was gone I stood there battling with myself. I could not bear to go on through that tall, dense growth of grass and weeds with this terrible thing somewhere, but I said to myself: “You have never let fear turn you back from an undertaking in your latter life; are you going to turn craven now? If you do you will be miserable; your life is beset by many dangers; once let fear get the upper hand and your composure and peace of mind are gone.”

So I argued and reasoned and fought with myself, and by the time Dab came, it was easy to go on. I took the hoe from him and cleaned a space of weeds in the direction the snake had taken, and when I had showed him that I was not afraid to do it and how I wished it done he took the hoe and very gingerly chopped down the growth toward the vegetable garden, for I feared very much that the monster should establish itself in there. I kept behind him, encouraging him on, when he gave a shriek and cried: -

“Der de snake now.” No educated tone now. He cried aloud “de snake, de sing.”

I tried my best to see the snake, but could not. He is a little taller than I am and could see over the bushes.

“You must kill it, Dab!” I said. “If you do not it may bite you some day when you go to pick tomatoes. If you see it there is no danger; you can chop its head off with that hoe.”

With much urging Dab lifted the hoe and struck once, twice, thrice and then called out, “I got 'm; 'e daid!”

“Bring it out! Don't leave it in the weeds!” I said.

Dab lifted his hoe tremulously, and there was a small ribbon snake, a foot long and one inch round!

I could not help a burst of merriment over it - and that restored our nerves. Dab continued to declare that the snake had sung, and since, I have felt I was very stupid not to know that the little snake's cry, if snakes ever do cry, was one of terror, and that it was due to the big snake being near, and that if I had only known it was not the monster Dab saw, and if I had not let him waste time on the little snake we might have caught up with the big fellow, who will now remain a permanent terror.

I am going to turn the horses in that field and the cows, and it will be a miracle if none of them meets him, and then my beautiful red setter will always be in danger. However, there was nothing to be done and I went on through the grass to the hay-field, walking very warily ahead with the hoe lifted, while Dab followed in my wake.

We picked nearly a barrelful of cockspur roots from the field. I have had an empty barrel put there to receive them. The peas are bearing well and the grass is very high, and it will make splendid hay, but I will not mow it until I feel sure there is not a single cockspur left.

They are fatal to horses. So strong are their little barbed points that if swallowed they pierce the intestines and kill the animal. There is only one way in which they can be got rid of, and that is by my all-day presence in the field, so for a week I expect to give myself up to it entirely - huge straw hat, blue denim apron, and buckskin gauntlets.

 September 21.

This morning I went early to Cherokee and drove through the “street ” to get some hands to break in two acres of corn which, being very near the road and convenient to passersby, had better be in the barn. At the well I found a picturesque group of gossiping matrons. After the usual civilities, I told my errand. “Becka, I want you,” I said to one, a splendid figure, who stood balancing on her head a large tub of water. She answered: “Miss, I berry sorry; I kyant possible cum, I got de feber right now,” and she walked off at a swinging gait. I turned to an equally fine specimen of

One or two hands in the barn-yard.

health and strength and said, “Agnes, you will come?” “Miss, I too sorry, but mi baby got de feber;” the said baby looked as bright and hearty as the mother. All through the street it was the same thing. One elderly woman, quite as a favor, went home and locked her door and came. I had brought my house servants to help and found one or two hands in the barn-yard; but it took much longer than it should have done.

This corn had been stolen in a very clever way. About a month ago I went through the field to mark what I wished kept for seed from the stalks that had more than one fine ear. I found that about every eighth stalk had two ears and some few had three ears; to-day, when gathered, not a single stalk had more than one ear. In spite of this and the damage from the storm, these two acres made seventy-two bushels of shelled corn, which is a comfort.

On the way down I stopped at the post-office. While I waited for my stamps a negro drove up and took from his buggy two large sacks stuffed full of something; each sack held two bushels. To my amazement, when he proceeded to empty the contents on the ground, I found they were rice birds! I tried at once to buy a dozen, but he said they were already sold, and began to count them out to another negro. He had got to 150 dozen when I left and had not got through with one sack. He said he got 35 cents a dozen for them. I have only had rice birds twice this season; yet the fields are swarming with them.

The work of repairing the screw which carries the rice from threshing mill to shipping barn is nearly finished. It has been very expensive, and my crop this year does not warrant the expense. Yet it was dangerous to leave it hanging as it was, and so I was forced either to pull it down, which would have been an expense, or repair it, and I chose the latter course.

 PEACEVILLE, September 23.

Went to Casa Bianca to-day, but did not see Nat, though he always assures me that he never leaves the place for an hour. In spite of the rough preparation of the ground the peas I had him plant are splendid.

I went down especially to see the spot I have enclosed in wire, intending to try celery on it. I gave Nat very special directions about preparing the land, but thought it best to see how he would succeed before risking any money in plants. I told him to plough it once north and south very deep - I was willing for him to do only half an acre a day so as to be sure of its being well done - then to harrow it thoroughly and after that to plough it east and west, then to harrow it every day for a week. These seemed to me clear and sensible directions, and I gave him as long as he needed to do the work, not hurrying him.

A corner of Casa Bianca.

When I saw the result to-day I was uncertain whether to laugh or to cry; fortunately mirth won the day. I was wearing heavy boots and yet it was difficult walking, so uphill and downdale was it. I am truly thankful I did not go to the expense of buying the plants until I saw the condition of the land. It would be hopeless to expect anything like celery to grow and thrive in such a rough bed; it could never be a success.

It is a great disappointment. Nat is in some ways so faithful and intelligent that I thought I could make him understand how I wanted the soil. He is a fine rice-field hand. He rented ten acres and always made good crops. This is only one acre of very rich black land with a western slope to a little branch; it has been pastured for years.

In the happy days when I lived at Casa Bianca (about a hundred years ago) it was the vegetable garden, and in it we always grew delicious celery; but then the gardener was an expert, one of the wonderful products of the past, Paul Wynns by name. I should like to tell his story some day. Thanks to his fidelity, cleverness, and diligence the family silver was all saved in the very teeth of the all-absorbing Sherman.

It was some years after the war, and he was very old when he looked after our garden, having a boy under him to do the work. He was a Methodist preacher of some distinction and had great power with his own people, which was very fortunate, for in a time of upset and intoxication, when the poor darkeys were rudderless and one heard the boast often, “De bottom rail dey on top now,” Paul's good sense and good heart - I may say his wisdom - were a great blessing, and he left his mark behind him. In the time before 1860 he was in charge of everything in this household, a most accomplished house servant.

My predecessor at Casa Bianca was a woman of immense ability and cleverness. She spent much time abroad and was a great friend of the Grand Duke of Weimar, who on one occasion about 1862 said he had always desired an African in his suite. Mrs. P. said at once: -

“I will send you one as a present.”

The Grand Duke demurred, but on her return home, though the war was raging, she fulfilled her promise. She asked Paul if he would like his son Tom to be the lad chosen to go, that he would have the best education and live in the midst of luxury. Paul, after mature deliberation, accepted the honor for his son and in spite of war and turmoil Tom was sent.

The Grand Duke was delighted with him and treated him with the greatest favor. He married the daughter of an “honorable Councillor” and lived happy ever afterward. He lost his life in his efforts to render help when a fire broke out in the palace, dying from the effects of overexertion. His monthly letters were the delight of his father. Since Paul's death I have heard nothing of the family.

When I got back to Cherokee at 4 o'clock I found a funeral going on. David's eldest son was buried. I am so sorry; he was always a good boy and had learned the trade of carpenter and was doing good work. It is hard on his parents.

Elihu's little boy was also buried to-day. I am distressed for poor Elihu. He has lost his wife and three little boys since he left Cherokee. If I only had an empty house in repair I would insist on his coming back. They say it was his poor wife who persuaded him to accept the offer of my neighbor.

As I drove home to-day Ruth shied violently and, looking down, I saw a terrible looking black man in the broiling sun in the ditch asleep or ill, I couldn't tell which, but Dab stuttered out: “Drunk, ma'am; nothing but dat.” I drove on a little way and then said: -

“Dab, that poor creature will die in that burning sun. Take my umbrella and go back and set it up over him. Don't speak to him, just put the umbrella so as to keep the sun off.”

So Dab flew off, but Ruth would not wait, and I had to drive on. I met a nice looking black woman whose parents had belonged to us, and I said: -

“Chaney, I sent my umbrella to put over a man in the ditch there; do fix it right when you pass.”

She dropped a deep curtsy and said: “Dat is my husband Jupiter, Miss Patience, en' he's drunk all de time, en' I t'ank yo' kindly for puttin' de hambrellar ober him. Miss Patience, he ain't gi'e me so much as a apurn fo' five years, but he is my lawful married husband an' I bleeged to ten, 'um.”

“Chaney.”

 September 29.

Vareen harvest begun, a perfect day, the sun in great glory, with little white clouds flitting hither and thither, doing continual homage to him, and making the sky a thing of beauty. I did not go down to the plantation early, but followed my plan of getting there just in time to turn back the hands who are leaving the field with too little done. Yet they got ahead of me, for they had all left the field and gone home at 11: 30 o'clock, having only cut four acres in a field of eleven acres. Of course it was vain to attempt to get them back. I met faithful old Ancrum, whom I had put in charge, and he told me that they had all cut what was counted a task in slavery times, and left the field by 11 o'clock. I was greatly tried, because the risk of leaving the rice in the field all day Sunday is too great, and I wanted to get it into the barn-yard Saturday evening. I explained this to the old man and told him we would have to get a big day's work done tomorrow, as so little had been done to-day, or it would leave a very heavy day's work for Saturday, which they all dislike very much. My father always allowed a very light task for Saturday and required that washing, scouring, raking the yards and burning trash should be done in each household as a preparation for Sunday, when everything should be tidy and clean. They keep up the practice very generally now, and it is rare to find on the “street” a house where active preparations are not being made on Saturday evening, and I encourage it in every way in my power.

The new beater for the threshing mill engine has arrived and is being put up. Last year I lost my engineer, he having been absorbed by a neighboring mill-owner, and I felt much at a loss, but I turned at once to an old “befo' de wah” darkey, who had learned his trade under my father. Every one said old Tinny could not possibly run the mill: he was too old and stupid; but I sent for him and he came promptly, and when I asked if he could run the engine and thresh the crop for me he answered, with great spirit, “Suttinly I kin,” as though I had insulted him by the question. He has showed himself a competent engineer, careful and vigilant, though he looks as if he had not intelligence or capacity enough to kindle the fire. His first action was to tell me, after examining the machinery, that I must get a new beater, as he did not consider the one in use safe. When I demurred he said, “Miss, lemme mek you sensible. I kin patch um up en run de ingin ef yo' kyan't possible buy a new one; but it's a resk, en my ole marsta 'ood neber expose none o' him peeple to run a ingin wid sech a beater, yo' onderstan', ma'am?” I needed nothing more than that, and wrote at once to beg Capt. L. to come and examine it and, if necessary, to order a new one for me. He took a long time to come, being a very busy man, but when he did come he said Tinny was quite right and a new one was necessary, and now Tinny is engaged in putting in the new beater. It seems almost a miracle to me that he should be able to do it; but it just shows what it is to have been thoroughly trained to a thing in youth. This pygmy of 75, who has not looked at an engine for thirty years, and has just lived under his own vine and fig tree and worked his own little farm, the moment he is called upon, is perfectly at home in the engine room and really more competent than the very intelligent, smart young man I had before, who reads, writes, and speaks correctly and has learned his trade since the war.

In the same way old Ancrum, who is 80 years of age, is the one man I can get to do a really pretty piece of ditching. Auerbach says, “By work we learn fidelity,” and I believe the immense number of infidelities, financial, moral and spiritual, which flood the country come in great measure from the sentiment against labor which has crept over the land with the rise of wealth. There is a sentimentality which is opposed to work and laments over the necessity for it, whereas the man or woman who has never really worked is to be pitied, and will never reach the point of excellence and development that could have been attained, had he or she learned to put out the whole strength, either of mind or body, on something.

 September 30.

I got down to the plantation in time to turn back some of the young men who had left the field and were on their way to “the street,” having cut a half acre but not tied up the rice they cut yesterday. A few laughing words as to the contrast between their strong looks and feeble deeds made them turn back, and fearing to lose sight of them I offered to take them back to the field in my boat. If I had been in the field all morning I could not have kept them, they would have slipped away from me just as they had done from the foreman; but arriving fresh and cheerful on the scene I can force them back by my will. I got into the field just as they had all finished cutting and were about to leave, and as each one turned to leave, I said: “Now tie up what you cut yesterday and tote it to the flat.” It was just touch and go as to whether they would flatly refuse or obey. For one moment they stood wavering; then I said, “Don't delay now, for it is better to have the extra work to-day than on Saturday.” That settled it and they flew, and now, at 2 o'clock, the whole of yesterday's cutting is in the flat and every one is gay and happy.

Agnes has just passed me going home. As she was getting into her boat I said, “Finished already? I know you are glad I made you do it.” She showed every one of her perfect teeth and said, “Miss, I too tenk yo' for mek me do um; to-morrer I kin finish by 10 o'clock.” I brought a basket of beautiful Keiffer pears with me and distribute them from time to time, and they are much enjoyed. This country is the home of the pear; both the Keiffer and Le Conte grow and bear luxuriantly, and the pears reach immense size.

I feel so happy at the success of the day's work that I am going to eat my frugal meal, with its accompaniment of artesian water, with great enjoyment. No one who has not spent days out of doors, with all the pretty sights and sounds which nature so lavishly provides, can know the exhilaration I feel. After trying everything for lunch I have settled on a closely covered dish of rice, which is most satisfying and is very little trouble to eat. If only the field did not smell so terribly! My good Chloe has put up a large supply of rice and broiled ham to-day, so I am able, after I finish, to offer a part to any one who looks dejected or tired. “Would you like some of my dinner, Ancrum? Well, bring your bucket cover.” They all carry their “bittle,” as they call their lunch, in bright looking tin cans with close fitting covers which make nice plates.

When the rice was all nicely stowed in the flat I got into my boat and came home.

 October 1.

A sparkling welcome to October - a perfect day with mercury only 65. I am sitting on Vareen bank watching the “toting” - such active, wonderful figures, I wish I had my kodak. The distance across the field is considerable and to see little Stella, just her feet to her knees visible, so huge is the bundle of rice on her head, coming across the field, stepping over the quarter drains from one boggy spot to another, is wonderful.

The hands have worked splendidly to-day and my little refreshments have been much appreciated. Fortunately it was just high water at 3 o'clock when the last sheaf was put in the flat and so it could be poled up the river and put safely under the flat-house. I put Elihu in charge of her as watchman until Monday. I hope that, as the rice in the flat will make a comfortable resting-place, he will remain at his post. It was with a light heart I drove back to the pine-land, for the clouds were darkening and it was pleasant to know that the rice is under shelter, and the blessed Day of Rest will be free from anxiety.

 October 3.

The first day of threshing is always trying. The feed house is packed up to the very roof with the rice from P. D. Wragg, and I want to get it threshed out to allow Vareen to be brought out of the flat and stowed in the feed room. Of course the belts, etc., all have to be adjusted, and it took so long to get in good running order that when they got through threshing the rice in the mill they all declared it was too late to unload the flat. I insisted, however, on their working until sunset, as they had spent many hours idle while the bands were being adjusted. We got nearly all out of the flat, and it will be easy to finish early in the morning and have the flat empty and ready for Cicero, to whom I have promised it to-morrow, to load up his rice at Casa Bianca.

I rode down on my wheel this morning, a most inspiriting ride in the fresh morning air. On my way to the barn-yard I turned aside to see the field I have recently enclosed, and planted in cow-peas preparatory to alfalfa. There is a splendid growth of peas in full bearing, the pods quite green still. It is a beautiful and cheering sight. I opened the gate and went in, for the finest peas are not visible from the gate. What was my dismay to find ten fat, sleek oxen standing up to their bodies in the peas eating rapidly! They all belonged to the negroes on the place. I never saw a more perfect picture of satisfaction. I walked round the fence till I found the place where they had literally torn three panels to pieces - new American fence wire well stretched on fine cedar posts! I cannot understand it, unless they had help. The top wire had been broken just between two staples and that gave the slackness which enabled them to destroy it. I had just to leave them there, for even if I had not been afraid of them, I could not possibly have driven them out alone.

I had to go on to the barn-yard and not say a word about it until I found some one who could be spared from the threshing - there were just enough hands to run the mill - Jim had gone to Gregory for a load of boards. After a while, in a pause of the threshing, I took Marion, who was stowing back straw in the barn, and sent him with my little Imp to drive the cattle out. I gave him a pencil and piece of paper and told him to write down the number of cattle and the names of their owners, saying, “this is a position of trust, Marion.” He answered, “Yes, ma'am,” most pleasantly. He came back after a while with the names of the owners and the number of cattle very neatly written, but there were eight instead of ten. I asked Imp afterward how many oxen there were and without hesitation he said, “ten”; so I knew Marion had failed in his trust. Later I had the fence repaired as best I could and told all the men they must tie up their cattle for the night. Elihu, who had three splendid oxen in the field, expressed great regret and said, “I ploughed de fan' for dem pea, en day is tu fyne fer cattle 'stroy.” He promised faithfully to shut his up.

 October 4.

On my way to Cherokee this morning I stopped at the alfalfa field and there in the midst were fourteen head of cattle; only one man had shut up his. Elihu's three oxen were there and his cow and two pretty heifers besides, also a pair belonging to a man who lives on his own farm, two miles off in the woods, and only works here when it pleases him.

I went on quickly and sent Jim to take Imp and drive them out of the field and into my yard, where the owners can come and pay for them before they take them out. I charged 25 cents each for the first offense, and doubled it for the second. It certainly is a great trial after the heavy expense of such a fence to have professional fence breaking oxen tear it to pieces. I thought nothing could hurt it but tools in human hands.

The fields that have been threshed have turned out pitifully and I am in despair. I hear on every side that the price is very low. Nearly all the planters have already announced that they will not plant any rice next year, which no doubt is wise, but what will become of the country with no money crops? For the first time I put a mortgage on the place this year and borrowed $1000. Marshfield at Casa Bianca (25 acres) has often put that much in the bank and sometimes more; so I felt justified in doing it, but now -!

I am trying to cut and cure some pea-vine and crab-grass hay, but it is very uphill work. Every one is so ignorant of hay making and I cannot tell them with authority because I know nothing myself except what common-sense dictates. The putting up and starting of the mowing machine was very difficult, but now it is working fairly well, and the weather is perfect for the purpose. The stacking I cannot get properly done - they are accustomed to pile straw in heaps and they will only pile the hay instead of making a compact stack.

 October 11.

Digging potatoes at Cherokee, eight women with hoes; but they make slow progress. I insisted on having Jim open some with the plough, but Bonaparte said the plough covered up too many, and as he has been superintending this work a long time, and has the banking and storing of the potatoes, I thought it the part of wisdom to let him do it in the way which he assured me would secure the greatest number of potatoes for my use.

 October 13.

Still digging potatoes, though only one and three-quarter acres were planted, and they are not turning out as well as usual; they generally yield over one hundred bushels to the acre. The hay making goes on pretty well. Jim is getting to run the mower and rake very skilfully, but the man I have stacking the hay is very obstinate. As long as I stand and look at him the stack is packed and properly formed, but as soon as I leave he just tosses the hay lightly on the pole and a rain would ruin it.

 October 23.

The potatoes are all in and the hay nearly so. The other evening I was superintending the stacking of the hay when five children came to ask me to let them go in the potato field and “hunt tetta.” I let them go, as I always do, for my heart is tender to children and I like to see their delight over the potatoes they find. I was so much interested in getting a perfect stack that I went up the ladder to the top to see if it was well packed, while the wagon went for another load. It was so lovely up there that I sat a long time. The sun was nearing the end of its journey, and the slanting rays glorified the fields with their borders of bright colored leaves, the ruddy brown of the cypress giving its rich tone to the landscape. I saw from my vantage point nearly the whole upland, and in the foreground the children in the potato patch. They all had hoes and it struck me they were digging very regularly in rows and not here and there, as they generally do, and I watched them more closely. In the little time that they had been there the boys had each about a bushel in their bags, and I realized that the women had systematically covered up potatoes in the rows as they dug them. I did not stop the children, but let them go on every afternoon, with the result that they each got about ten bushels of potatoes. Another year I will not employ the

Five children asked me to let them “hunt tetta.”

women on the place to dig them, but will get hands from outside, for whom the temptation will not be so great to hide the potatoes for their own children to find. I like the children to glean, for their parents are so careless and improvident that very few make a crop of potatoes, though they have every opportunity to do so, and children always love potatoes; but when it comes to having the best ones covered up for them I feel it is time to call a halt. One year I superintended the digging very closely myself, and there was no chance for covering up. The crop turned out finely and I was pleased, but after the potatoes were banked in the barn- yard they were stolen, so that I have since left it entirely to Bonaparte.

 October 31.

The harvest of my twenty-five acre field at Casa Bianca began to-day - most beautiful weather and the hands worked very well, cutting down seven and a half acres, so that I hope we will get it all in the flats by Saturday.

 November 1.

Another brilliant day and the hands getting on merrily with the work. If this were April rice we would tie up today what was cut yesterday, but the June rice straw is so green that one day's sun is not enough to dry it and so the tying will not begin until to-morrow.

 November 2.

Seven and a half acres cut again to-day and Monday's cutting tied up and put in little cocks in the field. Though we have only had the few hands living on the place, the work is getting on finely. The sky is somewhat overcast, but I trust it does not mean rain.

 November 3.

It began to rain late last evening, and poured all night. I could not sleep for thinking of my rice on the stubble. That

“It is tied into sheaves, which the negroes do very skilfully, with a wisp of the rice itself.”

which is stacked may not be much hurt, but that lying untied on the stubble will be terribly injured. During all the beautiful weather of the past two weeks I was eager to get the field harvested, but Marcus said it was not quite ripe enough, and when rice is cut underripe the grain is soft and mashes up in the pounding, making a very poor quality of rice; so I was forced to wait.

 November 4.

Reports from Casa Bianca are terrible. The gale of east wind we have had forced in the sea water till it swept over the banks, and only the tops of the stacks are to be seen above the water and it is still raining. Marcus had to put a boat in the fields and he paddled down over all the banks to examine the condition of the rice in Marshfield.

 November 7.

To-day I moved from the pineland to the plantation (Cherokee). There has been no ice, but we have had three heavy frosts and I think the vegetation sufficiently killed to make it safe.

 November 10.

A glorious day after all the rain. I have not written for some days because things are too depressing all around me. When they get very bad I cannot bear to write them down. Saturday I paid out $75, the amount it usually takes to put Marshfield in the barn-yard, and it is still in the field. The turning and drying of the rice have been very expensive. To-day I went down and was much relieved to see it in such good condition. Marcus greeted me with that subtle flattery of which the darkies are masters, a cheerful, respectful, hearty greeting and then, “Miss, de Laud mus' be love yer, ma'am! I neber see sech ting, I was shock wen I see de rice, fu' it ain't damage none tall, yes, ma'am de Laud must sho'ly love yer!”I expressed my gratitude for the great mercy, for indeed looks wonderfully well. One flat, the Sarah, was loaded to-day. She was to have had eight acres put in, but when they got seven on she began to leak and no more could be put on. I have ordered hands down from Cherokee bring her up the river by hand, for she is leaking too much to be left loaded until Saturday, when I have ordered the tug to tow the others up.

“The field with its picturesque workers.”

 November 15.

Down at Casa Bianca again, in the field all day, the hands toting rice to 78, my largest flat. She is expected to carry nine acres. It is lovely down on the banks, and my English friend, an artist, who is sketching the field with its picturesque workers, is enthusiastic over the wonderful soft colors and the enchanting haze over all. I will have to borrow a flat, for Sarah is leaking too much to be brought back from Cherokee and 78 and White House cannot carry all the rice.

 November 19.

The tug brought the three flats at daylight this morning. I could not get all three unloaded, but the rice from two is safely stowed in the mill and the other will have to take its chances in the flat till Monday. The hands worked well to-day, and were very merry and danced for my artist friend. A man came bringing $2 to buy two wagon loads of rice straw. It is in great demand and it is hard to refuse to sell it when people want it so much. I let this darky have the two loads. I have always given away a great deal but I have to deny myself that pleasure this year, for I have twenty-eight head of cattle, not to speak of the horses, to get through the winter, and the crop is so short.

 November 20.

Marshfield turned out 737 1/2 bushels in spite of storm and salt. Now, if I can only get a decent price for it.

 November 25.

Drove down to Gregory to sell my rice in the rough, as I have not yet got samples of that I sent to mill in October. Sold it for 42 1/2 cents per bushel, $313.43 for the 737 1/2 bushels! “Alas, poor Yorick.”

 CHEROKEE, November 27.

Rode on horseback to Peaceville to-day to get the mail, and brought back a very heavy mail and two books which have been generously sent to the Book Club; and not content with that, saw some very nice salt fish at the store and bought two pounds and brought that home too.

I have given Ruth holiday since moving, and am using Romola. She is a delightful saddle horse so that I have been riding everywhere instead of driving, and I do enjoy it. Romola has a history.

One of my hands some years ago got into trouble and came to me in great distress to borrow quite a large sum of money. I lent it to him and two years passed without his making the least effort to pay it, though he had made good crops and shipped over a hundred bushels of rice of his own to market. So one spring I said to him,

“As you will not pay your debt yourself, you had better make your horse pay it. I will rent her from you and use her until the debt is paid.” He seemed very pleased at the idea and brought his mare the next day. I had often felt sorry for her; she struck me as having once been some one's pet and a pleasure horse - a dark chestnut, with a nice air about her. When I asked her name he gave the name of one dear to me which I could not bear to use, so I said: “I will call her Romola, after you.” This delighted him, his name being Romulus, pronounced by his friends Ramblus.

I found to my dismay that Romola was too weak to do any work when she first came and I had the pleasure of feeding her for a month before she could be of any use. Romulus had only fed her, and that lightly, when he used her, which might be once a week or once a fortnight; the rest of the time she was turned loose in the woods to hunt her living.

After being well fed and groomed for a while she became quite useful, and at the end of nine months the debt was paid and I returned her to him. He brought her back, however, at once and said: -

“Miss, she look so fine you kin keep um fu' she feed. I ain't got no co'n. I ain't got no pertikler use fur um.”

