Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-10-09
Y. OCTOBER 9, 1884.

every Dlrd that llSnteu IN Cne Saruen. Her
hearer looked at her with stern surprise a
minute before he replied, "IOu know very
we'll that Brodie is the last man in Colum-
bia that any one would want to fool with;
If any man shot one of his pigeons, he'd
shoot that man, or bruise him up so he
might as well be shot. 1t may seem to you
nice thing to be widow, but it does not
seem to me nice thing to be Il disfgured
corpse If you'd put the right sort of Il
scare-crow- something ugly looking-the
pigeons would stay away"
II don't know how | couM make any
thing uglier," said the lady. "Didn't /
take trouble to stuff suit of your clothes,
put your hat on it, and make a figure so like
YOU that | thought it would scare any
thing"
lapidated Dunstable, and stuck it on the
head of the scarecrow, where it proved a
sufficient guard to the few remaining straw
berries, and perhaps it conveyed Il silent
reproach to the conscience of Mr.. Silver
skin, for her garden was no more molested.
But how we have digressed. We didn't
mean to tell all this now, but to bring it in
regularly in its proper place; but "the best
laid schemes Of mice and men, gang oft
agley."
We will now go back to Patsy Ann in her
infancy, whom we left in the big arm chair
where she had been placed by Granny
White, while that careful person mixed and
tasted brandy toddy for the mother, who
lay looking lovingly at the little bundle in
the chair, her first daughter. She had not
found much comfort in her first born, Wash
ington Lafayette DeKalb, who although
but three years old, was an exact and pre-
cocious counterpart Of his father mentally
and physically.
Mr. S. had not yet blossomed into the
flower of a man whom we have rather pre-
maturely described. He was of course not
so old, bald-headed, or so sarcastic. We all
'do suffer an earth change" as years roll
over us but he was as stout, and some of
his agreeable traits had already developed
themselves particularly his habit of "plump-
ing down" on things; but Mrs. Silverskin
did not think Of that when he approached,
and bending down kissed her with unusual
affection, and asked, "Where's the baby?'
He had not yet killed any cats, or "made
a mash" on any Dunstable bonnets, so she
smiled fondly, as she told Granny White
to bring the baby. Mr.. S. was just about
to "plump" himself down in the arm chair,
when a sudden recollection made Mrs. S.
scream wildly, "My baby! oh, my baby
He's plumpt down on it,"
But he hadn't. Granny White, who also
beheld the impending catastrophe, as she
was advancing to exhibit the treasure, sent
forth howl that made Silverskin stagger
back in alright and SO confused and aston
ished him that he rushed from the room
calculating something that sounded like
''d-n the baby" but of course it wasn't.
The excited mother took refuge in Il copi-
Gus shower of tears, while the angry nurse,
(after she had handed the sick woman what
she called the ''camtire') walked the floor
with the rescued infant, eXclaiming inceS-
sanity, cts a maracle-it's perfect mara
Gle, that this darlin' preshus sing aint a
corpse. Lord massy! what Il rescape
What fools men do be. They stuff ther-
selves tell they look like poppusses, and
swll beer tell they're fit to bust, and
then come Pumping down on poor little
innocent babies"
Patsy Ann was saved from being a Vic,
tim then, to become one many a time in
after life. The incident gave her mother
what Granny White called "a set back
and DR.. Davis called a fever.
Patsy Ann was six weeks old, when ar.
rangements were made for her christening
The Rev. Samuel Dunwiddie the good, eX.
centric, old Methodist preacher, who was
stationed here at that time, and by whose
death bed angels might have whispered
"Well done! thou good, and faithful ser.
want, enter thou into the JOY of the Lord ,
was to perform the ceremony. ittook place
at the house, and among the friends pres
ent was Silverskin's old maiden aunt, who
was very deaf, and very ofticious. Every.
thing that was done, she altered; answered
everybody who did not speak to her, and
left unnoticed those VINO did, and when
the preacher was in the midst of one of his
long prayers, she said aloud, thinking she
had whispered, "For the land sake why
don't he quit? He must be gwine to pray
all night"
1t made no difference to the minister, who
was as deaf as she was; but it made Others
smile at an unseemly time. She continued
singing after every body else had stopped
and did many odd things that enraged, Mrs
have delighted her husband, had they been
done by any one else, in any one else'S
house and at the christening Of any one
else's baby. AS it was, he became so con
fused that when asked for the child's name
he forgot it until the deaf Aunt screamed
shrilly in his car, "It's Patsy Ann,' after
your wfe's nanny, instead Of Patience
Mehaly after your own aunt"
When the christening was over, nothing
would do but the old lady must snatch the
baby from its mothers lap and trot around
to show it to the company; and some ladies
being in an adjoining room, she Whisked
doing, struck the child's head against it,
and the old lady, unaware that anything
had happened, unable to hear its cries, kept
darting about the room, declaring that it
was the sweetest, quietest little creature
that was ever born, while the mother was
flying alter her to rescue the baby, which
she verify believed had received its death
wound. at last the old lady was arrested
and made to understand, by pointing to the
baby's wide open mouth, that it was
screaming, pointing to the red mark on itS
head that it was hurt, and by pointing to the
door that it was done there. "The dearest
me! did its own Auntie hurt it," And she
attempted to regain possession Of the little
Victim, but Mat its mother violently resist
ed, loudly declaring that she "Wished she
never had no baby, nor no husband, nor no
christening, if she was to have that old
baby-killer stuck to her."
And rushing from the parlor, she locked
herself and baby in her own room, until
Miss Mehala Silverskin took her departure,
which that lady Indignantly did, first de-
posting in her pocket the elegant silver
cup and spoon she had brought for baby.
And this was the second time that Patsy
Ann was a Victim, and came near being a
dead one too, for the hurt was serious,
and DR.. Wells pronounced it Il narrow es-
cape. Patsy Ann has the scar on her head
to this day but this family feud was, in a
fashion, healed two years after, when anoth-
er daughter came, to whom Mrs. S. reluc-
family gave the name of Patience Mehala,
and who ut once inherited the silver cup
and spoon. Patsy Ann met many other
''hair-brcadth 'scapes," and "movng acci-
dents" in her infancy.
Once an amiabe cockatoO took a fancy to