Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-09-09
LAGNIAPPE.s


Why do wear a dogs tooth set in gold
for watch charm All, boys it is to re-
mind me of an iniirmity that has brought Jack
Campion trouble ever since he learned to
talk
To begin at the right end was just twen-
ty.tive when my father bought me planta-
ton up in the swamp where fortunes are
still to be made in spite of the changes of
war.
You Northern folks don't know much about
life on the banks OF the old Mississip, that's
a fact.
Strange that nature should make it easy in
the swamp to do everything but-live Some
people say you must be half alligator and
half niger to get along there but as for
me, was always tough. Cotton and corn
grow higher than the head of a man on
horseback the soil is so fertile that North
ern farmer in the midst of his stony fields
would call the tilling it receives but childs
play and, in addition to these blessings,
your brains at some seasons are nearly jolted
out of your body by ''the chills."
The mosquitoes are great black fellows
that do their work with silent and concen-
trated venom no irrelevant buzzing about
the ears of the victim. As for the deer-flies,
many time have come home from e long
ride when my horses patient sides would be
goats--they are small enough to slip through
the meshes Of mosquito bar but quite large
enough to keep you in fever.
The funniest thing about it is that never
knew a swamper, born and bred, who would
MT stick it out that his native place was per
fectly healthy, and be angry il you differed
from him-sometimes saying this while his
teeth were chattering so he could hardly talk.
My house stood behind the green levee,
IL A. i. - L 4
if they had no trunks.
At night the fog fell and fell upon the low
muddy banks, like some one carding cotton,
and could see the head. light of some steam
boat now and then looming up through the
dusk like great red eye, and hear the wild
cries, half musical, half uncouth of the rous-
tabouts. Then came the whistle-low and
hoarse at first, and deep as the bass notes of
a tremendous organ, and rising and shrilling
into wall of agony. How unutterably mel
ancholy it used to sound, dying hopelessly
on the dead unchanging flats beyond! Plen-
ty of sport, too, up there for a hunting man
herds of deer, foxes, wild hogs, and hum
bier game such as 'coons and 'possums.
But if you want to know what desolation
is, just look at bit of irreolaimable swamp
land. Nowhere else does the gray moss grow
in such hoary abundance upon the cypress
trees, and the bayous that stretch their arms
landward are full of odd-looking marsh
grasses. Maybe the sun is shining through
the clouds with yellow glare, making a
sickly feverish light amid the sickly feverish
smells and vapors that hang about the stag
nant water, Sometimes you see a snake slid
ing sluggishly through the underbrush, scarce
| ly leaving a trail in the oozy soil or often
you come across an alligator summing himself
on log, and tumbling into the pool with q
slump if he hears a noise close by.
tell you, even if you haven't much poet
| ry in your nature, there is something awful
IN the silence of such spot; it speaks so
plainly of death and disease and decay.
Well went to work with will, determin-
ed to be model planter. Among other trans
actions, l swapped my rifle with Jules Bas-
tien, an aged and dried-up creole, for a stout
| built Texas cob.
''vait a meenit," said Jules, hobbling to
the back of his cabin. II geeve you lagni-
| appe l trow heem Gen."
Lagniappe, let me explain, is what the Vul-
! gar American calls boot" He returned,
bringing with him brown paper bag that
| might have contained ohincRpins or pindars.
Then, as 1t squirmed slightly, was struck
by the fear that this present might prove to
be crawfsh, and that Jules would force the
repulsive delicacy upon me. / was comfort
ing myself with the thought that could toss
/ tueln lulo lue uehfeht muu-uOlo on uy way
home, when out of the aperture popped q
brindled head, all eyes and ears.
'Eet ees a fine leetle puppy dOgue," re-
marked Jules. Take heem he keep off dc
| tief by night"
1 thanked the old fellow, and was really
grateful for had no dog and fancied thai
Lagniappe-so l christened him would prove
good company.
AS time developed him, he became a char.
acter-study. He was part bulldog and par
| hound, with more than a strong dash of cur
l suspected The bull. dog strain made hin
hold on like grim death to anything in which
he fastened his teeth, and from his hound an
cestors he derived the habit of bowling sys
tematically for an hour at a stretch if yor
wounded his feelings.
He had the largest, brightest eyes 1 evel
saw, and a trick of rolling them as comically
as a negro minstrel. For the rest, he haC
dropping ears and a tail with perpetual cur
in it, like pothook. He was not much o.
beauty, and he did not use his brains L
good purpose.
On certain occasions he showed his low de
gree most plainly. There was the hunger o
! generations in him. No well-bred dog eve