The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-12-09
THANKSGIVING BEGGARS.

THANKSGIVING BEGGARS.
LOr, your Thanksgiving beggars ain
nothing new! We used TO rio ourselves
up in old rags when was gurl, and
many's the good laugh we've he'd when
some of the neighbors was took in by
us, and filed our baskets with Thanks
giving fare. Your spelling matches AIM
nothing new neither. We used for to
hev 'em out TO Pixies Clearing, Jest for
recreation like; cold winter evenings
they warmed you up bit, and begot
many heart-burning, I'll warrant. In
the summertime, You see, we could hey
a figger i'm the barn, if Ben had his vio-
lin mended; but winters there want
nothing we could do but Jest get to-
gether and cultivate our minds with the
spelling-bOok, for we couldn't dance in
the SchOOl-hOuse on account of the
seats. Seems TO me | can see Sibyl
Jones now waiting on the sittee for to
be chose on one side or t'other; for,
you see, Jack Rhett, Square Rhett's
son, used to come and join us while he
was studying with Parson Paul to keep
up with his class at Yale the year he
was rusticated; and the way of it was,
he always led one side of the spelling
match and Matthew Morris, Farmer
Morris's Matt, led the other; and there
sat Sibyl as still as a mouse, only her
hands working together under her
shawl-for the school-house want al
ways as warm us love-and her two
eyes a-glittering, glittering; and p'r'aps
it wouldn't be till there wasn't nobody
else left to choose that young Rhett
would say, saucy enough,
"Well, now I'll take Miss Sibyl
Jones"
Last, but not least" Matt Morris
would call out. For the truth was, Matt
would hev chose her furst himself,
but he knew that she wouldn't do any
thing a-Spelling against Jack Rhett, and
that she'd sooner be last with Jack
than furst with any body else. That's
what | call self-denial, or else | never
come across the thing. But, you see. Jack
was a-playing sort of fast and loose with
Sibyl, he hankered after her pretty face
and pretty manners, but he couldn't
quite bring himself to overlook the
distance between Square Rhett's son
and Farmer JoneS's daughter, specially
as Farmer Jones was a ne'er-dO-well,
and loved his own cider barrel better'n
all the rest of mankind. Now with
Matthew Morris is was different, as
every body knows. He loved Sibyl jest
for herself, and it didn't make no odds
to him who or what her father was, so
long as she was nobody but herself.
But then he was only farmers son
himself, and p'r'aps he didn't know no
better. Well, we kept up the spelling
matches pretty much all winter, and
sometimes Rhett would choose Sibyl
the very furSt, and then again he'd con-
trive not to choose her at all, and she'd
be that cut up by it-for Sibyl never
he'd much proper spirit-that she'd be
the furSt to miss on words that a baby
could spell, and Rhett would be sure to
laugh and chaff her till the tears was
jest ready to gush out of her two dove
ewes, for the rogue knew it was all his
work. Heavens only knows why she
cared a Soumarkee for the young sauce
box. He wasn't so handsome as Matt
Morris. but he he'd the Hall and the
square behind him, to be sure, and he
wore store clothes, and he'd such airs as
women-folkS take to. You see, he'd
carry YOUR shawl and hold your UNI
berell and quote pretty verses to you if
YOU was young and pretty yourself; and
he he'd a mustache that sort of dropped
AT the ends and give him a sad look,
which was quite contrary TO his feel
'R-n a rTrrls
take to a muStache as duck takes to
water. He was full of mischief, too, and
that's what gurls don't object to in
the leasteSt; the kind that gets
rusticated and expelled, and that
proper sort of mothers don't
countenance, is Jest the kind the daugh-
ters mostly loses their hearts to. Not
that Sihyl was one to like fast young
men; she was so innocent herself that
she didn't as much as suspect any thing
about the wickedneSS of this wicked
world. and she thought Rhett was all
that fancy painted him, and maybe 4
good deal more His fine airs was SO
many virtues, and she believed him if
he said black was white. Sibyl was
good and pretty enough for a Dukes
IL.
her great-aunt Cover to the seminary at
Great Guns, and want noways lacking
in book-learning; she could pass any
word in the language, and she didn't
murder the Kings English as I've heeTd
some do that's he'd more chances; and
she was a master-hand at reading, and
could tell YOU all about furrin parts,
and do the biggest sums in the arith-
metic. Nobody needn't bin ashamed of
Sibyl, she was that lady-like and fit for
the kingdom of heaven. But the trou-
bic was, she he'd set her poor heart on
Jack Rhett. When he neglected her,
all the light in her world become dark
ness; when he was kind, the darkness
divided, and it was day. Many's the
time I've seen Rhett lettering in the bit
of wood near the School-house waiting
for Sibyl, who taught the district school
that summer; and then, when the
scholars d come trudging out, he'd
seem to happen near all byaccident, and
raise his hat and kiss his hand and walk
along with her, and it didn't need spec
tacles to see that the longest way round
vasthe shortestway home at such times.
Well. when he went back TO college,
he'd used to correspond with Sibyl, and
when he came home on vacations, he'd
contrive to meet her either by the trout
brook or the Witches Pool-a pretty
middle enough, that didn't seem to lead
nowhere. nor TO come from anywhere,
an oyerhung with trees that reached
across and knit together and darkened
the place with shsdders. Ii was such