Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1897-10-15
THE WHITE
MANS GARDEN,

his estate, real and personal, to Selma,
his Creole wife. Rumor had it that the
said Selma was originally a slave,
bought by Jonathan to do the cooking
for his establishment. Rumor NAV
have been right or wrong, but when
the Creole widow came into her in
heritance She held everything with a
tight Land, and the slaves of her cot
ton%p plantation soon felt the change.
Marston himself, whatever his faults
may have been, never stintcd the
slaves in corncakes or objected to
breakdOwns when occasion seemed to
demand them; but his widow changed
all that. She could tell to a nicely how
much corn it took to keep the soul
alive in the body of a ''brack" fellow.
most cogent kind.
Peter Davis, bondman forever to the
Creole, could not understand the
change. Certainly, Mrs. Marston had
always carried her head very high,
even in her husbands days, perhaps
because she wished to be thought pure
white. If any II knew the Creole's
history Peter did, for lie was n slave
of Jonathan when she was bought and
married by her master. Pete said moth
ing; lie was discreet, for he valued his
position as a sort of overseer on the
plantation. Why Mrs. Marston hated
him from the first he never troubled
to inquire, but when he fell into her
hands the first acts she performed
were to give him all the most difficult
and disagrceable tasks she could find.
From being the most lonored slave,
Pete soon became the drudge of the
others. When he pleaded for more
corn, Mrs. Marston promptly sent him
to the public whippcrs with n small
sum to pay for a sound flogging.
After the disgrace which fell upon
him Pete was a changed man. He
ceased to hugh and sing in the cotton
rows, and shook whenever Mrs. Mars
ton was close by. If it had not been
for Dinah, the slave of the next plan
tation, he would nave made a dash for
liberty. Pete vas in love with Dinah,
and many a time had the moonlight
fallen upon the two as they stole a pre-
cious hour from the night to wander
through leafy ways together. Jona-
than Marston had promised Pete his
freedom; but, somehow, he new
found the opportunity to sign the need
full papers-and o the Creole widow
reigned in his stead. Petc's love chap
ter seemed about to close.
There was one thing about all the
change of circumstances which Pete
could not endure-hunger. He had a
very fine physique, but before long he
grew noticeably thin. 1t may have
been worry that affected Pete in this
way, but worry was not in his vocab-
ulary. Consequently, Pete thought the
whole question out, and the conclusion
to which he came was that Mrs. Mars
ton was morally bound to find him
food. Having come to this definite
conclusion. Pete stole out the same
night from his little hut, which lie lad
still to himself, and when he returned
he drew from under his ragged jacket
q plump chicken. Fear made Pete
suspicious, SO he kept his secret all to
himself, as well as the chicken.
The theft passed unnoticed. and
4ClSs cAA1OOAueucu ny SuCCcSSs Fcpeuleu
1t. Out of about a hundred and fifty
fowls, nearly thirty had gone to sup
ply the place of the corncakes which
the Creole widow stinted Pete of.
On the thirteieth occasion Pete, to
his infinite dismay on discovering it,
made n blunder. The night was a
dark one, and the fowls, quiet as Pete
was, cackled, SO the thief hastily took
the nearest, wrung its neck, and made
all haste back to his hut. There, by
the aid Of a fire he had kindled be-
meath a pot waiting to cool the chick
en- in, Pete discovered that the slain
chicken was yellow and not black. The
yellow chicken was the only one Mrs.
Marston possessed Of that color; all
the rest were black, and this particu-
lar chicken, Pete knew, would be miss
ed when the Creole widow fed them
next morning.
Pete was almost in despair; only the
odor Of well-boiled fowl brought him to
a sense Of his physical needs. All that
Pete left Of the yellow hen was the