St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1890-03-27
IFor the Ca1edonian.l
A UNIT SUSAN UNDERWOOD ENTER
TAINS THE MINISTER.

Aunt Susan was the best natured
old dame that trod the soil of the
county, and her of temper,
nOblenesS of character and good will
toward everybody had long since
won for her perhaps a greater share
of popularity than any of her numer-
Gus acquaintance CHANGED to pos
sess. Having a most curiously pro-
portioned figure, she was the centre
of much game for the young people,
and beside, TO balance this, she was
a moving reservoir of favors, from
which boundless kindness gushed for
evervon Children entertained a
peculiar attachment for Aunt Susan,
because her cupboard was always
well supplied with table dainties
when any of them paid her a visit.
Older people fancied her mainly, it is
likely, because she possessed that adj
mirable propensity of assisting what
ever toiler crossed her path.
Aunt Susan's placid face, with its
broad, fat nose, remarkably bright
eyes, great thick lips, smooth checks,
low forehead and quite prominent
ears, was not in the smallest meas
ure repugnant, because people adj
mired her disposition, not her coun-
tenance. 1t is always true that
beauty of character lends fascination
to the visage.
1t is said that women naturally
waddle in their walk. Let those who
see fit dispute the assertion; but no
one would doubt the truth of the
statement could he behold Aunt
Susan vending her way along the
public road with a large basket of
clothes on her head. We see at
right angles in every direction. Aunt
Susan, as she moved her head up and
down, and waddled from side to side
as she walked, looking not a little
mand go degrees of the circumfer-
warrant.
According to the boys of the neigh
borhood, Aunt Susan was four feet
in height, and weighed just about
200 pounds. She was usually clad
in a striped cotton frock, plain as
plain could be, which presented a
kind of contrast to her ginger-cake
face. Her coarse, abundant hair,
which was seldom shielded from the
sur or rain by anything but q gaudv
bandanna, was generally wrapped
with simple cords for the perform
ance of everyday duties, and with
strips of dressed eel skin on state oc-
casions, into small plaits, which were
made fast, sometimes one to another
and sometimes to rebelliOus locks
that had scorned the string bondage.
Aunt Susan had a husband whose
name was John Jackson, or Jack
Johnson, it doesn't matter very much
by what title we speak of him. 1t
seems to have been true, though, that
he always answered more readily
and cheerfullv to "Uncle Jack" than
to anything else. Aunt Susan her
self usually called him Jack, and per-
haps that is why he was partial to
that name.
Uncle Jack, then, also had another
title tackled on. He was so inordi-
nately good for nothing that all the
white people of the vicinity distin-
guished him from other Jacks by the
prefix Lazy" He was rather low
in stature, carried a bullet-shaped
head between his shoulders and his
skin was black, black, black. Aunt
Susan used to accuse him of never
touching his head with a comb. No
one could miStruSt the correctness of
her charge, because the kinks on
Uncle lacks head seemed to be each
an independent arrangement.
If there vas anything attractive
about Uncle Jack no one but Aunt
S1Snn could over onnraoIn 70 ~ Che
thought no other woman was SO
well blessed in the husband line.
Jack was lazy, %impudent. ignorant,
and had no "manners and behavior"
as the negroes chose to term polite
ness, whatever about him. His
friends knew him to be very unac-
commodatlng and roguish.
If amy woman ever adored a man,
or appeared so to do, Aunt Susan did
Uncle Jack. She could make the
strangest demonstrations of affec-
ton Imaginable. Privately, believe,
she thought that if she should dis
card Jack it would be difficult for her
in her old age to procure another
husband. She really considered Jack
a great help to her. She not only
took solecareo of herself and furnished
every chew of Jacks tobacco, but in
vested large proportions of her little
mite in pipes and ish-hooks for him.
Jack was the most noted german
dizer in the land. None of his friends
pinned because he dined seldom with
them.
Aunt Susan was employed as cook
in the family of the man on whose
plantation she and Uncle Jack lived.
A situation like this was the very
height of the INSTRUMENTATION for his
wife. During the cold winter morn
ings it was his pleasure to sit down
behind the warm stove while Aunt
Susan cooked breakfast for the white
people. Jack always crouched him
self on the woodbox, and to Aunt
Susan's Jack, l wish you'd stick a
little wood in de stove" invariably
replied, "Suse, chile, you's up on yo'
feets; dOncher see me Smokin'? ?" and
then he'd puff away as though his
pipe would surely lose its fire, during
which time Aunt Susan would good
h~umoredly fill the furnace herself.
The parish meeting house was not
very far from the dwelling of the
owner of the plantation and often
times after supper Aunt Susan would
catch a beau and walk over to church
in the evening, once in a while to
prayer meeting and occasionally to
attend service. There were a great
many churches in the country, and a
very small number of ministers to
look after them all. The consequence
was one man assumed the direction
and care OF several, visiting from one
to another at different times through
the year The minister of the nariSh