The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1891-01-11

WINCH you may nave Eo4lStltteS beeu n
the great innocent eyes of dog who has
followed you little way from hosns
only to be unwilhngly driven back, This
stoop in the thin shoulders was little
more pronounced, the step took ON the
old careless shuttle. the long arms hung
lstlessly by his side, but the same I'M
quenchable fire burned in his breast, and
if he grew more silent and shy than was
even bis won't, it was only because he
was yet unsuccessful in fulfilling his
VOW, and not that the arrnor OF his de-
termination had been SO much as pricked
by the lance Of sloth.
At last, after much fruitless going
] hither and thither, fisherman on the
bar in Milliken's bend told him he had
4 seen girl with yellow hair in company
with Il rough looking man get off little
4 steamer at Rolling Fork, away back in
the Delta country of Mississippi but a
few weeks before, and straightway Zeb
rowed down to the mouth of the Yazoo,
and pulling up through its shallow
windings reached the confluence of Beer
creek. and up it went to Rolling Fork.
1t was ten days pnll by skiff, but he
did not seem to mind it. He lived on
little cornmeal and on the fish he caught,
while now and then be shot q dove or a
squirrel to replenish and diversity his
larder. Il was almost two years since
Cordia had been taken away, and it was
autumn again At Rolling Fork he
found no trace of the child. The little
cluster of implanted frame houses looked
so desolate and dreary that zeb grew
faint and sick at heart. The stupid peo-
pie he met knew nothing of her he
sought. and were too istless or too in
dolent to care to give him SO much as a
sympathetic hearing.
He hurried back to his boat, and was
just getting into it to push off when
passenger train on the Louisville, New
Orleans and Texas railway, which
touches this point, came along and Zeb
waited TO see 1t go hurrying by. He had
never travelled on railroad, and had SO
seldom seen a train of cars that the sight
had not lost its novelty. The train did
not run very fast, yet to him it seemed
to be going with incredible speed. With
an inward quaking he looked at the black
ignivomous monster in front, with its
furnishings of steel and brass. its plume
of smoke and kissing steam valves. Il
seemed the incarnation Of power-almost
human; SO strong as to be well nigh god
like; SO malevolent as to be fraught with
deviEish purpose. The great glass disk
Of the headlight shone in the afternoon
sun like luminous eye fastened upon
E.. 4
its line Of yellow cars would bound off
the bank and overtake and devour him.
But as he watched it, half in fear and
half in wonder, a strange thing happened,
AS the last car reached a point just OPP
posite Zeb, he saw an old darky sitting
on the step, and STOPPING over him with
his hands on the side rails was a white
man, who, if Zeb had known more of
such things, he would have recognized as
the conductor. The old darby was look
ing at the white man, who seemed to be
speaking. but suddenly the latter drew
back his foot as though TO deliver a mus
cular kick, and the colored man, with
out waiting for further developments,
sprang off the flying train He scared
through the air with his ample blue
army overcoat spread ont in the breeze,
looking for all the world like a great
bat, and then softly he fell upon the
spongy soil and rolled down in q tattercd
and disheveled ball. over and over, al
most to Zeb's feet.
"Woofl" he CALCULATED as he picked
himself up slowly and shook his clothes
into shape. SIS dis Mississippi or is l
ded?v
| Zeb looked at him inquiringly, and
ignoring the question, simply queried;
as 20 heert, niggerY
II don't 'spect rse heert much, but eff
de angel Gabriel hedn't jess put he's arms
bout me an let me down easy like I'd
done ben ded for dis
II wouldn't ride on those peslxy things
nohew," said Zeb, slowly. II reckon it
ed pretty nigh kill me to get off Ef
I'd been 20 I'd staid on tell she tied
up sumwhar."
''Tha's jess what dis Niger wanted,
bat what do de coon do when de dog git
him under de tree? Does him stay dar
an let de dog worry him an wrassel him
bout? Uh, NIL De coon runs up de
tree an he peek ober de limb an no say,
'Ah, ali, massa dog, how yo' goin' to git
me nowY OATS de way 'twar wifi dis
niger sot on de step kase war'nt
ticker bout ridin' inside VIII de white
folks, an when de captain cum long an
axed fer de money toll him didn't hev
none an he war berry perlite. He jest
sed, VIII yo' jump er shell kickr an j
sed, Don't low me to trouble yo'. I'll
jump an har be"
Zeb got out his skillet and made a
pone Of bread and divided it with this
/ other unfortunate, and while they ate,
sitting at respectful distance from
each other, the keen old darby, half
preacher, half tramp cotton picker, drew
out the story Of the fsherman's quest,
and when they rose to part he said with
quaint earnestness:
Long time ago dar whar a cotton
wood tree, an un time in de spring dar
whar two lille brudder cottonwood
seeds crowd on de way top branch Dey
was happy as do day was long, kase dey
seed all ober de woods, an was higher
up dan any oder cottonwood chil'en.
De bees didn't fly SO high 'cept dey war
goin' to dar nest wifi pack OBJ honey in
dar arms an de woodpeckers KEEP way
doxpv, l,1nr,