The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1877-06-19
THE PARSONS STORIES,

7 ONCE knew wealthy widow whose
L large plantation and swarms of ne
groes did not give occasion for half as
much attention and trouble as her only
daughter, Kate. The mother was Wig
orous specimen of her sex, broad and
ruddy, used to being up early of morn
ings, with voice which could be heard
and felt from "the grit house." as the
mansion of the white folks was called,
to the " quarters where the blacks liv-
ed. 1t was little her slaves cared for
their overseer in comparison. For " ole
Miss Kate'-the mothers name being
the same as the daughter's-they did
care. She was the highest ideal of en-
ergy of which they could form any con-
ception, and of sleepless watch also, so
far as smoke-house, corn-crib, poultry
yard, cotton-gin, press or field was con-
cerned. Pallas Athene was vapOrous
phantom to the Athenians as tutelary
deity in comparison to Mrs. Ryle in the
eyes of her subjects. She was their super
stition. If she did not see everything
know everything, hear everything, do
everything on the plantation, it was i'm
possible for the whitest-headedo old Cudjo
on the place to suggest the exception.
Never sick herself, never off the ground,
apparently never asleep, she worked
harder than the hardest worked hand
there, and always harder than " the
smartest boy" of them all in the rush
of the season." when the last handful
of cotton was to be got in and the last
bale of the crop to be pressed. She was
present at every birth among the blacks,
doctored all theil sick, cut and had made
under her own eyes all their clothes, saw
in person to all their food, directed the
least details of every funeral Any idea
of a Providence beyond " ole Miss Kate"
on their part was vague to the last de-
gree.
But Kate the daughter-and she had
no son-was ten times the trouble to her
of all her place and people. Ateighteen
the lesser Kate gave assurance of filling
up in fullest measure and in due time
the utmost outlines of the older and
larger Kate. 1t was her having neither
husband nor son to do it for her which
had SO developed the mother, compelled
to manage her large property herself.
Now, Kate the younger had gradually
secured to herself the exclusive care of
so much of the possessions of her mother
as came under the head of ''the stock. !"
A serious charge it was, requiring and
wonderfully developing all the energies
( of this duplicate of her mother. The
plantation rolled its acres upon one side
f along a "river-bottom, " the wavy black
soil of inexhaustible fertility for cotton
and corn whenever the pecan trees, with
u their wagon-load of nuts, in the season,
had been girdled or cut down for the
crops. On the other side of the "gr't
house." which stood upon ridge aboye
a chills and fever, the surface spread in
pillows as of the heaving sea to the hori-
Il zon, one wide wealth of the sweetest and
richest mesquit-grass, over which roamed
at will the horses and cattle. This was
y the undisputed domain of Kate Ryle the
younger. Every spring she saw to the
= ingathering and branding of the calves
and colts, hundreds at time. The milk
ing and making of butter and cheese at
the spring house, where water was abuD-
r. dant, were her care. All this demanded
early rising, to say nothing of being al
most always in the saddle and on ''the
lopez. e., long gallop-over the
prairies after willful cows or wandering
+ mares and colts. Very little time had
Miss Kate for French OF novels. She
had a piano, but did not open it once a
y month. Her knowledge of crotcheting
was as vague as her dates in history, but
then she was splendid sight TO see ON
horseback with her floating hair and