The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-04-30
AND WEST
A TALE or NEW BORN VEIa.
WRITTEN FOR THE oeREssIv FARMER, By
EDWARD EVERETT HALE.
Copyright by the Author.)
CHAPTER VII.
CONTINUED

CONTINUED.
As soon as bag No. 2 had discovered
that all was cool enough, she labeled out
from pot number two a mass OF the whole
compound, and distributed it in the sew
eral gourds and platters. Then, and moi
till then, did bag No. 3 produce several
wooden and horn spoons OF various shapes
and sizes, and distribute them. Mary
was beside herself with eagerness to be-
gin. and was relieved from a certain fear
which she had had, that she could not
take the hominy in her fingers There
was no semblance, on the part OF any
one, of waiting for a proper to
begin. AS soon as the bag filled a gourd,
its possessor for the moment began to
empty it. Poor little Mary followed an
example so excellent. She burned her
mouth a little at first, but this experiment
gave her caution. Is there no salt, dear
Auntie," she said after a minute. None,
l am afraid, this side the Kentucky licks,"
said Sarah laughing. We must thank
God for hominy and eat it without salt"
But here are big pepper-corns, Auntle,
if they only tasted ike pepper" No
they only simulated in hape. They were
dried berries, which had been pulled out
by the hot water. In truth, they had
lost most of any flavor which they had
had in the drying.
The squirrels had been cut or torn to
pieces before they were put in the pot,
and Mary had 10 difficulty in managing
them with her fingers, expressing to her
so-called aunt her wonder as to what her
mother would say if she saw such defiance
of the decorous table habit Of Essex
county. 1t seemed, however, that some
thing more was expected at the feast than
these elements provided. This something
more appeared, after the various joints of
the squirrels had been selected by one
and another of the party, when two of
the hays, diving again in the first pot,
with a fork made of wood, brought out in
catfish, such as she had herself more than
once cooked since they had been on the
river. In a moment more another was
brought forth from the same depths.
There was little talk of the methods of
carving. So soon as the fish were cool
enough to eat, a smart blow from a little
Ratchet divided each of them into two
pieces, and the four halves thus created
were torn to pieces by the ready fingers
of the da~rker-colored members of the
company. In the distribution, however,
Sarah Paris and her younger friend were
not neglected, and large fakes of the fish
were assigned to them.
Before the feast was all over, even the
long summer twilight was over also, and
it was finished under such light as the
Hckering fire gave. Very little was said
as 1t weat on. Whether what was said
was APPRECIATION of the cooks or severe
criticism Sarah could not guess, so passion
less was the tone of the speakers. But
when all was over, the various dishes and
gourds were taken by one and al Other to
the river and roughly washed, and then
piled all together upon driftwood, well up
from the beach. The Notwithstanding
woman, if so she may be called, who had
a vocabulary of perhaps twenty words of
English, then resumed her care of the
two waits who had been flung upon the
shore. She beckoned Mary and led Sarah
to a sort of tent, roughly made of two
buffalo robes stretched upon branches of
cottonwood, which our friends had not
seen before, hidden as it was by a growth
of willow trees. Two such tents had
been stretched together there, and, under
the shelter of that to which they were
led, Mary and Sarah lay down not unwil-
lingly, finding that they were in the
hands of so good a friend. The friend
discovered another buffalo robe, sadly
worn and not of the sweetest smell,
which she threw over them after thew Law
down, still in the same unsympathetic
manner which she had shown before.
eff she had been going to cut
throats," wrote Sarah to her aunt, after
wards, she could not have been more
melancholy about it. But for me, I was
so tired that I thanked her heartily, hoping
she understood a word I said, and before
you could say "Jack Robinson" 1 was
asleep, and so was Mary"