American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-07-22

them all they wants and all their hearts
desire. l never crosses them and spiles
their disposition.
Her standard was perfection, and,
like most of us, she kept it to measure
others by, This principle applied con-
veniently to her dealings with her own
race. She would rarely pay colored
person for dress-making or other work.
"No, don't pay for such no-account
sewing as that" overheard her say
ing one day. "Besides, you KEEP that
dress three weeks, and reckon you've
wore it the worth of the making; and
now you're so saucy about it, I'll never
pay you nohow."
One of her most delightful traits was
her use of language. She availed her,
self of the most difficult words with a
joyous absIdon, nothing irritated her
so uhuch as not being able to compre-
bend what was said. The governess, a
German, was much out of her favor on
that account
"Them fowlins and mamsils needn't
talk to me. l don't like broken Ian
guages, she would observe wrathfully
All tongues save English came under
this comprehensive and eontcmptuous
phrase, "broken languages" English
never presented the slightest difficulty
to her. L recollect her announcing the
census taker as "the sensitive man.
and on another occasion saying of a
couple of gentlemen visitors, "There
they goes, walking as if they owned the
worl'! They walks like generals; and
if they was generals, they wouldn't be
common generals; they'd be briggerty-
generals"
1 anrsorry to add to this that our be-
loved Charybdis had failings-among
them dishonesty, so common a fault
with black servants that it Is taken al
most as a matter of course. Charybdis
stole adroitly, and was seldom caught
in the act. When she was, her expla-
nations were always ready, though not
always probable.
81 was a taking it into town to get it
done up right clean. You know you is
mighty partikelerto have things clean, -
she said, one day, when detected with
the blacking-brush in her pocket. Kate IS
system on these occasions was always
the same. As soon as any article was
missed, she would tell Charybdis that,
being inanimate, the thing could not
haye walked off by itself; consequently
oh ho ,-xyhd hor 20 =
''Mislaid," was the euphemism en-
ployed. Sometimes this course was at
once successful; at other times weeks
would pass by while Charybdis, who
was always taken lame while under sus-
picion, limped about the house, her
face black with gloom, and looking
like brooding storm. Suddenly, the
inward struggle coming to an end, she
would decide to restore the treasure,
and running up stairs with light step
and total absence of laneness, would
produce it from some thrice-searched
corner, with a giggle of triumph, and
be happy and light-hearted as forgiven
child for days afterward. Occasionally
the article would never return. In
such cases the gloom would gradually
tighten, but the joy was wanting.
We had been months at Box Hill
summer had given place to autumn,
and autumn carried US almost to the
Christmas tide-when one cool evening,
at hair-brushing time, Charybdis came
into our bedroom carrying the huge
backlog with which it was her nightly
duty to replenish the fire. H was
at the toilet table, and 1, from the CHM
ney corner, was lazily studying the GU
rious markings and grainings on the
pine walls and ceiling study which
afforded me never-failing delight. Here
was dragon, there a girls face, as il
the tree from which the plank came had
photographed by some mysterious pro-
cess the events and people which had
passed within its ken during centuries
of growth. was weaving Christmas
story from the odd marks, thwarted
vexatiously, from the fact that the
dragon would look as if he was devour-
ing the girl instead of being himself de-
stroyed by the youthful hero in the cor
ner, whose existence two eyes, nose.
and part of beard seemed to shadow
forth. Suddenly into the midst of fire.
light and fancy came Charybdis, with
her Gathering log, and disturbed the
progress of the tale.
All the time that she knelt, arranging
her wood, she crooned to herself q
nursery song:
5000, says little bird,
Coo, says he;
HIwas you
And you was me,
We'd all live together
In the old pine tree.
Coo, says he.
That was little missy's song" said she,
looking up. 81 most always put he,
to sleep with that
"Had you children of your own
Charybdisp"
"Oh yes, missis; heaps"
"And what was your husband:
nameP"
"Well, missis, his name was Cato
You see, missis, 1 was born way down
in E County, and growed up vic
Mars Arthur and Mars Pres and lot
more of those big mems. My old miss
(she was Mars Buffers wife) wa:
mighty rich. She had heap of nice
things, and she was mighty pertikelel
about them pertikeler things. She
taught us to courtesy when we was