Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-11-09
never showed her love. save in vigorous

never showed her love, save In vigorous
exhortation, and still more vigorous ap-
plication of the rod of correction. Ger
tainly she made his life as miserable as
the life of such an easy-going, good
natured, 'happy- go-lucky'' could well
be.
There were occasions on which Ebene-
ger held the whip hand, as it were, and
on these occasions the lad had wit
enough to make his own terms with his
tvrant.
Mos Jawge, most indulgent and,
indeed, careless master, allowed his
people to buy and sell and get gain ac-
cording to their several abilities, so long
as no fragrant offense against the very
loosely fitting code of morals of the
Bersheimer Plantation came to light.
Provided the grass was kept out of the
cotton in growing season. and the aver
age number of pounds picked each day
during the picking, Mos Jawge cared
nothing at all about how many patches
OF truck his enterprising hands might
cultivate after hours, or how many doz-
en- fowls the women of the plantation
might manage to raise.
The very young man who acted as
overseer of Mos Jawge's interests on the
plantation was deeply interested in the
Doctors daughter, whose home was on
q plantation seven miles distant, and
four evenings out of the seven Mos Rob
spruced up and rode off to DR.. Attends
as soon as the days work in the field
was ended.
Then the men who had dragged lame
| lv up and down the rows of cotton all
day, as though their legs had been made
of broom-straws, stiffened up amazingly
as they thrust in the spade Or swung the
hoe upon their own bits of ''gyaden;"
and the women, fastening off to gather
the eggs or to hunt out the stray nests,
and drive up the young broods of tur
keys, ducks and chickens, stepped with
other and sprightlier feet than those
which so listlessly had borne them along
while doing the labor whose yield was
all to be for the master.
Mos Jawge INDUCED to some extent
in stock-raising, and in the bit of grassy
upland back of the plantation some
passable cattle were accustomed to
range. The plantation fences being not
of the finest, and the uncles' corn patch
es often proving more tempting than
the wild grass of the woods, the visits of
the cattle were more frequent than
agreeable to Ebenezer, whose special
assignment of labor was to keep the
stock out of the crop. Yet the duty was
not altogether without accompanying
pleasureable excitement. 1t afforded the
boy many an opportunity. Pecan trees
grew in the hollow beyond the swamp
line; no power could prevent him from
picking the ripe, fallen nuts from the
thick grass beneath the grove when he
drove the cattle to their grazing. If he
stored and hid a bushel more or less,
and sold some now and then to the trav-
elers on the steamboats, that in shipping
time stopped at Mos Jawge's landing,
who or what could hinder? If, more
over, in his frequent incursions into the
thicket after the straying cattle, he came
upon a stolen nest of some cunning fowl,
who or what could prevent his making
capital of the knowledge thus obtained,
or of confiscating the eggs for that mat
ter? Aunt Docia could not, surely, and
when Ebenezer sometimes offered to tell
her ssa secrit" in consideration of SO
many rations of dodger an 'lasses or
roast 'possum, she had no alternative. |
Eggs were eggs, according to her creed,
and whether it were Aunt Milly's |
speckled pullet that sat upon them or
Aunt Rachel's dominecky that ran |
cackling away from the hidden nest, if |
it were Ebenezer that discovered them, |
and confided his discovery to her, it |
surely followed that the find was hers. |
At such times Ebenezer made his own |
terms. Aunt Docia had found out long |
ago that no amount of ''clo' es paddlin','
or even of 1.-THE, singing cane, could
force from "dat onregenrit Ebenezer''
the s'secrit'' that was his and only his.
"Oh laws, mammy!" the boy would
whine, 'sno pusson CANT tell secrits long
as yo' a-cuttin' 'em up dat Away. Dat
amt de way fer fin cut searits. Oh,
lawsey, lawsey!'
And Aunt Docia, in sheer despair,
would give over beating the boy, and
try more winning way-the drum
bone of chicken, cold sweet 'tater,
or some dodger an 1asses being the
usual convincing argument.
This morning, when the steer invaded
the melon patch, Aunt Docia had been
in a peculiarly unamiable mood, owing
to the fact that 'Lijah, the quadroon
spouse, Cahline's pa, had failed to keep
his promise made to her at the Sunday
meeting, of visiting her on the follow
ing Wednesday. Of late months Cab
lines pa had seemed to Aunt Docia
changed. He sat glum and listless when
he came to visit her, never praising her
toothsomest dishes as before, and some
times barely tasting her early roasting
ears and fried chicken and most delec-
table egg custard, of which he was once
so fond. She suspected him of having
Joined the Voudous, but her horror at
the thought was so great that she did
not dare even to hint her suspicious,
but contented herself with accusing him
of trying to get his freedom, and for
answer he had angrily struck her blow
in the face.
He was but slight, weakly fellow,
seventeen years Aunt Docia's junior,
and vastly her inferior in bodily strength,
but he was man-almost white man,
and Cahline's pa; so Docia restrained
her wrath, pocketed the insult, and kept
her ponderings to herself, taking care