St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-08-29

! ! ] ! ! J. ]. ! |
can meet up
~ with one Of
these plain old
hint-and -steel
~ women-svith
head as long as
~ -four barrel
NNNS@EM~X, ,NAN and as level as
EMMsEssWMgSS . squash -"1s
WMkMMNMW w ~ hand high. and
WNN\MMNM&AWA heavy as buck
.hot" till it raley looks to me
like everybody and everything on
the place, even to the cats and
the dogs, was glad when Aunt
Nancy Newton come up from Panther
Creek and showed down at the appoint
ed time one day last week. lido believe
in my soul that Aunt Nancy-whiist
she calls herself nothin more and
nothin less than q everyday, she wom-
an"-would fight her weight in wild
eats in case of pushency. And yet
she has got the softest and most handi-
est way Of any woman have ever saw
to make you laugh and forget-to let
the sunshine in and shut the shadows
out and wipe the tears away.
There VIM He . F1aeEal Then.
She is 20 bright, and 90 newsy, and
70 fresh: and when she turns her
mouth loose in q runnin conversation
she can spit out more good sense to the
square mint than three or four COM
mon women. With only two eyes and
two ears, it is one of the most strangest
things in this green old world to me
how Aunt Nancy can keep the general
rum of things for miles and miles
around. and pick up SO much news
"comin and a-goin," rs she is 30 wont
to say.
But that dear, delightful old soul
don't give out no news on her own hook,
only that which she has seen with her
own eyes. 1t mought be that she will
sometimes deal in secondhand news.
but in that case she takes particular
pains to tell You where she got the
goods, SO you can pay your money and
take your choice.
"The Lord knows do raley love to
talk, Rufus" says Aunt Nancy to me
that night when VIC went out on the
back porch to take social family
smoke. "And jest as lcng as 1 can
keep my talkin machinery in good
runnin order you are more than prob
able to hear from me oncst in awhile.
II il ever comes to pass that you
mought hear the news that Nancy
Newton has quit talkin, you better sad
die your horse or hitch up your mules
and come on down to the Panther
Creek settlement. The funeral will
come OF ut the usual hour, with your
Aunt Nancy ri6in feet foremost at the
head Of the procession.
'But in the main time never was NO
hand to so trapsin around through the
country tellin some tremendous big
news to bring ON trouble and scandala'
ton amongst the neighbors. Some
folks wont have it that way-and you
maybe mought not think it. Rufus. on
the first fush-but there are more
good people than bad ones in this coun-
try by a whole lot. And if don't
know nothin but what is bad about q
man or woman it suits me mighty well
to drap the subject and talk about the
weather and the crops. No doubts
but there are . few scatterin men and
women in this country which it would
BE powerful hard for me to tell some.
thin good about, but / don't have ia
meddle and mix myself up with none
sich. They didn't grow up ON the same
side Of the fence with me n0h0w, and
we don't have to travel the same fork
Of the road.
II know you have lived good long
whet and learnt q whole passle in your
day, Rufus, but IL you don't know il
already, by the time you have lived q
long and looked upon - many sights
and scenes rs your Aunt Nancy, you
will find out that it-Aon't pay to talk
outside of the family touchin the thinga
that belong to the family. You can
make = great big rucus out Of little
more than nothin If you only tell the
news and heat it hot and keep it goin
and CROWN. 1t mought be little
fresh cut, or IL mought be . rale bad
old sore, but many a time it would heal
over and the people in general would
forget it IL you didn't keep on piclkin
at it and foolin with il.
I've Wensa II the Cass.
"Now, that puts me in mind OF the
roarin big confusionment which come
to pass down in the old settlement last
week." Aunt Nancy went on. torectly.
big meetin was goin ON over at old
Elam church. There was two or three
new preachers ON hand, and with two
sermonts every day-one in the mornin
and one ut first canGllelight. They had
. great outpourin aud . blessed good
meetin.
''Ove. there on the other side Of the
ereek-a mile and half, or maybe =
leetle better from the church-Joe Blew
lns and Lit Garvin live ON joinin farms.
Their families are thick and neighborly
as you please. and they have got along
together smooth and pleasant like
white people ought 70 do. But one
night in durin Of the meetin at old Elan
Misses Blevins she was ruther poorly to
be out and one Of the Garvin children
W0S SICK 0OcO Oh otOW 4CveIs NVWs
Lit Garvin il . shoutin Methodist and
never did blow in much time over at old
Elam. where they stick to Ill over hap
tism as the right and proper way. Any
bow, Joe Blevins was goin to church
that night, and it would seem like Misses
Garvin she was likewise also most crazy
70 turn out and hear the gospel dis
.ensed with by the new preachers.
$50 It suited al around for Misses Gar.
sin to 60 to church that night with Joe
Blevins, and she went with him. So
tar Ill right. I couldn't see nothin
wrong about that wouldn't say 1se
,ertain how much religion they have
got but, at any rates, Joe Bjevins and
4ises Garvin have both got their names
sn the church books over at old Elan.
Consequentially Il was plum natural for
10th Of them TO want to turn Quite
meetin. and IL It come handy aud con
senient for them to 90 together, that
4 ~ = - = - "a =