The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1893-09-01

but even now with the enlarged voca-
bulary which has come with years, it
would be impossible for lie family to
depict my sensations at that moment.
Flight, the usual refuge of the terror
stricken, was denied me, for L could
not escape from myself.
If had been older Inconsistencies
would most likely have come to my re-
lief. AS it was | remained for a mo-
ment petrhied with horror at the su-
Eernatural powers | had called into
action, and then, suddenly finding
voice, | uttered shrek after shrek, so
piercing, so agonizing that they pene-
trated the thick walls of our Old-fash
Toned dwelling and telephOned my
distress to Nanny away off in her
cabin several hundred yards distant.
In an inconceivable short time she
was in the room, putting and blowing
from the unwonted celebrity with
which she had conveyed three hun
dred pounds across the yard and up
the long flight of stairs, like a small
engine attached to an overloaded car.
Boys, boys ~ she exclaimed, gasp
ing for breath as she seated herself in
a rocking chair and gathered my poor
little quivering form close to her
breast what in de name O. goodness
is you bin dom to dis chile? You all
won't be heresaid, an you gwine keep
orn wild dis here projickin' twell you
skeer dis poor little creeter into
splasms. Oar, dar," she went on
soothingly, rocking me gently to and
fro NANNY knows bout it. She
knows tbs desc here bad, mischievous
boys bin skeerin' de life out'n her
baby. Des see," she said, turning
again to them more in sorrow than in
anger, what a bad report | got to
make at headquarters when your ma
and your pa comes home"
Then, catching sight of Silvy, who,
up to this time. had escaped her OBJ
servation, her eyes fairly blazed with
sudden anger.
''Imight err knowed it, she eXclaim-
ed, fixing her whitening regard upon
her Il might er knowed dat dis here
black imp O. Satin was at de bottom
O. dis devilment.
what bisness you got in de white
folks house, anyhow? Don't you
answer me, ''she burst forth with angry
nconsistency-for Silvy essayed to re-
ply. Don't you dar to give me nair
short contradiction. You cl'ar your
self out'n dis house. l gwine war
you out 'reckly l gifts down desc
stars
At this moment the boys interposed,
all speaking at once in their eagerness
to prevent injustice. 1t was they who
had hidden Silvy under the bed.
They had only done it for fun, never
dreaming it would do any harm, and
they protested with boyish eloquence
against the innocent suffering for the
guilty. The remainder of the time
until our parents return was spent
around Mammy's fire, she declaring,
in burst of outraged confidence,
that there wan no 'pendence to be
put in boys. Nobody couldn't trus'
lem fur as dey could fling a COW by de
tall
No Queen on her throne was ever
the recipient of more deferential at
tention than that bestowed upon me
by my brothers during the rest of the
afternoon, as l sat upon Mammy's
knee still pale and tremulous from my
recent fright.
And so, though not as had planned
it, the coveted ascendancy was mine,
but it was the ascendancy which our
sex was originally designed to possess
an ascendancy born of weakness
rather than of power.