Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-10-14
NO. Al.

out and applied torch 10 the dried. up grass
and leaves The FIRE swept fercely over tie
projected field, and when Il had burned out a
! good deal more than half the work Of clear
ing that field for cultivation was done. But
this did not help the boys TO live through the
winter, and that was a perplexity. II they
could not manage IL, all their work would be
thrown away and Bob passed many anxious
hours thinking and planning, but with no
other result than TO make him sleepless.
Still it did not rain, but one morning Ned
| came in from observing his water marks, and
reported that the river had risen about three
inches during the night. This puzzled Bob,
and he carefully watched the water At noon
it had risen two inches more. During the
night it rose fully foot. Then Bob began
TO suspect the truth
II have II, Ned" he said.
"Well, how is it9 Where does the water
come from ?"
From the Mississippi River. That river
is high from rains in the north, and II has
broken through one of the passes into the
Tallahatchee. Well have steamboats, here
yet"
"well hope they'll come soon," said
Ned. ''Pve fried our last slice Of bacon, and
we have only few pounds Of meal left"
1--WE can eat the mule" said Bob, rather
than starve; but we'll wait on short rations
and hope"
There had been a great crop Of cotton
grown on the Tallahatchee that year, and the
dry fall had enabled the planters to pick il
more thoroughly than usual. Knowing this
the owners of steamboats, at Vicksburg were
watching the reports of the water in the va
zoo and Tallahatchee as eagerly as Ned and
Bob were watching the water itself, each
anxious that his boat should be the first TO
go up the river.
~. l.. n
last of the meal The boys went to bed that
night out Of food. The next morning they
had no breakfast, and had begun to think Of
killing the mule, or making journey to the
nearest plantation, when about noon a boat
appeared She blew her whistle, and stopped
her engines.
''What do you ask for your wood ?" shout
ed the Captain.
''Three and a half, answered Bob.
''Give you three and a quarter, and take
all you've got," said the Captain.
-"Will you throw in a decent dinner ?" ask
ed Bob.
eyes"
And with that the boat made her landing,
and the wood, sixty-three cords, was meas
ured. Then the boys went on board to din
ner. There they learned that in consequence
of the prolonged dry season all the people
along the river had been too busy picking
cotton to cut any wood, and hence the boat
had been obliged to send her own men ashore
twice to chop wood for her engines Know
ing that other boats were coming, the Cap
tain Of this one had made haste TO buy all Of
Bob's wood, meaning to take part of it at
once, and the rest on his way down the river.
He had driven a sharp bargain, under the
circumstances, but Bob was well satisfied
when he received $2O4. 20 for the pile. His
first care was to buy of the Captain good
supply of provisions; his next to write a let
ter to his mother, inclosing fifty dollar bill,
and, without telling her where he was, giving
her news Of his own and Ned's health, and
promising to write again at the next oppor-
tunity. This letter the Captain took to post
at Vicksburg.
The mule was saved, and the problem
which Bob and Ned had set out TO solve was
in fair way TO be worked out. They had
money enough now to buy necessary ploughs,
etc., which they ordered from Vicksburg by
the next trip of the boat, and some cash TO
spare for emergencies. They went to work
with a will at their clearing, and before
| spring opened they had a field prepared
which was two hundred yards long and one
hundred and fifty yards wide. Its area was
therefore somewhat greater than six acres,
| and it was land of the richest sort. Bob
made a journey TO the nearest plantation,
and brought back a cart-load of cotton seed,
together with the seeds of a variety of vege-
tables for which beds were made around the
hut
The summers work was very hard and
very hot. The rich land produced weeds as
well as cotton, and Ned remarked that "weeds
never go to picnics or take Saturday after
| moons of"
In this the boys initiated the weeds, work
ing early and late in their crop, barely giving
| themselves time to hoe out their kitchen-gar-
den occasionally. They had distinctly over
cropped themselves, but that was better than
the opposite mistake. In August the balls
began to open, and the boys to pick cotton.
1t was not long before they discovered that
they had grown more cotton than they could
| pick, and that they must either have help or
| lose part of their crop. So one day Ned
mounted the mule, and rode across the Yala-
busha River, and out of the swamp into the
| poor hill country. There the scanty crops
were easily picked, and as he was able to
offer money wages, he easily secured some
half grown negro boys as pickers. Their wa
ges amounted to comparatively little, and
their help secured the whole of the boys
| crop.
Bob had no gin or cotton-pr but there
| were both on the plantation twelve miles
down the river; and when the picking was
over, the boys built raft, and loading their
whole crop Of cotton on 1t, hoated it down TO
this neighbor's gin.
They had not made the three bales per acre
which the land was said TO be capable of pro-
ducing under good cultivation, but they had
made twelve bales, worth-at the high price
which cotton at that time commanded
somewhat more than one thousand dollars.
Bob and Ned now closed their hut, turned
the mule out to browse, and took passage for
Vicksburg on the boat that carried their cot
ton.
One morning the rumor ran through their
native village that "Bob and Ned Towne had
come home, ragged, and looking like tramps."
But there was one woman and there were
three little girls in that town in whose eyes
Bob and Ned looked like anything but
tramps. Their clothes were worn, indeed,
but they were hugged and kissed by their
mother and sisters just as heartily as II they
had been the best-dressed youths in the VII
lage.
''Now you'll stay at home, won't you, you
naughty runaway boys?" said their proud
and happy mother when they had fully re-
counted their fifteen months experiences.
II want my boys"
"We can't, mother" said Bob. "We'rs
the two heads of this family, you know. I'm
one head, and Ned has fairly earned the
right to be the other; and we've got property
interests now. We stopped at Major Singers
on the way home, and have made a new bar
gain with him. We've bought plantation"
Then Bob explained that the Major had
agreed that they should mark of q tract of
four hundred acres where their hut stood,
and take it at five dollars an aore-quite all
that it would sell for then, because of the
difficulty of getting labor for clearing land.
| They were to have their own time in which
to pay for the tract, but they meant to work
the debt of within q year or two by hiring
one or two hands for their CROP and thus in
creasing their force and their earnings.
$50 you see, mother" said Bob, "We'Ve
| got TO go back TO our plantation"
Every WELL, she replied 'and we are 60
ing with you. The family mustn't be separa-
ted from its heads, and want my boys, and
think my boys want me too when they are