So I kept her through that winter and in the spring he came to say he had received an offer of $45 for her and he was going to sell her. I told him I would give him $50 and so Romola became mine, and she is a delightful creature.

Having known evil days she appreciates her home and is always cheerful. Her gaits are very pleasant, easier than Ruth's, but she is a great jumper, no fence can hold her, she skims over like a bird. When I try to get her near enough to a gate for my short arms to reach the latch there is always a danger of her leaping it.

She comes up to it nicely and stops where a man's long arm could open it with ease, but for me it is hopeless. I ride off and bring her back two or three times with the same result, then she loses patience and prepares to jump.

Green has given me notice that he wishes to leave my service the end of this month, so I must find some one else. He milks the five cows and ploughs a quarter of an acre of oats a day and thinks he is overworked; told Chloe yesterday he was broken down with hard work!

Just at the end of the war, when things were being adjusted after the upheaval of the Emancipation Proclamation, my mother was trying to arrange a contract which would be just to all parties, so that the lands might be worked and the starvation and want which was threatening this region prevented. The intelligent negroes saw the necessity and gave what help they could, acquiescing in the terms of the contract. The inferior element among the negroes was very turbulent and rebellious and it was a very exciting scene.

At my mother's request a United States soldier had been detailed by the commandant in Gregory to be present, witness the contract and keep order. During the turmoil and uproar the soldier said: -

“I should think you'd rather get white help.”

From time to time it has recurred to me with renewed humor, and now I think the time has come when I really must try and “get white help.”

 CHAPTER IV Thanksgiving, November 28.

I ROSE very early so as to make the long drive to Gregory in time for church. I sent Chloe and Dab out to collect holly and moss, for my thanksgiving service is always to lay some tokens of loving memory in the sacred spot where my loved ones lie.

The morning was beautiful, but very cold; as the sun gained power it got warmer and the air was delightful. I was detained getting off so that I was late for church, but spent a long time in the churchyard placing the quantity of brilliant holly, the berries so red and the leaves so green, in beds of the solemn gray moss to my satisfaction.

When I finished I drove to Woodstock to spend the rest of the day and night. On my way I saw by the roadside two young people having a picnic à deux - a pretty woman, very fair in a Marie Louise blue shirtwaist. I thought what a charming way to pass their holiday, taking their lunch in the woods, the brown carpet of pine needles spread at their feet. As I came abreast of them the man crossed the road and said: -

“I wish to speak to you, ma'am. I've been waiting for you. You may remember you passed us driving in a wagon this morning? The man whose wagon we were in and who was driving, said: ‘That's the lady for you; she's got plenty of land and money and you'd better see her.’ ”

I laughed and said, “He was right about the land, but much astray in the other statement. I have about a thousand acres of land, but not a cent of money.”

“Well, ma'am, it's the land I'm after. I want to farm. I've been working with a big company at my trade, steam-fitting and carpenter's work, and they've laid off their hands in this tight spell, and I've took a notion to go back to farming for a while. I was raised on a farm an' was a-ploughin' cotton when I was 12 years old - I don't belong to this State. I come here last year for my wife's health. She loves the country, so I would like to take about thirty acres on shares.”

I asked if he could manage that much alone. He pointed to his pretty wife and said: -

“She's just the workin'est woman you ever see an' she'll do her share, I reckon.”

I told him to come up to Cherokee as soon as he could and look over the land; that I had a cottage which used to be our schoolhouse when I was a child, which I thought would be very comfortable for him after a little work. I asked him what shares he proposed. He said: -

“In course I don't know the way you works shares in this State, but at home I rents my farm to my brother-in-law an' I furnishes the team and feeds it and the land is under good fence an' we divides the cost of fertilizer an' he does all the work an' we shares the crop in half; he takes one-half and gives me one-half.”

I told him that would suit me entirely. I had my land under good wire fencing and would furnish a team and feed it.

I drove on - I have always said I was the special child of Providence and here is an instance - waylaid on the road by the very person I was wanting to find and have been looking for in vain.

I was late for luncheon, but was forgiven in view of such unforeseen interruption.

 WOODSTOCK, November 29.

This morning it poured torrents, so I did not start until midday, when it was not raining so hard. I drove through the terrific neighborhood road to the ferry only to find the wire broken and the flat drifting down the river.

In the intense cold and wet discomfort, I had food for devout thanksgiving that I had not been a little earlier and so been in the drifting flat. I turned and drove three miles up the river to another ferry, so that I did not get home until very nearly dark.

When within a mile of Cherokee I met my farmer on his way back to town; he had hired a horse and gone up to look over the land, and though it was a most discouraging day and he was wet to the skin and very cold and very sore, for he said he had not ridden for years, he was delighted with the land. He said, however, he feared the repairs on the house would cost more than a renter for only one year would pay and that was all that he now proposed to rent.

I told him I was willing to put the repairs in and that while they were going on he could occupy two rooms that I had elsewhere, as he expressed great eagerness to come at once if he came at all. So there on the road in the rain, it was agreed that he should come up on the boat next Wednesday.

I am so worn out with the long drive and the intense cold that I can scarcely make myself write, but apparently my “white help” is in sight and I must record it.

 December 3.

The boat blew very early yesterday morning. I had sent the two wagons up to meet Mr. and Mrs. Z. and their belongings, and they arrived with very neatly packed clean new furniture, his fine tool chest being the most impressive thing.

Mr. Z. very soon got everything in position and the cooking stove up and going, and this morning he started work upon the cottage.

Fortunately I had some shingles on hand or I could not have undertaken it, but only 1000 will have to be bought. The plastering is down, and that is the most serious consideration now. The sides are good, but the ceiling is much broken.

I drove Romola to the store to get the nails, etc., which were wanted, and then, feeling very much lulled and soothed by the thought of having some one who worked with such vim and needed no looking after, I spent a delightful, restful evening reading the “Memoirs of Madame Vigée Le Brun.” Most interesting and inspiring to read of such a woman - such great gifts and above all such wonderful diligence - not an idle moment did she allow herself; her art and the social labors belonging thereto occupied every moment.

 CHEROKEE, December 5.

I had to go to Gregory to-day to get the check for my rice. Small though it is, I need it to pay for thrashing, etc. I determined to take my colt Dandy over the ferry for the first time, as that would give a spice of enjoyment to an otherwise trying day, so had the pole put on the buckboard and Ruth and Dandy put in. He drives charmingly in double harness, but the ferry is a very trying thing at first to a horse - just a long, flat boat, only wide enough to admit of driving in with care, without railing front or back, and propelled across the Black River, which is very deep, by two negroes pulling on a wire slack enough to allow the passage of tugboats and small steamers. If, by chance, one of these comes puffing along while one is in the flat, it takes a very sensible horse to stand it.

My horses are all wonderfully intelligent and understand a reassuring explanation accompanied by a pat and loving word, but Dan is so young and frolicsome that he might not stop to listen. He is a picture pony, with the grace and activity of a kitten, and as plucky and stanch as possible, but terribly mischievous; has killed two calves for me. He is not yet broken to saddle, for I was afraid of putting much weight on him while so young. Breaking him to double harness has been a great pleasure to me, for he has never given any real trouble. I put him first in a very light vehicle with Mollie, the doyenne of the stable, who, though old (22) and reliable, is very spirited and pulled up with him beautifully, yet didn't mind his prancing and dancing. I didn't put him in single for fear he would come into general use before he was old enough to stand it.

“The Ferry.”

One day Jim came to me and begged me to allow Jack and himself to put Dan in the little single wagon. I hesitated, as I was too busy to go and see it done, but Jim was so eager for it that finally I consented, told him to take the body off of the little wagon, leaving only the running gear, which would be light, and told him only one of them must be in the wagon at a time. I did not go out for about an hour, when I saw Jim leading Dan to the stable, no wagon to be seen anywhere. I asked where the wagon was. His answer was: -

“Dan went beautiful, ma'am, an' we drove him all over the plantation.” “Well,” I said, “then, where is the wagon?” Most reluctantly Jim went on: “Then, ma'am, Jack an' me thought as he'd done so well we wud jes' take him down the avenue an' haul in that wood by the gate.” “What,” I cried, “that heavy oak wood?” Lower and lower went poor Jim's head. “Yes, ma'am.” “And what happened then?” I was determined to extract the whole story, so as to know how to act. “Then, ma'am' Dan he pull fine till we cum to rise the hill, an' then he wudn't pull the wagon up.” “Did Jack and you take off some of the wood, and one of you push behind?” “No, ma'am, we never thought of that, but we tried to make him pull it, an' when we whipped him he just pranced and threw himself down till we had to take him out for fear he'd hurt himself.”

I was very angry. Nothing more injudicious could have been done to the dear little beast who up to this time had thought human beings all powerful and all wise. “Take him back to the wagon, Jim, but give Jack time to run ahead and take off half the load; and put the logs entirely out of sight, Jack, so that Dan may not know that any change has been made in the wagon.”

Jack ran ahead and Jim followed with Dan, I walking by him patting and shaming him by turns, and assuring him that he had lost his potato for that day. The wagon was halfway up the steep ascent in the avenue, the only little rise for miles in this flat country. It is hard to believe that those two men had put a genuine load of wood on that wagon, but they had, live oak, which is heavy and strong as iron.

To make things worse, the horses were all loose in the park, and Dan whinnied after them and they answered. While Jim was putting Dan in I called Mollie and had her halter put on and kept her near Dandy. He stood quietly until Jim took up the reins and clucked to him, then he reared and plunged and bucked, but I made Jack push behind, so that gradually the top of the hill was reached, and then I led Mollie ahead in the direction of the stable yard as though I had forgotten all about Dandy, but told Jim to use the whip freely if necessary, for that wagon had to be brought into the yard by him or he would be ruined. Jack must push behind with all his might so that the pony should not be strained, but come he must.

Jim and Jack both pleaded to leave the wagon till afternoon and then put him in, but I said: “You went against my orders in putting the load on, but having started it you have got to carry it through.” Dan proceeded to do all that a kitten would do under similar circumstances - he doubled himself up, he threw himself down, he stood on his hind legs and pawed the air, but finally he leaped forward and took wagon, Jack, Jim, and all up the avenue and into the stable yard at a full run. Mollie and I just cleared the road in time, but nothing was broken, and Dan was in the sweetest humor and no harm was done, for I drove him in double harness the next day and he was quieter than usual; but I have not allowed him put in single harness again, for I want him to forget this episode entirely first.

To return to my trip to Gregory - I started at 12:30, Dan and Ruth in fine spirits and quite playful. When we reached the ferry the man in charge begged me to take the horses out and let him roll the buckboard in and have the horses led in, but I was not willing for that. I have to cross the ferry whenever I drive to the railroad, and my horses must learn to go in quietly, for I often cross without a servant. I had Jim walk ahead and stand in the flat at the point where the horses should stop and then I drove in. The water showed between the flat and the shore, a moving streak of light, which Dan examined carefully, and then snorted. As I touched him lightly with the whip he made a flying leap into the flat and stood perfectly still for a moment, nostrils distended, ears erect like a bronze horse. Before he had time to realize the situation and that we were moving, I slipped out and went to him with an apple and a few sweet potatoes, which he loves. As he smelled them in my hand he relaxed his tense aspect and in a few seconds he was eating as contentedly as though he had been accustomed to a flat daily.

On our return trip he went quietly into the flat and turned his head at once to see if I was coming with a potato, and I do not think he will ever give any trouble at the ferry in future. It was wonderful to see how Ruth did all she could to assist in getting him in quietly. I think she remembered her own first trip, how frightened she was and how I calmed her in the same way with sweet potatoes.

I got through all my business and got back to Cherokee at 5: 30, which was, I think, doing well for Dandy's first long drive, thirty miles and the ferry, and he was just as gay in the last mile as he was in the first.

 December 19.

Punch came to-day to ask me how much he still owed me. It was hard to tell, for two years ago I sold him a fine plough horse for $50. He had just moved on to my place; wanted to rent land and plant corn and cotton. I heard he was a fine ploughman and his wife a good hoe hand, and I was quite cheerful when he said instead of hiring an animal if I would give him a chance to pay for it out of his crop he would like to buy this horse from me. I had more horses than I needed and readily consented to omit any cash payment and wait until the end of the year.

At first the new broom swept very clean. Punch worked hard and his wife was very stirring and I was delighted; but as the spring ripened into summer and the days grew long and the suns hot, and I moved to the pineland, Punch and Judy began to rest in the shade of the big trees in the pasture, and the weeds grew apace in the crop, so that when the autumn came the results were pitifully small, and I did not exact the payment of the debt, but told Punch, as he was an expert at shingle making, he could cut shingles in my swamp, where there was plenty of cypress, and pay his debt in that way. This proposal seemed to delight him, and he promised to go to work at once. But at the end of two years he had only paid $27 on his horse, and no rent at all for the land he had planted, and he ceased to feed his horse during the winter, so that it died.

His wife was very stirring.

He was in great distress, and in view of his misfortune I forgave him the debt and urged him to work his crop this year. He promised renewed effort and I hoped anew. About midsummer he came to me in terrible trouble. His boy had been arrested and put in jail. He was a boy of about 18 years; his son, but not his wife's; but she in the kindness of her heart when she heard that the child was neglected and starving, took him when 2 years old and cared for him as her own, and had brought him up more carefully than most. The boy had hired a bicycle in Conway, fifteen miles distant, for three days, and had come to visit his father and remained three months. The owners of the wheel had great difficulty in tracing him, but naturally when found they put him in jail.

Punch and Judy, anguish stricken and weeping, came to me for help. I told them the only possible way to help the boy was to let him take the punishment the law decreed. It might save him from being a confirmed thief. All in vain I talked; they pleaded with me, weeping, to lend them the $15 they needed to get him out. They had neither of them slept in their bed since the news first came; they could not go to bed knowing he was in jail. When I asked where they slept they answered on the floor, without mattress or bedding of any sort, and they looked it. Judy said: “Miss, yo' tink I kin git een my comfutuble high bed en kno' dat chile, my own boy I raise, is punish een jail. No, ma'am, I tell Punch neber will I git een dat bed agin till my boy is save.”

Unfortunately I had the money in the house, and I gave it. They had sold one of their cows and got the other $15, and Punch went and paid the $30 and the suit was dropped. No sooner was the boy free than he was arrested again for robbing the post-office, and then their disappointment and distress was so keen that they became silent. Judy only said to me: “Miss, I wash me han' of de boy, now; me heart is broke.”

It was pathetic in the extreme. I tried to encourage Punch to do some work and pay me in that way, as he had promised, but in vain. I needed shingles more than ever, but with all my efforts he still owes $10 on this last debt. Now he came to tell me that he was going away. He put it with great delicacy and began by saying, “Miss, I dun'no how 'tis, I kyant please yo'; I try en I try, en somehow I kayn't cum it. Yo' kno', my missis, a man kayn't do mo' den 'e kin. Man p'int, but God disapp'int.”

I could not help laughing at this new version of “L'homme propose, et Dieu dispose.” “Oh, Punch,” I said, “I think you have got the wrong end of that. I think in this case it is God who points and man who disappoints; but certainly you can go, only you must do something to pay me that $10 before you leave, for I am in need of the money, and I have waited on you as long as I possibly can. I am perfectly willing to take the shingles, and it would not take you long to pay up the debt.” It was in vain, unless I had the Sheriff take his cow, which I could not bear to do. He said he would pay it by degrees next year, and I was so glad to have him go, that I gave up the effort to get anything from him.

Day after day I met Judycoming out of her patch.

The two acres of cotton he rented were very near the field I planted. He and Judy did not work theirs, so there was a fine field of grass and weeds, with a few stalks of very tall cotton. Notwithstanding the rarity of the stalks in their bed, day after day I met Judy coming out of her patch with an immense bundle of cotton on her head. Jim would grow furious when we met her, and now and then break out: “I work yo' cotton an' keep it so clean, f'r Punch pick.” There is no doubt that he was right, but no one could ever catch Judy anywhere but in her ow patch, where the same few bolls of cotton showed out every day. Jim begged me to send them off before another crop season, so I am glad to have them go, only I do wish I could have got my money.

 December 17.

The Zs getting on finely. She is a wonderfully capable woman, and I think a very nice one. She seems so pleased to be in the country again and is eager to take the milking - wants me to send off Gibby and let her milk.

I told her that she could take the Guernsey cow up, that as soon as the calf got big Gibby said she was dry and he could not get any milk, but that I knew it was only because he was a poor milker, and I would be delighted if she would feed her well and milk her; I knew she could bring back the milk. She did not seem very pleased, but consented.

She is evidently not a strong woman, and if a bad spell of weather should come she could not go out to milk, and I would just be left milkless. Better go slowly, I think, and not upset things.

I told Chloe to give them a pint of milk every morning and every evening. The cows are not giving much, but then I am not feeding them as I usually do.

The stringency in the money market affects everything. There is no sale for anything - cotton, cattle, horses - I have tried to sell anything and everything, but in vain.

 December 20.

To-day I signed a contract with Mr. Z. which I got a lawyer to draw up. He has been very anxious about the signing before this, but I thought there was no great hurry.

He and his wife have been very diligent, working early and late, setting out a new strawberry bed and getting land ready for other things. She has planted celery very successfully and says this land is just suited for it, and wants to try a quarter of an acre in it. They are charmed with the ever flowing artesian well and are arranging little ditches to irrigate in dry weather. Altogether I feel so peaceful and content that it is hard to write regularly.

 Christmas Night.

Had a peaceful, happy day, many loving tokens of the blessed season of good-will. It is always a pleasure to make the darkies happy with small presents and I included the Zs in my offerings of good-will.

Besides many little things to eat I presented them with a pair of Plymouth rocks, a beautiful pullet and cock, as they are anxious to start a poultry yard. This afternoon she came in with an offering for me, a necklace of fish scale flowers made by herself, which she had told me the other day she sold for 50 cents.

I was quite touched by it and by her happiness over the fowls. Altogether I feel very thankful that I have found such satisfactory people. He talked to me a great deal to-day and said he would give $1000 if he could get rid of his evil temper. I told him a thousand prayers would perhaps accomplish his desire better than the same number of dollars. He went on: -

“I've been a powerful wicked man. I've shot two men an' been shot twice myself and I've stabbed one man nine times and been all cut to pieces myself, but for two years now, since I met this wife, I've quit drinkin' an' I'm tryin' to live a good life.”

I told him I felt quite sure if he earnestly tried he would succeed and that I would do all I could to help him. I felt a little disturbed for a moment, but a full confession of one's sin is often the beginning of a new life, and the idea of helping a man to a higher, better life adds a new interest to the experiment.

 January 1.

Sat up last night to see the old year out, the year which has brought us sorrow and distress, yet there is great sadness in seeing it go. In the last moments of the dying year I sank on my knees and prayed that this whole land might be blessed and guided through the coming year.

The day is brilliantly beautiful and we went to our simple little service in Peaceville. Dear, frail Mrs. F. had made a great effort to get to church “to return thanks for her many blessings.” Eighty-five years have passed over her, the first half surrounded by all the comforts and conveniences that money can give. She now has the bare necessities of life, no cook and none of the conveniences of modern houses that make cooking easy. She is always cheerful, always dainty and beautiful to the eye, and one never hears of what she lacks or needs, nor of the possessions of the past.

To-night Chloe came to tell me Elihu is very sick with pain in his side. I sent her out at once with some tea and milk, a mustard plaster I made, and told her to see it put on. She is always so good and willing. Though it was 9 o'clock and quite a walk to Elihu's house, she went cheerfully. They never have anything prepared for sickness. There is a great deal of pneumonia about and I want to take Elihu's case in time. With all his faults he is one of the best men on the place.

 January 4.

I am puzzled beyond measure to know what to do for another year. It is impossible to go on planting rice if it is to sell at 40 cents per bushel. It is an expensive crop, and if one borrows money, as I did last year, at a high rate of interest, and puts a mortgage on the plantation, it very soon means ruin. I have no idea how I am to pay off that mortgage of $1000 this year, but hope the bank will be willing to renew.

Instead of being anxious to have the usual first of January powwow over, as I generally am, I shall do all I can to put it off, for how can one do one's share in a powwow when one does not know what to say? I have absolutely nothing to propose. As far as my seed rice will go I will rent rice land to the negroes, and if I had money of my own I would go on and plant, for it seems to me the complete giving up of the staple industry in a country is really a revolution. Our labor understands no other cultivation; the whole population lives on rice, white and black, especially black. It is a wonderfully nutritious and sustaining food, and if suddenly its cultivation ceases there will be much suffering. Our cattle live on the straw, it being the strongest and most palatable of the straws. My horses will not touch fresh oat straw while there is a wisp of old rice straw to be had; the cows and pigs are fed on the flour, a gray substance that comes from the grain as the chaff is removed in the pounding mill. Mr. Studebake, a great Hereford cattle man, told me that rice flour and pea-vine hay make a perfect ration for cows, one supplying exactly what the other lacks. If rice is given up the cattle and pigs will have to go too.

 January 10.

To-day I went down to Casa Bianca to receive Marcus's resignation of his place as foreman. He is going to move “to town,” to enjoy the money he has made in my service and planting rice. He has bought land there and built four houses, which he rents out. He is a preacher, or, as he says, “an ordain minister.” I have wondered he stayed these last few years, but he has made so good an income that his wife was willing to forego the joys of the town; he owns a horse and buggy, three very fine cows and calves, and three splendid oxen.

I feel very sad at parting with him; he has been here so long, and as foreman he has been most satisfactory in every way. When he turned over the keys of the barn to me I almost broke down, for I hate change anyway, and I really do not know to whom I can give the keys.

King came to beg me to give him a house. He is absolutely worthless and unreliable, but he spoke of his large family and how necessary it was for him to get where he could pursue his business of shadding, and Casa Bianca was the very best pitch of tide for the shad fishing. He gave me an idea, and I told him he could have the house if he would give me two shad a week during the shad season, two and a half months. This he most willingly agreed to do. I never have been able to get any tribute at all from the shad nets, which are set in front of my doors all winter. Five or six men shad there regularly, but they elude all demands, and I rarely eat a shad, as they are too great a luxury for me to buy unless I have company; they are like the wild ducks which swarm in the rice fields at night in the winter, “so near and yet so far.”

After much thought and uncertainty I decided to give the keys to Nat; he is willing and knows all the sheep and cattle well, and on the whole is the best one on the place. It is a mere form, for there is nothing left in the barn, but Nat is very proud and happy and the other men very sulky.

 January 12.

Caesar came up from Casa Bianca-with Jonas and King to say they could not stand Nat as head man and to indicate that he, Caesar, was the man for the place. I said to them: “Do you know why I chose Nat? I looked over my book and found he was the only man who for years has paid his debts to me. Every one else on the place has borrowed money when in distress, or got a cow from me on time and left the debt hanging, in spite of my reminding them from time to time that I needed the money; but every time Nat has borrowed money from me or bought an ox he has paid up promptly as soon as his crop came in. Now, this shows fidelity and honesty, and, therefore, I have given the keys to Nat, and if you do not like it you can all leave.”

They were dumb at this. Then I asked each one how much he owed me, bringing out my book to verify. Not one owes less than $8, which they have owed over a year. “Now,” I said, “don't you think I had good reason for choosing Nat to carry the keys?” They looked sheepish and departed.

 CHEROKEE, January 13.

Last night at 2 o'clock Chloe woke me to say Mrs. Z. was very ill and Mr. Z. wanted a horse to go for the doctor. She had sent Dab to wake Gibby to go for old Florinda, the plantation nurse, spoken of as the “Mid” or the “Granny,” who lives some distance off across a creek. I told her Mr. Z. could take Nana to go for the doctor.

I dressed rapidly and came down. Mrs. Z.'s face was crimson and she seemed unconscious. He was bending over her crying like a child and wailing out all the time, “O God, help her! I know I'm wicked, but spare her! ” It was distressing.

“Old Florinda, the plantation nurse.”

Chloe was bathing her feet in hot water and doing all she could. I rubbed her for two hours and applied mustard until the nurse came, and about daylight she seemed relieved. I had not seen how the nurse could be got, but Dab's account was exciting.

He with difficulty woke Gibby, who when he heard there was sickness at the “big house” got up quickly and they went together to the edge of the creek, where they shouted and knocked on a big cypress tree with sticks until the old woman came out of the house down to the edge of the creek, on the other side. When she understood it was sickness at the “big house” she jumped into her paddling boat which was tied there and without going back into the house paddled herself across, and when she landed, Dab said “she tie up her coat to her knee an' start to walk so fast that Gibby en me had to run to keep up.”

This is an old time plantation sick nurse, who, though now very old, flies to relieve the sick with enthusiasm. She brought herbs with her and soon relieved the patient. This morning I lent the horse and buggy to Mr. Z. to go down to Gregory and consult the doctor.

 January 14.

Last night Mr. Z. came to ask me to lend him a lantern every evening. I said I would with pleasure. He said he wanted to pull corn stalks at night, that Maud, his wife, could do it two hours every night and not waste daylight on it.

I said I thought if he worked all day it would be as much as he could do, but he could always get the lantern. He went on in a conversational way to say: -

“I've got a fine burn on them piles o' trash.”

“I hope it is well out, Mr. Z. There is such a gale it is no time for burning trash. I hope you saw the fire entirely out.”

“No, Ma'am,” he said, “I've got it started good, an' it's burnin' fine.”

I said not another word, but flew through the house to the pantry, seized the lantern and called to Dab to follow me. We ran at full speed to the barn-yard, where not 200 feet from the threshing mill (which cost $5000) and four large barns three bonfires were raging, the flames and sparks whirling and licking out in every direction up to high heaven, it seemed to me.

There was nothing to be done but watch until the piles burned down. Then I had Dab cover the lightwood posts and beams which Mr. Z. had put on to insure a good burn, with earth.

If I could have got at other hands I would have called them, but it is half a mile to the “street,” and there was nothing to do but help Dab myself as much as I could. I had sent him for hoe and spade and shovel, and he worked splendidly.

Mr. Z. had followed me down, also his wife, though I begged her not to come out, having been so ill yesterday. He would not help in any way to put out the fire and kept saying the wind was blowing in the other direction.

“Yes,” I said, “but the wind does not take long to shift and if it did change there would not be a building left on the place. Dwelling-house and all would go.”

I noticed that he got very white as he stood and watched me, but I was too actively employed to watch him, but I thought the tears were running down his cheeks as he stood in the fierce red light. Mrs. Z. hovered around a while talking to him in a low tone and then she left.

