Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-09-03
NO. 2O9.
Cabs and Sketeltfs.
Sarah Winter Kellogg in Lppincotts Magazine
AUNT CINDY'S DINNER.
CONTINUED FROM YEsrERpAY.1

i.
Tony appeared, looking like tattered
scare-crow with live head.
"Whar's dem dar twin brudders?
wants to put one Nv 'em ter soak. What
yer gone an done wild dem dar twin brud-
derso" persisted Aunt Cindy.
II hain't done muffin tall wild dem dar
twin brudders-nebber fetched um.'' Tony
declared half frightened. half sullen.
"Hush you mouf, yer story-teller! I'll
boun' yer's gone an feeded all dem dar
twin brudders to de chickens; yer's to lazy
ter mix a little cawn-meal fer um. ,,
"Nebber feeded dem dar twin brudders
to de chickens, no more N nuffin',n Tony
insisted. as&
"How yer reckons Is gwyne ter git din
ner fur dem fou' puzzidun' elduz efI
hain't got no twin brudders to make de
light bread?" '.'.
{, dun know" an
lob cou'se yes dun know yer dun know
muffin. Come yere while boxes you Jaw.
l boxes yere kase / dubbed you gran
mudder. Me an her uster play togedder
when we all wus bofe gals togedder.''
Aunt Cindy was heaving and balancing
herself preparatory to descent from the
bench on which she was mounted. Down
she stepped at length, her broad bare foot
meeting the dirt floor with heavy thud--
or slap. rather, i8Gi5
"Come long up ycre." continued Aunt
Cindy. asm saw
Tony was moving toward her with re-
luctant, bewildered air, his dead grand
mother and twin brothers all ia tumble
in his brain, when Aunt Cindy suddenly
exclaimed, "Dar's dem twin brudders
now, on dat dar jam'!" Tony smiled
from ear to ear in his satisfaction at hav-
ing escaped the impending boxing
"Hush you GRIMM dar, yer imperence
an 60 long an fotch me some hick'ry-bok
to cook dat dinner. Wasn't yer 'ware rs
got ter git dinner fer fou' puzzidun'
elduz ?"
Tony gave long whistle of astonish-
ment, and went off toward the woods.
While the yeast-cake was soaking Aunt
Cindy set to work collecting materials for
a cake-a pound-cake with icing-she had
decided upon. Although her movements
were slow and labored, there were
strength and force in them. so that she
accomplished a surprising amount OF
work. She didn't lose much time looking
for spoons and forks. She stirred things
with her finger, and with it she tested her
gravies and sauces and custards 1t
needed but few strokes of her warm,
soft hand to beat the butter to a cream;
few turns more and the sugar was thor
oughly incorporated with this. Then with
some twigs of crape-myrtle, in lieu Of an
egg -beater. the yelk of the eggs was soon
foaming. and the white standing alone.
Lastly she bethought her of the cinnamon
to make it ''taste," she said. Painting and
blowing, she again assembled her observa-
tory, and began snuffing, tasting, and
peering at the various paper parcels on
the log sleeper. 'Whar kin dat Gin mon
box be atP" She said, II hain't seed it
sence TUX it to meetin' 10 scent my ham
kercher. I'll be bound dat dar Tony's
done gone an tuck an ct dat dar cin'mOn-
box, ha'r an hide. Maybe put it in de
big gou'd. ass So ID 9vs9f
She waddled down from the bench and
across the shed to q gourd as large as
giant pumpkin, and with much the shape
of one. She turned it bottom up on the
dirt floor, and out poured an Incredible
ridge-eggs, a handkerchief. a pair Of slip
belt ribbon, q vial of hair Oh, q hymn
book, a lump of loaf sugar. stick. of
sassafras-root, paper of saleratus, and
another OF snuff. "1Tain't ysre." She
looked the lambs over, and then, with
majestic waddle she crossed the yard to
the house. seseh&
Miss Rithy," she said when she found
heself in Mrs. Burgess presence, II amt
gwyn ter take de- spoons bil'ity Nv no
poun'cake widouten cin'mon-bok to puff
tume it, an l hain't got no Gin 'mon-bok
on my premsis."
SEN over to Brother Phillpotts' an
borrer stick" said the lady appealed to
returning to her perforated cardboard, on
which she was working in rainbow worst
ed a church with man beside it. The
man was taller than the steeple.
Aunt Cinda went her way, and soon the
yard was resounding with calls for Tony.
But in vain it resounded; no Tony an
swered. 'I'll be boun' he's laid down
under blackjack an gone ter sleep"
muttered. Then she called Merry. and
there came an answer from away OIL In
the Clubhouse. Nervy was granddaughter
to Aunt Cindy, and her mother was dead.
She was nurse. maid to all the slave babies
in turn, unless there were more than one
at time, so that the girl was seldom
seen without a baby in her arms, or on
her back.
Up the lane, in field to the right, stood
the gin house where the cotton was ginned
with two broad, wing-like scaffolds where
the cotton was summed. Close by was the
great screw, with its long arms, where
the cotton was baled. Nervy came out
of the pick-room, the apartment which re-
ceiyed through wooden fiue the light,
downy cotton as it came from the gin, and
where the fleece hung from the wells and
raiters in streamers and festoons like white
gauze, and, piled in great drifts soft and
pure as snow. was banked up to the roof
like summer clouds. A plunge into one
of those tempting banks was not unastend-
ed with the risk OF smothering, for Ii was
unstable and treacherous as down. OF
course, then, Merry ought to have been
in the pick-room with that little black ba-
by, but that the place was welhnigh empty
containing only remnant. Of last years
crop, which had been reserved for home
consumption.
Over the fence into the lane scrambled
Nervy, the little black baby elingipg squir-
rel-like as she pulled up one side OF the
rail-fence and backed down the other.