The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-07-20

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them all they wants and all their hearts
desire. I never crosses them and spiles
their disposition"
Her standard was perfection, and,
like most of us, she kept it to
others by. This principle applied con.
vcniently to her dealings with her own
race. She would rarely pay a colored
person for dress-makihs or other work:
"No, | don't pay for such no-account
sewing as that" | overheard her say
ing n 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, III 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 abandon; nothing irritated her
so much as not being able TO compre-
bend what was said. The governess, n
German, was much out of her favor on
that account.
"Thcm fowlins and mamsils needn't
talk to me. | don't like broken Ian
guages," she would observe wrathfully.
All tongues save English came under
this comprehensive and contemptuous
phrase, "brokcn languages" English
never presented the slightest difficulty
to her. | 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"
am sorry to add to this that our be-
loved C~harybdis had failings-among
them dishonesty, SO common n fault
with black servants that il is taken al
most as Il matter of course. Charybdis
stole adroitly, and was seldom caught
in the act. When she was, her cxpla-
nations were always ready, though not
always probable.
81 was Il taking it into town to get it
done up right clean. You know you is
mighty partikclcrt to have things clean"
she said, one day, when detected with
the blacking-brush in her pocket. Kate's
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
have walked off by itself; consequently
she, Charybdis, must have taken it.
"Mislaid," was the euphemism EN-
ploycd. 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 n brooding storm. Suddenly, the
inward struggle coming to IN end, she
would decide to restore the treasure,
and running up stairs with Il light ster
and total absence of lamencss, would
produce it from some thri~ce-searched
corner, with II giggle of triumph, and
be happy and light-hearted rs Il forgiven
child for days afterward. Occasionally
the article would never return. In
such eases the gloom would gradually
tighten, but the JOY was wanting.
ltf, hal l,,,, ,.,,tl. at pnx II;n
summer had given place to autumn
and autumn carried us almost to tho
Christmas tide-when one cool evening
nj hair-brushing time, Charybdis can't
INTO our bedroom carrying the huge
backlog with which it was her nightly
duty TO replenish the fire. Il wa
AT the toilet table, and /, from the chin
ney corner, was lazily studying the Gu
rious markings and grainings IN thu
pine walls and ceiling-a study which
afforded me never-failing delight. Herr
was Il dragon; there a girls face, as
the tree from which the plank came hat
photographed by some mysterious pro
cess the events and people which hat
passed within its ken during centurie
of growth. l was weaving a Christina
story from the odd marks, thwartet
vcxatiously, from the fact that tn
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, a nose
and part of Il beard seemed to SHADOW
forth. Suddenly into the midst of fire
light and fancy came Charybdis, wit
her Gathering log, and disturbed tn
progress Of the tale. ~.
All the time that she knelt, arrangin,
her wood, she crooned to herself
nursery song:
5000, says a little bird,
Coo, says he;
IL was you
And you was me,
We'dall 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"
clad you children of your Owl
Charybdis2,"
"Oh yes, missis; heaps"
"And what was your husband
nameP"
swell, missis, his name was Cat
You see, missis, | was born way dow
in E County, and l growed up vi
Mars Arthur and Mars Pres and a /
more of those big mems. My old mi
(she was Mars Butler's wife) WI
mighty rich. She had a heap of nj
things, and she vas mighty pertikel
about them pertikeler things. 81
,, taught us to courtesy VIXEN we W
spoke to by white folks, and not
; stick out III tongues, nor put u fl
> raro I, n,r aaro nor otanA on nna 10