When Dab and I got through I had the shovel in my hand and wanted to take the lantern. I handed the shovel to Mr. Z., saying, “Will you take the shovel, Mr. Z.?”

Fortunately, I had the full light of the lantern on his face, and I was shocked; he did not move. I fixed my eyes full upon him and repeated, “You did not hear me, Mr. Z.; will you take the shovel?”

Slowly he put out his hand and took it. I still fixed him with my eye, until he turned and walked toward the house, and I followed him. Dab had gone on before. It was 11 o'clock when I got back.

 January 16.

Chloe is in a terrible state of mind, Mr. Z. has frightened her so. Last night he said to her: -

“That missis of yours had a very narrow squeak for her life last night. Twice I had my hand raised to kill her and Miss Z. pulled me back, en at last when she handed me that shovel an' told me to take it I cum as near killin' her right there en buryin' her up with dirt with that same shovel, jest as she had buried up my fires, as I ever cum to anything in my life - en more than that, if she goes to givin' me orders I'll do it yet, en le' me tell you you'd better not tell her this or I'll tackle you. I don't 'low people to fool with me.”

Chloe is enough of an actress to convince him that her silence was assured. I thanked her for her confidence and told her she need not be anxious. The fact of the light enabling me to look him in the eye had saved me, and the danger was past.

 January 17.

Was busy by the smoke-house this morning when Mr. Z. passed by. He has not spoken to me since the night he set the fires in the gale of wind and I had them put out. He has written me several notes demanding things, to which I have sent verbal answers, and I felt it was time to put a stop to that sort of thing, so as he passed I said in a clear, loud voice: -

“Good morning, Mr. Z.”

I was bending over a table at the time, brushing off the hams preparatory to smoking them. He took no notice but passed on as though deaf. I straightened up and said again in a clear voice: -

“Mr. Z., you did not perhaps hear me; I said ‘Good morning.’ ”

He stopped and slowly raised his hat, said good morning and passed on, and I knew I had scored another victory.

About half an hour afterward he came back and said he would like to see me in the field where he was ploughing. I told him I would be at leisure in a minute and would join him in the field.

I went in to get my coat and told Chloe where I was going. She implored me not to go, but I soothed her fears, trying to laugh her out of them. When I got out into the field Mr. Z. asked me some trivial questions about where to plant things, and then he said: -

“You went too far with me the other night, Mrs. Pennington.”

“Indeed?” I said.

“Yes,” he said. “You told me I had no sense.”

“I certainly didn't tell a story, Mr. Z., if I said so. I thought as I stood there and saw that fire swirling around in that gale that I had never seen any one over three years old do a more foolish thing.”

We faced each other squarely for a moment. “I saw murder in your eye, but I'm not afraid of wild beasts.”

Gradually his face relaxed and I saw the demon had fled for the time, but it was exciting.

After this he talked naturally and pleasantly about what he was going to plant. As I left I said: -

“Remember, you can plant the crops where and how you please, I don't want to be consulted about that, you understand it; but never set a fire burning without asking me.”

 January 23.

Yesterday being Sunday, I invited Mr. and Mrs. Z. to come in and have service with me, which they did. They went home and made a careful toilet and returned with Sunday clothes, and hats, and kid gloves closely buttoned. I found it a little embarrassing to read the church service, but went through manfully, and a short, simple, clever sermon.

Life has become very interesting with this new problem. I told Mr. Z. the other night that I thought he had better go to my neighbor's who has a nice house in the pineland, and that I thought it would be healthier for his wife, and that of course we could break the contract by mutual consent, but he answered promptly that he did not wish to go anywhere else, that the thirty acres he had taken was the finest land he ever saw anywhere and he was going to make a pile of money for me and a pile for himself; he had been all over my neighbor's land and it did not please him as well.

I wrote to my two lawyer nephews a full account of what had happened, and they both wrote, “For heaven's sake, break the contract!” But I must bide my time to do that. The arrangement was that no money was to be paid at present; all that I owe him for carpenter's work on his house was to be taken from my share of the crop. If I were to break the contract I would have to pay him all that at once, and I have not the money. My cotton has not sold and there is nothing else to look to.

Ran out to meet mail man this morning to get a letter off and found that his horse was quite sick - could scarcely walk. Sent Dab in for the aconite and spoon and gave the horse a full dose, and in a few moments he was able to get on again.

Have had twenty cords of live oak cut and hauled to the river, but cannot sell it in Gregory, as I hoped.

 January 28.

Yesterday had Green take Dandy, my beautiful pony, to Mr. F. in Gregory to be sold. If I can sell him now, I can pay my taxes. He is so beautifully formed and so easily kept and so gay and so fond of me that it is a great trial to send him off; he would make a splendid polo pony, but if I can make him pay the tax I must do it, for I still have three grown horses and two colts.

 February 2.

Up till 1 o'clock last night with Mrs. Z. She was unconscious for two hours and pulseless for fifteen minutes.

It is dreadful, I said to myself last night as I was trying to pour brandy down her throat and restore her to life. “You poor young thing, if ever you get up again I will try to get you back to your own people.” She has four married sisters in her home, wherever that may be; for some reason they do not give clear information as to where they came from.

 February 13.

Mrs. Z. told me that she wanted to go home and Mr. Z. is willing for her to go, but will not go himself, and she is not willing to leave him. She knew he would go right back to drinking and killing people, both of which amiable weaknesses he had given up since they met.

I told her I was not willing to have him stay without her, but not to tell him that, as it would enrage him; just to stick to it that she would not leave him. She gets paler and thinner every day, and I know he cannot hold out. I said yesterday if I only had the money to pay him up in full I would propose to do so and break the contract, and Chloe said at once: -

“Miss Patience, le' melen' yer de money.”

“Miss Patience, let me len' yer de money. Ef yu jes send me down to town I kin git um from de bank fer you. Do please, ma'am, le' dem go.”

So I spoke to Mr. Z., saying, though it was most inconvenient, if he wished to go with his wife, which was most necessary in her state of health, I would consent to break the contract and pay him the $60 I owed him for work. Most reluctantly he consented.

I sent Chloe to Gregory in the pony carriage, and she brought back the money. I wrote a note for it at 6 per cent, and made her pin it in her bank-book in case of my death.

 February 16.

Paid Mr. Z. up in full for services and gave him a note for his little furniture, and bade them good-by, sending them to Gregory in the wagon with Nana. I felt quite sorry to part with Mrs. Z. She is a nice woman, and, poor thing, married to a madman, to whom she is devoted. Thank heaven he is going and that we part friends. My experiment of white help is at an end!

He took me over all the work - beautiful strawberry bed, with potatoes planted, 900 onions set out, celery bed started, all beautifully prepared. It is sad to think it will soon all be grown up in weeds. I must take up my burden again.

 February 24.

In field all day; having oats ploughed in; bitterly cold north wind blowing.

 February 25.

In oat field again all day. Gibby ploughing with oxen and Green with Nana.

 February 27.

A charming meeting here of the woman's auxiliary. I went out to the oats field intending to get back before 12, the hour of meeting, but Gibby went to burn up some patches of cockspurs and let the fire get away into the pasture, which was terrible. I had to stay and fight it.

I made Green take his plough and make a deep furrow ahead of the fire round in a large curve and had the women beat it out on the sides.

While I was busy with hands and face blackened Dab came running to tell me the “company had come” so that I had to rush home and make a very hurried toilet to open the meeting. We are to sew for an Easter box to be sent to the mountains of North Carolina.

 February 26.

At church to-day Miss E. came up and said: “Miss Patience, going to take any one home with you to-day?”

I said “no.”

“Well, then, I am going to ask you to take me to spend the night. I haven't seen you for so long.”

“With the very greatest pleasure,” I answered truthfully.

Miss E. is one of the best women that ever lived and the very best housekeeper to boot. She knows exactly how much to provide for a family of four without waste and yet abundantly, and she can arrange for a table of seventy-five with the same precision; abundance of excellent food and no waste. With such qualities it seems strange that she should have now only the position of what Chloe calls “sextant” to our little village church, and her modest remuneration of two dollars a month is all that she has in the world.

She was a woman of wealth, but, like so many others, her means all disappeared with the end of the war, and she has supported herself by sewing and taking places as housekeeper for a number of years. Now she begins to show the ravages of time and does not feel she can do all that a housekeeper should, and for the last six years has lived in Peaceville, where she had nieces who are devotedly kind to her, but she will not live with them. She lives alone in a house which belonged to her mother and where her summers were spent in her youth. It has passed into other hands, but she is allowed to stay there in the winter as the house is only rented in summer.

It is very near the church, and she is very happy and a marvel of cheerfulness and faith - no repining, no complaining. She sometimes takes in a little sewing still, but for absurdly small prices.

Miss E. is a walking chronicle of the ancestry of every one in the county, I might almost say in the low country, as the coast is called in this State, and can tell you who is who emphatically. I enjoyed having my memory refreshed on many genealogical facts, as I am very weak in that quarter. I am really devoted to this dear old lady and feel it a privilege to have her with me.

 February 27.

Drove Miss E. home and then began preparing for the paying guests, who arrived at 2.

 March 2.

Finished planting oats at last. I have spent every day in the field for nearly two weeks - the last few days a joy - just drinking in the delicious soft air and watching the buds which promise so much.

There is a mystery of hope over everything, the rest of the ideal, and as I sat on a cedar trunk to-day and looked out into the drowsy blue of the atmosphere I felt a sense of gratitude to the Great Maker and Giver of all this beauty - thankful for my blessings; the great blessing of space and freedom and closeness to nature - yes, and thankful for my limitations, my sorrows, my privations. Thankful that He has thought me worthy to suffer and has taught me to be strong. He is beauty and power and love illimitable and infinite.

 March 13.

Jim summoned to Gregory by the extreme illness of his wife, and I have to turn over the stable and cows to poor Elihu, who can't help taking the feed and the milk and is the poorest driver in the world; always touches up the horse that is pulling all the load; yet I am thankful to have him to fall back on. The storm last fall threw down all the pine trees on my 350 acres of woodland and there are several thousand cords of pine wood lying on the ground which I am trying to get cut and shipped. It has been the habit of many to sell the wood to negroes at the stump, as they call it, for 25 cents a cord. This I am not willing to do, and consequently find it very difficult to get the wood cut. I pay 40 cents a cord for cutting, 30 cents a cord for hauling, and about 30 cents for flatting, and the wood brings $1.50 a cord if it is pine, and $2 if it is lightwood.

The hands are needing work. I have ten men on Cherokee, and if they would work I would have money for all my needs and their families would live in abundant comfort. There is no felling of trees necessary. They are all lying prostrate; it is only to cut them up, and the hauling is only one-quarter to one-half mile to the landing; yet day after day the hands are loafing about the roads, with guns on their shoulders and hide when they see me coming. If I come up on one unexpectedly he is very polite and has some tale of fever all night or a sprained finger or a headache to explain his not working at the wood.

 March 16.

Rode out into the woods on horseback with surveyor to get the lines of my land marked distinctly, as all the large timber is being stolen from it by negroes who own lands adjoining. It is terrible to see the trees all lying on the ground lapped and interlaced so that it is hard to get through on horseback.

 March 18.

Went out to see the wood which has been measured and is ready to send off.

 March 21.

Gog and Gabe have the 79 flat loaded and have sent Elihu with them in charge of flat; they must leave on this afternoon's ebb- tide. I first told Cubby to go with the flat, and he made objections and I got very angry and told him instead to take Sarah up the creek to the landing to be loaded to-morrow.

 March 22.

This morning a huge lighter arrived, sent by Mr. L. for me to load with wood, but it could not get under the bridge until low water. Had Scipio paddle me up the creek to the landing to see the flat being loaded. Cubby and Sam were loading and they will get off on this evening's tide.

The creek is very wild looking; great trees on each side cast a dense shadow everywhere. Hearing a curious noise of floundering I saw a large alligator crawling through the mud on the edge. He had gone quite a distance from the water in his effort to get the sun, and I had a fine view of him before he plunged in again. They make for the water as soon as they hear a boat approaching. I saw him again as I came back, only for one second, but I saw a number of terrapin sunning themselves on logs. They stretch their long necks and peer with their beady black eyes until the boat gets quite close to them and then drop into the water like a stone with a great splash.

About a month ago I got a note from Mr. L. asking me to allow four negro men to cut 100 cords of wood on my land and he would be responsible for the money, $25. I sent word that I would undertake to have the wood cut for him myself with pleasure, but would not sell it for 25 cents per cord at the stump. I heard afterward that a neighbor had sold them the right to cut on their land, and when I went to the landing to-day I saw about fifty cords of the wood they had cut piled there, and it was the most splendid fat lightwood I ever saw, from trees that had been growing on that land sixty or seventy years. And the owner gets 25 cents a cord, while the wood brings $2 anywhere.

 March 23.

Late this afternoon I went up the creek to see the flat that Cubby is loading with wood. The creek seemed darker and more mysterious than ever, as the clouds were lowering and there were mutterings of thunder. The air was perfectly delightful, fresh from the sea.

I enjoyed the expedition immensely until the storm burst, and then Gabriel was unable to manage the boat at all, the wind was so high. I had to get him to retreat to a cove and put me out, and I walked home in a pouring rain, thunder, lightning fierce, and wind so high that it was impossible to hold an umbrella. I am very thankful the loaded flat is up the creek and not out on the river. To-day my new venture arrived - an incubator. I do not see why we could not operate poultry farms with success here, and will give it a trial at any rate.

 April 3.

Letter from Mr. L. says the wood sent in three flats only measures up thirty-three cords, when I paid the hands for cutting and hauling forty cords. Fortunately I reserved some money from each one until the wood should be delivered; but another time I will not take any one's measure but Mr. L.'s, for after it is measured each man carries home five or six logs every evening in his ox cart, and naturally the wood falls short when delivered. I had to do an immense deal of rule of three calculating to find out just how to divide the shortage among them, but succeeded to every one's satisfaction. Live and learn - I will not get caught so again. I spent the morning working in the negro burying ground. Storms have thrown down trees in every direction, and though all the descendants of the 600 who belonged to my father wish to be buried here, not one is willing to do a stroke of work beyond digging the grave he is interested in.

I have told the heads of families that if they will each give 25 cents, which will make enough to pay for a good wire, I will furnish posts and have the fence put up. They seem much pleased at the idea, but I fear it will end there.

I am glad the two marble monuments put up by my father in memory of faithful servants before I was born have thus far escaped injury and still tell their message of love and fidelity in master and servant. The wording is odd, but I think it is a beautiful voice from the past, that past which has been painted in such black colors. Here is the first inscription: -

In Memory of Joe of Warhees, Who with fidelity served My Grandfather Wm Allston Sen'r My Father Benj Allston and Me Grateful Whose Confidence and Respect He had 1840

This was certainly not the gratitude which La Rochefoucauld dubbed “a keen sense of favors to come.” The other reads:

In Memory of My Servant Thomas, Carpenter. Honest and True He died as for 40 years He had lived My Faithful Friend 1850

It is remarkable that my father did not put his name, R. F. W. Allston, to show who had so honored and remembered his faithful slaves; in another generation no one will know. He was Governor of South Carolina in 1857-1858.

Good little Estelle died yesterday and is to be buried this afternoon, and it was looking to her funeral that I walked through the beautiful spot to-day, and finding so many fallen trees I called Frank to come with his axe and clear it out a little. I can ill afford to pay for the day's work, but cannot bear to have it look so wild and unkept.

 April 4.

A perfect day. Last night was so cold that the watermelons, which were up and growing nicely in the little boxes ready to be set out, were nipped.

Chloe returned last evening from Estelle's funeral in a state of exaltation. The preacher had described her death, and it was glorious. He repeated the words she had said: “Yes I'm goin', don't fret. I'm all paid up fur ebryting. I got um here, right by me, a bag o' pure gold on one side o' me - en Jesus Christ on de oder - en now I'm gwine to de weddin' supper.”

Then she asked him to read a certain chapter and at the end of each verse she said: “Dat's it, tenk yu, sah,” and when the reading was ended she went to sleep.

Estelle had been our maid for five years and only left us to be married - a good match according to their ideas. She had a new baby every year and worked very hard. She grew blacker and thinner, until early this spring she took to bed. Though scarcely thirty I think, she leaves five living children and three lie in the graveyard beside her.

I never could get her to do anything in the house after her marriage, though it would have been much easier for her to take the lighter housework and with the money hire some one to do the heavier field work. But that is not the proper thing among the darkies of to-day.

A woman may work herself to death in her husband's field, wash, cook, scour, mend, patch, keep house, and receive gratefully any small sums her husband may give her, always answering “Sir” when he speaks to her, above all increase the population yearly - all this is her duty, but it is improper for her to take any service like housework. And so all Estelle's little accomplishments and skill were wasted, except the sewing which I had taught her and that showed in the neat, trim looking clothes of her little army of children. I think she has heard the “Well done, good and faithful servant, . . . faithful over a few things.”

To-day two friends of mine were to drive fourteen miles to spend the morning with me. As Dab is strangely agitated and upset by any addition to my solitary meals, I helped him prepare the lunch table before they arrived.

It looked very pretty and dainty, but I saw marks of fingers on my precious hundred and fifty-year-old urn- shaped silver sugar dish, so I told Dab to dip it in hot water and rub it dry with a cotton flannel cloth to remove the marks of his fingers. He was gone in the pantry longer than seemed to me necessary, so I followed him there. To my dismay the sugar dish which he held in his hand looked as though he had greased it thoroughly.

“Jus' shinin' um upwid de knife-brick.”

“Oh, Dab!” I cried. “What have you done?”

He looked at me, his face beaming with pride in his work, and answered: -

“I jus' shinin' um up wid de knife-brick!”

Words failed me as I took the precious thing in my hands, but when I had recovered a little I said: “Dab, twenty dollars could not undo the work of those five minutes - no, not fifty dollars!”

I dipped it into the pan of scalding water and wiped it dry, but alas! no change. Actually the beautiful engraving of little garlands of roses looped around the top was almost effaced, so vigorously had Dab employed those few moments.

Alas! alas! zeal without knowledge is a terrible thing. Poor Dab cannot possibly do just what he is told; he has to plan some original course for himself.

I went to meet my friend unduly agitated and upset by the circumstance, but was careful not to speak of it. I can bear things so much better if I do not mention them to any one until the pang is all gone. That is why this little diary is so much to me. I can explode into it, and then shut my teeth and bear things.

Unpacked the incubator to-day with Bonaparte's help and began to study its mysteries. We had a time getting things right, for he has never seen or dreamed of an incubator, and disapproves entirely of the effort to take away the occupation of the hen and defeat nature, so that his manner was disapproving, not to say forbidding. My good Chloe, too, feels that for some unknown reason the Great Father has given me over to the temptation of the Evil One, and walks past the “'cubator,” as she calls it, with head high and firm tread; her manner is what the “nigs” call “stiff” - that means distinctly rebellious and unconvinced. I had only seen an incubator myself for five minutes under the rapid flow of words from the young man exhibiting it, words of fervid praise and faith which left me somewhat vague and confused as to details, for it was just in a shop and not working.

I calculated when I bought it that I would have time to try my 'prentice hand with fowl eggs, which take only three weeks to hatch, and then fill it with turkey eggs, which take four weeks, and get them out before I have to leave home on May 8; but unfortunately the steamboat was detained by a storm and so the incubator was delayed a whole week, which threw out all my plans, and I will have to give up the turkey eggs. The little book, which is wonderfully explicit and satisfactory, says one should study out the management of the heat thoroughly before putting in the eggs, and that will make some delay.

 April 6.

I have sat on a low stool in front of the incubator day and night since it was unpacked and installed in the drawing-room. I lighted the lamp at once, and then watched the thermometer, which necessitates a bright light and a very low seat. I thought it was going to be very simple, and on the second day I thought I had it steady at 102 1/2 degrees, and vent off into the field to see after some ploughing. When I came back I rushed in to see if it was holding its own and found the mercury at 110 degrees - one little step more and it would have broken the thermometer. After that I just stayed there. The thermostat is a wonderfully delicate piece of mechanism and I have no one to consult.

 April 7.

At last I have got the thermometer to remain steadily at 102 1/2 for ten hours, so to-night at 6 o'clock I put in the 120 eggs.

 April 10.

Tested eggs to-day. Only six infertile. The thermostat is working beautifully and the mercury does not vary a half degree during the twenty-four hours. I am very careful to follow absolutely every direction and let no one touch it but myself, for I wish to give it a fair trial. All my friends in the county are confiding to each other their anxiety over my venture. “Such a pity dear Patience should have wasted her money on such a folly. A huge sum, $25, for those two machines. It is distressing.” Many years ago, when incubators were first invented, a progressive neighbor invested in one, and the lamps exploded and a serious fire resulted, so that it is only natural that incubators are much looked down on in this community. No doubt there have been great improvements, and I must think mine the most perfect of all. Still, I feel great anxiety as to the results, for I will have not only the great disappointment and loss should it fail but also the “I told you so” of the whole country side.

 April 11.

Began to mix the inoculating stuff for the alfalfa, boiling rain- water for the purpose. Elihu has ploughed with the heavy plough and Ball and Paul in the alfalfa field. Gibbie comes behind in the same furrow with Jack and Sambo and a bull tongue plough. They have gone very deep and the land should be in good fix after it. Made Willing try the Cahoon seeder to see if it worked according to directions on card.

 April 12.

Elihu and Gibbie harrowing alfalfa field. I had a large tub on the piazza and put in the second ingredient for the wonder bath. I bought a corn planter this spring, not because I plant enough corn to really need it, but because the crooked planting of the women worries me so. To-day we were to plant the first acre of corn for this season. I had Willing use the planter drawn by Mollie. It worked very well, but he could not go straight and the rows look like snake tracks, much worse than the women's planting, and I had much better have saved my $10. Bonaparte is triumphant and I am in the slough of despond.

 April 13.

Planted corn again. Had Elihu to run corn planter and had Willing to take his place harrowing in alfalfa field. The rows are a little straighter, but still hopelessly meandering. That $10 is simply thrown away.

 April 14.

What a time I have had to-day. I started out to plant four acres of alfalfa and I feel just as though I had drawn the plough and the harrow as well as the three darkies. The land has been double ploughed, then harrowed with a home-made tooth harrow, and then with the acme several times. The land was heavily covered with stable manure before the ploughing. I have mixed the wonder bath most accurately and now the culmination of all, the planting, was to take place. I bought a Cahoon broadcast seeder, and have tried to make Willing (the boy I have in Jim's place, but oh, what a misfit!) understand the directions. I called upon old Bonaparte this morning to measure the seed out into separate sacks, so that we would have no confusion in the field, but, oh, dear, what a dream that was! It seemed to Bonaparte such feminine folly that I should insist on stakes every ten feet at the head and end of the field so that Willing would have something to guide his wandering steps. We have had high words on the subject, he maintaining that it was a waste of labor and stakes to mark anything but the half acre. As Willing has not a straight eye and walks a good deal as though he were tipsy, even with the guiding stakes, I think it will be in the nature of a miracle if this field is covered with alfalfa. I have not been out here for two or three days, as I was planting corn, but I had two men and two teams at work all the time and a woman to clear away roots, etc., and positively I do not see what they have done. The field is as rough as possible, it seems to me, though the negroes think me most unreasonable and Elihu says: “My Lor', Miss, wha' you want mo'? Dis fiel' look too bu-ti-ful, 'e stan' same lik' a gya'ding!”

The first difficulty is to get the stakes set straight, a tall and then a short, so that Willing will know that when he leaves a short stake he must reach a short one at the end of the field; but I had a perfect battle to get Bonaparte to set the stakes in that way. The next trouble was to get rid of the alfalfa - I allowed ten quarts to the acre, and it will not go in. I have opened the small door of the conceited Cahoon creature just one-half inch as the card says, and made Willing walk every ten feet instead of every twenty, as it directs, and yet the peck of seed holds out and is left over.

I understand some of men's temptations in the way of speech now as I never did before.

Just here I am in trouble over the whereabouts of a huge caterpillar of varied and gorgeous colors which I saw a moment ago very near me. I did not like to shorten its little span of life, so I took it on a big leaf to quite a distance from where I was sitting and turned it on its back and made a little pen around it. Now it has disappeared and it may be anywhere. I must move to another tree, though I have an ideal seat on the root of this one, a splendid live oak with spreading branches.

Finding the ground still so rough I sent Elihu to “the street” to get a woman with a hoe to go over the ground and remove impediments. I said: “Get any one you can at once,” thinking he would bring Snippy his wife, or Susan his daughter; but in a short time I saw a procession arriving. Aphrodite, with a basket on her head, a baby in one arm and a child of eighteen months dragging by the other hand, while one of three years toddled behind. The procession moved to a clump of trees in the middle of the field; there Aphrodite made a halt, took from her basket a quilt, and spreading it on the ground deposited the party upon it. I do wish I had my kodak; but I am so stupid about the films; I cannot put them in myself, and I am so afraid of spending an unnecessary cent, that for months my kodak is no use to me, and it would be such a delight if I could only once learn its intricacies.

Aphrodite spread a quilt and deposited the party upon it.

This group has saved my reason to-day, I think, for the little things are so funny, solemnly staring around, a bucket of rice and meat made into a strange mess in the midst. I sent for a basket of roast sweet potatoes, and gave one to each, but I disturbed the peace of the pastoral, for I insisted that the potato should be peeled for the baby, whereupon Isaiah set up a terrible yell and Aphrodite said: “Him lub de skin.” I insisted, however, that the skin should be removed, for only a month ago Isaiah was at death's door with convulsions. The baby has on a little red frock and a little red cap with frills, tied tightly on her little coal black head, and the sun is broiling hot. Her name is Florella Elizabeth Angelina.

But back to the precious alfalfa, which has cost me so much worry as well as money. All that I can get put into the land is six quarts to the acre. Here I pause with pleasure as another procession approaches. Oh, for my kodak again. I heard a noise, and on looking up I see the Imp puffed up with pride rolling the wheelbarrow, which seems to have a large and varied load. Behind comes my little maid Gerty with a basket. With a great swing Imp rolls the wheelbarrow alongside of me; and they proceed to unload. First a little green painted table, which has a history that perhaps some day I will have time to tell; then Gerty takes from her basket table-cloth and table napkins of snowy damask and all the implements and accompaniments of a modern lunch. Imp takes out a demijohn of artesian water, the cut glass salt cellar, pepper cruet, and then these are put in position and in the midst a little dish of butter, churned since I left the house this morning; and what a nice dinner! A fresh trout with a roe, brought me an hour ago as a present from Casa Bianca by Nat, broiled to a turn - a delicious morsel, and after that an abundant dish of asparagus, and besides this a large dish of fried bacon and one of rice.

