Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1885-06-19
THE DUEL.

son (0ldch), ColnnoHly Caileu gu,
lived on the other side. Miss Sophy
Giggles, the color of an underdone buck
wheat cake, lived about five miles from
the branch, and was the cause of an un-
due secretion of bile in both "Nias"
and "Ju."
The branch itself is not Of sufficient
importance to be indicated in red colors
on any map of these blessed United
States, and yet its local coloring is en-
tertaining enough to warrant its being
taken from the somewhat moldy cup
board Of obscurity and placed on the in
viting center-table of the present day.
The dark and bloody ground of Ken
lucky, with its expiations oil the field of
honor; Blennerhassett's Island, with its
tragic tale of love and dishonor, have
both been embalmed in song and story;
why not 'Possum Branch, with its lliad
of woman's caprice, mans devotion and
the fearless heroism of Fascinated hearts?
The branch itself is dull, sluggish
stream about ten or twelve feet wide,
running through the southern portion
Of Linn county. In the East it might
be called creek. In the West it might
be dignified by the name of river. In
Florida it is simply "branch." A
branch of what, am not at this moment
prepared to state. 1t is lined with live
oak. water oak, cypress, persimmon and
some few other varieties Of trees. The
county road goes over it dry-shod, on a
rustic bridge, shaky and decrepit, the
nucleus of any amount of possible and
probable accidents. The water is about
ten feet deep and very dark. No one
but coroner could possibly find any
enjoyment looking at it. The bridge
also serves a short cut for predatory
foxes seeking through highways and
byways for the succulent chicken, the
philosophic turkey and the disciple of a
certain school Of medicine-the duck.
At times the trees that line this bank
take on vivid beauty. The bamboo
climbs to the tops of the tallest ones and
filings graceful crow over their sway
ing beauty. Scarlet coronals of un-
known flowers emphasize the fragrant
green, through which the birds peep out
and watch with wide-eyed wonder the
creaking vehicles and strange figures
that pass slowly by. Outbursts of rarest
song can be heard there through the
soft languorous days, and swift-darting
fins, like errant rays of light, ripple the
waters below.
On the east side are half-doZen or so
of rough log cabins, keeping guard over
few acres of broken soil; cotton and
potato patches, the garden Of long col
Iards and turnips, the parterre of sum
flowers and oleanders. Each demesne
has its dilapidated chicken house, its
rheumatic shed for the reflective mule,
and its boudoir for playful swine. The
owners and inhabitants Of these free
holds are happy and careless negroes,
raising enough to eat and little to sell,
basking in the sunshine, and obeying
implicitly the Scriptural injunction to
take no heed to the morrow.
In little log house, standing On the
very banks of the branch, in crouch
ing attitude, as if just about leaping into
the waters for bath, both cleansing
and sanitary, lived at the time Of which
l write, Ananias, one of my heroes. On
| the west side of the branch the scene
was almost literally repeated, with the
exception that one Of the houses was Of
frame, with two rooms and a lean to,
and had forty acres Of land attached to
it. There lived with his parents, Jeru-
salem, my other hero, until the fiend Of
jealousy entered his otherwise placid
bosom, and left wreck and ruin there.
Five miles off was another little set
tlement Of the same genus, and here
Miss Sophy, my heroine, helped bake
| the hoe cake in the ancestral mansion,
and by washing for the neightoring
planters families, earned the shekels
that went to purchase articles of femi-
nine adornment, articles so dear to the
average feminine heart.
Ananias was tall and thin, elaborately
so as to legs, and the suns Of twenty
five years had enhanced the dingy yel-
low of his complexion. His eyes were
of the vintage known as pop" "and the
premature removal of three front teeth
had not given him a weirdly poetical
appearance. Among the intensely black
! surroundings, the fairness of his skin
was drawback, more especially as his
parents, by some strange oversight, are
both of the same orthodox color. In
temperament he was somewhat naughty
and passionate, and by his demsanor
seemed to be continually protesting
against environment. Although entire
ly ignorant Of bellesletters, or, in fact,
of any letters, he was shrewd and fore
handed, and was in fair way to become
something Of capitalist, when the un-
lucky collapse of the Freedman's Bank
swept away the bulk of his garnered
boards. This made him moody and ir-
ritable at times, but did not impair his
ability as a cotton picker, which was
something wonderful to behold.
Jerusalem or "Ju" was short and fat,