The Louisiana cotton-boll. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], Attakapas, La.) 1872-1883, 1873-04-02
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can t"ii YUu, Dolly, never Uncle
: Liph staggered part of the way across
tne room, then turned suddenly.
"Ihcy're going to take l. all, Dolly
everything, strip us clean, clean 1s
We wore when we begun fifty years ago.
house and farm and cows,-eypry-
thing. There's been great careless
ness rs well Hs great wrong wrOng nud
carel"ssncss and wrong from the very
beginning, and now they're coming.
Ihc law'll lot 'rm, and it's got to CO.
the back pastpr, and the wood-lot, and
til" Young orchard. and everything, -
even I}Uhe's grave, Dolly. O God !!
haven served Thee these fifty years ;
why shOuldst Thou cast me off nOw?"
The crap, scruggy face with the grny,
straggly hnir around it, was turned to-
wards the ceiling Aunt Dolly went
out into the night.
It was stormy, and cold, and bitter.
The slect cut against her cheek, the
wind raved in her hair and the snow
drifted at her feet, but Aunt Dolly
didn't mind it, She only wanted mir
and to think. She leaned up against
the woathcr-browned clapboards. Was
it really going, going, going, all going?
She COuldT't think, one word alone
whistled over and over in her brain,-
going, going She looked off through
the storm to the dimly-outlined maple
beneath which lay Rube's grave. That,
too, was going.
Heart and brain together grew numb;
muscles, involuntarily acting, carried
Aunt Dolly into the house. The voice
! If an autOmatOn said -
It's time we hal prayers, father.
| The hands of second automatOn
opened the old book. A strained voice
began -
"The Lord is my sheperd; I shall
not"
The two automatons fell on their
knees with tears, !broken sobs, and half
| articulation, and were automatons no
longer.
Uncle 'Liphalot went to no more
meetings.
"I'Il fix the back door, Dolly, but l
don't know anything whose hand ii
swing it, said he.
As for the "Native Village manufac-
turing company" it was boat loaded
with stone to the waters edge. Poor,
deceived and disheartened though the
were, never did men strain muscle
harder thun those who sought to tighten
her; but over the side the water came
in, and she went down.
Then up from the east and the west
and the north and the south, came
creditors, seeking their just dues, none
doubted, but seeming Oftentimes to the
gnarled and Woodworking debtors like
the fat kline come up anew to devOur
the lean. Aunt Dolly and Uncle Lip |
halet waited patiently for the one to
whom they were appOrtiOnCd. He was
not greedy; he allowed his prey to lie
fattening until the leaf buds swelIed |
on the lilacs. Meanwhile, what agonies
Aunt Dolly underwent can not be de-
scribed. What must the crab feel in
seeing the stork straddle along the |
shore and gobblo up his fellows, and |
knowing not whether his turn shall |
come now or then?
Aunt DOlly's ideal creditor was an
iron man, steel-tipped and brass-bOund;
when, therefore. the real creditor one |
early April morning swung back the |
little picket gate, and stopped to sniff
ut the lilac buds, she closed her eyes Gs
she would have done in the hands of !
the cxecutioner. She went, though,
and let him in rs if he had come into
his own and his own received him.
Then she sat down with her sock
knitting beside Uncle Liphalet. Uncle
'Liph shook worse, and his hair and
face were winter than when SwintOn
called three years befose.
The creditor talked pleasantly; so
bad his predecessor. All "business
men" were to Aunt Dolly of the Artful
Sw' ton type.
. creditor opened, the subject
gen y.
81 ua y the law gives it to you, sir
but It's Iurd, hard bringing my mind
to sajd the hOarse voice of Uncle
Ii.,l c.uin3 over infirm lips. Here's
wh.,e Dolly and me came when we
wei., first married. There was heavy
mo Ike. on the farm but we said
we" sUrk ourselves clear, and we did,
si,. We'd saved up something for
ba's eddycation but Rube died and
ne moneys gone the farms going,
and we're going. / don't know where
we're going.
The CT, ditor looked troubled.
"WLy, sir, there amt Il rod O stone
wall on the farm but I've laid the stone;
not foot o drained rnedder land but
I've put down the tiles not bearin'
tree in the orchid but grated; there
amt. Oh it'll be drefful to take away
the farm, drefful." "
Uncle 'Liph laid his great, rough
hands over his face, and the tears trick
led through his fingers.
He don't oughter shed tears" said
Aunt Dolly, apologetically, but he's
been so harassed and worried, he's
kind O. weakened and broke down, sir.
But it's hard on us both to leave the old
farm. There's difference, sir, betwixt
a farm that's bought for lump O
money, and farm that seems TO stand
for the spotted calf, and the cOsset
sheep. and the yellow hens eggs"
Uncle 'Liphalet broke in: It's
rocky, and don't look like much, l
know, but pears to me men are some
like trees it 8 them as has their roots
twisted around and under the rocks
that it's hardest to tear up. / never
expected to die in the poor house, sir.
None o my kin ever went there. What
would Rube say? Why, what would
Rube say, Dolly?' II
tive tried hard to realize it, " said
Aunt Dolly, I'm the nighttime, too,
it'll be to be sitting by some
bodY's else fire admitting, him a bring
ing in their wood, and out here another
than me, canning the plums, and dry
ing The sage, and a sPattin' up the but
ter on the back porch"
"And drivin' the COWS to pastur-O
Ilordv r. broke in the old man.
but the hardest thing to leave
Reuben, our on,--he was turned eigh- /
teen, sir,---is buried on the farm. Ii
you'll step to the winder, sir, I'll show
Won his grave. There, down unaer that
maple. There's were he fit for college,
and when he came to die, il seemed, sir,
rs if in that place where he'd dreamed
over his Latin and his Greek of great