“Oh, Gerty,” I said. “Chloe knew I did not want all this to eat.”

“Yes, ma'am,” she answered. “An' Chloe say to tell you say we got plenty home for dinner en she know yu'd like to give some 'way.” That made me happy, for Chloe to understand me so thoroughly, to send me a delicious dainty meal for myself, and then besides a substantial portion for me to give away. That is what an old time, before the war darky is, one whose devotion makes them enter into one's tastes and feelings so thoroughly.

When I left the house this morning I certainly expected to be back to dinner, but finding how absolutely necessary my presence in the field was I just stayed there, and at three Chloe sent this nice meal. When the procession arrived I exclaimed, “How delightful! Whose idea was the wheel barrow?” The Imp answered promptly: “De me, ma'am,” at which I made him my compliments. It is such a pleasure to be able to commend the poor little Imp, for he has an immense ingenuity in mischief and earns much reproof.

I am quite ashamed of the frame of mind in which I began this, but I will not tear it up. What is written is written. After this episode everything looks so different, and now at 4: 30 the four acres are planted and 22-year-old Mollie is drawing a bush over to cover the seed with such rapidity that she keeps Elihu at a run, and even to my eye the field looks fairly respectable, and the darkies think it unspeakably fine. I am making Willing travel over between the tracks where he went before, and so have disposed of the necessary quantity of seed to within a peck. Now I can look up and beyond the gray earth and glory in the beauty of God's world. Half of the field was planted in oats in the winter and it is now splendid, an expanse of intense vivid color. The field, about twenty acres, is a slight elevation surrounded on three sides by a swamp, in which the variety of young green is wonderful. The cypress with its feathery fringe of pale grass green, the water oak with its tender yellow green, the hickory with its true pure green, and the maple with its gamut of pink up and down the scale - pale salmon, rose pink, then a brick-dusty pink, and here at last it rises into rich crimson. Here and there the poplar, with its flowerlike leaves, the black gum with its black tracery of downward turning branches, all edged with tender gray green.

It is too beautiful for words, and behind all, accenting and bringing out the light airy beauty, is the dark blue green of the solemn pine forest. I wish I had brought my crayons and block; I might have had a faint echo of one little corner to send to some poor shut-in who cannot get it first hand in its exquisite reality. And this, too, is but a prelude; in a few days the ideal tenderness will be replaced by a more material and lasting beauty, but not so heart reaching. It certainly seems a pity that one should have to think of and strive after filthy lucre in the midst of all this beauty; but I have reached a point where if I do not struggle and wrestle with the earth, therefrom to draw the said dross, I will have to give up all this life with Nature and find a small room in some city to eke out my days.

It is not a cheap thing to live in this country. One must have horses, one must have servants - but once given a moderate income to cover these things and there is no spot on earth where one can have so much for so little. Wild ducks abound all winter, also partridges, snipe, and woodcock; rabbits and squirrels run over everything. Our streams are filled with bream, Virginia perch and trout. If any one wants better living than these afford, he can have wild turkey and venison for the shooting, as the woods abound in these, and he can have shad daily during two months if he goes to the expense of a small shad net and a man to use it. It is a splendid country for poultry. Turkeys, ducks, and chickens are easily raised, and I believe it could be made to pay handsomely.

My first question to Gerty when she appeared to-day was, “How high is the incubator?” She answered promptly 101, by which I know it is not above 103, and am thankful. I fear the eggs are all cooked, for when I got in from the corn field Thursday the mercury stood 106 1/2. I had left Gerty to watch and to open the door if it went above 102 1/2. She reads and writes and knows the figures quite well, but does not seem to understand the thermometer.

 April 20.

I had told Aphrodite that she must pull up all the grass roots, brambles, etc., in the alfalfa field; as it was new ground the harrow had not got them all out. She came to me today and said: -

“Miss, I kyan't wuk een dat fiel' no mo'; de ting cum up too purty, en ef I trample um I'll kill um.”

“Do you mean the alfalfa has come up?”

“Yes, ma'am, de whol' fiel' kiver wid um.”

I just flew to the field on my bicycle, and truly there was the whole field covered with tiny dark gray green leaves! I was perfectly delighted, for I had not supposed it would come so quickly and had no idea the stand could be so thick after all my tribulations.

Just before lunch S. came, bringing some friends with her - they wished to see how I turned the eggs in the incubator, and so I took the tray out to show them, and as I was putting it down on the table I heard a very soft chirp, which startled me so that I nearly dropped the whole thing.

Somehow I had not realized that the time was so near for the climax, but to-night as I was going to bed I went for a last look, and there was one little chick, white and fluffy and very lively. I wonder if that is to be the only one.

 April 28.

The whole incubator seems to have turned into chickens. I never saw anything like it but a swarm of bees. As soon as I got up this morning I rushed down to the incubator, and there they were!

I called Chloe at once, and she stood in front of the glass door and gazed with wondering eyes, then she dropped a profound courtesy, and, raising her eyes and hands to heaven, she said, “T'ank de Laud,” and this was repeated three times with intense fervor and reverence. Then she seized my hand and shook it violently.

Only then did I understand how much self-control Chloe had used not to show me more plainly her utter doubt and scorn of the 'cubator. I knew she did not approve, but had no idea that she felt certain we would never see a chicken from it. Her delight is unbounded.

The book of instructions says you must not open the door at all after the eggs begin to pip, but I had to open it very quickly and take out the egg-shells which were so much in the way of the chicks. It is too bad that they sent the brooder without any lamp, and so I cannot take the chicks out as I should do when they are twelve hours old.

The incubator must be kept at from 105 degrees, and the newly hatched chicks only 101 degrees, or at most 102, and so I am afraid of roasting the chicks or chilling the eggs.

 April 29.

I am in a great quandary about the chickens, and I have to go to Gregory to meet a cousin at the train, for I cannot trust Willing to drive across the ferry and go to the station alone; he is too poor a driver, and so I must go myself. A great many eggs are pipped and the chicks will be sacrificed if I leave them so crowded and so hot.

After thinking it over I made up my mind, took a basket, opened the door of the incubator, took out thirty eggs which had not hatched, and going to the river threw them in. I stood on the little wooden landing and watched, and to my horror the eggs swam!

They would not go with the tide but made a circle and returned to the shore, and I felt like a murderer, but I could not get them back, so I sadly returned to the house and reduced the heat in the incubator to 102 and fed the chicks some bread crumbs. Then I got into the wagon and started for Gregory.

It was dark when we got to the ferry and I did not reach the Winyah Inn until 10 o'clock.

 April 30.

When Willing drove to the inn for me this morning I saw a large red object protruding from his pocket, and as we drove to the station I asked him what it was. He appeared very much confused and would not answer, so I told him to take the thing out, as it looked very badly.

Finally with much difficulty I made him take it out before we reached the station, and it was a quart bottle of dispensary whiskey! I was very angry and told him to hand it to me, which he at first refused to do, but in the end he did, and I put it in my valise.

I told him I was greatly mortified and disappointed that this first time I had trusted him to drive me to town he should do such a thing. He protested and declared that it was for his grandfather. I was truly thankful I had seen it and disposed of it before M. arrived, for she had never been to this part of the world before and would have felt terrified to see the coachman so provided.

When we got home Willing's mother came and repeated the tale about the whiskey having been got for her father, and I gave her the bottle. I know this little tale is pure fiction, for her father never drinks, is a model old man, and I happen to know a piece of inside history about Willing, which he confided to Gerty, and she passed it on to Chloe, who in turn confided it to me, when warning me that my faith in Willing and his meek ways might be misplaced.

He told Gerty, who is his brother's fiancee, that he was “coa'tin',” but that when he went to see the object of his affection he couldn't say a word, but sat dumb before her, unless he drank a pint of dispensary on the way to her house. Then he was all right and could talk a-plenty. I called for him this evening and gave him a serious talk.

“Then he could talk a-plenty.”

I reminded him that when he was about five years old his father had gone to Gregory to pay his tax, having his pocket full of money from the sale of his crop. His poor mother walked the road all night with the baby in her arms hoping for his return. He was an excellent man, faithful to all his duties, a splendid worker, but he could not resist “fire water.”

When I heard in the morning that he had not returned, and the other men who went with him had, I had Elihu get the pony carriage and drive down the road until he found him and bring him home, as the men said he had dropped asleep on the road and they could not rouse him, so they came on and left him. It was a bitter night, one of the three or four freezes we have during the winter, and I knew it would go hard with him.

Elihu found him eight miles away, got help and put him in the pony carriage, for Emanuel was a tall, heavy man, and drove rapidly home; but life was extinct when he reached the poor wife. I had sent beef tea and stimulant to be given him, but though Elihu found him alive, he could not force anything down; he seemed unable to swallow.

Lisbeth nearly went crazy; she had seven children to support by her own labors. As time passed she quieted down and having her house and firewood and two acres of land free of all rent and owning a fine pair of oxen and a cow, she got on very comfortably and brought up her children respectably.

When her only daughter, Aphrodite, married and her two oldest sons went to “town” to work and were making a dollar a day, she felt as though her troubles were over. But the same Devil's chain gripped and held her eldest son Zebedee.

He was a splendid boatman and was as much at home in the water as a duck. He owned a canoe and made an easy living, at the same time satisfying his love of sport by taking strangers out ducking. Many Northern people come to Gregory every winter for that sport.

Last January and February we had several bitter spells of weather with a prolonged freeze and snow. During one of these, when ducks were especially plentiful, Zeb took a stranger out. Late that afternoon they met another sportsman, paddled by a darky, and the parties spoke and commented on the unusual cold; and Zeb produced his bottle of dispensary, offering it to the other paddler, while his sportsman also produced a flask and urged it upon the second sportsman, who being near his home and its bright fire declined it and suggested to Sportsman No. 1 that he should land and not go on shooting, it was so cold.

No. 1, however, said he was all right, and pointing to his overcoat on the seat said he had not even put that on yet. They parted and Zeb and Sportsman No. 1 were never seen again alive.

They did not return to Gregory that night, nor the next. Then search was made, and the sportsman was found drowned and Zeb was found frozen holding on to some puncheons on the edge of an old canal. Near by was the boat, not capsized, and the things in it except the overcoat.

It was surmised by those who knew the circumstances that the sportsman, not being familiar with a dugout canoe, and not knowing that it is dangerous to stand up in one, rose to put on his overcoat, lost his balance and fell overboard, and Zeb plunged in to rescue him, a thing he could easily have accomplished under ordinary circumstances. But the spirits he had taken from time to time paralyzed his great strength and skill in the water, and he not only could not save the man but perished himself. He succeeded in reaching the puncheons on the edge of the canal, but was unable to pull himself out, and froze stiff there.

Of course I did not go into all these details to Willing, but made him see that without that fatal bottle Zeb could have saved himself and the man, and I tried to make him see that with such a family history the only hope for him was to swear off absolutely. He seemed much impressed and thanked me for my “chastisement,” as they call any solemn counsel and admonition, and promised to heed it.

The chicks are very lively and eat bread crumbs and oatmeal very heartily. I have enclosed a space in the garden of fifty feet in circumference, with a netted wire fence six feet high, which I will keep locked, and I hope to defy hawks, foxes, and bipeds as well. Chloe is perfectly devoted to the chicks and feeds them with enthusiasm every two hours.

I am having much trouble at Casa Bianca. The hands

Chloe is devoted to the chicks—feeds them every two hours.

continue to resent my having given the keys to Nat, and they will not take orders from him. They will not bind themselves either to rent any certain amount of land, but sulk steadily.

I knew that the loss of my good foreman Marcus was irremediable and when I met him in “town” the other day he told me he was perfectly wretched; that he missed the country so. Of course it must be so at first.

Instead of using his really excellent powers of control and organization, he is hauling wood for a living during the week and preaching on Sunday; but his wife is perfectly happy in the high social life. It is the old, old tragedy of Eve and her misguided ambitions - the world, the flesh, and his satanic majesty. The apple pleased her eye; she longed to taste it, and then the subtle whisper came: “And it will make thee wise.”

Marcus was making a handsome income; had a position of trust and responsibility, where all his faculties were in use during the week; and on Sundays he, no doubt, preached good, simple, useful sermons to his congregation of laborers, for he came fresh from his struggle with the earth and its realities. But to his wife came that desire for social eminence; to wear silk frock and shine, and she tugged and tugged until he consented to her going.

He remained a year alone on the plantation and then came the inevitable. He followed, and now all the dignity of his life and character has gone, and he is struggling to make himself contented with what is supposed to be a higher station; that is, he takes orders from no one. He will get accustomed to it after a time, but his powers will shrink away, unused, and without responsibility his character will crumble.

When he began as my foreman,* about fifteen years ago, his

* Marcus has since died. He was found one morning in his stable, where he had gone to harness his horse, leaning against the manger, stiff in death. He bore a high character, and his death was regretted by white and black.

writing was illegible, his figures hopeless. Steadily, patiently I have corrected his mistakes, looking over and deciphering his weekly accounts and copying them down in my book before him so that he could see how they should look. Now he writes a readable, nice letter and any one could examine his accounts, and he knows and realizes all this and knows that his standards have all grown and risen more even than his knowledge.

Meantime I will have to give up altogether planting on wages, and it looks as though there will be very little land rented. If I had money of my own I would hire a good overseer and plant 100 acres on wages and not rent any land to these recalcitrant hands, but it would be madness to put a mortgage on the place and borrow money at 8 per cent while rice is selling at 40 cents a bushel.

So I will simply remain passive and let the hands who wish to rent have the land and seed, but explain that I cannot pay out any money for extra work. I feel sure that some day rice will rise in price, but every one seems to think differently, and all the planters are either giving up entirely or diminishing their acreage very much and turning to upland crops.

So far I have only forty acres of rice land rented, and I feel very blue about the future. Then, again, my sheep and cattle at Casa Bianca, which have been so remunerative to me all these years, are giving me trouble now.

A friend and neighbor, who has been heretofore a confirmed rice planter, and never planted an acre of corn, has become disgusted with rice and enclosed a large body of land which has been thrown out for years, and is going to plant corn and cotton. This land touches mine, and my animals have had the run of it. The fence which has been put up is neither “horse high, bull strong, nor pig tight,” and my cattle do not regard it at all, though it is a very nice looking, comme il faut wire fence, and I will have to sell my cattle, I fear, and confine the sheep in a limited pasture.

Ruth, my brag cow, who has given me fifteen fine calves, and Rubin, my picture bull, just light over that neat fence as though it did not exist, and the humble sheep go down on their knees and creep under it, and I lie awake at night and wonder what I am to do between my love for my creatures and my love for my neighbor.

 CHAPTER V Easter Sunday, May 1

A BEAUTIFUL, bright Easter. All nature seems to rejoice with man in this great day of triumph over death.

Our little chapel, Prince Frederick's Pee Dee, is beautifully wreathed with wild flowers and vines, the work of three young girls, sisters, who, having but three days' holiday from their school teaching, devoted one of them to this thank offering and labor of love. We are all touched and softened by this act of devotion, and the blessing of the day seems upon every one.

Prince Frederick's Pee Dee.

 May 2.

Had a terrible shock to-day. I took M. to see the alfalfa field, and there was not a leaf of anything in the five acres! Those two nights of ice must have caught the alfalfa in its one tender stage, for all the books say that after it is six inches high it will stand any amount of cold. I am stunned, it is such an unexpected blow.

Having been desperately busy, and knowing that my fence was perfectly secure, I have not been to look at the alfalfa since the seventeenth, when it was fine, and now all the money I have spent on it might as well have been thrown away, so far as any hope of return goes - I fenced in that field of thirty acres with American fence wire, forty inches high, and two strands of barbed wire on top, hoping gradually to get it all in alfalfa by planting five acres every year. I have five acres of fine oats in it now, but that brings in no money, only feeds my horses.

I had to go for a long walk alone to steady myself, so as not to break down entirely.

 CHEROKEE, May 3.

The hands from Casa Bianca came this morning to get seed rice. I was just starting to drive M. to the train, but as it is very important to get the rice planted as soon as possible I had to delay the departure until to-morrow, for it was too late when I had finished measuring out the rice to drive to Gregory in time for the 4: 30 train.

 May 4.

Drove M. to the R. R. yesterday. I was afraid to take Willing, knowing his weakness for the dispensary; so drove her in the buckboard. On the way I took her into Woodstock, my brother's place, that she might see its beauty, and then when we reached Gregory I took her to see the old church, Prince George Winyah, and its churchyard, where my parents rest. The church was built of brick imported from the old country, and it is one of the oldest in the land. The church yard is beautiful with its moss hung oaks and cedars, and one feels that it is truly God's acre. We lingered there so long that there was a risk of missing the train, which would have been most inconvenient to both guest and hostess. By driving rapidly, however, we reached the station in time.

As it was too late for me to take the long drive home alone I went into Woodstock and spent the night with my brother. This morning after breakfast I drove to Casa Bianca, which is halfway between Woodstock and Cherokee. There I had a good many things to see after, and it was late afternoon before I got through and finally started for home.

Prince George Winyah.

I had been so much engrossed with my work trying to establish a better state of feeling between the hands and Nat that I had not noticed that the clouds had gathered heavily and that everything indicated a storm. When I felt the gusts of wind which tore at the umbrella so fiercely that I to put it down in spite of a drizzling rain, and saw the forked lightning which shot incessantly from the clouds, and thought of the eight miles of lonely road ahead of me, I realized that I would have to bring forward all my faith and philosophy for the next hour. From being by nature a great coward I had become very courageous, and I have often caught myself saying there were only two things in the world I was afraid of, a cow and a drunken man, and I could not help calling this to mind now and wondering how I would stand the present ordeal. Romola, who is generally very quiet, snorted and showed every sign of fear, but I did not give her time to give way to her feelings, but used the whip freely, a thing I very rarely do, to make her understand that she must travel. She responded nobly and we sped along.

The clouds made it much darker than it should have been, for the sun had only just gone down. I have never seen such vivid lightning nor heard such claps of thunder, and at each Romola darted out of the road as though the thick bushes could protect her. Not a human being was to be seen the whole way, and when I got to the avenue gate, which was shut, I had, of course, to get out to open it, and I felt sure Romola would fly home and leave me; but I did her an injustice. She waited, with every sign of impatience, long enough for me with great speed to get in, and then dashed on until we got to the darkest spot in the avenue, where the live oaks lap together overhead. A fearful flash of lightning came, followed instantly by a terrific peal of thunder, and she stopped short. I felt sure she had been struck, and she seemed to share the impression, but in a moment she went on and we were soon at home.

I was so excited that I was in a perfect gale of spirits, which quite upset my good Chloe, who had worked herself up to a wretched state of anxiety about me, miserable that I was out in that terrible storm alone; and she was hurt and disapproving of my attitude, especially as the first thing I did was to insist that Gerty and herself should take in my best rug, which had been hung on the piazza to air. Their terror had been so great that they had left it out in the rain - such a panic had seized them that they were very reluctant to venture out on the piazza. They had the house shut up without a breath of air, that being their idea of safety. Of course, I was drenched and had to change all my things, and after two hours I sent word to Willing that he might safely feed the mare, I having told him to rub her perfectly dry, but not to feed her till I sent him word. What was my dismay to find he had not rubbed her at all - said he was afraid to stay in the stable, so he had turned her loose in the stable yard and gone into the kitchen, leaving her exposed to the pouring rain! Of course she will be foundered, for she was very hot.

 Sunday, May 8.

Drove Ruth to church and met some one just from Gregory on the way, who told me a most terrible thing. Mrs. R., one of the loveliest women in our community, was struck by lightning during the storm last evening. She had always had a great terror of lightning, though in every other respect she was a fearless woman, so that her family always gathered round her during a storm and tried as much as possible to shut out the sight and sound. On this occasion her husband and daughter were sitting one on each side of her on an old-fashioned mahogany sofa, she with her handkerchief thrown over her face. When the fatal flash came the husband and daughter were thrown forward to the floor and were stunned; as soon as they recovered consciousness they turned to reassure the mother as to their not being seriously hurt. She was still sitting straight up on the sofa with the handkerchief over her face; they lifted the handkerchief as they received no answer and found life extinct. It was a translation really for her, as she probably felt nothing; there was only one small spot at the back of the neck. She was a woman rarely gifted, with beauty of face and form, as well as of soul; she was one upon whom every one rested who came in contact with her; she gave of her strength to all who needed it, for her supply was unlimited, coming direct from the great source of all power. I wonder if terror of lightning was a premonition which had been with her always from her childhood? Her death is a great loss to our county, and to her family a calamity indeed.

 May 9.

Very busy arranging things so that I can leave for my annual visit to Washington. It is harder than ever, for Jim not being here to leave in charge of the horses I feel very anxious. However, I have done my best and will leave tomorrow. The incubator is in full swing and Chloe and Gerty have learned how to manage the heat between them. The chicks are due to hatch on the 14th, and I have left most accurate written directions for each day which Gerty is to read aloud to Chloe as the day comes, for toward the end the heat must be raised. The first family of sixty-seven are growing apace; only one has died and that was smothered by the others before I found out that I must put them under the hover every night or they will cluster about the thermometer and climb on top of each other until the ones underneath are smothered if help does not come. It is the funniest thing to see their devotion to the thermometer. They peck it off of the nail on which it hangs, so that as soon as I learned to know the proper heat for the brooder by touching the metal cylinder under the hover, I took the thermometer out entirely, and as soon as it was gone they went under the hover of their own accord. They seemed to feel that the mercury was a living presence, I suppose, because it moved up and down in the tube.

I am leaving Willing to run one cultivator, with Mollie and Gibbie to run the other with a fine ox I have just bought. I heard that Gibbie had made his plans to “go to town” to work, leaving his young wife and child, and I racked my brain for something that would interest him at home and divert his thoughts from that plan; for if once a young negro leaves his wife and children to go away to work he is very apt to stay away permanently, and I should be sorry for Gibbie to do that. One day I called him and said: “Gibbie, I wish to try an experiment and put you in charge of it, and I am going away for a month. You know, in this country no one ever thinks of ploughing a single ox; they can't do anything without a yoke of oxen; but in the up country it is not so. On my way to the mountains I see from the car windows people running their ploughs with a single ox. Now I want you to take entire charge of Paul - no one else is to use him - and I want you to put him in the cultivator and run it through the corn day by day until you finish that, and then through the cotton, and then start through the corn again; but be careful of Paul and do not let him get galled, and feed him well.”

Gibbie was as proud as though he had been made Viceroy of India and his plan of deserting vanished.

 May 26.

Washington. Spent the afternoon at the Agricultural Department, where I met with much courtesy as well as information. I went specially to inquire as to the practicability of the cultivation of the orris root on our rice field lands. The orris of commerce is the root of the iris, which grows luxuriantly in our low country. In the latter part of March and during the month of April every Swampy low spot, as one drives along the road, is beautiful with the dark purple or blue and the light purple and the white iris, or flag. My desire was to find out if these species of iris had the perfumed root, for if they have we could cultivate it in the rice fields with great success.

The impression at the department is that orris can be grown only on high ground, as in Italy, where it is principally grown, it is planted in a semi-mountainous region. This is a great disappointment. They told me of a farm in Louisa, Va., where the orris is being cultivated for market. I would like very much to visit that farm and see for myself, but my time is limited, as I have promised to attend the annual meeting of the South Carolina branch of the Women's Auxiliary at Orangeburg, May 31. One must have plenty of patience to attempt the cultivation of orris, for the root should not be dug until it is two years old, and then it has to be kept two years before its perfume develops.

Another thing I had much at heart was to take some lessons in photography and to buy a good camera. I could do so much more if I could illustrate things with good photographs of the odd and picturesque things I so constantly see; but, alas, I am going away without having made any progress m this direction, time and other things lacking.

 June 6.

Peaceville. At home once more and the great big white rooms of the pineland bungalow are very restful and pleasant. That is the one luxury we enjoy to the fullest in the South - space. My rooms here are immense, each with four windows and three doors, very high ceilings and a broad piazza around the whole.

I received a riotous welcome from the dogs and a very hearty one from Chloe, Gerty, and the Imp, but Chloe seemed downcast and unlike herself, and I knew there was some bad news, which she would not bring out until I had had my dinner. While I was away I had several letters from Chloe, in one of which she announced with great joy that sixty- three fine healthy chicks had hatched from the 'cubator. So when I had finished the simple but delicious meal which she had prepared for me I asked her to go out with me and show me the chickens. Then she poured out her woes. The night before she moved from the plantation some one had climbed the six-foot fence and stolen twenty-five of the precious last-hatched chicks. She said when she found it out the next morning she sat down and cried, she had been so proud to have hatched them out and they were doing so well and growing so fast. I sympathized with her. Of course it was a great blow to me, but she was in such deep distress over it that I had to act the part of consoler, though I was the victim.

She went on to say: “En I do' kno' who carry de news out say I cry 'bout de chicken, but I s'pose 'twas dat wicket boy Rab, fu' ebeybody I meet say ‘Eh, eh! I yere say yu cry 'bout chicken, I'se shock to yere sech a ting! A pusson cry fu' loss 'e mudder or some of 'e fambly, but cry fu' chicken! No; en wusser wen 'tain't yo' chicken.’” This taunt and ridicule seemed to have sunk deep and to rankle still. She went on to say that the person who took the chickens must have been well known to the dogs, as they made no outcry, and moreover that Rab had not slept at home that night, saying he had stayed with Willing, which all looks very bad for both of these boys. I will not attempt to investigate, for it would be perfectly useless.

It is a principle firmly maintained that one negro will not give testimony against another unless he has a quarrel with him, and then he will say anything necessary to convict him of any crime, so that investigation with a view to justice is a farce. I do not doubt that these two are guilty, for Willing has encouraged Rab to return to his old habit of stealing all the eggs. Bonaparte found a spot in the pasture, with cans and many egg-shells and remains of fire, where they had a regular picnic place. When he asked Rab about it, he said Willing and he cooked there every day eggs, potatoes, anything else they wanted. I had brought Rab a beautiful outfit from Washington, besides the ever desired mouth organ, and, after a consultation with Chloe, I determined to give them to him, as she said he had been moderately good while I was gone and slept out only that one night; and there was no proof against him, and if they did take the chickens of course the older boy was very much more to blame. I would not on any account accuse them of such a thing unless I was perfectly certain, for I think that is the way to make people dishonest. I would not appear to think it

“Eh, eh, I yere say yu cry 'bout chicken.”

possible that any one about the yard could know anything about it. I only reproached Rab with having been absent that night, as he might have caught the thief.

