The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-10-28

to think of such little fellow staying in
fence-corner or out in the swamp all night,
with all the owls, foxes. Snake', etc. Maum
Dilcie was sOrely grieved. She explained
that she had sent Philip to the store, only
short distance, the previous afternoon,
with some eggs to "trade' for tobacco,
charging him 10 return promptly. as Daddy
Kane was hungry for his "cbaw." She
supposed Philip had got to playing, and then
was afraid to 20 home for fear of the awful
whipping he would get. and she added that
her odd man" was awful yeXed and said,
when dat dar boy do come back Pse gwlne
to wear him out meaning he would thrash
him severely.
That evening was cold, bleak and rainy.
After supper, as we sat round the FIRE, we
heard timid little tapping AT the back hall
door. and on opening it there crouched the
little runaway. He came in with his eyes as
big as saucers, looking tired ana forlom
enough. The children eagerly crowded
round him, but they were not allowed to
question him until he had been given some
thing to eat aud drink, although when we
inquired If he was hungry he answered,
meekly, No ma'am," and only stood look
ing ptifully around him. We found he was
soaking wet ard had spent the night before
IN certain place in swamp where he
thought himself safe from detection. He
said he had played with the other children
instead of going straight home with the
tobacco, and then afterward he was afraid
TO go, as he knew he would be punished for
staying so long. My father himself took
him home. first promising him that Daddie
Kane should not touch him if he would en-
gage never 10 run away again; and we tried
to explain 10 him how wrong he had been 10
cause his poor old foster-mother so much
anxiety, and how, even if the old man was
cross, he was living in his house and ought
to obey him. We felt very sorry for the
little fellow, because we realized how very
severe the whippiDgS lie received must BE- if
he chose the alternative of staying off in the
cold, dark, lonely night at his tender age,
for he was extremely small for his years.
Well, it was not MANY weeks before we
heard that Philip had run off again. This
time lie stald three days, and some one was
SAID to have seen him and to have given him
piece of hoe-cake. He did not come TO our
house again, possibly because he thought we
would send him home, nd on his return he
tod the children that he had eaten some raw
potatoes and ncorns. Daddie Kane said he
was obliged to whip Philip well that time 10
keep him from behaving SO again.
AT last terrible thing happened to little
Philip. Maum Dlcie died. One June night,
when glorious moon Illuminated all the
earth. her young daughter came to say her
"Maumie was awful Sick" and though we
made haste across tie fields with such
remedies as We could hastily gather To-
Cether at midnight, it was only TO find all
assistance unavailing on our arrival. Out
under the poplar tree, whose leaves we're
softly Iustllng in the night wind, lay the
body OF old Maumer, the moonlight flicker
ing over the features already growing cold
and rigid. She had risen ANA gone out to
her cabin door for cool drink, when this
severe attack of what must have been heart
disease ended her life. The piercing
screams and heartrending means of the
mOtheresS daughter rent the air as the girl
walked up and down III front OF the
cabin. her arms thrown up over her head in
perfect abandon OF grief at the suddenneSS
and severity of her bereavement Old Dad
die Kane was daZed and stunned as the idea
of all lie had lost was gradually borne 10 hi;
confused senses, and poor little Philip,
walked abruptly from his sleep, was an o.
ject of pity as he stood on the edge of the cir
Gle of interested friends and neighbors who
had gathered round their stricken friends in
this hour of calamity.
Maum Dilcie WAS buried the next evening
according 10 tie negro custom, as near the
hour of her death as possible, and as the
funeral procession, with its flaming torches
and wailng mOumers moved TO the grave
yard beneath the pines 20 the weird refrain
of ''Hark, from the tOOm0s dolefnl sound,'
chanted by arge company of followers on
foot and IN wagons, it formed sad specta-
Gle for those when she. had served so well
and faithfully and who did all in their
power &c testify their love and respect for
her goodness and honesty.
Maum Dice's portly proportions had in
creased 10 such an extent that the long-Saved
white muslin dress could never be used for
the purpose to which it was dedicated, but
loving white hands fashioned for her
shroud as pure ard white as the soul which
had ''shuffied off this mortal cuil."i
Now came trying days for. the little
Georgia boy. He missed Maum Dilcie's
motherly care, and pinned under the harsh
treatment of Daddie Kane. Tonga, his
adopted sister, was as Kind to min as she
knew how, but she was too young and too
ignorant 10 take mothers place. He no
longer looked clean and neat; he no longer
seemed bright and happy. He ran away
oftrner and ofteneT, and one day Tonga
came to ask fer medicine for Philip, stating
that he had been out in cruel storm two
nights before Gt was early autumn them
hardly speak, and suffered from "miSery in
physician was summoned from town, who
came three or four times TO see him, and we
made such tempting nouri5hment as we
could think of to try and restore his waning
strength. but it was all of no avail. If
Maum Dilcie, who loved him so, had been
there to nurse and care for him he might
have resisted the attack; but she lay in the
graveyard out of reach, and in few days
the little orphan she had SO generously
taken to share the fruits of her toll was
placed beside her. He said, "Maumie done
come for me-" and died very quietly one
afternoon, just four months after his
"Maumie." The culored people all declare
that Maum Dilcie never rested quietly in
her grave until she got Philip away from
Daddie Kanes hard usag".-N. Y. Times.