The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-02-28

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or whether he cries it is all one; no.
body has time to bother with him.
A certain youngster one day did
credit to himself under these circum
stances. There were ten or eleven
hands picking cotton in the field, and
every now and then in the course of
their work they would come to an out
spread sheet near where the baby was
and dump the contents of their cotton
bags on the main pile. The pickaninny
who had only been creeping q short
while and had not begun to walk or
talk, grew tired Of the tin bucket
cover she was playing with
and threw it away in a pet, crying
with vexation. Suddenly she stopped
crying, crept to a cotton stalk near by,
on which was a half opened boil, sue
cceeded in pulling the tuft Of white
from the boil, and, creeping over to.
the heaped up sheet, deposited her con
tribution. Then she fell asleep. Some
larger children who saw the perform
ance told about this youngest cotton
picker of the clan.
The pickaninny's mother believes
that he can't thrive on milk alone, so
he gets cabbage and bacon, roast pota
toes, COW peas, fruit, green or ripe,
anything, just as it happens, those con,
cerned having firm faith that nature
will pull him through. He comes near
being stepped on by horses, being
hooked by cattle, poisoned by the
miscellaneous articles and fluids he
puts into his mouth, and burned up by
venturing too near the sheet Of flames
that edges the new ground" his
parents are burning off. He gets off
unscathed, however, and by the time
he lie 10 or IL years old he has outgrown
the family dormitory, or rather the
frequent advent of younger brothers
and sisters has pushed him out, and he
sleeps on the cotton in the cotUonhouee
in the winter, and wherever he pleases
in the summer, breRktasting, dining
and suppIng wherever he can get pro
visions.
The first time in his life that a picka
ninny has anything ne can call his
own he swaps il for a dog that can run
rabbits. H9 trains the dog to bring the
rabbits to him when they are caught,
no matter how much the dog might
Lilo tho Nn5Nn ~ ~ hhTE a oh hSroooIR
When next he has a chance to trade
anything be gets a pullet that promises
to be q eure layer; then, with the
money got from the egg selling and
any odd pennies he can get bold Of by
doing odd jObs outside Of his regular
work, he starts a fund with which to
buy a gun. Ho may be years and ears
getting 1t, and it may be a very poor
sJrt Of weapon when at last secured,
but the hope of getting it is a beacon
light toward which he looks with IN
swerviug zeal. In the meanwhile Of
personal possessions he has none, ex
cept such as a be borne about with
him on his person, perhaps a broken
bladed knife or one or two sling shOgs;
but buried in some secluded spot
known only to himself, maybe in a
torsaken rabbits's nest, or some snug
recess in q hollow stump, is the nucleus
of that precious gun money, sometimes
depleted, sometimes added to, accord
ing to the owners needs.
A negro by 10 years old knows the
peculiar chirp, cry or whistle OF every
winged tina inhaOlts his ma
tive woods and swamps. He know VS.
che nature of the birds, whether they
stay in those haunts all winter or seek
other CHIMES, whether the male bird
and the female of a certain specie g
have the same note or cry what hind
of nests they have, and whether they
build them near to the ground, or
high aloft, in dense thIcket or some
open place. He does not know the
names that ornithologIsts have given
these birds, but he is familiar with
their habits and calls them by names
Indicative of certain trai, g or pecu liari-
ties which he or his fathers before him
have noticed.
What kind of bird is that2' you
ask of a small boy, as a feathered body
f,es up suddenly from the ~hedgerow
he is watching.
"DAt's a shirttail See the white i'll
de wingsG" he answers, out you don't
see the white in the least. IG takes
sharp, trained eyes like his to noUce
1t, and he goes on up the road, the peck
of meal on his head, keeping It we'll
balanced, and his lenses on the alert
for everything that moves in the sky