 June 20.

Drove into Cherokee this morning on my way to Casa Bianca and found Ruth with a beautiful filly colt. I am so pleased. Ruth is very proud and brought the colt right up to me and the little thing licked my hand and let me stroke its head. I went on in fine spirits after admiring my new possession. So many things go wrong that I am unduly elated when something pleasant comes.

The Summer Kitchen at Cherokee.

Casa Bianca looked perfectly beautiful. The place is so lovely that it always does me good to go there, though this time I had dreaded it very much. The negroes continue to fight against Nat, and there is very little rice planted, and they will not work that little properly. Nat seems to do his best, which I'm sure is a mercy.

Stopped on my way back and told Willing to get all the milk he could to-morrow and put it in demijohns ready for me to take out with me. We are to have a little sale of ice-cream in aid of our auxiliary.

 June 21.

Arose at 6 and hurried through breakfast to go early to the plantation and get through my work there and bring the milk for the auxiliary. To my great disappointment found Willing had less milk than usual. I went with him to the field and made him milk the cows over, and found they had an abundance and he had only half milked; he was sulky about it, but I insisted and got three quarts more, then turned the calves in and showed Willing how much they were getting. I hurried back to send it to the ladies. I had undertaken to furnish the 200 pounds of ice and to make a churn of cream myself. Such a time as I had freezing it! I never had done it before, as long ago I read all the directions to Jim, who always did it. I supposed Chloe knew how, but she had forgotten, if she ever knew, and I spent nearly two hours down on my knees working with the thing. Like everything else, it is easy if you know how, but this was terrific. However, it was finished in time.

The Winter Kitchen at Cherokee.

In the little hamlet of Peaceville truly the simple life, now so much vaunted and preached, is lived. A community of gentle folk, about sixteen households, most of the families were wealthy in the time prior to 1860, and all well born. Now theirs is a life of privation and labor, and borne without murmur or repining, and they are gentle folk emphatically. With the mercury for weeks over 90, and sometimes 98, there is but one family who can indulge in the luxury of ice. Until this summer I have always got 200 pounds a week, but things are changed by the failure of rice and I have given it up, as by the time I get it from the nearest town, eighteen miles away, the 200 pounds cost $1.50. Every one is much excited over the sale, and early in the afternoon they gather at the little schoolhouse, across the road from my gate, which had been selected for the event. The five ice-cream churns are grouped under a tree and two or three tables placed around, while the benches from the schoolhouse are placed about as seats. Two ladies down on their knees serve out the cream to the excited string of children, who bring their nickels clasped tightly in their hand. Two other ladies have a large dish pan and towels and keep a constant supply of fresh saucers and spoons, while one with a little basket receives the nickels.

The string of excited children.

The five-cent saucers are very big, but I call to mind how rarely these children ever taste ice-cream and what self-denial on the part of the mother each nickel represents, and so our results are not as large as they might be. My churn is pure cream as that is the only kind I can make, but it is not nearly so popular as the others which are made of custard with different flavorings. Finally, after a period of great activity I hear “All gone but the Newport vanilla” (that is mine) and the answer comes, “Well, if there is nothing else I will take that,” and everything is gone and the benches are put back in the schoolhouse and the tables are carried home, and we have made $8 for our auxiliary, not much, but it represents a good deal of labor and self sacrifice on the part of the women who have given their material and their time, for all the things are contributed by different members and so we have no bills to pay. This will go to a cot in the hospital at Shanghai in memory of Bishop Howe and for a Bible woman in Japan; A mite truly, but God grant it may be blessed.

 June 22.

Rose at 5, skimmed and set the churn. It is very hot, and having no ice there is no chance of good butter except by handling it very early. When I went to the plantation, I found that my two English side-saddles had been left on a rack in the piazza where I had them moved this spring from the stuffy harness room, but I didn't mean them to stay there always; it is scarcely safe now that I have moved to the village and there is no one in the yard; so this afternoon I called Gibbie to bring them into the house. He brought the first and placed it on the rack, and I covered it with a large white cloth and he went for the other.

As he came with it I heard a strange rumbling noise. “What is that?” I asked. Gibbie is quite deaf and answered that he heard nothing. I went on: “It is either a steamboat on the river or an approaching tornado.”

Still Gibbie heard nothing, but as he was about to put down the saddle I became aware that the noise came from it. “Take it back quickly to the piazza, Gibbie, and put it down gently.” I followed, and as he set it down out from the inside crawled a bumblebee, and then another and another. The bees had excavated the padding and built inside of the saddle, - leaving only the small hole which they had bored visible. The saddle might have been put on a horse's back and girthed on before the bees stirred, and what a circus there would have been.

Nothing would induce Gibbie to touch it again. He fled down the piazza steps, and the saddle remains upside down on a stand. I do not know how to get rid of the things. The sting of the bumblebee is said to be more severe than that of the honey-bee. If I pour hot water down the hole, as I first thought of doing, the saddle will be ruined, and I do not know how else to reach them. Certainly strange things happen to me!

When I reached Peaceville at three o'clock the mercury in the coolest spot on the piazza marked 96, and I was so thirsty. Alas the artesian water brought and kept in a demijohn is lukewarm and there is no use pretending that it is refreshing. The well water is cool, but it has a taste which makes me prefer the tepid contents of the demijohn. I have made great efforts to cool it; sewed it up in cloth and swung it from a nail in the piazza - all in vain. From contrast to my expectations, I suppose, it seems hotter than ever, so I gulp down the clear liquid, saying to myself, “you are obeying one of the first laws of health in not drinking cold water - only fools fill their digestive organs with icy fluid.”

 PEACEVILLE, July 18.

Rose at 5 o'clock and had breakfast before 6 o'clock, so as to make an early start to drive to Gregory to attend the farmers' meeting and hear the lectures by the agricultural experts. The heat is so great that the early morning or late afternoon is the only time to travel.

I got through the eighteen mile drive very quickly it seemed to me, for it had looked interminable to my mind's eye when I started, and had an hour in town before the meeting.

The hall was quite full and I was very glad when D. came forward and met me and ushered me in. It was quite a tribute to him that so many of the most primitive farmers came. They looked quite lost until he met them at the door and found seats for them with a delightful courtesy and interest.

I saw many that I knew rarely left the deep recesses of the pine forest, and it was quite touching to see the attention with which they listened. Near me were two I knew well, quite young lads, whose life had been spent in a struggle with the soil, beginning as small boys; Colonel Ben and Solomon.

I had handed the former to the Bishop to be christened. His father had selected as his name “Colonel Ben.” Fortunately I asked the Bishop about it before the service began, and he answered, “He cannot be christened Colonel Ben. They can call him by that name, but the title must be left off in the service.”

When I repeated this to the mother she was very stolid and said, “Par, he named him Colonel Ben, en he wishes him baptized the same.”

I understood it entirely. They named him after the man who had done most for them in their lives. He had been a Colonel in the Confederate army, and after the war became a clergyman of the Episcopal Church, and their desire was to name the baby after the Colonel and not after the priest.

Poor Colonel Ben has had a hard, limited life, but has worked faithfully tilling the soil on his father's large farm. The unwonted excitement of a visit to the county-seat to hear a man tell him how to do what he'd, been doing all his life was most astounding. As they tiptoed behind D. into the rather dark room filled with people I think it would have taken little to make them turn and run to the shelter of the woods.

However, they settled down and after furtive looks around devoted themselves to trying to make out what the speaker was saying. For a long time it seemed to me they were getting nothing. It was all a confused talk to them, and then he said something which roused them to interest: “And now I will tell you how to get the greatest amount of good from your barn-yard manure,” and he proceeded to urge them to haul it on to the fields as fast as it accumulated.

Both Colonel Ben and Solomon leaned further and further forward in their desire not to lose one of the precious words of wisdom. It was lucky that the two seats in front of them were vacant, for the long arms were far over the seat, while the eager faces tried to bring the huge hearing members nearer to the speaker. I felt quite delighted that they had found something available, something they could carry home.

It is hard for an educated speaker to realize how his fluent speech slips off the rustic brain like water flowing over a rock. They cannot absorb it; it is all over before they have caught on.

After it was all over I met Colonel Ben, Solomon, and their father wandering along the street. I stopped and spoke, asked them if they were going to the banquet which had been prepared for the audience.

No, they reckoned they'd be gittin' on home.

But I urged them, saying I felt sure R. L. A. expected them and would be looking for them.

“Wall, he's the one got me en the boys into this trouble; he wouldn't take no, we jest had to cum, en hare we is.”

I started them on the way to the hall and hope they got there and enjoyed the substantial lunch provided. No doubt these meetings do an immense deal of good if as in this instance the local director is a man of enthusiasm and able to throw it into the work and take an interest in all the individual farmers who are so cut off from the interests of the rest of the world.

They think that to scratch over many acres of land, guiltless of manure or help of any kind, with a yoke of oxen and then to have all the family from the oldest to the youngest turn out and plant the corn by hand, disturbing it as little as possible by work until it is ready to harvest, is to be a farmer, and they are satisfied. In the spring R. L. A. was trying to persuade one of these very satisfied old men to plant a few acres under the direction of the Department. He turned on him.

“Look a' yere, young man,” he said, “I bin fa'ming long before y'u ever was thought of, en I want y'u to onderstan' I don't believe in deep ploughin', I don't.”

R. L. A. used all his blandishments until the old man promised to plant two acres by his directions, beginning with deep ploughing. He told me that when he went back some months later the old man said: -

“Youngster, I don't know what's the reason, but I kyan't get any of my corn to grow but them two akers o' yourn - the dry drought is just a-burning up the rest o' my corn.”

And still later when the steady rains set in and he went that way the old man clapped him on the back and said with much embellishment of action: -

“Well, you've got me; the rain's done finished the rest of the corn, but them akers of yourn jest keep on a-growin' en a-growin', en I jest tell you now next year I plants jest about half o' what I bin a-plantin' en I ploughs it all deep en does jest es you tells me to do.”

That was a wonderful triumph for the young director, and he tells me there are many such cases.

 July 21.

Having land prepared for turnips, which are a very important winter crop for us. The corn and cotton both look very well, also the potatoes, and the little amount of rice planted is fine. The agricultural society of the State has offered a prize of $100 for the best results in hay from five acres of alfalfa during 1906, and I have determined to enter the contest. I know I cannot get the prize, but trying for it will make me more careful in planting and preparing the land. They give very exact directions and insist on a great deal of fertilizer being used - that is, what seems to me a great deal, and I never would spend all that money unless I were in a way forced to it by entering the contest. I am now read ing everything I can find on the subject of alfalfa, and there is a great deal to be found.

Wrote to George T. Moore for inoculating material for alfalfa. I am so delighted that he is back in the Department of Agriculture, so that I can write to him. I have been miserable over what I considered the great injustice to him, and am so thankful that amends have been made and he has been reinstated.

I am so happy to-day over a check received from a liberal paymaster that I am quite stupid. I had sent off the last money I had in the bank for fertilizer for the alfalfa, and was feeling anxious, and now I am so relieved.

 CHAPTER VI PEACEVILLE, July 23.

WITH great difficulty got Chloe off to Gregory to make a visit to her daughter and see her grandchildren. I have to push and force Chloe to take the smallest holiday or relaxation. She cannot drive, so of course I had to send Dab to be her charioteer.

I told her to broil a nice, 'cubator chicken and put it in the safe, and I have a very nice loaf of bread which I made yesterday, and with delicious fresh butter and tomatoes I will be independent of cooks for two whole days.

In this blessed hamlet of Peaceville, Bible methods prevail to a great extent, and people do as they would be done by. One finds out what vegetable one's neighbor is short of, and if you happen to have that special thing in abundance, you fill a basket, put a dainty doily over it, and despatch your inevitable small boy to your neighbor with a pleasant message. Of course she is too delicate to return her abundant vegetable by the same messenger, but later in the day or the next morning arrives her small boy with a dainty covered tray, and you receive a supply of the vegetable you lack with an elegant note.

I planted a great many tomatoes, but for want of work during my month's absence they are very backward, while my dear friend and neighbor, in the best sense of the word, Miss Penelope, has an abundance of large, smooth red tomatoes, and daily I receive a little tray of them. I have only very prosaic vegetables as yet, beans and Irish potatoes, but

I got Chloe off to make a visit to her daughter.

they are fine and plentiful, so Dab makes expeditions with the tray, but without the note which is Peaceville etiquette - a little note asking particularly the state of your health and mentioning the height of the mercury, and saying that though doubtless it is sending coals to Newcastle you venture to offer some of your poor products.

I have a box tacked on the wall by my writing-table into which I drop all the notes received. I keep them, for they breathe such kindliness, and seem an echo of the past when people had time to think of others. By the end of the summer they would nearly fill a half bushel.

To-day I tried to conceal the fact of Chloe's absence. I was invited out to dinner, but I was so exhausted after the service that I was not equal to going. Though I had made every effort to get Chloe off before service, she was not ready when I left, so I told her to lock up the house and put the key under the pot of heliotrope on the shelf in the piazza, where I found it, and opening the door, which gave light enough for me to read by, I lay on the lounge in the dark, shut-up house till afternoon, when I felt sufficiently rested to get up and take my frugal, but delicious, repast of cold chicken, bread and butter and raw tomatoes. Thanks to one of my unknown, far-away friends, I can enjoy my glass of artesian water. He wrote from Saratoga, suggesting that I should fill a stone jug with the artesian water, attach a long rope, and sink it in the well. I have done this, and by this simple expedient I have delightful, pure drinking water at a temperature of 63 degrees, without having ice. When the mercury is soaring in the 90s 63 seems cold, and I do not ask for better. Except for keeping the milk and butter and having a treat of ice-cream occasionally I really do not miss ice, now that my little brown jug is swung in the well, and I am very grateful to my far-away friend.

At dark arrives Miss Penelope bearing a large tray, “Oh my dear, I have just heard that Chloe and Dab were seen this morning driving out of the village and have never been seen to return! And to think of your being all alone here, and we not knowing! And we had such a delightful dinner! If only I had known! But I have brought you a bowl of cold okra soup and a little dish of ice-cream, for we had a celebration to-day, a birthday dinner.”

I really do not miss ice, now that my little brown jug is swung in the well.

As soon as I could I told her I had had a dinner fit for a king, and now this wonderful and delicious treat of ice-cream made it perfect.

I read S. D. Gordon's “Quiet Talks on Power” all day in the darkened room, and I feel as though I might develop into a dynamo of the first order.

Peaceville is one of the corners of the world where Sunday is carefully observed. No one thinks of reading a novel or even a magazine on the day of rest. The Spirit of Missions, the Churchman, the Diocese, and sermons are the only mental food digestible on that day. I often find myself reading “The Spectator” in the Outlook, but if a neighbor comes in I put it hastily out of sight.

Last Sunday my dear Miss Penelope, whose whole life is a sermon of unselfish devotion and service, never resting, for on Sunday after her laborious six days in the “store” - which has done such wonderful things, supporting the family, educating all the younger members and finally paying off the mortgage on the plantation - she is our sole dependence as an organist and she never fails us. She understands the “instrument,” as the organ is always called by Peacevillians.

This special organ is her own, which she has lent the church. The one which belongs to the church was originally a fine organ and was given to this little chapel some thirty years ago by a rich young man in New York, who had it for his own use and who was dying and expressed the wish that it should go to some place where it would do good. Our little church was without one and the rector happening to be in New York at the time, it was given to him. From that day to this it has been in use constantly, and without repair.

Church mice are proverbially active and they showed great fondness for the material of the bellows, so that the “instrument” was in a sad and wheezing condition, making respectable sounds difficult. I, being an optimist of the first water and having received constant proof of my having the right view of life, said boldly two years ago, just before the storm which laid us all low, that I would undertake to pack the organ and send it away to be repaired. A tuner who came to tune my beloved piano that spring said that he would repair the organ for $40 if we sent to it him in Carrolton.

I had had experience of the great liberality of the makers of my piano in the matter of exchange. During a period of forty years more or less I have had four pianos. Each time that by some good fortune I felt I might give myself the blessing of a new piano I wrote to the makers and told them I was sending on the old piano and wished a new one. They always allowed me a handsome price for the old piano. Reasoning from this experience that all great makers would act in the same way, I wrote to Boston to say I was sending the organ for repair or exchange, as seemed best to them, and asking their best terms, stating that by this parish there had been bought five melodeons of their make, including two baby organs.

Immediately came a letter to say the repairs would cost $80 and when they were made the organ would be worth $250 I wrote back in despair to say we could not possibly raise $80 for repairs, but would accept any melodeon they would send in exchange for our organ, which by their estimate was now worth $170. The answer came promptly - they could not offer any exchange; the organ was in their way; please answer at once.

So here am I, having sent off the property of the church on my own responsibility, and it will probably lapse by dint of possession before we can possibly raise $80 for the repairs. At night when I am very tired, the organ has a way of rising up before me in accusation and I feel it is an “instrument” worthy of the Inquisition.

It has been two years now an unwelcome guest in its childhood's Boston home. Meantime we are using Miss Penelope's organ, which is not fair, for she can never practice the hymns at home, having no instrument.

I began all this to tell of Miss Penelope's temptation. Last Sunday afternoon the unwonted sight of an automobile struck the village. Great excitement among all those who were so fortunate as to be strolling along the dusty road, among whom was Miss Penelope.

The occupants proved to be friends of hers and when they got out to make a visit in the village they asked her and two ladies with her to get in the machine and take a little turn. Now, Miss Penelope had never been in an auto and she accepted at once. They went two or three blissful miles and then came the awakening. Every face they met was set in solemn wonder that she, Miss Penelope, a pillar of the church (if the church is ever allowed confessedly to rest on feminine foundation), should ride in an auto on Sunday.

Words failed, but looks were all powerful. That night she said to me: -

“Patience, I am so ashamed of myself; I just yielded to temptation, you may say, without a struggle. It was so hot and dusty in the roads and the thought of flying through the air was so delightful that I never thought of it being Sunday and accepted the invitation at once; and it was the most heavenly sensation! Mr. A. said the road was clear and he could exceed the speed limit without danger, and it really was like a trip to Europe, so elevating and delightful; but as soon as I stepped down from the car I realized how wicked I had been.”

“My dear, I do not agree with you at all,” I replied; “there were no horses being driven for pleasure on their day of rest; there was nothing but the cogs and wheels of a machine and half a pint of gasolene. You were perfectly right to go. Don't mind what any one may say. It was a perfectly innocent recreation and refreshment, which you of all people are certainly entitled to.”

But my efforts were in vain, though she said: “It is a great comfort to find you do not blame me, but I must blame myself.”

 July 24.

Good Miss E. spent last night here so that I should have some one near, and she made me a delicious cup of coffee and a nice little breakfast in spite of all I could say. Then she went home, and I fed the chickens and washed up the dishes and did all the housework, drawing buckets and buckets of water from the well, and I felt so proud and pleased with myself when I found it was only 9: 30 and I had done all the work, for I had to do Dab's as well as Chloe's.

It is a great thing to know just what the work is, and if you do it once yourself you know just what the labor is. It is not a third of the amount of work I had supposed.

After finishing I sat down in the door of the sitting room to get every breath of air and embroidered and had a day of luxury - no interruptions, except when one waiter arrived with tomatoes, another with a muskmelon, and just at noon a specially dainty little tray with a glass of blackberry shrub and, O joy, a lump of ice in it.

I do not know when I have had such a quiet, peaceful day. As the horse and vehicle were gone I had no way of going to the plantation, which is my daily duty, and so felt free to enjoy myself.

 July 28.

My poor Chloe is very ill with rheumatism - it is distressing, she suffers so. Dab is distinguishing himself and so am I.

I rise at five, so as to churn and knead and do my part of Chloe's work. Dab does the cooking very well and with enthusiasm. I am conscious that with both of us it is the enthusiasm of new brooms and am looking with terror to the inevitable slump.

I have never been an early riser, and the thought of the stern resolution I have made, to get up at five punctually, keeps me waking up all night long. I strike a match, look at the little clock on the table at the head of the bed, and think with delight how many hours there are before the fateful five strikes. I am losing pounds daily in the process, but make up in pride over my strenuosity.

On the plantation the struggle to get all the peas ploughed in for hay is most exhausting. Gibbie says he is sick, and I have engaged Loppy to do it, but he finds fault with the team and the plough.

 Sunday, July 30.

A pleasant service and good sermon in our little church. When I got home to my great joy found C. and John. We got out the little old black leather-covered trunks which came from the log house, where they were stored, and looked over some of the papers in them.

Found many old letters from grandmother to papa when he was at West Point, beautiful letters, urging on him duty, discipline, and diligence. Oh, what an inestimable blessing to a boy to have such a mother and to value the letters so that here almost a century later they are found carefully kept; I suppose all she wrote, for postage was so high then that letters were not an everyday or a weekly matter.

 August 24.

Reading with great pleasure the “Life and Letters of Washington Allston,” and came upon so many bits of wisdom which I would like to keep, for instance: -

“Confidence is the soul of genius. . . . A little seasonable vanity is the best friend we can have.”

“It was a saying of Alcibiades, and I believe a very just one, that ‘When souls of a certain order did not perform all they wished it was because they had not courage to attempt all they could. ’”

All this written by my great-uncle Washington Allston, August 24, 1801, to the artist Charles Frazer - to-day 109 years ago. We have a very beautiful miniature of him and it has the face of a wise man and almost a saint.

 PEACEVILLE, September 1.

A beautiful morning, though clouds are still flying. Everything is fresh and sparkling after the rain.

Had a terrible temptation - a letter yesterday from A. C. begging me to join her in Columbia to-morrow and make the journey with her to Highlands, where my sisters and their families are. All summer J. has been urging me to spend the hot months with her, and sent the check for my travelling expenses, which I returned, as it seemed to me my duty to stay here.

Now the thought of that wonderful exhilarating climate and beautiful scenery with all my dear ones was too much for me. I determined to go. Drove to Cherokee and gave Bonaparte directions for the conduct of everything during my absence, specially the curing of my precious pea-vine hay. Sent word to the ferryman to have the flat on this side of the river at 3: 30 A.M. Had the shafts taken off and pole on the buckboard, so as to drive the pair, as I wished to take my steamer trunk with me.

It would be necessary to leave here at 2:10 A.M. to take the 6 A.M. train, though it is only eighteen miles; but the ferry represents an unknown quantity. After all was done I felt very light-hearted. To turn my back on heat and worry, on discouragement and continual effort, was delightful and I walked down to the bare-yard with light and springy tread.

On my way the gorgeous sunset struck me and I stopped, spellbound by its infinite beauty. Oh, the tenderness of the light, fleecy pink clouds; oh, the passionate red of the darker ones; oh, the golden glow of the horizon! Could anything hold more intense beauty and delight? Could one look at that and shrink from toil and moil and sweat in the path of duty? Was I a coward? Was I a shirk? Had I not chosen my own path and was I too much of a weakling to walk in it? Was I willing to leave the burden and heat of the day for two old darkies to struggle through alone?

I stood there filling my soul with beauty and strength until the last beam faded, then went to old Bonaparte and countermanded all my orders. It was all easily done except to notify the ferryman that he need not be ready for me, and I will send him a little present to make up for that. I have; but one distress. I wrote to my sister by to-day's mail to say if it was possible to do it I would go, and I hate to think of her disappointment.

I drove back to the pineland in my little old rattling buckboard, it being too late to have the pole taken off of the other one, and a great peace filled me. Chloe was overjoyed at my change of plan, though she had encouraged my going in every way and had my trunk all packed. As for Goliah, he fairly glittered with joy, which condition was contributed to by the habit he has taken up recently of greasing his broad little black face very thoroughly with the vaseline I provide for keeping the harness soft. He seems to find infinite comfort from rubbing a quantity on his hands and then massaging his face very hard with both hands. It always amuses me, it is such an odd thing for a child to do.

 September 4.

A glorious autumn day, really cold. I was very busy all morning bottling some blackberry wine made in 1903. Somehow there was great haste all day. At the plantation got very unhappy over the fear of cockspurs in the hay. It is impossible to make the negroes understand the importance of destroying them. Last year the horses had none of the best hay. It was all kept for the cows because there were a few cockspurs in it.

The scuppernong grapes are ripening very fast and are delicious.

 September 6.

I certainly have been rewarded for not going to the mountains, for the mountain coolness has come to me - the weather has been perfect since the day after my decision. This morning Nat came from Casa Bianca looking more cheerful than usual. He told me he had nearly sold my cow Onyx.

I received this rather coldly with the commonplace as to a miss being equal to a mile in such cases. He said Mr. E. had come up with his brother to look at the cow and asked him the price and he answered $27.50, and that the brother took out the money and counted it out into his hands when Mr. E. came up and said: -

“I can make a better bargain with Mrs. Pennington than that. I'll write to her. Take back your money.”

“Nat said: ‘De money luk very sweet een my hen's, but I gie um back to de gen'leman. Yu get letter frum em yet?’”

“No,” I said, “but I can't imagine what made you say $27.50 for that cow with her splendid calf. I never said less than $30. I am glad that trade is off.”

This was true and yet not true. I never would have sold Onyx for less than $30 myself, but if Nat had brought the smaller sum at this moment I would not have reproved him, as the constant call of the laborers to be paid presses on me daily.

After much wandering talk Nat took from his pocket a roll of money and counted it out to me, saying: “Ef I ain't succeed to sell de cow, I dun sell John Smit fu t'irty dolla'!” and there it was.

I was too thankful for words and yet sorry to part with John Smith, a handsome, long-legged Brahmin steer, who travels like a horse. However, as he is not yet three years old it is a fine sale and I praised Nat accordingly and gave him a dollar. Every time I think I am going to have a fine young pair of oxen I find myself obliged to part with them and be content with my faithful old ones, for there is always good sale for the steers even when nothing else sells.

At Cherokee I saw no sign of Gibbie, but was pleased to see the three milch cows tethered in the lush grass of the cornfield. I have long tried to get Gibbie to do this, in vain; it is not the habit in this country, and Gibbie is sure would have fatal results. What made him come to it I do not know, but I was delighted to see them knee deep in grass, evidently satisfied, for they were not eating, only chewing their cud meditatively.

