Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-02-14

HIS MOTHER COMES TO HIM OCCASIONALLY. up at the sky, watching the birds that skim about and the workers in the field whenever they como near enough for him to see and hear them. His mother comes to him occasionally, takes him up for q moment or perhaps turns him over, gives him nourishment or finds for him the rude plaything which has rolled beyond his reach, but the greater portion of the time he is alone with nature, and no one cares whether he cries or laughs, Is uncomfort- able or comfortable.
 One of these little field mites who could neither walk nor talk very cleverly imitat- ed his elders one day. Therc were 10 or 12 hands picking cotton in the field. Two or three times in the course of an hour they would come to an Outspread sheet near where the baby sat and empty the con- tents of the bags they wore slung across their shoulders on to the pile on the sheet. The pickaninny was playing with a tin bucket cover. but he grew tired1of 1t. He flung 1t away from him and cried with vexation because he had nothing to take its place. Suddenly he stopped crying, crept to cotton stalk near by, on which was half opened boil, succeeded in pull ing the tuft of cotton from the boil and scurried over to add his contribution to the heaped up staple on tho sheet.
 The negro baby's mother believes that he will not thrive on milk alone, so he Is regaled on cabbage and cowpeas, roast po- tato. fat bacon, ripe or green berries and fruit, as tho case may be, and survives an ordeal that would annihilate the offspring of a race less hardy. He comes near being gored by cattle and poisoned with concen- trated lye, but he comes out unscathed. He shares his bit of pone bread or pan of stirabout with tho inquisitive chickens that peck industriously around him and bestows portion of his meal on the puppy and the dingy kittens that are always on the scene. When tired of creeping about in front of the cabin door, examining tho wash pot and tho bricks on which it is poised, the crook nccked gourds that grow under the caves, the pig in his pen and the hens that fly in and out of the fowl house, he falls asleep.
 By the time tho pickaninny Is 10 or II years old he has outgrown the family dor mitory, or rather tho frequent advent of smaller brothers and sisters have pushed | him out, and he sleeps on the cotton in the cotton house in winter and wherever | he plcases in summer, breakfasting and dining and supping wherever he thinks he can procure provisions.
 l He has early learned to be useful, and almost before he can walk steadily up the hill from the spring he perches a leaky | tin bucket on his head and follows the | procession of small water carriers, being 1 not discouraged in the least when he falls down and spills his treasure or the larger | portion of 1t leaks out, trickling down over his chubby face and bare, dark breast He minds the young turkeys and keepe them from trailing of, spies round and finds out where the yagabond guineas arC laying, cuts down a good sized tree by chopping little on 1t each day until 1t ii cut through and runs on errands from dawn to dusk. Before he can reach up tC the height of the creature he stands on ( | box and harnesses the mule or OK, and when he grows big enough to hold up ( blow stock, drive. a wagon, gallop al breakneck speed to mill or store with [ variety of bags and budgets in front ot him he begins to feel his importance
 Of personal belongings he has none, ex cept such us he can bear about with hin on his person-pcrhaps a broken bladet knife, a mouth organ or triangle, one ol two slingshots, etc.-but buried in som' secluded spot known only to him, mayb' in the deserted burrow of a rabbit or som' snug recess of 0 hollow stump, will b' the nucleus of Q sum he means to save un til be shall have accumulated enough tE buy some kind of O gun.
 OLIVE F. GUmI.