I passed on to the house and after a while went down to the garden to see about the turnips. Just as I was about to cross the little foot bridge which leads from the barn-yard I saw basking on the plank a terrible looking moccasin. I turned away to get a stick long enough and strong enough to give me courage to attack him. When I came back armed the snake had disappeared, and I was about to cross when some instinct warned me to look well, and there just under the bridge in the flowers and grass that grew so luxuriantly as almost to touch it, I saw the beady eyes in the erect asplike head fixed on me.

I summoned all my nerve and after a severe struggle killed the deadly thing. Even after I threw it some distance away with my strong staff it was hard to make myself cross the narrow bridge. I finally did get into the garden and found the turnips in great need of work.

On my way back I looked into the field where the cows were, and there was Moselle, my thoroughbred Guernsey, whom I had seen all right a half hour before, prostrate on the ground, her head under her! I flew through the gate and to her, to find that the horns were fastened in the ground, her forelegs bent over her head. The rope round her hind leg had evidently caught when she went to lie down or get up, I don't know which.

I called aloud for Gibbie, Bonaparte, Goliah, but no one came. Moselle's breathing was like a very loud snore. I tugged at her forefoot to lift it off from her head, putting all my strength, but in vain; when exhausted by the great effort, I called again and again, then getting no answer returned to the tugging.

At last I succeeded by a mighty effort, then another mighty effort, and I got her horns out of the earth and put her head in a natural position, when she lay as if dead. The terrible sound in her breathing had ceased, but she plainly said she was dying. I loosed the rope from her foot and from her head and encouraged her to get up, but she lay with closed eyes, and I left her, for I know how easily cows give up and die.

I went up to the house, where Goliah was putting Ruth in the buckboard, for it was sunset. Then Gibbie appeared and I told him Moselle was dying and reproached him for being away from his post of duty. When I drove out after all this expenditure of feeling Moselle was quietly eating as though nothing unusual had befallen her. I felt like Mother Hubbard after her trip to the undertaker's. Altogether it was a trying afternoon and I am very tired.

Patty came in.

 September 7.

Had some important writing to do this morning, but before I could begin Patty came in to say two “ladies” wanted to see me. I went out to find Totem's two daughters, who wished to get me to protect their property for them.

They said their father's “stepwife” had advertised the horse and buggy and cow and calf for sale, all of which things had belonged to their own mother and the “stepwife” had no right to sell them. I spent the whole morning talking to them and writing for them to the Probate Judge and others.

Totem was a faithful servant and their mother an excellent woman, and I shall do all in my power to have their property protected. At the same time I tried to make them under stand that the “stepwife,” having been legally married to their father, however short a time before his death, had a right to a proportion of his property.

As soon as they were gone I went to the plantation, where terrible havoc has been made in the corn by three hogs belonging to negroes who live miles away in the woods. It is a most difficult thing to get any redress for this. Bonaparte asked me to walk through the corn-field to estimate the damage, and really I think one-third of the corn has gone.

I cannot believe it is altogether the work of animals. I think they have been assisted by humans, for while great quantities of corn stalks are bent down and you can see where the corn has been eaten on the ground, in many, many cases the stalks are standing straight up and the ears are gone. However, I say nothing about that, as it would be useless.

One of the hogs I hired a man with a dog to catch two weeks ago. It weighs over 200 pounds and the man charged $2 for catching it. I have fed it in the pen for seventeen days. Now the owner, a very well-to-do darky who has a pension from the Government and is above work, says he cannot possibly pay $7, which is the amount I fixed upon, though the damage is much greater than that, indeed, four times that.

There are still two smaller hogs of about 100 pounds each in the field.

I have a strong wire fence around and I cannot help thinking the hogs have been let in at the gate. Of course a man would have them shot, but I cannot do that.

The milk is falling off, and to keep up my butter engagements I will have to stop sending the pint of milk daily to Eva which I have been sending for six weeks. She is Gibbie's mother, and when the doctor said she should have fresh milk I gladly gave it, but she is up and about now, and if Gibbie will not take the trouble to take the milk from the cows because he is in such haste to go out hunting, his mother will have to suffer along with me.

Bonaparte and Kilpatrick are working on the flat which needed overhauling and repair. It is a heavy expense, but as the rice is doing well there must be a dry, tight flat to bring it in.

 September 10.

Very hot again. This morning I was working at a serenade of Rachmaninoff's when I fainted. Good Chloe got me on the lounge and dosed me with ammonia and I got over it, but could neither write nor read without a return of the terrible feeling. So I had the room darkened and kept quiet until 4: 30 when I had to go to the plantation.

 September 13.

Miss Penelope sent me word she was unequal to going to church to-day. So I had to play the organ as well as sing. Though a little rickety still, I enjoyed the organ in its rejuvenated condition. It is very sweet and full. A beautiful sermon. Thanked the good Father for his many mercies. The Sunday-school children came promptly at five and were most interesting.

 September 14.

Making wine from the scuppernong grapes; ten quarts of grapes made two and a half gallons of wine. It is a very simple process, and yet the wine is very nice. It would make most delicious champagne if we had strong enough bottles to put it in at the right stage, but it bursts ordinary bottles, so we leave it uncorked until that stage passes.

I make it because I find a portion of wine is a most acceptable present to the men of the family at Christmas time - only it must not be too sweet. The scuppernong grape grows so rapidly and vigorously in this soil and climate that it would be worth while to plant it largely for transportation to places where wine is made. In this State it is under the ban, but there is no law to prevent sending out the grapes.

Every negro cottage through the long line of villages which fill the pine woods has at least one scuppernong vine, from which they sell bushels of grapes, besides eating them for a month. One vine will cover several hundred feet of space, for they are never trimmed, but grow laterally on scaffoldings made about five feet and a half from the ground.

They do not grow in bunches like other grapes, but only four or five very large grapes together, so that when you go under an arbor of ripe grapes you see no leaves above you, only a canopy of grapes, the leaves being all on top, and there is no more delicious experience than a half hour under a really old grape-vine in early September.

The older the vine the more luscious the grapes, and the perfume is most exquisite. It is a native of North Carolina, but takes kindly to this State and requires no spraying or care of any kind beyond breaking away the dead twigs and branches during the winter season - and mulching with dead leaves.

 September 15.

Had a present of a bushel of grapes from Old Tom's children - such a pleasant surprise! The grapes from my arbor are so enjoyed by the whole plantation that I never get more than a peck at a time, so that it is a great thing to have such a handsome present. Presented the bringer with a dress for herself and shirt and cravat for the brother. That is what a present means with us - good will expressed, and a handsome return.

 PEACEVILLE, September 16.

This morning had a delightful present of venison. S. M. killed a deer yesterday.

Sent Chloe, Patty, and Goliah to plantation to pick the last of the grapes, and I tried to refresh myself by reading “Peter.” Yesterday when I drove down Ruth behaved in the most unaccountable way. I had S. R. with me and we were driving up the avenue to the barn-yard, which is called the Red Bank - I do not know why, as it is not a bank nor is it red, just an avenue bordered by live oak trees with the fields of corn, peas, potatoes, etc., beyond. The growth is very luxuriant and thick on each side under the trees.

About halfway from the gate Ruth suddenly shied violently, shivered and shook, and though the road is quite too narrow to turn she backed violently right into the ditch, and before I understood what she was doing she had turned the buckboard around most cleverly and was rapidly on her way back to the gate with every sign of terror. As soon as I realized what had happened I drove into the field on one side of the road, turned and drove back up the avenue toward the barn-yard, the road she has travelled all summer every day but Sunday without showing the least fear of anything.

I made Goliah walk ahead until we got near the spot which had so terrified her. When I saw the fit of terror returning I gave the reins to S. who fortunately was with me and is a very good whip, and I got out and led Ruth by with the greatest difficulty. I do not know what to make of it unless; there was some one hidden in the ditch who was very obnoxious to her.

The only time I ever knew her to shy so violently before was once when I was driving down to Casa Bianca alone. In a perfectly open, clear road, with a deep ditch on each side, no bushes or underbrush at all, she was trotting along briskly when suddenly she made a terrific shy to the right and bolted. In a few yards I pulled her down, and wondering greatly at her conduct I looked back to see if there were any stumps which I had not noticed, and out of the ditch on the left side of the road rose a most fearful looking head, a white man's, all overgrown with hair, hatless, dishevelled - no doubt a fugitive from justice who had wandered the roads a long time, from his aspect.

Needless to say I did not tarry to ask questions, but let Ruth travel at her very best speed, and that evening returning home I drove as fast as I could, whip in hand, but had no further trouble with Ruth.

On this occasion surely if there had been any one hidden in the ditch Don, the setter, would have found him.

Coming home she still seemed nervous. Goliah says “plat eye” and Chloe says “speret, Miss Pashuns. You know Cherokee is a ha'nt place, dat Red Bank road speshul, en wen yu cum to de Praise House lane dat dem home.

“T'ree time dem 'tack me dere. One time I bin a cum f'um Nannie weddin'. I see a man walk right befo' me, en I call to um en say ‘Elihu! Dat be yu? Wait f'r me,’ en de man neber answer, en w'en 'e git to de gate 'e neber open am, 'e jes' pass trou' wi'dout open, en den 'e tu'n 'eself unto a bull, en rare up befo' me. Den I kno' 'twas plat eye, en I say to meself ‘Trow down yu fader h'art, en tek up yu murrer h'art,’ 'en I dun so. 'Kase yu kno', Miss Pashuns, yu' murrer Hart is always stronger den yu fader h'art.

“Oh, yu didn't kno' dat? 'Oman h'art is stronger den man h'art w'en yu cum to speret en plat eye. Yes, Rut' see dat same man en I jes' t'enk de Lawd she ain' cripple yu.”

That night she returned to the subject and told many wonderful ghost stories, all of that same road, and said Gibbie was so afraid of going along there in the dusk and reminded me that he never would wait to take my horse when I was out late, and that was the reason. As I still pooh-poohed her stories she put on quite a superior air and said: -

“Critter kin see mo' den me, Miss Pashuns, en I kin see

“Plat eye!”

mo' den yu, fer all yu kno' so mutch mo' en me. W'at I tell yu, 'tain't wha' I hear, but wha' I see meself.”

There is no doubt something in what Chloe says about creatures, as she calls animals, seeing more than human beings. There is a spot on the road about a mile from Casa Bianca where a man was killed by a fall from his horse, which shied violently, throwing him against a tree. This was about sixty-five years ago, and though it is now a commonplace looking spot enough, my horses rarely pass it without shying.

 September 18.

Yesterday I gave Gibbie a severe talk because of his total neglect of his work - the stables not cleaned, no pine straw hauled for bedding, the calves starved, yet the cows only half milked. I would not mind losing the milk so much if only the calves got it, but they look miserable, especially Heart, the little Guernsey I so wish to raise.

He is intoxicated with the rice bird and coot fever and spends every night out hunting, and of course in the day he is too sleepy to do anything. He answered almost insolently for the first time, for usually he has the grace of civility.

 September 22.

Went down after early dinner in great haste to peas field prepared to help pick out cockspurs, but found that Gertie and two other women had finished. I went over it prepared to find it only one-half done, as usual, but to my delight found it thoroughly done. They had two large barrels packed tightly with cockspurs, root and all, the burrs being still soft; and look over the field as carefully as I could I found not a single plant. I had the pleasure of praising them warmly. It was Gertie's doing, I know, as Bonaparte put her in charge.

Chloe returned to the subject of “sperets” to-night and would insist on going back to all the strange things that have happened in her experience. There is no doubt that Chloe would develop into a most successful medium if she was in the way of knowing anything about the present craze for spirit manifestation.

She called to my remembrance one very strange circumstance that took place the first year I was alone at Cherokee after my dear mother's death. It had been the habit of our household to have family prayers, and when I was left alone I determined to continue the evening prayers and for that purpose had Chloe come in at 10 o'clock.

It was curious how reluctant she was to have me act as home chaplain. She evidently did not consider me equal to the situation. However, I made a point of it and she graciously came.

After prayers were ended she would stand at the door looking very dignified in her white head handkerchief and white apron and talk over the events of the day, the condition of the poultry yard and the evil deeds of the generality of mankind. This little chance to tell her trials and tribulations was greatly enjoyed by her, and I tried not to be impatient at the wealth of detail, and impossibility of getting back to my book, for I knew that alone made her consent to come in to the little service which meant so much to me as a survival of the past.

One particular evening when she was in full swing I was sitting in one arm-chair by the fire, the other being empty, and on the rug stretched off in front of the fire asleep lay a very handsome Skye terrior which had been recently given to me as a protection, my dear little old black and tan Zero having died that summer. Suddenly Blue Boy woke, rose, every hair on end. He growled, he sniffed, he snorted, and then made a dash at the empty chair, barking furiously.

I tried to pacify him, called him to me, patted and petted him, all in vain. He got under my chair, but he continued to bark fiercely. Finally I was annoyed by it and got up and sat in the empty chair. It meant nothing to me but that Blue Boy had had a bad dream.

I went on talking to Chloe and as Blue Boy quieted down and went back to sleep on the rug I got up and in my impatience at the prolonged talk began to walk about the room, I was so anxious to get back to my interesting book. In a second I heard a growl and Blue Boy was on the rampage again, more furiously than the first time. He attacked the empty chair, making a dash to within a foot of it and then running away, only to renew the attack.

I was quite provoked and was going to slap him when I looked at Chloe. She was white almost, with a look of terror.

“Miss Pashuns, 'tis Ole Miss' Blue Boy see.”

“What nonsense, Chloe! You know that is impossible, and even if it were possible, why should Blue Boy bark at mamma? You know all the dogs were devoted to her.”

Chloe answered: “Miss Pashuns, you fergit, you git Blue Boy since Ole Miss' gone; him 'oodn't kno' Ole Miss'.”

It ended by my taking the dog up and carrying him out of the house. Up to this time he had always slept in my room at night as Zero used to do, but when I was ready to go upstairs that evening and called him he would not come inside the door. He wagged his tail quietly and licked my hands but refused to come in, and from that time I never could induce him to stay in my room either night or day. He would lie on the rug until I was ready to go upstairs, but then he went to the front door and insisted on remaining on the piazza for the night.

After putting Blue Boy out I returned to try to reassure Chloe, who was greatly agitated. I told her that if the Good Father, in whose hands I felt so safe, should see fit to let those whom I so dearly loved in the flesh, return in the spirit to watch over me in my lonely life, it would make me very happy, and that I could not understand it being a cause of terror to any one.

“But,” I said, “I do not feel called upon to decide whether that is possible as our world is constituted. I only have a firm abiding faith in the mercy and love of God and in His determination and ability to keep all those who put their trust in Him and walk in His commandments.”

Then I went to the piano and had her sing with me that beautiful old hymn, “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord.”

 CHAPTER VII PEACEVILLE, September 18.

WENT out to the mission in the pine woods with Mr. G. Quite a good congregation. They all walk miles, and bring their babies. Saw a most forlorn specimen of a man, sallow, emaciated, miserably clad, with three children wrapped in a heterogeneous collection of garments. Mr. G. turned to me and said: -

“You know Mr. Lewis, Mrs. Pennington?”

Before I could answer the poor gaberlunzie spoke up and said: “Oh, yes; she stood for these,” waving his hand over the thin little objects. “You 'member, Miss Patience, this is Mary Frances and this is Easter Anne and this is Thomas Nelson.”

I never felt more abashed in my life. Such a party to be responsible for! I stand for so many, many poor little babies, for whenever there is a christening I am in demand; but I never have had such a forlorn little company as this on my soul.

As soon as I recovered I asked how it was that I had not seen them for so long.

“We've bin a-travellin'! We moved off for a good many years now, an' that's why you've sort of lost us.”

I asked where his wife was.

“Well, ma'am, she's gone; got tired of the job, an' lef' me.”

“And who cooks?”

“Mary Frances cooks.”

“And who washes the children's clothes?”

“Mary Frances, she washes, an' Mary Frances, she mends an' does everything.”

When I looked at the wizen little girl, with her sallow blue skin and her skinny little arms and hands, I could scarcely keep back the tears, but I spoke very cheerily to her and complimented her on the get-up of the family, which truly showed ingenuity.

She told me she was 10 and Easter Anne 8. I could scarcely believe the tiny child was 10, but I promised to make some clothes for them before the next day the rector came, which will be Sunday three weeks. She did not seem excited or even pleased, but answered “Yessum” in a listless voice to all I said.

I asked some of the other people about them and found there was great indignation about the wife. These people are severe on the erring; it seems necessary to their self-respect.

 September 19.

Bonaparte has been away on a little vacation and I have been superintending all the work personally for the past two weeks, and it is impossible to get a decent day's work done. The women just scratch the ground a little with their hoes when your eyes are on them, and as soon as you allow yourself to be diverted for a moment they stand quite idle.

 September 21.

Was telling Miss Pandora about the Lewis children and how I was searching all my possessions to find something I could cut up to make into clothes for them. She said at once: -

“I have the stuff I got some time ago for a skirt. I will send it to you to-morrow.”

I remonstrated, telling her it would not be suitable, as they should have stout stuff for clothes; but she persisted and sent it, three and one-half yards of very pretty crash. I nearly sent it back because it is too thin and unsuitable and would make such a pretty suit. However, after much consideration, I determined to offer it for sale, and if I succeed in getting the money for it, I will spend it in homespun and calico to make up. This afternoon I took it down the village and showed it to several people, and I finally left it to be examined.

 September 22.

My little trading effort has been most successful. This morning I had a note to say that the stuff had been bought and sending me the money. I at once went down to Miss Penelope's and bought fifteen yards of stuff, different kinds for the different ones; and then set to work to cut and make three little frocks. Patterns seemed a difficulty, but I would allow nothing to cool my ardor. I made my own patterns, for these pine woods people know nothing of fashion in children's garments, and I am making them as I used to make children's clothes long ago.

The draperies Mary Frances had hanging around her were down to the ground and so were Easter Anne's. It will no doubt be a shock to have these only reach their ankles, but they will have time to get accustomed to it before cold weather comes. One wonders stupidly over things out of one's own beat, as it were, but of course when children do not have shoes and stockings in the cold weather trailing garments are preferred.

My neighbor the widow asked me to let her do some of the machine stitching for me, which is very nice of her, my machine being out of order for the first time in its thirty- seven years of service. I think Patty must have been experimenting with it, for it did beautiful work the last time I used it. Let no one turn up her nose at this old friend and say, “At least in machinery new friends are best.” We are a faithful hearted people down here and see the beauty in our old friends, even though aware of the pathos of increased effort.

 September 23.

This morning went over by invitation to look at the widow's steers which she is to sell to-day for a good price. They are very fine and perfectly gentle. She is a wonderful woman, doing all her own work and so much of it. Her vegetable garden has not a blade of grass. It contains turnips, cabbages, carrots, beets, and tomatoes. She milks her cow herself, waters her great number of flowers, drawing the water from a well with an old-time arrangement; keeps her large rose garden in order and has the house filled with fresh flowers.

To-night I finished two of the little frocks, and they look very sweet. I could not help stitching on a little band of contrasting color. Children's clothes should be pretty; all things connected with childhood should be pretty. The little ones thrive on things that feed the eye with beauty. The Great Father teaches us that wherever we turn in the loveliness spread around us everywhere, but we are so slow to learn.

 September 24.

I undertook to have Jim do some mowing in the neighborhood, there being difficulty in getting a mowing machine for hire. But yesterday when the field was about half cut the blade broke, and now I have to send off eighteen miles to get another and by the time I have done I will be on the wrong side as far as profit goes.

 Sunday, September 25.

Goliah came to me in great distress, weeping and saying his hoop, which he hung on the fence, was gone. I told him some of his very rude companions, whom he occasionally brings into the yard, had taken it.

“No, no,” he said. Some one had broken it up, and he thought it was Patty. I reproved him for supposing Patty would do such a thing, but later when he had gone out of the yard I asked Patty if she had troubled the hoop. She said, “No.” I answered, “I am very glad to hear it, for I would have been very angry if you had destroyed Goliah's hoop; it is an innocent amusement and keeps him out of mischief.”

She went out quietly, but I soon found the yard was in the greatest excitement. Goliah returned and found some other cherished possession gone, and he sat on the back step and cried and sobbed. I tried to quiet him, but in vain, and then to add to the tragic effect his nose began to bleed and his clean white shirt had great splotches of blood.

Goliah cried and sobbed.

There raged a tempest in a tea-pot this blessed day of rest. I could not stand it, and ordered Jim to put Ruth in the buckboard and gave the whole yard a holiday. I told Chloe I would not have any dinner, so she could go to visit her family. I was going out to St. Peter's-in-the-woods to take the clothes I had made to the children.

So I escaped and went to church, and then had a lovely drive through the pine woods, and the joy of putting the frocks on the children and finding that they fitted nicely, only I saw they thought them too short, so I said I would take them home and make them longer.

The wandering mother had returned and I had not the heart to look harshly at her; the poor little ones looked so happy - not a change of garment or any other change, just the little gray faces, which had looked so lustreless and lifeless, were full of interest and animation. The poverty of the surroundings, the doorless hut with no attempt at furniture - it was all pitiful.

It is very rare to see such poverty in this part of the world. I have never seen such a case before; but the man is a semi-invalid and work in the field for the woman not easy to get, I suppose.

I did not remember what a long way we have to go when going home. I had not started early, for I went to church first, and then went to ask a friend to go with me. At any rate when we had gone about half of the nine miles home the swift, soft darkness fell. It was a perfect evening and we were enjoying the delicious cool of the night air when I looked ahead in the very narrow road, a deep ditch on each side, and saw a steady bright light coming. I knew it was the one danger I feared.

Just then my companion saw it. “Patience,” she said, “that is an automobile; the doctor's, I know. There is an ill man out on this road; what shall we do? He cannot see us.”

That was perfectly true; we were completely in the darkness, and his big light did not cast far enough to give him time to stop his car when he saw us, and the road was too narrow for two buggies to pass, without great skill in driving.

I drove steadily on, but I felt dismayed. There was, I thought, not far away a bridge of pine saplings across the ditch on the right. If we could reach that before we were too near we might escape.

Meantime my companion said, “Let us call aloud, they may hear.” So she lifted up a splendid strong voice and called, and when she ceased, her voice exhausted, I took it up; but on, on came that star of fate; it had the most curious inevitable look.

Only by its growing larger and larger could we know it was moving Finally when A. said: “You must stop, you cannot go on,” I knew she was right and that I must stop without having reached the little bridge which meant safety.

I stopped on, on came the glare. Ruth, like myself, seemed fascinated by it. We were so powerless, for now we could hear the roaring and knew our voices were impotent to reach the driver. There was not fifty yards between us, and on they came. No, there is a change in the sound. They have stopped! Thank God! Thank God! It would have been a grizzly, grinding death.

The driver leaped out and came to us, white as a sheet.

“Oh,” he said, “just in time! Miss A. saw your white shirt-waist and said, ‘Stop: there is something ahead!’”

He was just as good as gold, and when I said if he moved the auto to one side a little I would undertake to lead Ruth by, “No, no,” he said, “we must find some other way, the road is too narrow.”

I told him of the little bridge and he found it just between us and the auto, and he insisted on leading Ruth over it; turned out his lights and glided past quietly, and then led the wonderfully well-behaved Ruth back into the road, and with hearty handclasps and thanks we proceeded on our way. Very thankful hearts beat within us and the mercy and goodness of the Great Creator seemed to be shouted to us from each brilliant star above.

 September 26.

Started the flat off to Gregory for the fertilizer, five tons half lime and half 8-1-4 The river winds so that by water it is twenty-three miles about, while by land it is only fourteen. If everything goes well, they should get back here by Thursday. R. came down to spend three weeks with me, and he is helping me prepare the land for the alfalfa. It is so delightful to have him. He finds the nigs very trying. Yesterday he spent a good deal of time fixing a harrow, which was too light, by wiring on to it securely a long iron bar to make it heavy enough to crush the sods. Finally he got it just the right weight and started Elihu to work with it, and was delighted with the results To-day when he went down to the plantation he found Elihu harrowing, but without the bar; he had cut every wire which had been securely fastened and taken off the bar. When R. asked him why he had done it, he scratched his head and laughed and answered: -

“Jes' so, Mass' Bob.”

 September 27.

The corn is all gathered and has done very well - 814 bushels of slip-shuck corn on seven acres. Gibbie is very proud; he feels that he and Paul, the single ox, have done it all.

 September 28.

Went to Casa Bianca and walked around the banks. The little rice planted looks fairly well. Nat seems to be doing his best in face of much opposition and difficulty. On the way back stopped at Cherokee and found that Elihu got back with the flat of fertilizer at sunrise this morning, which was doing splendidly. It was most fortunate, for this afternoon the storm signals are out in Gregory. Mr. L. was afraid to leave town with his tug towing a lighter, so it would have been impossible to bring an open flat out.

 October 2.

The fertilizer has been distributed over the alfalfa field and the whole field is in fine order. Now the delay is in the nonarrival of the seed. I have sent to the railroad station several times, but they answer firmly that it has not come. It is very provoking, for all the books say it should be planted not later than October 1.

 October 6.

R. was obliged to leave to-day, and without helping me plant the alfalfa, as it has not yet come. It is too bad, for it would have been such a comfort to get it in while he was here. I asked him to go to the station very early to-morrow - the train leaves at 6 A.M. - and ask permission, very politely, to look through the warehouse himself for it; he seemed to think this an unusual and unreasonable request, but I know the ways of the freight office in Gregory so well that I am sure the alfalfa is there.

 October 7.

Elihu returned at one o'clock, bringing the sack of 100 pounds of alfalfa and a note from R. He had asked for it and was told it was not there; then, politely, he asked if he might look through the warehouse; permission was granted, and almost the first thing he stumbled upon was the bag. When he told the man in charge he had found it and pointed it out, he looked at it and said: “Oh, that's it, is it? That's been here two weeks.”

I called Bonaparte at once and used what was left of the culture R. had mixed, though I felt uncertain as to whether it was still good. It was only enough to moisten a half bushel which I had well stirred and then spread out on the piazza to dry. Then I proceeded to put together the stuff for a second lot of the inoculating liquid. I had had the packages quite a while, and felt anxious about it. It was in proportion for ten gallons, but I only mixed five, putting in half of the package of each instead of the whole. That is the worst of being so remote from everything - the difficulty of replacing things if anything goes wrong. Whether the tub leaked or the culture evaporated, I do not know, but the quantity R. mixed should have been enough for the 100 pounds, but it has vanished or rather “minished,” to use a very pregnant negro word, and now I have to use these old ingredients.

 October 8.

Put in the second ingredient of the culture, then got Bonaparte and two boys with the seed drill, which I had asked R. to rent from a neighbor, and proceeded to plant the alfalfa seed wet with culture yesterday, as it was quite dry. The Imp and Manuel were charmed to run the little drill and fought over it, for I would not let either one do more than six rows.

A glorious sunshine, thank the Good Father. I hope I will get the cotton picked to-day and a good many peas, too.

10 P.M. A fine day's work. Took Patty and Goliah in to pick peas, and they did well and enjoyed it. I hear on one has made any peas this year, but I have made a great quantity, which is a great mercy. Patty, Goliah, and I picked peas along with the other hands.

Lizette was there with her little baby, the first time she has had it in the field. It is tiny and sits up very straight and looks like a little black doll. Her little son Isaiah sits and holds the baby all day. I constantly intervened and had its little head kept from rolling off, as it seemed likely to me to do when it was asleep.

I told Lizette about the children in the East Side Settlement House, each baby so comfortable in its basket, with no danger to its little delicate spine. Then as that did not seem to attract her I told her of the Indian babies safely bound to a straight board and hung in the trees. That desperate cruelty, as it seemed to her, roused her to speech, which it is difficult to do. With great indignation she told me there was no need for her to be so cruel to her baby as she had a boy to mind it. The boy may be four, but I do not think he is quite that. I am going to make a nice little box, with a handle and a little pad in it for a mattress, to carry the baby in.

I enjoyed every moment of this beautiful day drinking in God's glorious handiwork of air and sky - everywhere masses of goldenrod and banks of feathery white fennel.

 October 10.

This morning Miss Pandora brought me a present of a dozen splendid apples! I was greatly touched by it - such a great present here, where we see no fruit but pears. It was Miss Melpomene's birthday and I was busy fixing up a little offering for her, a summer duck nicely roasted (for Chloe's cooking a duck doubles its value) surrounded by tomatoes from my pot plant, which are supposed to be very superior in flavor. I sent a note asking Miss Melpomene to go with me to Cherokee this afternoon prepared to pick peas.

She seemed startled but accepted with pleasure, and when I explained that she was to keep all she picked she was charmed, as hers have failed entirely. I drove to the field and left her there, having lent her my pea picking apron. It is made of light blue denim, quite long and turned up like a sewing apron only much larger, for it can hold nearly a bushel of peas.

I drove to the barn-yard to leave the horse and buckboard and return to help her pick, but I found ten hands waiting with huge bundles of peas. Bonaparte said with great impatience, “Dem do' want no money, dem want peas,” so I said at once, “I don't blame them, let them have the peas.”

But I had to stop and make the necessary calculations for each to get one-third of what she had picked. It was quite a business, for in all they had picked 1197 pounds of peas, some picking 150 pounds, others only fifty. They are selling for 10 cents a quart now, so naturally the pickers prefer taking a portion of the peas to money.

It was nearly dark when I got through and went back to Miss Melpomene, who thought something must have happened and seemed to think she had picked quite too many too peas and was eager to make me take some. It was an original birthday party, but we both enjoyed it greatly, and the drive home was delightful, and we were very gay.

 October 11.

Had Eva to sow by hand the little of the inoculated seed left yesterday. Assisted by Bonaparte I mixed the rest of the seed - one and three-quarter bushels - with the liquid culture and then spread the wet seed out in the piazza to dry. The stuff smelled very yeasty and queer. I do hope it is all right. As I had much more liquid than I needed, I mixed it with earth so that I may use it in future.

Had Eva to sow by hand a little of the inoculated seed.

Yesterday, with a storm coming up, I was unable to get any one to haul in my beautiful pea-vine hay. A month ago Gibbie had asked permission to be absent to-day and I promised him he should go. I sent word to Elihu and George to come and handle the hay, but there was a funeral, and not a single man could I get.

 October 12.

Drove down early to Cherokee, and finding the seed dry drove rapidly to Mr. L.'s place to get the drill, but instead of using it yesterday they were sowing rape to-day, so there was nothing to do but return quickly, send for all the women I could get, and sow it out by hand. The sowing was easy enough, though slow, for the women are accustomed to sow rice by hand, but the covering was the difficulty. I had eight hands all the time and then when the hands who were picking peas knocked off I called them in to help. The moon was high in the eastern sky when the last row was sowed, and then we had to stop, though about one and a half acres were not covered. It had been a great rush, and the hands all worked well and I paid them extra, for though they had not started till late, as I had counted on getting the drill, they had worked steadily. I was completely exhausted when I got home.

 October 13.

When I got to the plantation this morning I found Bonaparte had five hands covering the one and a half acres left uncovered last night, and they took the whole day, and it was abominably done. He was in a very bad humor and would not follow my directions, and give each hand ten rows for him individually to do, so that one could see who was doing good work and who not; but insisted on laying off with stakes a section for each one, saying the rows were too long, and he must keep them together and watch them. “Dem's too striffling for tek dem long row. I 'bleege to keep dem close togeder, so I kin watch dem. Dem's striffling no 'count, good f'r nutting,” etc., ad lib. I simply had to leave the field or have a tremendous flare up, so while I could control myself I left; but it was very trying, for this is the richest part of the field, and he had got the hands in such a bad humor that they were positively digging the seed out of the ground instead of covering it. For a few seconds I was on the point of ordering him out of the field, but that meant destroying his prestige and authority for all time, and he has all the barn keys, and I believe is faithful to the trust; he is just mulishly cantankerous sometimes.

I found Gibbie diligently running the mowing machine cutting down the second pea-field, while the hay which was cut down Monday and Tuesday and had two solid nights rain on the piles was dry on top and steaming wet underneath. I stopped the mowing and led Gibbie from cock to cock and made him toss and turn the pea-vine hay while I sent George to do the same to the broom-grass hay. No one seems to have any sense. I told them to keep turning it as it dried and then to begin hauling into the barn and to try to finish getting it in to-morrow. I shall not be able to come down to-morrow, as I have to send for and entertain our rector.

 Sunday, October 15.

The blessed day of rest is most welcome. It being the third Sunday in the month, we had our rector. His sermon, an excellent one, on the text “For every idle word,” etc., struck the little congregation with dismay. As I came out of church some one said to me: “Do you think Mr. C. has been hearing anything about us that made him preach that sermon?” “No, no,” I answered, “I think not, but I feel that it was specially inspired for my benefit.” “No, indeed, Mrs. Pennington,” another put in, “not for you, but for me.” And so there was a group of self-convicted sinners, whose sins of the tongue had been brought home to them. As the rector went into my sitting room he laid the fiery roll on the table, and when he left the room I took it up to get the chapter and verse of the text, so as to look it up, and on the cover I saw written “First preached, August, 1888.”

That afternoon a lady came to see me with a solemn, pained aspect, and after the usual inevitable complimentary prelude cleared her throat and began. “It is with much sorrow, Mrs. Pennington, that I state from indisputable authority that during his last monthly visitation our revered rector heard from a lady, who shall be nameless, things concerning some of our most respected families which induced him to give us the extraordinarily clever and appropriate discourse to which we listened this morning.” It was very hard for me to wait politely for the end of this well turned sentence, and as soon as I decently could I answered with delight: “I am very glad to be able to tell you, my dear Miss Arethusa, that you are entirely mistaken. That sermon was written and preached first in 1888! It only shows that human nature is much the same at all times and in all places, for you are not the only one who thought its application personal.”

The hymn singing to-night was specially hearty and Mr. C. seemed greatly to enjoy listening; which is rare, the measure of enjoyment being generally in proportion to the vigor of one's individual efforts.

 October 16.

Yesterday I had planned to go over with Mr. C. This morning he asked me to go and promised to drive me down to see Mrs. S., who is 86, and I have been suddenly seized with a great desire to visit her. I have never seen her since my father took me as a child to visit her. She has lived alone on her plantation for many years, as I do, and though it is only about twenty miles away the getting there, crossing two rivers and then a long drive, is intricate. Last night it seemed easy to cross the rivers with Mr. C., spend the night with Mrs. C. and himself at the All Saints' rectory and go on the next morning, returning here Wednesday evening, but this morning I am discouraged and cannot go. I found Mr. C. unprovided with the medicines we think necessary to have on hand in the country, as he is a new-comer, so I put up phials of quinine, calomel, and soda and it took some time.

 Sunday, October 20.

No service in the little church to-day. Sent to ask A. if she would dine with me and drive out in the woods with me afterward. I called Chloe and Patty and Goliah in and read the morning prayer and the beautiful hymns for the twenty ~first Sunday after Trinity. I played and had them sing the chants and we had a pleasant little service. I always like to have a scriptural quorum.

I hope the Good Father did not mind my sewing a little on Mary Frances' frock after I had read the prayers. I was careful to do it in private for fear of offending a weaker brother.

We started out in the buckboard at three, taking the three little frocks for the children and a nice dark calico shirt-waist suit for the poor mother. The drive was charming. Stopped to see Louise M., who is so faithful in trying to carry on the Sunday-school. Her little log cottage was as clean as possible and she showed with great pride their potatoes just dug; she and her husband insisted on giving us some; they were very large, some of them weighing two pounds.

Her little log cottage was as clean as possible.

Went on to the Lewis's; found them very cheerful and just eating their midday meal. I went into the hut and so saw what it was, a very large spider full of hominy. That seemed the only thing, but they were perfectly content, their hunger being appeased by the abundance and heat of the meal, for it was steaming, not cooled unnecessarily as our food is by being transferred from one receptacle to another. The spider had the place of honor in the middle of the table. Each one was helped to a pan of hominy from it, and then retired out of doors to eat it.

They were all delighted with their frocks. I had collected some few men's garments for the gaberlunzie who owns the flock. But when I produced the calico frock for the wife she just overflowed with joy like a child. After many expressions of delight and satisfaction she retired to a corner to put it on, saying: -

“I'm sure, Miss Patience, no one could say I'm not a-needin' it, fo' I ain't had a chanct to wash this frock I got on till there comes a red-hot day, fo' I didn't have a thing to put on w'ile I'm a-washin' it.”

When she appeared in it she swelled with pride and said: -

“The pusson that made this frock must 'a' measured me w'en I was a-sleepin'. No dressmaker could 'a' fit me so well.”

I found that this poor soul had been for a week nursing a neighbor night and day, only leaving her long enough to walk the mile home and get her meals.

Mrs. Sullivan is very old as well as very ill and very poor, so that all the lifting and cooking and work of every kind Mrs. Lewis has done. When I said, “But you ought to get your meals there,” she answered: -

“There isn't enough, Miss Patience, in the house but jus' for her, an' I'm thankful that we've got plenty o' grits to eat now; nobody need be hungry here.”

It certainly is a lesson in more ways than one to go among those whose lives are so elementary. This woman, who has been accused of failing in her highest duties, who knows the daily presence of want, who has never had enough of anything but air and sunshine and the breath of life, spends day and night and all her strength in nursing a woman for the moment poorer than herself, in that she is old and helpless, and there is no feeling that she is doing anything unusual.

She put some of the dry hominy in a bucket and saying, “Now I mus' be goin'; Miss Sullivan begged me pitiful not to stay long,” she took the bucket and started off at a brisk walk, but I asked her to sit on the back of the buckboard as I had to pass the house. This delighted her and we had much talk.

I asked if Mrs. Sullivan had no children who could help with the nursing. She said she had two.

“Yes, mum, she has a daughter, but she's mighty feeble an' she lives three miles away, an' it jes seems as if she couldn't get to cum to her mar; an' when she does git there, well, she's that tuckered out an' that sorry fur her mar, that she jes sets in to cry. Then Miss Sullivan's son lives with her, but he seems as if his mind was a-goin'; he kyan't do nothing.”

“Doesn't he work?” I asked.

“Oh, yes, mum, he goes out an' works turpentine - that's all they've got to live on - but he don't think to cut a stick of wood, or bring a drop of water 'less'n you tell him to do it. His mar's too sick to tell him, an' he'll jes sit there an' see the fire go out an' never think. But soon as I tell him to cut a piece o' wood he'll do it right off. He's a big strong man an' they say a powerful fellow to work, but he don't seem to have no head to think.”

I was sorry it was too late for me to go in and see the old woman and her son and find out what was wrong with the latter. I remember John very well. When I taught him in Sunday-school he was a very mischievous boy, but not stupid at all. I cannot think what has come to him.

The drive home was delightful. No automobile disputed the road with us this time.

 PEACEVILLE, October 27.

Had a message to-day from the man who rents the farm that he was ready to deliver his rent in kind. It was a little misty, but I had said I would be there, so rode out on horseback while Gibbie drove the ox wagon with the big rack to receive the corn and fodder. It is “much ado about nothing,” but I was solemn and put down the little numbers in my book as Mr. C. measured, though I did not dismount. The corn, fodder, and peas could all be carried in the wagon at one time, so one knows it is not a fortune. We have about 1800 acres of wild land, and in the middle of the tract is a little cabin where my father's stock-mincer used to live, and every summer as we moved from the plantation, all the cattle were driven out into the pineland to spend the summer, and fatten on the rich grass of the savannahs - perhaps that is why we never heard of Texas fever among the cattle in those days. Certainly the imported stock which my father always kept throve and flourished, and they returned in November fat and hearty. Now it is impossible to do this for fear of their being stolen, and the summer on the plantation is hard on them.

The ride was delightful, the mist so soft and caressing. This has been a perfect autumn season, and I feel like clinging to the skirts of each day of crisp, cool temperature and glowing, gorgeous color. I want to keep winter off as long as possible.

 November 6.

As I sat on the piazza to-day about noon a runner came to the step, an unknown negro. He looked exhausted, and I said: “You seem tired; sit on the step.”

“Yes, Miss,” he said. “Dem sen' me fu' bring yu' dis talifone messige, en dem say, ‘Hurry.’”

He handed me a note, which I opened hastily. It was from the rector of All Saints, Waccamaw, saying: “Mrs. S. of Rose Hill is dead, and will be buried at The Oaks at 3 o'clock to-day.”

At once I sent a message to Bonaparte to have the red boat and Elihu ready to take me over to Waccamaw and I followed as soon as I could have the buckboard got. I felt such a pang that I had allowed myself to be discouraged, and not gone over to see Mrs. S. when the impulse seized me to do so two weeks ago, and now her remarkable personality was gone.

When I got to the plantation I found that Elihu, with all the other men on the place, was cutting rice in No. 8, the field they had rented from me, which is some distance away, and it was late before I could get Elihu. When he finally appeared he seemed much indisposed for any exertion; said he was worn out; could not possibly row to Waccamaw, so I concluded I would have to give up going, and I said with a sigh: “I am sorry I cannot go. Mrs. S. was papa's cousin. I have never seen her since he took me to visit her when I was a child, and I would have liked to attend her funeral, to do the last honors to her.”

I was just thinking aloud as I often do. The change was instantaneous, as though I had used a magic word. Elihu exclaimed, “Ole Mausa cousin fun'ral! Miss, yu's got to go, en I's got to tek yu; I kyan't trus' no one else for tek yu wanderin' trou' dem crick; I bleege to tek yu,” and Bonaparte echoed like a dignified Greek chorus, “Ole Mausa cousin fun'ral. Yu got to go,” repeated several times, as though life, death, eternity, nothing could count under such circumstances.

The red boat was rapidly got out. It was leaking badly, and they made a little platform of boards where I was to sit, to keep my feet dry. As I finally got settled in the boat I asked Bonaparte the time and found it was 3, the hour I should have been at The Oaks. However, being in the boat, having overcome so many obstacles, I determined not to be daunted by the lateness of the hour - also the clouds had gathered heavily and a sprinkle of rain was falling. I borrowed Bonaparte's competent looking silver watch, for no watch that I have ever owned could stand my strenuous life for more than three months, so that I have to do without one.

I asked Elihu when we would be back, as we glided through the first canal. He answered: “Not till long after dark.” I remonstrated, “Why it surely is not further than Waverly,” but he answered, “'E mos' twice es far.” I felt a little dismayed, but we kept on through endless windings past Cherokee Canal, then Long Creek, then the Thoroughfare, and at last into the broad, beautiful Waccamaw. When we reached The Oaks, the competent watch pointed to five.

It was a deserted tropical looking landing, with no living thing in sight, only the ruins of some houses. I got out and followed the road until I saw across a field at some distance several vehicles. I walked toward them and found the procession had just arrived and were carrying the coffin into the graveyard, a private one, with high brick walls and many monuments of past generations. Among these is one to Gov. Joseph Alston (Mrs. S.'s uncle), the husband of the beautiful and ill-fated Theodosia Burr; also their son, Aaron Burr Alston, whose death almost broke the mother's heart.

The sacred spot looked very solemn with its heavy live oak shadows in the darkening afternoon.

Mrs. S. was 86, I believe, and a saint upon earth. Since the death of her twin sister some years ago she had lived alone on her plantation, doing all the good and kindness possible to the people around her, who had formerly belonged to her. For the past two years one of her nieces had been with her always and was with her on the plantation when she passed peacefully away. There were forty or fifty of her people who had followed her to the grave and stood near showing every sign of grief.

The beautiful service of our Church was read, and we sang “Rock of Ages,” in which the negroes joined with great fervor, weeping softly and swaying in rhythm to the music. I had only a few minutes to see the family, as they had a long drive I knew, and I a long row as well as drive. They

The sacred spot with its heavy live oak shadows.

kindly insisted on my being driven down to the boat, and I started home.

After that sudden gleam of sunshine the mist had settled down again over everything. How Elihu found his way through all those creeks was a marvel. I hoped when the noon appeared it would be clear; but it was covered with white clouds, which made a soft whiteness which was most confusing, and it looked to me always as though we were in an oval lake, from which there was no egress. It was most beautiful and mysterious, and I greatly enjoyed it. When I got home at 9 o'clock I was very tired and stiff from the four hours in the boat, for I had forgotten to take a cushion, but I was very glad I had gone.

Am going away from home for two weeks and always feel nervous and anxious as to how things will go on during my absence. I hate to leave Chloe so sick and suffering, for she misses me greatly and has only Dab to depend on in the yard. Besides, my neighbor has lost three fine horses in the last three days with blind staggers, and I feel as if I may find all mine dead when I get back.

 CHAPTER VIII PEACEVILLE, November 3

I DROVE up from Gregory alone yesterday, reaching the village just at dusk. I thought with delight of the peace and quiet of the pineland settlement after the distress and indignation which I had felt since I left it.

Dab ran to open the gate, and Chloe had a nice supper ready for me, but I felt something in the air that made me lose the restful feeling, and as soon as I had finished my dainty little meal and Dab had cleared away things Chloe came in arrayed in the spotless white apron and kerchief which I dread, for they mean something serious.

After a few trivial efforts on my part to keep on the surface, for I was so tired and did so wish to float a little while, Chloe cleared her throat and began: -

“Miss Pashuns, ma'am, I cry studdy frum Tuesday night till now.”

“My dear Chloe,” I exclaimed, really alarmed, “how distressing! Have you lost some of your family? Not your grandson, I trust!”

“No, ma'am, I wouldn't a-cried es much fu' dat! No, Miss Pashuns, dis is wuss! I cry en I cry en I cry.”

“For Heaven's sake, tell me, Chloe, what has happened!”

“Miss Pashuns, I know it would dustress you so dat I wouldn't tell you till you dun eat yo' suppa, 'case I say maybe yu might faint 'way w'en yu hear.”

“Oh, Chloe,” I cried, “I will faint away now if you don't get on and tell me what has happened!”

“Miss Pashuns, Dab shot Mr. 'Apa's dog!”

“Impossible, Chloe! When?”

Then followed a long narrative which I did not altogether understand, but she said: “Didn't bin fu my gone to see Mr. 'Apa an' cry an' baig um to wait till yu cum back Dab wud 'a' bin on de chain gang by now, fu Mr. 'Apa bin dun indict um, but I baig um for hab de case put off till yu cum back. Happen so I hear 'bout um een time.”

I called for the lantern and went off at once to Mr. H. Chloe begged me not to go out alone into the night and said she thought Mr. H. and all the family would be in bed, but I felt I must know the worst before I went to bed.

When I knocked the door opened on a pretty picture of home, a beautiful young mother leaning over a six weeks' baby in a big rocking-chair used as a cradle and four boys sitting around the fire. I begged Mr. H. to speak with me a few minutes in the piazza, as I thought it best not to discuss the matter before all those boys, though it was certainly much more comfortable inside than out, for it was sharply cool. As soon as the door closed I exclaimed: -

“Mr. H., I am too distressed to hear that Dab has shot your dog! I cannot tell you how sorry I am! Is it dead?”

“No, Miss Pennington, he never shot the dog at all, and I don't think he meant to shoot him either. This is the way it happened: -

“I had been out on a deer hunt and was coming in a little after dark, my hound dog running ahead of me. I heard him bark at something when I got near my house, but it was too dark for me to see what it was till I heard the report of a pistol and saw the flash and the ball dropped near by me.

When I got near enough to see it was Dab; he said the dog jumped at him and tore his pants and he shot to scare the dog, but he said he didn't shoot at him and I don't believe he did, but I indicted him because it was a very wrong thing for him to shoot right in the road that way; he might have shot some one; indeed he came mighty near hitting me, and he had no business shooting a pistol anyway; it's against the law.

“So I indicted him, but I told the Magistrate not to proceed till you got home.”

I thanked him very much for his consideration and after making a little visit to the cosey party inside I went home. I asked him what I had better do, as I had not the faintest idea, never having had anything to do in law-courts.

He advised me to go and see the Magistrate and said that if any compromise could be made he would not push the case. He knew the punishment was a fine of $50 or thirty days on the chain gang.

I was quite overcome by his kindness and magnanimity in the matter and tried to say so, but by this time I was so exhausted that I fear I was not eloquent, to say the least.

This morning I interviewed Dab on the subject, speaking with all the force and wisdom I could. I cannot go to Judge H. until after to-morrow, for he will be busy with the election and have to go to Gregory, I believe - so I went to the plantation.

The quantity of peas gathered is most encouraging. I am quite delighted. I did not hope for half so many, and now the vines are being cut for hay with still a great many pods on them. It has not been cold enough yet to blast them.

The colts are growing finely and came running up as soon as they saw me. All the creatures, horses, cows, pigs, and sheep, are well, and I derived my usual refreshment and brightening by a few hours spent in God's good fresh air with the dumb things and the faithful trees, and came home quite cheerful and serene.

 PEACEVILLE, November 4.

I had a sleepless, miserable night; the thought of Dab's going to the chain gang for firing a pistol was too distressing, and I saw no possibility of raising $50. It was a great comfort to me that Mr. H. did not believe there was any malice or premeditation in the act, but I knew very well there were others who would think differently. I have no idea what the mental attitude of the magistrate will be.

I talked with Dab a long time and told him that while I would protect him always from injustice I would never support him in defying the law in any way. I recalled to his mind what a long fight I had made with him about a pistol, how when he was a little fellow and somehow got hold of a pistol which looked as though it might be the Adam of all firearms, I had a procession formed, he leading, Rab following, and I bringing up the rear, down to the creek, and there I made him give me the weapon and I threw it as far as I could out into the water.

It is very hard to know whether Dab is impressed or not. I told him how miserable it would make me to see him go to the chain gang after all the trouble I had taken with him, hoping to see him grow up a respectable, honest man. I could not keep the tears from coming now and then, but Dab's black face was sphinx-like in its immobility. I told him I had not $50 to pay, and that all I could do would be to go to the magistrate and plead the fact that it was his first offense, and that he did not really understand what a serious matter it was to fire a pistol on the public highway.

 November 5.

Drove up this morning to see Mr. H. about Dab's case. He lives at one of the old plantation homes, which has passed into new hands. I have never seen it since, and was quite moved in going there. It is a long, rambling house, a stone's throw from the Pee Dee River, surrounded by live oaks.

I left Dab to hold Ruth some distance from the house, out of ear-shot. Mr. H. was holding court, so I could not see him at once, but his wife asked me in to the spick and span clean house and showed me her beautiful begonias, of which she asked me to accept cuttings, which I was pleased to do When Mr. H. arrived I made my plea for Dab, and Mr. H. relieved my mind by saying as it was a first offence and Mr. A. was willing not to push it, he would try to arrange it “as light as possible.”

He would send the Sheriff in a day or two for Dab, telling him to take the handcuffs along but not to use them unless Dab resisted arrest; but that if he came quietly, gave up the pistol and answered all questions frankly, he thought it could be arranged. He then set going a phonograph and treated me to “Rock of Ages” as sung by Trinity church choir, New York. O tempora, o mores!

I returned home, the horizon of my experience enlarged in an unexpected direction, wondering over the kindness of people generally, but very weary and worn with anxiety.

 November 6.

The Sheriff came for Dab this morning while he was currying Ruth. Dab got his pistol from an old stump in the woods where he kept it hid, and gave it up and went quietly along. I do hope he will behave properly; he is always so respectful to me, but Chloe tells me he is not so to every one. If only the green-eyed monster could be eliminated, life would be easier.

10 P.M. I was so restless this morning that I had to write a few lines. Then I went to the plantation and about 3 o'clock I started back and met Dab on the road, returning, looking somehow solemn and made over. I was overjoyed to see him and tried to extract from him some account of his experience, but in vain.

His stammer was terrific, and all I heard was that Mr. H.

“I met Dab on the road.”

read the law at length to him and impressed upon him that as it was his first offence and I had guaranteed that it would never occur again he would only have to pay costs, but that if ever again he carried a concealed weapon and shot it within fifty feet of a public highway it would go hard with him. I feel too thankful and relieved for anything.

 November 8.

Sunday. A very beautiful day, and I am always influenced by that, so I begin to feel rested and more cheerful. We had a very pleasant service in the little chapel, and though both the alto and my self were hoarse the hymns were comforting.

Cherokee steps.

My little Sunday-school children came in the afternoon and were very sweet. The lesson may not do them much good, but it does me a great deal.

 CHEROKEE, November 11.

Got down to the plantation early, expecting to send Gibbie out with the ox wagon to move the heavy things. Found he had sent a message to say he was sick - a sad state of things, hands digging potatoes and no one to plough down the beds. I went to see Gibbie to see if he were really sick or only resting after his month's night hunting.

I found him ill. I fear pneumonia. He is not strong enough for all that exposure at night. I refrained from saying “I told you so,” but spoke very sympathizingly to him. His poor breath was so short; almost a pant.

I prescribed for him until we could get a doctor and had his wife lay a square of bacon skin sprinkled with turpentine over the side where the pain was. Then I sent for Green and told him he must take charge of the stable and cows until his brother should be out again, that I would let it go on his debt. He was very civil and said he would do his best, which was a great comfort. It has been a perfect day - bright, crisp, cool - and now that the effort is over it is delightful to be back in the large, pretty rooms of the Cherokee house, with everything pleasing to the eye within and without, and I feel very grateful to the Good Father. This is my mother's birthday and I would have liked to lay some flowers on her resting- place, but it was not possible, so I will go to-morrow.

 Sunday, November 12.

Started very early and drove to Gregory with a great basket of beautiful roses. Was in time to attend service in the old church of Prince George - then I drove in to Woodstock and dined with my brother and was beguiled by the beautiful afternoon to stay rather late for my long drive alone.

The key to my front gate at Cherokee had been misplaced, and so I had to drive through the barn-yard way, which made it necessary to open four gates. It was quite dark by the time I reached the house and I was surprised to find it shut up and without a light. I tied Romola and went all around to try each door, but in vain; there was no one, and I concluded that Chloe had supposed I would spend the night at Woodstock and had gone in the woods to visit her sister.

Romola was weary and reluctant to start out again, but I determined the only thing to do was to go out to Bonaparte's house in the “street” and get him to come and break open a window for me to get in. I found it very hard to open all the gates again, but I got to the street safely and there I found Chloe. She said she had gone after Rab, who had stayed out late playing with the children, and she was afraid to stay alone at the yard, having just heard of little old Grace's death, my former cook, whom I was expecting to come back.

 November 14.

Great excitement over the illness of my little grade Guernsey heifer Winnie. I had three people working on her from 11 till 4. To-night she seemed better.

Gertie is going to be married, so I have taken a new girl, be here a week before Gertie leaves and learn something from her. When I asked Gertie what she wanted me to give her as a wedding present, she answered, after much bridling and what would have been blushing if her onyx hue had permitted, “Ef you could, ma'am, I'd like the 'sperience dress',

“And what do you wish for that dress?”

“Pearl gray cashmere, please, ma'am.”

“That sounds very pretty and bridelike, Gertie, but I'm afraid it will be expensive.”

“Yes, ma'am, 'e cos' 20 cent a ya'd to Gregory.”

Much relieved to hear the price, I promised readily to get it. I have already provided all the materials and had the cake baked for her.

 November 15.

Was particularly busy this morning when old Katie arrived. She comes about once in two weeks to ask for whatever she needs, and has done so for years, and I clothe and feed her in this way, giving her just what she asks for. Wonderful to say, this time she brought me a present of four eggs and I was quite touched. I gave her four quarts of rice, some grist, a small piece of bacon, and some milk, and after the politeness of the moment I returned to my work. Had not been fifteen minutes when old Louisa came with a little present of potatoes and a long appeal for sympathy and a letter from her daughter which she wanted me to answer for her. This took a long time. I addressed and stamped an envelope which I enclosed, so that Louisa will certainly get an answer.

Just returning to the putting down of the carpet, which I have to superintend most carefully in every detail, when a man came to ask to rent the estate farm on the sea-shore, so that I only got two carpets down, and finished those very late.

My good Chloe is in very bad humor, and things are difficult She is furious at my having taken Gibbie to milk and cut wood and be about the yard, though she acknowledges that he does his work well, but he does not come of a family from which house servants used to be taken, and all the negroes resent his elevation to employment around the house, though he does not enter it except to bring in wood, which he does faithfully.

 December 1.

Have been worrying a great deal lately about the taxes; they are nearly $200 and I do not know where the money is to come from. Mr. S., who has for several years visited this section buying rice, has written to me several times asking if I had any rough rice to sell. I did not answer from sheer lachesse. I hated to say that I had none. The little I have made this year I must keep for seed. To-day I drove to Gregory and met Mr. S. in the street, and he stopped me and asked if I had never received his letter. I answered just the truth, that I had no rice at all this year except seed rice, and only a little old rice left over, on which I had been feeding my stock, and I knew he did not want that, but he asked me to send him a sample of that at once, which I gladly promised to do.

I bought the pearl gray cashmere for Gertie's “'sperience” dress, a lovely looking soft stuff, truly only 20 cents a yard; cotton, I suppose, but very pretty. Gertie was enchanted and said it was exactly right. Fashion is as exacting with them as with the highest social layer, and not to comply with what is just the last touch of elegance for a bride would be terrible to Gertie.

When I offered to give her the wedding dress she said it must be fine white lawn, and she would rather get it herself, as she knew where to get the finest, that means about 15 cents a yard, and she will have it made up in the latest fashion for 75 cents or $1 at the utmost.

 December 7.

Took the long drive to Gregory again to receive and bring up a mare that has been sent me to keep for the winter. Having no one whom I can trust to go to Gregory without visiting the great moral institution, the Dispensary, I have to go myself and take Cable with me to lead the horse back. I have never taken him anywhere with me before, but he is a quiet, civil spoken negro, and comes of good family, and is not deaf like Gibbie, so I hired him to-day.

Met Mr. S. and he said he had written to offer $1 for one sample of rice and $1.05 for the other. I told him the letter had not reached me, but I would accept his offer. I tried not to let him see how surprised and delighted I was. After this I positively tread on air, for behold the tax problem solved, as I have nearly four hundred bushels.

To make my heart still lighter, Jim came to ask if he might speak to me, and he is anxious to come back. I think I discouraged him, unless his wife is willing to move into the country with him. He represents that he is getting very high wages, which he also represents that he certainly earns, for to use his own expression he “delivers a cow a day on his bicycle!” This marvellous statement means that he is working with a market, and delivers the supplies on a bicycle instead of a delivery wagon.

He says his health is wretched and he pines to come back to the country and to Ruth and Dandy and the other horses. I told him I could not possibly pay the wages he was getting, but he said he could save more with less wages in the country, which of course is true.

Altogether the day was a pleasant one in spite of fatigue and anxiety as to Nana's successful leading home. I proposed to Cable to ride her, but he seems very timid about horses, and though all battered and bruised from rough usage on the railroad she was full of spirit and anxious to have her own way.

I was afraid we might have trouble at the ferry, for Nana is a mountain horse and had never seen a ferry, accustomed to a bridge or a ford, and it would be decidedly awkward if she took a notion to ford the Black River, as it is (more or less) sixty feet deep at the ferry. I had behind the buckboard a bale of fruit trees from Berckman's done up in rye-straw, with the heads of rye left on. This Nana was so eager to get a good bite of, that she followed into the ferry without noticing where she was going, but when she found the flat in motion, she seemed frightened. I told Cable to let her eat all the rye she wanted and even the precious fruit trees, rather than have her begin to fight, and all went well. She stood quietly eating while we crossed.

 December 8.

Not having yet succeeded in getting any one to patch the boiler to the threshing mill, I determined to go myself to Waverly and try to get some one. I sent Bonaparte to measure the cracks that I might take the measurements over with me, and told Gibbie to get the red boat ready for me. Gibbie, who is very deaf, did not hear “red” and I found him tugging at my white boat, which is up under the piazza, waiting to be caulked and painted. Fortunately I passed by and saw him, for it was an impossibility for him to move it unaided. I succeeded in making him understand that he was to bring the red boat from the barn-yard to the house-landing for me.

I went in and turned the eggs in the incubator, filled and trimmed the lamp, donned my boating outfit, and went to the landing. A long wait and then Gibbie appeared, looking hopeless. “Miss, I kyan' fin' Bony no ways, en 'e got de oah en de oahlock shet up een de bahn.”

I expressed great impatience at this. Bonaparte should not lock up my oars. I always have kept them at the house, but poor Bonaparte knows his own race so well that he has an infinite distrust of them and locks up everything until it has become a mania.

Having suggested every possible place to find Bonaparte, at last I said: “Have you looked in the boiler?”

“No, ma'am,” with a wondering look.

“Well, look in there at once.”

He soon returned at a run to say that “Uncle Tinny and Uncle Bony were both in the b'iler” and wanted a lantern. This was sent, and after a prolonged pause they both appeared with the measurements of the cracks.

I patiently tried to understand Tinny's explanation as to where the holes were, but in vain. At last I said: “Anthony, you just get in the boat and go over to Waverly with me and you can explain to Captain Frank where the damage is, so that he will know what materials to send when he sends a man.”

“But, Miss, I ain't fix fo' go. Ef yo' been tell me yo' wan' me fo' go to Wav'ly wid yo', I'd a dress maself, but I ain' fix; look a' me.”

I looked, and truly the little gnome was an object - an old, tattered derby hat, with the mellow green tint of age, a very dirty new bright green and white plaid shirt, which only emphasized the extraordinary patchwork nether garments and coat, from the pocket of which conspicuously protruded a bottle.

With a grave face I assured the old man that he was quite decent and must go, and that as he was a fine paddler he could paddle while Gibbie rowed and we would go like a steam tug. This reconciled him to going in his working trim, and we started - I sitting in the bow with Tag, my nondescript terrier, Gibbie in the middle with oars, and the gnome at the stern paddling.

All this delay had consumed hours and the sky had darkened and it felt like rain. Chloe came to the wharf to beg me to wait, but I had wasted so much time and patience that I could not put it off.

I soon found it was a special mercy that I had caught old Tinny and made him come, for Gibbie proved a poor oarsman and the wind was against us and very high, so though we had the tide our progress was not rapid, and I was glad to have the old man, who knows all about boats. With the head wind Tag and I, high in the bow, were a great disadvantage. I longed for Elihu, for I would have felt safer with him.

To make things worse, when we got into the broad Waccamaw where the whitecaps were dancing, a steamer passed up the river, making such big waves that Tinny wanted to turn back without crossing, but I was not willing, as we were more than halfway to the mills, and to my surprise Gibbie supported me and we went on. Fortunately I had taken what the negroes call an “'iler,” a heavy rubber coat, to put over my knees. I had amused myself with pencil and pad, writing until the pad got too wet, for the water dashed in constantly. Poor Tag, straight up on his hind legs in the bow, looked out with dreary eyes, for at the best of times he hates water, and no doubt he said to himself that if he were a human he would have more sense than to leave a bright fire and comfortably carpeted room to be dashed and splashed in this way.

However, we reached the mill safely, and if only I had been successful in my errand, I would not mind, but Captain L. said he could not possibly spare any workman to send. This was a great blow, for I had written to him in June about and he promised to send some one to repair the boiler, even naming a day when he would come. I do not know what to do now, for he knows all about such work and could tell me exactly what it was best to do, and I have such confidence him. I did so wish to get the very little rice I have threshed out before Christmas. I will have to try to get a man from Gregory.

As I rowed up to the mills I came upon a flat heavily loaded with lightwood and recognized two of my men on it. I said, “Why, Billy, what are you doing here? Whose wood that?”

“De my own.”

Now I know why I have had so much trouble in getting my wood cut and sold. I had put Billy in charge and he has been steadily stealing my wood, he and his brother together shipping it in a flat owned by their father, who is a gentleman of leisure living on his own land on a pension which he receives from the great Government of these United States.

Of course I will have to send Billy and Sol off the place after this discovery, for as Billy had been put in charge of the cutting and flatting of my wood and has so betrayed his trust, I cannot let him stay, but he will move to my neighbor's and continue no doubt to steal my wood, as his father's farm is very near my line. It is ten acres. Though every one on the place has known all summer what was going on, no one would give me the least hint of it, and I never would have known it if I had not made this trip to Waverly and come upon them in the act of unloading twelve cords of splendid lightwood. Of course it would be useless to take any legal steps when it is impossible to get testimony.

I got back very weary; it is astonishing how true the old saying is, “A cheerful heart goes all the day, while a sad one tires in a mile,” and mine was very sad on the way home.

 CHEROKEE, December 9.

Was very busy this morning writing letters to catch the mail which passes my gate at 11, when they came in to say that Annette wanted to see me “pa'tick'ler.” I went out and said, rather shortly: “What can I do for you, Annette? This is a busy day and you must talk quickly.” Annette twisted her hands together nervously once or twice, and then answered: “I came to baig you to make my will, ma'am.”

“Why, Annette, do you feel ill?”

Her head went down and her apron came up, half covering her face, and she said: -

“No, ma'am, but I 'spects to be married again. I bin a fateful wife to St. Luke en' I bin a fateful widder to 'im f'r t'ree year; but now a very 'spectable man is co't me, en' I'se to be married next week, en' I wants to put all St. Luke proppity to 'e chillun, de house en' de fa'am between dem, en' de cow fer Annie, en' de two heifer between dem. De man I gwine marry got 'e own house en' fa'am, en' 'e seem to speak en' act very fair, but I wan' to lef' St. Luke chillun secure.”

I was so delighted at this evidence of Annette's intelligence, knowledge of human nature, and loyalty to her dead husband's interest, that I forgot all about my important letters and drew up a most impressive document which I had her sign in the presence of three witnesses, being the disposal of real estate. She only “teched de pen,” that is, put her hand on the end of the pen while I wrote her name, and she made a mark. When the will was satisfactorily executed she wanted me to keep it, but this I declined to do, advising her to give it into her mother's care, if she preferred not to keep it herself.

 December 10.

Went to church, though there was a gale blowing and the trees looked very dangerous buckling and bending over the road. Ruth behaved well, though she did not like it. When I got back, bringing L. to dinner with me, I found Jim waiting to see me, having ridden up from Gregory on his bicycle. He said he wanted to come back, that his wife was not only willing but anxious for him to come, as she had no pleasure in his life in town, he was so ailing and worked so hard. He begged me to take him. The only thing he wanted to ask was that I would let him spend every Sunday in Gregory, for he sang in the choir in his church and didn't want to give up the music. I told him I would always do so if possible, but that there might be circumstances which would make it impossible to spare him on Sunday.

The smoke-house at Cherokee for meat curing.

He cannot come until he gets some one to take his place, but as he is coming I will put off the meat curing and sausage making until he comes, for my mother taught him the best way of doing all that, and it makes it so much easier than undertaking it with a green hand. Jim is to do almost everything, under our present agreement; but Gibbie is still to milk and to keep the stables clean and cut wood for the house.

 December 11.

Lent Bonaparte the ox wagon and team to go to Gregory and lay in his household supplies. Sent a note to Billy P. - and his brother, who had been selling the lightwood for themselves instead of for me, telling them to leave the place with their families at once. Of course I should have taken the money for the wood, but I could not make up my mind to do that without some legal process, and as I could not get any witness to testify against them any legal process was impossible. If I had ordered them to give me one-half the money, quite possibly they might have done it; but they might have refused to do it and I would then have been powerless. I am very careful not to give any order which I cannot have obeyed.

 December 12.

Billy and Sol came to beg me to let them stay until January, but I told them I had trusted them and they had betrayed my trust and must go at once. I hate to lose their wives, who are good workers, and their little children, who come to say catechism and sing hymns and have a stick of candy every Sunday afternoon. Sol's wife, Aphrodite, is such a specimen of health and maternal vigor that I delight to see her going to work with her procession of little ones behind her. The men themselves are strong, able-bodied workers, and I shall miss them; but once having begun to depredate upon me, nothing will stop them.

I find now that recently they have been living out of my vegetable garden, and the potato banks have been robbed and there are dark hints as to their guilt in that, too. I told them they must whip their rice out by hand at once so as to pay their rent, and take the rest with them. It is a sad state of things that one is unable to secure redress in any way for depredation, and so the only thing to do when a tenant goes wrong in this way is to send him off, so that unless one winks at evil deeds or condones offenses, one will soon be without hands entirely.

 December 13.

Yesterday, driving out, I saw a raft of very fine poplar logs being made down by the bridge in the creek, and this morning

Sol's wife, Aphrodite, is a specimen of maternal health and vigor.

I walked out to see whose logs they were. I have on my woodland across the creek some very beautiful poplars, some of them about three feet in diameter at the base. I have several times been offered a price for them, but have always answered: “When I am in need of bread I will sell those trees, but not before.” Now I feared some one might have cut them, hence my desire to inquire about the raft.

I saw a raft of very fine poplar logs being made.

I found Jack and Monday at work on the raft, which was composed of splendid pine as well as poplar logs. Both of these men had belonged to my father and now own farms and woodland of their own about two miles away. They assured me the logs all came from their own land and had been hauled with their own ox teams. I complimented them on the size and beauty of the poplar, and just at that moment Daniel, another one of our former people, now a prosperous landowner, came by in his canoe, and I took passage with him up the creek to my woodland, as I wanted to make sure that my poplars were still standing.

As I got out at the landing I offered to pay him, but he said: “Oh, no, Miss; you don't owe me a cent. I was just on my way home, and I'm glad to have de chance to do it for you.”

I thanked him suitably for his pleasant feeling. At the landing there was a raft tied of very large logs. I asked Daniel whose it was and he said it belonged to Frank and Logan, who were cutting on my land. I was greatly shocked. Logan is the son of one of my father's most trusted servants who died a few years ago leaving eight sons and three daughters grown up and married. He was a first class engineer and blacksmith and could be counted upon always to do faithful, good work. His sons had most of them followed his trade after a fashion, and all of them had what is now called education (without, however, any training) and are smart men; but not one of them has the character, the thoroughness, the reliability, of the old man, who could neither read nor write, but who had been trained to do one thing as well as it could be done.

The sons have, one by one, left my service to go where there was more demand for their work and more pay, but a kindly feeling has remained between us. They are all prosperous, living on farms of their own.

Some months ago Logan brought Frank, a stranger to me, to ask to handle the fallen pine trees on my land and give me one-third of the proceeds. They said they had fine ox teams and each had a logging cart and were fixed for the business. After thinking over it a while I consented, for I had been over the land and knew that there were many fine large trees blown down by the storm which would only rot on the ground if I refused, for I had no reliable hands to get them to market myself. I made them sign a paper saying they were to cut no trees, only to take the prostrate pine, and was quite pleased when the arrangement was completed.

Cypress trees.

The results had disappointed me, being much less than I had supposed they would be. Every now and then they brought me $8, with account of a raft in Captain L.'s hand-writing showing the amount of my third, and I had been suspecting that they were carrying many rafts to Gregory and selling them on their own account, not giving me the third, but I did not see how I could find out the truth. They had come to me in the winter to ask permission to “dead” some cypress. This means to ring the cypress so as to kill it, otherwise it cannot be handled; it will not float if green.

I refused to give permission for this, and a short time afterward they asked to be allowed to cut some poplar. This I forbade with horror, and they went away. Now the sight of this raft made me understand of what treachery they had been guilty toward my trees.

I counted the logs - twenty pine, four cypress, and two poplar; then I walked out into the woods and soon came upon Logan with his team hauling a splendid log and Frank not far behind with another. Just for a moment, as I stood waiting for them to come up, it flashed through my mind what a rash thing perhaps I was doing, as both of these men are rather ugly tempered. I had sent Daniel off with his boat, thinking some one might come along the creek by the time I was ready to go back. No one at the house had the least idea where I was, for I had not intended making this extended trip when I left.

When the men came up I taxed them with having done what I had expressly forbidden them to do. At first they were disposed to be rude and answered roughly, but I went on very quietly, using all the self-control possible, to tell them that they had violated their contract and put themselves entirely in my power; that I needed no witnesses, for my own eyes had seen what they were doing. Gradually their whole manner changed. One hat went off and then the other and Logan came a step or two nearer, and with a most dramatic air of humility and penitence said: -

“Miss, you right; en we cry guilty, guilty! We own um, we's guilty, en you know, miss, w'en a man stan' 'e trial een de co't, en dat man cry guilty, de jedge don' put de law so heaby to um. We dun wrong, miss; we egkno'ledge we sin, en we pleads yo' mussy!”

I was completely taken aback. I was prepared for anything but this, and I had no idea what to say in my surprise. While I considered they stood with bowed heads, eyes fixed on the ground, and every air of complete surrender. I was disarmed, and of course did not follow up my victory as I should. I gave them a little discourse on judgment and mercy and on the awful sin of deceiving and taking advantage of one who had trusted one. Then I told them they could take the timber they had cut and hauled, to market and give me half instead of one-third, and that after selling these logs they must not touch a stick of timber of any kind again.

With expressions of profound thanks they led the way down to the swamp as I told them to do, and showed me all the trees they had cut. It was heartrending to see the havoc they had wrought, and which nothing could undo. It took away my breath almost for a time, and I felt almost as though I had been wrong not to proceed against these men and have them brought to justice. I knew perfectly I would get no money to speak of from them.

It is impossible for me to watch the woodland and swamp myself - if there is no one to see after my interest there it is indeed hopeless. Bonaparte used to do it, but now he seems to have been intimidated in some way, and will not undertake to see after it at all.

 December 14.

It poured heavily all day. At 1 o'clock they came in to say the wagon had come for the cotton. Of course I could not send it in the rain, and I had to send the man back. He was very wet and cold and I gave him some potato pudding and milk, all that was ready. The gin is about twelve miles away and I had engaged them to send for my cotton to-day. It was folly to send in the rain. Still I suppose I will have to pay for it.

Chloe went to St. Cyprian's last night and had much to tell of the service and her approval of the sermon. She said Mr. G. was “a good preacher en preached de pure gospel.” She told me she had walked back with old Anthony and that he praised the sermon and then told her of his dissatisfaction with his minister, a Baptist. She said: -

“Br'er Tinny say, him don' like de preacher dem got; say dem ax de man fo' preach out to Tolson village, en as him had to cum clean f'um Gregory ebrybody carry 'nuf money for t'row een, but w'en him beggin fo' preach dem fin' him preach politiks, en slur, en Latin, en dem 'ordn't Prow een dem money, en de man neber git but one dollar en a half f'um dat big crowd o' people.”

“Well, Chloe, you will have to tell me what preaching ‘slur’ means.”

“Miss Pashuns, dat mean him hol' up him perfesshun high, en him scandalize all dem oder Christianity, en dat mek dem feel shame en dem didn't like dat. Him bin a Babtist, yu see, en de chutch bin full o' Methodist.”

“Oh, I understand now. That was very bad indeed; now tell me what does preaching politics mean?”

“Dat mean stid o' preach de gospel of de Lord, him bin a talk 'bout de State en de law, en de guberment, en 'e got dem all tangle up en dem mind.”

“They certainly showed their sense, Chloe, when they objected to that, for they went to church for heavenly instruction; but tell me what preaching Latin meant.”

Chloe seemed to be a little tired of my questions and to think me dull, which is not my ordinary trouble, but she explained: -

“Well, Miss Pashuns, yu kno' 'tain't ebrybody kin onderstan' Latin, en w'en dis man kum to a place wey him hab nuthin' sensible fer said, him sta'at fu' ramble een a kin' o' gibbish en nobody c'udn't onderstan', en de man's self c'udn't onderstan'. Bre'r Tinny say you c'ud look een 'e eye en see him jes' bin'a wander. Him didn't hab nuthin' fu' say; so him didn't t'row een him money, en say w'en he yeddy* Animus Brown is fu' preech him stay home.”

I was quite amazed that little old man Tinny should have such power of discernment, and also such apt terms to describe and size up his preacher, and I was truly thankful he recognized the difference in Mr. G.'s doctrine and methods.

The darkies have a wonderfully keen insight into character. It is almost as if by instinct they know the genuine article from the imitation, the gilt from the gold. When you look at Anthony you would not think he knew anything more than a sparrow sees with its beady black eyes. He is very dried up and little, with those very same beady eyes. I think a great deal of the old man; he makes me a present of a huge pumpkin every year, and after many efforts to find out what he would like in return I make my present.

Sometimes I am baffled as to what he would like and give him money. If I do this, the very next day he hangs his

* “Yedde” means to hear in real gullah, which some of the old darkies still use.

shoes on a stick over his shoulder and walks down to Gregory, fourteen miles away, invests his cash in firewater and walks back home, all with a little shuffling gait which makes it hard to believe he could walk twenty-eight miles a day.

 December 18.

This afternoon Gibbie came to say that his mother was very low and so he would not be able to milk, so I took Goliah to the cow stable to help Bonaparte milk and then to put up the horses. Many little negroes of Goliah's size are good milkers, but he has no skill in that line at all, though he is remarkably clever and useful with horses.

 December 19.

Both yesterday and to-day I got up very early and went out to the stable to help Bonaparte. It is very provoking of Gibbie to absent himself in this way, for I find he is not waiting on his mother, who has her husband and three other sons and their wives devoted in their services, while Gibbie is just idling along the roads.

 December 20.

A perfect day, the air warm and balmy. On my way home from church heard of Eva's death. She was a simple, faithful soul, always diligent, working hard in her large field around her house and giving freely of the produce to her five sons, four of whom have families, but none of them has inherited her working, faithful nature. I will miss her greatly.

I had a good attendance of darkies at Sunday-school this afternoon. I was so pleased to see the children all so clean and nicely dressed, and they behaved so well. There were fourteen girls and fifteen boys, most of them between 10 and 14 years of age. After they have gone over the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments several times, with explanatory remarks from me, they repeat after me a hymn, this time: “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night,” preparatory to Christmas. Then I go in to the piano and have the girls in the room, while the boys stand by the window; and they all sing à faire peur.

She was a simple, faithful soul—always diligent.

They enjoy it so that their whole strength is put into sound In vain I listen for the sweet voices I have heard in times past - this is all volume without sweetness - and I fear I will crack my own throat in my efforts to guide the volume aright. “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” they know pretty well, also “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” After four hymns they stand in order of size in the piazza and I hand around two pounds of candy, which just gives each child a stick, and they depart. But to-day little fellows shot out from the row and four with much serious unwrapping of handkerchiefs handed me each an egg. I was much surprised and thanked them with effusion.

They come every Sunday before I have finished my dinner, greatly to Don's indignation; any arrival at meal-times is displeasing to him, and for fear he will frighten the children I have him chained as soon as I come from church on Sunday. These children are all grandchildren of those who belonged to my father.

 December 21.

Bagging rough rice in the barn all day. It is very cold and dusty. I have most unexpectedly sold this rice for a dollar a bushel, and instead of being full of thankfulness, my poor human nature is lamenting over the 600 bushels which I have fed to my creatures all summer, and let the hands have whenever they wanted it for forty cents a bushel, and thinking how rich I would be if I had it here now. I cannot get the rice from this year's crop threshed, little as it is, because it seems impossible to get any one to work the boiler.

 December 24.

Very busy putting up a parcel to send to Dab's little brother Rab who is, I hope, being made over into a very